tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556371561007953336.post8964526191796070323..comments2024-03-16T16:44:18.220-07:00Comments on Bad Cripple: I Struck a Chord: Inaccessible Doctor Offices Part IIwilliam Peacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00223601480542461802noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556371561007953336.post-9708250203615001692013-06-09T17:30:37.948-07:002013-06-09T17:30:37.948-07:00Like Shannon, I don't seem to have medical pro...Like Shannon, I don't seem to have medical professionals question that I'm a parent much, so it may be in part the intersection between disability and gender. However, I'm always afraid when I take my kids to most doctors (as opposed to dentist, eye doctor, podiatrist) that they'll see me as incompetent and question my ability to parent--not such a big concern as they get older.<br /><br />However, one has implied that my disability was the cause for my son's and that he wasn't really sick. No, he was really, really sick, and in ways that couldn't be faked. Likely he has a subset of the same autoimmune conditions.FridaWriteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03321658097813377806noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556371561007953336.post-83526280788399120292013-05-31T05:59:51.792-07:002013-05-31T05:59:51.792-07:00Shannon, I get great health care when I see the ph...Shannon, I get great health care when I see the physicians I know. I encounter nothing but trouble when I try to access health care with a physician I have not met. Your comment makes me wonder to what extent gender plays a role in our different experiences? Every paralyzed woman I met who has had a child has told me they encountered discrimination during pregnancy. Have you read Heather Kuttai Maternity Rolls? It is a great book. My son too thinks nothing of disability. He often remarks the issue is not my disability but the stupid way people react. My son got the same advise r.e. college application essay. Write about how hard it is to have a disabled father. Yikes, the level of ignorance regarding disability sometimes astounds me. william Peacehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00223601480542461802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556371561007953336.post-26944308760046357672013-05-30T11:17:05.383-07:002013-05-30T11:17:05.383-07:00Oops, I misspelled tragedy as tregedy. One of our...Oops, I misspelled tragedy as tregedy. One of our relatives wanted him to write his college application essay on how hard it was to have a disabled mom - he said that would be a really fake essay and wrote about something else instead. Shannonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04825027972915874475noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556371561007953336.post-21746409053116790432013-05-30T11:15:05.356-07:002013-05-30T11:15:05.356-07:00I have paraplegia and I can only imagine how much ...I have paraplegia and I can only imagine how much more difficult accessing medical care is as a quadriplegic. <br /><br />Bill, I am sorry you have encountered so much prejudice as a parent with a disability. I have an 18-yaer-old who was born 8 years after my injury. After he was born, with a few exceptions, most people have kept their opinions to themselves. <br /><br />During my pregnancy, I did encounter projudice. One of the worst things (which I will never forget) is when a nurse at the doctor's office confirmed the pregnancy. I could tell from her expression that she thought she was giving me bad news and she said "what do you want to do?" I know that it's not good news for many people, whether disabled or not - but why assume so? <br /><br />I wss advised by several people (including a friend) to have an abortion. One of the ob/gyn residents told me to "stop that" when I was having leg spasms during a pelvic exam. Most of the doctors, though, were fine. <br /><br />My son gets really annoyed when people think that having a disabled mother is a huge tregedy. He considers it "a minor inconvience" at times, mostly because I don't have a car. Otherwise, he says, it's really not that different. People do attend to assume he is a caregiver to me and they want to know how I am going to get along when he goes away to college. (teenage son giving his mom a bath?). Shannonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04825027972915874475noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556371561007953336.post-3554598977186574752013-05-26T14:51:52.310-07:002013-05-26T14:51:52.310-07:00Thanks Bill for this - it was as you say very dehu...Thanks Bill for this - it was as you say very dehumanising - we were luckier than some as there was nearly almost always two of us - and we got some "relief" from the many experiences by mocking the so called professionals and others on the way home. Don could imitate others really well and often I had trouble driving home from laughing because he did it so well... but it hurt so much to see him treated like this, devalued as a human being - and I know how it hurt him... things were already harder to handle, then to have people make it even harder it was as if we were being punished for his being alive. A sort of resentment that you could feel but could never pin down like a racist taunt. Thank you for pushing this...will share the essay.Middle Childhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09962830669606760640noreply@blogger.com