Well…you might want to inform yourself about what a nursing job requires (here’s some of the information you might find: high stress yes, working in shifts that are compromising work/life balance yes, work that requires a lot of lifting heavy things- yes…people who believe your sentiments are the problem - yes)

I’m neither an expert nor do I smoke. But from what I heard, quitting smoking has two major points- one being the nicotine addiction your body has built up. The second one being your ‘emotional addiction’, I.e being used to smoking as a tool to decompress, socialize, take a break, fight boredom etc. which is embedded in your routines - this one might be harder to fight. Maybe try to identify those things and find alternatives, start installing different ways to cope and simultaneously take care of your bodily addiction via gums, patches, whatever is the right way for you.

Well that sounds rather unpleasant. Maybe I was a little naive in assuming that this doctor for sure won’t tell any bullshit, as he seemed (old) experienced. I’m glad you had the courage to get a second opinion

Thank you for your encouragement. I didn’t consider gender playing any role in this yet even though I know about gender bias in medicine in general. Definitely something one should consider when finding a new practitioner

Well, yeah, but on the other hand: who else can I ask? Of course, nobody here knows me or my situation. But I do, and let me tell you: there is nobody who I can get some thoughts about this , some questions I didn’t consider yet, ideas on what to do…and maybe a little encouragement… I’m overwhelmed by the amount of people who cared and shared their thoughts

Welp, I certainly didn’t know that - no you’ve really got me pumped up to try that! I somehow always fancied cycling but at the same time didn’t gain enough momentum to actually do it. But now, as I’m craving to get my body moving, and this may really work with my current situation (and also knowing what to look out for, the whole wheight balancing thing) I’ll definitely give it a try! Thank you!

Thank you for this insight. I really don’t want to be sick but if there is something, especially something that could be treated, I’d like to know. My GPs response somehow made me feel like I was overreacting but with so many people reacting so differently, I’ll try to take myself serious and get that checked out!

Thank you for sharing your story. I’m really impressed by your mindset after going through all of what you wrote. Biking sounds fun, I might be looking into it, right now I can’t really put a lot of weight on my wrists/ hands but maybe I find a way around that. I actually live in an area where biking of all sorts is quite popular :-) .

Yeah well my GP just shoved this aside and I didn’t do any reasearch about it, because I try to avoid reading about symptoms etc. in order not to get ‘biased’, like interpeting too much or influencing my diagnosis (does this make sense?) but as you were asking about it it came back to my mind. Maybe I should check in with a specialist as I just now tried to find some information and it seems to fit really good, it even matches some minor other problems I had earlier (and my GP himself diagnosed me with)

Thank you for your answer, I appreciate everyone wo is taking the time and effort. Well, my brother has spondylitis ankylosans. I asked my doc about it (my mother always warned us to have in our mind when something comes up) but he said that this is not related and my symptoms wouldn’t match as I am too young. He also stated that it especially has nothing to do with low back pain. Other than that, no chemicals, no radiation (we live in a area where this actually can be a problem so it is quite common to check for it and we never had any elevated levels) I’m not working in a high stress environment, no heavy lifting or something like that and I move quit regularly during the day