Western Doctors

Why do y’all keep failing me?

I just scheduled a new appointment with a new doctor because my now ex-doctor “needed” to push my appointment back to December. Keep in mind that I last saw her when she prescribed the Orilissa earlier this year. We purposely made my next appointment months out so I could really experience the Orilissa. Although I stopped taking the Orilissa a couple months after I started taking it, I was excited to see her and share the things that I’ve been trying on my own. I was damn near heartbroken. I want to point out that this doctor was the second one I went to for help.

I started seeing the first doctor while I was in undergrad. I saw her yearly and would always mention the severe menstrual cramps and every time she’d prescribe a new birth control. This lasted about a decade until early 2018 when I went for my yearly. I demanded that she do more. I went prepared with documents of various possibilities that could be causing my pain; I was convinced that it wasn’t just monthly menstrual cramps because the pain was becoming more consistent. I was starting to experience pain during sex and I always felt bloated. I told her that I needed her, she was my doctor and she knew my history. She scheduled an ultrasound. After I waited in the waiting area for 2 hours to hear the results of my ultrasound, we finally went into to her office to talk. She advised that the pain that I’d been feeling was from two pea-sized fibroids. Oh, yeah, I have fibroids, too (like most women)! Anyway, I disputed that it was just fibroids. I understood that fibroids do cause pain for some women, but this was deeper. I knew it and I felt it. This woman looked at me, after I laid out all of the possibilities, Endometriosis being one of them, and said that the pain was in my head. She said this is a similar situation to an amputee feeling or reliving their amputation. She said it was not that serious to do any further testing. Didn’t even provide a recommendation.

Around the time I did the ultrasound, I also advised my primary about the way that I was feeling, she suggested seeing a Gastroenterologist and provided one. I saw them and they “found” nothing wrong with me. Next up, is doctor number three whom was suggest by a girlfriend. Will this one rise to the occasion? I hope so but honestly I’m prepared to take another L. So based on my history with this side of the medical world, I’m jaded and tired.