Schrödinger's uterus, or what it's like to be a patient in the US in 2026.

CW: cancer, medical trauma.

Remember when my digestive system went full Pepsi & Mentos just after I had my hip replaced in January? And at the time I was blaming it on the meds, the food, even my sister bringing the Norovirus home from her grocery stock job.

Absolutely TMI, but I've started throwing up whenever I empty my bowels. Yesterday was the third time this happened, but instead of feeling better after getting rid of everything, I was severely nauseous and gassy until I got 12 capsules of activated charcoal on my stomach. Since it subsided, the heavy ache in my lower gut has gotten heavier.

I also pulled out the scale yesterday, simply because I knew I was running on absolute empty, so I could get a true weight. I weighed 206lbs at the ER on the 4th, and 203lbs when I saw my PCP one week later, which I wrote off to having one of those gastric emptying instances right before the appointment, and the pukes happened during the appointment in her exam room. Today? 190lbs even.

That now makes more than 80lbs of weight loss from my heaviest, and puts me just 15lbs away from a "healthy" BMI range. But I have never lost so much in one week. I had a good week if I lost 8lbs, but 5lbs was more realistic this whole time. I don't think dropping an entire BMI category in two weeks is healthy, even if that's the category it brings my weight to. It took me most of a year to go from obese level 2 to just into the overweight category, I plateau for five months, and then suddenly I cleared half the overweight category in six days? That's not healthy. And if I must go through cancer treatment, I'd rather do it with some extra meat on my bones still.

So, I Googled uterine cancer symptoms. The bloating and rapid weight loss seem to indicate that if it's cancer, it's in the later stages already. And I have that family history. My mom was precancerous at 34 years old, my grandma was at stage one by 34 years old, and my great-grandmother died from uterine cancer in the 60's, when she was about my age.

I still have two weeks before I can see a doctor who can do anything about it. My PCP can only prescribe medication to treat my symptoms as they come up between now and when I see my new gynecologist. At least they have what they need to make the call on treatment, thanks to my ER visit, but who knows how long it'll take to get me on a surgeon's table after that? It's usually a six to eight week wait. "Emergency" spine surgery a few years back was a three week wait. And if they don't bother with a biopsy until then...

Isn't cancer one of those things that you have to act fast on or it can kill you super fast? I'm not particularly scared of what's happening. I think I've proven I can survive anything at this point. I'm just mad AF that the system is letting me suffer because they refuse to hire enough doctors to cover the patient load. I'm also mad AF that just about every other country (except maybe Canada and England) would be taking this seriously, and not making me wait an entire month with Schrödinger's uterus potentially trying to kill me before seeing someone who can do something about what's happening, as I'm steadily worsening.

And that kind of mental stress on top of physical stress is brutal.

Isn't it great that modern medicine can cure all of these diseases, you know, if they'll take you seriously enough to catch your symptoms early?

It also pisses me off that had I not been supplementing with electrolytes and iron the day I went to the ER, because I knew that I was bleeding way too much, I would have had very different labs and probably would have qualified for emergency surgery. So, now I'm being punished for being too health conscious, when I was literally just trying to stay alive. At least I know I'm doing this at the pinnacle of physical health. Sheesh.