I can't believe it

My whole life I was told that my physical symptoms were just "anxiety". That my many rushes to the ER due to chest pains were merely just "in my head" a "waste of time and money".

My last doctor looked at the brown streaks on my toenail and said "oh that's nothing we can just prescribe you antifungal cream." He scoffed when I told him I'm having chest pains, when he looked at my history of anxiety attacks and ER visits he simply said "it's just your anxiety acting up, nothing to worry about". So he gave me a blood test, the blood test showed extremely low potassium and blood sugar, even though I ate many bananas and avocados and high potassium foods a day. He prescribed me potassium chloride and called it a day.

But something inside myself told me different. I wanted to ask him for a endocarditis test. The brown streaks in my fingernails and toenails never went away with the fungal cream, the chest pains became so disruptive in my life. He refused to listen, so I switched doctors.

This new female doctor scoffed at me too! She said "At your age and gender I doubt anything's wrong!" This time I didn't ask my last doctor to send her my medical history, she was new, and didn't know me or my history. "Maybe you have anxiety, or stress" she said. I pushed her and said "Yes, stress because these symptoms are coming out of nowhere and are disrupting my life!". I didn't ask for a test for endocarditis, I didn't even suggest it. Last week she ordered me a echocardiogram of my heart and heart valves.

This morning I got a call from her. "Your heart valves are leaking" she said.

....
"And you might have endocarditis, before you get your wisdom teeth out you'll need antibiotics, for now let's schedule another appointment and we can go from there".

GREAT. THANKS. I KNEW that I had a real problem, it wasn't just anxiety you assholes. I'm mad, not only did my family not take me seriously and mock me when I told them my symptoms, my doctors scoffed at me too. They made me feel ashamed for even suggesting I had a medical problem. I felt embarrassed asking to be tested for endocarditis. I felt ashamed every time I was rushed to the ER with chest squeezing and pain so bad that I could barely breath. Only to be told "Its all in your head".

Tired of not being taken seriously. From my porn addiction, to my physical health problems. Even my counselor was doubting me when I told her my symptoms "sometimes chest pain is from anxiety". Well yeah. Duh. I know that, I did hours of research, probably more than you.

 

Ugh, I freaking hate doctors who don't take their patients seriously. Honestly you could maybe even sue them for that. You directly asked for exactly what you needed and they didn't give it to you, and it could have killed you. That's not cool at all.

Same sort of thing happened to my dad years ago. He had back pain and everyone basically kept saying it was just normal back pain or whatever, and it turns out he had spinal stenosis, and the part of his spine that was supposed to be the size of a quarter was the size of the lead inside a pencil. One day it basically snapped and he collapsed in the hallway and had to be rushed to the hospital for surgery on his back. He now has permanent paralysis in one of his feet, and nerve damage/loss of feeling in his legs and butt. He can't go to the bathroom normally and had to basically learn how to walk again, all because nobody would take him seriously. He got incredibly lucky, as he very easily could have ended up completely paralyzed below the waist.

Pisses me off when I think about it. I will remember that whenever I go to the doctor, and I will demand they take me seriously and do the tests I ask for.

 

It sucks. Because it's true I do have anxiety, but I also have real health problems. And the anxiety chest pains can be mistaken for cardiac chest pains, and also cardiac pains and be mistaken for anxiety.

That numbness and tingling I get in my hands after hyperventilating from an anxiety attack can also be brought on by my low blood sugar and low potassium, same with the breathing.

I can't differentiate my symptoms, which stresses me out even more. I feel this could of all be avoided if my doctors took me more seriously in the past. It's's also true I also have physical symptoms present and in the past that were from porn withdrawal.

It feels like my life is hanging by a thread. I dont understand this shit anymore.

 

I would have taken your echo-cardiogram results back to your first doctor and said "look at what I actually have you lazy fuck!"