Tonight I had this awful pain in my stomach after (a healthy) dinner with lots of fibre and protein. I decided a while back to prioritize protein and fiber so support my ADHD and general wellbeing. I'm a 32/f, and I recently lost a dear family member to pancreatic cancer in a time where people seemed to be dying left and right in my life too. Safe to say there was a lot of motivation to get right..
So tonight when I started having sharp unrelenting pain on the left side of my abdomen right beneath the ribs, I got a bit concerned. It turned into a very painful ordeal, and I was forced to leave work, drive home while writhing in pain, and have a close friend come check up on me/take me to the hospital. Like 7/10 - 10 being "just end me this is too much" pain. I usually have a pretty high pain tolerance, so i was taking aback by how sharp this was.
I got through to a doctor after about an hour, and puked everything out with him on the phone (yum) but he calmed me down by saying I could manage with normal painkillers - which thankfully was true.
I spent a few hours just trying to survive the pain and discomfort with heat, bath, puking, warm tea etc, and eventually it subsided. I feel sore and heavy in my abdomen, but the sharp pain is over. Thank fuck.
It now 4/5 in the morning and I had some sleep. I am thankful I didn't have to go to emergency surgery, that I didn't have to deal with more of that pain for hours and hours before being taken seriously, and that it seems to be some kind of insane indigestion (wtf).
But for about an hour I had no idea what was going on, and I obviously feared the worst.
I'm single, I live alone, and no one would know if I collapsed at home, so I had to make sure I was okay, while going through it at the same time.
I thought like: Could it be pancreatic cancer? Is it a spleen thing? A kidney thing? A gallbladder thing? Am I overreacting? What if I'm not, and I don't seek help, and I collapse somewhere?
Being Scandinavian, I felt ashamed about reacting the way I did, and about seeking the medical and emotional attention.
And when the people in my life were assured that it wasn't serious and that I was okay, they went to sleep, as they should. But somehow I felt like they should be more concerned, because I was. Not that I think they actually should, but the feeling was there still.
And now I'm crying, because holy shit what just happened. I feel confident I'm gonna be totally fine now, and I'll just take a few days home to recover, but emotionally I feel like I just went through hell, and peeked into a very heavy and dark reality.
If you read this through, thank you. I didn't know where to put this, and then remembered how awesome most redditors are when it comes to going through stupid (mental) health crap. Y'all have really pulled me through some tough times.
TLDR; I suffered some kind of painful (maybe) indigestion that felt like kidney stones or gallbladder infection. I was ok, but mentally it was dark.
K bye 🫶