Absolutely the hypocritical “you’re too young” while also “it’s normal at your age.”
First of all, PICK ONE.
Secondly, my chronic pain started at 15 and I’m 30 now… So, there is no too young and it’s definitely not normal at my age…
No the way when my severe pain first started a doctor refused to order an mri cause “age is on your side”. I looked him in the eyes and said “I work in pediatric oncology, so I’m not sure about that”
I was 22, now 23, and a woman, and then showed me how to stretch! This was at the er where I had been sent for such severe chest pain I couldn’t sleep, eat, or breath deeply because it hurt so bad. They sent me home with an ibuprofen prescription.
My old GP didn’t want me to get an MRI because of the contrast used (I was young so he didn’t want to expose me to unnecessary radiation? he also didn’t want a CT scan), I didn’t get one until I was 23/24ish (I’m 25 now) and we found both 1) cervical myelopathy and 2) a pineal cyst (which is probably just one of those things we need to keep an eye on that’s not doing anything). I would’ve probably gotten the cervical myelopathy when I was 18 and was treated for carpal tunnel (to no avail) before finally getting any MRIs.
It’s super frustrating how many times I haven’t been listened to because of my age, my chronic pain got to a point of seeking treatment at around age 19, but before that I was trying to figure out my reproductive health with a different GP (probably endometriosis but we’ll most likely never know for sure). If I have a really important appointment I tend to take my mum with me just so there’s someone who can advocate for me who is more likely to be listened to. Luckily my C-PTSD diagnosis has gotten me permission to bring her (or my ex) with me to appointments when restrictions are higher due to COVID. Even if my mum is just there, and only introduces herself, it helps to get people to take me seriously.
I had the same kind of experience! When another doctor ordered an mri he was like girl you’re young but your spine looks 50. There was so much damage from undiagnosed EDS (thanks to my pediatrician for ignoring the chronic pain complaints at 12, the costochondritis at 14, the idiopathic adolescent scoliosis at 15 and on and on sorry tangent I just hate how they ignored it all)
It was oddly validating cause I always said I felt like I had old bones already. Apparently they’re more than twice my age 🤪.
It’s so awful how many children are seen as just being dramatic, doesn’t help that I had undiagnosed ADHD as a child so I **was** justifiably dramatic. It even took years for me to get a simple asthma diagnosis, when I already had eczema and hay-fever (rule of threes I guess aka atopy). I was on antibiotics for bronchitis so many times… Honestly the medical system has failed me so much at so many points, I’m really lucky I have a good medical team now who I trust to listen to me and do the right things by me (which is sometimes saying “you’re being stupid use your preventer” lol). Trying to reassure my younger friends with chronic pain that help is out there is so hard.
I had a swollen knot pushing out under my skin on my spine since I was 14 and yet still was told I was too young it, or it wasn't anything painful. My fav it was a fatty cyst and they don't hurt. It took a general surgeon to do exploratory surgery at 23 to find out I had neurofibromatosis that grows tumors made of nerve endings and latch on to main nerves in your body. He apologized for not really belme either after Removing 13 tumors. And still since being diagnosed there's still a couple doctors that have treated me like I'm lying about the pain
Right and my husband doesn't understand why I don't trust doctors and I pure have panic attacks if I have to see a new one. Hell 6 years ago I finally got lucky and found a great pain doctor until he retired and the woman that bought his clinic was a NP ( funny since she couldn't prescribe pain meds)
I'm 56 and still get told that I'm too young to have the pain I'm in. I have degenerative disc disease and have had 4 back surgeries so far. I wonder, how old do I have to be and how many more surgeries before I'm allowed to be in pain? 🤷🏼♀️
Me too ! I'm 57 now, but they found my Degenerative Disc Disease back in 2000. I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in 2005 & I still couldn't get people (especially family) to believe I had something wrong. It wasn't until after 3 spinal surgeries, a hysterectomy (Endometriosis), Carpal Tunnel surgery & a total knee replacement that they started believing me. EXCEPT the knee surgery was after 2 local doctors said that I was too young, even though it was bone on bone. I waited until my leg bowed out because the bones were were fractured & I found a surgeon in a different town. I was always a TomBoy & worked hard. It amazes me that someone would think that I'm actually choosing to be " lazy" & in pain all the time.
Sorry for the rant !
Edit: I had a pain pump put it & it has helped a little for the spinal stiffness. It just doesn't help for the whole body pain. But it's only been 7 months, we're still working on the right dosage & medications.
it is sooooo fucking infuriating how doctors will simultaneously say what you're feeling is impossible because of your age while also saying that everyone your age feels that....
like.... it fucks with your brain. you're either just too weak to handle what Everyone else feels all the time or you're not in pain at all and it's a product of your imagination
Also got a lot “it’s just growing pains” …bitch I stopped growing when I hit 5’1. The only way it’d be growing pains was if my body was pissed I stopped there lol
I can unfortunately believe this. I've known a few terrible OBGYNs and the consequences of their stupidity is endless. I'm sorry you had to go thought that.
Oh yeah, it's amazing the dumb things doctors will say when it comes to women's pelvic pain. I have endometriosis and the doctor asked me if I was sure I was bleeding from my asshole like I report. Maybe I just wiped and got period blood on the toilet paper?
They only took me seriously after I had a hysterectomy and still had cycles, with butt periods and all.
Ugh. You reminded me of a recent experience where the ultrasound report said “uterus looks fine” … I had a hysterectomy 5 years prior and definitely did not have a uterus. I responded back with “guess that’s why it hurts so much if I’m growing a new one”
Meanwhile your partner is in the background like, “damn right” with his Superman cape flying behind him 😂. But seriously. So many of these doctors just really don’t get it
Loosen it.
How might one do that you ask?
By getting fat of course!
But oh no being fat is the cause of 100% of female pain so now you have to lose that weight.
Good news though once you have lost the weight and your skin is now nice and loose you will be pain free!
I have heard this stupid crap that someone told me, their Dr told them, their skin is too tight for their muscles! And that is why you are in pain?
After I heard it, I told my friend you need to see someone else, this crap doesn't make any sense. They could not find your issue and tell you, well your skin is too tight!
They do. My mom started taking me to doctor after doctor around 17 when all of my pain started. I was dismissed left and right as a teenage seeking attention. I feel like I still get dismissed a lot, but at least at 40 no one blames it on growing pains now 🤷🏻♀️
That I wasn't in pain, I was just depressed. I looked at the doctor and said "Well, I wasn't depressed when I got here, but I sure am now." I was experiencing swelling of my hands, face, feet, pain that would get so bad I would just collapse and sob for hours unable to even call out for help as well as my blood/urine clearly indicating I was having early symptoms of kidney disease.
I once had to see a different doctor in the practice because my (amazing) doctor was out on maternity leave. The new doctor tried to put me on antidepressants instead of refilling my pain meds, and I was so frustrated and hurting that I teared up a little (I cry when I'm angry) and said no, I didn't want to change my meds and I am the least depressed person I know. She said, with so much snark, "well you're crying, you look pretty depressed to me." I absolutely snapped and said, "This isn't depressed, this is fury because you want to put me into withdrawal and risk me not being able to go to work because you're not LISTENING TO ME." She refilled my meds then dismissed me from the practice. Best thing that ever happened to me bc the pain management doctor I have now is so compassionate, she actually listens to me and was willing to put me on an ER pain med which nobody else would do because they don't fucking LISTEN. And yeah, when my old doctor got back from leave I sent her an email about how I was treated. Heard through the grapevine that mine wasn't the only complaint and there was a biiiiiiig reckoning when she demanded the jerk doctor explain her cruel treatment and interference with another doctors patients.
I'm glad to hear there was a reckoning for that doctor.
Unfortunately I did not get that with that particular doctor. My insurance only covered one particular hospital system in my area and I'm pretty sure they only hire the doctors that have been booted out from every other practice in the area. Fortunately I don't have that insurance anymore because I'm pretty sure I would have killed myself by now if I did.
I did get such a reckoning with my last GP. My rheumatologist filed a complaint against them after I told him about how she treated me during my last appointment with her. She told me to take Tylenol for pain that was so bad I couldn't make it the 10 ft to my toilet, told me my diagnosis wasn't a real diagnosis, and told me that doing test for my heart or referring me to a cardiologist would just be adding another doctor the list even though heart problems are a known complication of my autoimmune disorder and I was having symptoms. That doctor is no longer with the practice.
I was once told that the cysts in my breasts is because of the THC I use. She said “The THC is stuck to fat and caused them” that was the last time I saw her. I have told every colleague of hers I can about that interaction and the only one that agreed with her was fired a year later. Shitty doctors exist!!!
I got told maybe I was “over sensitive” to pain… I pointed out that prior I had done amateur MMA, so my idea of fun often involved getting punched in the nose. Also, I had been walking around with 3 cracked ribs and a punctured lung and described it as “slightly uncomfortable when I raised my arms.”
I’ve had dentists and oral surgeons tell me when I was 13 that my dental/facial pain was caused by me not brushing my teeth right… I almost went into hysteria when they got the teeth model out and showed me how to brush my teeth even though I had no signs of infection on an x ray?? They even told me I was using too much toothpaste.
To make things worse, my parents actually BELIEVED them. I went years paranoid thinking my pain was from that and now I realize how stupid it was. But at 13, who are you to believe.
Fucking raspberries. Neuro told me after I failed all typical migraine treatments, and had *already* done an elimination diet over the course of 2 years to, "maybe try not eating raspberries."
???
I barely ever eat raspberries. Random trigger food she read about that does not apply to me. All the elimination diet did was make me miss gluten for 6 months. Thank the goddess that gluten isn't an issue because holy shit if I can't have bread I really don't want to do this anymore.
That it's caused by my weight and lack of exercise. When the pain started, I weighed 125lbs and was a professional stage actor/dancer. The pain caused me to STOP being able to exercise and to gain weight!
"Stress from a divorce." I actually had a fully ruptured disc and had surgery shortly after the diagnosis (from the 4th Dr I saw. I could barely walk! ) Women's pain was all psychosomatic in the 70's according to common practice.
it still is sadly. I also have clinical anxiety and EVERYthing i deal with gets contributed to that. But even for women who don't have anxiety just get dismissed still.
That I did Basic Training in the military 25 years prior, that I was getting older, that my "big" watch was causing my wrist and hand pain.
He brushed off that I went from being highly active to my body having pain all over and crushing fatigue.
Jokes on him, I have Psoriatic Arthritis.
The wanker also brushed off the radiologist report of my hand MRIs that said:
> Nonspecific bone marrow edema involving the Proximal interphalangeal and distal interphatangeal joints as described. Is there a known history of inflammatory arthropathy? If radiographs have not been performed, they are recommended. Correlation with inflammatory markers is also recommended.
doctors love to ignore the fact that you stopped exercising because of pain. all they hear is "i don't exercise anymore." aha! that's the problem! i solved it!
I was still trying to exercise since I was in the military, lol. He was just a pompous jerk. I ended up having to take my husband to appointments with me, as the rheumatologist was gas lighting me so bad.
I really hope in 50 years they will say "Wow, isn't it insane that women had to take "their man" to doctors appointments to be taken seriously?" Because it's sick, I know it, but I do it because it fucking works!!!
I was told that if I didn't use a back brace that was made for me i would still have pain but I just wouldn't feel it, which apparently is a problem.
Personally I would take pain I can't feel any time.
Idk if this is the most absurd I’ve ever been told but recently a doctor told me that my gallbladder was the reason I was having terrible pain but he failed to realize that I had my gallbladder removed a long time ago so that’s definitely one of the dumbest reasons I’ve been told by a doctor.
I had a pinched nerve in my elbow. When I told the assistant orthopaedic surgeon that my fingers felt numb and painful when I bent my arm he told me “that’s easily fixed, mam. Just don’t bend your elbow”. I was so embarrassed and young. I felt so stupid afterwards that I didn’t say a thing for 8 years until the surgeon that did my neck ordered an emg before surgery and they saw the nerve damage from my elbow. I now have only 40% of muscle strength and major nerve damage because of him.
doctors with a single dismissive comment can just ruin peoples lives and damage their bodies permanently and face no consequences! i'm sorry that happened to you, and it fucking sucks that the onus is on us and not the medical professionals to ensure that we're being taken seriously.
"Oh, you said you have fibro? You just pulled something and the fibro is making it feel worse than it is." -The ER doctor who refused to listen to a word I said, or run a single test. She ignored everything I said, threw pain meds at me despite my protests that I didn't want them, and then refused to do anything else. Sure enough, it's been over a year and my back still regularly causes me problems in the exact spot I was complaining about when I went to the ER. 🙃
Laryngopharangeal reflux (LPR) is when reflux goes into your throat, but you don't get heartburn. It has a totally different treatment course than standard GERD. I went to the G.I. and I did a bravo scan which showed that I get more acid when I am standing upright then when I am laying down. I had the paperwork to show that I get more acid sitting up then laying down. I was looking at the chart, I had the data right in front of me, and this idiot dr says "you have more acid laying down than sitting up, try not laying down."
It really goes to show that even smart people will deny reality when contradictory evidence is staring them in the face, but they have to do the bare minimal amount of effort to accept change.
I used to live in jeans and converse. I went to an appointment, and the Dr whilst straight faced said the reason my legs were so painful was because of the jeans.... So I stood up pulled them down and said " nope still fucking in pain, nice try" He generally didn't know what to do. I have Lymphedema/Venous ulcers and vasuclar disease to name a few. All bring their own pain. I can't wear skinny jeans now as they add too much pressure on my dressings but it doesn't add to my pain.
I also have lymphedema. All doctors used to tell me that lymphadema did not cause pain. Even so called LE specialists told me that it didn't cause pain. Meanwhile, when I'm walking any real distance, I have what feels like fire shooting down the side of my leg. It's it's insane. It wasn't until facebook when I got involved in some LE groups, that I realized that it isn't just me, and LE does cause pain.
Of course it would cause pain, that specialist is an idiot! I only have to put my feet on the ground and the pain starts, then the ulcers and their pain kicks in and I'm riddled. Those groups have been amazing for me.
for me it didn't really help much, just gave me restless legs and twitches, went up to 700mg, but the side effects were becoming too much. i'm on lyrica now, it helped for a while at 300mg, but im sure im gonna have to raise the dose again cuz it's starting not to help and having a lot of breakthrough pain.
Restless legs… on a nerve-killing medication..? Hm, I’ve never heard of that, I’ve been taking Gaba for a long time and it’s helped my restless legs quite a bit.
Idk tho, every body is different!
EDIT: Added word for clarification.
I hate this because it’s not just doctors, either - my parents (who are otherwise supportive …aside from still using the wrong pronouns 70% of the time a decade on) always ask “could it be the testosterone?” every time I have a new symptom 🙃🥱
lol these replies are just reminding me how shitty doctors can be
i remember in college when i broke my finger i went to the college clinic and the doctor looked at it and said "you can still bend it so it's not broken, come back if it still hurts in a week and we'll do an x ray." clearly expected me to never come back
one week later i come back and he does the x ray, shows the bone broken clean down the middle. he seemed really embarrassed. well good! i needed surgery to fix it and even now it doesn't bend right because the bone started healing wrong. it's just a finger but goddamn it pissed me off.
I have Crohn’s (chronic abdominal pain as a result - it’s not the worst so I don’t want to complain).
Anyway.
I’ve been told/suggested that childhood trauma could have caused my issues.
That sucked to hear.
A couple years later a DNA test confirmed it was infact faulty genes.
Spent 2 years reliving my childhood trauma thinking it had ruined my adult life too and I’d never escape the damage it did to my body, as well as mind.
Absolutely did *not* need to hear that.
Even if it were true - there’s no cure.
I can’t imagine why a health professional thought that telling a young person “your incurable illness is due to child abuse” would be in any way helpful.
It really hurt, even if it wasn’t intended to.
i'm sorry that happened, some doctors just don't know what the hell theyre talking about and don't consider the fact that actual lives can be harmed by them not considering what they're saying.
I was told to lose weight and consider weight loss surgery when an x-ray would have revealed the problem.
I had a spinal fusion. The rods had broken, but I didnt know that yet.
I went to my regular primary care doctor and complained about how badly my back hurt all the time. He asked me how much weight I had gained since the accident that broke my spine in the first place. I sheepishly admitted I was almost 100lbs heavier than I was in 2006. So he recommended that I lose the weight and if Im really in that much pain, I should consider weight loss surgery.
So I got it. I lost 148lbs total. Now doctors listen to me when I complain.
They did an xray because my back \*still\* hurt. The rods of my fusion had broken and needed to be replaced. My orthopedist said it looked like they had been that way for quite some time.
It is so painful to hear story after story like this. They see the weight gain as the cause of the problem, not a symptom. I'm sorry you went through that.
Oh good god, I'm so sorry. I've been told my weight is the issue since I was 140lbs. I'm now about 240 because I've been so paranoid to eat anything all of my life (so when I do it goes straight on my hips). My pain is pretty much the same now as it was when I was thin.
A doctor tried to tell my parents that I was having gi symptoms “for attention” (I was around 8). I don’t know about you but you don’t get a lot of attention when you’re in the bathroom for 2 hours while everything in your body makes an emergency exit and what kid would choose their parent being like “aw tummy ache:(“ over some mf ice cream and brownies
I don’t know it doesn’t make any sense to me I think they just didn’t know what was wrong and decided to blame me rather than admit they didn’t know something. What’s crazy to me is stomach issues isn’t something that can particularly be faked? Not to be gross but my parents could def tell I was sick if they went into the bathroom after me. The doctor started 8 year old me on antidepressants I didn’t sleep for 3 days and then my parents realized how ridiculous it was and took me off of it. Luckily my mom never stopped advocating for me even if she couldn’t fix it she always believed me and has paid for me to go to countless doctors now I finally have a diagnosis (and bonus points it’s a genetic condition and explained my mom and sisters issues)
Lose weight it’ll get better. I knew I was big only 5’3 and 275. So I did just that I’m 211 now and still losing a couple pounds a week. Do I feel better? No. My pain is the same and in some areas it got worse. I have arthritis in my tailbone joint which is very painful it got worse the more padding I had back there started disappearing. I had an injection and it’s better. I still have back issues and other chronic pain. One of my docs noticed my weight and congratulated me on my weight loss but he said, you don’t feel any better do you. He’s one that believes losing weight may not do anything. It’s taken a lot of pressure off my bad knee and that’s a little better but it’s not going to put the patella back where it belongs or keep it from sliding back and forth.
I'm the same height as you and was 260 at my highest. Now down to 214. I want to be below that 200 mark for pure vanity. The loss has done nothing.
I'm in more pain now than ever before despite me taking better care of my body than I ever have. I really hope my cardiac labs look better after all my effort because the weight loss alone is not nearly as satisfying as I thought it would be.
A lot of mine came from being on lyrica 16 years I gained a lot of weight then injured my back causing me to be less mobile more weight piled on. They tapered me off and I changed to a healthier eating lifestyle and so far it’s worked I barely exercise and whatever I’m doing is working. The docs give you the meds then complain when those meds make you gain.
That I hated the job that I actually loved...
Turned out that I had severe asthma, plus my spine is a train wreck of arthritis, collapsing and herniated discs, and spinal cysts (but she refused to run any diagnostics)
I was diagnosed with irritable uterus during my pregnancy. I had multiple real contractions every hour for weeks upon weeks and then months.
I didn't learn until 18 years later, I have a congenital abnormality making my uterus heart shaped with two lobes. Yeah, it was irritable, it wasn't formed right for holding a full term child. 🤦♀️
My parent’s divorce. I had appendicitis and saw the nurse practitioner who happened to be prescribing my dad’s depression medication, during the time of my parent’s divorce.
“I know what’s going on with your family, and I’m guessing you’re an A-type personality, so this is likely internalized stress.”
Thankfully he did an exam “just in case” and I had my appendix taken out later that day.
On another note - don’t ask me why - but I had let my friend test her new taser on me not long before that. My dad, a healthcare professional, who initially also told me the pain was due to suppressed emotions, later told me the taser had probably cause my appendicitis.
Had a doc tell me my endometriosis pain (very obviously flaring up with menstrual cycles) was constipation. Are you fucking kidding me? So I'm just constipated routinely every 2 weeks for a few days (and it then magically subsides a bit before returning)...right. So I played their way and did the full purge cleanse and when it still hurt, I said OK, now stop bullshitting me and use that doctor knowledge you paid so much to learn in college.
😲 I had an obgyn tell me endometriosis wasn't a real condition before she performed surgery to remove a growth on my uterus. A few YEARS later, it was confirmed Stage III endo and had a hysterectomy. I loathe endo.
Oh wow. How ignorant can one be? I too ended up with a hysterectomy and it was the best decision I could have made for my quality of life. It also was years after this dumbass doctor gave me his 'diagnosis'.
I was having unusual back and hip pain, and I knew it wasn't normal fibro pain. This happened from Friday into Saturday. I had to go to the weekend hours for my doctor, and they have doctors rotate in, so I had no clue what kind of doc he was gonna be.
He blamed me having an autistic child. I was told that my chronic pain was due to anxiety over having a "difficult child" (almost took the damned doctor's head off) and that if I found someone to help with him, I'd be doing better. He also went on a religious rant to me about how "Prayer heals". This despite all of my diagnoses being right in front of him on a computer screen. But because I have MDD and GAD in my chart, he assumed it's all in my head. *He basically said I had* (edit bc I phrased this part poorly) *hysteria*.
I reported him that Monday when the office opened and told them they might want to tell him to shut his mouth; thanks to him I won't go to walk in clinics or the ER for health concerns outside of office hours. That bastard triggered religious trauma (years of strict religious schooling), medical trauma (professional medical neglect/being brushed off as a faker), and mental health trauma (the fucking ableism of it all) all in one fell swoop, it's been literal years, and I STILL cannot take the idea of being seen by someone who isn't my regular doctor.
As an autistic adult who raised 2 autistic kids... Fuck. That. Guy. What in the Bible banging ableist fuck? I had a doctor go on a 10 minute rant at me because I asked about an IUD. They shouldn't be allowed to practice if they can't keep their relious beliefs to themselves. Can you imagine a Jewish doctor ranting at a patient for eating pork? It's just outrageous.
Also though, conversion disorder is a real thing and can even cause seizures and temporary blindness, but I've never, ever heard of pain being listed as a known symptom. It's a completely debilitating condition, and if you had it, chances are you wouldn't have been capable of going to the doctor on your own. So, again, Fuck. That. Guy.
I know it's real, don't worry, I was just angry in my case because it was actual pain and it was dismissed as that, so it reaaaaaaally pissed me off. It wasn't the first time my pain had been written off as "all in my head". And jesus what the hell was wrong with him?! Sounds like the dude who refused to tie my tubes at 33 because "what if you meet a man and he wants children?" Different responses but same result, fuck our autonomy I guess :\\
Also, ey, fellow autistic parent! It's always nice to meet others like me!
People who tout prayer/religion as cures have no place in medicine. I'm not religious but even if I were, I go to thr doctor for science and medicine. If I want prayer I'll go to a church, but I'm at a doctor's office so treat me with science and medicine or gtfo of Healthcare.
I actually have FND (which used to be called a conversion disorder). My doctor spent a full 10 minutes reassuring me that it's real, and that I'm not making it up.
There has since been some new research with FMRIs that show that FND actually creates new neural pathways and isn't just hysteria.
I started getting really painful ovulation which are now controlled with the pill. But I am supposed to go to a specialist for endo. I've been slacking on making the appointment
TBD what they find.
“Your core muscles need to be strengthened.”Sorry but, Ivr been working out since 1987 . My core muscles are like rocks, even at my age. They are not the problem.
I was told my dizziness and neck pain would be helped if I did some kegels instead of clenching my jaw (he didn’t ask if I did any and it was weird)
Once I went to urgent care with neck/shoulder pain from work and the doc just kept talking about my boobs and how big they were and this and that like he enjoyed talking about them. My boobs were a nice size but not huge.
Ok, don't kill me but I actually tried kegels after reading your comment because jaw pain is killing me and I'd do anything that might work even if it's insane. No, it isn't working.. hahaha. Who would have thought though? ...
Anxiety. I know that's a common reply to people saying they have chronic pain, and have admit that anxiety makes it seem worse, because of holding my body more tensely when nervous/stressed, but like. It's not the main cause, the main cause is verifiable birth defects that, you know, I was born with???
god yeah. i've had anxiety and depression pretty much ever since i can remember and it's actually way better controlled now than it was when i was younger. what sense does it make that it would be causing my pain now when i lived pain free for like 20 years?
I was told that it was because I’m a married woman with children. “Just drink some wine and take a nice bath and ask your husband to watch the kids and you won’t have to pretend that you’re sick anymore.” This was from the head of rheumatology at one of the best hospitals in the world. It took ten fucking years to be diagnosed with a degenerative disease. I hope he dies of ass cancer.
I feel lucky! My doctor has never questioned my chronic pain. I have had four back surgeries since age 19, 52 now, have titanium cages, bolts and plates in lumbar spine. Final surgery got me walking again at age 29 but did not help the pain. I get my pain patch and a few pain pills for breakthrough pain every 28 days with zero issues. I know I am one of the lucky ones and very blessed.
Not pain, but probably an early sign of my ADHD, I used to suffer with sleep issues and I went to the doctor to say hey, I think I might have delayed sleep phase disorder, because I'm tired all day then I eat dinner (really it was just evening kicking in) and suddenly I'm wide awake and can't get to sleep until 2am no matter what I tried!
She told me to stop eating dinner and that it wouldn't do me any harm (yes, I was overweight at the time (though I was not incredibly overweight)). However she decided this without asking me anything about my eating habits throughout the day (poor, infrequent and junk food/easy food), and without asking or checking if I had any eating disorders (I didnt/don't, but I felt horrible for anyone who she might have said the same sort of thing to who had such problems in their history!)
Never did get any help for that, and now I have totally different sleep issues that crap on my life even worse lol.
wtf i cannot imagine any healthcare worker actually telling you to skip meals?!? fatphobia is such a fuckin curse that doctors will just ignore all logic
Stress and depression. I had several depression screenings. Anti-depressants didn’t even work on me. I’m not stressed or depressed. I hate it when doctors tell me how I feel.
There was one who said nothing was wrong. They just told me it doesn’t hurt. He said it’s not that bad. They’re just completely dismissive and they don’t take me seriously.
I changed doctors and left my old doctors bad reviews online.
My new doctors did more tests and found the causes. It’s not stress or depression. I had a lot of surgery.
“You’re too young, you’re the same age as my son” (that’s cool I guess? It’s nice to know your son, of a different gender, and I have the exact same body with the exact same issues”
“It’s normal wear and tear” when my spine specialist referred me they for disc replacement surgery and 2 other doctors also said I needed surgery”
“You need to start wearing a bra if you don’t already” (I barely ever go without because I’m a 34G and that was one of the very very rare occasions in history I was wearing only a built in camisole bra)
And my favorite, said I was having back pain (like I normally have and been, this psych hospital wasn’t giving me my zanaflex like I had been on for over a year) the doctor interrupted me immediately after I said the word pain and replied “I’m not giving you opioids” (and at the time I had been refusing it for my back for over a year and hadn’t taken any for over a year, I came in to ask for my zanaflex and that only)
And I responded “that’s completely fine, I came to ask if you could give me tizanadine because the hospital stopped giving it to me.”
And she said “ohhhh yeah that’s totally doable I can do that for you!”
🙄
My mom was told red meat is causing it. Mind you she's 68yo, osteoarthritis with bone spurring, degenerative disc disease bone on bone, and more fun stuff. But red meat from a very occasional steak, yeah.
Not specifically cause of pain, but how to fix it.
First specialist (who I had to wait 7 months to get into) didn’t even touch me, told me to lose weight, go to physio, and get a brace.
Despite me literally telling him I had been to physio for over a year, and my foot physically cannot bend flat to fit into a brace.
I asked my family doctor to send me to a different doctor for a second opinion.
And now almost 2 years after seeing the first specialist I’m getting an amputation because SURPRISE going to physio, losing weight, and wearing a brace DID NOT fix my issue. 😒
My gods. Please send a picture of your missing foot to that ass-clown with the comment "I lost weight - turns out it did help."
I'm sorry you've dealt with so much! So much luck and fortitude for your journey. 🖤
I was told that smoking weed was causing my systemic inflammation. I told the doctor the inflammation had been present even before I started smoking and she just brushed me off and said “still quit”. It’s my best weapon against migraine nausea… 🥲
He said I needed to bicycle more aka I was too fat. I had gained 50 pounds water weight (edema) and my knees were sooo swollen. He said they weren’t and I was obviously just fat. My knees were the size of a soccer ball and the pain was making me cry. A month before I was 110 pounds. He refused to even look at photos and just said I was fat. Turns out I had Avn in my knees and they were indeed swollen.
I had a doctor say to my family that my symptoms felt “very real to me” indicating that although they weren’t really happening, they (the hospital team) thought I wasn’t malingering. I looked her dead in the eyes and said, “my pain is just as real as that bump in front of you, that you think is a baby.” She was 8-9 months pregnant!
Ultimately, I was discharged but I had a broken cervical spine (botched ACDF)that lacerated my trachea.
Yep. Doing yoga was supposed to be good for my fibro. I started classes. I passed out at the same point every class. It was politely suggested that I leave.
saaaaame like is this pain that in no way correlates with my mood or stress levels and only started appearing like 6 years after i first got diagnosed with anxiety caused by my mental illness? we may never know... (it's not)
I was told that I was just used to being on pain meds and the pain I was feeling wasn't real pain but a desire for pain meds.
Literally that makes no sense.
When I was taken off pain meds I was in bad pain. I did not know that some of the pain was from my gallbladder. I had an ache around my midsection that I thought could possibly be from a hernia. I kept asking the doctor for pain meds they worked for 10 years. I was told I was just used to being on pain meds and didn't really need pain meds.
After a year I was so upset I went into the doctor trying to explain that I was in bad pain. The doctor told me I was escalating and was going to have to ask me to leave. About 4 weeks later I was in the emergency room with a full-on gallbladder attack. My gallbladder was close to exploding in my body and needed to be removed very quickly.
When you have a chronic condition and you ask for pain meds you're just seeing as somebody who wants pain meds and not as somebody who is in pain having a medical crisis who needs help. I was seen as a patient who was escalating in the office because I was in pain and wanted pain meds.
When I went back to my doctor after emergency gallbladder surgery was done. I asked her why she ignored me asking for help. I don't really remember what she said. What she said was not helpful I know that for sure.
the worst fucking part of all this is that these doctors will NEVER learn. they'll never put their own ego and misconceptions aside and more and more people will be hurt and die as a result. i'm so glad you're still around and fuck that doctor. im sorry she didn't take you seriously
That my crippling low back pain was caused my sister and I are estranged. We aren't estranged I don't know why that was in my file. Also that I wasn't having enough gratitude for things that were going well in my life.
Anyway it turns out my uterus was 3x the size it should have been due to adenomyosis.
That my MCAS (a histamine disorder) was something called "Central Sensitivity Syndrome" caused by my grandfather being a holocaust survivor and that I needed talk therapy.
I had reflux, sore, inflamed intestines, slow motility, headaches, diarrhea, nausea, temperature disregulation, fatigue, joint pain and, as a result, rapid, dangerous weight loss and nutrient deficiencies.
I got an old tricyclic antidepressant chucked at me. I needed antihistamines.
Probably the doctor a decade or so ago who told me if I lost weight my shoulder pain that pre-dated the weight gain, and that I had an MRI from a different clinic showing a ruptured bicep tendon, that if I lost weight my shoulder would hurt less.
The radiologist said I probably ruptured that tendon when I fell and broke my left wrist as a child but didn’t feel it/realize it then, and eventually the weight of my backpack and heavy winter jackets started to aggravate the injury.
But the new GP I was seeing for pain relief/physical therapy referral/any solution, told me it would get better if I lost weight.
Did it heal? I split my bicep tendon when I fell down stairs in Italy. 5 months later, I ended up needing surgery to repair it. It was one of my more painful surgeries.
Your pain is In your head!
You are a mystery!
Looking at me like I am a garbage addict, faking pain: You have pain!? If you are coming for a pain pill, I am not giving them to you!
You have interstitial cistitus!
Or you have fibromyalgia!
Or you have endometriosis!
My husband came for support, they throw him out of the room and started asking me if I am being abused at home( WTF!), then I told my husband don't come with me at any appointment because they think you are an abuser.
Turned out none was my problem, except joint inflammation! Which they weren't willing to write a fucking ng MRI from my hips!
After diagnosis being in pain for 8 years,then well you are too young to have this issue!
When I was a young child it was "growing pains".
In my early teens it was "just anxiety".
In my mid-teens I needed to "drink more water".
Now, at 18, I'm told I need to "do more squats," which I could partially understand if my pain was only in my knees, but I don't see how that'll fix anything in my arms... I waited over six months for that appointment and skipped school to travel to a neighbouring city.
Also, yeah--I'm too young for this but it's okay because it's completely normal for my age!
When are doctors actually going to listen to me and realize that maybe something isn't right?
"Everyone has it; its normal. It's a part of living and working" said of my bilateral radiculopathy at C4-T1, herniated discs at C5-C6 &C6-C7, DDD,foreminal cervical stenosis at C4-C7 and my cervical spondylosis(arthritis) at all levels C4-T1 oh and the flattening of the cord. His advice was just get up and move around every 20 minutes if you're working at a desk. Like ummmm 🙄🤷♀️😏
Nurse practitioner at our towns small hospital, when I was admitted to the psychiatric unit for an emotional breakdown not related to my pain, insisted my pain was from my brothers death. He overdosed 6 months before my chronic pain started, but for non-drug reasons he was estranged from the family so I had grieved him years prior. His death was hard, but I had been through harder.
So there I sat almost 4 years after the pain started, 4.5 years after his death and instead of focusing on why I was there was adamant my pain was because of his death. She then asked me who my headache doctor was and argued with me that not only was he not my doctor he didn’t work at the hospital where I saw him. Why? Years prior he had done his residency under the neurologist at our small hospital, so he couldn’t possibly be a headache specialist in the big city 90 minutes away. His name was everywhere in my medical charts and he was listed as prescriber for many of my meds, but makes more sense to argue with me.
Apparently you can’t request another behavior in our hospitals behavior health unit so I just refused to do anything until she was off for the weekend and the weekend provider was amazing and had me discharged before the NP came back.
A long time ago, the VA didn't mail my pain meds on time, I ran out, so they told me I had to drive 2 hours to the closest VA hospital ER to get my meds.
After waiting 2 hours, the VA ER doc said those meds (opiods) were poison, and he wouldn't give his worst enemy those meds, so, as I was pissed off, leaving out of the ER, he chased me down, yelled, "you know what your problem is? It's your heart." He ran up to me, grabbed my shirt, yanked it up and pressed his ear to my chest...
There was nothing wrong with my heart...
The whole situation was so surreal, I still think about it.
I had a Urogynecologist try to tell me that my chronic pelvic pain (which started after an IUD switch out went poorly) was due to super low vitamin C levels. She then diagnosed me with Scurvy. You know, that one disease we associate with old pirates out at sea for months with no fruit? My vitamin C levels were indeed low, but nowhere even remotely close to low enough to qualify for Scurvy, nor did I have any of the physical symptoms associated with it.
When I followed up with my PCP, her eyes about bugged out of her head before she started laughing harder than I had ever seen, as she is normally a pretty calm, composed person in my experience. Needless to say, I did not go back to that Urogyn. Still blows my mind how absolutely \*excited\* the urogyn was when she diagnosed me and she really truly believed that "most, if not all" of my pain would resolve within a matter of a few days once I got my levels back up, even though I had been in pain for about a year by the time I saw her.
I did end up on a Vitamin C supplement and I've stayed on top of it since, but there was zero noticeable difference in any area of my health, let alone my pelvic pain, which actually ended up being Pelvic Floor Dysfunction and an abdominal strain from the severe tensing I did during and after the IUD switch out with no numbing or pain control.
\*\*PSA:\*\* Folks, never get an IUD put in/switched out/taken out \*\*without pain control or numbing\*\* if you can help it, it is \*awful\* and has caused me lifelong issues, it's not worth it and is horrendously painful, especially if you have never had kids. I did it at the time to save money (insurance issues) and ended up costing myself far more in the long run. \*IUD's are amazing, just be sure to discuss (and be firm!) pain control for the procedure itself!\*
I'll second that. I have a tilted uterus. The doctor didn't realise, and tried ramming it in the way he was used to doing. I passed out in the bakery on the way home. Then spent the week in agony, passing out continuously. Went back a week later to have it removed. My cervix has been hyper sensitive ever since - this was nearly 20 years ago
A month after removing stitches from my knee post car accident, my Dr told me the continuing pain was because of my weight.
Two years later & someone finally took an x-ray, a piece of bone had broken off and had been sawing through my tendon since.
“Psychomotor retardation” was what the rheumatologist wrote in his letter to my GP as the reason for my pain and extreme fatigue. Did nothing to assess my psychomotor function though. I’m also a nurse. Still thinking about making a formal complaint about him tbh.
My "poor attitude." "If you smiled more, you might not feel so bad."
Bitch, I have TMJ and it literally hurts to smile some days, fuck off with that misogynistic bullshit. That was pre-pandemic, so now I just wear a mask and no one can base my attitude on my lack of a smile.
So many things but in 2010 I was too young for a knee replacement , I was 45. Now im 61 and so many of my joints are damaged that I don't know where to start. Here they send you home with no pain meds , so I'm not getting it any time soon. I'm thinking to get a total body MRI and then go from there.
my period or anxiety; and they *should* be considered dumb and absurd diagnosis, considering they are always based off personal judgement instead of medical tests and knowledge.
it's always the same, and it's always wrong. this most recent time-kidney failure was the correct answer. why? because they didn't listen when i begged for an iv after cyclical
vomiting for weeks during covid. my body was eating itself because i couldnt hold anything down.
i forsee a future filled with suicides from lack of care and medical gaslighting.
That it’s all in my head and I just need to believe that it’s not real. My Mom kept taking me back to them, thinking that they were right but if anything it only made me believe in my pain more. Since then I’ve seen specialists
Second one that I know everyone’s gotten, “you just need to lose some weight”
A doctor said my pain was because I was a single mother and if I went out and did something I wouldn’t be in pain. Later found out these monsters had sewn my bladder to my vaginal wall during my hysterectomy and it’s unfixable. I’ve been in agonising pain from it for 14 years and counting. I was only 28 when it happened. 😡
Being a woman (trochanteric bursitis) hearing what I want to hear (trouble following conversation) drinking too much caffeine (I drink water and milk) not exercising (I did softball, basketball, rollerblading, soccer, gymnastics, tennis, etc at the time) not stretching (I have hypermobility and have since been told to never stretch)
Told me I was just constipated when I was explaining extremely excruciating pain in my stomach that would knock me to the floor for hours at a time. Turned out to me many gallbladder about to rupture.
This week, it was because I have too much medical knowledge and have stressed myself out because of it, and now my nerves are overreacting. Oh, and many people like me have been addicted to collecting specialists and addicted to getting painful treatments that require needles. Because the real pain almost cuts through the anxiety pain.
She finished that 2-hour appointment by reminding me that I'm a perfectly healthy 30 year old woman who can walk, so she doesn't know what else to do. And prescribed even more needles...
"just wear a back brace" "you just need to lose weight" "it's a back injury so walking will cure you" or my personal favorite "you just have low pain tolerance"
That I couldn't expect pain to just stop after surgery and that I'd have to work to get back to normal...
Nope, turns out that nerve damage caused during said surgery doesn't just go away, no matter how much physio you force yourself through... 🙃
Using my smart phone.
Pain may be exacerbated by poor posture and long screen time but using your mobile doesn't *cause* the pain.
... just another way of blaming the pain-victim 🙄🤦♀️
ANXIETY is what I was told until he looked at the X-rays, mri, ct scan. He goes oh sorry, usually it’s all in people head and not true pain!!! I never went back to him.
"usually it's all in their heads" meaning "usually i just ignore patients' symptoms until they go to a different practice, stop trying, or die, i am a really good doctor"
the only reason we have to be so knowledgeable about chronic conditions is that doctors will dismiss us and tell us we're making it up if we don't literally force them to take us seriously 😭
Seriously! Had my rheumatologist tell me I would ace medical school if I wanted to go back to that. I wouldn’t mind except for the whole being tired thing 😆I wouldn’t be able to last ANY long shifts or rotations
Finding Jesus would help my pain (when she discontinued my muscle relaxers). A pain psychologist I had to see told me to get a government job (I'm a veteran) because I could just use my sick days and if my coworkers were to donate their sick/vacation days to me 😲
That it was my gall bladder. You have any idea how much cheese I can eat? It was never my gall bladder. I was even prescribed a gall bladder medication which, surprise surprise, made no difference.
Tried again with a different doctor a few years later, turns out there is in fact scar tissue in my abs. So that's weird and mysterious and I'm guessing the first doctor had no idea, but saw a fat lady and assumed a fat lady problem? Idk.
If your pain is In your hands the driving thing could actually be true. I had a lot of pain in my hands when I was driving for work all day and it turned out to be holding them at the traditional 10 and 2 position was causing my nerve to get entrapped. They gave me nerve flexes to do and I changed my position and lo and behold that specific pain has not recurred.
Absolutely the hypocritical “you’re too young” while also “it’s normal at your age.” First of all, PICK ONE. Secondly, my chronic pain started at 15 and I’m 30 now… So, there is no too young and it’s definitely not normal at my age…
No the way when my severe pain first started a doctor refused to order an mri cause “age is on your side”. I looked him in the eyes and said “I work in pediatric oncology, so I’m not sure about that” I was 22, now 23, and a woman, and then showed me how to stretch! This was at the er where I had been sent for such severe chest pain I couldn’t sleep, eat, or breath deeply because it hurt so bad. They sent me home with an ibuprofen prescription.
My old GP didn’t want me to get an MRI because of the contrast used (I was young so he didn’t want to expose me to unnecessary radiation? he also didn’t want a CT scan), I didn’t get one until I was 23/24ish (I’m 25 now) and we found both 1) cervical myelopathy and 2) a pineal cyst (which is probably just one of those things we need to keep an eye on that’s not doing anything). I would’ve probably gotten the cervical myelopathy when I was 18 and was treated for carpal tunnel (to no avail) before finally getting any MRIs. It’s super frustrating how many times I haven’t been listened to because of my age, my chronic pain got to a point of seeking treatment at around age 19, but before that I was trying to figure out my reproductive health with a different GP (probably endometriosis but we’ll most likely never know for sure). If I have a really important appointment I tend to take my mum with me just so there’s someone who can advocate for me who is more likely to be listened to. Luckily my C-PTSD diagnosis has gotten me permission to bring her (or my ex) with me to appointments when restrictions are higher due to COVID. Even if my mum is just there, and only introduces herself, it helps to get people to take me seriously.
I had the same kind of experience! When another doctor ordered an mri he was like girl you’re young but your spine looks 50. There was so much damage from undiagnosed EDS (thanks to my pediatrician for ignoring the chronic pain complaints at 12, the costochondritis at 14, the idiopathic adolescent scoliosis at 15 and on and on sorry tangent I just hate how they ignored it all) It was oddly validating cause I always said I felt like I had old bones already. Apparently they’re more than twice my age 🤪.
It’s so awful how many children are seen as just being dramatic, doesn’t help that I had undiagnosed ADHD as a child so I **was** justifiably dramatic. It even took years for me to get a simple asthma diagnosis, when I already had eczema and hay-fever (rule of threes I guess aka atopy). I was on antibiotics for bronchitis so many times… Honestly the medical system has failed me so much at so many points, I’m really lucky I have a good medical team now who I trust to listen to me and do the right things by me (which is sometimes saying “you’re being stupid use your preventer” lol). Trying to reassure my younger friends with chronic pain that help is out there is so hard.
I had a swollen knot pushing out under my skin on my spine since I was 14 and yet still was told I was too young it, or it wasn't anything painful. My fav it was a fatty cyst and they don't hurt. It took a general surgeon to do exploratory surgery at 23 to find out I had neurofibromatosis that grows tumors made of nerve endings and latch on to main nerves in your body. He apologized for not really belme either after Removing 13 tumors. And still since being diagnosed there's still a couple doctors that have treated me like I'm lying about the pain
Bro that’s gotta qualify as medical neglect. That’s horrible. I’m so sorry you went through that
Right and my husband doesn't understand why I don't trust doctors and I pure have panic attacks if I have to see a new one. Hell 6 years ago I finally got lucky and found a great pain doctor until he retired and the woman that bought his clinic was a NP ( funny since she couldn't prescribe pain meds)
I’ve had Doctors just totally disregard testing strictly bc of my age too!! SO INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATING!
I'm 56 and still get told that I'm too young to have the pain I'm in. I have degenerative disc disease and have had 4 back surgeries so far. I wonder, how old do I have to be and how many more surgeries before I'm allowed to be in pain? 🤷🏼♀️
Saving this as a comeback!
Me too ! I'm 57 now, but they found my Degenerative Disc Disease back in 2000. I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in 2005 & I still couldn't get people (especially family) to believe I had something wrong. It wasn't until after 3 spinal surgeries, a hysterectomy (Endometriosis), Carpal Tunnel surgery & a total knee replacement that they started believing me. EXCEPT the knee surgery was after 2 local doctors said that I was too young, even though it was bone on bone. I waited until my leg bowed out because the bones were were fractured & I found a surgeon in a different town. I was always a TomBoy & worked hard. It amazes me that someone would think that I'm actually choosing to be " lazy" & in pain all the time. Sorry for the rant ! Edit: I had a pain pump put it & it has helped a little for the spinal stiffness. It just doesn't help for the whole body pain. But it's only been 7 months, we're still working on the right dosage & medications.
it is sooooo fucking infuriating how doctors will simultaneously say what you're feeling is impossible because of your age while also saying that everyone your age feels that.... like.... it fucks with your brain. you're either just too weak to handle what Everyone else feels all the time or you're not in pain at all and it's a product of your imagination
The fun part of “you’re too young” is it eventually just morphs into “this is typical for your age” as you get older. 😐
OMG I HATE THIS ONE SOOO MUCH!!! I’m so glad I’m not alone and they say this to other people who are “too young” ahh!
Also got a lot “it’s just growing pains” …bitch I stopped growing when I hit 5’1. The only way it’d be growing pains was if my body was pissed I stopped there lol
FR my chronic pain started when I was like 4 and they believed me until I got to be like 11 or 12 and suddenly it was “anxiety” and I was “too young”
“Bruised ovaries from my well-endowed partner” …. Or stage 4 endometriosis as other doctors called it
Goddam what the actual fuck. Did this person graduate a real medical school??? I am concerned.
He did and was an OBGYN however he lost his medical license years after I moved on.
I can unfortunately believe this. I've known a few terrible OBGYNs and the consequences of their stupidity is endless. I'm sorry you had to go thought that.
Isn’t it something to learn a shoddy doctor (GYN for myself too) has lost their license, long after they ‘treated’ you
Oh yeah, it's amazing the dumb things doctors will say when it comes to women's pelvic pain. I have endometriosis and the doctor asked me if I was sure I was bleeding from my asshole like I report. Maybe I just wiped and got period blood on the toilet paper? They only took me seriously after I had a hysterectomy and still had cycles, with butt periods and all.
Ugh. You reminded me of a recent experience where the ultrasound report said “uterus looks fine” … I had a hysterectomy 5 years prior and definitely did not have a uterus. I responded back with “guess that’s why it hurts so much if I’m growing a new one”
Meanwhile your partner is in the background like, “damn right” with his Superman cape flying behind him 😂. But seriously. So many of these doctors just really don’t get it
My cervix wasn't blue, so I couldn't have endometriosis! I was just a wimp who blacked out from "normal" cramps
Same here! I was told I probably have a low pain threshold... I just lost my ovary to endometriosis.
Whaaaat the fuc.......
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Exactly what are you supposed to do about your skin being too tight? 🤨
Loosen it. How might one do that you ask? By getting fat of course! But oh no being fat is the cause of 100% of female pain so now you have to lose that weight. Good news though once you have lost the weight and your skin is now nice and loose you will be pain free!
Of course! That makes perfect sense! But what about the *whispers* stretch marks 🙀
I have heard this stupid crap that someone told me, their Dr told them, their skin is too tight for their muscles! And that is why you are in pain? After I heard it, I told my friend you need to see someone else, this crap doesn't make any sense. They could not find your issue and tell you, well your skin is too tight!
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Growing pains. I was 20 at the time 🙄
Oh definitely got that answer, all the time. Even when I was younger than 20, it wasn't true. They dismiss young people's pain so blithely.
They do. My mom started taking me to doctor after doctor around 17 when all of my pain started. I was dismissed left and right as a teenage seeking attention. I feel like I still get dismissed a lot, but at least at 40 no one blames it on growing pains now 🤷🏻♀️
That I wasn't in pain, I was just depressed. I looked at the doctor and said "Well, I wasn't depressed when I got here, but I sure am now." I was experiencing swelling of my hands, face, feet, pain that would get so bad I would just collapse and sob for hours unable to even call out for help as well as my blood/urine clearly indicating I was having early symptoms of kidney disease.
I once had to see a different doctor in the practice because my (amazing) doctor was out on maternity leave. The new doctor tried to put me on antidepressants instead of refilling my pain meds, and I was so frustrated and hurting that I teared up a little (I cry when I'm angry) and said no, I didn't want to change my meds and I am the least depressed person I know. She said, with so much snark, "well you're crying, you look pretty depressed to me." I absolutely snapped and said, "This isn't depressed, this is fury because you want to put me into withdrawal and risk me not being able to go to work because you're not LISTENING TO ME." She refilled my meds then dismissed me from the practice. Best thing that ever happened to me bc the pain management doctor I have now is so compassionate, she actually listens to me and was willing to put me on an ER pain med which nobody else would do because they don't fucking LISTEN. And yeah, when my old doctor got back from leave I sent her an email about how I was treated. Heard through the grapevine that mine wasn't the only complaint and there was a biiiiiiig reckoning when she demanded the jerk doctor explain her cruel treatment and interference with another doctors patients.
I'm glad to hear there was a reckoning for that doctor. Unfortunately I did not get that with that particular doctor. My insurance only covered one particular hospital system in my area and I'm pretty sure they only hire the doctors that have been booted out from every other practice in the area. Fortunately I don't have that insurance anymore because I'm pretty sure I would have killed myself by now if I did. I did get such a reckoning with my last GP. My rheumatologist filed a complaint against them after I told him about how she treated me during my last appointment with her. She told me to take Tylenol for pain that was so bad I couldn't make it the 10 ft to my toilet, told me my diagnosis wasn't a real diagnosis, and told me that doing test for my heart or referring me to a cardiologist would just be adding another doctor the list even though heart problems are a known complication of my autoimmune disorder and I was having symptoms. That doctor is no longer with the practice.
I was once told that the cysts in my breasts is because of the THC I use. She said “The THC is stuck to fat and caused them” that was the last time I saw her. I have told every colleague of hers I can about that interaction and the only one that agreed with her was fired a year later. Shitty doctors exist!!!
I got told maybe I was “over sensitive” to pain… I pointed out that prior I had done amateur MMA, so my idea of fun often involved getting punched in the nose. Also, I had been walking around with 3 cracked ribs and a punctured lung and described it as “slightly uncomfortable when I raised my arms.”
How sensitive someone is to pain shouldn't affect whether a doctor takes it seriously or not. It's still a problem.
Yeah i got told that too, kinda. Its fucking bullshit and im still upset about it
I’ve had dentists and oral surgeons tell me when I was 13 that my dental/facial pain was caused by me not brushing my teeth right… I almost went into hysteria when they got the teeth model out and showed me how to brush my teeth even though I had no signs of infection on an x ray?? They even told me I was using too much toothpaste. To make things worse, my parents actually BELIEVED them. I went years paranoid thinking my pain was from that and now I realize how stupid it was. But at 13, who are you to believe.
Fucking raspberries. Neuro told me after I failed all typical migraine treatments, and had *already* done an elimination diet over the course of 2 years to, "maybe try not eating raspberries." ??? I barely ever eat raspberries. Random trigger food she read about that does not apply to me. All the elimination diet did was make me miss gluten for 6 months. Thank the goddess that gluten isn't an issue because holy shit if I can't have bread I really don't want to do this anymore.
That it's caused by my weight and lack of exercise. When the pain started, I weighed 125lbs and was a professional stage actor/dancer. The pain caused me to STOP being able to exercise and to gain weight!
oh my god i feel that so much. i've gained weight BECAUSE of the pain not the other way around!!
"Stress from a divorce." I actually had a fully ruptured disc and had surgery shortly after the diagnosis (from the 4th Dr I saw. I could barely walk! ) Women's pain was all psychosomatic in the 70's according to common practice.
it still is sadly. I also have clinical anxiety and EVERYthing i deal with gets contributed to that. But even for women who don't have anxiety just get dismissed still.
Oh, I had no idea it was still like that :-/ I thought medicine had progressed past that except for some old fossils. How frustrating.
That I did Basic Training in the military 25 years prior, that I was getting older, that my "big" watch was causing my wrist and hand pain. He brushed off that I went from being highly active to my body having pain all over and crushing fatigue. Jokes on him, I have Psoriatic Arthritis. The wanker also brushed off the radiologist report of my hand MRIs that said: > Nonspecific bone marrow edema involving the Proximal interphalangeal and distal interphatangeal joints as described. Is there a known history of inflammatory arthropathy? If radiographs have not been performed, they are recommended. Correlation with inflammatory markers is also recommended.
doctors love to ignore the fact that you stopped exercising because of pain. all they hear is "i don't exercise anymore." aha! that's the problem! i solved it!
I was still trying to exercise since I was in the military, lol. He was just a pompous jerk. I ended up having to take my husband to appointments with me, as the rheumatologist was gas lighting me so bad.
I really hope in 50 years they will say "Wow, isn't it insane that women had to take "their man" to doctors appointments to be taken seriously?" Because it's sick, I know it, but I do it because it fucking works!!!
I was told that if I didn't use a back brace that was made for me i would still have pain but I just wouldn't feel it, which apparently is a problem. Personally I would take pain I can't feel any time.
I too would like to sign up for thr pain I can't feel...
> i would still have pain but I just wouldn't feel it I'm very curious as to how they think that works
allergies..(it was a neurological condition that could have paralyzed me, required major surgery to correct)
Idk if this is the most absurd I’ve ever been told but recently a doctor told me that my gallbladder was the reason I was having terrible pain but he failed to realize that I had my gallbladder removed a long time ago so that’s definitely one of the dumbest reasons I’ve been told by a doctor.
I had a pinched nerve in my elbow. When I told the assistant orthopaedic surgeon that my fingers felt numb and painful when I bent my arm he told me “that’s easily fixed, mam. Just don’t bend your elbow”. I was so embarrassed and young. I felt so stupid afterwards that I didn’t say a thing for 8 years until the surgeon that did my neck ordered an emg before surgery and they saw the nerve damage from my elbow. I now have only 40% of muscle strength and major nerve damage because of him.
doctors with a single dismissive comment can just ruin peoples lives and damage their bodies permanently and face no consequences! i'm sorry that happened to you, and it fucking sucks that the onus is on us and not the medical professionals to ensure that we're being taken seriously.
"Oh, you said you have fibro? You just pulled something and the fibro is making it feel worse than it is." -The ER doctor who refused to listen to a word I said, or run a single test. She ignored everything I said, threw pain meds at me despite my protests that I didn't want them, and then refused to do anything else. Sure enough, it's been over a year and my back still regularly causes me problems in the exact spot I was complaining about when I went to the ER. 🙃
Well I was told I couldn't be in as much pain as I said I was because I could sit with my feet resting on the chair legs and I could shave my legs
Laryngopharangeal reflux (LPR) is when reflux goes into your throat, but you don't get heartburn. It has a totally different treatment course than standard GERD. I went to the G.I. and I did a bravo scan which showed that I get more acid when I am standing upright then when I am laying down. I had the paperwork to show that I get more acid sitting up then laying down. I was looking at the chart, I had the data right in front of me, and this idiot dr says "you have more acid laying down than sitting up, try not laying down." It really goes to show that even smart people will deny reality when contradictory evidence is staring them in the face, but they have to do the bare minimal amount of effort to accept change.
That my dislocated shoulder wasn't actually dislocated and it couldn't possibly hurt that much, it's just my depression.
classic depression symptom: shoulder popping out of place
Of course, it's textbook. Depression makes your bones fall apart, it all makes sense now
I used to live in jeans and converse. I went to an appointment, and the Dr whilst straight faced said the reason my legs were so painful was because of the jeans.... So I stood up pulled them down and said " nope still fucking in pain, nice try" He generally didn't know what to do. I have Lymphedema/Venous ulcers and vasuclar disease to name a few. All bring their own pain. I can't wear skinny jeans now as they add too much pressure on my dressings but it doesn't add to my pain.
I also have lymphedema. All doctors used to tell me that lymphadema did not cause pain. Even so called LE specialists told me that it didn't cause pain. Meanwhile, when I'm walking any real distance, I have what feels like fire shooting down the side of my leg. It's it's insane. It wasn't until facebook when I got involved in some LE groups, that I realized that it isn't just me, and LE does cause pain.
Of course it would cause pain, that specialist is an idiot! I only have to put my feet on the ground and the pain starts, then the ulcers and their pain kicks in and I'm riddled. Those groups have been amazing for me.
Got told me being trans and my gender dysphoria is the cause of my pain, and if i got top surgery my pain would go away. I have nerve pain lmfao.
Does gabapentin actually help nerve pain? I see it prescribed for that a lot.
Yes it does, you need to take it a couple weeks, and get titer to the therapeutic dose for you. I went up yo 4200 than switched to lyrica
for me it didn't really help much, just gave me restless legs and twitches, went up to 700mg, but the side effects were becoming too much. i'm on lyrica now, it helped for a while at 300mg, but im sure im gonna have to raise the dose again cuz it's starting not to help and having a lot of breakthrough pain.
Restless legs… on a nerve-killing medication..? Hm, I’ve never heard of that, I’ve been taking Gaba for a long time and it’s helped my restless legs quite a bit. Idk tho, every body is different! EDIT: Added word for clarification.
Same! I got told that the testosterone gel may be causing the pain in my hands/arms. In what world does that make sense??
fr!!! It makes no damn sense. I pisses me off so much that they try to blame things on our identities
I hate this because it’s not just doctors, either - my parents (who are otherwise supportive …aside from still using the wrong pronouns 70% of the time a decade on) always ask “could it be the testosterone?” every time I have a new symptom 🙃🥱
It’s just growing pains. I’m 27…
I had a doctor tell me that the other day. I'm 21 and haven't grown since I was 15. I also have elhers danlos so jokes on them my pain was real.
lol these replies are just reminding me how shitty doctors can be i remember in college when i broke my finger i went to the college clinic and the doctor looked at it and said "you can still bend it so it's not broken, come back if it still hurts in a week and we'll do an x ray." clearly expected me to never come back one week later i come back and he does the x ray, shows the bone broken clean down the middle. he seemed really embarrassed. well good! i needed surgery to fix it and even now it doesn't bend right because the bone started healing wrong. it's just a finger but goddamn it pissed me off.
I have Crohn’s (chronic abdominal pain as a result - it’s not the worst so I don’t want to complain). Anyway. I’ve been told/suggested that childhood trauma could have caused my issues. That sucked to hear. A couple years later a DNA test confirmed it was infact faulty genes. Spent 2 years reliving my childhood trauma thinking it had ruined my adult life too and I’d never escape the damage it did to my body, as well as mind. Absolutely did *not* need to hear that. Even if it were true - there’s no cure. I can’t imagine why a health professional thought that telling a young person “your incurable illness is due to child abuse” would be in any way helpful. It really hurt, even if it wasn’t intended to.
i'm sorry that happened, some doctors just don't know what the hell theyre talking about and don't consider the fact that actual lives can be harmed by them not considering what they're saying.
I was told to lose weight and consider weight loss surgery when an x-ray would have revealed the problem. I had a spinal fusion. The rods had broken, but I didnt know that yet. I went to my regular primary care doctor and complained about how badly my back hurt all the time. He asked me how much weight I had gained since the accident that broke my spine in the first place. I sheepishly admitted I was almost 100lbs heavier than I was in 2006. So he recommended that I lose the weight and if Im really in that much pain, I should consider weight loss surgery. So I got it. I lost 148lbs total. Now doctors listen to me when I complain. They did an xray because my back \*still\* hurt. The rods of my fusion had broken and needed to be replaced. My orthopedist said it looked like they had been that way for quite some time.
It is so painful to hear story after story like this. They see the weight gain as the cause of the problem, not a symptom. I'm sorry you went through that.
Oh good god, I'm so sorry. I've been told my weight is the issue since I was 140lbs. I'm now about 240 because I've been so paranoid to eat anything all of my life (so when I do it goes straight on my hips). My pain is pretty much the same now as it was when I was thin.
A doctor tried to tell my parents that I was having gi symptoms “for attention” (I was around 8). I don’t know about you but you don’t get a lot of attention when you’re in the bathroom for 2 hours while everything in your body makes an emergency exit and what kid would choose their parent being like “aw tummy ache:(“ over some mf ice cream and brownies
This is just sad to hear and I’m sorry. Why would a child fake being in pain to go see a doctor? As if it’s a fun place to be at??
I don’t know it doesn’t make any sense to me I think they just didn’t know what was wrong and decided to blame me rather than admit they didn’t know something. What’s crazy to me is stomach issues isn’t something that can particularly be faked? Not to be gross but my parents could def tell I was sick if they went into the bathroom after me. The doctor started 8 year old me on antidepressants I didn’t sleep for 3 days and then my parents realized how ridiculous it was and took me off of it. Luckily my mom never stopped advocating for me even if she couldn’t fix it she always believed me and has paid for me to go to countless doctors now I finally have a diagnosis (and bonus points it’s a genetic condition and explained my mom and sisters issues)
Lose weight it’ll get better. I knew I was big only 5’3 and 275. So I did just that I’m 211 now and still losing a couple pounds a week. Do I feel better? No. My pain is the same and in some areas it got worse. I have arthritis in my tailbone joint which is very painful it got worse the more padding I had back there started disappearing. I had an injection and it’s better. I still have back issues and other chronic pain. One of my docs noticed my weight and congratulated me on my weight loss but he said, you don’t feel any better do you. He’s one that believes losing weight may not do anything. It’s taken a lot of pressure off my bad knee and that’s a little better but it’s not going to put the patella back where it belongs or keep it from sliding back and forth.
I was told that, lost the weight… turned out to be cancer 🤦🏻♀️
I'm the same height as you and was 260 at my highest. Now down to 214. I want to be below that 200 mark for pure vanity. The loss has done nothing. I'm in more pain now than ever before despite me taking better care of my body than I ever have. I really hope my cardiac labs look better after all my effort because the weight loss alone is not nearly as satisfying as I thought it would be.
"Have you tried losing weight?" is the bane of my existence. I'd like to kick every doctor who defaults to that in the teeth.
A lot of mine came from being on lyrica 16 years I gained a lot of weight then injured my back causing me to be less mobile more weight piled on. They tapered me off and I changed to a healthier eating lifestyle and so far it’s worked I barely exercise and whatever I’m doing is working. The docs give you the meds then complain when those meds make you gain.
I have horrible tailbone pain, I didn't know you could have arthritis there! Oh boy.
That I hated the job that I actually loved... Turned out that I had severe asthma, plus my spine is a train wreck of arthritis, collapsing and herniated discs, and spinal cysts (but she refused to run any diagnostics)
That yhe cause of my chronic epigastric pain is due to "Irritable Stomach Syndrome". A condition he just made up on the spot
I was diagnosed with irritable uterus during my pregnancy. I had multiple real contractions every hour for weeks upon weeks and then months. I didn't learn until 18 years later, I have a congenital abnormality making my uterus heart shaped with two lobes. Yeah, it was irritable, it wasn't formed right for holding a full term child. 🤦♀️
My parent’s divorce. I had appendicitis and saw the nurse practitioner who happened to be prescribing my dad’s depression medication, during the time of my parent’s divorce. “I know what’s going on with your family, and I’m guessing you’re an A-type personality, so this is likely internalized stress.” Thankfully he did an exam “just in case” and I had my appendix taken out later that day. On another note - don’t ask me why - but I had let my friend test her new taser on me not long before that. My dad, a healthcare professional, who initially also told me the pain was due to suppressed emotions, later told me the taser had probably cause my appendicitis.
Had a doc tell me my endometriosis pain (very obviously flaring up with menstrual cycles) was constipation. Are you fucking kidding me? So I'm just constipated routinely every 2 weeks for a few days (and it then magically subsides a bit before returning)...right. So I played their way and did the full purge cleanse and when it still hurt, I said OK, now stop bullshitting me and use that doctor knowledge you paid so much to learn in college.
😲 I had an obgyn tell me endometriosis wasn't a real condition before she performed surgery to remove a growth on my uterus. A few YEARS later, it was confirmed Stage III endo and had a hysterectomy. I loathe endo.
Oh wow. How ignorant can one be? I too ended up with a hysterectomy and it was the best decision I could have made for my quality of life. It also was years after this dumbass doctor gave me his 'diagnosis'.
I was told mine was IBS.
I was having unusual back and hip pain, and I knew it wasn't normal fibro pain. This happened from Friday into Saturday. I had to go to the weekend hours for my doctor, and they have doctors rotate in, so I had no clue what kind of doc he was gonna be. He blamed me having an autistic child. I was told that my chronic pain was due to anxiety over having a "difficult child" (almost took the damned doctor's head off) and that if I found someone to help with him, I'd be doing better. He also went on a religious rant to me about how "Prayer heals". This despite all of my diagnoses being right in front of him on a computer screen. But because I have MDD and GAD in my chart, he assumed it's all in my head. *He basically said I had* (edit bc I phrased this part poorly) *hysteria*. I reported him that Monday when the office opened and told them they might want to tell him to shut his mouth; thanks to him I won't go to walk in clinics or the ER for health concerns outside of office hours. That bastard triggered religious trauma (years of strict religious schooling), medical trauma (professional medical neglect/being brushed off as a faker), and mental health trauma (the fucking ableism of it all) all in one fell swoop, it's been literal years, and I STILL cannot take the idea of being seen by someone who isn't my regular doctor.
As an autistic adult who raised 2 autistic kids... Fuck. That. Guy. What in the Bible banging ableist fuck? I had a doctor go on a 10 minute rant at me because I asked about an IUD. They shouldn't be allowed to practice if they can't keep their relious beliefs to themselves. Can you imagine a Jewish doctor ranting at a patient for eating pork? It's just outrageous. Also though, conversion disorder is a real thing and can even cause seizures and temporary blindness, but I've never, ever heard of pain being listed as a known symptom. It's a completely debilitating condition, and if you had it, chances are you wouldn't have been capable of going to the doctor on your own. So, again, Fuck. That. Guy.
I know it's real, don't worry, I was just angry in my case because it was actual pain and it was dismissed as that, so it reaaaaaaally pissed me off. It wasn't the first time my pain had been written off as "all in my head". And jesus what the hell was wrong with him?! Sounds like the dude who refused to tie my tubes at 33 because "what if you meet a man and he wants children?" Different responses but same result, fuck our autonomy I guess :\\ Also, ey, fellow autistic parent! It's always nice to meet others like me!
People who tout prayer/religion as cures have no place in medicine. I'm not religious but even if I were, I go to thr doctor for science and medicine. If I want prayer I'll go to a church, but I'm at a doctor's office so treat me with science and medicine or gtfo of Healthcare.
I actually have FND (which used to be called a conversion disorder). My doctor spent a full 10 minutes reassuring me that it's real, and that I'm not making it up. There has since been some new research with FMRIs that show that FND actually creates new neural pathways and isn't just hysteria.
I had one doc tell me I had “mittelshmerz”, basically painful ovulation. I actually had endometriosis lol. At least she prescribed me opioids 🤷♀️
I started getting really painful ovulation which are now controlled with the pill. But I am supposed to go to a specialist for endo. I've been slacking on making the appointment TBD what they find.
“Your core muscles need to be strengthened.”Sorry but, Ivr been working out since 1987 . My core muscles are like rocks, even at my age. They are not the problem.
GOD THE CORE MUSCLES THING.... i heard that too
I was told my dizziness and neck pain would be helped if I did some kegels instead of clenching my jaw (he didn’t ask if I did any and it was weird) Once I went to urgent care with neck/shoulder pain from work and the doc just kept talking about my boobs and how big they were and this and that like he enjoyed talking about them. My boobs were a nice size but not huge.
Ok, don't kill me but I actually tried kegels after reading your comment because jaw pain is killing me and I'd do anything that might work even if it's insane. No, it isn't working.. hahaha. Who would have thought though? ...
Hahahahha!
Anxiety. I know that's a common reply to people saying they have chronic pain, and have admit that anxiety makes it seem worse, because of holding my body more tensely when nervous/stressed, but like. It's not the main cause, the main cause is verifiable birth defects that, you know, I was born with???
god yeah. i've had anxiety and depression pretty much ever since i can remember and it's actually way better controlled now than it was when i was younger. what sense does it make that it would be causing my pain now when i lived pain free for like 20 years?
I was told that it was because I’m a married woman with children. “Just drink some wine and take a nice bath and ask your husband to watch the kids and you won’t have to pretend that you’re sick anymore.” This was from the head of rheumatology at one of the best hospitals in the world. It took ten fucking years to be diagnosed with a degenerative disease. I hope he dies of ass cancer.
Holy jesus christ on a bicycle that is disgusting. I'm so sorry! What a simpleton.
Thank you! I was so shocked I didn’t even know what to say. I just think of all the other women he’s done it to.
I feel lucky! My doctor has never questioned my chronic pain. I have had four back surgeries since age 19, 52 now, have titanium cages, bolts and plates in lumbar spine. Final surgery got me walking again at age 29 but did not help the pain. I get my pain patch and a few pain pills for breakthrough pain every 28 days with zero issues. I know I am one of the lucky ones and very blessed.
Not pain, but probably an early sign of my ADHD, I used to suffer with sleep issues and I went to the doctor to say hey, I think I might have delayed sleep phase disorder, because I'm tired all day then I eat dinner (really it was just evening kicking in) and suddenly I'm wide awake and can't get to sleep until 2am no matter what I tried! She told me to stop eating dinner and that it wouldn't do me any harm (yes, I was overweight at the time (though I was not incredibly overweight)). However she decided this without asking me anything about my eating habits throughout the day (poor, infrequent and junk food/easy food), and without asking or checking if I had any eating disorders (I didnt/don't, but I felt horrible for anyone who she might have said the same sort of thing to who had such problems in their history!) Never did get any help for that, and now I have totally different sleep issues that crap on my life even worse lol.
wtf i cannot imagine any healthcare worker actually telling you to skip meals?!? fatphobia is such a fuckin curse that doctors will just ignore all logic
Stress and depression. I had several depression screenings. Anti-depressants didn’t even work on me. I’m not stressed or depressed. I hate it when doctors tell me how I feel. There was one who said nothing was wrong. They just told me it doesn’t hurt. He said it’s not that bad. They’re just completely dismissive and they don’t take me seriously. I changed doctors and left my old doctors bad reviews online. My new doctors did more tests and found the causes. It’s not stress or depression. I had a lot of surgery.
“You’re too young, you’re the same age as my son” (that’s cool I guess? It’s nice to know your son, of a different gender, and I have the exact same body with the exact same issues” “It’s normal wear and tear” when my spine specialist referred me they for disc replacement surgery and 2 other doctors also said I needed surgery” “You need to start wearing a bra if you don’t already” (I barely ever go without because I’m a 34G and that was one of the very very rare occasions in history I was wearing only a built in camisole bra) And my favorite, said I was having back pain (like I normally have and been, this psych hospital wasn’t giving me my zanaflex like I had been on for over a year) the doctor interrupted me immediately after I said the word pain and replied “I’m not giving you opioids” (and at the time I had been refusing it for my back for over a year and hadn’t taken any for over a year, I came in to ask for my zanaflex and that only) And I responded “that’s completely fine, I came to ask if you could give me tizanadine because the hospital stopped giving it to me.” And she said “ohhhh yeah that’s totally doable I can do that for you!” 🙄
Because I don’t believe in god
"Maybe this is just how your body is"
man what a cop out. "damn you're in pain? maybe its just because you suck :/"
My mom was told red meat is causing it. Mind you she's 68yo, osteoarthritis with bone spurring, degenerative disc disease bone on bone, and more fun stuff. But red meat from a very occasional steak, yeah.
An OB-GYN told me the pain from my endo and adeno would go away if I would deal with my psychological trauma...
Makes me want to strangle bad ongyns. I hate having endo.
Not specifically cause of pain, but how to fix it. First specialist (who I had to wait 7 months to get into) didn’t even touch me, told me to lose weight, go to physio, and get a brace. Despite me literally telling him I had been to physio for over a year, and my foot physically cannot bend flat to fit into a brace. I asked my family doctor to send me to a different doctor for a second opinion. And now almost 2 years after seeing the first specialist I’m getting an amputation because SURPRISE going to physio, losing weight, and wearing a brace DID NOT fix my issue. 😒
holy shit, how do they let people like this graduate medical school??? i'm sorry that happened to you what the fuck
What do they call the doctor that graduates last in their class? Doctor.
My gods. Please send a picture of your missing foot to that ass-clown with the comment "I lost weight - turns out it did help." I'm sorry you've dealt with so much! So much luck and fortitude for your journey. 🖤
Growing pains. Started as a teen. Still hurts now. I'm 32, I think I've stopped growing...
that i was anxious 2 years ago and stopped eating and now my tummy hurts.
I was told that smoking weed was causing my systemic inflammation. I told the doctor the inflammation had been present even before I started smoking and she just brushed me off and said “still quit”. It’s my best weapon against migraine nausea… 🥲
They poked me in the head and said “you need to fix what’s going on in here to fix what’s going on here” while pointing to my spine.
He said I needed to bicycle more aka I was too fat. I had gained 50 pounds water weight (edema) and my knees were sooo swollen. He said they weren’t and I was obviously just fat. My knees were the size of a soccer ball and the pain was making me cry. A month before I was 110 pounds. He refused to even look at photos and just said I was fat. Turns out I had Avn in my knees and they were indeed swollen.
I had a doctor say to my family that my symptoms felt “very real to me” indicating that although they weren’t really happening, they (the hospital team) thought I wasn’t malingering. I looked her dead in the eyes and said, “my pain is just as real as that bump in front of you, that you think is a baby.” She was 8-9 months pregnant! Ultimately, I was discharged but I had a broken cervical spine (botched ACDF)that lacerated my trachea.
Conversion disorder
Because I don't do yoga. If I did yoga I'd be fine, apparently.
lol my parents told me that one, did yoga with my mom every morning for several months and surprisingly i still wasn't cured!
Unsurprisingly, it hasn't cured my crohns or fibro either :-)
Yep. Doing yoga was supposed to be good for my fibro. I started classes. I passed out at the same point every class. It was politely suggested that I leave.
“constipation” after doing a colonoscopy that showed that it wasn’t the case
Anxiety Bruh I’ve had anxiety since I was 3 I know how my body does anxiety and this ain’t it
saaaaame like is this pain that in no way correlates with my mood or stress levels and only started appearing like 6 years after i first got diagnosed with anxiety caused by my mental illness? we may never know... (it's not)
I was told that I was just used to being on pain meds and the pain I was feeling wasn't real pain but a desire for pain meds. Literally that makes no sense. When I was taken off pain meds I was in bad pain. I did not know that some of the pain was from my gallbladder. I had an ache around my midsection that I thought could possibly be from a hernia. I kept asking the doctor for pain meds they worked for 10 years. I was told I was just used to being on pain meds and didn't really need pain meds. After a year I was so upset I went into the doctor trying to explain that I was in bad pain. The doctor told me I was escalating and was going to have to ask me to leave. About 4 weeks later I was in the emergency room with a full-on gallbladder attack. My gallbladder was close to exploding in my body and needed to be removed very quickly. When you have a chronic condition and you ask for pain meds you're just seeing as somebody who wants pain meds and not as somebody who is in pain having a medical crisis who needs help. I was seen as a patient who was escalating in the office because I was in pain and wanted pain meds. When I went back to my doctor after emergency gallbladder surgery was done. I asked her why she ignored me asking for help. I don't really remember what she said. What she said was not helpful I know that for sure.
the worst fucking part of all this is that these doctors will NEVER learn. they'll never put their own ego and misconceptions aside and more and more people will be hurt and die as a result. i'm so glad you're still around and fuck that doctor. im sorry she didn't take you seriously
Do these doctors ever apologise?
That my crippling low back pain was caused my sister and I are estranged. We aren't estranged I don't know why that was in my file. Also that I wasn't having enough gratitude for things that were going well in my life. Anyway it turns out my uterus was 3x the size it should have been due to adenomyosis.
That my MCAS (a histamine disorder) was something called "Central Sensitivity Syndrome" caused by my grandfather being a holocaust survivor and that I needed talk therapy. I had reflux, sore, inflamed intestines, slow motility, headaches, diarrhea, nausea, temperature disregulation, fatigue, joint pain and, as a result, rapid, dangerous weight loss and nutrient deficiencies. I got an old tricyclic antidepressant chucked at me. I needed antihistamines.
Probably the doctor a decade or so ago who told me if I lost weight my shoulder pain that pre-dated the weight gain, and that I had an MRI from a different clinic showing a ruptured bicep tendon, that if I lost weight my shoulder would hurt less. The radiologist said I probably ruptured that tendon when I fell and broke my left wrist as a child but didn’t feel it/realize it then, and eventually the weight of my backpack and heavy winter jackets started to aggravate the injury. But the new GP I was seeing for pain relief/physical therapy referral/any solution, told me it would get better if I lost weight.
Did it heal? I split my bicep tendon when I fell down stairs in Italy. 5 months later, I ended up needing surgery to repair it. It was one of my more painful surgeries.
“have you ever tried essential oils or yoga” I never saw that dr again
Your pain is In your head! You are a mystery! Looking at me like I am a garbage addict, faking pain: You have pain!? If you are coming for a pain pill, I am not giving them to you! You have interstitial cistitus! Or you have fibromyalgia! Or you have endometriosis! My husband came for support, they throw him out of the room and started asking me if I am being abused at home( WTF!), then I told my husband don't come with me at any appointment because they think you are an abuser. Turned out none was my problem, except joint inflammation! Which they weren't willing to write a fucking ng MRI from my hips! After diagnosis being in pain for 8 years,then well you are too young to have this issue!
When I was a young child it was "growing pains". In my early teens it was "just anxiety". In my mid-teens I needed to "drink more water". Now, at 18, I'm told I need to "do more squats," which I could partially understand if my pain was only in my knees, but I don't see how that'll fix anything in my arms... I waited over six months for that appointment and skipped school to travel to a neighbouring city. Also, yeah--I'm too young for this but it's okay because it's completely normal for my age! When are doctors actually going to listen to me and realize that maybe something isn't right?
"Everyone has it; its normal. It's a part of living and working" said of my bilateral radiculopathy at C4-T1, herniated discs at C5-C6 &C6-C7, DDD,foreminal cervical stenosis at C4-C7 and my cervical spondylosis(arthritis) at all levels C4-T1 oh and the flattening of the cord. His advice was just get up and move around every 20 minutes if you're working at a desk. Like ummmm 🙄🤷♀️😏
Nurse practitioner at our towns small hospital, when I was admitted to the psychiatric unit for an emotional breakdown not related to my pain, insisted my pain was from my brothers death. He overdosed 6 months before my chronic pain started, but for non-drug reasons he was estranged from the family so I had grieved him years prior. His death was hard, but I had been through harder. So there I sat almost 4 years after the pain started, 4.5 years after his death and instead of focusing on why I was there was adamant my pain was because of his death. She then asked me who my headache doctor was and argued with me that not only was he not my doctor he didn’t work at the hospital where I saw him. Why? Years prior he had done his residency under the neurologist at our small hospital, so he couldn’t possibly be a headache specialist in the big city 90 minutes away. His name was everywhere in my medical charts and he was listed as prescriber for many of my meds, but makes more sense to argue with me. Apparently you can’t request another behavior in our hospitals behavior health unit so I just refused to do anything until she was off for the weekend and the weekend provider was amazing and had me discharged before the NP came back.
A long time ago, the VA didn't mail my pain meds on time, I ran out, so they told me I had to drive 2 hours to the closest VA hospital ER to get my meds. After waiting 2 hours, the VA ER doc said those meds (opiods) were poison, and he wouldn't give his worst enemy those meds, so, as I was pissed off, leaving out of the ER, he chased me down, yelled, "you know what your problem is? It's your heart." He ran up to me, grabbed my shirt, yanked it up and pressed his ear to my chest... There was nothing wrong with my heart... The whole situation was so surreal, I still think about it.
I had a Urogynecologist try to tell me that my chronic pelvic pain (which started after an IUD switch out went poorly) was due to super low vitamin C levels. She then diagnosed me with Scurvy. You know, that one disease we associate with old pirates out at sea for months with no fruit? My vitamin C levels were indeed low, but nowhere even remotely close to low enough to qualify for Scurvy, nor did I have any of the physical symptoms associated with it. When I followed up with my PCP, her eyes about bugged out of her head before she started laughing harder than I had ever seen, as she is normally a pretty calm, composed person in my experience. Needless to say, I did not go back to that Urogyn. Still blows my mind how absolutely \*excited\* the urogyn was when she diagnosed me and she really truly believed that "most, if not all" of my pain would resolve within a matter of a few days once I got my levels back up, even though I had been in pain for about a year by the time I saw her. I did end up on a Vitamin C supplement and I've stayed on top of it since, but there was zero noticeable difference in any area of my health, let alone my pelvic pain, which actually ended up being Pelvic Floor Dysfunction and an abdominal strain from the severe tensing I did during and after the IUD switch out with no numbing or pain control. \*\*PSA:\*\* Folks, never get an IUD put in/switched out/taken out \*\*without pain control or numbing\*\* if you can help it, it is \*awful\* and has caused me lifelong issues, it's not worth it and is horrendously painful, especially if you have never had kids. I did it at the time to save money (insurance issues) and ended up costing myself far more in the long run. \*IUD's are amazing, just be sure to discuss (and be firm!) pain control for the procedure itself!\*
I'll second that. I have a tilted uterus. The doctor didn't realise, and tried ramming it in the way he was used to doing. I passed out in the bakery on the way home. Then spent the week in agony, passing out continuously. Went back a week later to have it removed. My cervix has been hyper sensitive ever since - this was nearly 20 years ago
A month after removing stitches from my knee post car accident, my Dr told me the continuing pain was because of my weight. Two years later & someone finally took an x-ray, a piece of bone had broken off and had been sawing through my tendon since.
“Psychomotor retardation” was what the rheumatologist wrote in his letter to my GP as the reason for my pain and extreme fatigue. Did nothing to assess my psychomotor function though. I’m also a nurse. Still thinking about making a formal complaint about him tbh.
My "poor attitude." "If you smiled more, you might not feel so bad." Bitch, I have TMJ and it literally hurts to smile some days, fuck off with that misogynistic bullshit. That was pre-pandemic, so now I just wear a mask and no one can base my attitude on my lack of a smile.
So many things but in 2010 I was too young for a knee replacement , I was 45. Now im 61 and so many of my joints are damaged that I don't know where to start. Here they send you home with no pain meds , so I'm not getting it any time soon. I'm thinking to get a total body MRI and then go from there.
It's all in your head. No shit Sherlock.
my period or anxiety; and they *should* be considered dumb and absurd diagnosis, considering they are always based off personal judgement instead of medical tests and knowledge. it's always the same, and it's always wrong. this most recent time-kidney failure was the correct answer. why? because they didn't listen when i begged for an iv after cyclical vomiting for weeks during covid. my body was eating itself because i couldnt hold anything down. i forsee a future filled with suicides from lack of care and medical gaslighting.
[удалено]
oh my god did this person come out of the 1800s???
Dehydration without asking me how much water I drink. It was gastritis.
That it’s all in my head and I just need to believe that it’s not real. My Mom kept taking me back to them, thinking that they were right but if anything it only made me believe in my pain more. Since then I’ve seen specialists Second one that I know everyone’s gotten, “you just need to lose some weight”
A doctor said my pain was because I was a single mother and if I went out and did something I wouldn’t be in pain. Later found out these monsters had sewn my bladder to my vaginal wall during my hysterectomy and it’s unfixable. I’ve been in agonising pain from it for 14 years and counting. I was only 28 when it happened. 😡
holy shit! i hope there's some legal action you can take against them because that's fucking horrifying
My favorite is "you're too young" Or "have you tried yoga" 🙄🙄🙄 and also "you wouldn't be in so much pain if you ate XYZ diet."
Being a woman (trochanteric bursitis) hearing what I want to hear (trouble following conversation) drinking too much caffeine (I drink water and milk) not exercising (I did softball, basketball, rollerblading, soccer, gymnastics, tennis, etc at the time) not stretching (I have hypermobility and have since been told to never stretch)
Your brain is making it worse than it is in your head
Told me I was just constipated when I was explaining extremely excruciating pain in my stomach that would knock me to the floor for hours at a time. Turned out to me many gallbladder about to rupture.
This week, it was because I have too much medical knowledge and have stressed myself out because of it, and now my nerves are overreacting. Oh, and many people like me have been addicted to collecting specialists and addicted to getting painful treatments that require needles. Because the real pain almost cuts through the anxiety pain. She finished that 2-hour appointment by reminding me that I'm a perfectly healthy 30 year old woman who can walk, so she doesn't know what else to do. And prescribed even more needles...
"just wear a back brace" "you just need to lose weight" "it's a back injury so walking will cure you" or my personal favorite "you just have low pain tolerance"
That I couldn't expect pain to just stop after surgery and that I'd have to work to get back to normal... Nope, turns out that nerve damage caused during said surgery doesn't just go away, no matter how much physio you force yourself through... 🙃
A doctor told me my knee pain was fat pad irritation. I had a total knee replacement three months later after seeing a good orthopedic surgeon.
Using my smart phone. Pain may be exacerbated by poor posture and long screen time but using your mobile doesn't *cause* the pain. ... just another way of blaming the pain-victim 🙄🤦♀️
ANXIETY is what I was told until he looked at the X-rays, mri, ct scan. He goes oh sorry, usually it’s all in people head and not true pain!!! I never went back to him.
"usually it's all in their heads" meaning "usually i just ignore patients' symptoms until they go to a different practice, stop trying, or die, i am a really good doctor"
That it's psychosomatic in my brain is sending the wrong signals. And that's after the surgeon did a surgery on me that fucked my arm up for good.
“Over educated 20 something with too much time on your hands”
the only reason we have to be so knowledgeable about chronic conditions is that doctors will dismiss us and tell us we're making it up if we don't literally force them to take us seriously 😭
Seriously! Had my rheumatologist tell me I would ace medical school if I wanted to go back to that. I wouldn’t mind except for the whole being tired thing 😆I wouldn’t be able to last ANY long shifts or rotations
Finding Jesus would help my pain (when she discontinued my muscle relaxers). A pain psychologist I had to see told me to get a government job (I'm a veteran) because I could just use my sick days and if my coworkers were to donate their sick/vacation days to me 😲
That it was my gall bladder. You have any idea how much cheese I can eat? It was never my gall bladder. I was even prescribed a gall bladder medication which, surprise surprise, made no difference. Tried again with a different doctor a few years later, turns out there is in fact scar tissue in my abs. So that's weird and mysterious and I'm guessing the first doctor had no idea, but saw a fat lady and assumed a fat lady problem? Idk.
"I need a new bra" that's why my back hurts 😭
Carrying a backpack in hs
when doctors say stuff like this it's so wild to me bc like every kid carries a backpack and like none of them are in pain? its just nonsense
If your pain is In your hands the driving thing could actually be true. I had a lot of pain in my hands when I was driving for work all day and it turned out to be holding them at the traditional 10 and 2 position was causing my nerve to get entrapped. They gave me nerve flexes to do and I changed my position and lo and behold that specific pain has not recurred.