ADVANCING HEALTH-CARE PRACTICE
2.4 Judy's Story
And then of course you have to wait. I finally saw a doctor. They took my temperature and I was below body temperature and he said ‘I don’t know why your body temperature’s so low'. But I just felt like it was the same thing, it was the same vein of 'this is not of consequence'. And I just said 'that’s fine then, I’ll just go home, is there anything in particular that I should do?' And so I had basically gone through this whole ordeal and I didn’t receive help and I had put him out because he had been sitting through all this time. I was really ill and I was very hurt that I wasn’t supported by staff or by him through the whole thing.
It’s hard I guess because when it’s your own health you know what’s going on and so to try and explain that or express that to somebody else. Obviously they do have to weigh things because they do get hypochondriacs in here. That was one of the things my partner really reinforced, because one of my fears was that I was a hypochondriac. But you know when something is serious or when it’s not.
I was ill a lot longer. I saw my personal physician four or five days after that night in ER and she wanted to hospitalize me. She could tell I was quite ill.
It’s bad enough trying to sort out 'is this a real cause for concern or not?'. You have somebody that is close to you that you respect and love and you think has your best interests at heart, and so they say something like that to you and you’re going to pause and maybe brush it off and say ‘I guess it’s not a big deal' and let it go. And that was one of the things deterring me from seeking help about the abuse was that it was I’m just exaggerating. He actually said that. I explained to him that the people that I’ve talked to really support my concerns and do not think that I should be going ahead with the wedding and he pretty much said 'you don’t think you were exaggerating, do you?' And I was like, no, no I wasn’t.
And it would be the same going to see a physician. 'Oh you’re exaggerating things again or you’re being too sensitive about this or that'. And that’s part of the problem is that you have somebody messing with your mind now and a professional reinforcing that.
Resource Link: System's Response Can Echo Dynamics of Abuse