i had an allergist referral a few weeks ago that was such a shitshow leading up to and involving the actual transportation around the appointment that i never even posted about it because it completely wiped me out for like a week afterwards, but when i finally got to the appointment the allergist was completely gripped by an unshakable conviction that i was there exclusively to discuss my single incident of anaphylaxis in reaction to a yellowjacket sting when i was four years old. i almost died and the advanced stage of hypoxia probably gave me brain damage at the time, but i already have an epi pen, i never get stung by anything anymore because i just dont have a lot of stinging insect exposure AND im very good at handling bees and wasps calmly so the last time i was stung was 30 years ago and i barely reacted, and no matter how many times i said all this to this allergist she was like a terrier with a dead rat, she would NOT leave it alone. i was trying to talk to her about being allergic to literally everything else. i FINALLY got through to her about this after maybe the fifth time reiterating i did not get stung regularly, did not care about stings, was not worried about stings, had never had anaphylaxis since that one time, had an epi pen, and absolutely was not interested in undergoing a year of painful weekly injections to "cure" me of the sting allergy
but that wasnt even the thing that bothered me the most that day. the thing that bothered me the most was that at the beginning of her interrogation about stings, she asked me about five times whether i had been stung "by a yellowjacket or a wasp". and i said, quite reasonably i thought, "well a yellowjacket is a type of wasp i think?". and she actually made a face on the zoom call and said, "ehhh......".
now, AT THE TIME, klaxons were going off in my head that this bitch was 100% wrong, i was right, i knew what i was talking about and should stand my ground, but as usual i fucked up and didnt follow my goblin instincts to put her on hold while i looked it up then and there. instead i thought, ok, this is clearly a person who has specialized in venom allergies and HAS TO know more about entomology than i do (REDDIT DEBATELORD FALLACY DETECTED: APPEAL TO AUTHORITY!!). i'll just assume i learned something today and move on.
but i havent been able to sleep all night for various reasons and apparently im having one of my little ~specificity obsession episodes~ because i remembered all of this just now, couldnt let it go, and looked it up. and i'm right. a yellow jacket is a type of wasp. every entomologist agrees on this, it is on wikipedia, it is in their very taxonomy.
now, if she was actually asking me what species of wasp stung me when i sat on it when i was four years old, that is an idiotic question. there is no medical standard on earth where you are supposed to bring the insect that stung you to the emergency room so they can type the venom it injected, that's not a thing. the average layperson doesnt even know theyre supposed to capture a potentially rabid animal to be tested for rabies, and they dont know youre supposed to identify the species of snake that bit you, and those are BOTH much more well-known medical standards than this scenario.
i am so mad about this that i am actually going to bring it up at the next appointment, and im going to record her response, because this is absurd and has probably confused and stymied many, many more clients than myself. every single other thing that happened that day was a shitshow for a different post, and aside from this wasp thing she was a very nice, very engaged, very caring physician. i just dont fucking understand what her deal was with the bugs and i really and truly intend to find out. i am completely fed up with having to learn each new doctor's personal fucking troll quirks at the same time i am attempting to get my life threatening medical conditions seen to
discoholicmusic
theartofmadeline
izzy806
baratheonpilled
andulkaphoto
snowghoul
jacobvanloon
2087
