Thread by @SingsongRaptor

Racism in healthcare be like
My friend: has no formal training in healthcare, self educated about her conditions.
Docs to her: impressed, treat with more respect, more willing to listen and take seriously, collaborates on treatment plans

Me: trained and certified as medical assistant and phlebotomist, 2 years work experience with exposure to variety of specialties, self educated
Docs to me: disrespect, disbelief, treat me like a hypochondriac, condescending, dismissive, dictates rather than collaborates

We're both ciswomen, fat, disabled, have common and rare/undiagnosed disorders, mentally ill and poor. Literally the only difference is she's white and I'm black and I'm unemployed (which stacks differently for me than for her due to race).

We had a discussion about it bcuz she went to the er for her migraine. The docs were impressed with her knowledge and treated her with respect and gave her the treatment she asked for (magnesium infusion). I've literally never had that experience, even with "polite/kind" doctors

The assumption is that I'm uneducated, stupid even, and lying/exaggerating. And yeah, all women get that, but there's still a difference. They take her pain more seriously, she waits less to be seen, she doesn't get talked over and dismissed the same way.

This is why I hate how fucking white disability discourse and the online disabled community is. You still have an edge, you get believed more if you say you eat well and exercise despite being fat. HCPs don't try and blame everything on the diabetes you don't fucking have.

And they don't try and posit their bias and failure as a good thing, like that NPR post tryna make the undertreatment and ignorance of black pain a good thing bcuz "less black ppl died of opioid overdose" as if being in intractable pain and dying at higher rates and younger ages

Due to doctors ignoring our pain, believing we feel less/can endure more pain and that we're always lying and exaggerating our pain to get drugs even when we didn't ask for any and aren't primarily there for pain.

That's happened to me. I go to ER for something else, they ask about pain cuz standard question, I have chronic pain so I express that, and suddenly the visit is all about the reasons they aren't going to take my pain seriously or do anything besides give me high dose NSAIDs

My actual problem gets swept under the rug of "black person with mental illness seeking drugs and attention" even though I wouldn't have even mentioned pain had they not asked, and I literally never ask for pain relief even when I go for pain.

I have never, not once, even during an excruciating Trigeminal Neuralgia attack that had me crying and rocking in agony, asked for pain relief at the ER or any other doctor's office. Yet somehow it's still a reason to totally dismiss me, and leave me languishing for hours

I hate white people for ignoring my reality, for the societal and interpersonal gaslighting I get, for making this white supremacist society. It's bullshit.

Oh wait, I was mistaken, there was ONE time I asked for pain relief in a hospital. During labor, and I actually had *worse* pain after the epidural and they insisted it was normal. Also had horrible pain from a wisdom tooth extraction due to my TN.

The receptionist at the oral surgeon told me it can take 2-3 DAYS for VICODIN to have a full effect. I demanded to speak to the surgeon directly bcuz that is actual bullshit. He reluctantly prescribed some steroids which is what actually helped my pain.

And you know what's funny? I didn't ask for more pain meds with the oral surgeon. I would have asked if I could just try a different analgesic, but one doesn't think clearly when in intractable pain and enraged at the bold face lie from the receptionist.

I only go to doctors for answers. They ask me that a lot "what exactly do you want us to do/what are you expecting". ANSWERS. Real answers, instead of just brushing me off to psych cuz I'm hard to diagnose. THAT'S IT. But I'm black, female, fat, and crazy. I hardly have a chance

Gonna tech this in cuz it's important, a long winded response to a question I got

https://twitter.com/AutisticAndCute/status/1214024985741791242?s=19

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