- Joined
- Nov 15, 2009
- Messages
- 13
So I'm not really sure how detailed I'm supposed to be right now, but its 5 am on sunday morning and i've been awake since thursday morning at 10 am so please excuse me if i just start going off on a tangent. lol I know that no one here is a doctor or anything but I really feel like there has to be SOMEONE out there somewhere in the world who has been in my situation & knows what I'm going through right now. I hope that one day my story will prevent someone from having to go through something like this.
Im a 20 yr old college female, 5'3'' and probably about 103-105 lbs at the time. I have ADHD and Anxiety. I'm currently taking 20 mg Adderall daily, and .25mg xanax as needed. I've been a dancer for about 16 or 17 of those years, so I was in pretty good physical shape.
August 19th, I was up in the weeee hours of the morning not feeling very well. Kind of like tonight. Anyways, before this in-particular night - whenever my stomach was bothering me I'd either lay on my stomach or I'd lay on my back and press on my stomach. Well, while pushing on my aching tummy I felt a lump in the lower right quadrant in between my ribs and my hip bone, directly to the right of my abs. and, it moved. :-/ My initial thought was "oh my god, I have a lump in my stomach & that can't be normal." I let it go for the next day or two but then I was sitting in a lawn chair, kind of scrunched down & leaning back, pressing on my aching stomach again. The lump was still there, in fact it had gotten slightly larger & i noticed that it could move around a LOT (I later learned that it tends to go away when i lay in certain positions). I called my mom and explained it to her and she recommended that I go see my general practitioner. An hour later, Dr. B suggested that I might have a small hernia. She assured me that if i wasn't in pain then it wasnt too serious, but she referred me to a surgeon just to be on the safe side. I went away on a cruise, and ate like ive never eaten before! That week was the first time I ever noticed that my belly was protruding. When i got home from vacation I was incredibly dizzy, but everyone kept telling me it was just "boat legs" or whatever. Who knows! August 28th was the first day that the lump actually hurt me. It wasnt excruciating though, it was actually more of a pressure rather than pain I believe. I do remember feeling sick to my stomach, and thats when the skipping of meals started. I made an appointment first thing Monday morning to go and see the the general surgeon - unfortunately his first available appointment was not until that Thursday.
Monday was my first day of school, and it took a lot out of me. Tuesday I was exhausted and feeling terrible .. the pain wasn't bad, it was still just a lot of pressure! But I kept telling myself that the surgeon would tell me it wasnt a big deal & then my mind would stop playing tricks on me and freaking me out. If only I should BE so lucky .. Wednesday morning while I was walking to class my right arm literally just brushed up against the right side of my stomach and it hurt SO bad I thought I was going to throw up. I called my mom all worked up because i had it in my head that it wasnt serious until it started to hurt. since I was out of my Xanax, she suggested I go to urgent care in between school & work just to have them fill my RX to get me thru the night (since my appointment was the next morning). Well, with my luck - of course i ended up with some crazy dude who literally got SO nervous when i described my symptoms. He said I might have appendicitis and that I needed to be rushed to the ER for a CT scan. great.
so after a few different ER doctors examined me, didnt feel the lump (because i was laying down the entire time) pretty much called me a liar (well at least the one dr did ..) 8 hours and $1000.00+ later, my CT scan not only came back negative but apparently im SUPER healthy. Yeah, the same mean Dr really liked to stress the word healthy too.
Oh yeah, I know i LOVEEEE to go to the emergency room so much that I went because I was feeling GOOD. ?!!? not cool. However, I let it slide with the thought of the appt with the surgeon in the morning keeping me from having a complete mental breakdown. I realized (after being asked a million & 1 questions) that ever since I can remember I've never had regular bowel movements. Its either loose, or 4-5 days in between each one.
I brought my CT scan results with me to the surgeon the next day and explained everything up until that point and then he examined my supposed lump - while i was laying down. of course. I told him it went away a lot of the time when i lied down & he just kept saying "well it could be this or it could be that .. blah blah blah". I was just ready to scream "WHY DOESNT ANYONE BELIEVE ME!?" but instead i got off the exam table & showed him where it was. his response was "OH! ... ohhhh ... oooookkkkk, i see now .." Not the most comforting response, but hey - he felt the lump, he knew my symptoms, and he was the professional. He continued to tell me that I had a really really rare "Spigelian Hernia", and that I needed surgery as soon as possible. Well, im sure you can imagine my reaction to all of this. My absolute favorite part about my special little "hernia" was the fact that - as RARE as it was, it was most commonly found in MEN between the ages of 50-70?! my luck. again.
I needed a 2nd opinion before i made any decisions. I didnt believe in surgery that isn't for a life or death reason, so I wasnt too anxious to schedule the procedure. I just moved her about a year ago so I didnt know really any doctors let alone surgeons - so i did the only logical thing to do, ask everyone who might have a recommendation. My boss, unfortunately had very very bad cancer - but I knew she'd had multiple surgeries & she was still here, so i figured id take my chances. Made an appointment that day to go see Dr. P in a week or so (apparently he's popular?) ..
So, Dr. P got the whole run-down (i swear, i should have made a detailed outline like this back then .. would have saved myself a LOT of confusion.) and then he continued on to press on my stomach looking for the lump. He rolled back in his chair and said "you know, i get people in here every day that think they have this kind of hernia, and none of them ever do." Im pretty sure I gave him some version of the death stare, and then continued on to jump up off the table & show him where it was. "Oh man, you really do have a Spigelian Hernia! Look there it goes!" he said while pushing on my little lump, & making it go away again. He then said all of the same things about needed surgery soon because my risk of strangulation was really high because i was so skinny and active or whatever (i think i was down to about 98 at this point). I said alright well give me the whole run down. It was the weirdest feeling ever, I was so scared and relieved and anxious and DREADING it all at the same time while watching him draw on me in blue pen, where all of my fabulous new scars would be on my abs. Ugh, i wanted to die for a minute. I booked my "laparscopic Spigelian Hernia repair with mesh" surgery for october 2nd, and went on with my miserable day.
3 weeks later, the night before my surgery. I wasnt even crying! I was so proud of myself - i'd actually legit convinced myself that i was like .. excited to go back to feeling like myself again after i'd recovered. I woke up, took one last look at my perfectly not scarred up stomach & headed for the hospital. When i got there it hit me - it was really happening, it wasn't just in my head anymore. I totally broke down like an idiot in the middle of the waiting room .. the only good news there is that they gave me lots of happy drugs i guess lol .. & i was soo drugged out before going into surgery that i dont even remember getting wheeled away. I woke myself up just coughing. SOO painful. But i didnt know what was going on for a while, thought it was a sick nightmare. When I finally started to come to it - I yelled at the nurse (in a 1/2 excited 1/2 intrigued way) "HOW'D IT GO!?!?!" ..... her response? --- "You didnt have a hernia." yeah. for real. so i asked her what in the hell was wrong with me then, and she said that they had no clue. ohhhhhhh and the funn begins.
So, 2 weeks of unnecessary surgery recovery & now a grand total of $5000.000 later --- i still didnt know what was wrong with me. not to mention the fact that i was still uncomfortable & in pain from before, and now I had painful incisions on top of that. My family all said that Dr. P was just beside himself when he came out of surgery & that he told them he thought maybe the next step would be an MRI. He said he took a look at the outside of the organs he could see and that i didnt have any tumors or anything, so that was comforting. for all of about 5 minutes. the jerk didnt even have the decency to follow up with me after all that. so i called the office and asking to have him call me .. i was so far beyond afraid & confused at this point .. i didnt even know what to do with myself! He called me and told me that he'd examen me again at my post-op appointment, & that we'd discuss it all in more detail then. Post-Op appointment day came and the nurse was shocked & said "Post-Op appointments are always just with a nurse to check your incisions and make sure everything is healing up okay .. i dont know why he would tell you that.." so at this point, i was just done. done. done. done. done. ready to go jump off of the near roof and/or go OD on the rest of the percocets. My mom convinced me to go see a gastroenterologist instead.
Im a 20 yr old college female, 5'3'' and probably about 103-105 lbs at the time. I have ADHD and Anxiety. I'm currently taking 20 mg Adderall daily, and .25mg xanax as needed. I've been a dancer for about 16 or 17 of those years, so I was in pretty good physical shape.
August 19th, I was up in the weeee hours of the morning not feeling very well. Kind of like tonight. Anyways, before this in-particular night - whenever my stomach was bothering me I'd either lay on my stomach or I'd lay on my back and press on my stomach. Well, while pushing on my aching tummy I felt a lump in the lower right quadrant in between my ribs and my hip bone, directly to the right of my abs. and, it moved. :-/ My initial thought was "oh my god, I have a lump in my stomach & that can't be normal." I let it go for the next day or two but then I was sitting in a lawn chair, kind of scrunched down & leaning back, pressing on my aching stomach again. The lump was still there, in fact it had gotten slightly larger & i noticed that it could move around a LOT (I later learned that it tends to go away when i lay in certain positions). I called my mom and explained it to her and she recommended that I go see my general practitioner. An hour later, Dr. B suggested that I might have a small hernia. She assured me that if i wasn't in pain then it wasnt too serious, but she referred me to a surgeon just to be on the safe side. I went away on a cruise, and ate like ive never eaten before! That week was the first time I ever noticed that my belly was protruding. When i got home from vacation I was incredibly dizzy, but everyone kept telling me it was just "boat legs" or whatever. Who knows! August 28th was the first day that the lump actually hurt me. It wasnt excruciating though, it was actually more of a pressure rather than pain I believe. I do remember feeling sick to my stomach, and thats when the skipping of meals started. I made an appointment first thing Monday morning to go and see the the general surgeon - unfortunately his first available appointment was not until that Thursday.
Monday was my first day of school, and it took a lot out of me. Tuesday I was exhausted and feeling terrible .. the pain wasn't bad, it was still just a lot of pressure! But I kept telling myself that the surgeon would tell me it wasnt a big deal & then my mind would stop playing tricks on me and freaking me out. If only I should BE so lucky .. Wednesday morning while I was walking to class my right arm literally just brushed up against the right side of my stomach and it hurt SO bad I thought I was going to throw up. I called my mom all worked up because i had it in my head that it wasnt serious until it started to hurt. since I was out of my Xanax, she suggested I go to urgent care in between school & work just to have them fill my RX to get me thru the night (since my appointment was the next morning). Well, with my luck - of course i ended up with some crazy dude who literally got SO nervous when i described my symptoms. He said I might have appendicitis and that I needed to be rushed to the ER for a CT scan. great.
so after a few different ER doctors examined me, didnt feel the lump (because i was laying down the entire time) pretty much called me a liar (well at least the one dr did ..) 8 hours and $1000.00+ later, my CT scan not only came back negative but apparently im SUPER healthy. Yeah, the same mean Dr really liked to stress the word healthy too.
Oh yeah, I know i LOVEEEE to go to the emergency room so much that I went because I was feeling GOOD. ?!!? not cool. However, I let it slide with the thought of the appt with the surgeon in the morning keeping me from having a complete mental breakdown. I realized (after being asked a million & 1 questions) that ever since I can remember I've never had regular bowel movements. Its either loose, or 4-5 days in between each one. I brought my CT scan results with me to the surgeon the next day and explained everything up until that point and then he examined my supposed lump - while i was laying down. of course. I told him it went away a lot of the time when i lied down & he just kept saying "well it could be this or it could be that .. blah blah blah". I was just ready to scream "WHY DOESNT ANYONE BELIEVE ME!?" but instead i got off the exam table & showed him where it was. his response was "OH! ... ohhhh ... oooookkkkk, i see now .." Not the most comforting response, but hey - he felt the lump, he knew my symptoms, and he was the professional. He continued to tell me that I had a really really rare "Spigelian Hernia", and that I needed surgery as soon as possible. Well, im sure you can imagine my reaction to all of this. My absolute favorite part about my special little "hernia" was the fact that - as RARE as it was, it was most commonly found in MEN between the ages of 50-70?! my luck. again.
I needed a 2nd opinion before i made any decisions. I didnt believe in surgery that isn't for a life or death reason, so I wasnt too anxious to schedule the procedure. I just moved her about a year ago so I didnt know really any doctors let alone surgeons - so i did the only logical thing to do, ask everyone who might have a recommendation. My boss, unfortunately had very very bad cancer - but I knew she'd had multiple surgeries & she was still here, so i figured id take my chances. Made an appointment that day to go see Dr. P in a week or so (apparently he's popular?) ..
So, Dr. P got the whole run-down (i swear, i should have made a detailed outline like this back then .. would have saved myself a LOT of confusion.) and then he continued on to press on my stomach looking for the lump. He rolled back in his chair and said "you know, i get people in here every day that think they have this kind of hernia, and none of them ever do." Im pretty sure I gave him some version of the death stare, and then continued on to jump up off the table & show him where it was. "Oh man, you really do have a Spigelian Hernia! Look there it goes!" he said while pushing on my little lump, & making it go away again. He then said all of the same things about needed surgery soon because my risk of strangulation was really high because i was so skinny and active or whatever (i think i was down to about 98 at this point). I said alright well give me the whole run down. It was the weirdest feeling ever, I was so scared and relieved and anxious and DREADING it all at the same time while watching him draw on me in blue pen, where all of my fabulous new scars would be on my abs. Ugh, i wanted to die for a minute.
I booked my "laparscopic Spigelian Hernia repair with mesh" surgery for october 2nd, and went on with my miserable day.3 weeks later, the night before my surgery. I wasnt even crying! I was so proud of myself - i'd actually legit convinced myself that i was like .. excited to go back to feeling like myself again after i'd recovered. I woke up, took one last look at my perfectly not scarred up stomach & headed for the hospital. When i got there it hit me - it was really happening, it wasn't just in my head anymore. I totally broke down like an idiot in the middle of the waiting room .. the only good news there is that they gave me lots of happy drugs i guess lol .. & i was soo drugged out before going into surgery that i dont even remember getting wheeled away.
I woke myself up just coughing. SOO painful. But i didnt know what was going on for a while, thought it was a sick nightmare. When I finally started to come to it - I yelled at the nurse (in a 1/2 excited 1/2 intrigued way) "HOW'D IT GO!?!?!" ..... her response? --- "You didnt have a hernia." yeah. for real. so i asked her what in the hell was wrong with me then, and she said that they had no clue. ohhhhhhh and the funn begins.So, 2 weeks of unnecessary surgery recovery & now a grand total of $5000.000 later --- i still didnt know what was wrong with me. not to mention the fact that i was still uncomfortable & in pain from before, and now I had painful incisions on top of that.
My family all said that Dr. P was just beside himself when he came out of surgery & that he told them he thought maybe the next step would be an MRI. He said he took a look at the outside of the organs he could see and that i didnt have any tumors or anything, so that was comforting. for all of about 5 minutes. the jerk didnt even have the decency to follow up with me after all that. so i called the office and asking to have him call me .. i was so far beyond afraid & confused at this point .. i didnt even know what to do with myself! He called me and told me that he'd examen me again at my post-op appointment, & that we'd discuss it all in more detail then. Post-Op appointment day came and the nurse was shocked & said "Post-Op appointments are always just with a nurse to check your incisions and make sure everything is healing up okay .. i dont know why he would tell you that.." so at this point, i was just done. done. done. done. done. ready to go jump off of the near roof and/or go OD on the rest of the percocets. My mom convinced me to go see a gastroenterologist instead.
