What is the most bonehead thing a doc has ever told you? Something that at the time might have been insensitive, hurtful or downright clueless, but now it's funny....

Another thread got me thinking about this, and I remembered what the cardiologist told my husband, asked him if he'd considered just cutting out sweets, since WLS was pretty extreme...

When I had a collapsed lung, the Pulmo said the diagnosis was that I was fat. At the time, I was as furious as I could manage, but now it's terribly funny.

A few years back I decided I wanted to lose weight & thought I should go get a good check-up with a doctor & just see what his opinion would be to help me lose weight. When I originally talked to him I told him I was overweight, but in good health otherwise. He told me he'd run some tests & get back to me. They did all the regular stuff, blood pressure, high cholesterol, stress test, urine, blood samples..........etc.

I came back a week later & this is what the doctor said - "Well, I ran all the tests on you & except for being overweight, it looks like you're in good health otherwise. So, good luck to you!" and then he walked out the door.

I don't think he remembered me or the reason I had originally come in to see him. He told me exactly what I already knew.

Ok, our first child, Wesley, was in and out of the doctor's office with ear infections about every six weeks. In, antibiotics, out....back in. Finally we were sent to the eye/ear/nose and throat doctor. He looks through Wes' records, checks him out, looks at us (we're like 23/24 years old) and says, "What do you think we should do?"

What the heck? You're the d@mn doctor! Not us! Cuuuuuuuuurap!

I was away on vacation with extended family. One of the "uncles" there is a Dr., I was having terrible allergies and my throat was bothering me. He said I should go to the ER to get a strep test. I said that I thought it was just post nasal drip from mildew etc by the shore and he said -- that's weird -- I never heard of post nasal drip causing a sore throat. I just stared at him -- Isn't that WHAT IT IS!?!?!?!?! Scary -- this guys is a big time Doc too!

My Mom is slightly overweight - 5'6", about 185lbs. She's 65 and has four kids. Her new doc was evaluating her blood pressure meds, and told her, "Well, you're fat. If you drop dead, I'm not losing any sleep over it."

:) :Banane40:

I'm glad to say she got a new doc pretty quick after that.

I've undoubtedly blocked out anything hateful my docs have said to me over the years, as nothing's coming to me at the moment.... :lalala:

1st Bonehead Doc Award: Silver Medal

Why are you depressed? Your so pretty.

(I was suffering from depression at the time and on anti-depressants)

2nd Bonehead Doc Award: Gold Medal

Your gallbladder can't have caused your pancreatitis, it's on the other side of the body.

(gallstones are a leading cause of this problem)

3rd Bonehead Doctor Award: Bronze Medal

Your not sick. You don't have CFS or FMS. Just get on with your life.

(a surgeon discussing my Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue)

My husband when he was in the service and very young, had severe acne. The doctor told him he was 'hideous' because of all the scarring. It scarred my husband for life emotionally. They did dermabrasion on his face to reduce the scarring and now looks pretty handsome to me.

Anybody had that kind of 'Help'? It still bothers him to this day and he is 58 YO. :unlove:

I like your way of judging them "gold", "silver", "bronze" and I'd like to do the same but I think I'd have a tie for gold.

1-happened several years ago, probably in 2000 and before my hip replacement. I was about 30 years old. He looked at my x-rays said I have really bad arthritis in my hip, but "what's the worst that could happen? You'd have to be in a wheelchair and your husband would have to push you around?" :frusty: I changed doctors as soon as I could.

2-From this past October until the end of January, I was having severe epigastric pain that occured about every 2 weeks. My band doctor kept telling me I was having esophageal spasms. When I called him in tears during one of these "spasms" and told him I couldn't live with this anymore and he had to fix this he told me to seek counseling for the reason I was so "sensitive" to these esophageal spasms. I went to urgent care for a second opinion and found out I was having gall bladder attacks.

3-After my gall bladder surgery the surgeon came to me. "We're not sure how your hip got dislocated during your surgery. It was probably a combination of the anesthesia and putting in the catheter." :faint::angry:croc:

Spontaneous hip dislocation? How stupid do they think we are sometimes?

Hip dislocation from putting in a catheter? Who parted your legs, the incredible hulk?? That's the craziest thing I've ever heard!

I Have delt with some real winners in my life.....

When my son was almost 5 years old I went to see the doc about the fact that I still had enough breast milk to feed a small army if need be. I discuss it with the doc for a few minutes and he looks at me and tells me that when men sexually abuse their wives by drinking their breast milk it tends to cause the milk to dry up and wanted to know if I had sought help for the sexual abuse my husband is subjecting me to. :speechles I was speachless!

In the same month as the above incident I had slipped and fell at work landing and hitting my upper back pretty hard, Duke met me at the hospital from work and was listening intently as the ER doc was showing us the x-rays and starts to explain that I have some degeneration and calcification of the thoracic spine due to "ALL" the weight I was carrying up front, at this point he nudges Duke and gives him the "hey yeah way to go your wife has great boobs" head nod and goofy grin. Duke looks at him and says "excuse me?" the guy just about curled up in the corner.

Duke had to do a physical test to get cleared for going back to work and had me go with. The doc doing the exam tells him she doesn't have anything in the office to effectively test his upper body strength and then points at me and says "but we could just have you lift her and if you could do that your more than strong enough" We both were speachless!

And my personal fave......

I went to a new Rheumatologist to be evalulated for Lupus, in preping for the visit the nurse told me to make a list of any and everything that has happened with my health in the last 15 years. The doc walks in the office reads my list and proceeds to tell me I "don't" have lupus and that I need to seek psychiactric assistance IMMEDIATELY that I not only need emergency care for severe depression but I need medications on a large scale as well, and that any "woman" that can come up with a list as long as I did "had" to be severely depressed to the point they needed emergency if not lockdown psychiatric care. I cried hysterically for 2 days I was so upset, I wasn't depressed until that moment. I am now under the care of an awesome rheumatologist for my lupus and my hubby and I have a good laugh every now and again at what a bunch of quacks we have seen in our lives.

Holy mozes you guys have seen some jerk doctors!

The worst that has happened to me was when I was 19-20 years old. I went to my gyno for a regular check up and he suggested putting me on phentermine for three months to kick start weight loss, and after the three months of phentermine, he'll put me on antidepressants so I don't gain the weight back!

I didn't even ask him for the help in weight loss, he just assumed I was depressed and that made me fat.

At that age, I was sure the doctor knew what he was doing so I took the pills and lost lots of weight, and after I stopped I gained almost twice as much

As for the antidepressants, I realized I needed to see a different doctor for it and when I went to talk to her, after a good 30 minutes of conversation she suggested I don't take antidepressants.

I have always had Dr's tell me

"your overweight you should lose some weight" :frusty:

Well DUH ya think I don't know that already. They have to point out the obvious.

Yea I know. Like we don't know we are fat and need to lose weight.

"You know doc, I woke up this morning, looked in the mirror and had a suspicion I might be 100lbs overweight, but said..naa, that's impossible. Thanks for clearing that up!"

If we could lose the weight we wouldn't be fat.

My current PCP lectures me every time I see him about losing weight(which he should). He gives me diets, we talk, he lectures me about how much weight I've gained, or not lost, he points me out on his BMI chart mounted on the back of the door, and tells me how he can't believe I am not Diabetic YET, he asks me if I've considered WLS, etc.... Anyway, I'm sure lots of you have had similar "visits". Its not like he's telling me anything new you know? I totally agree and KNOW HOW to lose weight, its the follow-through that I fail on. Needless to say, I always feel like bursting into tears after these little visits and my self- esteem is always in the crapper when I leave... The visit before I decided to ask him to give me a referral to see my prospective band surgeon he says.."There's no way that you can have any self-esteem or self-confidence at your size, what's it gonna take for you to lose weight?" I thought to my self, no crap! Man you are the king of stating the obvious, and your bed-side manner sucks. I'm sure he was just trying to motivate me, but geez, he can be a real a**. What really galls me is that he could stand to drop about 50 lbs himself! And it really ticks me off that the last three times I've had an appointment with him his cell phone has rung, and he stops to answer it, and its always his wife telling him to pick bread or something up on his way home and I get to hear love you too, blah, blah, blah...That is soooo rude and unprofessional. I NEED TO GET A NEW DOC!!!!!!

First of all, I think it's very important to remember that the guy that graduates at the bottom of his med school is still a doctor.

Now, this actually happened to a patient in the hospital. The doctor's name is Dr. Wright in Tennessee. I had a patient that had an infected IV site. I told Dr. Wright about it. We went into the room to assess her. I reminded him of the IV site. He pulls out his pocket knife and lances her wound. (Her arm was red and hot...even before he took his dirty pocket knife and lanced it). He then says to her, "I knew that would work...that's the same knife I use to clean my dog's toenails." They both laughed. I didn't think it was funny. I wrote him up and had to contact risk management. This is a rural hospital where patients still think that doctors are gods and will not question them. Needless to say, they said they would look into it. The patient, an elderly lady, said, "Oh, I'm sure he didn't mean any harm by it." The doctor is still seeing patients at that hospital...but I quit.

And before any of you say that I slandered this doctor and I shouldn't have named him...remember a couple of things. 1. Truth is an absolute defense to slander. 2. As an absolute patient advocate, I feel it is important to inform future patients in an effort to protect them.