Named for a boy, but we know better.
The pain has been really bad the past few weeks. I have also been eating like relative shit. And I don't feel healthy in general even though I haven't been eating like objective shit. I miss my overwhelming number of veggies every day. They make my whole body happy.
It is the semester's crunch time, and I know that I can only handle so much at once. I can't feed myself awesomely when I've got lots of deadlines. Something will fail. So I'm just going with the flow despite the worsening pain.
I really don't understand how the medical world has failed to determine the cause of vulvodynia and IC so far. For IC, diet change is a standard treatment. Why not, like, FIGURE OUT WHY IT WORKS?!?!
I'm still looking forward to my appointment with the gastroenterologist, but I'm expecting that she will be too rushed/preoccupied/doctorish to devote much consideration to my case. Like the gynecologist who made me feel like if I wasn't dying or having a baby I was wasting her time.
That's why vulvodynia and IC aren't very far along medically. Aside from all the other reasons, they aren't life-threatening. Attention and dollars go there first.
I'm just not convinced that either vulvodynia or IC is as mysterious as the medical community thinks them to be. It's just that no one's been paying enough attention to connect the dots.
Most of the time these days, what I really need is a hug. I don't even care about the pain anymore. I just want a three- or four-week Jupiter-sized hug. I want to be hugged until my body is saturated with hug and I drip it wherever I walk.
You know why I think there's not a lot of $$$ invested in vulvodynia?
ReplyDeleteBesides the obvious that we all know, like, not-life threatening, happens to women & nobody cares about women's health,
There's some doctors & psychologists out there who like, actively question FSD... usually they're referring to things like, questioning treatments for low libido, poor or no orgasms in women. Things of that nature.
My issue? Medical reasons count as a reason for FSD to exist. And when these doctors like Teifer & her lot go around throwing shit fits at Pfizer for trying to develop a drug for women that would be analogous to Viagra, I think it makes trying to research treatments for FSD a lot less appealing to these companies...
...including treatments for pain syndromes like what we have going on.
I have a really bad feeling about this. Like okay one day down the line... you (plural; not you specifically Esther,) successfully got drug companies to totally not take any interest in developing drugs to treat sexual difficulties in women. Congratulations.
Now how am I supposed to tell my insurance to keep covering my pelvic floor physical therapy & vestibulectomies. Way to go. That worked out totally great.
I may be a total cynic, I may be paranoid, & overestimating things but that is my fear.
K, I agree -- it's very easy for those with functioning parts to overlook the possibility of problems. We need our own movement towards political correctness.
ReplyDeleteSorry my response is not longer. I've got the attention span of an antelope. (See, I can't even focus to think of an animal.) But I enjoy your thoughtful comments, always.
I agree with your cynicism over the doctor taking enough time and interest to look at your specific case. I've been going to the doctors for a long time with cystitis and only this week was referred to a Urologist because they've decided they have no idea. I know they're eventually going to tell me that's it's IC.
ReplyDeleteTried explaining to the doctor that I think it may be food related and maybe we should investigate that further because of my other symptoms that seem to be food related. He told me he didn't believe food could play a part and that I should discuss my concerns with the Urologist.
He actually googled it and decided it may be Irritable Bladder (the main symptom of which is incontinence). I told him I wasn't incontinent and he just said 'mmm, maybe it's not that'.
I loathe doctors. They waste my time and just make me angry! I hope you have more luck with yours.
Stef, gah! I'm so sorry you're having crappy luck so far. If doctors were acting like scientists all the time, they'd use the data at hand without preconceptions. But they don't, maybe because every case is different, maybe because people lie and exaggerate...still, scientific method, people!! Hello!
ReplyDeleteI specifically booked a female doctor this time around. I figure I might as well talk to someone who at least HAS a vulva. It doesn't ensure open-mindedness, but she might listen better.