Stomach issues after eating... it's hitting me hard.

So, I guess I’m not the only one dealing with this... 😁 I've been stuck with this lump for two years now.
My doctor finally sent me over to a specialist, and let me tell you—it was a total joke. I walk in and there are these two guys in their sixties just staring at me from across the room, acting like they know everything about my life. One of them actually looks me dead in the eye and says, "Miss, you really shouldn't be wearing those tight jeans. Just rub some Vaseline on it and you'll be fine." 🙄

Look, I’m mostly on the same page as everyone else here—just go see a doctor.

I’m pretty sure we’re looking at an ingrown hair here—honestly. A close friend of mine dealt with a similar bump on her hip once; it was bothering her so much she ended up heading straight to the ER, where they just popped it out for her in no time.

Sarah Edwards38 said:It’s not just anything, it’s straight-up atherosclerosis.

🤣 🤣

😁

I’m stuck dealing with this plaque for 20 days straight 🤦

Hey there 👋 👋 :klist: I suppose you've been hiding out somewhere 😍

Sarah Edwards38 said:Nah, the Bartolini gland is on the mucosa, not the groin. It hurts like hell and it's a super specific kind of inflammation. This isn't it.

well then great... even better heh 😁 didn't see anything about it being in the groin...😁

brisknomad6 said:Honestly, seeing how you reacted to that post makes me wonder what kind of relationship you have with your mother. 😢

Well, regardless of our relationship, I wouldn't be talking trash like that in front of my mom either! I might do it in front of my boyfriend, sure.

On topic—I'm pretty convinced it's an ingrown hair because I've dealt with the exact same thing, and man, it hurts. The more I tried to squeeze it out, the more inflamed it got! But eventually, I’d always manage to pull out this thick, stubborn hair. Maybe yours is just buried deeper or curled under the skin so you can't see it. Personally, I’d wait for it to grow out a bit more before grabbing it with tweezers. BTW, I’ve been dealing with something similar on my nipple for years! I get little hairs growing around there that reach up to almost an inch, and every single time I pluck them, they just grow back ingrown. I have to wait until the edge isn't visible anymore, just suck it up through the pain, and rip it out with tweezers...

hiddenscout362 said:well, regardless of whatever relationship you have going on, I wouldn't be talking about my junk in front of my mother either! In front of a boyfriend? Sure...

Staying on topic—I’m convinced it’s an ingrown hair because I’ve dealt with the exact same thing, and let me tell you, it hurts like hell, and the more you try to squeeze it, the more inflamed everything gets... though I always eventually managed to pull out this thick, stubborn hair. Maybe yours is just sitting a little deeper or curled at the root so you can't see it yet. Personally, I'd just wait until it grows out enough to grab with tweezers. By the way, I've been dealing with something similar on my nipple for years... hairs growing around there reaching up to an inch long, and every single time I pluck them, they just grow back ingrown. So I just wait until I can actually see the edge, enduring the pain, and then I get them with the tweezers

I honestly don't know. Everything seems to have calmed down and receded, but I can still feel this tiny little lump there, almost like a subcutaneous pimple... and yeah, I'm leaning towards it being an ingrown hair too. I haven't really been obsessing over it during the holidays, but I'll start paying closer attention tomorrow... you guys have all calmed me down, so thanks... you're all great😉

Angela Kelly11 said:The staff at the ER over at Mercy Hospital basically brushed me off and told me they wouldn't do anything without a referral. And I barely even made it there—I could hardly walk because of how swollen everything was. It was around 8 PM on a weekday. I went home, and then the next day it just... popped on its own, drained, and calmed down. After that, I spent months bouncing around doctors—first my GP, who sent me to a gynecologist, then back to the gyno (multiple times, doing therapy, swabs, tests, but nothing actually helpful), and then finally a dermatologist. Finally (after a whole year of doctor hopping), the dermatologist told me I needed to go to an urgent care clinic; I asked about getting a referral, and she just said I didn't need one 😕😕. So I just gave up... mostly because it shrank and thinned out significantly anyway.
Anyway, fun question: can anyone hook me up with a referral for that?

Oh yeah, almost forgot—the only useful advice I got from the gynecologist was that rinsing with opened 3% hydrogen peroxide really helps. So I did that religiously out of pure desperation. Honestly, I think that’s the only actual thing that helped shrink the problem.

Lol, look, they blew you off because they just didn't feel like it. You showed up at 8 PM. That guy has been on his feet since 8 AM. I know the crew at Mercy, and trust me, the ER staff there is great. But if we're being totally real, they couldn't care less about your hemorrhoid when they've been stitching up guts and setting bones all day. Sounds harsh, but that's just how it is. He figured you could wait until morning, and he's right. If you've been dealing with a hemorrhoid for days and then show up during his shift at 8 PM, I'd blow you off until morning too. You show up at 8 PM if you're broken, fell off a ladder, someone walked your teeth, or you're in sudden agony. Not for a hemorrhoid you definitely didn't just get tonight.
If you'd been more persistent, they would've seen you. And yeah, you don't need a referral for urgent care.😉

Honestly, I didn't realize things could get this intense.
Usually, I just wax everything—legs, arms, underarms, the whole bikini area😁
It hurts like hell, obviously, but you get at least a month of peace. I actually picked up this ingrown hair cream from my esthetician, and I haven't had a single issue since.
I'm really hoping I don't run into any trouble because there is absolutely no way I'm picking up a needle. Plus, I would die of embarrassment if I actually had to rush to the ER just because of an ingrown hair.😲

wanderingcanyon3 said:Oh, please, they turned you away simply because they didn't feel like dealing with it. You showed up at 8 PM, but he’s been on his feet since 8 AM. I know the staff over at Mayo Clinic pretty well, and believe me, the crew in emergency surgery is top-tier. But let’s be brutally honest here—they couldn't care less about your hemorrhoid when they’ve spent the entire day patching up ruptured organs and shattered bones. It sounds cold, I know, but that’s just the reality of it. He decided you could wait until morning, and frankly, he’s right. If you’ve been dealing with a hemorrhoid for days and then decide to show up during an overnight shift at 8 PM, I’d blow you off until morning too. You show up at 8 PM if you’ve been broken in half, fallen off a scaffold, had someone walk across your teeth, or if something sudden and life-threatening hits you. Not for a hemorrhoid that you almost certainly didn't develop this very evening.
If you had been more persistent, they would have admitted you. And yes, you don't need a referral for emergency surgical admission.😉

How on earth am I supposed to know—or why should I even care—when their shifts start and end, or how many grueling hours they’ve already put in?
And how am I supposed to know exactly what kind of crap is going on in my groin area, considering I didn't spend years studying medicine and I've never dealt with this nonsense before?
If you look at how the average person reacts when something like this pops up (just look at shadowtinker21 as an example), do you really think I thought it was just some ingrown hair that would magically resolve itself or pop out on its own? Because you don't even know which freaking doctor you're supposed to see for something like this. Then suddenly, it starts pulsing under the skin and, God help me, it’s nearly 8 PM. I didn't get to pick the exact moment when panic sets in because of something throbbing so hard I can barely walk...
But just because he’s fed up with a mountain of work after an exhausting shift doesn't justify them feeding me misinformation 👎👎.
If they seem "fine" to you, well, they aren't fine to me. Everyone has a job to do—whatever it may be—and they should perform it with maximum professionalism, and honestly, there is no excuse for anything less. All five of them told me they couldn't admit me and that I should contact some random doctor during normal business hours. This way 🤮

Look, you can be mad, whatever. You’ve got every right to be pissed. But honestly, you don't need to be all nosy about him being on his feet 24/7. That's exactly why he sent you home. He just wasn't feeling like dealing with your abscess, so he sent you packing. I get where he's coming from, even if you don't. If he spent the whole day staring at broken bones and blood, he’s probably just burnt out because you panicked over an abscess. And since you've been bouncing between doctors for a year—from Dermatologica to general practitioners to OB-GYNs, doing swabs and all that—I seriously doubt it was just some random abscess, and I doubt he gave you the wrong info. Maybe you just misunderstood what kind of referral you actually needed, who knows. And how do you even get to the point where an abscess is pulsing and making it impossible to walk without having done *anything* sooner? That's what's going through his head when he sends you home. Sorry, but I'm sure it didn't suddenly become unbearable, gross, and agonizing in like thirty minutes. You've had this issue since at least this morning. If you'd gone in then, they wouldn't have sent you back. It sucks. But hey, that's the ER for you. Surgeons have massive egos. They perform bypasses and fix spines. When a broken spine rolls in at 8 PM, they'll pour their souls into it to save that person. But when it's an abscess in the groin? They just don't give a damn. It's just how they're wired. To someone listening from the outside, that sounds harsh, and yeah, it probably is. But once you know those guys and see how much they grind and how hard they actually work, you can forgive them for not giving a shit about someone's abscess at 8 at night. 😉

wanderingcanyon3 said:And considering you spent an entire year being dragged from one specialist to another—from general practitioners to gynecologists, through endless swabs and tests—I highly doubt it was just a simple boil, and I seriously doubt that doctor gave you misinformation. Maybe you just misunderstood which referral you actually needed, if you ask me.

I see you’ve got the facts a little mixed up in this part of the conversation... THAT was when I had my very first encounter with this nightmare. My frantic pilgrimage through the medical system happened AFTER the fact, after some "genius" at the ER told me I needed a referral just to get seen. So, she handed me misinformation that triggered a whole year of useless attempts to treat the wrong thing on the completely wrong side of medicine...

How can you even reach the point of having a pulsing abscess that makes it impossible to walk without having tried something beforehand? Even the doctor must have wondered that while sending you home.

And how on earth would you know whether I had taken action or not? Just the day before, I called the on-call physician at my insurance provider's clinic to ask which type of specialist I should even be seeing in a situation like this (because back then, clearly, I didn't have the knowledge I have today). She told me to go to my primary care doctor. So, I went there, hoping she would finally solve my problem, but I arrived just after 2 PM right as her shift was starting. Well, she didn't even bother giving me a proper exam; she just stated that I should go to a gynecologist, who had already finished her morning rounds for the day. I called that on-call doctor again to explain the situation, and she advised that if things got worse overnight, I should head to the surgical ER.
Doesn't anyone else here ever feel like doctors are just running you in circles like a lost child?
And then you finally make it to the ER, only for them to demand a referral. It honestly makes you want to enroll in medical school just so you can actually help yourself, because apparently, nobody else is going to...

Just wanted to say, the surgeon probably thought this was some gynecological mess rather than just a basic wart. Look, spending a whole year bouncing between OB-GYNs, dermatologists, and GPs over a wart isn't normal. An OB-GYN wouldn't be running swabs if they thought it was just a wart. No doctor is going to refer you to another specialist for a simple wart unless they suspect something way more serious. (The fact that your doctor sent you to an OB-GYN—who's out here doing smears and swabs... hello?? OB-GYNs don't treat regular warts), then you head to a dermatologist (now it makes sense, everything pointed toward some skin or STI issue). That’s why the surgeon told you to get a referral (meaning go back to your primary doctor so they can send you to the right specialist).

It just sucks, honestly, that nobody bothered to explain that this wasn't just a standard wart.

wanderingcanyon3 said:I was just trying to point out that the surgeon probably assumed this was some gynecological mess rather than a standard wart. Look, spending an entire year bouncing between OB-GYNs, dermatologists, and primary care doctors just because of a wart isn't normal. An OB-GYN wouldn't even bother running a swab if they thought it was just a common wart. No doctor sends you to another specialist for a simple wart unless they suspect something much more serious than that. (Which is why your GP sent you to the OB-GYN, and then this guy was doing swabs and all that nonsense... Hello?? OB-GYNs don't apply ointments or treat basic warts), and then you ended up at the dermatologist (now it makes sense, everything pointed toward some derma-venereology issue). That’s why the surgeon suggested getting a referral—meaning going back to your primary doctor so they can send you to the right specialist)
It’s just, damn it, unfortunate that nobody bothered to explain that this wasn't just a regular wart in the first place...

You clearly weren't paying very close attention to what I actually wrote. I didn't even see a surgeon; I just spoke to some triage nurse at the intake desk, told her I had this massive, throbbing, painful thing in my groin area, and that was that. Based on those five words, she told me I needed a referral for a surgeon.
Everything else involving doctors happened AFTER that.
Let's just call this whole ordeal "The Quest for a Referral"... 🙄
And where, for heaven's sake, did you read that my OB-GYN was performing any kind of topical treatments 😕? She sent a swab for analysis because after cleaning it and treating it with Betrion a couple of times, the issue flared up even worse. By the way, that swab result came back sterile 😕. My primary doctor never even saw it, let alone examined it; she told me straight away that it had nothing to do with her. I went to the dermatologist on my own initiative months later when I realized there was zero progress with the OB-GYN, and she told me it wasn't anything serious, but that I should see a surgeon to have this hard lump surgically removed. So, that's where the whole thing actually started. Right where they required a referral. And now I'm planning to see a surgeon out of my own pocket. Because following the "referral route" just doesn't make any sense anymore...

Angela Kelly11 said:So now I’m just gonna go see a surgeon on my own dime. Honestly, trying to deal with this whole insurance referral thing is a joke at this point.

Look, I don't know which GP you're seeing, but when I went to mine, I showed her everything, asked for the referral, and boom—got it done.

I actually went to my OBGYN and Dermatologica first, but both of them told me the drill: I gotta hit up general surgery and get that referral from my primary doctor first, then I'm good to go.

Maybe try switching doctors? Your current one sounds totally checked out. Especially since she basically said it wasn't her problem. I mean, okay, she isn't the one performing the surgery, but she's the gatekeeper for all the paperwork. It matters.

Man, you just made this way more complicated than it needs to be. So, nobody picked you up from Mayo Clinic after your appointment? I told you those guys were great...😉

Edit: You don't need a referral if you're hitting up the ER. Just for routine spot removals, yeah, you do.

* I gotta say, Rebro works pretty well for me too.
but honestly, I just used someone else's insurance and drove in from a different city...
so, I guess you can make anything happen if you really want to 😁

Sarah Edwards38 said:Look, I have no idea which primary care physician you’re seeing, but when I went to mine, I showed her the issue, asked for a referral, and just got it done...

Before that, I had already checked in with my OBGYN and Dermatologica, but both of them told me the exact same thing: go see a general surgeon first, get the referral from your primary doctor, and then deal with the rest.

Honestly, you might want to look into switching doctors, because it sounds like your current one is being incredibly dismissive. Especially since she claimed it wasn't "her problem," which is such a ridiculous way to put it. Even if she isn't the one actually performing the procedure, she's the gatekeeper for all the paperwork you need to move forward.

The thing is, I actually think she’s a fantastic doctor—she’s caring, attentive, always in a good mood, provides accurate diagnoses, and refers you to the right specialists at the right time—so I really don't understand why she was being such a nightmare about this specific situation... 😕 Maybe I'll try one more time with her before I decide to just pay out of pocket through my supplemental insurance. But there is no way Mayo Clinic is going to take me if I can't get this sorted out...

wanderingcanyon3 said:So, has anyone actually gotten back to you from the Mayo Clinic yet? I told you before, those doctors there really are wonderful people...😉

Well, perhaps I wasn't being quite precise enough in my previous comment... what I was referring to more broadly was the emergency surgical department—or whatever they’re calling those high-intensity trauma units these days...

Just a quick heads-up for anyone heading to the ER: you don't actually need a referral to get seen...

That’s exactly what my own logic was telling me at the time, too. And then, predictably, I just ended up stuck... 😕 😕 😕 😲 When that lady at the front desk of the clinic had the audacity to look me straight in the eye and tell me, "You need to have a referral first," I honestly felt my blood start to boil...
So, I suppose it isn't necessarily any worse to deal with... 😉