My Journey Through the Health Care System
August 16, 2010
by Helen McCombs
|Helen, who many of you know as an important part of our organization, has bravely agreed to share her journey with us. We wish Helen all the strength in her battle against cancer.
On April 22, 2010 I went to the Emergency Room for an outbreak of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. They ran the usual CT scan and found lesions on my spleen. I was admitted to the hospital despite the fact that I do not have insurance. They told me I may have cancer. I was advised to get insurance to get follow up tests. I ended up getting medicaid but I had to stop working and apply for SSD. I did that and began a journey of getting treatement. First the doctors couldn’t find the lesions on the Ultra Sound so assumed they weren’t there.
I was still in a lot of pain and very sick. I ended up back in the ER. They did the second CT Scan they failed to tell me the lesions showed up again. I was sent home. My primary care physician told me about the CT scan after I had been to another doctor for my IBS. She seemed to be the only doctor who listened to me. There was something wrong with me. I was in pain or sick four days a week finally after two months the doctor listened. She sent me to an Oncologist who searched for what the problem was and found it.
Women are often diagnosed because to many in the medical field think women are just like men. They are just discovering that women have different symptoms of heart attacks then men. Our bodies are different and often we have different symptoms. Doctors need to think outside the box when it comes to women.
I wondered if I would have had such a difficult time getting a doctor to listen to me if I were a man.
I have spoken to many women who have stories of being misdiagnosed by doctors these women told me I had to be my own advocate. This is very important. You have to stand up for yourself and ask a lot of questions. Hearing the words “You have cancer is one of the most difficult things I have ever heard and it made me feel numb. Your life changes after you hear those awful words.
Anyone who is dealing with a health care crisis needs to advocate for themselves for women we need to be extra cautious.
I am not cancer free yet but I will be soon.
Love ya Helen – stay strong. I’m continuing to pray for you.
Good luck, Helen. You’re in my thoughts.
Sp sorry to hear of your battle with cancer. My spouse has survived three bouts – it can be done. Think positive and eat healthy. Focus of life.
On another note, I want to lead you to an article I did for my blog on the dangers of the health care system provided by work comp and my fears of what it will mean when the Federal Health Care System is in place.
Not trying to scare readers since I rarely blog anymore but wanted to add another perspective.
http://catsden.wordpress.com/2.....t-doctors/
hi Helen, thinking of you. for me the days before surgery were the hardest, could not wait until the cancer was out. from then on take it easy. if you need help let people know including us. chances that you’ll be fine are good in so many areas of cancer therapy now. for the conflicting results CTscan is more expensive but shows smaller lesions than ultrasound.
Good luck Helen. There need to be more female voices about the deplorable and sexist state of our health care. IBS is one of those “catch all” and I”m sorry it took so long for your cancer to be diagnosed. Atleast yours got diagnosed. Many women’s heart problems and cancer goes undiagnosed until fatal. You go in and they automatically diagnose psychological or stress induced IBS. Health care practitioners, as well as general society,does not process or understand female pain.
My experience with medical professionals has always been a waste of time. I thought it was just the military, but it was probably only a little worse. For instance, I went in several times over a period of several years with the same complaint. They attempted to diagnose me with Acid Reflux. I refused this diagnosis. In the military they tend to diagnose many different people with the same thing, for some unknown reason. Well, it turns out if you don’t have Acid Reflux but if you take prilosec it can cause acid reflux, and this in turn masks the symptoms of whatever it actually is htat you have, and you never get better. Myself understanding this refused to accept that diagnosis, on the grounds that I didn’t display any symptoms of acid reflux. It got to a point where a major took me into her office and verbally threatened me.
I mean..if civilian doctors could do that to women, I mean, would they? I don’t know. Well when I got out of the military I had an endoscopy done and I made sure I got the statement that there was absolutely no evidence of acid reflux. I am quite sick, still, and have every intention of suing for malpractice.
They think women are just like men … sometimes. Other times, they think that women’s lives just aren’t that important, I’m afraid. Woman Is A Great Mystery and all that junk that Men Just Can’t Understand, so why should they even try?
It’s not that they need to think outside the box — they need to realize that we’re in that box, too. The box that says that doctors take care of people — and that includes us, damn it. We’re not some “special case.” In pure numbers and even genetically, we ARE the species.
I know. It’s like, when you tell someone your pain is at about an 8 out of 10 and htey suggest you have Acid Reflux, it’s obviously some kind of syntax error where Woman-Pain does not compute. It’s like “I feel like I need to vomit out my insides and my head hurts, if I vomit, I feel a little better” (meanwhile possibilities of anorexia, bulimia and probably psychological conditions go through the doctors head).
“That sounds like acid reflux” “Acid reflux can be a little weird.” “I haven’t eaten in 3 days” “do you have heart burn?” “no.” “but you said you had pain” “I said I am in so much pain i need to vomit out my insides and my head hurts” “why won’t you take prilosec? Won’t you even just try it?” “No because I don’t have acid reflux.”
It’s not just the military either because I’ve seen a kid get admin leave and medical quarters because the poor boy had a little insomnia. I worked 4 years without ever takig a day off for my as of yet undiagnosed condition.
And I know, not only do men not know what pain is, they don’t understand a woman having pain, nor women for htat matter the general population does not recognize it. What is a chopped up woman on a magazine cover?
Recently I went to the emergency room for example, and when the pregnancy test came back normal they gave me a reglan and sent me home. That’s the other annoying thing, always having to pay for pregnancy tests. But if you’re not pregnant, there’s no one to harm, it’s an empty picture, a woman.
It’s like, hey who knows what’s wrong with me but guess what! I’m still not pregnant!
I actually do have IBS I was misdiagnosed for 15 years with Acid Reflux but it is IBS. The doctors kept assuming this was just another flare up. I told them my IBS was under control that I more then likely had poylps on the colon that needed removed. I had them removed and the intense pain stopped.
The doctors should have done something when I was admitted to the hospital after they found the lesions on my spleen now they waited so long to diagnose and find the cancer that it has spread. I will more then likely need Chemo now after I have my spleen removed.
I give two thumbs up to my female Primary Care Physician and my male Oncologist who were determined to find out what my problem was.
The doctors in the hospital thought because I was poor I wouldn’t follow up on medical care that is what they said to me. I told them that I would do what I had to do to take care of this.
I know the feeling about the Pregnancy tests I had them even though I told the doctors I was not sexually active. They didn’t believe me. That angered me I am 46 years old and not a teenager I would not lie about not being sexually active. They asked me how long it was and I told them three years. I never heard of anyone being pregnant for three years. Yet they still gave me those tests.
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