Tuesday 4 October 2016

THE MEDICAL

Bonjour,

Those people with a long term chronic illness can not have missed the recent statement by the Work and Pensions Secretary Damian Green that it was pointless to re-test recipients of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) with severe conditions and no prospect of getting better. 

So of course this has given hope to all those with M.E. who have to go through repeated medicals. BUT it's believed that recovery from M.E. is possible so it's unlikely to be included. Back in 2003 I was told that I would recover in 5 years. While I've had some better periods, I have never fully recovered and at times gone into relapse (see my last blog about remitting and relapsing M.E.)     

My thoughts are as follows 
  1. What is recovery? 
  2. How do we know full recovery possible? 
  3. Can we be sure that those who claim to be recovered genuinely had M.E. in the first instance? 
  4. There is still not one diagnostic test that can be done for M.E. although there are tests which can be done which are helpful in making a diagnosis
  5. The claimed rate of recovery is very small    

If M.E. is not included in the list of severe conditions then we all face never ending stressful and humiliating medical tests. 



The Medical

I walk into the room
You give me a cold stare
I feel anxious, afraid
And collapse in the chair

You ask lots of questions
Which I have to reply
But my brain’s like a fog
And it’s hard not to cry

I’m made to feel guilty
Like I’m here for a crime
That you don’t believe me
And it’s all in my mind

You ask me to stand up
To walk across the floor
Raise my arms in the air
And then question me more

I feel like a monkey
Who’s asked to do a trick.
How is this the right way
To treat the very sick?

At last it’s all over
I stumble out the door
I feel drained, exhausted
 I can’t take any more!



I've been through such a medical which has caused me a great deal of stress, anxiety, worry and a relapse. I would love to go back to work. I never anticipated and wanted a life like this. Yet I find it insulting the way that I and so many people are treated. 

I hope that one day there will be better understanding and acceptance of this illness. I hope that one day we will have a clear diagnostic test for all. I hope one day that these cruel and demeaning medicals will end. I hope one day that we will be given proper care, help and treatment. I hope one day that we will have a chance of recovery and we can get our lives back. 

I hope....

A bientot
from the French Femme
xxx       




  

4 comments:

  1. You have hit the nail on the head and yes, I feel like this every time I go to a medical - judged and as if I have to prove my illnesses.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree Lizzie. It's like we have to keep proving that we are really ill over and over. Of course that's exhausting and demoralising.

      Delete
  2. "I feel like a monkey that's asked to do tricks" oh how true, well done Ros on another cracking piece. Yes sadly we won't be included in the not being tested rules. I think it was to fool the public into thinking the sick and disabled will be treated more fairly, i also belivev thr rules will be really tight, like those dying, Motor Neurone etc and they'll also have to jump through hoops to prove it. xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your comment. I tend to agree with you and think that there will be many constrictions and rules - sadly.

      Delete