#medical

[s4dpngs]

[mymelodyange1]

[consolecadet]

I'm reading my MyChart notes from all the shit that happened on Friday and have discovered that my local hospital has, because I'm trans, something called an "organ inventory" which is just a list of what sex organs I have and whether they are surgically constructed. Not sure how I feel about that.

[sewercentipede]

yuri nosho

[inbredfawn]

antique taxidermy kit.

[borderlinereminders]

Do you take antipsychotics for your bpd? I just got prescribed some and I feel weird about it

Hi anon,

I have before but I don’t anymore. Do you feel weird because you’re anxious about it? Or weird because you don’t know if using meds is valid or something like that?

I used to take Quetiapine but I couldn’t deal with the side effects. And it just made me emotionally numb. All the time. To me, numb was worse than the extreme emotions. Not saying it’ll make you numb. I’m not sure how common a reaction that is. I never tried anything else. I was eventually able to manage my symptoms without meds but I still think people that use meds are very valid if they help them.

I just hope whoever prescribed them went over the side effects with you. Please research a med before taking it. But meds to manage symptoms are valid.

[rita]

[classycookiexo]

Hopefully this tip can really help someone, please take this advice or suggest to friends and family if you feel it could really assist them 💕

[thebibliosphere]

Whenever I talk about the medical neglect and ableism I've encountered as a victim of the healthcare system, there's always some cockwaffle who feels entitled to come into my inbox and make the argument of "not all doctors" while talking about how "people like them" (because it's always someone in a field of medicine who does this) are doing their best and it's really hard because so many people fake being ill to get on welfare (Yikes), but like, yeah, obviously #not all doctors, because if all doctors were negligent, bullying scum bags, I'd be dead.

But here's the thing: while I truly believe that the majority of doctors are doing their best in a system stacked against them and their patients, their presence does not negate the mass harm caused by the bad ones. And there are far more bad ones than you realize.

Fuck, John Oliver literally did a segment on this last week:

Yes, the truly bad, malicious doctors are in the minority. Most are just horrifically burned out and fighting a losing battle against a system, killing both them and their patients through a lack of funding and resources and profound overwork.

But the malicious ones do exist, and they will go out of their way to harm patients who don't kowtow to them.

I almost lost my life because when I was in my early twenties, I told a doctor I didn't think she was listening to me, and I disagreed with her assessment of my mental health (she was not a mental health doctor, and I was there for heart palpitations and chronic pain). She retaliated by putting "non-compliant" in my file.

There was also a fun little "doesn't show respect" note too that lives rent-free in my head because I know I wasn't rude. I was polite. I just didn't agree with her, and my refusal to accept her off-handed comment that "you probably have bipolar or BPD" (again, I was there for heart palpitations and chronic pain) meant I was "refusing care."

I wasn't. I just refused to be slapped with a mood/personality disorder when I was there because I kept fucking fainting when I stood up.

(Spoiler alert: it was dysautonomia)

That "non-compliant" marker followed me around for years. It followed me across an ocean and effectively ensured that any doctor I saw was going to treat me like absolute dogshit because no one wants to help Difficult Patients. It wasn't until I was so undeniably ill, literally on the brink of death, that anyone helped me.

I'm alive because of a good doctor. And all the good ones that came after him because of him.

So, I know they exist. You don't have to tell me that.

But I really fucking need you to acknowledge the bad ones and that you're part of a system with a long, long history of abusing minorities and vulnerable people. I need you to acknowledge that because it's the only way we're going to survive this godforsaken nightmare and make things better.

So yeah, #notalldoctors, but if you feel the need to say that because someone talking about being literally left to die by the medical system hurts your feelings, I'm going to have to ask you to take a step back and ask yourself if you're going into medicine for the right reasons.

Namely: do you want to help people, even the "difficult" ones?

Even the ones who might disagree with you?

Even if they're on welfare?

Even if they'll never get "better" in a way that means "cured"?

Just a thought. But hey, what do I know. I'm just someone who experienced hemolytic anemia because doctors kept telling me I was anxious and needed to exercise more 🤷‍♀️.

[s4dpngs]

[incognitopolls]

*Not counting routine checkups or normal doctor's visits– this is asking about serious illness, injury, etc where you were in a bed.

–

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[drafthearse]

Bones of chest, neck and head on a wooden base, with heart and blood vessels sprayed on in wax. University Museum Utrecht.

[starblaster]

based on this post

[emlan]

I'm familiar with the concept of game balance, but still

[milksockets]

the sick rose: disease + the art of medical illustration - richard barnett (2014)