probably a man living in USA
Guaranteed, anyone with access to real healthcare would’ve had that checked out immediately.
As an American, we’ve got it similar but expensive. We’ve got emergency rooms which triage and cost like a thousand dollars or more, then there are urgent cares which usually cost $50 (copay) and tell you whether or not to go to the er (usually you can get in somewhat quickly and occasionally they can even help), then there’s your regular doctor and that’ll typically be about a month if you’re a returning patient though some like mine keep an appointment slot either every day or every week open for same day appointments so you can call first thing after they open in the hopes of being seen.
Oh, and insurance tells you who you get to have as a doctor. And every January the list may suddenly change
I was shitting blood, turned grey, and fainted in public. I did go the hospital. They literally said “idk” and sent me home with a 4000$ bill. It kept happening.
Went to a specialist that also resulted in a literal “idk”, and they wouldn’t clear a colonoscopy because I am “too young” and “don’t have a family history.” I was begging them to figure it out because this was a fucking nightmare. Nope. At least the bill was 400$ this time around.
It kept happening for over a year at random. Actually terrifying.
FINALLY, I put myself on a diet of oatmeal and water for a month and slowly introduced new foods every week. I was curious to know if maybe certain foods triggered it?
Turns out: yes. I triggered a reaction using one of my favorite foods/ingredients. No idea why, but I had developed some kind of severe intolerance to it. And I had to figure it out myself.
It was definitely something weird that everyone would tell them was the obvious thing.
Probably chicken bones. I’ve heard of people who like eating them have serious issues.
Do not eat bones. Seriously people, I can’t stress this enough!
I don’t eat chicken bones on the regular, if at all.
But turns out it was green onion.
Tell that to my dog. Granted that sentient trash compacter eats anything and everything and somehow hasn’t done more than barf up a sock every once in a while
Aw man, one of my favorite parts of chicken wings is eating the marrow on the ends :(
I’m very sorry that you went through that. I know it sucks with the American healthcare $ystem, but you are always allowed to seek a second opinion and any provider that is opposed to that is a bad provider and you shouldn’t see them again anyways.
One thing to keep in mind about the ER though, is that they’re there to rule out anything that is going to kill you quickly, and if you didn’t lose enough blood to drop your hemoglobin count (a measure of how many red blood cells you have), it is perfectly within the standard of care for them to discharge you and tell you to follow up with your primary care physician or a specialist. The ER has a lot of resources, but not enough resources to fully diagnose every possible problem. They can make sure you’re not on death’s doorstep, and stabilize you if you are, but beyond that, they’re pretty strapped for resources and staffing which make it hard to fully work up every mystery diagnosis.
Unfortunately, a solid diagnosis can be really hard to find and there are a lot of diseases and conditions that require more testing than can be completed in the ER. Part of why the ER is expensive is because the tests they do get come back almost immediately, but they very rarely order the tests that take a long time anyways. Expediency and staffing are the main contributors to the cost of emergency care.
With the example of your case, how would the ER get you the diagnosis of a food intolerance without spending weeks on an elimination diet? There are some allergies that can be tested for, but that testing involves injecting a sample of the offending agent under the skin and watching to see if it causes irritation… but allergies and food intolerances are not the same thing and the only way to test for food intolerances is an elimination diet. For the allergy testing, the ER doesn’t have the samples to do the subcutaneous injections. It’s really only allergy specialists that have those available.
What was the allergy, out of curiosity?
I’m figuring out my own allergies. Atm on a GFCF diet. Seems to be working somewhat.
Just green onion? I tried allium exclusion for a while. So green onions give you allergies, but like, garlic doesn’t?
USA moment
Can relate, my dad sees ‘going to the doctor’ as a personal weakness and thus rarely goes.
Many if not most men are like this. It’s usually their wives or another woman in their lives that drags them in when something is about to fall off. It’s another way in which husbands leave 71% of a household’s ‘mental load’ on their wives, down to their own well being.
So that’s why I accomplish nothing and only have 29% well-being is I don’t have a wife to do it for me…
side note haven’t been to the doctors in years and last time I went it’s cause my girlfriend made me… at the same time, I’m the reason she could find her car keys, so fair trade, I guess…
Maybe bro just eats a fuckton of beets
Semi-Funny story. I had never eaten beets before, but I started eating those beet and sea salt chips (so good!), and I freaked the fuck out when I peed red that next morning.
I have hella good healthcare through my job, and so I made an appointment with my primary care doc right away, and he was like “Any changes to your diet?”
Felt bad about wasting his time, but Jesus, I was not expecting that amount of red in the bowl!
Ask anyone in primary patient care - people make that exact same appointment because of beets regularly. Beets are absolutely delicious, but boy can they be a little mindfuck for a moment if you aren’t expecting the side effect!
