"Doctor referral to see the on duty gynaecologist"

I realise I should have made a complaint at the time but I was young, ill and tired of doctors.  I hope that by writing this that I can move on from my disappointment with Crosshouse Hospital and start to trust in the NHS service again.  I wonder if the on duty gynaecologist had treated me seriously and the A&E department later on,  would I have been saved weeks of agony?  Does the gynaecologist regret their actions? Does the A&E department for sending me home?

I started getting constant abnormal abdominal pain from September 2018 (there were some issues beforehand but this is when it went constant). Visit to the GPs at first thought it was a UTI.  I was referred to the sexual health clinic for tests when that came back negative and given more antibiotics for possible pelvic infection.  I was still in horrible pain and went back to the GP. She referred me to Crosshouse hospital in October 2018 for a ultrasound scan.  The gynaecologist took bloods, higher swab test after physically examining me sent me home without a scan saying I wasn't in enough pain for it to be a cyst and sent me home to finish the antibiotics.

A week later  I returned and went to Crosshouse A&E in such crippling pain.  It did not seem to matter to them that I had a doctors referral for an ultrasound scan a week before. It had to go through my GP again who had already asked for it the previous week.  It was absurd and I was sent home with buscapan for IBS (which I do not have).  

The hospital staff did not seem to understand that up to this point in my life I was a normal 24 year old and my body was telling me something was very wrong.  I could not go to work, I could not sit, I could only lie on the couch and the tramadol I was later given took the pain away temporarily and made my head funny that I still could not do anything but stay in bed. 

My ultrasound was made an urgent referral and I was seen at Ayr hospital.  My scan was clear there was no way forward offered and to go back to the GP. Another point here is that it's hard to see the same GP urgently each time you go to the doctors I had to constantly give a new person the whole story from the beginning. 

At this point I had new symptoms pain radiating down my right leg and there was pressure when urinating. In October 2018,  GP said a laparoscopy was the next step and he said he would refer it urgently but he did not know of the timescale.  I begged my parents to get me privately seen I could not stand living with the pain. 

November laparoscopy surgery by the Nuffield hospital.  The Dr saved me and he removed a paratubal cyst (not been spotted on the ultrasound) from my right fallopian tube.  He said it was the largest one that he had removed in his career and that it twisting was why at times the pain peaked.    

Thoughts still plague me of what would have happened if I had not had that surgery. Would I have lost my fallopian tube? Would the nhs health professionals  have even operated on me in an emergency and even believed my pain.

It's 2021, I still live with undiagnosed pelvic pain but it's a lot less painful than that cyst. It's well managed and I'm trying physio next to see if that will help.  Maybe one day I'll know the diagnosis when more research is carried out.

I hope that by writing this, that feedback will reach the Crosshouse Hospital staff and that other young women and girls will have their abdominal pain taken seriously and not be sent home uncared for.