" One of my lung lobe had to be removed , and I was placed on a ventilator — to this twenty-four hour period , I sell with chronic pectus pain … "
Sadly, medical misdiagnoses are considered commonplace in our society —particularlyfor women and the BIPOC community. Oftentimes, uncaring doctors will simply diagnose a patient without listening to any of their concerns or suggestions. While it is usually best to listen to the advice of your doctor, some scenarios simply warrant a second (and better) opinion, especially when a condition becomes chronic…
1.“When I was 16, I worked as a nurse’s aide, and there was an older gentleman I would stay with after work to read to. One evening, I was exhausted and not feeling well, so I fell asleep while reading to him. I ended up in the emergency room, where the doctor told my mom that I was an attention-seeker — my parents were not happy with me.”
“Turns out, I had pneumonia in one lung and pleurisy in the other. I was admitted to the ICU, where I remained for weeks. Doctors from the Mayo Clinic traveled to see me, and I was eventually diagnosed with tuberculosis.”
" After three calendar month in the hospital , I was finally assoil , weighing just 89 British pound sterling . My intact gamy school , along with my sib ' unproblematic schoolhouse , had to be test for TB . I had constrict it from one of my affected role at the hospital . Unfortunately , the sickness also regard my heart , direct to OR three years later .
During my heart subroutine , there was a complication — though I was never told exactly what happen — and one of my lung lobes had to be remove . I was placed on a breathing machine in the ICU for a farsighted time . recuperation was long and unmanageable . To this Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , I deal with chronic chest pain , but I ’ve get word to live with it and do n’t take any medicament for it . "
— u / Worried - Seesaw-2970
2.“I was misdiagnosed with an infected belly button piercing. In actuality, it was a very rare form of endometriosis called ‘umbilical endometriosis.’ The doctors accused me of piercing my belly button and made my mother leave the room so I would feel like it was ‘safe’ to tell them I had pierced it. All the while, I was literally pleading with them to listen to me; I don’t know why they thought a 24-year-old woman would be lying about a belly button piercing.”
" They were all young male doctors who represent like frantic teenagers — it was an infuriating experience .
They send me home with a composition of paper state : ' Patient deny piercing belly clit . ' It made me wild because I was in so much pain I could scarce move , and it was a chore to get to the hospital in the first billet while blood was oozing out of my belly push button . "
— uranium / miaowzi
3.“When I was seven years old, I suddenly began having petit mal seizures. My parents took me to the emergency room during one of them, and I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. All I remember about it was the small room we were in and my parents crying. I didn’t understand anything, but I knew the situation was bad.”
" The doctors suggest a second opinion at a tike ’s hospital an hour off .
So we kick the bucket , and the neurospecialists told us there was a parasite on my genius , which I guess was a rare occurrence . I was in the infirmary for a yoke of weeks and took medication to drink down the parasite . I have scar tissue on that area , like a little brain tattoo , and I have to take maintenance medication to ward off air .
But , yeah , it wasdefinitelynot a neoplasm . "
— u / jclutclut
4.“I went to the hospital feeling like my stomach was in knots — it felt completely blocked (this also happened during my period, and I haveveryheavy periods). So I went to the emergency room, and they gave me a pregnancy test, even though I had already told them I was having a worse-than-usual period and passing clots and hoped it didn’t mess with the urine sample.”
5.“I was misdiagnosed with Lyme Disease because I had been dealing with worsening symptoms for a month — tingling sensations, constant fatigue, lack of appetite, and sensitivity to bright light. Two deer ticks had bitten me a few months prior, and I did test positive for Lyme on my bloodwork, but the antibiotics I was given didn’t help.”
" It change by reversal out to be Stage IV encephalon cancer . The misdiagnoses almost killed me because I had a quickly growing tumour the sizing of my fist , crush my brain . One morning , my roommates had to call 911 because I was get trouble stomach , vomit , and losing cognisance . I was helicoptered to the Mayo Clinic , properly diagnosed , and control on the following morning .
I was blacked out for most 48 hours , with the exception of the ambulance and eggbeater ride . My mettle pace had expend to 30 bpm and was quick to fail — they had to stabilize it before I was fly out . I likely would have croak within those 48 hours if my roommates had n’t made the call . "
— uracil / Cloakedarcher
6.“My 10-year-old was diagnosed as bipolar (after a one-hour consultation) and prescribed mood disorder drugs which tipped them into full, psychotic meltdowns — it was terrifying. I told their psychiatrist we needed to try something else, which deeply offended him. He told me to let my kid go cold turkey on the medication. So, we tried that, and within the next few days, they went into withdrawal, which led to a meltdown and borderline catatonia.”
" We drop by the wayside going to that head-shrinker , and to be honest , I should have sue him .
The next shrink right away suspected ( correctly ) that my kid was autistic — that ’s it . Just autism ( and mayhap ADHD ) , but no sign of Bipolar Disorder .
That was a rough time for us , and I ’m glad it ’s over . "
— u / MochaAndBiscuits
7.“When I began menstruating, my periods would be so painful that I wouldn’t be able to sleep for days. I’d be crying, puking, missing school, etc., and I was basically told it was nothing. My doctor said I was ‘dramatic’ and should just take a Tylenol. I ended up using birth control to stop my period for over a decade after that.”
8.“A few days after I gave birth, I began vomiting every two hours and feeling lightheaded and generally drowsy — luckily, I was still in the hospital because I had a C-section. I knew it waspostpartum preeclampsiabecause I’d been monitored and considered high-risk my whole pregnancy.”
" But when I told the infirmary OB about my symptom , she said it was plausibly anxiety or COVID because I did n’t have classic preeclampsia symptoms such as a headache or blurry imagination .
I call for for a blood test to find out what was wrong , and the doctor refused until I convinced the nanny I was fail . The results came back , and I was right ; it was postpartum preeclampsia .
I stayed in the infirmary for another week because nobody could figure out how to get my blood pressure and vomiting under control . It ’s been almost three eld , and I ’m still raging at the OB . "
— u / Atwfan
9.“I was told I was having an asthma-induced panic attack in the ER — despite having no history of asthma or panic attacks. It was the equivalent of ‘Calm down, little lady, it’s not that bad!'”
" Turns out , it was a heart attack — 98 % blockage . But I ’m a woman , so the 2d I mentioned ' anxiety ' as a symptom , all my other symptom were dismissed .
To my fellow cleaning woman , if you ever have anxiousness for ' no intellect , ' fatigue , nausea , difficulty catching your breath , numbness in between your shoulder joint blades , or frigid sweats , these are allcommon symptomsof meat attacks in women . Some of us do n’t even get bureau pain , or if we do , it feels less like a heart issue and more like uncollectible heartburn . Do n’t let anyone give the sack your symptoms . "
— u / Catonachandelier
10.“Not me, but my husband. At age 42, we thought he was having a stroke in the middle of the night — his words were slurred, and his smile was droopy. So, I took him to the ER, where he was diagnosed with a mini-stroke and high blood pressure. He was medicated and sent home with instructions to follow up with our family doctor.”
11.“In my 20s, I was told I was allergic to spicy food because I would have pain in my side after eating peppers. I stayed away from spicy food for years, even though I love jalapeño poppers. Every now and then, I’d eat a few of them and drink a lot of milk afterward, but it didn’t help. My side would hurt so sharply, I’d want to throw up.”
" When I was 34 , my side began hurting even though I had n’t eaten anything spicy . I started confound up uncontrollably at piece of work , so I went to the ER . Turns out , I was having a gall bladder attack . It had become a ' Porcelain Gallbladder ' and had to be removed because it was infected and larger than normal . The doctor say that it had been like that for years .
Bonus : I can now eat on spicy foods ! "
— uranium / dodoexpress90
12.“I was misdiagnosed twice by a dermatologist for a bruise-like rash that showed up on my leg one day. The first time, they told me they couldn’t biopsy it and that it was a condition called ‘dark spots’ and it would go away in six months.”
" A yr afterwards , I went back , and they biopsied it . This time , they misdiagnosed me with an autoimmune disorderliness called morphea . I had to go to a rheumatologist , take an autoimmune suppressant and steroid hormone creams , and undergo bloodwork invariably . However , the maculation always look the same , so I gave up on treating it and learned to live with it .
This diagnosing sit haywire with me from the start because certain things about it made no sense . Morphea is a case of scleroderma that in general leads to muscle disfigurement , but that never happened to me . So , one sidereal day , after speaking to my sister ( who ’s in the medical field ) about it , I fell down a lapin trap and discovered what we believe to be my last , actual diagnosis : Linear atrophoderma of Moulin .
There are roughly 50 document case of LAM , which is why it make sense I was misdiagnosed . Similarly to me , the patients in the research report were misdiagnosed with morphea first . It was on unlike parts of their bodies , but it still looked like my cutis condition .
We ’re fairly sure it ’s lasting , so I guess it ’s kind of neat . "
— u / SimplyPassinThrough
13.“March of 2024, I was resting on the couch, and my heart rate spiked to 190 on my Apple Watch. My husband called 911 because he thought I was going into cardiac arrest. The paramedic told me I was ‘having a panic attack’ and that I needed to ‘calm down.’ I went to my primary care doctor, and she referred me to a cardiologist who ordered an echocardiogram and a heart monitor.”
14.“My doctor constantly diagnosed me with urinary tract infections and prescribed antibiotics even though I never got better — at one point, she even accused me of not wiping appropriately. One day, I began throwing up, and it wouldnotstop, but she still claimed it was a UTI. When I got to the point that I couldn’t keep water down, my husband took me to the ER (around six weeks after the vomiting started).”
" I was septic and in renal failure because Brobdingnagian Stone were block both of my kidneys — my right kidney was essentially a bag of stones . I was so dehydrated they had to give me two bags of fluids before they could even get a blood sample .
I had hand brake surgery that sidereal day and subsequent surgeries to take away my right kidney , gallbladder , and more stones in my left kidney . It turns out a atomic number 20 - secreting tumor on my parathyroid was causing the stones . "
— u / rowenaravenclaw0
15.“I was first diagnosed withNursemaid’s Elbowwhen I was 13 months old. The doctors popped my elbow back in and made me wear a brace. I then dislocated my other elbow, and they diagnosed me with Nursemaid’s Elbow again. It happened multiple times over the next 15 years, yet they still called it Nursemaid’s Elbow. I had other dislocations, but they were all brushed off.”
Note : Some response have been edited for distance and/or clarity .
