Woman chooses alternative medicine instead of out patient surgery - bad results

Jonny7

Saw this on Reddit, basically a woman gets skin cancer and decides to "cure" it herself by ordering something off amazon instead of getting it seen to at a hospital. The gist - the stuff she uses puts a hole in her nose and damages her forehead quite extensively. She updates her "progress" via an alternative health forum and receives advice and encouragement for it.

(warning, some quite NSFW/NSFL pics)
http://www.topicalinfo.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1302

I dunno who's worse this girl for doing it or the idiots in the forum encouraging her, either way I think it merits some debate about the dangers of self-medication and belief in these "new-age" or alternative treatments.

Mods - can delete this if it's a bit too unpleasant.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Jonny7 wrote: »

Saw this on Reddit, basically a woman gets skin cancer and decides to "cure" it herself by ordering something off amazon instead of getting it seen to at a hospital

(warning, some quite NSFW/NSFL pics)
http://www.topicalinfo.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1302

I dunno who's worse this girl for doing it or the idiots in the forum encouraging her, either way I think it merits some debate about the dangers of self-medication and belief in these "new-age" or alternative treatments.

Mods - can delete this if it's a bit too unpleasant.

Gist, please - not reading the entire thread you're linking to.

TeddyTedson

Reddit will be the death of boards
Damn foreigners

Mr. Incognito

The Internet is full of stupid people.

Quell surprise. Let's all laugh at their stupidity.

/closethread

Elbaston

made me think of ted from scrubs, the scene where he's at the end of both queues

awwww now ive got skin cancer AND a hole in my nose
awwww

endacl

Nice to see Darwin's still alive and well!

FizzleSticks

This post has been deleted.

endacl

The groupthink on that thread was frightening. What is it with people...?

BluesBerry

Jesus christ her nose is gone , didnt read it all just scrolled to the pics and read a couple of posts fecking internet know it alls

She should of just followed her doctors advice but meh its no skin of my nose

wandatowell

ah jebus that picture when it was about to fall off the nose was rotten.

Stupid woman.

the_syco

BluesBerry wrote: »

Jesus christ her nose is gone , didnt read it all just scrolled to the pics and read a couple of posts fecking internet know it alls

Aye, likewise. Silly bint.

Peregrine

Her getting cancer is a tragedy.

But what she decided to do about it is natural selection at it's best.

Don't trust the big hospitals full of doctors who know what they're doing because they're evil. Go 'the natural route', buy shit off Amazon and take advice from a forum. Sweet baby jesus..

Duggy747

Had she gone down the "evil" route she would've been spared much less pain and disfigurement.

That thread alone should be a sign of why you don't take medical advice off the web.

Never underestimate the levels of stupidity us humans can reach. For the supposed greatest creatures to ever walk this fine planet, we do some incomprehensibly stupid things.


Her nose looked like a button hanging by its thread, on a trench coat.

BluesBerry

Page 2 she got a lot of reconstructive surgery but seems to be recovering must have cost her thousands to fix it

hitemfrank

BluesBerry wrote: »

Page 2 she got a lot of reconstructive surgery but seems to be recovering must have cost her thousands to fix it

Cost her $30,000. Her insurance covered something like $1500 of it.

ballsymchugh

in her original post, she said she took ibuprofen for the swelling associated with skin cancer. may as well rub smarties on it.

Hootanany

Jonny7 wrote: »

Saw this on Reddit, basically a woman gets skin cancer and decides to "cure" it herself by ordering something off amazon instead of getting it seen to at a hospital. The gist - the stuff she uses puts a hole in her nose and damages her forehead quite extensively. She updates her "progress" via an alternative health forum and receives advice and encouragement for it.

(warning, some quite NSFW/NSFL pics)
http://www.topicalinfo.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1302

I dunno who's worse this girl for doing it or the idiots in the forum encouraging her, either way I think it merits some debate about the dangers of self-medication and belief in these "new-age" or alternative treatments.

Mods - can delete this if it's a bit too unpleasant.

Poor lady maybe if health care was not so prohibited this may not happen again not nice,

Pj!

Love the post advising her to take plenty of vitamin c.

Yakult

I feel sorry for her but Christ on a bike, I cant even find a face palm to even describe it.

ballsymchugh

Yakult wrote: »

I feel sorry for her but Christ on a bike, I cant eve find a face palm to even describe it.

she'd need a big hand to hide the lesion on the nose too!

Ice Storm

Poor girl, what a disaster. I feel sorry for her; she did have a very positive attitude to it all.

Pity the reddit guys got in before she posted a photo of her reconstructed nose. I wanted to see the final result!

kowloon

Pj! wrote: »

Love the post advising her to take plenty of vitamin c.

The carrot juice one was a gem too.

Duggy747

Bit of Reiki would've cure that right up, her aura was out of sync.

endacl

Duggy747 wrote: »

Bit of Reiki would've cure that right up, her aura was out of sync.

Bollocks to reiki.

What she needed to do was dunk her face in a basin of water twice a day. Homeopathy all the way.

Crystals for the swelling.

Duggy747

Rescue Remedy would have relieved the headaches.

Or she just could've went to the local wizard and purchased some tonics off him, probably would've had to do a quest for him first, though.

krieture

Jonny7 wrote: »

Saw this on Reddit, basically a woman gets skin cancer and decides to "cure" it herself by ordering something off amazon instead of getting it seen to at a hospital. The gist - the stuff she uses puts a hole in her nose and damages her forehead quite extensively. She updates her "progress" via an alternative health forum and receives advice and encouragement for it.

(warning, some quite NSFW/NSFL pics)
http://www.topicalinfo.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1302

I dunno who's worse this girl for doing it or the idiots in the forum encouraging her, either way I think it merits some debate about the dangers of self-medication and belief in these "new-age" or alternative treatments.

Mods - can delete this if it's a bit too unpleasant.

Jaysus, what a disturbing read. Adults always have the right to do stupid things to themselves, but the individuals who callously encourage and cheerlead the OP into bad advice and choices is sickening.

endacl

Looks like she 'nose' better now!

Sorry. I'm a bad person.

suicide_circus

would she not have been better off using alternative medicine to heal her nose?

EDDIE WATERS

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVV3QQ3wjC8

suicide_circus

worst.link.ever.

seven_eleven

Its her own choice. I dont particularly feel to strongly about this to be honest. If people want to go ahead and do things like that, then leave them be.

krieture

seven_eleven wrote: »

Its her own choice. I dont particularly feel to strongly about this to be honest. If people want to go ahead and do things like that, then leave them be.

I think the problem lies with the bad advice and serial lies she gets given throughout the thread.

I read most of what was written, especially at the start and its how the people on the thread influenced her decision. From what i understood, instead of a small surgical procedure she ended up having a hole in her nose for a few months and then had to endure extensive plastic surgery. She also incurred massive health bills. These could have been avoided if she had just taken her doctors advice.....

Local-womanizer

Jesus that's rough!

What an idiot though, opts for the " natural" route but takes ibuprofen for the pain after applying the dodgy stuff.

mitosis

Reminds me of the Apple eejit who, despite billions of dollars and apparent genius, when he got cancer decided to go with witch doctor hokum rather than traditional medicine. By the time he copped on it was too late.

Gotham

mitosis wrote: »

Reminds me of the Apple eejit who, despite billions of dollars and apparent genius, when he got cancer decided to go with witch doctor hokum rather than traditional medicine. By the time he copped on it was too late.

The girl in the OP's link uses an iPad too...
It's contagious!

Topper Harley

Jesus titty-****ing Christ. That was horrendous. Her nose started to look like a vag. :eek: Fuck that shit!

endacl

mitosis wrote: »

Reminds me of the Apple eejit who, despite billions of dollars and apparent genius, when he got cancer decided to go with witch doctor hokum rather than traditional medicine. By the time he copped on it was too late.

He not only 'copped on', but explicitly recommended evidence based medicine once he realised the snakeoilery had done nothing to treat his condition. There's a linkidink to an interview with a close friend who took his advice to have his cancer treated properly. I'll hunt it out when I've a little more time.

Y'know, the really sad thing about the woman in the OP's link is that basal cell carcinoma is essentially, in cancer terms, not really serious at all. It rarely metastasises, and is only considered malignant in terms of the damage it 'may' do to surrounding tissue. Certainly more serious than a pimple, but not hugely so. She quite literally cut off her nose to spite her face. An idiot led by idiots.

mitosis

endacl wrote: »

She quite literally cut off her nose to spite her face. An idiot led by idiots.

Agreed. One poster in particular seemed to egg her on and then disappear towards the end.

endacl

endacl wrote: »

There's a linkidink to an interview with a close friend who took his advice to have his cancer treated properly. I'll hunt it out when I've a little more time.

Linkidink: http://9to5mac.com/2013/01/06/ideo-founder-david-kelley-talks-design-steve-jobs-cancer-and-the-importance-of-empathy/

Interview with David Kelley, CEO of IDEO, and designer of the first Apple mouse. To save the clicking, relevant bit is quoted.

"Jobs introduced Kelley to his wife KC Branscomb. And Steve Jobs was also there for Kelley when the unthinkable happened. In 2007, Kelley was diagnosed with throat cancer – and given a 40 percent chance of survival. Jobs, already suffering from his own deadly cancer, gave him some advice.

David Kelley: He came over and said, “Look, you know, don’t consider any alternative – go straight to Western medicine. Don’t try any herbs or anything.”

Charlie Rose: Why do you think Steve said, “Don’t look for alternative medicine, go straight to the hard stuff?”

David Kelley: I think he had made- in his mind, he had made the mistake that he had tried to cure his pancreatic cancer in other ways other than, I mean, he just said, “Don’t mess around."

Pity the woman in the original link went straight for the online idiots. There are smart people online too...

:rolleyes:

People need to understand how desperate people are when they are told they have a possibly terminal illness.

A good friend of mine died from cancer a couple of years ago. She was trying everything from the "out there" complementary medicine to radio and chemotherapy. She succumbed after a year but for every one of those days she was fighting, trying to find something that might help.

endacl

Edz87 wrote: »

People need to understand how desperate people are when they are told they have a possibly terminal illness.

A good friend of mine died from cancer a couple of years ago. She was trying everything from the "out there" complementary medicine to radio and chemotherapy. She succumbed after a year but for every one of those days she was fighting, trying to find something that might help.

Sorry for your loss. I fully understand that when straws are all that is left, straws will be grasped at.

What we're talking about here though, is a conscious decision, supported by idiots, to ignore a straightforward and effective medical remedy in favour of quackery. And as a first resort, not a last one. And thereby doing incredible damage where none whatsoever was necessary.

foxinsox

Jaysus.. wtf..

That is horrific.

endacl

foxinsox wrote: »

Jaysus.. wtf..

That is horrific.

That is potentially terminal stupidity.

miniangel

the marks were tiny to start with those pics were just horrible and the comments saying that's normal some people are loopy sometimes well she wont do that again (hopefully not)

Sand

That is probably the most tragic and simultaneously stupid thing I've ever seen. The woman is clearly a bit of a eejit, who believes she and her mates on the internet are way more intelligent than modern medical science but you can only pity her. Her face is destroyed and shes going to spend a hell of a lot on surgery to get to a point where she can venture out without scaring small children. Hopefully she gets a real doctor for the surgery and doesn't try to do it herself with a kitchen knife and some advice from the internet.

The people on that forum remind me of the internet lawyers who show up on threads on boards offering simple and wrong legal opinions on the rights of bouncers, policemen, tenants, homeowners etc.