Accidental Diagnosis

[cjay]

I've read many stories on this forum and hope you are all finding a way to cope, process and overcome. I'm posting mine in response to all of these not because I think it is the same or similar but simply because of the way in which knowing what others have experienced has helped me for reasons I don't fully understand myself.

I found out i was pregnant in April this year. My relatively new boyfriend (around the year mark) and I had previously discussed children in a - not really for us - kind of way.

I immedietly visited my GP and made an appointment at the local TOP clinic, something that to a degree now fills me with sadness knowing the infertility issues faced. But your decisions are based on your experiences of life so far and the presumption of your situation as you know it.

For over a decade I had visited my GP(s) to try and identify the cause of my abdominal pain. I had tried a variety of pills, been for scans that located ovarian cysts though I was told these would go away by themselves, wheat free diets and more that many more treatments and suggestions most of you will know.

I was so used to severe abdominal pain I did not even realise there was anything seriously wrong when I woke up in agony the night before my appointment.

I knocked back any painkiller I could find like sweets while my flatmate tried to convice me to visit A&E. (I declined, because who wants to make a fuss) When I made it to my appointment I was quickly taken to surgery with a ruptured fallopian tube and had half a pint of blood drained from my abdomin. There is a touch more drama to this story but I'll spare you the gory details.

My point being that before diagnosis we don't always realise the level of pain we deal with on a day to day basis.

The next day when the procedure was explained to me (they removed the tube) they also diagnosed "severe" endometriosis. My kind and communcative doctors explained they were surprised had not been diagnosed previously or at least suspectes.

A diagnosis that now, having read the generous, open and honest posts on this forum I understand the full impact of.

How to explain my astonishment I that it was not diagnosed sooner. I read posts and think, Yes! Thats how you describe that particular pain, I never could find the words. But even more than the initial diagnosis how crushed I am to understand fully the struggles in managing and overcoming the challenges it creates from pain to fertility, and the relief that this pain is not in my head.

I suppose my point in this post is my grattitude at the sharing on this forum and that as now I know what I am dealing with I am better placed to overcome it.

I had given up the fight in finding the cause of my pain and discomfort. I would urge anyone who has a concern that is dismissed by the doctor to keep pushing, an accidental diagnosis is not the ideal.

[Jellybutt]

Good points well made. Although it's not great to get a diagnosis, it's good to finally understand what is actually wrong and how to move forward. The forum makes you realise others face the same problems and 'get it' a lot more than a lot of health professionals.

Thanks for sharing.