Part 3-not letting it lie

[Ruthyb]

I was still feeling very unwell a couple of weeks afterwards and this lump on the right side of my neck was getting bigger by the day. Infact I was feeling so ill and so energyless my hubby had to take time off work to come and help me with the children.

I was in town one day shopping when I suddenly felt extremely unwell, as my doctors was just around the corner I suddenly ahd an impulsive thought that I was going there and I was going to make someone listen to me. In the past few days I had been looking up my symptoms on the internet and it was coming up with allsorts of things that were worrying me.

I walked in the doctors and as soon as the receptionist said "can I help you?" I burst into tears and it just all came out, I said "I am ill and nobody will help me, noone wants to know and I can't carry on like this anymore I want to see someone now". I was making quite a scene and the receptionist asked me if I would like to sit down in the back, I said no I just want somebody to listen to how I feel. She went away and when she came back she said one of the doctors could fit me in for 5 minutes.

I went in and saw the doctor, I explained my symptoms and told him about the lump in my neck and he examined me. Straightaway he said "you have what is called a goiter", and he explained that it was when the thyroid enlarges, sometimes for no reason or sometimes because the thyroid isn't working properely. He was quite shocked that the previous doctor had "diagnosed" me over the phone and he said I needed a thyroid function blood test.

So off I went again with another blood form.

[Shaz]

Hi Ruth, Listening to your story makes me want to burst into tears also. Ive been through the same mill for over a year now, but it certainly helps to know im not alone . Thank you. Hope you are successful in your quest, good luck.

Shaz

[Deifersmum]

Hi Ruth, I've just read your blog and my heart goes out to you, hang in there and keep pushing. It took years for me to get diagnoises and it was a flux when it happened, my doctor went on holiday and one of the partners opened my test results and the rest, as they say, is history. Fingers crossed you get a definitive diagnosis and treatment soon.

Good luck and I'm thinking of you.

Lesley