Medical Professionals Break Down Times Patients Accurately Self-Diagnosed With Google

Medical professionals often advise against Googling when we are feeling ill.

WebMD is the enemy.

But what if Google is right now and then?

We can't confirm the internet information in real-time.

We still need to consult medical professionals.

Redditor PumpkinAino wanted to hear about the times the Google search paid off, so they asked:

"Reddit Doctors and Nurses: What's the most impressive case of Google 'self-diagnosis' that turned out to be true?

911

"My mom was acting insane... I had to call 911. I told the ER to test her for a UTI. I was right!"

- schlomo31

i know right schitts creek GIF by CBC Giphy

Psychosomatic

"No truly shocking stories, but I will tell you this - the longer I am a medical professional, the more I take careful note of a patient's reported symptoms or side effects. A patient may be on a drug that absolutely, positively, never caused dysphagia in clinical trials. But for your patient, it does. I believe them."

"There are a couple of hypochondriacs out there, but for the most part, people are pretty in tune with their bodies. Lots of HCPs (I love you, but I am looking at you, medical residents!) will write off symptoms as 'psychosomatic,' but when you dig deeper, there is a treatable physiologic cause."

- Girleatingcheezits

Labyrinthitis...

"It started with pressure headaches, then I got up one morning and walked sideways into my bedroom wall. GP diagnosed Labyrinthitis and prescribed medication for nausea."

"The headaches got more frequent along with spells of the most intense vertigo. Two years of 'it’s just anxiety' from three different GPs."

"I started getting ringing in my ears and sometimes my hearing would become 'muffled' for short periods of time, like I was underwater. I was reading everything I could find relating to my symptoms, and absolutely everything pointed towards Ménière’s disease."

"Still, 'it’s anxiety,' and my GP laughed and called me Doctor Google."

"Eventually ended up at an Out of Hours clinic one night because my vertigo was so bad and I’d completely lost my hearing in one ear. This led to a referral for an MRI and eventual diagnosis of… Ménière’s disease."

"Signed, Doctor Google MD."

- MediumPeteWrigley

Philip K. Dick

"Weirdest I've heard of was Philip K. Dick believing in a dream he had that his perfectly healthy, presenting baby son had a fatal inguinal hernia."

"Despite the doctor's resistance detailed exam of the son found and successfully treated it."

"Apparently, made PK Dick really was questioning reality."

"Certainly inspired fantastic stories he wrote, and they are still being made into movies."

- Satchik

Full Circle

"When I was in high school, one of the science classes had to do a project on systemic diseases. This kid chose diabetes. They noticed the symptoms matched what they had been feeling lately. Went to the hospital, and it turned out they were days to hours from a diabetic coma. I think it’s a miracle it went undetected for so long, but then again, I don’t know much about diabetes."

"They are now a medical professional, so this story really came full circle."

- amurderofcrows

IRRITATED!!!

"I’m a nurse and correctly diagnosed myself with pericarditis after being sent home from the ER. I was pregnant and had sharp chest pain that those mf-ers brushed off as heartburn. Like a knife in my chest. I’m still irritated 25 years later lol."

- AstridCrabapple

nurse ward GIF Giphy

44

"I’m not a medical professional, but I have spent a lot of time in the hospital and know my body and medical history. A few years ago, I started noticing memory loss, confusion, getting lost in familiar places, etc., and it occurred immediately after falling and hitting my head. I was afraid it was dementia despite my age (40)."

"I talked to one of my doctors, who started a year-long process of figuring out what was wrong. It turns out that I have a very rare form of early-onset vascular dementia (there’s no treatment, surgery, or medication). I am 44 (diagnosed at 40). I’m glad to have an answer and suspected it was something like this, but it is much worse than I could’ve thought."

- lottieslady

Told the GP...

"Also, not a medical professional, but I diagnosed myself, and my doctor was pretty flummoxed."

"For years, I had horrible periods, and had that whole ‘could be endo, could be fibroids’ runaround. But I also couldn’t use tampons - I would somehow just bleed past them, which made less than no sense - and my period cycle was so off sometimes I swore it was like I had two uteruses."

"Then one day, I was listening to a podcast, and a woman started talking about her experience of living with two uteruses. And I was like ‘damn, that’s me.'"

"Told the GP, she reluctantly sent me for the scans, told me it almost certainly wasn’t that, given the rarity. But yep, turns out I have two uteruses, cervixes, and vaginas, and one unit of a kidney instead of the factory-issue two."

"Also, my mum thought I was mad and jokingly bet me a car I didn’t have two uteruses. Still chasing her up on that."

- HowAboutBiteMe

Yeast Infection

"I'm not a doctor or a nurse, but I've got one."

"My younger brother dealt with persistent chronic ear infections and was supposedly diagnosed with eczema in his ears. They would often weep pus that smelled foul, and he would swab them every day. They were red and flaky inside, which prompted the eczema diagnosis, but I don't think it explained the pus?"

"So after 10 years of dealing with this, he gets fed up with it and decides to send off samples of his own for private testing so he could review every single bacterium that was present himself."

"Turns out the biggest colony was Candida."

"He was able to receive a now family-famous prescription for his vaginal yeast infection, which cleared up his problem within 3 days."

- xenogazer

Fatigue...

"Diagnosed myself. Didn't have any dramatic symptoms other than poor appetite and fatigue. I knew I had something going on above my waist, but not in my chest. Doctors blew me off, so I got a lung scan due to my smoking history. Kidney cancer. The tumor was on the upper part and outside of the kidney. Small tumor, had a partial nephrectomy, 3rd post-surgery scan coming up."

- dark_places

CURED

"Doctor here. Many encounters with patients with their own ideas of what might be going on, often from Dr Google. Always worth listening to their story and what led them to their conclusions. Mostly wrong, sometimes helpful, sometimes right."

"Had a lady come in and tell me a classic story of a pheochromocytoma - intermittent episodes of racing heart, high blood pressure, headache, anxiety, sweating. A pheochromocytoma is a benign or malignant tumor that can produce excess epinephrine/norepinephrine (adrenaline)."

"She was relatively young with no prior blood pressure problems, and sure enough, BP high enough at her age to warrant screening for the odd causes of high blood pressure regardless of her concerning symptoms. Sure enough, had a pheo. Fortunately, benign. Got surgery. Cured. Blood pressure was great thereafter."

- ProtexisPiClassic

Babinski Reflex

"Went to the doctor, and he asked in a condescending manner what 'Dr. Google said I have. I said that my symptoms matched up with multiple sclerosis."

"Two years later, I visit him, and he has a resident following him around. She was the one who performed a test on me (Babinski reflex) that indicated neurological damage that led to my diagnosis of multiple sclerosis."

- WhyYesOtherBarry

Very Rare

"I have a drop kidney, it's where the ligaments that hold my kidneys in place are weakened, and my right kidney hangs down about 5 inches too low."

"It's a rare condition, and it takes a bunch of convincing doctors to get the right imaging done."

"I also called the fact that I have 4 slipped discs, cervical kyphosis, and nerve damage in my lower back, causing problems in my pelvis."

"All of which took years of trying to tell doctors to get the right X-rays and MRIs."

- MyLife-is-a-diceRoll

Organ Donation Kidney GIF by I Heart Guts Giphy

AVOIDANCE

"After an egg retrieval, I got myself to the ER and told them I definitely had a severe case of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. I thought it was a no-brainer. Boston IVF had warned me of what to look for, and I had nearly every symptom, including the 'go immediately to the ER' ones."

"The ER doc kind of laughs and goes, 'Maybe we should avoid googling symptoms.'”

"He recommended Tylenol and was going to discharge me!"

"It took me forever to convince them to just do imaging and check my ovaries— first time I’ve ever heard a doctor say, 'Holy s**t, that can’t be right.'”

"My ovaries were each larger than a grapefruit. They called the on-call OBGYN, who admitted me immediately. Per my OB, I’m the only person my (tiny) hospital has ever had to admit for severe OHSS."

- EvilAbed57

STAT

"I diagnosed my mother’s PEs (pulmonary embolisms). She’d had abdominal surgery the week prior and made an off-the-cuff remark about having to sleep upright as she was short of breath when lying down. That didn’t sit right with me, so a quick Google told me about how PEs can happen, especially after major abdominal surgery. Told her to get to emerg, STAT—sure enough, 3 PEs. She’s fine now, thankfully, but she sure as hell could’ve had a stroke if she hadn’t mentioned anything."

- mad_morrigan

In the Eye

"Not a specific instance, but if someone looks you dead in the eye and says they're going to die, you should believe them. Happened more than once when I was an EMT."

- cawise89

Hell Yeah Deal With It GIF Giphy

So maybe we can GOOGLE our way to health.

Or perhaps we should still rely on the experts.

After reading this... I'll be GOOGLING everything all night.