24 Times Patients Said "Actually, I Think I Know My Body Better" And Literally Saved Their Own Lives

Yahoo

12 hours ago

Healthcare professionals have one of the hardest jobs, and there is a reason they call medicine a "practice," but sometimes, as a patient, you get a diagnosis and something in your gut tells you, "No, something else is wrong." It's important to take medical advice, but it's also important to advocate for yourself, your symptoms, and your treatment plan. These 24 stories from the BuzzFeed Community show just that, where patients got a second opinion, and boy-oh-boy am I glad they did.
1.
"My husband was having chest pains and breathing problems. I rushed him to the ER. I was told by the head ER doctor that he was faking it and only wanted pain meds. The resident in training mentioned the gallbladders. The head yelled at him...forced us to leave. A couple of days later, we rushed him to the ER. Emergency gallbladder, his was the worst the surgeon had seen...near neurotic. If we had waited, just by another couple of days, he would have died."
—desert_moonfire
2.
"My father is a doctor. His friend is a doctor. They went skiing and took his kids and my older brother and sister (I was too young to go). My sister fell over, screaming in pain. BOTH doctors checked it out and said it was just a sprain and to ski to the bottom of the mountain. My sister refused, and then one of the ski field medics came over. He insisted on taking her on a stretcher. Friends, following an X-ray, it turns out she had broken her FEMUR."
—edgycrab59
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3.
When I was 11, I had excruciating abdominal pain and fainting. Because these episodes generally happened at school, because I never went anywhere else, every doctor told my parents that I was faking and just didn't want to be at school. I got my period when I was 12, and it was extremely painful, heavy, and irregular. Some months, I would get it three times. After this, every time I went in for fainting and pain, I was told it was just my period, and it was normal. So I stopped going. I learned to deal with it & accepted that my pain was normal. At 14, I was leaving my grandparents' house after 3 days of pain, but didn't say anything because I was used to it. Suddenly, the pain was unbearable & I was screaming, crying, and vomiting. I went to the hospital, and they finally took my pain seriously. Turns out, I had been getting regular cysts on my ovaries and fallopian tubes for years. This particular time, one big one had grown a tail and wrapped around itself, causing this worsened pain.
—vibrantbee63
4.
"My best friend went to the hospital with extreme stomach pain. They kept telling her it was probably period cramps. She insisted that it was much worse. They then went on to tell her she was probably overreacting. The next day, she went back screaming in pain. Her appendix was about to rupture when they finally took her."
—madisonaustin
5.
"I spent years with severe cyclical abdominal pain, and was only ever told to take anti-inflammatories for menstrual cramps. Even had two emergency room visits because I thought something was rupturing. I was sent home, and they said it was nothing. Fast forward a few years, and I had stage 4 endometriosis that wrapped around most of my lower quadrant organs. The number of conditions written off as 'just your period' is shocking."
—emcatt
6.
"As a fat person, and particularly a fat woman, I have so many experiences of being dismissed or misdiagnosed just because of my weight. The worst was a few years back when I was having horrific back and abdominal pain, so bad that I was puking my guts up and crying on the bathroom floor for hours on end on multiple occasions. I went to the ER and was told it was a back spasm caused by excess weight. They gave me a muscle relaxer and sent me on my way. These episodes kept recurring and were getting worse each time. I would have rated each of these experiences at least a 9/10 on the pain scale, but I thought it was just something I was going to have to live with since doctors just kept telling me it was back spasms, telling me to lose weight, and giving me more muscle relaxers… until finally, one of the MANY gallstones that was *actually* causing the issue dislodged and got stuck in the bile duct, giving me pancreatitis that the ER doctor said almost killed me 🙃."
—hannah27
7.
"My friend was having really bad pain in her upper arm. Went to the doctor, and he gave her pain pills. She still kept having the pain, and nothing helped. Went back to the doctor and happened to see the physician's assistant. She ordered bloodwork, and the doctor got mad about it and yelled at the PA about wasting resources in front of my friend. When the results came back, she had leukemia!"
—luckyangel30
8.
"Not as serious as some of these, but last year, I started showing signs of thyroid issues. I brought up some of my symptoms to my doctor, but she said I was too young for thyroid problems and didn't need a test. I told her I would still like a test, just in case. Surprise! Thyroid problem! After a couple more tests to rule out Hashimoto's, it turns out it's hypothyroidism, and now I'm on medication and feel mostly better."
—lanamarie
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9.
"My best friend had rods put into her spine (scoliosis) as a kid. At college, she noticed a sore spot on her scar, between her shoulder blades. Then, it popped. She went to the on-campus health center and was told, "You're in college--you were probably drunk and fell over." She went to the local hospital and was quickly diagnosed with a raging spinal infection that necessitated a PICC line for heavy-duty antibiotics and surgery to remove her rods. Fun times."
—bookfanatic1979
10.
"I was 37 weeks pregnant with my second child when I started suffering from excruciating pain that radiated from my lower back all the way around to the front of my abdomen. After about four hours of debilitating pain, I had my husband take me to the ER, where I was then redirected to L&D since I was so close to my due date. When I got there, a nurse hooked me up to a heart monitor, informed me that I wasn't in labor (which I already knew), and told me that it was just normal pregnancy back pain. Well, it most certainly was not 'normal' since two weeks after my DD was born, I was in the ER with gallstones, which resulted in surgery to remove my gallbladder."
—stuckinak
11.
"A couple of years ago, I got out of bed, heard a very loud pop/snapping noise, and was immediately hit by tremendous pain in my foot. It didn't go away after an hour, and I couldn't stand, so I rang my doctor, and they reluctantly sent an ambulance, and the EMT said it was probably just a trapped nerve. They took me to the hospital 'just to check,' and assured me it was probably nothing, but an X-ray revealed that I had fractured my foot. They gave me a mumbled apology and a foam shoe thing to cushion my foot to heal, no painkillers. Happened again last year, but this time, the EMT believed me because I was screaming and crying in pain."
—retrocrebbon
12.
"I got out of bed one night, my knee gave out, and I went down. I heard the pop, but I can't remember how I verbally reacted. I got myself back in bed, and my ankle quickly bruised and swelled. I had to drag myself to go to the hospital. They did X-rays and an exam before they determined it was just a sprain. A couple of days later, I was hurting even worse. I shaved my legs and went back to the same hospital. When they got me back, they looked at the first X-ray and said it was broken."
—osubuck182002
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13.
"I was a teenager, and I had been seeing a gyno for over four years without a single test or exam done. I bled for months on end and was extremely miserable 97% of the time. He had no problem pumping me full of Depo Provera several times a month. It didn't help. I was just a couple of weeks away from going away to college when I got a second opinion. I had accomplished more in one appointment than in four years. I had a D&C a couple of days later. I had more that happened following my arrival to college. It was embarrassing and humiliating. I ended up having another surgery almost two months after the first. It was mostly exploratory, only to determine I had endometriosis throughout my abdomen, and my appendix needed to be removed."
—osubuck182002
14.
"One morning, I woke up with excruciating pain under my shoulder blade. I saw my primary care and they told me it was muscular and gave me muscle relaxants. When those didn't work and I found myself constantly nauseous from the pain, I went to the ER about 48 hours later. They refused to even X-ray me, but gave me Vicodin and told me to 'do some stretches.' The next day, I begged an ortho office to take me. They knew as soon as they did an X-ray that I had slipped a disc in my neck between C6 and C7, immediately sent me for an MRI, and had me back in their office all in a matter of hours. The disc in my neck was bulging so much that it was pressing on my spinal cord, causing me to not only have the pain in my shoulder blade but also numbness and tingling as well as no reflexes in my right arm when tested. They immediately scheduled me for surgery the next day. I now have two fused vertebrae and titanium plates in my neck. I could have been paralyzed and still have no idea how it happened."
—catielanouette
15.
"I was in a severe car accident when I was 18. I had a follow-up with orthopedics due to where the car had hit me. I told the doctor that I took all my pain medication, but my foot was still hurting. At this point, I was not allowed to walk more than a mile a day. He took my foot, bent it down, and I was screaming in pain. He literally looked at me, and said nothing was wrong and to come back in six weeks. So I came back in six weeks and saw his physician's assistant. I told her that I was still having foot problems, and I couldn't put any pressure on it without being in pain. She ended up doing an X-ray of it, came back to me, and said, 'Yeah, your foot is broken...' And at that point, it was too late to do anything."
—dancingdeadd
16.
"A few years ago, I was having really nasty chest pain. It would come and go every couple of weeks, last for days at a time, and always get worse after physical activity. I could also feel a 'bubbling' sensation in my right side every time I bent over. I had made multiple visits to urgent care, where I was always told that everything was normal on tests and images. Fast forward about a month, and I was still having the pain. I went to a different urgent care, saw a different doctor, and had an X-ray run. They called me about half an hour after leaving the office to say that I had a pneumothorax (essentially, a partially collapsed lung). One round of steroids and a lot of rest later, I was back in action. But if I hadn't listened to my gut and gotten it checked again, who knows what would have happened!"
—fillionfan4002
17.
"I went to the ER with severe abdominal pain, chills, vomiting, etc. I go in thinking it's my appendix. After 8 hours in the ER, I got an MRI, bloodwork, and an ultrasound, only to get sent home with anti-nausea medication and told to follow up with my primary for food poisoning. I read my discharge papers on the way home. I work in the medical field and knew that my bloodwork indicated an infection, and the MRI showed inflammation in the gallbladder and liver. I ended up back in the ER two nights later. I sat in the waiting room for seven hours, barely able to walk, only to get rushed in emergency surgery after a second ultrasound to get my gallbladder removed. It was double the normal size. My surgeon told me another day that it would have ruptured."
—witchboo78843
18.
"I had shoulder surgery a few years back. At the time, I was 35. The surgery went well, and I was released the same day. After a few days, I started noticing weakness and slight pain in my left calf, like a charley horse. After a day of this with no relief, no matter how I stretched it or put heat to it, I called my surgeon, concerned because the area I was feeling pain in was warmer than the rest of my leg. I was concerned I had a clot. He had me come in, examined me, and told me it wasn't, and I was too young to fit the profile. Advised me to see my PCP. That evening, the pain was terrible, and I mentioned it to my nephrologist, whom I had a follow-up with for other health issues. He advised me to go to the ER immediately. They found three clots, one in each leg and one in my arm. I spent 2 days in the hospital and was on blood thinners for 6 months."
—Nicb1122
19.
"I took a hard hit during a hockey game, and immediately after, I could feel that my hip was weaker. I went to my high school's athletic trainer about a day later because I couldn't even walk without being in pain, and they just kind of brushed it off, saying that hip problems are common in hockey goalies (which they are), and they gave me some stretches and drills to strengthen it. Cut to three years later, I was playing college softball, lifting a lot, and my hip was just getting worse. When I did try to stretch it, I didn't actually have any feeling in it. I went to the athletic trainer at my college, and they immediately had an idea as to what it was. They booked me an appointment with an orthopedic doctor who had me get X-rays and a CT scan. I had torn my labrum and needed surgery to repair it. It was torn for so long that they had to shave down a part of the head of my femur to round it back out."
—belileemily
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20.
"I went to a local urgent care for what I thought was a respiratory infection, and the doctor told me it was allergies. He prescribed me an inhaler and told me to take over-the-counter allergy medicine. I went to my primary doctor a few days later and found out it was walking pneumonia."
—ejt263
21.
"I had this insane depression for about a year and started to develop some weird personality changes. Quickly, I was diagnosed with anxiety/depression/bipolar disorder. I started to develop an intense sensitivity to light and horrible muscle pain. At the time, I was medically getting out of the army and using the VA. My muscle pain/light sensitivity/mood change, and headaches were so intense that I called my doctor several times. She was so annoyed and said it was an f-ing migraine, and my bipolar disorder was causing me to be overly dramatic. I went to two different hospitals the same week with the same result. One morning, I could barely see and couldn't walk. I lost consciousness and went completely blind because my cranial pressure was at 25 when the average is perhaps 15. I was diagnosed with Intracranial hypertension, which basically means your brain mimics a non-existent tumor. I could have fully lost my vision simply because they thought my mental health was making me seek attention."
—michellequeiruga
22.
"In my early 20s, my knee started swelling, and there was horrible pain no matter what I was doing. I did PT, which didn't help. The orthopedist I saw ran tests and said there was nothing wrong. Since it was swollen, he drew out fluid and injected steroids in that knee, which felt almost as bad as when I broke my leg. Three years passed, and it just kept getting worse, so he finally agreed to take a look surgically to prove nothing was wrong. As I was starting to come out from the anesthesia, he told me my knee was so packed with broken cartilage that he had no idea how I was able to walk. I refused to see him ever again.
—ralyn71774
23.
"When I was in my early twenties, I broke my hand at the metacarpal bone. A few years later, I fell and landed on my other hand. During the day, it started swelling, hurting, and I couldn't move my fingers - familiar symptoms, so I went to the ER. They did an X-ray, and when the doctor called me in after four hours(!), she didn't even look at me and said that it was just a contusion and to go home. I asked her to please look again at the X-rays since it felt like the last time when I broke my hand. She refused. I asked again, and again, and didn't leave until she rolled her eyes and looked up the X-ray pics again. And lo and behold, she found the fracture, and I got a cast. I know that doctors have tough jobs, and I understand that they have to deal with a lot of annoying people, but it's really frustrating to read all these stories where doctors just disregard patients.
—linkamalinka
24.
Finally, "A friend of mine, her mom died of breast cancer when she was 4–5 years old. Cut to adulthood, and my friend was so diligent. She started getting mammograms at 18 years old because of her mom; she became a nurse and cared for kids with cancer. She got married, had a few kids, and noticed a hard lump in her breast. She had orange crap coming out of her nipple, and she said the texture felt like an orange. She went to her local doctor, and he said, 'Don't worry about it.' It's due to breastfeeding.Yeah...no. She had stage 3 breast cancer."
—deadzy
I'm glad these people got a second opinion and the treatment they needed! Want to share your story? We'd love to hear it in the comments or anonymously in the form below.
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