Medical

[ailbhe]

Well, that was the shortest appointment ever. We arrived, were shown to a room, a registrar came in (whome we'd never met before). I described my symptoms, he said he wanted to examine me, I said I had hoped that the ultrasound they did before, plus my GP's examination, might suffice. He expressed surprise that I appeared upset (How many people approach with equanimity a rectal exam that is absolutely guaranteed to be painful? Hmm? Answers, please!)and toddled off to speak to the chap I met before, the one who actually did the ultrasound. The "consultant". I'm a bit hazy on degrees here - but the consultant appears to be in charge.

The consultant thinks I have my expectations too high and that it's likely that this is as fixed as I get. He also thinks I'm too uptight to be examined anyway, so he's going to send me an appointment for an exam under general anaesthetic on the 8th of August.

Please excuse me while I freak out a bit here. My "expectations are too high". I expected to be 25, having had a kid, and able to do wildly unreasonable things like, ooooh, use a tampon, or, God forbid, have sex. And I can't. My baby is 14 months old now - or very nearly - and I am 26 and a half, and I'm beginning to feel like it's a form of secondary infertility. Rob and I are discussing how we might cope if this really is as good as it gets. We're both young. This is, pardon the melodrama, a life sentence for both of us.

This has got to be fixable. They can fix anything nowadays. If sex reassignment surgery is possible, surely fixing an owie ought to be, too?

Comments

[grumpoldusenaut.livejournal.com]

That's utterly ridiculous on the part of the consultant.

Different problem, but when I had to have a colon endoscopy as part of ruling out more sinister things than irritable bowel syndrome, I was given pethedine. I was not *offered* the option of not having painkillers, let alone required to do without.

What everyone else said. Ask your GP to refer you for a second opinion.