People Reveal The Most Hurtful Thing A Medical Professional's Said To Them

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There is a quote from the legendary Dorothy Zbornak played by the incomparable Bea Arthur on 'The Golden Girls' where she confronts a doctor, who when she was in her greatest hour of need, told her to go to a hairdresser. She says to him -in a crowded restaurant- "I don't know where you doctors lose your humanity but you lose it. You know, if all of you in the beginning of your careers could get very sick and very scared for awhile, you'd probably learn more from that then anything else!" Mic. Drop.

Redditor u/slinkslowdown wanted medical folks out there to hear from a few former patients by asking the people of Reddit to share.... What is the most hurtful thing a medical professional has ever said to you? Who wants a Dorothy moment?


I have a mirror. Thanks. 

I went to get an earache checked and the first thing the doctor said was "Yeah so I'm gonna put you on some medicine for the ear but we've gotta do something about your face, your acne is absolutely terrible."

Thanks doc. CasenW

Lead with truth. Lives depend on it! 

Getting out of the army- you are 100% healthy. My medical record was about six inches thick. Went to a civilian doctor and they were astonished anyone would say that. I am rated 80% disabled. larrycorser

My mother and grandfather were both injured in the army. They will do everything in their power to claim that you are healthy, because if you are injured they pay your medical bills for life.

They tried to tell Grandpa that losing all of his teeth and having a crack down his forehead did not qualify him for a purple heart.

Insert cringy surprise at how this blew up here. Story: Grandpa was in a tank, and a tank shell bounced off his turret and slammed his head into the other side of the turret. The reason they did not want to recognize his injuries is because he pulled the teeth out himself (they were loose) and refused treatment on the skull fracture. AntifaAreFascists

Can you hear me Now?

When I was 16 and dealing with partial deafness: "Sometimes being a teenage girl is hard, but it's hard to parent them too so there's no need to exaggerate things to make things harder for your parents. Knock it off, there's nothing wrong with you."

Two tumors, 9 surgeries, and a CSF leak later, yes doctor. There really was something wrong. ur_tears_r_tasty

Shake it Off! 

You can't be in that much pain. You must have more energy than that. Turns out the lining of my nerves was being destroyed. I was becoming paralyzed, painfully. whyamisoawesome9

MS? My wife was finally diagnosed with that. Took several years and several Drs. If it is MS, or really anything else, then I hope whatever medication you're able to get helps prevent any further progression - best of luck and best wishes! IchthysdeKilt

Let's talk about your ears?! 

"It's all between your ears" after missing at least one, but probably two crippling vitamin deficiencies by not ordering the right test. It took me two and a half years of thinking I was lazy and pathetic before I went to another doctor and got diagnosed. Zoefschildpad

But you're so young! 

"I just don't know how you could be in so much pain being so young, I'm not going to be able to write you a prescription."

My response was, "You're a dips**t; I came in because I was hurt at work, doing heavy construction." I never asked for a prescription in the first place, I had assumed I was vetting an xray to see if I had broken anything. Lord_Stag

Walking is the Elixir!

You have no idea! I was in an auto accident when I was 14 but the doctors refused to do surgery to fix the issue because I was still growing. A few years later everything acted up and I ended up desperately needing that surgery. Afterwards I still had significant pain because my nerves were all screwed up because the issue had been left for so long. Every doctor I saw about it told me to "walk it off" and refused to give me any pain medication just because I was 19 at the time. I tried other stuff for a few years until finally, at 23, finding a doctor who took me seriously. IcedMercury

Bless you Miss Jeannie... 

Wasn't said to me, but someone I knew. I work at a hospital, so does my mother. We had a forty-three year old woman who had a very rare form of cancer that spread incredibly fast to just about everywhere in her body. From diagnosis to death was about twelve weeks. The medications and therapies and the general lack of mobility caused her to become swollen and obese. She was a terribly sweet lady.

They took her down to Radiology for a scan and the technician made a bunch of really mean comments about her weight because she was too large for our machines so they had to arrange for a transfer to another hospital for her scans and then have her transferred back. The technician thought that because Miss Jeannie was dying and sick that she was deaf or didn't understand English any longer, and so while they were alone she made so many mean comments. Miss Jeannie waited until she was back in her room waiting for her transfer before she started crying. I'll never understand people who feel the need to make others feel less than or badly. carmelacorleone

No Words...

No me but my mom is a nurse. One of her patients got shot in the foot holding a door closed in a school shooting. He was back in the hospital because he got an infection after surgery. Doc walks in and goes "so I hope you learned your lesson about playing with guns." anoll69

Size Matters! The End. 

I went to get a lump on my groin checked out, and had to remove my underpants. The doctor started a whole speech about "size isn't everything," which isn't what I went there for. stooble

Defibrillate this! 

Not psychologically hurtful necessarily, but the most terrifying thing I've ever been told...

"We're going to have to defibrillate you and we don't have time to sedate you."

They rolled the crash cart with paddles into my room and I said "Get that thing the hell away from me!" and almost cried. My mom was in the room with me and was absolutely hysterical.

Thankfully a cardiologist was able to look at my EKG in the nick of time and determined my heart rhythm was stable enough for me to just be transferred to a room for further evaluation without defibrillation. HorseMeatSandwich

Well you're no prize Sir.

Giphy

When I was 21 I went to the doctor for a checkup. The doctor asks me to lift my shirt and I do. He immediately says "egh" and makes a look of disgust on his face. I was an idiot and was gaining weight too quickly, due to this I had stretch marks. I've lost the weight and am normal weight now but I still can't shake that moment. This was 8 years ago. Reddit

Don't strike a pose... 

I started going to a dentist that had come highly recommended by a few different people. When I asked him about the possibility of straightening my front teeth, he said "Well, you'll never be on the cover of Vogue, but I think we can help you out."

I stopped going to him a few appointments later when he got mad at me for telling him that the filling he did months ago still really hurt. Jollyville

Boys & Their Boobs... 

"What are you going to do if your boyfriend would rather you had bigger boobs?" - said by the doctor to 15 year old me. I was getting a consultation for a breast reduction, because sporting G-cup was a nightmare. Still got it. No regrets. thekeyboardhero

NO ice cream for you Miss.... 

Me, when I was nine, about to go under anesthesia for the first time ever for oral surgery, and being extremely scared.

Nurse: You need to grow up. I've had kids half your age not be as much a scaredy-cat as you.

My mother was not, by any means, a helicopter parent.. .but the thrashing she gave that nurse, the other nurse who chuckled at it, and the doctor who came in was insane. And then she took me out of that office (the surgery was not a time-sensitive thing, just to fix a soon to be impacted adult tooth) and for ice cream. I had the surgery done at a different office with a staff that had far better bed-side manners. WalkerBRiley

Well Death it is! 

Doc: "I can tell you're incredibly sick by your skin"

Me: (looks in the mirror) "oh no I always look like this"

Doc: "no it's grey and sallow and the heavy dark circles under your eyes; you look clearly very unwell"

Me: "really, I swear I aiways look like this without make up"

I really did look exactly how I do on a daily basis. Apparently deathly. BrassLabradors

Want a punch in the face?!

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"You're 19, you shouldn't be having problems with anxiety!" MrSonicOSG

A Lack of Trust... 

What chronic illness are we sick with today?

I was 12 years old. Puberty was kicking my butt. I was depressed and constantly sick because my home life was in shambles. But my mother dressed nice and was a well known figure in the community, so I was faking the illnesses I guess. Anytime a kid acts out for attention, I pay attention because it means something is going on. But that doctor just shamed me into the pit of despair. I've had trouble trusting any medical professional since. americanskux

I am who I am....

Giphy

New doctor took my height measurement and jots it down before issuing me a very casual.

"Huh, tall for a woman."

I am a bearded man. MrBitchin

How about I sit on you Doc? 

He said I should be happy carrying around a bit of weight.. Because in drought the fattest cows die last.... Seriously wtf. jezabelsoni

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medical professionals

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But, for fun, let's chat about the idea.

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People Describe The Most Valuable Item They've Ever Found In The Garbage

Image by jacqueline macou from Pixabay

They say one man's trash is another man's treasure - and sometimes that saying is pretty literal.

Lots of people build entire businesses picking up cool stuff on bulk-pickup trash day, and upcycling it into something even better that people are willing to pay for.

Sometimes, you might even end up with something pristine and usable right away.

Reddit user JampackedAlborn1976 asked:

What is the most valuable item that you have seen somebody throw away or have found in the garbage?

And for real ... some of these people scored BIG TIME. Like big time. Like really big.

Like Refrigerator Big

just ask leslie jones GIF by Saturday Night Live Giphy

"Our current refrigerator is a double-door one with exterior ice and water dispensers. We got it for free, with absolutely no problems whatsoever. It's just a few years old."

"How we got it? My dad (civil engineer) was doing some work on someone's apartment when they said they had bought a new modern French door refrigerator and that they were just going to discard their current refrigerator."

"My dad simply asked if he could have it.. and they said yes." - SauloJr

Immigrants In Action

Dog Brazil GIF Giphy

"I immigrated to the US from Brazil when I was 12. And every Saturday, my mom, stepdad, sister and I would go out at night to upper middle class neighborhoods the day before trash pickup to rummage through the garbage they were putting out."

"We found perfectly good TVs, VCRs, microwaves, couches, lazy boys, tables, books and comics, etc."

"I couldn't believe these Americans were throwing out like that. We furnished our entire house with that stuff. The entire Brazilian immigrant community in my town did it. We were flabbergasted." - PhillipLlerenas

With A Note

Television Bunny GIF Giphy

"My wife yelled at me that someone put a big TV outside with a note on it. Walked across the street and it was a brand new Samsung 37 inch HDTV."

"They were actually renovating the apartment building and got an upgraded TV. Even had the remote taped to it with batteries, I guess I have really nice neighbors here in NYC." - MadLintElf

Life Hack!

studying busy philipps GIF by Drunk History Giphy

"If you want high end stuff out of the garbage for free, follow these steps:"

"Pick a city with a large university in it. If it's a school well known for its law programs, or medical, or engineering, all the better."

"Search for luxury apartment complexes that market themselves towards students. Look for things like included shuttle service, pools, fitness centers, etc. The more expensive and swanky the better."

"Figure out when finals week is at the end of Spring semester."

"Dumpster dive at those luxury apartment complexes during that week and the following weekend."

"Very wealthy international students will arrive in the US, fully outfit an apartment with nice furniture, big TVs, audio systems, gaming consoles, you name it, and when the semester ends they just junk it all because they aren't going to fly it back to wherever, and it's too much effort to spend the time selling when they do not care about the money."

"It's a smaller scale phenomenon a little like all the luxury cars abandoned at the airport in Dubai." - whattothewhonow

Literal Gold Treasure

valley of the boom david kim stanley GIF by National Geographic Channel Giphy

"I found a gold coin at goodwill for 5 bucks. It was in a case with someone's name and company name."

"It was their gift from the company for retiring. I assume the family threw it out when he died not knowing it was solid gold. It was in a in a thick solid plastic case that had to be cracked opened."

"It literally said 1 oz fine gold on it. I figured 5 bucks was worth the risk it not being real."

"It was a South African KRUGERRAND 1 oz coin. Everyone was just too busy to read it lol."

"Bought it and took it too a pawn shop and sold it for a couple grand." - streetmitch

The Best Day Of My Life

Will Smith Wow GIF by 1LIVE Giphy

"When I was a kid, I grew up right outside the Los Angeles area in the suburbs. My stepdad was a garbage truck driver for the city of Beverly Hills."

"I swear in the late 80s and early 90s we'd have so much basically brand new stuff (still in boxes) brought home on a regular basis."

"I'll never forget one day in particular. My stepdad came home and was like 'get ready, come to the car, I'll need your help.' So I go down there and in back seat of his car he had a few large black garbage bags."

"We haul them up to our apartment and he's like 'go ahead, open them.' Inside was what I could only describe as an 80s kids trove of treasures."

"One bag contained just about every Ghostbusters and GI joe toy you can imagine, they were played with but had every little accessory, there was a bunch the playsets and everything."

"In the other bag was pretty much every LEGO of the early 80s sets, still in their original boxes. I was a big LEGO nerd but was totally thrown off by the old school space ones because they looked nothing like the 90s space sets. I think they even said "NASA" the minifig's chests."

"That was like a random day in July, it felt like Christmas. I was 9 years old and it was basically like the best day of my life up to that point." - Zombgief

Who Throws Away Money?

spongebob squarepants money GIF Giphy

"A jar full of quarters."

"Annual spring cleaning projects happen in a lot of towns where anyone can put almost anything on the curb and it's taken away for free. It's to stop open dumping or stuff being dumped in ditches."

"Sometimes people deal with estates from winter by just dumping all their grandfather's stuff on the curb for the cleanup to get the house empty immediately. Most often they don't even bother to look at what they are throwing away."

"In 2012 on north road in Akwesasne I found an estate pile that I shuttled back and forth with my bike trailer getting lots of older tools like a scythe, hammers, saws, screwdrivers and wrenches, a 22 rifle with 100 round of ammo, a bunch of ar15 magazines, cast iron cookware, oil lamps, a hand crank food mill with all kinds of accessories, a black raven axe head (worth $100 easily since they are a collectable), and a quart size mason jar full of change mostly quarters."

"That was spring and the sheriffs office did a gun buyback in the fall where I took the mags and got $20 each for them (30 round mags suddenly illegal under the safe act of fall 2012. The buyback was a local political move). I still got the 22 and picked off a lot of woodchuck with it in my gardens." - Bogtrotterso1980

Filing Fever

Files Workload GIF Giphy

"I own a small company which is located directly in front of a state funded program facility. The state decided to have this office shred all of their files as they were going to switch to electronic data (exclusively)."

"We found two of these old rotary filing cabinets outside of their office. They're worth almost $3k each!"

"They just placed them there and we saw them and asked what they planned on doing with them. They said, 'Hmmm.....either donate them or trash them.' The state told them simply to get rid of them."

"We jumped at this and took the two into our already tiny office because there was no way in hell that we were going to let these gems go. (We do use paper files, unfortunately)."

"They wanted to give us two smaller ones but seriously, our office is very small. I made some phone calls and they were picked up immediately by other office workers/friends." - GlitzBlitz

This Sucks - In A Good Way!

mrs doubtfire vacuum GIF Giphy

"In the 1990s my moms work had a really nice high end Hoover that stopped working. They threw it out."

"My mom took it home because my dad tinkers and repairs things easily. Turns out since it was a bagged vacuum all the dummies had to do is REPLACE THE BAG."

"Like it never occurred to them to do the most easy and basic step. My parents were excited to have a really upgraded vacuum. Maybe like $500ish." - schweddyboobs

Tiffany's Trash

Audrey Hepburn Movie GIF by The Good Films Giphy

"My dad found an old stained glass window laying out by someone's trash. He thought it would look cool hanging in our cabin, so he stopped and grabbed it."

"It sat in our garage for a few years before he looked at it more closely and found "Tiffany and Co." branding on it. He got in touch with some stained glass window dude who figured it was worth about $40k fully restored, so my dad sold it to him for somewhere around $30k." - throwaway_stopdrink

Have you had any awesomely trashtastic treasures? Let us know!

garbage