Posted by viviane (62.20.164.88) on September 09, 2000 at 10:28:55:
In Reply to: CH and Massive Stress Conditions posted by Q on September 08, 2000 at 02:18:19:
I have been through 30 years of migraine and cluster, years of stress (divorce, miscarriages), grief, years of happiness - however always the same headaches in different life situations. Unfortunately the medical attitude never changed: as soon as they cannot pinpoint your trouble, it's STRESS. Before, it was called "psychosomatic", now Stress-related, or diffuse symptoms. As a patient, you become insecure, dont even trust yourself anymore. The risk is great to ignore the real cause and worsen your condition. In my case, I had typical symptoms of cervical myelopathy (disease affecting the bone marrow), yet was ignored by neurologists for 4 years, treated like a hypochondriac. Finally, an orthopaedic Dr spotted my problem on a simple X-ray, I had surgery 1 month later. With the headaches I suffered lameness in both arms and legs, which increased progressively - the delay of surgery caused irreparable damage to peripheral nerves, not to mention the suffering I went through for 4 long years and the risk of instant paralysis with a slight accident. It makes me angry when incompetent doctors discard patients' trouble as "stress-related". It is their profession to help and cure the patient;if they're incompetent, they should admit it and at least not stop you from seeing another doctor who might be competent enough to diagnose your problem.