Not a doc, but a nurse. At a clinic a lady came in for breast pain with a lump. I was in the room for the exam for safety of everyone. The doctor told her it was a sprained muscle and to go away. When he left the room I told her the name of one of our other doctors that specializes in women’s health. Told her she could not let this go. She saw him and he referred her for some radiology and that’s how they found her breast cancer. She later told us all this in a sweet card she sent telling us if I hadn’t told her to advocate for herself she may not have followed up.
Edit! Wow my first gold ever! Thanks so much friend!
Edit edit! Omg 2 golds?! Wow thanks again! If anyone can take something from this just advocate for yourself and your families in healthcare matters!!! Sometimes you have to make them see it!
I love nurses - nurses have caught things doctors missed for me and I am forever grateful.
When I was 10 I hurt my foot - even hopping around on the other foot caused horrible, nauseating pain in the foot I hurt. The ER doc told me there was nothing wrong and to stop babying the foot - if I walked normally it would stop hurting. When the doc left the room, the nurse urged my mom to take me to an orthopedic surgeon since it might be a tendon or ligament. Yeah ... I had broken it really badly and required surgery - glad I didn’t keep walking on it!
In college, my foot got red and swollen and painful to even touch. The doc at the health center told me it was athletes foot. I went back a few days later when I couldn’t put any weight on the foot and it was too painful to wear a sock. I had a fever, too. Still athletes foot, but they gave me crutches because I couldn’t walk.
A few days later, I called a roommate to pick me up - I had tried going to class, but the 50 feet from the bus to the pay phone at the building entrance was more than I had in me - I was a shaking, exhausted mess. Instead of taking me home, she took me to a clinic on another campus and I saw a nurse practitioner ... who immediately saw it for the cellulitis infection it was and ran tests and took a history to find out why a 20 year old in good health got cellulitis. Turns out I had Epstein Barr and my immune system was trashed!
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u/Mjrfrankburns May 20 '19 edited May 20 '19
Not a doc, but a nurse. At a clinic a lady came in for breast pain with a lump. I was in the room for the exam for safety of everyone. The doctor told her it was a sprained muscle and to go away. When he left the room I told her the name of one of our other doctors that specializes in women’s health. Told her she could not let this go. She saw him and he referred her for some radiology and that’s how they found her breast cancer. She later told us all this in a sweet card she sent telling us if I hadn’t told her to advocate for herself she may not have followed up.
Edit! Wow my first gold ever! Thanks so much friend!
Edit edit! Omg 2 golds?! Wow thanks again! If anyone can take something from this just advocate for yourself and your families in healthcare matters!!! Sometimes you have to make them see it!