If an old farmer says "it hurts a bit" then they're about to die and need an ER
Or if they came in before finishing what they were doing.
Yep lol reminds me of a story my dad told me. He was working on a building and adding the interior siding (it's since been converted into a hog pen) when he smashed his thumb bad with a hammer. He decided that it was a good time to take a quick lunch break after wrapping up his thumb before driving to the hospital
My grandpa, still with us and thinking clearly at 90, grew up working the family farm. Got his hand caught in a combine mangled his hand. They of course had a 45 minute drive to the nearest surgeon, but it "wasn't that bad" until about 20 minutes into the drive.
Dude has outlived cancer, aggressive infections, smoking for 30 years, and the loss of his first wife. Probably the most resilient mofo I know.
Ah yes, farming equipment. The kind of machines thats almost made to mangle humans.
Did he get to keep the hand?
Yes! By some miracle the only permanent damage was his index finger, it could no longer extend, and it was forever weaker. I wish I could see an x ray of what it looked like as primitive as the machines were then.
My dad got his hand caught in a hay conveyor. Two of the tines caught the back of his hand and made two gouges a couple inches apart.
It was the only time I'd ever heard him say "Ow."
A quart of whiskey and 5 minute smoke break, they'll be fine.
Meanwhile the top comment is complaining about how people's pain reactions are gauged differently.
Ah yes. Many years ago before I was born, the guy who my was married to came home and complained about a bit of a painfull back. My mom made him drive to the hospital where he told them what hat happend. They told him to stand completely still and put a neck brace on him and made him sit in a wheelchair where he passed out. When he woke up half his body (left side I think) wa paralyzed.
It turns out he had fall off the roof of a barn and landed flat on his back on the fully extended ladder, breaking his back, and passed out and had lost his memory until he saw his work wan, with his name on it. He had then driven himself back home, before my mom insisted that he needed to go to the hospital, "just to have him checked out".
He still suffers daily from it, but he somehow managed to get full functionally of his body back, but never was able to work full time in trade work.
Long story short, Go. To. The. Hospital!
Your last line there. I get it and I agree, but for a lot of people without insurance it's like having to choose between bodily destruction and financial destruction
I feel so awful some people have to choose. This dude just didn't wanna go. We go socialized health care here rho
Choose financial. You live.
Use bankruptcy. There's a reason for it.
Make payment plans. If you're truly poor, you basically pay $30 a month for like 20 years and it's discharged.
It's very scary when it's a meme and people don't know their options since it's often gatekeeped.
Hospitals also offer financial assistance and payment plans if you ask. Believe it or not, hospitals want you to be able to pay. If you can't pay, that means they don't get paid. Though, sometimes (this is NOT a guarantee), they may waive the bill altogether if you apply for financial assistance.
What if you have to choose between your health and your child's going to college?
A healthcare system that's not universal is so fucked up. It can't be that it's kept for people with money.
Yeah I've lived this..
Years ago I had a rash under my arm that wouldn't go away, at first I thought it was just because I had swapped deodorant or I switched back, then I assumed it was now just aggravated because I was spraying stuff on a rash so stopped and was putting cream on it, after about 3-4 weeks it had spread around to my back and the wife saw it when I hopped out of the shower one night and told me to go to the doctor's. I was like yeah guess I should, another week passed and she asked me to meet her at the shops after work, I arrive and she had booked me a doctor's appointment... As soon as I took my shirt off the doctor gasped and said I had to go to ER immediately, I stupidly went home and had a shower first then went to ER, handed them the letter from the Dr and skipped the whole queue, triage nurse is slipping a cannula in and putting me on penicillin while I'm still being checked in.. ended up in hospital for 5 weeks with a severe case of cellulitis so bad they brought the medical students passed me every morning...
Thing is I felt fine the whole time, no pain at all, didn't feel sick and the whole time they're telling me it's life threatening..
Same thing happened to me but I was 11yo. They told my parents another week and I could have died.
I had doctors and nurses checking on me like ever 30m and I felt fine.
Same, my partner nearly died around the same age from a tiny infected glass cut that developed cellulitis.
Funny... I've been going through a health issue I have been seeing doctors for, but just like you, I basically feel fine. The only time I don't is within a few minutes of getting up in the morning, I dry heave. But once that's over, I'm fine. Except when it comes to food. I don't want to be around food. I don't want to smell it. I don't want it in my mouth. I don't want to chew or swallow it. My doctor described it as being like anorexia except with a physical cause. As a last ditch resort before going to the Mayo Clinic, I got my gallbladder removed after a surgeon saw the results of a scan and gave it a 50/50 chance of working. It may just be working, because I haven't wanted to eat yet, but I've stopped heaving.
So yeah, I'd say 90+% of the time, I feel just fine. No nausea, no pain, no dizziness, nothing. I just can't stand food. It sucks, because I like to eat and I've lost a ton of weight and living on Ensure and Gatorade is a really boring diet, but other than now that I'm recovering from the surgery, I haven't felt sick at all and I haven't since this started (a year in total, this bout of not eating since August).
Unless you are either female, a minority, young, or have chronic pain in which case any mention of pain you have, no matter how extreme, is considered a drug seeking attempt.
The ER will diagnose people based on their race, sex, gender, and age before they'll diagnose you based on your symptoms. It doesn't matter how much you are suffering, how much pain you are in, or how close you are to killing yourself because you can't take it anymore. ER doctors have no empathy unless you fit a certain demographic.
I hurt my back during training and since it really started hurting after-hours I went to the local ER. The same ER all of the serious training incidents go to.
The ER doc eventually said "this seems like drug seeking behavior".
To which I responded. "No shit. I didn't come in here for a hug. I need muscle relaxers and pain meds so I can fake it through PT in the morning."
Which hilariously worked? He gave me what I needed and I left.
As a former heroin addict (clean for a decade at least) I am terrified to be treated that way.
I’ve made it clear to anyone with any decision making ability in my life that unless they say, “he’s dying, there’s no hope.” they are to refuse opioids even if I’m begging and pleading.
Doctors don’t know I feel that strongly about it, but they can pull up my chart and see that I’ve been a junkie in my life. I hate that.
My son wears a medical bracelet that says no opioids except for end of life palliative care.
He fought too long and too hard to get sucked back into addiction.
I'm happy for you; you have beaten addiction into the past and that's where it's going to stay.
Happened to me when I was 18. I had severe Sun Poisoning (extreme allergic reaction to moderate sunburn) and not only was I inconceivably itchy, the pain I experienced was indescribable. Waves of pain so bad THROUGH MY ENTIRE BODY I could only scream and cry. I was shaking and incoherent. My mom was with me the whole day, and was the one who brought me to the hospital. Of course, with my behavior as extreme as it was, the hospital staff let me suffer very loudly in the emergency waiting room because they thought I was a drug addict. My mom, who has worked as a nurse, spent about an hour chewing people out left and right about the situation. I eventually got treated but that was probably the most traumatic experience I've gone through my whole life
Is that EPP? My partner's childhood best friend has one of the worst EPP reactions known to medical literature. I can't imagine anything that sounds half as bad.
I have this and this is maybe the first time I’ve heard of someone else with epp. I think mine is pretty mild, but it really sucks! I hate the sun!
Edit since I guess this is kinda relevant to discussion: I never had visible symptoms, just pain and extreme sensitivity to temperature /sun when it flares up, so until I was ~16 people told me I was making it up. Finally got a rash at one point and was able to get tests done and was diagnosed.
Our friend had a similar story to yours, they were told they were making it up despite the fact they were starting to die anytime they went out in the sun, it took multiple near death experiences for them to get diagnosed as a child. I've never run into anyone else with it in the UK but there is a community of expats with it in Rotterdam the Netherlands as they have one of the best Porphyria treatment and research centers in the world. Our friend emigration their a while ago for it and has been using the new implant that's been developed and they've said it's completely life changing - it doubles their exposure time and allows them to live a much more normal life. If you'd like to make contact with other people with it, feel free to DM me your email and I can pass it along.
I kind of feel like this is punching down, when you look at the larger context of how fucked up health care is in the USA.
In the USA, it's only the money that ever counts. Patient care is bottom of the list. One of the first things you see in any hospital ER is that "friendly" person with the rolling computer cart who wants to make sure you have insurance and can pay right fucking now.
The US healthcare system doesn't exist to provide healthcare - it exists to provide profits for shareholders. Any positive health outcomes provided are a fortunate byproduct - they certainly won't be delivered if they're unprofitable.
Of course, the same is true of any product under capitalism, but US health is a stark example.
For the last year, maybe more, I’ve had a pain in my side. I originally thought, “Well, fuck. I’m overdue for kidney stones. I must be a tougher bastard than I thought, because my grandpa and uncle are huge tough men who were reduced to toddlers over this.”
It went away for a couple months and recently came back. It got hard to sit down if I’d been standing and hard to stand if I’d been sitting (but not so hard that I’m crippled or anything). That has changed recently from this dull hollow ache to this kind of sharp pain like something went from swollen to withered. It isn’t something that is putting me out of commission, it just sucks.
On top of that my mouth was hurting every morning, now it’s most of the day. I thought it might be my wisdom tooth, but I should have periods that are pain free. I took antibiotics that my friend was prescribed before she had work done to see if that would help if there was infection. It didn’t.
I’m gonna have to bite the bullet and go to the doctor soon.
If I’m dealing with serious issues, I don’t know if it would be better to kick the bucket and spare my family or deal with the nightmare of bills and travel and loss of my meager income. At least if I die, they can get social security checks to keep them afloat until my lady finds a good man. She’s a spectacular woman and she definitely deserves better than me.
It sucks that our health is a for profit system. It’s hard to trust anyone who is out for money.
I have a friend with ulcerative colitis. Her insurance company didn’t want to pay for the only medicine that has worked for her and now she’s relying on a charity to pay for the meds.
What a fucking joke. I’m almost rebellious enough to get a tattoo that says, “haha, tell the doctors and pharmaceutical companies that they didn’t get shit from this corpse” and just die and have a shirtless funeral and encourage people to take pictures and post time online.
That was really scary to read!
Here's an adult in a modern western country who seriously weighs death against well-being. That is mind-boggling to me.
With all my heart, I sincerely hope you find your way to health, without being crippled by debt.
Any positive health outcomes provided are a fortunate byproduct - they certainly won't be delivered if they're unprofitable.
While the US healthcare system is certainly fucked up, this isn't really true. Emergency rooms are required by law to administer care, regardless of someone's ability to pay, and a lot of hospitals will waive the cost if you apply for financial assistance and have limited income. Granted, they're not going to see you for physical therapy, and other required follow-up care, but they administer unprofitable healthcare all the time. In poorer neighborhoods people use the ER as a primary care facility, since that's the only place they can be seen without money or insurance.
Hasn’t worked for me. My partner made me go to the ER today. I’ve been completely deaf in my right ear for a month now. They said that wasn’t an emergency and sent me out with a prescription for Flonase. On top of that. After I left I read my paperwork. They wrote down that my blood pressure was 177 over 114. But never said anything about it. That probably should also have been addressed but whatever.
That’s what I get for having no insurance in the US.
Certainly losing your hearing in one ear absolutely sounds like an emergency to me. Going death slowly over time is different.
Go back and tell them you smell burning toast.
Heh, I would, but unfortunately every time I go there and they blow me off they charge me at least a few hundred dollars. Of course I’ll never pay that, but this is why folks don’t go to the emergency room.
Also, I just want to add that this isn’t a small hospital. This is the world famous UAB hospital. You’ve probably never heard of it, but UAB the college and hospital pretty much are Birmingham, Al.
Are you in a state with no medicaid?
I live in Alabama. We have Medicaid but at a whopping 14k a year I was told I make too much. I have applied many times. I am also a stay at home parent for a special needs child. But every time it comes back denied.
I went and registered for a charity hospital. The thing they seemed hung up on was how much my rent is. But I’m having to pay $50 a visit to go there. Which is full price.
I don’t know. Honestly, I have come to terms with the fact that I will die relatively young. Lack of medical care is a real thing. Just to be clear. I’m not saying that I am going to do anything to speed up the process on purpose. But I’m an old millennial and my quality of life has plummeted. As I’ve stated in other threads life just isn’t fun anymore.
Well shit, that's awful.
The thing they seemed hung up on was how much my rent is.
Do they want you homeless or something? It kind of sounds like it. We really need universal healthcare, as flawed as that can be sometimes. This is ridiculous. Our country can be so great and generous and then you hear about this kind of shit. I'm sorry you're going through it.
They probably didn't mention the 177 over 114 because being at the ER is stressful. If you're in there and under 160 they might congratulate you.
My cousin got a knife in his foot and I helped him out a wrap on it. We played video games until my wife, who is a medical professional, came home. Took one look and said, "Go to Urgent Care."
Honestly it looked fine. But two grown adult men both shrugged.
Yup. Brain cancer most of the time.
Reading these stories here make me glad I'm the kind of person that goes to the doctor the moment I notice something's off.
But the one exception for that was when, for "some reason", for an entire month, I always started feeling fatigued after only being awake for a couple hours. It felt like there was a pressure in my head, and it felt like there was a rubber band around the top of my head (above my forehead). (Some of you probably know where I'm going with this now.) Thinking it was just seasonal allergies or poor sleep (I had a bad habit of "late to bed, early to rise"), I just toughed it out.
It took until my ears started feeling clogged that I realized what was going on. I'd apparently been dealing with a sinus infection for an entire month, and my ears were starting to get infected from it now. I'd never had a sinus infection without having been sick prior to it before. (I tend to get ear and sinus infections after every cold.) So it kinda surprised me, and it's why it didn't even cross my mind until I started feeling the effects of the ear infection. I think I took 2-3 rounds of antibiotics to clear it up, and I also took a round of steroids to immediately open me up and help me drain.
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