have a friend who was an A&E nurse ... she told us the strangest stories of odd items in orifices! What amazed her was how patients tried to explain away how a light bulb ended up in their backside!
NHS U turn on trans terminology
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SubscribeDr Rosemary Leonard, GP and BBC Breakfast's resident doctor, recalls the weird and...well, mainly just weird encounters of a medical professional over the years. From Buzz Lightyear to Creme Eggs - there's a place for both, and that's not where they ended up in these instances.
We had a big family supper last night, and as both my younger son and my niece are clinical medical students, the conversation, as usual, turned to matters of health and wellbeing. Only this time, rather than discussing the merits or otherwise of new treatments, we ended up in the realm of the extraordinary, and how real life often is stranger than fact.
It was my niece who started it. She recalled how she had recently seen a bizarre case involving the toy Buzz Lightyear. Apparently a man had placed - for reasons best known to himself - one of these inside his back passage. The battery was still operating, so the toy's arms flailed outwards, which meant it was impossible to remove. During the major operation that followed (which involved cutting open his abdomen and his bowel) quite understandably the medical staff found it difficult to keep a straight face as a voice kept being heard, not from the patient's mouth, but from the other end of his body.
It reminded me of a similar case involving a creme egg, which had been placed by an amorous boyfriend in his girlfriend’s vagina. They rang me in the surgery in some distress when the chocolate, rather inevitably inside a body with a temperature of 37 degrees, began to melt, and they were unable to retrieve it. I think they expected me to undertake a rather unusual Easter egg hunt, and they weren’t too impressed when I suggested the solution was merely to take a long, hot bath.
The medical staff found it difficult to keep a straight face as a voice kept being heard, not from the patient's mouth, but from the other end of his body.
There have also been many times when I have felt I have been working more like a detective than a doctor.
Every GP sees patients with sexually transmitted diseases on a fairly regular basis, but having three young women come into my surgery within a matter of weeks, all pregnant, and all with gonorrhoea, was highly unusual, especially as the father of the child in each case had recently proposed. As is usual, the source of the infection had to be traced, and when eventually a single culprit was found, it was extremely tempting to ask him if he knew that polygamy was against the law.
Then there are the patients who never let on that they are taking other medicines from abroad. Though it's understandable to foreigners to think that medicines from their home are trustworthy, medical practices in far flung lands, especially the Far East, can be very different to those in the UK. I have had more than one case where abnormal blood test results have been found to be due to a foreign "remedy" and also had instances where the puzzling failure of my prescribed medicine to have any effect was due to the patient simultaneously using a foreign medicine with an opposite action.
If any of these story lines appeared in a soap opera, I suspect there would be cries of disbelief, but after 25 years as a GP, I now expect the unexpected. It is one of the many joys of my job.
Rosemary's book, Doctor's Notes.
By Dr Rosemary Leonard
Twitter: @DrRosemaryL
have a friend who was an A&E nurse ... she told us the strangest stories of odd items in orifices! What amazed her was how patients tried to explain away how a light bulb ended up in their backside!
Yes, it's strange how many patients who ended up in A&E with various objects stuck up their back passage claim to have 'accidentally sat on' them!
Ana you're right about that - people who think that their "explanation" is totally unique, when often you've heard it 3 times that week or day or whatever.
My experience of that stems from working in the criminal justice system in South Africa many years ago. People would come in with such far fetched explanations for their misdemeanors, and tell the story as if they were the only people in the Universe who could possible have experienced that. Meanwhile, you'd have heard it or a variation of the story, umpteen times already.
It's always fascinating to observe the "face of humanity".
The face? Sounds more fundamental!
not so much the 'face' grannyknot
Hehe
I would never have thought so many grans would be so smugly politically correct as to comment so negatively on Dr Rose's amusing anecdotes. As a retired teacher I could tell a few myself. How about it, retired teachers?
Thinking about Hippocrates wasn't there a Greek punishment having a radish pushed up the fundament.
Jaxie I don't think it's being politically correct to question the professionalism of a doctor who recounts these anecdotes on a public forum.
People often feel embarrassment at some of the things they have to see the doctor about, and the thought that their embarrassment might be used in a book on sale to the general public, or in a forum like this might make them even more reluctant to seek the help they need.
Unfortunately with programmes like Embarrassing Bodies now being screened, the lines of professionalism are becoming increasingly blurred.
I am not sure what sort of amusing teaching anecdotes you are thinking of airing on here, but I do hope you aren't going to be exploiting innocent children.
Politically correct? bah humbug! if there is more so called p c there will be
'no comment' soon. Those who want us to think they are better than......
Dr Rose's amusing anecdotes are a delight.
Ask the army medics for their anecdotes. Ha ha.........
* Jaxie*, buffersmoll. We not only have a difference in opinions but it would seem also, sense of humour and expressing our opinion to another poster without being rude.
Smugly politically correct!
Those who think they are better than......!
For clarification
You seem new to the forum, jaxie and buffersmoll I've not seen your names before.
Have you posted on any other threads?
Jaxie I'm confused at your comment .... would never have thought so many grans would be so smugly politically correct as those of us who were not amused are clearly in the minority.
buffersmoll yes I'm sure army medics would have many amusing anecdotes ..... soldiers' blown to pieces, ha ha.
Some events are not for public amusement.
A lot of people find it amusing that people who have done stupid things have got their come-uppance - see the Darwin Awards but those who don't find it funny are not being PC. They are reacting instinctively and saying how they feel.
I can't find any other posts by Jaxie (or by buffersmoll) so I suspect that he/she is either a member who has never found that any post so far has affected him/her strongly enough to trigger a post, or someone who found the stories so hysterically funny that they just had to join and post to defend the book from someone who was not amused. Or possible to abject to all people over 50 as too PC and straightlaced.
Riverwalk! Who was laughing at soldiers being blown to pieces?!
I am sure soldiers, like many other young blokes, get up to all sorts. Not sure how keen I am to hear about them though.
When I'm channel hopping I often end up watching Embarrassing Bodies [or Flog It]. I wish there were programmes like that when I was younger and found most trips to the doctor terribly embarrassing [used my son as an excuse to ask about piles once,only to find my son actually did have an infection and needed antibiotics ]; I'd hope that they give people the courage to see a doctor about an awkward medical condition. But what I don't understand is why sometimes people go on the programme that have been treated by the NHS and are still suffering, but, once they see Dr Pixie their ongoing problem is cured. Is a lot of it down to money, I wonder?
I found the anecdotes slightly amusing, I must say, but also rather horrifyingly so; not because a doctor said it [after all, as somebody has already mentioned, there are no naming of names] but because how stupid and disgusting the man was to do that in the first place.Yuk! From reading the posts, it seems as if this is not a rare occurrance, although it may well be a first with a Buzz Lightyear.What weird people there are in the world.
riverwalk and elegran ; rather strong words there from you to perhaps 2 new members of the forum?Enough to put them off from further comments I should think.
One of my alternatives was that they are members who have been around a while but never posted before. If so, they will be post again. Neither of them seems like a fragile bloom who will be put off posting as easily as you imagine.
And, on a thread about the strange things that some people decide to stick up their jaxies, the choice of Jaxie as a username does seem to show a pretty robust sense of humour. I don't think he/she will wilt away.
Elegran I am indebted to you - I have learned a new word today. But it seems that I am not the only one ignorant of the meaning of the word 'jaxie'
hollywoodlife.com/2014/02/07/mackenzie-mckee-gives-birth-baby-girl-jaxie-taylor-teen-mom-3/
Both have posted previously.
I thought you would have come across jaxie jane it is in common usage here in the north east. On second thoughts your speciality was the other end, so maybe not
If you are daft enough to stick a Buzz Lightyear up your bottom then you don't deserve anyone's discretion - poor Buzz!
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