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Diagnosis, What Diagnosis?
We don’t always get what we want, nor even what we don’t want. The fact is, not everyone gets a label and as much as you might not want one, to not be able to have one can feel even worse. It’s when someone says, ‘so, what’s wrong with you’ and you have to reply, ‘We don’t know’. So, you’ve gone into the appointments with your index cards, and told the good doctor all you can. You’ve done the diagnosis dance then one fine day perhaps, the tests come back and all they say is ‘Huh?’. Some conditions don’t get a name, which is indescribably frustrating. How can you deal…
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Diagnosis – At the Doctor’s Office.
How to Handle the Doctor’s Appointment They aren’t nice, are they? Doctor’s waiting rooms, I mean. You’re sitting there waiting to be called, surrounded by posters and leaflets for various diseases (What, yellow fever? Do I have that? Huh, well I suppose that tooth ache could be cancer – argh!). Flanked by people hacking and coughing, or staring at you as they aren’t interested in out of date magazines. (Or perhaps that’s just me. But if I don’t like people staring I can choose to dress down or minimise myself or tell them to stop. But I like red shoes, and wearing fabric roses in my hair and heels that,…
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The stripper pole liberated me too
When I was 22, I rang my social worker and told him that I wanted to work. Fair request you might think, admirable even with all the “get them off benefits” austerity measures the government are so keen on (not that I’m in support of those, but that’s another topic). When disablism and dreams collide Hanging on the phone, I told my social worker I wanted to do all we could to set up a job that was accessible and possible for me. Something that used the talents I have and minimised the challenges. He replied that that was impossible, he couldn’t see anything I could do. That I…
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