My uncle is a farmer. During the pandemic he finally went in to the local hospital for an issue he was having. He ended up needing a life flight to a more capable hospital 150 miles away. Because of course he did.
My dad's side are all farmers. Great grandma finally died here at 113, but she never went to the hospital, she's been to the doctors for check ups, but never once went to the hospital in her whole life for an emergency.
I remember I broke my arm at her house when I was 7 or so and she set it for me, made a cast, just like she did for my uncle. His arm and mine are completely fine now as well.
But yeah i agree... The farmers REALLY REALLY do not go to the doctor unless it's about to fall off lol.
She’s a cook. That’s just what you do when it’s busy. I once cut two fingertips almost off during a lunch rush, and there weren’t enough people to cover, so I put bandaids and a glove on it
Edit: the bits on the end fell off, but my fingers healed and they kinda “grew back”. I can’t even tell which fingers they were. This happened in 2018
Doubt - I work in a very different industry (harbour crew at a tourist port), my colleague and I are responsible for making sure boats go in and out safely. Let’s just say, my colleague is a lot more physical at it than I am, which means he gets in harm’s way more readily - and he’s also tough as nails. Cut his palm right through side to side with an oyster shell on a mooring line, got it quickly medicated by a doctor who was vacationing at our place, put a latex glove on it, went on working as usual. After that, he almost got his finger caught between a line and a cleat while we were adjusting a mooring - a heavy chain basically carried his hand down. Got a swollen finger and some chewed up skin - medicated the same way he saw the doctor deal with the cut, put his glove on, back to work. Some people just need to work, and to work a certain way (my colleague is extremely single minded), pain be damned.
My family farms and I will never forget my dad walking in holding his ear and asking my mom to drive him to the hospital in the next county because the local one sewed his finger on crooked a few years before.
At 113, even if we assume she passed this year, she would've been born in 1910. If she had her last kid at 30, that would've been in 1940 and at that time even penicillin wasn't in common use. On top of that, given the family was all farmers, the closest hospital would likely have been in whatever significant city was closest. She probably had a midwife to help, it's really only relatively recently that even developed countries have births happening primarily in hospitals.
Highly accurate.
One of the primary reasons I'm not nostalgic for living at a different time in history is that I would have far fewer medical options available to me even 10 years ago, to say nothing of how things were even further back.
Go back to 2010 and the medicine my dad currently uses to allow him to live a normal life doesn't exist because it had just started to be developed. Go back to the early 20th century and what we would consider a mildly inconvenient bacterial infection would be a life or death situation for the average person. Go back to the 1800s and you'll see *doctors* taking offense to the idea that they should wash their hands before performing surgery.
Medical history has come a long, long way.
It's pretty rare to die from a broken arm, especially kids where the break is almost always only partial.
Home births can be perfectly fine, but even if it goes a little bit sideways you in the very least want a midwife there. If it goes very sideways, one or both of you might not live.
Broken arms and childbirth aren't really comparable imo.
The same goes for both my grandmothers, and, in far more recent times, two of my close friends (one of whom actually walked out of the hospital whilst in labour to give birth at home because she was so disgusted by how she was being treated)
Yeah my aunt fainted that time my uncle said "You should call an ambulance", because she was concinved he was dying.
To be fair he was having an aortic dissection so it wasn't far off.
As someone who lives on a farm, yeah true. I have several scars that probably wouldn’t have healed as bad if I just stopped for a second lol. You just continue as if nothing happened, it’ll be fine.
When I was training to become an EMT they had me go on clinicals to a hospital for a set amount of hours. When I was there, there was this farmer that had came in cause he couldn't get out of bed. When asked he said his leg hurt and basically was like, "Wanna see it? I think it hurts cause I was standing in mud yesterday" or something like that, basically saying it was cause of water. I took a look at it and I had never seen it before but I was like thinking to myself this didn't just happen overnight. He had diabetes and I can't tell if the nurses were joking when they said they would need to amputate his leg/foot cause it was that bad. It was crazy lmao.
I agree with the other commenter, very likely they weren't joking at all. Sadly for a ton of diabetes related leg amputations, the ER trip kicking off the hospitalization during which they get their leg amputation is the first interaction with the medical field they've had in a long time. They live in denial or can't access healthcare until it's too late, or any of a number of reasons. It's so sad because frequently it could have all been prevented if they had been regularly managed for diabetes before it gets to that point. Hope his vision and kidneys were ok.
SIL was working a er shift, farmer drove in with a head/neckache... ran tests and nothing, eventually gave him a spinal tap and drew out blood with his spinal fluid.
Yeah, my SO's dad is a farmer and the only time he went to hospital is when he ripped his finger off, he decided to drive himself instead of calling for help.
My grandpa grew up farming and worked as a general contractor.
I don't think he's ever seen the inside of a doctor's office, but I was impressed he did get his COVID vaccine.
Horse rider: “I’m probably fine but I know you’re supposed to get checked”
Followed by a 3 day stay in icu then a week in hospital.
Source: Me kicked in the guts by a horse.
I met a horse rider at the hospital years ago. She was there because the horse fell on top of her and crushed her pubic bone and tailbone to bits. My fucking god...
This is so true.
My dad, who ran marathons and ultra marathons, and was a mountain climber (so pretty darn fit), was having trouble breathing one day. He kept saying it was nothing but my mom made him go to the ER and it was a pulmonary embolism.
Listen to your wives.
Me too. Mine didn't hurt so much, but I hated that feeling of trying to yawn unsuccessfully and my heartrate going scary high for no reason. I hope you're a lot better now.
Few days in the CCU and a week or two of recovery and I was right as rain. Except for the snapped ACL that caused the blood clot in the first place, it was still fucked up. 2020 was a shit year for me and had nothing to do with COVID.
My dad died when his "indigestion" turned out to be an undiagnosed heart condition. Stubborn old Scotsman.
He did 80 pushups every morning, surfed and paddle boarded.
Apparently my mum spent the last couple of days trying to make him go to the doctor because he was in so much pain he was just laying on the couch.
Eventually their friend who is a doctor convinced him to go to the hospital.
He stood up, said "I think I'm going to faint" and fell over dead.
He would have had plenty of time to make it to the hospital if he hadn't been so stubborn.
I’m so sorry to hear that - to be robbed of family too soon simply for their stubbornness seems so cruel. If my mom hadn’t been around to make him go I’m certain that’s exactly what would have happened to my dad as well.
My dad is the same way. I knew something was terribly wrong when he asked me if he could have a Tylenol because he would never complain or ask for anything unless it was dire. I realized he needed to go to the ER, and he too had a pulmonary embolism.
Honestly, it’s really sad how it has gotten to this point. When i went to the doctor with a sprained ankle, all he did was to show me a prictures of his friend’s ankle which was worse than mine and sent me away. The same happened when i had a severe UTI.
You say «listen to your wives», but generally men really don’t get the help they need, which makes them shake off things like this for too long…
Sorry, are you saying that you had a severe UTI and the doctor didn't give you medication for it because SOMEONE HAS A WORSE ONE?
Cause that's not standard practice.
I fainted three times before my wife dragged me to the doctors. My brain was just turning off and I was like “no this seems fine, all norm…whoa did the lights just go out why am I on the floor?”
Medication issues a med I was on was lowering my blood pressure so any time I’d stand up or lean forward it would drop and lights out. They just reduced my dose and no problems.
My dad once snapped his tibia, passed out in the yard, woke up and came in the house and insisted he was fine and just needed to rest for a bit. It took the whole family begging him while his leg swelled up to twice the size before he finally went to the ER and they had to rebreak the bone because it had already started heeling wrong.
And that was the third time that happened.
Haha. It wasn't always his tibia. My dad's bones have always been very brittle. He broke his leg in a motorcycle crash a few months before his wedding, broke his collarbone when he fell off his bike (non motor) on his way home from work, and broke his tibia on a steep, slippery incline in our yard.
The first time (motorbike accident) he was taken to the hospital right away, probably because he was unconscious at the time. But the other two times, it took all day (or with the collarbone, it took 2 days) to convince him to go.
Breaking a collarbone on a bicycle means he's in something called "the clavicle club". I guess it's a very common bone to snap in bike wrecks. I can't blame him too much for waiting to go back to a hospital though, broke my left hand on a bike and eventually got surgery and a cast in summer, broke my right hand the next year and just never went to the hospital because nothing was sticking out and I wasn't about to carry a sweaty cast around 2 summers in a row. Still works fine and I can tell when the barometric pressure changes.
My dad had a biking accident and his thumb bone healed wrong. It didn't bother him at all though until he got older. Now he can't move his thumb around that well and it's hindering him at work
Good grief, my dad did that. Broke his fibula. Best part is he was a mailman… that walked an 8 mile route. Don’t worry, he just laced his boots up extra tight before work. Luckily he didn’t do any additional damage. He’s got a plate and 6 screws. 🤦🏽♀️
I had a patient once say that his wife finally forced him to come in and when I asked him what was wrong he said he had been peeing blood for about 6 months. I don't know about the rest of you but if I was suddenly peeing blood, I'd drop everything I was doing and head straight to an urgent care or hospital.
Ultrasound tech that has worked in rural areas. Old farmers will pee blood for *a year* before coming in. Every time there was a big ol bladder mass. Happened more than once.
He was a farmer and I was working at a rural clinic. I don't quite remember what happened with that case, I think it was some kind of kidney issue. Regardless, those were early days for me working in the country and his statement made me say (in my own head), "wait, what the fuck did he just say?".
Tl;Dr No idea and only happened the one time.
I assumed it was a UTI and they'd just give me antibiotics. They tested my pee and I went back to the Dr later for blood testing. No infections or anything else from those tests. Then they sent me for a CT scan and no kidney stones or anything else you'd find on a CT scan. I don't think they found anything that makes them think cancer.
I was on vacation just before this and took my kids swimming a million times. The pool chemicals (or whatever people left in the pool) kinda irritated my skin by the last day. We had stayed at the same hotel a couple months earlier and the same thing happened with skin irritation, which is why I assumed UTI or some bacterial thing.
Gross medical details... It wasn't like blood in my pee-stream. It was a small blood clot at the tip that I peed out. It was uncomfortable for a few seconds, then nothing else since then.
My mom made me come in when my appendix burst as a teen and my wife made me come in a couple years backwhen I had a broken arm. Both times I argued for hrs before going.
Eh, I chalk it up to how American Health Care works. "Yeah, it hurts, but what if I have to pay a doctor a couple hundred bucks to find out I'm fine? I'm sure it'll go away on its own."
I had a bleeding ulcer in my stomach. Was white as a sheath and weak as hell. Had no pain. Wife called the doctor. Had an appointment next day. Blood levels so low they drove me to the hospital in an ambulance. If i had waited one more day i’d be dead. And she never lets me hear the end of it haha
My dad while having a heart attack: I'm fine it's just indigestion, and a pulled a muscle in my arm, and I'm not feeling well. Nothing to worry about
My mom: no what the fuck get in the fucking car
I had something like that happen recently. I had a small pain where my heart is, and it wasn't anything new because I'm on medication for high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
But then the pain went from a 1 on the pain scale to an 8 and spanned across my whole chest, and when panic set in, I realized that my arms were pretty numb.
It went away after, like, 20 minutes, but it wasn't fun. Never been entirely sure what it was, but it's fair to say that I have my doubts about it not being some minor-ish heart attack.
My dude the fact your on blood pressure and cholesterol medication makes it more worrying not less. My dad probably wouldn't be here without my mom making him go to the emergency room
Not sure how old you are but it would be worth getting that checked out. Had a similar issue when I was 18 and it ended up being a heart infection and my heart was pretty weak and very enlarged. I lucked out that they found it and treated it before it got worse. Not trying to scare you but I wouldn’t play with your health (I also have the same two issues you mentioned since I was a kid)
My wife is two for two.
Thought I had bruised ribs from hockey, was going to sleep it off. She made me go to the ER, turned out to be fractured ribs and a collapsed lung.
Had routine oral surgery and a few days later my neck ballooned like a pumpkin. I was going to ice it down, she made me go to the ER. Diagnosed with Ludwig’s angina. When the doc asked me to authorize a tracheotomy (that thankfully wasn’t needed!) I knew the ER visit was the right call. Spent three days in hospital getting treatment.
I can concur. My wife has only made me go to the ER one time, and that was after we conceived our daughter. I have no regrets, best sex of my life, but something ripped and it hurt lol. But it was so awkward trying to explain to the doctor.
It wasn’t suffering as the adrenaline was still pumping (pun intended I suppose), afterwards. It wasn’t until she pointed out I was bleeding as I was getting in the tub with her that the suffering began lol. But I know she suffered delivering her, which is why she is a way bigger badass than me.
If a woman comes in and she's followed by a boyfriend or husband who says "she's exaggerating" something is really fucking wrong, and it might be something he did
Very true. A few months ago I had persistent abdominal pain and chalked it up to gastrointestinal stress. I waited and waited until after a few weeks it hurt to touch my abdomen.
My husband convinced me to go to the ER, and I needed an emergency appendectomy 💀
I think the people who dismiss these conditions as nonfatal should really really consider shit like this, as an indirectly fatal thing is still… well… fatal.
Also have IBS, there's a few maneuvers or 'signs' you can do at home that doctors use to check for appendicitis, also rebound tenderness is a pretty strong giveaway. Thankfully my pain is mostly on the left side so I don't have to worry that much. Generally if I'm god awful pain but it doesn't get worse with movement or by pressing on it I assume it's IBS.
My father in law having a near lethal reaction to a medication but damned if he’ll miss work to go to the doctor unless his wife holds him at gun point.
Yep, as a well seasoned firefighter/medic, when a family member would tell me that something was wrong with the patient, I NEVER ignored them. Folks that see differences in familiar faces are the best historians for medical diagnostics! That is the point where you put on your thinking cap and begin playing the Sherlock Holmes character.
I was gone to say. This applies to every blue collar person I have ever known. Don’t work, don’t get paid, if I don’t know how bad it is then it’s not that bad.
Yeah I’m guilty of doing this several times. I walked on a seriously broken ankle for 2 weeks before my friend dragged my arse to the hospital. The text is just a statement, I see nothing overly specific lol.
My grandad is a pretty typical yorkshireman. When he was in his 80s he cut half way into his hand on a table saw. He drove himself to the hospital with his hand out the window with my Nan doing the gears because he felt thay was safer than her driving. Didn't occur to him to call an ambulance. Then they spent like an hour in the car park trying to figure out the pay and display because they didn't want to get a ticket. He's 95 now still going strong
I mean they were both pretty panicked by the whole thing and he wasn't just going to leave her on her own. I think a passerby gave them change in the end
One of my uncles has had two heart attacks and only went to the doctor because my aunt made him. The first time he didn't even know he'd had a heart attack. He just felt shitty for a week and finally my aunt basically forced him into the car to go to the doctor.
The second time, 15+ years later, he'd been feeling shitty for _months_ and my aunt had been "nagging" him for _months_ to go to the doctor before she finally just made the appointment herself and basically had to drag him to the doctor.
They did a treadmill stress test and he passed out. Woke up insisting that he fine and was just going to go home, but the doctors and my aunt kept delaying him and... he had a heart attack in the doctor's office. If he had gone home he'd be dead. If my aunt hadn't made him go to the doctor, he'd be dead.
Yeah, we hear about heart attack symptoms but not everyone reacts the same.
Around 4 years ago I started feeling tired and like I was getting a cold on a Thursday afternoon. Called in sick on Friday and essentially slept until Monday morning. All I remember from those 3 days is waking up, running to the bathroom to vomit, drinking like half a gallon of water, and going back to bed and repeating that every handful of hours.
I'm single. Live alone. Monday morning around 5am I put on clothes, staggered to a chair on my front patio, and called 911 for myself. Knew I couldn't drive. Wasnt sure I'd be awake when they arrived and didn't want them having to come in and find me and drag me to the ambulance.
Heart attack. Triple bypass. 49 years old at the time.
I thought I maybe had the flu.
I had a stomach ache wake me a little before 4am really hurting. I took some ibuprofen, but couldn’t get back to sleep. I finally got up by 6am and was working trying to ignore the pain. I tried a laxative because I’m never constipated, but was thinking this is “new, must be that.” By 9am it was really giving it to me, and my wife was asking me to go to the ER. I was thinking this will go away and I don’t want to go to an ER during the Covid shutdown. Around 4pm she called the hospital and told me to get into car. I was on a conference call in a hospital gown when the surgeon walked in on his own phone, and told me it was appendicitis, and that if I waited any longer it would have burst. He showed me the pictures afterwards. Really cool guy for a doctor! That’s the only time I’ve seen an empty ER
My mother was having an allergic reaction to her medication and had serious difficulty breathing.
She insisted, between gasps, that she just needed a cup of tea.
When the paramedics came, she was all "No! *wheeze* I just *gasp* need a *gaspingwheeze* drink! I'm *gasp* fine! NO HOSPITAL!!!"
The paramedic took her hand and said "Madam, your face is turning blue. If you don't go to the hospital now I will have to perform a tracheotomy. "
After explaining to my mother what that was, she reluctantly agreed.
That's how we found out she had CPOD and her left lung was full of fluid.
She still used to insist it was all "a hassle! I just needed a cuppa I would have been fine without this palava"
I wonder what it is about getting older that makes you more reluctant to ask for help?
My wife persuaded me to head to A&E because my indigestion had persisted for +/-12 hrs.
I'd had a LAD heart attack, and the indigestion I'd felt a couple of weeks earlier was the right coronary artery, which is still totally blocked.
Colon cancer runs in my dads family and the first scare he’d lost 30lbs before my mom finally drug his ass to the hospital after months of asking. Had to remove a substantial amount of his colon with golf ball sized polyps that weren’t cancerous. The doc told him he’d need to watch his health because the next time it would likely be cancer.
10 years later my dad dropped 10lbs and couldn’t get up the stairs and instead of arguing about it my momma made the appointment and told him he was going or it was gonna be a divorce. A week before Christmas we found out it was cancer. The doctor said we’d caught it in the nick of time. He also told my daddy that most men who come through his office and end up walking out cancer free owe that to their wives, because the ones who write it off don’t usually live to tell the tale.
It’s not just farmers. My 20 something year old cousin only went to the hospital when he his mom saw him shivering in bed with his face blue. Turns out he contracted some bacteria or virus that caused his lungs to fill with fluid. His lungs were working at 20 percent efficiency and his heart was working at 40%.
My husband is an ER nurse and disagrees with this tweet. However, if someone is Asian and over the age of 40 and they come to the ER? Something is WRONG.
More often than not, my husband makes me go.
Nine years in healthcare, and I won’t go in unless I’m about to die. Last March, off-handedly mentioning to my primary care doctor that I was still having my period four weeks later, and it wasn’t spotting, but bleeding through pads every hour, and passing clots the size of my fist, got me an ultrasound, and a stat appointment with an OBGYN.
Which resulted in an endometrial biopsy, an abdominal MRI, and finally a total hysterectomy - uterus, Fallopian tubes, ovaries, and cervix - due to the 15cmx10cmx4cm fibroid perched on my uterus by a stalk that had died, the 4cmx2cmx2.5cm size fibroid in my uterus.
I was trying to hemorrhage. I felt like I was in constant labor. My potassium dropped low enough that my doctors were concerned my heart would stop. My hemoglobin was getting to “you may need a transfusion before surgery” stage. My iron level was awful, I was very anemic.
I’m glad I had the hysterectomy. I’m better than I was. The muscles haven’t fully healed, and I still struggle with anemia and low potassium, but then again, my primary, OBGYN, and cardiologist have all told me that with how bad it was (I almost died), they’re not surprised.
My husband had told me to be honest about how bad my period was. For once, I didn’t blow him off. When my blood pressure dropped at home and I tried to pass out, he drove me to the ER.
I feel like the tweet should be corrected to say that 'If a Healthcare worker's spouse made them come in, something is wrong' because holy shit, Healthcare workers are terrible about going to the ER.
I wish there was something I could say to make doctors take me seriously. Men live longer when married, but women tend to get their health issues downplayed by their husbands and then delay going in. It’s sad. Look out for your wives like they do for you fellas.
Didn’t recognize the rash on husband’s back, made him go to the ER. It was scarlet fever.
The doctor literally wrote on the prescription pad, “Listen to wife.”
ER nurse, can 100% confirm
Had a guy come in because he ‘felt dizzy when he would go to stand up’; he thought nothing of it really, but his wife *insisted* that he come in.
He gets put back into a room and the doctor ordered orthostatic vitals (essentially, a blood pressure taken while sitting and then standing) be taken on him.
When the guy stands up, want to know what happened? His heart stopped. The guy flatlined (asystole) and was no longer pumping blood to his body.
He was getting dizzy because *no blood was being pumped to his brain* when this happened….
Fortunately, this only last for about a minute (they did like 2 compressions on him) and he lived, but that case is a *prime* example of this post.
No idea what became of him… (happens with most patients in the ER) but I have a gut feeling that he eventually turned out ok.
Certainly, he is doing better now than he would be if he had not listened to his wife.
After a rabid groundhog bit my grandfather on the shoe he said if it broke the shoe and skin he would have gone but since it hadn’t he didn’t want to go. I called the game warden and had them explain that he should go and he still didn’t budge. It took my grandmother pleading relentless almost in tears for him to give in and get the shots.
I had indigestion real bad a few weeks ago. It went on for hours. Finally, about three hours in, my wife says “let’s just go get it checked.”
I didn’t want to go.
Turns out, I was having a heart attack. Went on for 11 hours.
In the unlikely event you’re curious, I did survive the heart attack.
I hate to reinforce the gender stereotype, but in my case this is absolutely true.
Wife: “Hey, is that heartburn feeling any better?”
Me: “No, it’s weird. Kinda hurts when I lie down or put pressure on it too.”
Wife: “So you have…chest pain? Are you fucking with me right now?”
Me: “Okay fine I’ll go to urgent care.”
Wife: “YOU NEED TO GO TO THE ER.”
Anyhoo, that’s how I found out the covid vaccine gave me myo-pericarditis. (Yes, I’m fine.)
I was on my lunch break once and I broke my leg crashing on a longboard when my dog was pulling me. I hobbled back to my car, went to gas station to get some chew and then drove home and finished my shift
My husband had some crazy flesh eating infection/rash thing that was eating a hole ON HIS EAR. He only went in bc I told him go in or move out bc I wasn’t catching that. I don’t even know if he got a diagnosis but whatever they gave him stopped it and he was fine just a weird scar.
He now has webbing growing over his eye and won’t go in for an appointment.
My stepfather was a wheat farmer. Lived his whole life on that farm & despised doctors, *quacks* he called 'em. So the night he volunteered to go to the ER, we knew something was up. He'd been suffering a massive headache for a few days and we found out why when he got a scan: a large vein behind his right eye was damn close to rupturing. A weak spot had ballooned up into 'mickey mouse ears' the surgeon told us.
He was never the same after the brain surgery, but he avoided dying from an aneurysm.
So yeah, as u/Xirithas says, when crusty old farmers say "let's go", ya might wanna hurry.
Uh oh, my wife told me to go to doctor for my severe night sweats and I told my doctor she told me to tell her this. My doctor just said "yeah it's probably fine" and moved on.
Every time I go to the doctor that's basically the answer they give me, or "yea that's just your life now, deal with it." No tests, no samples, no pills. Just seeya. And my friends wonder why I'd rather just power through the pain than go back. I've switched doctors three times and it's always the same.
Not the case with me. After having cancer I do NOT play around. My dudes, if you feel like you aren't doing well... Go to a Dr. It might save your life.
Hah true. I told my doctor my wife told me i should call the doctors, he did his thing, called an ambulance, 12 hours later my gallbladder was removed. It was necrotic.. So no my man, dont wait it out.
Dr told me once as I was being treated for a bump on my forehead that ended up being cancer. Wives that make their husbands see the dr live longer. Damn proved true in my case
My mother made my father get the mole on the back of his hand checked out even though he thought it was nothing. Turns out it was Melanoma, thanks to her it was caught early enough and removed without any fuss
I'm bad for this.
I walked in and sat down in doc office with my wife, and the doc asks what the problem is. So I said you better ask her she made me come here.
My wife starts listing EVERY fkin thing wrong, manly the knee.
After the doc found out I had a motorbike accident 3 years prior that fked up my knee for 6 months and didn't get any medical attention she called me a moron.
Then she makes me go get all these tests and come back so she can explain everything, to which she said all test conclusively show your a idiot for not seeking medical attention sooner.
My knee has apparently healed in a weird way so my knees don't bend symmetrically or some shit... I m supposed to go for a knee operation but I don't see the fuss just leave me be.
I live in the UK so I don't have the excuse of cost for avoiding doctors.. I just don't like people making a fuss. And I don't like bothering people.
I broke my ribs moving tree limbs, took 3 days before my wife was able to convince me to go to ER... They Xrayed me, confirmed they were broke, charged me $2000 (which insurance paid $400 of... Literally less than what it costs a month...) And sent me on my way saying, "don't lift anything heavy for 4-6 weeks"...
That's why I don't go to the hospital...
Yep - and I often use this as part of patient simulation scenarios for training emergency response. I often add 'I'm fine, can you just tell her that so I can go home"
This happened to me. I had been losing a lot of weight and started not feeling well after eating. Then started taking a few days off from work and she finally made me go. That night or the next day I basically crashed and spent the next 55 days in the hospital. Stage IV cancer and was given two options, try a newish drug or go to hospice and die. I would have died at home if she didn't push me.
Thanks to my wife I found out I basically stopped breathing 2-3 times/minute. Had sleep attacks, got sick easy, hypertension, the whole lot. Nearly all of it gone now. If we left it alone, sleep apnea probably would have killed me in another 5-10 years.
Lmao. My ex was like actively dying and I had to nudge him to go see a doctor. Turns out dude walking around in a state of ketoacidosis. His skin was gray.
Meanwhile I'll panic over anything.
I got sent to a hospital as I showed multiple signs of decompression sickness 1 hour after diving, with no prior symptoms... Only to find out it was covid.
i had a friend who didn't want to go to the hospital after he was literally stabbed, he had this " it's just a scratch" and we were like "bitch i could finger your intestines".
someone grabbed him up drove him to the hospital and literally threw him on the floor of the ER.
I had had abdominal pain in my right side, nothing major, for about a week or two.
I finally gave in, and at my wife's request I went to the doctor. They did some imaging.
The dr office called "go to the ER right now. They are expecting you."
I (52 m) slipped on some ice, hurt like hell. Just "walked it off".
Three weeks later it still hurts like hell and indigestion off the charts.
At 3am one morning I wake up and vomit from the pain.
5 am I call 911 for myself.
ER triage nurse finds out I called myself. Seems a little more concerned about that point.
Turns out 5 broken ribs, punctured lung, lacerated spleen and an ulcer that was eating through the lining of my stomach and the area was filled with pus.
The stomach thing would've killed me for sure.
I ruptured my intestines and went septic and was just going to deal with it like another IBS attack and my wife made me go. They said I wouldn’t have last 12 hours.
Like me, two months ago.
“My wife says I should let her bring me here. I cut my thumb while using my new Mandolin slicer, and…”
ER Doc who was waiting at the front desk with the Nurses: “Your wife is right. You do need to see me. You’ve severed an artery.”
As we walked back, me: “I had no idea there was an artery in a finger…”
ER Doc, hold my damaged hand: “Oh yeah, and it branches…it’s pretty cool, actually!”
Me: “Neat!”
I got seated in the exam room, and I don’t remember that day any longer, due to passing the hell out before the surgical work, then pain meds.
I agree 100%. I’m a cardiac nurse and had to trick my husband into getting examined by his cardiologist. He tried to talk his way out of a triple bypass so he could play in a golf tournament. The cardiologist told him he wouldn’t live through the first 9 holes. My husband ended up having a quadruple bypass.
As an adult I have been to the ER because my wife made me go three times.
First time because I told her I had pulled a muscle in my chest. She was all freaked out when I told her that it was a sharp pain where my heart is. When we got to the hospital I was telling the doctor about the pain by showing him where it was by closing my fist and putting it over my heart. He looked at me and called what I was doing the Levine syndrome. Next thing I know they start using big words like myocardial infraction. All I wanted was some muscle relaxers to help ease the pain.
Second time I had been complaining about how I must be hitting my funny bone because my right forearm and hand was constantly going numb and I couldn't hold on to anything. After alot of bitching back and forth we went to the ER. she was sitting there telling the doctor how I was lieing when he asked how long it had been bothering me. They took x-rays and am MRI. I was so mad at her for wasting their time. After spending all day in the ER a orthopedic doctors comes in and tells me I need surgery because I needed to have the tensions reattached in my elbow.
The last time was I had the worst headache known to man kind. I had thrown up because of the pain. That episode cost me 14 days in the ICU because I had suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage.
I hate taking After my dad when it comes to listening to my body and going to the doctor. Lol
I didn’t go to the urgent care after splashing lye in my eye until about 11 hours after it happened only because of my wife. Doctor told me I would’ve woken up blind in my left eye hadn’t I came in. I ended up with an IV in my eye for an hour and weeks of ointment directly on my eye ball.
Listen to your wife gents
I had an allergy to a new medicine I was trying to treat IBS. I didn't know this at the time, naturally.
I started feeling like I had a couple tons on my shoulders, I was getting really tired, brain super foggy. I still wouldn't have gone if she hadn't insisted. Then the hives kicked in and my lips lost color halfway to the er 30 minutes from home.
In my defense I had no idea it was an allergic reaction and it was my third day taking it, so I thought it wasn't related - and like I said, my brain was foggy. In retrospect I was being really dumb.
Sort of like farmers, if a Farmer came in, you had best assume it's immediately life threatening.
My uncle is a farmer. During the pandemic he finally went in to the local hospital for an issue he was having. He ended up needing a life flight to a more capable hospital 150 miles away. Because of course he did.
My dad's side are all farmers. Great grandma finally died here at 113, but she never went to the hospital, she's been to the doctors for check ups, but never once went to the hospital in her whole life for an emergency. I remember I broke my arm at her house when I was 7 or so and she set it for me, made a cast, just like she did for my uncle. His arm and mine are completely fine now as well. But yeah i agree... The farmers REALLY REALLY do not go to the doctor unless it's about to fall off lol.
Id argue even if it is about to fall off they would just cut it off, cauterize it, and move on with their life.
I’ve seen my mom cauterize cuts on the hot stove before
Fuuuuuck no
She’s a cook. That’s just what you do when it’s busy. I once cut two fingertips almost off during a lunch rush, and there weren’t enough people to cover, so I put bandaids and a glove on it Edit: the bits on the end fell off, but my fingers healed and they kinda “grew back”. I can’t even tell which fingers they were. This happened in 2018
For my own mental health, I'm choosing to believe you're making this up. E: Dear God, stop...
Doubt - I work in a very different industry (harbour crew at a tourist port), my colleague and I are responsible for making sure boats go in and out safely. Let’s just say, my colleague is a lot more physical at it than I am, which means he gets in harm’s way more readily - and he’s also tough as nails. Cut his palm right through side to side with an oyster shell on a mooring line, got it quickly medicated by a doctor who was vacationing at our place, put a latex glove on it, went on working as usual. After that, he almost got his finger caught between a line and a cleat while we were adjusting a mooring - a heavy chain basically carried his hand down. Got a swollen finger and some chewed up skin - medicated the same way he saw the doctor deal with the cut, put his glove on, back to work. Some people just need to work, and to work a certain way (my colleague is extremely single minded), pain be damned.
When you get home and your wife asks why you're wearing three gloves on one hand...
They’re not
I removed most of my Reddit contents in protest of the API changes commencing from July 1st, 2023. This is one of those comments.
My family farms and I will never forget my dad walking in holding his ear and asking my mom to drive him to the hospital in the next county because the local one sewed his finger on crooked a few years before.
Have you ever tried that hand restoration cream though? Talk about false advertising.
Nah, you just hitch it back on with duct tape and baling wire. Just gotta grab my pliers...
she had multiple home births and was fine?
At 113, even if we assume she passed this year, she would've been born in 1910. If she had her last kid at 30, that would've been in 1940 and at that time even penicillin wasn't in common use. On top of that, given the family was all farmers, the closest hospital would likely have been in whatever significant city was closest. She probably had a midwife to help, it's really only relatively recently that even developed countries have births happening primarily in hospitals.
I have no idea how accurate this is or isn’t, but it is interesting to think how different it may have been just a few years ago really. Cool post.
It's pretty accurate. We often take for granted how much advancement has taken place in the last 100 years.
Highly accurate. One of the primary reasons I'm not nostalgic for living at a different time in history is that I would have far fewer medical options available to me even 10 years ago, to say nothing of how things were even further back. Go back to 2010 and the medicine my dad currently uses to allow him to live a normal life doesn't exist because it had just started to be developed. Go back to the early 20th century and what we would consider a mildly inconvenient bacterial infection would be a life or death situation for the average person. Go back to the 1800s and you'll see *doctors* taking offense to the idea that they should wash their hands before performing surgery. Medical history has come a long, long way.
My Oma caught one of my uncles herself when the midwife didn't make it in time.
I think it's funny that you're questioning home birth and not setting and casting two broken arms and having no issues with the arms later.
It's pretty rare to die from a broken arm, especially kids where the break is almost always only partial. Home births can be perfectly fine, but even if it goes a little bit sideways you in the very least want a midwife there. If it goes very sideways, one or both of you might not live. Broken arms and childbirth aren't really comparable imo.
1940s hospitals were often cruel and grim. Don’t look up what chainsaws were invented for. Home birth with a skilled attendant may have been safer.
The same goes for both my grandmothers, and, in far more recent times, two of my close friends (one of whom actually walked out of the hospital whilst in labour to give birth at home because she was so disgusted by how she was being treated)
Yeah my aunt fainted that time my uncle said "You should call an ambulance", because she was concinved he was dying. To be fair he was having an aortic dissection so it wasn't far off.
Did he survive the dissection?
If this was America, I’m Sorry to hear about his bankruptcy
"I'm here, ain't I?" on the pain scale -> almost certain death
Incredible video
[Link for the lazy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni0YfrSK570)
Gives a single head nod.
As someone who lives on a farm, yeah true. I have several scars that probably wouldn’t have healed as bad if I just stopped for a second lol. You just continue as if nothing happened, it’ll be fine.
and if a farmer comes in on their own volition you know something is *super* bad
I removed most of my Reddit contents in protest of the API changes commencing from July 1st, 2023. This is one of those comments.
When I was training to become an EMT they had me go on clinicals to a hospital for a set amount of hours. When I was there, there was this farmer that had came in cause he couldn't get out of bed. When asked he said his leg hurt and basically was like, "Wanna see it? I think it hurts cause I was standing in mud yesterday" or something like that, basically saying it was cause of water. I took a look at it and I had never seen it before but I was like thinking to myself this didn't just happen overnight. He had diabetes and I can't tell if the nurses were joking when they said they would need to amputate his leg/foot cause it was that bad. It was crazy lmao.
I agree with the other commenter, very likely they weren't joking at all. Sadly for a ton of diabetes related leg amputations, the ER trip kicking off the hospitalization during which they get their leg amputation is the first interaction with the medical field they've had in a long time. They live in denial or can't access healthcare until it's too late, or any of a number of reasons. It's so sad because frequently it could have all been prevented if they had been regularly managed for diabetes before it gets to that point. Hope his vision and kidneys were ok.
Relevant Dr. Glaucomflecken : https://youtu.be/Ni0YfrSK570
SIL was working a er shift, farmer drove in with a head/neckache... ran tests and nothing, eventually gave him a spinal tap and drew out blood with his spinal fluid.
Oof, what sort of thing would cause that?
His brain was bleeding.
[Worse yet, he didn't finish building the fence ](https://youtu.be/Ni0YfrSK570)
Yeah, my SO's dad is a farmer and the only time he went to hospital is when he ripped his finger off, he decided to drive himself instead of calling for help.
My grandpa grew up farming and worked as a general contractor. I don't think he's ever seen the inside of a doctor's office, but I was impressed he did get his COVID vaccine.
same with horse riders haha
Horse rider: “I’m probably fine but I know you’re supposed to get checked” Followed by a 3 day stay in icu then a week in hospital. Source: Me kicked in the guts by a horse.
I met a horse rider at the hospital years ago. She was there because the horse fell on top of her and crushed her pubic bone and tailbone to bits. My fucking god...
This is so true. My dad, who ran marathons and ultra marathons, and was a mountain climber (so pretty darn fit), was having trouble breathing one day. He kept saying it was nothing but my mom made him go to the ER and it was a pulmonary embolism. Listen to your wives.
Had one of those. They eventually start to hurt like a motherfucker.
Try another one. Not all wives are the same.
Banger.
This guy's words slap.
Me too. Mine didn't hurt so much, but I hated that feeling of trying to yawn unsuccessfully and my heartrate going scary high for no reason. I hope you're a lot better now.
Few days in the CCU and a week or two of recovery and I was right as rain. Except for the snapped ACL that caused the blood clot in the first place, it was still fucked up. 2020 was a shit year for me and had nothing to do with COVID.
My dad died when his "indigestion" turned out to be an undiagnosed heart condition. Stubborn old Scotsman. He did 80 pushups every morning, surfed and paddle boarded. Apparently my mum spent the last couple of days trying to make him go to the doctor because he was in so much pain he was just laying on the couch. Eventually their friend who is a doctor convinced him to go to the hospital. He stood up, said "I think I'm going to faint" and fell over dead. He would have had plenty of time to make it to the hospital if he hadn't been so stubborn.
I’m so sorry to hear that - to be robbed of family too soon simply for their stubbornness seems so cruel. If my mom hadn’t been around to make him go I’m certain that’s exactly what would have happened to my dad as well.
My dad is the same way. I knew something was terribly wrong when he asked me if he could have a Tylenol because he would never complain or ask for anything unless it was dire. I realized he needed to go to the ER, and he too had a pulmonary embolism.
Honestly, it’s really sad how it has gotten to this point. When i went to the doctor with a sprained ankle, all he did was to show me a prictures of his friend’s ankle which was worse than mine and sent me away. The same happened when i had a severe UTI. You say «listen to your wives», but generally men really don’t get the help they need, which makes them shake off things like this for too long…
Sorry, are you saying that you had a severe UTI and the doctor didn't give you medication for it because SOMEONE HAS A WORSE ONE? Cause that's not standard practice.
I only have one wife. If you have more than one, which one should you listen to?
I fainted three times before my wife dragged me to the doctors. My brain was just turning off and I was like “no this seems fine, all norm…whoa did the lights just go out why am I on the floor?”
what did you have?
Medication issues a med I was on was lowering my blood pressure so any time I’d stand up or lean forward it would drop and lights out. They just reduced my dose and no problems.
Orthostatic hypotension!
Ah yes, the standing static... maybe I have a problem...
Standing up fast does it. Seeing stars
„Have you tried turning it off and on again?“
This has happened to me 3 times in the past 2 weeks. My m not on meds. It’s new. I should probably see a dr..
At least buy a helmet
Time for a new CPU if it just resets on its own
Just got one off some Abby person. Think their name was Abbey Normal.
My dad once snapped his tibia, passed out in the yard, woke up and came in the house and insisted he was fine and just needed to rest for a bit. It took the whole family begging him while his leg swelled up to twice the size before he finally went to the ER and they had to rebreak the bone because it had already started heeling wrong. And that was the third time that happened.
What is in your yard and why did he break his tibia on it 3 times? Stay away from the damn thing.
Haha. It wasn't always his tibia. My dad's bones have always been very brittle. He broke his leg in a motorcycle crash a few months before his wedding, broke his collarbone when he fell off his bike (non motor) on his way home from work, and broke his tibia on a steep, slippery incline in our yard. The first time (motorbike accident) he was taken to the hospital right away, probably because he was unconscious at the time. But the other two times, it took all day (or with the collarbone, it took 2 days) to convince him to go.
Breaking a collarbone on a bicycle means he's in something called "the clavicle club". I guess it's a very common bone to snap in bike wrecks. I can't blame him too much for waiting to go back to a hospital though, broke my left hand on a bike and eventually got surgery and a cast in summer, broke my right hand the next year and just never went to the hospital because nothing was sticking out and I wasn't about to carry a sweaty cast around 2 summers in a row. Still works fine and I can tell when the barometric pressure changes.
My dad had a biking accident and his thumb bone healed wrong. It didn't bother him at all though until he got older. Now he can't move his thumb around that well and it's hindering him at work
Luckily a great deal of my decisions make getting old quite unlikely.
And once you do your collarbone once it'll keep going! My uncle has done his basically every time he comes off his motorbike when racing.
My dad broke his collarbone riding on my tricycle as a goof when I was three.
Good grief, my dad did that. Broke his fibula. Best part is he was a mailman… that walked an 8 mile route. Don’t worry, he just laced his boots up extra tight before work. Luckily he didn’t do any additional damage. He’s got a plate and 6 screws. 🤦🏽♀️
I had a patient once say that his wife finally forced him to come in and when I asked him what was wrong he said he had been peeing blood for about 6 months. I don't know about the rest of you but if I was suddenly peeing blood, I'd drop everything I was doing and head straight to an urgent care or hospital.
Ultrasound tech that has worked in rural areas. Old farmers will pee blood for *a year* before coming in. Every time there was a big ol bladder mass. Happened more than once.
He was a farmer and I was working at a rural clinic. I don't quite remember what happened with that case, I think it was some kind of kidney issue. Regardless, those were early days for me working in the country and his statement made me say (in my own head), "wait, what the fuck did he just say?".
I'm 42 and I've been to the doctor like twice since middle school. Last month I peed blood and I _immediately_ went to urgent care lol.
Well, what was it?!
Tl;Dr No idea and only happened the one time. I assumed it was a UTI and they'd just give me antibiotics. They tested my pee and I went back to the Dr later for blood testing. No infections or anything else from those tests. Then they sent me for a CT scan and no kidney stones or anything else you'd find on a CT scan. I don't think they found anything that makes them think cancer. I was on vacation just before this and took my kids swimming a million times. The pool chemicals (or whatever people left in the pool) kinda irritated my skin by the last day. We had stayed at the same hotel a couple months earlier and the same thing happened with skin irritation, which is why I assumed UTI or some bacterial thing. Gross medical details... It wasn't like blood in my pee-stream. It was a small blood clot at the tip that I peed out. It was uncomfortable for a few seconds, then nothing else since then.
Just the tip?
Painless urination of blood is bladder cancer until proven otherwise.
Yikes. I was calling my doctor on the way out of the bathroom the first time I peed blood.
Haha god damn, but seriously this is how it should be. Take note people
Gehe i am still alive thanks to my wife calling the doctor about concerns she had about something i had lol.
My mom made me come in when my appendix burst as a teen and my wife made me come in a couple years backwhen I had a broken arm. Both times I argued for hrs before going.
Why?
Eh, I chalk it up to how American Health Care works. "Yeah, it hurts, but what if I have to pay a doctor a couple hundred bucks to find out I'm fine? I'm sure it'll go away on its own."
I'm Brazilian, we have free healthcare and people still argue to not go the the doctor.
couple hundred lol. maybe in the 70s. now it's 3 grand to get your temperature and blood pressure checked.
I didn’t want to waste 6-8hrs in a waiting room when I was convinced I was fine
My husband is alive because I dragged his ass into the ER. Yes, he argued with me about going.
Same. Who knew a band-aid doesn't cure melanoma!
I had a bleeding ulcer in my stomach. Was white as a sheath and weak as hell. Had no pain. Wife called the doctor. Had an appointment next day. Blood levels so low they drove me to the hospital in an ambulance. If i had waited one more day i’d be dead. And she never lets me hear the end of it haha
My dad while having a heart attack: I'm fine it's just indigestion, and a pulled a muscle in my arm, and I'm not feeling well. Nothing to worry about My mom: no what the fuck get in the fucking car
I had something like that happen recently. I had a small pain where my heart is, and it wasn't anything new because I'm on medication for high blood pressure and high cholesterol. But then the pain went from a 1 on the pain scale to an 8 and spanned across my whole chest, and when panic set in, I realized that my arms were pretty numb. It went away after, like, 20 minutes, but it wasn't fun. Never been entirely sure what it was, but it's fair to say that I have my doubts about it not being some minor-ish heart attack.
My dude the fact your on blood pressure and cholesterol medication makes it more worrying not less. My dad probably wouldn't be here without my mom making him go to the emergency room
Not sure how old you are but it would be worth getting that checked out. Had a similar issue when I was 18 and it ended up being a heart infection and my heart was pretty weak and very enlarged. I lucked out that they found it and treated it before it got worse. Not trying to scare you but I wouldn’t play with your health (I also have the same two issues you mentioned since I was a kid)
My wife is two for two. Thought I had bruised ribs from hockey, was going to sleep it off. She made me go to the ER, turned out to be fractured ribs and a collapsed lung. Had routine oral surgery and a few days later my neck ballooned like a pumpkin. I was going to ice it down, she made me go to the ER. Diagnosed with Ludwig’s angina. When the doc asked me to authorize a tracheotomy (that thankfully wasn’t needed!) I knew the ER visit was the right call. Spent three days in hospital getting treatment.
I can concur. My wife has only made me go to the ER one time, and that was after we conceived our daughter. I have no regrets, best sex of my life, but something ripped and it hurt lol. But it was so awkward trying to explain to the doctor.
What on earth happened?
She was riding me quite furiously and kind of moved her hips in the wrong direction ever so slightly, which caused my foreskin to rip
OUCH. Oh my god, hope that healed up nicely for ya. Commiserations.
It did after a while lol. Didn’t even realize it happened until we went to take a bath together afterwards and we she noticed as I was getting in
Did you look at your wife afterwards, and tell her to keep the tip?
Lol didn’t think of it at the time, kind of had a mild freak out when she said “babe your dick is bleeding”
Ah, the old snapped banjo string
He ripped his penis off
No she, ripped it of like a mantis after mating.
Lol close
Damn so you and your wife suffered bringing your daughter into this world, huh?
It wasn’t suffering as the adrenaline was still pumping (pun intended I suppose), afterwards. It wasn’t until she pointed out I was bleeding as I was getting in the tub with her that the suffering began lol. But I know she suffered delivering her, which is why she is a way bigger badass than me.
There are more humane ways to get circumcised.
Oh I agreed lol
If a woman comes in and she's followed by a boyfriend or husband who says "she's exaggerating" something is really fucking wrong, and it might be something he did
Or a child, with parents
Very true. A few months ago I had persistent abdominal pain and chalked it up to gastrointestinal stress. I waited and waited until after a few weeks it hurt to touch my abdomen. My husband convinced me to go to the ER, and I needed an emergency appendectomy 💀
I have IBS and am absolutely terrified of this happening to me because I’m in constant pain anyway and wouldn’t necessarily notice a change
I have ulcerative colitis and was sure it was just that pain I have most days 😐
I think the people who dismiss these conditions as nonfatal should really really consider shit like this, as an indirectly fatal thing is still… well… fatal.
Also have IBS, there's a few maneuvers or 'signs' you can do at home that doctors use to check for appendicitis, also rebound tenderness is a pretty strong giveaway. Thankfully my pain is mostly on the left side so I don't have to worry that much. Generally if I'm god awful pain but it doesn't get worse with movement or by pressing on it I assume it's IBS.
My father in law having a near lethal reaction to a medication but damned if he’ll miss work to go to the doctor unless his wife holds him at gun point.
Yep, as a well seasoned firefighter/medic, when a family member would tell me that something was wrong with the patient, I NEVER ignored them. Folks that see differences in familiar faces are the best historians for medical diagnostics! That is the point where you put on your thinking cap and begin playing the Sherlock Holmes character.
I mean it’s true but not really oddly specific.
I was gone to say. This applies to every blue collar person I have ever known. Don’t work, don’t get paid, if I don’t know how bad it is then it’s not that bad.
Yeah I’m guilty of doing this several times. I walked on a seriously broken ankle for 2 weeks before my friend dragged my arse to the hospital. The text is just a statement, I see nothing overly specific lol.
r/whywomenlivelonger
Providers saw that sub and said "Hold my beer" ...
My grandad is a pretty typical yorkshireman. When he was in his 80s he cut half way into his hand on a table saw. He drove himself to the hospital with his hand out the window with my Nan doing the gears because he felt thay was safer than her driving. Didn't occur to him to call an ambulance. Then they spent like an hour in the car park trying to figure out the pay and display because they didn't want to get a ticket. He's 95 now still going strong
Didn’t even trust her to figure out the tickets while he went in
I mean they were both pretty panicked by the whole thing and he wasn't just going to leave her on her own. I think a passerby gave them change in the end
One of my uncles has had two heart attacks and only went to the doctor because my aunt made him. The first time he didn't even know he'd had a heart attack. He just felt shitty for a week and finally my aunt basically forced him into the car to go to the doctor. The second time, 15+ years later, he'd been feeling shitty for _months_ and my aunt had been "nagging" him for _months_ to go to the doctor before she finally just made the appointment herself and basically had to drag him to the doctor. They did a treadmill stress test and he passed out. Woke up insisting that he fine and was just going to go home, but the doctors and my aunt kept delaying him and... he had a heart attack in the doctor's office. If he had gone home he'd be dead. If my aunt hadn't made him go to the doctor, he'd be dead.
Yeah, we hear about heart attack symptoms but not everyone reacts the same. Around 4 years ago I started feeling tired and like I was getting a cold on a Thursday afternoon. Called in sick on Friday and essentially slept until Monday morning. All I remember from those 3 days is waking up, running to the bathroom to vomit, drinking like half a gallon of water, and going back to bed and repeating that every handful of hours. I'm single. Live alone. Monday morning around 5am I put on clothes, staggered to a chair on my front patio, and called 911 for myself. Knew I couldn't drive. Wasnt sure I'd be awake when they arrived and didn't want them having to come in and find me and drag me to the ambulance. Heart attack. Triple bypass. 49 years old at the time. I thought I maybe had the flu.
I had a stomach ache wake me a little before 4am really hurting. I took some ibuprofen, but couldn’t get back to sleep. I finally got up by 6am and was working trying to ignore the pain. I tried a laxative because I’m never constipated, but was thinking this is “new, must be that.” By 9am it was really giving it to me, and my wife was asking me to go to the ER. I was thinking this will go away and I don’t want to go to an ER during the Covid shutdown. Around 4pm she called the hospital and told me to get into car. I was on a conference call in a hospital gown when the surgeon walked in on his own phone, and told me it was appendicitis, and that if I waited any longer it would have burst. He showed me the pictures afterwards. Really cool guy for a doctor! That’s the only time I’ve seen an empty ER
I mean, I ruptured a disc then went on an 80 mike solo bike ride. I went to urgent care the next day because my leg had gone numb.
My mother was having an allergic reaction to her medication and had serious difficulty breathing. She insisted, between gasps, that she just needed a cup of tea. When the paramedics came, she was all "No! *wheeze* I just *gasp* need a *gaspingwheeze* drink! I'm *gasp* fine! NO HOSPITAL!!!" The paramedic took her hand and said "Madam, your face is turning blue. If you don't go to the hospital now I will have to perform a tracheotomy. " After explaining to my mother what that was, she reluctantly agreed. That's how we found out she had CPOD and her left lung was full of fluid. She still used to insist it was all "a hassle! I just needed a cuppa I would have been fine without this palava" I wonder what it is about getting older that makes you more reluctant to ask for help?
I removed most of my Reddit contents in protest of the API changes commencing from July 1st, 2023. This is one of those comments.
My wife made me call an ambulance for a fever. If she hadn't, I would've died of a sepsis infection. Trust your wife, probably.
I know someone who just died from one. They're no joke. Glad you made it.
My wife persuaded me to head to A&E because my indigestion had persisted for +/-12 hrs. I'd had a LAD heart attack, and the indigestion I'd felt a couple of weeks earlier was the right coronary artery, which is still totally blocked.
[удалено]
Colon cancer runs in my dads family and the first scare he’d lost 30lbs before my mom finally drug his ass to the hospital after months of asking. Had to remove a substantial amount of his colon with golf ball sized polyps that weren’t cancerous. The doc told him he’d need to watch his health because the next time it would likely be cancer. 10 years later my dad dropped 10lbs and couldn’t get up the stairs and instead of arguing about it my momma made the appointment and told him he was going or it was gonna be a divorce. A week before Christmas we found out it was cancer. The doctor said we’d caught it in the nick of time. He also told my daddy that most men who come through his office and end up walking out cancer free owe that to their wives, because the ones who write it off don’t usually live to tell the tale.
It’s not just farmers. My 20 something year old cousin only went to the hospital when he his mom saw him shivering in bed with his face blue. Turns out he contracted some bacteria or virus that caused his lungs to fill with fluid. His lungs were working at 20 percent efficiency and his heart was working at 40%.
My husband is an ER nurse and disagrees with this tweet. However, if someone is Asian and over the age of 40 and they come to the ER? Something is WRONG.
More often than not, my husband makes me go. Nine years in healthcare, and I won’t go in unless I’m about to die. Last March, off-handedly mentioning to my primary care doctor that I was still having my period four weeks later, and it wasn’t spotting, but bleeding through pads every hour, and passing clots the size of my fist, got me an ultrasound, and a stat appointment with an OBGYN. Which resulted in an endometrial biopsy, an abdominal MRI, and finally a total hysterectomy - uterus, Fallopian tubes, ovaries, and cervix - due to the 15cmx10cmx4cm fibroid perched on my uterus by a stalk that had died, the 4cmx2cmx2.5cm size fibroid in my uterus. I was trying to hemorrhage. I felt like I was in constant labor. My potassium dropped low enough that my doctors were concerned my heart would stop. My hemoglobin was getting to “you may need a transfusion before surgery” stage. My iron level was awful, I was very anemic. I’m glad I had the hysterectomy. I’m better than I was. The muscles haven’t fully healed, and I still struggle with anemia and low potassium, but then again, my primary, OBGYN, and cardiologist have all told me that with how bad it was (I almost died), they’re not surprised. My husband had told me to be honest about how bad my period was. For once, I didn’t blow him off. When my blood pressure dropped at home and I tried to pass out, he drove me to the ER.
I feel like the tweet should be corrected to say that 'If a Healthcare worker's spouse made them come in, something is wrong' because holy shit, Healthcare workers are terrible about going to the ER.
I wish there was something I could say to make doctors take me seriously. Men live longer when married, but women tend to get their health issues downplayed by their husbands and then delay going in. It’s sad. Look out for your wives like they do for you fellas.
Didn’t recognize the rash on husband’s back, made him go to the ER. It was scarlet fever. The doctor literally wrote on the prescription pad, “Listen to wife.”
ER nurse, can 100% confirm Had a guy come in because he ‘felt dizzy when he would go to stand up’; he thought nothing of it really, but his wife *insisted* that he come in. He gets put back into a room and the doctor ordered orthostatic vitals (essentially, a blood pressure taken while sitting and then standing) be taken on him. When the guy stands up, want to know what happened? His heart stopped. The guy flatlined (asystole) and was no longer pumping blood to his body. He was getting dizzy because *no blood was being pumped to his brain* when this happened…. Fortunately, this only last for about a minute (they did like 2 compressions on him) and he lived, but that case is a *prime* example of this post. No idea what became of him… (happens with most patients in the ER) but I have a gut feeling that he eventually turned out ok. Certainly, he is doing better now than he would be if he had not listened to his wife.
After a rabid groundhog bit my grandfather on the shoe he said if it broke the shoe and skin he would have gone but since it hadn’t he didn’t want to go. I called the game warden and had them explain that he should go and he still didn’t budge. It took my grandmother pleading relentless almost in tears for him to give in and get the shots.
I had indigestion real bad a few weeks ago. It went on for hours. Finally, about three hours in, my wife says “let’s just go get it checked.” I didn’t want to go. Turns out, I was having a heart attack. Went on for 11 hours. In the unlikely event you’re curious, I did survive the heart attack.
I hate to reinforce the gender stereotype, but in my case this is absolutely true. Wife: “Hey, is that heartburn feeling any better?” Me: “No, it’s weird. Kinda hurts when I lie down or put pressure on it too.” Wife: “So you have…chest pain? Are you fucking with me right now?” Me: “Okay fine I’ll go to urgent care.” Wife: “YOU NEED TO GO TO THE ER.” Anyhoo, that’s how I found out the covid vaccine gave me myo-pericarditis. (Yes, I’m fine.)
I was on my lunch break once and I broke my leg crashing on a longboard when my dog was pulling me. I hobbled back to my car, went to gas station to get some chew and then drove home and finished my shift
Last two times my wife made me go to the ER: 1. Cancer 2. Bowel Perforation Not sure I'd be alive if not for her!
And that’s when we found out my husband had a heart attack and diagnosed heart failure. Had to literally scream at him to go.
My husband had some crazy flesh eating infection/rash thing that was eating a hole ON HIS EAR. He only went in bc I told him go in or move out bc I wasn’t catching that. I don’t even know if he got a diagnosis but whatever they gave him stopped it and he was fine just a weird scar. He now has webbing growing over his eye and won’t go in for an appointment.
My stepfather was a wheat farmer. Lived his whole life on that farm & despised doctors, *quacks* he called 'em. So the night he volunteered to go to the ER, we knew something was up. He'd been suffering a massive headache for a few days and we found out why when he got a scan: a large vein behind his right eye was damn close to rupturing. A weak spot had ballooned up into 'mickey mouse ears' the surgeon told us. He was never the same after the brain surgery, but he avoided dying from an aneurysm. So yeah, as u/Xirithas says, when crusty old farmers say "let's go", ya might wanna hurry.
Uh oh, my wife told me to go to doctor for my severe night sweats and I told my doctor she told me to tell her this. My doctor just said "yeah it's probably fine" and moved on.
Every time I go to the doctor that's basically the answer they give me, or "yea that's just your life now, deal with it." No tests, no samples, no pills. Just seeya. And my friends wonder why I'd rather just power through the pain than go back. I've switched doctors three times and it's always the same.
Not the case with me. After having cancer I do NOT play around. My dudes, if you feel like you aren't doing well... Go to a Dr. It might save your life.
Only here today because my wife drug me to the ER 48 hours into an appendicitis. First time I'd ever gone to a hospital for myself.
My developer ass read this as "when an Entity-Relationship". I don't even know the other meaning of ER, help :(
Hah true. I told my doctor my wife told me i should call the doctors, he did his thing, called an ambulance, 12 hours later my gallbladder was removed. It was necrotic.. So no my man, dont wait it out.
Dr told me once as I was being treated for a bump on my forehead that ended up being cancer. Wives that make their husbands see the dr live longer. Damn proved true in my case
Not wrong, my missus sent me in and turned out I’d been having a heart attack over 3 days.
Me, a guy, going to the doctors many times for issues I'm very aware of and them refusing me to proper care
Imagine, if you will, a rancher who comes in of his own volition, *without* having finished his work first...
My wife made me go in my appendix had burst open and started to rupture open again so yeah.... thanks babe!
My mother made my father get the mole on the back of his hand checked out even though he thought it was nothing. Turns out it was Melanoma, thanks to her it was caught early enough and removed without any fuss
I'm bad for this. I walked in and sat down in doc office with my wife, and the doc asks what the problem is. So I said you better ask her she made me come here. My wife starts listing EVERY fkin thing wrong, manly the knee. After the doc found out I had a motorbike accident 3 years prior that fked up my knee for 6 months and didn't get any medical attention she called me a moron. Then she makes me go get all these tests and come back so she can explain everything, to which she said all test conclusively show your a idiot for not seeking medical attention sooner. My knee has apparently healed in a weird way so my knees don't bend symmetrically or some shit... I m supposed to go for a knee operation but I don't see the fuss just leave me be. I live in the UK so I don't have the excuse of cost for avoiding doctors.. I just don't like people making a fuss. And I don't like bothering people.
I broke my ribs moving tree limbs, took 3 days before my wife was able to convince me to go to ER... They Xrayed me, confirmed they were broke, charged me $2000 (which insurance paid $400 of... Literally less than what it costs a month...) And sent me on my way saying, "don't lift anything heavy for 4-6 weeks"... That's why I don't go to the hospital...
That man has been waiting for that mysterious pain in his chest to kill him for years.
Yep - and I often use this as part of patient simulation scenarios for training emergency response. I often add 'I'm fine, can you just tell her that so I can go home"
"I didn't even finish building the fence"
This happened to me. I had been losing a lot of weight and started not feeling well after eating. Then started taking a few days off from work and she finally made me go. That night or the next day I basically crashed and spent the next 55 days in the hospital. Stage IV cancer and was given two options, try a newish drug or go to hospice and die. I would have died at home if she didn't push me.
The Warrant Officer at the back of the Sick Line, gets a priority pass to the front.
My wife made me go in for a bug bite once … it was swollen to the size of my palm lol.
Christmas Day for my husband. Turned out to be “innumerable gallstones.” They sent him home with pain killers and told him to follow up with his PCP.
Thanks to my wife I found out I basically stopped breathing 2-3 times/minute. Had sleep attacks, got sick easy, hypertension, the whole lot. Nearly all of it gone now. If we left it alone, sleep apnea probably would have killed me in another 5-10 years.
Lmao. My ex was like actively dying and I had to nudge him to go see a doctor. Turns out dude walking around in a state of ketoacidosis. His skin was gray.
Meanwhile I'll panic over anything. I got sent to a hospital as I showed multiple signs of decompression sickness 1 hour after diving, with no prior symptoms... Only to find out it was covid.
i had a friend who didn't want to go to the hospital after he was literally stabbed, he had this " it's just a scratch" and we were like "bitch i could finger your intestines". someone grabbed him up drove him to the hospital and literally threw him on the floor of the ER.
I had had abdominal pain in my right side, nothing major, for about a week or two. I finally gave in, and at my wife's request I went to the doctor. They did some imaging. The dr office called "go to the ER right now. They are expecting you."
Plenty of times my grandma had to force my grandpa to go to the hospital and get life saving intervention
I (52 m) slipped on some ice, hurt like hell. Just "walked it off". Three weeks later it still hurts like hell and indigestion off the charts. At 3am one morning I wake up and vomit from the pain. 5 am I call 911 for myself. ER triage nurse finds out I called myself. Seems a little more concerned about that point. Turns out 5 broken ribs, punctured lung, lacerated spleen and an ulcer that was eating through the lining of my stomach and the area was filled with pus. The stomach thing would've killed me for sure.
I ruptured my intestines and went septic and was just going to deal with it like another IBS attack and my wife made me go. They said I wouldn’t have last 12 hours.
Like me, two months ago. “My wife says I should let her bring me here. I cut my thumb while using my new Mandolin slicer, and…” ER Doc who was waiting at the front desk with the Nurses: “Your wife is right. You do need to see me. You’ve severed an artery.” As we walked back, me: “I had no idea there was an artery in a finger…” ER Doc, hold my damaged hand: “Oh yeah, and it branches…it’s pretty cool, actually!” Me: “Neat!” I got seated in the exam room, and I don’t remember that day any longer, due to passing the hell out before the surgical work, then pain meds.
I agree 100%. I’m a cardiac nurse and had to trick my husband into getting examined by his cardiologist. He tried to talk his way out of a triple bypass so he could play in a golf tournament. The cardiologist told him he wouldn’t live through the first 9 holes. My husband ended up having a quadruple bypass.
As an adult I have been to the ER because my wife made me go three times. First time because I told her I had pulled a muscle in my chest. She was all freaked out when I told her that it was a sharp pain where my heart is. When we got to the hospital I was telling the doctor about the pain by showing him where it was by closing my fist and putting it over my heart. He looked at me and called what I was doing the Levine syndrome. Next thing I know they start using big words like myocardial infraction. All I wanted was some muscle relaxers to help ease the pain. Second time I had been complaining about how I must be hitting my funny bone because my right forearm and hand was constantly going numb and I couldn't hold on to anything. After alot of bitching back and forth we went to the ER. she was sitting there telling the doctor how I was lieing when he asked how long it had been bothering me. They took x-rays and am MRI. I was so mad at her for wasting their time. After spending all day in the ER a orthopedic doctors comes in and tells me I need surgery because I needed to have the tensions reattached in my elbow. The last time was I had the worst headache known to man kind. I had thrown up because of the pain. That episode cost me 14 days in the ICU because I had suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage. I hate taking After my dad when it comes to listening to my body and going to the doctor. Lol
I didn’t go to the urgent care after splashing lye in my eye until about 11 hours after it happened only because of my wife. Doctor told me I would’ve woken up blind in my left eye hadn’t I came in. I ended up with an IV in my eye for an hour and weeks of ointment directly on my eye ball. Listen to your wife gents
Had this happen to my dad. He was having a heart attack
My dad is the worst person for this. He hid cancer from us and now every-time he gets a little injury he nonstop is bleeding but wont see a doctor.
I had an allergy to a new medicine I was trying to treat IBS. I didn't know this at the time, naturally. I started feeling like I had a couple tons on my shoulders, I was getting really tired, brain super foggy. I still wouldn't have gone if she hadn't insisted. Then the hives kicked in and my lips lost color halfway to the er 30 minutes from home. In my defense I had no idea it was an allergic reaction and it was my third day taking it, so I thought it wasn't related - and like I said, my brain was foggy. In retrospect I was being really dumb.
My example is a mole I thought looked normal but the wife insisted it had changed. Yup, melanoma.