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Things you're amazed aren't more widely known/ common misconceptions perpetuated by popular culture etc

299 replies

wangernum · 19/01/2020 15:16

This isn't about how the young people at work don't know what the capital of Spain is, or that the petrol indicator on the car dashboard tells you what side your petrol cap is on, etc. More things that you didn't know at one point, but having learned about it (or more likely - experienced it yourself) can't see why it isn't more widely known.

My examples:
Diagnosing of gallstones. My GP failed to diagnose my dreadful gallstone pain, in the end (after suffering for years) I asked a forum like this about my symptoms and loads of people said it's probably gallstones. I went to a different GP and said 'I think it could be gallstones' and it was - got the gallbladder removed and not had a problem since.
Anyway, since then I realise the symptoms are fairly obvious (I know it's hard to describe pain but from my own experience I know what sort of questions to ask) yet there are always threads on here about how gallstones didn't get suggested by a doctor/got missed, a friend of mine also had similar experience just not knowing what this indescribable pain was. How on earth do doctors not know to suggest/check for gallstones? It seems really common?

Other misconceptions:
Waters going just before you're about to give birth (most people who've had children probably know this isn't accurate! My waters had to be broken when I was in labour!) This still happens on TV all the time!

Schizophrenia = multiple personality disorder. It's not.

Breastfeeding - so much I had no idea about! How painful it can be to start with. That babies need feeding all the time! I did an NCT breastfeeding class and I still felt that it was based on a lot of assumed knowledge (that I didn't have!). Even calling formula feeding 'bottle-feeding' but it not actually being about feeding from a bottle but the fact it's formula not breastmilk.

Colic - that it's a medical problem or indigestion, reflux etc. It's hard to tell from a lot of the stuff that's written about it but it just means lots of unexplained crying (usually at certain times etc, well it was in my experience). I actually found that 'purple crying' was a better explanation: purplecrying.info/what-is-the-period-of-purple-crying.php

Bit more obscure but d-mer.org/ - D-MER - very specific feeling of sadness when breastfeeding. I wish I'd known about this with my first baby!

Another example might be anyone that still thinks 'common-law wife' is a thing. Although I don't see many people using that phrase apart from to point out it's not a thing (legally etc)!

OP posts:
ioioitsoff · 19/01/2020 16:46

Once you get past a certain age you become invisible.
Single women are to be avoided at all costs when at social events with married couples.
People with no friends are worthless individuals not worth wasting time on.

iklboo · 19/01/2020 16:50

@53rdWay - DH & I play the 'dark-night-in-the-countryside-oh-listen-a-vixen-and-now-there-goes-an-owl' TV & film drinking game.

Redannie118 · 19/01/2020 16:50

This reply has been withdrawn

The OP has privacy concerns, and so we've agreed to take this down now.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

AlexaAmbidextra · 19/01/2020 16:50

‘I projectile vomited’. No, you probably didn’t. Projectile vomiting is quite rare and normally caused by a specific condition.

Bright red blood from the bowel has a harmless cause. Darker blood from the bowel is a sign of something serious.

Selfsettling3 · 19/01/2020 16:51

With both my labours water went before birth.
DD1 they went early but after contractions started
DD2 they went after I got to 10cm and I had the rest and be thankful phase and then I had the most almighty contraction and even though I was in the birth pool I felt a gush
I don’t know anyone who had their waters ruptured by midwife unless it was part of the induction process

My gall stones were diagnosed even though I had many appointments. In changed GPs and was sent straight to hospital and had to stay in until they removed them .

I’m with you in the bf. My NCT breastfeeding course was so crap that I knew before I had even had the baby that is wasn’t going to help me.

DD2 paediatrician diagnosed her with colic even though I never mentioned crying as a concern. I knew at that point that he was going to be useless. Baby seems to have CMPA another others.

fairislecable · 19/01/2020 16:52

After my second child I had the most horrendous after pains. The nurse said I was exaggerating I WAS NOT.

No one warned me that this pain was a thing.

I have a high pain tolerance eg. Root canal without anaesthetic.

BeyondFlubeInclusionaryRF · 19/01/2020 16:53

Deaf people cannot hear a thing, and blind people cannot see a thing.

Actually both are spectrums, hence why HI/VI are used more now.

ItsGoingTibiaK · 19/01/2020 16:54

A vomitorium wasn't a room where Romans went to throw up. It was actually the name for entrance/exits in amphitheatres through which large crowds could travel.

Many theatres around the world still have 'voms' along which actors can enter and exit the stage through the auditorium.

doritosdip · 19/01/2020 16:55

I'm a mum of 3 and had my waters broken every time. Last time I walked into the delivery room when I was 10cm and was in less pain than when I arrived at the hospital 6cm with dc1 and dc2.

eminencegrise · 19/01/2020 16:56

If you take meds for reflux and are being tested for the bacteria that causes stomach ulcers, tell your HCP! The meds can alter the results of the test.

AlexaAmbidextra · 19/01/2020 16:56

You dont need a fecking signal to call emergency services in the UK or US !!!!

It’s true that your mobile phone isn’t just confined to your own network provider for emergency calls. However, you do need a signal from at least one provider even if it isn’t your own network. If absolutely no network has a signal then you can’t make even an emergency call.

ItsGoingTibiaK · 19/01/2020 17:00

@Redannie118

"You dont need a fecking signal to call emergency services in the UK or US !!!!"

Yes you do. That would be like saying your landline phone doesn't have to be connected to the socket to call emergency services. If there's no signal at all, you can't call anyone, even the emergency services. However, you're not confined to your own network provider.

LivingDeadGirlUK · 19/01/2020 17:01

Watching Die Hard 2 at Christmas and the plane that crashes after coming in to land due to running out of fuel, but blows up in a spectacular fireball. Would assume that there would not be a huge fireball if the plane has no fuel left, any explosive experts that can confirm? :)

Badyboo · 19/01/2020 17:02

You are so right with the gallstones thing. My symptoms were identical to the NHS list online and i still had a GP talking about the dangers of 'Dr Google'! I was in surgery less than 24 hours after that blood test...

Mine is that people assume that in the olden days most women were getting married and having children in their late teens/ early 20s. The average age for first babies in 1938 was 29, and the 60s were unusually low.

ValleyClouds · 19/01/2020 17:04

More wheelchair ones

Being a wheelchair user automatically means you MUST have some LD

Being a wheelchair user accompanied by another adult, that adult MUST be your carer or parent, never a friend, spouse, or lover, no siree.

I have been asked in places like shops and healthcare environments why I am unaccompanied and where my carer is, as if I have somehow "got out" without permission Hmm

eminencegrise · 19/01/2020 17:05

You dont need a fecking signal to call emergency services in the UK or US !!!!

Oh, dear god! This type of ignorance really needs to be dispelled. This reminds me of teens who think they will be absolutely hunky dory in case of massive power failures because they have mobiles with juice packs or solar chargers. If the power goes out to the masts (and many in regional areas will have small generators but in the event of massive cuts/emergencies they will not be supplied beyond that) then you can't use the fucking phone! You need a signal from somewhere, and if the masts have no source of power your mobile cannot work. This is why the Caribbean nations got largely cut off in those hurricanes.

FlossieTeacakesFurCoat18 · 19/01/2020 17:06

How periods work. I recently had a chat with a guy who insisted his wife, on a raw vegan diet, didn't get periods because "her diet's so pure, there's nothing to come out". I know this is an idea perpetuated by raw vegan vloggers but seriously, how did they get to adulthood believing that your periods stopping is a good sign?

TheMemoryLingers · 19/01/2020 17:06

Cat milk that you buy in the supermarket does not come from cats being milked! Grin

BeyondFlubeInclusionaryRF · 19/01/2020 17:06

You escaped, valley! Grin I'm imagining it as a cartoon where you hide behind a skinny tree yet completely disappear... 😂

Esspee · 19/01/2020 17:07

So many women take alternative "medicine" to get through the menopause and say they are doing it the natural way.
Menopause is caused by lack of oestrogen. Replacing the missing oestrogen is the only natural treatment.

BeyondFlubeInclusionaryRF · 19/01/2020 17:10

Arthritis is something old people get. Nope.

Peanut allergies are always worse than all other allergies. Nope.

eminencegrise · 19/01/2020 17:12

Legal weddings. The rules are different in Scotland from England. England is quite strict about where and when a legal wedding can take place. So 99% of the one you see in 'Don't Tell the Bride' are fake.

Thekindyoufindinasecondhand · 19/01/2020 17:12

@2monstermash asking this as I'm worried not checking your knowledge!
So do you mean my name hasn't changed in the eyes of the law through marriage? Or do you mean just in regards to my bank/bills etc.

BeyondFlubeInclusionaryRF · 19/01/2020 17:13

Ideas of what autism "looks like"

SilverySurfer · 19/01/2020 17:15

Single women are to be avoided at all costs when at social events with married couples.

Nothing is more true than this.

I had a friend, we spent a lot of time together, hitchhiked around Europe, I was her bridesmaid when she married a German guy she met in Amsterdam. She went to live in Germany and we kept in touch.

Six months later I got a call to collect her from the airport. Transpires he hit and kicked her repeatedly, as a result she lost a baby, managed to escape. She looked like a skeleton, she lived with me and I nursed her back to health.

After a while she moved out and got into another relationship. When they held dinner parties because I was single, she always had to find a single man. Then she rang me to say sorry I couldn't come to the next dinner as unable to find a single man and married friends felt nervous having me there as a single woman. Believe me, I was no femme fatale and had zero interest in their husbands.

I blocked her number and never spoke to her again.

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