"Most of us are the experts in our own bodies"

As someone who lives with a number of conditions, I know my body better than anyone. My health is complex. There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t live with the symptoms. 

Being pretty much told at my Surgical Outpatient appointment that I was imagining something made me feel really anxious. But it also made me realise that what I had heard about women of menopausal age being made to feel like they were making stuff up is absolutely true. No it’s not in my head. I haven’t imagined a great big lump. I haven’t imagined that it continues to grow. I haven’t imagined that it’s uncomfortable. Those things are all true.  To say I was disappointed in the approach of the doctor today is an understatement. It has left me seething. The only positive I can take away is that I’ve been referred for diagnostic testing. But even then I was made to feel like it was unnecessary. 

Here’s a plea. If you are actually serious about Realistic Medicine, trust your patients please.  Most of us are the experts in our own bodies, not the medics who dip in and out of our journeys. I’m not a timewaster or a hypochondriac. What I am though is terrified that I’ve got something seriously wrong with me and I’m not being heard.