12-10-2008 - Pains - By Gavin

My mood while writing this blog: Happy

Shell has been feeling poorly and has had pains in her side this whole weekend. She had been sick quite a lot last week and had just put the pains down to having pulled a muscle but they didn't seem to get any better. We went to the hospital to get checked out but they couldn't find any cause for it, but they did check to make sure all was okay with the baby, so that was a least one relief for us. We were both a bit upset that we missed out on the opportunity for an early scan, but were happy to know the baby was okay. In the end the doctors said Shell might have a cyst but that they couldn't do anything about it while she was pregnant. All they could offer her was painkillers. It hasn't helped a lot but Shell has been brave and has just tried to get on with things and enjoy the rest of the weekend. We looked into cysts a bit more and it seems that for small ones they can just go away by themselves without requiring any treatment, so hopefully if it is one it will clear up by itself. Also they are common in early pregnancy and are caused by the high level of hormones in the womb. Again, if this is the case then in a few weeks when Shell moves on to the second trimester it should get better for her.

It all doesn't help when her doctor tells her to stop taking all her other medication and essentially just take sedatives. Everyone we've spoken to (including the doctors at the hospital) think that her doctor is mad! I couldn't believe it myself when Shell told me over the phone. We initially said that it would be best to do what the doctor said to show that Shell was willing to follow his advice, but now she's going to change doctor because none of us have any faith in his abilities anymore. I personally thing that outside of the hospital, the NHS service in this area has been absolutely terrible for Shell and they have not helped her at all in any way. When we lived a few miles down the road and were covered by Brighton our treatment was 100 times better. Unfortunately we can't do much about the area we live in, so the best thing we can do is find another doctor. Hopefully this next one will know more about medicine than the current one!