u/ColdTalk261

So, I recently looked through my medical records and realized that my last negative Covid test was in June 2022. Every test I’ve had since then has been positive.

i’ve had 8 documented positive covid tests at the same clinic this year. when i realized that last month, i bought a 30 pack of home tests and started testing regularly, and almost all of those have been positive too. i didn’t retest the occasional negatives because tests are expensive, but i was sick most of the time regardless of the result. the only time i got a few negative tests was when i was actually feeling better.

At this point, whenever I get sick enough to need treatment, I assume it’s covid because it always is.

Has anyone else experienced this? Did your doctors ever explain why? Also, Is there anything that could cause a false positive? Is this how long covid works?

I’m wondering if this is just terrible luck, repeated exposure, or if it could mean something about my immune system. I’m being genetically tested for EDS right now (results still aren’t in) and my health isn’t great in general. I don’t know a lot about how that could affect things, but I figured it was worth mentioning. I have a new PCP who seems really good but I don’t see her again until August. I would like to ask her to see a specialist next visit, but I’m not sure what kind.

Hi everyone,

My sample for the Labcorp GeneSeq Connective Tissue / EDS Panel (Test 630978) went out on June 2nd.

I'm at Day 23 today and still haven't gotten my results back.

The official turnaround time is 14–21 days, so I’ve crossed the deadline. Based on my symptoms, I’m strongly expecting a positive result for one of the genetic types.

For those who ended up testing positive or had a variant flagged, did your lab take longer than the 3-week mark? Did the extra time mean they were doing deeper manual reviews or reflex testing?

Thank you!

Has anyone ever had a psychiatrist suddenly turn on them during an appointment?

I had one of the most frightening appointments of my life today and I genuinely don’t know what to make of it.

I’ve been having ongoing issues with my mom and brought a video of a recent incident. My mom’s version was that I was yelling at her. The video showed me screaming for help, which is what I had been saying happened all along. I thought the video would finally clear things up.

Instead, the appointment completely fell apart.

My psychiatrist made a couple of recommendations. One was phone therapy. I said I have trouble concentrating on phone calls and asked if there were other options. Another was using ChatGPT to help draft emails to my mom. I asked how that was different from texting because I was trying to understand the recommendation.

After that, it felt like a switch flipped.

She started telling me she couldn’t help me. It felt like she was trying to fire me as a patient. When I tried to explain myself, she told me to stop talking because she had heard enough from me. I felt like I was being criticized but wasn’t allowed to respond.

I wasn’t crying before this. I started crying because I was shocked by what was happening. I was shaking. I’ve never had a mental health professional speak to me this way before.

By the end of the appointment, she referred me to IOP for anxiety, took me off my benzo and Adderall, and told me, “If you’re actually as sick as you’re saying you are, you shouldn’t be on them.” Which is probably true, but it just felt weird.

What I can’t get over is how fast it happened. I thought I was having a conversation and asking questions. I thought I was going through options. Suddenly I felt like everything I said was being treated as arguing, I wasn’t allowed to explain myself, and major decisions were being made about my treatment. I was so shocked by her behavior couldn’t control my reaction. I just looked like I saw a ghost. She started eluding to taking more action so I had to try to stop crying and shaking. I don’t even usually cry. I was so shocked it didn’t feel real.

When she finally let me speak, I had to beg for her to forgive me and obviously felt like I had to agree to whatever treatment she wanted for me even if I disagreed. I want to find a new psychiatrist, but my mom obviously likes her because of this interaction and she is the one who drives me to appointments because I can’t drive anymore. I don’t have money for an uber or anything so I have to go somewhere she agrees to unfortunately.

I’m just trying to understand whether this is a normal psychiatric interaction because I honestly can’t stop replaying it. I feel guilty for feeling traumatized, maybe I needed to be put jn my place. It just was so terrifying.

Has anyone ever gone to the ER for what seemed like obvious back or nerve pain and had the entire workup focus on something else?

Today I went to the ER because I developed severe lower back pain that felt like it was centered in my lower spine and radiating down both legs. I had tingling in my feet, and at times it hurt so badly that lifting my feet felt nearly impossible. I’ve been having progressive trouble walking for the past couple of months, but I thought that I want to do with my hips.

I was also having trouble urinating. I can pee, but I had to push and strain to get it started, which was one of the things that scared me. I’ve been peeing multiple times an hour for a year though even though my pee test always come back good. Having to push is new though.

The pain didn’t feel like it was coming from my kidneys. It felt like it was coming from my back and shooting down my legs.

They did a CT looking for kidney stones and found a tiny non-obstructing kidney stone, but nobody examined my back.

Has anyone had something similar happen where the ER focused on one explanation but you felt like the main thing that brought you in wasn’t really addressed? What ended up happening?

My mom is coming into my psychiatrist appointment with me tomorrow because she wants them to “explain to me what I’m doing wrong to her” and have them “fix me because she can’t keep doing this”

I’m 33F and honestly confused and terrified.
any advice would be amazing. I don’t actually have friends because there is no one she would approve of me to hang out with so I just stopped trying to go out. I don’t really ever have a chance to talk to people anymore. Sometimes I feel like maybe I’m losing my perspective because of how much she hates me. Like maybe I’m actually doing something wrong and don’t see it.

She tends to see any physical or mental health struggle as a character flaw. For example, today I had severe back pain and ended up in the ER. They found a kidney stone and gave me pain medication, but when I originally asked her to take me, she laughed and refused. I asked my primary what to do and she said go to the hospital. I don’t understand what I did wrong. I don’t understand why it’s funny that I’m in pain. I don’t feel like she sees me as a real person.

One thing that’s making me really anxious is that she has a video of me from yesterday and has threatened to show it to my psychiatrist. I don’t know if she actually will.

The video was taken when I was extremely distressed. I was fasting at the time, have POTS, and got overwhelmed during an argument I didn’t start anything. She just started accusing me of a bunch of weird stuff and accusing me of faking my symptoms and other stuff that was confusing and when I get confused, I just shut down. I can’t help it. I’m trying to get help, but that’s just what happens right now. I can’t handle when someone yells at me. She obviously knows exactly what to do to mess me up. It’s just hard to believe that she would do it on purpose. Anyway, I ended up on the ground crying and begging her to stop. Instead, she started recording me and continued yelling at me while I was crying for her to stop. I don’t even understand what I was doing wrong that she was recording. I was just on the ground freaking out that she was recording me. I don’t know what it was evidence of. Am I losing attachment to reality?

I’m afraid she’s going to spend the appointment explaining why everything is my fault and that the psychiatrist will believe her and put me on something like antipsychotics because she likes when I’m on those even though she also complains about it when I’m on them (like I said I can’t do anything right, it feels like sometimes)

Has anyone been through something similar?

Edit: context, I’m currently filing for disability I have autism/adhd and am being tested for EDS and things down that lane. I have a child she uses as leverage because I cant just leave. I was trying to figure it out until I lost my job last month. Now idk what to do at all.

One of the most difficult parts of my relationship with my mom is that it feels like there is no explanation she will accept.

If I’m sick, it’s not real.

If it is real, then I’m causing it myself.

If I’m not causing it myself, then everyone deals with it and I should be able to as well.

If I can’t deal with it, then I’m not trying hard enough.

If I try really hard and manage to do something well, it becomes evidence against me later because “if you could do that, why can’t you do this?”

No matter what the issue is, it eventually comes back to me being lazy, exaggerating, attention seeking, lying, manipulative, or choosing my problems. Anything other than me actually having a problem that I don’t have control of.

The thing that gets me is that if you ask her, she’ll tell you I lie all the time.

I’ve heard that my entire life.

But if you ask for examples, there really aren’t any.

I grew up believing I was this horrible liar and manipulator. Then one day I stopped and thought about it and realized I couldn’t actually come up with many examples myself.

My stepdad started calling me bipolar, a liar, a slut, and all kinds of other things when I was a kid. I was around nine years old. I didn’t even know what most of those words meant.

He spent years painting this picture of me as this terrible person and I don’t think I’ve ever fully escaped it.

They broke up a year ago, but sometimes I feel like she still sees the version of me that he created.

When I was 15, she found cuts on my arms.

Nobody asked what was wrong.

Nobody asked why.

Nobody asked if I was okay.

My room got emptied out. I got yelled at. I got punished.

I was taken to a therapist and a private note between me and my best friend was handed over. We had written that we loved each other.

I had to explain it.

I had to apologize for it.

I had to apologize for cutting.

The entire experience made me want to do it more.

A few months ago I was discharged from the hospital after having a bad reaction to a medication.

I called my mom because I thought she was still there.

She had left.

I was so out of it that I started trying to walk home.

I couldn’t figure out how to get an Uber.

I remember standing at intersections confused. I remember trying to cross streets. I vaguely remember some random guy helping me get home because I couldn’t seem to figure it out myself.

When I finally got my mom on the phone, she was yelling at me that I was pretending.

According to her, if I was really impaired, the hospital wouldn’t have released me.

I still don’t understand that one.

Today I had lab work. I had been fasting for almost 24 hours.

Right before I was supposed to go, she brought up something upsetting and started lecturing me about how I treat her.

I told her I was trying to get up and leave.

Instead she started recording me.

Then she got someone else on the phone.

I got overwhelmed.

I was crying.

I was covering my ears because she was yelling.

At one point I couldn’t really see because I was crying so hard.

She laughed at me for covering my ears.

She kept telling me to shut up whenever I tried to speak.

Afterward, her conclusion was that I don’t treat her right and that I need to make an appointment with my psychiatrist.

Not because I threatened anyone.

Not because I hurt anyone.

Because I got upset while being recorded and yelled at.

She also threatens to call the police when she doesn’t like the way I’m acting.

What exactly are the police supposed to do?

I genuinely don’t know.

And the one that haunts me the most is that when I tell her I’m suicidal, she tells me to do it.

I don’t know how a parent says that.

I don’t know how a parent hears that from their child and responds that way.

I think the hardest part is that I still keep trying.

I keep trying to explain myself.

I keep trying to be understood.

I keep trying to be “normal” enough that maybe she’ll finally see me differently. But I’m losing the ability to walk and it is really scary to be in this position like, she keeps threatening to kick me out but where would I even go? I can’t walk more than a block. I’m just really scared and I obviously still feel like in the back of my mind. It’s my fault. Maybe I’m doing it. I don’t know.