Have you ever been G.O.M.E.R.ed?

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Have you ever been G.O.M.E.R.ed?

In any medical institution, have you ever be told “There is nothing wrong with you. You are just a hypochondriac."? Since AS often has some effect on the control of facial muscles and posture, they do not have to be spoon-fed with a label for this to happen.

It happened to me more than once. In the most significant case, it turned out that what wasn't wrong with me was appendicitis.

Two years arguing with my drs over a sinus infection that they insisted was an Anxiety headache. I told them it was my sinuses!

I once got "G.O.M.E.R.ed".

It was back when I had pyles!

Lol!

I'm sorry.

I'll just go back to watching Sixties' TV.

I don't know what being G.O.M.E.Red is

My problem with doctors is that I don't express myself well, and understate rather than exaggerate, so I get fobbed off a lot.

Not exactly "there's nothing wrong with you", but a few doctors have said that to me about my tongue. I've been having a strange sensation and taste there for a few years but the tongue looks normal. I know something is wrong and the possible cause of it but the doctors don't seem to know what I'm talking about because the tongue's appearance is perfectly normal.

It's an acronym:
Get Out of My Emergency Room

It's a reference to doctors trying to shoo people away by saying there is nothing wrong with them. I saw it in the novel "House of God" about medical residents. According to the author, the residents called people with no serious problems GOMERs and thought they were hypochondriacs. I don't know if this was actual usage among residents or just something the author made up for the novel.

Thanks, Janissy

I was seen by a GP in London in the 1970s who thought I was hypochondriacal.

He missed my asthma and autism. He was quite fond of a drink.

He also misdiagnosed my mum's appendicitis resulting in a very bad, nearly fatal, septic mess. And he missed the huge problem in her cranium that almost killed her some years later--with a little help from the radiology staff at the Royal Free, who mixed up her film with another patient's. They probably did unnecessary emergency neurosurgery on that poor soul, and left my mum with ever increasing intracranial pressure and resulting blood clots in torn cerebral tissues.

So, yes, the medicos sometimes make mistakes--some more than others. Fortunately I did get the correct diagnoses eventually. I am thinking a non-autistic person would probably have gotten treatment for the asthma sooner, but who knows? I certainly was not good at advocating for my own care until things got very bad.

Sha-ZA-yam!

Yes, and for complications relating to kidneystones. In fact, twice that same summer. Once, while having bladder spasms before having them removed. Then, after the surgery, I started a hemoraghing(sic) and the same ER doc sent me home, with no pain meds or muscle relaxants.
Guess I had been there too often ( it was my third summer where I had this complication from my Crohn's disease) but my, how understanding they were not.

Sincerely,
Matthew

I get "GOMERed" all of the time.

I have Kaiser-Permanente.

This has happened to me many times.

Most of the problems I was called a hypochondriac for took years and years to finally identify, Some I am still working on, like my TMJ problem which has badly effected my nervous system, and messes up my hearing, vision and balance, causes what I call imitation allergies (a sensation like having allergies in the sinuses), and causes loads of pain. My autism also caused people to call me a hypochondriac and call me crazy many times. My autism has real bad sensory issues kind of like what Temple Grandin has. I wasn't diagnosed with autism until a few months ago, and have been called a hypochondriac or a loony tunes nutcase repeatedly all thru my life because of my sensory issues.

I get so tired of being called a hypochondriac.

It is being used in the medical community, although they think the pts. don't know about it.

When I had food poisoning one time. I was in the worst stomach/gut pain of my life, but I made the mistake of mentioning that first. I also don't show pain normally to NT eyes. So, I think they decided I was a drug seeker. They thought it would be funny to give me a tartar sauce-sized cup and ask for a stool sample. I suppose I should have given them that sample (overflowing their little cup & on the floor) rather than leaving.

I wonder if I'll die someday because I 'look' like I'm having a heart attack or something. I recently read about a Native American guy was was left to wait 34 hours in an ER. He was found dead (in the waiting room). The nurse didn't check on him because she assumed that he was drunk. Why do people fail like that? If I were dealing with a life & death situation I'd try to be as careful and fact-based in my decisions as possible.

30 years ago a doc told me to stop smoking to cure a slipped disc - he misdiagnosed chronic bronchitis, and walked away from me while I was telling him there was something wrong with my spine.

15 years ago a vascular consultant viewed me as a time waster. When i finally had a bypass op to alleviate it recently i was told i was lucky to keep my leg.

10 years ago I told a psychiatrist i thought i might be bi polar. His test for bi polar involved melodramatically looking me up and down, sneering, and saying: "you're not bi polar." I think he was right, but his diagnostic methodology left something to be desired.

3 major inflammatory conditions in last 5 years - one of which put me in plaster. These i reckon were psychosomatic; a sick mind finding an outlet by making the body sick.

My experience is that hypochondria is a potentially serious illness and should be treated with respect.

One of my inflammatory conditions precisely mimicked an impending stroke. They still made me wait 3 hours in A&E (E.R). When someone finally deigned to see me he pushed in precisely the right place to test for inflammotory condition. Clever man...

The pain was excrutiating - I instinctively went to thump him, and he was fast enough to grab my wrist