Sounding off - sorry

Hope you get yourself sorted out today. Not trying to teach you how to suck eggs (yuk!) but I have found that it can be helpful if you can jot down things as you think about them, not putting this very well, but sort of bullet points to mention to your GP

Good!

Phoenix yes, he is coming in with me and has plenty to say!

Sorry jeni just got back from the shops and realised posts crossed.

Glad to hear that you DH is going with you, perhaps he should also go in with you to the actual consultation? It might help if he says how bad you have been and how concerned he is.

Which he wouldn't know about anyway....

Thanks everyone. The 1-10 is such a good idea and I hadn't thought of it so it will be a great help. I was thinking of telling his it is not as bad as gallstones but is as bad as chidbirth.

Thinking of you, Moved

Moved a useful way of describing your pain is on a scale of 1 to 10.
i.e., it's your scale and no-one else's.
It sounds to me as though you're up there on the 8 or 9, get the doc to see this and prescribe you something appropriate.
Do hope you get sorted.

The 1-10 scale is quite good! The 1= no pain. The 10 is the worst pain you can imagine!
Let us know how you get on!

And I do hope he can give you something suitable for the extreme pain while any investigations and treatments are being decided upon - you can't go on like this!

Moved I know exactly what you mean. I'm hopeless at 'showing' how much pain I'm in. I once collapsed after leaving a GP's surgery and needed hospital care; my doctor later asked me why I hadn't told him how poorly I was. I had - he just didn't get it. My current doctor knows me very well and takes what I say very seriously.
I do hope you can convey to your GP how much you're suffering and that you really do need your doctor to investigate until there is an accurate diagnosis. In the meantime;

Oh glass that is so kind of you to show you care. Yes, my appointment is at 3.30pm. I'm not very good at 'making a fuss' so am trying to get into the right mood to show how much pain I'm in. It must be very difficult for a doc. to know what each person means by a lot of pain. For some it will be nothing much and for others very serious, I have to find a way of making him understand how debilitating it is. I have been thinking about things I have been ignoring for some time which are probably relevant so am going to list these as well. DH is coming with me for back-up. He has to drive me anyway as I wouldn't be safe.

Thank you so much.

move have you phoned the DR ?????

Will do glass - watch this space!

move just get yourself to the doctors tomorrow and get it sorted its gone on for long enough!!!!

Nfk I think you may well be right as I was told years ago that I had them but I refused a hysteratctomy at the time because I have had so many operations. Lots of things I have been ignoring for ages might explain that so I'm going to suggest it to the doc tomorrow. The only thing is, I thought they shrank after the menopause?

Fibroids?!

Movedalot I've just caught up - sorry about your pain. Stay where you are tonight rather than going out and let us know what the doctor says.

soop I didn't count mine but they look like stones you could pick up on the street. I beleive some are really pretty but not mine. So glad when it was all over and no issues with eating since which i think some people do have. I understand kidney stones are just as painful. Yes, I'm looking forward to seeing the doc on Monday. Thanks

Movedalot Snap!...I have 23 gallstones [like wee pyramids] in a jar. Don't know where the gall bladder went...but go it did. Strange how the pain mimics a heart attack. Started somewhere between the shoulder blades and shifted like an agonising tight band around my chest. Doc came out on three late night visits to give me morphine, after which, surgery put pay to the pain. I shall be relieved when you have been to see your GP. Take care.

Kidney Stones

so sorry about the pain

Nfk interesting you should ask that, no, not for years but I did injure my coccyx when I was 19 and it was nothing like this! The more I think about it the more I am coming round to thinking it is a gynae thing. Just trying to work out the best way to convey that to my male doctor. It doesn't matter how good he is, he can't understand period pain.

Oh Move you have my sympathy. Have you had a fall? Could it be a cracked coccyx? If not, might it be a slipped disc?

A few years back I thought I had a pulled muscle in my posterior. Then I started to get mild sciatic pains. I mentioned it in passing to my doctor, who was also a friend, and he tested my heel for a reflex, there was none and he diagnosed a slipped disc. Within a few weeks I was suffering a lot of achy pain in my lower back which echoed around my stomach. I couldn't sit or stand for more than a few minutes at a time and I was walking with a stick as my left leg lost impetus. The only relief was laying flat. After a six months I could barely walk, was on large doses of pain killers and spent most of my time laying flat on my stomach on a put-you-up in the living room as I couldn't climb the stairs. I had a discectomy which fortunately worked and I'm fine now apart from a few numb patches on my leg. I'm so glad my doctor got me into the system early before too much nerve damage was done.

Get thee to a doctor!! Tomorrow!!

Sorry about all the back pain, moved. I know how bad it can be. Take care and good luck on Monday at the doc's.