Amy

Brief Outline:

Amy recently visited the GP for a number of things including IBS, overactive sweat glands, and a breast lump. She felt that GPs should ‘look at everything’ when making decisions and not just at ‘how something looks’. Giving reassurance to young people who live on their own and have little support was also important.

Background:

Amy is working on an apprenticeship, and lives on her own. Ethnic background / nationality: White British.

More about me...

Amy’s first memory of going to the doctors’ was when she was about 5 or 6. A friend found a needle under a car. She suggested they play doctors and nurses, and put the needle in Amy’s arm. Amy was rushed to hospital and had to have months of tests to ensure she hadn’t contracted HIV or ‘anything else nasty’. She also had to have bone marrow tests, which she recalled being very painful, and was given the ‘all-clear’ after several months of tests.

Over the last two years, Amy saw the GP because of stomach problems. She was recently diagnosed with IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), and finds it difficult because there are lots of foods she can’t eat. She often feels gassy and bloated, and had to go to hospital on one occasion when it got really bad. The IBS gets worse when she is stressed. 

Amy’s diagnosis took a long time – she was often bloated and did not want to eat but, when she felt better a few days later, she would cancel the appointment. The GP referred her to hospital, where she had tests. Amy felt that the hospital doctor was very abrupt when she gave her the diagnosis. Amy left the appointment feeling that the doctor was unsupportive, hadn’t read her medical notes, gave her very little information, and hadn’t taken her seriously. 

IBS had affected Amy’s confidence because it had made her lose a lot of weight. She lives on her own and has little support, although her new GP is proactive and reassuring. She has been referred to a dietician to find out more about the foods she can eat and how to put on weight. 

Amy also felt that being unable to eat normally contributed to her having low blood pressure, which got worse over the past three months. She’d fainted a few times and often feels tired. 
Amy felt that GPs should ‘look at everything’ when making decisions and not just at ‘how something looks’, taking into account the patient’s views. Giving reassurance to young people who live on their own and have little support was also important.  

Amy could never forget the monthly blood tests she had at the GP surgery. They hurt and the needle used seemed very long. The results were normal.

I remember being a young girl and my friend found a syringe under a car. And she said, “Let’s play doctors and nurses.” Now I just assumed, “Yeah, let’s play.” And she stabbed me with the needle in the side of my arm twice here. And, as you know, my vein’s there. 

So where it was a needle, they didn’t know about this needle. It was literally just under a car. So it was somebody else’s. So I had to go through months and months of tests to make sure that I didn’t contract anything as HIV or anything bad.

So that was your very first memory? Which is a-

Yes, that sticks, yeah, that sticks.

How old were you?

I was very, very young. I would say about 6 or 5. The only reason why I remember it is because of the big needles I had in my legs into my bone marrow. Cos I had to have injections into my bone marrow to extract some, to see if there was anything specific. I think, yeah, it was the blood from there that they used.

So they did lots of tests. And some you had to come back for monthly, back to the hospital?

Back to my local GP and then they transferred the blood tests over. But it come back negative. So [laughs]....

That’s good. Can you remember going back every month to see the GP?

Yes, cos I remember the big injections in my legs. That’s the one thing I can never forget. I think I can still remember the feeling of it going in. It’s something you don’t forget. Because I remember it hurt so much. And they had to hold me so I didn’t kick my legs. And I remember the needle being, I would say that was at least 3½ to 4 inches long and straight into the bottom of my thigh bone.

And your doctor was doing that?

Yeah, my doctor.

At the local surgery?

Yeah.

IBS symptoms are confusing. When Amy eats the wrong food, her stomach has spasms. She feels bloated but empty and needs the toilet.

I actually realised, I didn’t know that I couldn’t eat fried food, pasta, normal rice, salad, fruit. So these were all the things that I bought regularly. So things like spaghetti bolognaise, lasagne, curry, Chinese, ‘I’m gonna have an Indian out.’ So it was so, so bad. 

But the thing is I could never really, I guess it’s more when you have to do something that the effects become more worse. So I could eat and go home, but I would wake up and I would just think that I just needed to go toilet. 

But then I actually realised as time went along, the more of the food I eat that I’m not supposed to, the worse my stomach gets. So it’s like, it’s like if you had a little portion of pasta, it’s as if you’ve eaten the biggest meal. And I would feel my stomach spasming like constantly. And then I would feel my stomach echoing and that’s when the wind would start. 

So and if – and this is why it’s difficult for me – because if I’m at home, I can release it. So I can sort of control it. When I’m at work, I can’t release it. So it all builds up and builds up. And then if I don’t go, like if I don’t pass my faeces when I need to go, then I’m constipated. And it will just be like this, I can feel it wedged in my intestine. And then the gas, it goes up into my gall bladder and my gall bladder pops up. 

So it wasn’t too long ago I actually had to go to hospital because we thought it was going to burst. So we thought we was gonna have to remove it. But they turned me a few ways and [laughs] obviously my wind come up. But that’s the sort of things I have to do. So I have to, it’s horrible, it is really horrible.

And painful?

It, it’s painful but it’s not a normal pain. So, you know, if - can you imagine having really bad wind and that? It’s like a mini stitch. And then it gets worse and worse. And I think it makes your stomach feel empty but full. And because there’s so much air, it feels like you’re just empty. But because it’s where you’re bloated it’s just, it’s so confusing.

Amy usually sees the same GP now, who’s helpful, proactive and reassuring. She sent Amy for blood tests and referred her to a dietician.

Do you see different doctors every time or do you usually see the same one?

Yeah, I usually see the same person.

And what do you think of that doctor? Have you got any views on what that doctor’s like? Do you feel comfortable or....

I had a previous doctor there and she moved. And I didn’t feel like, that she didn’t benefit and give me the answers that I needed. And when I see this doctor and I explained everything to them, they were like, “No, this is not right. You know, we need to refer you to hospital. We need to have the blood tests done. We need to check your blood. We need to do this, do that, do this. You can go to see a dietician and sort out your thyroids.” So it was quite proactive from when I’ve had this doctor.

How is this doctor better than the one that you didn’t feel so comfortable about?

I feel like the reassurance. Cos I guess in, sometimes especially even in the society that we live in today, things might not always be what it seems. So, I don’t know, we could, like with the lump for example, it might have been in my head that there’s something wrong. But you should have helped me to get that problem away and forget about the problem rather than just not sorting it out. 

And with this doctor, they’ve been able to help me. So my overactive sweat glands, I knew I didn’t have thyroid problems, but they have to check anyway. So the doctor sent me, figured out, “Okay, there are no thyroid problems.” So it is the case of having overactive sweat glands. So I now know that I can have Botox now to remove like the sweat from the sweat glands, so I don’t sweat. So for me that was an accomplishment. 

With the IBS, I used to be quite a big girl, I wouldn’t say big but I had meat on me. And I lost a lot of weight since the IBS. And that’s something that’s affected my confidence. Now this doctor said, “Okay, we’re gonna go and see a dietician. So we can start - even if it’s just certain things to snack on that you know, that’s gonna be good for you and it’s gonna make you add weight.” So for me it’s an accomplishment. Because now, not only is it just finding out what I can eat, but I’m gaining more weight now, so I can put the weight back on. So I felt like it’s just, even it’s just helping, you’re actually helping somebody.

When Amy explained her problem over the phone, the GP asked her to come in. Before that she’d had telephone consultations to discuss test results.

Have you ever phoned the GP for like having, sometimes people have telephone consultations, which is like an appointment over the phone. Have you ever had anything like that? Or did you know it was possible?

Yeah, when I had, when it, the gall bladder blew up, that’s when I had a telephone consultation to talk to them and figure out what it actually...Yeah, also to get my results because I had a liver test, a thyroid test, and things like that. So I had my results over the phone.

And you told them about the gall bladder thing?

Yeah.

What did they say to you?

They said to, “Come in so we can refer you to the dietician.”

That wasn’t the, that wasn’t the day that you had the, when you phoned 111?

No.

No?

No.

That was another day?

Yeah, it was after I went to the doctor’s for blood tests. Then when the tests weren’t back, I had to go get the test after that. So about two weeks after.

Amy’s GP was reassuring. She gave her a leaflet and told her about websites she could look at when she had a breast lump.

And you mentioned that you live on your own now, don’t you?

Yeah.

How, when did you start living on your own? Can you remember how old you were?

I moved, I got my flat on my 16th.

And you mentioned that sometimes you, like you, I think you said earlier that you didn’t have a lot of support around you. So it was really important - 

Yeah.

- that the health professionals give you that kind of support?

Yeah.

Do you think it’s more important when people are living on their own, young people around the age of 16, 17, 18 living on their own, that they do need to have more maybe questions answered than- 

I would say -

Or any other kind of support?

I would say that everyone deserves the same amount of support. But I think, given the fact of when somebody, you know that they haven’t got a lot of reassurance around them, that it’s important to give them the answers that they are seeking. Because it can have an effect on so many different things. 

I think that even being, pointing them to websites. Just so it, you can go on to websites and, okay, so, you know, ‘I feel for this, if it feels like this. Is there any odd shape or what’...It can make you aware of the things. So this is what the doctor did for me also. He said, “All right, look at this.” He gave me a leaflet and it showed you how you should press, how you should feel, what you should be looking out for. Is there a change? And made me focus on that. 

So then I would say, “All right, there hasn’t been a change. The [breast] lump doesn’t feel like this. It’s okay like. It could just be me panicking.” And it sort of, it like, it rested, like put it to bed for that little bit. And then when I had my results back it sort of, it just took it out, it sort of washed it away. So...