MISDIAGNOSED: Book One

Chapter Ten - Screw Doctor's advice

The advice as I mentioned in the previous chapter that I received from the doctor that I was seeing, was that I needed to go off of my iron supplements for three months in order to check if my iron levels and blood levels will remain stable. This was because I was healthy according to the latest blood tests that they ran (less than six months after receiving blood via intravenous and iron transfusion as well). This was around March 2023 and I was optimistic about the results that would occur after stopping the supplements. So I was doing great with averaging five thousand to six thousand steps on campus every day. I was going to the bathroom regularly. There was no spasms thus far, I was feeling more energized, etc. Then when I stopped taking the iron supplements All hell broke loose. It had barely been a week after stopping the iron supplements and shit hit the fan, for lack of better phrase. I managed to go to campus but after walking five thousand steps which is something I had been used to for two weeks then it all changed. My legs felt like jelly and once I got home it felt as if my legs could just fall out completely. Luckily I rushed to shower because I had been sweating a lot at campus during the day. It was difficult to shower because my legs felt like there was so much pressure on them when standing. So I changed into my pyjamas, got into bed and then I realised that I couldnt move my legs. My door was unlocked so when my mother got home, I explained what was going on. My legs would not move but they started ACHING. It felt as if I ran for ten hours through electrified water whilst being stabbed all over my legs at the same time. Tough description, I know but it was not exactly fun to experience either. It would feel as if I was walking and in pain but I was laying still on my bed in confusion. This was simply three days after stopping the iron supplements. My body was in shock. We waited to see if the next morning things would change, but they did not. I did not realise how much effort it takes to walk from your room to the bathroom, back to your room, then to the kitchen, until I was in that immense pain from the waist down. I would be crying whilst sitting still, laying on my bed, walking to my door, etc. Imagine all of that horrific pain whilst laying still, and now you need to walk to the bathroom or go to the kitchen to eat something. My head started to hurt with how much I cried whilst trying to simply walk to the bathroom and back. We noticed that the pain was not going away and it was only getting worse. We started heat compresses, keeping the legs elevated, etc. Once we called the doctor that gave this medical advice, all he said was to just start taking the tablets again. That was it. He did not explain why it was happening, he did not suggest taking a look at it, what methods we could use to soothe the aches, nothing of the sort. Only to just continue with the medication and that was that. How helpful, right? I started taking the iron supplements again and in two days my legs regained their strength as per usual but we were not out of the woods yet. Due to the panic, the stress, the university overload stress of work during that time, and worrying about my attendance at tutorials those things put my body into shock once again. My stress levels were through the roof and this heavily affected my health. I was having heartburn every single day for about three times a day on average and I would not need to eat in order for the acid reflux and heartburn to occur. It had been getting to the point where the heartburn would be sitting in my mouth. There would be the taste of blood and metal in my mouth whilst my insides were on fire. Breathing hurt and all of that strain makes the body stress more. Ultimately, we started trying alkaline water to balance the pH levels in my body because what we researched was that my body was perhaps too acidic, and we needed to balance out the levels to stop the heartburn. It took a week or two but eventually, the heartburn and acid reflux stopped. HOWEVER, thanks to the increasing levels of stress that was occurring during all of that madness, guess who returned? Senor spasms. The spasms returned in such a way that they were more painful than I would have imagined and it was difficult to control especially during time at campus. I would be sitting in the lecture hall and out of nowhere, my body would start perspiring out of control. This normally happens before the spasms sometimes. My breathing got out of control because the bodys nervous system is starting to panic because the mind cannot comprehend why the body is perspiring so much. Then as the mind is panicking, the body is jumping to a million conclusions, it starts overthinking, and then the cold winds hits my back that is now wet then the spasms commence. The aching, ripping, tearing, pushing, pulling, stabbing, and overall exhausting pain comes in waves and they just get worse as time continues. What makes it worse is you are trying to control and calm it down because you are surrounded by people but there is nothing more you can do until you get home. Then we went to see a new General Practitioner because the previous ones we saw after the one who passed away, they never helped and just threw tablets at the situation like the previous GP. So, after speaking to his new GP, we had hope because she seemed really knowledgeable and supportive. She was going to refer me to a haematologist to check my blood and iron levels, and to a psychologist because of all the trauma surrounding my health and stress of it over the years. Can you believe what happened after seeing her and thinking that we were finally going to get the help we have been asking for? Nothing. Literally, nothing. She said that we would hear from her in a few days and we heard nothing for two weeks. So we called in to hear back from her and they constantly said that she was not in office. A month went by, another month went by and we still heard absolutely nothing. The rest of 2023 we heard nothing from this GP and we had to navigate the research ourselves because this was the last straw for us.