What Should I Do Next?

[wuzzittoya]

I have been suffering with lower left quadrant pain (continuous, sometimes worse than others, worst if I've been fairly active on a given day) for over three months.  A colonoscopy removed a polyp that was pre-cancerous, and I go back in six months.  It didn't find the cause for the pain, though, so I went back to my primary physician who referred me for a gynecologist visit.  They found fluid on my ovary and suggested that maybe I'd had a cyst rupture.  I told her that the pain hadn't gone away, and had been fairly continuous for three months, getting worse with activity.  The ultrasound also showed an abnormally thick endometrial stripe at 1.5 cm, and it was biopsied.  

The pain affects my every day life, interrupts my sleep and is generally a nuisance.  In addition to pain, there is a significant loss of appetite, nausea, weakness, fatigue and weight loss.  The doctor decided to do the follow-up visit for biopsy results December 1 so it would be after Thanksgiving.  

My family is very concerned at how quickly my health is failing.  Twice I have been almost willing to allow them to take me to the emergency room when the pain and nausea were bad enough to have me drip buckets of sweat (in the car at one point I literally steamed over the window), but with no health insurance I was worried I would be observed, maybe given a better pain medication, and referred back to my doctor after they charged me a few thousand dollars for their efforts.  In my state I will be eligible for medicaid if this is cancer.  With the high cost of self-insuring and the high deductibles on those high cost plans, we've elected not to get them and hope that nothing terrible would ever happen to us.  Sadly, emergency treatment once a year would still be less expensive than a year's worth of premiums.  

Should I move up the biopsy results appointment if the doctor has other openings?  Should I be trying to get a referral for an abdominal CT or other type of scan to be sure all bases are covered?  My husband is an LPN and I honestly think he's almost certain I have cancer.  Sometimes I worry that I might have it, too.

[Hannahmoo]

Hello...I just came across your post and was amazed at how much your symptoms resemble mine. One difference being that your pain in on the lower left quad, and mine has been on the upper and lower right quad. (You may want to read my post..Nov. 13th at around 5:45 pm)

I agree with the doctor you absolutely should have ct scan of ab/pelvis, perhaps even an abdominal and pelvic ultrasound. This would give yo some peace of mind if negative and if something should show up...you can treat it immediately.

As far as insurance goes....I am in the same situation and I was told by an attorney friend of mine that there is a federal program called the "Hill Burton Act" which has hospitals listed that participate. There may be one in your area...please look into this. You could be treated as well as having your medical bills taken care of. I'm looking into it myself.

I am stilll searching for answers and I am deeply concerned about cancer myself. Please let me know how you are making out. Hope this post was of some help to you.

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  From the symptoms you described, I think you should really undergo a more extensive work-up to discover the cause of the pain.  For starters, a CT scan of the whole abdomen will help rule out the possibility of tumors within the abdominal area.  The colonic polyp is most probably not responsible for the pain you're experiencing, but the thickened endometrial stripe may be cause for worry, so you may wish to schedule an earlier appointment with the doctor to discuss the biopsy results.