I came out as nonbinary to my best friend last week and it went great. Which I was expecting but that didn't stop me from crying, shaking and needing her to talk me down from an almost panic attack. I had never said anything out loud to anyone, so I was expecting some sort of a reaction.
When I told her, she smiled in the most reassuring way and I asked if she already knew. She said she didn't want to assume anything or pressure me to talk about it before I was ready, so she had been waiting for me to say something. But she had come across some pronoun pins a couple of weeks earlier and she wanted to buy some that said "they/them" for me but she didn't want to pressure me so she didn't buy them. I honestly love that she knew. And that she instinctively knew which pronouns I prefer. Anyway, it's been really nice to be able to talk about it. I've had weird gender feelings for about 10ish years now and only started thinking I might be nonbinary a couple years ago. Before I just did everything to not think about it. But yeah, I'm nonbinary;)
I love Switzerland’s entry so much
if you live with chronic pain you are the baddest bitch on earth. literally badass as fuck. also you are cool and mysterious and everyone thinks ur sexy. every day u wake up in pain u wake up hotter and cooler than the day before. trust me thats how it works.
I can't wait to do this when I'm a doctor!!
Doctors should snark at each other more, be a bit mean. Not for no reason, mind you. But if five doctors blow me off about symptoms and doctor number six FINALLY runs actual tests and gets a diagnosis, I think it should be Doctor Six's right to call up the other five and tell them they're lazy pieces of shit. That should be socially encouraged. Those first five doctors clearly can't listen to patients, but maybe another doctor might finally get to them.
yes, doctors suck, but also "the medical ethics and patient interaction training doctors receive reinforces ableism" and "the hyper competitive medical school application process roots out the poor, the disabled, and those who would diversify the field" and "anti-establishment sentiment gets applications rejected and promotions requests denied, weeding out the doctors on our side" and "the gruesome nature of the job and the complete lack of mental health support for medical practitioners breeds apathy towards patients" and "insurance companies often define treatment solely on a cost-analysis basis" and "doctors take on such overwhelming student loan debt they have no choice but to pursue high paying jobs at the expense of their morals" are all also true
none of this absolves doctors of the truly horrendous things they say and do to patients, but it's important to acknowledge that rather than every doctor being coincidentally a bad person, there is something specific about this field and career path that gives rise to such high prevalence of ableist attitudes
and I WILL elaborate happily
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Firstly, studies have shown that fibromyalgia patients tend to have high counts of white blood cells and cytokines (immune cells), which is often observed when a patient is suffering from an infection. This in itself shows that this condition affects an individual’s immune system.
Similarly, further studies show that this disorder weakens our brain’s immune system. It does this by reducing the blood flow in the brain’s pain center, hence affecting the neuron receptors. This eventually leads to increased pain and stress levels and a weak immune system that is incapable of fighting off bacteria.
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Cerebral Palsy also causes cytokine dysgregulation. Did you know that? I just learned. How am I not dead?
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dmcn.14724
First day of med school some of the older students "dress up" as and pretend to be first years. I spotted four of them within 15 minutes and one of them was in a wheelchair with a leg and an arm in casts and a neck collar on. So basically, he was pretending to be disabled. And most of us knew that he was a fake first year and I overheard people joking about pushing him out of his wheelchair to prove he was faking it. I don't understand how a group of future doctors sat around a table and decided it was a good idea to have a fake disabled person there. It just perfectly sums up the attitude of most doctors.
non binary, gnc and trans butch lesbians are a blessing. non binary, gnc, and trans femme lesbians are a blessing. the lesbian community is way too full of people who are ready and welcome to exclude every trans person they can. it's been a mad dash for lesbians to gladly regurgitate rad feminism in order to create a "safe" lesbian community. this creates a hostile unsafe environment that benefits no one
where are the trans, genderqueer, intersex and non conforming lesbians supposed to go? why out of any queer identity should the lesbian community be so hostile and unaccepting of genderqueer and trans people? there are trans gay people, trans bisexual people, trans pansexual people, trans asexual people, trans polyamorous people, and so on. why should lesbians specifically be "protected from" trans people? nonbinary people? intersex people?
we cannot allow this to continue. diversity in lesbian, dyke and sapphic spaces is what makes them beautiful and powerful. we must celebrate all lesbians and dykes no matter how much their identities differ from our own. there's no good reason to throw transfem & transmasc butches out for somehow being a "threat". there's no reason to throw out non binary lesbians for not being women. there's no reason to deny trans men a place in the community when we've been here all along
there's no reason to allow people to gladly repeat rad feminist rhetoric for the sake of keeping the lesbian community "safe" (read: pure). this behavior has very dangerous roots. the lesbian community doesn't need to be "protected" (read: cleansed). lesbians are NOT in any danger being around other types of queer people. lesbians do not need to be protected from the world. lesbians are not in danger the second they're around a different type of queer person (or even cishet people).
encourage and embrace lesbian diversity. our community is built off the backs of genderqueer, genderfluid, gnc, transfeminine, transmasculine, non binary, intersex, two-spirit, transsexual, and ftm butch lesbians. all the lesbians that came before us were just as diverse as the ones we find now. we are stronger the more diverse we are. more lesbians is always a good thing. celebrate the fact that there are even more dykes than you initially realized. more dykes is always a good thing
normal: your knees/hips starting to twinge after climbing a big set of stairs
not normal: climbing stairs is hard for you, and you start to feel pain after a couple steps
normal: you wake up feeling pain after doing a lot of exercise the day before
not normal: you wake up feeling pain regardless of your activities the day before
normal: you are usually a zero on the pain scale
not normal: you cannot imagine what a pain scale zero would feel like
normal: when you experience pain, there is a direct reason for it, and it is able to be fixed with over-the-counter drugs (such as paracetamol)
not normal: you can’t figure out why you’re in pain, and taking over-the-counter painkillers doesn’t always work to fix it
normal: you do not spend most of your time in pain
not normal: you’ve spent most of your time in pain for over three months
if you experience pain regularly and for seemingly no reason, go to the doctor! you are not supposed to be in pain, and you deserve to find out what’s going on with your body!
Babygirl my brain is creating so many physical aches unexplainable by modern medicine
Austria: No
Graham: No one was
24, they/them, nonbinary lesbian, disabled. Studying medicine, working on my internalised ableism, prioritising finding out what I like to do. I write, ish, or try to at least and that's something
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