I feel sorry for her, but their initial diagnosis doesn't seem so farfetched when you consider that half of her pictures in the article show her drinking.
Yeah, true, I guess so... Though from experience, being at Uni ("these days"), the social pressure to drink (heavily), especially if you live on campus, which it sounds like she did, is insane...
Like to the point where I was actively ostracised for wanting to focus on my studies (at least initially) and not drink/go to a bar every three days or so... It got really, really bad. And that was at two different universities, in two states, in three different cities... :-/
Which is... Somewhat depressing. So... I can only imagine what that would have been like for a fairly pretty, small, young girl, in the UK, which has a rather... More "permissive" (for this sort of thing) and way, way less restrictive "drinking culture" than Australia does, these days... :-S
And it's also been a couple of years. I can only imagine this shit has gotten even more extreme, post-Covid (or maybe not, idk)...
Not saying you're wrong. Just that... I can kind of understand where she is at in life, especially as a law student (they party fucking hard, from experience)...
But yeah, re the symptoms she describes, and what you say there - you're right, in that... I've experienced temporary liver poisoning from binge drinking for an extended period of time, and it's horrific, so... Understandable the initial GP thought that way... Though due diligence suggests that after the second or third specialist, someone should've done a few more scans than they did, IMHO... shrug
But hell, I dunno. The whole thing just makes me sad. Especially knowing a girl who has chronic fatigue, only found out about it fairly late, and had it ruin her studies and life, pretty much exactly like this girl... Never mind my own MS and depression (and probably ADHD) shit. :-S
sigh Well, that got deep (apologies). Think I might go do some heavy exercise now, to take my mind off it, lol...
Yeah, I didn't take myself to the hospital when I should have re: perforated ulcers, because I'd been having stomach issues since the 1980s, and figured they'd just shrug me off for literal bellyachin'.
Thing is, I wasn't a drinker, at least not until the previous couple of years because of nightmares and an inability to get THC to shut them off.
So that's why I suffered for three days before falling on my face.
Damn thing is, something similar happened to a friend of mine back in the 90s, re: appendicitis. He ate the pain for three days or so, then passed out face-first in his cereal.
Yeah yeah yeah... coughing up blood and breathing problems are easily ignored by insurance and US Doctors...
But NOT private practice doctors in the UK.
The moral of the story (in the UK) "listen to your body"
This is what socialized medicine gets you - politicized hospitals and woke propaganda campaigns that defend the politicized hospitals and government - so long as the spice keeps flowing.
I had similar in 2010-2011. 11 months of walking around with a broken L5 vertebrae and a prolapsed L5/S1 disc. "Oh you again, I keep telling you that it's sciatica and it'll clear up on its own!" Would come from the Doctor. When I kept telling him that it was getting worse and I was in unbearable pain he just wouldn't listen. Kept repeating that it was sciatica and it would clear. It cleared with surgery in the end to fix the vertebrae together and remove the protrusion of the disc. 8 months recovery post surgery. Still can't jog/run. Walking long distances causes me pain after a while. Need to watch my posture. Can't lift/carry my kids. But life is good now.
This is what I said about it elsewhere (yes, it's somewhat self-deprecating, but you should expect that from me by now, right?):
Moral of the story: trust yourself, your own feelings/body, and your symptoms, before you trust some arsehole doctor who insists that they know best, be it Covid (or MS for me), or whatever!!
And keep pushing. Don't give up because the bureaucrats and medical arseholes try to push you away, and insist that you are "making it up", or even that it "isn't their problem" (jesus, that hurts to write, given my proximity to this sort of thing). Keep pushing. Find a different doctor. Go to a different medical service. Just... Don't give up. Let Eva Cassidy (melanoma) and this girl, be examples to us that sometimes doctors (and parents/family, for that matter) do not know what is best for us, or our health...
Probably lucky that this girl is/was a law student, and is smart enough, and self-aware enough, to know that she was right, and the doctors weren't, in this case...
I doubt I would have had the guts she did, especially at 20, unfortunately. :-/ In fact, I know for a fact that I didn't...
So... I hope that her courage, and insistence on getting proper treatment, might have saved her life, but... Who knows, I guess?!
I feel sorry for her, but their initial diagnosis doesn't seem so farfetched when you consider that half of her pictures in the article show her drinking.
Yeah, true, I guess so... Though from experience, being at Uni ("these days"), the social pressure to drink (heavily), especially if you live on campus, which it sounds like she did, is insane...
Like to the point where I was actively ostracised for wanting to focus on my studies (at least initially) and not drink/go to a bar every three days or so... It got really, really bad. And that was at two different universities, in two states, in three different cities... :-/
Which is... Somewhat depressing. So... I can only imagine what that would have been like for a fairly pretty, small, young girl, in the UK, which has a rather... More "permissive" (for this sort of thing) and way, way less restrictive "drinking culture" than Australia does, these days... :-S
And it's also been a couple of years. I can only imagine this shit has gotten even more extreme, post-Covid (or maybe not, idk)...
Not saying you're wrong. Just that... I can kind of understand where she is at in life, especially as a law student (they party fucking hard, from experience)...
But yeah, re the symptoms she describes, and what you say there - you're right, in that... I've experienced temporary liver poisoning from binge drinking for an extended period of time, and it's horrific, so... Understandable the initial GP thought that way... Though due diligence suggests that after the second or third specialist, someone should've done a few more scans than they did, IMHO... shrug
But hell, I dunno. The whole thing just makes me sad. Especially knowing a girl who has chronic fatigue, only found out about it fairly late, and had it ruin her studies and life, pretty much exactly like this girl... Never mind my own MS and depression (and probably ADHD) shit. :-S
sigh Well, that got deep (apologies). Think I might go do some heavy exercise now, to take my mind off it, lol...
Yeah, I didn't take myself to the hospital when I should have re: perforated ulcers, because I'd been having stomach issues since the 1980s, and figured they'd just shrug me off for literal bellyachin'.
Thing is, I wasn't a drinker, at least not until the previous couple of years because of nightmares and an inability to get THC to shut them off.
So that's why I suffered for three days before falling on my face.
Damn thing is, something similar happened to a friend of mine back in the 90s, re: appendicitis. He ate the pain for three days or so, then passed out face-first in his cereal.
Yeah yeah yeah... coughing up blood and breathing problems are easily ignored by insurance and US Doctors...
But NOT private practice doctors in the UK.
The moral of the story (in the UK) "listen to your body"
This is what socialized medicine gets you - politicized hospitals and woke propaganda campaigns that defend the politicized hospitals and government - so long as the spice keeps flowing.
I had similar in 2010-2011. 11 months of walking around with a broken L5 vertebrae and a prolapsed L5/S1 disc. "Oh you again, I keep telling you that it's sciatica and it'll clear up on its own!" Would come from the Doctor. When I kept telling him that it was getting worse and I was in unbearable pain he just wouldn't listen. Kept repeating that it was sciatica and it would clear. It cleared with surgery in the end to fix the vertebrae together and remove the protrusion of the disc. 8 months recovery post surgery. Still can't jog/run. Walking long distances causes me pain after a while. Need to watch my posture. Can't lift/carry my kids. But life is good now.
It's been 10 years since and it's all good.
This is what I said about it elsewhere (yes, it's somewhat self-deprecating, but you should expect that from me by now, right?):
Moral of the story: trust yourself, your own feelings/body, and your symptoms, before you trust some arsehole doctor who insists that they know best, be it Covid (or MS for me), or whatever!!
And keep pushing. Don't give up because the bureaucrats and medical arseholes try to push you away, and insist that you are "making it up", or even that it "isn't their problem" (jesus, that hurts to write, given my proximity to this sort of thing). Keep pushing. Find a different doctor. Go to a different medical service. Just... Don't give up. Let Eva Cassidy (melanoma) and this girl, be examples to us that sometimes doctors (and parents/family, for that matter) do not know what is best for us, or our health...
Probably lucky that this girl is/was a law student, and is smart enough, and self-aware enough, to know that she was right, and the doctors weren't, in this case...
I doubt I would have had the guts she did, especially at 20, unfortunately. :-/ In fact, I know for a fact that I didn't...
So... I hope that her courage, and insistence on getting proper treatment, might have saved her life, but... Who knows, I guess?!