#Medical shit

[shiftythrifting]

No comment.

[dizzy1ife]

when the effects of a medical condition are also the triggers for that medical condition

[xiaq]

Story time: Rage

A year ago, I went to my doctor because I was having unusual stomach-related symptoms that had progressed from annoying to painful.

He looked at my chart and started asking me questions about my anxiety. Even when I emphasized that yes, I had an anxiety disorder but it had never manifested in stomach symptoms before, he continued to ask me questions about my home life and stress levels. "Oh, you're planning your wedding? I'm sure that's very stressful."

He then asked if I was on medication for my anxiety and suggested a follow-up with my therapist. When I pressed for any other recommendations to address my symptoms, he suggested I try a low fodmap diet and keeping a food journal for a few months to identify trigger foods.

I tried the low fodmap diet. I kept a food journal.

My symptoms got progressively worse.

When we moved to Denver, I had to wait 3 months for a new patient visit to establish care with a GP here. I explicitly requested a female doctor. When I finally got in, she was immediately concerned when I told her about the last 11 months of issues that were now actively impacting my quality of life. She didn't ask me a single question about my anxiety. She ordered a bunch of tests and referred me to a GI doc (also a woman) who ordered more tests. Less than 24 hours after the GI doc's test results came back, I'm now on three antibiotics to treat a (what is now raging) bacterial infection. Because it's been going on for so long and my symptoms have progressively worsened, there are concerns about long term damage to my stomach and digestive tract.

But no, dude. It was probably my silly female anxiety about planning my wedding.

[sweaterkittensahoy]

thinking about the sports medicine doc I saw several months ago because I fucked up a tendon last year and went to get evaluated for a cortisone shot and/or PT.

Due to white-knuckling my way through severe endometriosis for several years before getting help, and then white-knuckling through two more years of active treatment because I wanted to be SURE I REALLY NEEDED to just take out everything (that I wasn't using in the first place, not wanting children), my relationship with pain is a fucking mess. Like, I could feel it HURT when my back tweaked, and that was obviously an issue. But also, I have no idea what amount of pain is average.

So, anyway, first time meeting this sports medicine guy. Sent that way by my primary care doc who has always been fantastic. But the sports medicine doc wasn't HER, so I was worried I wouldn't be taken seriously because it wasn't until I was 29 that doctors actually started listening to me about my pain.

Doctor comes in. Asks what's up. I explain how the injury happened and when it hurts. And then I took a deep breath and said the scariest thing, "The thing is, I can't actually tell you how bad it is because I have a really unclear idea of how much pain I have because I spent several years in near-constant to constant pain with severe endometriosis, so I disconnect from my pain a lot."

And this doctor goes, "Oh, okay. Good to know. I've worked with a lot of endo patients. Let me check a couple of things."

And one of the things he tried was to put his thumb right on the lower back tendon that was flared up in anger at the overall issue and PUSHED. And I made some sort of noise, and he went, "Okay, so that tendon is super angry at you. You definitely need PT to get things healed up. Do you want the cortisone shot today? If not, I'm going to tell you to ice it and take painkillers and just be careful, but that can be easier with the shot on board."

And a part of me went, "No, of course not! Why would I need that???" But what came out of my mouth was "Yes, I would like the shot."

And I was very fucking proud of myself because, my god, the RELIEF. Did it long-term fix the issue? No. That was what the PT was for. Did it PROVIDE relief? YES. Holy shit. The level of BETTER I felt was amazing.

I don't know if I have an overall point of this post except to remind you that your pain is valid. Your pain is worth lessening. Just because you've suffered with no help before doesn't mean you have to do it again. Get the cortisone shot. Get the fat ibie prescriptions (just refilled mine). Do the PT and don't push yourself to the point of pain just because the therapist is watching (still working on that one).

[edmundo-noches-buckley]

Day 1:

Father: The pharmacy is holding up my insulin.

Me: No worries! I will call!

Pharmacy: (Requires basic info which I provide.)

Day 2:

No insulin

Day 3:

Still no insulin

Me: Calls pharmacy, says they need paperwork from the doc.

Doc: No problem! It will be sent immediately

Day 4:

Still no insulin

Day 5:

Still no insulin.

Me: Calls the pharmacy. They need the form.

Me: Calls the doctor. They haven't received the form from the pharmacy.

Me: Calls the pharmacy. They sent it.

Day 6:

No insulin.

Me: Calls the doctor. Still no form.

Me: Calls the pharmacy. They sent the form.

Me: Fuck this.

Me: Goes to the pharmacy and asks for the fucking form so I can hand deliver.

Them: No. You can't.

Day 7:

Still no insulin

Me: Calls the doctor. Emphasizes how little insulin my father has left.

Me: Calls the pharmacy. Emphasizes how little insulin my father has left.

Day 8: (Today)

Insulin: In progress

(When I tell you I hate insurance and that it is legalized, organized crime, this is why. This is one of hundreds of instances I have had to deal with for just one of my parents. And there is no way he could have done this on his own. Shit like this kills people This is the bad place.)

[blackmageeljin]

Y'all I am so fucking tired.

Me: vents about being shit on by doctors and struggling with ND symptoms in public

People: UM!!! AKTUALLY THAT IS NOW HOW YOU TALK ABOUT AUTISM! YOU ARE USING THE WRONG WORDS!!! LIKE I AM SO SORRY ITS HARD FOR YOU BUT UR MAKING IT SO HARD FOR PEOPLE WITH REALER DISORDERS :(((((

Me sitting here, not autistic and never once mentioning autism but with several other ND diagnoses that don't get taken seriously because US culture is a shit show and it doesn't exist if they've never heard of it, am never allowed to self advocate and constantly shut out of both NT and ND spaces for not fitting into the boxes people want, staring at the camera like I am on the office on the verge of tears.

Yes internet, people can 'go nonverbal', it is a real phrase for real symptoms and not just a term for someone permanently mute! No it is not 'just a meltdown' and calling an autistic person's symptoms 'just' anything is completely self defeating anyway, and so is saying I can't use the phrase nonverbal anymore because I have shown improvement in my conditions over the course of decades of hard work! I fucking HATE PEOPLE SO MUCH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[attie-rattie]

Happy birthday me

I'm fine guys don't worry... I thought I was dying(/hj) but it's just gastritis

[destiny-in-the-universe]

real talk for a moment: my chest hurts. like it feels as if someone's sucked the entire air out of me, if i'm being honest and at the same time - i'm working on a whumptober prompt where i'm literally just making it up as i go along (i do have a plan-)

i don't know how to express my own misery; chest is tight and uncomfortable, every time i rise my chest - it continues to hurt. like does anyone know why this is happening?

[densewentz]

When half your body has been completely numb from your sternum to your knee for 5 days and your doctor is just like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[shiftythrifting]

spotted at value village Chicago

[delphi-dreamin]

Not so great news, y'all! I have a ganglion cyst in my left hand. It's on the palm side of my ring finger at the base and y'all. It fuckin hurts. So I get to go see ortho. Again.

The good news is, I'm right-handed. So I can still work on stuff. It's just gonna be a slower process than I'd like.

But that's more appointments, and probably more physical therapy after...whatever they do. Hopefully they'll remove it and I can be done with it. But we'll see.

Anyway, I work tonight and it's gonna be miserable! Because I have gotten about one hour of sleep today.

But uh. Yeah. Life.

[1moreoffkeyanthem]

I know y’all follow me for South Park Insanity, but I have a personal PCE win to share

(Medical and ED stuff mentioned so below the cut)

I mentioned a while back that for the past few months I’ve been struggling with lack of appetite and inability to keep anything down, steadily devolving into malnutrition and being legitimately scared about it. And try as I had been, I have had no energy to make progress and have only gotten worse. Early in the morning after another sleepless night and after involuntarily throwing up the only food I’d been able to eat for a few days at 1 am, I finally dragged my broke uninsured ass to the emergency room as soon as it opened, shaking and dizzy and scared out of my mind.

Y’all. The doctors and the nurses were so helpful and patient even as I was actively panicking, listening to the root cause of it all, administering zofran and hooking me to what’s apparently called a “banana bag” with every vitamin imaginable bc IT TURNS OUT my ass is deficient in SO MUCH SHIT. I felt the best I have in months after discharge, all day. I even had the energy to spend the day on the couch with my partner instead of lying in bed PLUS THE ENERGY TO GO FOR A FUCKING WALK AFTER EATING A SOLID MEAL (and drinking a shit ton of orange juice ofc) while we waited for my scrip to be filled!!! I genuinely don’t remember the last time I was able to just leisurely enjoy the sun and grass.

And bonus: I got a prescription for an anti nausea medication and apparently a side effect is drowsiness (so I have a few days off work to adjust to that which I got mixed feelings about) so I might actually get some sleep coming up!

I’m a huge hypocrite I know, but listen to your body when you need outside help. It’s scary and hard but I feel worlds better already. 💚

[nolassolace]

Bruh I always get emotional when doctors take me seriously.

[sweaterkittensahoy]

Okay, follow-up mammogram to the extra diagnostic one from six months ago is complete, and everything looks fine!

The ultrasound isn't picking up whatever they're seeing on the mammogram, which was true last time as well, and the tech said, "So, you'll just want another in six months."

And my disassociating brain (I have trauma with cancer) went full blue screen at the phrase "six months". It was only my GP calling me to follow-up with the results that cleared it up: I had my yearly last June. Six months from now is June. The specialist docs are not worried about the weird thing in my boob. Whatever's going on, it's barely showing up, there are several options it could be that AREN'T cancer, and my family history is almost entirely clean (going back 3 generations, 1 woman in my immediate family has had breast cancer).

It's fine. My titties are not likely to need to come off completely. I can unclench my entire body and enjoy the whoopie pie from the bakery.

[susiron]

It's been wild talking with doctors that actually give a shit about me again

Like I'm sure there are plenty of great cis male doctors (especially if their patients are also cis men), but my pcp for the last like 2 years has been a cis man who, in that time frame, has lost every god damn piece of trust I have in him as a doctor.

Like this dude only ever wanted to focus on my thyroid levels and my weight, even though I never once mentioned wanting to lose weight, and I kept expressing that I never felt Better even when my thyroid levels were controlled.

But the straw that broke the camel's back was feeling two lumps on my neck, and I spent Multiple Visits trying to tell this man I was Concerned about them, and every time he would tell me "they weren't lymph nodes" and that he wasn't concerned about it.

It literally took me not being able to get an appointment with him one week, and getting an appointment with a different doc in their office instead to Finally have someone who immediately was like "Oh, that is absolutely concerning, let's get that looked at immediately".

And, wouldn't you fucking know it, swollen lymph nodes!

I've since had a CT scan and they didn't find anything concerning about the lymph nodes themselves, but I still don't know Why they're swollen so I need to like go to an ENT and look more into it. I've since gone to another doctor in the same office (third one at this point), and she was similarly concerned about it and god it's just felt like a breath of fresh air to have someone Listening.

No comments about my weight. None about my thyroid, other than wanting to check my levels soon. Just taking my concerns at face value, and doing something about them.

That shouldn't be a novel concept, but boy if it doesn't feel like one at this point.

My shit doc didn't even once record that I had concerns about my neck, actually. Like I've looked on the patient portal, and while the two lady docs I've had left detailed notes that included my concerns, shit doc left literally no mention of it anywhere. Just swept under the fucking rug like it didn't matter-- but he sure as shit made sure to note that I was fat (which like, yes that's necessary for medical records, but I want to see All the things there, you get me?)

And now I'm like feeling a bit of a crash from the high of being Listened To cause Trump's fuckwit of an administration is already fucking with my insurance.

The world is a fucking nightmare (but at least there's some rad docs out there, even on shit insurance).

[theramblingark]

Change in attitude

I often don't write here about medical stuff, but I feel compelled to jot this down for myself. I've been "overweight" my entire life, up here, down there. It is what it is. So, every doctor's visit is just anxiety inducing for me, not to the point where I don't want to go, but where I just want to get it over with.

I had a cardiologist follow up today (which I've been doing for 2 years) and each time the doctor decides at the last minute she needs to review my cholesterol panel to me, which I am fully aware could be better at times, but is not absolutely out of control. She usually says, "next visit medication will be needed... " Which always seems like a threat to me. So, I walk out a little pissed.

However, this time she came in to the visit ready to discuss medication, and I had asked her which blood panel she had because I get them in May and November. She only had the one from last May which she had for my last visit. So, she looked at the November one, came back in the room, and her entire attitude changed! She said I was doing an excellent job and I was on the right path. Well, no shit lady!

Thankfully, my primary care is top notch, but I feel he'll be retiring soon. The cardiologist is fine, and I'm not looking for someone to hold my hand, but definitely someone to listen and not change their attitude when they see the numbers are improving. Help people out when they're at their worst, so they can become their absolute best!