AS A DISCLAIMER, I have so much respect for doctors and nurses, but there are doctors who listen to you and doctors who don’t, so it’s important to advocate for yourself and make sure your Doctor has the utmost consideration for you, your symptoms, and your treatment plan.

1.“At nine months pregnant, my water broke at home. I called my OB and was told to come in and see her. She examined me. She said I’m 4–5 cm dilated and to go home and have lunch, take a nap, and enjoy the afternoon. This was 4:30 p.m. ‘Are you sure? Shouldn’t I head to the hospital now? I feel I should go straight there,’ I asked. This being my second child, I felt uneasy with the advice. But, she’s the expert. She got defensive and said, ‘How dare you second guess me? I’ve delivered hundreds of babies!'”

“I had no car. I took the bus home. By the time I got home an hour later, I was in active labor. Contractions were two minutes apart. Blinding pain. Panicked. Incredibly stressed and overwhelmed by the urgency for help. I got a ride to the hospital and almost delivered in the car. I had the baby within minutes of arriving shortly after 6 p.m. A huge and healthy 11-pound boy. I didn’t even have time to take my jacket or shoes off. My pants had to be cut open by a nurse.”

—Michelle Lee

2.“When I was 14, I had to leave school because my stomach was hurting really bad. Both my parents were working, but I called my mom. She told me to go to the doctor’s office. When our family doctor saw me and heard my complaint about the pain in my stomach, without even touching me or taking my temperature, he told me I was having my period and that is the cause of the pain. I was not having a period, and I really did not know what to do, but I went home and laid down on the couch. My grandma came home from the store and took one look at me and took my temperature. It was really high. She heard the story of my trip to the doctor. Without further ado, she put me in the car and drove me to the emergency ward at the local hospital. She went in with me and quite loudly demanded I be seen at once. From there, it was emergency surgery to remove my appendix! The surgeon told my grandma that another hour or so my appendix would have burst.”

—Gail Olive

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3.“After a motorcycle accident, my doctor recommended the amputation of my right foot, claiming that I would never regain feeling in it, and it would be a bother for the rest of my life. I decided not to and see how it went. Two years later, severe itching started. One year later, all feeling came back. Forty years later, I’m still able to do everything, although it does still hurt a little when it’s starting to rain.”

—Larry Green

4.“I complained to my family doctor of fatigue. He said I was a working mother and needed a vacation. I complained of fatigue to another doctor. He said that my husband needed to take me to dinner. I complained of irregular heartbeat, a heart rate of 40, fatigue, dreams of dying, and shortness of breath to another doctor. He ordered a Holter monitor. The Holter monitor showed a heart rate of 36 and several different types of aberrant beats. Told me athletes have low heart rates. By now, my heart rate was too slow and irregular, my blood pressure was too low at 80/50, and my body temperature was below normal at 97.6º F. I was short of breath just walking to the bathroom. I was only 30. I had to see another doctor. He did a blood test (which three other doctors and one physician’s assistant couldn’t think to do), and I had Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.”

—Cosmic Dreameater

5.“My 5-year-old son was vomiting at least once a week for a full month and had chronic diarrhea. He acted normally and was eating and drinking fine and didn’t have a fever. The first week, I figured it was the flu or cold that everyone had. The second week, I called his pediatrician and asked to be seen. The office told me to give it another week, BRAT diet, yada yada. After three weeks, I called and insisted on being seen. They again told me to ‘wait it out’… I hung up and promptly brought him to the ER. The doctor was horrified that they hadn’t even tested his stool and set me up with a gastroenterologist first thing in the morning. The gastro saw that he had lost several pounds over the three weeks and said that it was a classic sign of Crohn’s disease and was horrified the doctor let it go on so long. Luckily, he was just lactose intolerant, something that could have been figured out much quicker if he had just been seen.”

—Cindy Mcdonald

6.“I was once handed a bunch of samples of an allergy medication by a doctor ‘to hold me over until the prescription was filled.’ I read the ingredients. The filler ingredient in the medication was the same thing that had triggered the allergic reaction in the first place.”

—Terry Lambert

7.“I had horrific abdominal pain that I’d been trying to ignore for a while since I dislike seeing a doctor, but one morning, I woke up around 3 a.m. with a raging fever and so much pain that I started to vomit from it. I finally agreed to see a doctor, but our normal doctor was out, so my husband took me to a gynecologist that was recommended by my SIL. While waiting for my appointment, I vomited a few more times, then entered the office, doubled over in pain and sweating. The doctor pressed on my abdomen, did an ultrasound, and said, ‘Yeah, your uterus is inflamed. It happens. You’re getting older, so this is normal.’ He then prescribed Vitamin E.”

“Fast-forward three days, my husband drags me to our regular doctor since I am curled up in pain and unable to move much at all anymore (he had to help me to the bathroom). Our GP immediately puts me on antibiotics, runs tests and then tells me that basically every system in my body was severely infected, and if I’d waited one more day, I likely would have died.”

—Genesis Davies

8.“My husband was having a problem with his arm. He was having a lot of pain! The PA came in and asked him about the problem. My husband explained what pain he was having with his arm doing just every day things like getting dressed. The PA walks up to him and jerks his arm back really fast. My husband screamed in pain. The PA says that it is no big deal. Just don’t move your arm. He tells him to go home and stop moving his arm. My husband had to go to another doctor, and it turned out that he had a pinched nerve.”

—Debra Braga

9.“I had been feeling poorly and had a cough that wouldn’t go away. I visited several specialists trying to get a diagnosis. These included an internal medicine specialist, an oncologist, a hematologist, and an ENT. After my exam, the ENT explained that a cough irritates the throat, and if I would just stop coughing, I would stop coughing. Later, I found I had Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, with the tumor located in the middle of my chest. This process took 11 months to get the diagnosis. Ultimately, chemo cured the cancer, and the cough went away.”

—Mike Gershowitz

10.“I had three doctors tell me that my deep red urine was just a bladder infection and it would go away. And we’re talking there was pee in my blood, not a little blood in my pee. Went to the third complaining I was tired, didn’t want to eat, and for some reason, had a desire to eat dryer sheets and ice. Was sent home with another round of antibiotics. The FOURTH doctor had the right mind to look into it. By the time I hit him, I was four months into pissing blood, and I needed a blood transfusion. We also discovered a smaller deformed kidney with a cyst that burst in it. I almost bled to death.”

—Ellnine Webb

11.“I was vomiting blood and had severe abdominal pain. I went to the ER at one of the NYU hospitals here in NYC. The young doctor (not sure if he’s a resident or real doctor) gave me an ultrasound when he said he would give me a CT scan. I was not given a blood test or any pain medication. I was there for more than five hours. I got sent home with some medication that he said would keep my food down. Of course, it did not, and I kept on vomiting. Two days later, I was in so much pain that I could not even sit straight. I got picked up by an ambulance, and the EMS told me to make sure I get a blood test and CAT scan. My appendix ruptured, and it was almost too late for me as the juices were all over my other organs.”

—Jean Li

12.“In my 20s, I got an extremely bad sunburn on my stomach. I’m talking giant blisters bad. After a day or so of being in excruciating pain and experiencing the giant blisters, I decided to go to the doctor. I was checked in and assessed; after a few hours, the doctor came in and looked at my burn as well. He then proceeded to recommend for my burn that I go home and rub some lotion on it…lotion!!!! Not only was there no way I could have rubbed anything on my skin without tearing the blisters apart, but lotion?! I told him that I had made a concoction of aloe juice, vitamin C, and lavender oil, and had been spraying that on the burn. He told me that was a way better plan and then left.”

—Alice Shmarpar

13.“I am a single woman, living alone, and was at the time of this incident. I had severe tendinitis in both elbows. I went to an orthopedic doctor who gave me steroid injections in both elbows. Talk about pain! After two rounds of steroid injections, which only helped temporarily, he said the next thing to do would be to put casts on both of my arms to keep my elbows immobilized! I told him I lived alone, and there is no way I could have casts on both my arms and try to continue my life. I ended up going to physical therapy which resolved my tendinitis about 85%. It still flares up on occasion after 20 years. But living alone, working, with casts on both arms? I don’t think so.”

—Suzanne Reiter

14.“I ran for a bus one day and felt a very sharp pain. The ligament that runs from the bottom of your foot by the inside of your ankle was damaged. After weeks of pain, my orthopedist set me up for several weeks of PT. I wasn’t able to do the exercises very well, but tried hard. After six weeks, I still felt the same. He scheduled me for surgery. When I woke up, the surgeon said the anterior tibial tendon had been a mess, and he was surprised to hear I’d been walking on it. I told him about the PT, and he blanched, saying I’d likely made it worse. It took 18 months, but I’m back!”

—Kathie McDonald Rost

15.“After three weeks of suffering from what I thought was the flu and taking OTC meds, I made my way to the doctor. He informed me all I had was a mild head cold. It felt a lot worse than that, and I told him so. His response was, ‘Nonsense. Go home, take a nice hot shower, climb into bed, have some chicken noodle soup, and keep taking the OTC meds.’ Within a week, my so-called head cold had turned into a nasty case of bronchitis. I was sick as a dog for six more weeks. By the time I saw another doctor, she said it was borderline pneumonia.”

—Tempe Reynolds

16.Finally, “I ended up getting a minor second-degree burn on my hand. Just some blisters, nothing too big. However, they started looking red and angry, and I was worried about infection, so I went to the town’s urgent care. It’s a small town, with an old-school doctor who I learned needs a definite refresher in medicine. My burn wasn’t infected, but the doctor told me it would never heal unless I popped the blisters. He said that blisters won’t heal unless you pop them. Not only that, but he said to pop them, I should get a wash cloth and gently rub the blisters until they popped! I was dumbfounded.”

“Anyone knows you should NEVER pop blisters if you can help it. Popping a blister is not only incredibly painful, but opens you up to infection and often results in longer healing time and scarring. He was serious! I just smiled and nodded and left, telling myself I’d never return and let everyone know to not go there. By the way, my burn healed fine without popping the blisters. Just goes to show you that popping them was a bad idea!”

—M. Mullen

Was there a time you got a second opinion and you’re glad you did? Conversely, was there a time a doctor totally nailed it and saved you a world of bad feelings? Tell us all about it in the comments below, or if you’d like to share 100% anonymously, use this Google form!