Our internet connection went out today and wasn’t scheduled to come back until 2pm. Were they fixing a fault? No idea.
Fahim works over the internet, so with no internet, he couldn’t work. So what are we going to do with all this time?
Well, we went to the Apollo Hospital. I called as soon as we found out internet was going to be out all day and made an appointment with an endocrinologist.
Short version of the story – I’ve been having all the symptoms of perimenopause for the last year, and in my research, found an excellent forum for early menopause with loads of information specifically for those with early menopause. This is important because, from what I’ve read, the health needs for those with early menopause are different from those with regularly aged menopause.
With all the research I’ve done, I’ve learned that it’s possible for thyroid problems to cause early menopause, make early menopause worse, or to cause the symptoms of early menopause. Well, my thyroid symptoms go back to when I was 21 and had blood taken every couple or four months to test my thyroid levels, only to have them come back normal.
Now I find out that that thyroid test has a high rate of false negatives. Why then is it still used? Because it’s cheap, I imagine. And easy. And general practitioners haven’t been reeducated.
So. I see the endocrinologist. Nice woman who has a reasonable discussion with me. I give her my two page history, which she briefly scans, and it’s enough to convince her there’s something going on, and she fills out the form ordering a wackload of blood tests. Yay. And then asks me if I’ve seen a gynocologist. Well, yes, back in August. And that gynocologist was a waste of my time.
When I tell the endo doc her name, endo doc responds with comments along the lines of "She was sent back to India. She wasn’t qualified."
Fahim’s response is that Indian docs always criticize Sri Lankan docs, and Sri Lankan docs always criticize Indian docs, and they call each other unqualified or whatever. Thing is, in this case, we think it’s true based on the fact that a. she no longer works for the Apollo and b. she was a stupid idiot when I saw her.
Anyway, endo doc then insisted that I see another gyno immediately because there might be more blood tests that need to be taken, so she calls up to another gyno doc, who’s heading into surgery in ten minutes, he says, but if we can get up there in five minutes, he’ll see me.
We head up there, and he’s not there. We wait for at least ten minutes before he finally shows up, and then we’re ushered into his office, and I hand him my two page history, which he reads out, some out loud, with a lot of "oh, darling," "my darling," and "poor darling!"
Gay?
He finishes reading it and yep, he orders more blood tests. He doesn’t think I have early menopause, but then, from what I can tell, most gynos don’t tend to believe it until the blood tests come back explicitly indicating that meno is there, and even then, not all gynos believe it. Or, at least, that’s what I’m reading on the early menopause boards.
Whatever. He ordered the blood tests, so we’ll know for sure one way or the other soon enough.
He kept going on and on and on about "pre-menstrual tension". Is that the new term for PMS (pre-menstrual syndrome)? I doubt my hot flashes, foggieness, and dizziness, along with skipped periods can be attributed to PMS, but whatever floats his boat. Like I said, he ordered the blood tests, so we’ll see.
He did, however, recommend 400 IU of vitamin E for cramps. I’ll give that a try and see what happens.
