What a horrendous experience! I am so sorry for what you've been through. I also don't understand the absurdity of race coming into medical practice but I know it does. Humans can be incredibly cruel and un-empathetic. Sadly, that shows up a lot in clinics. I'm a white woman and I hate going. It sucks that you have to worry about another layer of poor care. May we all learn to do better and may you stay healthy.
The system is broken. You had horrible care and should report these people. Yes, go to ER next time if there is a next time. No one should have to endure what you did.
Oh, Brittany -- I am so sorry you had to experience this. Living with a chronic pain condition myself (and having it take about 20 years to have it properly diagnosed because it's invisible and the gene causing it wasn't even discovered until 2018), I feel your agony of being dismissed in that clinic -- and I've got white lady privilege! Thank you so much for sharing the excruciating battle that so many women face in getting care, including navigating child care. I wish our nation cared more for the health of everyone and offered support for people in your situation instead of saying nothing must be wrong if you somehow managed not to die on the way to urgent care.
There is movement now, especially with IUD insertion, to use anesthesia so that the presumption isn't "periods are painful, so this ought to be, too." For some folks, that means a light general sedation; for others, a local is sufficient (that was me). With a local, the doctor has to wait for the cervix to be numb enough to proceed, and if you've got neurological issues as I do, I take much longer to numb up than other people (dental work takes FOREVER). A good provider is aware of that and doesn't rush through or presume that you'll be fine with a few Tylenol. No one should ever send a patient home believing that what you experienced is "normal." That is medical misogyny in practice, topped with racism for extra fury.
I'm a non-medical, white, male reader... whose own guts churned not only to read of your pain but also of its routinizing by insensitive doctors and PAs. Godspeed.
I'm so sorry that this happened to you. Horrendous. I can't believe that the practitioner actually questioned your own assessment of pain level, just beyond.
What a horrendous experience! I am so sorry for what you've been through. I also don't understand the absurdity of race coming into medical practice but I know it does. Humans can be incredibly cruel and un-empathetic. Sadly, that shows up a lot in clinics. I'm a white woman and I hate going. It sucks that you have to worry about another layer of poor care. May we all learn to do better and may you stay healthy.
The system is broken. You had horrible care and should report these people. Yes, go to ER next time if there is a next time. No one should have to endure what you did.
From seeing my sister have multiple ERs visits and their ineptitude + indifference, I fear they wouldn't do anything to help either.
Oh, Brittany -- I am so sorry you had to experience this. Living with a chronic pain condition myself (and having it take about 20 years to have it properly diagnosed because it's invisible and the gene causing it wasn't even discovered until 2018), I feel your agony of being dismissed in that clinic -- and I've got white lady privilege! Thank you so much for sharing the excruciating battle that so many women face in getting care, including navigating child care. I wish our nation cared more for the health of everyone and offered support for people in your situation instead of saying nothing must be wrong if you somehow managed not to die on the way to urgent care.
There is movement now, especially with IUD insertion, to use anesthesia so that the presumption isn't "periods are painful, so this ought to be, too." For some folks, that means a light general sedation; for others, a local is sufficient (that was me). With a local, the doctor has to wait for the cervix to be numb enough to proceed, and if you've got neurological issues as I do, I take much longer to numb up than other people (dental work takes FOREVER). A good provider is aware of that and doesn't rush through or presume that you'll be fine with a few Tylenol. No one should ever send a patient home believing that what you experienced is "normal." That is medical misogyny in practice, topped with racism for extra fury.
Sending you love and strength!
I'm a non-medical, white, male reader... whose own guts churned not only to read of your pain but also of its routinizing by insensitive doctors and PAs. Godspeed.
I'm so sorry that this happened to you. Horrendous. I can't believe that the practitioner actually questioned your own assessment of pain level, just beyond.