Speaker 1: Rube.
Speaker 2: I wasn't willing to risk being held back in boot camp,
Speaker 2: so I just kept pushing through. The pain got so
Speaker 2: bad within an instant, it just kind of went black.
Speaker 1: In this letter, she wrote, when I woke up and
Speaker 1: I woke up to a crime scene and physically dying.
Speaker 3: Only now that we're certain to have these conversations and
Speaker 3: talk about how a lot of women face dismissal and
Speaker 3: having their complaints ignored.
Speaker 2: She had like turned the screen away from me, the
Speaker 2: energy and the room shifted. The radiology department, they all
Speaker 2: turned their head and looked at me. I walked out
Speaker 2: of that ultra sound thinking I had cancer. I was
Speaker 2: terrified of the unknown.
Speaker 4: How terrifying would it be to fight an unknown enemy,
Speaker 4: one you didn't recognize and didn't see coming. What if
Speaker 4: that enemy was coming from within a disease that even
Speaker 4: doctors couldn't identify. Nearly half of americ can suffer from
Speaker 4: some chronic illness, and many struggle for an accurate diagnosis.
Speaker 4: These are their stories. I'm Lauren Bray Pacheco, and this
Speaker 4: is symptomatic.
Speaker 2: I grew up in southern California, the High Desert area. Specifically,
Speaker 2: it's just me and my mom my brothers. We have
Speaker 2: a really, really good relationship.
Speaker 4: That's Haley Griffith. Hally radiates quiet positivity and genuine warmth.
Speaker 4: She is deeply creative, authentic, and a naturally born mentor.
Speaker 4: This quality showed up early in life when she harnessed
Speaker 4: her passion for dance into teaching.
Speaker 2: I grew up doing competitive dance for basically my entire life.
Speaker 2: I went into teaching when I was around fifteen. That
Speaker 2: was my first job, actually.
Speaker 4: And you spent a lot of time in the dance studio.
Speaker 4: I could explain the fact that you actually got your
Speaker 4: period while in dance class, correct, I did.
Speaker 2: Yes, that was a crazy time. I was about eleven
Speaker 2: years old. I was in ballet class and I had
Speaker 2: started my cycle and it was unexpected, and my friend
Speaker 2: had given me a tampon, and I had no idea
Speaker 2: how to use a tampon, so I was just using
Speaker 2: what I thought was common sense because I inserted the
Speaker 2: tampon the way that you should. However, immediately I started
Speaker 2: noticing that I was still bleeding, and so I tried
Speaker 2: my best to get through that situation and kind of
Speaker 2: just wrote off tampons for a few years and I
Speaker 2: didn't use them anymore, and that was actually the first
Speaker 2: time that I can recollect recognizing that there was an
Speaker 2: issue regarding my reproductive health before I even knew what
Speaker 2: reproductive health was. It wasn't until a couple of years
Speaker 2: later that I was talking to some girlfriends at school
Speaker 2: regarding just our period, just girl talk, and they had
Speaker 2: brought up the topic of tampons, and I went into
Speaker 2: detail regarding I thought there's something wrong with me because
Speaker 2: I couldn't use them, and they told me, like, hey,
Speaker 2: that's not normal to be bleeding. Still, that is kind
Speaker 2: of what pequed my curiosity, and that I was as
Speaker 2: young as like thirteen years old.
Speaker 4: I can't imagine. First of all, eleven is young to
Speaker 4: get your cycle and to have to kind of navigate
Speaker 4: that in an environment where it's really obvious if you're
Speaker 4: using something that's bulkier than a tampon, right, that must
Speaker 4: have been difficult to process at that age.
Speaker 2: It was really hard because for the longest time, I
Speaker 2: really just thought that there was something wrong with me.
Speaker 4: Already trying to navigate health challenges starting at only eleven
Speaker 4: years old, Hally was also carrying the momentous weight of
Speaker 4: having a terminally ill parent. My first question was going
Speaker 4: to be didn't you go to your mother and did
Speaker 4: you discuss your period with your mom? But your mom
Speaker 4: had her hands full with something else. Can you talk
Speaker 4: to me about what was happening with your father around
Speaker 4: that same time?
Speaker 2: My dad he had a rare form of cancer called paraganglioma.
Speaker 2: He discovered that he had cancer when he was a teenager.
Speaker 2: He beat it, and it resurfaced when I was really young.
Speaker 2: I was like maybe seven eight years old, and the
Speaker 2: cancer had spread to his brain and unfortunately it just
Speaker 2: fantastasized and just took over his entire body. Around this time,
Speaker 2: I was really diving headfirst into dance. That was my outlet.
Speaker 2: That's what I used to cope with a lot of
Speaker 2: the trauma of what was happening at home. And I
Speaker 2: could have gone to my mom a course, and I
Speaker 2: think I I did in many instances, but I didn't
Speaker 2: want to burden her. I didn't want to bring this
Speaker 2: up and ad extra stress to her. And again I
Speaker 2: thought that I'm a girl, I'm a woman, you know, developing.
Speaker 2: So I just kept it to myself for the longest
Speaker 2: time that there was something occurring.
Speaker 4: Because it wasn't just a question of tampons not working.
Speaker 4: Your cramps were exceptionally painful.
Speaker 2: Oh, for sure, it was debilitating. But I thought that
Speaker 2: I was dramatic. I thought that I was just a
Speaker 2: baby with a low pain tolerance, and talking to friends
Speaker 2: and peers and people in dance class, people at school,
Speaker 2: they would complain about cramps. But the way I was
Speaker 2: feeling is that it was it was unbearable. I couldn't
Speaker 2: get through my everyday life of school and dance and
Speaker 2: normal things that my friends were able to do, no problem.
Speaker 2: I was not able to do. And it was quite
Speaker 2: embarrassing because I didn't know how to ask for help
Speaker 2: and I didn't know how to get through the situation.
Speaker 4: So you internalized all that I ignored it. So how
Speaker 4: are you handling the pain during those teenage years in
Speaker 4: late high school? Are you just taking over the counter
Speaker 4: pain meds?
Speaker 2: Yes, a lot of thailand all and ibuprofen, heating pads,
Speaker 2: the works. I think that during this time in my life,
Speaker 2: I was trying to figure out what was working best
Speaker 2: for my body because I didn't know. And most people
Speaker 2: are able to just take tilanol and keep going about
Speaker 2: their day, and I didn't understand why I felt the
Speaker 2: need to sit in the shower for five hours a day.
Speaker 2: I was chronically fatigued. I couldn't keep up in my
Speaker 2: dance classes. I was falling asleep in school. I really
Speaker 2: didn't understand, but I was being told this is normal,
Speaker 2: this is what you have to do. I didn't know
Speaker 2: any better.
Speaker 4: I can't imagine how that impacted you physically and emotionally
Speaker 4: at that age, at a time when you were also
Speaker 4: experiencing the trauma of watching your father fight that way.
Speaker 2: My with dealing with it was just pushing it down
Speaker 2: and ignoring it until it just bubbled over and it
Speaker 2: got to a point where I couldn't take it anymore.
Speaker 2: And it took many years of coming to a realization
Speaker 2: that I needed help.
Speaker 4: I know that before you got to that point, your
Speaker 4: father eventually went into hospice.
Speaker 2: He did.
Speaker 4: And how old were you at that point, I was fourteen.
Speaker 4: That must have been so painful on so many different levels.
Speaker 2: It was really hard, and looking back, I didn't know
Speaker 2: how to understand the situation as a life or death.
Speaker 2: I mean, what kid can't like how do you explain
Speaker 2: death to a child? Your dad is going to pass
Speaker 2: away and you'll never be able to talk to him again.
Speaker 2: And he's not going to be here for your wedding.
Speaker 2: He's not going to be here for Bigie Bentz. So
Speaker 2: I did my best with that, and I feel like
Speaker 2: it made me and my family closer.
Speaker 4: You were incredibly impacted by your interaction with the nurses
Speaker 4: who treated your dad and house best.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's realistically what has led me to wanting
Speaker 2: to continue my education in the healthcare field. The way
Speaker 2: that they cared for my dad and the impact that
Speaker 2: they had on me and my siblings and my mom.
Speaker 2: They were really incredible. I just wanted to go into
Speaker 2: a field in which I felt that I was making
Speaker 2: an impact on other people as well.
Speaker 4: So you have a clear vision of your future goals. Now,
Speaker 4: becoming a nurse takes years and the expense of medical schooling.
Speaker 4: How did you approach that?
Speaker 2: So I actually joined the military, and that kind of
Speaker 2: came out of left field in that moment. It was
Speaker 2: what was right for me because I was knocking two
Speaker 2: birds of one stone. I was getting an education at
Speaker 2: the same time as continuing to have an amazing job,
Speaker 2: and college was expensive. I wasn't sure how I was
Speaker 2: going to pay for it. I had a single mom.
Speaker 2: I was between a rock and a hard place, and
Speaker 2: so I joined the military. And it was one of
Speaker 2: the best decisions that I've made to continue my education
Speaker 2: in healthcare, and that is kind of put me where
Speaker 2: I am now.
Speaker 4: Around that same time, you had already crossed paths with
Speaker 4: the dashing man who would ultimately become your husband. Tell
Speaker 4: me how you and Nick Mett.
Speaker 2: So, me and Nick met at the gym. I was
Speaker 2: training to leave for boot camp. I was not looking
Speaker 2: for a relationship whatsoever. There were a couple instances in
Speaker 2: which he tried to talk to me, and I wasn't
Speaker 2: having it. I was just worried about how many push
Speaker 2: ups I can do. And eventually we had a really
Speaker 2: good conversation and I knew, like, this guy's gonna change
Speaker 2: my life. And he did.
Speaker 4: And like many lasting love stories, Haley and Nick find
Speaker 4: out that they have the same dreams for their future,
Speaker 4: including their professional goals. And you you also are a nurse,
Speaker 4: I am yes. When did you realize that you guys
Speaker 4: had so much in common?
Speaker 1: Honestly, right off the bat, everything was just amazing from
Speaker 1: the get go. You know, we just had great conversations,
Speaker 1: had similar morals, ideas of what we wanted to do
Speaker 1: in life, and just everything was, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: almost perfect. She's one of the most warm, loving, intelligent,
Speaker 1: she's focused, so she's just an overall an amazing person.
Speaker 4: And you fell fast and furiously in love, very very fast.
Speaker 2: We only dated for a few months before we got married,
Speaker 2: and I know that's very controversial, and we got a
Speaker 2: lot of pushback from family and friends who thought that
Speaker 2: we were crazy, but truly, when you.
Speaker 4: Know, you know, and no they did. Freshly wed, Haley
Speaker 4: leaves her life behind. Tell me about your first night
Speaker 4: at boot camp.
Speaker 2: I think everybody's first night is really hard. It's very emotional.
Speaker 2: You don't know what's happening. You're scared, and you're thrown
Speaker 2: into this completely new situation and have no idea what
Speaker 2: to expect. It was a bay of like thirty other
Speaker 2: women and we all just got in our little beds
Speaker 2: and we cried the first night. And I think anybody
Speaker 2: who goes through boot camp can relate to that, because
Speaker 2: you kind of regret what you sign up for the
Speaker 2: first few weeks because it's a lot. It's a lot
Speaker 2: to take in.
Speaker 4: Tell me about how you navigated your cycle and your
Speaker 4: pain during boot camp.
Speaker 2: Up until this point, I had gotten a really good
Speaker 2: self care during my cycles, and I really knew what
Speaker 2: to expect it. I knew how to prepare for it.
Speaker 2: I used to prep my body the day before I
Speaker 2: was supposed to start my cycle, or a few days
Speaker 2: before I would start my cycle, I would be taking
Speaker 2: I'd be profen around.
Speaker 4: The clock, because that would help you get ahead of
Speaker 4: the pain.
Speaker 2: Exactly. I had to get ahead of the pain to
Speaker 2: be able to even function. I had sat down with
Speaker 2: my recruiter a few weeks before leaving, and I remember
Speaker 2: he had stated that I couldn't take any over the
Speaker 2: counterramification with me, that anything I needed or wanted would
Speaker 2: have to be prescribed by a medical professional when I
Speaker 2: get there. So when I had got my first cycle,
Speaker 2: I was brought to my knees in pain. It was horrible.
Speaker 2: It was awful. It was one of the heaviest cycles
Speaker 2: I've ever had. I was at a loss because I
Speaker 2: didn't want to speak up, because when you're in boot camp,
Speaker 2: you don't bring up your medical issues because you get
Speaker 2: looked at like you can't hang. You're trying to be
Speaker 2: a part of the military if you're crying about mental crops, like,
Speaker 2: what are you going to do during war?
Speaker 4: So what did you do? How did you manage?
Speaker 2: I was trying to get through the pain by rationing
Speaker 2: my protein bars, and I was trading them with other
Speaker 2: girls to try and get their doses of tailanol. I
Speaker 2: had a friend who had twisted her ankle a couple
Speaker 2: weeks prior, and she had tailan al just in her locker.
Speaker 2: But we're not allowed to share things, like you could
Speaker 2: get a really big trouble for giving your medication to
Speaker 2: other people. So I was slipping her my protein bars
Speaker 2: and she would give me doses of thailand all. My
Speaker 2: biggest fear was being sent home, especially over something that
Speaker 2: I learned to manage. But I was put in a
Speaker 2: position that all my resources were taken away from me
Speaker 2: and I couldn't manage.
Speaker 4: Unable to rely on the pain medication she so desperately
Speaker 4: needed to function, Hallie is suffering more than ever and
Speaker 4: under the scrutinizing eyes of her superiors and peers alike.
Speaker 4: She writes to Nick every day while away at boot camp,
Speaker 4: detailing her daily struggles.
Speaker 1: In this letter, she wrote this May thirtieth of twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: It states that when I woke up and I woke
Speaker 1: up to a crime scene and physically dying, You see
Speaker 1: me dying with Thailand hall, lots and lots of tile
Speaker 1: hall right at four forty five. When NTI came in,
Speaker 1: I immediately asked for a medical appointment to get some pain medicine.
Speaker 1: They said I would have to go to the emergency
Speaker 1: room an ambulance and they probably am making to spend
Speaker 1: the night in the yar. Trust me, I'm dying a
Speaker 1: slow death right now. I've been debating on just going
Speaker 1: because they didn't sleep at all last night. I'm an
Speaker 1: exhausted them in so much pains.
Speaker 4: So when she said she woke up to a crime scene,
Speaker 4: that meant that she had led all over typically. Yeah,
Speaker 4: what was it like to be on the receiving end
Speaker 4: of that though?
Speaker 1: You know, getting the letter and reading it afterwards, it
Speaker 1: makes you really like think and wonder, like, Wow, she
Speaker 1: was going through hell during those time periods and she
Speaker 1: just had to push through it. And I thought that
Speaker 1: she's a strong and amazing woman, and honestly, I'm.
Speaker 2: Very proud of her.
Speaker 4: Haley, like many young women, was operating without a manual
Speaker 4: when it comes to their own reproductive health, a far
Speaker 4: too common phenomenon. Doctor Lucky Sekhan, fertility expert and intochronologist,
Speaker 4: sees it all the time.
Speaker 3: It's just been ingrained in the fabric of our society.
Speaker 5: Women just needing to grin and bear it.
Speaker 4: That's what was happening to Haley at boot camp. She
Speaker 4: knew something was wrong, but her doctors kept prescribing pain
Speaker 4: medications or telling her to soldier through it. Does that
Speaker 4: surprise you And why do you think in general women
Speaker 4: are used to having their pain dismissed.
Speaker 3: I think it's only now that we're certain to have
Speaker 3: these conversations and talk about how a lot of women
Speaker 3: face dismissal and having their complaints ignored, and they themselves
Speaker 3: are dismissing their own complaints. Sometimes people when I speak
Speaker 3: to them, I'm like, tell me about your periods, And
Speaker 3: a lot of women are like, yeah, it's fine.
Speaker 5: What do you mean you miss school? What do you
Speaker 5: mean you've missed days of work?
Speaker 3: Because you're a period that's not normal? And so I
Speaker 3: think it starts with early education. I think there's been
Speaker 3: a lack of proper education there's just this focus on
Speaker 3: avoiding teen pregnancy, and that's really what health class is
Speaker 3: all about. I don't remember anyone really telling me an
Speaker 3: irregular cycle, a really painful cycle, a very heavy period,
Speaker 3: what is normal? What is abnormal? And what is a
Speaker 3: red flag? And why is it important? There was none
Speaker 3: of that education.
Speaker 4: Having dealt with immobilizing menstrual pain since she was eleven,
Speaker 4: Haley had normalized this as part of her life. Now,
Speaker 4: eight years into this chronic battle, Halee is forced to
Speaker 4: suffer through symptoms at boot camp without access to the
Speaker 4: pain medication she's become reliant on to make it through
Speaker 4: her cycles. That must have been psychologically grueling.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my options were to speak up and look weak
Speaker 2: or to get the help that I needed in that moment,
Speaker 2: and it was hard. I wasn't willing to risk being
Speaker 2: held back in boot camp, so I just kept pushing through.
Speaker 2: The pain got so bad. We were running in the
Speaker 2: morning and I felt so fatigued, so I knew just
Speaker 2: that cycle was just going to be really bad. I
Speaker 2: remember we were standing in line getting ready to leave
Speaker 2: the dorm and the cramps were getting unbearable. I remember
Speaker 2: I was sweating, I was shaking. My vision started to
Speaker 2: get very blurry, and I felt my knees were going
Speaker 2: to give out. I pressed up against the wall and
Speaker 2: just kind of slid down, and I remember within an instant,
Speaker 2: it just kind of went black.
Speaker 4: We'll be right back with Symptomatic, a Medical Mystery Podcast.
Speaker 4: Now back to Symptomatic, a Medical Mystery Podcast. Halle is
Speaker 4: fighting every day of boot camp with near incapacitating menstrual
Speaker 4: cycle symptoms, heavy bleeding, intense fatigue, and indescribable pain, all
Speaker 4: without access to pain medication. After weeks of discomfort, pile up,
Speaker 4: Halle's body gives out. Take me to the moment you
Speaker 4: passed out and when you came to.
Speaker 2: I just kept pushing my body and I knew eventually
Speaker 2: it was just going to give out. I remember we
Speaker 2: were standing in line getting ready to leave the dorm
Speaker 2: and the cramps were getting unbearable. I was sweating, I
Speaker 2: was shaking, and my vision started to get very blurry,
Speaker 2: and I felt like my knees were going to give out.
Speaker 2: I pressed up against the wall and just kind of
Speaker 2: slid down. Within an instant, it just kind of went black.
Speaker 2: I lost consciousness for a few seconds. I remember looking
Speaker 2: up and the dorm chief was there. She was really concerned.
Speaker 2: She was just trying to, you know, give me some
Speaker 2: space and getting everybody away from me. And she eventually
Speaker 2: told the MTI Military Training instructor that something was wrong,
Speaker 2: and they were already pushing me through to go to
Speaker 2: the emergency room.
Speaker 4: And what advice were you given?
Speaker 2: They just kept passing the buck and I was there temporarily,
Speaker 2: and I had started to open up about the painful
Speaker 2: periods and how heavy that they are. Right away, they
Speaker 2: always just say, oh, painful periods, It's normal. But once
Speaker 2: I tried to open up more and express this is
Speaker 2: getting to be a little bit too much, like it
Speaker 2: just passed out because I had period cramps.
Speaker 4: Was it a male doctor or a doctor?
Speaker 2: He had told me, wait until you get to your
Speaker 2: next duty station, which for me would have been tech school,
Speaker 2: because I was going to be there just a little
Speaker 2: bit longer. So his only advice was just to wait
Speaker 2: until I saw somebody more permanent. And I think he
Speaker 2: was looking out for me because he didn't want me
Speaker 2: to get held back for medical reasons. So I can
Speaker 2: look back and think this doctor, But at the same time,
Speaker 2: it just reinforced the idea that nobody's taking me seriously.
Speaker 4: It is a different level of pain to be told
Speaker 4: by a male doctor that being incredible pain is just normal.
Speaker 2: Yeah for a woman. Yeah. The entire time I was
Speaker 2: in was if you cannot push through, then you shouldn't
Speaker 2: be in the middle terry. And as much as I
Speaker 2: would agree with that to a certain extent, it's agonizing
Speaker 2: to have to live through it constantly and constantly being dismissed.
Speaker 2: It just scared me, and it scared me into staying
Speaker 2: silent for a long time.
Speaker 4: Silently suffering, but feeling sure at this point something was
Speaker 4: truly a miss. Haley took it upon herself to try
Speaker 4: to get to the bottom of her symptoms.
Speaker 2: For many years, I started to put puddlesle pieces together,
Speaker 2: and I started to, I guess, like doctor Google. I
Speaker 2: was googling my symptoms, googling some of the manifestations that
Speaker 2: I had found dealing with my heavy periods. It kind
Speaker 2: of pointed me into the direction of this really rare condition.
Speaker 2: But it is so rare that anytime I brought it up,
Speaker 2: I was immediately dismissed.
Speaker 4: Although Hally feels certain that doctors should be looking into
Speaker 4: this rare condition she believes that she might have. She
Speaker 4: is dismissed.
Speaker 3: People have hunches about their bodies, but they are lay
Speaker 3: people and they're trusting the doctors and the experts. And
Speaker 3: I think our healthcare system is set up to have
Speaker 3: doctors fail.
Speaker 5: It's not necessarily of doctor's faults.
Speaker 3: It's the system that they're in that they only have
Speaker 3: fifteen minutes with each patient, and that does not lend
Speaker 3: itself to these complex discussions and the education that is
Speaker 3: really needed, especially when people are coming in completely blind
Speaker 3: and naive.
Speaker 4: What are some of the clear symptoms that would show
Speaker 4: up in someone with a reproductive anomaly.
Speaker 3: If someone says something along the lines of I've always
Speaker 3: had a hard time with sex or with using tampons.
Speaker 3: If someone says they have really severe, painful periods that
Speaker 3: don't respond well to medication, I mean that could mean
Speaker 3: a lot of things. But a lot of these anomalies
Speaker 3: can lead to a higher incidence of abnormal pain with MENSIS,
Speaker 3: because you can have obstruction of the outflow that leads
Speaker 3: to back pressure.
Speaker 5: And that could be really extremely painful.
Speaker 3: And I would say it's just anything unusual that doesn't
Speaker 3: sound like a normal menstrual outflow pattern where you normally like, okay,
Speaker 3: I have a period for five to seven days each month,
Speaker 3: but if someone's like, no, I'm kind of bleeding all
Speaker 3: over the place, I think that could be much more problematic.
Speaker 4: All of these symptoms that doctor Lucky describes, Halle had
Speaker 4: been living with now for almost a decade without any
Speaker 4: answers or support. After a harrowing couple of months in
Speaker 4: boot camp, Halle completes her training. So where were you
Speaker 4: stationed Las Vegas? Just explain the stress of that position
Speaker 4: and what a typical day looked like that you had
Speaker 4: to get through even when your symptoms were in full flare.
Speaker 2: The unit that I worked on was an impatient unit,
Speaker 2: so we were a combined unit of ICU, Medsarge and
Speaker 2: Labor and Delivery, and so it was very stressful. I'm
Speaker 2: currently I primarily worked in the Medsarge section of this unit.
Speaker 2: I was working twelve to fourteen hour shifts like it
Speaker 2: was insane work. That's the hardest I've ever worked in
Speaker 2: my entire life. I was mentally exhausted, I was physically exhausted.
Speaker 2: So the days that I had my e mentional cycle
Speaker 2: on top of it, I couldn't do it. There was
Speaker 2: multiple instances where I felt like I was being targeted
Speaker 2: because I needed time off. I got the worst assignments.
Speaker 2: I was getting looked at differently, I was getting treated differently,
Speaker 2: and so I did my best to push it down
Speaker 2: and to push it aside and to deal with it.
Speaker 2: But I broke. There was many times I would have
Speaker 2: to just lock myself in this ply room and just
Speaker 2: cry because going to the emergency room, they're not going
Speaker 2: to do anything for me. I have period cramps, like
Speaker 2: I've done that before. I've gone to seek help and
Speaker 2: I'm just pushed aside.
Speaker 4: And to have all of that while you feel like
Speaker 4: people are rolling their eyes, yeah, every single time you
Speaker 4: reach out for help.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was heartbreaking and it really made me question myself,
Speaker 2: especially because I didn't have full access just to take
Speaker 2: the day off and call off work and take care
Speaker 2: of myself. Like I had to learn how to push
Speaker 2: through and learn how to suppress these feelings and emotions
Speaker 2: and not complain and just do whatever I could. You
Speaker 2: take care of yourself, then you sacrifice your job. You
Speaker 2: take care of yourself, and there's consequences.
Speaker 4: How did this pressure to always act like you were, okay,
Speaker 4: make you feel.
Speaker 2: That really caused me to have anxiety for a lot
Speaker 2: of my time in service, and especially because I didn't
Speaker 2: have the answer yet. I was terrified of the unknown.
Speaker 4: Right, And that anxiety comes from a really a very
Speaker 4: real place, because you had already passed out while at
Speaker 4: boot camp, which must have always been on the back
Speaker 4: of your mind, and then one day you were in
Speaker 4: so much visible agony that a colleague of yours was
Speaker 4: really worried. Take me to that day.
Speaker 2: So me and the specific coworker, she's a registered nurse,
Speaker 2: she was one of our element leaders in the unit.
Speaker 2: Me and her were working on a project together for
Speaker 2: Nurse Tech Week. She saw I was like sweating and trembling.
Speaker 2: She didn't know what was wrong. I just told her cramps,
Speaker 2: and she asked a lot of follow up questions because
Speaker 2: I think that she had struggled with bad mentional cramps
Speaker 2: as well, asking what a my cycles look like. And
Speaker 2: once I divulge him the information, she was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's not normal.
Speaker 4: What did you think when she said that?
Speaker 2: I think having somebody just like validate that it's not
Speaker 2: normal kind of was like, Okay, no, it's not normal.
Speaker 4: You're right, and how old are you? At this time?
Speaker 2: I was twenty two, so I've been dealing with this
Speaker 2: for over ten years at this point. Just trial and
Speaker 2: error of trying to figure out what works and what
Speaker 2: doesn't work can led me there.
Speaker 4: And for the first time since she started experiencing debilitating
Speaker 4: period cramps, heavy bleeding, and all around crippling menstrual cycles,
Speaker 4: Hally was able to convince a doctor to agree to
Speaker 4: an ultrasound. That's a medical imaging technique that uses high
Speaker 4: frequency sound weaves to create detailed images of internal body structures.
Speaker 4: What was it like getting that ultrasound?
Speaker 2: The ultrasound texts, I knew we're making small talk, chit chat,
Speaker 2: talking about work, talking about life, and I noticed that
Speaker 2: she had turned the screen away from me. I felt
Speaker 2: that the energy in the room shifted. She got just
Speaker 2: quiet and told me we're done. You can get dressed.
Speaker 2: So as I was leaving, the radiology department had one
Speaker 2: big room with a bunch of computer screens where all
Speaker 2: the radiologists in rad tech sit to like review. All
Speaker 2: of them were all surrounding like one computer, and as
Speaker 2: I walked out the room, they all turned their head
Speaker 2: and looked at me. I walked out of that ultrasound
Speaker 2: thinking I had cancer because the family history with my dad.
Speaker 2: I was convinced, did you think you were dying?
Speaker 4: I did.
Speaker 2: I thought I was dying. Every possible scenario went through
Speaker 2: my head during this moment.
Speaker 1: Hailey's father passed from cancer. And I think that was
Speaker 1: a really great concern. There's clearly something wrong occurring. Could
Speaker 1: it be linked? And I think it was scary. I
Speaker 1: think that's the biggest thing to say. It was a
Speaker 1: scary conversation to have.
Speaker 2: And yeah, it was a Friday, so I was not
Speaker 2: expecting to get my results and I was terrified that
Speaker 2: I would have to sit with that during the weekend.
Speaker 2: Another primary care doctor, another doctor actually worked as She
Speaker 2: ended up calling me at like eight thirty at night
Speaker 2: to give me the result on a Friday, on a Friday,
Speaker 2: because I don't think anybody was expecting what they found.
Speaker 4: Tell me exactly what she told you over the phone.
Speaker 2: When I picked up the phone, she was like, I
Speaker 2: wanted to tell you that we found that you have
Speaker 2: uterust idelphis. I remember just sinking in my chair. I
Speaker 2: knew it. I knew that that's what it was. That's
Speaker 2: the only thing that made sense.
Speaker 4: Uterist idelphus is a rare congenital condition where a person
Speaker 4: is born with two uteruses, a condition so rare that
Speaker 4: it's estimated to affect only zero point three percent of women,
Speaker 4: so uncommon that many obstetrician gynecologists may never encounter a
Speaker 4: case in their careers.
Speaker 2: She had told me that on the ultrasound they had
Speaker 2: saw that I have two complete sets of reproductive parts,
Speaker 2: that I had two uteruses, two cervixes, and two vaginal openings,
Speaker 2: and then each uterus each had their own ovary. My
Speaker 2: next question was where do we go from here?
Speaker 4: And what did they say?
Speaker 2: She was really concerned about my kidneys because a lot
Speaker 2: of people with malarium duct anomalies have issues with their kidneys,
Speaker 2: So that was our next step. But other than that,
Speaker 2: I don't think they knew enough to be able to
Speaker 2: walk me through what this was going to look like
Speaker 2: the rest of my life or moving forward trying to
Speaker 2: start a family. And even though I got this diagnosis,
Speaker 2: it just opened so many other questions up can I
Speaker 2: have kids? Like is there a cure for this? Is
Speaker 2: there a treatment for this?
Speaker 4: After over a decade, Hallie finally has a name for
Speaker 4: the condition that has made her life so painful at times,
Speaker 4: but the condition is so rare that she'll need to
Speaker 4: seek out a specialist in the field, someone like doctor
Speaker 4: Lucky Scon.
Speaker 3: When we form as embryos and as a fetus, we
Speaker 3: don't just magically appear in a uterus overnight. There's a
Speaker 3: very specific way that we go from a ball of
Speaker 3: one hundred to two hundred cells into a fetus and
Speaker 3: eventually a human being, a live born being with all
Speaker 3: of our organs. And the way that our uterus forms,
Speaker 3: it actually forms from two ducts that kind of come
Speaker 3: together in fuse, and when that process is interrupted, which
Speaker 3: can happen anywhere from late first trimester to mid second trimester,
Speaker 3: your uterus may end up forming in a way where
Speaker 3: there's an anomaly. It doesn't form a single cavity, and
Speaker 3: so there's a very wide spectrum. There's like incomplete fusion
Speaker 3: is having a uterine didelphus. You end up with two
Speaker 3: separate uteruses and two separate cervixes, and you may even
Speaker 3: have almost two separate vaginal canals because you can have
Speaker 3: like a septim a wall of tissue dividing the vaginal
Speaker 3: canal in half.
Speaker 4: Even armed with an explanation, the rarity of the condition
Speaker 4: presented new challenges for Haley and Mark, especially as a
Speaker 4: young couple hoping to start a family.
Speaker 1: There wasn't a lot of research. That was the scary part,
Speaker 1: because it's so rare. We won't have exact answers.
Speaker 4: What changed for you, guys once you had the diagnosis
Speaker 4: Several things.
Speaker 1: I think mindset. I think that's been the biggest thing
Speaker 1: is that now it's like, Okay, now we have a diety,
Speaker 1: we know where we're going towards, we have direction.
Speaker 4: Were you tempted to call every single doctor who dismissed you?
Speaker 2: I was angry for sure, because it went from you
Speaker 2: have painful periods and I'm sorry, that's part of being
Speaker 2: a girl, get over it, to more, Wow, this is
Speaker 2: so rare, this is so crazy. Can I bring in
Speaker 2: the students. Can we do a pelvic exam? They actually
Speaker 2: want to know my experience versus trying to dismiss it
Speaker 2: and minimize my experience. I feel like, especially regarding my
Speaker 2: fertility and what I know now, I feel like if
Speaker 2: I had these answers years earlier, I could have planned
Speaker 2: our future differently and so of course I was angry,
Speaker 2: but I was more upset I was treated so poorly
Speaker 2: the entire time based off of the research that I found.
Speaker 2: It's really hard to have kids because it's so high risk. Luckily,
Speaker 2: I've been working with some really good doctors. They're fully
Speaker 2: on board with helping us conceive and getting us to
Speaker 2: our goals, but they're not beating around the bush with
Speaker 2: the fact that it's going to come with its own challenges,
Speaker 2: and it has. We've had four miscarriages, so that's where
Speaker 2: we're at right now. Sorry, Yeah, it's hard. It's really hard.
Speaker 2: Infertility is something that a lot of women don't talk
Speaker 2: about enough. It's more common than you think.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's terrible. It's like it's one of the artist
Speaker 1: pains to go through, especially when you are trying for
Speaker 1: a family, and that's the biggest thing. It's it's difficult,
Speaker 1: and we want to make sure that you know that
Speaker 1: other people understand that it's okay to talk about it occurring,
Speaker 1: and I think it brings together a sense of community.
Speaker 1: At the same time, you can find groups of people
Speaker 1: that you know, you're able to communicate the same situation
Speaker 1: and grief with one another.
Speaker 4: Women often describe the experience of infertility as isolating. Do
Speaker 4: you feel that way.
Speaker 2: It's hard because people want to understand and they want
Speaker 2: to support you, but until you've been through it, like
Speaker 2: you just don't understand. It makes me feel like less
Speaker 2: than a woman that I have trouble conceiving, feeling like
Speaker 2: not enough in the way that society is built, in
Speaker 2: the way that society looks at women as mothers, and
Speaker 2: they paint this label that being a mother is one
Speaker 2: of the most rewarding things that you can do as
Speaker 2: a woman. It's devastating to know that that's going to
Speaker 2: be a challenge for me.
Speaker 4: How did things change for you once you finally had
Speaker 4: a diagnosis.
Speaker 2: I think it definitely gave me more of a voice
Speaker 2: to stand on and to advocate for myself, saying, no,
Speaker 2: there's something wrong, Please do your job, and please do
Speaker 2: it well, because this is my life and this is
Speaker 2: something I've been struggling with for for too long, and
Speaker 2: I don't put up with it anymore. I'm not afraid
Speaker 2: to stand up for myself.
Speaker 4: As an expert on navigating infertility, doctor ccon offers this
Speaker 4: advice to women struggling with reproductive health issues.
Speaker 3: I think it's always helpful to write things down. I
Speaker 3: think a menstrual diary, which is probably a term that
Speaker 3: a lot of you have not heard of, is a
Speaker 3: brilliant thing to have, whether you're dealing with a didelphus
Speaker 3: uterus or endometriosis or irregular cycles. Having objective tracked data,
Speaker 3: no one can dispute that this is right in front
Speaker 3: of you. Now here's a pattern, and this is not normal.
Speaker 3: I think you have to be willing to get second opinions.
Speaker 3: If something sounds like you're getting a BS answer, go
Speaker 3: see someone that isn't going to make you feel insecure
Speaker 3: about their answers, and that's going to make you feel
Speaker 3: like this person knows what they're doing. Knowledge is power,
Speaker 3: regardless of what your goals are. I think understanding your
Speaker 3: body is going to bring you a sense of relief
Speaker 3: and validation, and it can help you plan the future.
Speaker 3: It can help change the trajectory of what you might
Speaker 3: have done otherwise. This is a shared experience of many
Speaker 3: many women, and we have to help each other. And
Speaker 3: we should also pay it forward and welcome conversations with
Speaker 3: our friends and our family members and speak openly about
Speaker 3: our bodies and the things we're experiencing because you never
Speaker 3: know who it's going to help.
Speaker 4: How do you feel when you were able to give
Speaker 4: a patient who has clearly been shuffled through the system
Speaker 4: without answers some kind of clarity or direction.
Speaker 3: When someone walks through my door and you can just
Speaker 3: see it on their face, they're confused. They're not entirely
Speaker 3: convinced they're going to walk out with answers like they
Speaker 3: are jaded. I used to think fertility treatment is so complicated.
Speaker 3: There's all these fancy tools and treatments. It's actually pretty simple.
Speaker 3: This is why this issue exists. Here are the potential
Speaker 3: problems and here are the solutions and strategies as we
Speaker 3: move forward. And when you keep it simple and you
Speaker 3: lay it out like that, and someone walks out with
Speaker 3: tangible tools and they feel so in control after feeling
Speaker 3: so out of control for so long, that is, by
Speaker 3: and large the most important thing that I.
Speaker 5: Love about my career.
Speaker 3: That I will never get tired of doing what I'm doing.
Speaker 4: Now, Haley has access to better pain treatment, personalized fertility planning,
Speaker 4: and a health plan made just for her. A specialist
Speaker 4: might even recommend surgery to help her conceive and carry
Speaker 4: a child for the first time. She's looking ahead with
Speaker 4: hope and plans to use her experience to help others.
Speaker 4: And are you still pursuing nursing.
Speaker 2: I am. I graduate next year with my bachelor's in nursing.
Speaker 2: I am so excited to be done with school, but
Speaker 2: I am so excited for my future as a registered nurse.
Speaker 2: I hope to make an impact in the woman's health world.
Speaker 2: My education, my background, my diagnosis, everything combined has made
Speaker 2: me more compassionate. My relationship with my patients is far
Speaker 2: to different than the relationships between other healthcare providers and
Speaker 2: their patients because I feel like I take the time
Speaker 2: to really sit down and validate their feelings. First and foremost, Nick, what.
Speaker 4: Do you hope that people take away from your shared story?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want them to really look out and identify
Speaker 1: that they may not be the only ones who are
Speaker 1: going through something, and if they do have a health condition,
Speaker 1: that they should try and seek out. Further answers to.
Speaker 4: That nobody should ever get comfortable with being dismissed in
Speaker 4: terms of health concerns under person.
Speaker 1: I agree.
Speaker 4: And finally, what do you want people to take away
Speaker 4: from your story?
Speaker 2: I want people to know that it's okay to advocate
Speaker 2: for yourself. Sometimes you are your only advocate, and when
Speaker 2: you know something is wrong, something could be wrong. Don't
Speaker 2: take no for an answer, and don't let them tell
Speaker 2: you your symptoms are normal and minimize it and minimize
Speaker 2: your experience, especially if you are a woman, because I've
Speaker 2: seen how hard it is to fight the fight trying
Speaker 2: to get the care that you need and that you deserve.
Speaker 2: My name is Haley Griffith, and for twenty two years
Speaker 2: I struggled with being diagnosed with uterist idelphis.
Speaker 4: You can find Haley on TikTok at Haley Underscore Griffith.
Speaker 4: You can follow doctor Luckysecon at Lucky dot c con
Speaker 4: and look out for her new book, The Lucky Egg,
Speaker 4: coming out January thirteenth, twenty twenty six. Coming up on
Speaker 4: next week's Symptomatic Ian Steadman suffered thirty two years through
Speaker 4: whole body rashes, debilitating migrains, joint pain, and hearing loss
Speaker 4: without a clear diagnosis. His mother, Barb, had gone over
Speaker 4: sixty years with the same symptoms. After nearly two hundred doctors'
Speaker 4: visits and decades of frustrations, they had resigned to believe
Speaker 4: there were no answers, that is until Ian's daughter Leah
Speaker 4: was born, covered in that all too recognizable rash.
Speaker 6: One in three people untreated just don't wake up. My
Speaker 6: mom's over thirty six, so she seems to have bucked
Speaker 6: the trend. I'm running up against it and now I've
Speaker 6: got a kid, so there's three of us. If it
Speaker 6: wasn't for Leah being sick, I may be the one
Speaker 6: in three.
Speaker 4: Ian reignited his search for answers and saved his family.
Speaker 4: As always, we would love to hear from you. Send
Speaker 4: us your thoughts on this episode, or share a medical
Speaker 4: mystery of your own at Symptomatic at iHeartMedia dot com,
Speaker 4: and please rate and review Symptomatic wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4: We'll see you next time, and until then, be well.
Speaker 4: Symptomatic a medical mystery podcast, is a production of iHeartMedia's
Speaker 4: Ruby Studio. Our show is hosted by me Lauren Bright Pacheco.
Speaker 4: Our executive producers are James Foster, Matt Romano, and myself.
Speaker 4: Our supervising producers are Ryan Ovadia, Haley Aliah Ericsson, and
Speaker 4: Daniel Ainsworth. This episode was written by Haley Aliah Erickson
Speaker 4: and edited by Daniel Ainsworth,