#happy to say that despite being astronomically expensive my treatment seems to be working fairly well

[senselessalchemist]

CW: blood and medical stuff

It is just over 7 years now since my diagnosis with an autoimmune* disease (~10 years since symptoms started) and I don't really have anything profound or useful to say, but A) don't let people tell you it's just stress without any further testing if you have unexplained internal bleeding and B) if you literally can't stay awake because you've been bleeding for a few months straight, don't listen to the PCP who tells you not to go to the hospital because your hands are too pink and rosy for you to actually be anemic and there's not much the hospital will be able to do for you anyway

Two-ish days after that appointment I was in the hospital and almost immediately getting a transfusion because I was so anemic. (I would end up getting a 2nd as well because continued bleeding + already low on blood = first one not enough.) Stayed there for almost a month until they got the bleeding under control.

This could have happened to anyone but it's hard not to think that being afab probably had something to do with the downplaying and dismissal of symptoms for 3ish years before being diagnosed. They did the classic "it's probably just stress" because I was a senior in college (and possibly because afab). I don't want to make this a never trust medical professionals kind of thing, because there are many good ones and some of them probably saved my life and/or prevented me from having major surgery (which turned out not to be necessary at the time b/c the med they tried started to work)... but also when things are obviously wrong and especially if they recur (like unexplained bleeding cropping up again and again over years) maybe don't take "it's just stress" as an explanation. Also fuck the doctor who thought he could diagnose anemia or lack thereof by hand color and who advised against further treatment ("just wait until your specialist appointment in a month!")

*there does seem to be some debate about whether my particular condition should be classified as autoimmune or not, but enough people do at this moment I'm just gonna go with it because it's treated like many autoimmune diseases are, with various immunosuppressants or immune system modulating medications