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