I spent 5 months with severe headaches out of nowhere and increasing seizure symptoms. I went to the GP countless times who couldn’t even recognise I was having migraines (my eye doctor had to do this) and referred me to a neurologist twice, once for migraines and also for the seizures. I went to A&E twice in this time because the pain was so bad and because of seizures where I was conscious but couldn’t speak and was jerking all over. The A&E triage-r said what I had wasn’t a seizure because I didn’t become unconscious which I’m pretty sure is not true?? Then the follow up doctor told me I was having cluster headaches even though the oxygen treatment didn’t make them go away. When I went to see the neurologist he was an incredibly patronising and unprofessional old man who told me that I was having something called Functional Neurological Disorder, which is common in women my age and I should just be happy I wasn’t having cluster headaches. So both he and the A&E doctors basically said I didn’t need a brain scan but that they’d give me one in four weeks just to be sure, though there’s ZERO chance it’d show anything.
Well literally the day after that I had to be rushed to hospital because I collapsed and had four unconscious seizures in a row and had to have emergency brain surgery to remove what turned out to be a large brain tumour. I feel really really angry, particularly at the neurologist who completely ignored undermined my situation and told me to take up swimming to resolve my neck pain and that’d fix everything :))
I feel like I am gonna have this chip on my shoulder if I don’t do anything to at least tell him how badly he could have fucked me over. To clarify I am not the type of person to want to sue a medical professional but equally I never want this to happen to anyone else. Am I being reasonable for wanting to reduce the chance of this happening again???
Does anyone have any advice? If not, all I’d say is ALWAYS ADVOCATE FOR YOUR YOURSELF. Medical professionals don’t always know best and shouldn’t always be trusted which is a shitty feeling. You know best if something is not right and you should always push for them to pursue it. Maybe it’s just the shock of the thing and I’ll get over it in time but right now I feel so mad.