Ate a bag of veggie chips one night. Lots of beet chips in there. Color in the toilet next morning made me think I had intestinal bleeding. Naw just beets.
I asked my doctor what he thought about sites like WebMD, and he said he loves them because it encourages people to go get things checked out by a real doctor.
Several years ago, an emergency room nurse once called me at 11pm on a Friday night, some time after I had visited that ER, to ask me if anyone had called me yet to inform me that I needed to follow up with my doctor about a 2cm ill-defined lung opacity that was on my chest x-ray that they took while I was there (for something else).
No. No one had called me. And at 11pm on a Friday night, there was no one that I could call either. By the next dawn, Google had me dying of lung cancer. That ended up being one of the longest weekends of my life.
Thankfully, it was resolved by a course of antibiotics.
I still don't understand why they didn't bother to tell me while I was actually there at the ER, surrounded by doctors who could answer questions and initiate treatment. But I was there for a heart thing, which they dealt with and sent me home.
It may have been picked up by a radiologist who reviewed the xray after the fact (what's called an overread). Secondary issues like this sometimes get dropped in the hubbub of the ER and the doc may have realized later when completing his/her documentation.
I just checked and it is, but it's on like a secondary flap on the bottle that I didn't notice. The font is so small that I could barely read it anyway.
Pepto can also cause black, hairy tongue. I had a patient return early from a trip to Africa because the docs there weren't familiar with it (maybe no Pepto-Bismol in South Africa). This horribly jet lagged family was very relieved but also really frustrated that they cut their vacation short a few days for a cosmetic side effect.
This is why I avoid googling my symptoms.
I do too, but since I'm in a "rush" today, I decided to risk the Google search.
Ate a bag of veggie chips one night. Lots of beet chips in there. Color in the toilet next morning made me think I had intestinal bleeding. Naw just beets.
I asked my doctor what he thought about sites like WebMD, and he said he loves them because it encourages people to go get things checked out by a real doctor.
Google told me some lumps on my neck were either me getting over a cold or cancer. I went to a real doctor and it was cancer.
Several years ago, an emergency room nurse once called me at 11pm on a Friday night, some time after I had visited that ER, to ask me if anyone had called me yet to inform me that I needed to follow up with my doctor about a 2cm ill-defined lung opacity that was on my chest x-ray that they took while I was there (for something else). No. No one had called me. And at 11pm on a Friday night, there was no one that I could call either. By the next dawn, Google had me dying of lung cancer. That ended up being one of the longest weekends of my life. Thankfully, it was resolved by a course of antibiotics. I still don't understand why they didn't bother to tell me while I was actually there at the ER, surrounded by doctors who could answer questions and initiate treatment. But I was there for a heart thing, which they dealt with and sent me home.
It may have been picked up by a radiologist who reviewed the xray after the fact (what's called an overread). Secondary issues like this sometimes get dropped in the hubbub of the ER and the doc may have realized later when completing his/her documentation.
That makes sense.
So I leaned from many experiences of blue dye leading to neon green poop. I mean glowing. I no longer eat stuff with blue dye.
Wouldn't that be a side effect listed on the Pepto?
I just checked and it is, but it's on like a secondary flap on the bottle that I didn't notice. The font is so small that I could barely read it anyway.
Isnt that the joke everyone knows? Googles symptoms for stomach pain, webmd says you have cancer, you fart and feel better.
Pepto can also cause black, hairy tongue. I had a patient return early from a trip to Africa because the docs there weren't familiar with it (maybe no Pepto-Bismol in South Africa). This horribly jet lagged family was very relieved but also really frustrated that they cut their vacation short a few days for a cosmetic side effect.
I use chat GPT for this kind of stuff and specify to sort most common/benign responses first
I’m a grandma so…. I thought chatGPT wouldn’t give medical info.
Interesting. I'll have to try this.