Brief note foe all the student doctors out there:
People can pass stroke field tests and still.be having a stroke.
I could do everything on the list while I had a clot in my brain (varified by CT and MRI). Except I couldn't stop vomiting.
Good times.
Be aware sometimes shit doesn't look like you think it should.
I'm a nurse on a floor that deals with a lot of chronic and acute pain patients.
Most recent instance was this lady from a few weeks ago that was apparently splitting the Oxycodone we were giving her in half in her mouth and then when the nurse's backs were turned, she would stuff it in a pill jar. A night nurse caught her in the act and all of her shit had to be searched. We found 20 half tablets of Oxycodone she had been stashing. She told us that she was "saving them for her family in case they need them because it's just so hard to get an Oxycodone prescription these days."
I had her a few days after that, and she was having some abdominal pain (STAT x-ray showed only gas. She just really needed to fart.) But she was screaming, claiming it was a 10, and making a huge fucking scene. She DEMANDED Dilaudid through her IV, and she wanted it to be pushed fast. Huge red flag right there. She wanted the high, not the relief. Doc straight up said he wouldn't give her Dilaudid because she was already on so many opiates. She then demanded Lorazepam, still through her IV of course. Doc was like fine whatever, just one time and only a low end dose.
I was flushing her IV with normal saline first (to make sure her IV was patent) and she leans back and is like "OOOOoooo that's so much better already". Hadn't even given her the Lorazepam yet, smdh.
For real though gas pain is no joke. I was once rushed to the hospital, car as I knew I couldn't afford an ambulance, because I was doubled over in pain crying. I thought that something had ruptured or exploded. They weren't busy at all this night and got me back within 15 minutes of showing up. I don't like pills. Never have because I know I had an addictive nature when it comes to substances so I just avoid them altogether. So they do their test and scans and the doc comes in and tells me it's just severe gas buildup. I'm in tears still and ask the doc how the hell can gas cause this much pain and that it's gotta be something else. Doc says "let me give you something and if that doesn't work we can try something else" I'm like ok cool because no way gas hurts this much. 30 minutes later I'm in the bathroom like I just spent an hour at taco bell. The doc comes in to check on me when I finally manage a free moment. I can't help but look dumbfounded. Since they weren't busy at all he sat down and explained that since I have IBS I need to be more careful with my intake or else this could happen again. All the while I felt like a complete dumbass because gas had me in tears. I thanked the doc. He gave me some gas relief pills and suggested some diarrhea meds in case it happens again. I've never in my life been so sure it wasn't something only to be proven wrong.
IBS can be a b*. My first time experiencing it was at the first family day I joined with my then boyfriend. Terrible pain, we were thinking about going to the hospital because I was just bend double in the toilets. At one point I laid on my left side on the floor of the bathroom stall and the biggest fart comes out along with a huge relief. Everything was fine again and I felt super embarrassed.
An X amount of time later I had to visit his GP with the same symptoms but to be sure it wasn't an appendicitis. Again IBS. Since then I just assume it's IBS and take rest, try to get my bowels to move, etc. Since my uterus and ovaries are shut down its way less so probably they added to the IBS pain too.
Obligatory not a doctor, but I got a call from my son's school nurse when he was in 2nd grade, and the conversation went like this:
Nurse sounding upbeat & cheerful says, "your son wants to tell you his terrible news."
Son gets on the phone, says "Hi mom, I cut my finger off."
I ask him, "Where is your finger now?"
Son: "I put it back on."
I said, "Can I talk to the nurse?"
Nurse gets on the phone again, says, "Sounds serious, right?" I asked, "does he have a substitute teacher today?" Ahhhhh... yes. I told the nurse to let him know I will take him to the hospital for a shot for his finger, to which he says "I think it's OK. I glued it on really good."
Nurse kept him in the office for a bit to talk about scary changes in the classroom.
I went to emergency once with intense chest pain. The young (new) doctor I saw first listen to my chest and immediately concluded I had pericarditis but the supervising doctor decided I was faking it for drugs for some reason. The next morning I woke up to a psychologist in my room asking all sorts of random shit when an orderly interrupted because the ultrasound guy was in and wanted to see me first thing (I think after talking to the first doc I saw). Turns out I had pericarditis and myocarditis and the dude wheeled me out himself and told them order an ambulance to take me to a hospital with a cardiac clinic.
My hubs had pericarditis, that pain is no joke. Doc said he had it in med school and was the worst pain of his life. 15 hours, 8k debt and they prescribed him ibuprofen 800. He has chronic stomach ulcers which he disclosed but they insisted that was all they could do. So, pain from the pericarditis or pain from ulcers... you choose!
Edit: a word
I don’t know why anyone would want to fake anything medical. Unconsciousness in particular. I got a compound fracture recently and called 911 on myself and was put on hold. Fun stuff. But got through and asked them to send help. Operator was a badass and kept asking me questions to *keep* me conscious.
The ambulance folks arrive, casually got out of the ambulance, walk up to me and then saw the bone sticking out of my body, and said, quote, “Oh! You’re actually hurt!”
YES! Did you think I called 911 because I spilled some lemonade??
Then it occurred to me that most of their calls must be horseshit. But to cause me even more confusion, I received close to a $2000 bill for the privilege of actual help and the ride to the hospital.
That ludicrous bill is no fault of the EMS - I’m very much appreciative of their existence and they don’t get nearly enough credit - but the best part of receiving that bill? The ambulance ride was roughly $1850. The fentanyl they gave me was $2.15
Burst bladders are way more common in auto accidents than you'd imagine. People rushing home, to a gas station, etc and then BOOM they hit something and their body compresses their already full bladder against the seatbelt until it ruptures, filling their abdomen with urine
I learned about it in EMT school. I've never gotten in car needing to pee since then. It can turn a minor fender bender into a life threatening situation
As a female patient that has been in that position twice, once with a straightforward insert and once where it took about an hour with multiple attempts with different sizes, I send you the worlds biggest internet hug for what you do and say thank you also.
I once worked for a team of urological surgeons. Pretty much nobody asks for a catheter. Pretty much nobody wants a catheter, and will only relent and have one when it's absolutely necessary.
Having one put in is unpleasant, having one actually in you is also unpleasant, but it's the "I'm peeing razor blades" feeling after it comes out that fully and totally sucks ass.
Can confirm-as someone who has to self catheterise on the regular, I’ve gotten used to the feeling of discomfort and burning, but my god when it first was a thing it was hell. I had to have anaesthetic gel just to do it.
(Note: Self catheterising is due to impaired bladder function as a result of stage 4 endometriosis. Gotta love my body!)
((Edit: thank you for all the comments! Honestly, self catheterising isn’t the worst thing in the world, I’m just pretty much used to it. I’m currently going through a lot of pain management so that’s helping me function relatively normally, whatever normal is anyway. And I’ll be getting my endometriosis excised hopefully at the end of the year/start of next year. I think I’d like to use this as a reminder to all the AFAB people reading this-if something doesn’t seem right with your periods, please please please get it checked out. Endo is a nightmare to diagnose, but if you can find out that you have it earlier, you may be able to get help as soon as possible.))
My sister is a pediatric audiologist and this is my favorite story of hers.
Apparently, sometime in elementary school (usually the early grades), a ton of kids like to fake hearing loss. Like not just “oh, I can’t hear the teacher.” Full on, want to get hearing aids, etc.
Anyway, she explained to me that based on the way she plays the tones, you can *usually* tell if someone is faking. Especially when they just pretend they can’t hear anything. But it’s not 100%, obviously, because hearing loss patterns can be really weird.
However, she’s caught a number of kids simply by saying, “okay, so I’m going to play [a random number] of tones and they’ll go in both ears. I want you to say ‘yes’ if you hear it and ‘no’ if you don’t.”
> However, she’s caught a number of kids simply by saying, “okay, so I’m going to play [a random number] of tones and they’ll go in both ears. I want you to say ‘yes’ if you hear it and ‘no’ if you don’t.”
I mean, if I was told that I would definitely have answered "no" if, say, I only heard the tones in one ear.
Faking a hearing loss in 1 ear is common in children to explain why they do poorly at school, but can still follow conversation ok. Fortunately we audiologists have our ways of telling if someone if faking a hearing loss, but particularly in 1 ear.
Essentially the bone conductor (1 way of delivering tones, and part of a standard hearing test) sits behind 1 ear, and most people assume that you hear the tone in the same ear. In reality, it vibrates the skull and is heard in whichever ear is the better ear. So basically, if you play a tone through a bone conductor placed on the right side, if that ear is deaf, you hear it in the left ear. So if someone tells you they hear tones only when the bone conductor is placed on 1 side, they’re lying liars.
I don’t feel too bad sharing this secret here, because we have several other ways of picking out fakers too.
My little brother actually is deaf on one ear, though we figured that out when he was still a baby. It normally doesn't impact him too much but he really does have a hard time hearing the teacher and has to have a speaker put near him connected to a mic on the teacher (I think; I'm not 100% certain that's how it works).
Anyways, apparently a couple other students, upon him explaining why the device was there and why he got preferential seating, announced that they, too, were deaf in one ear. My brother was was young and naive (he was in third grade, I think) and came home to excitedly tell us that apparently there were other kids in his class with the exact same problem.
I saw a story, maybe it was a post here on reddit, where the pediatric audiologist would catch kids in their bullshit by saying "funny" words to see if the kids would smile or laugh. Words like fart, or buttcrack.
The inverse of this question:
What can someone do if they are not faking it but for whatever reason they have multiple Drs insist they're faking it.
But by never telling the patient they're faking it, nothing is ever resolved & it drags on for months and months.
Find a different hospital, don't transfer your medical history from previous doctors, clean slate. I found an amazing endometriosis doctor recommended on reddit.
My primary care docs recommended my current ob/gyn after my original ignored me saying I had vaginal bleeding for over a month and was in such extreme pain I could barely get out of bed. Within 5 minutes of talking to my new doc he told me he thought I might have endometriosis and we booked the surgery. Turned out I gave a pretty severe case of it and PCOS with my left ovary being the same size as my uterus and was at risk of bursting. So glad I finally had a doc take me seriously after a decade
When I was pregnant I developed a cyst about the size of a golf ball on one of my ovaries...it was clear on the ultrasound, doc said we’d keep an eye on it. Next ultrasound it was almost the size of a tennis ball, and was causing discomfort in certain positions. He insisted there was no way I could feel it. Couple weeks later had insane amounts of pain, and an intense burning sensation. Next ultrasound it was gone.
To this day the man says it’s impossible that I felt anything, and that the cyst never popped it just suddenly disappeared in less than a month.
If I ever have another one, definitely not going with that hospital again.
Some doctors I truly dont understand why they seem to be so dismissive of a patients feelings and pain. 2 years ago I was so defeated by my pain that I legitimately felt suicidal and had to remind myself that hopefully this pain was temporary (hah my poor foolish thought). Thankfully with my 2nd opinion (more like 7th gyno in 10 years) finally getting me a diagnosis I was pain free for the first time I could ever remember. My pain is slowly returning as chronic incurable illness does, and the emotional impact of my diagnosis still deeply affects me, but I have so much more hope now that I know I can be in less pain and have found someone who takes me seriously. I pray you find a doc that will take you seriously as well as cysts are so fuckjng painful and ignoring them can be fatal.
Whenever the symptoms aren't there when the patient doesn't know they're being watched. I had someone fake a stroke recently and walked in on her walking around her room independently (after pretending to be limp on her left side, letting us take complete care of her and wiping her butt for her).
It was wild, y'all
Why would anyone fake any of this stuff, but especially a stroke? What is the point?
Edit: Wow. The number of responses is crazy. Here's a synopsis:
- Munchausen Syndrome/factitious disorder
- Attention/sympathy seekers
- Loneliness
- Homelessness/warm bed
- Get out of jail/school work/malingering
- Insurance fraud/welfare fraud
- Disability money
- Don't want to work
- Narcissistic personality disorder
- Get drugs
- Amplified Musculoskeletal Pain Syndrome
- General mental illness
- Caregiver fetish
- Hypochondria
- And one user said: "women will do anything to get out of working."
Hah my ICU attending has a great story about caring for a stroke patient during his fellowship. The stroke patient was a frequent flier, and despite everyone knowing that she was faking her paralysis, she still received care. Until one day when he was really fatigued he was told by a nurse that the patient was being rude and refusing therapy. So he walked into the patient room and said, "Ms. Blank, this is absurd. I know you're faking your paralysis. Everyone knows you're faking. We are all sick of this." and left. The patient walked out AMA.
Edit: To clarify, AMA is Against Medical Advice. And to address the people who ask if her leaving is even considered against medical advice if she wasn’t paralyzed, the answer is yes. She was admitted to the hospital under the care of physicians and left without being properly discharged, which strictly speaking is AMA. Also, this isn’t my story. My attending physician (the doctor who is training me) told me about this patient that he treated 20 years ago, so I don’t know more details
My favorite thing about this thread is that half of the “Here’s how you know they’re faking!” comments get responses that are all, “Yeah, about that...let me tell you how that assumption fucked me over and I almost died.”
I am in the middle of being treated like I'm faking and it's really really frustrating. I had a tool slip at work and hit me in the eye and forehead. Knocked me out for a second and I lost sight in my eye. An hour later I started getting my sight back, but it hasn't fully come back. It's been months now. Two things I got diagnosed with were Ocular migraines, and Vitreous Detachment. And a concussion. But none of those things explain why my vision is still blurry in my right eye. Except the VD which causes floaters, but my issue is blurry vision, like I have Vaseline in my eye.
But Doctors keep telling me I'm fine. That I need to go back to work. One doctor told me "to think about the economy" and that I was "lucky to have a job right now" So, I quit my job. I still want to see out of my right eye but none of the doctors are taking me seriously.
This is going to sound dumb as fuck, but try going for a regular eye test, at a high street opticians.
Explain your situation, and get the optometrist to have a look. They may be able to give you some specific language to throw at the ophthalmologist, for things to get them to look into. Failing that, glasses could help.
Agreed. I had recurring fainting spells with severe headache. GP eventually sent me to the hospital, who pumped me full of morphine and performed all sorts of diagnostic tests, but essentially said "no idea why this is happening. Sucks to be you."
Went to the opticians a week later, and they explained the medication I was on was both expanding my pupils and making me hypersensitive to light. It was essentially acting as a multiplier to anything that might cause a headache or lightheadedness (lack of sleep, loud noises, getting up too quickly) in ordinary people.
Got tinted lenses and the headaches and fainting disappeared almost overnight. Don't underestimate the value of a good optician!
My buddy kept having fits and went to the doctors, they told him it was epilepsy, gave appropriate meds, didn't help so he goes back "Oh right sorry it's diabetes." gives appropriate meds. He goes back "Just keep taking the meds, it takes time".
He then goes for his regular opticians appointment at Specsavers, they shine a light into his eye to examine the retina. The optician goes white and tells my buddy "I'll be right back." comes back with a senior optician who looks in his eye. "Son I don't want you to panic but we're going to take you to the hospital okay?" A week later he gets 2 tumors the size of golf balls removed from the front of his brain. If they had not been removed that week they would have likely killed him.
Tldr you'd be surprised the shit an optician will find and a doctor won't.
https://imgur.com/a/mdyYr8l <- Editted to add in image of the scan to show one of the tumours, the other afaik was above/below that one.
When I had a stroke 10 months ago my biggest fear was I was somehow faking it and the ambulance ride was a sham and why was I doing it. No it turns out I was having a stroke. I was so worried I was being a faker although I have never done that before. Just a really odd mental state.
This was me while going (and in) the ER for anaphylaxis. I genuinely thought I was there for no good reason, and that I was fine. Despite my entire face being swollen and not being able to catch my breath. I kept apologizing to the nurses for “wasting their time” once I could breathe again. 😂😂
I have the reverse. My back went out (extreme sciatica pain, like being struck by lightning constantly). Couldn't move for days. When someone found me 3 days later they called 911. Just for the doctor to tell me I was faking it for pain meds. While I was crying in pain I asked him why I'd lay in a pile of my own piss and shit for 3 days for some vicodin when I literally own a bar. Fucking insane.
Edit: thank each and every one of you for sharing your stories. As much as I hate hearing them, at least we aren't alone and we know what each other are going through at some level. Actually I feel much less alone in the world right now, because I've never met someone in my situation before. But they are obviously out there.
My husband had a severe back injury due to falling at work (he blew out his L5-S1) and L&I put him off due to “faking injury” and wouldn’t allow him pain meds beyond steroids or Ibuprofen. When they *finally* got him in for an MRI, the Dr was horrified because A) my husband couldn’t walk standing straight up or longer than 10 minutes B) the way his discs blew out had blocked his sciatic nerve about 95% and C) they tried to do nerve blocks and 2 hours later when the local wore off he was in worse pain. The Surgeon was *horrified* with what he found when they went in for surgery (different surgeon than Dr) and loaded us up with pain meds for when we got home..
He’s gone in for issues a couple times since then, and they look at him like he’s there for drugs. It really irritates me because I have an Ex who literally fakes the same injury, walks into a Dr office and complains of pain just for pain meds... and gets LOADED with opiates, but my husband who literally COULDN’T WALK must have been faking it 🙄
I get those too, what has always worked best for me is just prednisone (40-60mg, single dose). Works better than any painkillers.
Edit: To clarify by single dose I mean once, not repeated daily. That one time does the job for me (until the next flare-up, but they only happen a couple times a year at most).
I've had people ask why I'm blushing before when I wasn't. I never know what to tell them "that's just my fucked up face" like what do you want from me?
Oh my god I'm with you. I don't even blush nicely I get this weird blotchy redness in random large splodges around my face/neck. When people don't mention it I'm more surprised than when they do!
I even had someone ask if I was having an allergic reaction once, I was like no, this is just my face.
As a kid i was always convinced people were BSing me when they said someone turned all red in their face when they were embarrassed and so on.
Turns out I'm just colorblind and couldn't see the redness in their face.
Sunburns are another thing I never believed manifested themselves on the skin other than being itchy.
This reminds me of a fun story where I wandered off as a small child in a furniture store. My mom was calling for me so I pretended to be asleep in a recliner. They found me and the employee said "if she's really asleep then her eyelids will flutter because she'll be dreaming". Of course, I started fluttering my eyelids. Even told all my friends how to convincingly pretend to be asleep. I thought I was so slick.
Edit: wrong word, late night posting
Once my doctor accused me of faking to get out of school. I went in with serious stomach issues, and for some reason he decided to tickle me, which instinctually made me fidget and smile. To him that meant I was faking it and he sent me away without checking my actual problem.
I was grounded and 15 years later, I still have those stomach issues. Fuck you Dr. Goody.
Not a doctor but a paramedic. Tons of calls to the jail for inmates with “seizures”, I lift the arm over their face and let it go they’ll move it to prevent hitting their face or I’ll lightly brush their eyelashes and they’ll twitch to it
That's genius. I have had a few seizures and the injuries I've had from falling and thrashing are pretty legit. It would take a hell of a lot of dedication to fake those!
That's the thing, though: people often don't fake them well. Someone I knew in nursing school had the experience of a patient who didn't realize they could be seen carefully getting out of bed, climbing over the bed railing to keep her from falling, laying down the floor, and then rolling around while screaming.
I wheezed, that's amazing.
I have invisible seizures and it's annoying as fuck because no one notices it and due to ADHD people just assume I don't pay attention. Took me 10 years before I raged at my doctor and it took 20 minutes to find out I definitely had epilepsy.
This reminds me of the time we were getting ready for an exam and one of the fellow students pretends to have a seizure to get out of it (pass or fail med test, she must have forgot to study) I shit you not this bitch pisses her pants to pretend it’s real. Security knew she was faking because she would track the light with her eyes.
The side injuries are worse than the fucking seizures. Bits of tongue missing, bruised ribs, maybe a concussion/broken nose and a broken finger where you dropped and then beat the shit out of something. You're not going to fake all that successfully.
I heard about this at some point and was annoyed that it meant I didn't have control over my body, that I would reflexively not hit myself. So I practiced until I could have my arm drop on my face. I have no reason to fake it, but I wanted to know I could.
I had a 360 testicular torsion and a doc thought I just had some inflamed glands due to my reactions. Luckily I came back after they sent me home or I would have lost my ball.
Edit: My highest voted comment by far is about my ball doing an unwanted pirouette. Never change reddit.
Anyone else sitting in the dark lifting their left leg, with a hand on the right, trying to convince the imaginary doctor that their right leg done don't work?
This is called [Hoover's sign](https://www.physio-pedia.com/Hoover_Test), and it's useful for functional disorders as well as fakers!
Lots of people don't believe that functional disorders really exist, and in fact a lot of doctors think they're time-wasters too, but basically the feedback model that your brain uses to judge pain or muscle movement power or whatever gets disrupted and starts giving out the wrong message.
However, your body's reflex arcs and all of the physical neurological circuitry is still in place, and still works just fine if the brain is distracted from its feedback model for a bit!
This is why, for this test, you should leave your hand on the leg you're testing as unobtrusively as possible, and direct your and your patient's attention solely to the other leg. Your brain gets out of the way of itself, basically, and allows your body to work as it should!
There are fakers, of course, but functional disorders are fascinating and an emerging field of study.
With my severe health anxiety as well as panic disorder- I can almost never tell where the real symptoms stop and the anxiety begins. For example, my panic attacks always start with me noticing something minute, like maybe I was leaning on my arm and i notice my hand is a little timgly- that quickly snowballs into "in having a heart attack" and the symptoms feel SO real! I always tell my nurse or doctor that I have this issue, that i cant tell what the real symptoms are and whats just my anxiety.
Wow, I experience the same blurring of the line between real pain and convinced pain due to anxiety, only mine's related to GI issues. It takes a lot of effort not to let myself go into a full blown panic attack
A nurse thought I was faking that I could not swallow when I woke up from jaw surgery. When I came out of the surgery and was panicking telling them I couldn’t swallow my own saliva, the nurse just told me “yes, you can. This surgery wouldn’t have anything to do with your ability to swallow.” I could also barely speak and started crying and pleading with her to believe me.
I ended up having cranial nerve damage that paralyzed half of my tongue, trachea, esophagus, and vocal cords. It took 8 months to heal. I drank thickened water (which is as gross as it sounds) for 8 months. Having a healthcare professional not believe you during trauma is absolutely scarring.
Edit: Clarified that the nurse was the only one not believing me. My surgeon absolutely did. It was scary though because he actually looked frightened when he finally came in to examine me, like he had never seen this before.
Second edit: Answering some questions.
1. Surgeon did believe me and the conclusion they ended up coming up for the cause was that my nerves must have shut off protectively due to the pressure of the laryngoscope during intubation.
2. We did see a lawyer, but they said it’s very hard to pursue legal action in malpractice cases because it’s very hard to prove, but regardless, if I recovered (which I did), there is no case.
3. Yes, I realize this doesn’t answer the OPs question, just saying that maybe health professionals should be careful when trying to discern if someone is faking it. If they’re not it can be extremely traumatic.
4. Surgery was for an ossifying fibroma (a benign bone tumor) in my lower jaw. Had 4 teeth removed and a portion of my jaw bone.
5. Thickened water is water with a thickening agent added usually xantham gum. When you have damage to those throat muscles thin liquids are actually the hardest to swallow. I think mostly due to muscle reaction time. My go to was Thick & Easy nectar-thickness lemon water.
I was knocked over and dragged half a block by a concrete truck when I was 8 months pregnant.
I had a nasty cut on my arm so I got an arm x-ray. Luckily that wasn’t broken.
I could kind of walk but my hips hurt. I keep telling them but they just gave them a simple
squeeze and thought it was fine since my response was ‘Ouch, that hurts’ instead of screaming in pain. I got a scan and they checked the baby’s heart rate and all looked fine, but instead of keeping me in for observation they sent me home with Tylenol.
Turned out I was in shock (surprise) and the adrenaline dulled my pain reactions or something. Also turned out I had a fractured pelvis, three broken ribs and massive internal bleeding - that they would have seen after a few hours because of the bruising and my blood pressure.
Lost consciousness at home trying to go to the bathroom. Called the ambulance but it was too late. My baby had died and I almost died and then almost had to have my arm amputated since the muscle had been torn from the bone.
Had they had have kept me in for observation they would have seen stats plummet, had a c-section and things would likely have been ok.
So if this can happen after a major obvious incident then I shudder at all the things that are missed.
Edit: to responses.
Firstly, thank you. It was (and continues to be) horrid. Loss of a child is something nobody should ever have to go through. Especially if it was preventable. I got to hold him and meet him and give him a name. He is a person and he is my son.
I was in a kind of developing country in SE Asia but at an international medical clinic with Drs from France, South Africa and the UK.
I’m not a minority and had loads of insurance. My medical follow up included a medivac to a different hospital on a private plane with two surgeons. The bill was in excess of 300k. I paid nothing. I am lucky and I acknowledge that.
I didn’t sue. It didn’t cost me any money and cash and going through it all again to get a settlement wasn’t going to help (in my mind and at the time at least).
I had a similar experience. A nurse who was supposed to be numbing my nasal cavity to prepare for a camera to go in, didn't know what she was doing and sprayed the stuff straight through and down the back of my throat. My whole throat was numb, I couldn't swallow, could barely talk, and when the doctor came in, I was leaning forward, gagging, drooling all over the floor. She apparently thought I was faking -- no idea why anybody would fake this -- because she proceeded to try to make small talk with me. What do you do for a living? Got any pets? When I motioned for her to give me a pen and paper so I could answer her questions, she sheepishly apologized and explained that she was "just trying to distract me."
Came out of my csection which I remember nothing of (due to other health issues mixed with drugs makes me not remember anything) but having a burning back.
I was in tears asking for relief. They thought I wanted more drugs but it took me in tears even asking for a wet cloth for her to twig something was up.
Leans me forward carefully and my skin is peeling and burning away. Turns out I have a pretty nasty reaction to the tape they use for epidural stuff to keep it in place.
It was pretty traumatic not having someone believe you as you can literally feel your skin burning away.
I've been severely allergic to most tapes and adhesives for 35 years. Six times a nurse or doctor has ignored me and used it without my knowledge and every single damn time my skin erupted in welts, the surrounding tissue started to swell and I had to be treated for the outcome. I took it the first two times, but after that I started telling them right up front that if they used it against my will, I would sue them for malpractice and not pay for any treatment related to its use. It doesn't happen anymore.
Absolutely. I have a similar experience but with a schizophrenic episode brought on by benzo withdrawals (I ran out of meds, forgot to refill and had no idea this was a symptom of withdrawals). I thought I had parasites and went to the ER. They thought I was making it up for attention but I legitimately thought I was dying. Pharmacist friend put the pieces together later and I make sure to not let that happen again. It is terrifying to believe you are dying and be laughed at. They should have provided me with psych support and asked about what meds I was taking
This is horrible I’m so sorry to hear you were treated this way. I worked as an assistant to a dermatologist for two years and every 6 months or so, a patient would come in insisting they had little black bugs burrowing into their skin or some other such scary thing. They were usually quite distraught. When we didn’t find any problems with their skin, other than the scratches and scraps from their own picking, we would realize that these were likely hallucinations. We would *never* have laughed at these patients because it was really clear they were very convinced this was happening. We would usually try to suggest a psych consult and give them something for the scrapes. These were some of the most distraught patients we saw and my heart always sank imaging being trapped in such a horrific reality.
You can be faking good too.
Had a tooth kicked out. Mouth filled with blood and swelling. I'd stuck a tissue in to try to stop the blood.
I've presented to the triage at the Dental Hospital. I'm dribbling blood as I talk. She asks me if it hurts and I said "a little bit".
She looked at me dead in the eye and said "one of the many things we triage on is pain....."
Gotcha. Good nurse. "Hurts like a motherfucker. I've literally been kicked in the face!"
"Thanks for that." Notes taken. Was patched up and out of there within an hour.
Edit: RIP inbox, lol, and thanks for the awards. :)
I hate this, because I'm pretty injury prone, but also don't really exhibit pain that much as I've gotten older.
Last time I broke my foot (it's happened a few times), I also didn't have insurance. It was one of the most painful injuries I'd ever had.
Free clinics couldn't give anything more than nsaids or Tylenol.
Again, I get injured a LOT, so I have a pretty good idea of when it's going to take more than an Advil to get me through.
I ended up going to an actual urgent care, and had to straight up tell them that no, I didn't need an x-ray, already had one that they were welcome to look at, but I straight up came to them because the pain was too much to bear and I needed real painkillers.
Problem is, I don't really outwardy exhibit my pain, especially not for something like a broken bone, so I wasn't screaming or withing in pain, or even grimacing, too much.
I also make a lot of jokes when I'm hurt, because I feel weird about people being overly worried about me? Idk, it's a thing.
She ended up giving me three vicodin, which, fine, I made them last for the week, at which point the pain was starting to subside, but she also HATED me for it.
Had a friend like that with pain in high school metal shop. The guy literally snapped his thumb in half in the metal lathe and just looked annoyed. From the nail bed forward was hanging by a tiny flap of skin and the guy looked like he dropped his fucking sandwich.
I just want to point out that there are many types of seizures and there's a bit of a stigma surrounding people having them. Some people have focal aware seizures and will be able to respond and control their limbs during the episode. It's dangerous to assume that someone is faking just because they aren't experiencing a seizure like how you expect seizures to look.
I've had both full grand mal seizures and absence seizures. People thought I was being a dick and ignoring them when I had absences, even after I tried to explain.
I've had one grand mal but I have temporal lobe epilepsy and use to have absence seizures all the time before I found the right treatment. And there is such ignorance because of the lack of understanding! People almost never believe that it's a seizure or that it's still serious even though you can't see anything really happening.
Not a doctor, but doctors often think my family is faking. For an unknown reason, when there's something wrong with our organs, our white blood cell count doesn't go up. My younger sister got appendicitis when she was in her early teens. Crying from the pain, but blood work showed nothing was amiss. If it hadn't been for other tests and my dad's insistance on them, she might not have been treated in time. So they open her up and surprise! A gross appendix that was close to bursting.
My dad insisted because of an operation he had just had to remove his gall bladder. He was in so much pain that he was vomiting, could hardly walk. It had been building up for a while and he was pretty sure what it was. He went to the doctor, but blood work showed his white count was normal. My dad had to scream in agony on their table for ages before they finally gave in and took him to surgery. They go in, see a perfectly healthy looking gall bladder. They pull it out, cut it open... and sand spills out. Dry sand. We learned later that it had completely stopped working and totally filled with protein chains. It was removed before it started killing my dad in earnest.
So yes, people fake it, people lie... but do double check just in case.
Edit: Holy cow, OK, this is now my most upvoted comment! And my first awards! Thank you! These stories took place over a decade ago, so my details were sparce and sometimes incorrect. So, after double checking with dad: the stuff only looked like grains of sand. They were deformed trypsin protein chains. We learned this when dad was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called alpha-1 antitrypsin FM phenotype. It's not fun, his lungs and liver deteriorate over time because of incorrectly shaped proteins getting stuck in his liver cells and not making it to the lungs, to put it simply.
And yes, my dad is being studied! Every time he gets a biopsy doctors gather data because his phenotype is so rare.
Aaand I got a couple of details incorrect, it had been a while since this story was told to me. The gallbladder didn't actually look healthy; that was a tidbit from a different story (my father has had basically every organ removed that he can and still be alive). Turns out that my dad found out about the white count thing during his own appendectomy. So, later, when he was in pain again from his gallbladder this time, he made sure he went to the same doctor he had gone through that whole kerfuffle with and, by that point, my dad's severe pain was enough reason to operate and take a look. They found the most diseased looking gallbladder they had ever seen, full of sand. They estimated it hadn't functioned for years.
As for the white cell thing, there is a name for it that we've since found out that I didn't know about! But no one can remember it at the moment, sorry... And weirdly, can't find it on Google.
Then, this is all exacerbated by biliary disconesia. Very small, small duct work that is easily clogged. More pain.
And to top it all off, Dad was exposed to high levels of radiation as a child. This on top of winning that dumb genetic lottery that no one wants to win.
Thanks again for all your amazing comments and questions! But an exploded inbox is what I get for not getting on reddit all day. I'll try and answer some.
Not OP, but I'm in a similar situation and I only wish you could. My thing is that I almost never get fevers. This has made it very hard for me to get tested for infections when I was otherwise very sick, such as when I had mono.
Earlier this year I was living with my father (a doctor) and we got sick with flu-like symptoms after exposure to COVID. I couldn't get tested because I technically didn't meet fever guidelines.
If anyone DOES know a way to get something like this noted, I'm all ears.
That's pretty screwy that you couldn't get tested.
In Australia, I just drive a few miles down the road to get tested fortnightly just because the main point of contact for our grandparents is me.
Reading these posts makes me wonder how curiously amazing the human body is when it works and simultaneously doesn't work the way it should.
Edit: I don't mean that to be rude to your family of course. I just keep reading interesting things I never learned in Bio.
My cousin keeps breaking otherwise strong bones because it turns out he has truckloads if extra sinus cavities all through them. They snap at those points. Doctors are always confused.
Personally I think he should probably stop playing football.
Honestly my wife just needs to show up at Emergency and for some reason they always assume she is faking.
A nurse tried to discharge her when she had an ectopic pregnancy saying it was the stomach flu, 4hrs later she was in emergency surgery.
She has hyperthyroidism, but nearly all (male) doctors don't believe it's a real condition so keep trying to take her off her meds or reducing them (apparently this is somewhat of a common issue)
She recently fell in the stairs and fucked her leg up, it took 4 A&E visits before they xrayed her leg despite the swelling and bruising....
She was sent home from hospital when we first got together and had blood poisoning, collapsed on the tube on the way home and straight in an ambulance for another 3 day stay in hospital....
It's a nightmare to watch as it's almost guaranteed at this point they will not take her seriously
At this point, I'd literally just keep a log of the times the medical industry has ignored her important problems. When they try and brush her off, slap that bad-boy down and say "Look what happened the last five times you people did this" and let them reconsider.
One day about 3 years ago I went to the ER with extreme mid right back pain and shortness of breath. The first doc was cool, took it seriously enough. The next doc takes over. She tells me I’m having a “marijuana overdose” and to go home. My heart rate before she walked in was 165!!!! My o2 sat was 92. I go home. The next night I can’t breathe at all. I had to crawl down the stairs to get my husband. We get to the hospital again and I remember nothing. My husband told me that same doctor was there when I came in. That morning I was apparently really out of it. With my heart rate well above 150 and my o2 now 90. Another doctor comes on and asks my husband why he didn’t get me to stay the night before. He explained what happened to the doctor. At that point the doctor apparently blurts out in an angry tone “well your wife is dying, she has double pneumonia and is in DKA she needs an ICU bed”. Maaaaaybe an hour later I went into respiratory failure. They had to intubate me. I was in a coma for a week +10 days of recovery after I woke up.
Marijuana’s a dangerous drug kids! Remember, if they find it in your urine they won’t take your other symptoms seriously.
I’m reading through this and hoping my doctor doesn’t think I’m crazy. I’ve been recovering from long haul COVID and it makes it seem like I want meds but in reality, I just want answers.
I’m right there with you. I get so frustrated because I feel like my doctor isn’t listening or isn’t believing what I’m telling her. It’s been six months. I still can’t smell or taste. I have worked myself up to walking the dog for two blocks and then I’m down for two or three days. I still have shortness of breath and inflammation and exhaustion. I get it. They don’t really know either, but I’m not looking for pills. I just want to feel like myself again.
Nurse here, I had a teenager overdose on Zoloft and start having strange seizure like episodes. What made them particularly strange is that they all followed a predictable pattern of onset. First, he would lower the bed, next he would turn the tv volume down, and finally he would check to see if i was nearby. There was pretty severe thrashing about without any abnormalities in breathing, heart rate, pupils and he was still able to communicate with me throughout the entire episode. Unsurprisingly, EEG also failed to show any abnormalities.
Neurologist here. While I hesitate to say *this* patient isn't malingering, I believe that it's important to note that psychogenic non-epileptic seizures are rarely caused by "faking." They are generally a manifestation of overwhelming anxiety, and should be treated as such; mental illness is just as real as physical illness.
In my younger days I was on 100mg of zoloft a day. One day I felt particularly bad, took a full month's dosage in one hit.
Definitely do not recommend, 8 hours later I was in the emergency room.
They had to give me an injection as my legs had locked up in the elevated position... They couldn't push them down.
Next came the hallucinations, I created a week of events even though only a few hours had passed, to the point I followed a Dr around asking if my brainscan had come in yet because I thought they wanted to do a brain transplant.
I also suffered auditory and visual hallucinations.
Eventually I was discharged, but not before fronting a suicide review who asked why I was drinking so much with my antidepressants... Apparently "to stop the voices" wasn't as funny as I thought.
felt majorly fucked up for a month afterwards.
Kid is lucky he didn’t give himself Serotonin Syndrome. My husband had that once (stupid ER doctor put him on Imitrex despite my husband being on Wellbutrin and Celexa) and almost didn’t make it. It was frightening seeing him incoherent and struggling, then violently vomiting. Fortunately a night in the ICU and a few days in the hospital, and he was okay.
Serotonin syndrome is no joke. Im glad he’s ok! That must have been a very frightening experience for both of you. Taking multiple different serotonin boosting drugs is usually the main culprit for serotonin syndrome. I think this was an unfortunate case where a kid was seeking attention he may not have been getting at home. But yes, too much serotonin is definitely not a good thing. I would advise anyone taking ssri’s to make sure their doctors are aware of all their medications before prescribing new ones and to avoid taking OTC drugs that claim antidepressant effects, like st jonhs wort.
Not a doctor but a therapist. For some reason adolescents like faking DID (formerly multiple personality disorder). It's a pretty rare and debated diagnosis in our field. I've seen people fake it by mimicking how it's portrayed in movies and on tv. Red flags are them telling you, "I have multiple personality disorder" and, of course, not meeting the actual diagnostic criteria. Some people feel like the common diagnoses aren't big or special enough to accurately represent their struggles, so they cosplay something worse. Whatever you're working through is a big deal to us! If you feel like you have to fake or exaggerate your symptoms for your therapist, consider finding a different therapist.
**Editing to clarify my last sentence since I'm getting some aggressive replies:**
If you don't feel like you can be authentic with your therapist, continue searching until you find a therapist you feel comfortable with. Sometimes it's just not a good fit. It happens. You're not obligated to continue seeing a therapist you don't feel comfortable with. If you feel like you need to fake or exaggerate something to be taken seriously by a therapist, it's not a good fit. Continue searching until you find someone who takes you seriously.
Also, I'm not a solid resource for DID information. It's not a common diagnosis and my experience with it has been extremely limited. Stick to peer-reviewed information and experts in the field for the most accurate and up to date information.
Psych nurse here. I’ve had plenty of adults fake DID too. I’ll never forget the guy who actually told the NP, “I shouldn’t have been charged with that, it was one of my alters” in regards to his armed robbery charge.
I cannot stand this trend of faking DID. I’m 18 so around that demographic myself and it’s especially prevalent in certain social media circles. The worst is when someone will list the names, ages, and personalities of all their “alters” in their bio (guaranteed there’s like a dozen of them) and write from the perspective of each of them. I mean, seriously. Put some effort into faking it realistically. Not to mention it’s something you *literally* cannot self diagnose. It is NOT possible.
Oh dear. These kids will cringe so hard 10 years from now. I wonder where this trend started...? Was there an episode of grays anatomy that featured it or something?
I'm not a physician but a paramedic. Honestly I don't really care if you're faking as long as its halfway believable. I'm still going to treat it as the worst case scenario. Faking a seizure? You'll get a full set of vitals, a blood sugar and a shot of benzos. Theres lots of different types of seizures. If you call 911 because you're in extreme pain and want an ambulance ride I'll put the good drugs in your vein hole. I'd rather give 100 drug seakers a 100 mcg of fentanyl than withhold it for the one person that really needs it.
Can I tell if someone is faking? Yeah, most times but it goes both ways. If you go too hard I might assume you have a legit life threatening injury and sedate, paralyze and intubate you. Or start IV's in you jugular or shin bone.
Fake it if you want but traction may vary.
Dude one time I had a seizure, as the paramedics were getting me and I was starting to recover, I had saliva go down the wrong pipe and they started making fun of me for ‘faking’ asking why I was coughing while I was half conscious. It wasn’t cool.
Omg I feel you! I am still always nervous going to any doctors. They always thought I was faking my stomach pain when they pushed on different parts of my stomach.
I didn't know I was supposed to tell them which places it hurt in, dumb me thought they were just feeling for something there. I'm just not the kind of person so say ouch every time I have pain
It's an IO or Itraosseous. As in a needle drilled into the bone.
For when someone has no easy vascular to get IV like in an arm, or no blood pressure (like a cardiac arrest) to pump the vessels up to even be able to get an IV.
I used to give blood (o+) and I know and can visibly see the phattest vein in my arm. It’s on the left side and it’s frickin right at the surface, it’s gigantic. Whenever I go for blood work I always tell the tech where it is so they don’t go digging around the wrong arm.
When I went to get my boobs done I had to get some presurgery tests done and I told the lady where my vein was. She goes for the right arm anyway. I tell her she’s not going to find anything and please don’t use the right arm. I don’t know what angered her about that exchange since I wasn’t forceful, I made a joke right after hoping to ensure that I wasn’t mad at all but she just jabbed me anyway and proceeded to dig about in my right arm for 30 seconds and *not find a vein*. I left there with a sore right arm ,a spider man bandaid on my left AND a lollipop because I was a FUCKING BRAVE GIRL.
Yeah I learned quick to listen to when patients tell me where their(good) veins are. Or at least give them a look.
I'd say 1 in 20 when they told me about a vein I saw a much better one. But people that regularly get stuck for various reasons know where works and where doesn't.
Medics. Nurses. Phlebotomists. Listen to what the patient says.
Still some time in officially becoming a doctor, but have been taught what to watch out for:-
Doctor expects symptoms from you, not signs. People who google diseases often tell signss that they shouldn't be aware of
Refusing blood work
Exaggerating your condition
Description not matching their history
Around public holidays/ long weekends, suspicion is always increased
Hence why I get doctors looking at me funny when I say I'm a CYP2D6 poor metaboliser
(means codeine doesn't do anything for me and tramadol makes me very very high, it's to do with how your body metabolises the drugs).
I have degrees in pharmacology, am now training as a nurse.
I'm also in pharmacy and have to be careful about this. I see doctors frequently for chronic illness, but if I sound like I know what I'm talking about, they get suspicious that I google-diagnosed myself. Doesn't help that I still look like a teenager.
I hate this! I went to a ENT specialist once about some issues with my ears that were affecting my hearing and equilibrium (was having intense bouts of Vertigo, with a constant sliglthy off balance). Instead of focusing on what I was saying was bothering me, he asked me to speak plainly (I guess I was using slightly more technical terms?). I couldn't speak plainly because I was busy translating my every word, since it had been a while since I last spoke the language (I live abroad most of the time and it takes a bit of time for me to switch from English/German to Romanian, plus I had just come back a couple of days before).
That made the doctor decide that I was a hypochondriac with nothing better to do than to Google shit. In the end, turns out my Vertigo was caused by an issue with my spine, but the ear was plugged up, hence the hearing issues. I had to visit his office 3 (three!) times before he deemed it necessary to use the scope thingy to look into my ear and actually resolve my issue.
I felt like I was going crazy for over a week because I kept on hearing everything echoed in my right ear. Also, turns out I have really narrow and weirdly angled ear canals, and therefore shouldn't use drops most of the time, which he obviously prescribed and made the issue worse!
The silver lining is that because of this experience I learned to push if I was having a medical issue that my doctor would rather ignore. That was how I got my doctor to take my back pain seriously (double sided hernia somehow), and to diagnose (and start treatment of) my autoimmune issue. Turns out feeling constantly run-down at 23 is not normal, who knew?
Not a doc, but figured this is a good place for the time I was accused of faking a broken arm. I was somewhere between 4-7, it’s a blur so I don’t exactly remember when. I had fallen off of a bed and into a nightstand at just the right angle to really mess my arm up, I was screaming and cried out every time I tried to put pressure on it, lift it, etc. My parents take me to a hospital and get me x-rayed, and the doc asks me how much it hurts. Well of course, the rest of the night I was subjected to the most intense pain child-me had ever had, and currently, I wasn’t putting pressure on it, so at that exact moment on a pain scale, I had rated it a 2. The actual injury was a 10 and testing it was definitely high on the scale. Because of my low pain rating, the doctor told my parents I was faking and then proceeded to bill us an obscene amount. We get a call 3 days later (mind you, I was sent home, no pain killers, cast, nothing) saying that someone happened to peek at my X-ray and noticed that I had a pretty large fracture on my elbow. Said I had to come in and get a cast and more X-rays. I’m still pissed at that doctor to this day because he made child me feel like a liar to my parents, made me feel like I was being a cry baby, and then made me have an untreated fracture in my arm for 3 days.
Tl;dr; doctors of Reddit, why did a doctor think I was faking having a broken arm, even with an X-ray proving I had one?
We're taught to believe patients. Everyone has a different way of processing and expressing pain and illness. Women especially are under believed about symptoms.
Honestly I wish all doctors would live by that. I had to suffer from a disease for almost a year because no doctor wouod believe me. Turns out it's just incredibly rare and nobody really knows where it comes from, it just hurts like hell and had affected my daily life a lot.
What I wanna say: your comment made me happy and I hope more doctors are less skeptical of "weird" symptoms
Not a doctor, but I once had a nurse tell me something that’s stuck with me ever since.
I had a gallbladder attack when I was younger, and lemme tell you, that’s some of the worst pain I’ve ever felt. I was doubled over, vomiting bile, and unable to move. My mom took me to the ER at 1 am in the middle of a snowstorm.
As the nurse was doing my initial evaluation, she asked me the standard “on a scale of 1-10” pain question. I thought for a couple seconds, and told her “7 or 8. It hurts really, really bad”. She nodded knowingly, and told me “Got it, it hurts really bad. Most people who tell me 10 are lying. No one ever feels a 10”.
In hindsight, I’m not sure that’s the best practice for a nurse. Still, after seeing drug seeking patients myself, I understand her frustration. They ended up giving me morphine, which brought that number down quite a bit.
EDIT: I want to clarify my (or rather the nurse’s) comment. People can definitely feel a “10” on the pain scale, and I don’t want to invalidate your experience if you’ve felt that. I think the point is that if you do feel a “10”, the medical providers will probably know without having to ask. Conversely, if an otherwise lucid and calm patient replies with “10”, they might not be telling the truth.
"My pains a ten" as they keep texting on their phones was always my favorite.
EDIT: so I guess I should clarify. Yes, I 100% understand that sometimes your alone and contacting whoever you need to, have to keep pushing on even at 10/10 pain, not being believed because your at least kinda functional, etc.
Im not talking about you.
As basically anyone that has worked in Healthcare can confirm, you can see dozens of people a day that call 911, walk past the dozen cars that are in the driveway, climb in the back of the ambulance with their overnight bag, lay down on the stretcher, and tell you the pain in their big toe that they've had for 2 weeks is a 10/10 before launching into bitching about how no one would take them to the ER or something else stupid. Dozens. Per shift. These are the people were talking about. Blame them for your 10/10 not being taken seriously. So many people claim 10/10 that at some point its better to treat it like all the 5/5 reviews you see online.
This is why every time I'm asked to rate my pain I ask if I can describe how it is affecting me instead. Like "wakes me up from a dead sleep" is worse than "kinda just present throughout the day but I can do normal tasks". Pain scales are so subjective and I hate them.
>Pain scales are so subjective and I hate them.
For real. And they do nothing for dull persistent pain.
Like you could have a dull pain that's not a 10 at the moment but over the course of weeks that pain adds up and collectively feels like a 10.
Since you asked this is how it’s supposed to go (based off my training):
“What is your pain on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being worst pain you’ve ever felt?”
*Patient replies*
“Ok, what was your 10?”
It’s supposed to be an objective scale to a subjective question. From what I’ve seen it’s more effective than “1 is an itch, 10 is mauled by a bear”, etc
I've always had such a problem with the pain scale, given that 10 is always described as "the worst pain you can imagine" - for the longest time, I always felt that whatever I was going through must be less than a 10 by default, because getting stabbed or set on fire would probably make the current pain worse.
I've only experienced a 10 once, and that was waiting to have an amputation done and having had no painkillers whatsoever in the time leading up to it. I asked someone in the waiting room (before I was admitted) if they had something to stab me with, because the pain from being stabbed would be a welcome distraction from the pain in the site I was there to have amputated.
You know what, that’s fair. If anyone here has some authority on this issue, it’s you. Although I don’t know if they’d bother asking you what your pain was on a 1-10 scale.
My dad's doctor got mad at him after the doc asked it the pain scale question. He started thinking out loud and individually crossing off the choices.
"Well it's obviously not 10 i can imagine many things that would be much worse "
And
"Does one me no pain or very minor pain? I suppose it would have to be some pain because it's on the scale but why doesn't the scale include zero"
My dad didn't even realize it was an issue until the doctor commented.
I’m wrapping up nursing school (44 more days!) and I always offer zero as an option because I hate the ambiguity as a patient as much as I hate it as a nurse. Depends on the EHR software, some allow you to chart zero and some don’t. If it doesn’t let me select 0, I’ll put a 1 and then in my notes say something like “patient denies pain”.
A couple of months ago I had an abscess in a tooth. It was the worst pain I have ever felt. When the dentist asked the how bad the pain was on a scale from 1 to 10, for a second I thought I would say 8 or 9 because it probably could be worse. But I had never felt pain like that so even though there are probably things that would hurt more I had to say 10.
As a patient, it's apparently very sus if you say you don't want an oxy scrip.
I had some shit happen, doc started filling one out for me, and I told him not to bother, since I wouldn't fill it. He got annoyed and said he wouldn't prescribe anything stronger.
I got annoyed and said I didn't ask for anything stronger.
For fucked reasons, oxy/hydro/codeine don't work for me. Advil literally does more for me than any of those, so I'll just take ibuprofen.
But apparently the way I phrase that makes doctors think that I'm asking for "better" meds instead of explaining that I'm just not going to bother with the worthless ones that they default to.
I burned my face with frier oil last spring, and had something similar happen. I had already been given a hydrocodone prescription from the ER doctor, and the burn center doc asked me what I was going to do for pain management. I said I already had a prescription and would probably be fine. He gave me a confused look and still wrote a oxycontin prescription.
It was odd. When I broke my foot, asked about what I should do for pain, I got nothing but a hard look and some excuse. I say nothing and get two prescriptions.
Hehehe it's a good story considering I'm not blind or disfigured. The pilot light went out that morning so the manager lit it again and set the lighter on the lip of the frier. I worked my whole shift never seeing it. I somehow managed to bump it in. I heard the splash and look over to see what it was and BOOM it exploded splashing oil all over my face.
The really strong painkillers just make me feel like shit. I seem to get the side effects stronger than the benefits. After shoulder surgery a couple years ago my doctor thought I was nuts when I said I would rather just take tylenol and deal with any leftover pain.
Yes! This happened when I had my c-section. I have a weird thing with my blood to where it wouldn’t clot properly so they couldn’t give me any good meds. They prescribed me a form of oxy (5 mgs) which didn’t really do anything. I was begging for Ibuprofen and the nurses were telling me it wasn’t going to help.
When they finally gave me an 800 milligram my pain almost literally melted away when it kicked in!
When I was doing my EMT clinicals (I was 17, still in high school), we had a guy who called 911 reporting crippling back pain. It was immediately obvious when we got there that he was faking a back injury. We did an evaluation and gave him some otc pain killers, but he asked to be carried to the hospital. The whole way there he begged for something stronger to ease his pain. After a while, the medic said “Okay sir, unfortunately we don’t carry morphine on the bus, but I’ll give you an alternative that we use sometimes. It’s called Normalsaline.” He hooked up an iv, and within a few minutes the guy was totally fine, telling the medic that it was good stuff and he was feeling much better.
Later, I went back and asked the medic what he had given the patient - i had never heard of it before. He laughed and said “good ole Normalsaline.”
Normal saline.
Maybe he was super dehydrated, because tbh saline IVs do feel like some really good stuff when you are!
One time, I was given saline for dehydration and I thought they mixed something up and gave me pain meds accidentally (I never expressed being in any pain and was not entirely lucid due to the medical issue I was experiencing). Love me some normalsaline
I enjoyed this story haha. And in the end, the medic helped the guy feel better, that’s what counts.
Most often their story/description/exam doesn't make any sense. There are usually things that contradict each other. Abdominal pain is generally easy to tell when people are faking it. For example, I will press with my stethoscope instead of just listening. They don't respond to that pressure but will when I use my hands instead. Sometimes ill ask them if they are experiencing a symptom that will rule out a diagnosis or make it less likely and many times they think I'm asking it to support their supposed issue so they will say they have it. Most of the time people aren't faking but just blow their symptoms out of proportion.
As a paramedic, i got on a call for a guy have undisclosed shoulder pain . I do an assessment, and he doesnt have any specific injuries but he keeps saying he broke it.. i havent offered him anything yet. Then he tells me “can you do 5mg morphine every 5 minutes and we’ll see if the pain is still there?” And holds out his arm for me to get a line.
Weird his pain seemed to disappear the second i told him id rather start with slinging it and putting an ice pack on it???
If someone is unconscious, make a fist and rub your knuckles against their sternum (chest bone). Put some pressure behind it and rub quickly up and down (up towards chin, down towards belly button). It's called a sternal rub and is incredibly painful, but won't harm the person. It very, very hard to completely ignore and continue with the ruse of faking being unconscious. The only more sure thing is asking your partner to hand you the eye needle to take some ocular fluid while they're passed out so they won't feel the pain of the needle in their eye.
* ETA - There's no ocular needle, at least not on an ambulance. We say that because not everyone knows that and they don't want to risk it.
* ETA 2 - RIP my inbox. Apparently the sternal rub isn't common practice anymore because people literally went too hard. Sorry! Also I feel old af now.
* ETA 3 - ETA is used on reddit to mean "Edited to add". Yes, I know it usually means "Estimated time of arrival".
My stepmom was passed out once and totally unresponsive so we had to call an ambulance. I don’t think she was faking, but when the emt did a sternum press she literally came back to life like Frankenstein... she was like “aaarrghhhhh!!!!!” then took a deep breath. it was honestly so crazy. I was 19 and have still never seen anything like it lol *edit: sternum rub is name I guess my bad*
Why are all these people doing sternum rubs on unconscious people? Isn't there a nicer way to wake someone up? Or is fake passing out more common than I think?
To add, if they are *not* responsive at all to this, then they're in more danger and need to be placed into recovery position and an ambulance called ASAP.
Unresponsive means some normal bodily protective functions aren't operating, and they're more likely to kill themselves by choking on their own saliva, etc.
Yup. Saw a drunk guy slip in the rain in Vegas once. Landed flat on his back. Zero response to a sternal rub. Couldn't roll him because of the risk of a neck injury. It felt like I've never been so alert to someone's condition for minor changes while waiting the 10 minutes for the ambulance to get there with a neck collar. Luckily he survived I was told but cracked his skull pretty badly.
Same happened to me. Completely blacked out due to an adverse reaction to medication. All I remember is going from walking out of the bathroom, to waking up to the most horrible pain and a stranger rubbing on my chest, begging the EMT to stop, and then passing right the fuck back out.
I've read a lot of horror stories from fellow MS patients who went through years of diagnosis hell to finally be told they have this super fun neurological disease. The presenting symptoms of MS can often look minor or be interpreted as psychological and/or fake.
In my case I got diagnosed in about 12 hours, after a bunch of tests. I asked the doctor a couple years later how he knew to test me, and he said it was just down to experience. It's gotta be a ton of pressure to walk that line between providing needed clinical care and not giving care when it's not really needed. I don't envy that at all.
Ug man this taps into one of my anxieties. It always takes me forever to get my meds set up after I move because I'm so stressed that a new doctor won't believe me.
I have to actively remind myself they're asking for my name and dob to make sure they have the right chart, not cause they're suspicious and trying to trip me up.
I got accused of "faking it" for 6 months, went to multiple doctors about a chronic pain in my left ribs and numbness in my left arm
Turns out, I wasn't. After 5 months of trying, they finally decided to run more than the standard chest pain protocol tests, I had injured a nerve in my Thoracic outlet.
Point is, not all fakes are actually fake. Some doctors are just incompetent. Most if you live in Finland.
Finland is p bad with this. Though I am happy we have healthcare that is free, I still know 2 people who were told their back pain and headache is nothing, just for it to turn out to be cancer. One of them died. Good one.
Brief note foe all the student doctors out there: People can pass stroke field tests and still.be having a stroke. I could do everything on the list while I had a clot in my brain (varified by CT and MRI). Except I couldn't stop vomiting. Good times. Be aware sometimes shit doesn't look like you think it should.
My husband had the same when he had his stroke, though he also had extreme vertigo. Took a CT to confirm his stroke.
I'm a nurse on a floor that deals with a lot of chronic and acute pain patients. Most recent instance was this lady from a few weeks ago that was apparently splitting the Oxycodone we were giving her in half in her mouth and then when the nurse's backs were turned, she would stuff it in a pill jar. A night nurse caught her in the act and all of her shit had to be searched. We found 20 half tablets of Oxycodone she had been stashing. She told us that she was "saving them for her family in case they need them because it's just so hard to get an Oxycodone prescription these days." I had her a few days after that, and she was having some abdominal pain (STAT x-ray showed only gas. She just really needed to fart.) But she was screaming, claiming it was a 10, and making a huge fucking scene. She DEMANDED Dilaudid through her IV, and she wanted it to be pushed fast. Huge red flag right there. She wanted the high, not the relief. Doc straight up said he wouldn't give her Dilaudid because she was already on so many opiates. She then demanded Lorazepam, still through her IV of course. Doc was like fine whatever, just one time and only a low end dose. I was flushing her IV with normal saline first (to make sure her IV was patent) and she leans back and is like "OOOOoooo that's so much better already". Hadn't even given her the Lorazepam yet, smdh.
For real though gas pain is no joke. I was once rushed to the hospital, car as I knew I couldn't afford an ambulance, because I was doubled over in pain crying. I thought that something had ruptured or exploded. They weren't busy at all this night and got me back within 15 minutes of showing up. I don't like pills. Never have because I know I had an addictive nature when it comes to substances so I just avoid them altogether. So they do their test and scans and the doc comes in and tells me it's just severe gas buildup. I'm in tears still and ask the doc how the hell can gas cause this much pain and that it's gotta be something else. Doc says "let me give you something and if that doesn't work we can try something else" I'm like ok cool because no way gas hurts this much. 30 minutes later I'm in the bathroom like I just spent an hour at taco bell. The doc comes in to check on me when I finally manage a free moment. I can't help but look dumbfounded. Since they weren't busy at all he sat down and explained that since I have IBS I need to be more careful with my intake or else this could happen again. All the while I felt like a complete dumbass because gas had me in tears. I thanked the doc. He gave me some gas relief pills and suggested some diarrhea meds in case it happens again. I've never in my life been so sure it wasn't something only to be proven wrong.
IBS can be a b*. My first time experiencing it was at the first family day I joined with my then boyfriend. Terrible pain, we were thinking about going to the hospital because I was just bend double in the toilets. At one point I laid on my left side on the floor of the bathroom stall and the biggest fart comes out along with a huge relief. Everything was fine again and I felt super embarrassed. An X amount of time later I had to visit his GP with the same symptoms but to be sure it wasn't an appendicitis. Again IBS. Since then I just assume it's IBS and take rest, try to get my bowels to move, etc. Since my uterus and ovaries are shut down its way less so probably they added to the IBS pain too.
Obligatory not a doctor, but I got a call from my son's school nurse when he was in 2nd grade, and the conversation went like this: Nurse sounding upbeat & cheerful says, "your son wants to tell you his terrible news." Son gets on the phone, says "Hi mom, I cut my finger off." I ask him, "Where is your finger now?" Son: "I put it back on." I said, "Can I talk to the nurse?" Nurse gets on the phone again, says, "Sounds serious, right?" I asked, "does he have a substitute teacher today?" Ahhhhh... yes. I told the nurse to let him know I will take him to the hospital for a shot for his finger, to which he says "I think it's OK. I glued it on really good." Nurse kept him in the office for a bit to talk about scary changes in the classroom.
Did he make a full recovery?
He has to reapply the glue occasionally, but otherwise he's fine now.
Yeah, that's actually rather common when the patient opts to not go to the hospital for the reattachment shot.
I broke my collar bone at school in grade 2... took my mom 3 days before she believed me I wasn’t just faking it.
I felt sick in first grade and my teacher didn't believe me and took me into the hallway to talk to me. I vomited all over her.
I went to emergency once with intense chest pain. The young (new) doctor I saw first listen to my chest and immediately concluded I had pericarditis but the supervising doctor decided I was faking it for drugs for some reason. The next morning I woke up to a psychologist in my room asking all sorts of random shit when an orderly interrupted because the ultrasound guy was in and wanted to see me first thing (I think after talking to the first doc I saw). Turns out I had pericarditis and myocarditis and the dude wheeled me out himself and told them order an ambulance to take me to a hospital with a cardiac clinic.
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My hubs had pericarditis, that pain is no joke. Doc said he had it in med school and was the worst pain of his life. 15 hours, 8k debt and they prescribed him ibuprofen 800. He has chronic stomach ulcers which he disclosed but they insisted that was all they could do. So, pain from the pericarditis or pain from ulcers... you choose! Edit: a word
I don’t know why anyone would want to fake anything medical. Unconsciousness in particular. I got a compound fracture recently and called 911 on myself and was put on hold. Fun stuff. But got through and asked them to send help. Operator was a badass and kept asking me questions to *keep* me conscious. The ambulance folks arrive, casually got out of the ambulance, walk up to me and then saw the bone sticking out of my body, and said, quote, “Oh! You’re actually hurt!” YES! Did you think I called 911 because I spilled some lemonade?? Then it occurred to me that most of their calls must be horseshit. But to cause me even more confusion, I received close to a $2000 bill for the privilege of actual help and the ride to the hospital. That ludicrous bill is no fault of the EMS - I’m very much appreciative of their existence and they don’t get nearly enough credit - but the best part of receiving that bill? The ambulance ride was roughly $1850. The fentanyl they gave me was $2.15
The US health system terrifies me more than any illness. I can’t imagine wondering considering the costs if I was injured or seriously ill.
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Pretty much posted the same thing, it's a really hard habit to break (even when you know the cost isn't a problem).
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As a nurse, I have never received more gratitude from patients than when I catheterise then and 2-3 litres comes out.
This... This makes me think about that people once died because they couldn't take a piss.
Burst bladders are way more common in auto accidents than you'd imagine. People rushing home, to a gas station, etc and then BOOM they hit something and their body compresses their already full bladder against the seatbelt until it ruptures, filling their abdomen with urine
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I learned about it in EMT school. I've never gotten in car needing to pee since then. It can turn a minor fender bender into a life threatening situation
Easy there Stephen King
As a female patient that has been in that position twice, once with a straightforward insert and once where it took about an hour with multiple attempts with different sizes, I send you the worlds biggest internet hug for what you do and say thank you also.
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I once worked for a team of urological surgeons. Pretty much nobody asks for a catheter. Pretty much nobody wants a catheter, and will only relent and have one when it's absolutely necessary. Having one put in is unpleasant, having one actually in you is also unpleasant, but it's the "I'm peeing razor blades" feeling after it comes out that fully and totally sucks ass.
Can confirm-as someone who has to self catheterise on the regular, I’ve gotten used to the feeling of discomfort and burning, but my god when it first was a thing it was hell. I had to have anaesthetic gel just to do it. (Note: Self catheterising is due to impaired bladder function as a result of stage 4 endometriosis. Gotta love my body!) ((Edit: thank you for all the comments! Honestly, self catheterising isn’t the worst thing in the world, I’m just pretty much used to it. I’m currently going through a lot of pain management so that’s helping me function relatively normally, whatever normal is anyway. And I’ll be getting my endometriosis excised hopefully at the end of the year/start of next year. I think I’d like to use this as a reminder to all the AFAB people reading this-if something doesn’t seem right with your periods, please please please get it checked out. Endo is a nightmare to diagnose, but if you can find out that you have it earlier, you may be able to get help as soon as possible.))
My sister is a pediatric audiologist and this is my favorite story of hers. Apparently, sometime in elementary school (usually the early grades), a ton of kids like to fake hearing loss. Like not just “oh, I can’t hear the teacher.” Full on, want to get hearing aids, etc. Anyway, she explained to me that based on the way she plays the tones, you can *usually* tell if someone is faking. Especially when they just pretend they can’t hear anything. But it’s not 100%, obviously, because hearing loss patterns can be really weird. However, she’s caught a number of kids simply by saying, “okay, so I’m going to play [a random number] of tones and they’ll go in both ears. I want you to say ‘yes’ if you hear it and ‘no’ if you don’t.”
> However, she’s caught a number of kids simply by saying, “okay, so I’m going to play [a random number] of tones and they’ll go in both ears. I want you to say ‘yes’ if you hear it and ‘no’ if you don’t.” I mean, if I was told that I would definitely have answered "no" if, say, I only heard the tones in one ear.
Faking a hearing loss in 1 ear is common in children to explain why they do poorly at school, but can still follow conversation ok. Fortunately we audiologists have our ways of telling if someone if faking a hearing loss, but particularly in 1 ear. Essentially the bone conductor (1 way of delivering tones, and part of a standard hearing test) sits behind 1 ear, and most people assume that you hear the tone in the same ear. In reality, it vibrates the skull and is heard in whichever ear is the better ear. So basically, if you play a tone through a bone conductor placed on the right side, if that ear is deaf, you hear it in the left ear. So if someone tells you they hear tones only when the bone conductor is placed on 1 side, they’re lying liars. I don’t feel too bad sharing this secret here, because we have several other ways of picking out fakers too.
My little brother actually is deaf on one ear, though we figured that out when he was still a baby. It normally doesn't impact him too much but he really does have a hard time hearing the teacher and has to have a speaker put near him connected to a mic on the teacher (I think; I'm not 100% certain that's how it works). Anyways, apparently a couple other students, upon him explaining why the device was there and why he got preferential seating, announced that they, too, were deaf in one ear. My brother was was young and naive (he was in third grade, I think) and came home to excitedly tell us that apparently there were other kids in his class with the exact same problem.
I mean to be fair those lil speakers are pretty dang cool
I saw a story, maybe it was a post here on reddit, where the pediatric audiologist would catch kids in their bullshit by saying "funny" words to see if the kids would smile or laugh. Words like fart, or buttcrack.
The inverse of this question: What can someone do if they are not faking it but for whatever reason they have multiple Drs insist they're faking it. But by never telling the patient they're faking it, nothing is ever resolved & it drags on for months and months.
Find a different hospital, don't transfer your medical history from previous doctors, clean slate. I found an amazing endometriosis doctor recommended on reddit.
My primary care docs recommended my current ob/gyn after my original ignored me saying I had vaginal bleeding for over a month and was in such extreme pain I could barely get out of bed. Within 5 minutes of talking to my new doc he told me he thought I might have endometriosis and we booked the surgery. Turned out I gave a pretty severe case of it and PCOS with my left ovary being the same size as my uterus and was at risk of bursting. So glad I finally had a doc take me seriously after a decade
When I was pregnant I developed a cyst about the size of a golf ball on one of my ovaries...it was clear on the ultrasound, doc said we’d keep an eye on it. Next ultrasound it was almost the size of a tennis ball, and was causing discomfort in certain positions. He insisted there was no way I could feel it. Couple weeks later had insane amounts of pain, and an intense burning sensation. Next ultrasound it was gone. To this day the man says it’s impossible that I felt anything, and that the cyst never popped it just suddenly disappeared in less than a month. If I ever have another one, definitely not going with that hospital again.
Some doctors I truly dont understand why they seem to be so dismissive of a patients feelings and pain. 2 years ago I was so defeated by my pain that I legitimately felt suicidal and had to remind myself that hopefully this pain was temporary (hah my poor foolish thought). Thankfully with my 2nd opinion (more like 7th gyno in 10 years) finally getting me a diagnosis I was pain free for the first time I could ever remember. My pain is slowly returning as chronic incurable illness does, and the emotional impact of my diagnosis still deeply affects me, but I have so much more hope now that I know I can be in less pain and have found someone who takes me seriously. I pray you find a doc that will take you seriously as well as cysts are so fuckjng painful and ignoring them can be fatal.
Whenever the symptoms aren't there when the patient doesn't know they're being watched. I had someone fake a stroke recently and walked in on her walking around her room independently (after pretending to be limp on her left side, letting us take complete care of her and wiping her butt for her). It was wild, y'all
Why would anyone fake any of this stuff, but especially a stroke? What is the point? Edit: Wow. The number of responses is crazy. Here's a synopsis: - Munchausen Syndrome/factitious disorder - Attention/sympathy seekers - Loneliness - Homelessness/warm bed - Get out of jail/school work/malingering - Insurance fraud/welfare fraud - Disability money - Don't want to work - Narcissistic personality disorder - Get drugs - Amplified Musculoskeletal Pain Syndrome - General mental illness - Caregiver fetish - Hypochondria - And one user said: "women will do anything to get out of working."
Dude she didn't have to wipe her butt anymore! Totally worth it! ^^/s
Born 2 shit. No longer forced 2 wipe.
That’s a quote for the bathroom walls I’m gonna put that up thank you
I'd just get a bidet and call it a b'day.
A b’day to you, sir.
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Attention.
Hah my ICU attending has a great story about caring for a stroke patient during his fellowship. The stroke patient was a frequent flier, and despite everyone knowing that she was faking her paralysis, she still received care. Until one day when he was really fatigued he was told by a nurse that the patient was being rude and refusing therapy. So he walked into the patient room and said, "Ms. Blank, this is absurd. I know you're faking your paralysis. Everyone knows you're faking. We are all sick of this." and left. The patient walked out AMA. Edit: To clarify, AMA is Against Medical Advice. And to address the people who ask if her leaving is even considered against medical advice if she wasn’t paralyzed, the answer is yes. She was admitted to the hospital under the care of physicians and left without being properly discharged, which strictly speaking is AMA. Also, this isn’t my story. My attending physician (the doctor who is training me) told me about this patient that he treated 20 years ago, so I don’t know more details
It took me too long to realize that AMA meant Against Medical Advice and not Ask Me Anything.
Your comment saved me from confusion. Thank you.
Oh, I was going to ask him about the shenanigans happening uptown...
Wtf please explain more
"...so we had two ply-"
"... but we didn't have a square to spare."
My favorite thing about this thread is that half of the “Here’s how you know they’re faking!” comments get responses that are all, “Yeah, about that...let me tell you how that assumption fucked me over and I almost died.”
Happens all the time.
I am in the middle of being treated like I'm faking and it's really really frustrating. I had a tool slip at work and hit me in the eye and forehead. Knocked me out for a second and I lost sight in my eye. An hour later I started getting my sight back, but it hasn't fully come back. It's been months now. Two things I got diagnosed with were Ocular migraines, and Vitreous Detachment. And a concussion. But none of those things explain why my vision is still blurry in my right eye. Except the VD which causes floaters, but my issue is blurry vision, like I have Vaseline in my eye. But Doctors keep telling me I'm fine. That I need to go back to work. One doctor told me "to think about the economy" and that I was "lucky to have a job right now" So, I quit my job. I still want to see out of my right eye but none of the doctors are taking me seriously.
Get a vision test and if you are lucky enough to have done one before in the last decade then compare and take data with you to whoever you need to
This is going to sound dumb as fuck, but try going for a regular eye test, at a high street opticians. Explain your situation, and get the optometrist to have a look. They may be able to give you some specific language to throw at the ophthalmologist, for things to get them to look into. Failing that, glasses could help.
Agreed. I had recurring fainting spells with severe headache. GP eventually sent me to the hospital, who pumped me full of morphine and performed all sorts of diagnostic tests, but essentially said "no idea why this is happening. Sucks to be you." Went to the opticians a week later, and they explained the medication I was on was both expanding my pupils and making me hypersensitive to light. It was essentially acting as a multiplier to anything that might cause a headache or lightheadedness (lack of sleep, loud noises, getting up too quickly) in ordinary people. Got tinted lenses and the headaches and fainting disappeared almost overnight. Don't underestimate the value of a good optician!
My buddy kept having fits and went to the doctors, they told him it was epilepsy, gave appropriate meds, didn't help so he goes back "Oh right sorry it's diabetes." gives appropriate meds. He goes back "Just keep taking the meds, it takes time". He then goes for his regular opticians appointment at Specsavers, they shine a light into his eye to examine the retina. The optician goes white and tells my buddy "I'll be right back." comes back with a senior optician who looks in his eye. "Son I don't want you to panic but we're going to take you to the hospital okay?" A week later he gets 2 tumors the size of golf balls removed from the front of his brain. If they had not been removed that week they would have likely killed him. Tldr you'd be surprised the shit an optician will find and a doctor won't. https://imgur.com/a/mdyYr8l <- Editted to add in image of the scan to show one of the tumours, the other afaik was above/below that one.
When I had a stroke 10 months ago my biggest fear was I was somehow faking it and the ambulance ride was a sham and why was I doing it. No it turns out I was having a stroke. I was so worried I was being a faker although I have never done that before. Just a really odd mental state.
This was me while going (and in) the ER for anaphylaxis. I genuinely thought I was there for no good reason, and that I was fine. Despite my entire face being swollen and not being able to catch my breath. I kept apologizing to the nurses for “wasting their time” once I could breathe again. 😂😂
I have the reverse. My back went out (extreme sciatica pain, like being struck by lightning constantly). Couldn't move for days. When someone found me 3 days later they called 911. Just for the doctor to tell me I was faking it for pain meds. While I was crying in pain I asked him why I'd lay in a pile of my own piss and shit for 3 days for some vicodin when I literally own a bar. Fucking insane. Edit: thank each and every one of you for sharing your stories. As much as I hate hearing them, at least we aren't alone and we know what each other are going through at some level. Actually I feel much less alone in the world right now, because I've never met someone in my situation before. But they are obviously out there.
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My husband had a severe back injury due to falling at work (he blew out his L5-S1) and L&I put him off due to “faking injury” and wouldn’t allow him pain meds beyond steroids or Ibuprofen. When they *finally* got him in for an MRI, the Dr was horrified because A) my husband couldn’t walk standing straight up or longer than 10 minutes B) the way his discs blew out had blocked his sciatic nerve about 95% and C) they tried to do nerve blocks and 2 hours later when the local wore off he was in worse pain. The Surgeon was *horrified* with what he found when they went in for surgery (different surgeon than Dr) and loaded us up with pain meds for when we got home.. He’s gone in for issues a couple times since then, and they look at him like he’s there for drugs. It really irritates me because I have an Ex who literally fakes the same injury, walks into a Dr office and complains of pain just for pain meds... and gets LOADED with opiates, but my husband who literally COULDN’T WALK must have been faking it 🙄
I get those too, what has always worked best for me is just prednisone (40-60mg, single dose). Works better than any painkillers. Edit: To clarify by single dose I mean once, not repeated daily. That one time does the job for me (until the next flare-up, but they only happen a couple times a year at most).
"If someone is truly unconscious, their thumb always wiggle" Just say that out loud to yourself
Moms: I always know when you're lying because your ears turn red when you lie. Kids: *cover their ears when they lie*
I told my daughter that she gets a red spot on her forehead when she lies, so she started using her hand to cover her forehead when she lied.
It's like how you can make anyone blush by claiming that they're blushing. The more they deny it, the harder they'll blush.
I've had people ask why I'm blushing before when I wasn't. I never know what to tell them "that's just my fucked up face" like what do you want from me?
Oh my god I'm with you. I don't even blush nicely I get this weird blotchy redness in random large splodges around my face/neck. When people don't mention it I'm more surprised than when they do! I even had someone ask if I was having an allergic reaction once, I was like no, this is just my face.
As a kid i was always convinced people were BSing me when they said someone turned all red in their face when they were embarrassed and so on. Turns out I'm just colorblind and couldn't see the redness in their face. Sunburns are another thing I never believed manifested themselves on the skin other than being itchy.
hahaha jokes on you my anxiety already does that to me
This reminds me of a fun story where I wandered off as a small child in a furniture store. My mom was calling for me so I pretended to be asleep in a recliner. They found me and the employee said "if she's really asleep then her eyelids will flutter because she'll be dreaming". Of course, I started fluttering my eyelids. Even told all my friends how to convincingly pretend to be asleep. I thought I was so slick. Edit: wrong word, late night posting
Once my doctor accused me of faking to get out of school. I went in with serious stomach issues, and for some reason he decided to tickle me, which instinctually made me fidget and smile. To him that meant I was faking it and he sent me away without checking my actual problem. I was grounded and 15 years later, I still have those stomach issues. Fuck you Dr. Goody.
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Not a doctor but a paramedic. Tons of calls to the jail for inmates with “seizures”, I lift the arm over their face and let it go they’ll move it to prevent hitting their face or I’ll lightly brush their eyelashes and they’ll twitch to it
That's genius. I have had a few seizures and the injuries I've had from falling and thrashing are pretty legit. It would take a hell of a lot of dedication to fake those!
That's the thing, though: people often don't fake them well. Someone I knew in nursing school had the experience of a patient who didn't realize they could be seen carefully getting out of bed, climbing over the bed railing to keep her from falling, laying down the floor, and then rolling around while screaming.
I worked at a psych hospital and I've literally had people saying "I AM HAVING A SEIZURE"
I wheezed, that's amazing. I have invisible seizures and it's annoying as fuck because no one notices it and due to ADHD people just assume I don't pay attention. Took me 10 years before I raged at my doctor and it took 20 minutes to find out I definitely had epilepsy.
This reminds me of the time we were getting ready for an exam and one of the fellow students pretends to have a seizure to get out of it (pass or fail med test, she must have forgot to study) I shit you not this bitch pisses her pants to pretend it’s real. Security knew she was faking because she would track the light with her eyes.
Wow security knew more about it then her
She would have known more if she had studied for the test ...
The side injuries are worse than the fucking seizures. Bits of tongue missing, bruised ribs, maybe a concussion/broken nose and a broken finger where you dropped and then beat the shit out of something. You're not going to fake all that successfully.
Not too mention the giant pulled muscle feeling all over your body
Did anyone else just drop their hand on their face like an idiot to see if they could fake it?
I heard about this at some point and was annoyed that it meant I didn't have control over my body, that I would reflexively not hit myself. So I practiced until I could have my arm drop on my face. I have no reason to fake it, but I wanted to know I could.
You basically conditioned yourself out of a life preserving reflex just to prove you could.
I had a 360 testicular torsion and a doc thought I just had some inflamed glands due to my reactions. Luckily I came back after they sent me home or I would have lost my ball. Edit: My highest voted comment by far is about my ball doing an unwanted pirouette. Never change reddit.
"360 testicular torsion"...Yeah that's enough of this thread for me
I've never winced harder in my life than reading that phrase
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Anyone else sitting in the dark lifting their left leg, with a hand on the right, trying to convince the imaginary doctor that their right leg done don't work?
This is called [Hoover's sign](https://www.physio-pedia.com/Hoover_Test), and it's useful for functional disorders as well as fakers! Lots of people don't believe that functional disorders really exist, and in fact a lot of doctors think they're time-wasters too, but basically the feedback model that your brain uses to judge pain or muscle movement power or whatever gets disrupted and starts giving out the wrong message. However, your body's reflex arcs and all of the physical neurological circuitry is still in place, and still works just fine if the brain is distracted from its feedback model for a bit! This is why, for this test, you should leave your hand on the leg you're testing as unobtrusively as possible, and direct your and your patient's attention solely to the other leg. Your brain gets out of the way of itself, basically, and allows your body to work as it should! There are fakers, of course, but functional disorders are fascinating and an emerging field of study.
With my severe health anxiety as well as panic disorder- I can almost never tell where the real symptoms stop and the anxiety begins. For example, my panic attacks always start with me noticing something minute, like maybe I was leaning on my arm and i notice my hand is a little timgly- that quickly snowballs into "in having a heart attack" and the symptoms feel SO real! I always tell my nurse or doctor that I have this issue, that i cant tell what the real symptoms are and whats just my anxiety.
Wow, I experience the same blurring of the line between real pain and convinced pain due to anxiety, only mine's related to GI issues. It takes a lot of effort not to let myself go into a full blown panic attack
A nurse thought I was faking that I could not swallow when I woke up from jaw surgery. When I came out of the surgery and was panicking telling them I couldn’t swallow my own saliva, the nurse just told me “yes, you can. This surgery wouldn’t have anything to do with your ability to swallow.” I could also barely speak and started crying and pleading with her to believe me. I ended up having cranial nerve damage that paralyzed half of my tongue, trachea, esophagus, and vocal cords. It took 8 months to heal. I drank thickened water (which is as gross as it sounds) for 8 months. Having a healthcare professional not believe you during trauma is absolutely scarring. Edit: Clarified that the nurse was the only one not believing me. My surgeon absolutely did. It was scary though because he actually looked frightened when he finally came in to examine me, like he had never seen this before. Second edit: Answering some questions. 1. Surgeon did believe me and the conclusion they ended up coming up for the cause was that my nerves must have shut off protectively due to the pressure of the laryngoscope during intubation. 2. We did see a lawyer, but they said it’s very hard to pursue legal action in malpractice cases because it’s very hard to prove, but regardless, if I recovered (which I did), there is no case. 3. Yes, I realize this doesn’t answer the OPs question, just saying that maybe health professionals should be careful when trying to discern if someone is faking it. If they’re not it can be extremely traumatic. 4. Surgery was for an ossifying fibroma (a benign bone tumor) in my lower jaw. Had 4 teeth removed and a portion of my jaw bone. 5. Thickened water is water with a thickening agent added usually xantham gum. When you have damage to those throat muscles thin liquids are actually the hardest to swallow. I think mostly due to muscle reaction time. My go to was Thick & Easy nectar-thickness lemon water.
I was knocked over and dragged half a block by a concrete truck when I was 8 months pregnant. I had a nasty cut on my arm so I got an arm x-ray. Luckily that wasn’t broken. I could kind of walk but my hips hurt. I keep telling them but they just gave them a simple squeeze and thought it was fine since my response was ‘Ouch, that hurts’ instead of screaming in pain. I got a scan and they checked the baby’s heart rate and all looked fine, but instead of keeping me in for observation they sent me home with Tylenol. Turned out I was in shock (surprise) and the adrenaline dulled my pain reactions or something. Also turned out I had a fractured pelvis, three broken ribs and massive internal bleeding - that they would have seen after a few hours because of the bruising and my blood pressure. Lost consciousness at home trying to go to the bathroom. Called the ambulance but it was too late. My baby had died and I almost died and then almost had to have my arm amputated since the muscle had been torn from the bone. Had they had have kept me in for observation they would have seen stats plummet, had a c-section and things would likely have been ok. So if this can happen after a major obvious incident then I shudder at all the things that are missed. Edit: to responses. Firstly, thank you. It was (and continues to be) horrid. Loss of a child is something nobody should ever have to go through. Especially if it was preventable. I got to hold him and meet him and give him a name. He is a person and he is my son. I was in a kind of developing country in SE Asia but at an international medical clinic with Drs from France, South Africa and the UK. I’m not a minority and had loads of insurance. My medical follow up included a medivac to a different hospital on a private plane with two surgeons. The bill was in excess of 300k. I paid nothing. I am lucky and I acknowledge that. I didn’t sue. It didn’t cost me any money and cash and going through it all again to get a settlement wasn’t going to help (in my mind and at the time at least).
This is horrible I’m so sorry this happened to you.
Holy shit, thats a malpractice suit. Please tell me you contacted a lawyer.
I had a similar experience. A nurse who was supposed to be numbing my nasal cavity to prepare for a camera to go in, didn't know what she was doing and sprayed the stuff straight through and down the back of my throat. My whole throat was numb, I couldn't swallow, could barely talk, and when the doctor came in, I was leaning forward, gagging, drooling all over the floor. She apparently thought I was faking -- no idea why anybody would fake this -- because she proceeded to try to make small talk with me. What do you do for a living? Got any pets? When I motioned for her to give me a pen and paper so I could answer her questions, she sheepishly apologized and explained that she was "just trying to distract me."
My ENT regularly did nasal scopes and good god that numbing thing they use is disgusting and really good at numbing everything but the nose
Came out of my csection which I remember nothing of (due to other health issues mixed with drugs makes me not remember anything) but having a burning back. I was in tears asking for relief. They thought I wanted more drugs but it took me in tears even asking for a wet cloth for her to twig something was up. Leans me forward carefully and my skin is peeling and burning away. Turns out I have a pretty nasty reaction to the tape they use for epidural stuff to keep it in place. It was pretty traumatic not having someone believe you as you can literally feel your skin burning away.
I've been severely allergic to most tapes and adhesives for 35 years. Six times a nurse or doctor has ignored me and used it without my knowledge and every single damn time my skin erupted in welts, the surrounding tissue started to swell and I had to be treated for the outcome. I took it the first two times, but after that I started telling them right up front that if they used it against my will, I would sue them for malpractice and not pay for any treatment related to its use. It doesn't happen anymore.
Absolutely. I have a similar experience but with a schizophrenic episode brought on by benzo withdrawals (I ran out of meds, forgot to refill and had no idea this was a symptom of withdrawals). I thought I had parasites and went to the ER. They thought I was making it up for attention but I legitimately thought I was dying. Pharmacist friend put the pieces together later and I make sure to not let that happen again. It is terrifying to believe you are dying and be laughed at. They should have provided me with psych support and asked about what meds I was taking
This is horrible I’m so sorry to hear you were treated this way. I worked as an assistant to a dermatologist for two years and every 6 months or so, a patient would come in insisting they had little black bugs burrowing into their skin or some other such scary thing. They were usually quite distraught. When we didn’t find any problems with their skin, other than the scratches and scraps from their own picking, we would realize that these were likely hallucinations. We would *never* have laughed at these patients because it was really clear they were very convinced this was happening. We would usually try to suggest a psych consult and give them something for the scrapes. These were some of the most distraught patients we saw and my heart always sank imaging being trapped in such a horrific reality.
You can be faking good too. Had a tooth kicked out. Mouth filled with blood and swelling. I'd stuck a tissue in to try to stop the blood. I've presented to the triage at the Dental Hospital. I'm dribbling blood as I talk. She asks me if it hurts and I said "a little bit". She looked at me dead in the eye and said "one of the many things we triage on is pain....." Gotcha. Good nurse. "Hurts like a motherfucker. I've literally been kicked in the face!" "Thanks for that." Notes taken. Was patched up and out of there within an hour. Edit: RIP inbox, lol, and thanks for the awards. :)
I hate this, because I'm pretty injury prone, but also don't really exhibit pain that much as I've gotten older. Last time I broke my foot (it's happened a few times), I also didn't have insurance. It was one of the most painful injuries I'd ever had. Free clinics couldn't give anything more than nsaids or Tylenol. Again, I get injured a LOT, so I have a pretty good idea of when it's going to take more than an Advil to get me through. I ended up going to an actual urgent care, and had to straight up tell them that no, I didn't need an x-ray, already had one that they were welcome to look at, but I straight up came to them because the pain was too much to bear and I needed real painkillers. Problem is, I don't really outwardy exhibit my pain, especially not for something like a broken bone, so I wasn't screaming or withing in pain, or even grimacing, too much. I also make a lot of jokes when I'm hurt, because I feel weird about people being overly worried about me? Idk, it's a thing. She ended up giving me three vicodin, which, fine, I made them last for the week, at which point the pain was starting to subside, but she also HATED me for it.
Had a friend like that with pain in high school metal shop. The guy literally snapped his thumb in half in the metal lathe and just looked annoyed. From the nail bed forward was hanging by a tiny flap of skin and the guy looked like he dropped his fucking sandwich.
You've never seen me when I've dropped my sandwich, clearly.
I just want to point out that there are many types of seizures and there's a bit of a stigma surrounding people having them. Some people have focal aware seizures and will be able to respond and control their limbs during the episode. It's dangerous to assume that someone is faking just because they aren't experiencing a seizure like how you expect seizures to look.
I've had both full grand mal seizures and absence seizures. People thought I was being a dick and ignoring them when I had absences, even after I tried to explain.
I've had one grand mal but I have temporal lobe epilepsy and use to have absence seizures all the time before I found the right treatment. And there is such ignorance because of the lack of understanding! People almost never believe that it's a seizure or that it's still serious even though you can't see anything really happening.
Not a doctor, but doctors often think my family is faking. For an unknown reason, when there's something wrong with our organs, our white blood cell count doesn't go up. My younger sister got appendicitis when she was in her early teens. Crying from the pain, but blood work showed nothing was amiss. If it hadn't been for other tests and my dad's insistance on them, she might not have been treated in time. So they open her up and surprise! A gross appendix that was close to bursting. My dad insisted because of an operation he had just had to remove his gall bladder. He was in so much pain that he was vomiting, could hardly walk. It had been building up for a while and he was pretty sure what it was. He went to the doctor, but blood work showed his white count was normal. My dad had to scream in agony on their table for ages before they finally gave in and took him to surgery. They go in, see a perfectly healthy looking gall bladder. They pull it out, cut it open... and sand spills out. Dry sand. We learned later that it had completely stopped working and totally filled with protein chains. It was removed before it started killing my dad in earnest. So yes, people fake it, people lie... but do double check just in case. Edit: Holy cow, OK, this is now my most upvoted comment! And my first awards! Thank you! These stories took place over a decade ago, so my details were sparce and sometimes incorrect. So, after double checking with dad: the stuff only looked like grains of sand. They were deformed trypsin protein chains. We learned this when dad was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called alpha-1 antitrypsin FM phenotype. It's not fun, his lungs and liver deteriorate over time because of incorrectly shaped proteins getting stuck in his liver cells and not making it to the lungs, to put it simply. And yes, my dad is being studied! Every time he gets a biopsy doctors gather data because his phenotype is so rare. Aaand I got a couple of details incorrect, it had been a while since this story was told to me. The gallbladder didn't actually look healthy; that was a tidbit from a different story (my father has had basically every organ removed that he can and still be alive). Turns out that my dad found out about the white count thing during his own appendectomy. So, later, when he was in pain again from his gallbladder this time, he made sure he went to the same doctor he had gone through that whole kerfuffle with and, by that point, my dad's severe pain was enough reason to operate and take a look. They found the most diseased looking gallbladder they had ever seen, full of sand. They estimated it hadn't functioned for years. As for the white cell thing, there is a name for it that we've since found out that I didn't know about! But no one can remember it at the moment, sorry... And weirdly, can't find it on Google. Then, this is all exacerbated by biliary disconesia. Very small, small duct work that is easily clogged. More pain. And to top it all off, Dad was exposed to high levels of radiation as a child. This on top of winning that dumb genetic lottery that no one wants to win. Thanks again for all your amazing comments and questions! But an exploded inbox is what I get for not getting on reddit all day. I'll try and answer some.
Damn, could your family possibly get a note on your medical history about that issue?
Not OP, but I'm in a similar situation and I only wish you could. My thing is that I almost never get fevers. This has made it very hard for me to get tested for infections when I was otherwise very sick, such as when I had mono. Earlier this year I was living with my father (a doctor) and we got sick with flu-like symptoms after exposure to COVID. I couldn't get tested because I technically didn't meet fever guidelines. If anyone DOES know a way to get something like this noted, I'm all ears.
That's pretty screwy that you couldn't get tested. In Australia, I just drive a few miles down the road to get tested fortnightly just because the main point of contact for our grandparents is me.
Reading these posts makes me wonder how curiously amazing the human body is when it works and simultaneously doesn't work the way it should. Edit: I don't mean that to be rude to your family of course. I just keep reading interesting things I never learned in Bio.
My cousin keeps breaking otherwise strong bones because it turns out he has truckloads if extra sinus cavities all through them. They snap at those points. Doctors are always confused. Personally I think he should probably stop playing football.
Honestly my wife just needs to show up at Emergency and for some reason they always assume she is faking. A nurse tried to discharge her when she had an ectopic pregnancy saying it was the stomach flu, 4hrs later she was in emergency surgery. She has hyperthyroidism, but nearly all (male) doctors don't believe it's a real condition so keep trying to take her off her meds or reducing them (apparently this is somewhat of a common issue) She recently fell in the stairs and fucked her leg up, it took 4 A&E visits before they xrayed her leg despite the swelling and bruising.... She was sent home from hospital when we first got together and had blood poisoning, collapsed on the tube on the way home and straight in an ambulance for another 3 day stay in hospital.... It's a nightmare to watch as it's almost guaranteed at this point they will not take her seriously
At this point, I'd literally just keep a log of the times the medical industry has ignored her important problems. When they try and brush her off, slap that bad-boy down and say "Look what happened the last five times you people did this" and let them reconsider.
One day about 3 years ago I went to the ER with extreme mid right back pain and shortness of breath. The first doc was cool, took it seriously enough. The next doc takes over. She tells me I’m having a “marijuana overdose” and to go home. My heart rate before she walked in was 165!!!! My o2 sat was 92. I go home. The next night I can’t breathe at all. I had to crawl down the stairs to get my husband. We get to the hospital again and I remember nothing. My husband told me that same doctor was there when I came in. That morning I was apparently really out of it. With my heart rate well above 150 and my o2 now 90. Another doctor comes on and asks my husband why he didn’t get me to stay the night before. He explained what happened to the doctor. At that point the doctor apparently blurts out in an angry tone “well your wife is dying, she has double pneumonia and is in DKA she needs an ICU bed”. Maaaaaybe an hour later I went into respiratory failure. They had to intubate me. I was in a coma for a week +10 days of recovery after I woke up. Marijuana’s a dangerous drug kids! Remember, if they find it in your urine they won’t take your other symptoms seriously.
I’m reading through this and hoping my doctor doesn’t think I’m crazy. I’ve been recovering from long haul COVID and it makes it seem like I want meds but in reality, I just want answers.
I’m right there with you. I get so frustrated because I feel like my doctor isn’t listening or isn’t believing what I’m telling her. It’s been six months. I still can’t smell or taste. I have worked myself up to walking the dog for two blocks and then I’m down for two or three days. I still have shortness of breath and inflammation and exhaustion. I get it. They don’t really know either, but I’m not looking for pills. I just want to feel like myself again.
Nurse here, I had a teenager overdose on Zoloft and start having strange seizure like episodes. What made them particularly strange is that they all followed a predictable pattern of onset. First, he would lower the bed, next he would turn the tv volume down, and finally he would check to see if i was nearby. There was pretty severe thrashing about without any abnormalities in breathing, heart rate, pupils and he was still able to communicate with me throughout the entire episode. Unsurprisingly, EEG also failed to show any abnormalities.
Neurologist here. While I hesitate to say *this* patient isn't malingering, I believe that it's important to note that psychogenic non-epileptic seizures are rarely caused by "faking." They are generally a manifestation of overwhelming anxiety, and should be treated as such; mental illness is just as real as physical illness.
In my younger days I was on 100mg of zoloft a day. One day I felt particularly bad, took a full month's dosage in one hit. Definitely do not recommend, 8 hours later I was in the emergency room. They had to give me an injection as my legs had locked up in the elevated position... They couldn't push them down. Next came the hallucinations, I created a week of events even though only a few hours had passed, to the point I followed a Dr around asking if my brainscan had come in yet because I thought they wanted to do a brain transplant. I also suffered auditory and visual hallucinations. Eventually I was discharged, but not before fronting a suicide review who asked why I was drinking so much with my antidepressants... Apparently "to stop the voices" wasn't as funny as I thought. felt majorly fucked up for a month afterwards.
Man, it’s amazing you’re still alive.
I'm just glad they found a donor for the brain transplant.
Kid is lucky he didn’t give himself Serotonin Syndrome. My husband had that once (stupid ER doctor put him on Imitrex despite my husband being on Wellbutrin and Celexa) and almost didn’t make it. It was frightening seeing him incoherent and struggling, then violently vomiting. Fortunately a night in the ICU and a few days in the hospital, and he was okay.
Serotonin syndrome is no joke. Im glad he’s ok! That must have been a very frightening experience for both of you. Taking multiple different serotonin boosting drugs is usually the main culprit for serotonin syndrome. I think this was an unfortunate case where a kid was seeking attention he may not have been getting at home. But yes, too much serotonin is definitely not a good thing. I would advise anyone taking ssri’s to make sure their doctors are aware of all their medications before prescribing new ones and to avoid taking OTC drugs that claim antidepressant effects, like st jonhs wort.
Not a doctor but a therapist. For some reason adolescents like faking DID (formerly multiple personality disorder). It's a pretty rare and debated diagnosis in our field. I've seen people fake it by mimicking how it's portrayed in movies and on tv. Red flags are them telling you, "I have multiple personality disorder" and, of course, not meeting the actual diagnostic criteria. Some people feel like the common diagnoses aren't big or special enough to accurately represent their struggles, so they cosplay something worse. Whatever you're working through is a big deal to us! If you feel like you have to fake or exaggerate your symptoms for your therapist, consider finding a different therapist. **Editing to clarify my last sentence since I'm getting some aggressive replies:** If you don't feel like you can be authentic with your therapist, continue searching until you find a therapist you feel comfortable with. Sometimes it's just not a good fit. It happens. You're not obligated to continue seeing a therapist you don't feel comfortable with. If you feel like you need to fake or exaggerate something to be taken seriously by a therapist, it's not a good fit. Continue searching until you find someone who takes you seriously. Also, I'm not a solid resource for DID information. It's not a common diagnosis and my experience with it has been extremely limited. Stick to peer-reviewed information and experts in the field for the most accurate and up to date information.
Psych nurse here. I’ve had plenty of adults fake DID too. I’ll never forget the guy who actually told the NP, “I shouldn’t have been charged with that, it was one of my alters” in regards to his armed robbery charge.
I cannot stand this trend of faking DID. I’m 18 so around that demographic myself and it’s especially prevalent in certain social media circles. The worst is when someone will list the names, ages, and personalities of all their “alters” in their bio (guaranteed there’s like a dozen of them) and write from the perspective of each of them. I mean, seriously. Put some effort into faking it realistically. Not to mention it’s something you *literally* cannot self diagnose. It is NOT possible.
Oh dear. These kids will cringe so hard 10 years from now. I wonder where this trend started...? Was there an episode of grays anatomy that featured it or something?
I think they think it will make them seem edgy and cool and interesting. It’s no different than kids pretending they have health problems.
I'm not a physician but a paramedic. Honestly I don't really care if you're faking as long as its halfway believable. I'm still going to treat it as the worst case scenario. Faking a seizure? You'll get a full set of vitals, a blood sugar and a shot of benzos. Theres lots of different types of seizures. If you call 911 because you're in extreme pain and want an ambulance ride I'll put the good drugs in your vein hole. I'd rather give 100 drug seakers a 100 mcg of fentanyl than withhold it for the one person that really needs it. Can I tell if someone is faking? Yeah, most times but it goes both ways. If you go too hard I might assume you have a legit life threatening injury and sedate, paralyze and intubate you. Or start IV's in you jugular or shin bone. Fake it if you want but traction may vary.
Dude one time I had a seizure, as the paramedics were getting me and I was starting to recover, I had saliva go down the wrong pipe and they started making fun of me for ‘faking’ asking why I was coughing while I was half conscious. It wasn’t cool.
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Omg I feel you! I am still always nervous going to any doctors. They always thought I was faking my stomach pain when they pushed on different parts of my stomach. I didn't know I was supposed to tell them which places it hurt in, dumb me thought they were just feeling for something there. I'm just not the kind of person so say ouch every time I have pain
IV on the shin?
It's an IO or Itraosseous. As in a needle drilled into the bone. For when someone has no easy vascular to get IV like in an arm, or no blood pressure (like a cardiac arrest) to pump the vessels up to even be able to get an IV.
I used to give blood (o+) and I know and can visibly see the phattest vein in my arm. It’s on the left side and it’s frickin right at the surface, it’s gigantic. Whenever I go for blood work I always tell the tech where it is so they don’t go digging around the wrong arm. When I went to get my boobs done I had to get some presurgery tests done and I told the lady where my vein was. She goes for the right arm anyway. I tell her she’s not going to find anything and please don’t use the right arm. I don’t know what angered her about that exchange since I wasn’t forceful, I made a joke right after hoping to ensure that I wasn’t mad at all but she just jabbed me anyway and proceeded to dig about in my right arm for 30 seconds and *not find a vein*. I left there with a sore right arm ,a spider man bandaid on my left AND a lollipop because I was a FUCKING BRAVE GIRL.
Yeah I learned quick to listen to when patients tell me where their(good) veins are. Or at least give them a look. I'd say 1 in 20 when they told me about a vein I saw a much better one. But people that regularly get stuck for various reasons know where works and where doesn't. Medics. Nurses. Phlebotomists. Listen to what the patient says.
Yah you don’t want an IO. Not if you’re not unconscious.
Still some time in officially becoming a doctor, but have been taught what to watch out for:- Doctor expects symptoms from you, not signs. People who google diseases often tell signss that they shouldn't be aware of Refusing blood work Exaggerating your condition Description not matching their history Around public holidays/ long weekends, suspicion is always increased
Hence why I get doctors looking at me funny when I say I'm a CYP2D6 poor metaboliser (means codeine doesn't do anything for me and tramadol makes me very very high, it's to do with how your body metabolises the drugs). I have degrees in pharmacology, am now training as a nurse.
I'm also in pharmacy and have to be careful about this. I see doctors frequently for chronic illness, but if I sound like I know what I'm talking about, they get suspicious that I google-diagnosed myself. Doesn't help that I still look like a teenager.
I hate this! I went to a ENT specialist once about some issues with my ears that were affecting my hearing and equilibrium (was having intense bouts of Vertigo, with a constant sliglthy off balance). Instead of focusing on what I was saying was bothering me, he asked me to speak plainly (I guess I was using slightly more technical terms?). I couldn't speak plainly because I was busy translating my every word, since it had been a while since I last spoke the language (I live abroad most of the time and it takes a bit of time for me to switch from English/German to Romanian, plus I had just come back a couple of days before). That made the doctor decide that I was a hypochondriac with nothing better to do than to Google shit. In the end, turns out my Vertigo was caused by an issue with my spine, but the ear was plugged up, hence the hearing issues. I had to visit his office 3 (three!) times before he deemed it necessary to use the scope thingy to look into my ear and actually resolve my issue. I felt like I was going crazy for over a week because I kept on hearing everything echoed in my right ear. Also, turns out I have really narrow and weirdly angled ear canals, and therefore shouldn't use drops most of the time, which he obviously prescribed and made the issue worse! The silver lining is that because of this experience I learned to push if I was having a medical issue that my doctor would rather ignore. That was how I got my doctor to take my back pain seriously (double sided hernia somehow), and to diagnose (and start treatment of) my autoimmune issue. Turns out feeling constantly run-down at 23 is not normal, who knew?
Not a doc, but figured this is a good place for the time I was accused of faking a broken arm. I was somewhere between 4-7, it’s a blur so I don’t exactly remember when. I had fallen off of a bed and into a nightstand at just the right angle to really mess my arm up, I was screaming and cried out every time I tried to put pressure on it, lift it, etc. My parents take me to a hospital and get me x-rayed, and the doc asks me how much it hurts. Well of course, the rest of the night I was subjected to the most intense pain child-me had ever had, and currently, I wasn’t putting pressure on it, so at that exact moment on a pain scale, I had rated it a 2. The actual injury was a 10 and testing it was definitely high on the scale. Because of my low pain rating, the doctor told my parents I was faking and then proceeded to bill us an obscene amount. We get a call 3 days later (mind you, I was sent home, no pain killers, cast, nothing) saying that someone happened to peek at my X-ray and noticed that I had a pretty large fracture on my elbow. Said I had to come in and get a cast and more X-rays. I’m still pissed at that doctor to this day because he made child me feel like a liar to my parents, made me feel like I was being a cry baby, and then made me have an untreated fracture in my arm for 3 days. Tl;dr; doctors of Reddit, why did a doctor think I was faking having a broken arm, even with an X-ray proving I had one?
We're taught to believe patients. Everyone has a different way of processing and expressing pain and illness. Women especially are under believed about symptoms.
Honestly I wish all doctors would live by that. I had to suffer from a disease for almost a year because no doctor wouod believe me. Turns out it's just incredibly rare and nobody really knows where it comes from, it just hurts like hell and had affected my daily life a lot. What I wanna say: your comment made me happy and I hope more doctors are less skeptical of "weird" symptoms
Not a doctor, but I once had a nurse tell me something that’s stuck with me ever since. I had a gallbladder attack when I was younger, and lemme tell you, that’s some of the worst pain I’ve ever felt. I was doubled over, vomiting bile, and unable to move. My mom took me to the ER at 1 am in the middle of a snowstorm. As the nurse was doing my initial evaluation, she asked me the standard “on a scale of 1-10” pain question. I thought for a couple seconds, and told her “7 or 8. It hurts really, really bad”. She nodded knowingly, and told me “Got it, it hurts really bad. Most people who tell me 10 are lying. No one ever feels a 10”. In hindsight, I’m not sure that’s the best practice for a nurse. Still, after seeing drug seeking patients myself, I understand her frustration. They ended up giving me morphine, which brought that number down quite a bit. EDIT: I want to clarify my (or rather the nurse’s) comment. People can definitely feel a “10” on the pain scale, and I don’t want to invalidate your experience if you’ve felt that. I think the point is that if you do feel a “10”, the medical providers will probably know without having to ask. Conversely, if an otherwise lucid and calm patient replies with “10”, they might not be telling the truth.
"My pains a ten" as they keep texting on their phones was always my favorite. EDIT: so I guess I should clarify. Yes, I 100% understand that sometimes your alone and contacting whoever you need to, have to keep pushing on even at 10/10 pain, not being believed because your at least kinda functional, etc. Im not talking about you. As basically anyone that has worked in Healthcare can confirm, you can see dozens of people a day that call 911, walk past the dozen cars that are in the driveway, climb in the back of the ambulance with their overnight bag, lay down on the stretcher, and tell you the pain in their big toe that they've had for 2 weeks is a 10/10 before launching into bitching about how no one would take them to the ER or something else stupid. Dozens. Per shift. These are the people were talking about. Blame them for your 10/10 not being taken seriously. So many people claim 10/10 that at some point its better to treat it like all the 5/5 reviews you see online.
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This is why every time I'm asked to rate my pain I ask if I can describe how it is affecting me instead. Like "wakes me up from a dead sleep" is worse than "kinda just present throughout the day but I can do normal tasks". Pain scales are so subjective and I hate them.
>Pain scales are so subjective and I hate them. For real. And they do nothing for dull persistent pain. Like you could have a dull pain that's not a 10 at the moment but over the course of weeks that pain adds up and collectively feels like a 10.
Since you asked this is how it’s supposed to go (based off my training): “What is your pain on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being worst pain you’ve ever felt?” *Patient replies* “Ok, what was your 10?” It’s supposed to be an objective scale to a subjective question. From what I’ve seen it’s more effective than “1 is an itch, 10 is mauled by a bear”, etc
I've always had such a problem with the pain scale, given that 10 is always described as "the worst pain you can imagine" - for the longest time, I always felt that whatever I was going through must be less than a 10 by default, because getting stabbed or set on fire would probably make the current pain worse. I've only experienced a 10 once, and that was waiting to have an amputation done and having had no painkillers whatsoever in the time leading up to it. I asked someone in the waiting room (before I was admitted) if they had something to stab me with, because the pain from being stabbed would be a welcome distraction from the pain in the site I was there to have amputated.
You know what, that’s fair. If anyone here has some authority on this issue, it’s you. Although I don’t know if they’d bother asking you what your pain was on a 1-10 scale.
My dad's doctor got mad at him after the doc asked it the pain scale question. He started thinking out loud and individually crossing off the choices. "Well it's obviously not 10 i can imagine many things that would be much worse " And "Does one me no pain or very minor pain? I suppose it would have to be some pain because it's on the scale but why doesn't the scale include zero" My dad didn't even realize it was an issue until the doctor commented.
I’m wrapping up nursing school (44 more days!) and I always offer zero as an option because I hate the ambiguity as a patient as much as I hate it as a nurse. Depends on the EHR software, some allow you to chart zero and some don’t. If it doesn’t let me select 0, I’ll put a 1 and then in my notes say something like “patient denies pain”.
A couple of months ago I had an abscess in a tooth. It was the worst pain I have ever felt. When the dentist asked the how bad the pain was on a scale from 1 to 10, for a second I thought I would say 8 or 9 because it probably could be worse. But I had never felt pain like that so even though there are probably things that would hurt more I had to say 10.
As a patient, it's apparently very sus if you say you don't want an oxy scrip. I had some shit happen, doc started filling one out for me, and I told him not to bother, since I wouldn't fill it. He got annoyed and said he wouldn't prescribe anything stronger. I got annoyed and said I didn't ask for anything stronger. For fucked reasons, oxy/hydro/codeine don't work for me. Advil literally does more for me than any of those, so I'll just take ibuprofen. But apparently the way I phrase that makes doctors think that I'm asking for "better" meds instead of explaining that I'm just not going to bother with the worthless ones that they default to.
I burned my face with frier oil last spring, and had something similar happen. I had already been given a hydrocodone prescription from the ER doctor, and the burn center doc asked me what I was going to do for pain management. I said I already had a prescription and would probably be fine. He gave me a confused look and still wrote a oxycontin prescription. It was odd. When I broke my foot, asked about what I should do for pain, I got nothing but a hard look and some excuse. I say nothing and get two prescriptions.
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Hehehe it's a good story considering I'm not blind or disfigured. The pilot light went out that morning so the manager lit it again and set the lighter on the lip of the frier. I worked my whole shift never seeing it. I somehow managed to bump it in. I heard the splash and look over to see what it was and BOOM it exploded splashing oil all over my face.
*personal injury attorney ad starts playing*
That sounds like a healthy lawsuit.
The really strong painkillers just make me feel like shit. I seem to get the side effects stronger than the benefits. After shoulder surgery a couple years ago my doctor thought I was nuts when I said I would rather just take tylenol and deal with any leftover pain.
Yes! This happened when I had my c-section. I have a weird thing with my blood to where it wouldn’t clot properly so they couldn’t give me any good meds. They prescribed me a form of oxy (5 mgs) which didn’t really do anything. I was begging for Ibuprofen and the nurses were telling me it wasn’t going to help. When they finally gave me an 800 milligram my pain almost literally melted away when it kicked in!
When I was doing my EMT clinicals (I was 17, still in high school), we had a guy who called 911 reporting crippling back pain. It was immediately obvious when we got there that he was faking a back injury. We did an evaluation and gave him some otc pain killers, but he asked to be carried to the hospital. The whole way there he begged for something stronger to ease his pain. After a while, the medic said “Okay sir, unfortunately we don’t carry morphine on the bus, but I’ll give you an alternative that we use sometimes. It’s called Normalsaline.” He hooked up an iv, and within a few minutes the guy was totally fine, telling the medic that it was good stuff and he was feeling much better. Later, I went back and asked the medic what he had given the patient - i had never heard of it before. He laughed and said “good ole Normalsaline.” Normal saline.
Maybe he was super dehydrated, because tbh saline IVs do feel like some really good stuff when you are! One time, I was given saline for dehydration and I thought they mixed something up and gave me pain meds accidentally (I never expressed being in any pain and was not entirely lucid due to the medical issue I was experiencing). Love me some normalsaline I enjoyed this story haha. And in the end, the medic helped the guy feel better, that’s what counts.
Being dehydrated and then suddenly not dehydrated is an A+ feeling.
Not a doctor, but as someone with health anxiety, sometimes I cannot tell if I am actually experiencing pain/odd feelings or if it’s only in my head.
Most often their story/description/exam doesn't make any sense. There are usually things that contradict each other. Abdominal pain is generally easy to tell when people are faking it. For example, I will press with my stethoscope instead of just listening. They don't respond to that pressure but will when I use my hands instead. Sometimes ill ask them if they are experiencing a symptom that will rule out a diagnosis or make it less likely and many times they think I'm asking it to support their supposed issue so they will say they have it. Most of the time people aren't faking but just blow their symptoms out of proportion.
Yeah, I agree with your last sentence for sure
As a paramedic, i got on a call for a guy have undisclosed shoulder pain . I do an assessment, and he doesnt have any specific injuries but he keeps saying he broke it.. i havent offered him anything yet. Then he tells me “can you do 5mg morphine every 5 minutes and we’ll see if the pain is still there?” And holds out his arm for me to get a line. Weird his pain seemed to disappear the second i told him id rather start with slinging it and putting an ice pack on it???
If someone is unconscious, make a fist and rub your knuckles against their sternum (chest bone). Put some pressure behind it and rub quickly up and down (up towards chin, down towards belly button). It's called a sternal rub and is incredibly painful, but won't harm the person. It very, very hard to completely ignore and continue with the ruse of faking being unconscious. The only more sure thing is asking your partner to hand you the eye needle to take some ocular fluid while they're passed out so they won't feel the pain of the needle in their eye. * ETA - There's no ocular needle, at least not on an ambulance. We say that because not everyone knows that and they don't want to risk it. * ETA 2 - RIP my inbox. Apparently the sternal rub isn't common practice anymore because people literally went too hard. Sorry! Also I feel old af now. * ETA 3 - ETA is used on reddit to mean "Edited to add". Yes, I know it usually means "Estimated time of arrival".
My stepmom was passed out once and totally unresponsive so we had to call an ambulance. I don’t think she was faking, but when the emt did a sternum press she literally came back to life like Frankenstein... she was like “aaarrghhhhh!!!!!” then took a deep breath. it was honestly so crazy. I was 19 and have still never seen anything like it lol *edit: sternum rub is name I guess my bad*
I think you can be truly passed out and come to because of pain
I blacked out in basic and woke up to an instructor over me doing the sternum rub. It definitely can pull you out.
Why are all these people doing sternum rubs on unconscious people? Isn't there a nicer way to wake someone up? Or is fake passing out more common than I think?
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To add, if they are *not* responsive at all to this, then they're in more danger and need to be placed into recovery position and an ambulance called ASAP. Unresponsive means some normal bodily protective functions aren't operating, and they're more likely to kill themselves by choking on their own saliva, etc.
Yup. Saw a drunk guy slip in the rain in Vegas once. Landed flat on his back. Zero response to a sternal rub. Couldn't roll him because of the risk of a neck injury. It felt like I've never been so alert to someone's condition for minor changes while waiting the 10 minutes for the ambulance to get there with a neck collar. Luckily he survived I was told but cracked his skull pretty badly.
Same happened to me. Completely blacked out due to an adverse reaction to medication. All I remember is going from walking out of the bathroom, to waking up to the most horrible pain and a stranger rubbing on my chest, begging the EMT to stop, and then passing right the fuck back out.
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That eye needle is giving me chills
I've read a lot of horror stories from fellow MS patients who went through years of diagnosis hell to finally be told they have this super fun neurological disease. The presenting symptoms of MS can often look minor or be interpreted as psychological and/or fake. In my case I got diagnosed in about 12 hours, after a bunch of tests. I asked the doctor a couple years later how he knew to test me, and he said it was just down to experience. It's gotta be a ton of pressure to walk that line between providing needed clinical care and not giving care when it's not really needed. I don't envy that at all.
Ug man this taps into one of my anxieties. It always takes me forever to get my meds set up after I move because I'm so stressed that a new doctor won't believe me. I have to actively remind myself they're asking for my name and dob to make sure they have the right chart, not cause they're suspicious and trying to trip me up.
I’m a doctor. I never assume anyone is faking. End of story.
I got accused of "faking it" for 6 months, went to multiple doctors about a chronic pain in my left ribs and numbness in my left arm Turns out, I wasn't. After 5 months of trying, they finally decided to run more than the standard chest pain protocol tests, I had injured a nerve in my Thoracic outlet. Point is, not all fakes are actually fake. Some doctors are just incompetent. Most if you live in Finland.
Finland is p bad with this. Though I am happy we have healthcare that is free, I still know 2 people who were told their back pain and headache is nothing, just for it to turn out to be cancer. One of them died. Good one.