hold tight to whatever gets you through the night

saw a woman talking about how betrayed she felt by her female gyno who really hurt her during a pap smear & claimed the cervix has no nerve endings. & i really do feel for her but also I think this is the problem with people only viewing medical bigotry and abuse as a problem that is the byproduct of other forms of bigotry & not tied to how the medical establishment works inherently.

#I'm biased because i work primarily with residents #but i really do think changing the culture of residency is the key to changing so many problems in medicine #if you're expected to work to the point and past exhaustion you're going to expect your patients to tough it out #if you're expected to treat your attending as an unquestionable authority then you're going to expect your patients to treat you that way #diversity is not going to fix the issue that doctors have to endure legitimate trauma to get their license #and are also discouraged from getting therapy for that trauma for fear of losing that license which absolutely happens #the fact that therapy is discouraged and can risk your job rather than MANDATORY for physicians is so backwards #i know what viewing all those pathology images did to me i can't even imagine what that does to someone working in clinical care #i think the way doctors behave make more sense if you realize that every single one of them has unprocessed trauma

USAmericans: when was the last time you had A Burger? (Counting vegan/veggie burgers)

It also started an ongoing health crisis that everyone is in denial of in a way that makes me feel absolutely insane. Long covid has overtaken asthma as the most common chronic illness in children, causing fatigue, depression, anxiety, and more. Disability rates in all ages have skyrocketed and will continue to grow. Every covid infection can cause long-lasting or permanent immune system and BRAIN damage and we're wondering why everyone is sick all the time and has no attention span or critical thinking skills. A study found that driving a car with acute or long covid is as dangerous as driving drunk because your brain is so fucked.

unfun fact: any flu virus can cause this damage. even regular "normal" flu. covid seems to be very efficient at this, but influenza viruses can also cause "long flu" and months or even years of issues. i can't even count the number of people i've seen saying things like "i don't understand, it's been months and i still feel wiped out. it wasn't even covid, it was just flu!" like bruh. there's no "just" flu. flu fucks you up and can kill people too, especially the very young, very old, the chronically ill, and the immunosuppressed.