Doctors Are Talking About the Most Obvious Cases of "Faking It' They've Ever Seen

I'm an RN but this story is too crazy for me to not tell it. I was still a student at the time, doing my psych ward rotation clinical. My very first patient was a middle aged lady, seemingly healthy.

As I entered the room to assess her physically and psychologically, I immediately saw that she was in children pyjamas, surrounded by stuffed animals and was lying in a fetal position which wasn't out of the ordinary for a psych ward.

As soon as I set foot in her room, she requested me to start IVH - intravenous hyperalimentation. This calls for her to have an invasive catheter in her major vessels and rigorous monitoring of her electrolytes and lab values in general - who would want that, right?

Given that she was healthy and able to eat, the healthcare team didn't see why she'd want it or need it. She then asked me to start IV fluids, because she "couldn't eat anything" and she "hadn't been eating for over 2 weeks". N

ext thing you know, during my one of my hourly rounds, I looked through her window and saw her staffing her face with home-made meals from a container that her husband had brought her. As soon as she heard me open the door, she **sat on the Tupperware** and went back into a fetal position.

She denied eating and made the previous requests again. Then, her husband cornered me and threatened me that if this were a different environment, I would catch his hands.

Her head physician and psychiatrist then asked me if I could make her sign transfer papers in order to have access to her past medical history and hospitalizations, which she immediately refused. We later found, after the physicians talked to their colleagues from other hospital that she had been admitted to several units including cardiology and internal medicine, presenting symptoms that didn't make any sense and with an unknown source.

Turns out she had been taking several medications to make her blood pressure and heart rate fluctuate in a very dangerous manner, so basically, **she made herself sick. We were the 7th hospital she'd been to in a year**. She was then **banned from their ER's and hospitals** because the only treatment that they wanted to offer her was psychological.

Having had enough, the psychiatrist diagnosed her with **Munchaussen Syndrome**, where a mental disorder in which a person repeatedly and deliberately acts as if he or she has a physical or mental illness when he or she is not really sick.

I was told to tell her that if she didn't adhere to psychological treatment within the following 24 hours, we'd have to start charging her for her hospital room (I live in Canada, it's usually free). She then managed to have her lawyer call our ethical/legal comity, threatened to sue us and that we were letting her starve to death. She dragged us to court (as a student, I was mortified) and obviously lost and ended up getting banned from our ER/hospital as well.

**And then we found out that her son had died at 16 after spending most of his time in hospital due to Munchaussen by proxy (the mother)**. The mother was a healthcare professional which is not uncommon among people diagnosed with Munchaussen given their knowledge of the field.

Username: [deleted]

Anesthesiologist here: this isnt the "biggest" case of faking but often patients who come in for surgery actually want to stay in the hospital as long as possible. I mean some patients want to be admitted for days after an outpatient surgery.

We usually get them out the door without much resistance but there are some things that would force our hand and keep them overnight. uncontrolled pain, or residual anesthetic (delayed arousal), or chest pain are common reasons.

One day I had a quick procedure (I think it was ear tube placement on an adult, these are often done with just local anesthetic but the patient didnt want any awareness) . Just before we roll back to the OR, the patient starts asking how many days will be in the hospital.

I explain that the plan is to send him home after the surgery, and we may eve skip the recovery room and go right to "phase II" recovery with is where they are in a chair eating cookies just before they get the boot out the door. the patient seemed very dissapointed by this.

skip to after the surgery, patient isnt waking up. he is breathing on his own, all vital signs are within his baseline. so I send him to the recovery room to wake up. the entire day of cases go by and I get a call from the recovery nurse asking what the plan is for the ear tube patient.

I am shocked that the patient is still in PACU almost 7 hrs later. I go to check on the patient and theyre completely zonked, snoring and not awake at all. I do the basic tests and theyre all normal for a sleeping patient. he responds to pain appropriately except for not waking up.

I go to check his pupils and his lids wont open. I try again and he started to clench his eyes shut as tight as he can!! ummmm sleeping/sedated patients dont do that. that is a purposeful movement. the more I try, the harder he fights is. I talk to the patient and tell him he has to wake up and go home. No response.

finally In a raised voice (so he could hear me) I tell the nurse that we might have to keep him overnight for observation if he doesnt wake up. And if the patient doesnt wake up in the next 5 minutes we will have to send him up to the floor. his HR actually went up a little, probably at the excitement of thinking he won.

I then finish it up saying "before you send him up, make sure you put a foley catheter in so we can monitor their urine." and just to add some spice I add "I also think he might have a stricture in his urethra, so you might have to get the dilator to stretch it out first".... wouldnt you know it, he didnt even wait the five minutes before he woke up completely.

Side Note: we would never dilate a patients urethra ourselves. that is something left for Urologists to do.

Username: Friscoshrugged

Not a doctor, but I've got two stories here: one where I knew a faker, and one where people thought I *was* the faker. Knew this girl in highschool. She was a KNOWN liar. Munchausen was never a better diagnosis for this girl.

She faked being pregnant a LOT, and when confronted or told she was lying, she would "have a miscarriage." This actually [still happens to this day] on Facebook. In the comments section of that video she pretended to be her "cousin" of the same first name.

I still find it hard to look at any pages she may have supporters on because **this girl literally told us she was pregnant with wolf pups in 8th grade** and people still sympathize and believe her...

My second story happened a few years ago, and stems to just a few months ago. 5 years ago I got into a huge problem with another girl's parents. We had been dating, and they were very conservative, so you could imagine that.

They tried to accuse me of forcing myself on their daughter because that was what she told them, even though literally everyone knew I wouldn't do something like that. My grandparents noted that I was underage compared to her (I was 16, she was 18) and they immediately dropped the subject.

All of this left me showing symptoms of SEVERE depression and mild PTSD, but my grandmother didn't believe it. She thought I was just milking my problems for attention. I started not coming into school, and I actually was plotting to kill myself.

Luckily, I got help the day before I planned to die and the school counselor called my grandma. She immediately took me to an in-patient center where they diagnosed me with severe depression, anxiety, and PTSD. I got medication and started therapy, and things seemed to be going ok.

Fast forward to a few months ago. I started not being able to eat or drink a lot of things, had hot flashes and panic attacks, and I lost like 20 lbs in a month and a half. I had started babysitting around this time, so people thought I would call off to avoid watching my goddaughter.

Of course, I wouldn't do that. I can't have kids of my own, so having one around is amazing and cool. Anyway, I finally go to my doctor and try to find out what's wrong. My grandma and friends are chalking it up as me faking it and using my depression and anxiety as an excuse, so they are gleefully awaiting the results.

Test results come back, turns out I have GERD, Diabetes, and a fatty liver. My family was shocked and immediately very apologetic.

Username: ZorritoBurrito

Got called to a house in a not so great trailer court for a seizure. Arrived on scene and walked in to see a guy in his 20’s on the floor having what appeared to be a tonic/clonic seizure (think what you see on TV). Immediately my partner and I start protocol of getting an IV started to give him some anti-seizure medication.

I say to my partner “Give me the drug bag and a set up, I’m just gonna give a dose of (the anti-seizure med) here and then we’ll get him on the cot.” I grab the patients arm and magically, his shaking slows down and becomes very subtle while I’m starting the IV. Anyone having an actual seizure wouldn’t slow down at the mention of drugs and certainly not when I’m trying to poke them with a needle.

At this point, I see his face because he’s brought his arms down and relaxed them for the IV/sweet high he thought was on its way. Turns out, I went to high school with the kid. Total scum bag in high school who transferred out after rumors of a drug possession arrest his junior year. As I look at his face his eyes open for a second, long enough that we definitely made eye contact.

Boom. Trigger the shaking to get *much* worse. Now he knows I know who he is and he really has to sell it. I give him the drug per my protocol and we get him on the cot and into the ambulance. Mind you, he’s *still* “seizing” and we are at least 5 full minutes into this call.

In my experience, seizures typically resolve themselves in that time frame, let alone with meds on board (there are few, rare instances where they don’t). Of course not wanting to get burned by not treating the guy on the off chance he was actually seizing, I give another dose of the medication and begin to call in my radio report.

While I’m on the phone with medical control, they tell me to give a specific dose of that medication one more time with our 5 minute ETA. I acknowledge the order and hang up. Then my partner shouts back to me that it’s going to be a huge delay, there’s a train.

Where we were in town, there was no way around the train that would have saved us any time as we were right down the hill from the hospital. Going around would’ve taken longer then just waiting it out. So I call back the doc and they recommend the same thing except now it’s give that drug every 5 minutes until we get there.

That train took a full 5 minutes to pass. Are you guys counting? We are now at 3 doses of this anti-seizing medication and he is still “seizing”. He got *another* one before we even got to to the hospital and he is still flopping like a fish out of water.

At this point he is sweating and slowing down so I think “maybe the medicine is finally kicking in or he’s just really tiring himself out”. I tell the doc all about how long he’s been seizing which is well over 15 minutes now, how much of the medication, he has on board, vital signs, etc.

I then take him outside of the room, tell him about the IV incident and how I made eye contact with him. Doc breaks open smelling salts (ammonia capsules that have such a sharp smell they are used to wake up unconscious, typically drunk patients) and walks into the room. H

e breaks one of the capsules and holds it directly under the patients nose. Kudos to the patient cause he held out a full 30 seconds before snapping open his eyes and being completely coherent. He looks over at me and goes “didn’t I go to high school with you?”

And he recalls my name! I haven’t seen this kid in 6 years at least and he recalls my name. People who actually come out of a seizure are very disoriented and typically don’t even know their own names.

That lasts for several minutes to even hours depending on the severity. Needless to say that patient was discharged that night with no medications or follow up scheduled.

Username: TooSketchy94

I had an incident where I had to go to the doctor. This happened in July. Before this, I had no health issues. I felt like I had the worst hangover in my life.

My head was pounding (to the point I just wanted to end it all), my body hurt like I got hit by a school bus, I had the sweats like I peed myself, and I had a golf ball sized lump in my neck. I didn't have any stomach issues and I wasn't running a fever but something was going on.

After an hour long consultation with my doc (my husband doing most of the talking), my doc straight up told me I had herpes. Not the "my vagina is infected" but the "I will get cold sores on my mouth in a couple of days" kind. My husband and I are looking at each other like, WTF.

Neither one of us had ever had any symptoms of herpes and now we are trying to figure out with one of us is da hoe. doc sends me home with a Z pack (just in case) and mistrust in my marriage. 48 hours later, I am getting worse.

At this point, my husband carries me to the car and takes me to the ER. I guess i appeared pretty bad because I didn't have to wait long in the main waiting room. They put us in a waiting area for blood to be drawn and a nurse gave me some meds.

I have no clue what it was but I remember it almost immediately throwing me into a full blown melt down. I started sobbing, rolling around on the floor, yelling in anguish, and feeling even worse than I was. My pounding head was going to explode. After an hour, I was calmer and came to in a hospital room that I have no memory of going to. It was the crazy room.

I didn't even know these type of rooms existed. The room was way larger than a normal hospital room, locked from the outside, had windows with built in blinds that were only controlled from the outside, and a metal toilet bolted to the floor in the room like you see on jail shows.

That's when I realized they thought I was faking it and they thought I was crazy. Come to find out, the hospital only put me there because they wanted to isolate me because I might have meningitis. After a spinal test and imaging, the ruled that out and I was sent home.

My white blood cell count was a little high so they tested my blood for every STD under the sun. All negative. The hospital gave me a diagnosis of and unknown "acute viral infection, cause unknown"...remember the golf ball sized knot in my neck?

Even being on the Z pack, the knot or symptoms didn't go away and oh fuck, the headaches!!! 48 hours after the hospital visit, I still can't function. I am still sweating to the point I have to struggle to find a dry spot and change my clothes hourly.

The headaches were the worst, I even had my husband hide our weapons because I was scared I would do anything to get away from the pain. 48 hours after that, my husband is starting to think I am being a hypochondriac, that I am faking it.

I have now missed a week of work and risk losing my job. I have been to my doctor (no herpes ever showed up, me and my guy, we cool now) , the hospital, and now another trip to my doctor. This time, my doctor gave me some pain meds called sumatriptan.

That shit didn't work. I went back to the hospital. They gave me a butalbital compound. I don't know if that is what gave me relief or whatever I had ran it's course but I felt better.

I still woke up multiple time a night, drenched in sweat for almost a month after and to this day, I have been waking up with headaches. I don't know what my body was fighting off, but I am glad it did. Interestingly, a month later, I attended a family gathering hosted by my husbands family.

There were four people who had very similar stories as mine (that happened to one of their friends or family members) that happened around the same time. Maybe we all got something like malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, chikungunya, yellow fever, filariasis, tularemia, dirofilariasis, Japanese encephalitis, Saint Louis encephalitis, Western equine encephalitis, Eastern equine encephalitis, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, La Crosse encephalitis, or Zika fever (source Wikipedia).

A month after my illness, the city was spraying the fuck out of my neighborhood. For real, screw them for killing the bees trying to keep the mosquitoes under control. Anyway, that's my "faking it" story. If anyone had or knows WTF was going on with me, that would be great. Also, I live in the Dirty South, Texas.

Username: skip_2_the_loo

Not really a case of faking it, but i thought you guys might enjoy the story. So last year in February, I got into a car wreck. Like, both cars were totaled car wreck. I manage to get up and walk with my grandma and brothers into a nearby business and the firefighters are there asking everyone if they were okay.

Well, all of a sudden, my stomach starts burning. It felt like carpet burn, but on the inside instead of the outside. I start crying and tell them, and they tell me (after checking my vitals) that the other woman has requested EMS before me so she got first dibs and I had to wait for another.

By that time, I alerted the paramedic that I'm Autistic, so if I stopped talking it mean I was having a panic attack. She was very nice and understanding, but when she asked me what my pain was, I remembered all those medical shows where they would get mad at patients for exaggerating and being dishonest.

So I told her four out of ten. By the time we arrive in the ER, I have stopped talking. My mother and father come along with some other family, and after a bit mom and dad stay while the rest leave.

My mother ended up having to talk to the nurse for me as I was still unable to speak, but was able to gesture a bit. By this time the pain was so bad whenever I had to stand and sit I would burst into tears and do that scream/moan thing.

After two hours, I finally get a room with a recliner and two chairs. I am able to speak a little, and communicate my pain to my mom. My mom (bless her) asked if I even knew what each number on the pain scale meant. I feel pretty stupid now, but at the time I hadn't thought about it.

After explaining it to me, I told her my pain was a seven. We inform the nurse, and she makes me stand and try to bend and touch my stomach, both of which made me scream. They get me in a room, give me some morphine, and we wait for a cat-scan.

I had never been on morphine before in my life, and damn did that shit hit me like a wall. For the most part, as long as I stayed still I could ignore the pain with the help of the drugs. Four hours pass and I get a cat-scan, and while bringing me down in the wheelchair the nurse goes over a rough bump and almost made me start crying again, but I figure "Hey, I got morphine at this point, what else can I do?".

While we waited for the results, I began to worry, because the morphine was wearing off and I was starting to think I ruptured and organ or something. An hour later we get the result. Just a bit of abdominal bruising, and I can be discharged.

As the nurse took out my needle, he noticed me in pain as I sat back up, and asked me, "Did your morphine wear off?". I nod, and he says "That dose was supposed to last you the whole night...". Should have mentioned earlier that because I've been on so many medications because of Autism, I have a high drug tolerance.

I will never forget the shock on his face. So I go home, two days later my stomach turns yellow and purple, and it takes two weeks for all pain and markings to go away. So yeah, not really a faking it story... more of a "scared to annoy the doctors" story.

Username: TheArtisticTurle

Not a medical professional. But I can’t not share the shit this woman use to say. In my last job before she passed away I would have to take a client to visit her elderly mother. This woman admittedly did have quite a few medical issues and some of them were serious.

I even at one point witnessed her having a stroke. That being said though, it seemed her legitimate medical issues weren’t enough for her and she needed to up the game.

From the entire time I knew her to her death she was incredibly sight impaired but NOT completely blind. She could see and that was blatantly obvious, but she would tell people that she was the most blind person in the country.

She would always look you directly in the eyes when speaking to you, when I would pick her up to take her to lunch with her daughter, she would tell me which streets to turn at to get to our destination... She would comment on her daughter’s clothing saying how nice her “white” pants were and even on the other cars in the parking lot when we would leave.

Obviously she could see a little bit but she wasn’t completely blind. This was her main thing but over the years I had to listen to some utter shit come out of her mouth.

Again I’m not a medical professional but I do have a decent amount of knowledge on the basics as I grew up in a house full of medical professionals. I remember her trying to tell me she had both negative and positive blood in her body...

She said on numerous occasions that she had been pronounced dead eleven times but magically survived each time.. she even told that to the paramedics who came to assess her cause of said stroke I witnessed.

To note this woman was in an iron lung when younger, she’d had numerous heart attacks and had even had breast cancer. She also suffered from strokes regularly at the end of her life (which she down played constantly and it ironically ended up being her downfall) so it’s not like she didn’t have plenty to complain about so I never really understood it, another staff member who’d worked with the client for a decade prior to me did say she wasn’t always like that and it seemed to start after she got breast cancer.

Username: theculdshulder

I worked ER registration for 2.5 years during college and there was this lady whose full name I still remember 3 years later, her name was a weird one so she went by a shortened version. Well this lady only ever came in when the ER was packed and had a 2-3 hour wait for non-emergency issues.

She came in the first time and said she was having stomach pains, about a 5, no vomiting or anything else. I told her of the long wait and she said it was fine. Every 30 mins she would come to the desk to ask how much longer.

After 1.5-2 hrs had passed she comes up to the desk and says she has chest pain (bc she knew people with chest pain get pulled back for triage sooner). Nurse comes and gets her, does EKG and other immediate tests, nothing amiss, sends her back out bc they still have no rooms and she's waiting again.

About 15 mins later, she walks up to the desk and claims dizziness, I told her I'd let them know and no sooner than I turned to call them, she "faints", like hand on forehead, going down on a knee and ever so gently rolling over onto her side/back (she was a large lady).

She waits to "come to" when there's a nurse checking her out and she actually says "oh, where am I? I think I passed out, last I remember I was waiting to be seen in the ER". They put her on a stretcher and strapped a c-collar on her and still made her wait.

The security guard was standing beside her when she "fell" plus there are 2 different cameras pointing to her at the time so they all knew it was all fake. There were 2-3 different people in the ER with actual heart attacks and 2 more from wrecks and another 2 really sick kids plus several more with real emergent problems.

I think 3 were in the process of being flown or transported to a bigger hospital and the majority of the others were being admitted so all serious cases and she took the nurses away from those patients for nothing but needing attention, I don't think drugs were even her issue!

Edit to add, I forgot to mention that she came in 2 more times in the following few months, both happening to be on my shifts and when the ER was super packed with 2+ hour waits and proceeded to "pass out" each time, also pulling the "oh where am I?" part.

Username: [deleted]

Not a doctor but I work in law enforcement (jailer). Years ago, another officer and I were tasked with taking an inmate to the hospital to have some tests run. He was complaining about chest pains and when the nurse hooked him up to the EKG, he laid there and just kind of twitched.

It seemed to throw off her tests, so she sent him to the hospital out of an abundance of caution. Well, the ER staff hooked him up and he just laid there and twitched. Same thing. After a little while, one of the nurses came up to me and said he was faking and the the hospital was discharging him.

On the way out, he claimed that he had to go to the bathroom RIGHT THEN. We were only about 5 minutes or so from the jail, but he said he couldn't wait. I followed him into the bathroom and removed his cuffs (he was still shackled). He pulled his britches down and sat on the toilet.

After 2 or 3 minutes he told me he couldn't go because I was in there and I told him that i wasn't leaving him by himself and if he couldn't go in front of me he could definitely wait until we got back to the jail. He got up and pulled his pants up and I cuffed him and we went back to the jail.

The next day, I was told that on second shift he pulled the same stunt...complained of chest pains and got sent back to the hospital. Same thing. ER staff hooked him up, said he was faking and sent him packing. Again, he told the transporting officer that he had to use the bathroom and couldn't wait.

Well, this officer let him go in the bathroom by himself (really, who wants to watch a grown man take a shit?). Inmate went in, spent a few minutes, and came out. And the officer took him back to the jail.

When they got back, the supervisor got wise and had him strip searched. Well, someone had put a bag of marijuana and a bag of burglar tobacco in the garage can in that bathroom for him to grab...it was all just a set up to get some contraband.

Man, what if it had been a gun or a knife or something...and it was the bathroom IN the ER. So setup by an employee...I don't care how uncomfortable it makes you. If you can't watch a dude take a shit or look at a naked dude without getting weirded out, you probably need to find another job...just saying.

Username: fryamtheeggguy

Emt here. Arrived on scene for a 7 year old girl complaining of abdominal pain. Patient Is laying in her sisters lap curled up in a ball. I start my assessment and find no abnormalities.

Girl complaines of 8/10 pain. I turn to the mom and ask how long she’s had the pain for. The mother replied “for a little while.” I say “so like a few days or a week?” She then has the audacity to tell me the patient has been experiencing abdominal pain for A YEAR and decided that day that it was an emergency.

So we take her to the hospital and the kid is like changing where she says it hurts and what it feels like and she’s talking and moving around. Get sent to triage at the hospital (ems is not a fast pass to the front of the line) and she gets off the stretcher and is running and jumping around the waiting room.

Good thing the children’s hospital is staffed by angels so we were able to have a good laugh about it instead of being extremly pissed.

Also got a call for a suicidal patient. Arrive to a therapists office. The patient was a 17 yo female. She was told she had to go talk to this counselor before returning to school due to her making a few suicidal comments. This was a week ago that she had made the comments and hadent said anything since.

The counselor decided that this was emergent and didn’t have the resources to deal with it and called us. Durring transport we found out she had been “joking” about it to get some attention. The first thing I said to the nurse when I gave my report was “I am sorry about this”

Last but not least, had a patient fake stroke symptoms. Intentionally slurred speach and slightly could move the leg but his arm was “flacid.” We call the stroke alert and run him to the hospital. As soon as the CT was over he stood up and walked over to the bed perfectly fine.

Username: jesus-christ-of-ems

A personal story and then a story from work. I was treated as a pain pill seeker because I came in with excruciating pain in my right leg. I couldn’t put any pressure on it whatsoever and every 10-15 minutes it would get worse to the point all I could do was scream and cry. To this day my husband says it sounded like I was faking jt even though I wasn’t.

They took urine To clearly check for drugs. Which yes please be vigilant. But then ordered an ultrasound on my leg. Without any pain medication. The ultrasound lady took one look at me and said there’s no way I can do this with her in so much pain. She insisted they give me something before she did it. And I still had a hard time without crying. All I could do was weep into my pillow, without looking at anyone. They ended up sending me home with nothing.

Couldn’t work all that week. Spent the next 5 days and nights up in a chair, because laying down flat caused too much pain. Went to a different ER. Got diagnosed with cellulitis after they ran blood tests. It didn’t show up as how normal cellulitis does.

I had had strep three times in the last 6 months and it traveled to the nerve in my leg and killed it. Which is why I was in so much pain. The classic signs of cellulitis didn’t even show up until day 3 of my 7 day hospital stay.

I walked with a limp for 5 months after because I couldn’t lift my ankle or wiggle my toes. I cried the first time I was able to wiggle my big toe. I still have some numbness in my lower leg, which I didn’t realize until I got a tattoo there and isn’t feel it going in.

And since I’m diabetic I was extra “holy shit” luckily it healed fine. I got the tattoo a few years after the cellulitis-to be clear. Didn’t want to risk getting that mess again.

Work story-I’m a home care social worker. One of my patients ended up having to go to rehab for physical therapy and they were talking about having her move into a nursing home. Which I was on board with because both her and her husband were frankly unable to take care of themselves. And she always had opinions on how things should be managed.

One day I get an alert that she is in our hospital with a bizarre delirium. She was talking about how she was a lesbian now and wanted to leave her husband. She wasn’t recognizing anyone. She would talk about Jesus visiting her.

She had her good friends (truly bless these people because they put in a ton of work trying to ensure the best outcomes for her family) convinced that something was wrong. Luckily she had been a patient of mine at that point for a few years.

As part of my program we do annual assessments for dementia and depression and had a thorough history on her. Also would go out whenever she or her husband came home from the hospital and did monthly check in phone calls. No prior psychiatric history.

Always presented within normal limits and orientation. Never had any hint of what she was trying to present. So I was asked by inpatient team to try to come in to see her and how she would react. She did recognize me and knew my name.

When I tried to pinpoint her answers she would turn to her friend who would point to us for her to answer. She would randomly shout inappropriate sexual comments as I was trying to ask her how her daughter was. Tried orientation questions. Asked her about something but changed the details which she would correct before going off on how she was saved.

Never could figure out what her end game was other than trying to get out of that rehab. Even told her we were concerned enough to be strongly considering having her on inpatient psych(which I knew she was against because when I first tried to tell her a few years ago she was showing signs of MCI she said she wasn’t crazy) she asked why I hated her because she loved me so deeply.

Everything checked out medically. No UTI (causes delirium in older folks for some reason). Notes would indicate that whenever she sensed people outside her room she would yell and carry on with bizarre statements. But that it would stop when she couldn’t see anyone.

Username: littlp84-2002

Had an 18 year old female patient, with a complicated medical history. She had over 30 drug allergies listed on her chart- she and her mother insisted this was because of a rare genetic immune disorder called mast cell degranulation syndrome (MCDS).

They had many special requests which they imposed on the hospital staff because of this, including- no use of foam hand sanitizer, no latex gloves, even outlandish things like, “no glitter allowed in the room”.

We went to great lengths to keep them happy, and her minor skin infection that brought her in looked fine. Things got interesting when I reviewed her chart and found a visit with a pediatric immunologist from about 5 years back.

Turns she had extensive testing done for MCDS, all of which was completely negative. She was formally diagnosed with a much more benign condition called chronic urticaria, which is essentially extremely sensitive skin.

Said specialist clearly explained and documented this diagnosis, along with clear instructions for the patient to avoid dangerous medical interventions such as epinephrine. In other words, none of her drug reactions were true allergies, nor were they life threatening in any way.

Clearly they did not believe this diagnosis, and instead had latched themselves onto the much scarier MCDS despite the negative test results. I believe the root of the problem is an underlying psych disorder called Münchausen syndrome, in which one develops an overwhelming emotional attachment to the idea and role of being sick.

She continued to demand referrals to other specialists, as is common with Munchausen patients. She now sees a hematology physician who believes her self reported diagnosis of severe allergies and prescribes her epi pens, which the patient self injects multiple times per week.

Worst part is that she is unlikely to live a normal lifespan if this self inflicted medical abuse continues- epinephrine can cause strokes, aneurysms, and other severe vascular issues if used irresponsibly, even in otherwise young and healthy patients.

Username: kdawg0707

I’m an audiologist and I once had a 17 year old girl come into the office. She had a long history of ear surgeries on the left ear that resulted in a good amount of loss in that ear but always had normal hearing on the right side.

One day she came in saying she couldn’t hear anything in her right ear. A 4th year student tested ear and didn’t pick up that she was faking it. The MD put her on a steroid for sudden hearing loss.

She comes back 2 weeks later with “no improvement”. Another audiologist tests her, still doesn’t pick up that she’s faking, so since the steroid pills didn’t work, the next step is a steroid injection.

Now, I’m not sure if anyone has ever had a steroid injection in your eardrum....but it’s literally a steroid shot directly into your eardrum. The eardrum is numbed as effectively as possible and then a needle is inserted into the eardrum. It’s pretty painful and can cause vertigo. It’s NOT a good time.

Anyway, this girl agrees to the injection. She goes through a series of them (THREE shots over a course of 3 days). After the 3rd shot, I end up testing her. During the test I realize something is off. I go talk to the MD and tell him I don’t believe her. I tell him I want to do an Auditory Brainstem Response test on her and he agrees (this allows me to measure the brain’s response to sound without having the patient respond).

I get her back and do the ABR test....you guessed it, that right ear is COMPLETELY normal. This 17 year old girl faked being deaf and was so dedicated that she went through 3 steroid injections to her eardrum.

After doing some digging online I found that she was really big into ASL and wanted to attend one of the most prestigious colleges for the deaf. My theory is, this school only takes a small number of hearing kids a year, so she had a much better shot of getting in if she were deaf.

Even after calling her out on it, she kept the jig up for a while. She hasn’t been back much, but to this day I don’t think she actually ever fessed up to it

Username: Katum36

Oncology nurse here, not a doctor, bit of a long and weird one. We had a patient who had come in to get induction chemotherapy.

Very first thing that was off was that this woman would not put her phone down. Attending is rounding, nurses are passing her meds, hell even when the PICC Team came to place her line, she wanted to be on her phone.

Said she had to talk to her babysitter and other stuff regarding her kids. Well, one evening as I get on for the night, I walk in and this woman is on her phone as per usual, but out of the corner of my eye I can see she is CLEARLY watching porn.

She gets very offended and my glance and tells me to mind my own business. When I mention this to the other nurses, they sure enough notice it too over the next several days.

So another thing, this woman complained of horrible back pain and said she could not stand or move, and on top of that, she was having constant liquid diarrhea, we suspected C. Diff and wanted a clean catch.

Well, she refuses to stand or get out of bed, just wants to stay on her phone and watch porn, so she opts to continuously go on the bed pan, which she has no problem lifting her hips to do, rolling side to side, cleaning herself, sitting up, and literally handing it to us. Can’t get a sample cause it’s constantly filled with urine too.

She then off-handed mentions that whenever she has apple juice, she has really bad diarrhea, and despite this, all she had been drinking was apple juice. We cut her off and magically the diarrhea when away, much to her disgruntlement as she kept asking different people for more apple juice but we were all savvy to it at this point.

Ultimately do not know what the hell was going on there. She had a very complicated background and medical history and while I know psych had gotten involved once or twice, it never amounted to anything. She ended up not being compliant with care for her PICC Line, wouldn’t let us change the dressing or anything, got a CLABSI, and then passed away.

Username: Darikar

Obligatory 'not a doctor' but if you're here for stories about people faking serious illness, have I got one. My mom is from Korea; the youngest of 7 children, many of whom have their own kids and grandkid, and they all live overseas.

We don't have a ton of money, so aside from phone/webchat, she doesn't get to see her family *ever*. The one sister (aunt 4) that lives in the US is a total scumbag, so even though she lives in another state, she's not terribly missed by anyone.

A few years back we had a special-occasion trip to visit family. Aunt 4 came along, bringing her granddaughter (my cousin's kid). During the last few days of the trip, her sisters/brother had all arranged time out of their very busy work schedules to get together for lunch.

This is a big deal - with how old some of them are, this might be the last time some of them ever see each other alive. Aunt 4 said she was feeling tired and was going to stay back at Aunt 1's house where we were staying and watch her granddaughter 'because she's being fussy' (in reality, just fine, watching TV).

It takes 20 minutes to get to Aunt 1's house (eldest aunt), and just as we're sitting down for a meal she put together, Aunt 4 calls my mom's phone and causes a big panic.

I didn't hear the call, but according to my mom who jumped up in terror, all she said was "I need help, something is wrong" before the sound of the phone falling and hitting things, then hanging up.

We rushed back, hailing the first cab and telling them it was an emergency. In that area we couldn't be sure if help would get there first if we called an ambulance. Aunt 2 was on the phone with the nearest hospital telling them we were bringing someone in while Aunt 1 gave the driver directions.

We made insane time - the driver wove in and out of traffic like a pro. I was the closest to the door, so when the taxi stopped at the corner (the alley to the apartment was too narrow for a car) I bolted out and ran up 2 flights of wet concrete stairs. It was the tail-end of the rainy season, and a downpour had started on the way.

The sound of the storm masked my approach, so aunt 4 didn't hear me coming up to the front door, which had a big window beside it. Through the window I could see her playing with her granddaughter, sitting cross-legged on the floor, laughing and doing baby talk, as she dressed herself.

I just stood there, shocked, and watched her bob her head as she sang some Korean nursery rhyme and adjusted her bra. I loudy grabbed the handle to the door, which made her jump and quickly turn to look. When she saw me, she froze in place, let her mouth fall open, and just stared, making kind of "ah, uh," sounds.

Her sisters poured in past me, and she started saying things like "I can't move, I can't stand, I can't get up" and acted like she couldn't use her arms or legs at all, falling completely limp. They finished dressing her, carried her down the stairs and put her in the cab. Mom, one of my other aunts, and I, got into a second cab and followed them to the hospital.

In the waiting room I was fuming, and told my mom what I saw. She didn't know what to say, and didn't tell her other sisters until a very annoyed doctor came out and told us, "There's nothing wrong with that woman except for her behavior. What kind of person wastes a doctor's time like this?"

'something-is-wrong' aunt came out with a nurse, acting like she couldn't stand up straight, and she shuffled like an old woman. "I think it was a seizure. It might have been caused by a stroke!"

When her sisters scolded her, saying that they knew she was fine and was faking, she went right back to being normal, and argued with all of them that they were terrible family for not being more concerned about her health, even if she *was* faking.

She was mad that mom was getting all the positive attention (because she was the beloved youngest sibling who had only done right by any of them) and she was being ignored (because she had been rotten all through growing up but expected adoration for having brought her grandbaby).

She had wanted to deny my mom her last nice meal with all her siblings together, and it worked. While we got to visit with all of them on a one-on-one basis before we left, the love and happiness of being together when we had just sat down for that meal was palpable. I'll never forgive aunt 4 for intentionally spoiling that day.

Username: SkullyKitt

This is a little off topic, but seeing all these mentions of people faking it for pain medication just reminded me of 2 stories.. First one was concerning me.. back in 2003 i had excruciating pain in my ear so i went to the ER.

I ended up having a blockage in just that 1 ear, the dr said my other ear was spotless and laughed at the difference. They basically ended up douching my ear with warm vinegar water and tweezers until they got it all out. They then wrote me a script for percocet and sent me home.

So, 3 years later the same thing happened with my ear, only when i went to the hospital they referred me to a specialist and sent me home. I didnt have money for the specialist so i just went to a different hospital but they did the same thing.

I ended up going to 3 different hospitals closest to me over the next 2 days but they wouldn't treat me. So finally, at around 3am, the pain was so bad i went back to the 1st hospital, and the doctor angrily says to me "I'm not giving you narcotics for a little ear ache.. actually, tell me what script you want so i dont have to keep seeing you, what do you want, percocet!?"..

I was furious, not once had i asked for pain medicine, and he was treating me like i was bouncing around hospitals trying to get high. I had to scream at him, yelling how is percocet going to fix my ear, before he had mercy on me and gave me some drops that helped, and then wrote me a script for other drops to take throughout the week, before sending me home..

From my perspective, i couldn't believe that i'm back at this hospital 3 days later at 3am, and i assume they could somehow see i was at other hospitals too over the course of those 3 days by the way they were treating me like an addict, but he wouldn't treat me until he angrily offered me painkillers, and i frustratingly turned them down..

After reading some of these comments, i guess addicts are something you guys have to deal with a lot, but damn, why take that out on me? Sometimes pain can also lead someone to the hospital too..

This next story is brief, but it's a good demonstrator for the addict mentality.. I once had a friend who's brother was addicted to pain killers. So one day, i'm dropping my friend off at home, when his brother comes out and asks me if i can give him a ride to the hospital, and since i pass the hospital on my way home i tell him sure get in..

So now, we're maybe 2min away from the hospital, we're talking, and as i ask him whats wrong he pulls out a hammer and starts bashing his knee in.. And then asks me "does this look swollen enough that they'd write me a script for pain meds?".

So dumbstruck, i look at him and say "yea i guess, i never get pain meds no matter what im at the hospital for, but hopefully you get lucky i guess, because that looks like it's gonna hurt".. So he says "your right, it's not bad enough" and really starts to hit his knee this time..

It was the last time i ever let him in my car again.. not only was it disgusting to watch, but wtf is wrong with you that you have to bash your knee in to get high.. And he wasn't sick or anything, so he didn't even have a dependency to them at the time, he just wanted some pain killers, couldn't find any, and came up with a plan.. And it's those people that have me crying in pain at 3am begging the doctor to treat my ear ache

Username: soulife

Had a patient who was well known to our floor. He was in this time for 2 months for blood infection related to IV drug abuse. He was already getting 4mg PO dilaudid q4 hrs as needed. Of course he took it around the clock. Could never tell us where the pain was.

He'd say "all over" which is a red flag. Sometimes his back or legs. He was 35 and the psychiatrist said he had the emotional intelligence of a 15 y/o which is around the time he started taking drugs. He threw fits like a child all the time. I would go in to do something and wake him up from sleeping and it would immeadiately be "I am in pain." Doctors were fully aware of this.

Well because we had had him for 2 months we trusted him to use his call button. Take him into the bathroom and he would click his call button tp call us to help him back. Normal deal, no problems till this day. Well he was trying to get the docs to increase his pain meds and they wouldn't. He was already drowsy and sleeping all the time which was a sign that they needed to be decreased.

So I put him on the toliet and go to check in with my other patients. His call light goes off and he is on the floor. Falls are a huge deal in the hospital followed by a lot of monitoring and paperwork. He is on the floor I sit him up. He moves both his legs and joints fine.

He tells me he fell on his right side and he needs pain meds for "pain all over." So because of hitting his right side I assess him before getting him up. I start to palpate his hip asking if it hurts and he starts hollering.

I try to move his leg in JUST LIKE HE HAD JUST DONE and he starts hollering. So to follow possible hip fracture protocol we lift him into bed. I watch him move that leg a few times. He begs me for pain meds and I tell him we have to wait to scan him. Send him for stat xrays to foot, leg, and hip. It all clears and he is using the leg later fine "just a little sore now."

Well the doctor comes and as a result LOWERS his pain medication because of the fall. Falling plus drowsiness equals to high of dosage. Then the doctor leaves me with the complete and mental meltdown of course.

The next day I had him we were getting ready to discharge him the next day. Protocol with drug abusers are to only give them a weeks supply of pain killers and set them up with an appointment out patient PCP to manage their medication. If we discharge them with 30 days it is dangerous because they will take them all in a few days.

Well all of a sudden he doesn't have a PCP so he needs a 30 day prescription. Well what about the PCP listed in his files? He says he won't go to her anymore. Ok no problem we will set you up with a new PCP in the network.

Well guess who all of a sudden is going to arizona and needs a 30 day supply? So docs set up an appointment with an arizona doctor in a week. Since the travel shouldn't take longer than a few days. Then he freaks out and on discharge decides to stay in town. Only gets a week prescription for half the dosage he was taking because of his fall skit.

Saw him again a month later for IV infection. He was shooting drugs into the PICC line we placed to treat the staph infection. Well he ended up septic with a massive infection to the heart. I don't know what else happened to him because he needed higher level of care. I do not miss those tantrums.

Username: NurseSati

I've worked as a volunteer firefighter/emt for years. Pretty much 100% of the 'faking it' calls we get are for drug seeking behavior. In my part of the united states prescription drug abuse is a massive epidemic. If you've ever watched the TV show "House" you have some idea of what a person with an out of control prescription drug abuse habit looks like and acts.

These people see a doctor once a month, that doctor writes them a month's supply of narcotic pain medication (generally hydrodocones) and then they take them all in two weeks and spend the last week of the month in withdrawal.

After a while in a given area you know immediately when a certain address or patient name is given to you in a call, what you're going for. They run out of pain medication at the end of the month and the drug seeking behavior starts.

If they are unable to buy or beg up enough pills from someone else to get them through to the end of the month they call 911. For most of us it's like a sad little routine. We know they're addicts, they know we know, but we all play our parts.

The ones that have absolutely stopped giving a shit will simply tell you "I'm out of pain medication, I'm in severe pain" and just roll their dice that the ER doctor will take pity on them and give them a prescription for a week's worth of pain medication to get them out of his ER.

But we occasionally get the melodramatic ones that claim this time they totally fell off the steps and are in SEVERE PAIN (someone told every drug seeker around here this phrase I hear it from every single one of them, SEVERE PAIN!).

To TL;DR the best/worst I ever went to was a woman laying outside in her front yard. Who claimed she had fallen down in the ditch infront of her house. She claimed her knee was 'broken' and she could put no weight at all on her leg.

She also claimed she had already taken a vicodin before we arrived but it hadn't helped so couldn't we give her a shot of morphine? And yes she does have a prescription for the vicodin, that her doc writes her every month. A

nd yes she is out of it! But NO that is no why she called. In a situation like this it's fairly easy to tell if the person is lying their ass off. We ask a ton of routine questions "What is your name, doctors name, insurance, birthday, etc" The entire time I'm asking those questions, I'm squeezing her 'broken' knee and pushing against it. She does not even notice, or react in any way.

That last trick works for most of our 'fakers'. If someone is telling you something is hurting on them and you touch it while they are paying attention, the waterworks starts. So you distract them with a question and then touch it.

Someone like an old lady who fell with an actual broken hip, will not stop being in screaming pain just because you asked her a question about her birthday then grabbed her hip. A drug addict, won't even notice you're touching/moving the injured area.

Username: GeneralDisturbed

I recently got fooled twice, the other way around. I would have bet money and was attempting to bed my license that patients were faking it. Lucked out both times.

Young girl who reports paralysis. Arms and legs, some axial muscles, but not face, eyes, voice, diaphragm. Mostly flaccid paralysis, some spastic (triceps, oddly). Gesticulates occasionally with muscles that aren't supposed to be working.

From a rural area, lots of childhood trauma, marital issues. Reflexes intact. Totally though it was conversion disorder. All labs including lytes and CK normal, CXR and CT head (yeah, don't judge, you do it too) normal. Refuses LP to look for Guillian Barre. Neuro consult agrees.

Actually managed to get a psychiatrist to come see her (I actually asked that they hypnotize her). They agree, conversion disorder. But I can't make her wake for the life of me and 8 hours in the ED later, I admit to medicine (who hates me).

The next morning...yeah, the potassium that was normal when I checked? 1.2 mEq/L. The periodic paralysis that I thought about in the first 30 seconds of seeing her and then discounted? Yep. Zebra snuck right past me.

Another guy, 30 years old with chronic pain, seeing pain specialists, visits the ED multiple times for increasing pain everywhere, discharged multiple times. Then he starts looking septic. Code sepsis, broad spec abx, but nothing localizes because he has horrible pain everywhere. UA, head CT, CXR, LP, all neg, BCx drawn and nothing.

12 hours later, looks fine, medicine lets him go. 8 hours after that, bounces and looks kinda shitty but afebrile, just horrible pain everywhere. Including his belly, so fuck it, it's probably nothing, but CT his belly, and in the meantime it turns out his WBC is only 2, with an ANC of 0.4...

Radiology resident says it's appendicitis. I said what? It's appendicitis? Um I don't think he has one of those. Are you sure? Yes, I'm the radiologist, it's appendicitis. Hangs up. Go to the patients room and ask about it. The patient replied by asking if those grow back after a surgeon takes it out.

Turns out he got some infusion if bisphosphonates from his pain specialist for CRPS, which in rare cases apparently causes neutropenia, and in this setting he managed to get typhlitis which I've not seen in someone without leukemia. Increasing pain was because he was vomiting his home narcs, of which he had many.

Cautionary tale...when I was a resident, one of my very wise attendings put it to me this way: Yeah, the patient may bother you, you may think they're just messing with you to get narcs. 95% of the time you're right, but one day you will be wrong about that, and if you haven't done your diligence, you will have to sit across from that person in court and watch them take your money and license.

Username: ImpliedConsent19

So I had my wisdom teeth taken out also, normal pain nothing crazy. A week or so later I wake up dried blood all over my pillow coming out of my nose, call the doctor tell me to come in, say I might have an infection from a perforation. Give me 1 pill of antibiotics. Note ( I’m 24 at the time in the shape of my life, at work I have to life 40 pound bags a lot and regularly lift 4 or 5 no problem)

Over the next couple days I start running a high fever 24/7 blood/ puss coming out of my nose. End up passing out so I go to the ER. The doctor tells me I have a a virus and I’m wasting everyone’s time/ faking it. Still running a fever of 102/103. A week or so goes by, same symptoms blood puss coming out of nose but getting worse.

My weakness was so bad I could not lift anything at work without getting so light headed I was going to pass out. I’m frustrated at this point, and my mom a medical professional tells me I have an infection and I need to go back to the ER. At this point I have had a constant fever and symptoms for 2 weeks or so.

Go back to ER HIGH fever ( over 104) at this point so weak I can barely walk, I have also lost 10 pounds or so because I was unable to eat. Doctor once again tells me I’m faking it, and I have a fever from a virus and I’m wasting the clinics time.

So at this point I was so weak I could not work at all, laying in bed all day couldn’t eat or drink. Sweating 24/7 to the point I’m soaking the bed. My mouth was a cesspool at this point despite using the rinses I was given at the time of surgery.

So almost 4 weeks into this disaster I have lost 20 pounds or so, still running a fever. My mom is FREAKING OUT because she thinks I will go septic at any point. I basically gave up, I call around for days looking for a new primary one finally agrees to see me.

I tell her everything that has happened. She is looking at me( at this point I’m almost a walking skeleton, I was in ROUGH shape) still high fever. She agrees to give me antibiotics, after 3 or 4 days all my symptoms go away my fever stops, I’m able to eat again. After the run of the antibiotics she wants to see me again. I go back in, literally a new man and she tells me it was just a viral infection.

After this I think I would rather just die than to listen to a doctor tell me I’m faking it. Keep in mind during all those ER visits my perforation was oozing puss/ white shit/ chunks of flesh/ blood, I was literally spitting it out in the ER.

Username: keeperteeper

Went to see my GP for discoloured urine. Like my wee looked like dark tea discoloured. I originally thought I was dehydrated so increased fluid/electrolyte intake greatly. No change. So booked an appointment. I was made to feel so stupid because it's 'clearly just dehydration'.

Told the doctor I didn't think so. I had increased my fluid intake and had no change. Plus the times it was occuring wasn't consistent with when I should be dehydrated.

He was sending me on my way when I begged if there was anything we could do to double check. Sent me for a urine sample and didn't even look at the colour or check for blood.

Received a text message saying my results were in and to make an appointment when available (as is standard when results show no abnormalities, they call when it's something wrong). So didn't go back. Just hid in my shame that I clearly had no idea how to hydrate.

Went to a different doc in the same practice for an unrelated issue almost 2 months later. Where she was like oh you're here for your results, so how long have you been peeing blood? In my stupor I stumbled out a what? So I actually am? Doctor useless next door told me I was dehydrated. Yeah nope. I'd been peeing huge amounts of blood for over 3 months at this point and was severely anaemic.

Several specialists later, crazy expensive tests (and I'm in Australia, so I'm talking expensive even after Medicare has covered 80% of the bill) and multiple intrusive surgeries through my urethra to look at my kidneys.

I'm diagnosed with this crazy rare syndrome called Nutcracker syndrome where my renal vein is at a weird angle and was putting severe stress on my kidneys (and stomach) causing them to burst and bleed.

Over 12 months later and I've been given the 'all clear', which essentially means in this case, you're not bleeding, you're not dying, take it easy and call us if anything changes. And I've now learnt that my IBS, my constant burping and sensitive stomach was not actually IBS but is all due to my duodenum being compressed by this vein and having less space to digest food.

Huge props to my kidney doctor and specialists though. My eventual diagnosis meant a guy in another state didn't have to deal with endless pointless surgeries and was quickly diagnosed.

And I now know there is an actual medical diagnosis for my constant burping and I can't just 'take some medication for my IBS' to stop it. Have never seen that doctor since and am still debating whether I file a complaint with the medical board about his negligence.

Username: Pia-the-Pangolin

I had the reverse happen, and I’m *still* mad at this doc (and it’s been almost 3 years). I was horseback riding and after my lesson I was leading my horse to tie him up and the neighbors set off firecrackers. He spooked and jerked his head back and a bony part of his face caught me in the side of the head, *juuuussssttt* under my helmet. Ouch.

I decide to get checked out (head injuries are no joke, better safe than sorry) so I book an appointment with my doctor 2 days after this happened. Told him everything, and he told me I was fine, I had nothing to worry about, nothing to look out for (I specifically asked just in case), no cause for any kind of concern. Basically “you’re fine, stop worrying over nothing.” Okay, gotcha doc.

A few days later I get a headache while at school. Annoying, but nothing too bad. After school I’m hanging out with my friends and the headache is progressively getting worse. It’s around sunset and I’m lying on a bench in the shade with the hood of my hoodie pulled over my eyes cause my head hurts so bad and for some reason it feels *so damn bright* outside. Every time someone talks a little too loud it’s like a knife in my skull. Eventually I sit up and I feel like my head just exploded.

But the doc said I’m fine, so I’m probably worrying about nothing, right? This headache continues for *a week* without *a single second of relief.* Every day I get worse. By the end of the week, I’m acting drunk.

Can’t walk in a straight line, severely slurring my speech, can’t form a coherent thought, seeing double sometimes, etc. I’d bend down to pet my dog and wake up 5 hours later on the floor. It was hell but I thought I was just making shit up.

After 7 days, I couldn’t take it. I went and saw another doctor, and his face turned white. He told me I definitely had a concussion and I needed an MRI ASAP because there was a good chance there was bleeding in my brain and I could be dying.

Got the MRI, luckily there wasn’t any bleeding but I damaged 3 parts of my brain (front, right side, and my brain stem). I went to “physical therapy” (mentally therapy? Idk what to call it) twice a week for months and it still took me 5 months before I could function normally on the most basic levels. Even now, I have no memory of the vast majority of that time.

I’ve found papers in my handwriting that I don’t remember writing on topics I don’t remember learning from classes I don’t even remember taking. I ended up failing most of my classes that semester because I was so fucked up and my school was shit about helping me (I passed AP Calc with a B+ tho... so fuck you concussion)

I’m still so mad that doctor dismissed me like it was nothing. He didn’t even tell me what to look out for just in case. Asshole

Username: sppwalker

Not me, my girlfriend. She went to boarding school a long way away from her (rural home), and developed an allergy to salicylate - arguably one of the worst allergies that isn’t being allergic to water or air or something extremely rare.

She is anaphylactic now, but it started with hives and swelling and then developed into what it is now. The school nurses were garbage at their job and being people in general, and didn’t believe the allergy specialist’s letter informing them of her anaphylaxis and allergies in general.

They took all of her epipens off of her and kept them in the medical centre, and wouldn’t let her keep them on herperson, or in general. 6 months after the diagnosis she had a full blown anaphylactic attack, and the nurses didn’t believe her and just made her sit down whilst they observed her, and claimed they couldn’t actually use the epipens without an ambulance being present (not true).

They made her sit and wait about 15 minutes whilst the ambulance was on its way and still had not administered the epinephrine, until the ambulance driver realised and yelled at them through the phone and told them to use it.

They administered one dose from an epipen a few minutes before the ambulance arrived, and the paramedics issued a second dosage from the epipen when they arrived and noticed that she wasn’t improving.

Once she was on the ambulance her condition didn’t improve (she was starting to lose consciousness), they gave her an actual shot of adrenaline opposed to using an epipen (standard to my knowledge). This then quite quickly caused her body to seize up and make her heart beat ridiculously fast up until she quite literally had a heart attack and stopped breathing, and they couldn’t read her pulse at one stage.

They administered cpr but after about a minute and fifteen seconds, her heart restarted and she started to breathe again. She later found out from her doctor in the hospital that she spent a week in due to having so many burst blood vessels and veins from the ordeal, that he thinks all the excess adrenaline in her system was enough to not only stop her heart, but also restart her heart with the help of cpr.

But in the end, after these two nurses at an extremely lucrative and expensive school who are in charge of the health of all students (and all the full time boarders, some international students), had nothing happen to them until she graduated and had moved on and were replaced on a performance basis.

Her parents had signed a document stating that they shall not sue the school if an allergic reaction is to take place so long as school ensures and ambulance arrives (was part of being a boarder at the school with an allergy). Almost killed her with their ignorance.

Username: tisJosh

Ok, I have a story for you. So I use a Nuva Ring for birth control, and have been for 4 years. It's really simple to use and generally not a pain to put in. I had an "issue" down there, resulting in my vag being swollen, so when I went to put in my birth control, it became lodged in my urethra.

You might ask, why the HELL is she sharing this story. Wait for it. lol. I went to my school where there are nurse practitioners on hand. I told them what I was pretty sure I had done, and they didn't believe me.

They did a vag exam, said they couldn't find the damn thing, said "you'll be fine just go home, there's absolutely no way it could have gone in your urethra." Now me, being the EMT that I am, was thinking, WTF? I know my body, and I know which fucking hole I accidentally put that shit in.

Why the HELL do these bitches not believe me? So, I went to the ER. Crying, because I had just peed and felt the pain of all pain, I told the nurse at the front desk why I needed a doctor. She was like, "huh?" No way! So... three hours and a full bladder later, I'm in the back.. and I tell the nurse I gotta pee.

And if she hears screaming, call for help. You want to talk about the MOTHER of all pee pain... UTI times 1000... I was about to pass out. So the doc comes in, says well, we're going to do a vag exam... and I look at him.. (btw, he had popped in twice to check on me, and also did not believe that I had done what I did) and I say "Doc, level with me here. Number one: I'm a girl, and I know my girl parts pretty damn well, and rest assured, that I know which hole I stuck it in.

Number two: I'm an EMT so I'm not stupid to medical issues or basic anatomy of the body. Number three: HAVE YOU FUCKING HEARD ME SCREAMING AS I PEE? Will you PLEASE do me the courtesy of listening to what I have to say, and give me an ultrasound on my bladder.

I'm sure you will find a plastic ring about an inch and a half in diameter chilling in my bladder. Promise." He listened.. finally. And sure enough, I spent my first overnighter in the hospital, waiting for the doctors to figure out how the hell to get it out of my bladder.

They did, the next day finally, put me under and lassooed the sucker out. I was ER fodder for that entire night, every nurse and doctor cooming by to ask me how the hell I managed what I managed.

Moral of the story: If you think your doctor isn't listening, and you are actually in serious pain. Tell them. They might not listen at first, but eventually, they will.

Username: dianamo11

My family has been “blessed” with high pain tolerance. Years ago I broke my wrist moving a couch about a year after breaking my other wrist, so I know it was broken. My mum took me to the hospital up the street since urgent care sent me to the hospital the last time.

Waited two hours to be seen and did all their bs stress tests. Explained to the nurse that, while yes, my pain is only at about a one-ish and, yes, I have full mobility, that it felt the same as when I almost broke the growth plate in my other wrist the last year.

After refusing to at least give me an X-ray she looked at my mum and told her that I was making it up for attention and to go home. Went to urgent care, explained the situation, got an X-ray (it Was broken *gasp*) and a splint and called it good.

My mum had chronic migraines and she had to jump through too many damned hoops to be seen after losing vision, vomiting, and not being able to move. Thankfully she’s found something that works for her after 30+ years of suffering.

My dad broke his hip when I was born and was fitted with the wrong size of replacement for way too long, thus fucking up his back pretty much permanently. He won’t do pain pills anyway because even getting muscle relaxers (which he makes last for months) can be ridiculously difficult to get while he’s almost sobbing in pain.

My sister has scoliosis and they won’t do surgery for her because “iTs NoT bAd eNoUgH yEt” even though she hasn’t been able to sleep well for years and gets random bouts of pain.

I could go on. I have no respect for most of the medical community, except most nurses since my experiences have shown me that they pretty much run everything and that doctors are fucks with high egos and a paycheck. And EMTs, they get a ton of respect from me, I’ve never had to call them but I know people who have and they’ve always been good.

You can’t tell if someone is faking something unless they expressly tell you. You are not them. You don’t know their pain tolerance. You don’t know how they react when stressed.

It’s bs that doctors and nurses aren’t trained to actually listen and do the tests just to check and make sure that someone is actually telling the truth instead of assuming... Oh Wait, They Are! They just don’t give a fuck.

They want you to leave so they can go back to gossiping at the nurses stations and doing “cooler” things like watching a surgery. Sorry for rambling.Mad respect for EMTs.

Username: Sad-Waltz

I’m not a doctor but I have a story where doctors didn’t believe how rapid my labor was going or how intense the contractions were.

I woke up at about 3am with really intense contractions immediately starting at 2-3 min apart I tried to wait the 1 hour (Incredibly stupid of me I know but I didn’t know I was in active labor before hand since I had no pain or signs) to time the contractions since I wasn’t laboring at all before then but they were becoming too fast and intense.

So we went to the hospital and got there at about 3:40am. I was two weeks early before my due date and the doctors didn’t seem to be in any urgency at all, which confused me because I was letting them know repeatedly how intense and close together my contractions were but they made me feel like they didn’t believe me because I wasn’t screaming in pain.

They checked for dilation and realized I was 6cm and my water was already broken and I didn’t know about it because I never had a huge gush of water. They were getting me set up in the delivery room and then they left to let me continue to labor it out and within 5 min I had to push really bad so I had my mother in law run to find someone.

She found my midwife let her know I was having the baby and she calmly walked to my room no sense of urgency what so ever until she walked in to see my son practically crowning. Then everyone decided I wasn’t lying and saw the urgency in the situation.

I had my son within 2 pushes he was born at 4:01 am. I gave birth within 20 min of being at the hospital and nobody believed me all because I didn’t seem like I was in too much pain and they didn’t think I would labor that quickly. Apparently I had a precipitous labor and a high pain tolerance.

It was really early in the morning and I didn’t want to cause a scene so I was trying to breath and calm myself as best as I could. I didn’t think I would have my son that fast either but I felt no support from the staff.

They were all very nice and friendly but definitely made me feel like my pain and concerns were not taken seriously. They made me feel like I was being dramatic with how upset I was getting when I would tell them the baby is coming quick.

They assumed I’d labor at least for a few more hours. That was the most intense moment in my life. I sat on the bed trembling for at least a good 20 min after giving birth trying to process wtf just happened lol.

Username: JLorrainee

I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety about a year ago. I went to one doctor, who switched medicines for me so frequently that I couldn't tell what was side effects and what was withdrawal symptoms.

The second doctor claimed that what I was suffering from was "regular teenage angst." No. The concept of "happiness" had become foreign to me. I held on to what few glimpses I could get, and after the very short periods of "happiness," almost always with my friends, it hurt so much worse.

I woke up randomly happy, just cheerful, just normal, one day, and it was physically uncomfortable. I had been so broken for so long that when I temporarily normal, it was terrifying. That isn't "teenage angst." We left her, too.

The next doctor claimed I had not anxiety nor depression, but a completely separate mood disorder which made me angry (???? WTF, doc?) which accounted for my mood. I started a new medicine, and woke up in the morning unable to stop twitching. Every few seconds, my head would snap back and my shoulders would snap up, and everything would just tense a few times.

We called the doctor. The receptionist said she was with a patient, but that she would call us back in about 20 minutes. Fine. 4 hours later, I was still twitching, though less often, and the doctor hadn't called back. She didn't call back until well into the evening.

She had us discontinue the medicine, and we went to yet another doctor. This one flat out claimed that I was lying. She told my parents that I just wanted attention and drugs, even though I was actively working to find a medicine that worked, was non-addictive, and with few side effects, and she also said that I had no reason to be depressed, nor anxiety ridden, despite the facts that mental disorders run in my family and that I was dealing with mountains of stress a day.

Bye-bye. Since that doctor, we've been lucky. The twitching from the old medicine still comes back some of the time, so we went to a neurologist who ran multiple tests to make sure that I wasn't having a seizure and that my nerves were all working properly.

She also prescribed me an anti-anxiety medication, in hopes that the depression stemmed from the anxiety. We've also gone to another psychiatrist who we trust and who actually believes me.

Username: artygal12

Ok so I'm pretty sure the last time I went to the hospital I was flagged as a drug seeker. I went in really late at night because I had what seemed like gall bladder pain. I've been having these pains on and off since I had my son, but that night it hurt really bad. My husband said he'd take me after work if I still had pain (2 am). I agreed because it's like 10 pm and if they're still there at 2 I'm pretty sure I need to go.

This place was horrible. They left me in my room from 2:30 am to 9 am with nothing but a saline IV. I'm sitting there trying to juggle a cranky toddler, cranky husband and conversations with whoever walks in to ask me how I feel and then blatantly ignore what I said.

Sometime around 8 am my son had pulled on my IV and it hurt, so I politely asked a nurse to redo it. She said she'd send my real nurse in to do it as soon as she could. At around 9 am I have a bitchy husband yapping in my ear, a cranky toddler that he refuses to hold in my lap, and still an IV that needs to be redone.

It hurts. I can take pain, but I'm pretty sure he messed it up pretty bad by pulling on it. So I did what any fed up mom would do (probably not, but whatever) and took my IV out, got dressed, and walked out. The gallbladder pain "episode" had already been over for a while and the constant bitching of my husband just drove me to act like a lunatic.

I did, however, apologize to the nurse on my way out, for leaving without discharge and for the IV. I told her I made sure to wrap it up with the tape and put it in a spot where someone would obviously see it so they didn't touch the part with my blood. She looked at me like I was a psycho but I mean, it doesn't exactly take a genius to pull one out.

Looking back I wish I would have just told my husband to take my son home and leave me there, but what's done is done. They really shouldn't have ignored me for so long when I was one of about 10 rooms filled in their huge emergency room. I'm one of those people that's very understanding that I'm not the only person in the ER, other people probably have worse problems than me and need to be seen first, but the IV was the last straw.

I mean it was hooked to an empty saline bag, all they had to do was take it out and come redo it later if they had to. Idk, I feel like both parties could have handled it better honestly.

Username: dallasdreamer

I’m an investigative doctor & specialize in schools. Pretending to be nursing students was my company’s last project. One of my instructors faked an awkward illness and put it into the charts at the facilities to see if we would violate HIPAA.

I knew exactly what she was doing, having passed this test before, and did not violate HIPAA. I also knew that it was fake. She proceeded to report that I violated HIPAA and kicked me out of RN school for a long list of reasons which meant nothing. She, in fact, fucked HIPAA in the ass.

She really was discriminating against my mental illness and accused me of all kinds of stuff towards the other students that just wasn’t evident to our team, the federal government, POTUS, the navy seals that the students reported me to, or the school cameras.

I have a Navy Seal sticker on my back window because I am a Navy Seal. Some of the students found this to be a particularly unnerving problem which they promptly took into their own hands. Yes, the students and staff called the feds on themselves. It’s Arkansas, people.

I, naturally, scored very high on the online system, was allowed to keep my window sticker, and the instructor was very disgruntled at the fact that she wasn’t as smart as me. During this time, she stole hotel rooms which were reserved for the top students to travel to the weekly clinical day.

My company directly paid for those students to have a safe, comfortable place to study before clinical for the research aspect. Shelby has no friends and didn’t even bother to fill the rooms up. She was likely devising a plan to abscond with her boss,

Amy, or some doctor at the hospital the next day. When she is not a raging gold-digger for Lipo, she’s having some KKK infested lesbian intimacy with the Dean in her excessively large, well-stocked office.

My favorite part to this was that I contributed to the denial of her PhD request. She, ironically, became inspired by my *actual* identity to become a Mental Health specialist through advanced track nursing, which I invented.

She was very forward about her appreciation for nutrition and psychology and her future application to become a Mental Health Specializing RN. She is a very deeply twisted person. She’s the exact reason why Mental Health Hospitals fail daily and get sued at any given time.

Username: mallykv

Oh boy here we go. My dad is a cardiothoracic surgeon and my mom is a nurse. A few years ago I smashed my foot into my door because I was too excited for dinner (my injury stories are hilarious, I know).

I thought I had just stubbed my toes really badly and I wanted food so I scooted down the stairs on my butt, limped to the table, and sat down for dinner. Asked my dad to look at it about halfway through the meal because the pain wasn't subsiding like a stubbed toe would normally.

He said I was probably fine and also thought I just stubbed it and was overreacting, but if it was black and blue in the morning that would mean I broke it. Guess who had some grossly discolored toes the next day! I couldn't wear a shoe on my left foot for weeks.

On a similar note, I have chronic migraines and despite seeing multiple doctors of various specialties no one has figured out the cause or how to stop them. They're most likely genetic as my mother had them when she was younger, but I've lost whole days to them and have had to call out of work many times because I simply couldn't bear to stay awake anymore.

My PCP just told me to drink more water. One time he told me to drink salt water. I understand he just was thinking of electrolytes and that dehydration can cause headaches, but at this point I really don't think that's the root cause. The amount of ibuprofen I go through in a month is ridiculous.

With both my parents being trained medical professionals a faked migraine was the only thing convincing enough to keep me home from school. I never even bothered faking anything else. In 6th grade my school takes the entire grade on a week long camping trip, no electronics or anything allowed. No toilets or showers either.

Of course I didn't want to go, but I knew I wasn't going to get out of it. The morning we were supposed to leave I started feeling really crappy. Headache, body ache, fatigued.. basically a bad head cold/flu symptoms. My mom told me I was just faking because I didn't want to go on the trip.

That was the worst week of my grade school career. No one believed me the whole time even though I was always lagging behind exhausted from the simplest hike. When I finally got home on Friday my mom said I looked the sickest she's ever seen me. Surprise surprise.

Username: Satanic_Fairy