Seriously....
The discrimination is almost laughable.
Let me explain;
I have been in the middle of a mastocytosis reactive state for a little over a week, hives, itchy, stomach pains, increase of pain EVERYWHERE, edema and all the other swell things a reaction brings, I decided that whatever I was doing at home was certainly not enough to get me off this train and decided to go to the ER for fluids and a stop to this mess. This is the order; saline, epi, benedryl, pain control, solumedrol and Atarax. Really when it comes down to it, in order to get me out of a bad reaction, this is what I need. It is in my records, there is no surprise.
Now the thing with these mast attacks is that they come with some pretty intense stomach pain, it isn't a gassy pain, it is pain from inflammation. Usually the steroid helps that right away.
The thing with masto people, is that we can not tolerate a lot of meds when we are in a flair, that is why there is a standing order of safe meds.
Ofcourse, I get Dr. Cowboy who thinks he knows better. He pretty much refused everything I should have gotten. Decadron instead of solumedrol, (which I denied, politely explaining to the nurse I can not take that, it makes me crazy) the Dr initially refused saline as well...THIS is one of the most important of treatment. My mast cells have turned to soup and need to be rehydrated and simply drinking water is not going to work, It took me an hour of politely asking to be hydrated,
This time, the stomach pains were a little different than they had been in the past, in fact the pain had been relentless for over a week, night-day-all the time. By the time I went to the hospital my pain was at defcom 6. Now, Dr. Cowboy did treat my pain, that is not the problem.....but what he also did was assumed my stomach and chest pain was the result of anxiety. He ended up snowing me with atavan and sent me on my way.
Two days later I am BACK in the hospital with intense stomach and chest pain, after it never went away at all.
The Dr I got this time was awesome. I did not present with masto symptoms but with relentless stomach/chest pains that would not go away no matter what I did. So he did a full heart workup (I was tachycardic) and ordered an ultrasound. Now, because I have been experiencing stomach pain, my PCP doc had ordered a couple of tests of which I am waiting for the date to come around. The ER doc saw that....he called that a clue.
The results of my ultrasound was exactly what most of us thought; my gall bladder needs to be removed.
No, my uterus was not floating causing me to be hysterical.....the pain was real.
Of course I have access to my medical records and it really pissed me off when I read what Dr Cowboy wrote...
normal mood/affect, alert, no motor deficits, oriented x 3
But yet
Patient was given Benadryl for mild pain epinephrine and Solu-Medrol. Her skin lesions cleared she appeared much better. But her anxiety
persisted. She was given some morphine for pain, but finally required some IV Ativan to terminate her symptoms. I will give her a prescription for some Atarax 10 mg every 8 hours as needed for itching. I also gave her a prescription for some Ativan
Also written on final diagnoses; Allergic reaction/Anxiety NOS (Not Otherwise Specified)
At NO point in time were my stomach symptoms terminated. At no point in time did I exhibit any outward signs of anxiety, in fact I was quite pleasant despite the fact Dr Cowboy refused the orders written in my chart, He also refused to take any blood work, I think the guy just wanted to knock me out..of course my symptoms terminated...I WAS IN A FUCKING COMA.
The next visit two days later was a direct result of the discrimination the old Dr held. For us woman, our pain is very often contributed to anxiety, more poor medicine. This is not something I am making up, there have been numerous studies to back up my anecdotal evidence and it really sucks. Thing is, female Dr's are really no better, in fact they are often worse.
This also costs money, with two trips to the ER, that is a $300 copay that could have been $150, my insurance will now have to pay out double. Imagine how much money that could be saved on just this one thing alone....stop the damn discrimination and treat everyone-with and without a penis the same.
Another thing I learned during the second visit is that I am now allergic to the dye used when doing a CT scan....while I did not initially present with a masto crisis, I ended up with one and you know what...the doc was awesome. Followed the written order to a T..made pretty quick work of it,
While all the medical professionals I came into contact with were very respectful and performed their job well, we can not ignore that discrimination based on sex happens all the time in medicine, and it has to stop. In no way am I saying Dr Cowboy is a terrible physician, but he dropped the ball on my case and caused more pain that should have been caused. And now, with anxiety as an initial diagnoses; well, this will not be the last time I am not taken seriously.
From this point, I am not sure how I am going to handle this, I feel that the powers that be at the hospital need to be aware of what happened, but I in no way want to be a blight on the physicians record, I just want the blight he put on mine taken off. He made a mistake and I will be damned if I am the one who is going to pay for it, think is is bad being female in the medical world? Try having a mental illness......
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