It sucks to be sick but not for the reasons you might think

Have you realized that when you are overweight doctors do not take your medical concerns seriously? I feel like I have been pooped on and pooped at for the past 2 years and today it continued. I moved overseas about 4 years ago and shortly there after what was a slightly annoying but manageable myofascial condition increased to become a full blown issue. I was now exhausted all the time, I was in pain so much pain and it got worse each year.

I saw various GP's, nutritionists, naturopaths. I bought vitamins and potions. I got told to exercise more, get some rest, lose some weight so I tried and marginally succeeded but the pain and everything else got worse. Then I paid out of pocket for specialists and oh my I entered the wonderful world of testing. At my calculation I spent about $9100 in 2014 but I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and palindromic rheumatism. Woohoo!! Except no one could explain the tingling in my body, the sensation of things crawling over my skin, the feeling of sharp bites and the feeling of having a sunburn when I didn't. There was nothing on my skin. Nothing!. Cue the dermatologist and his tests. Who when he found nothing medically obvious like cancer gave up and told me I was crazy aka "I believe ma'am this is psychosomatic. Perhaps some exercise? Here is this antidepressant"


So I enter 2015 with this nonsense and now I am not sleeping much anymore. Thanks to Dr. Google I have decided I have MS or something similar so I book myself a neurologist appt determined this is the year! Answers and solutions will come THIS year. She glances at the other doctors letter and labs and then right away starts on about my weight. Yes yes I know it is the elephant in the room (ha ha) Can. Miss. The. Fat. But that is not why I was there. I leave there having paid $550 and been told to cut my food intake by 70%, that my tracking, weighing and measuring that I have been doing here is useless and I will regain it if I do that. Just cut everything by 70%, exercise till I pant and oh come back in 3 weeks and make sure I lose 2lbs a week. Censors prohibit me from posting what I want to say. Then to add to the bird poop on my head today a random stranger. A perfectly random stranger walks up to me at the train station as I sat working on my laptop and told me she had gastric bypass 10yrs ago and I should really look into it.

So I came home and went for a walk and cried and walked and since I have decided not to eat my feelings today decided to *kitten* about it instead.

Thanks for listening :-)

Replies

  • EmergingDawn
    EmergingDawn Posts: 18 Member
    Heh the censors stared out the B word love it! It produced first real smile of the day :D
  • tammyc226
    tammyc226 Posts: 158 Member
    oh man that sucks, sorry to hear about the awful time your having, I hope you find someone real soon that takes you seriously.
  • I'm a random stranger saying I can't imagine what you're going through and I hope it gets better soon for you
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  • MalineVD
    MalineVD Posts: 649 Member
    It's all about having the right doctor where you feel comfortable with and whom you can trust..
    I've had a similar story. Years of always ending up in the hospital due to serious infections in my stomach etc. Eventually not getting my period for almost a year.. Nobody took me serious and said it was "stress". Then after years I went to a new doctor who immediatly felt I was at a breaking point after years of pain and nobody who would listen. He started tracking everything down with me and in the end it turned out that I can't eat gluten and because of that I destroyed my intestines and I can't adopt vitamins out of food anymore, so I'm constantly lacking them, which contributes to the awful feeling I constantly had.
    I quit gluten, started having serious amounts of extra vitamins and after a month I got my period again, no more stomach pain, less tired etc etc.

    Find someone you can trust. Listen to people and see if they have a very likeable doctor who treats his patients as people, not as numbers!

    Good luck!
    xx
  • ACrowsDay
    ACrowsDay Posts: 66 Member
    So sorry to hear all your problems...get mad! (I think your there!) I'd had similar problems. I got on the computer and did my own research! The doctors had me on cholesterol meds, reflex meds and I just kept getting sicker! My body hurt all over. Weight does aggravate the problems. When I lost just 15 pounds I couldn't believe how much better I felt. Try and find a doctor that will listen. There are good ones out there. Be- friend me if you like!{HUGS} Jen
  • Alluminati
    Alluminati Posts: 6,208 Member
    So why not just try to lose weight and see what happens?
  • leena31
    leena31 Posts: 14 Member
    What you wrote sounds so familiar. I have those symptoms and found that I have peripheral neuropathy (waiting to be tested for small fiber neuropathy). I went to many doctors over the years and in 2013 I started to get muscle stiffness and ms ck Levels were high. Got an mri to See if I had polymyositis, but found nerve damage instead. All of the neurological tests that I had were normal except the EMG test. That is usually the case with small fiber neuropathy. It can only be diagnosed by skin biopsy.
  • EmergingDawn
    EmergingDawn Posts: 18 Member
    OdesAngel wrote: »
    So why not just try to lose weight and see what happens?
    I am trying very hard to but it would be really nice when you are shelling out $250-550 to sit in someone's office that is supposed to be an expert in their field that they look you in the eye and treat you with some respect. I can handle them saying to me "losing weight might help you feel better BUT I know your issues are real and I am going to make every effort to get to the bottom of it and find a resolution for you".