slickrickchan

[eddiescouch]

[genderqueerdykes]

one of the most evil parts about me being told that i needed to lose weight before i could get my diseased gallbladder removed was that without telling me at all whatsoever, the physician's assistant who was responsible for my surgery consult silently gave me a referral for bariatric weight loss surgery. she told me that i'd have to get my gallbladder removal surgery with that department as well because they're used to working on bigger bodies.

she told me this, but that's not what she meant. she wanted me to get bariatric weight loss surgery all because i told her that i have poly cystic ovarian syndrome and that it's hard for me to willingly lose weight. when i called the bariatric surgeons about scheduling my consult for my gallbladder removal, they were extremely confused and were like "well is this for the bariatric surgery referral or the gallbladder removal referral?"

without my permission, without me asking, the physician's assistant silently signed me up for weight loss surgery that i never consented to. i never once mentioned wanting this surgery. i never once mentioned that my weight is affecting my health or bothering me. this person saw this as a mandatory step in order to get the surgery to remove my diseased organ. as if there were no other options. i never want to get bariatric weight loss surgery because i know it will completely devastate my health. this PA was so stuck on my weight. she could not get over it, she was literally obsessed. she did not care about my health, safety or well being, she was just obsessed with her hatred of fat people

she saw my weight as a higher priority than my diseased gallbladder. she was so stuck up her own ass that she was convinced that my weight was doing more damage to me than my gallbladder was. she wanted to keep blaming me for eating a high fat diet (i'm a vegetarian- i don't eat a high fat diet) and mocking me for being fat. she literally saw me being fat as a bigger issue than the fact that i had a literal rock stuck in the neck of one of my organs. if you ask me, if the surgeons and anesthesiologists have problems working on fat patients, that's a skill issue on them. that means you're a bad surgeon or anesthesiologist and you need to try to improve your skills. this is a literal skill issue, it's not the patient's fault that the medical professional fucking sucks at their job!

i can't describe to you how evil and insidious that is. the fact that she looked at me and went "oh my fucking god it's your weight that's the problem just go lose weight you fat asshole" just showed how much disregard she has for her fat patients. it's like she relishes torturing us or leaving us to be sick or die. there's no reason to behave this way. there's no reason to FORCE someone into weight loss surgery. my health is NOT being negatively impacted by my weight- gallstones are not caused by being overweight, and you can't give yourself gallstones. no matter how much fat you eat you can't give yourself gallstones- this is something that happens outside of your control

i hate medical professionals who are proudly fatphobic. they wear the fact that they let people remain sick and die as a badge of honor. like they're doing the world a favor. like staying sick or dying is better off for the patient. like the patient somehow doesn't "DESERVE" to be in good health. fat people DO deserve to be in good health. we DON'T have to "EARN" surgeries or life saving procedures. we are alive and human just like everyone else. this qualifies us for being cared for medically, no matter what. leave your prejudices at home. you can't just kill fat people because you don't like that we exist.

[crippledpunks]

i was recently denied life-saving gallbladder removal surgery by my GI specialist due to being "too fat" (i'm 300 lbs and very muscular) and "needing to lose 10 -15 pounds and waiting 2 - 3 months in order to get the surgery". i was then signed up for bariatric weight loss surgery before i could get the gallbladder removal despite the gallstone stuck in the neck of the organ as well as the other stones inside of it causing me to be incapable of keeping down food

i ended up getting the surgery done by a local hospital with far better doctors, but the initial denial had me so defeated. if you are fat and have ever been denied important surgeries, life saving or otherwise, because of your weight, i am so sorry and you should never have to face that. most surgeries are not impacted by weight in the slightest. this is usually an issue with the surgeon's skill as a surgeon.

i was told by every other surgeon i met that weight has no bearing on a laparoscopic gallbladder removal surgery. at the other hospital i was also told that anesthesia wouldn't work on me or that i wouldn't survive it. yet again i was told by other surgeons that was also not the case. most surgeons worth their paygrade can do these surgeries after just... trying and learning how to work with fat bodies.

i was told by the surgeons and nurses in the ER that it's ridiculous for the other hospital to behave as though fat people will never need surgery of any kind ever throughout their lives, for one reason or another. it's unrealistic. most people will encounter a potential surgery in their life times, no matter their weight and it's unprofessional to just give up when someone above a certain weight threshold needs help.

my heart goes out to you especially if you're trans, intersex, gnc, and queer and have been denied top surgery or other gender affirming care surgeries because of your weight. this is also medically unethical and done for no reason other than fatphobic transphobic bias. you do not need to lose weight to get top or bottom surgery.

take care of yourself. my heart goes out to you and you don't deserve this treatment at all

[chronicallycouchbound]

I’m allowed to be lazy. Disabled or not. Laziness isn’t an inherently bad thing y’all just too caught up in hyper capitalist hustle culture to care. I don’t owe you productivity. I’m allowed to rest.

My rest is radical.

[fernthefanciful]

Being disabled/chronically ill is expensive. Now, I don't even mean medical bills (I'm from a country with universal healthcare), or mobility aids. I fell ill 2,5 years ago, to the day. This is what I've had to buy, just to function in my day to day life, because of it:

an ergonomic mouse and keyboard because of joint pain

an entire new wardrobe due to weightgain

on top of that warmer vests, socks, and blankets because I can't regulate my own temperature anymore

compression socks and gloves for my joints

an e-bike, which for me is a mobility aid by now, I can't get around without it

noise cancelling headphones against sensory overload

new shoes due to swelling

a new desk chair

an upright vacuum cleaner because the other one is now too heavy for me

we're looking into a crockpot because most days I cannot cook anymore due to fatigue

A lot of people don't realize that just to get through a day, we need a lot of stuff that isn't cheap. And with each symptom or flare up or worsening of our existing symptoms, there is new stuff we need to buy to accommodate. Being disabled or chronically ill is expensive, please keep that in mind.

[azucar-skull]

"You can't keep referring to your medical team as "the boys""

Me and the boys disagreeing with you:

[fernthewhimsical]

I've been having some more spoons lately, and I've been using them to eat better, especially breakfast. And I am loving it. And it's given me more spoons, which I am using for witchcraft.

I still have relapses and downs, but I am feeling better <3

[random-autistic-loser]

Brooo FML I literally got 3 hours of sleep, I'm too excited to go to this Halloween thing today with my grandparents, and sister, and my parents are coming home from Disneyland today so that's a yippee! There's noise outside. I've been having a WHOLE lot of Acid Reflux as soon as I woke up, I need to talk to the doctor, but the medical gaslighting!! Nooo!1!!1!1! Plus the RIB pain wtf

Idk what to do, I'm gonna go grab a drink of oat nog, contemplate my life, and listen to Kimya Dawson, maybe read a bit of Haikyu!!

[oatmilkappreciator]

prepare to get sick: disabled + poor edition

ok, so my boyfriend just texted from work to say that he feels warm and dizzy and has thrown up a few times already. we both suffer from health issues so it doesn't necessarily mean he's brought home a virus, but I want to be prepared. my health has been shit lately with my medical testing and migraines, so I wanna do what I can to prepare in case we both come down with something (covid). best case scenario, his stomach is acting up for other reasons and we have a bunch of food prepped anyway. worst case, I have what I need to get through, keep us fed, spend as little money as possible, and stay out of hospital.

Remember - don't over exert yourself preparing. it's better to save your energy to fight illness than have everything picture perfect.

- clean the bathroom. I'm using Lysol wipes, a multi surface spray, and toilet paper to keep it easy

- make sure you have clean, comfortable clothes available. this might mean doing or folding a load of laundry, or even just re-piling your lightly worn clothes so you can find them

- cook and prep ahead. I'm going to make soup with whatever I can find in the fridge, and possibly some kind of cookie with lots of nuts and oats and stuff. KEY REMINDER: cook stuff your sick self can handle, so no crunchy stuff if you're prone to sore throats or tough food if you're fatigued, use textures you like, and keep it plain but nutritious

- locate and take vitamins! I'm very lax about this stuff but I figure it doesn't hurt to get a multi vitamin blast now and then. you can take vitamins (I recommend D3, zinc, C, and omega fatty acids but I'm no expert), but I struggle with pills so I either use drops or fresh sources: cooking with ginger, garlic and onions if they agree with you, honey, hot peppers, lemongrass, and citrus

- prepare to rest. the most important thing you can do to decrease the impact of covid on your body is to rest. ideally, you'll rest the way you recover from a concussion: total radical rest of body and mind in the dark with no stimulus. but, I too would lose my marbles, so I recommend charging your electronics (I <3 e readers and low brightness screens), visit a library WITH A N95 OR BETTER MASK ON to pick up some books and movies or revisit some faves at home. torrenting ofc for any movies you may wanna watch

- drink fluids, definitely something more than water. I like gatorade zero and mio electrolyte drops, but watered-down ginger ale or juice can be great too. your body needs sodium and potassium to help process the liquid and your body needs all the fuel it can get when sick. a coke/Pepsi or green tea is really good for a gentle caffeine kick midday, which I find helps my pain and mental clarity when I really need to get out of bed.

anyways I hope this is helpful to even one person besides me - I feel kind of alone in preparing for battle with these viruses sometimes and being disabled is extremely isolating. so any feedback, tips and tricks, personal experiences, I welcome them 💚💚love u!!

[genderqueerdykes]

to every medical professional ever who complains about how working with fat patients is "harder":

why the hell did you go into medicine thinking it would be easy? for anyone, in any case? why the hell did you go into medicine thinking it would be an "Easy" career choice?

you're literally there to prevent people from dying, falling sick, or becoming permanently injured. that's an extremely difficult job no matter who you're working with. someone who can't keep on enough weight to survive is just as "hard" to deal with as someone whose weight genuinely impacts their health. all health issues are complicated and thus "hard"

even treating a cold can be difficult when someone has autoimmune issues. people literally die from the flu every single year due to complications. medicine is not and will never be "easy". claiming that fat people are "harder" to work with is a bullshit excuse that isn't even true. there are "average" weight people out there who struggle with extremely intense health issues that are not "easy" to deal with.

skinny and "average" weight people still can deal with horrific and difficult health issues. skinny and "average" weight people can develop cancer. they can have diseased organs. they can have issues with their red and white blood cell count. they can have life threatening allergies. they can frequently need surgery for a variety of reasons

surgery will never be "easy" no matter who you're operating on. a simple or "easy" surgery is still difficult. blaming fat people for medicine being difficult is taking the coward's way out. fat people do not make practicing medicine any more difficult- it's an inherently difficult field to get into

if you seriously get into the medical field because you believe it will be "easy" you're an idiot. it doesn't matter if your patients are critically thin, average weight, or fat- all of their problems will be "hard" to deal with because human health is scary. even if someone is dealing with a less "difficult" issue it's still going to be hard. don't go into medicine if you want a free ride through life: you're the one who's wrong if you seriously thought medicine would be easy.

[crippledpunks]

"ambulatory wheelchair user" does not mean "basically abled" or "not that disabled", it just means that the person can stand up from their chair if needed. ambulatory users still need our chairs. just because i can stand from my chair doesn't mean i can walk un-aided all the time or that i don't need it; i still need my chair regardless of my ability to stand up from it when necessary.

[chronicallycouchbound]

If your cancellation policy doesn’t involve a compassionate check in to see how someone is doing, it’s just another barrier to keep chronically ill people away from you.

[fernthefanciful]

"It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be done." I chant, through gritted teeth, trying to craft something I could do perfectly in my sleep before my disability

[faeriesaurus]

chronic illness is such a weird and exhausting way to exist. i spent the better part of the last week in and out of urgent care and appointments for an injury that's apparently already healed? it seems that i fractured my t12 vertebra at least three months ago and i don't even remember the inciting incident. the doctors told me the kind of fracture it is was likely caused by a fall, but i fall so often that that doesn't narrow it down at all. i fractured a vertebra and found out after it healed because i guess i just gained one more injury for my body to inflame when I'm flaring. i felt like i was only going to urgent care as a precaution, i went in literally thinking that "eh, I've had worse pain and symptoms than this, maybe this will all end up being unnecessary." i guess this really put some of my pain levels into perspective though.

i spent the week being patronized and having my gender identity and sex picked at and joked about. i had to answer so many questions about my wheelchair and my illnesses, and not all of these questions were even clinically necessary for them to be asking me. i got chastised for not exercising enough after literally telling the doctor that i often pass out when i try to and then prescribed a pt regimen that would literally leave me bedbound if i followed through with it. i don't usually have the spoons to leave the house more than like a couple times a week tops and i am absolutely paying the price for this week. in some ways my body is hurting more than it did when i went in.

i just spent a full time jobs worth of energy trying to take care of a body that can't even work a part time job, but at least i got a nice brace and new medical bills out of it. back to the grind with more pain and another appointment tomorrow. if you're wondering what your chronically ill and disabled people are doing with all of that time they have not working jobs? it's this, and it can often be much more than this depending on the person. and a lot of us actually have to commute for many appointments so we can have the specialists we need for our specific conditions too. i commute to a couple of my doctors just because they actually respect and listen to me about the body I live in.

we're tired.

[paintedfaebles]

this is how i tracked my pain, mood, and fatigue symptoms in 2022

i printed them out and put them on my wall this morning, and started a new file for 2023. it feels relieving to see something beautiful come out of it all.