To still be annoyed that nobody listened to me?

[gallgal]

(Have name changed as am regular poster)

I've spent the last 18 months in pain. It started as a niggle in my right shoulder. Then it felt like bad heartburn right underneath my right boob. It would wax and wane but always be there to some extent.

Then I started having diarrhoea every day. Several times a day.

I went to the GP a total of nine times in the last 18 months. I pointed directly at the area it hurt. I described the yellow diarrhoea.

I have PTSD and severe anxiety so I was upset and agitated in some of these appointments. I still was able to say where the pain was and how bad it was.

Eight times I was sent away. I was told 'You have severe anxiety, you need to seek treatment for that'. I was referred to a psychiatrist.

One GP finally sent me for a scan 'to put your mind at rest' and after a three month wait I had it.

My gallbladder is packed with stones. It's completely fucked.

I have been in actual agony and nobody listened. AIBU to be a bit furious about this still? I know it doesn't help me recover but this could've been picked up a year ago!

There was a large thread here a while ago about how women dont get listened to when talking about their health.

I've had very similar issues. Had gallbladder attacks, scan showed stones and was put on a pathway to surgery. Until I had to go back to one GP who decided that it was actually IBS, cancelled the whole thing and that was that. Haven't had a full attack since so no point going back and complain further. Also had terrible joint pain flares over the last few years, nothing 'normal' for an otherwise fairly healthy 30 year old but leaves me feeling about 90 some days. Apparently this is totally normal 'after having children' though. I've given up, no one will listen unless you're basically on your deathbed it seems.

I am so angry that I was made to believe I was mentally ill when I was in actual agony!

Yeah me too. 5 years of increasing womb burning pain dismissed as psychological / nhs scans found nothing. Finally a foreign private doctor picked up the post-childbirth infection with routine tests, but unfortunately not in time to avoid permanent damage / loss of fertility. All I needed was some flipping standard antibiotics that I now know are prescribed in US/Europe as standard precaution after the kind of childbirth experience I had.

Unfortunately the nhs has been under pressure for too long and we no longer have competent medical care in many areas. If anyone reads this with a suspected medical problem then please seek medical advice from outside the nhs and preferably outside uk.

I think doctors sometimes think too much in terms of likelihood’s and percentages rather than the actual individual human being in front of them asking for help. There are far too many stories like this about for my liking. YANBU.

I sat in a psychiatrist's office and told them 'I need your help. I am convinced I have something wrong with me here (pointing at gallbladder) and I can't stop the intrusive thoughts'

Sent away with another anxiety medication.

I'm on three different anxiety medications.

I needed PAINKILLERS.

I'm not surprised that you're angry, you have been treated appallingly.
I was told for 18 months that my attacks of pain and other symptoms sounded like gallstones but couldn't possibly be as I was too young and too thin. I was told it was everything from anxiety, pnd to attention seeking. I was in a dreadful state by the time they did operate and suffered all sorts of complications. I hope you recover quickly, best of luck

That's just awful treatment & completely unacceptable. At the very least you should put in a complaint to the Practice Manager.

I had similar with intermittently passing blood my GP ignored & ignored as I have other conditions. Finally I saw someone else whilst she was away. Got colonoscopy & 2 pre cancerous polyps found. I wrote to practice & will never see her again.

YANBU. I wonder whether gallstones is hard to diagnose? I had my first attack when I was three months pregnant (and eventually my gallbladder was taken out when baby was six weeks old). For each attack, the pain was so bad I was hospitalised. Countless doctors, over the initial few weeks, tried to work out what was going on (I recall one doctor doing an internal even though I had clearly stated that the issue felt 'digestive').

After desperate Googling over the weeks, it was only when I said to one of them, "do you think it could be gallstones?" that they investigated that possibility and, as it turns out, it was indeed gallstones.

Good luck with your recovery; the pain is indescribable. Are you having your gallbladder removed soon?

I am paying for it to be removed, because as it isn't infected I have been told it could take up to six months on the NHS. I am not prepared to be in pain for another six months.

Seems to be the way with gall bladder issues. GF had GB issues after birth of daughter. I definitley got the impression that it was seen as a non emergent "womens problem" and as such the consultant wouldnt allow an operation. Took over a year to get the GB removed. It was a daily nightmare!

YANBU - I'm so sorry to hear this. I would make a complaint if I were you. They need to learn from this. You have suffered all that time both physically and mentally. You have been put on more medication than you should have been and left in unnecessary pain.
Good luck with your operation, I hope you will soon feel well again.

www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/news-item/why-do-people-with-mental-ill-health-die-younger-and-what-can-we-do-about-it

People with MH problems have a significantly shorter life expectancy than those without. I believe a large part of this is due to physical health practitioners ascribing symptoms to MH conditions, mainly due to a (probably) unconscious prejudice.

I've experienced this throughout pregnancy where over and over again I've been told that "it's probably just your hormones" and "it's just your anxiety" and "this is all very normal" - when it's actually been very clear and obvious symptoms of common conditions, and it took months longer to access treatment than it should have, because GPs and midwives just wouldn't listen to me. I've lost a lot of respect for, and trust in, the medical profession over the last few months. And I'm university-educated, reasonably articulate and I work in the NHS. I dread to think what kind of care I might have (not) received if I was receiving treatment for, say, psychotic illness, or less able to advocate for myself in other ways.

Just to clarify, OP, I'm not saying that you do have a mental illness, but that your treatment has been typical of those with a diagnosis of some kind.

It's ok @Tableclothing - I do have a mental illness. You're right. Also a physical one!

That's terrible but sadly very common. I was reading a blog by a woman who had a stroke. When she was first taken to hospital the staff were convinced it was an anxiety attack and were really dismissive. When they realised it was actually a stroke they started treating her with respect.

It's like a lot of medical staff don't realise that it is possible to have a MH problem and a physical problem at the same time.

Sadly, this doesn't surprise me. I went to my Doctors many times over a period of 2 years complaining of very bad joint pain and swelling. One time I was told it was strained muscles, but every other time I was told it was tendonitis, which I kept questioning as at times I could barely walk or use my hands.

The last time I went, I was told the same, but really took issue with them and eventually I got a blood test done. Turned out I had severe Rheumatoid Arthritis which was madly out of control and I'm obviously stuck with it for life as it's incurable and it's barely under control now.

I really feel for you, GPs need to listen to their patients, we aren't stupid.

It took ten years for me to be diagnosed with my autoimmune disease- because I had been diagnosed with depression and anxiety in the past. I kept getting told it was psychosomatic - one consultant actually said to me 'I don't know why your GP wasted my time'...

I could have died if I had developed any of the serious complications. Luckily, I changed practices and got a good GP who actually listened.

@smemorata she should have been treated with respect from the outset but sadly it doesn’t work like that :-(

@SquareAsABlock
How can a GP block surgery as I imagine if you had scans you would have been under a consultant in a hospital. Can a GP override a consultant's diagnosis?

I would definitely be complaining about that

I was admitted to hospital in October with inflamed gallbladder. Stayed in hospital for 1 week, off work a further 2 weeks. Now waiting for operation to remove. To be honest the pain doesn't come that often but when it does I need to throw up at once and it seems to be okay then. Hoping to have my operation soon but am aware that I will have to wait 6 months also.

By the way, mine was diagnosed by the paramedic!!!

It shouldn't be hard to diagnose - I had all the classic symptoms as well as all 5 F's (female, fair, forties, fertile, fat!) and it STILL took nearly two years of wrong diagnoses and agony. Yanbu at all, it's atrocious how our suffering is minimised. I ended up paying to have it out too. Then at least they have to listen. Sigh.

Contact your local PALS

This is the sort of stuff they should be working on.

@Celticrose, there was a mix up in which consultant I had to see to discuss surgery. The consultant I did see told me to go back to my GP and get the correct referral. Unfortunately I had to see a different one from the one who had been dealing with my diagnosis, and he binned the whole thing and put me on IBS medication .

It's awful. I was dismissed as having 'anxiety' for years - bowel problems, severe unexplained anaemia, dizziness, chronic migraines. Eventually diagnosed with severe ulcerative colitis, but only after I nearly died of dehydration - I had to be admitted as an emergency and the consultant told me I was on the verge of multiple organ shutdown. My entire large intestine was riddled with ulcers right through the bowel wall, with literally not a millimetre of normal unaffected tissue (I was quite proud of it - they sent for students during my colonoscopy because it was so spectacularly bad!). I came within a whisker of ending up with a colostomy, all because it had gone untreated for so long. 'Anxiety' my arse.