Month: March 2021

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People Discuss When They Decided That Leading a Mundane Life Was Just Fine

Most people dream about their futures and figure they’ll do something big, something important, leave their mark and make a bunch of money while they’re doing it.

As we move into adulthood, though, we find that’s only going to be true for a small number of people – the rest of us learn how to be fine with being average.

These 18 people don’t mind looking back to recall when exactly that realization happened to them.

18. It’s the little things.

I was about a 30 year old chef . 50 now. Still love it, have a family. Work too hard for too little.

Don’t get to see them as much as I like, but if they need shoes or money for sports registration…I can provide.

17. Too many expectations.

When I started taking antidepressants. I used to be so sad about my life and really suffering from gifted kid syndrome. Everyone told me I’d be something and I was struggling with self hatred for not living up to that. Once I got my depression under control, I realized how comfortable I am with my life.

I’ve got a job with good benefits and a respectable salary. I live in an apartment that’s comfortable for me, not too huge, but not a shoebox. I realized I don’t want or need to make a ton of money, or live in a big house, or have a fancy car.

Middle of the road is peaceful, and fulfilling.

16. Just take the time to breathe.

My life got a lot better and I became much happier when I embraced simplicity.

It isn’t always easy, and I am by no means a pro at it.. there are days when I lament that the opportunity to somehow greatly contribute to society has passed me by.

But, then I remember that quote, and that many small good things / acts of kindness can add up over the course of a simple life, and be remarkable in their own way.

15. You’re actually better off than most.

I tell myself often that I’m living a life that most people in the world can only dream of: good health, a loving family, a safe house to live in and good food in the table. It really is enough.

14. We’re all lucky in some ways.

I’ve decided it but I’m still not ok with it lol tbh I don’t think I ever wanted to be loaded, just enough to not have to worry about going over my overdraft all the time.

I’m more bothered by the fact that I’ve worked hard and studied to end up in a minimum wage job which bores the pants off me.

But I have a roof over my head and a loving partner and family so I’m still lucky

13. It can open your eyes.

I was in Vietnam 4 years ago (almost to the day actually) and we went out into the Mekong Delta during Tet. Met with a bunch of people along the way, ended up eating with a family who invited us to their house. These people had very little.

They had each other, a giant wild 13 foot Burmese python that they fed live chickens to, a 30 second walk to the river, and the plot of land they lived on where their ancestors were buried (they make them bury them there so that the family never sells the land, supposedly). That was it. Nothing more. They were all incredibly happy people you could tell. Just living life.

Not worried about which car they wanted next, or which phone they had versus their neighbor. They were a farming family and had a little plot of land. In that respect they were successful. We’re conditioned in the western world by capitalism. The constant barrage of instagram, commercials, ads on bus benches, billboards, in video games, etc.

We’re conditioned to always want more. Spend, spend, spend. I realized during my time in Vietnam that none of that shit matters, it shouldn’t affect your happiness, and that it was simply a device that we’ve been programmed by every day of our lives.

I already knew that, but seeing other people with so much less than I have being so much happier was something that stuck with me.

12. Times have changed.

I’d be fine with having the middle class life my parents had. What is difficult is wrapping my head around just that being so difficult to achieve.

My mom stayed at home, only my dad worked, we had a comfortable house with a yard and a pool, 2 cars and my sister and I went to private school. My dad definitely had a good job but nothing extreme.

My husband and I both work and we can’t even afford a house. I feel like it will take me 10-15 more years to get to where my parents were at the age I am now.

11. Be free to change your mind.

I was the top student in my class, I took all the advanced classes in high school and set the curve on most tests. I had really high expectations for myself, and so did everyone else. My teachers told me that they thought I was going to be very successful. Honestly, it felt like someone had turned the difficulty slider for my life way down. Everything was working exactly as I wanted, and everything was easy.

I knew which college I wanted to go to and got which degree, I didn’t even apply for any other university because I knew I would get in where I wanted. But they didn’t have enough room on campus for me to stay, so I had to get an apartment. At the time, I thought that was awesome! Especially since it was a rule that all freshman had to stay on campus, I loved the extra freedom that gave me. But I had to get a job to pay for my apartment, so I got a temp job at a local factory in the evenings, and went to class in the mornings. I should say tried to go to class, I was late to class almost everyday. I couldn’t handle going to school full time, working full time, and living alone for the first time, it was just too much. I went to my advisor and explained my situation, and he recommended that I drop out, and look into online college. I didn’t even go home and think about it, I went straight from his office to the dean’s office and filled out the paperwork to drop out. I went home, cried, called my mom, cried some more, and then fell asleep. I felt worthless, like I had failed everyone that had ever believed in me. Over and over I kept telling myself that I would look back on that day with regret for the rest of my life.

Luckily I was wrong, it’s been almost 10 years since then and I’ve managed to make a pretty good life for myself without a degree. Turns out, I’m really good at factory work and I’ve managed to get 5 promotions since then and now I make pretty decent money. I live well within my means and I’ve managed to avoid getting into any debt besides my car and my house. I’ve invested a lot of my money over the years (investing, not day trading, so I didn’t get in on the GME deal), and those investments have done quite well. I have a decent car, but nothing fancy. I’ve got a fairly small house, but it’s more than enough for me.

My income may not be as high as some of my classmates, I may not have as prestigious of a position as I could have had, but that’s totally okay with me. I’ve worked to earn everything I have, and I have enough.

10. You can’t put a price on happiness.

The moment I stopped trying to be rich and exceptional was the moment that I finally accepted myself for who I am. My only goal from that point forward was to be happy.

Now, that does involve financial goals to a degree and also feeling useful, so I may yet be rich and exceptional, but I’m going to be happy regardless.

9. Do what you love.

I’m a professor, and I was at an R-1 university. There you are expected to write grants, and usually the professor opts to pay themselves out of the grant money for the things they are doing. Professors can get rich from this, especially in engineering, medicine, etc. It is how you become famous in your field.

I hated it, I moved to a teaching focused university. I like to be done when I go home at night. I like snowboarding & LEGO. I am infinitely happier. Less money & fame, but who cares.

edit/ note: The idea is that at an R-1 the base salary after tenure is usually around $100,000. Add on contracts, grants, speaking fees, etc. can double that. In most college towns in America if you make anywhere near $200,000 you can pay your mortgage off in less than 10 years and you will never worry about money again. I mean normal person rich, not yacht rich.

8. It’s called low expectations.

I never thought I’d be rich when I grew up.

I’m content enough with a simple, stable life.

7. You have to let it go.

Early-forties was when I finally realized none of those big expectations would come true for me.

I held on for a long time. But it’s all okay because life is still great without the big dreams I had set for myself when I was young and naive.

6. Nihilistic Millennials.

Same. I’m not ambitious at all despite working very hard in uni. I just want a stable job that allows me to provide for a family and be relatively comfortable financially. Nothing extravagant.

I think partly it has to do with the fact that my generation grew up with the 2008 economic crisis and now Covid, so we’re naturally not very optimistic about the future.

5. Swim against the current.

I read a quote in a wishy washy magazine or blog that said “you are enough”. It was about how consumerism makes you feel like you have to buy stuff. It wasn’t like I linked my goals or finances to that or made any quick decision, but it led to a path of self acceptance and contentment that changed my perspective on a lot of things.

But I grew up on the verge of poverty and benign neglect so pretty much anything is okay by me anyway. I read another phrase once “the hopelessness of growing up poor in a rich country”.

I think a lot of people live with that hopelessness and never had a dream.

4. Regrets are for other people.

 I was smart as a kid, in the top 1% of my year and therefore smart enough to realize that I had choices.

I chose to live a happy simple life over one with wealth and stress. No regrets.

3. You know you’ve got to earn it.

Late teens is when I knew I would never been rich. As a child I was certain I’d never be exceptional. I was never ever ok with it.

Now I’m 41 and have more than I could ever imagine. It’s really funny how things work out!

2. A job he loves.

I knew I wasn’t going to be rich when I found the job I love.

Its seasonal work (early spring to early winter), with chaotic hours (I find out my shift the day before I work it, usually working 8-15 hours), and lower pay (13.50 an hour) but I’ll be dam*ed if I don’t love it.

I get paid to sit on my ass all day, reading books, and checking a sample every 15 minutes. My office is amazing, as I’m about 100 feet from the Mississippi River, and I dont deal with people.

Its easy to get time off, my coworkers are super laid back, and my boss is fantastic. Nobody yells at me, I dont have any high expectations held to me.

I adore the job, and it makes me very happy.

1. You’re making it on your own.

Same with me.

I’m 44 and as a kid with a learning disability (which was probably ADD) I never thought I’d own a house, have a family or any sort of decent employment.

I’m not rich but I’m way better off than I thought I’d be.

Life can be tough sometimes, when it’s doling out lessons, but it’s still better than the alternative in the end.

If you can remember, share with us when you became ok with being “regular,” too.

The post People Discuss When They Decided That Leading a Mundane Life Was Just Fine appeared first on UberFacts.

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We Couldn’t Stop Laughing at These Obvious Huge Lies

Being lied to isn’t typically funny, but sometimes the things people are expecting us to believe are just so wild there’s nothing to do but laugh.

My personal favorite is when you call them on it and they just double down.

These 12 lies are completely unbelievable and outrageous; we hope they make you laugh, too!

12. This is a creepy thing to say.

My friend said he had a body count of 200+.

He was a slightly fat guy who spends all his free time on video games and hates to leave his apartment.

11. The dog can’t talk, so she’s the perfect fall girl.

My (only child) daughter was less than 2 years old.

There was a scribble of pencil on the wall, like 18 inches off the ground.

I said “Who did this?”, seizing the opportunity to act out a classic mom line for the first time.

She pointed to her ‘sister’, my beagle, and declared “No, Lily. Bad!” shook her tiny finger at the dog and toddled off. Hysterical!!

10. A bit of radiation did the trick.

Does it count if the person believed me because I told someone the world was in black and white until the first nuclear explosions.

9. They literally think we were just born yesterday.

The ability of kids to tell obvious lies is amazing.

My favorite is the denying the ongoing action: “I’m not wiping my hands on my pants!” as the hands are being wiped on the pants.

8. Ouch. Some parents, man.

“we love you both equally”

7. Whatever you’ll believe, that’s what happened.

“The cat scratched me.”

“You literally don’t own a cat though.”

“My fork fell onto my arms then. Idk.”

6. No, YOU’RE crying.

“It will all be over by Easter”

5. It was a ghost, Jesus, or a liar.

I met someone who told me that he drank too much with his friends, had an alcohol overdose, and died.

After he “died” his friends threw him under a bed where he rotted for 3 days before coming back to life and if I didn’t believe him I could ask his friends.

I haven’t seen him since

4. Can’t even get the lie right.

My classmate was watching videos during online class while she was unmuted and said it was a math video…

We were in Health class

3. Plot twist!

When i was 16 i’d had a crush on one of my coworkers, and he’d liked me back.

I thought things were going good until i asked him if he wanted to go out on our shared day off, he agreed, and then the day of cancelled and told me it was because he needed to take care of his fish.

plot twist here is that i’d told a few of my friends, two of which worked with me and the guy, and i went on and on about how rude it is of him to not even give me a believable lie.

Those friends were all hanging out and went to walmart that day, and ran into my crush….buying food and supplies for his fish. he told them how excited he was about the fish too.

I felt like the biggest a$shole.

2. How exactly does one bruise their neck?

“That’s not a hickey I bruised my neck helping my sister move today”

1. You don’t even need to check!

Yeah I did all my homework in like 5 minutes I promise.

People are sooooo special, y’all.

So special.

What’s the craziest lie someone tried to get you to believe?

I want to hear about it in the comments!

The post We Couldn’t Stop Laughing at These Obvious Huge Lies appeared first on UberFacts.

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These People All Turned Out to Be Right, NOT CRAZY

There are examples throughout history of people who guessed, knew, or figured something out a long time before anyone.

And in general, they were usually written off as huge kooks.

Most of us have trouble believing in what we can’t see, and it turns out that we’re also a bit mean to the people who don’t – but these 15 people stuck to their guns, no matter who called them nuts.

But it was all good in the end, when they were proved to be right.

15. How did I not know this?

Sinead O’Connor

Younger Redditors might not know who she is but she was a singer/songwriter from Ireland who was a staple in the Alternative Music scene during the late 80s and early to mid 90s who had some cross-over hits.

Anyway, at the height of her popularity she was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live after canceling an earlier scheduled spot in protest against the guest host which was some dumba$s standup comic from the 80s called Andrew Dice Clay (As Scott Thompson described him: “it’s as if someone took your grandmother, the one who can’t speak English, and taught her to swear phonetically, gave her a special on HBO and made her a star”).

During her performance she sang an acapella version of Bob Marley’s “War” changing the lyrics to make it about child sexual abuse instead of racism. At the end of the performance she shouted something like “Fight the real enemy” and ripped up a picture of the pope.

In the following weeks people lost their shit and on the next episode of Saturday Night Live they had at least 3 sketches that tore her apart. A few years later the Catholics S^x Abuse Scandal broke internationally.

14. Always a tough call.

The ex-husband of my ex-girlfriend . Turns out he wasn’t the crazy one after all. He kept trying to tell me and if I would have listened from the beginning I could have saved 4 years of my life.

13. Some people just know.

About ten years ago there was this stoner who always hung around the shop that I played Magic at. One day, he told me that he didn’t trust Jared from Subway. I said that there was nothing to worry about and that the only thing that Jared did was eat sandwiches. He said that there was something really sinister about Jared, and that he could tell just by looking at him.

12. They knew she was telling the truth.

Courtney Love and her quip about Weinstein.

It’s still wild to me that people will villainize someone while knowing damn well they are speaking the truth.

11. There isn’t a happy ending.

That one journalist Gary Webb that uncovered the truth that the CIA aided and abetted Nicaraguan contra rebels in funneling cocaine into inner city communities.

And then he was blackballed and later killed himself.

There is actually a book about Gary Webb, his investigation, and the aftermath called Kill the Messenger by Nick Schou.

10. A classic for a reason.

The classic example, of course, is Cassandra; in Greek mythology she was cursed to know the future, but for no one to believe her when she told them.

9. Moms are (almost) always right.

My mom. Turns out being Emo was really just a phase.

8. He was bound to be telling the truth at some point.

Johnny Rotten said in an interview that he knew Jimmy Savile was into all kinds of “seediness”.

People dismissed it as typical Johnny Rotten anti establishment talk (for which he is famous).

As it turned out, he was right.

7. The joke is on all of us.

The people who said the government was spying on its citizens.

6. Those things freak me out.

The people who discovered prions.

All the other biologists thought they were crazy to suggest one protein could be an infectious agent.

Nope those biologists were wrong and Nobel prizes were awarded.

5. This hurts my heart.

Corey Feldman.

Dude went on national TV to tell everyone that there was a network of sexual abusers in Hollywood, and that he himself had been abused, and people LAUGHED AT HIM and shunned him.

And then it came out that pretty much everything he was saying was true.

4. No one wanted to believe it.

Me. About my (now disowned) cousin.

He kept stealing things from me which my family felt was no big deal. But it escalated. It went from stealing candy, to my things, to cash, and after that I asked them how much longer they would support him and call me “selfish” for “not sharing”. The line was finally crossed when he stole our grandmothers credit cards and her car.

She finally wrote him off.

This was AFTER he had stolen all of her jewelry, including the last present (anniversary ring) my grandfather was ever to give her.

Oh, but he tried to say that our family kicked him out because he’s gay. No. None of us cared about that, it was because he’s a thief.

His “friends” have bailed him out of jail and then dropped him when he steals from them.

But he claims the world is “just unfair” to him.

Now he tells his pity story and milks the “my family disowned me because I’m gay” to everyone he begs from. I learned this when he tried to do it to one of my friends.

3. A tale as old as time, unfortunately.

The people who were tortured as a part of MK Ultra.

Imagine trying to convince the people around you that the government is trying to make you crazy with mind control, only years later to find out that not only was it true, but you wouldn’t get compensation for it. And you were subject to illegal human experimentation.

2. Did they think he was jealous?

Jose Canseco. He revealed that a bunch of baseball players (Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, etc) were doing steroids.

No one believed him for years, until everyone else got caught doing steroids.

1. Hindsight and all of that.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee was the only congressperson out of 535 members who voted no on the Authorized Use of Military Force Act after the 9/11 attacks (there were also 12 present/not voting recorded). In her words,

“It was a blank check to the president to attack anyone involved in the September 11 events—anywhere, in any country, without regard to our nation’s long-term foreign policy, economic and national security interests, and without time limit. In granting these overly broad powers, the Congress failed its responsibility to understand the dimensions of its declaration. I could not support such a grant of war-making authority to the president; I believe it would put more innocent lives at risk. The president has the constitutional authority to protect the nation from further attack, and he has mobilized the armed forces to do just that. The Congress should have waited for the facts to be presented and then acted with fuller knowledge of the consequences of our action.”

For her vote she received death threats, a damaged political career, she was called insane, a traitor, and a communist. And she was 100% right.

Humanity sure would be a lot better off if we had listened to some of these folks early on, don’t you think?

What’s your favorite example of this phenomenon? Drop some knowledge on us in the comments!

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You Might Not Know These Things About “Saturday Night Live”

Even if you’re not an avid fan of SNL, there’s almost no way to escape the characters that have become a part of the fabric of entertainment across the board.

The show has run for decades, has played host to pretty much anyone who matters in Hollywood, and has spawned countless talented writers and comedians who have gone on to become household names.

If you want to know more about SNL, we’ve got some pretty fun facts coming your way!

14. At least one cast member was born after the show premiered.

Image Credit: NBC

Kenan Thompson was born May 10, 1978.

13. Chris Parnell was fired – twice.

Image Credit: NBC

In 2001, Parnell says it was “devastating” and had to do with his lack of confidence.  When he was let go again in 2006, the show had to cut $10 million from their budget.

12. Jennifer Aniston says she was offered a spot.

Image Credit: Columbia Pictures

Lorne Michaels has never confirmed that Aniston was offered a spot on the show, but Adam Sandler recalls seeing her at the offices in the early 90s.

She claims she turned down the offer on the “boys’ club” show for a starring role in Friends.

11. Mindy Kaling turned down an opportunity to write for the show.

Image Credit: NBC

Timing was an issue for Mindy Kaling, too – she had taken a job writing and acting on The Office before she was offered a writing gig on Saturday Night Live.

New York was also a big draw, as Kaling wasn’t a fan of L.A., but in the end she made what she thought was the best move for her career.

10. Aubrey Plaza interned on the show.

Image Credit: NBC

A year before Plaza landed the role of April on Parks and Recreation, she was passed over for a spot on Saturday Night Live, even though she had interned for the show in 2005.

It hurt, because ever since she took improv classes in high school, she had dreamed of being on the show.

9. Nora Dunn refused to work with Andrew Dice-Clay.

Image Credit: NBC

In 1990, the controversial comic hosted the show, but Nora Dunn refused to take the stage with him due to his misogynistic material.

While she credits the show with helping her make her name, Dunn admits it “has its own baggage.”

8. They have a name for people who are good sports.

Image Credit: NBC

In her book, Bossypants, Tina Fey called people who “sneak up behind the actor who plays them and pretends to be mad about it,” or “any time someone being parodied volunteers to come on the show and prove they’re ‘in on the joke,’” are known as “Sneaker Uppers.”

7. SNL has some serious political clout.

Image Credit: NBC

Political sketches have long been one of the hallmarks of the show, and voters admit to being influenced by what they see on the show.

The phenomenon is known as “The SNL Effect.”

6. Catherine O’Hara had a role, but never appeared on the show.

Image Credit: SCTV

Dick Ebersol poached his fair share of SCTV cast members over the years, and Catherine O’Hara joined the cast ahead of the 1981 season.

She was on for only two weeks before she says she realized she made a mistake in leaving SCTV.

She told the Toronto Sun ““I had to leave. I said I’d made a huge mistake. I’m not proud of that. I felt stupid doing it. But I had to come home. I couldn’t not be with them.”

5. Chris Farley idolized John Belushi.

Image Credit: Paramount Pictures

He once stole an old pair of Belushi’s pants that he found in the wardrobe room.

4. The cast still performed during the writer’s strike.

Image Credit: NBC

The show did not go on, but the cast gathered at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and recruited Michael Cera to host.

They claimed they just couldn’t stand not performing.

3. No one can forget Sinead O’Connor’s appearance.

Image Credit: NBC

Sinead O’Connor famously ripped up a picture of the Pope at the end of a musical performance, referencing her youth and the s^x abuse scandal the rest of us would hear about soon enough.

Even Lorne Michaels gave her credit:

“I think it was the bravest thing she could do. She’d been a nun. To her the church symbolized everything that was bad about growing up in Ireland the way she grew up in Ireland, and so she was making a strong political statement.”

2. No one has hosted more than Alec Baldwin.

Image Credit: NBC

He’s hosted 17 times. The runner up is Steve Martin, who has hosted 15 times since 1976.

1. We almost got a movie.

Image Credit: NBC

In 1990, a script for The Saturday Night Live movie was written by Conan O’Brien, Robert Smigel, Al Franken, and Greg Daniels (among others), but no one else even knew about the failed attempt until 2010.

I love entertainment history, so these were right up my alley.

What’s your favorite character on the show? Favorite sketch? Tell us in the comments!

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Doctors Share Appalling Stories of Really Awful Diagnoses

Doctors go to school and go through training for years, which is why we trust them with our literal lives.

Of course, everyone is human and it only makes sense that, no matter how good they are at their jobs, doctors are going to be wrong at least some of the time.

These 15 misdiagnoses, though, are too blatant to make any patient comfortable.

15. He had to fix it himself.

I had the opposite of this. Had a small rash that wouldn’t go away, so went to see the doctor. He said it was ringworm and gave me an anti-fungal. The rash got worse. I went back, he gave me an even stronger anti fungal.

The rash spread. It was all down my arms. I went back to the doctor to get a referral to a dermatologist. He took one look at the rash and said “that is contact dermatitis.” I had changed soaps, and it irritated my skin and gave me a little rash. The doctor’s stupid anti fungals were making my skin go crazy.

I just stopped using soap for like a week and it was fine, but I had skin discolouration for like a year

14. Doctors like to ignore the gallbladder.

Told by my doctor my health issues were stress related. The second opinion found my gallbladder was functioning at 3% and had that sucker removed a couple weeks later.

What’s worse is I specifically asked the first doctor about gallbladder and they assured me it couldn’t be that.

13. Well that’s gross, Ma.

My mom did something like this to me.

I had a small spot that looked like something she had once so she gave me the cream she’d used.

It got gross looking so she took me to the doctor.

He asked what I’d been using and we told him. He said it was ringworm and whatever we’d been using was essentially feeding it.

It took a couple of months to clear up completely at that point.

12. That was a close one.

Dealt with an unrelated incident, and reading a patients notes found he had been diagnosed with a rare but deadly skin cancer and was booked in to have his upper lip removed. Obviously this would leave the patient quite disfigured.

On a whim he’d booked in to see a dermatologist at our hospital, who advised it was a cold sore, prescribed acciclovir and the problem was resolved.

11. A reprimand? That’s it?

I had a period of about a year, where I was getting constant UTI’s. Which – apparently – as a woman in her mid 20’s is “normally” caused by not peeing after sex. I’m still not sure what was causing mine, but I was NOT sexually active at all, due to vaginismus.

My doctor was away for school holidays and stupidly – I thought I could last a week until she was back – nope. Two days later, I could barely move from the couch in pain.

So, I called a doctor. This doctor (a home doctor cause it was a public holiday) refused to hand over the script until I acknowledged that I was being sexually irresponsible. When I said “I am a virgin” – embarrassing and potentially dangerous statement to make with a strange man in my house while I was home alone – this jackass LAUGHED his ass off and said “No you’re not. Nobody is at this age. Stop pretending to be all innocent”. Slammed the prescription on my coffee table and walked out – refusing to give me the starter dose that they’re required to carry (for people, like me, who are alone and can’t get the prescription until the first dose kicks in enough to begin helping).

I called the office to complain and he did get reprimanded. But holy hell was I embarrassed.

10. The nurses always know.

Nurse here. I cared for a woman who had been diagnosed with broken vertebrae. She was in a lot of pain, couldn’t get her pain under control, and her blood pressure was very low. She’d lose consciousness, and be very difficult to wake. I also couldn’t get her doctor to answer the phone (middle of the night).

Something just felt off about the whole situation. He finally answered and demanded we Narcan her, insisting we’d overdosed her on narcotics (following his orders). I then had a hysterical woman in a lot of pain going in and out of consciousness

I finally walked down to the entrance of the hospital and grabbed the cardiologist who came in at 4:30am for rounds and said “This isn’t your patient but I think she’s going to die.” He came upstairs with me, looked at her and her chart, grabbed the bed and rolled her to ICU himself.

I have no idea how the conversation went between the cardiologist and her doctor. She didn’t have a broken back, she had an aortic aneurysm, which caused the pain and the low pressure, and the loss of consciousness.

She died the next day. Doctors, if the nurse says “something is wrong” you might want to lay your eyes on the patient rather than shouting orders through the phone.

9. It all started with a hangnail.

Got an infected hang nail so I went to urgent care. I got a shot of an antibiotic a a prescription for another. Took the pill for about a week out of the 10 day dose.

On that 7 day mark I was in my chemistry class (which was at the end of the day) feeling extremely lightheaded, tired, and so dizzy I could barely see. I stagger down the stairs of my hs to see the nurse but she was out to lunch. I didn’t know what to do and had bad attendance due to chronic illness so I stayed for the next class. Went home on the bus and passed out on my couch. For the next 2 days I had a bunch of symptoms. I spiked a fever of 104°F, had a swollen lumpy throat, in and out of consciousness, vomiting, coughing, and dizziness so bad i couldn’t stand.

Went in the next night after coming home from school with the fever of 104. Urgent care doctor said that wasn’t a treatable fever, that I had a upper respiratory virus that was also untreatable, and told me to go home and not worry. I wasn’t allergic to the antibiotic I was taking because I was taking it for a week and had no reaction before that day.

Next night felt even worse. Couldn’t keep food down, could barely breathe, dizziness was so bad i couldn’t get up to use the bathroom without being in severe danger of falling. There was also a rash that was going from behind my ears down to my stomach in little red blotches. Went to the ER this time. Also had a yeast infection from the med. Doctor there wouldn’t touch me. He barely wanted to look at me. He wouldn’t do any kind of exam on me besides look at the rash on my stomach. He said it was measles. Gave me nothing for that. Said there was no way I was allergic to the antibiotic. Sent me home.

Went the next day to see my primary doc who squeezed me in due to my symptoms. Talked to the assistant getting my vitals and symptoms about what was going on. She said I was allergic to the antibiotic. She wrote in my chart that I wasn’t supposed to take it. A nurse practitioner came in and listened to me tale of woe. He said I was having a bad reaction and also wrote AGAIN that I should stay away from the antibiotic. He said I could’ve died and usually would’ve because it built up in my system and caused a deadly reaction. Doc comes in and says the same thing. If I take it again I’ll probably die. Not measles, not an untreatable upper respiratory virus.

8. It’s not always the easy answer.

My husband had a situation where he almost died because of a misdiagnosis. To preface this at the time we were young in our mid 20s living in a college town. My husband had horrible pain (on floor on hands and knees horrible), we went to the ER and the doctor barely looked at him and just told him to stop drinking and he would be fine.

We go home the pain is getting worse and now he is vomiting. As soon as the doctors off opens back home were we grew up we drove 1.5 hours to see our primary care. Within 15 minutes of walking into the GP office my husband was rushed to emergency surgery, his gallbladder had completely ruptured and he was going septic.

It was a total mess and he almost died all because of a misdiagnosis.

7. Talk about pain and suffering.

I was diagnosed with MS, sought out a second opinion, and turns out it was an easily solvable vitamin deficiency. Pretty damn different… $15K in medical bills later only go have all symptoms subside with some nutritional advice, and supplements. I’m still salty about it.

6. Don’t want to ignore that.

My grandmother fell from her horse one day. Not a terrible fall, but from the way she landed, she wanted to get checked out – she felt she’d really jolted her neck/spine, and was an older lady with fragile bones.

Her doctor looked things over, gave her one of those soft neck cushion things and sent her home.

A couple days later, she decided to get a second opinion. No real reason, she just hadn’t felt listened to by the first guy.

The second doctor basically took one look at her X-rays and freaked out. He told her they needed to get her immediately into a brace to immobilize her spine (I googled to try to figure out what it was – I think it is a halo brace, but in my memory it’s bigger and more metal than what I was seeing in the pictures).

Basically she’d broken her neck (the same injury that had paralyzed Christoper Reeve), but she wasn’t paralyzed because the vertebrae hadn’t dislocated. The second doctor anything that did dislocate it (another minor fall, twisting wrong in bed) would mean being permanently paralyzed from the neck down.

She wore her intense metal brace that kept her spine in place for a few months and was totally fine, she lived another 15 years after that. But I think about that story often – the second doctor saved her mobility and freedom.

5. Happens to fat people far too often.

I went to a sleep doctor because I was constantly tired and falling asleep standing up and such. Serious shit. Doctor was like “well, you’re overweight, so it’s definitely sleep apnea.”

I did a sleep study, came back negative for sleep apnea. Doctor was like “well, I’m still positive it’s sleep apnea, cause you’re a fatty.” So he sent me home with a cpap machine for a month.

After a month of using the machine, which records your sleep apnea events every night and STILL said I didn’t have sleep apnea, and with me having zero improvement in any of my symptoms, I we t back to him and he said “well, if this isn’t working, I can’t help you, because you obviously have sleep apnea since all tubbos have sleep apnea, so you must not be using the cpap.”

So I dropped him like a fresh turf and went to get a second opinion. New sleep doc, new sleep study. Come back in and the new doctor’s like “Yeah, this is textbook narcolepsy. You have all the symptoms and the sleep study proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

I told him about the other doctor and he said, “This is obviously narcolepsy. Your previous doctor was a moron.” And, unlike the other quotes in this story, that is an actual, direct quote. I’ll never forget the look of disgust on his face when he said the word “moron.”

4. Not a sinus infection.

I went to a walk-in clinic because I couldn’t swallow anything.

The doctor pressed on my forehead and asked if it hurt. I guessed kind of? He told me I had a sinus infection and prescribed me antibiotics (that I couldn’t swallow) and sent me on my way.

Turns out I had had a stroke and ended up spending three weeks in the hospital.

3. I would not have gone back there.

Years ago I had a mycoplasma respiratory infection that kicked my asthma into overdrive. At the time I didn’t have a primary care physician because I didn’t see the point. I’d just go to urgent care for everything.

Despite my peak flow meter reading being at 50%, and despite me telling the UC doctor that I’d had to sleep sitting up the night before (a huge red flag that the patient isn’t properly oxygenating), and despite asking for a breathing treatment the doctor said no because “I’m sending you home with prednisone and your O2 is at 97%.” Note that our bodies are really good at compensating for shitty lungs, so if an asthmatic has a low O2 saturation, they should’ve gone to the ED an hour ago. (97% is fine the issue is my peak flow was down 50%.)

I eventually did get a PCP and I know now why I have one. I eventually told him about that urgent care doctor who wouldn’t give me a breathing treatment, and my doc got SO pissed off! It made me feel very vindicated.

And as a post script, I had to go back to that urgent care the next day, where a different doc did give me a breathing treatment.

2. This should be criminal.

I went to a dermatologist for a rash on my hands and face.

He insisted it was eczema even though I’ve never had eczema on my life. He refused to do any testing or take a biopsy.

He prescribed me a steroid cream for eczema.

The rash spread and got horribly worse. It was all up my arms and all over my face. It was itchy and painful.

I went to a different dermatologist and explained the situation. They took a biopsy.

It was a bacterial infection and the first doctor essentially gave me a bacterial infection on steroids. I was a minor at the time and I don’t know why my parents didn’t go after the first doctor.

1. What the actual f*ck.

My dad had dementia and was basically nonverbal except saying my mom’s name. He called me (we had all the big buttons programmed with my number) and said my mom’s name over and over while sobbing. I assumed they were having an emergency, so I called 911 and asked them to make sure they took Dad with them if Mom had to go to the hospital. Then I headed over to their side of town, the paramedics called and told me what hospital.

I got there and they were discharging my mom, who couldn’t speak or stand up. Dad was running around like a scared toddler. The staff were telling me the ER wasn’t respite care and I couldn’t send my parents there when I needed a break.

I told them she was walking and talking and driving the day before, so clearly something was really wrong and I guess we’d have to call an ambulance to take her to another hospital. They decided to run some tests and figured out she had sepsis. She was in their ICU a couple weeks.

I would be angry beyond words if any of these had happened to me or someone I love.

If you’ve got a similar story, share it with us in the comments.

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People Discuss the Saddest Truths About Smart People

There are upsides and downsides to everything and the longer I live, the more I suspect the adage that “the grass is always greener” is almost always true.

People want to be rich, but rich people have their own troubles. Likewise, intelligent people have their own crosses to bear.

Here are 15 things people think are sad truths about being smart.

15. We don’t listen to them.

i’m family friends with an epidemiologist, they have been warning that we’re due for a pandemic and we’re not prepared for years.

He was humored at best until last year. He was also one of maybe 5 people in the world that predicted NYC’s cases would drop rapidly during the week where 1/10 people in the city had it. Smart people get ignored until the moment when their right, but IT’S ABOUT BEING PREPARED BEFOREHAND.

14. Knowledge isn’t always power.

The ability to understand most possible outcomes and the consequences often leads to hesitation or inaction. As opposed to some who damn the consequences and just go for it.

It’s called the perfectionists’ trap. If anyone is struggling with this look online there are some very simple exercises you can do to get your mind out of this. Otherwise talk to a therapist.

13. It can be hard to find purpose.

Most smart people never find meaningful application for their intelligence.

12. Ignorance can be bliss.

Best advice I’ve ever received: “keep it simple stupid.”

Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss.

11. Stay in the box.

I was literally told this in my last performance review:

“We know you’re really smart, but you have to sell it better.”

I had just pulled like a week of 12 hour work days and i was told to send out more mails. I hate my existence

10. It’s all relative.

As a person that was repeatedly told how smart I was growing up…1) without social skills it doesn’t mean crap.

2) it easily turns into how you identify yourself and can wreck your mental health (if I’m not smart about everything what good am I??)

3) smart is relative

9. They can struggle in social situations.

I was a career nanny for 10 years, I worked for two families where the parents were doctors. One set especially, Two extremely successful doctors, one anesthesiologist and and a cancer research doctor. I saw their lives from the most intimate view due to working 50+ hours in their home with their children..

the saddest thing is that a lot of them are so, so smart that they stand out as the oddball in all non-academic situations. This is abundantly clear when watching them try to make connections with other, more of average IQ parents

They’re almost just… too brainy and awkward? I have to assume this is a life long struggle.

It just seems isolating at times, I guess is my point here.

8. Expectations are heavy.

I am 31 and peaked in my school years.

It’s depressing and I am embarrassed around family because I think they all imagined me to be the most successful of all the siblings/cousins I grew up with, and instead I’m pretty sure I’m the biggest failure.

I was a teacher’s pet, overachiever, had straight A’s, friends would “hate” me because I rarely had to study outside of the five minutes before class and would still get among the highest grades. Teachers, adult family members, all of them would single me out (in a good way) for being smart. I was constantly praised for sh%t that required little effort/strain, and it made succeeding feel like a given.

Many of them finished college. I literally dropped out in year one. All of them are employed, and several with pretty nice careers. I have been unemployed for a long time and live with my parents atm. Being smart was my “thing” and felt like it was ripped out from under me overnight.

For the last ten years it’s been a battle with depression and the voice in my head constantly calling me stupid. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t feel like a massive failure, and have a hard time feeling like my younger self was actually me.

Sorry for the personal rant but that’s all to say making it your identity can definitely wreck your mental health and self worth as soon as you start failing and having difficulties as an adult. I do not consider myself smart anymore (haven’t for a long time) because despite having some book smarts I have never adapted to the actual world, and I believe adapting is a necessary component.

Praise kids for working hard and trying hard, not only for the things they are naturally good at.

7. Self-care is important.

That’s kind of the thing they’re talking about. They’re so engulfed in their work that 90% of anything they’ve done in the past month is related to their work.

Many folks like that, especially doctors, need to take care of themselves and take some time to developed more well-rounded. +60hr is incredibly draining beyond just physically.

6. School isn’t real life.

Couldn’t agree more. Being put on an academic pedestal and being intelligent enough to pull off straight A’s without studying set me up for a rude awakening for real life.

5. Everything has a cost.

There’s a cost that comes with spending a lifetime developing one’s intellect, as one sees with doctors (particularly specialists), and the like: less time is devoted to developing the social side of their personalities. That makes those interpersonal connections difficult and awkward.

One of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met was an orthopaedic surgeon, but the man was a social hand grenade. There’s a certain professional bluntness that comes with being a doctor, but in more nuanced social settings that bluntness can come across as dickishness.

To make matters worse, the guy had no idea what made him so off-putting…Smartest fucking guy in the room but he couldn’t understand what the problem was…or maybe he could, he just couldn’t solve it. You can’t make up for YEARS of neglected social graces.

4. Hemingway would know.

“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.”-forgot where this is from

3. Mental health issues abound.

The fact that growing up smart, or being told you’re better or above average, leads to a burnout, anxiety, and depression.

2. They know enough to be depressed.

Smart people can often see the bad stuff coming and can also see that it really isn’t preventable unless people can be convinced to change their behavior and people can rarely be convinced to change their behavior.

It’s depressing watching negative events unfold that you predicted. More often than not, being proved right is really depressing.

1. They don’t like being separated.

The worst is being smarter than the smart people.

I have no idea why my school did this, but they separated the “gifted and talented” (hate that label it’s such bullshit) kids into four tiers and told everyone which tier every kid was in. And guess what? If you were in the top tier, every other one of the “gifted and talented” kids hated your fucking guts.

It was horrendous. I fit in nowhere, because I was a “gifted from elementary” kid who’d always been separated from everyone else, and then now I was singled out from all the other “gifted” kids with a massive target on my back. Because the one thing smart kids hate is being told there’s someone smarter than them.

I finally just went and hung out with the stoner/dropout kids, stopped taking anything except “normal” classes, and learned how to pretend to be stupider than I was for the sake of my own sanity. Turns out, that last skill has come in remarkably handy for the rest of my f*cking life.

I’m not sure there’s a better way to be, honestly. So just be yourself!

If you’re smart, do you agree with these? Add your own thoughts in the comments.

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Doctors Talk About the Worst Diagnosis They Ended Up Having to Fix

People like to put doctors on a pedestal as if they’re more than human or too smart to totally mess up at work.

But the truth is that they’re humans. Humans make mistakes, and that’s why we have backup systems, even in the medical field.

If a doctor gives you a diagnosis, and you feel as if it’s not right or not complete, you can go to a different doctor and ask for their opinion.

Those second doctors are the ones on this thread, confession the worst mistakes they caught their colleagues making when they double checked.

17. It was his lucky day.

This is the opposite answer, but the BEST request for a second opinion came from a CVS minute clinic.

Young healthy law student goes to minute clinic. Has the flu (this was a few years ago—no ‘rona). Feels awful. They check him out, yup he has a fever, aches, sore throat, it’s the flu. Flu swab positive. His clinic vitals were notable for a heart rate of 140—a bit high but not CRAZY high. Reassuring numbers <100. The guy otherwise walked in to the CVS, and is a young healthy guy. Would have been pretty easy to dismiss. Anyway the minute clinic says go to the ER, you need an EKG. So the guy follows orders.

ER chief complaint is “i have the flu and CVS told me to come here.” ER gets an EKG and he’s in SLOW VT which is a life threatening arrhythmia that you have to be shocked out of. They take a look as his heart and it was giant and barely moving. He had an insane myocarditis. Dude ended up getting cannulated for ECMO within hours (cardiac bypass machines as life support).

I can’t say all minute clinics are the same but holy sh%t that was a great save.

16. Sometimes it’s a good catch.

I was one of those instances where the urgent care clinic was right. Went in for pain in my lungs. I had a co-worker who had been diagnosed with bronchitis so I just wanted to be sure.

As the pain got worse the clinic ruled out bronchitis and everything else they could test for and recommended calling an ambulance take me to the ER. I felt bad but not that bad so I drove myself. After five minutes in the ER waiting room, the pain became unbearable and I could not breath.

t turned out I had my first pulmonary embolism before I got to the clinic and a second shower of clots in the ER waiting room. Both lungs were affected and my lung function is permanently impaired – but I feel lucky to be alive.

15. She’s lucky to be alive.

Well when I first started feeling sick the October of one year at college I had:

A non-productive cough.
Night sweats and trouble sleeping. and
I had lost some weight.

The school nurse gave me Claritin.

All of those symptoms got worse, plus I was incredibly fatigued, my lymph nodes swelled up, and I had pretty bad back aches.

My GP took a chest X-ray and prescribed antibiotics for pneumonia. At this point I had almost failed out of school because I was only managing an hour or two of sleep per night.

It took until Spring break for me to go see a pulmonary specialist. He could instantly tell that it wasn’t pneumonia.

I had Stage 4b Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. My first PET scan showed cancerous cells in lymph nodes in all 4 quadrants of my body. At this point I had lost about a third of my body weight. The cough, weight loss, and back pain were my swollen lymph nodes pressing on my lungs, stomach, and my back.

They gave me my first round of chemo and I genuinely felt incredible. I felt like such shit that an IV mixture of (carefully measured) toxins was an improvement. I went home and ate a whole pizza.

Chemo got sh%ttier but it worked, so I guess I can’t complain too much.

14. That’s a bad few hours.

Something similar-ish happened to my wife. She got some routine blood check done and the nurse called her to come in right away.

Basically it showed she was incredibly anaemic and had a very off the charts level of white blood cells and probably had some advanced cancer and will die. The doctor suggested a bone marrow biopsy but since she seemed otherwise fine decided to check her blood again.

This time it came back normal – someone it the lab either mixed it up or f*cked up the test.

13. Unlikely and impossible aren’t the same thing.

I’m a gynecologist. The number of times I’ve seen patients pregnant and upset (or happy) because some other doctor told them they can’t get pregnant – so they didn’t use birth control – is appalling.

Usually it’s family med. Not ragging on all FM docs, just how it goes. I then have to explain that even if the patient has whatever condition that makes it unlikely for them to get pregnant, the odds are almost never 0%.

Maybe <1%, but still not zero, so of course it can happen.

12. Dismissing college kids, ugh.

When I was in college I went to the doctor because I was pissing razors. It progressed pretty rapidly and by the end of the week I couldn’t walk or sleep. The doc asked me about my sex life and I told him the truth that my girlfriend and I had only been with each other and together for many years. He sorta scoffed at that and told me it was likely chlamydia. Had a long condescending speech about safe sex with me and sent me home.

A week later my piss tests were back. Turns out I had the worst bladder infection they’d ever seen. I had to have a camera shoved up my pee hole, multiple rounds of antibiotics, and to this day I struggle to pee due to irreversible damage the infection caused.

11. This made me see red.

Not me but my mom.

She was always exhausted, the type of exhaustion that she’d have a bath, be so tired from it, she’d sleep on the bath mat when she got out.

Went to her doctor told her, “oh, you’re just depressed, go get a hair cut!”

She did. Still exhausted. Went back to the doctor.

Continued to tell her she’s “just” depressed, get a hobby, it’s all in her head etc. Never sent her for blood work, never referred her to any specialist.

Months later she goes back. Her doctor is on vacation. Physician reliving her doctor takes one look at her eyes and says, “it’s your liver. Get these blood tests now”.

Abnormal blood work and a liver biopsy later, she was told she had autoimmune hepatitis and was 3 months from death.

After she improved with medications, she went back to the original doctor and said, “I didn’t need a haircut.”

27 years later she still suffers from lingering effects.

10. I would be furious, too.

My cousin is 21 but severely disabled, and he was telling his mum it hurt to pee. He was feverish as well so my aunt took him to two different doctors within a week and both completely dismissed it.

He spent the next week in Intensive Care due to sepsis from his undiagnosed UTI. My aunt was so furious. Especially since it was in the middle of the height of the pandemic so if my aunt left the hospital she wasn’t allowed to go back in, and my cousin is mentally about 4 and has major behavioral issues.

So my aunt couldn’t leave and she couldn’t get any breaks which is definitely needed with my cuz. She is now super vigilant about that stuff.

9. In a perfect world.

An MD not noticing yellow eyes should surely be grounds for a malpractice suit.

8. Women get the short end, man.

I saw a young Aboriginal girl with Sydenham’s Chorea, a condition that guarantees you’ve had acute rheumatic fever.

ARF is really common in Australian Indigenous peoples, and in the long run it causes cardiac valve dysfunction and death. It’s also really easily treatable by a specific antibiotic regime (although you do have to stay on it for years).

The first doctor had told her it was anxiety and she just needed to sit still.

7. Just terrifying.

I have one that happened to me. I did college gymnastics, my senior year I had an accident in practice landing in my neck. Went to the hospital got x-rays, was told I was perfectly fine.

Walked around in pain for awhile, Weeks later went to another doc got a new set of images, my neck was broken in 3 places and had a dislocation, had a multi level fusion surgery days later. Found out my x days got swapped with someone else’s in the ER and I was originally diagnosed based on someone else’s images.

This was found out when I went to get my records long after my surgery for insurance purposes and my files had someone else’s medical records and images in it.

Because of the time I spent walking around with it I had to have a posterior surgery instead of anterior which is way more invasive and gives me major issues to this day

6. Why don’t they listen?

This happened to my mom like 20 years ago… I believe she was close to 36 at the time (and had 6 kids) My mom was having severe abdominal pain (and if my mom admits to being in pain then you know it’s bad)

Her family doctor was on vacation and so my dad took her to emerg… Emerg doc told her she was constipated and sent her home. The pain got worse and so she went back to emerg a couple days later.

She specifically asked the doctor (the same one from the previous time) if it could be an ectopic pregnancy. He laughed at her and sent her home. She ended up in emerg a third time and got that same stupid doctor who accused her of lying to get drugs.

She had to wait a week until her family doctor came back. Just over the phone the family doctor could tell something was wrong and told my mom that she wanted to see her first thing in the morning for tests – mom didn’t make that appointment because during the night her Fallopian tube ruptured and my dad found her unconscious on the floor downstairs.

He rushed her to the hospital and they found out that she was something like 10 weeks along with an ectopic pregnancy. Our family doctor apparently was screaming at the other doctor in the hallway because of his incompetence.

5. You hate to hear this.

My sister was about two weeks away from giving birth when she suddenly started feeling excruciating pain and vomiting. I called her midwife who refused to speak with me despite my sister clearly not capable of speaking as she sat on the floor next to the toilet, crying and puking. Finally she just took the phone and was told by her midwife that it was probably just a virus and to eat a popsicle

Eventually I was able to convince her to go to the ER. She was immediately rushed in the OR for an emergency c-section. Her placenta had abrupted and my niece was born not breathing, suffered several seizures and even died and then was resuscitated. She is now 15 and has cerebral palsy due to going so long without the oxygen she needed.

4. That sounds like a terrible plan.

I just left a practice partly because a woman brought her 8 month old in for a second opinion. The practice owner had seen the rapidly enlarging sacral soft tissue mass which the mother first noticed about six weeks prior. He told her not to worry about it. I checked his notes, which read, “Plan: ignore”.

I was shocked. There was a new onset rapidly enlarging blue/purple cystic mass on a baby’s sacrum (it looked like a small plum under the skin at the top of her bum crack) and without any investigation my colleague dismissed it. I was appalled. The mother was relieved. This wasn’t the first not great judgement I’d seen but it was one of the worst.

I realized I couldn’t work in a clinic where I’d be stepping on other doctors’ toes and couldn’t trust their judgement. The baby’s had a imaging and a referral to a paediatric surgeon but unfortunately I don’t know the outcome because I’m working elsewhere now.

3. Never considered that.

I’m a surgeon.

I’ve been called to see more than one patient for appendicitis….who has already had an appendectomy.

I’ve also been called in multiple cases for patients who very obviously have previously undiscovered, very advanced cancer. It always too far advanced for me to be of help, so I have to wonder….am I being called so I can be the bad guy and explain everything? Yes. The answer is yes.

2. Life is short – but maybe it didn’t have to be that short.

Not a doctor, but my mom went into a walk in clinic and told the doc she had really bad headaches all the time. She was a stay at home mom to me (10) and my sister (6) so it was written off as stress and got a prescription for pain pills.

Two weeks later the headaches were migraines. Stronger prescription and try to reduce stress.

A few weeks go by and she can no longer get out of bed, throws everything up including the meds, is completely disoriented and barely alive. My dad was a truck driver so he was never home. I was taking care of me, my sister, and my mom all by myself. We go back to the doctor and this lady had the audacity to say this is the weirdest migraine case she’s ever seen. Tells her to take warm baths and just keep taking the meds when she throws them up.

Two months go by and my dad came home, saw the condition of my mother (who was so sick she would urinate herself), the house (which was being kept up by a 10 year old), and said he wanted a divorce.

That night we found out she had stage 4 lung and brain cancer with a tumor the size of an egg pressing on her brain as well as many others scattered throughout.

I still haven’t forgiven that doctor for not taking my mom seriously

As far as my mom goes, she fought hard for two years eventually passing in November 2010. I was 13 and my sister was 9. My dad fell out of a tree about a month after her diagnosis and shattered his heel. He became disabled because of the surgeries it required and his back.

He was a monster while I was home. All I remember from my younger years was walking on eggshells, constantly being accused of things I didn’t do, and being watched like a hawk 24/7. I suspect he is bipolar and has severe PTSD, but you know how older people feel about treating mental illnesses.

As for us, it sucked not having our mom growing up. She talked every day about how she couldn’t wait to beat cancer and leave my dad so we could all have the life we deserved. I think we turned out fairly well. I’m 23, have a family, moved far away from all of those memories, and have committed to breaking cycles and loving my children the way I wish I would have been loved.

I do wish I knew the drs name now. Even though I know that it wouldn’t bring back my mom, make her diagnosis better, or even prevented anything, I still want to ask her if she started believing her patients. I think being a stay at home mom, previously poverty, woman has a lot to deal with how things went down. I wish no harm on the doctor, but I haven’t forgiven her for not saying something about going to the ER.

Life is short. I learned that by watching my mom give up on every dream she had because she knew she’d die. Go do scary stuff because who knows what’ll happen tomorrow. ?

1. I cannot even imagine.

I’m a lawyer, but…. had a client given a devastating diagnosis of an extremely rare heart condition. Doctor told him he had six weeks to live. He contacted me to make his will and set his affairs in order.

Thankfully, he sought a second opinion with an extremely well-known cardiologist (I guess the cardiologist was intrigued due to the rare nature of this heart condition).

THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH HIM. HE WAS FINE. This poor guy, and his family, were tortured over this, so devastated and terrified, FOR NOTHING. He actually called me to tell me all of this, he seemed to be still in the joyous, “I’m not going to die” stage, but I imagine anger comes at some point, when you take stock of what you went through.

I don’t know how a doctor f*cks up that massively, or if somehow my client’s results were mixed up with someone else’s, and some poor bastard’s number is almost up and they don’t even know it.

It gives you faith in the medical community and makes you question it all at the same time.

If you’ve got an interesting missed diagnosis story, share it with us in the comments!

The post Doctors Talk About the Worst Diagnosis They Ended Up Having to Fix appeared first on UberFacts.