By now, you all know that I am one of
the not so lucky “one in whatever” to suffer from Lupus. That's
not what this is about, though. It does have to do with my doctors
and a few other things that I represent the statistical anomaly of, though.
First, let's talk about meds. I can't take more than one of the normal medications for what I have, no matter what I have. Ya. My
body does not like foreign objects and it will let me know that in no
uncertain terms.
When it comes to Lupus, so far, I can only take
prednisone. When it comes to infections, I can only take penicillin.
That's it. Those are the only two prescription medications in my 56 years of life
that I have been able to tolerate at all.
My body has rejected 99.9% of the meds
I've been given in my life. And yet, somehow, my doctors feel that
I'll be perfectly fine taking a medicine that kills one in 100,000
people within the first 24 hours of starting it. Yup. Because, you
know, I'm so good at tolerating medicines. Ya. I think it's
pretty likely that I'm the 1 in 100,000. Not a stretch there. Just
another statistical anomaly.
Me, that is, I am the anomaly.
But hey, there is good news. You see,
if I can't afford to kill myself with their medicine, the company
that makes it has a program that insures that I can die trying at no
cost to me whatsoever. Isn't that fabulous? Can you say, “experimental medicine alert?”
The doctors also felt that it was fine
to vaccinate me against the flu and pneumonia, since, you know, I
have Lupus and I am at high risk from dying of the flu or pneumonia.
Is there a problem? Ya, kind of. Because, as I told them, shots tend
to leave me paralyzed, even when I'm healthy. And I'm not healthy.
So, guess who spent nearly a year of her life unable to move her
arms? Yup. That would be me.
And that whole autism thing? As it
turns out, with all the back and forth arguing, it has been
determined that there actually is an extremely small percentage of
the population impacted by vaccines in the form of autism.
Now, I never knew that was my issue.
Neither did my folks. But guess what? When I think back on my
childhood, I was high functioning autistic as all get out. For real.
So, I spoke to some professionals, took a little pretest and guess
what? Yes, I was once again, the one in whatever number. That is, it
is very likely that I had autism as a child, and still have some
lingering symptoms, according to certain characteristics and
behaviors that I exhibited.
And no, I'm not “one of those
people.” I don't know with any certainty that the reason I was
completely in my own little world with no idea how to relate to the
rest of the population (and still am, just to a lesser degree today)
was due to vaccinations. But I do know that my Catholic school gave
them out like candy canes at Christmas or pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving
and that after them, I was always reeling, confused, immobile and
disoriented.
Like I said, meds are not my thing.
Now comes my point, of course, which is
this. And listen up, people, because: For those of us who are on
the losing end of statistics, statistics take on a whole different
meaning. Because it's us who suffer, who become paralyzed, who lose
touch with the “real” world and yes, it's us who die.
I am the 1 in 100,000. Yup. And
I am just as important as you. I am important to my friends. I am
important to my family and I'm important to me! So don't spout
your statistics at me, with your “so there” attitude please.
Because your statistics do not value people like me.
They do not consider the people behind
the low numbers. They do not consider the mothers who cry for their
children, the partners who grieve for the loves of their lives or in
my case, the kids who cry for their mothers because they are the 1 in 100,000. It's all about the
numbers. And if you're on the low end, well, who cares about you? Because most people come out fine. Majority rules.
I am the 1 in 100,000. No, we are the 1 in 100,000. Yup. And we
matter too! Screw your statistics. Because when you're on the bottom
end of them, like us weirdos, they just don't matter. And neither,
apparently, do we. At least not to you.
Get it?