I was denied sedation/effective pain meds before a procedure pretty recently. Despite the fact that I spent the entire time literally screaming in pain, they dismissed it as “anxiety” and did nothing to help.
I also received very little when I first came into the hospital - as my body was flooding with literal shit and I was fucking dying. They let me writhe and roll around for hours before they mercifully knocked me out for my operation.
I’m traumatized to the point where watching movies where people experiencing pain is upsetting. I was watching fucking Avatar the Last Airbender and wincing every time someone got punched or kicked.
I also go back to getting my IUD put in - again, another extremely painful procedure that is “not supposed to hurt” so there is no option for sedation or effective pain meds.
It feels like asking for pain meds gets you labeled as a drug seeker/addict too. I made the mistake of mentioning that I smoke weed (because I knew the anesthesiologist needs to know that) and it feels like it was instantly assumed that I’d be a pill popper too.
And I have extremely high pain tolerance. I’ve literally had people whip me until they’ve drawn blood. I’ve worked a fast food shift with a second degree (even a bit of third degree) burn going down the majority of my arm. I’m not a wuss, I know how to breathe in ways that help, I know how to go to a mind palace, but Christ, when you start digging around in someone’s guts with sharp objects, that’s not really something you can meditate away!
Is it training? Is it the fact that becoming a doctor in the U.S. requires the kind of upper middle class upbringing that doesn’t tend to help people develop empathy?
I got surgically sterilized because the pain from that was less than what an IUD would have been.
The only pain I felt was for the initial IV stick. After that it was nothing.
I will refuse any painful procedure that doesn’t have adequate pain relief. I don’t care if I die.
Medicine keeps getting away with this shit because women just accept it. Endometrial biopsy? Only if I’m completely out. If not I guess I’ll enjoy my hospice drugs while I’m dying.
IUD? Lol I just cut my shit out instead. I need hormonal treatment for endometriosis still, but I just take hormone blockers for it. Way better than dealing with sadists.
I’m too fed up to live through this shit anymore. I have no kids IDGAF.
Part of why my condition got so bad to begin with was because I’ve had so many bad experiences with doctors that I didn’t go to the hospital until I started feeling unbearable pain. I spent a full two weeks with an infected abscess just getting worse and worse because I figured that whatever it was would be blown off if I went to the hospital - because that happens any time I’ve ever gone to an ER.
I need to get my IUD replaced (it’s been 10+ years) and I’m terrified. I don’t have insurance, so my best option is Planned Parenthood, who told me that it was “just a little pinch.”
I’ve been fucked with knives and wartenberg wheels (abusive BDSM relationship). That shit was not “a little pinch.” I filled up a diaper with blood afterwords.
It’s to the point where I avoid seeing doctors, unless it’s the nurse practitioner who does my hormones - he’s the only doctor I’ve felt listened to me.
They’re so damn condescending too - I’ve taught biology and chemistry - I can understand a real explanation of what’s happening and want one!