I have a number of chronic health conditions and had breast cancer 3 years ago.
A week after surgery and once I had had the drain removed I was stood on a touch line watching DS play rugby.
I had a hemithyroidectomy and my consultant laughed when I asked how long before I could return to work. He said that usually people asked how long they should take off work.
I had a number of miscarriages and was back at work after a couple of days, only because I’d had a D&C and couldn’t work for 48hrs.
My breast cancer surgeon talked me into taking time off, not for the physical recovery but because my job is stressful and she said I needed a phycological rather than a physical break.
If people ask me how I am, I’m always “fine”. My nurse always has a giggle when we see a patient who has a list of wishy washy ailments that are self diagnosed. I think she would love to tell them to man up. I prefer not to use my health as an excuse, but just occasionally I get pissed off when I receive a sarcastic comment about working part time and politely apologise explaining why I struggle to work full time nowadays. I don’t look ill or moan about, well maybe to DH occasionally.
However, I have a lot more empathy for people who have endured cancer treatment. Most of the long term side effects are hidden. Most people are grateful to be here and don’t tend to moan about the chronic joint pain while on adjunctive drugs, or the fatigue that seems to knock you sideways after radiotherapy.
I asked a local GP, during the pandemic and the rise in long covid, if she was able to predict which patients would present with it. She rolled her eyes and said yes. They are the same ones that have every side effect on the leaflet that comes with their meds, the worried well who spend half their lives in waiting rooms.
I had one patient, I’m a dentist, who had an A4 folder crammed with her own notes, studies and papers she’d downloaded from the internet and countless letters from the consultants and dentists she had seen.
I came across an article about a niche area of body dysmorphia and realised that she fitted the description like a glove. Unfortunately, treatment has nothing to do with dentistry and because it is a rare psychiatric problem, very difficult to treat. Convincing a patient that she has a specific and severe form of health anxiety is difficult. And with the added risk that there might actually be an organic cause hidden amongst the red herrings, you cannot dismiss their concerns and once you have exhausted the diagnostic tests and procedures there is only one resort, call it fibromyalgia and they move on to the next clinician. I suspect she is still hawking her growing file to dentist/doctors in the hope that there is a magic cure.
Fibromyalgia is an odd condition. It’s widely diagnosed but there are no definitive tests. It’s the conclusion of exhaustive exclusion of every other disease. I have seen a considerable number of patients with a diagnosis but they are all women. Predominantly peri or menopausal, which leads me to think that it has some link with hormone levels and dietary deficiency.
When I hit peri menopause I suffered from muscle and joint pain, tried HRT but nothing worked apart from exercise. I take Anastrazole, a hormone blocker, the muscle and joint pain can be awful but I have a cause. I have found magnesium and vit B12 & D a game changer. I think if I’d gone to my GP I would have been told that it’s fibromyalgia, which it is, but to me it’s a symptom not a whole illness.
Again it boils down to a healthy diet and supplements. Maybe the menopause alters our biochemistry so we develop deficiencies more readily. Whatever it is you can improve many problems with exercise and diet. I force myself to walk the dog daily however much it hurts because I know that I’ll feel the benefit. It is all too easy to give in to lethargy and just rest. I hate that my body can no longer do what I want to but I refuse to just give up and use my medical conditions as a get out. My DH despairs at times when he finds me up a step ladder or loading up the car with rubbish for the tip.
Obviously there are genuine debilitating illnesses where exercise isn’t a solution but not many where your GP will prescribe sitting in a chair or bed 24/7.