cher_carter member for 16 weeks 4 days

We women have come a long, long way over the past 50+ years. We've garnered the right to vote both at the polls and in the boardroom; we've burned our bras and built our bridges, as an old song says - but there is still one area where we are sorely lagging behind - and that area is with our health.

Have you ever noticed how, in your daily life you can roar like a lioness, but as soon as you step into your doctors office, you revert back to that shy, timid creature, afraid to challenge authority or ask questions? I noticed it about myself, several months too late.

As you all know by now, I'm a recovering addict (July 3rd is my clean anniversary - 11+ years and counting- had I not relapsed once it would be close to 19 years), and unfortunately, addiction and good health do not go hand in hand. And even though I was not a skidrow junkie, I still had that mentality of "if its not hurting physically, then nothing's wrong OR even worse, Just ignore it and it will go away.

After I got clean, one of the first things my sponsor asked me to do was get a complete physical - blood pressure, diabetes and yes, STD's. Stuff we really don't like to face. When my doctor stated that my papsmear came back a "little abnormal" but he didn't see anything to be concerned with, I took him at face value.

This was in 1993. In 1994, I was admitted to the hospital after falling, and not being able to walk the next day. Our largest concern was a fractured hip because I've always been on the heavy side. When further tests revealed that something a bit more sinister was going on, I took my doctors word that everything would be okay. What followed was an 18 month long war waged in my body by Chemo and Radiation for a bone cancer called Osteogenic Sarcoma. It started in my pelvic region and spread.
Luckily we were able to contain the disease and I've been in remission for low these many years.

That should have been my first lesson in questioning the medical minds that be. But I didn't learn.

In early 1997 (I know the exact date) I became pregnant with my son. I was thrilled beyond thrilled because I'd been told just three years earlier that Chemo would render me sterile, and if Chemo didn't radiation would.

During my first series of exams, I was using a female OBGYN. She did a saunogram every time I visited but would never let me hear his heartbeat. Call me old fashioned, but something about the heartbeat just makes it "real" to me, yo know? I got extremely frustrated with her entire care regiment, but never once complained out loud. After all, she's the doctor. She knows what's best, right? Wrong.

(sorry, this is an overwhelmingly long post I think)
At one examine, she noted that I had a rather large cyst on my right ovary. I asked was there cause to be concerned and she said no, that cysts during early pregnancy weren't uncommon, and that usually they dispated on thier own. She'd keep an eye on it but felt no need for extra care.

Mind you, this is a woman doctor. One of us. Someone who should at least by virtue of gender, understand our fears, concerns, etc.

Finally, 7 months into the pregnancy, frustrated with the care I was receiving, I switched doctors. It was hard to do that late in my pregnancy because no one wanted the case. I found a kindly old country doctor, who believed in heartbeats and started my care with him.

On October 5th of 97, I went into labor. My water started to leak so I called my husband and we made the 22 mile journey to the hospital where I would give birth. As soon as we got there, my contractions stopped, but beause my water was leaking, the doctor didn't want me to leave. So I was admitted and put on a petucin drip the next morning. This was October 6th. I did not give birth until 9:36 PM on the night of October 7th, after 28 hours of grueling labor, petucin induced contractions with no relief for pain, and had begun to have seizures. FINALLY, I was wheeled into the operating room for an emergency C-Section.

During the operation, my husband, who wasn't supposed to be looking over the curtain, did, and saw a cyst in my side which he described as "the size of a dinner plate." He asked my doctor about it and the doctor stated that it was "nothing to worry about" and that he couldn't remove it at that time because there was a risk of me bleeding todeath. I later learned that he couldn't remove it because that wasn't part of the proceedure covered by my insurance.

I'll condense this version to try to make it shorter.
I recovered from the C-section okay but continued to have problems, especially during my monthly cycles when I felt like I was dying.

Then on May 11th 2002, I woke up from a nap only to discover that my entire side was black, and I was violently ill. I was rushed to the hospital where I was admitted for emergency surgery. The "Cyst" in my side, turned out to be a 21 pound tumor that had attached itself to my right over, flipped the ovary and ruptured it and my uterous. I had an emergency historectomy.

The tumor was malignant, and some how by God's grace had not spread to any other organs. But pathology tests showed it to be Accute Non Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Over the course of the last five years, I have asked myself a thousand times how differntly things may have turned out had I had the guts to question my doctors, to seek second oppinions and to just pay closer attention to my body.

I've said all of this, to say this - DO NOT TAKE A PHYSICIAN AT HIS WORD IF YOU FEEL SOMEHING IS WRONG. Its YOUR body. Nobody knows it like you do. Question EVERYTHING and MAKE them give you answers, and if they can't answer your questions, find a doctor who will. I am constantly appalled when I read stories of women who have heart attacks because they don't realize that women's heart disease has entirely different symptoms than a mans; or when I read about women who have walked around with a potentially life threatening STD for years because their complaints were passed off as PMS.

Doctors PRACTICE medicine because it has a long long way to go before it is ever perfected, and if we don't speak up, not only do we suffer, but so do those who come after us.

okay I'm done ranting now