Hello!
Just shuffling in to join your ranks if that's ok. I live in the rural Highlands and went down to my 'local hospital' that's 2 and half hours away on Wednesday for a large polyp removal and a mirena coil under general anaesthetic to stop the absolutely horrendous periods I've had for at least 6 years.
That didn't happen and ended up with a wee two night holiday on the Costa del NHS. Instead the theatre had to page the gynaecology oncologist and rethink next steps. Polyp has now been excised but in fact was a nasty 6cm gremlin who's been put off for urgent review - I've got an oncology appointment on Wednesday.
Also had an iron transfusion and MRIs done to see what else was going on as they couldn't see what they wanted to with the camera. They've also launched an urgent review of how I've been treated leading up to this as the ball has been really dropped too often.
So as Bill Nightly said in Love Actually 'Fuck wank bugger shitting arse head and hole!'.
I'm not overly surprised by what's come out of this. I've been back and forth to gynae for 6 years now initially with madly irregular heavy heavy periods and secondary infertility. It hasn't helped my case with being a plus sized lady with long time pcos diagnosis. The initial consultant was an absolute wanksplat who disbelieved the pcos diagnosis and wanted reassessed and even offered the helpful advice that a psychiatrist could be more helpful to me.
Anyway, they decided that they would wait and see, put me to 6 monthly reviews and see if getting weight off would help. Seemed to fall off the radar for a while but have an autistic daughter and this all fell during her initial diagnosis period and horrendous upheaval at home.
Nov 2019 - heavy clots not unusual in periods for me but literally haemorrhaged on my bathroom floor. Sick, shaky, chills. Absolutely spontaneous as well. Slight pressured cramp then it happened. GP prescribed meds to stop bleeding and re-referred to gynae.
Further reoccurrences of this is lockdown and since to varying degrees.
Feb 2022. Saw a different consultant. He actually heard me and started again with 'dildo cam', and pelvic scans and referred for a hycosy.
August 2022. Another spontaneous haemorrhage - worst to date. Have attached a screenshot of a post to a women's health group. Had phoned the GP on the 24th. Offered a phone appointment on the 25th which was a surgery half day which didn't happen. Then phoned out of hours who dismissed me and said Id had a GP appointment that day so what was the issue? Finally got hold of the sister practice to ours who put urgent meds to the pharmacy to help. Followed up with the practice manager who found that the GP had decided that the appointment wasn't necessary and had instead asked receptionist to contact gynae and check I was still on waiting list. Formal complaint went in for that.
Feb 2023. Seen in the hospital 2 and a half hours away for hycosy and Mirena coil. Very painful trying to get the speculum in. Consultant started flushing with water and triggered another episode of haemorrhaging. Couldn't get a proper look as there was what she thought was a large polyp blocking my cervix which was too large to remove with her tools. Urgent referral to try the removal and fit the coil under general. Drive the two and a half hours home with the car covered in inco sheets to protect the seats from the volume of blood.
I'm not surprised but I'm fucking angry. If they'd just listened to me. I'm fat not stupid.
Male gynaes are the worst. No uterus should mean no opinion.
So many other things have been dismissed. High pulse rate every time it's been taken over the last few years - nobody associated it with iron deficiency and chronic anaemia. Just those old classics 'ooh you're a bit anxious, have a nice cup of tea and a hot bath when you get home'.
Night sweats - oh well that'll be because your hormones are all over the place.
Grr.
Anyway, also to make things really fun, I turned 40 at the end of last year. Just before my birthday, I found out my husband had been sleeping with random strangers (crossdressing men at that). He's also an alcoholic. And we live 1000 miles away from my family in the middle of all his geriatric family. Our tween is autistic and I'm her primary carer. He works away month on, month off. I'm on the housing list for council housing expecting to be iny own place in the next few months latest.
So fucccckkkk.
Anyway. He's been told what's going on and went to his first AA meeting last night. My tween might get the Dad they deserve out of all of this so here's hoping. He's offered me support as a friend too and I've said I'll accept it.
So with apologies for the essay, Hi. 🙂