26. Delusions are real, especially for this young lady.
“ER doctor here, here’s a weird one. A patient came into the ER one night saying she was infected with worms. She told me she had been noticing worms in her mouth and her urine and stool. She said it had been happening for a few months, and it was worsening. The lady brought a sample of these worms. She brought them in a glass, covered with saran wrap. As I was trying to convince her that it was just normal spit, her parents arrived. They had driven down from out of state in a panic that their daughter was dying of a parasitic infection. Mom and Dad were livid with me when I suggested that it was in her head. They couldn’t accept the fact that her daughter was crazy.
They asked for a GI consult so someone could look into her infection. So I opened up the glass, and with a gloved hand, I pulled out the “worms.” I ran it around in my fingers and showed them. The Dad’s reaction was something to behold. It went from ‘don’t be ridiculous, she’s sick’ to ‘what the heck are you doing?’ to’wait for a second, that looks like just spit’ to ‘holy crap, my daughter is freaking crazy.’ I saw it in Dad’s face, and then he turned to his wife and said, ‘honey, I think we need to talk.’ I left the room, and they took her home 15 minutes later. I offered a psychiatric eval, but they said that they would go to her mother’s psychiatrist.” – Smeeee