I’ve never been one to bother with going to the doctors much unless I had to. I just never saw the point. Anything I could get to help with a cold, or a sore throat, etc, was sold over the counter at the pharmacy. I’m not really sure why. Or where my dislike for going to the doctor comes from. It always seemed like too much hassle to deal with. Making the appointment, going to the clinic, waiting, and waiting, and waiting, then the appointment, talking about what’s wrong and then having to deal with taking medication of some sort.
However, over the last 2, or so, years this has slowly started to change. More so in the last year this has drastically changed. I still find it annoying, and for the most part I don’t want to deal with doing it or the outcome, but I’ve realised that some things are just beyond my control and I need medical help sometimes.
It mostly all started out when I changed my birth control. I was tired of remembering to take it some times, and thankfully at the time it was purely for time of the month reasons that I was taking it. Then the panic when I did forget it. Then life changed, and I switched to an IUD. Which has been the best decision I’ve made so far when it comes to birth control. No forgetting. No remembering. Mostly importantly, no popping a pill every day. I think I just have a thing about taking pills in general. I try to stay clear of it as much as I can. While the IUD “procedure” was straight forward and no hassle, the aftermath was a little annoying and painful and inconvenient, but I definitely wouldn’t take back my decision and look forward to continuing my journey with it. It has helped relieve some pressure of anxiety of taking actual medication, along with the monthly benefits that I now no longer suffer from.
Then there came the lump. A lump under my arm that I found one day while showering and went into a panic, then pushed it so far out of my mind as possible. Time passed, and I eventually went to a walk in clinic about it. Apparently nothing to worry about but since Breast Cancer runs in my family, I was advised to see my GP to follow up, just in case. So I made the appointment, and was asked if I wanted a referral for a biopsy. He thought it was nothing but I could proceed to put my mind at ease. For a moment I felt dramatic, was a biopsy really necessary if my GP thought all was ok? Nonetheless, I went ahead with putting in the request. I waited months but I finally got the appointment. Biopsy done, non invasive, no pain, in and out. A couple of days passed and the biopsy area wasn’t healing and getting worse. 5 days after said biopsy, I ended up in the ER with the site needing to be drained – I’ll leave out all the details. 6 months later and the biopsy site was still open. With every doctor telling me that I had to let it heal from the inside out, there was not much I could do. It’s still healing, but seems to be doing much better. Most importantly, there was nothing to worry about from the biopsy results, all was clear. I’ve had some injections and body scans done at the Nuclear Medicine department at the hospital to make sure all is clear with the site and try to determine what’s causing it to not fully close – hopefully I’ll have those results soon.
Next up, we’ve got a shoulder/neck injury from work that I’m still recovering from. It’s been ongoing since August 2019. I’ve been through weeks of physio, and some more physio, and an ultrasound, some x-rays, a re-injury to it trying to do my job again, some time off work to try heal it, a steroid injection that made it worse than it did better, more physio, and upcoming body scans. I’ve just finished some physio, we’re at the point that nothing is getting any worse but also not any more better so I have the tools to work on every day to help with it. I know what works for me and what doesn’t. This is also something I’m going to have to be cautious about going forward. Making sure I do my movements and exercises every day. Simple things like doing a puzzle looking down and hunched over a table isn’t going to be sustainable for me. So I’ll have to make adjustments for certain things so as to not to aggravate it. Hopefully the upcoming appointments at the Nuclear Medicine department will help determine if there are any further issues with this.
Most recently, I was referred to a doctor to test for allergies. I was noticing that after drinking milk, or eating chocolate, I was having strange effects afterwards. Tests were done and there were no results that I had allergies or intolerances. He then referred me to a ears, nose and throat doctor which I’ve now had a CT scan for and am taking a nasal spray daily. The CT scan results should be back within the next week (at least the next week of me writing this, not exactly a week within posting). He also referred me to see a dermatologist, which I’ve never been to see before. I waited a few months for the appointment but I had it last week. She sent me for bloods to determine if the results showed if I was dealing with PCOS or not. It looks like I do, apparently my hormones are all out of whack, but I’ve got an appointment with the GP next week to discuss this. It would explain a lot of things but also, it’s quite overwhelming.
I think having to go to so many appointments, in and out of hospitals quite a bit in a short space of time has me feeling overwhelmed. While I should be happy that I’m looking after myself, it just seems everything is happening at once. I feel like there’s too many doctor-related things altogether. I’m trying to take it day by day, phone call by phone call, appointment by appointment, and to do the things they tell me I need to and not procrastinate about them.
If there’s anything that I’ve learned though, is not to put things off, to deal with them as they come up, and that the GP clinic really isn’t the scariest place that I make it out to be.
❤
GazingBlueEyes 