Sooooo…. Long time…. *cough*
This blog has been somewhat on hiatus for the past few months, mainly due to that pesky nuisance known as “Real Life”. Several things have kept me away from the blog and prevented me updating anything new. Work was pretty hectic. I got married. My husband’s visa needed to be renewed, and let me tell you, that is no small undertaking under a Tory government. But mainly, I got sick.
In fact, I was sick for months, without realising it. A combination of some medications I was taking did a serious number on my liver, which gradually stopped working over a period of several months. I visited the doctor a few times during this time, complaining of hypoglycemia and feeling faint, but because during these visits I mentioned a desire to get pregnant within the year the doctors’ eyes sort of glazed over and they went into that “patient is overly worried about nothing because ZOMGOSH BABIES and you know how women are with their babies lol am I right?” mode.
I do not, in fact, have a baby. But it’s apparently enough just to mention one.
When I finally went to the doctor feeling extremely sick, tired and unable to eat foods I’d previously enjoyed, the doctor’s response was to reassure me that “you will get pregnant, don’t worry”. Which was nice but, ya know, still got a whole bunch of symptoms here so could you maybe look into those?
It took forever to get a diagnosis, and then even longer to get better, because although the liver can apparently heal itself this does not happen overnight. I got better eventually, but during my days of lying in bed unable to do anything more strenuous than live-Tweet old episodes of CSI: Miami I had time to think long and hard about the way I was treated by the doctors I saw. If I hadn’t insisted on going back and finding out what exactly was wrong, I could’ve got a whole lot worse.
I guess the moral of the story is: trust yourself to know when you’re really ill. And also, don’t mention pregnancy or babies if you want your doctor to take your concerns seriously.
I’ve got some blog posts in the works and will get around to updating things any day now *cough cough*. Life remains hectic, but I’ll do my best.
Planned posts for the near future: Allies and what we expect from them, and that long-awaited piece I was going to do months ago about how feminism is failing women who don’t fit the “straight White and Western” mould. Watch this space.
Woohoo! – welcome back! This is certainly one of my favourite blogs ‘out there’ and I’m thoroughly gladdened to see that the film of dust has been cleared!
Alas, the NHS-Carousel hasn’t been working for some-time, no-doubt – I guess those of us unwell or who have been so know it’s more a game of waiting-in-line-until-the-attendant-comes-off-his-tea-break (though there is of course nothing wrong per se with a tea break!). But congratulations of feeling somewhat better, and of course on your marriage!
If you don’t mind my asking (and I imagine you’ve had to put it on hold), have you had any breakthroughs with the novel project?
Best wishes
It’s been on a back-burner as I work on other things. I’m finally getting back into writing more regularly now so I’m hoping to make some progress!
Wow, Sister. So glad to k ow you’re on the mend!
I love the moral of your tale. I work as an oncology nurse and I impress upon my patients daily the importance of being in charge of their own bodies and of advocating for themselves. Doctors are human and as such, fallible and therefore we must not put all faith in them. Wow though, how scary. Hope your stay on the mend and writing!
Yay! Glad to have you posting! Just linked to your new entry on my blog. I’m looking forward to reading more!! (But don’t push yourself too hard!) Especially the feminism post. (Were you there for the #feministsf debacle?)
As for doctors and babies: I have a rather complicated chronic illness and doctors raise the issue of babies even when I say nothing about babies. And I usually say nothing about babies; I’m still single and looking, so the whole issue of childbearing looks a ways off. I wonder if doctors just assume every young woman thinks about nothing but babies when it comes to health issues. So now I know that if one actually mentions babies, it goes further downhill from there… :[
Plus there is the “women are always complaining about something” attitude many male doctors have, where somehow no illness is ever serious if a woman experiences it. X[ (To be honest I once heard that from a female doctor too. Internalized oppression is A Thing… :[ )