Doctors fancy themselves judges. Any lawyer would laugh at that, but patients know the truth. Even the most well-intentioned doctor is judge, jury, and sadly far too often, executioners. I can't tell you how many times I almost died due to the neglegence of a doctor. There was the original dismissal of my symptoms of adrenal insufficiency including a full-blown Adrenal Crisis the night before my colonoscopy. There were the cries of, "You're so young!" and "You look so good!" Now my problem is I live in a conservative town, I look much younger than my 41 years, I have tattoos (last one so painful from my neuropathy I quit ink 7 years ago), and I've been on pain pills they just don't prescribe in the Middle West. Hence, I'm castigated as a junkie when I have no history of substance abuse.
What I do have is just enough chemical knowledge to make it seem like I'm a junkie. Doctors think they're the only people who can pronounce fancy names. They can't imagine that a professional writer, nay, a health writer could have a grasp on how to read. Do you remember in kindergarten when they taught you how to pronounce big words by breaking them up into smaller ones? Yeah, unless you have a medical degree you couldn't possibly know how to say dextromethorphan or trinitrotoluline (TNT for you folks at home).
And if you happen to talk fast, that couldn't possibly be because you're able to think fast. No one can think fast without drugs!! Well, I don't take drugs for my ADHD because speed can kill me with my adrenal insufficiency, and it makes my heart race at unsafe levels. I was diagnosed ADHD when I was 18. Took medication for three months, then had to quit. Oh, the ritilin did exactly what it was supposed to: for the first time I could remember more than three things at once. I would have stayed on it if I could. Instead I developed coping skills. Now I can out remember both my parents; dad''s been diagnosed ADHD since he was 45 and my mother takes the Adderall, also called dextroamphetamine.
Did you know oxygen is a drug? Yeah... A drug. The $#!+ we need to breathe and live is a prescription drug if you need a respirator, or if you get it in hospital. But go down to any hardware store and you can buy giant tanks of it, no prescription. It's used in acetyline torches. Did you know that we use sodium to light our streetlights? If your street lights are a nasty pale orange, that's a sodium light, the same stuff that ups your blood pressure. Did you know potasium can kill you if you inject it too quickly into a vein? It's an essential vitamin, but one good dose to the vein and you'll never need vitimins again. Did you know aspirin is made from coal tar? Or that most of our "synthetic" drugs (not really synthetic because coal and coal tar both come from plant matter) come from?
Oh but I'm just a patient... I couldn't actually know something. Having knowledge means I'm a threat. I know when doctos are trying to make $#!+ fly without wings, so I'm a threat. We can't have our almighty doctors threatened with the truth! That might lead to the ethical treatment of patients and having to admit when they've made a mistake!
The HORROR!!!
What I do have is just enough chemical knowledge to make it seem like I'm a junkie. Doctors think they're the only people who can pronounce fancy names. They can't imagine that a professional writer, nay, a health writer could have a grasp on how to read. Do you remember in kindergarten when they taught you how to pronounce big words by breaking them up into smaller ones? Yeah, unless you have a medical degree you couldn't possibly know how to say dextromethorphan or trinitrotoluline (TNT for you folks at home).
And if you happen to talk fast, that couldn't possibly be because you're able to think fast. No one can think fast without drugs!! Well, I don't take drugs for my ADHD because speed can kill me with my adrenal insufficiency, and it makes my heart race at unsafe levels. I was diagnosed ADHD when I was 18. Took medication for three months, then had to quit. Oh, the ritilin did exactly what it was supposed to: for the first time I could remember more than three things at once. I would have stayed on it if I could. Instead I developed coping skills. Now I can out remember both my parents; dad''s been diagnosed ADHD since he was 45 and my mother takes the Adderall, also called dextroamphetamine.
Did you know oxygen is a drug? Yeah... A drug. The $#!+ we need to breathe and live is a prescription drug if you need a respirator, or if you get it in hospital. But go down to any hardware store and you can buy giant tanks of it, no prescription. It's used in acetyline torches. Did you know that we use sodium to light our streetlights? If your street lights are a nasty pale orange, that's a sodium light, the same stuff that ups your blood pressure. Did you know potasium can kill you if you inject it too quickly into a vein? It's an essential vitamin, but one good dose to the vein and you'll never need vitimins again. Did you know aspirin is made from coal tar? Or that most of our "synthetic" drugs (not really synthetic because coal and coal tar both come from plant matter) come from?
Oh but I'm just a patient... I couldn't actually know something. Having knowledge means I'm a threat. I know when doctos are trying to make $#!+ fly without wings, so I'm a threat. We can't have our almighty doctors threatened with the truth! That might lead to the ethical treatment of patients and having to admit when they've made a mistake!
The HORROR!!!
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