# ARE WE TAKEN SERIOUSLY?



## Vicky Foster (Sep 15, 2002)

I'm having a bit of a rant.I've had gut problems since i was around 13/14 (puberty, early teens)but didn't go to my doc's until i was nearly 15. They diagnosed IBS WITHOUT doing any tests and just put it down to stress etc and off i went to have some therapy.I found my own ways to cope with my bad belly, and just got used to missing out on certain things and not being able to stay over at peoples houses or go on trips away until it got really severe last Easter.I was at college and was getting D severely several times a week, and the days off from the D were just taken up by crippling abdo pain and tiredness, nausea and dizziness as well as weight loss.Last summer i went back to my doctor and it took over 3 months of me going back every week and complaining for them to refer me to a consultant.It has them taken a further 6 months for me to get any tests done due to NHS waiting lists and my condition not neing taken seriously. I've just had a barium x-ray and am due to have a colonoscopy sometime soon as well as seeing a dietician, although i think Heather Van Vorous's book can't really be beaten.I'm awaiting the results of my tests, and i'm kinda hoping that something for once shows up just so i can go back to my doctor and have a moan!This isn't a pity party - i'm more curious to find out who else has had similar problems with the medical profession, and whether being a teenager has anything to do with their reluctance to treat us.IBS and similar problems have been around since the beginning of time, yet in the year 2003 where it's fine for people to waste money considering cloning, still nothing is done about digestive problems.Anyway, just had to get that off my chest.Thank god that this wonderful website is around!!!


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## Vicky19 (Mar 17, 2003)

hi sparkle!i think i've been really lucky to have had doctors who have taken me seriously. the first time i went to the doc with this i cried. she was so nice and took me seriously and i had a stool test and blood test on my first vistit. i was given anti spasmodics and fybogel too. the results came back clear and i tried another anti spasmodic and she said to come bacj in 3 wks ot see how i felt. i went home for easter from uni and went to my family doctor who listened to me and immediatl referred me to a specialist. i have private health care so i am really lucky. the specialist was great too. my family doctor is the most amazing doctor ive ever come across - he listens to me, doesnt laugh at me and doesnt belittle me and tell me im being stupid and thats it all down to stress. he knows im not a stressed person. when i was younger i got bad stomach aches before i used to go out to friends etc. it was all anxiety and the doctors didnt take me seriously back then. i was only 5 or 6 and they bunged me off to a child pysciatrist! i dont think that was ibs back then though. ive been lucky. i think the key is finding a good doctor. i dont know what i'd do if the uni doctor was rubbish and thought i was stupid. the man i saw at uni last time was so lovely to me - he talked through every thing about how this effects me long term. i do know of ppl who have had serious difficulty with their doctors. i think some doctors must have seen hypocondriacs so i guess that hinders us lot who are genuine.


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## KatieCC (Aug 27, 2002)

my situation is a little different because I have UC but my doctor didn't take me seriously before my diagnosis.I'd been having D several times a day, every day, for about 3 months, but no pain or anything so it didn't bother me too much. I finally had my mom call my pediatrician and she said it was probably just a virus and it would go away. Later that month I started getting tired (and by tired, I mean I slept 12 hours a night and needed a nap in the afternoon) my heart would be beating out of my chest even when I was laying down, I was always short of breath, dizzy, and started having chest pain. I went to my pediatrician and she told me basically I was lazy, overweight, and out of shape (I am 5'2" and was 140lbs at the time, which is overweight but not by much! I was also in a daily aerobics class and on the flag team) but she said she would send me the a cardiologist because of the chest pain, not because she thought anything was wrong with me, but to shut me up.The ped cardiologist was really nice, I had an echocadiagram and EKG that were basically normal, and had blood drawn. She got the blood tests results back and was so worried she called me personally that night- I had a hemoglobin (red blood cell) count of 5.3, normal is 12-14. She got me an appointment with a hematologist/oncologist for a day later (I didn't know it till later but they thought I had leukemia!) that doc said that with so few red blood cells he was surprised I hadn't had a heart attack or gone into a coma. It took another 6 weeks for me to get to a GI and be diagnosed with UC, but they took everything I said seriously after that. Kate


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## erin5983 (Mar 25, 2003)

Sparkle,I had the same problems, to two different extremes. My family doctor kept insisting all I had was constipation and that it was because I was a picky eater and didn't get enough fiber in my diet. She kept saying I could fix it by eating healthier. I kept trying to tell her it was more but it took a few months where I got worse before she decided that my symptoms meant something and shipped me off to a GI. After that was a nightmare. He had barely even discussed my symptoms with me for 5 minutes when he told me he was 99% sure I had Crohn's disease. Quite a shock after being told I was only constipated a few weeks earlier. A few months later when tests like colonoscopy, endoscopy, barium x-ray, and ultrasound were inconclusive and he knew I didn't have Crohn's, he pretty much brushed me off and said something to the effect of "the mind having power over the body" and all this #### that pretty much said he thought that I was doing this to myself with my MIND and that there was nothing really wrong with me, that I had to calm down. Unbelieveable. It took another few months and a new GI to finally give me an IBS-C diagnosis. What a nightmare. Doctors really **** me off sometimes.


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## Vicky Foster (Sep 15, 2002)

I think that seems to be the main problem - doctor's often immediately link IBS to stress without taking into account that more often than not, the IBS is triggered by something different (in my case, antibiotics and IBS in the family) and just made worse by stress.I'm quite a 'control freak' now because of the dum condition, but the only thing that really makes me stessed is worrying about getting an attack of D or bad stomach pains when i'm out, but hypnotherapy has begun to help.Vicky, i can't wait to go to Uni just so i can change my doctor! *hehe* I had some private medical care last summer, and the difference between that and NHS is vast! Unfortunately, it was kinda expensive too *ouch*I guess all we can do is hope that something will change in the medical profession, and keep researching ourselves. I've abandoned traditional medicine (anti-spasm stuff etc) cos it just hasn't helped. Instead i've changed my diet, rest when i need to, take anti - d tablets when i need to and keep on plodding


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## Sar (Apr 9, 2003)

Hello,I had been going to the doctors for over 3 years, and althought they gave me medication, i didn't get any tests until after then.I think out age does help, Im 21 and stated going to the doctors when I 16. I was told that it was ibs as it couldn't be anything else because of my age. i think its wrong for them to assume this. Im due to have more tests soon, and this only becasue the pain got so bad i was admitted to hospital. i am now dealing directly with the hospital.


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## betagirl (Oct 12, 2002)

I'm in a similar boat as Kate since I have crohn's. But for a long time they didn't know what it was, and toyed with the IBS diagnosis. Depending on which disease they thought I had, I felt like I was taken more seriously when it was crohn's, especially with my 2nd doc My first GI referred me to him since he specializes in crohn's. At first he thought my diagnosis was inconclusive, but as I met with him he's sure I don't have IBS and it is crohn's (damn!) I feel bad for those with IBS and have docs who don't take it seriously, especially since the symptoms are so similar in many cases. IBS may not eat at your intestines, but that doesn't make it any less painful or unpleasant than IBD. There are doctors who specialize in IBS, if you can find one.Good luck to everyone.


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