If you carry one thing with you today, let it be this: you are beautiful, you matter, and you are loved.
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“Disability” is an umbrella term which encompasses physical disabilities, emotional/psychiatric disabilities, neurodivergence, intellectual/developmental disabilities, sensory disabilities, invisible disabilities, and more. You do not have to have an official diagnosis to consider yourself disabled.
Mask up, love one another, and stay alive for one more week.
I got the blood tests done today. I googled “hair loss blood tests” and wrote a list of them all. I gave the list to the nurse, well phlebotomist. They actually now have a dedicated phlebotomist at the surgery which is a new development. They’ve just started doing it by computer now. You used to get a paper form for blood tests and the doctor who ordered them would tick each box they wanted you to be tested for. But now they have to click each one on a screen. She hadn’t heard of some of these tests and was having trouble finding them on the screen. I started to worry that maybe google was wrong, maybe these tests aren’t real and I would get caught out.
She asked “Who ordered these?” I said, “The endocrinologist.” She said “I can’t see anything about that on the computer.” I tried to think of an excuse for that and said, “Oh, uh…um…I…it was a follow up phone appointment. They just told me to get these done before my next face to face appointment.” That seemed to make sense to her and she accepted it and eventually managed to find the tests on the computer and did them. I guess the endo will wonder what’s going on and why they’re sending all of these random test results over.
This is the deviousness and subterfuge you have to go through to get medical help in this country.
The drop in services in the past decade is truly shocking. Don’t feel bad about doing what you need to. Don’t let the system discard you and leave you for dead purely out of the idealist perspective that it should simply help if you engage with it politely.
Thank you.
It almost sounds like they automated as much as they could and never trained/informed the people actually using the new processes?? Maybe that’s giving them too much credit. Like they’re forcing incompetence and negligence through “streamlining”… what the fuck. If the endo questions it, maybe it’d work to just gaslight them like “Your office told me to get these done over a phone call from however many months ago”, or something. It feels gross suggesting it, but at the same time your health should be a priority considering your medical history. I hope you can get some proper treatment soon, love. Whatever works in your favor at this point.
Thanks. I thought if the endo questions it, I would pretend it’s crossed wires. I could say “I asked for these tests to be done and sent to you but I never said you ordered them.” And just act like the GP’s office assumed the endo had ordered them.
I am so glad that deviousness and subterfuge got you the tests that you need. Now let’s hope the results will help you with the treatment. Keeping my fingers crossed, love.
Thank you!