If you're sick or injured, you should go see a doctor. That should be a given, but some people still won't go to the doctor, not when they can just self-medicate.
The only problem is, some of the self-medicators out there really don't know what they're doing. As the medical professionals of Reddit have shared, people will stick all sorts of things in their bodies before admitting they need a doctor.
"Upon arrival we ask what ear the bug crawled into, he says his right ear, but keeps complaining about burning coming from his left ear."
"Upon further questioning we come to find out she sprayed insecticide into his left ear thinking it would 'flush' the insect out of his right ear. I had to explain to her that our ear canals are separated by our brain."
"No matter what I did I couldn't get them out and was starting to get a little desperate. I decided to use a vacuum cleaner (not a small one, an actual household vacuum cleaner) on its lowest setting to suck them out."
"The hospital still wouldn't take out my tonsils.
"I was not a smart child."
As someone who's had tonsil stones, I get it. I wouldn't try to get rid of them with a vacuum, but I get it.
"Paramedics get on scene... and mom is squeezing a lemon while rubbing it all over the baby's forehead because it's 'supposed to keep the fever down.' Mom was completely at a loss as to why the baby wouldn't stop crying either."
The mom should rub a lemon on her face, and then she'd probably get why her baby kept crying.
The user elaborated by saying, "They eventually rotted. He still had to go to a dentist."
Look, I know as well as anyone that the dentist can be expensive. But they're going to fix your teeth/mouth better than you ever could on your own.
"Yes he came in for conjunctivitis cause bacteria were having a party on his corneas."
Honey might have antibacterial properties, but that doesn't mean you should stick it in your eyes.
"Tells us he knew he had an infection and so ate a pound and a half of raw steak to get the antibiotics that were given to the cow."
Another user added, "So not only did she believe that sound waves could kill cells, she also believed that they would magically target the cancer and leave everything else alone? Brilliant."
"Patient began to tell me how they were pretty sure it was Uterine torsion as they researched it online and they were 110% sure this was the issue.
"Sorry to tell you, Sir, I am 100% sure you do not have a uterus."
"He thought that the best way was to self-anesthetize with alcohol, lubricate the area, and cauterize with a curling iron..."
"We had to remove about a foot of GI tract due to burnt, scarred tissue. The worst part was that didn't even stop the bleeding, which originated farther up the GI tract than the iron would ever reach."
Absolutely horrifying.
"Turned out he had a growth developing on his head for the past few weeks (which turned out to be a tumour). He had been treating it with RoundUp (a potent weed killer) because 'that [expletive] kills everything...'"
"The burns got horribly infected. He knew he needed to drain them. He pulled the toothpick out of his mouth and drove it through the wounds. A USED toothpick. He ended up in the hospital of course."
"The first thing I noticed was that there was no detectable odor. Normally the smell is quite pronounced. I wondered out loud why there was no smell.
"That's when the patient spoke up. She said, 'Bleach. I've been soaking it in bleach every night.'"
It's amazing how many people... think you can just put bleach on/in your body.
"Turns out, he had read about Cobroxin, a topical treatment for pain made from cobra venom, and decided it would be more effective to simply let a cobra bite him. I have no idea how he got hold of a cobra."
"We checked her x-rays and both her radius and ulna were severely displaced, almost breaking the skin on her arm. She had waited THREE WEEKS before getting it checked out.
"She was damn lucky that she didn't have any serious complications. Alcohol can be one hell of a painkiller."
"Got there and the scene is a [expletive] show, people screaming and throwing things around. We immediately notice the mother holding down a younger girl and about to pour something in her eyes.
"Nail. Polish. Remover."
So many questions, and yet I don't want a single answer.
"I had a lady that thought her hip had simply popped out and had her kid pull on her leg to try and pop it back in."
"She waited 3 months before coming to the hospital. She only came in after she couldn't feel her foot anymore and her leg was swelling up from a deep vein thrombosis."
