Sometimes what patients or their families consider “normal” can catch healthcare professionals completely off guard. Take the case of today’s Original Poster (OP), whose patient’s family believed their child’s prolonged sleeping after being in anesthesia was normal, not knowing there was something deeper at play.

The OP then prompted netizens to share their most surprising experiences with patients insisting that unusual or alarming symptoms were perfectly normal. The stories range from shocking medical reactions to situations that left staff questioning how certain behaviors were ever considered ordinary. Together, they provide a fascinating look at the moments when “normal” is anything but.

More info: Reddit

Read More: 32 Moments Patients Swore Everything Was Fine, But Doctors Instantly Knew Something Wasn’t Right

#1

Had a young lady brought in for new onset hallucinations while at a friend’s house and parents were *furious* that we wanted to admit her to the inpatient psychiatric unit. They said she’d just started menstruating and “that’s just what happens when girls hit puberty”. Our MD was quick to point out that hallucinations were not, in fact, a normal part of puberty…

Turns out, there was a family history of acute intermittent porphyria, which can in fact cause hallucinations with hormonal changes! So, in their family, hallucinations were a normal part of puberty!

Image credits: nursejacqueline

#2

RN here- I was discussing morning care with an elderly patient and offered to get her a toothbrush and toothpaste. Sure thing. Then she very casually remarked that “even after all these years, she still hasn’t gotten used to the itchy numbness and moderate lips and tongue swelling that happens (and has been happening her whole life) whenever she brushes her teeth.”

I kinda thought she was being a little dramatic about the peppermint taste of the toothpaste until she straight up had angioedema before she even finished brushing. She had great dental hygiene though. It’s [annoying] having to silently deal with something you don’t even know is a thing. We called her husband and sent him out to buy her some natural toothpaste and all was right again on the unit.

Image credits: pleplaueee

#3

Someone complained of shoulder pain, but didnt mention anywhere on the paper work they LOST THEIR ARM and had it reattached in a farming accident 20 years ago. I saw the scar and that triggered additional questions from me that prompted him to mention this casually.

Image credits: PhD_Pwnology

#4

Mine was from my daughter. She thought it was normal to get dizzy and grey out for a few seconds when standing. After puberty, she started completely passing out and falling, and commented that it was weird because she usually just blacks out. Um… what?!? Once we started monitoring it, her BP was 50s/30s during some of her “normal” episodes when she didn’t lose consciousness and just became dizzy with vision loss. She said she’d been doing that for several years.

Image credits: ttredraider2000

#5

Not quite the same, but we had a kiddo with really profound craniofacial abnormalities whose eyeballs would pop out of her sockets every time she sneezed. Mom was totally unfazed by this- would just wash her hands and pop em back in. Obviously mom knew it wasn’t objectively normal, but it was amazing how it was very obviously this family’s normal.

Image credits: canoe_sink

#6

I asked a patient if she had any urinary trouble during a postpartum visit. She replied, “Nope! I set alarms to make sure I pee before my bladder gets too full and I pee myself, but I know that happens after having a baby so it’s all good!”

I gently informed her that it was not all good and we discussed pelvic floor PT, which she was thrilled about!

Image credits: lizzzdee

#7

I slept for an additional 6hr after having what should have been an abbreviated outpatient procedure….When the nurses kept checking on me, all concerned, my husband just said, “Let her sleep. She works nights and takes care of our 3 kids when she’s not working.” God bless him. ❤️.

Image credits: TenEyeSeeHoney

#8

Not a patient experience, but from my wife. She has a severe nut allergy and was hospitalized a few times. When she had pine nuts on accident when she was a teen, she went mostly deaf and had tunnel vision and swelling throat as part of anaphylaxis. She was just talking to the EMTs like in a normal conversation. No panic, no nothing. Just trying to tell them what happened all calm-like but can’t hear or see or make intelligible sounds.
They were just floored that she was so calm.

Image credits: TortillaRampage

#9

The amount of adult children who thought it perfectly acceptable their demented parents “take care of each other” with zero assistance was a good reason why I left the ER. Pretty sure one of my coworkers called APS on a case like that it was so bad.

Image credits: Fun-Marsupial-2547

#10

A mom slept for 2 days not feeling well. Family wasn’t worried until she wouldn’t wake up to any stimuli. Blood sugar 1734.

Image credits: Environmental_Rub256

#11

I’m the opposite problem but I always make sure I let everyone taking care of me know that whatever anesthesia you think is going to keep me out will probably only keep me out for about half or less of your planned time. I woke up during my gallbladder removal and my first colonoscopy, but only because they didn’t really listen to me when I told them before the second one…

poor kid though, must be rough if everything knocks you out for a thousand times longer because your body can’t process it quickly.

Image credits: hesperoidea

#12

I had chest pain with physical exertion that would stop when I rested. Weight lifting and other non-cardio workouts were fine but I couldn’t run for longer than 10 minutes without the chest pain returning and having a bit of a hard time catching my breath. I went to the emergency room a few times growing up with these complaints and they’d always do an EKG, angiogram, echo, and MRI. They said I had a mild heart murmur. At 22 I presented post cardiac arrest while riding my bike to work on campus. After rechecking they found that I had anomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery. It’s a very rare birth defect, 1 in every 300,000 live births has it, only 1 in 10 survive past infancy if it’s caught before the infant goes into cardiac arrest.

Image credits: newnurse1989

#13

I was similar as a kid. After general anesthesia I’d sleep for 12-24 hours. My parents would routinely warn medical staff, and it was one of the biggest things they told my husband when we married. It got worse the older I got, nearly 30 hours asleep at 18 after a minor ear procedure. I’m generally fairly sensitive to things such as [relaxing medication] and [anti-allergy medication]. I’d take 0.25 mg of [relaxing medication] and sleep for 20+ hours. Half a normal [anti-allergy medication] puts me out 12+.

Image credits: goins_going_gone23

#14

Had a pt who was post-op from a regular procedure. Her hand at the wrist looked like a Tetris piece. I asked her about it and she says, “Oh yeah. I went for a CT and had a tumble. It swelled up but I put some ice on it until the swelling went away. It doesn’t really hurt anymore. Should I get an x ray?”.

Image credits: xmageforcex123

#15

RT here.

I had a patient once tell me they have a CPAP but don’t use it. I asked why, and they said that it gives a copper/metallic taste, as if there’s something wrong with the CPAP.

I pondered this for a moment until I asked if they’re on well water. They were. They were using tap water to fill the humidifier.

Image credits: nehpets99

#16

I’m an ER RN now but when I was a firefighter paramedic we had a family drive up to the fire station in a panic. Their 12yo daughter was unconscious and unresponsive. Breathing 4-6x/min, pinpoint pupils. She’d had surgery that morning at a children’s hospital for wisdom teeth and was discharged alert/normal. Apparently she hadn’t metabolized the anesthesia fully and the reversal wore off first. We had to give her 8mg of [medicine] to bring her around, but she ended up admitted on a [medicine] drip for a couple days before being released!! I still have a newspaper article about it here somewhere. Wild stuff.

#17

My husband was recently admitted with sepsis. He fought me about even going in. At one point in the ED I mentioned that I was concerned about his rapid respiratory rate and he said he just needed to tell himself to slow his breathing. 😒.

Image credits: rosietherose931

#18

We had a patient in the ICU that was unresponsive, ended up on a ventilator and remained unresponsive. They were trying to figure out what was causing her condition. Her husband would come in with their two small children and just stand there with a flat affect, no emotion whatsoever at the end of the bed. The second day she was there the nurse said to him that it might be best for their kids if they weren’t there seeing their mother like that. His reply was “they’ve seen her worse than this.” Huh? Worse? The interactions with him were very strange.

Image credits: Dark_Izzlefoshizzle

#19

I work in an ambulatory center and had a family tell me their 6 year old spikes a 102-103F fever at least once or twice a day for no known reason, he had full work ups with specialists and they still couldn’t find out why so they were hoping having his tonsils out would help. We had to cancel him bc how would we know if he was randomly spiking a temp or if it was MH…I felt bad but that was absolutely something that needed to be done in hospital setting.

Image credits: kateleehoops

#20

It takes me 30 hours to metabolize 20mg of [sinus decongestant]. I mention this to the anesthesiologist as a warning that I may process stuff weirdly.

Image credits: Jumpsuit_boy

#21

Peds PACU here…parents lie on purpose or omit things because of low IQ levels all the time. Illnesses, autism, allergies, etc. haven’t heard this one though!

Also, some anesthesia consults are so quick they would never ask this many questions to get to the bottom of something like this.

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Image credits: wonanddones