Doctors when you're having a very normal illness that you could treat with otc meds for $10: "Better run some more tests just to be sure. That'll be $300."
Doctors in medical dramas when someone broke their ankle: you need R E S T
Doctors irl when someone broke their ankle: the cops will be here in 5 mins to kill you
I got the "it must be psychological" diagnosis. Turns out lots of people took months to actually feel well after getting the swine flu, and I was one of them. It was great to just shrug my shoulders and go home, figuring I'd either get well on my own or get worse, and maybe whatever new symptoms I got would lead to an actual diagnosis. In the meantime, my life spiraled out of control because I had no energy to do anything. Good times!
It's rare to have something not yet documented, because common things get documented after all but yes completely 100%. Sometimes we don't know, and even the things we do know can vary by a lot.
When I was a kid, my mom nearly died from "colitis". She was hospitalized for a long time, and had three surgeries on her bowels, removing her large intestine and bypassing it.
Now, there are diagnoses of Crohns, SIBO, and other gut-autoimmune disorders that aren't super well understood but there are treatments and and diagnoses now that might have prevented a lot of suffering for a lot of people.
But yeah, her colon almost ruptured because the Dr couldn't find anything wrong. My dad had to take her to another hospital, far away just to be taken seriously.
A doctor once acused my mom of munchausen by proxy because she was convinced there's was something deeply medically wrong with me. It took dozens of doctors before they realized she was right and I have cystic fibrosis. She sent that doctor a hell of a letter when I got my diagnosis...
House once again proven to be the most realistic medical drama
You go to the doctor for a sore throat. He makes a sexist remark about a colleague, and then you die gruesomely
Your doctor learns, once again, that his vicodin addiction is hurting the people who care about him
I spent my entire 20s with undiagnosed autoimmune conditions, going from doctor to doctor, racking up medical debt, and being told there's nothing wrong with me all while my condition was causing irreversible damage.
It's hell. Those were supposed to be the good years.
Yes. Doctors SUCK at diagnosis. If you have a broken arm, great, they know what that is, they can fix it. Come in with headaches all the time for no reason and they'll just shrug and tell you to get out of their office. They don't like thinking and they don't like anything out of the ordinary.
Bring on the AI. Put these fuckers out of a job. Learn to code.
AI will be way worse for this. Diagnosis is just very difficult
What are you talking about, AI knows everything about hands and human biology
I know 2 different boomers who almost had one arm (each...) amputated when they were children because of a complicated fracture, the procedure only being cancelled at the last minute because their parents freaked out, and they have OK mobility etc now
so I guess doctors only got adequate at fixing broken arms recently
Oh, I don't mean treatment. I mean, they were able to diagnose the broken arm just fine.
But come in with headaches and they'll accuse you of drug-seeking or write it off as psychological. All so they don't have to do their job. Whine But it's hard!
Death Panel podcast has been talking about how the neoliberal version of therapeutic nihilism behind "chronic pain/etc isn't real, you just need CBT mindfulness therapy to stop being delusional" has been universalized to everyone with long covid disability.
my mom had this weird finger pain in one of her fingers for a long time, and doctors would say oh its just being old or arthritis or something. then one doctor decided to actually check out whats going on, and im not sure if it was xrays or something else, but they did find what it was: a tiny fish bone was lodged inside her finger somehow. they did a little surgery and removed it and my mom's finger pain went away.
its the most random thing that doctors were just brushing off until one was like ok we'll figure this shit out
My version of this was absolutely massacring my shoulder in a sports related collision. Went to the doctor. Doctor said "it's a soft tissue injury it'll heal on it's own. Five years of intermittent pain later I think "Wait aren't there physical therapists for this?" Turns out my insurance covered it and a few months of exercises and the pain went away and it's been fine ever since.
patients on tv shows: mystery illness
patients irl: faking it
