- We've reacted to Reddit threads before.
Today, we're reacting to what was your worst experience
at a doctor's office.
Please don't be that bad. Let's get started.
"I thought I had a broken nose.
The doc was showing me on a heavy glass x-ray plate
that my nose was not broken, but as I was looking up,
he dropped a plate on my nose and broke it."
Oh my God.
Who's still using heavy glass x-ray plates
and not using computers to show patient x-rays?
I don't think ever in my training
have I ever used a heavy glass x-ray plate,
even using a manual like light-up x-ray
with the traditional x-ray that you hold against the light,
the last time I did that was when I worked in El Salvador
on a medical mission with Americares.
"When I went into a urologist, he walks in and says,
"Drop them pants, let's see those balls."
Like, yo, glad you're a cool guy, but tone it down.
We don't have that rapport yet."
"My buddy had a hype man that has vasectomy. Bizarre."
Look, there's some patients of mine that I can walk in
and be silly right off the bat
'cause we've established that rapport, we know each other.
Literally, I've walked into rooms and been like,
"You're here again?"
And the instant response that I'm aware that I'm gonna get
is we're laughing and we're talking
about whatever the problem was that has brought them in.
If you don't have a rapport with the patient,
you have to come in like a blank slate.
You don't know what that patient is comfortable with.
You don't know what mental state that patient's in,
and I'm not saying a psychiatric abnormal state.
They could just be sad. They could be really worried.
These are basic human emotions
that you need to adapt to as a provider.
"Another patient vomited on me." Happens all the time.
That's why I don't get the whole Crocs thing in hospitals.
It have holes.
It have holes. They have holes.
"A doctor once told me that I didn't need antidepressants,
that I needed to find Jesus and I would be fine."
(soft music)
That is not medical advice whatsoever.
I have nothing against Jesus or people finding religion.
The decision whether or not
to put someone on antidepressants
or recommending therapy has nothing to do with religion,
so yeah.
"In the early '80s at about 12,13,
I had a tooth repair that got broken
and the guy smoked cigarettes while operating.
When they finally took the protective cover off the tooth,
it smelled like I had been smoking myself."
What? I can't believe that happened.
I was barely born in the '80s.
It was rough back then.
"Months after a breast lump removal,
my breast was still numb.
I had the surgeon recheck it for the reason why.
He said he didn't cut any nerves,
flicked my nipple and said, "You're fine.""
Oh my God, I hope that didn't happen,
and if it did, that's terrible, I'm sorry.
Yeah, when you're doing a lot of breast procedures,
it can be quite tricky
because not only can you sever nerves,
you could also sever the lymphatic system.
If you damage a lymphatic system,
you can actually develop lymphedema,
which is not only incredibly debilitating,
but really hurts the patient's self-worth
because their appearance drastically changes.
Here are some images of lymphedema.
That's not something I would wish on anyone,
especially as a result of getting rid of a cancer.
what you should be celebrating,
but then you get that as a side effect.
"The ENT doctor removed the skin cancer from my nose,
leaving an ugly scar.
Turns out he excised the wrong area,
and I went to a different doctor
to actually remove the cancer."
That's pretty incredible. I mean, that's just malpractice.
ENT doctors are surgeons, they're trained.
There's some even ENT doctors that practice
in plastic surgery, but if you're focusing on skin cancer,
err on the side of caution and see a dermatologist for that,
or at least an ENT doctor with previous history
of working on the area.
"Doc forgot to remove the speculum.
I had to call him back as he was leaving the room
to get him to remove it.
He acted as though I was wasting his time."
For those of you who don't know, a speculum is a device
that we use to take a better look at the cervix,
visualize the vaginal canal.
Not only is inserting it problematic
if you're doing it incorrectly,
removing it can be equally problematic.
I've actually had a really scary story with a speculum
before, one of those plastic see-through ones,
I took it out of its packaging and I was about to insert,
and just before I did it, I put a little lubrication on it,
and as I did it, I realized one end was chipped,
so much so that it was a completely raw edge, plastic sharp.
So if I did insert it,
I would've literally cut through my patient's tissue.
"Laid on my side with my back to the door
for a prostate exam.
Heard people walk by talking while a finger was in my butt
and realized the door was open."
Not only is that messed up in in this situation,
but I see this happen so often,
and I frequently have to remind residents, my staff,
if a patient is gonna be undressed,
the curtain to the door should be drawn
so that when I enter the room,
other people don't see the patient nude.
We have to do a very, very thorough job to make sure
that we're treating patients' dignity
with the same respect that we treat their health.
"Not me, but a close friend.
She was having debilitating migraines
up to the point where she couldn't work or function.
She waited nearly a month to see a neurologist.
Upon a brief examination, he said,
"You don't have anything wrong with you.
Just exercise and try not having headaches.""
That's douchebaggery in medicine 101, first of all.
"Three months later, he finally relented and did an MRI.
She had a massive lesion on her brain.
She was diagnosed with MS.
The smug bastard was somehow irritated
she had a positive diagnosis.
Her health wasn't important as his ego."
This is the malpractice that I think
we need to really go after.
These are the massive mistakes that doctors make,
where they're mistreating patients
by telling them it's their fault.
If you're experiencing headaches that get worse
with sexual activity, with exercise,
if you're waking up with a headache quite often,
if your headaches used to be a type of quality
and now they've significantly changed or gotten worse,
these are all reasons to get imaging.
"Walked in with chest pains and severe pain
around the left shoulder blade."
That's a tricky one because a lot of things radiate
to the left shoulder blade.
It could be a musculoskeletal,
it could be cardiac, it could be GI,
there's a whole host of things that are happening.
Something that's scary that radiates to the back
is actually called a dissecting aortic aneurysm,
where the aorta actually due to a ballooning
and outpouching, if you will, actually ruptures,
and that's a critical situation.
"Doctor walks up, first time I saw him,
hands me discharge papers,
"Follow up with your doctor in a few days."
Wife drove 40 miles to another hospital.
They freak, rush me to cath lab,
had a 200% blockage of coronary LAD,
also known as the widow maker heart attack."
Having a 100% blockage of that is obviously a game changer
because you're not getting circulation to the heart,
but if they had a patient come in with chest pain
and severe pain around the shoulder blade
and didn't get an EKG, draw blood work
to check white blood cell count, to check something known
as troponins, which are blood tests that we use to see signs
of myocardial injury, the muscle injury of the heart.
Now there's other reasons
why you may have elevated troponins,
but pair that with chest pain and EKG changes,
you're going to the cath lab, my friend!
"I was taken back to an examination room
and got really thirsty.
While waiting for the dermatologist,
I went to the front to ask for water.
On my way back, I walked into the wrong room
and saw the doctor and another patient.
He was holding the guy's penis.
I said, "I am so sorry" and the guy mumbled, "It's okay"
as I raced off.
I still feel awful.
I mentioned to my boyfriend that I didn't realize
dermatologists inspect penises and he was like,
"Contrary to popular belief, scientists have found
that penises are in fact covered in skin."
Dermatologists not only do check penises,
but you have to check the entire skin for signs of cancer,
because sometimes cancer can form in non-sun exposed areas
like the penis, the scrotum, the buttock.
You gotta be thorough if you want to do a full body exam
as a dermatologist.
"I was mistaken for a dead kid.
I was right across the hall from the kid that passed away.
Somehow the staff got our paperwork mixed up
and went to inform my parents that I had died.
One of the many (censored) that hospital has made,
(censored) so bad they had to replace
the board members, staff,
and even changed the name of the hospital."
Some hospitals get really bad.
They have to do a whole overhaul, like a new system
comes into place, making mistakes on which body part
you're operating on or which patient is yours,
those are no gos.
"Had a doctor tell me that a birth deformity
I have was really ugly."
Don't give your subjective interpretation of what's ugly
or not, unless you're giving a nice, friendly compliment,
and I say friendly so that you're not being flirty
and making the patient feel uncomfortable.
I've seen like terrible stories of gynecologists commenting
on patient's body parts and their underwear choice.
That's not appropriate.
"I was 17, had an infected ingrown toenail,"
which actually happens quite frequently,
and it's not enough to treat the infection in most cases.
Usually we have to treat it by removing the side portion
of the nail and then damaging the nail matrix
so that it doesn't grow back again
and cause the same problem.
"My pediatrician tried cutting and digging it out
with what looked like pliers,
and bracing his leg against the table.
After (censored) around for a bit,
he realized he wasn't gonna get it,
no numbing gel or anything.
Hurt like a mofo,
scheduled an appointment with a podiatrist.
He numbed it, had it removed in about two minutes,
and told me never see a doctor again."
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
The problem with the medical system
is that when you get a degree,
you get a degree in medicine and surgery.
Pretty broad, wouldn't you say?
And obviously, insurance companies and hospital systems
try and reign that in, but there's some doctors,
if they take cash, technically they have the license
to do whatever they want.
The most important part about that
is their malpractice insurance will go way through the roof
because they're not trained
or board certified to do those procedures.
"I was getting a bone density scan for some odd reason."
I don't know why The odd reason is.
We actually do recommend bone density scans
in older patients usually, especially women,
when they have higher rates
of developing osteoporosis or osteopenia.
But let's see what happened here.
"The doc came in a while later
and told me I had osteoporosis.
This was not why I was there in the first place
and was completely surprised.
I asked if I could see the chart
and it was for a 70-year-old woman.
I was a 30 something man and he had the wrong chart."
What?
"Turns out I did not have any issues at all,
well, bone density related."
That's pretty incredible.
This is the reason why we always ask
for two patient identifiers and what's unique is,
in hospitals, you'll actually see a sign that says,
like name alert, if there's a patient that's admitted
near you that has a similar name.
We also have the same name alerts for medications,
as you can see here.
"Woke up in the ER tied to a bed
screaming my husband's name.
I had no memory of how I got there or why.
Kidney infection went septic.
I didn't even know I had a kidney infection.
I seriously almost died."
Those are really scary moments because you can have
an uncomplicated UTI that goes untreated,
that can spread to the kidneys, causing a pyelonephritis.
You can end up spreading that infection to your blood,
leading to septic shock,
where you're not providing enough circulation
to vital organs, like the brain,
and if you're not doing that,
you're then acting out of character.
Going septic is scary.
"I have torn cartilage in my shoulder
and the third time I went to the doctor about it,
he immediately stopped caring
once I said it didn't hurt that bad,
even though it hurt every day.
Just said to come back if it gets worse.
It did, but very progressively,
so I didn't think about it for months.
Went to a fourth doctor who actually diagnosed the issue
and pushed me to surgery.
I opted for physical therapy instead,
and it seems to be the right choice.
Four orthopedists to diagnose it,
and only one physical therapist to fix it.
The single worst experience was being flat out ignored
by the third doctor
which led me to further damaging myself.
If I just started PT back then,
I'd probably be in better shape."
I probably tend to agree.
When it comes to subjective feeling of pain
and discomfort limitations, we have to listen
to our patients.
Question that I actually started asking
my patients frequently is, if I tell you
that there is nothing scary going on in this scenario
and that I am not overly concerned about this pain,
is that enough reassurance or is the pain stopping you
from doing something else that that wouldn't be sufficient?
Because that tells me a lot, that one question.
If they say, "Yeah,
if you just tell me it's something serious,
I'll be good to go.
The pain doesn't really bother me that much."
Or they say, "No, you know what,
even if it's something serious,
I want to get to the bottom of it.
It's preventing me from doing my activities."
Boom, two different treatment pathways. Same patient.
"It took me 13 years to find out my gallbladder was dead.
I went to my doctor repeatedly, then another,
then another, seven different doctors.
I had excruciating pain that never moved,
always flared when I ate, it would last for hours.
Went to the ER a few times.
They gave me ultrasound after ultrasound.
Because they saw no gallstones,
they always wrote it off.
After begging for a referral to another specialist,
they gave me a full body MRI
and several hours of testing of a HIDA scan.
This was the test that caught it.
To watch the minute by minute function of my organs,
turns out my gallbladder had 93% non-function,
just a mostly dead organ."
I would say like paralyzed organs is a better term.
I mean, this patient was describing a gallbladder issue.
The fact that they were only doing ultrasounds
and writing it off and not sending you to a GI specialist.
There's something wrong there,
If you're not getting answers from ERs
or primary care doctors, request to see a specialist.
Like one of the reasons I refer patients to specialists
is that they want a second opinion
or they don't agree with my logic, and that is okay.
We need to put our egos aside.
There are times where maybe a patient feels
like their symptoms are out of scope
with what I diagnosed them with, and that's good.
I want patients to advocate for themselves that way,
so I hope that this could be a learning opportunity
to those at home.
Here's one health hack from every type of doctor.
Click here to check that out,
and as always, stay happy and healthy.
(upbeat music)