When I was in the eighth grade, I began experiencing stomach pains and nausea that persisted for months. My symptoms became so bad that I would have to stay home from school sometimes, and eventually had to have a homebound teacher. I was in and out of doctors’ offices of all specialties: primary care, gastroenterology, gynecology… the list goes on.
I went through numerous tests and scans so that providers could assess the results and come to a conclusion about what was wrong with me. In the process, I received some unhelpful responses from some health care professionals. I was persistently asked if I was sexually active, although I had already given my honest answer of “no” in previous visits. There was even a time that they asked my mother to leave the exam room in the hopes that her absence would affect my response.
Another negative response that I encountered was false diagnoses and various prescriptions. For instance, I was once told that I had acid reflux and that I should begin taking Prevacid. I also recall being given medication for my pain that made me feel worse due to the side effects.
Things started to take a turn for the better when my mother and I were introduced to a pediatric surgeon. He performed one exam and suggested exploratory laparoscopy. Since other physicians before him could not determine the source of my pain, he decided that by opening me up, he could surely get to the bottom of this. His determined attitude and sympathy for what I had been through gave my family a sense of comfort that we had not felt before. I no longer felt as if these symptoms were something I had made up in my head. I was especially relieved following surgery when the surgeon came in and told us that I had a cyst on my Fallopian tube, and that he had removed it.
Even though I faced unfortunate interactions with some health care providers, my parents and I had “a responsive sense of hope in the ongoing meeting of questions of human health” (Arnett, Fritz, & Bell, 2009, p. 194). We continued to reach out for answers from an array of specialists. When we met the pediatric surgeon, he responded with a sense of hope that matched ours and we found that quite comforting. Words cannot explain how happy we all were once I healed from surgery and no longer felt the pain that I had before.
Arnett, R. C., Fritz, J. M. H. & Bell, L. M. (2009). Communication ethics literacy: Dialogue and difference. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Tierra Thomas 