When Doctors Failed Me

In this day and age, we are raised to believe that doctors can and will diagnose and heal us. We are taught that when we are sick you go to the doctor and they can easily figure out what is wrong with you. Then, they prescribe medications to fix the problem and life goes back to normal.

One Day Before Little Bear was Due

As an adult, I learned that this is not always true. My first experience of this side of health care came when I was pregnant. I was newly married and living across the country from my family. The day I found out I was pregnant was also the first day I had “morning sickness.” For me, morning sickness was a lot more than normal people. When I say constant, I mean severe and extreme. The first time I went to the Urgent Care/Emergency Room on base, they asked how many times I had thrown up. I didn’t have an answer for that. I had not been counting. I just knew I was extremely dehydrated. After getting fluids I felt somewhat better, but nausea did not really abate.

Almost 15 weeks pregnant and spending a week in the hospital

The next day, I was sick as a dog again. After my first trip to the hospital, I started counting how many times I threw up each day. I usually gave up somewhere around 80. I made trips to the ER for IV fluids and IV nausea medicine multiple times a week for the first half of pregnancy. The staff recognized me when I walked in the door. My doctor’s appointments always went a little like this….
Doctor: “How are you feeling?”
Me: “Horrible, I am still throwing up all the time and needing IV fluids.”
Doctor: “Eat saltines in the morning before you get up and make homemade chicken soup for dinner.”
Me: “I wish any of those would stay down.”
Unfortunately, it took nearly 14 weeks before I was diagnosed with Hyperemesis Gravidarum which lingered my entire pregnancy.

January 2011 (About the time Gastroparesis Symptoms Began)

My first taste of medicine with a doctor who did not listen or care to find the cause or real answers for my problems was terrifying. It was just a trial run for what I would go through with later medical issues and doctors who did not seem to care about my well being.

The second time that I had this issue was starting in the fall of 2010. I had several stomach bugs that fall and winter and nausea and vomiting never went away. At the time I was going to the doctor on base and their response was always it must be stress or anxiety. It wasn’t. When tests came back normal they sent me to a gastroenterologist, also on base. They did numerous tests as well and found nothing so they continued to think it was stress. When I told them it was not stress, they asked if I had an eating disorder. I knew it was not that either, but they persisted with their stress or eating disorder ideas. After 15 months, moving and getting a whole new team of doctors, I was diagnosed with gastroparesis.   

April 2012 (After diagnosis and new medications for GP)

So what do you do when you are sick and your doctors are not helping you? You push onward. You advocate for yourself. If you cannot advocate for yourself, find a friend or relative that can help you fight. There were days when all I wanted to do was cry because I was tired of being ignored. There were days when I broke down in tears in the ER or the doctor’s office. There were also days when my husband had to be my voice because I was too sick and tired to speak up for myself.  You know your body better than your doctor does. You know how you feel and you know what is normal for you. If I had not kept fighting, I would never have gotten diagnosed with Hyperemesis Gravidarum or Gastroparesis. Keep up the fight! Get the answers and the help you need.