Advocating for yourself as a patient is incredibly important, especially when you feel like your own doctor isn't listening to you.
The BuzzFeed Community recently shared stories of doctor's visits where they felt unheard, or even ignored, by their own practitioner. Here are just a few of those stories:
1. "On Jan. 1, my sister went to an urgent care clinic for some pain she had under her arm. They told her to go straight to the emergency room, where the attending doctor, who was a man, didn't even bother to look her in the eye or do a physical exam and told her she just had a pulled muscle. The other attending, who was a woman, was a bit more attentive and told my sister to get to her PCP as soon as possible, as it could be breast cancer, but they were so swamped with Omicron they couldn't really do any testing in the emergency room. She just had her first chemo treatment last week for stage three breast cancer. The rage that I have for that attending and his definite misogyny is overwhelming."
2. "My mother repeatedly went to her doctor for three-ish years and insisted something was wrong. Every time she was told she was menopausal, overweight, stressed, fatigued, etc. A bizarre fluke case of appendicitis revealed a fist-sized tumor on her kidney. She lost her kidney and, if not for her appendix, would likely have never known until it required chemo, radiation, or it was just too late at all."
3. "I went to the emergency room during a massive depressive episode because I hadn’t eaten or had a glass of water in 10 days and passed out, narrowly missing hitting my head on a sharp piece of metal furniture. When I got there, I said that I was worried that because I was living alone and suffering without help for my mental health, I wouldn’t take care of myself and might die. I was congratulated for losing 24 pounds and instead of getting psychiatric help, I was told to go on more walks."
4. "I had rapid weight loss, ravenous hunger, tremors, hair loss, bulging eyes, lump in my throat, constant rapid heartbeat, among others. My diagnosis: Anxiety. My real condition: Graves' Disease (hyperthyroidism). I suffered for a year and all my doctor would say was, 'You have to learn to relax.' They're not taking women seriously."
5. "I have reoccurring swimmer's ear infections and once my PCP told me, 'It's because your ears are fat and putting too much pressure on your eardrum.' WTF?!"
6. "I have a trifecta of chronic illnesses, including a genetic disorder, that went misdiagnosed for decades. I feel like a whole new person since I got proper treatment after a proper diagnosis, but I had to get a doctor to take me seriously first! Women especially, anything we come in with is chalked up to either weight, menstrual hormones, or psychiatric issues."
7. "My mom, who was older and overweight, went to the doctor with textbook symptoms of pancreatic cancer; Jaundice, weight loss, and itchy skin. They told her that she had dry skin and gave her prescription lotion. No bloodwork was done. It wasn’t until a couple of months later that she was diagnosed, and she died soon after. I know doctors don’t (and can’t) know everything, but I have no medical degree and I knew something was wrong."
8. "When I was pregnant, I had the WORST side pain. It was to the point where I was throwing up from the pain, unable to move. I went to my OB and was told, 'Oh, don’t worry the baby is fine!' I said 'Okay, that’s great but I'M not fine.' Three OB appointments later, I was still given the same answer. Then, when I was nine months pregnant, I had to go to the emergency room because the pain was too much. I had kidney stones! All of the symptoms that I had were textbook! I wish someone had listened to me the first time, which was months before I finally went to the emergency room. The pain was so bad that they almost had to induce me to deliver, just so I could get pain meds. It seems like some doctors have blinders on and only see one thing, whether it be weight, a person’s sex, or in my case the baby in my belly."
9. "I needed a massive breast reduction (technically a double mastectomy) but when I called one office, I was told that the doctor simply refused to operate on patients over 200 pounds. I guess because it's considered an elective surgery they can get away with it."
10. "I had severe depression and gained weight while on my antidepressants. I started working out and my feet cramped so bad that I would have to lie down on the ground, waiting for them to stop hurting so that I could walk. I went to the doctor, and she told me that I just need to lose weight. I kept telling her I was trying, but my feet were cramping so bad that I could barely walk. She continued to ignore me and told me to lose weight. Five years later, I became friends with a nurse, who told me that I have plantar fasciitis. It was a complete game-changer. For years I suffered at the gym, and was in severe pain, thinking I just needed to lose more weight. All I needed to do was stretch and wear better shoes."
11. "My grandmother is 94 years old and the absolute best person you'll ever meet. She now has stage four cancer and is recovering in a rehab facility before she can go home. She complained to her doctor for a year about symptoms and was told to take Alka Seltzer. By the time she got a second opinion, her blockage was so bad that she would have been dead in a week if they hadn't removed it and her colon. All of this could have been avoided with a colonoscopy or at least a stool sample. You have to be your own advocate and sometimes question the treatment you're receiving. Please tell your parents and loved ones! It crushed me to see my grandmother like this when it could have been easily avoided."
12. "I almost died from fat-phobia. I had been ill for three years and had been to every doctor, specialist, and nutritionist that I could. Everyone just told me that I needed to lose weight and I’d be all better. Then one day, I had this crippling heartburn that just wouldn’t go away before suddenly, I was projectile vomiting. While on the phone with a family friend that was an EMT, he realized that I wasn’t making sensible conversation anymore and asked me what was wrong, but I could only tell him my stomach hurt. He called 911 from a different line and got them to send an ambulance while he was still on the phone with me. In the six minutes that it took the ambulance to get to me, I passed out. I woke up in the emergency room confused and in more pain than I had ever been in in my life. A few days later, I was diagnosed with stage one pancreatic cancer."
13. "I was used to exercising four or five days a week, then started to get weaker and experience pain. Thankfully, my doctor figured out how to navigate in order to send me to specialists but I was given the 'Four F's': Forty, Fat, Fertile, Female. I then had an accident that required them to repair my meniscus, but once they opened the knee, they discovered evidence of a degenerative progressive disease. That led to the further discovery of a secondary disease that masked the first one. It was [wild]."
14. "A few months after my hysterectomy, I developed a lump on my hip. I was sent to a dermatologist, who sent me to a surgeon. The surgeon did a two-minute ultrasound and no other tests. He then declared I was 'simply more generous' on that side and that I should 'go home and ignore it.' When I asked about exercise or anything I could do, he shrugged. A few months later, I was in the hospital. The swelling had gone from my hip down to my foot and then turned bright red. The doctor there was shocked, because diagnosing me should have been 'an easy catch.' I was suffering from a complication of my hysterectomy: Lymphedema, which is not uncommon. The redness and pain, which was from the lymphedema, was now causing cellulitis, which has repeatedly reoccurred. I’ve been hospitalized six times in the last five years from it, from three to ten days apiece. "
"Had the surgeon properly examined me and made that 'easy catch,' it would have been easily treated by physical therapy and compression garments. Now, I am waiting on the several surgeries I am going to need, which is not a happy prospect when you have an autoimmune disease. Even with my good insurance, this is going to cost us a ridiculous amount of money we don’t really have. This surgeon has nothing but five-star reviews. My one-star review was removed."
15. "When I was 17, I had ongoing stomach pain and was throwing up after eating for months and lost about 30 pounds. My mom took me to see a doctor and instead of running any tests, they said that the problem was that I had an eating disorder, and I got a lecture. Luckily, my mom didn’t believe them, and we found out that it was a gallbladder issue after going back a third time and running a dye test."
16. "My friend had a baby last year and has been working out almost daily to lose the extra baby weight. She's probably one of the most active people I know, to be honest. Back in November, she was at the gym when she tripped on the treadmill and landed on her knee. There wasn't a lot of swelling or pain at first, so she thought that it was just a bruise but it was still tender and hard to walk on after a few weeks, so she finally went to the doctor. This man took one look at her, never even looked at her leg, and just said, 'Well, you know being fat is bad for your knees.' She was furious and found a new doctor, who took one look at her knee and told her that she'd ruptured the bursa and likely torn a ligament in her knee. She had surgery back in December and has since recovered but she's actively seeking legal action against the first doctor who told her she was just fat."
17. "I'm pretty average in terms of body size. I'm a size 12 but very active, and I eat healthily. I've experienced debilitating migraines from hormonal fluctuations since I hit puberty. When I reached adulthood, I finally started trying to figure out how to treat them and went to my doctor. His suggestion? Lose at least 40 lbs. I explained that I was running five km, four days a week, and weightlifting the days I wasn't running. He looked me over and said, 'I could see your BMI being healthy if you were an Olympic weightlifter, but you clearly aren't so...' It was probably one of the most humiliating and dehumanizing things that I've ever experienced."
18. "I got told it was just hemorrhoids. It turns out that it was Stage IIIc Rectal Cancer."
19. "When I moved to a new town, I had to set up all of my specialist appointments and had to wait more than six months to be seen so that I could continue my treatment plan for several autoimmune and rheumatology diseases. Right before I moved, my old doctor had started me on a treatment plan as the old one had stopped working, so I needed to be evaluated to see whether I should continue or try a different new treatment. The first appointment came around finally, and it was with the rheumatologist. He said, 'Why are we here today?' I was a little shocked because I had turned over my medical records six months previously, but okay. I said that I was here to get follow-up treatment for my Sjogren's disease. He then spent the next 49 minutes trying to convince me to get lap-band surgery."
20. "When my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, she went to one doctor who told her that she needed to draw up her will. He said that she was riddled with diabetes, overweight, in her 70s, and that they needed to schedule surgery right away, though with her ailments she may not make it. My mom is none of these things and though she told him that, the doctor said SHE was the liar. It turned out, that another patient had the same first and last name, but with an extra letter."
21. "I gained over 100 pounds in less than 100 days, despite eating less than 1,000 calories a day. The doctor sent me for insane and painful tests but didn’t check basic tests, and missed a thyroid lump. I had aggressive stage three metastatic thyroid cancer. By the time I found out and recovered enough to handle my life again, the statute of limitations against malpractice had expired."
22. "I am epileptic and found out after having my daughter. I started having what I later learned were simple partial seizures for about two years before I had a full-on seizure. I felt like I was about to die every time I had a partial. I went to get blood drawn and nothing came up. I went to one doctor and before I could finish explaining things, he told me that it was just anxiety, and to stop stressing out about it. I called my mom crying because he shut me down right away and I just knew it couldn't be that. Fast forward nine months later, my husband woke up to me seizing. I was taken to a hospital and was seen by a neurologist, who told me that I am epileptic. Now, I am on medication and have only had a simple partial here and there. If that doctor would have believed me and had me monitored I would probably have not had the full-on seizure."
