20 weeks pregnant with my third child (all back to back pregnancies)...for a week now I've had constant shortness of breath even while at rest...its like when I breath in there's a wall and a heavy feeling...came on suddenly while laying in bed and hasnt eased... I've gotten "used" to the breathlessness now and justifying it in my mind especially due to everyone else's reaction...my narc mother thinks it's no big deal and not worth medical attention and just "anxiety"...I know it's not. because I'm not anxious and this has been constant for a week no matter how im feeling and doesnt come and go...
anyway...went to gp after having this for 5 days...she was worried and sent me to emergency requesting a lung ct scan and heart ultrasound...when I went there I was treated like a hypochondriac and a piece of shit...wasn't even referred to maternity at all despite being 20 weeks pregnant...had a 6 hour wait. then was seen. they did a pee test and bloodtest for d dimer which isn't accurate during pregnancy. they did a chest xray which doesn't show clots but did rule out infection so don't have that...yet they wouldn't do the heart ultrasound and were reluctant about the ct scan and kept banging on about "breast cancer" and that ill be more likely to die of breast cancer blah blah. didn't even mention my baby...so I ended up agreeing not to do it...very misogynistic and undermining pig of a doctor comes in and tells me im low risk (although have family history, postpartum and also pregnant as I've had 3 consecutive back to back pregnancies, have had long bouts of untreated anaemia for most my life which could of damaged my heart but whatever)...ends up saying the risk of breast cancer isn't worth it...apparently dying suddenly or in my sleep if this is a clot is preferable to a minute risk of breast cancer in the future...I was discharged at 2am in the morning, woken up and told to leave so they can use the bed...had to hitch-hike home in the cold...feeling disgraced and this was logan hospital at Brisbane Australia. I felt like an idiot and now I feel like dead man walking and feel my life is a gambling but cant do anything. I refuse to go back if they are going to treat me like a hypochondriac and refuse to do the testing... at 20 years old should I just take my chances and accept that I'm a woman and therefore not trustworthy of knowing my health and whether something is wrong...am I less worthy of medical treatment than the 50 year old that was in the room next to me and kept in for 2 days to have her cholesterol meds changed? I feel I'm extremely under reacting tbh. now its been a week and I'm reluctant to go to doctors or emergency for fear of not being taken seriously and sent home again if im still alive by then...in the words of the emergency doctor "we only do ct scans if its a medical emergency and the woman is at risk of actually dying, in a week or 2 if you still THINK you have it go back to the gp"