It's real, I'm telling you!

By Tenniemo - 20/06/2018 15:00 - United States

Today, while packing up my classroom, I had a sudden stinging pain in my finger. Since I live in Arizona, my first thought was a black widow or scorpion, but the ER doctor didn't believe me and said it's nothing. Tell that to my tingling swollen arm. It’s been 4 hours. FML
I agree, your life sucks 3 787
You deserved it 208

Same thing different taste

Top comments

Update - my students found the scorpion today. My finger is still numb three days later! Little guy packed quite a punch. Nobody else was hurt. :)

This is a malpractice suit with real merit. That doctor needs to pay for his incompetence!

Comments

Update - my students found the scorpion today. My finger is still numb three days later! Little guy packed quite a punch. Nobody else was hurt. :)

StagGT 13

And you didn't lose your arm. Bonus!

Bring stinger boy to the ER, maybe the doc will believe you then.

Good to hear you found the scorpion. The doctor wouldn’t have been able to do much anyway unless you had the scorpion with you in your first visit. If the doctor just gave you random anti-venom and it was wrong, the cure would have killed you rather than the sting you originally had. That’s why it’s suggested you try to catch the spider/insect that bit you so the doctor can know exactly what to give the patient, though if you live in Arizona I doubt I have to tell you that. Now you should be able to return to the ER and get the correct anti-venom and prove your first doctor wrong.

Pack it up and show the doc exactly what he failed to bother checking for. Depending on the scorpion you could have been in a shit load of unnecessary pain. Pictures please? I'm curious about the scorpion that got you.

So sorry I didn’t get back to you! It was a little light brown scorpion. Almost tan in color. About 2-3 inches long.

This is a malpractice suit with real merit. That doctor needs to pay for his incompetence!

Go back to the ER and show the idiot doctor your swollen arm.

No one else was hurt... except the scorpion. Stomp it like it's on fire

Lobby_Bee 17

If it was a black widow, you wouldn't make it to the doctor. Your doctor is correct.

It's not a scorpion, either, because tingling arms are not a symptom. If you get stung by a Scorpion, the result is being "rocked like a hurricane."

UOFreak07 8

To be fair, the commercials only say to go to the doctor when the swelling lasts 4 hours.

As someone who dabbles in poisons as a hobby (yes I'm aware I have weird hobbies) without knowing what stung you it's definitely not a good idea to randomly guess no matter how well the symptoms may fit with a particular type of sting/bite. Without knowing exactly what bit you there's a good chance of killing the patient at best (permanently damaging the patient at worst). What I'm more pissed at is the fact that they seemed to completely dismiss you. If there is a reaction to a bite in a location known to have venomous/poisonous animals then have them sit aside for observation for a bit. There's plenty of creatures and plants that present mild symptoms at first before digging in and really rocking your body in all the wrong ways. They may not have been able to administer an anti-venom even if new symptoms presented but they may have been able to do things that would lessen the stress on your body and made it a hell of a lot more comfortable to ride out. There are ways to reduce swelling without the use of chemicals that may or may not have interacted badly. And while not ideal I do believe that the patients comfort should be seen to as much as is possible (some means of saving lives are far from comfortable but are certainly better then the alternative). What if you had gotten stung by something ordinarily harmless but you just happened to have an allergic reaction to something you never knew you were allergic to or hadn't had a reaction to previously? What if the swelling had occurred in such a way as to constrict blood flow to that particular limb? If they had taken you seriously and at least bothered with a little observation for an hour or so then they would have noticed the swelling and gotten ahead of the problem. Their supposed to be a doctor not a pharmacist. Their job isn't to push pills but to treat the patient to the best of their abilities. Being brushed off pisses me off.