Really trying to find the words I want to say in the letters I’m going to write to the ED and the GI clinic for 1. Minimizing my symptoms, asking me in a condescending way if I have tried icy hot. 2. Not treating my pain appropriately and making me feel like a drug seeker.

3. Brushing me off numerous times and not taking me seriously. And 4. Legitimately making me question myself and making me believe it was all in my head.
I cannot put into words how this experience had been.

The ONLY reason I was able to get a HIDA and get a confirmed diagnosis of biliary dysfunction was because I was working with a surgeon on ICU and I had an attack. I was double over in pain, pale, shaking, and diaphoretic when he sat down next to me

And started to do an assessment. He opened my chart reviewed everything and within 5 minutes was concerned about my gallbladder and ordered a HIDA through his clinic. If it was not for that encounter with him (which was all by chance) who knows where I would be.

I got lucky because I am a nurse and I was working with a surgeon who listened to me and decided to bypass all the BS and get me in for a scan that my PCP and 2 ED docs didn’t want to order. I could not imagine what would have happened if I didn’t talk to him about it.