Apparently, some dude thinks diabetes is solved by wrapping your foot with bacon wrap. This might work, in a different universe.

@Rdhthedo shares about this weird experience:

“We had a diabetic foot patient a couple weeks ago who thought that wrapping his foot in raw bacon would help get rid of bacteria not too long ago. Not too long ago was also about 4 toes ago….”

Pregnancy is no mean feat. It is already challenging as it is. But some women, like the lady in this story, make it even more life-threatening.

@lmao_turkey shares:

“We had a very pregnant patient come in needing stitches in her vagina. Turns out she was a realtor and didn’t want her water to break while she was showing a house, so she put a glass cup in her pants to catch the water. Instead of using a pad or an adult diaper, she went for a GLASS CUP. She sat down while showing a house and sure enough, it broke and cut her up pretty bad.”

Anything excessive is not good. This woman, in particular, had too much potato at a wedding. One shot of pantoprazole and her embolism was solved.

An anonymous Redditor in this thread said:

“A lady comes screaming into the ER, Now she’s all dressed up, so are her 2 grown daughters. All of them screaming hysterically that their mother is going to die. I go by them and nearly get tackled by the SIL, husband of one of the daughters.”

We are not sure how people come up with ideas about their health. Do they really think that or are they just coming up with excuses to continue their bad habits?

@5123 shares an encounter with a man who has this opinion on cigarettes:

“I’m a corpsman, not a doctor, but I once had a patient tell me that there was no credible research that smoking was bad for one’s health.”

Parents know their children. But as they grow older, there can be things that are beyond what parents expect or know. This woman, for example, who thinks she knows everything about her son, until she realizes she doesn’t.

@TableWallFurance still recalls the story clearly:

“The kid had cruddy green/bloody stuff coming out of his left nostril, and a lot of redness and swelling of only the left side of his nose and the adjacent cheek. Mom was sure he caught a sinus infection and just wanted some antibiotics…Mom was insistent that he NEVER puts things in his nose.”

It is important to read and follow instructions when taking medications. Some medicines are not meant to be taken orally. And this woman found that out about suppositories.

@Talina1, who used to be a receptionist at a Family Practice, shared this:

“Not a Doctor or Nurse, but I used to be a receptionist at a Family Practice. We had a patient call regarding her yeast infection. She was given suppositories for her problem. She told me she took all three and still had the infection. I said “Took? Like you swallowed them?” Yep, that’s what she did. I let the Doctor handle that one.”

With diabetes, drinking soda is out of the picture. If it’s diet, well let’s leave the decision to the doctor if that’s acceptable. However, this girl thought that adding more ice on soda makes it work even for a diabetic like her.

This is how @Frishypharma reacted:

“Was working at a clinic. I was speaking with a non-controlled diabetic patient about her sugar intake and she said she drinks a 32 oz soda everyday. I ask her if it’s regular or diet and she replies with “It’s half-regular. I let the ice melt first so there isn’t as much sugar in it”. Sorry but that isn’t how it works.”

They say Moms know best. Well, that is not always the case. One medical professional found out after this happened:

“Had a pregnant woman who’s ultrasound showed the baby had Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (Half a heart, 100% fatal without surgery) who stopped seeing her OB so she could have the baby in the forest and bathe it is breast milk to cure him. SMDH”

This guy probably thought he could fool the doctors with his big medical words. Apparently, he was found out even before he spoke another word.

Dental student @Macabalony shared one patient who is incredible at telling lies.

“One patient in particular is pathological liar. During one visit, they claimed to have gone to medical school. Next visit was that they did dental Army. Last visit was that they had a PhD. The patient will say things like “Hey doc do you need me to move my head mesial or distal?” No. I need you to move your head right. “Hey doc, are these cavities being cause by the anaerobic pathology microbes?” No. They are cause by you eating snacks all day and not brushing.”

Have you heard about dehydration therapy? Apparently, it doesn’t work so don’t bother searching for it.

“I had a patient who was a completely non-compliant diabetic, smoker, morbidly, who had his first heart attack at 45. His blood pressure was also super high. And instead of taking his anti-hypertensive medications, he went to the gym. In the gym: he would sit in the sauna for a very long time, and sweat a lot, and lower his blood pressure by becoming dehydrated.”

Books are good to have for learning more about one’s health. But they are not the actual things that can heal you though. For @jdubs33, this incident is as sore as an ulcer:

“80+ y.o. patient who was declining with multiple diagnoses and about 3 decubitus ulcers. Daughter was adamant that her father be kept on his strict “paleo” diet because that would “supercharge” his healing. She had a stack of diet books. He simply wasn’t getting enough nutrition to heal the ulcers. He didn’t like the diet at all btw. At some point you kind of have to stop being polite and just tell patients/ family members bluntly that you don’t have time for this shit and what you recommend and they can do what they want and just document everything. It happens a lot but she sticks out.”

Some people are worried about having high blood pressure while some are trying to increase theirs. And some genius thinks they found a way to achieve this. Although, he might end up having to worry about too high blood pressure if he keeps at it.

@aberdine_8 said:

“So – the patient had low blood pressure – so their self treatment: eating more fatty foods in order to decrease the size of their blood vessels in order to increase the blood pressure within their system…”

The glaucoma machine is here to help. Why make it the culprit?

As an optician, CaptainTheGabe, wanted everyone to know:

“He said that puff machine gives you glaucoma and we weren’t going to pull that on him. He told us his father got an exam, and had glaucoma after using that machine. His uncle and brother also had no signs of glaucoma, and after getting the puff test, both people had been diagnosed with the disease. Glaucoma doesn’t have any outward symptoms before you start going blind…he has a very strong familial disposition to glaucoma, and refused to be tested for it.”

Instructions in the medicine we take should be read very well. This is important unless you want to end up like this guy:

This anonymous optician shared:

“Had a patient put EAR DROPS in one eye. White part of eye (conjunctiva) scarred over entire cornea and was left with no light perception. Asked me if he should have come in sooner. It had been 4 months. He needs a cornea transplant…”

Do you know some scary hospital stories? @gr8googamooga shares one of the most terrifying things he ever heard while on duty at the hospital:

“Patient inquiring about birth control was adamant she wanted an IED.”

At a certain age, we all learned about the birds’ and the bees’ stories. Here’s another one that is also based on a hilarious and cringe-worthy incident shared by @markko79:

“Nurse here. The number of American 20-something males who don’t know what circumcision is is ridiculously high. They think that boys are “born circumcised.” Evidence: New fathers (and mothers) asking me what’s wrong with their newborn son’s penis. “Ummm… He still has his foreskin. Many parents choose to have it removed when the baby is a couple days old. It’s called circumcision.” Often followed by a parent’s question: “What’s circumcision?” That’s when I face palm.”

Spring is notorious for seasonal allergies. However, one woman seems to not be aware of this. @Ohh_Nurse shares the moment this woman walked in the hospital for her allergies:

“Had a patient come to the emergency department at 3am because she woke up 20 minutes prior with itchy/watery eyes and nasal congestion. It was spring. She literally came in for seasonal allergies. I asked what medications she tried to relieve the symptoms. She said “my husband told me to take some allergy medicine he has at home, but I didn’t take it.” So, you’re going to pay a hospital bill for the same antihistamines that you have at home?”

Well, we have heard about stories from the point of view of medical professionals. Let’s hear one from the patient’s POV, shall we? Reddit user @Tkcat shared:

“Im ashamed to say I have a story that fits here. I have a ganglion cyst on the inside of my wrist, when it starts getting large I smash my wrist down on a hard table and it goes away. I developed a similar bump on the top of my foot. I couldn’t smash it down like my wrist so I tried hitting it with a hammer. Didn’t do anything and it was getting bigger and interfering with my shoes so I got it investigated. Not a cyst, but arthritis in the joint. No wonder my hammer trick didn’t work. The radiologist did find my treatment method amusing, but advised me to get any more lumps checked out rather than randomly hitting things with a hammer.”

Pregnancy is for 9 months, this means parents have enough time to learn about the baby and their delivery while waiting for them to be born. However, these parents seem to have missed pretty basic information in their pre-parenthood study. Nurse @GrumpyMare shares:

“As a labor and delivery nurse. I have had to give the “3 hole speech” multiple times. I explain to the patient that I am going to insert a urinary catheter because they have an epidural and can’t void properly. Then they ask how is the baby going to come out. I want to bust out a diagram and show that there is a urethra, vagina and anus. Big arrow to the vagina where the baby comes out.”

Internet is a huge source of information. However, it does not always tell you the things that actually work. @chickenpants80 wants to warn all of us:

“I was a unit secretary and nurse aide on a radiation oncology unit in the early 2000’s. We had a patient show up through the ER and was admitted for emergency radiation treatment. She had a massive fungating mass in her mouth that had consumed half her head. When the RadOnc doc tried to examine her and open her mouth, her remaining teeth fell out into his hand. It had eaten through the bones of her face, invaded her eye socket, everything. Doc said it was the worst case of mouth cancer he’d seen. According to her husband, she had a small lesion on her hard palate, and upon receiving the diagnosis of an early stage squamous cell carcinoma, she decided to treat with essential oils and things like frankincense because chemo was poison. Her husband said he had tried to reason with her but she was adamant about the ‘natural’ treatment. She died in agony shortly after.”

We need to make choices when it comes to our health. Of course, the option we need to select should be the best one for us. Some people, though, are not good with making these kinds of decisions, just like the guy that @SomeYorkTown met:

“Patient comes to the surgery clinic with complaints of mass per rectum. (Now I wasn’t there the first time he came). But the surgeon wanted to do a couple of investigations and advised him to get admitted. The guy decided he doesn’t want to. Couple of months later, he comes back to the clinic. Apparently he went to one of these alternative medicine places or whatever and they had tied this metal wire(not exactly sure why) around the mass. By then, this mass has eroded through it and was bleeding and had gotten much bigger. Turned out to be a cancerous growth.”

So, some people are not quitting not just because they can’t but because they want to. They make up dumb excuses to justify their actions! An example is this guy that @SomeYorkTown: encountered:

“I was doing a respiratory system examination on this guy who frequently(about once a month) gets admitted in the general ward with complaints of breathlessness. He’s had COPD for a couple of years. Quite bad. And he tells me that he isn’t going to quit smoking because ‘God’ told him not to. When asked why, he tells me that the people who are relying on him for their daily livelihood won’t survive if he stopped. I went on to ask him if he meant the people at the cigarette factory or the health industry. He didn’t get the sarcasm though.”

@SomeYorkTown seem to have a lot of stories about people with weird medical knowledge and mindset. And even the auntie of @SomeYorkTown is one of those people!

“My aunt (who has varicose veins, pretty obvious to anyone who sees it) once asked me why her legs hurt and what those bluish lines under her skin were. I almost went on to explain to her about dilated veins when she interrupts and decides for herself that those are her nerves. Dying nerves. And the blue stuff was blood clots inside the nerves. I’m a med student.”

@sosanostra, who works in an optometrist office, apparently met a woman who made quite the accusation against eye doctors. She said they were all just trying to sell glasses! And she wouldn’t fall for it.

“When the doctor was explaining to the mom that her son had to wear his glasses all the time since he’s nearsighted and basically can’t see clearly past 5′ in front of him. For some reason this caused a switch to flip in the mom and she spazzed out on the doctor, saying that her son doesn’t need glasses and that the doctor is only saying that he does because he wants to sell glasses. She says that she only brought her son in because there was some form for school that needed to be filled out and that doctors are all a con artists trying to push unnecessary medications and interventions. The doctor tried to calm her down and explain that he’s only trying to help them but that she was free to get a second opinion and gave her a copy of the kids prescription and sent them on their way. About four months later the lady is back asking for another copy of her son’s prescription. Apparently the first semester midterm results were in, and her son failed them all, because he couldn’t see the board in his classes and needs glasses!”

Pain tolerance is something that is not the same for all of us. Some people are too sensitive to pain, while some people don’t seem to know the difference at all. @drushkey met someone who did not even think of his leaking organs as a sign of terrible health risk. Did she even feel pain at all?

“Patient comes in complaining of severe abdominal pain, nurses take vitals, ask questions etc. Eventually my friend sees her and, after a few questions, he has her lift her shirt. The “severe abdominal pain” on the chart was in fact due to a gash so severe part of her intestines were sticking out of her. No one had noticed and she hadn’t thought to mention that her organs had started leaking out. In fact, she seemed just as surprised as he was.”

In customer service, customers are given priority and are always right. But in the field of medicine, patients are also prioritized, but about being right all the time? Nah. @EarthwormJane has this story to tell:

“Did a fingerstick for a patient, ensured the little cut stopped bleeding, and then put a band-aid on it. Told her to collect a urine sample for testing. Test came back strongly positive (4+ reading) for blood. She complained to the doctor that there is NO WAY she has blood in her urine, and that the blood from her fingerstick must have entered the urine, throwing off her reading. She said it was my fault that I did her blood test before her urine test, and I obviously made a mistake. She repeated the test later in the afternoon, still at 4+. Came back a week later, still at 4+. The look on her face when I told her “sorry, ma’am, your result is still positive” was priceless.”

Some patients can be unusual, some are downright weird. But some can be incredibly crazy! Registered Nurse @jsellars8 shared this story:

“I see some crazy stuff, but one thing that stands out was the time I was admitting a guy to the hospital. I can’t really remember what for but he was about 400lbs, diabetic, heart disease, you name it. A few minutes in he starts complaining that he’s thirsty. So I get on my phone and call the nurse assistant and as her to bring in some ice water. As soon as the words are out of my mouth the whole family screams “NOOOO! NO WATER! HES ALLERGIC TO WATER!”

She seems to be well-fed now, so why is she not getting better? Unfortunately, there was a sad story behind the mystery. @talon03 shares:

“We had a patient come into our hospital with anorexia requiring treatment, which, as usual, she didn’t want. However, she appeared to be eating her prescribed meals. After a few days it becomes clear she’s not putting on any weight, but the room is clean and she’s supervised for her bathroom visits, so we know she’s not flushing it away. Turns out her family are going though some tough times and her dad’s down on his luck and out of money. So when he’s coming to visit his anorexic daughter in hospital every day, he’s eating the food prescribed to her because he can’t afford to feed himself.”

It’s amazing how the Internet can make people think that they know everything after making a few searches online. This guy even walked in with the assumption that he figured it all out. @cazman123 shares:

“I had a patient come in with several pages he printed off the internet. He kinda slammed them down and said, “This is what I have.” He had bloating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, bloody stool, and fever among other things. He insisted he had Schistosomiasis. He was being a real jerk about it like we’re wasting time since he already knew what he had. “So, I asked when did he get back from Africa. And he said, “Africa? I’ve never been to Africa. What the hell would I be doing in Africa?” I proceeded to tell him that Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease one gets while swimming in the Nile River or other rivers in developing countries like in Southeast Asia. He got pissed off at me because he thought I was being a smart ass. He got seen and diagnosed with gastroenteritis (the stomach flu). The bloody stool? He had hemorrhoids.”

This woman did not even Google. She Yahooed to find support for her claim against Crohn’s disease. Her child, who shared this, is deeply embarrassed:

“My grandmother has Crohn’s disease. Very very badly. It skipped my mother and her brother. When I was 15, over the course of 6 months, I went from being 5’9 and 190 pounds to being 110. I was a skeleton, extremely anemic, and coughing up blood. My mother was CONVINCED it was something else. I forced her to bring me to a doctor and she spouted off all these possibilities. She then talked about what she yahooed. Not even googled. Yahoo. About genetics and such. And “crohns can’t skip generations.”Well the doc said “just in case. We’re gonna run some tests. Long story short I have crohns in my throat and small intestine. So does my cousin. It just skipped a generation.”

Uhm, maybe he meant he did not want to put “legal” chemicals in his body? Because I’m pretty sure meth and cocaine are not supposed to be in your body either. @CalvinsStuffedTiger shares:

“Not a doctor but I’m a nurse who worked in the OR at a trauma center. Was doing surgery on a 19 year old who tested positive for meth and cocaine who was grilling the anesthesiologist about every drug we were going to use in surgery because “he doesn’t like putting chemicals in his body.” Gotta stick with that organic, fair trade, Non-GMO cocaine.”

@Dr_Dubs met this woman and she’s definitely getting things wrong! Let’s just hope she finally started searching for the actual facts, rather than made-up excuses for her vices.

“Lady walks into the office. I start coughing the smell of cigarette smoke is so strong on her. Her dry leathery skin cracks while she talks from the years of sun abuse. She tells me, “I’ve stopped using sunscreen because I researched that it causes cancer.”

In the emergency room, prioritizing is a must for nurses and doctors. It’s a good thing that this doctor knew clearly what should come first.

“A guy brings his wife to the ER, Her leg has a 7cmx7cm wound (diabetic ulcer) with greenish yellow pus and what looked like a few maggots. Now I took one look at her and referred her to the Surgery department for admission. But the hubby is adamant on his wife’s kidney disease. “But doc, it’s just a wound, you gotta fix her kidney first doc, I read online that diabetes can cause kidney failure, and you gotta do something for that. I spent an hour convincing him that his wife would probably die before the kidney damage sat in by sepsis from the clearly infected wound.”

Some people learn a few things about medicine and they go on about being experts at it. Just like this mom who is a dental assistant. She seems to think she knows more than the actual dentist. @pheebers shares this story:

“Was treating cavities on a very nervous 4 year old. Had finally gotten into a cooperative groove when genius mother looked up from her phone and noticed that I was drilling teeth (she was in the room the whole time – I had reviewed treatment with her, she knew we were fixing cavities). Proceeds to curse me out under her breath saying “you’re drilling holes in her teeth! this is…ridiculous, you people are scammers making holes in people’s teeth!”

This guy thought he was doing exactly the same thing that was done on TV because the material injected into some person’s face looked like oil. As it turns out, it wasn’t and he found it out in a painful way. @AvalonAPV shares this story:

“A male patient injected kitchen oil into his own cheeks because he saw a plastic surgery tv show where a surgeon inyected something similar to a model, then he was amazed that the bumps of the oil didnt go away and were turning red and painful…”

After seeing her fingers turn blue, one woman walked into the ER fearing for her life. But it was just a moment of stupidity. @MTL_Alex shares the funny story:

“Had a patient present at the ER with “blue fingers”. She thought she was having some sort of heart attack. She had new jeans and the color stained her hands. Genius.”

This is definitely how pills for birth control works. And these two are definitely right for preventing themselves to have babies. @StrutThatCorgiButt shares this memorable encounter:

“One day in the pharmacy, a girl comes to the counter requesting a refill for her birth control. We pulled up her profile and realized we couldn’t refill it because she just got a 28-day fill less than 2 weeks ago. When we asked what happened to the other one, she said she was out. Apparently, both her and her boyfriend were each taking a pill each and was adamant that was how they needed to prevent pregnancy.”

From what I know, kids are not known to have fleas. But this parent has their own ideas about this. @habitual_wanderer had the misfortune of meeting this parent.

“I got this from my friend, who is a doctor on the children’s ward in a rural hospital. These parents bring in their child whose hair is infested with lice. The lice was visible to the naked eye and could be seen crawling on the child’s clothing. While the medical staff examined the child, in order to determine a course of action, they discovered the child was covered in a white powder and smelled heavily of chemicals. They asked the parents what were the substances and the smells emanating from the child. The parents said, quite matter of fact, it was Sevin Powder and flea and tick spray they used on their dogs on the family’s farm. Needless to say, social workers were notified about this case.”

Here’s another story from a trauma center that would surely haunt you. And this is a good reminder for those who are thinking about getting revenge. @CalvinsStuffedTiger shares this story:

“Guy is trespassing in a junk yard and gets his arms and legs [messed] up by a pitbull. Have to clean out all these wounds. Flash forward to 3am that night I get called in to do a case. Apparently the guy left the hospital AMA to go get revenge on the dog, and the dog bit him in the face , breaking some facial bones and poking a few more holes in the process. Classic.”

Some people are easily convinced, while some people are too hard to convince. Just like this old woman who kept on arguing with her doctor, until @detdox, the doctor, got mad.

“70 yo female tripped and fell 2 days ago. She came it with hip pain but reports after the fall her nose was bleeding – she had landed on her nose. About a year prior her dentist had messes up an infraorbital nerve block and caused some swelling in that region but that all was resolved. This old lady is now convinced her nosebleed after falling on her face is related to an “infection” from the dental issue a year ago. After multiple back-and-forth on the etiology of the nosebleed, she became the first patient I raised my voice and put down an authoritative “no, you are wrong, just stop it”.

She did not think her half face and missing eye were something to be concerned with. It was the stupid hernia, and nothing else.

From @420-BLAZIKEN

“This lady came in and literally half of her face had been basically eaten up by basal cell carcinoma. Eye and everything were just… gone. It was oozing blood. It had been this way for years, according to her. And the kicker – that’s not even the problem she came into the hospital for. She had come in for an umbilical hernia as big as a basketball that had been there for months, and she’d started vomiting over the past week so she finally went to the ED”

This guy has a different idea about getting a second opinion. Heart attacks are not part of those cases, dude.

@Dyspaereunia witnessed the hilarious and cringe-worthy incident:

“I didn’t treat this patient but I was on shift when this guy came in with tombstones on his ekg in the setting of chest pain. He told the ED doc, “I want a second opinion before going to the cath lab.” This ekg is unmistakable. The interventionalist had to come down to the emergency department to tell him he was having a heart attack.”

Goat’s milk may have some benefits, but it is not the only thing you need to be well and healthy. This hippy daughter seems to disagree with that, but @nellirn thinks she needs to learn what needs to be done.

“Oh yes, we had an elderly woman with severe malnutrition and her hippie daughter wanted us to only giver her raw, unpasteurized goats milk. We did everything we could to convince her that her mother wasn’t getting enough nutrition. We even tried to allow her to bring in the raw, unpasteurized goats milk that we would supplement with the FDA approved formula we wanted to give her mother through the feeding tube. We finally had to become pretty blunt with the daughter and let her know that her mother was going to die due to malnutrition due to the daughter’s unique views on what was a proper diet for her mother.”

@PostResidencyGoals had to explain the difference between a nasal spray and an inhaler. Someone actually did not know about it!

“I’ve got one. I was working at an Indian services clinic a few years ago. We prescribe a guy Flonase (nasal spray primarily for allergies) which starts a conversation: Guy: “will this nasal spray give me anxiety like the last one I had?” I start trying to find which drug he had been prescribed previously but he says: “I just threw it away in the trash out front, do you want me to go grab it?” He comes back a few minutes later with an albuterol inhaler. I’m perplexed. Dude tries his darndest to shove the opening (meant for your MOUTH) into his nostril, gives it a squirt and a snort.”

The old man just passed away. And his wife was in the early stages of dementia. And now, their daughter makes @Rdubdanger think if the daughter is also out of her wits.

“The mans wife was in early stages of dementia and was upset and saying things in the room like “why did you leave me you bastard.” The age 40ish daughter pulled me aside, very concerned and asked me, “My mom is saying some very nasty things, do you think he is still able to hear her?”

The nurse had to compose herself and act like a pro before answering.

“‘In the sense that Jesus can hear you, maybe. In the sense that you can hear me, no.’ She immediately hugs me and says ‘Oh what a relief.’”

Maybe it was the way that the ex-father in law of @kd3072 gently said it that the family thought it was the other way around. It must be hard to tell them they were completely rong.

“This one happened to my ex father in law, and it’s funny, but it’s not. He was a surgeon (very gentle, soft spoken guy) and came out to tell them the biopsy results, to which they responded “Praise Jesus, it’s malignant.” (He had to explain that ‘malignant’ meant bad.)”

When someone is in extreme panic or hysteria, it is very difficult to calm them down. @xxsheaxx had to calm this patient’s mom down for three hours and that’s quite crazy. What a job!

“Had a mom in hysterics because she was convinced that her neighbor’s, friend’s, step son’s, teacher’s dog has MRSA so her baby was going to die. It took everything within me to not tell her that most of the hospital staff have MRSA. But it took 3 hours for me to finally calm her down after I called: infectious control, her pediatrician, gynecologist, and family doctor. Yes I had to call all these people; yes they laughed at me; yes she was beside me the whole time questioning their judgement.”

@entMD did not expect that this is how mind control works. Apparently, it’s not as effective as the patient thought it would be.

“Had a patient with a HgbA1c of 13 who refused all diabetic medications because he believed that he could control his livers production of glucose with his mind. He believed himself to be very fit and active and felt that with his mental control he was a better athlete than most other people because he could ramp up his glucose production when he needed to. He was in the hospital for a diabetic foot ulcer that required a transmetatarsal amputation.”

Unfortunately, there are doctors out there who can be dumb. @askdoctorjake, a physical therapist and inner ear/balance specialist, has personally heard a story that would support this.

“I had a patient come in with unmistakable signs of BPPV (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo), a condition where the salt crystals that fall on hair cells in your ears to tell you which way is down and which direction(s) you are accelerating in get stuck. When this happens, your ears and eyes disagree about your current position and acceleration and you get really dizzy.”

The patient saw an urgent care doc, who diagnosed her with BPPV. He told her to go home, lay down on the bed with her head hanging off the end, and have her husband shake her head. Shaking her head, can you imagine? It’s the very thing that should not be done with people with BPPV!

“Imagine being on the most intense rollercoaster you’ve ever been on, feeling like you’re going to throw up, and then having someone who has no medical training shake your head around for five minutes. She spent the next two days throwing up before she could get in to see me.”

He must think that this reasoning is a very good excuse to keep his chain-smoking while being concerned with “natural” and “healthy” living. You’re not fooling anyone, dude.

From @malibooootay:

“Paramedic here. Transported a guy who was adamant about only using homeopathic medicine, natural/healthy living, etc and refusing meds/interventions/x-rays on this basis. He also smoked a pack a day. The ED doc called him on this nonsense with something along the lines of “you smoke so you’re not that homeopathic, you’re getting a chest x-ray.”