Before this starts just know that I am going to Therapy and I will be bringing this up to not only my Psychiatrist but my therapist. (Kind of an update or part three to my last post.)
Also I did post the symptom part of this on r/askdocs but haven’t received much of anything back
So to be very clear in my last post that I am calling this an update to I spoke specifically about the Gynecologist in this post, I wanna make it clear that. Yes the Gynecologist is a huge part in this. however, the hypothetical PTSD I am speaking of affects all doctors.
I also am going to keep the story kind of vague. Y’all are not a Medical sub Reddit and I don’t want anyone to think I’m looking for medical advice here maybe your own personal experience or your opinion. Or maybe just a place to rant.
TL;DR: I’ve struggled with severe anxiety and panic attacks surrounding doctors, especially gynecologists, for years. Two weeks ago, I had an upsetting urgent care experience involving an injection I felt uncomfortable consenting to, and I left feeling like I hadn’t been given proper informed consent. Since then, my anxiety surrounding medical care has become significantly worse, alongside physical symptoms that have affected my ability to work. I went to urgent care and the ER, where extensive testing came back normal, but I still don’t know what’s causing my symptoms. I recently started wondering whether PTSD could explain some of my longstanding fear of doctors and the worsening symptoms following this experience. I’m bringing this up with my psychiatrist and therapist, but I’d like to hear from people with PTSD about whether any of this sounds familiar to their experiences.
So a bit of background, this is also relevant to my last post if you read it. I have had panic attack attacks and extreme fear of the Gynecologist essentially since I started going. In my post I talk about how I can have panic attacks about the Gynecologist up to once a week. It’s affecting my life my work, my relationships. I can have intrusive thoughts not just about Gynecologist appointments. It can keep me up at night and I have had dreams or nightmares where the doctor is the “antagonist”.
So two weeks ago, I had an allergic reaction to some bug bites first time in my entire life. I had an allergic reaction like that. I went to an urgent care. They offered me a steroid injection. I initially agreed until I became very uncomfortable with the placement of the injection. They were attempting to place it dead center of my glute.
Of course, this was uncomfortable for a multitude of make reasons they wanted me to pull my pants halfway down and also while in the office I was texting back-and-forth with my family and they all had said how they receive their steroid injections more in the hip or lower back and I should speak to the doctor if they intended to give it in the “hip” area or dead center of the glute.
I pointed to my body showing the doctor the two places asking for clarification she’s very clearly appointed to middle of the glute and said the meaty part
I’ve been got to the point where I told her you know what I refuse care. I’d like to leave. I don’t need the steroid injection. I wanna go home.
Suddenly, after I rejected care, steroid pills became an option. There’s a bit more specifics to go into the story, but what matters is by the end of the appointment I felt like I was not given true informed consent. I feel like the doctor lied by omission because specifically I got to the point of crying and asked her if I could go anywhere else and she said no.
I’ve spoken to multiple medical professionals since and they all stated that the place that they intended to inject was unsafe, and I was at risk for damage to my sciatic nerve, which is part of what I looked up during my appointment and why I refuse the injection.
So you’re thinking, why the hell does this matter? How the hell do you have PTSD from this?
So this happened on September 30 and since September 30 I’ve been experiencing
Extreme exhaustion
I can’t move the same amount of weight that I would typically be able to move
I’m becoming winded very easily with typical work
I’m having more frequent and more severe dizziness spells.
And some urinary issues I’m going to the bathroom back to back and some urgency
So I had a theory that either the allergic reaction was still affecting my body or it was unrelated, and I was having atypical UTIs there’s some more reasons why I thought it was this.
So yesterday I went to an urgent care and basically told them the whole story that I had a theory that it was a UTI and I wanted to be tested for a UTI and if it was a UTI that the plan was to schedule an appointment with a urologist because this is probably my fourth or fifth one this year and the symptoms are sometimes very unusual compared to a normal UTI
, you do not have to read this paragraph to understand the rest of the story my last UTI I had flu like symptoms I was nauseous. I was vomiting. I was dizzy, severe stomach pain pains. It was so bad that had to pull over and I passed out in my truck driving to work. When I went to urgent care that time. (I love this urgent care doctor different Office than the one that handled my allergic reaction.) she essentially said that she couldn’t really figure out what was wrong with me, but she also didn’t want to dismiss me. She wanted to do a pregnancy test just in case and I honestly didn’t mind so I let her do it. She must’ve ran a culture on the urine. I gave her because she came back and said that I had a severe UTI, but I didn’t have urgency or burning.
Back to the story
So urgent care runs the test yesterday doctor comes back. I explained the whole situation to him. ( not the female doctor that I love at this clinic.) and he says that my urine came back fine but with the symptoms that I’m telling him he has concerns for my kidney function and he would like me to go to the ER.
I agreed I thought my symptoms were pretty severe and I was glad I was being taken seriously.
I go to the ER. I’m panicked but that’s pretty consistent with how I am in any doctors office.
They start IV fluids on me test my urine test my kidney functions test my blood for anemia, red blood cells and hemoglobin EKG chest x-ray. Pregnancy and a urine STD test because I mentioned some urgency.
It’s a pretty comprehensive list of tests that they did
But absolutely everything comes back normal.
Right before I leave my fingertips start to go numb numbness on my body isn’t completely unusual for me. I have pots I deal with it often, but truthfully, I’ve never gone to a doctor and said hey I’m experiencing random numbness on random parts of my body.
I mention it to the nurse it doesn’t get investigated really which is fine. I guess I understand they already ran so many test.
I speak to the nurse at discharge and have a little bit of a breakdown. I essentially ask her if everything you checked is fine and what’s your next theory on what’s wrong with me because this exhaustion is affecting my work it’s affecting my relationships. I work in landscaping and work with some tools that can be dangerous. I can’t be having these symptoms while at work.
She was kind, but unfortunately gave me the very generic answer of go to your Gynecologist and get your hormones checked
So essentially, they believe it is stress or anxiety related
On my way home, the numbness progresses. It’s no longer just my fingertips, but it’s fully some of my fingers now like my pinky finger and this is on both hands.
I talked to ChatGPT about it. I know that in no way is ChatGPT a medical professional, but I really didn’t know what else to do at this point. Essentially it said that numbness like that was an emergency situation.
And I was like well I was just at the emergency room and they didn’t help me so I didn’t go back and every time I’ve experienced numbness before I didn’t die
So I bet you’re still wondering how the hell does this all correlate to PTSD? Last night I was looking at what mental health issues are considered disabilities and could receive specific medication and one of the ones that came up was PTSD. Granted confirmation Bias you know.
But when I read PTSD it all just kind of clicked together. I’ve been freaking out about doctors consistently for the last two weeks since this allergic reaction so in my head, I was like well obviously all of these symptoms maybe even the increased anxiety is all related to this allergic reaction
And in a way, I think it is I think the doctors at the urgent care making me feel like I wasn’t receiving. Informed consent is essentially giving me a “PTSD flare”
For a little out of context, because when I brought this up to my mother, she said that one of the qualifications for ptsd used to be a life or death situation and I believe I fit that criteria with doctors not specifically the Gynecologist because in sixth grade I got a tonsillectomy and it was not cauterized properly so I bled into my stomach for about two weeks and I became anemic. I had emergency surgery and two different hospital stays.
What I’m thinking about upcoming Gynecologist appointments one of the memories that comes to mine is being very little in elementary school and having a doctor look at my entire body and being very uncomfortable granted not crying but the fact that I’ve held onto this memory for so long.
I don’t know people with PTSD you tell me do you think it’s related?