Oh man, that was hard to read! I can only imagine it was gut wrenching to write! I have similar memories of being admitted for surgery when I was very small. Huge room full of beds, kids in various states of wellness, being shuffled about and examined by people with no faces...not understanding any of why I was there. My parents visited but could only stay a little while. It is scary for a kid! My own mother has serious PTSD from when she was put in the hospital as a child. She was there for a month and was not allowed visitors. Once a week she could wave through the window to her mother who was down on the lawn! Things are so different now! Anytime my kids have been in the hospital for medical stuff he staff was gentle to them, always explaining what was going on, fears were soothed, pain well managed...parents are expected to stay! Times have changed a lot. I hope no kid has to go through those 'old school' medical exams ever again!
Indeed! I am so incredibly glad for how things have changed since then. But writing that piece also brought home to me WHY I am so antagonistic towards doctors yet also so blase about it when they are rude. Rude, I may not like but I can handle. Being treated as an object, on the other hand, infuriates me to no end because it scares me. I become scared that this medical person who cannot see the humanity behind the patient may one day be treating someone I love. Or worse, someone like the dynamic duo who aren't able to stand up for themselves. It gives me shivers to think how easy it must have been for timid people to be exploited.
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