Kirsty Young says doctor ‘snorted’ when she was diagnosed with chronic pain
Kirsty Young has said a doctor “snored” dismissively when she was diagnosed with chronic pain, forcing her to give up her job as a presenter on Desert Island Discs.
The BBC television and radio presenter said her concerns that she had fibromyalgia were dismissed by her doctor in a “memorable” way.
“I said ‘I’ve read about this thing called fibromyalgia, could it be fibromyalgia?'” Young told Radio 4’s Today programme. “They were actually snorting… They were snorting… I said, ‘Isn’t that a thing?’ She said, ‘That’s not a thing, that’s what we put people on if they don’t have something, just to say they have something.’
“I now realise of course how great the ignorance of that particular physician is in this area,” Young added.
The BBC presenter said she spent a “long time” in pain – she described it as a “little personal horror” – before being diagnosed with both fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis, conditions which often go together.
Fibromyalgia syndrome is a long-term condition that causes pain throughout the body, according to the NHS. Rheumatoid arthritis is described as a long-term condition that causes pain, swelling and stiffness in the joints.
“At my worst moments I felt like someone had spiked my cup of tea, I was almost reeling from the fatigue and I felt like I just had to stop doing anything because the fatigue was almost like cement in your body,” she said.
She said fibromyalgia causes “your pain center to overinterpret things that are normally happening in your body” and also causes symptoms such as brain fog and chronic fatigue.
“I couldn’t handle it,” she said. “I had it for about a year to a year and a half, it got worse, it got worse as time went on and the migraines got worse, the pain got worse, the fatigue got worse, so it got worse as time went on before I successfully got it under control (to get medical advice).”
Young described the difficulties she had managing her pain and said that when she “finally” got the diagnosis, she no longer felt like “a crazy lady.”
“I think I was chaotic and bad at coping (before the diagnosis). I was really horrible to be married to,” she added, describing how the constant pain meant she had to “prioritize” work and her children over the rest of her life.
The presenter added that she is “doing well at the moment” but that she finds it “very uncomfortable” to talk about her health as she feels “ashamed” when there are people living in even worse conditions.
She said, “When you’re dealing with chronic pain day in and day out, night in and night out, it’s hell to deal with, but I’m embarrassed to talk to you about it today.”