Thank you so much. When I was in high school, many years ago, I frequently would go to the school nurse complaining of abdominal cramps and headaches. Her response was to tell my mother I was seeking attention and might have a case of hypochondria. I did not know this of coarse until I was about twenty and had been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and had already went through my first near death experience when I nearly bled to death because of the profuse bleeding in my colon. One day my mother and I ran into this nurse while we were out. I was surprised by my quiet gentle mother’s response toward her. With a raised and angry voice my mother said to her, do you remember my daughter, the student that came to you with abdominal cramps all the time, the hypochondriac? The women looked at me and said, oh yes, how have you been, in a sheepish tone. Before I could say anything my mother speaks up and says, she hasn’t been doing well at all as a matter of fact! She went on to tell her how her daughter spends weeks at a time in the hospital and has almost died from ulcerative colitis. Then she added, maybe if her disease had been diagnosed sooner she wouldn’t be sick. Then my mother took my arm and walked away without waiting for a response from her. That’s when my mother told me what that nurse had told her back when I was in school. My mother told me it had made her really angry at the time because she knew I didn’t feel well but didn’t know why. She had taken me to see a doctor but back then doctors were so quick to pass abdominal pain in females as hysterical pain. One doctor actually told my mother I was just high strung and just needed to calm down. Sad to say even today to many doctors do not take women’s complaints seriously if the problem is below the waist. I wish there had been a teacher like you in my school.
Robin