Misdiagnosis on a Tumor

United States
October 31, 2007 7:24pm CST
So here is my story. A year and a half ago I started having really strong pain in my left leg. The pain was on my left butt cheeck to be precise. It was extremely painful, specially during the night. I decided to go to the Hospital here in my town, where they told me that I had sciatica. I knew though, that it wasn't sciatica, but they gave me pain medication and didn't do any studies. In my medical history it clearly says that I have had a tumor in my skull 8 years ago, nobody seemed to pay attention to that. I understand that I can't just asume that any pain I have is a tumor but at the same time, after the 5th visit to the E.R. they should have payed more attention to it. Obviously, it was not sciatica at this point and it was pretty clear since none of the treatments (including steroid shots) had worked. My husband said I was a cry baby, and to stop thinking it was a tumor. But still, I knew that pain, I had felt it before. After a year of going back and forth in hospital visits and treatments, my mother came to visit me from south america. While she was visiting her father passed away so I went back with her (my husband was deployed at the time) to keep her company during the long trip. After seeing me pop pills for a whole week, she took it into her hands and took me to a doctor in south america. Due to my history, the doctor decided to do a bone scan to rule out any tumors. As I saw the image pop in the screen, I knew what I was looking at, a tumor in my left trocanter. The easiest procedure was a bipsy so they did that. The pain went away dramatically but it was still there. When I got back to the U.S. I decided to get a follow up with an oncologist. After my followup the pain came back as strong as ever. I went back to the oncologist with my husband and he explained to the doctor how I have been screaming every night for the last year and how he can't stand to see me like this without doing anything about it. After this, I had another MRI (number 20 in my 20 years of life) where the doctors saw that the tumor had grown back. After this, I got another surgery, this time at Duke University, where the doctor was amazing and they took my tumor out, put a draft in and a metal plate with 3 screwes, the longest one being 4 in. long. So this is my wonderful story about how I was in pain for a year and a half with doctors avoiding my history, and just giving me pills, while I was still awake every night in pain and screaming for somebody to give me something that would help. I am now recovering from the last surgery, I am finally walking so I am very happy about that. Now I just have to keep getting check ups every 6 months. At least I know that I am with the right doctors now. The moral to this story is: DON'T GIVE UP AFTER ONE DIAGNOSIS! IF THE SYMPTOMS CONTINUE AND YOU THINK THE DOCTORS ARE MSITAKEN....KEEP GOING UNTIL THEY DO ALL THE TESTS THEY HAVE TO DO!! good luck in your health related issues!!
1 response
@oriental (1050)
• Uruguay
11 Nov 08
I met your discussion by chance, after reading an answer from you in which you told you were born in Montevideo. I was born here in Montevideo, too. I want to know what´s been the evolution of the tumor in your leg. This discussion of yours is quite old: about a year. Hope all is O.K. Take care.