For doctors to have hidden this from me?

Oh thank goodness the ' Health anxiety cavalry have arrived!

Are you always so dismissive?

It's not arrogant to point out the futility of seeking reassurance on Mumsnet after multiple normal, reassuring MRI results.

Thank you.

Gives me hope that not all the profession are as arrogant as some of the posters on here.

OP has posted before about this exact topic, so has clearly had multiple second opinions.

This is the issue. OP has found out they have a cyst, which immediately becomes “I have a lump in my brain. I also have neurological issues (a facial twitch) so the two must be connected”

In reality it’s very unlikely the cyst would cause any symptoms. OP mentioned having sinus issues. Sinus issues themselves can cause a facial twitch. Sinus pressure can also cause high levels of fatigue.

I don't think anyone has hidden anything from you. Sounds like an incidental finding.

Horror stories such as yours are very helpful to health anxiety sufferers ☺️❤️

Except the OP hasn't been dismissed, she's had multiple investigations. Which is very different from your mum's situation. But I'm sure OP will appreciate your input.

If the cyst is under a certain size they wouldn’t need to tell you as it’s not a concern or source of symptoms.

I spent ten hours in a hospital waiting room last weekend to be told I had a particularly large cyst on my right ovary (which they suspected at first could be appendicitis) and I’ve basically been told to take painkillers and hope it goes away.

A pineal gland cyst would only be of concern to doctors if it was itself unusual or over a particular size. If it’s small enough not to report it to you then it’s likely not the cause of your issues.

You seem determined that the OP has health anxiety and my anecdote proves that health care professionals can dismiss patients as anxious despite having chronic symptoms. The OP has a cyst on her brain and had one previously and you are still dismissing her.

I'm sure that anecdote will be very helpful to the OP 😍

I wonder how many women are labelled with health anxiety whilst suffering and unable to access treatment because of this. My DM was labelled a nuisance with pain in her leg years ago, turned out to be a rare bone eating tumour which would have been found sooner if the GP had sent her for an X-ray. He didn't, he accused her of trying to get out of work, refused any treatment and said she was anxious.

See OP's previous post. She is not going to be reassured by any number of investigations.

Oh bore off. People reclaiming slurs as a means of empowerment is not the same as ignorant people using outdated terms because they can't be bothered to educate themselves. But you know this, you just want to be contrary.

This. And not only does the NHS suck, our private system sucks as well. I am not talking medical knowledge or professionalism, I am talking insane methodology or lack thereof. A friend is a medical secretary in one of the private hospital chains, where desperate and not rich people (they also sell payment plans to pay for the simplest scans at an incredibly high interest rate) come when they can't get seen for weeks on the NHS. So it goes this way - first you have to see a doctor for a scan referral - it is around £300, then there is a scan (you have to wait for some time, it is usually booked up quite a lot), which can be £240 - to thousands. Then the scan gets 'written up' by radiologists (who are not present all the time in the private hospital, so there is a wait) and emailed to the referring doctor. Then the referring doctor (not in the private hospital all the time, only probably 2 days a week, so there is a wait) dictates a letter and it gets sent to the secretaries to type up. The letter is being typed up (there is no specific consultant-related typist to expedite, it is a typing pool where all secretaries type all specialties, so currently they are typing letters from end of March). The typed up letter is then emailed to the consultant, who is not present in the private hospital all week, so the typed up letter is waiting in the consultant's inbox until it is the consultant's day in the private hospital. The consultant then OKs the letter and secretaries send it to !!!!! the GP of the patient, not the patient themselves!!!!! After that my friend says they get loads of phone calls from patients, to which they reply - so sorry, we sent the letter to your GP last week or 10 days ago or suchlike and we can't disclose it to you on the telephone, please contact your GP. To say that I was shocked when I found this methodology out, is to say nothing. I thought private was amazing until my friend explained things to me.

And sometimes they're right.

Cannot believe some people are suggesting patients shouldn't be told all of their scan findings.

If Doctors’ were to tell people about every single finding in every single test or scan, wait times would be ten times longer than they already are. Not everything on a scan is abnormal or needs to be explained or looked into.

There’s a reason you need medical training to do scans and to interpret the results.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5135237-to-be-worried-about-this-even-though-doctors-say-no-action-needed

OP, is this you?

The point was because YOU believe terms are “bad” or “outdated” or “offensive” doesn’t mean they are.

That is what every single person with health anxiety thinks - that there is some sinister underlying cause that the doctors are unable or unwilling to identify.

Ignore the ignorant comments trying to insinuate you have health anxiety.

There are many incompetent medical staff. My ex was a doctor and used to hear some horror stories.

I was once accused of having health anxiety by a trainee GP years ago. This was after they’d discovered a large ovarian cyst which they believed could to be cancerous (they had also told me it was much smaller than what was actually recorded on the initial ultrasound report).

Ended up going to another A&E as I could barely walk. It had ended up rupturing and twisting around my ovary. Was rushed in to surgery.

Sorry you're going through this OP. From now on request a copy of any ultrasound/mri scans and medical reports. Take them to any future appointments with consultants. Hope you get sorted x

It's not lacking empathy to say that health anxiety isn't going to be alleviated by reassurance. It's just a fact. The OP has had intensive investigations and been offered reassurance, but is unable to benefit from it.

I'm sure you're right, they won't be. But it also doesn't seem fair to assume that's the case about a poster, given the lack of any other information.

I will say, as someone who's been through it, and thankfully eventually got a diagnosis, having unexplained symptoms can cause health anxiety in an otherwise psychologically healthy person. Doctors should understand that and respond accordingly.

Because sometimes it is a physical cause.

I tend to agree with you regarding sharing all results. What I think needs to accompany this is a consistent expectation of patients that incidental findings do not need extrapolating to "serious"

Increased information could help this as more people would validate the fact that it is insignificant

I'm a doctor who spends a fair amount of time going through scans with patient.

Scan reports are very long and almost every patient will have at least one incidental, but harmless finding.

I suppose we get so used to seeing reports with liver cysts for example, that we forget this could be worrying to the patient. It is not a case of intentionally withholding information. Why would we do that?

Thanks for the reminder to acknowledge these with the patient.