Worst advice given to you by a "professional"

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  • BeautyFromPain
    BeautyFromPain Posts: 4,952 Member
    My cousin was hit by a car last year and was in a coma. After about a week the nurses told us he would never come out of the coma and if he did he'd never be able to walk or talk again.. we may as well pull the plug. After arguing with them for hours, they agreed to give us another month.. he came out of his coma 2 weeks later, and is absolutely fine now.
  • hjhalton
    hjhalton Posts: 2
    Congrats on almost meeting your 20 lb goal!
  • shbretired
    shbretired Posts: 320 Member
    My Trainer told me to lift weights overhead.
    I said my dr said not to lift above the waist, back problems.

    He said come on low weights. (he is supposed to specialize in elder patrons right?)

    Ripped my shoulder cuff.

    He said didn't know I was so delicate. ( i said I am older; older are more delicate)

    He'd been told I hadn't exercised much in ten years.

    Gotta listen to ourselves first.
  • amyy902
    amyy902 Posts: 290 Member
    in recovery from anorexia, had a relapse, mum took me to the dr. my BMI was underweight but not too far under as id gained, and the dr goes well she can loose a little bit if she wants too. looking back at photos of me, i looked like id been in a starvation camp, for her to have said that makes me wonder how she has a docs title still??!?!?!
  • 1Kristine1
    1Kristine1 Posts: 697 Member
    My cousin was hit by a car last year and was in a coma. After about a week the nurses told us he would never come out of the coma and if he did he'd never be able to walk or talk again.. we may as well pull the plug. After arguing with them for hours, they agreed to give us another month.. he came out of his coma 2 weeks later, and is absolutely fine now.
    Wow. Was there any tests done to confirm their "diagnosis" and typically it shouldn't be a nurse that tells the family this..interesting.
  • BeautyFromPain
    BeautyFromPain Posts: 4,952 Member
    My cousin was hit by a car last year and was in a coma. After about a week the nurses told us he would never come out of the coma and if he did he'd never be able to walk or talk again.. we may as well pull the plug. After arguing with them for hours, they agreed to give us another month.. he came out of his coma 2 weeks later, and is absolutely fine now.
    Wow. Was there any tests done to confirm their "diagnosis" and typically it shouldn't be a nurse that tells the family this..interesting.

    There was... not completely sure of the names of the test now though... just thinking back though, what if we hadn't argued with them and they had pulled the plug and then later found out he would have been okay?! :angry:
  • 1Kristine1
    1Kristine1 Posts: 697 Member
    My cousin was hit by a car last year and was in a coma. After about a week the nurses told us he would never come out of the coma and if he did he'd never be able to walk or talk again.. we may as well pull the plug. After arguing with them for hours, they agreed to give us another month.. he came out of his coma 2 weeks later, and is absolutely fine now.
    Wow. Was there any tests done to confirm their "diagnosis" and typically it shouldn't be a nurse that tells the family this..interesting.

    There was... not completely sure of the names of the test now though... just thinking back though, what if we hadn't argued with them and they had pulled the plug and then later found out he would have been okay?! :angry:
    I bet your cousin was glad that he got to live. I always wonder about those situations if they can be absolutely positive that a person won't recover. I understand the logic/science behind the tests, but still. Miracles have happened before.
  • cinder15
    cinder15 Posts: 3
    A trainer at my gym told me that to slim down 15 lbs that I needed to eat whatever I wanted and not worry about calories or portions but just to make sure I was getting plenty of protein. And then add weight lifting. Um, two months later I had gained eight lbs. yes, weight lifted was good but I was bulking when I really wanted to get smaller.

    My *old*physician also told me that to lose 15 lbs I should try the HCG injections and a 500 calorie/day diet. $1,500 later I found another physician.

    What's the worst advice you've ever gotten from someone who should clearly know better???
  • cinder15
    cinder15 Posts: 3
    If it tastes good spit it out.
    A trainer at my gym told me that to slim down 15 lbs that I needed to eat whatever I wanted and not worry about calories or portions but just to make sure I was getting plenty of protein. And then add weight lifting. Um, two months later I had gained eight lbs. yes, weight lifted was good but I was bulking when I really wanted to get smaller.

    My *old*physician also told me that to lose 15 lbs I should try the HCG injections and a 500 calorie/day diet. $1,500 later I found another physician.

    What's the worst advice you've ever gotten from someone who should clearly know better???
  • cinder15
    cinder15 Posts: 3
    If it tastes good spit
  • BeautyFromPain
    BeautyFromPain Posts: 4,952 Member
    My cousin was hit by a car last year and was in a coma. After about a week the nurses told us he would never come out of the coma and if he did he'd never be able to walk or talk again.. we may as well pull the plug. After arguing with them for hours, they agreed to give us another month.. he came out of his coma 2 weeks later, and is absolutely fine now.
    Wow. Was there any tests done to confirm their "diagnosis" and typically it shouldn't be a nurse that tells the family this..interesting.

    There was... not completely sure of the names of the test now though... just thinking back though, what if we hadn't argued with them and they had pulled the plug and then later found out he would have been okay?! :angry:
    I bet your cousin was glad that he got to live. I always wonder about those situations if they can be absolutely positive that a person won't recover. I understand the logic/science behind the tests, but still. Miracles have happened before.
    EXACTLY! Especially since he was only 14 when it happened :/
  • lisabee37
    lisabee37 Posts: 6 Member
    From reading these posts, it just confirms that doctors are not trained in nutrition and weight loss. That is not a topic that is generally covered in medical school. Unless your doctor has a particular interest in that issue, you are likely to get bad advice. Look, even the nutritionists are giving bad advice and they are supposedly "trained". I do believe that if they dont know what they are talking about then they should refrain on giving advice though. But patients beware on asking their primary care doctor for nutritional and weight loss advice
  • jerber160
    jerber160 Posts: 2,607 Member
    avoid rice krispies at all costs. she was so adamant it made me think she was a moron.
  • daterminedfatburnerX
    daterminedfatburnerX Posts: 346 Member
    told me not to do insanity and do low impact workouts because i was eating to much
  • I was told I had stage 5 cancer when I didn't.

    My eyes bugged out of my head when I read that!
    Did you even have cancer at all??
  • SRH7
    SRH7 Posts: 2,037 Member
    I stupidly thought that I would have a better chance of getting fit by switching from my local council gym (£20 a month) to one of the big fancy chains (£50 a month).

    I am a really poor swimmer and they persuaded me to join by saying the fee included adult swimming lessons and personal training advice. I also have a long-standing neck injury and I'm also on prescription drugs for knee and hip problems - all of which I told them when I was signing up and filling in the forms.

    At my induction the next day, they backtracked and said that they didn't do swimming lessons but I was free to use the pool whenever I wanted. My 'personal trainer' then sat down with me to come up with a gym plan, didn't ask me anything about my goals but just looked me up and down and said "So you're here to lose weight then?". Sure, I'm overweight (BMI of 28) but I was absolutely gobsmacked at his bluntness. How rude! My main reason for joining was to get fit. He then drew up a really crap plan which included using weight machines that I knew would put a lot of stress on my knees, crunches without an ab-roller (impossible with my neck injury) and said I should join the high impact aerobics classes (again, a stupid idea with my knee problems). He also couldn't be bothered showing me how to use the equipment properly and made no mention whatsoever of stretching out after exercising. I left in tears, knowing I'd signed a 12-month contract.

    The next day I got a call - they'd re-read my form and said I would need a note from my doctor to say I could exercise before they would let me back in the gym.

    So I went to the gym, asked to see my folder, which included the contract, grabbed it and turned on my heel and ran out the gym!

    If I had followed their advice I could have really exacerbated my injuries. Instead I bought a new pair of hiking boots and now the world is my gym!
  • I've sat here reading all of these with so much awe at the audacity of some of these professionals!

    Here are my experiences:

    - After high school, I got really sick. It kind of happened completely out of the blue...stomach pain, nausea with no vomiting, stomach distention, and general discomfort. If I ate, it made it worse. If I slept, it made it worse. I went to the hospital and doctor NUMEROUS times for help. They would either drug me up (probably thought I was some junkie who wanted a fix), give me all these tests that I've already had numerous times (blood, ultrasound, etc), or tell me to go to a G.I. specialist. I was told it could be acid reflux, Crohn's disease, defective galbladder. When I finally got a colon/endoscopy, all the doc could come up with was irritable bowel syndrome and suggested I see a head doc/take probiotics. I took probiotics for awhile but it made it worse. After a year of pain and anguish, I moved out of my parent's and it eventually died down with occasional stomach upset/digestive issues. Could have all been stress. Later, I read that probiotics may actually upset someone with IBS more due to the overproduction of good or bad bacteria in the digestive track already. Ugh.

    - During one of my stints in the hospital, I was going to be given Dilaudid for the first time. The nurse was giving me a clear shot first and the pain was immeasurable. I was screaming and kicking and tears sprang up in my eyes. She pumped THREE TIMES before she realized she MISSED THE EFFING VEIN. Really, lady? Seriously? I had bruises up and down my arm for a month.

    - I had experienced a strange pain real low in my abdomen one morning. It became a piercing, stabbing pain all at once and I actually doubled over from the pressure. I rushed to the hospital. They did a CT scan and told me I may have to have my appendix taken out. I'm scared and crying and they have to transport me via ambulance to a bigger hospital. They keep me overnight with no food. In the morning, I drink some kind of liquid for better radiation results for a second CT scan. The doctor there told me that I just had an ovarian cyst rupture and gave me some ibuprofen to knock down. An ambulance ride and an overnight stay could have been completely avoided if I had just had that stupid liquid in the FIRST PLACE! Ugh!

    Yep. My distrust of doctors ain't lookin' too pretty.
  • carld256
    carld256 Posts: 855 Member
    Here's one that infuriates me to this day. My dad was feeling really sick and drug out, just incredibly tired all the time. But, he wouldn't go to the doctor, you know the type. When my Mom finally convinced him to go the ****ing Dr. told him it was all in his head. It was actually a rare type of leukemia, and by the time he got sick enough to go to the hospital it was too late.
  • TrailRunner61
    TrailRunner61 Posts: 2,505 Member
    After asking my Dr. if it was ok to eat only 1,000 calories to lose 'baby weight', he told me yes, but you'll lose the weight faster if you only eat 800! I only weighed 125lbs while 9 mths pregnant and probably only weighed about 110 when I asked him that. I ended up anorexic. :mad: :sad:

    I should also add that the same Dr. told me that I had a cancerous tumor on my neck that was more than likely malignant cancer. It ended up being a calcified lymph node! Sadly, I didn't find out for weeks and all I did was worry about my 3 kids not having a mother. That was the last straw.. I never saw him again.
  • laughingdani
    laughingdani Posts: 2,275 Member
    Don't eat dinner. Or if you do consume something at night....only a glass of milk.
  • Debbe2
    Debbe2 Posts: 2,071 Member
    The worst advice given to me was by my past physician who I replaced with my current physician who works with me to understand my body and has given me access to the knowledge to help me accomplish my goals. I originally was told that I don't have to ask questions, just do what I'm telling you which was "lose weight".
  • I have another one!

    I was pretty young and always in relatively great shape, save for a cold here or there. So, I started having symptoms of being unable to pee, bladder clenches, feeling the need to pee all the time (sound familiar?).

    My pediatrician at the time scared the hell out of me by telling me I had a serious problem and that I needed to get over to emergency blood tests right away!

    Turns out I was just having my very first bladder infection and I was overreacting. Ugh! lol

    To his credit, he's a very good pediatrician overall. Got my little brother off steroids and breathing medications for his severe asthma. My niece and nephew see him now. :)
  • I guess it counts that when I was born, I was early and itty bitty. Mom had no pre-natal care, smoked and drank all during pregnancy ( it was the 60's, most women did) Anyway I was having seziures.

    The dr told mom it would go away, there was nothing wrong with me. Mom knew this was because of the fact she had no insurance. They told her the last test was a spinal tap, and it was very expensive, how would she pay.

    She started screaming and yelling down the ward, and refused to leave with me. They did the test.

    I had a raging infection throughout my body and probably would have been dead within the week.

    Thanks Mom!!:flowerforyou:

    Awww. Strangely heartwarming, lol. Thanks mom, indeed! No worries, my grandma "smoked like a chimney pipe" all through her pregnancies. I think my dad turned out pretty alright.
  • zaithyr
    zaithyr Posts: 482 Member
    I have iron deficiency anemia and I have issues absorbing iron so for a while I was getting iron infusions. I was 9 months pregnant and I had borderline pre-ecclampsia and was on bedrest. I went ahead and went to the cancer center to get my iron infusion. I had a splitting headache and wasn't feeling well. The nurse checked my blood pressure before starting and it was 160/105 (which is over the limit set by my OB before I had to go to the hospital). They waited an hour and checked it again and it was still high. I told them it was too high and If it stayed high I needed to call my ob and head to the hospital. The nurser practitioner I had been seeing comes up to me and says that she thinks it's basically all in my head and I'm just nervous about being there (even though I've had plenty of iron infusions before!) and that she wasn't going to let them re-check my blood pressure. As soon as she walked away I started crying and told the nurses I couldn't do it. Left and went to the hospital. Ended up being in the hospital for a couple days. My blood pressure spiked so high they nearly did and emergency c-section. Finally came down with meds.

    Fast forward to a couple months later when I go back to get my iron infusion. They gave me the test dose of the medicine (which they do every time to make sure you don't have a bad reaction). I had a severe adverse reaction that basically felt exactly like a heart attack and the worst back spasms I've ever felt. I started praying because everything was starting to go dark, I couldn't breathe and I literally thought I was dying. They threw all kinds of meds down my iv and after a while it subsided and I was sitting there drugged out of my mind. That same nurse practitioner came up and said "I think she's fine to get the infusion. Her blood oxygen is fine." So they did the infusion! Over the next few days I started having delayed allergic reactions and went to my normal doctor. They were shocked and immediately put me on heavy steroids to stave off the reactions. Come to find out after doing further research that lots of people who had the same reaction I did ended up dead or in the hospital in critical condition.

    I haven't been back to that hematologist's office since!
  • Robin_Bin
    Robin_Bin Posts: 1,046 Member
    ...
    Fast forward to a couple months later when I go back to get my iron infusion. They gave me the test dose of the medicine (which they do every time to make sure you don't have a bad reaction). I had a severe adverse reaction
    ...
    So they did the infusion! ...
    Glad you're not going back! That's amazing... test for a reaction. Get it. Then ignore it!
    There's a reason for protocols like that test.
  • Robin_Bin
    Robin_Bin Posts: 1,046 Member
    Keep in mind the "kind" of "professional"...

    ...in some locations, anyone can call themselves a "trainer" or "nutritionist" -- with absolutely no education or training in how provide those services.

    It may have changed, but some medical programs used to require no training in nutrition.

    And as we all know, there are many people out there who seem unable to say, "I don't know." Of course there are also many people who take their jobs seriously, continuously learning how to do it better and willing to coordinate with someone that has more expertise to solve problems. This applies to all professionals... from a brain surgeon to the florist down the street.
  • Serenstar75
    Serenstar75 Posts: 258 Member
    I weighed 230 lbs, am 5'2" and was in a size 18 -20 jeans. I was curvy, chubby, etc. However, my new physician in MA at that time suggested I get the Lap Band. Um...Yeah I looked at her like she had another head and said, "How about I try the natural way with diet and exercise?" I think she was an idiot. I don't believe in gastric bypass or lap band unless you cannot even remotely move. I think they are unhealthy and dangerous. At the size I was, there was NO way I needed that.
  • wbgolden
    wbgolden Posts: 2,066 Member
    "Give me your money and I will tell you things you could Google for free."

    The honesty was--at least--refreshing.
  • SarahElizabeth416
    SarahElizabeth416 Posts: 52 Member
    I had a physician tell me when I was 8 years old that I would never be allowed to drink any kind of juice again if I wanted to lose weight.
  • MsQt
    MsQt Posts: 793 Member
    "Give me your money and I will tell you things you could Google for free."

    The honesty was--at least--refreshing.

    :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: That's hilarious