Okay, world?

[conuly]

LIVEJOURNAL IS NOT PEOPLED WITH DOCTORS.

Oh, I'm sure there are doctors here, but none of them can really prove it anyway.

If you or your loved one or your KID is acting funny, and you have the opportunity to post on LJ asking "Gee, should I take him to the doctor?" - stop and think. If the odds are that everybody is going to say yes, get off the computer and head out now.

Repeat the mantra with me now, everybody: WHEN IN DOUBT, CHECK IT OUT.

I'm not saying you should rush to the emergency room on a Friday night just because your precious stubbed her pinky toe - but when you suspect a serious injury or illness just get up and go already. Don't waste valuable time posting on LJ, because your uninsured ass is just going to end up in the hospital anyway, might as well be sooner than later, right?

GOD, people.

Comments

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

Or call a nurse line and ask them their advice rather than the medically uneducated LJ populace.

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

Well, in my case the nurse line has a policy of just saying over and over "If *you* think you need to go to the doctor, you probably should, but don't tell them I told you so." And if I *knew* if I needed to go to the doctor or not, I wouldn't have called!

Whereas my FL (which includes three doctors who are my friends IRL) will actually tell me. I mostly abuse them when *I* don't think I need to see a doctor, but other people are telling me I should. So I can say "Well, my friend who's a doctor said it's not necessary unless X."

[conuly]

*shrugs*

All I know is that I see, once a week like clockwork, entries asking if their child who is possibly quite severely sick or injured (this week it was a probable concussion, a few months ago it was a toddler who just fell off Dad's shoulders, that sort of thing) should go to the doctor.

It's enough to make me insane.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

Because they don't want to get sued if they were wrong?

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

Because nurses aren't supposed to give medical advice.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

......
Okay, fair enough, but then why even HAVE a nurse line? Am I missing the point?

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

That's what I've always wondered. My conversations with the nurse line usually go like this: "Well, it could be a symptom of X [that will kill you in the next 24 hours] or Y [that will clear up in the next hour or so] or Z [that will make you miserable but you only need to go to the doctor if it gets worse]. But I'm not allowed to tell you which of those is the most likely."

The only good thing one has done for me is that my husband had surgery and it got infected and his surgeon was an @------ who hung up on him when he called [said "Has your [body part] fallen off? No? Then you're fine" and hung up] and the nurse line was able to track down a different doctor who was willing to, y'know, prescribe antibiotics. But that was really above and beyond their job.

[conuly]

In this specific case (although their are others JUST LIKE IT every week) the person in question thought her toddler had a concussion. Because he'd had a bad fall, had been drowsy all day (according to daycare) and threw up.

Well, yeah, concussed sounds just right! What'll the nurse say? GO TO THE DAMN DOCTOR ALREADY.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

Ummm, yeah. I'm 22 and even I know that. >.>
Also, I've never heard of the word "concuss" before. Huh.

[conuly]

Yeah, precisely. It was obvious to everybody that her child probably was injured, and it should have been obvious to her too. It WAS obvious to her, which is why she was asking for advice!

[feebeeglee.livejournal.com]

I'm not a doctor, but I play one on the internets!

[conuly]

ME TOO!

[peaseblossom03.livejournal.com]

Gets on my nerves too. In my case it's when someone is describing all the symptoms of advanced endometriosis. Now, I had this. I "let it go" and get worse for years and years before seeing a doctor, wasting time on false diagnoses and "alternative" treatment that never worked, and when I DID finally see a doctor it was too late to do much of anything save the final option: a hysterectomy. I hate the idea of seeing someone else go through what I did unnecessarily. So when people complain about symptoms that sound identical, I usually chime in and say, "Go to a doctor, if for no other reason than to rule this out." And of course I get followed up by a barrage of theories ("it's probably just a deficiency in X nutrient.") and "credentials" that attempt to make their advice more valid than mine ("My sister's roommate is a nurse!"). Frustrating as all fuck.

[conuly]

Oh, with me it's dairy intolerance (a far less serious problem, to be sure, but still!)

In real life and online, I know people who have more or less unexplainable problems - asthma, digestive issues, mood swings, eczema - and I go "Well, I'm not saying it *is*, but dairy, but dairy intolerance can be linked to all those things (they don't necessarily perceive themselves as suffering from all of them at once, mind - especially the digestive and mood issues, they often don't realize that this isn't *normal* to suffer from), and it won't hurt to cut out the dairy for a few weeks and see if it makes a difference.

And they go "Oh, but I love cheese/butter/sour cream/ice cream/milk, I can't do that! If that's true, I'll just suffer, but it's probably something else, I don't think this is an allergy"

And I go "All right, I said my piece"

And when they get sick of the problem they try what I suggested and, lo and behold, it works! (It's actually worked a surprising number of times.) So they come back to me and go "Wow, I tried cutting out dairy, and it worked! Yeah! I'm so smart, I can't believe nobody suggested that!" and I go "Uh... I suggested that. A few months ago. And you blew me off" and they go "No, no, no, I'm sure I read it somewhere...."

*headdesk*

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

Or call a nurse line and ask them their advice rather than the medically uneducated LJ populace.

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

Well, in my case the nurse line has a policy of just saying over and over "If *you* think you need to go to the doctor, you probably should, but don't tell them I told you so." And if I *knew* if I needed to go to the doctor or not, I wouldn't have called!

Whereas my FL (which includes three doctors who are my friends IRL) will actually tell me. I mostly abuse them when *I* don't think I need to see a doctor, but other people are telling me I should. So I can say "Well, my friend who's a doctor said it's not necessary unless X."

[conuly]

*shrugs*

All I know is that I see, once a week like clockwork, entries asking if their child who is possibly quite severely sick or injured (this week it was a probable concussion, a few months ago it was a toddler who just fell off Dad's shoulders, that sort of thing) should go to the doctor.

It's enough to make me insane.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

Because they don't want to get sued if they were wrong?

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

Because nurses aren't supposed to give medical advice.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

......
Okay, fair enough, but then why even HAVE a nurse line? Am I missing the point?

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

That's what I've always wondered. My conversations with the nurse line usually go like this: "Well, it could be a symptom of X [that will kill you in the next 24 hours] or Y [that will clear up in the next hour or so] or Z [that will make you miserable but you only need to go to the doctor if it gets worse]. But I'm not allowed to tell you which of those is the most likely."

The only good thing one has done for me is that my husband had surgery and it got infected and his surgeon was an @------ who hung up on him when he called [said "Has your [body part] fallen off? No? Then you're fine" and hung up] and the nurse line was able to track down a different doctor who was willing to, y'know, prescribe antibiotics. But that was really above and beyond their job.

[conuly]

In this specific case (although their are others JUST LIKE IT every week) the person in question thought her toddler had a concussion. Because he'd had a bad fall, had been drowsy all day (according to daycare) and threw up.

Well, yeah, concussed sounds just right! What'll the nurse say? GO TO THE DAMN DOCTOR ALREADY.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

Ummm, yeah. I'm 22 and even I know that. >.>
Also, I've never heard of the word "concuss" before. Huh.

[conuly]

Yeah, precisely. It was obvious to everybody that her child probably was injured, and it should have been obvious to her too. It WAS obvious to her, which is why she was asking for advice!

[feebeeglee.livejournal.com]

I'm not a doctor, but I play one on the internets!

[conuly]

ME TOO!

[peaseblossom03.livejournal.com]

Gets on my nerves too. In my case it's when someone is describing all the symptoms of advanced endometriosis. Now, I had this. I "let it go" and get worse for years and years before seeing a doctor, wasting time on false diagnoses and "alternative" treatment that never worked, and when I DID finally see a doctor it was too late to do much of anything save the final option: a hysterectomy. I hate the idea of seeing someone else go through what I did unnecessarily. So when people complain about symptoms that sound identical, I usually chime in and say, "Go to a doctor, if for no other reason than to rule this out." And of course I get followed up by a barrage of theories ("it's probably just a deficiency in X nutrient.") and "credentials" that attempt to make their advice more valid than mine ("My sister's roommate is a nurse!"). Frustrating as all fuck.

[conuly]

Oh, with me it's dairy intolerance (a far less serious problem, to be sure, but still!)

In real life and online, I know people who have more or less unexplainable problems - asthma, digestive issues, mood swings, eczema - and I go "Well, I'm not saying it *is*, but dairy, but dairy intolerance can be linked to all those things (they don't necessarily perceive themselves as suffering from all of them at once, mind - especially the digestive and mood issues, they often don't realize that this isn't *normal* to suffer from), and it won't hurt to cut out the dairy for a few weeks and see if it makes a difference.

And they go "Oh, but I love cheese/butter/sour cream/ice cream/milk, I can't do that! If that's true, I'll just suffer, but it's probably something else, I don't think this is an allergy"

And I go "All right, I said my piece"

And when they get sick of the problem they try what I suggested and, lo and behold, it works! (It's actually worked a surprising number of times.) So they come back to me and go "Wow, I tried cutting out dairy, and it worked! Yeah! I'm so smart, I can't believe nobody suggested that!" and I go "Uh... I suggested that. A few months ago. And you blew me off" and they go "No, no, no, I'm sure I read it somewhere...."

*headdesk*