Reading the article about Rachel’s ovarian cyst which was undermined, touched me so greatly because I first handedly encountered this mistreatment from several doctors within the last three months alone. Just thinking about it makes me so angry. In September I was hospitalized for this internal bleeding problem, thankfully not anything ovarian cysts related. I’ve been going back and forth between hospitals and specialty doctors but no one seems to know what the cause of my bleeding is or anything about it. At this point, I think I know more about my problem than any good doctor would, because it’s simply my body. I have been seen by horrible doctors, both male and female. The worst was my first encounter at LIJ in the ET. I went in for abdominal pain and prolonged bleeding issues. The wait was ridiculously long, but I expected nothing less. I was seen by this white, middle age man, maybe late 30s if anything, who did not have time for my minuscule situation. He did not physically examine me, he just talked to me. He asked me what the issue was and after I explained he said there was nothing he could do and that my problem wasn’t considered an emergency because the amount of blood loss I was experiencing wasn’t severe (mind you, he didn’t examine me or anything to know how much blood loss I was experiencing, no cat scans nothing). He told me he understand it’s frustrating because I am a “young girl” who probably has a boyfriend…basically implying that hey you’re young, you have a boyfriend, you should be having sex. So yes, I came to the ER because I was so frustrated that I couldn’t have sex and please my boyfriend or please myself, not because I was in pain or anything. I told him I waited three hours to see a doctor and you spent less than 20 mins just talking to me, after I said this he choose to prescribe medication for me but I told him he didn’t examine me and he doesn’t think I have a problem so why now, after I become so upset, you choose to give me medication? He said this medication was used to stop blood shot wounds and kept talking about how he’s a trauma doctor and kept undermining my miniscule situation… I continue taking them that night and then the next morning I wake up in a literal bloody mess. I felt terrible, I was in pain and bleeding from too many places I shouldn’t have been bleeding from. My family took me to another ER where I was taken in with a fever of 103, the medication the doctor gave me did the total opposite of what it was supposed to do, instead of stopping the bleeding, it caused me to bleed more. This hospital ran many tests on me and treated me for my fever and pain, when I left I felt so much better. They told me to see many specialty doctors which I did, but they didn’t find anything either. One doctor I even saw, told me she couldn’t help me and didn’t understand why they referred me to her because my problem isn’t in her field. I tried explaining to both male and female doctors that I know my body better than they do, I know whats best for myself. But of course they refuse to listen, I told a doctor I didn’t feel comfortable taking a certain medication and she told me she didn’t feel comfortable prescribing anything else, so I HAD to take that medication because I needed something, anything. Its horrible that patient care doesn’t come first anymore. As long as the provider is comfortable that’s all that matters, not what the patient wants. Rachels situation wasn’t seen as “an emergency” even though her pain level was unbearable, my situation right now isn’t seen as an emergency according to the lady I spoke to yesterday, but I found myself telling her that right now it may not be an emergency but if I don’t take my medication it will become one. Doctors only care about emergencies which is wrong, they have to work on learning how to prevent things from becoming emergencies and dealing with the situation they are presented with. Why wait until something is wrong to try to help?
The article said “Women are likely to be treated less aggressively until they prove that they are as sick as male patients” and I disagree with this. We have to stop comparing everything to that of a man. I was mistreated by a man, but I cant say he wouldn’t mistreat a man because I simply don’t know that. Every situation is different, in the beginning of the year I was taken to the ER because I was vomiting nonstop, when I was taken in it was busy, I was crying and felt horrible, my sister kept telling the nurses to attend to me but she said that it has people in here who were sicker than I was, this made me feel insane. How could she compare my pain to someone else’s? Far too many health care providers use this line, like they did with Rachel. Everyone feels pain differently and to say someone is sicker than someone else isn’t the point. The point is, is that everyone is there in the ER not by choice, but because they simply do not feel well.
