Amish did NOT follow a single guideline from the CDC. 🤔

honestly you probably shouldn't go into the medical profession if you aren't prepared to treat patients with dignity and respect - even if your job exploits you, even if your bosses suck, even if you're exhausted.

yes, you are allowed to have feelings and be tired. but you have to be willing and able to either admit when you can't do something (and take the consequences), or put how you feel aside and do your job. for the sake of your patient.

you and your job may be harmed by the medical industrial complex's wrongness, but to your patients, you are part of the complex that is also gravely failing them. you have the power to be a force of goodwill and care, or an instrument of oppression.

that is what you're signing up for when you become a medical professional. don't like it? don't become a medical professional.

This is for all the younger gen Z women, particularly those of you within the ages of 17 to roughly 23. This is written from an American perspective, things might be a little different depending on where you're from.

I graduated high school with the unconscious assumption that certain systems will take care of me. The medical system would educate me on proper nutrition and health issues was probably my largest underlying assumption, but really I just had trust in institutions generally.

This isn't true. You are responsible for learning. As an example, I have been vegetarian since age 14. Nobody talked to me about proper nutrition, they just told me I needed to eat more protein.

I lived a decade of my life having shortness of breath, sleeping issues, clumsiness, cold hands and feet, having brain fog, extreme fatigue, heightened anxiety, etc. My period was extremely light and brown, it'd last for about 2 or so days. I'd go and talk about these problems, and telling doctors that I was vegetarian was one of the first things that came out of my mouth just with any visit because I knew at least that piece was important to communicate.

There was really no action taken over the span of about 10 years. I was told the period thing was normal, that changes for women. A sleep specialist let me know that feeling exhausted was also normal. The brain fog was probably due to anxiety. Here, try allergy medication (tbh that did help for other reasons). Then one day I just asked them to check my vitamin and mineral levels. Prior to this I didn't think you can make requests to doctors, I thought you showed up and they performed tests on what they recommended. With some reluctance from my primary care physician and some compromise because she said my insurance wouldn't cover testing things like B12 levels (I later found out from a nurse that, they would, she would have just needed to fill out extra paperwork), she did some tests.

I found out both my iron and D3 levels were low. What else could be?

I later learned pretty much all the vitamins common to be low for vegetarians were low. D3, magnesium, vitamin Bs, iron, and healthy fats. Bought some liquid vitamins (because the body only absorbs 10% of the pill supplements), began eating an avocado a day, my period became normal for the first time in nine years, and I am able to function.

Another example of how human systems won't educate you: I don't have feeling in some of my toes due to wearing incorrect sized footwear for years resulting in permanent nerve damage. I'm size 11.5 in women's, and I was relying on someone to tell me how proper footwear worked, because surely the guy in the minimum wage position working the footwear section would know.

Don't trust human systems to guide you through how certain things work. Seek specific specialists and experts when you can, and inform yourself on your own. Don't blindly trust search engines like Google, it's not like how it used to be when I was growing up and many millennial adults will tell you to "just google things" because we're used to finding actual substantive answers when we do. However, now, usually whoever pays is who makes the first page or two of search engines, it has nothing to do with what information is "most correct". Don't be afraid to request certain tests be done by doctors or certain referrals made to different specialists.

Edit: And also, I've found general practitioners are terrible when you walk in and tell them about several different symptoms at one time. They're more used to treating one symptom at a time, and they treat the symptom not the root cause. If you go in with a runny nose, general practitioners are going to throw medications at you to try and treat the runny nose, not look deeper into what's causing the runny nose. It's equivalent to if you're in a boat and it's sinking, they're bailing out water without actually fixing the hole or trying to figure out where it is, with the exception of emergency situations and even then it depends.

Trying to get information on medicine is exhausting

Most medical sites require two things to be useful, available competent doctors and for the individual in question to fit the standard model

If you want info on personality disorders clinics will demonize the conditions and provide info only for getting tested by a doctor. Because.. People get reliably diagnosed with personality disorders?

If I try to figure out how to manage dislocations and fix them, almost everything just says go to the doctor and bare minimum first aid. Which is useless considering I can't go to urgent care at least every other day. I can't bring a heat pack to school. I can't stay off a foot that I need to walk. It would make my life so much easier if I could have a basic run though on how to reduce a joint with eds.

I want to know what sunglasses help best with migranes. I want to know how to treat my nausea, not just talk to your doctor if it's a reoccuring problem. I want to know how to manage pain, how to compare and rate it, what painkillers to use for different levels of pain, how to know if pain is a warning sign when you're constantly in pain.

The fact is the medical system sucks. Not everyone has the resources or luck to be able to get sufficient medical attention. I still need to know how to take care of myself, even where doctors won't. So telling me to just go to the doctor every time I have an injury or flare up is effing pointless, and just stops me from getting access to information I actually need and can use

STUFF I DIDN'T KNOW WHEN I WAS STILL ABLED...

It's not always obvious what's wrong.

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Hi, Doctor. I'm tired. Like, all the time.

No. All the time. I wake up exhausted. I fall asleep at work. I fall asleep in the shower. I'm scared to drive.

No, Doctor. You don't understand. I'm not 'sleepy.' Not 'drowsy.' I'm tired in my bones. My blood feels heavy. The weight of my head hurts my neck. I can't think sometimes--I forget how to read--i get lost in familiar places! I say 'tired,' but I mean that 80% of my life, I feel like a sloppy heap of mud splattering and crumbling from too much moving, too much thinking, too much feeling, too much light, too much noise, too much everything. I'm confused and disoriented and like I'm in a terrible dream.

Oh.

That's a symptom of a lot of things?

Anemia. Migraine. Sleep apnea. Vitamin deficiency. Thyroid dysfunctions. Brain diseases. Heart diseases. Neurological disorders. Blood disorders. Autoimmune issues. Depression and other psychiatric conditions. Lifestyle choices: sleep, food, activity level. Environmental factors: mold, pollution, allergies.

There's a lot of testing to rule things out, huh? Could take years? Yes, I know it will be expensive. Yes, I accept that some of the tests will hurt. Yes, I commit to rearranging my eating/sleeping/exercising habits and seeing every recommended specialist.

Doctor, you don't understand. Either we find an answer, no matter how long it takes, or I am trapped outside of the world forever for no reason. Not testing won't make these horrible feelings stop.

Can you imagine feeling this way? Always? During your friends' birthdays? When your boss demands work? When you're home alone in the middle of the night trying to remember how the sink works? During the commute. During the shower. Taking out the trash. Feeding the cats. Staring at your bills. Talking with your family. For years... weddings, funerals, holidays, weekends, 4am, 4pm, when your loved ones need you, during every emergency, while you fail at your job, at your hobbies, at your relationships, at being your basic self?

Fuck, Yes! Doctor! Run! The! Tests! We are burning daylight!! Let's get this ball rolling! Journey of a thousand miles, begins with single step, etc!

I do want to feel better. This is not my imagination. It's not my fault. I am a reliable witness to my own life and I don't care how many tests 'come back normal.' Those must be the wrong tests to find what's haywire. I know something is wrong and even if we can't fix it, I must understand it.

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I'm now in year 7 of trying to improve my situation. I know so much more about my conditions than I did. I am getting help. I still don't have a full picture. I'm still disabled.

But it's not like it was.

Please. Don't give up. Diagnosis can take years. Some people never get a firm answer. Regardless, you will learn ways to cope. You will meet people who help you cope. Don't give up on yourself. You are worth the effort.

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Seems like something we should all know.

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Disability happens to people without our control or consent. Every single disabled person has strong feelings about their own situation and I would not presume to talk about anyone’s thoughts but my own. But none of us chose to do life on hardmode, so if the world could listen this month, there’s a lot to say.

Things I look forward to bc of T

Tomorrow im making an appointment to see my family doctor to get my first t injection <3

This process has been so hard, financially, but also emotionally. Ive invested so much time and energy. Dealing with a medical system thats built to dehumanize me and fuck me over at the slightest misstep.

Soo to celebrate, im gonna make a personal list of things Im looking forward to when Ill have been on T for a while. (and also things im grateful for now)

Not having doctors accuse me of being a lesbian (Im dating a man)

Not having doctors ask whose the woman and whose the man

Not having doctors try to scare me off t bc what if i want kids (Ive never liked kids and will never have them)

Having my name changed

Having so many opportunities open up bc of name change

Having my voice drop and maybe finally liking it

Not having to deal with endless waiting lists anymore

Not having extreme anxiety about appointments

Not being clocked at all anymore

Being able to wear clothes I want, without hiding myself away in layers

Not fearing violence anymore

Blood relatives not recognizing me if we ever unfortunately cross paths

All the little and big physical changes

Being free to do as I please with so much less worry

Being a big hairy man like my dad was.

Embracing child me, who spent years hating and in anguish and torment, because we finally made it, were at peace now

I hate you refilling meds at the end of the week I hate you higher doses I hate you new symptoms I hate you comorbidities I hate you degenerative diseases I hate you chronic pain I hate you constant doctor appointments I hate you hospital trips I hate you blood tests I hate you mri scans I hate you ultra sounds I hate you physio I hate you invasive procedures I hate you surgeries I hate you gaslighting doctors I hate you snobby consultants I hate you “I know more than your lived experience”.

I wish. Doctors had time. I wish we had enough doctors that the doctors had time to talk and to listen. Because I waited 3 hours for a phone call where I talked with a nurse for 3 minutes and 27 seconds about the health issue I've been having consistently, daily, for 4 months, sat on hold for 7 minutes, and then had my doctor throw 5 words at me and hang up in 30 seconds. I think she prescribed me something? She said something about a pill. Idk. I'm hoping I get an email with details, I don't even know what fucking pharmacy I have to go to.

A Patient Created is a Customer Gained 🤔

I know yall sleeping on my boi. Please for the love of all gods, check this motherfucker out. His name is Ren, his yt channel is Renmakesmusic, his music is art.

He already had a deal w Sony couple years ago, but then he got ill, chronic pain, for a while 23h in bed. Turned out he had lyme disease, but he was misdiagnosed for years.

There are two songs I want to reccomend for people w chronic health issues.

Hi Ren, which is about a dialogue inside of him

Sick boi, his dealing w doctors who told him the pain was psychosomatic and also the music industry

Yall. He is an independent artist who just recently climbed to No 1 in UK Charts. Without a label. Because he has a huge online following.

For some reason tumblr sleeps on him which I do not understand.

He is super versatile. Rap, singing, guitar, piano, he is a master story teller. Just. Go to youtube and check him out. Those screen shots are from Sick boi.

The thing that really hurts about the American medical care system is how much we ask for help and are simply ignored. Doctors ignore symptoms. Offices don’t answer their phones. Making an appointment is impossible. Insurance rejects necessary procedures. We ask for help again and again and again only to be ignored.

I just don’t want to be in pain any more.

Sometimes with chronic pain and illness and with the way the medical and insurence worlds work in the US a person has to become creative. We call the things we do to stay sane and get what we need LIFE HACKS. Yet, these hacks can be as dangerous as our diseases. For me, I’ve found over the years that when sleep won’t come for days or weeks at a time and meds won’t be prescribed or approved or can’t be afforded that sugar, gluten, Mucinex Night Shift, or a combination can help knock me out IF I get them right. If I don’t get them right I end up fatigued over fatigued and in whole body agony. See the sugar and gluten they hurt my body, but because of my intolerance for gluten and my diabetes if I eat an excess of either product they can lead to sleep (yes, stupid and dangerous, but usually effective for an hour or two of sleep). Mucinex Night Shift is the only night time product I’ve found that works to help me sleep and doesn’t leave me with a headache or other issues later, but it’s expensive and just like the sugar and gluten does not always work, but when it does it can give 4-5 hours of sleep if my pain is not at a max. These LIFE HACKS are the things the pain community whispers about. They are what you learn in in person conversations with others because nearly no one posts. Posts are evidence. Post lead to people looking at YOU differently and JUDGING YOU instead of judging THE SYSTEMS that lead to these hacks and decisions.

I don’t deaden my world or help myself by using illegal drugs or alcohol. I might have had I not seen issues with those young and held to my abstinence of such products. I can say I understand better some of the reasons my aunt Peggy got lost in drink for so long. Anything to deaden the pain and sleep. Top that with the disease of addiction and coming out of it like she did towards the end of her life is a feat not many would have achieved.

Here’s your little insight that’s not written about. Do with it what you will.

NOTE: This is after the exercise, calming teas, warm/hot showers or baths, heating pads and blankets, epsom salts, SalonPas, regular medications, meditations, readings, and all else used to try to calm the pain and let the sleep take over.

these are averages over all types of insulin in high income countries. but even when it comes to single types, over all countries including low income economies and places with an actual lack of supply which causes severe increases in cost, the US is always in the top 5 most expensive.

in turkey, where insulin is cheapest, it costs $2.64. in most countries it seems to sit around $8-10. in the US it is almost $100 for a person to survive. this is fucking evil