I am a healthy (don't drink, don't smoke, no drugs) 30 year old woman with a history of very very mild self-diagnosed IBS around menstruation time. The only sickness I have had in my life is a kidney infection, a bout of campylobacter food poisoning in 2012 and norovirus last year. Recovered from all quickly.
It is worth mentioning before I start (don’t want it to get lost in the main text) I have had bloods taken twice, urine three times and stool checked in lab. All clear. Pelvic ultrasound all clear. Now awaiting x-ray results.
3 weeks ago, I was told by my Doctor to go to A&E with suspected appendix pains in my lower right hand side. It wasn’t my appendix, but was told it could be diverticulitis. I was given antibiotics which didn’t agree with me (nausea, tremor) and was advised to stop taking them. After this, I had persistent nausea and developed a stitch-like pain in my lower right hand side (where my original pain started the first time I went to A&E). But, the pain was different this time, more of a pinching, stabbing pain.
I visited the out-of-hours doctor with severe nausea and just general panic over what was wrong with me. He told me he thought it could be an ovarian cyst and sent me back to A&E, very angry that they had told me I had diverticulitis, 'ridiculous and he'd never seen it in a healthy 30 year old woman'. I was checked by both a surgical doctor and a gynae doctor who both said nothing was wrong with me - i was healthy. I didn't feel it - I had to be pushed into a&e in a wheelchair. I was sent home with anti-nausea drug metoclopramide and codeine, and was told that 30% of stomach aches ‘’just disappear’’. Took them for about a week and a half, felt no different besides being a codeine zombie.
I went privately for a pelvic ultrasound to settle the score, found out I had polycystic ovaries (not really bad and no cysts) so problems there, so it is NOT a gynae problem. I'm also not anxious about this problem.
By week 2 I was still worried, still had the pinching in my side, but the main thing affecting me by this point was my anxiety due to numerous misdiagnoses or lack of knowing what was wrong. I went to my Doctor who checked my urine, he told me I had a mild UTI and gave me trimethoprim for it. It gave me horrible D but I finished the course and felt no different to before.
So, I returned to the doctor who told me this time that I probably had a nasty virus which could potentially take up to 6 weeks to go away. He said that I probably felt ill because I am usually healthy. He also told me to have my anxiety levels sorted out and I could be suffering from IBS – ‘’take some buscopan’’ he said. I wish Buscopan made me less anxious. I’m not keen on taking medication for anxiety as my brother takes it and has had many, many adverse reactions to many types.
Now, I have changed from being a healthy, outgoing and life-loving person to someone who doesn’t even want to leave the house or get out of bed in the morning. It is all due to these sketchy diagnoses’ and what I believe to be a total lack of care. Has anyone else experienced some pain in the lower right abdomen (due to IBS or otherwise) which was difficult to diagnose and sounds similar to me? Who do I listen to when I'm getting so many mixed messages!? Thanks and sorry for the long message.
---------- Post added at 22:35 ---------- Previous post was at 22:32 ----------
May also be worth adding that 2 weeks prior to getting the pain in my right hand side I had D at work and suffered a terrible panic attack. First one I'd ever had that bad.
After that, I became obsessed with not eating for fear of getting D and have hardly eaten a proper meal since, so 5 weeks ago. I was wondering if this could have upset my stomach....I've lost a stone and developed quite an unhealthy relationship with food/no appetite.
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Originally Posted by lukeneal26
