My 17 y/o brother was diagnosed with "arthritis" in his leg a couple years ago. If his cancer had been correctly diagnosed sooner he would probably still be with us today.
There are unfortunately too many cases like this. @Kotov also had bad experiences with the Scottish NHS in diagnosing her MS, meaning she didn't receive treatment for a long while and it got worse more quickly as a result. Apparently the Scottish NHS is essentially independent from the rest of the UK's healthcare, but the NHS overall has also been unable to cope with an ageing population and the Tories' unwillingness to increase the budget to acceptable levels.
So the lesson to be learned here is if you get "arthritis" in a specific area of the body be EXTREMELY anal about making sure that it's actually arthritis and get like six different opinions.
NHS Scotland has a serious problem and it's not one that can be easily pinned on the Tories. Lots of people including many Scots don't know this either, but NHS Scotland is entirely independent from the rest of the NHS and shares only a name a d a logo. The Scottish Government decides how much funding NHS Scotland gets and it is their policies that apply, Tories have nothing to do with it.
When I first started showing signs of multiple sclerosis it was brushed off as stress. Later episodes were blamed on me imagining or even faking symptoms despite my reflexes being weak and obvious weakness in my legs. MS is easily checked for my performing an MRI of brain and spine with contrast dye and lumbar puncture but they refused to perform these tests insists g that I was 'too young' to have MS.
Eventually it came to the point where I was physically unable to walk and it was only due to my mother who was a senior doctor finding out and puling rank that these tests were carried out and revealed a number of brain and spinal cord lesions. To quote the radiologist, my spine had so many lesions that reacted with the contrast dye that I 'lit up like a Christmas tree'.
As an added bonus, my NHS Scotland area did not cover wheelchairs and I had to purchase my own. It took over 2 years to arrive at diagnosis and treatment to start.
I now live in the Netherlands near family and am almost entirely wheelchair bound and only able to walk short distances with the aid of crutches and have become blind in one eye that forced me to surrender my driving licence and a huge degree of the independence that afforded me (I may be allowed to drive again once my other eye learns to compensate.but this is no guarantee )
If NHS Scotland had done their God damn job and diagnosed me and started treAtment on time there is a very good chance I would have retained my sight and been able to walk for.another decade or so.
I'd be extremely suspicious of a 17 year old suddenly developing arthritis in general, that's just not how that disease progresses period, full stop.
fwiw juvenile and early onset.arthritis is not super rare, but the problem is that appropriate tests for.differential diagnoses was not carried out and this is the story for many people.including myself.
NHS Scotland normally runs with one thing and dosent rule others out.
Dude, I have arthritis in my left hip. I'm 25, had it since I was 19. (Well, diagnosed then)
I know a girl that was diagnosed with arthritis at 14-15, and to the best of my knowledge it wasn't misdiagnosed. It most definitely can happen at a young age, it's fairly rare but it does happen. The fact that it can happen is entirely why misdiagnoses like this do happen.
Arthritis is not that unusual, people are just conditioned to think of it as an 'old persons disease ' and sure it occurs more often in the middle aged and the elderly but plenty of people develop it much earlier.
I'm not a doctor, but if I was I'd probably be thinking this was extremely preventable outcome.
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