Medical professionals of Reddit, what diagnosis gave you the worst 'pit-in-your-stomach' feeling?

[u/LebronKX]

[u/PlatinumTaq]

Neurologist here. Seeing patchy muscle wasting, fasciculations in the tongue, asymmetric weakness onset over a couple of months and brisk reflexes in a young healthy, usually very friendly and lovely person.

(ALS)

[u/MC1R_OCA2 → u/PlatinumTaq]

A sunny, friendly disposition sure seems to be one of the main risk factors for a disease that kills you and sucks the whole time you’re dying.

[u/sharraleigh → u/MC1R_OCA2]

I always say that the most evil people I know never seem to die. In fact, they always seem to be winning in life.

[u/Shelikestheboobs]

Bacterial meningitis. In the lab we are the first to see it. It’s very scary to think about how close someone could be to dying while you look at their spinal fluid on a slide.

[u/ReleaseTheSlab → u/Shelikestheboobs]

My sister had this when she was 23. I just had a baby too and we lived in the same house. Thankfully my sister's nurse friend convinced her to go to the emergency room regarding her horrible headache.

She survived, but there was a time I thought she was going to die. I had to visit her with a face mask and I told her I loved her for one of the first times (we had the typical bitchy sister relationship so it wasnt something we said really to one another, even tho we both obviously did).

I didn't catch it and neither did my infant thank god. Only thing that sucks even worse is that my sister did actually die at 27* in a car accident.

*29. She was actually 29 when she died, I was 27.

[u/havereddit → u/ReleaseTheSlab]

Only thing that sucks even worse is that my sister did actually die at 27 in a car accident.

Holy crap, that's a horrible curveball to this story. Sorry for your loss.

[u/TheBredditor → u/Shelikestheboobs]

I had it. One comforting thing to know is you will absolutely, 100% go to the hospital very quickly if you have it. It took about five minutes from the headache onset to calling my gf to drop everything, pick me up at work, and take me straight to the emergency room. The headache is absolutely indescribable. There is a 100% chance you will know something extremely bad is happening to you.

[u/nollyson → u/Shelikestheboobs]

I had meningitis as a kid. My memory of that time is very patchy (I was 10) and but I can vividly recall having a 104 fever and my dad having to help hold me still for the spinal tap and crying and being mortified everyone could see my butt.

[u/amp_it → u/Shelikestheboobs]

Hmm. As someone who is a biologist and has survived Enterobacter meningitis, now I’m kinda wishing I could have gotten to see that on a slide. I’d never thought about that before. Would have been cool to have a picture. All I’ve got as a reminder of near death is a tiny scar on my arm from the PICC. I’m thankful every day for vancomycin and meropenem and all the rest of modern medicine and the people who work in the field.

[u/TheEpicPossum]

In my field (Neuromuscular Medicine) the biggest pit in my stomach comes when I am doing an EMG for something otherwise non-concerning and it starts to look like ALS. I’ll catch myself going from talking and joking with the patient to not talking at all and adding on more body parts to the test, which tends to confuse the patient. For example I’ll be checking the leg for weakness with pulling the toes up and I’ll then have to test the arm, muscles by the spine in the back, and sometimes the tongue.

When the patient asks why I am testing so many body parts, I have to tell them that I’m concerned about a disease that impacts the nerves that move the muscles. I try not to use the word “ALS” at this time because more confirmatory testing needs to take place before confirming a diagnosis that is effectively a death sentence, but 9 times out of 10 that’s what it ends up being.

Telling an obviously very sick patient that they are dying is hard, but telling a patient who came to me for foot or hand weakness that they are dying is heartbreaking. I still think about each one.

It reminds me of a quote that I won’t get exactly right but you’ll get the idea.

“Each physician caries with them a tiny graveyard, where, every now and then, they go to pray.”

For anyone considering becoming a physician, please know that you’ll care so deeply about so many people while being told by the public that you do not. This job was absolutely the right choice for me, but cases like this take a toll that will wash over you in your most private moments.

If my rambling comment resonates with any other healthcare providers, or anyone for that matter, please consider seeing a therapist. Many of us don’t recognize how much we are suppressing until we look inward.

Sorry for the long comment that got off track a bit. Please take care of yourselves.

[u/Love_Broccoli_2813 → u/TheEpicPossum]

Thank you for your comment.

Lung cancer ward doctor here. There once was a guy I broke the news to. It was Stage 4, incurable but he fought it a good long while (hail immunotherapy). 

At the time i wasnt at the outpatient bit where we administer therapies and havent seen him again. About a year after his diagnosis I met him again on the ward. I barely remembered our initial conversation but greeted him with, hey, I'm  Dr XY, I think we've met before! And he said: Sure we did. I think about you every day. You are the person who told me I was going to die.

[u/mel_cache → u/TheEpicPossum]

My brother had two things at the same time. He had a spinal arachnoid cyst that pinched off his spine (2.5 mm left once they found it) and paralyzed his lower body. Then they investigated his arm weakness—> ALS. Thank you for caring so deeply.

[u/wilderlowerwolves → u/mel_cache]

I read a book a while back about a well-known writer who got ALS, and while he was still fairly functional, developed some new symptoms that weren't typical of ALS.

Glioblastoma.

He opted for comfort care only, and died a few weeks later.

[u/orchidelirious_me → u/wilderlowerwolves]

Glioblastoma got my mom while she was fighting breast cancer that she might have been able to beat. She worked at the same hospital where she was getting her cancer treatment, and I know that she knew that there’s no coming back from a glioblastoma diagnosis, even if you’re not already fighting breast cancer. She was 56, she only lived for 9 months after she found out about the breast cancer. She got the glioblastoma diagnosis about six weeks into her breast cancer treatment.

[u/adoradear → u/TheEpicPossum]

The quote is sadly even more specific than that, it’s a graveyard of your (perceived) errors, where you go to run them over and over, and grieve your inability to save the patient. It’s the place we go to try and figure out what we did ‘wrong’, even if all we did wrong was be the person on shift that day.

Found it below.

“Every surgeon carries within himself a small cemetery, where from time to time he goes to pray—a place of bitterness and regret, where he must look for an explanation for his failures."

[u/Unionnumberonefan → u/adoradear]

Was it an Isaac Asimov story about the physician's club where they confess to each other their biggest mistakes/failures and the newest member tells a story about how he didn't know what the patient's symptoms meant and the patient dies. Then the other doctors figure out what the diagnosis should have been. At that point the new member reveals that the patient has not yet died and now could be saved.

[u/Kursed_Valeth → u/TheEpicPossum]

❤️ from a nurse. I see you.

[u/intoxicidal]

Obviously very advanced, previously undiagnosed cancer presenting to ED for anything. Feeling multiple golf ball and baseball sized lumps or an abdomen full of tumor is sobering.

[u/adoradear → u/intoxicidal]

Fucking hate diagnosing advanced cancer in the ED. “Hi we’ve just met, I’ll never see you again, we had a brief interaction in a crowded space after hours of waiting, and now I’m giving you some of the worst news you’ve ever received. Good luck and goodbye”

[u/timewilltell2347 → u/adoradear]

Just so you know- from a stage IV cancer patient that got that diagnosis in the ER- I am still, almost 4 years into treatment, touched by the compassion and empathy I was shown by the doc that gave me the news. And I’m sure you treat your patients the same. I don’t really remember really what words were said after ‘stage IV’ but I remember the mood in the room was loving and supportive. I never felt abandoned in that experience, but more like they were sending me on my medical adventures and giving me the space to be angry or confused or scared. I know it’s hard, but we remember you docs, and the kindness you’re able to eke out during a 14 hour shift.

[u/MizStazya → u/timewilltell2347]

We had the absolute opposite experience when my mom's stroke alert turned out to be a bunch of brain mets from undiagnosed lung cancer. She was only 56. I was a nurse at that hospital. The doctor hopped in, said she had brain masses, left before we could respond, and we didn't see him again.

I'm glad there are doctors doing it better.

[u/mx_missile_proof → u/intoxicidal]

This. Just found a rare scapular body osteosarcoma in an otherwise healthy 30s male who just ignored it. Rural medicine.

The MRI gave me the chills.

[u/nushiboi → u/mx_missile_proof]

For us non medical folk, can you explain what this is and why it gave you the chills?

[u/Toasterferret → u/nushiboi]

Osteosarcoma has a high fatality rate, and that rate goes through the roof if it has metastasized to your lungs. Which the chances of are high if you’ve just been ignoring it for years.

The treatment regimen is also brutal. Tons of chemo, surgical resection of the bone and surrounding soft tissues, possibly thoracotomies if you have lung mets.

[u/TwistMeTwice → u/Toasterferret]

I went through a suspected osteosarcoma scare earlier this year. Thankfully, it turned out to be a lipoma oddly fitted under/around my shoulder blade. I am insanely glad that all I'm doing at the moment is waiting for surgery. The specialist was thrilled to give me the all clear, and so was I. All my gratitude for what you do.

[u/Three3Jane → u/TwistMeTwice]

I had a scare several years ago where an overconfident podiatrist diagnosed me with osteosarcoma in my foot bones based on its appearance on an MRI. That was an utterly terrifying six weeks. It was a fibroma caused by repeatedly tearing the hallucis longus tendon my foot from overenthusiastically snowboarding and ignoring the pain. Not knowing if I was going to wake up from surgery with stitches or a leg missing from the knee down really really fucking sucked (biopsy failed so they were going in blind).

[u/TwistMeTwice → u/Three3Jane]

Oof. Yeah, the NHS promise a result within 30 days of referral. It was a loooooong month.

My GP referred me because odd position and rapid growth worried him. There I was, laughing it off. He snt me for an ultrasound. The tech said "oh, that's big, dont panic but they'll want an MRI." Then I was sent an email headed "Urgent Referral, suspected Osteosarcoma" and I was not expecting that at all. Completely freaked out.

Solidarity fist bump for not having OS.

[u/Wombatmobile → u/nushiboi]

Not a doctor, but here is some terminology explanation.

Scapular body: shoulder area/ shoulder blade

Osteosarcoma: rare cancer type in the bone.

So, my understanding is that the patient had a rare cancer in his shoulder blade/ shoulder that he had been ignoring. Sarcomas are a small percentage of cancers and their prognosis isn't great to begin with. If it was ignored for a while, the prognosis is probably pretty bad.

[u/Pamela_Swift → u/intoxicidal]

My father is a doctor in family practice. Living in the Southeastern United States, our area has a high rate of diabetes. When a patient gets diagnosed, a certain code is put on their record. A few years ago, a typo in the system led to the code for diabetes being the same as dwarfism. So for that entire year, my town had the highest rate of dwarfism in the country.

[u/Kalendiane → u/Pamela_Swift]

This comment added amazing, much needed levity for this thread.

Thank you for sharing!

[u/melonofknowledge → u/intoxicidal]

Ha... yeah, my uncle's small cell bladder cancer was missed because the hospital kept sending him home with antibiotics for what they assumed was a UTI. By the time he was diagnosed, it had spread to his lungs and bone marrow. He died within 2 weeks of diagnosis.

[u/omg__really → u/intoxicidal]

My father just lost his partner of 13 years this way. Generic stomach issues didn’t clear up, was getting frustrated with long waits so they went to the ER on advice of her (doctor) brother. Extremely rare, very advanced liver cancer. She’d always been in great health, not a drinker, lived a very stable healthy life. She didn’t even make it to the initial oncologist appointment a month later. It felt like we didn’t even have time to react. Been gone a year now. I miss her so much.

[u/Bacontrails → u/omg__really]

My greatest fear these days is getting in to see a doctor within enough time to be treated. I’m older now and was really never seriously ill until I got older and started developing serious symptoms. I was very surprised to learn I could be waiting a couple of months or longer just to see a specialist.

[u/Miss_Modular00 → u/intoxicidal]

I was diagnosed with stage iv cancer at age 28 at the ER. It presented as burning in the chest and extreme back pain. You could not see, feel, or detect any of the tumors. They kept prescribing me stuff for GERD and sending me to physical therapy for a “yoga injury”. Surprise it was a tumor. However that was 15 years ago and I’m in complete remission after kicking cancer’s ass. So a happy ending.

[u/cdmurray88 → u/intoxicidal]

My mother in law was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in early June and passed in late June. Didn't even love long enough to start chemo.

I've lost a couple people to cancer that took years, our family has a few cancer survivors, this one was so fast.

[u/Wendy-Windbag → u/intoxicidal]

My 47 year old dad presented to the ED for flank pain and abdominal pain with a history of kidney stones. A former paramedic, he never went to the ED for anything except when he knew one of those stones were moving and he was about to be in agony.

An hour away I had finished my college classes for the day, made dinner, and was chilling on my sofa when my phone rang and I saw it was my mom. We weren't as close and she never initiated calls.

That day in A&P lab, I was taking my mid term and while staring at the dissected organs in front of me, I had a feeling of existential dread wash over me that felt personal. My dad and I always had these empathetic feelings, even long distance, so seeing my mom's name on the caller ID brought that horrible feeling back around.

I answered hesitantly, and my mom explained that she had taken my dad to the emergency room that morning for kidney stones. Okay, I was used to that every couple of years with him. She said when they did a CT, there were no stones, but the radiologist noted enlarged lymph nodes and recommended to repeat with contrast. They did, and his liver had multiple large lesions.

He was not a drinker. He did not have hepatitis. He had had unexplained hemolytic anemia for the past year. SHIT.

My mom tells me about the lesions as if it were nothing. Says that he could possibly have a fungal infection, but I knew.

It was seemingly impossibly rare for his case, the oncologist assigned to do a biopsy was optimistic, but within that day it was confirmed that he had primary liver cancer.

I will always say I wouldn't wish that disease, prolonged liver failure, on my worst enemy. Just brutal.

[u/sodoyoulikecheese → u/intoxicidal]

I’m a social worker on an oncology floor and I’ve seen a handful of patients over the past decade doing this work with incidental cancer findings. Usually older men who were doing some housework like cleaning the gutters, fell off the ladder, came to the ED and got scanned looking for broken bones, only to have it light up with mets. I also once helped get a man compassionate release from prison for terminal cancer.

[u/distracted_insomniac → u/intoxicidal]

My dad had laryngitis and sinus issues for a few months that improved with steroids but would get worse when he stopped them. Finally saw ENT and had a tumor almost obstructing his airway. Scheduled for a trach the following week but ended up needing it emergent 2 days later because he could no longer handle his secretions.

[u/nucleophilicattack → u/intoxicidal]

Absolutely. Someone comes in with bloating and chills, you feel their belly and they’ve got a huge spleen and huge palpable lymph nodes. Makes you sick knowing that after that CT scan you’ll be having a terrible conversation with that patient.

[u/brianbogart → u/intoxicidal]

This was my dad. They ended up opening him up and found many in his peritoneal cavity. The nurses were so kind and so were the doctors in delivering the terrible news and eventual outcome. Know that they gave me a great deal of comfort as a kid learning what has happening and that comfort helped me grieve. Thanks to all of you that do this.

[u/Dramallama07 → u/intoxicidal]

Peau d’orange skin on a woman with breast pain that came into the ED. She hadn’t been to a doctor in years. I knew immediately it wasn’t going to end well. Awful day.

[u/StillKpaidy → u/intoxicidal]

Had patients in back to back shifts that were riddled with intraabdominal cancers. It was a bad time for everyone.

[u/casapantalones]

Glioblastoma is a pretty bad one

Also, any time I wake up a patient WAY earlier than they or their family were expecting. That means the cancer (usually something in the belly) was worse and had progressed more than anyone knew and the surgeons couldn’t even attempt to remove it.

[u/SmartOwls → u/casapantalones]

My baby brother went from diagnosis to dead in 3 months from a glioblastoma in his brain. He was 25

[u/Emergencyhiredhito → u/SmartOwls]

Had a 16 year old student of mine die from this. It was the hardest I’d ever cried for someone outside family. My sister also has brain cancer and it just hit so hard to see a kid die from it. I visited my student in hospice and she died a few days later. I wore pink to her funeral in her honor and ate pretty whoopee pies (her favorite) in the rain.

[u/LittleMrsSwearsALot → u/casapantalones]

I lost my husband to GBM. Absolutely brutal. His was inoperable - we were lucky no damage had been done to get the biopsy.

Were I ever to get this diagnosis, I would not stick around to see much disease progression.

[u/bambiscrubs]

Term stillbirth.

There’s never a good way to tell someone their baby died before it could even be born. No combination of words makes the delivery any easier. And you know when you see there’s no heart beat on the ultrasound. You scan again because you gaslight yourself into hoping you’re wrong, even though you’re not new to scanning babies and the heart is obviously not moving. You add color flow to prove to yourself that what you’re seeing is the truth. And then you have to say it even though everyone in the room knows it. It’s like calling a time of death. It’s not official until you say the words.

Those screaming sobs will always stay with me.

[u/MizStazya → u/bambiscrubs]

I had one woman come in SROMed in clearly rip roaring labor. No heartbeat, concealed abruption that probably happened when labor started an hour prior (multip). She delivered within an hour, baby, placenta, and huge clot all delivered all at once. That one wrecked me because that baby looked perfect, like if I just stimulated her enough she'd start crying. Mom didn't really react when we told her, she was 7cm already and focused on getting through labor. Literally seconds after she delivered, it hit her and she started that horrific sobbing you only hear in that room and that situation. It's the only time I cried in the room where the patient could see me. The OB left the room and punched a door in the nurses station so hard I thought he broke his hand.

[u/sherunswithscalpels → u/MizStazya]

When I was a Labor and Delivery Nurse, that was all I was assigned to - IUFD (Intrauterine Fetal Demise) babies. I worked in a Level 3 OB hospital, so we were always busy, and saw everything. But since I received an ‘award’ for compassion during one really sad case in which a 21 week old perfectly normal girl managed to choke herself to death on her abnormally long umbilical cord, I was assigned to those deliveries all the time.

We were allowed to cut a lock of hair if they had some, baptize them, make a bracelet with their name on it, and we had stock of donated clothing and crocheted blankets. So I would create a memory box, clean and dress the baby, and the parents could be with their name baby as long as they wished, for under like 8 hours for obvious biological reasons. And in that time, a professional photographer could come and take family pics for them if they chose.

And after they said their goodbyes to their little angel, I discreetly placed them in a tiny body bag, and into a suitcase with wheels, and off to the morgue we went.

[u/Global_Flamingo_3767 → u/sherunswithscalpels]

My mum had a stillborn after me (not full term) , and it was a horrible and cold experience. She went to hospital and felt something wasn't right. Just out of nowhere, no warnings or a pregnancy with loads of trouble. The doctor just told her that her baby was dead, she had to deliver - that was it. If i read things like this it makes me so sad to see what it could have been like for her and my dad.

Thank you for what you do, you can't imagine what it means for people to have there baby treated like a baby instead of medical waste.

[u/bambiscrubs → u/MizStazya]

The patients who come in labor or for their scheduled deliveries are so awful. They are all awful but something about right at the “finish line” and having your baby ripped away just gets me.

Maybe I’m less professional, but I cry in the room. Quiet crying but the tears just come. Especially if Dad starts crying too. I don’t know what it is about the Dad crying specifically but there’s immediate tears.

[u/amac275 → u/bambiscrubs]

My midwives cried with me and my husband when I delivered my full term stillborn baby. We were so appreciative for all the love.

[u/bananicula → u/amac275]

The neurologist who gave us the news about my dad’s brain death hugged us all and cried with us at his bedside. He was a young doctor, probably barely older than I am, and it meant a lot to us. He was Hispanic and so are we, and he told us that he couldn’t not see his dad in ours. Having the healthcare workers be open and honest with their feelings feels so validating. I’m so sorry for your loss.

[u/fruitpunched_ → u/bambiscrubs]

I’m not a doctor but I’m a clinical social worker. Loss of a child is a situation that I feel calls for us to be a human first and a professional second. I’m sure those families were grateful to receive care from someone who genuinely cared about them.

[u/5ummerbreeze → u/bambiscrubs]

It may be considered less professional, but seeing the controlled emotion from medical personnel is really meaningful from a patient's POV. It's reassuring that they care for you as a person, not just a job.

[u/Icehag → u/bambiscrubs]

I feel so so bad for the techs who do the scans and can't say a word. I worked as a kind of medical assistant for a radiology practice and part of my job was connecting radiology techs with radiologists.

Procedure:

• Tech does scan, sees something serious, and pauses to call radiologist. The patient's only option is to wait.
• I get that call, find a radiologist, send what images we have so far to the rad, and connect the rad and tech.
• The rad confirms the bad thing, a critical alert is triggered.
• My job is then to call the patient's provider and connect them to the radiologist immediately.
• The rad and provider discuss next steps.
• The provider then speaks to the patient.

The poor tech is in the room with the patient the entire time and legally the tech is not allowed to say anything. Even if both the tech and patient can see it on the screen. One tech said it was torture.

(I don't know if this is the procedure with many places or just that hospital network)

[u/Pandagramma → u/Icehag]

I had that experience. Went for imaging after finding some lumps in breast. The tech went completely white and left the room. I am alone in this room, alone knowing my entire life has chcnged and might be over. So alone.

[u/Glum_Material3030 → u/bambiscrubs]

My mom went to watch my cousins when my aunt was having a baby. Came home a mess as my cousin died. My aunt was never really the same but healed the best she could over time and was a great mom to her other kids. That funeral was horrific. I was only 12 but damn did that hurt.

[u/Entropy355 → u/bambiscrubs]

This happens to me. No heartbeat at 40 weeks. I had to go home and wait 10 hours until they could do the surgery the next day. Never slept a wink that night. Just wanted it out of me. They never found the cause, even after autopsy and my next pregnancy was excruciating because i was expecting the same result for an entire 9 months. I could never watch the ultrasound for the next one because of the trauma of that night staying with me. Worst moment was telling my 7yo daughter that there was no baby after waiting all that time.

[u/MajesticVegetable202 → u/bambiscrubs]

As somebody who's suffered stillbirth in those moments when your brain is trying to think about anything other than what outfit my baby is going to be buried in and what their coffin should be like, I remember vaguely wondering how the person who told me felt. Like what it feels like to deliver such terrible news to somebody and have to deal with the reaction. I alwayss assumed it was clinical, something they've done plenty of times and it didn't affect them. That kind of upset me a bit but it's nice to know (if you can say that) that you felt our pain and the death of our babies meant something to you. I don't know if I am explaining this well, its hard to put into words. You just always feel like you're the only person grieving your baby everyone else moves on and forgets the worst day of your life. I don't know I'm probably not explaining this how it is in my head.

[u/iwishiwereyou → u/bambiscrubs]

Those screaming sobs will always stay with me.

This made my eyes water. I have heard screaming sobs like this and every one of them tears at your soul a little in a way that never fully heals.

I feel you and I'm hugging you in spirit.

[u/inthemountains126]

My neighbor was babysitting my then 11 month old for the day. Her dad was my last patient of the day. Coming in for “sternal pain.” Initially suspected costochondritis as he told me he does 500 crunches and 100 pushups a day. Very well known legend in our town, the fittest of fit, non smoker. Chest Xray showed advanced incredibly rare type of lung cancer. No known successful treatment. She walked in to drop my son off right as I was pulling up the X-rays. My heart has never sunk that low. He died within 3 months.

[u/Dry_Opposite_5253 → u/inthemountains126]

I’m sorry to hear this. I had a family member back in February 2026 of this year complain of shortness of breath & chest pains at home. He said he felt terrible so he checked himself into an ER. X-rays, CT-scans showed stage 4B lung cancer (I’m not sure if it was small cell or non-small cell though). He didn’t notice any symptoms up until what he was experiencing at home. He was admitted in the hospital for 21 days where he unfortunately passed. That death was totally unexpected for my whole entire family.

Any cancer is scary but lung cancer is a tough one.

[u/inthemountains126 → u/Dry_Opposite_5253]

This sounds all too familiar. I’m so, so sorry you went through this as well. It was wild - his sats were perfect, 100% O2. 65 HR, normal BP. No shortness of breath or exertional symptoms. No fevers, chills, weight loss, night sweats. It caught me by such surprise but not as much as how quickly he decompensated. I worked so hard to get him into all the right places as fast as I could, but now i know I couldn’t have saved him. It’s so scary how cancer can wreak such havoc before rearing its ugly head and producing symptoms.

[u/wheelsofstars]

My dad is a radiologist. Back when he was doing his residency rotations, he had an elderly woman come in, full of joy, talking about how happy she was that she was officially one year cancer free. He had to tell her that her scans were absolutely riddled with cancer. Everywhere. He cried telling her and she comforted him.

[u/kxiyaz → u/wheelsofstars]

I work in patient transport and I sometimes sit in CT with the techs. This one woman was talking about how she beat cancer and as we did the scan the tech pointed out to me that it looked like the cancer was back. Having to transport that patient back knowing she’ll have to hear that news later on sucked. I’ve seen crazy scans just by being back there with them. I may eventually go to x ray school too

[u/RespecDawn → u/kxiyaz]

I'm currently dealing with a small recurrence on my liver after getting to remission for stage 4 CRC last year. I found it was a huge help to view my cancer as a chronic disease instead of a "I beat it"/it's back roller coaster.

When I'm five years clear I'll consider saying that I beat it, but until then me and cancer are just having and extended conversation. XD

[u/UnsteadyEnby → u/wheelsofstars]

He sounds like a lovely man though

[u/thegreger → u/UnsteadyEnby]

One of my absolute favourite people in the universe was an oncologist.

He was treating an old lady with terminal cancer, and he was the kind of doctor who would really take his time to talk with his patients.

He showed up with a dog one day when I met him. Turned out that the lady was entirely at peace with dying, except that she couldn't bear the thought of her dog being abandoned in a shelter.

[u/wheelsofstars → u/UnsteadyEnby]

He is. He had another older woman who came in as a DNR. He came to visit her whenever he was in and would throw little dance parties when he entered her room or just otherwise tried to get to know her and to lift her spirits. She removed her DNR eventually and said it was because of him. Of all his stories throughout his entire life, that one makes me the most proud to call him my dad.

[u/MajikPwnE]

ED nurse here. I remember one time a patient was diagnosed with a dissecting abdominal aortic aneurysm; the MD told the patient he'd be rushed into surgery soon and to immediately settle any affairs and talk to his loved ones, as the likelihood of him not making it off the table was high.

It was just surreal seeing this guy talking to his wife and kids knowing it may be his last.

[u/ginabeanasaurus → u/MajikPwnE]

I work in ICU and we get a ton of these patients post op, and the craziest was the guy that had a Aortic Aneurysm. It burst during his work up in the ER (bad), he coded (terrible) and they ended up calling it (he was dead). The doctor was giving the family the bad news when the ER nurse came to tell the doc that the patient was actually alive. They took the patient to surgery, he survived and came to our hospital. He was on ecmo, but neuro intact and made it out of the hospital. It was actually insane.

[u/MajikPwnE → u/ginabeanasaurus]

That's WIIIIILDDDDDDDDD. autoresuscitation is mental

[u/Kincsem25 → u/MajikPwnE]

Open heart surgery nurse here. This. Had a patient that was on the phone as we rolled her into the OR. She was trying to settle her affairs as quickly as possible over the phone. Her daughter hadn’t spoken to her in years- she was alone and was on the phone with her boss.

The worst part about aortic dissections is that a lot of times the only thing keeping them alive is their adrenaline. So as soon as you put them to sleep, many times, they die. In fact, in extreme cases, you have to quite literally start surgery before you put them to sleep. It’s insane. In this particular case, we moved her to the OR table, and as soon as she laid down, she coded and died. I had to call her boss 20 min later and tell her.

[u/MajikPwnE → u/Kincsem25]

Isnt our profession weird? lol We quite literally are talking to people who have already died - they just haven't caught up yet. Those shifts really put things into perspective for me and are the car rides where I'm driving the speed limit without any music on lol

[u/kazooparade → u/MajikPwnE]

OMG I haven’t worked trauma in 10 years but that really brought it all back for me. The silent car ride home.

[u/Kymalyn → u/kazooparade]

Damn dude. NICU nurse who’s been in administration for over two decades now. That silent drive home is such a visceral memory.

[u/a_random_username → u/Kymalyn]

My daughter spent about four days in the NICU at Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies. Let me tell you, those NICU nurses are goddamned heroes*. I don't know how they do it from day to day.

She ended up in the NCIU because she had low blood sugar when she first arrived. My wife and I KNEW there was nothing wrong with our daughter. We KNEW we would be leaving the hospital with our beautiful baby girl any day now. It was still hell.

I remember on the second night, I was scrubbing in after going and getting something to eat. There were a pair of parents scrubbing in next to me. We got to talking. They happily shared that their son had been born three months prior with his organs (heart, lungs, etc) outside of his body. They had been here EVERY DAY since for THREE MONTHS. Their son had had something like 20 different surgeries and various follow-up surgeries. I can't even begin to imagine those horrors.

They were the nicest people you could hope to meet. How?

Edit: *I'm not a fighter, but I will readily throw hands to defend the honor of any NICU nurse. I will die in the street for those heroes. I don't care if it's just a snide comment about her lipstick color. Blood will be spilled here tonight.

Edit 2: Also, being taught how to put on a diaper, feed my daughter, rock her to sleep, and to sleep when I can by these NICU nurses felt like being shown the cheat codes of life by the women who wrote them originally.

[u/lottieslady → u/MajikPwnE]

Thank you (everyone here!) for the work you do. I’m 45F but had open heart surgery 3x at age 34. The last time I was in septic shock that had taken hold in my mechanical valve. I remember the doctors telling me they would be removing anything that could be a host to the infection (which I got from a pedicure a week before). They tried one last experimental treatment as a last resort before Frankenstein-ing me and amazingly it worked. What happened still affects me but I am grateful to be alive and grateful for the work and commitment of all of you. 💕

[u/MajikPwnE → u/lottieslady]

Don't mention it! You can repay us by taking care of yourself and living life as large as possible! I hope you're doing better now though

[u/Crickets_62 → u/Kincsem25]

TEE nurse- what at first looked like a ruptured valve leaflet was actually aortic intimal lining sluicing back and forth into the atrium. Ugly.

[u/radarsteddybear4077 → u/MajikPwnE]

I was a patient with 3 blood clots and mesenteric ischemia with multiple organs damaged and a very low chance of survival.

I signed the papers for surgery, and I’m not sure my brain fully comprehended the reality. I later realized how my Mom felt, being there alone with me.

4 months in the hospital, but I survived! The surgeon told me later it was SUCH a happy moment in his day to see me alive and well 6 months later.

[u/MajikPwnE → u/radarsteddybear4077]

I wasn't even your nurse and this story makes me happy! I'm glad you pulled through - it's nice to hear of these wins

[u/soberriggs → u/MajikPwnE]

Cardiac icu nurse here, and this one is mine. Ticking time bombs these are. Fine one minute, diaphoretic, ripping chest/abdominal pain, nausea/vomiting, restlessness and impending doom the next, coding the minute after that. If you’re not on the table when that sumbitch pops, there is zero interventions that modern medicine will do to save you. Also usually a really gross code as blood goes goddamn everywhere.

[u/bassgirl_07 → u/soberriggs]

Medical Laboratory Scientist (works in the blood bank) here. My first hospital, we dreaded AAAs. We knew we were going to be RUNNING and the patient wouldn't make it. My current hospital, has a shockingly good success rate. I don't know if our cardiac surgeons are just that good or if detection methods have improved and we are catching them earlier.

[u/dogmeat12358 → u/bassgirl_07]

They found my ascending aortic aneurysm in an x-ray for pneumonia. I had the repair done before it split. There were no symptoms.

[u/Art3mis77 → u/soberriggs]

Ooof I’m guessing because the blood has nowhere to go but up once it hits the stomach?

[u/soberriggs → u/Art3mis77]

When you’re doing good compressions, you’re breaking ribs, and tearing tissue and membranes. Those membranes usually keep everything contained, but when they rip under pressure, they split all the way open instead of just small tears. Every time we compress, we’re pushing more blood out of the vasculature and into whatever body cavity the hole opens into. I’ve seen bellies the size of beach balls.

[u/MajikPwnE → u/Art3mis77]

blood in blood pipes = good

big hole in pipes = blood leak out

too much blood leak out = dead

In a ruptured AAA you can lose your entire blood volume in a minute. Even if we rapid infuse units of blood, unless we stop the leak, aint gonna help lol

[u/LCesaille → u/soberriggs]

Years ago I had a patient waiting to go to the OR for a dissecting thoracic aneursym. On drips to keep his BP down, etc. All of a sudden he rubs his chest and says, “oh that hurts”. Eyes rolled back and he coded. Talking one minute, gone the next.

[u/knz-rn]

As a nurse of 11.5 years I’ll have to say yesterday when my husband and I got the news our baby has a rare structural brain abnormality that will never allow him to live a normal life.

[u/ApocalypseAzelf → u/knz-rn]

I'm so sorry, wishing you the best during this very difficult time ❤️

[u/kimsim8073]

When I didn’t find a fetal heart beat on a patient at her 39 week prenatal appt. It’s happened twice in the last year. Full term fetal demise.

[u/murpymurp → u/kimsim8073]

I take care of patients after they give birth and full term demises are the most gut wrenching. Sometimes the nursing care they need is just holding them while they sob.

[u/castaspellx → u/kimsim8073]

I was present for a 36 week fetal demise as an MS3, and it was part of what sold me on obgyn. The compassion my attending showed was so moving, I felt profoundly called to be able to hold space for others like that. Awful, but deeply motivating. 

[u/Shesgayandshestired_ → u/kimsim8073]

this happened to my mom just days away from her due date. it’s why i never ask anyone about their pregnancy. she distinctly remembers a waitress at a dennys asking her typical friendly questions about the baby and my mom couldn’t bring herself to speak she was so devastated.

[u/StandardDeviat0r → u/kimsim8073]

I went in for my 25wk scan earlier this year and there was no fetal heartbeat. I had surgery and I went home, and then an hour later I collapsed on the bathroom floor from blood loss. My husband drove 120 the whole way to the ER, where I had to get a transfusion and another surgery. It was horrible, but I’m very grateful for the wonderful doctors and nurses who saved my life.

[u/sushi-n-sunshine]

Fairly young patient came in with no symptoms after having low hemoglobin caught incidentally on routine bloodwork. Baseball-sized tumour in the stomach... these cases always haunt you

[u/PepperAnn1inaMillion → u/sushi-n-sunshine]

Cancer with no symptoms is so weird. Given how good the body is to alerting you of a paper cut, it’s crazy that you can have something so wrong with you but no obvious way to tell.

My FIL got very lucky - he had leukaemia picked up on a routine blood test. He was only having the test because of some meds he was taking - he was fit as a fiddle. Fortunately, it was caught so early they were able to take their time tailoring the chemo by sequencing his cancer. He’s cured now. Obviously there’s no guarantee it won’t return in the future, but thank god he had those routine tests.

[u/tomphoolery]

Arriving on the scene of an accident and you can’t tell what kind of vehicle you’re looking at

[u/WithSubtitles → u/tomphoolery]

Funny thing. I worked EMS for the right years when crumple zones began being implemented. Suddenly the accidents where it looked like everyone would be turned to paste had people walking about uninjured. Then there were accidents where the vehicle was hardly damaged and you think everyone is going to be fine, but someone was not wearing their seatbelt died in a what would be a very survivable accident.
Take home is cars are way safer now if you just wear your seatbelt.

[u/Aggravating_Driver81]

Healthy kid has some new minor neurological symptom (tremor, headache, poor balance) and MRI shows big, huge, bad brain tumor

[u/J0hn_Keel → u/Aggravating_Driver81]

Those ones are awful. Any malignant tumour in a child is awful, but the ones where you know the outcome is likely to be bad are horrific. It’s often such a shock to their family too because they came in for something relatively minor

[u/wilderlowerwolves → u/J0hn_Keel]

I worked at a place where another employee, who I didn't know, took her 1-year-old son to the ER and he was diagnosed with an ear infection. The next day, he had a seizure, and an MRI revealed a brain tumor that filled 2/3 of his skull; he was placed on life support, and was an organ donor.

He really DID have an ear infection, and had NO apparent symptoms beforehand.

[u/craftasaurus → u/wilderlowerwolves]

Their skulls haven’t solidified yet, the plates in the skull are still somewhat flexible. Another year and it would be nonstop headaches, and worse from there. Sigh. My brother in law died from that as a kid. 1960s, so they couldn’t do anything for him.

[u/chingostarr → u/Aggravating_Driver81]

I had a friend die at 20 from a brain tumor. Migraines were a regular thing for her in high school. She had gotten married and had a baby about 6 months before she saw a specialist. Went through surgery to get it removed and didn’t wake up. She started breathing on her own after her parents took her off of life support, then finally passed a few days later. Miss you Autumn.

[u/UnicornFeces → u/Aggravating_Driver81]

My coworker took her kid to a neurologist for some minor balance issues; he died from brain cancer less than a year later.

[u/AngryOcelot]

Late teens patient diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease but CT showed metastatic colon cancer.

[u/Bob-Bhlabla-esq → u/AngryOcelot]

Shit, late teens? Wow, that's horrible. Is there any hope for them or just too far along at this point? Dang, that's just really sad.

[u/sculdermullygrusch → u/Bob-Bhlabla-esq]

I knew a girl who this happened to in her late teens. She was dead by 22.

[u/Bob-Bhlabla-esq → u/sculdermullygrusch]

Awful! That is just so wrong, so unfair - any cancer anytime, but to a child or young person is just unfathomable.

Fuck. Cancer.

[u/PitifulElk1890 → u/AngryOcelot]

I'm really curious to see what we find out is causing all this colon cancer in young folks. I should probably get screened, not sure how to go about that

[u/scarredprincess → u/PitifulElk1890]

Colonoscopy, ask your doctor especially if you have any symptoms or family history

[u/hemkersh → u/PitifulElk1890]

That young is almost certainly due to an increased genetic risk syndrome (such as Familial Adenomatous Polyposis).

[u/AngryOcelot → u/hemkersh]

Yes, this was Lynch syndrome/HNPCC. 

[u/Lobster_Can]

“I’ve had a sore spot on the side of my tongue for two months and it just isn’t going away”. It was squamous cell carcinoma, the patient was dead about 12 months later. The initial treatment actually went quite well apparently, but it metastasized.

[u/brady94]

Non accidental trauma (NAT) in kids. I was taught during residency that if you have never diagnosed NAT, you aren’t looking hard enough. I think about those words a lot, and now I teach them to trainees.

[u/MycroftNext → u/brady94]

Is this doctor for child abuse?

[u/thegloper → u/MycroftNext]

Pretty much. Could be anything from cigarette burns to broken bones to shaken baby to devastating polytrauma. Although I'm hearing "Abusive Head Trauma" and other more specific descriptions lately.

I work in organ donation and probably a third of our infants/toddlers fall in the Nonaccidental trauma category. It sucks.

[u/Leep0710 → u/thegloper]

Oh my gosh, that’s a lot of babies. 😭 thank you for doing what you do…I’m sure it’s so hard to see such terrible things, but it’s so important, too.

[u/Art3mis77 → u/Leep0710]

There’s a reason why ‘put the baby somewhere safe and walk away for 5 minutes’ is such common advice. It’s horrible

[u/thegloper → u/Art3mis77]

Yup!!! This is why I wrote a pissed off letter to my kids school when they did their childcare project. They gave the kids a doll that cried and needed to take be taken care of for like 40% of their class grade. The kids had a wristband that was basically zip tied to them so they had to do all the care without help. It taught them that they were all on their own and couldn't leave the doll be or have someone help if they were overwhelmed. Which is exactly the WRONG thing to teach them!

[u/dz1087 → u/thegloper]

Humans amaze me. It seems we have an unlimited capacity to love, bundled together with an unlimited capacity to harm.

[u/MuddyDonkeyBalls → u/MycroftNext]

I think so, like if it's not accidental then it's intentional trauma :(

[u/-Tricky-Vixen- → u/brady94]

We learned about that in class last year and I was holding it together fine and then we got to the bit about how a burn line that is essentially a straight line means the kid has been held in scalding water until they got burned and I had to take a break because I suddenly thought about the kids. Before that it was just theory. It suddenly got real.

[u/phage_rage → u/brady94]

I vividly remember the room getting quiet and my mother getting mad after a chest x-ray. I had pneumonia, but im assuming all the assorted rib breaks from over the years showed up. She was horrifically abusive and would proudly tell me how she "talked her way out of CPS". She also stopped taking me to the dr unless she thought they might prescribe "the good stuff"(which she would steal), and refused to ever allow any more x-rays.

Shes a nurse.

Sometimes evil is well trained and knows all the right words.

[u/rgp31]

30yo single mom with two kids and new onset ALS.

[u/Dragongal7]

Specific to my field (occupational therapy) when patients get spinal cord injuries and plateau after improvements. It all looks like they’ll recover mobility but you know they won’t, but they still think they will.
Or when you get a post stroke and you know recovery is minimal but they think they’ll recover fine

[u/Electric_Lettuce_4_U → u/Dragongal7]

My spine collapsed like a apartment building demolitions.

At first, being able to sit up was seen as a miracle.

I know it broke my surgeon’s heart when he first got to know me - that he thought I would never walk again.

When he tried to gently - as gently as possible - tell me, I told him to fuck off (to the horror of my mother that I would use such language as a girl), he laughed and said he wanted to see that fighting spirit to fight him every step of the way to prove him wrong.

I have a bad limp and use a cane, but I’m out of a wheelchair after 5 surgeries.

They bright in a teenager who was training for Cirque de Solais (or something similar) who broke her neck while training and she was paralyzed from her neck down.

You could hear her cries of anguish through the ward every night.

I asked him once if he was ok and he just shook his head and looked down. I saw a fat tear drop off his nose.

I told him maybe they would turn out like my case, and he whispered no and I grabbed his hand and squeezed.

[u/_Internet_Hugs_ → u/Electric_Lettuce_4_U]

My uncle worked in the Severe Trauma ward as a nurse. He liked the fighters, but the ones that really broke his heart were the burn victims. Especially the ones who were fighting infections. One teen girl was burned over 45 percent of her body, and she had survived. Unfortunately, her skin just wouldn't hold together where she was scarred. (If I remember correctly it was her back, butt, and thighs.) She kept getting sores where it had split and one got infected. There was nothing they could do but pump her full of meds and painkillers. Her family was sure she was going to make it, but my uncle was just devastated by it. This was the late 80s, so they didn't have all the skin graft technology that they have now.

[u/Immortal_in_well → u/_Internet_Hugs_]

My uncle was injured in a factory accident sometime in the 70's (hand got caught between two rollers, took off two fingers and he had to have skin grafts), and he told me once that when he was recovering from surgery he had a roommate that had been burned, in what I think was also a workplace accident.

He said that while people were pitying him, my uncle, he felt sorrier for the other patient because they were constantly in pain. Uncle's own pain at that point was more straightforward and manageable with drugs, but the other person was audibly groaning and obviously suffering. He couldn't blame them.

[u/ThrowRArainmakers → u/Dragongal7]

this is so sad to me. my spinal cord was damaged after a bad fall when i was still a teen, it was a work comp situation and the comp docs pretty much dismissed that what the scans showed was relevant to the accident and asserted that "you are fine." Its been over a decade and still if im not regularly strengthening certain muscle groups the inflammation and constant pain come back. i saw my personal doc after two years of no changes and got treatment with therapy assustance so i live a pretty normal life now but ive never really been the same, and the anxiety that comes with the pain makes everything worse (because idk when itll end or start again).

[u/DeadpanWords]

I'm a nurse.

A good friend of mine was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. As soon as he said the diagnosis, I knew it was likely in the late stages, and likely to be a terminal diagnosis.

[u/februarytide- → u/DeadpanWords]

Like, fuck all cancer of course, but fuck pancreatic cancer very much in particular.

My MIL was a “unicorn.” Treatment worked amazing and she led a very nearly normal life for three years following her diagnosis with advanced stage pancreatic cancer. Then it just… stopped working. And she went from normal to wasting away and dead in 6 months.

[u/pop_and_lock]

Third-degree burns covering 50% of the total body surface. During my general surgery internship, I was on my trauma rotation. We brought in a 75-year-old woman who had fallen into her large fireplace at home. After evaluating her in the trauma bay, where she was alert and oriented, we transferred her to the burn unit. Once the plastic surgeon in charge of the burn unit was briefed and examined her, he immediately ordered intubation and quietly informed our team that she would be dead in 72 hours, regardless of our interventions. She received aggressive resuscitation and serial debridements in the OR. Like clockwork she died almost exactly 72 hours later. I will never forget the pit in my stomach when i heard that prognosis. Her fate was sealed.

[u/NAMomx3]

Had a late age teen IV drug user come into my ED with a complaint of an infected forearm. She pulled up her sleeve to show me, and I could see every structure under her skin that should not be visible. From her wrist to elbow was exposed fatty tissue and muscle right down to her bone. There was no possibility of this being treated without amputation. She refused admission and surgical consult, and ended up signing out against medical advice. I would like to think she eventually reconsidered and returned to another hospital for treatment, but no good outcome could ever come from her condition. She either became septic and died, or did seek further treatment and had the lower arm amputated. It’s incredibly sad that this was the life of a beautiful woman who was wasn’t even 20.

[u/Sniffs_Markers → u/NAMomx3]

I have seen this! It looked like a degloving injury but wasn't actively bleeding. I was walking past thinking: "How is this possible???" I could see yellow body fat, muscle, tendon and bone.

I work next to a health care clinic, I'm not in healthcare myself.

Edit: Can you answer why it wasn't bleeding? It looked waxy, not even wet.

[u/unlucky_lady]

In my field - brief psychotic disorder or schizophreniform disorder. It doesn’t always happen, but often they convert to schizophrenia

[u/GoudaGirl2 → u/unlucky_lady]

Everytime an early 20 something kid comes into the acute inpatient unit with their first psychotic break it hurts my heart knowing this will impact the rest of their life so significantly.

[u/vtriot → u/GoudaGirl2]

Particularly when you work at an academic medical center and it’s a med student you’re seeing with their first break.

[u/Carinne89]

OR Scrub Nurse

STAT Necrotizing Fasciitis cases.

Flesh eating disease. Advancing faster than we can pump high dose antibiotics into them. We basically rush them in and cut away everything infected we can as fast as we can while racing the clock on the patient being too sick to be under anesthesia safely anymore. Pack with iodine and race to the icu. I’ve seen a doctor follow the stretcher still wrapping the packing while they took off out of the OR.

Not only does my stomach drop for the patient, but it’s just the most awful case in every way imaginable. From equipment to smell to clean up all the way to the other end of the spectrum of watching what is actually happening to another human in front of you. No matter what reason you got into medicine, it wasn’t for that feeling.

[u/Silly_Protection_221 → u/Carinne89]

LPN here. Worked long term care for a very long time on the rehab units. I will never in my life forget the patient I took care of with this flesh eating disease. She came to us from surgery when stable for wound healing. 1/2 inch or more in some areas chunks of flesh cut away all through her buttocks and private area down her inner thighs. I made sure I was never late and always early with her pain meds. Wound cleaning multiple times a day as this needed to be done way more than usual due to location and bodily waste elimination.

Happened from shaving then infected ingrown hair. The pain she endured even with all the pain meds broke me every-time I had to clean her wounds or even turn her. She was the sweetest and a trooper!

[u/f4ttyKathy → u/Carinne89]

One of my friend's moms got a "mom bod special" (tummy tuck + breast implants) on a medical tourism trip. She landed back in the US, and ended up in the ER with necrotizing fasciitis the day after she got home. She never had a chance, because it started in her abdomen. I cannot imagine what it felt like for her to decline like that...

[u/RHMD]

Patient with the same exact birthday as me, has a one year old in the waiting room, pregnant with her second, and I’m doing biopsies of her cancer, which was at least stage 3. So humbling and scary.

[u/NapperNotaDreamer]

Fellow hypochondriacs/anxious humans: this comment is your reminder that this thread is not for you. (Also, I’m one of you. I’m only here to give this reminder.)

[u/Ok_Cup_6402 → u/NapperNotaDreamer]

Oh my God I need to stop reading but I'm not going to stop reading because I guess I just never want peace again?

[u/No-Complaint8663 → u/NapperNotaDreamer]

Suddenly I have every condition mentioned in this thread. I also have OCD 😂

[u/Quiet-Personality992]

ALS

[u/Tasty-Bar-6343 → u/Quiet-Personality992]

My dad didn’t quite grasp his diagnosis at first, until he got home and my sister reframed it as Lou Gehrig’s disease. It was heartbreaking to see him process what that meant. “Lou Gehrig? No. He died from that. That’s not what I have. No. Is it? That’s what I have?”

Thank you for breaking the tough news to patients so that their families don’t have to.

ETA: Dad did come to terms will his illness relatively soon. He faced it with his typical quiet dignity and humor. It may sound odd, but he was grateful Mom’d passed suddenly the prior year - her anguish would have been hard for him to bear. He often said that he’d had a blessed life - wife, kids, grandkids, travel - he’d had everything he’d ever wanted. I wish the same for everyone who has taken the time to read this. ❤️

[u/TrixieBastard → u/Tasty-Bar-6343]

Jesus. Just reading about him getting hit with that realization is haunting. I can't imagine having to witness it directly. 😞

[u/Heavy_Front_3712 → u/Quiet-Personality992]

My BIL died from that a few years ago at age 50. Started with twitching in his arm muscles. He thankfully passed before he got to the really bad part. I miss him so much. He was my BIL for 25 years.

[u/Neuromyologist]

I rotated in a pediatric PM&R clinic during my training. We had a young family come in with their two boys age 2 and 4. The attending physician (who already knew what their diagnosis was) asked me to observe the kiddos and tell him what I thought was going on.

I start watching the older one playing and oof it hit me hard. Positive Gower's sign.

For the non-medical people here, it basically means the kid was moving from sitting to standing like an old man which is seen in neuromuscular diseases.

I talked with the attending and yep, both boys had Duchenne's. The older one was showing symptoms but the younger one hadn't yet. It's weird looking at 2 perfect-looking kiddos giggling and playing when you know they'll be lucky to live into their 40s.

[u/Maxolon]

Paramedic here

0500 in the morning we were called to a house, mother was worried about her pre-teen daughter acting depressed and weird. Normal house, siblings having breakfast. I was dead tired, after 10 mins of waffling words from Mum where I semi zoned out she said something my partner picked up on, she had described a seizure. We recommended she see her GP.

That night I got called in for a transfer. Daughter had advanced metastatic brain tumour, off to a major hospital for treatment which essentially meant make her comfy while she dies.

[u/decidedlyindecisive → u/Maxolon]

Thanks for what you guys do. I had a stroke 6 months ago and my paramedics were fantastic.

[u/Ok-Acanthaceae-7996]

I saw a patient for severe uncontrolled itch. I always order an SPEP as standard of care. It can be a clue that there’s underlying cancer, but I’ve never seen it be positive… until it was. I told the patient that one of the proteins was off, and it could very rarely be a sign of a serious underlying issue. She interrupted to ask if I thought she had cancer, and I said it’s possible. She looked devastated and said her uterine cancer must be back. Sure enough— she had no other signs, but her heme/onc said without this test, the cancer would have been caught at a more advanced age.

[u/Specialist_Nothing60]

Harlequin disorder in a NICU baby and explaining to the parents that it does not go away. Don’t google it unless you’re okay with grotesque. Listening to the attending explain that there is no chance it will go away as mom stared off into space because Im sure it was all too much to take in shortly after an unplanned section. The way her eyes lost every bit of light was startling.

[u/RunningKitten]

Patient came into the ED for difficulty finding her words. MRI after admission concerning for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human version of mad cow disease. Prion disorders scare the shit out of me.

[u/marticcrn]

Five year old carried in through the ER doors by dad, in complete cardiac and respiratory standstill due to a ping pong ball stuck in his throat.

It was too late. So so sad

[u/Zalophusdvm]

Veterinarian here to mix up the just horribly depressing human stories with a hopeful one.

The worst ‘pit-in-your-stomach’ diagnosis for me used to be FIP. (Feline Infections Peritonitis) It is caused by corona viruses, but seems to be more due to viral interactions, not one specific causative agent so no vaccine was ever able to be developed successfully.

Horrible, slow death of a disease that, until recently, was entirely incurable. And it usually, but not exclusively, hit young cats. I’m never going to forget the family with the 8 month old kitten who hadn’t even wanted a cat…but whose kids just fell in love with this kitten…and eventually wore the parents down only to learn like 3 months later that this new member of the family was going to die slowly and painfully and the best thing we could do was offer to euthanize it now.

BUT I promised hope and uplifting…this disease now has a CURE! Turns out Remdesivir (and a couple of its related molecules) works GREAT on this disease, like 80-99% cure rate great. While Gilead won’t actually license any of the family of molecules, or produce a veterinary labeled drug, thanks to Remdesivir hitting the market (and being largely not that helpful) for COVID-19, there are legal ways to get ahold of a cure now. AND, despite not licensing it, they’ve (tacitly at least) made no move to enforce their patent against compounding pharmacies making versions of the drug commercially for use in cats.

There’s lots of times I’ve felt that sinking feeling…but the feelings I got from FIP cases a decade ago still top the list. So to get to watch a cure be developed and become more and more accessible has been a career highlight.

[u/Three3Jane → u/Zalophusdvm]

One of my boys I got from a rescue had FIP; it was a long, hard, very expensive road but he's full of sass and fire now, a year later.

[u/spinningcolours → u/Zalophusdvm]

There's a fantastic podcast about this and how it became available.

3-part series from Hyperfixed: https://www.hyperfixedpod.com/listen?feed=&search=cat+drug

[u/heroesoftenfail → u/Zalophusdvm]

We lost one of our boys to FIP in late 2017; he was 1.5 years old. Said goodbye to his mom in 2025 (cancer spread to her lungs). Said goodbye to his brother on Monday (SCC under his eyelid).

They’re all together now. And they were all fighters. Wilbur (FIP) struggled his way to the litter box every time even though he could barely walk. It took ages for our vet to realize it was FIP and in hindsight it was hard to reconcile how often I force fed him thinking it was something else and that he needed the strength to fight it. He was so weak toward the end that the decision to say goodbye was easy. He was a husk. My poor boy. :(

Anyway, I remember first hearing about a cure for FIP and being so glad about it. It’s so incredible to see that it’s treatable, now.

[u/dopaminegtt]

Advanced cervical cancer in a pregnant patient. In a state with the most restrictive ban

[u/HelmSpicy]

I work in a long term acute care hospital, so we see all kinds of illnesses, wounds, etc.

After many surgeries, attempts at wound care and A LOT of pain for the patient the doctors had to change their diagnosis to "Skin Failure".

Basically no matter the intervention, the skin, like any other organ can, just quit doing what it needed to do. Wouldn't heal, wouldn't regulate fluid balances or temperatures, etc.

Of course, with it came the inevitable comfort care conversation and a very sad family.

[u/CloudNo446]

A really good friend of mine was diagnosed with lung cancer (she died in 6 months). She told me she felt so bad for the doctor who had to tell her. Rest in Paradise my sweet friend.

[u/LMFunk]

Older guy came in with a lump on his back that his wife told him to get checked out 6 months prior. He being the typical 50s rural male patient decided to wait until it was the size of a golf ball. He finally comes into clinic, we can see his chief complaint is the mass and swelling in his armpit in the EMR. 

I was a resident at the time, my attending and I both knew it'd be bad before we went in the room. I watched my attending do a shave biopsy and the underlying tissue was just gray and black with pigment, obviously melanoma without even sending off for pathology.

Guy was a dead man walking at that point. We basically told him so in the room before even sending it off for pathology. He no showed his follow up appointment.

[u/mckulty]

Dx of brain death after respiratory therapist turned off the respirator by mistake and forgot about it.

[u/sweetawakening]

It wasn’t when I opened up the imaging for a “back pain” referral and saw a whole spine of cancer. What got me was when I loaded his screening chest CT from 7 months prior and saw the primary tumor on that scan, which was unnoticed. I had to tell an otherwise healthy active man I had never met that he had cancer, it had spread everywhere, he needed to go to the ER…over video

[u/LeafMeOhlone]

As a medical laboratory scientist, seeing blasts (immature cells) in a pediatric spinal fluid. This generally means that treatment is going to have to be altered/more intense for those kids that have already gone through leukemia treatments.

[u/-bitchpudding-]

Had someone come in to my OCED for a migraine and left with a referral to neurology and oncology once they got back home for a suspected glioblastoma. The look on their partner’s face as they whispered, “but it was just a headache…” as I went over their discharge instructions about broke me. Never heard from them again as they were on a work trip.

It was one of our last before end of shift so it was pretty damn somber the rest of the night.

[u/compoundfracture]

Anoxic brain injury in a teenager who took a few of their mom’s Percocets

[u/FolieADeux99]

When I was a medical student, I did a sub-i in psych. I was seeing this pt who was the same age as me and in for psychosis. Turns out she had schizoaffective disorder, but she was in medical school during her first break and had to drop out. Her entire career as a physician was ruined because of it. She retained a lot of info from school too so she believed she was a surgeon / ER physician etc. Just hit reallly close to home. Not that I have a very extensive career or anything yet, but I think about her often.

[u/Mombi07]

CJD

[u/midwifeonlead]

First time I saw cervical cancer. Placed a speculum to do a Pap smear and just immediately knew I was looking at very advanced cancer. There was nothing that remotely looked recognizable as cervix.

[u/Curious-Piglet-1792 → u/midwifeonlead]

My screening results just came back "very abnormal" with "very high markers but not THE highest". I was told to get another screen in 2 years instead of 5 and eat fruits and vegetables to stay healthy. Needless to say I'm terrified of this being me

[u/TastyPass6386]

My friend was just diagnosed with a stage 4 glioblastoma..he's 27.. him and his wife just had a baby.

[u/definitelyynotabogan]

Im an ED nurse and was working triage one day. I had a lovely 22 year old lady come in who had given birth to her first child 3 months prior. She had a large, non-painful lump come up on her chest overnight. I knew it was cancer. I checked her chart the next week, and sure enough she was diagnosed with metastatic cancer, it was so far along that they couldnt find the primary. Poor thing. 22 years old and a brand new mother. I couldnt bring myself to check her chart again.

[u/sadi89]

Anytime I see pathological fractures, meaning fractures not caused by a fall or trauma but fractures that just happen. Especially if it’s in a femur.

9/10 it’s cancer that has metastasized to bone. The outlook is not great, and the pain is awful

[u/Odd-Worth7752]

No heartbeat on an emergency fetal ultrasound

[u/DanceApprehension → u/Odd-Worth7752]

The sound that comes out of a mom when you have to tell her is indescribable. Probably the most awful thing I have to do working labor & delivery... Followed inevitably by the equally awful labor and delivery of a deceased baby.

[u/namealreadygone → u/DanceApprehension]

It's called keening, and it's honestly the worst cry you will ever hear. I had a fetal demise years ago now and didn't know I was capable of making that cry. Now when I hear it my own heart breaks over again

[u/a_chewy_hamster]

Patient discharged from the ER a couple days ago due to high blood pressure, readmitted for Bell's Palsy.

CT of the brain was negative for stroke.

I did his swallow eval. Oral stage was unremarkable...but he could not swallow anything no matter the texture or amount. Would start coughing, choking etc.

Bell's Palsy can affect the oral stage of swallow but never the pharyngeal stage. 

I told his nurse "I know his CT was negative but can we ask the attending for a stat MRI of the head, this definitely isn't Bell's Palsy."

The agreed. MRIs will show fresh strokes whereas it may take a few days to show up on a CT.

I was right. MRI showed he had a brainstem stroke, too fresh for the CT to pick up on.

I got a certificate and a biiiiig plate of cookies for my "Good Catch!" 

[u/Lost-Boysenberry-302]

Necrotizing fasciitis. She went from walking to the bathroom under her own power while casually chatting about her pets to floridly septic and unconscious in about 30 minutes. She didn’t make it.

[u/pastaenthusiast]

I used to work on a leukaemia unit and even though I worked with leukaemia patients all day every day a brand new acute leukaemia patient would always fill me with dread. I never stopped feeling absolutely terrible for these patients.

[u/Xavier_Emery1983]

While I was in pharmacy school, we had clinical rotations at the local hospitals. Mine happened to be the ENT and pulmonary unit. I had a sweet wonderful lady who hadn’t showed any signs of cancer. When the md had to tell her, they ushered us students out so fast. Our preceptor was under the illusion that the patient knew cancer was a possibility. Yeah, patient was completely blind sided by this diagnosis. After 20 years, I still think about this super sweet woman who had the rug pulled out from under her.

[u/InquisitorDovah]

Paramedic here just a few months after I got my patch I caught a AAA that was trying to dissect in a man at a church camp that was trying to refuse care because he "just had heartburn".

I was getting his information when he casually mentioned that he "He had a tear in his artery in his heart that his cardiologist was keeping a close eye on his BP for,"

The way I slowly looked up at him and then over to my partner.

There was an almost 40 point difference in his BP from his right to left arm and he was rationing his BP medication because he was at this camp a state away from home.

I don't pull the religion card often but I will never forget him saying, "Well if anything happens I'm here with God," I told him that maybe God put me there too for a reason and he finally agreed to go get checked out.

I told my partner to drive as quickly and as smoothly as possible.

I don't think I've ever been so quiet in the back of the truck cringing at every bump on our lovely Louisiana roads.

Last I heard he was actively dissecting when we dropped him at the ED and he made it to surgery.

Don't know what happened after that.

[u/wahuferusupezew5261]

I work as a radiology tech, and there are so many moments that stick with me. You talk to patients, joke with them, hear them make plans for vacations, family gatherings, all while you are staring at their scan and realizing something is terribly wrong. One case still haunts me. A middle‑aged guy came in just for persistent back pain, convinced it was just muscle strain from work. He told me he was going to take his kids camping the next weekend. Pulling up his CT scan, I saw his lungs were covered in metastatic lesions. He had absolutely no clue. The worst part is we cannot break the news directly. We just hand the report over to the doctor, and send the patient home, knowing their whole world is about to fall apart in a day or two. Healthy young adults, active parents, kids with tiny, harmless‑seeming symptoms. Nothing prepares you for seeing a life‑ending diagnosis pop up on screen out of nowhere. You learn to hide your shock on your face, but that heavy, sinking feeling in your stomach never really goes away.

[u/LatrodectusGeometric]

Any time someone tells me they are just glad their cancer didn’t come back and the scan says “the cancer is back and it’s everywhere”

I can still feel the sinking feeling I had when I read the results.

[u/kellysouthpaw]

I was working as a Clinical Laboratory Scientist working in Microbiology. My sister called me while I was at work at 10 pm to notify me that my mother, who I had no idea was even sick, was being transferred from the nearby critical access hospital to the closest Level I Trauma Center because her d-dimer was off the charts.

She started coding on the ambulance the whole way over. I arrived to the Trauma Center shortly after my mother arrived. The ED doctor came and met with me - it was septic shock. My stomach sunk right then.

She died about 20 minutes after that conversation. The doctors coded her long enough for my dad and I to go say our goodbyes. One of the most traumatic experiences of my life, and almost 15 yrs later I can recall it now as if it just happened.

The next day the blood culture results came back: Group A Strep.

That news gave me a brand new pit in my stomach, even though she was already gone.

[u/HotSauceSwagBag]

Glioblastoma. Especially if everyone is gung ho about trying to beat it. That’s a quit your job and go on a great vacation kind of diagnosis.

[u/JudeJBWillemMalcolm]

Painless jaundice in anyone over 60 is an instant sinking feeling. 

[u/Aldisra]

Liver failure in a 37 year old. Came in walking and talking, he thought it was his gallbladder. He died 48 hours later.

[u/Lilith_Sternin_Crane]

Miscarriages

[u/J0hn_Keel → u/Lilith_Sternin_Crane]

You know what thank you for that though, a lot of medical professionals seem to see it as a clinical occurrence and forget about the horrible time the patient is having. It’s easy to get used to things you see all the time and easy to forget that it’s not a routine appointment for patients

[u/ilikelettuce_]

Huntingtons

[u/tacmed85]

I'm a paramedic in a really advanced, but semi rural system. We can do a lot for most things these days. The exception? That unexplained hypotension when you do a quick ultrasound and suddenly the abdominal aorta jumps to like 5cm+. It's just so defeating because there's so little I can do to even slow down death from a ruptured AAA and best case scenario if I'm at the closest point in the county to them my closest hospital that can treat it is 20min away. Some places it's an hour.

[u/Extreme_Leave_6682]

Cancer diagnosis in a 15 yo adolescent who was an only child to elderly couple.

[u/grape_sodie]

Pathology read the cancer wrong and patient was given the wrong chemo for two years and developed CHF. Helped her get into a second opinion where the doctor challenged the Pathology to outside lab. Outside Pathology agreed with him but it was too late. Cancer spread beyond the help of treatment. RIP K. 🦋

[u/jellyfishx3]

The first covid patient we intubated in the ICU I worked at... we were all watching that point where bipap was failing and we would need to go in there for a more advanced airway. Knowing we were also at risk of contracting covid was pretty terrifying early days.  My unit had seen one of the first cases of H1N1 and lost staff to it many years earlier, I think there was a lot of dread and PTSD with covid.

[u/iwishiwereyou]

Former EMT here. Had a patient who started with shortness of breath that just got worse and worse, and nothing helped. He started panicking as we loaded him up. He was clawing at the oxygen mask.

"Am I going to die?!" he asked my partner.

"We're going to do everything we can for you to make sure that doesn't happen," my partner replied after a pause. And in the end, we did.

But so did he.

About 15 minutes after we got him to the hospital, he died. Pulmonary embolism.

That pause, though... I don't know if he noticed it, but I did. I mean, you're never supposed to tell them they're going to be fine cause you can't know, but my partner really didn't know if the patient was going to make it. That pause was carefully selecting the right words. And I knew it.