Continuously being dismissed about my health issues
Hi everyone.
I’ve (28f) had a really rough few weeks and I’m really at my wits end on what I should do next. This might be a bit long so I apologise! (CW for bowel stuff if that grosses you out)
6ish months ago I started getting heart palpitations, shortness of breath, chest pain and dizziness/lightheadedness that I just pawned off on anxiety and maybe too much caffeine even though I’m not a huge caffeine user. It was a bit manky to deal with but it wasn’t impacting me too badly so my GP ordered a blood test and gave me the all clear. I’ve always had a lower heart rate so I also thought it was just a bit of that too.
I’ve really cleaned up my act in the past year. Lost 5 stone, stopped smoking, started exercising and eat 90% healthy. About 2 months ago I got a bad bout of constipation that lasted about a week but dosed up on fybogel and water and it resolved a little bit, bowel movements were a bit sporadic but tolerable.
Cut to now, I’ve been severely constipated for the past almost 4 weeks with minimal bowel movements. Again, started the fybogel and water, then moved onto the more stronger stuff. I’ve taken Dulcolax tablets, prune juice, sugar free sweets, dulcolax suppositories, glycerin suppositories, dulcoease hydrate and movicol to no avail. I really tried to push through it so I tried to book an appointment with my doctor but had to wait 2 weeks.
Last week I had a lot of dizziness spells and shakiness which I (stupidly) pawned off on the hot weather. It got so bad that I just had to sit down most of the day as I really felt I was going to faint. Last Saturday the pain and bloating was absolutely horrendous and it continued into Sunday so I went to my out of hours GP because I was fully sure it was my appendix. He tested my urine and said I had a kidney infection and to see my GP about investigating into my constipation. Managed to get an urgent GP appointment for the next day and he told me I actually didn’t have a kidney infection but I could keep taking the antibiotics if I wanted to. He also said the shakiness/dizziness was probably just anxiety.
By this point I was having a minuscule bowel movement every 2/3 days and the bloating and pain wasn't budging. My heart rate has been dipping into the 20s and staying between 35-45 when sitting down and maybe 50 if I’m moving around. I do exercise but I’m absolutely not an athlete.
Yesterday I was feeling really sick, short of breath and just super lightheaded to the point I could barely get off the couch all day. I was putting moisturiser on in the morning and noticed one side of my thyroid is fairly swollen. My husband made me go to the out of hours GP. He checked my heart and agreed it was very slow and told me that I have a mitral valve murmur (never knew about it so unsure of when it developed). Because of this and the abdominal pain he referred me to A&E to get both checked out.
Got to A&E and was still having shortness of breath, dizziness and the pain was so bad I couldn’t sit down on the chair properly. The nurse said that they’d want to check my heart properly first before addressing the abdominal issues. At 3am the doctor called me in and said I had IBS and prescribed me more laxatives. He said that I was too young to have heart issues and that it was just anxiety again. I asked about an ECG or anything at all but he wasn’t having it. I left in pain and just completely fed up.
I feel absolutely rotten today. Still no movement even with laxatives and movicol. Can’t get an appointment with my GP for another week. I‘ve got up off the couch a grand total of twice today and just feel so out of it and dizzy. What else can I do or do I just go back to A&E? I’m so sick of begging for the bare minimum and I feel so bad for taking up space but I can’t go on like this for another week. I’m so mentally drained. I’m worried as well because my sister has a pacemaker in as she collapsed a few years ago due to her heart rate being so low but she had to go private because of the exact same issues. It might only be something small but I really can’t take it anymore. I also can’t afford to go private and have no health insurance.
So sorry for the length of this but man I’m at my wits end right now!