You’re not listening

It’s had mixed reviews, but I absolutely LOVED The Fall Guy. I went to see it with my sister on Friday night.

I laughed, I almost cried, I sang along to the soundtrack, I gazed adoringly at Ryan Gosling … The action scenes that played out across Sydney landmarks were so entertaining.

It was the BEST, bulkest fun.

It took my mind off the annoying issues I am having with my hip, including that I will need to rest. I am not good at resting. I like to be on the go, walk, walk, walking.

I had to cancel both my weekend walks due to the cortisone injection. Damn.

After taking Charlie to the vet and dropping into drinks for my friend Johnno’s 65th birthday on Saturday arvo I headed to DD’s for a bit of tellie watching on his couch.

The weather was horrendous, but we managed to duck out for a coffee on Avalon headland and brekkie with the dogs on Sunday morning and headed to the Four Pines for a burger last night.

Yep, that’s my version of taking it easy.

I’ve also been battling a rollercoaster of emotions since seeing the ortho surgeon. And I’ve been reading about the gender pain gap, which I had vaguely seen Nurofen touting in a recent ad campaign.

Earlier this year the Victorian Government released the results of a survey that showed that the pain women’s health causes is regularly overlooked.

One in three survey respondents said they’d experienced insensitive and disrespectful practitioners who left them feeling dismissed and unheard.

I felt dismissed and unheard by my GP.

Admittedly, I also played a role in my hip’s downfall – I should have been more on top of the issue and advocated for assistance sooner. But I was worried that I was making a mountain out of mole hill and that it was just the normal pain associated with ageing and old injuries.

When I finally found the voice to ask for help, I was sent for an ultrasound and x-ray, which showed nothing.

I was embarrassed and felt like a hypochondriac.

My doctor suggested getting some physio and i meekly agreed, rather than pushing for more tests.

I did the physio, but the pain just kept getting worse.

I returned months later and asked for an MRI. The MRI showed extensive issues, but my GP said it was just normal wear and tear. She wrote a referral for a cortisone injection in my spine and sent me back to the physio.

The physio took one look at my MRI, told me to cancel the injection in my spine and immediately contacted an ortho surgeon. The ortho said my spine was fine, but my hip was in the top 10 worst shape it could be in.

I know GPs can’t be expected to be all knowing, but it is beyond me how mine looked at my MRI results and thought they were run of the mill. Even I could see something didn’t add up.

I could hear the annoyance in her voice during the tele-health appointment when I asked for a referral to the ortho.

Finally, after forcing the issue, I got to the bottom of what is wrong with my hip. And I was given an action plan that includes referrals to a fibroid specialist and a physio who specializes in women’s hip issues, the details for a ‘physiocise’ class and a recommendation to start taking HRT.

The ortho reckons hormonal fluctuations can lead to my sort of tendon injuries. Again, nothing like that was ever discussed by my GP.

I am in the angry phase about the months and years I’ve lost to pain and worsening tendonitis.

That fury will pass. But right now I am upset that my pain was dismissed. I feel let down.

And I am sorry to be ranting to you about it, as ranting is very dull, but it helps to get it out of my head and onto the blog page.

Hopefully it might also help someone else to know that if they are having issues, there are things that can help.

You don’t have to just put up with it.

Much of my weekend has been spent researching if I can have keyhole surgery for my fibroid and it seems that technology has advanced a fair bit since the last time I looked into it eight years ago.

There’s a surgeon who’s invented a robotic technique that has extracted fibroids as big as 4.2kg. My job today is to find a new GP who understands menopause and will write me a referral and a prescription.

But first there are dogs to walk … fingers crossed the crazy rain has stopped.

I hope you had a good weekend despite the wild weather.

Song of the day: Pseudo Echo “Listening”