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[phleb0tomist]

i don’t usually post hate mail but this one was just so egregious, and i actually have even more thoughts. There’s a double ableism whammy in this ask. anon was trying to insult me, someone who is disabled but not brain damaged, by saying i have brain damage. not only did they want to be rude to me but they also wanted to (indirectly) punish actual brain damaged ppl as a group by framing their existence as degrading. has anyone else seen a TON of this brand of ableism lately?? like the individual target can have any kind of disability but the insult specifically uses brain injury (or stroke or intellectual disability) as a point of humiliation. it’s something i think disabled people unaffected by those issues should be conscious of and sensitive towards and the first step is to notice it and boy am i noticing

i blocked anon but im still posting this so i can say: disability is a regular part of life and i love normalising it. anon’s desperation to separate Normal from Aberrant is a eugenicist mindset

and while i’m on my soapbox, I’m so fucking over the use of ‘brain damage’ as a sensationalist troll buzzword. you can say it’s not that deep, but cmon. insults do not exist in a magical vacuum outside of social context. insults are a common means to further socially punish marginalised groups. anon is a prime example of someone capitalising on social imbalances to use as insult currency (usually to make up for a poor sense of self—anon might feel worthless, but at least they can prove they’re better than the Abnormals). ableism is a suuuper cheap way to exert power over others using existing frameworks of bigotry. anon didn’t put work into this ask, they just took glee in furthering a stigma that was already there. it’s clear to me that when ppl throw around language like this, the ableism isn’t a side effect, it’s the whole point. anon isn’t saying “I hope something bad happens to you!”, they’re saying “i hate disabled ppl, also i’m describing you as a dog because i think disabled ppl are less than human”.

anyway it’s 2am and i’m rambling. disability is a normal part of life. brain damaged people are whole, complex, beautiful humans. ableism is an oft-socially-sanctioned tool of hatred. bye

[phleb0tomist]

i blocked anon but im still posting this so i can say: disability is a regular part of life and i love normalising it. anon’s desperation to separate Normal from Aberrant is a eugenicist mindset

and while i’m on my soapbox, I’m so fucking over the use of ‘brain damage’ as a sensationalist troll buzzword. you can say it’s not that deep, but cmon. insults do not exist in a magical vacuum outside of social context. insults are a common means to further socially punish marginalised groups. anon is a prime example of someone capitalising on social imbalances to use as insult currency (usually to make up for a poor sense of self—anon might feel worthless, but at least they can prove they’re better than the Abnormals). ableism is a suuuper cheap way to exert power over others using existing frameworks of bigotry. anon didn’t put work into this ask, they just took glee in furthering a stigma that was already there. it’s clear to me that when ppl throw around language like this, the ableism isn’t a side effect, it’s the whole point. anon isn’t saying “I hope something bad happens to you!”, they’re saying “i hate disabled ppl, also i’m describing you as a dog because i think disabled ppl are less than human”.

anyway it’s 2am and i’m rambling. disability is a normal part of life. brain damaged people are whole, complex, beautiful humans. ableism is an oft-socially-sanctioned tool of hatred. bye

[phleb0tomist]

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[phleb0tomist]

yep, i’m still ME-posting!

so another young woman with severe ME is being denied basic sensory accommodations in an NHS hospital. carla’s parents have been advocating tirelessly for her and even taking turns physically shielding her from the unnecessary light that is causing seizures, pain, and loss of consciousness. if carla’s symptoms were unexplained then maybe i would understand why the hospital keeps trying to expose her to lights, but she’s literally diagnosed with very severe ME, where the body cannot adjust to sensory input, so forgive me for finding it evil and pointless to do the thing that makes her illness worse. this is the norm for how hospitals treat people with ME and it’s inescapable if you want to receive any medical care at all like the feeding tube that carla needs

link to article and news video

[phleb0tomist]

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[phleb0tomist]

hydrocodone-acetaminophen and amoxicillin

[phleb0tomist]

i just wanted to thank you for running this blog and speaking about your experiences with ME so openly. i followed you initially because i found the medical aesthetic interesting and comforting, but what i've learned about ME and chronic illness in general from following you has been a hundred times as valuable, and i'm really grateful. you've opened my eyes a lot! thank you so much!!

hi i can’t tell you how much that means to me :’’) thank you for sending this lovely ask, i’m glad to be sharing the experience of chronic illness and particularly ME. it’s close to my heart especially given i never saw anyone talking about ME when i was growing up with it. we’re all learning about each other and understand better every day <3

[phleb0tomist]

Hello i havent visited your account in a long while, but i remembered it and came to look back. It helped me alot when i was in the hospital/recovering from surgeries 4 years ago and i just wanted to say tyvm and i hope you are always doing well.

hi again! thank you for that, i’m happy to hear it helped you while you were going through a lot! very best wishes to you now <33

[phleb0tomist]

[phleb0tomist]

abandoned hospital // march 2022

[phleb0tomist]

if you want to help, there’s a petition for millie which is still current as of April 2024. to me, nothing is a clearer demonstration of the nhs’s stubbornness than the fact that ME experts say millie must be fed 1) lying down, and 2) in a quiet/dark place, and the nhs is still refusing. like those are very simple things

the recent surge of articles on severe ME is shattering my heart. we’re looking at a live, ongoing portfolio of the NHS’s failure to protect young ME patients, the same failures that cast a shadow over both my childhood and my current life, and it’s so wild that things aren’t changing. there’s no repair, no apology for the highly preventable suffering or the deaths, which are mostly young women.

the improper care of ME patients isn’t because of a lack of funding, it’s because of ignorance & stubbornness. the bare minimum of appropriate care to prevent a severe ME patient from getting worse is to allow them to be somewhere dark, quiet, lying down, hydrated & fed, and somehow the NHS can’t even provide that. my main shred of hope is that this is finally being reported and i wonder if that will be the catalyst for a little bit of repair. i’m desperate to believe it will be

[phleb0tomist]

the recent surge of articles on severe ME is shattering my heart. we’re looking at a live, ongoing portfolio of the NHS’s failure to protect young ME patients, the same failures that cast a shadow over both my childhood and my current life, and it’s so wild that things aren’t changing. there’s no repair, no apology for the highly preventable suffering or the deaths, which are mostly young women.

the improper care of ME patients isn’t because of a lack of funding, it’s because of ignorance & stubbornness. the bare minimum of appropriate care to prevent a severe ME patient from getting worse is to allow them to be somewhere dark, quiet, lying down, hydrated & fed, and somehow the NHS can’t even provide that. my main shred of hope is that this is finally being reported and i wonder if that will be the catalyst for a little bit of repair. i’m desperate to believe it will be

[phleb0tomist]

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[phleb0tomist]