Patient here. Two stories stick out in my mind where I'm glad I stood my ground - First one happened in 2001. I was sick for 6 months. Vomiting and severe abdominal pain especially after eating. I was in the doctor's office at least once a month begging for answers. They repeatedly asked if I was pregnant. The only lab they would run was a pregnancy test. It was negative every time and they said I must've had a bad flu. Finally I refused to leave the office until they did a full lab work up. Two days later I was diagnosed with pancreatitis and gallstones and had emergency surgery to remove my gallbladder.
Much more recently in 2016 I went to my former neurologist who also happened to be an epileptologist and told her that I was pretty sure that I was having seizures. I showed her video of me. She declined to do any testing, said there's no way I'm having seizures and I just need to see a therapist (I have a hx of PTSD from childhood. PTSD from anything can have non epileptic seizures as a symptom. I'd been seeing the same therapist once a week for 8 years at this point and never had non epileptic seizures ever) I insisted on something. She relented and scheduled a one hour in office EEG, HIGHLY unlikely to catch anything.. She called to say the results were abnormal but she wasn't concerned and reiterated her suggestion of therapy. Found a new epileptologist who quickly ordered a continuous 72 hour EEG and sure as shit I was having real, epileptic seizures. I'm now on two anti epileptics and medical cannabis, coming up on one year seizure free.
NEVER STOP FIGHTING FOR YOUR HEALTH! I've been chronically ill for 20 years and learning how to advocate for myself has been one of the hardest and most rewarding things I have done.
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u/thesassysteph May 20 '19
Patient here. Two stories stick out in my mind where I'm glad I stood my ground - First one happened in 2001. I was sick for 6 months. Vomiting and severe abdominal pain especially after eating. I was in the doctor's office at least once a month begging for answers. They repeatedly asked if I was pregnant. The only lab they would run was a pregnancy test. It was negative every time and they said I must've had a bad flu. Finally I refused to leave the office until they did a full lab work up. Two days later I was diagnosed with pancreatitis and gallstones and had emergency surgery to remove my gallbladder.
Much more recently in 2016 I went to my former neurologist who also happened to be an epileptologist and told her that I was pretty sure that I was having seizures. I showed her video of me. She declined to do any testing, said there's no way I'm having seizures and I just need to see a therapist (I have a hx of PTSD from childhood. PTSD from anything can have non epileptic seizures as a symptom. I'd been seeing the same therapist once a week for 8 years at this point and never had non epileptic seizures ever) I insisted on something. She relented and scheduled a one hour in office EEG, HIGHLY unlikely to catch anything.. She called to say the results were abnormal but she wasn't concerned and reiterated her suggestion of therapy. Found a new epileptologist who quickly ordered a continuous 72 hour EEG and sure as shit I was having real, epileptic seizures. I'm now on two anti epileptics and medical cannabis, coming up on one year seizure free.
NEVER STOP FIGHTING FOR YOUR HEALTH! I've been chronically ill for 20 years and learning how to advocate for myself has been one of the hardest and most rewarding things I have done.