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''act sick''what is YOUR defintion of ''acting sick'' Maybe I need acting classes?

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Posted 11/21/2011 1:37 AM (GMT 0)
 

I need to have something clarified.I've had crohn's and celiac for a long time now.When I'm in pain I tend to be quiet and keep to myself.I've been dealing with this pain for a long time now and those are my reactions Recently I went to the hospital with gastric pain +++ and had had some vomiting the day prior

The doctor told me YOU DON'T LOOK OR ''ACT SICK''! Now what kind of ''performance was I supposed to give him.Am I supposed to scream,act delirious,???? How are you when you need to drag yourself to the E.R.?Thank you everyone- Anne

Posted 11/21/2011 3:15 AM (GMT 0)
That is so uncool. You know they sell crohn's shirts that say "But you don't look sick"? I always feel weird when I tell someone I am not well cause I know I generally do not look sick. My youngest kid picks up right away when I put my hand on my gut to take pressure off.

Maybe you could buy stage blood and smear it all over yourself. What a jerk. Sorry that happened to you
Posted 11/21/2011 3:26 AM (GMT 0)
It's like the : '' HEY ! You lost lot of weight you seem fine ! What is your trick ? ''
When it's actualy hurt my mind so hard to hear I've lost weight.

Well, we get missjudge so easyly it's sad for, you. When I was sicker, people were always thinking a was totally fine when actually I was feeling bad..
We kind of get the habitude to act like nothing because we don't want to bother everybody with that, but when it come to the hospital, if we aren't bend in two, we're fine..
Posted 11/21/2011 3:36 AM (GMT 0)
Early on before my diagnosis I had dropped about 30 pounds, but once the Pred kicked in I got a raging appetite and the weight came back, then in August Ihad two hospital stays and I dropped it again. People could tell and I got the same response. But now I'm more or less back to where I was and I don't look sick at all.
Posted 11/21/2011 4:04 AM (GMT 0)
I would have told him that he does not look or act like a doctor .
Posted 11/21/2011 4:09 AM (GMT 0)
lol Sniper.
Posted 11/21/2011 5:02 AM (GMT 0)
you always hit it right on the head, sniper! Perhaps that is why you are called sniper...?

Sorry to hear about your experience - what an inconsiderate, rude, and unprofessional doctor - obviously with no understanding of chronic illness and pain. Grrrrr....
Posted 11/21/2011 8:30 AM (GMT 0)
I had one ER visit where they treated me bad. They seriously would take everyone else back to a room before me. I was throwing up and crying in a pain too. So I was certainly acting sick! But didn't matter much. They took a guy back that had a few too many drinks before me even. I actually had people going back that would walk by me and say "They should be taking you before me, I'm not as bad off as you!" I think they thought I just wanted pain meds. Just ridiculous.

The last two visits (second time ended up being hospitalized) went really well though. But I was pooping bloody diarrhea all over myself, and vomiting like crazy. Not to mention the hugely inflamed Erythema Nodosum all over my arms and legs. So there was no mistaking how bad off I was.

Shouldn't have to have all these things to get help though. I realize a lot of people abuse things, but they shouldn't just jump to that conclusion automatically! I'm sorry that happened to you, that doctor is a complete donkey's behind!
Posted 11/21/2011 12:22 PM (GMT 0)
i get that all the time. "You look great and so in shape. Are you working out". ha if they really only knew.
Posted 11/21/2011 1:35 PM (GMT 0)
I don't usually get it at the ER, but several of my regular doctors have said to me on multiple occasions, you always look so good, I have to remind myself how sick you are. Well I am sorry if I refuse to not shower and look like a slob just to garner a few sympathy points. For me when I stop talking, that is when I am in a lot of pain and really doing badly. This last go around, I don't think I said 5 words to my husband on the way to the hospital.

I have lost about 8 - 10 pounds in the last 2 weeks and I know my SIL, MIL, and FIL will all comment on how good I look at Thanksgiving. They all know I just spent a week in the hospital, I am on the small side for my height and didn't need to lose weight to begin with, but to them any weight loss is to be congratulated, no matter how you came about it. It is so frustrating. I would rather they just keep their comments to themselves. I am already trying to come up with a great one liner to shut them up and let them know that it is not a helpful comment. Sniper feel free to help out here.
Posted 11/21/2011 2:42 PM (GMT 0)
OMG Sniper, you made me laugh out loud, and they way the dr's have been treating me, I would so say that.

I never leave my house without make up and my hair done. I like to look nice. I am so anemic that I need to put the color on my cheeks and lips. Now don't get me wrong, I do not look like a clown. LOL.

Everyone says that to me " wow, you don't look that sick" !! AHHHH, I just want to scream. I don't really think they know what do to with us chronnies in the ER unless we are blocked. Everytime I go to the ER I get the same thing. My doctors tell me that you don't present as having severe crohns. My hematologist refuses to give me blood, maybe I should go in there looking like a can of smashed ***holes, and see what he says. God, I am so nerved up right now. Isn't it against the law for a dr to refuse better quality of life??? Sorry, went off on my own tangent there.

I want one of those Tshirts!
Posted 11/21/2011 6:14 PM (GMT 0)
Worst thing I had was rushed to hospital in an ambulance with a blocked bowel few years ago. They gave me morphine for the pain and also an anti sickness but not the one I normally take. If I have the one the ambulances carry I have a bit of a spacey episode and cannot talk properly, explained this to the paramedic before she gave it to me but when she asked if I was in pain just stared at her as reaction to the anti sickness med she gave me. I was in agony but unable to vocalise it. She had only given me small dose of morphine and was in so much pain, anyway when we got to hospital she handed me over to the doctors/nurses there and heard her say that pain was very low as not needed much morphine and should really have come in myself as was waste of ambulance. So was left in a cubicle for 4 hours til someone came in with a right old panic as my blood tests taken when I was admitted 4 hours previously had come back showing severe kidney failure from dehydration but no one had bothered to put a drip uo in all that time. By time they tarted it my blood pressure was 50/30 and pulse was 150bpm and they thought I was going to crash.

All because the anti sickness meds they carry in ambulance I have a very odd reaction to and although I have the correct tablets at home could not keep them down long enough for them to work. If the paramedic had bothered to listen all could have been avoided but there you go, she passed on her opinion to the medical team and they just thought I was wasting their time and it wasn't even buzy in A & E, I was only one there but they still placed me at far end of the unit, farthest from the nursing station.
Posted 11/21/2011 9:36 PM (GMT 0)
The sad thing is you HAVE TO act when you go to the E.R. Most of us are so used to the daily pain and ick that we feel that we just carry on. If the general population felt what we feel on a daily basis they'd all lay down and cry like a bunch of freaking babies. That doctor was a jerk for sure. But I have learned that if you want to get the help you need in the E.R. then you have to act like you're dying. Cry. Pain is an 11 on a scale of 1-10. You name it. Because if not - they think you're fine and they send you home. It's a crock, but it's how it works.

Sorry for your bad experience. They're idiots out there!
Posted 11/22/2011 1:20 AM (GMT 0)
Lol @ sniper... I'm the same way, just don't say much and keep to myself more when I feel bad. Last time I went to the hospital luckily my girlfriend took me and kinda spoke up for me and told them how terrible I was feeling... I had called out of both jobs so she knew something was wrong.

They hit me with an IV steroid and dilaudid and I couldn't believe I had suffered threw a couple partial obstructions at home before.

Definately go to the ER if you feel that bad and try to speak up... And I suppose acting a little won't hurt if you're one to keep everything in...
Posted 11/23/2011 12:41 PM (GMT 0)
Sniper- love your comeback!  Stef17, you are right on with your post.  In addition to what you suggest, I've read (on here?) go in to the ER with no makeup, mussy hair, etc. 

But Anne, I'm like you ... I actually TRY to look well, not sick.  I don't like to have friends/family worry about me, so pretty much keep quiet, to myself, and don't complain (well, except to my husband).  I have to say, that approach can backfire on us, as we probably don't get the support we could be getting. 

I'm sorry you had to experience that kind of stupidity/unprofessionalism from that doctor.  What an idiot.  Don't you kind of wish you were still nauseous that day so you could have hurled on him right then and there??

Posted 11/23/2011 1:50 PM (GMT 0)
And tomorrow (Thanksgiving) I will have to act NOT sick. This has been my dilemma all week. I really feel crappy and don't want to go to my SIL, 2 hours away just to watch everyone else eat. But if I stay home, my husband and daughter will either insist on staying home with me, or they will worry about me all day long. If I go and act the way I actually feel, I will put a damper on the whole day. So I will put on my happy face and have to try to look like I am nibbling on something, try to make small talk, not show the pain when the waves hit and hope that I can make it through the day. Such is the life of a Crohnie.
Posted 11/23/2011 2:32 PM (GMT 0)
Wow I am so sorry you were treated so shabbily. That doc was a real jerk. Anytime I go to the ER I am usually so sick that you can just look at me and see I am sick. Most times I am or have been throwing up, so that always triggers my heart to go into a irregular rythym, so that usually gets their attention pretty quickly. Hugs!
Posted 11/23/2011 4:44 PM (GMT 0)
Wow. I'd really like to know what his definition of looking and acting sick is????????

Zanne -- I hope you make it through tomorrow ok. I'm selfish, I'd stay home with a book & an afghan.

take care all,
Posted 11/24/2011 1:07 AM (GMT 0)
I was going to comment about what a crappy doctor that must have been but I think Sniper, as always, said it best. I am sorry you had that experience. I'd try to find a new doc.
Posted 11/24/2011 6:24 AM (GMT 0)
My absolute favorite was when I was working 4p-12a in the ER. I finally got so sick I had hubby drive me in one morning. The triage RN told me that I could just call in sick, I didn't need to come in as a patient! Well, she stuck her tail between her legs when the Doc admitted me. It was actually that ER trip where the CT scan showed the inflammed TI and Crohn's came into my life.

I'm like you and just kinda shut down when I get sick. I'm quiet and put myself into a comfortable position and just try to get through it. Sometimes I think hubby thinks I'm lazy and using CD as an excuse. He tries to understand, but as mentioned above, it's hard to believe in what we can't see.

Posted 11/24/2011 6:52 PM (GMT 0)
I am sorry they did that to you. Yeahhhh There is no way around it. I was doubled over crying at the beginning of this month and once they saw that my lab results and CT were "Normal" they treated me like a drug seeker and kicked me out so I went to the ER I had gone to for 6 years and used to work at for 5 and they treated me like a drug seeker too. Thank god my GI showed up and gave me the good ol pred so I atleast felt like the extra $800+ I spent on COBRA was worth it until I saw the new GI. I have the crohns where I have C not D and definitely no bloody poop so i don't fit the mould which doesn't help the situation. I realize that the ER's purpose is to make sure that we are stable however, we still should be treated with respect and humanely. I LOVED Sniper's comment. I may use that some day. =D F-it. I'm going to get kicked out of the ER anyway with no help. Why not leave with a bang!
Posted 11/29/2011 3:01 PM (GMT 0)
I don't have much experience going to the ER with this IBD problem. I love Sniper's answer but have to admit don't think I'd have the nerve to use it. I've thought of a come back like that in other situations and didn't use it either. I'll keep it in mind. Maybe if I'm sick enough I will use it.

My pet peeve, and some have touched upon it, is being treated like a "drug seeker". Even when its not about me. I work around nurses on the units and I often hear them remarking about how the patient in a certain room is a drug seeker. "He/she knows exactly when 4 hours are up" (or whatever the time span is) blah blah blah. I have to restrain myself from saying to them "I guess you've never been in pain before" I really think some people's pain experience (these are mostly women I hear although I do hear the occasional male nurse referring to a drug seeking patient) is only with labor and delivery and that's a whole different story. I work in the pharmacy and I have heard them talk this way too. I even heard one refer to lyrica used for chronic pain where the patient "is acting high" and "likes it" . I wanted to say "they probably seem that way to you because finally they are relieved of pain they've had for years". I laugh at the drug warnings that come with lyrica to consult your doctor "if you feel high". Give me a break.
Posted 11/29/2011 3:50 PM (GMT 0)
Rootsmith , I have , on occasion, run my mouth without putting my brain fully in gear , but , when I am really sick , the last thing that I can tolerate is being accused of exaggerating . I'm too old to put up with being treated badly , especially by some young dip in a white coat . I can usually keep my sense of humor but have on rare occasions taken an intern or doctor to task . One time in the ER for what I knew was a kidney stone I was told by a young white coat that I had no blockage and should go home . I suggested that he visit the local optometrist as soon as possible , requested my x-rays and told him I would be bringing them to another hospital where there was a competent ER doctor . I did and yes they could see the stone he could not . Later I returned the x-ray to them with a note and a big arrow pointing to the spot he had missed and suggested he return to med school . My regular doctor was very amused by this and said I may have helped the guy to be a better doctor .
Posted 11/29/2011 6:01 PM (GMT 0)
Sniper, good for you! I agree with your pcp, you might have actually helped that young doctor out. He will remember that incident.

I am getting braver as I age but the conversations I described were other people talking, I felt like I would be butting in although I wanted to. If it were said to me directly I think I would be braver and say what I thought.
Posted 11/30/2011 12:44 AM (GMT 0)
My response was the same as Sniper's. People say something stupid, I turn it back on them. Especially if they should know better.

@Zanne, I've gotten the "I have to remind myself how sick you are" thing and that doesn't bother me. Because I know how easy it is to look at someone with Crohn's and forget that they're sick at all. So I view this comment as an expression of dismay and respect, instead of as questioning your situation. Because in my experience, that's how it is meant. Many people, particularly medical professionals familiar with Crohn's, are amazed by our sheer tenacity. We put up with what we do because we have no other choice, and we try to keep our lives as normal as possible because it is comforting. But from their perspective, we are handling immense suffering without any obvious appearance of strain. It seems herculean, to them. Because they know what we go through, and can't imagine going through that and still looking/acting normal.

Viewed from that perspective... we are pretty darn awesome.
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