For whatever reason, several of my friends have been experiencing a sense of frustration lately in seeking medical help. I guess it's not that unusual. I've had my share of strange/bad experiences... like the urologist who flaty told me my symptoms could be the early stages of MS, or the many doctors who refused to connect a series of emerging and never-before-experienced health problems with a stint on birth control, or the latest - an eye surgeon who refused to acknowledge the connection between my pregnacy and my retinal detachment—in both eyes (they lasered the left before it fully detached, thank goodness).
Meanwhile, my husband experienced a doctor telling him he did not have epilepsy directly after he experienced a seizure during an EKG, which led to an inaccurate diagnosis of the type of epilepsy he has (grand mal vs. temporal lobe).
A friend of mine had to advocate for her son to get treatment because she knew something was wrong with her son and the doctors just kept acting like she was hysterical or crazy or "overprotective" mom or something. And... another friend of mine just got told today her heart problems were all in her head - related to stress and not something that could be fixed or apparently even discussed.
I guess the big result of all of these experiences, for me, is I have learned the importance and necessity of advocating for myself and speaking up when I feel I'm not being listened to. I look for doctors who take my instincts seriously and don't try to rush me through my medical history or the way I tie certain events together. And, ultimately, if I feel someone is wrong in their diagnosis, I either follow my gut, find a new doctor, or keep speaking up until a greater discourse takes place.
After all, who knows your body better than you? Don't be afraid to advocate!
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That's all exactly where the show Mystery Diagnosis came from. A recent one I saw was about a girl who had trouble breathing and the doctors dismissed her symptoms for years, even saying it's all in her head, and then it turns out she has cancer. The reason she was having breathing problems was that she had a tumor completely crushing one of her lungs.
Sometimes I think I watch way too much Discovery Health Channel.
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