You have to fight for your right (to be diagnosed) : part two

Way back when I was 22, I started getting these weird stomach pains. It would feel like my stomach was tight like a balloon, but there would be no bloating. The only thing that helped was to put pressure on it, and wait it out. It hardly ever happened, maybe 3 times a year, and a few years later the pains just stopped. I put it down to eating badly, as the pains had disappeared as my diet became better.

When I was 28, I started noticing little stabbing pains in my stomach. Once again, I thought it must be diet related, so I tried to eat better, do more exercise, and waited for them to go away. Only they didn't go away.

Shortly after my 29th birthday, the pains started to get much worse. As if someone was coming up to me and stabbing me in the side at regular intervals. I was also suffering from terrible nausea. I went back and forth to the doctor, trying various tablets, and then went to see a stomach specialist. He diagnosed me with constipation and sent me on my way.

By the end of the year, I was in agony. I was in and out of the A&E department and had a stay in hospital around Christmas time. I'd had all kinds of scans, seen two specialists, a surgeon, and had tried various drugs with hideous side-effects.

Through all of this, I had doctors telling me that it might be psychological. After all, there was nothing they could find.

I completely disagreed with that. Yes, I'd had some stressful times at work, but they did not correlate with the times when my pain was at its worst. I was not going to accept that as a diagnosis.

The specialist I was working with, who had tried a few minor surgical procedures on me, was at a complete loss. There was nothing more he could offer. In a last ditch attempt, he sent me on to a colleague, a gynecologist.

They decided it was time to cut me open and have a look inside. It was the only thing left to do. Ultimately, it turned out to be the exact right thing. During that investigative surgery, they found endometriosis, and were able to remove it then and there.

I have to confess I was doubtful that this would cure me. I had so much pain for weeks after the surgery that it seemed like nothing had changed. But then came a day when I woke up pain free. And I was pain free all day. And then I woke up pain free the next day.

I still have a few niggling pains, just to remind me that my insides are determined to be troublesome, but the life I get to live now is dramatically different from how it would have been if I had not gotten that surgery. Day to day, I could never tell how bad I was going to be. I couldn't make plans, sometimes I could barely make it off the sofa. And what I have learned from my doctors is just how many people live with chronic stomach and abdominal pains.

Whatever illness or condition you might be suffering, if you don't agree with your doctor, if you haven't reached a diagnosis that makes sense, you have to keep going. I'm lucky, I got an easy fix this time, and I know that's not true for everyone, but I was nearly written off as incurable.

Keep going until you get your answer.