A Generation of Wimps?

On a related note, does it irk anyone else that everyone expects a doctor's note? My boss wanted a note if I missed three days. Excuse me, I am NOT going to a doctor for the flu, a cold or sinusitis.

My child's school nurse sent him home and wouldn't let him back w/o a doctor's note when he had hay fever in his eyes (she insisted it was pinkeye even though I assured her otherwise) Of course I was right. one doctor co-pay later. (a school nurse who can't tell pink-eye???)

His work place insisted on a doctor note because he had ringworm on his arm. Even though I assured them that the risk of transmission was very low and even non-existent when he had it covered and it was already drying.

I've even had to tell physicians that I didn't want any antibiotics for my child because the symptoms indicated a virus instead of bacterial infection. I guess he was used to moms who insisted on a RX.

They're training people to be wimps!!!

What's up with everyone's common sense???

Common sense is dead...died somewhere in the 1970s my grandma says.

And I will have to say it is not only us gen-x's and younger are whips...but I will throw the baby boomers in there too. The only difference they tend not to have the oscar worthy performances than the younger crowd.

Alot of the whimpy-ness comes from the fact people don't want to be sick anymore. Everyone thinks they need antibiotics or there is some pill out there to take away everything. It does not help when the media helps create hysterias that are not warranted or the inaccuracy of medical shows. Remember the peanut butter scare earlier this year!!!!

And the reason why there is so much ADD...because parents are no longer parents...they want to be the kids "friend". Growing up my brother, sister, and I knew when are parents were p***ed off when we did something wrong. And yes...we were even spanked!!

Today...if a parent does try to act like a parent...they get a visit from the police or social services. Too many "experts" out there giving bad advice.

OK so they tell me you know you're over the hill when you start complaining about the younger generation. Well then, I guess that makes me over the hill. We grew up 30 miles from nearest hospital so you can bet we didn't run to the ER for every little injury or stomach ache. We were tough, worked hard, played hard, fell off a horse and got back on. But in defense of young mothers, if you don't get a sprained finger Xrayed nowadays the school will call CPS.

Battle cry of wimps everywhere--"I'm not like other people; pain hurts me."

I do run into some pretty whiny oldsters, incidentally. Some old folks are totally fixated on their health problems and all their surgeries, and every conversation ends up somehow diverted on to that topic. They even do it when they visit someone else in the hospital. You go in the room and the wife of the patient starts telling you all the interesting details of her own health history.

I do run into some pretty whiny oldsters, incidentally. Some old folks are totally fixated on their health problems and all their surgeries, and every conversation ends up somehow diverted on to that topic. They even do it when they visit someone else in the hospital. You go in the room and the wife of the patient starts telling you all the interesting details of her own health history.

Or their bowel habits! Seriously, if your not a patient I don't care when you last took a poop! And I especially don't care what color it was!

I do run into some pretty whiny oldsters, incidentally. Some old folks are totally fixated on their health problems and all their surgeries, and every conversation ends up somehow diverted on to that topic. They even do it when they visit someone else in the hospital. You go in the room and the wife of the patient starts telling you all the interesting details of her own health history.

Yes, especially their bowel function like the next poster.

I've worked with the public since I was a teenager in the late 1970s, and I have ALWAYS found that seniors are the biggest troublemakers. Where do you think younger people learn how to act, anyway? And when I worked in retail pharmacy, the people who complained the most about the cost of their meds were basically healthy people who probably have a million dollars stuffed ini a mattress somewhere.

Meanwhile, the people who are seriously ill and must struggle to pay for needed meds rarely complain. Strange, but true. Probably the most grateful customer I saw in my last job was a woman who would have to pay cash for her husband's thalidomide due to a glitch in their insurance. She was so happy we actually had the medication, she did not mind writing out that check for $1,400. Another pharmacist told me she would be reimbursed 100%, but still......some people could have taken a lesson from her.

This is pretty funny, we are all complaining about the younger generation and the older generation, but our own generation is, of cours, perfect. I include myself here. I'm not complaining, only amused.

i find that older people actually think about that stupid 1-10 pain scale, and then will report a pain level of 2 or 3. Younger people don't even take the time to think about it and will exclaim "20!"

Since when is vomiting x 1 hour an emergency? Or back pain x 2 wks? People ARE wimps, and they are in my er. Call your damn pcp, get an appointment, follow thru. If I was vomiting for an hour the LAST thing I would want to do is get dressed and drive to the ER. Puhlease.

I've noticed that these days "natural childbirth" = lady partsl birth with an epidural. Whatever happened to Lamaze and going without drugs?

This reminds me of a labor patient a while back. I was working for the hospital as a volunteer doula. They called me in as this pt was particularly "high maintenance" (read: on the call light every 5 minutes and screaming so hard the entire floor could hear). She couldn't have an epidural because she didn't want to get into the position for an epidural, so, she went through labor on a boatload of Stadol. She reached the max for Stadol, was so out of it yet kept asking for more.

All the while her mother was saying "Oh wow! It's just amazing that she's doing this all natural without an epidural!"

I really had to bite my tongue on that one. That poor kiddo was so limp at birth. Very sad.

I have just recently started in the ER and oh lord some of these people are just crazy. I have only been in the ER for not quite 2mo now and I have seen the same family come in at least 4 times for minor things that could have waited until the clinic opened up in the am. But of course they wait until 1-2 am and then decide that they just can't take it anymore so the whole family loads up and comes to us for a few hour visit only to get sent home & f/u w/ their doc in the am. We've had people come in& say that they are constipated but they just had a BM that day. What??????? W/ our society everybody is looking for a quick fix. If the clinic is not open well let's just go the ER pay a ridiculous amount of money so we can feel better faster.

Is is just me, or is anyone else seeing more and more patients in their late teens to early 30's that are a bunch of wusses? I mean relatively minor ailments (nausea/vomiting for 1 day, headache, cough/congestion, back pain) and these pts act like they are at death's door! Enough drama for a year's worth of Broadway shows. I'm not referring to any pt with serious or chronic illnesses. I mean stuff that is really minor, that should be addressed with a routine PCP visit, but instead they end up in the ER. Inevitably they get the million $ workup (labs, Xray, CT, etc.) only to be discharged with DX of "gastritis" or "muscle strain." I just worked a 4 day stretch and easily half of my pts fit this category. What's going on?!

As an indication, did you know that the US uses 80% of the world's supply of all opioids and 99% of the world's supply of vicodin. That's mindboggling given that we make up like less than 5% of the earth's population.