Stomach stuff and medical sexism

I'm officially out of Atenolol. Although this sucks in that now I can hardly leave the house without a cane (and let me tell you how much fun canes can be on freezing rain coated sidewalks) and I occasionally have the heart pounds, I think I've solved the problem of my stomach pain. It was the Atenolol.

How do I know? Because I haven't taken it in two days and I haven't had stomach pain in two days. The days I took half the pill I had about half as much stomach pain.

I'm still going off the Glyset. It's $65 down the drain every 3 months that doesn't really do anything for me (the last time I tried to go off of it, I went cold turkey and ended up feeling like crap. This time I'm going halfsies and I feel fine). We'll see how I feel once I'm completely off of it.

Today I was bored and watching TV when I saw the Golden Girls was so, so I flipped to it. In this episode, Dorothy is struggling with a mystery illness, especially when her first doctor dismisses it as in her head and tells her to see a psychiatrist. How many of us have heard that one before? As the episode progresses, she gets a second opinion and lands the diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. She's of course, incredibly relieved to have a name attached to it (as most of us are... nothing worse than knowing something's wrong and no one believing you) and goes out to a fancy restaurant with her roommates to celebrate. As they're toasting she spots the doctor who initially told her to go see a psychiatrist. Dorothy summons the courage to go over to his table and say that she actually had a diagnosis now and the he was wrong and that if had just listened to her and put some humanity back into his profession then it could've saved her a lot of heartache. She also mentions that if she were a man, then her problems might've been taken more seriously.

Now, who afflicted with a dysautonomia hasn't been through that song and dance before? What's striking to me is that this episode aired in 1989. Almost 20 years later the medical profession is struggling with the same crap: telling patients (mostly women) that it's all in their head and to go see a psychiatrist and to stop bugging them with their problems. Furthermore, many illnesses which have a majority of women as patients get the "psychological origin" diagnosis than the illnesses that mostly afflict men.

I just love how far we've come as a society.