Hi all. So I have been battling gastritis symptoms on and off for nearly 3 years, but only recently started receiving genuine treatment for it after changing hospital systems because I was absolutely fed up with Doctors giving me a diagnosis for gastritis—which I now know could be an ulcer(s), hasn't been confirmed which yet (gotta love medical neglect). This and a few other conditions have sent me to the ER at least a dozen times in the last 2-3 years, which mostly turned out to be non-emergency scenarios, but all warranted hospital visits according to everything I've ever read. The GI symptoms have been particularly awful lately, but I'm now on a peptide treatment and have shifted my diet for the time being according to things I've read on this sub and elsewhere, which is slowly helping.

In addition to this and a couple other chronic conditions, I am also extremely poor right now. Come from a working class background and my recent medical struggles have put me in a very hard place financially. As such, I went to donate plasma the other day. The procedure went fine, but about 2 hours later I was hanging out with one of my three roommates, and had made the mistake of eating some BK omw out of the Plasma donation center because I didn't wanna pass out... Boy did that backfire.

Next thing I know, I'm nauseous as hell and feeling EXTREMELY lethargic and lightheaded. I say I'm gonna be sick and rush downstairs to the bathroom, where I collapse halfway through the door and wind up facedown on the floor, which is around when the horrible GI pains started flaring up. Now tbf, I can get a bit moany when I feel really sick, so I can see people being used to that and shrugging it off. But I laid there trying (best I could) to call for help. At one point I mustered the strength to try and kick the door, cuz another roommate's room is right next to that bathroom. Nothing.

After battling for 10-15mins to stay conscious, I start feeling slightly better, (still very bad, hard to move), and I hear the roommate I was hanging out with come down to check on me. He's like standing across the room as I struggle to sit up, and he asks if I'm okay and if I can stand. I go to lay down and he said he would check on me 30mins later but I pretty sure he never did.

I was feeling extremely unsafe, so I called a nurse hotline to discuss symptoms and whether I should go to ER. By then, my symptoms were gradually getting a little better, but the nurse seemed fairly concerned and gave me some pretty tight guidelines for when to go into the hospital. Luckily everything turned out fine this time, but it was really bad. Not sure how much was depletion from lack of plasma and how much was GI symptoms, but I was very scared and spent all yesterday on high alert; if it had been a ruptured ulcer, I did NOT want to ignore it, given the potentially fatal consequences.

Okay so in lew of all this, you'd think the people around me would be pretty concerned, right? Like hopefully your friends (especially that you LIVE with) would have your back if anything happens 🤷‍♀️ well last night, after spending the whole day in my room recovering (my bestie had come over to keep me company), and I'm in the kitchen, and the roommate I was hanging with the night before got home. He asked how I was and I told him better but still pretty weak and in mild pain. Then I was like "hey really talk tho, if I ever feel that bad again I prolly need to go to the ER."

Again, everything I've read and been told by now tells me I expressed potential symptoms of a burst ulcer the night before. Well his response is "yeah but you didn't...."

And I say "yeah but I probably should have"

And he repeats "but you didn't... And you're fine, right? I'm just saying"

I've gotten responses like this in the past about going to the ER, especially from my roommates, and I was NOT having it, so I just said "look man I know what I'm talking about, don't even hit me with that bullshit right now"

And he's still sticking to his guns "yeah but you didn't need to go in, you were okay. So why would you need to go in"

And finally I just blurted out "because I had multiple symptoms of a burst ulcer, which could kill me pretty quickly if it goes untreated!"

And he acts all frickin butthurt, like doesn't wanna look at me and is like "fine. Okay." And clearly he's done talking about it. So I was like "anyway have a good night, thanks for checking on me yesterday" (not that he did much).

Like dude WHO TF DOES THAT. How is that a normal response to "I could have died and next time we need to take better precautions"?!?! Anyway, it's not the first or even the third time one of my roommates has had an incredibly cavalier and dismissive attitude about my pretty serious medical conditions, and I'm fucking fed up with it. It's bad enough I have to struggle to be taken seriously by doctors sometimes (again, switched hospital systems because I was fed up with the medical neglect), but now I can't even trust all my roommates to take me seriously if I say I feel especially deathly ill and need to go to a hospital. All in all, I just feel really fuckin lonely and unsafe right now, and I pray to whatever higher power that I don't end up in a situation like that again. Not sure why people think it's okay to ignore serious health conditions.

I don't care how many false alarms have brought someone to the ER. If someone around you is experiencing horrifically painful symptoms and passing out, TAKE. THEM. SERIOUSLY.