Personal Narrative: My Medical Event

My medical event began when I was sixteen months old according to my mother. I was very ill and she thought I had eaten too much corn and had a tummy ache. Through my life I had problems with my right side and many diagnoses. Doctors diagnosed me with everything from chronic appendicitis to colitis to nothing. My parents were told by several doctors there was nothing wrong with me. I was ignored when I got sick because they believed the doctors. I married and my husband sent me to the Indian clinic several times where they could find nothing wrong with me. When I was pregnant I felt wonderful and cleaned the house and cooked wonderful meals. Not being pregnant, I was sick and I barely could get out of bed. This put such a strain on my marriage we divorced. I had four children under the ages of ten to support and raise. My youngest was not in school yet and I went to college. I became very ill and was put into the hospital. I had jaundice and the doctor could not find out why. This was as close as anyone had ever come to finding out what was wrong. I dragged myself from low-paying job to another low-paying job through the years. The children grew up, graduated from

Referred pain is known and I felt the doctors should have been more knowledgeable with referred pain. All the years of pain were relieved in three hours and I think I was angry for several years that the doctors had not found out what was wrong with me. I quit going to doctors when I was in my twenties because they did not help and my liver could not process medication. Only when I was unable to refuse to go and my husband took me to the emergency room was when I was forced to see a doctor again. I want to be a general practitioner because I do not want anyone else to feel the way I felt in my life. I hope I can learn to be more observant and sensitive to a person’s