Don’t just settle… why it pays to push for answers on medical mysteries

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I remember going to a medical lecture and the presenter said if a patient had been to nearly every hospital department, then the problem was often all in their head. But how many departments is too many? Is 14 pushing it? My visits to hospital are increasing and my medical history ever-growing.

So far it includes: cardiology, ENT, hearing and balance clinic, physiotherapy, dietetics, gynaecology, urogynaecology and obstetrics, gastroenterology, colorectal, dermatology, immunology, radiology, physiology and endoscopy. Wowsers.

I would say, though, it is a pretty ridiculous score card for the grand old age of 38. Quite a few of them were to work out what was wrong with me in terms of coeliac disease, as I felt dizzy, with no energy. Some were following a car accident and others were post-babies.

I was chatting to my BFFF (Best Free-From Friends Forever – see Kay’s blog) yesterday, though, and she said: “You are finally getting some answers.” And that is so true. After starting to think I was falling apart and there was nothing I could do about it – or blaming food for every symptom I had – I was thinking I should be heading to the knacker’s yard (like my kind GP used to say when I was 22 years old).

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So, yes, maybe it can “all be in your head” if you bounce from department to department and they can’t find out what’s wrong. But sometimes you have just not been to the right place or not had the right test.

I am very lucky in that I work for the NHS and know it inside out. So I kept pushing and pushing and, with the few consultations I have been really unhappy with, I have asked for second opinions. I know other people might not have done this.

Dermatology gave me another push to keep going with my itching/allergy situation  and it feels as though there might be another hidden auto-immune beauty underlying why my whole body is reacting to everything (see my blog An itchy start to the year and another health mystery).

So I’m not giving up. I’ve hauled my low-energy, nauseous, bloated and scratchy body back to the doctor’s for a referral to immunology. Will they tick the last box?

Karen Woodford – a determined coeliac who never gives up

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