Lying to your doctor

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Replies

  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    The only time I remember lying to my doctor was back in highschool when I was sick and was not able to study properly for an exam (was a straight A student), so I over-exaggerated my symptoms to get more time to study.

    This makes me think that lying may not be just to hide things, but some people may feel their symptoms deserve more attention and care, especially if their doctors is typically dismissive.

    your second point is likely true...I saw a doctor for years with symptoms of thyroid problems but no one listened to me - my blood work was normal so it was in my head (according to them)...it wasn't until I got someone who saw the goiter on my thyroid and decided that it deserved more attention that my thyroid cancer was diagnosed (the surgeon said based on the results of the pathology that I'd likely had it for several years because of how far advanced it was, considering that it is one of the slower growing cancers)...and she said that I had hashimoto's (her words to me the day after surgery - so did you know you had hashimoto's)...

    I wonder how much I would have been listened to, if I had over-exaggerated symptoms etc
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    edited April 2017
    I just read an article that said 64% of people surveyed admitted that they have lied to (or withheld info from) their doctor. Is it just me, or does this sound like the stupidest thing ever? Why pay a doctor's fee but then not give them honest information? I mean, if you are going to lie, just don't go, right?

    I withhold information on occasion. If it has nothing to do with my current health situation, she does not need to know. I don't lie though.
    MeganAM89 wrote: »
    I just read an article that said 64% of people surveyed admitted that they have lied to (or withheld info from) their doctor. Is it just me, or does this sound like the stupidest thing ever? Why pay a doctor's fee but then not give them honest information? I mean, if you are going to lie, just don't go, right?



    More than once I've gone in with a list of things to tell them so that I don't forget.

    I always take a list. I always seem to have questions in addition to info and I will forget something if I didn't have the list.

  • STLBADGIRL
    STLBADGIRL Posts: 1,693 Member
    I used to lie when I was younger. Not anymore...
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    edited April 2017
    LAWoman72 wrote: »
    newmeadow wrote: »
    Gee. Your finger stick blood sugar reads 497.

    Take it again! Take it in my other finger on the other hand!

    Okay. I get 503 this time. Did you eat anything like ice cream or pizza recently? Like the ice cream and pizza they're serving on the 1st floor leftover from the birthday party?

    NO! All I had was a cup of black coffee. Check your machine! It always gives bad readings. Cheap piece of junk!

    You literally have some nurse or other individual routinely pricking people's fingers and handling their blood in the office??? Bringing in the same "machine" each time (your reference to how it "always" gives bad readings)? This happens?

    I honest to God have never heard of such a thing. I can't imagine the S-storm of someone getting sick and suing the office for throwing the employees' blood around. Anything could happen, or at least be accused to have happened, under circumstances of handling blood in a public, non-hospital/non-medical place that way. Just odd.

    How often do they prick your blood? Is this a routine thing? I just have never heard of this.


    Not uncommon with diabetics, especially if they are not even trying to manage it or are in denial so they don't test at home (those who do test at home bring their meters in so the info can be downloaded). It is just the usual tiny drop of blood to test with a glucose meter not "throwing blood around".

  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
    edited April 2017
    earlnabby wrote: »
    LAWoman72 wrote: »
    newmeadow wrote: »
    Gee. Your finger stick blood sugar reads 497.

    Take it again! Take it in my other finger on the other hand!

    Okay. I get 503 this time. Did you eat anything like ice cream or pizza recently? Like the ice cream and pizza they're serving on the 1st floor leftover from the birthday party?

    NO! All I had was a cup of black coffee. Check your machine! It always gives bad readings. Cheap piece of junk!

    You literally have some nurse or other individual routinely pricking people's fingers and handling their blood in the office??? Bringing in the same "machine" each time (your reference to how it "always" gives bad readings)? This happens?

    I honest to God have never heard of such a thing. I can't imagine the S-storm of someone getting sick and suing the office for throwing the employees' blood around. Anything could happen, or at least be accused to have happened, under circumstances of handling blood in a public, non-hospital/non-medical place that way. Just odd.

    How often do they prick your blood? Is this a routine thing? I just have never heard of this.


    Not uncommon with diabetics, especially if they are not even trying to manage it or are in denial so they don't test at home (those who do test at home bring their meters in so the info can be downloaded). It is just the usual tiny drop of blood to test with a glucose meter not "throwing blood around".

    What I mean is that this is how it could potentially be seen. I don't think a nurse would literally throw a needle but honestly, if I were at work and I knew people's blood was just randomly being handled in some office room I potentially frequented...I mean...I just don't know.

    So you're saying diabetics are blood-tested at work? Routinely?

    That's what I've never heard of. I'm assuming at work was the scenario here, and not a doctor's office, since the mention was made of cake downstairs and I hardly think patients at a doctor's office are going to some downstairs locale to eat surprise cake. So what is the setup here? In some business offices, people who have been pinpointed as diabetics are just routinely blood tested by someone else? Who? A nurse? And what's the legal protection? No, the blood isn't literally being thrown (I assume), but it's being handled, right there with other office workers...sounds so sketchy to me and a recipe for potential disaster should anything, and I mean anything at all happen that could even be loosely related to the procedure which is apparently not being done in a controlled, medical environment. Or...is this like a blood drive where the truck comes in...they take the diabetic out to the parking lot or something...? Help me out because this is boggling to me...maybe I'm just visualizing it wrong?

    I don't understand the mechanism here...I'm not trying to be snotty or anything. I literally have never heard of enforced diabetes blood testing in a corporate office, in the U.S. at least.
  • Duchy82
    Duchy82 Posts: 560 Member
    Yup I lie to my gp, they are usually lies of omission when I feel it is irrelevant to the reason of my visit. It doesn't surprise one bit that 64% of people do.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I'd wager that those 64% are likely lying about their drinking habits and/or smoking habits. Do you ever drink more than 2 alcoholic beverages a day? Nah...not me...never!

    Yep.

    And when I used to drink excessively I even used the fact people lied as my excuse -- doctors think everyone lies and double what you say, so if I am honest they will think I drink twice as much as I do, so I should lie. Hmm, still sounds like too much and she might assume I drink more than I should (which is OBVIOUSLY not true) so I will just say "maybe a glass or two with dinner some nights."

    Which was a huge lie.

    I never lied about smoking (since I never have) or food stuff, but I suspect lots of people do since they don't want to be judged, are lying to themselves, or are sure it has nothing to do with whatever the issue is/their health.
  • sky_northern
    sky_northern Posts: 119 Member
    LAWoman72 wrote: »

    What I mean is that this is how it could potentially be seen. I don't think a nurse would literally throw a needle but honestly, if I were at work and I knew people's blood was just randomly being handled in some office room I potentially frequented...I mean...I just don't know.

    My friend is Diabetic she checks her blood sugar regularly, at work, at home, when out in the evenings. Even in public places. Her "party trick" is checking everyone's blood sugar, So we all get our finger pricked and 'throw blood around'. Not all the time because she has to switch the needles and everything so makes her go through them fast but it happens. She gets mad at us for having normal blood sugar ranges...
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
    edited April 2017
    newmeadow wrote: »
    LAWoman72 wrote: »
    earlnabby wrote: »
    LAWoman72 wrote: »
    newmeadow wrote: »
    Gee. Your finger stick blood sugar reads 497.

    Take it again! Take it in my other finger on the other hand!

    Okay. I get 503 this time. Did you eat anything like ice cream or pizza recently? Like the ice cream and pizza they're serving on the 1st floor leftover from the birthday party?

    NO! All I had was a cup of black coffee. Check your machine! It always gives bad readings. Cheap piece of junk!

    You literally have some nurse or other individual routinely pricking people's fingers and handling their blood in the office??? Bringing in the same "machine" each time (your reference to how it "always" gives bad readings)? This happens?

    I honest to God have never heard of such a thing. I can't imagine the S-storm of someone getting sick and suing the office for throwing the employees' blood around. Anything could happen, or at least be accused to have happened, under circumstances of handling blood in a public, non-hospital/non-medical place that way. Just odd.

    How often do they prick your blood? Is this a routine thing? I just have never heard of this.


    Not uncommon with diabetics, especially if they are not even trying to manage it or are in denial so they don't test at home (those who do test at home bring their meters in so the info can be downloaded). It is just the usual tiny drop of blood to test with a glucose meter not "throwing blood around".

    What I mean is that this is how it could potentially be seen. I don't think a nurse would literally throw a needle but honestly, if I were at work and I knew people's blood was just randomly being handled in some office room I potentially frequented...I mean...I just don't know.

    So you're saying diabetics are blood-tested at work? Routinely?

    That's what I've never heard of. I'm assuming at work was the scenario here, and not a doctor's office, since the mention was made of cake downstairs and I hardly think patients at a doctor's office are going to some downstairs locale to eat surprise cake. So what is the setup here? In some business offices, people who have been pinpointed as diabetics are just routinely blood tested by someone else? Who? A nurse? And what's the legal protection? No, the blood isn't literally being thrown (I assume), but it's being handled, right there with other office workers...sounds so sketchy to me and a recipe for potential disaster should anything, and I mean anything at all happen that could even be loosely related to the procedure which is apparently not being done in a controlled, medical environment. Or...is this like a blood drive where the truck comes in...they take the diabetic out to the parking lot or something...? Help me out because this is boggling to me...maybe I'm just visualizing it wrong?

    I don't understand the mechanism here...I'm not trying to be snotty or anything. I literally have never heard of enforced diabetes blood testing in a corporate office, in the U.S. at least.

    Not all medical environments where blood glucose readings are taken are walk-in offices. And not sure why you're thinking about corporate offices where people are wearing power pantsuits and doing marketing presentations and doing the 9 to 5 thing. Since when do doctors and nurses work in those places? Sigh. Nevermind.

    And yes. In medical facilities people have birthday parties acknowledged with cake and pizza and ice cream. And the leftovers are occasionally placed in the common areas for passers by.

    Okay. You're talking about two different scenarios here. I suppose anything is possible. Maybe it's regional that medical facilities routinely put out their leftovers for patients to eat. I've just never seen it personally but it seems like it must happen.

    OTOH, the business office scenario - I didn't mention powersuits and I can't see how non-suit-wearing people would be more accepting of people just randomly being blood tested in the locale but...it's as you say...sigh. I guess in these very, very, very specific scenarios, some giant !!!liar!!! with routine FBSs of 500+ might wander into his doctor's office, not wearing a suit, and see loads of cake put out for patients, pig out, walk in, then lie to the doctor's face. I accept that in some universe it COULD happen.

    I just don't accept that this is all somehow enough of a norm to snottily make mention of it about how !!!liars!!! act, in support of the idea of this thread. Seems...well...really far-fetched to me. Really, really far-fetched.

    So sure. I'll give you that this must have happened some time, in some place and have been accepted as normal. I'll just stick with: it has to be regional or something, because somehow I've managed not to be involved in or witnessed either of these scenarios in 49 years of living, and 18 years in various offices (some business casual, some jeans, some fairly well-dressed). I guess you've answer my question, so I appreciate your taking the time. It does clarify what the idea was here and it cements for me that it's a bit of an exaggeration to put these things down to a norm. Thank you for your help.

  • Madwife2009
    Madwife2009 Posts: 1,369 Member
    I don't lie to doctors as I can't see the point. I'm not convinced that they always believe what you say anyway - for example, I had to be "trained" to inject myself with a certain drug, and along with that came information about side effects and what to avoid eating/drinking/using when taking the drug.

    The nurse practitioner asked me how much alcohol I drank. I said "none" because I haven't touched any for at least two years (and I was never a big drinker before that; DH <3 and I shared a bottle of wine maybe four times a year. I initially gave up as I felt it was a waste of calories when starting my deficit).

    So she then starts muttering about not drinking more than department of health guidelines - so I repeated that I don't drink. Still she kept on about it until I had to actually spell it out to her in monosyllabic terms of the "I-DON'T-DRINK" type. She just didn't - or couldn't believe that she had someone in front of her who actually didn't drink alcohol.

    I can understand it though, the disbelief, as when I worked as a midwife we had to ask about lifestyle choices (including alcohol/drugs/smoking) and I frequently had women reeking of cigarettes tell me that they didn't smoke. I'd then say that I could smell the cigarettes and then I'd get "oh, that's from my partner, he smokes in the house". Of course. I still used to refer them to the stop smoking service :)
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
    In America, the American Medical Association wants doctors to ask clinical patients to disclose information about their ownership of firearms.

    I think it's easy to get 64% of people lying to their doctor.
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
    edited April 2017
    In America, the American Medical Association wants doctors to ask clinical patients to disclose information about their ownership of firearms.

    What???

    Why?

    Not a firearms owner, just wondering what the tie-in could possibly be here.

    Also...regarding a post above where the person said the doctor may not believe the patient anyway...Yup, so true. You sit there helplessly trying to convince the doctor and she gives you the hairy eyeball. That's so infuriating and frustrating but what can you do?

    I once had to call a doctor apparently after hours (I didn't realize he worked that specific weekday as foreshortened) because my stepson had run out of Ritalin and somehow, with all the other stuff going on at that time, I had forgotten a couple days in a row to call for the refill seeing that he was running to the end of that month's prescription. (Long story, don't judge.) The office told me they would call the doctor at home to have him call in the prescription. This doctor proceeded to call me at home and literally yell into the phone (I mean real, actual yelling, I was holding the phone out) about how he wasn't about to feed some drug addict parent's habit by filling a prescription early so we could get away with squeezing out a few extra pills. (It wasn't early and I don't do drugs. And no, this was no "ghetto" doctor, he was pricey as hell in an upscale area, where we were living, so I can't imagine he had a glut of bad street stories coloring his perception here.)

    I stood there in shock and handed the phone to my (now ex-) husband. "Can you help?" But he couldn't get a word in edgewise.

    We hung up the phone and stared at one another and my stepson didn't get his medication for a couple of days. After that the prescription (which was now overdue in being filled) was apparently filled at our pharmacy, who called us to let us know. We shrugged and went from there.

    Pretty extreme and I won't say a doctor literally yelling is the norm, but I can say I got lots of rolling eyes about my "tiredness" which was simply because "I worked outside the home"...until finally literally years later one doctor listened to me, did a thyroid test and called me with the results to say, "Are you actually able to stand up and get to the phone with this TSH?"

    I can see the tie-in here to patients just lying because they know the doctor is never going to believe them anyway, especially if they've had that experience before.

  • futuresize8
    futuresize8 Posts: 476 Member
    At work, we have to fill out a questionnaire after our biometric screening. This goes straight to the health care provider, but our wellness is incentivized, so our employer gets our scores. It asks questions about smoking, drinking, drug use, fitness, the distances we drive, seatbelt use, missed days of work, family dynamics stress levels, friendships...all kinds of very deep questioning. Not "exactly" a doctor, but could be considered intrusive, if you are a private person. I can see why someone may not be forthcoming if they felt it could be consequential.
  • LowCarb4Me2016
    LowCarb4Me2016 Posts: 575 Member
    I can't say I've ever been asked if I own a firearm.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
    LAWoman72 wrote: »
    In America, the American Medical Association wants doctors to ask clinical patients to disclose information about their ownership of firearms.

    What???

    Why?

    Not a firearms owner, just wondering what the tie-in could possibly be here.



    Generally speaking, any of us can have our reasons for lying to a doctor. That 64% number seems low to me.
  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,365 Member
    LAWoman72 wrote: »
    In America, the American Medical Association wants doctors to ask clinical patients to disclose information about their ownership of firearms.

    What???

    Why?

    Not to turn this into a political post, but the AMA has decided that guns and gun ownership represent a HEALTH hazard and they are trying to get the member doctors to preach the politically correct stance of 'guns are the DEBIL'.

    Neither my GP nor his nurse has asked me this question but if they do, I will simply answer that it is none of their business.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    I just read an article that said 64% of people surveyed admitted that they have lied to (or withheld info from) their doctor. Is it just me, or does this sound like the stupidest thing ever? Why pay a doctor's fee but then not give them honest information? I mean, if you are going to lie, just don't go, right?

    I believe it. We (humans in general) don't want to admit to all our faults. We tend to sugarcoat things.
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,257 Member
    In America, the American Medical Association wants doctors to ask clinical patients to disclose information about their ownership of firearms.

    I think it's easy to get 64% of people lying to their doctor.

    Thank goodness those who promoted this nonsense are no longer in their positions. I crossed this question out when I took intake.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,443 Member
    I can't say I've ever been asked if I own a firearm.

    My son's pediatrician asks every time we go in. I answer truthfully, "yes, I own guns. My husband owns guns. My son has three guns of his own." She's a (very nice) hippie granola, and freaks out, every time. :D
  • 3rdof7sisters
    3rdof7sisters Posts: 486 Member
    I can't say I've ever been asked if I own a firearm.

    Me neither. I don't, but my husband owns guns, and has a permit to carry. They have never asked me at the doctors office. Is it because they think if the gun is in the home you will eventually shoot some one, is that the supposed concern?