I have hep C and have encountered a very
difficult problem. I was diagnosed in 1985 when it was called non a non
b. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 1999. Since that time I was in a
serious auto accident in which my knees shattered the dash. I believe
there was also internal damage but of course it was never treated
seriously. On a routine trip for lab work I was humiliated and degraded
but not to my face. I always alert the medical persons who will be
coming into contact with my blood that I do have chronic hep C. I did
this as usual and also told the technician that they have to use
butterfly type needles as my veins either collapse or roll. The tech
that was suppose to do my blood did not want to do it and then the one
who attempted poked me 5 times because she was afraid to touch me. She
then pulled out a very large barreled needle that was over 2" long.
I had looked away and she was getting ready to stick with the too large
of a needle and I told her I don't think so. She treated me
disrespectfully and discounted years of what others had found out,
"anything above a butterfly is asking for trouble".
To make matters even worse my husband
was having labs done as well although they did not know who he was when
they called him back. After I walked out to go to the administration and
make a complaint, my husband went in and noticed the personnel showing
each other a tube of blood which turned out to be mine. My husband
overheard one of the employees asking another "is this what hep C looks
like?" and they were talking about the "crippled up old woman with no
teeth" (meaning me) in front of my husband. Needless to say this was
embarrassing and very unprofessional.
Over time I have been bounced from
one bozo to another. All the doctors seem to say is they feel my knees
need surgery. Because they get side tracked to my fibromyalgia and
rheumatoid arthritis I have to suffer due to the fact that my knee caps
do not track properly. The accident dislocated them and because of this
I am prone to lose my balance and can not stay on my feet for very long
at a time. Instead of listening to me though when I've complained, they
treat me like a hypochondriac even after showing me on x-ray why my
knees do not function correctly.
Now as a result of the way I was
treated at the lab previously, I can no longer bring myself to go do the
periodic bloodwork to monitor my hepatitis C. The worst part is that I I
got my hep C in the first place because I mistakenly received the blood
of someone else during surgery instead of my own which I had banked
ahead of time specifically for my own transfusion.
The sad part is there is nothing I
can do about any of this other than give up and resign myself to the
fact I will never get better because they have already decided I am not
worth the time it takes to really hear me, and they only pay attention
to the fibro, hep c, and rheumatoid arthritis. Never mind that I was a
passenger in a serious auto accident. Even though I may have chronic hep
C I am still a HUMAN BEING.
