that's not that weird, to have a train name

Image 1: response by Doll Face (@ Smoke_nd_pearlz) "In 2012 i was diagnosed with a deadly blood disorder known as TTP. I was in the hospital for a month. A white nurse almost killed me because she thought i was drug seeking. I kept telling her my central line in my groin was hurting& she wouldn't give me any morphine just Tylenol.

I went septic later on that night because of the central line. I went into SVT and had to go to cardiac ICU for a week. I was 18. My TTP flared up again in 2016 and i went to the ER. I told the (white) doctor that i had TTP and that i needed to be admitted. He had my records right in front of him. I was just there 4 years earlier, the same hospital diagnosed me.

He told me that i didn't have TTP...i had ITP. He sent me home with steroids and pain meds. I cried and cried and sat at home all weekend until i could get to my hematologist. I called them and they had me come in immediately. Got labs drawn...my hemoglobin and platelets were VERY low. They did a direct admit: I had to get 14 bags of platelets and 3 bags of blood. My hematologist and his NP told me if i would've waited any longer i would've died.

More recently in 2022 i went to a freestanding ED because i thought i had the flu. I was in pain, my blood pressure was elevated, i had a fever. I told the black NP that i have TTP and asked them to do a cbc and ADAMTS13 level if they could. I got pain meds, waited for the (white) doc to come and see me. He told me ny labs were "fine" and that i just had a stomach virus. I didn't believe that so i asked him what my platelet count was. He told me 30k (normal platelet count in non chemo patients are 150k-400k) i almost lost my shit on him.

He went back and further with me for 10 minutes about how i wasn't having a TTP flare up and i told him to call the fucking hospital that I'm usually treated at and find me a bed. He begrudgingly did it. He came back not even 10 minutes later and said that the hospital i usually go to was full (it was around Christmas time) but after the on call hematologist at the level 1 trauma center downtown saw my blood work they wanted me to come in IMMEDIATELY. Hematologist told me if i would've waited any longer i would've been dead before Christmas.

Every time that I've almost died it was either at the hands of a white nurse or doctor. They don't take our pain or complaints seriously! They think we are drug addicts. I literally became a nurse because of this. We need black doctors. That lawsuit is just a bunch of fucking racists who are mad. Fuck them."

Image 2: response by Emmanuel Felton (@ emmanuelfelton), "A peer-reviewed study found Black patients matched with Black doctors were 27% less likely to die in the hospital. A separate study found Black residents live longer in counties with more Black primary care physicians. "Find A Black Doctor" exists because the disparities are real"

An Arabian sand boa (Eryx jayakari) in Biddiya, Oman