My path to finding a diagnosis so far

As anyone trying to find a diagnosis for a chronic illness knows that doctors can be our biggest obstacle. I have heard countless people say that they know their own body but doctors won’t take them seriously. Don’t get me wrong I appreciate that doctors are busy and do amazing work but they only have a small amount of time to help us and we, especially me, have a long list of symptoms to discuss with them.

Because my pain started so suddenly and when I was in the best shape of my life I was initially treated for a water infection. When the results of my urine test came back negative for infection they still insisted I took the antibiotics which I thought was pointless and not good advice at all! I also had so many pregnancy tests done, all of which came back negative. Then they send you way with the recommendation of rest and not a great deal else. Super helpful!

I have been prescribed multiple pain killers such as Codeine and Naproxen. Naproxen didn’t touch me or make a difference at all. Codeine is great for making you fall asleep; it is relatively effective in terms of pain relief but it has a lot of side affects such as drowsiness and nausea which also make it difficult to do anything.

Due to coronavirus, it has been very difficult to see doctors face to face and until they see your huge, hard, bloated stomach they don’t listen to you!

I am very fortunate to be able to have my treatment privately rather than through the NHS but it has still been massively affected by the pandemic. I managed to eventually get an internal and external ultrasound, a procedure I am normally fine with but this time it knocked me for six. I felt rough for days afterwards and it was like the radiographer had rearranged my organs!

Because of having recently moved, I’ve had to go through everything with my new doctors surgery and they have recommended that I do a symptom diary for the next month as my pain is all month rather than just when I have my period. They have also recommended that I tricycle my pill which basically means taking my pill back to back for three months and then having a week long period which I am trying from this month. Unfortunately because I still don’t have a date for surgery I am just having to try a few different things to ease my symptoms as at the minute there isn’t an end in sight for me.

I will update you on how I get on with tricycling , the results of my symptom diary and when I get a date for my surgery as soon as I can!