A young woman says she left the emergency room feeling dismissed and confused after a doctor ordered a drug test without explanation while she was seeking help for alarming neurological symptoms. The 21-year-old woman, who goes by the Reddit username kenswiz, described weeks of passing out, memory loss and vomiting “odd colors.”
The original poster (OP) shared that her partner, a paramedic, had been helping manage her symptoms long enough to get her to the hospital. “I’ve been having a ton of issues with passing out, or getting very close and extensive amnesia afterwards, including staring spells,” she wrote.
The OP said she also experienced concussion-like symptoms without hitting her head, head pain that “was traveling” and episodes of repeating sentences shortly after nearly fainting. At the emergency room, she said nurses repeatedly asked whether she was under the influence of drugs. She denied it.
The OP later noticed in her discharge paperwork that the physician had ordered drug screening as part of her lab work. “This is not standard practice in the area I live in and I’m honestly very upset because that makes me look like I’m just crazy,” she wrote, adding that she found the move, “dismissive and harmful.” To read the full story.