#medication fatigue

[dinosaurcharcuterie]

Went to a different pharmacist for my vitamin D3 supplements because I was short on time but still value my bone density. They only had the gel caps from the slightly more expensive brand, and they took ages to find. I vaguely remembered not liking them, but couldn't recall why. Well, I didn't have to divide them and I'd survived taking them last time, so fuck it, gel cap me up.

As I was paying, the second pharmacist comes out laughing and shows she also found them as gummies. Gummy vitamins aren't a thing here, and they didn't remember why they got ordered. I shrug and say probably someone who struggles to swallow pills.

Do I want them instead of my gel caps?

I eyed the massive jar of gummies, remembered my overflowing desk and politely declined.

To get to the point:

The Vigantolvit gel caps are a fucking pain to get out of their deep and tiny blister packs. Literally. They cut under your fingernails if you try and press them out without pre-piercing the overly sturdy foil on the other end. They roll. Everywhere. Off the table, on the table into partitions of your medibox that you definitely didn't place it in. And they're smaller than mini m&ms, which, yeah, sure, make them easy to swallow, but which also means they're nigh impossible to pick up if your fine motor skills are not fully online for the day.

Tl;dr: I should have taken the fucking vitamin gummies.

[murielsbottombitch]

why is it so hard for able bodied people to believe that doctors are sometimes just incompetent? you realize doctors are people, right? people that can be bad at their job. that happens sometimes. they don't know everything because there's a piece of paper on their wall that says they're smart, actually. they can sometimes be wrong, actually. they can sometimes cut corners and take the easy way out, actually. they can sometimes hate their job and make that their patients problem, actually. doctors aren't all saints who do everything right the first time. please stop invalidating disabled people when they complain about their terrible treatment at the hands of medical professionals. please stop putting the feelings of doctors over the lives of their patients.

[tumble-tv]

SAY IT WITH ME: MEDICAL GASLIGHTING IS MALPRACTICE

[starrienights-returns]

shout out to disabled people who can't access aids

shout out to disabled people who have to fight to be believed

shout out to disabled people who can't get diagnosed for any reason

shout out to self-diagnosed disabled people

shout out to disabled people who have experienced medical neglect

shout out to disabled people with unsupportive/abusive family

shout out to disabled people who are forced to push themselves beyond their limits

i love you

[chronicallyillandcoping]

Im really tired of medical professionals not realising that their behaviour and their colleagues behaviour literally traumatises people.

[lupusbaby]

Sorry to rant again but my mom keeps going on about how the meds I have to be on to be able to walk are “so addictive” and I “really need to be careful with that stuff” and can we please stop making people feel guilty for taking medications?

Before I got my diagnosis it was, “well if it is autoimmune, you can’t take the meds because they give you cancer”. Guess what?? My diagnosis ended up meaning that if I DON’T take those medications I will live in excruciating pain and die early.

Do you think I really like taking all these meds? The ones that increase my risk of developing all kinds of harmful secondary conditions? The ones that make it so I could potentially die from a usually harmless infection because I’m immunocompromised?

It’s between being “addicted” to Gabapentin or being able to walk, Mom.

[waitingforlostsouls]

Every time I explain I have Long Covid, people are like, 'So, you never got over having covid? So you're going to have a cold forever?'

And I get when we were in the pandemic, we all developed anxiety so severe we were afraid to touch our produce from the grocery store without wiping it down first. But the idea of Covid as "just a cold" is not the full story. That's mostly something that got pushed from people who didn't understand it, and as shorthand to explain the warning symptoms to people. Long Covid is not a cold. If I get one more person talking down to me about how I'll feel better if I just take a Vitamin C capsule every morning, I will riot.

Long Covid is currently not curable. It's manageable in the right circumstances. But there is currently no pill or therapy that is a cure for Long Covid. That includes lifestyle habits too. Maybe drinking a smoothie made out of half the vegetable aisle will be good for you, but it won't fix you magically. Please stop suggesting therapies to people. You're not their doctor, and all you're going to do is exasperate them. Worst case scenario, you put someone through another cycle of grief after they try it, and it doesn't work for them.

Why is that the case? Because Long Covid is highly complicated. Most doctors will acknowledge we don't know the half of it, as far as the complete effects. Long Covid, in short, is a very confusing amalgamation of the after-effects of getting Covid in the first place. Many experts have compared it to HIV in the way it continues to affect your body. That's why Long Covid is officially known as "Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection." Sequelae refers to the long-term or permanent effects aspect of it. It's a highly complicated thing that would most likely not be easily cured. Just like how someone recovered from severe Tuberculosis might still have issues with their lungs, people with Long Covid have to deal with the aftermath of Covid throughout their bodies.

Please stop trying to tell me, and people like me that it will just heal itself eventually. You're only frustrating people who've been dismissed so much already. Parts of it may get better with time, but the complete effect on your body is devastating and traumatic. Saying things like 'Well I did x,y, and z, and I feel totally better!' That's great, good for you. That doesn't mean it's going to work for everyone, let alone most people. Understand that it's a confusing illness. And please, for heavens sake, stop asking people 'So when are you going to get better?' We don't know. That's the point.

[dizzy1ife]

when the effects of a medical condition are also the triggers for that medical condition

[thatchronicfeeling]

DISABLED PERSON: I was treated terribly by a medical professional today. OTHER PERSON: Oh. Doctors are under so much pressure, though. I feel sorry for them.

DISABLED PERSON (who has been traumatised multiple times by the medical system): ?!

[matchakuracat]

fuck medical gaslighting all my homies hate medical gaslighting

[buried-in-autumn-leaves]

Not to be chronically ill on main but if I get one more doctor tell me the tests came back normal again as if its GOOD news Im gonna make it everyones problem.

[chronicpaintings]

Over the past 17 years, I've had to give up many activities I used to enjoy due to my spinal cord injuries and surgery that is causing increasing pain and finally catching up to me after stemming from a traumatic car accident in 2007. It was the week before freshman year of college. A week filled with anticipation and excitement. But instead, life made me take a complete turn that day when a person committed a hit-and-run. I lost my two best friends who were in the car with me that day, and not a day goes by without me thinking of them.

I live with severe chronic pain and mobility issues every day. I suffered an incomplete L4/L5 spinal injury where I lost all feeling below my waist for a full 2 weeks. I suffered a cervical fracture in my C2, hence the beautiful and ever-so-cute Halo on my head. If you want people to look at you, put four screws in your skull, trust me.

It's a life of constant fear and trial and error—always hoping to wake up in no pain tomorrow, even though I know it's not the case. The chronic denervation of my S1 and L5 are permanent.

I will not let anything stop me in my relentless pursuit of passion despite battling chronic pain daily.

[enbycrip]

Honestly, this is the case.

I’m usually low on spoons and trying to find the spoons to weather the dismissals and advocate for myself when I’m in so much pain, plus hugely sensorily overstimulated because hospitals are often sensory nightmares, is Too Damn Much.

This is not how I *want* to feel about doctors, or medics of any other kind.

If you are a healthcare worker, I implore you to *keep talking to your colleagues* about the experiences disabled and chronically ill folk keep having trying to seek the most basic healthcare.

Especially those that are multiply marginalised. Because I know I’m probably alive rn because I’m white and I can pass as a Nice cishet middle class woman for short periods when I try hard. And that should *not* be the case.

If you got into medicine to save lives, you might never see them, but you WILL do it by doing this. They’ll listen to you more than us.

[sillysecretwriting]

I love when you reach the point in a conversation with a new specialist where they ask "so other than x reason you are coming to me, you're healthy?" I always want to burst out laughing because if I had a penny for everytime a doctor asked me that, I would have a whole dollar. But, instead, I start listing my various chronic illnesses and watch their expression get increasingly disappointed. It's so funny.

[accessories-not-included]

White square with a title that reads: "Reasons Why Accepting A Chronic Illness Is So Hard". Below this title is a series of six bullet points.

1: You have little control over your life and how you feel.

2: Never knowing when new symptoms will arise.

3. Needing to change how you live your life.

4: Remembering and grieving who you were before your illness.

5: Imagining what your life would have been like if you weren't sick.

6: Society and ableism making us feel less worthy.

[potsiepumpkin]

Don’t mind me.

I’m laughing through the pain 🫠🫠🫠 because that’s all I can do at this point.