Entry tags:
So, apparently, progress does exist
I had to go to the Emergency Department today1.
While registering, I updated my address and contact information since the last time I was there. ("Have you been to this hospital before?" "Hasn't everyone who lives in this city?") This included updating Next of Kin, to have![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
velithya listed instead of my parents. velithya has a very identifiably-female first name, by the way.
Her: Okay, name?
Me: [Vel'ithya].
Her: Friend or spouse?
Me: ... Friend, but I find it seriously awesome that you asked that question.
Blandly, routinely, the patient-registering person queried whether the woman whose name I'd just given was my friend or my spouse. At the major public hospital of my city. How cool is that?
Of course, I then proceeded to be examined, treated, given a tetanus shot (when they ask you when you last had a tetanus shot, and your answer starts with "Uh..." you are getting a tetanus shot; when that's followed by, "I definitely had one in 1988," you're really truly not getting away without either a tetanus shot or a good reason not to have one), and interviewed by the liaison from the psychiatry department, before being released to go home... with nobody even considering the possibility of asking me for money. Because we have socialised medicine, and socialised medicine is a very good thing.
1: Emotional breakdown, leading to self-harm, which was minor on the grand scale of things but needed a tiny bit of medical attention.
While registering, I updated my address and contact information since the last time I was there. ("Have you been to this hospital before?" "Hasn't everyone who lives in this city?") This included updating Next of Kin, to have
velithya listed instead of my parents. velithya has a very identifiably-female first name, by the way.Her: Okay, name?
Me: [Vel'ithya].
Her: Friend or spouse?
Me: ... Friend, but I find it seriously awesome that you asked that question.
Blandly, routinely, the patient-registering person queried whether the woman whose name I'd just given was my friend or my spouse. At the major public hospital of my city. How cool is that?
Of course, I then proceeded to be examined, treated, given a tetanus shot (when they ask you when you last had a tetanus shot, and your answer starts with "Uh..." you are getting a tetanus shot; when that's followed by, "I definitely had one in 1988," you're really truly not getting away without either a tetanus shot or a good reason not to have one), and interviewed by the liaison from the psychiatry department, before being released to go home... with nobody even considering the possibility of asking me for money. Because we have socialised medicine, and socialised medicine is a very good thing.
1: Emotional breakdown, leading to self-harm, which was minor on the grand scale of things but needed a tiny bit of medical attention.
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Hahah, yes. My PCP harrassed me about one even without an injury until a pertussis scare came around and we all got the New Shiny DPT.
::hugs::
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I know I'm good on MMR, which is the Important One in terms of social responsibility, because my first year at uni, there were stalls all over campus handing out MMR boosters. With great success, because if you got one, they gave you a lollipop, and uni students can be curiously susceptible to being offered sugary bribes.
It's entirely possible my own immune system has a tetanus or sepsis immunity developed, because when I was seven, I had something very like it, but which I'm having trouble finding a description of online.
After a very dirty object went through my foot, the wound got an odd infection I was told was blood poisoning. The major symptom was a red line on my skin, gradually crawling upwards towards ever-more-major arteries. I got antibiotics, a new, severe wound care regimen (involving soaking my foot in antibacterial solution so strong my skin peeled), a tetanus booster, etc.
Anyway, since then, I've had any number of injuries from non-sterile, sometimes distinctly very dirty sources (up to and including a road) and had no trouble with tetanus or sepsis.
I don't think I've had DPT, but I know immunisation for pertussis is widespread here. (Probably when I next see my regular doctor, I should talk about my immunisation status, mind you...)
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I was too old for the boosters-- they basically started realizing the stuff wore off after I graduated. Alas, no lollipop for me (but dude, what a brilliant idea).
Aaaaaaaagh that foot thing sounds awful! Especially at seven. Kids are very busy at that age!
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It's possible I tend to seem like I have it more together, online, than is in fact the case, but really, stuff is going to work out.
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Thing is, by being listed as my next of kin, Dean has authority, there, to make decisions for me, to do all the next-of-kin stuff. Just because I said I wanted her to. And even though we're both women and not related, instead of just defaulting to "friend", getting offered spouse as an option ruled so hard.
Later, when Chas - her fiance, my friend I refer to as brother-out-law because he's very much like a brother to me, and loves me like a sister, but who is also not related to me in any technical sense? When the hospital came to tell me he was outside, wanting to come into the ward to join me, they referred to him as a "family member".
Apparently the hospital is open to people defining their families as they choose. Rock on.
family members
I remember when my Mum was in hospital, for what turned out to be the last time, I phoned up before going there (long journey) and told them "her friend [name]" would be coming to see her; which was a bit cowardly of me, because she was actually her S.O., but I'd heard about people in unofficial and specifically gay relationships not being recognised as family members. That was over 20 years ago; I haven't had occasion to find out what it's like hereabouts now. So (i) Yay, progress (ii) People still notice being asked, so not universal progress.