Chapter 22: When it's not endo

I spent Valentine's Day night at our local urgent care. I was surprised at what a huge part my endometriosis diagnosis played in my interactions with the medical staff. Now that I've had time to process everything that happened, I want to share it here.

I had a super busy day between continuing legal education classes and other errands. Around 4 pm... it started- stabbing abdominal pains, diarrhea, sweating, and general misery. The stabbing pains were higher in my abdomen than my usual period cramps (it was also day 7 of my period), but they were so intense. They came in waves and I had to lean on a table for support when they came.

Eventually I decided to go get checked out at the local urgent care. My wonderful friend Chelsea met me there (so sorry to her husband who I'm sure would have preferred she spend Valentine's Day night with him). After a urine and blood test, they did a CAT scan. Everything came back fairly normal, so the doctor concluded that it was a stomach virus. The wonderful nurse pulls me aside and basically said that she didn't think that the doctor was fully listening to her or me and that I should go to my primary because she thought there was more going on. Doctors not listening to me? Sounds familiar. I was not surprised at all.

They wouldn't let Chelsea in to sit with me until after the doctor had his first consult with me. This was such bullshit because I was nervous and in and I could have used some support. He saw the excision surgery scars and asked what they were from. When I told him I had endo surgery in October he tried to write everything off as endo. Did he ask if it feels how a typical endo flare up feels? No. Did he ask what symptoms I've had in the past from endo? Nope? Scars on the stomach, abdominal pain, it must be endo. I feel like as soon as he realized that I was an endo patient, he kind of phoned in a diagnosis. He missed that I had a UTI. He literally looked at my urine test results and just noted that I wasn't pregnant, while missing the glaring UTI results in his hand. The nurse mentioned it and he dismissed it.

It makes me wonder: would I have gotten better and more thorough care if I didn't have a chronic condition... and such a misunderstood one at that? If all things were equal and another patient came in the with the same symptoms but didn't have endometriosis, what would the diagnosis have been? Being alone in that room I really had to advocate for myself. He seemed pretty put out that I was adamant that this wasn't an endo flare up. I've been living with endometriosis for 17 years. I know my body and I know what a flare feels like. I also probably know more about endometriosis than he does. I know that the ER couldn't help with an endo flare up and I wouldn't have wasted the time and money and flu exposure if that's what it was.

It's just so frustrating. It took years for me to get diagnosed with endo and to have the symptoms taken seriously. Is it going to be blamed for the cause of everything now? I am grateful for my diagnosis but I don't want to go from one extreme to another, especially if it means missing things that need treatment. Luckily in this case I went to my primary the following Monday and she gave me UTI meds. However, I could have been on the right medicine all weekend instead of suffering. This whole situation was a disheartening and frustrating. I've been trying to keep a positive attitude about my endo journey, but this was definitely a setback in that regard.