Firstly I would like to thank you for the information that you post to the board. It is informative, not all relates to myself, but the ones that do give me a starting point.
Secondly I would like to say how sorry I am that you were treated so coldly. I think the majority of sufferers related to your plight with a sinking heart, knowing that kind of rejection and self doubt. The doctors cannot compensate that hurt EVER. On the positive side (As I always try to look) it makes us stronger, so that NO doctor can treat us like that ever again hopefully.
Even with a compassionate specialist I have had for eleven years, I still feel sometimes I should be "stronger".. mud sticks I guess, especially when the pain increases, and you have to go through the humuliating tests all over again. In the thirteen years I have suffered with my varied conditions, only once did those tests show anything. Isn't that bizarre? But everytime they went in, Endometriosis, Adneymyosis, Bowels, Scar Tissue, Adhesions... the tests should be looked at more closely. I refuse to believe with technology these days, they can't give us a more precise test.
Anyway, I hope that you have a Great Holiday Season, Keep up the Great Work Trace xo
-----Original Message----- From: Helen Dynda <olddad66@runestone.net> To: Multiple recipients of list ADHESIONS <adhesions@forum.obgyn.net> Date: Saturday, 23 December 2000 7:27 Subject: A physicians oath....to first do no harm.
At one of my appointments in the early 1970's...it made me very angry when a doctor ( Dr. # 1 ) laughed -- as I tried to explain how much pain I was experiencing!! I have no idea why he laughed -- unless this was his way of telling me that he did not believe my pain was real! I knew right then and there that I would not be scheduling another appointment with him; because his inappropriate response caused me to lose all respect for this doctor!
I was labeled as having psychoneurosis ( that my pain was not real -- that "It was all in my head" ) even to the point of seeing the word "hypochondriac" written in my medical records. For six and one-half years, I had NEVER been prescribed the right kind of medication for chronic pain!! Rather, I had been prescribed muscle relaxants, anxiety medications, and tranquilizers.
I had wrongly assumed that the best doctors would be found at the large clinics...such as the Mayo Clinic. I had been to the Mayo Clinic six times over a span of 26 years. Each time I was told that all of my diagnostic tests were negative or normal. I was disappointed. I felt humiliated. I felt defeated. At my 1993 appointment at the Mayo Clinic the doctor, who examined me, was really nice. After he had completed my examination, he told me that his supervisior ( the of the head of the gastroenterology department ) would be in to see me. His supervisor ( Dr. # 2 ) walked in and in a matter of a few minutes began to verbally attack me -- with alot of anger in his voice...insinuating that there was NO explantion for my complaints of severe pain; because all of my diagnostic tests were negative or normal. He told me I was wasting their time!!
Not only was my chronic pain never validated at the Mayo Clinic; but after my experience with Dr. # 2, I felt like I had been verbally abused!!! What these two doctors ( Dr. # 1 and Dr. # 2 ) did to my emotional well-being at that time was reprehensible -- totally undignified behavior for someone who had taken the oath "to first do no harm."
After having lived in chronic pain for so many years, I began to suspect that even my family and friends did not believe me! Whenever others would ask me how I was feeling -- and I would try to tell them -- I quickly noticed that most of them were really not interested in hearing my answer. At first this bothered me; but not anymore!!
Now, the International Adhesions Society Message Board is the place where I/you can safely express my/our innermost thoughts and feelings -- and I/we will not be made to feel that what I/we have to say is not worth talking about. I am ( We are ) among people who have gone through similar or worse experiences!! The IAS Message Board is the place to retreat to. It is here that I/we will not be harmed!!