Aspergers - Adult Diagnosis

[Joseph_Pestell]

22 minutes ago, Mountain Goat said:

I don't think it is an issue getting ladies attracted to me from the look of it. It is me either not knowing the difference between them wanting a date and being friendly. I never ask them because in the past I have got it wrong as to me some women flirt when they don't mean it, so I never make the first move as I can never tell the difference. 

 

 

I don't think that one has to have Asperger's to have this problem.

[Ian J.]

3 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

I don't think that one has to have Asperger's to have this problem.

 

Agreed, but for someone with autism, however subtle or severe, reading another person's intent is even more challenging, if not impossible.

 

It's one of the things that makes me wonder if there is a genetic /  evolved propensity for men to be more likely to be autistic than women (as scientists have noticed but struggle to understand), as it seems that many men experience this difficulty, and women less so. Of course, some of that could be due to upbringing, but still, it bears thought.

[Mountain Goat]

It is a strange thing because looking at my dating history, which has been quite limited, is that the only ladies I dated were on the autism spectrum (whether they knew it or not). I have never dated an allistic person other then a brief afternoon where we decided we were not compatible. (I can't call that dating really as it only lasted about an hour or two). 

I did find autistic ladies to be much easier to connect with. 

The problem is that finding just the right person is not easy...

I actually find it easier now I am older because most women have dated many times before so they find me different and something new? My problem is that they can be easy because they take over as they are used to men, but when it comes to the first dissagreement they assume I am on the same level, so I can't explain things because I happen to be of a similar age to them and they assume I know what to say and when to say it. I don't. I don't know what to say and when to say it. I also tend to be more like an on and off switch when a dimmer switch would be more appropiate. So if a lady says she wants time to herself (She may mean an hour or two. I will take it literally and not contact her and she will be waiting for me to make the next move and I will be waiting for her to say when she has had her time to herself and I will be in a panic not knowing what to do. I would not want her annoyed with me for contacting her but I would be deeply in love with her and not want to lose her.. So I will be thinking the worst and she will assume becase she only meant she needed time to herself to do some sowing or other activity... And she would be wondering why I was avoiding her. It is things like that where I need clear instructions and may not be getting them, where things can start to break down. Now someone who has not dated that much would be far quicker to try to find out what is wrong and contact to ask? Someone who has lots of experience dating will assume I am no longer interested in her and assume it is over. I have recently been dating online where this has been the case, where I have not been able to read between the lines to know what to do, and she was reading lines that were not there and it went pear shaped. I am VERY fortunate that we can still be friends, as loving someone one can't contact really tears ones heart.. But being friends makes me feel "Ok. It did not work. At least I have found a good friend" (I find that finding friends is difficult for me, so I value them like trains!)).

 

Edited June 14, 2020 by Mountain Goat

[Mountain Goat]

Making friends for an autistic person.

 

Something I need to explain here. (I use the title "For an autistic person as I don't know if I am on the spectrum but I fully know what I write about).

Autistic people struggle to make friends and often say that they have no friends. A non-autistic person (Some describe someone who is not autistic as an NT which stands for "Neurotypical" but the correct term is "Allistic", as allistic people come in a few more catagories then NT's do. An autistic person is described as ND or "Neuro diverse")... Where were we? Ah... An allistic person may go to try to befriend an autistic person but they will struggle to connect as the ways they think are different, so an autistic person will describe them as someone they know rather then a friend, which does not mean they don't like them, but they mean that they are not able to be close to them in the same way an allistic person will befriend another allistic person.

So for an autistic person life can be quite lonely. One can be amongst hundreds of people and yet feel totally isolated and alone. 

To add to this, if an allistic person tries to befriend an autistic person two things can happen which cause issues. One is that the allistic person will try to make the autistic person to think like they do and be upset if they don't. The other thing is that if they are not able to connect, the allistic person will assume that the autistic person is their enemy even though the autistic person has not done anything from their point of view to warrant the conclusion the allistic person has made.

This is why so many who are autistic who are Bulleid.(And most go through life not even knowing they are on the spectrum).

It was once assumed that only between one and two and a half percent of the population were autistic (As only people who were put forward as potential for being autistic were tested), but recent studies where a professor who specialized in autism started going round the world assessing populations randomly (Randomly as in not expecting anyone to be on the spectrum) found that a consistent 6% of the population was found to be autistic. He said that in the advanced countries who had good healthcare systems two and a half percent of the population were being diagnosed with autism and in the third world countries it was averaging at only one percent as their assessment rates were only concentrating on the more extreme cases.

So it goes to show the potential for so many to have the condition and never know it as in theory (As with autism the brain often compensates for missing connections by over developing in other areas of the brain) most on the spectrum are of above average intelligence so mask their syptoms very well. So well that potentially 4% never even get diagnosed as they never knew. Yet what is often unseen is the inner struggles that people may face and assume is part of daily life. It is the hidden things like not being able to do smalltalk so one is often not included in conversations and friendships that can have a big effect on ones life that are often not seen. Speaking about myself, I often feel like I am treated like a pet dog who is expected to follow ad be with the family, but who is always being told off and not included in things that other people are involved in. One is expected to turn up for events, but if one does speak, no one considers what I have said and someone else says "Moving on..." and they carry on with the conversation as if I wasn't there, and try not to give me the opportunities to share in the conversation. So I would naturally want to leave but I would be thought of as being rude and dissrespectful if I did. But if I then decided to just go into a daydream world and they notice I am not following the conversation they have just excluded me from, they get upset?  

Yet if they were treated in the same way as I am they will have stormed out and made a huge deal of it! Yet I get this as part of daily life! Each and every day I can encounter this. The only relief is when I am alone and shut myself off..

 

So you can start to understand why so many on the autism spectrum have difficulty making friends. It is NOT that they don't want to make friends. It is that they have spent a lifetime of bullying and being hurt and left out which has made them want to isolate themselves where they no longer want to be part of society. And trying then to make them fit in by trying to mould them to be like everyone else is the most cruel thing to do as it is pushing them into mental torture!

 

So what is the answer? Two things. Love them, and befriend without trying to make them be like everyone else. Accept and value them for who they are and accomodate their differences rather then trying to get them to conform to what is thought of as socially acceptable.

Remember, many on the spectrum may not be able to read body language and facial expressions, or they themselves may give what is deemed to be inappropiate facial expressions and body language... So just because someone may seem to look ungreatful when given a gift for example, it does not mean that they are ungreatful. They maybe overjoyed in their hearts and have no way of showing it!

 

 

 

Edited June 14, 2020 by Mountain Goat

[Kickstart]

20 hours ago, MrWolf said:

 

For example, I can't go to my bed when I have an episode, it's the last place I could go. It's a place where rumination takes over and things only ever get worse. I tend to do the opposite, I will get on my motorcycle and go for a run. Concentrating on what I am doing tends to kill off the intrusive thoughts.

Much the same here, and when things were hell at work I rode the bike in quite often to stop me dwelling on things. In the car more likely to ruminate, and start to consider driving hard into solid objects 

 

All the best

 

Katy

[MrWolf]

38 minutes ago, Kickstart said:

Much the same here, and when things were hell at work I rode the bike in quite often to stop me dwelling on things. In the car more likely to ruminate, and start to consider driving hard into solid objects 

 

All the best

 

Katy

 

I know that one, motorcycles quicken the senses and the reactions. You also meet a lot of like minded people.

 

On top of that, there is that peculiar temptation when ruminating in a car, but ... (and this is important) It would be monumentally uncool to go and James Dean yourself in something hateful like a Nissan Micra.

 

Note: Other soulless wrong wheel drive blandboxes with depressing grey plastic interiors are available.

 

Keep it greasy side down

 

Rob Wolf.

[MrWolf]

@mountaingoat. Whatever you do, don't wear wellies to drive. (Unless off road driving tractors or plant) They are not considered suitable footwear for driving. If you have a collision, you may be accused of not being in proper control of your vehicle. Basically, it would be your fault even if the other car fell out of the sky and landed on you. Wearing wellingtons constantly not only causes your feet to stink, it leads to fungal infection or at worst, trench foot. You REALLY don't want that.

[Mountain Goat]

3 hours ago, MrWolf said:

@mountaingoat. Whatever you do, don't wear wellies to drive. (Unless off road driving tractors or plant) They are not considered suitable footwear for driving. If you have a collision, you may be accused of not being in proper control of your vehicle. Basically, it would be your fault even if the other car fell out of the sky and landed on you. Wearing wellingtons constantly not only causes your feet to stink, it leads to fungal infection or at worst, trench foot. You REALLY don't want that.

 

I have driven in wellies to move the car, or when I am driving tractors etc, but in cars it is only when moving them from one place to the other as I am usually quite specific at the shoes I wear due to having sensitive feet and skin. You should see how long I take in picking every little hair or bit out of my socks before I can wear them!

 I am also a bit fussy when driving. I have been known to chuck people out my car if they chew on chewing gum as no way can I drive when I smell that stuff. Chewing and bubble gum smells turn my stomache, and what annoys me is others know that (Like nieces and nephews etc) and they think I don't notice... Within the confines of the car it is more serious as I can't remove myself from it. I don't drive with the radio on and never want a sat nav. I can chat to one person while driving but have issues if several different people talk at the same time so I don't really like having too many people in the car with me while I drive.

But some smells cause me shutdowns as I am hypersensitive to them. (Chewing gum and bubble gum doesn't but my stomache turns with it so it is "Grrrr!")...

 For example, bleach used in hospitals and other smells there can make me completely shut down if I can't remove myself from the enviroment in time. I once spent six hours stuck in hospital with multiple shutdowns as every time I started to recover the nurse was asking me questions like "What is your date of birth? What day is it?" etc. Now when my brain has overloaded and I have shut down, so I am basically paralized (And floppy. Not able to make my body work) and my eyesight has gone and hearing has gone except foe loud tinitus... Now when I am like that and I then start to recover, my brain needs to rest and not be disturbed so it can start turning its systems back on... So every time that nurse kept trying to force me to speak to her I was going straight into anoter shutdown. After a few hours of going in and out I was able to tell her a word at a time between shutdowns "Stop........... Asking............ Me............ Questions" (Which must have taken me quite a long time to say before she finally got the hint! I was then able to slowly recover!)

The problem is that at the time I did not know they were called shutdowns and had anything to do with autism. I knew that the stress of going through the long corridors and the 30 to 45 minute wait in the waiting room along with a mild bleach hospital type smell had caused the first shutdown and it happened when I had just had a blood test (Which I don't like having so it was what tipped a partial shutdown into a full shutdown for me... Now the nurse assumed I was fainting so she had tried to pull me out of a faint, and a shutdown is different. Had I have been in a faint I could habe done with attention and fuss, but a shutdown needs the complete opposite. Ideally a cool darkened large room  that I can lie down in, or MUCH more effective then that... Even if it is pouring with rain, lie me down on some grass in a quiet area outside away from direct sunlight (Shade) and I will recover. I don't care about getting soaking wet or cold. I have been there and done that in every other shutdown as I can usually get myself outside just before I totally shut down (As if I don't get out from the enviroment, I risk multiple shutdowns which is the worst case scinario for me because I am not able to communicate that I need to get out to remove myself from the enviroment that has caused me to shut down in). 

 

[Stubby47]

@Mountain Goat

Do you carry any sort of Alert card or explanatory information on you for these sorts of situations?

 

For example, there are several well known items of personal neck or wrist 'jewellery' that medical staff can recognise and that can contain vital information if the wearer is unable to communicate. 

 

Another idea is to have an ICE phone contact who would be someone who could explain and advise on your behalf.

 

Stu

[Ian J.]

1 hour ago, Stubby47 said:

...Do you carry any sort of Alert card or explanatory information on you for these sorts of situations?...

 

When I was first diagnosed with Aspergers, I was offered a card that I could give to others if they needed to understand my situation. I didn't follow up on it as I feel my condition is subtle enough not to need it. A verbal explanation from me should be enough. If @Mountain Goat gets his autism diagnosis, then I would hope he gets offered such a card. Until such a diagnosis, I'm not sure other people would accept some kind of hand-written card.

[Stubby47]

Very true Ian, but I was thinking of something like this:

 

https://www.autism.org.uk/products/resources/alert-cards.aspx

 

Or this

 

https://sostalisman.net

[Ian J.]

I think the first of the those, the National Autistic Society one, was something like the card I was offered.

[Crisis Rail]

31

 

I blame this hobby and all the obsessions that accompany it.

Numbers? - at a push can probably  remember most of the Class 25 allocation of Lonsight Depot back in 1978

 

Maybe not.

[Stubby47]

Remembering numbers - I don't think that's necessarily an autistic trait.

 

Who used to play Top Trumps as a kid ? I bet you could remember all the stats for all the planes/trains/cars/bikes whatever in your favourite packs.

 

My daughter used to play Pokémon on her Gameboy - she and her friends knew all the characters and what they turned into and their best offensive action.

 

If you have an interest (ok, obsession) for something, you learn and remember the minutest details. 

 

(Who can name all the squares on a Monopoly board ?? ) 

Edited June 15, 2020 by Stubby47

[Crisis Rail]

Numbers? - well it's there in the AQ questionnaire if you haven't had a do - it's all part of the filtering out.

 

My stepson has developed more traits has he has got older -  most if not all of those questions are absolutely nailed on for him.

He is a very intelligent - socially it's a non starter he has only an inner circle of trusted friends.

Obsessive - lacks empathy - you think he's ignorant  - all alone - but generally quite content at where he is at.

Excels at the vast majority of the (concentrated) things he does - we had a keyboard (like most families have at time to time) which gathered dust after a few months.

He took it away - within 3 weeks he was playing  JS Bach harpsichord Sonatas - asked how he does it? he said  "I just do"

 

Thing is - he is struggling for employment - the social aspect maybe? - a problem.

 

 

 

Edited June 15, 2020 by Crisis Rail

[MrWolf]

I get that. I have lost count of the number of times I have been asked: "How do you draw like that?" I do try to show people sometimes but generally the answer is: "I don't know, I just do." My other half is the same with music. Plays flute, clarinet and sax.

People think that I'm being arrogant and evasive, but it's true, other than my engineer father showing me how to draw cars in three quarter view when I was six or seven, I just drew what I saw. I only went to art college because I was expected to get qualifications.

I too though 95% of that test was written for me. But my symptoms manifest themselves very differently, I don't have shutdowns for instance, but I am definitely lacking in empathy. Although I have found that because I don't read people well, often when I have shown empathy, people who are parasitic have used that as a way in to manipulate my willingness to help out.

I have had to be very careful about choosing friends and a number of romantic relationships have turned out to be one sided with an agenda.

I have more qualifications than I know what to do with but employment has been a struggle. I find that some people actually see you as a threat if you are multi talented. I was happier in some war torn sh#£hole than I would have been as some office boy. At least we had the benefit of "close protection", you don't get that anywhere else!

[Mountain Goat]

1 hour ago, Crisis Rail said:

31

 

I blame this hobby and all the obsessions that accompany it.

Numbers? - at a push can probably  remember most of the Class 25 allocation of Lonsight Depot back in 1978

 

Maybe not.

 

There are many stereotypes which turn out only to be true for certain individuals. For example, many people believe (If the press is to be believed) that people on the spectrum are not able to to show their feelings, which for some this is true, but for others they are the complete opposite and are overly emotional.

Before I knew much about it, my concept of autism was that it was a severe dissability where people are in a vegetable like state and need a wheelchair just to be moved from place to place because on the TV, whenever we saw any autistic person that was what we saw. I never saw a balanced view. Only the worst cases which made it to the news, and I'm not the only one who thought like this.

When I found myself on the list to be assessed, we had a visitor and his wife. He had come to see my Mum. Now while we were there he was describing a condition he was getting which was similar to the shutdowns I get, but there was a difference which I can't remember now, but it was one in which I knew it was not the same (Along with the many autistic traits I have, none of which apart from one that I knew werw traits). But anyway. When I said that I was on the list to be assessed, his wife said "Now way are you autistic. Autistic children are in wheelchairs". She is a school teacher who worked in a large modern secondary school which I believe has around 2000 pupils? She has been in the profession for 30 years and I believe has around another 10 years to retire? Anyway. As at that time I had joined a well known American autism site called "Wrong Planet" (Please delete the site name if it is not allowed) which has members from around the world. In the few days I had been asking questions, along with two years earlier I happened to have been dating a lady diagnosed with aspergers syndrome who had a son diagnosed with autism (They now catagorize them all as autism as the main difference in the past in diagnosing between the two conditions was based mainly on the individuals IQ level), and while the son was not able to mask his traits, she was... And she was to me a normal person as most of her autistic traits I also shared, so in dating her for a while I could not understand what aspergers syndrome actually was but I could see the difference with her son, as back then I had not even considered how much masking I had done until I spent some thought going back into my childhood, and also reading replies to posts I had put up on the autism site, along with watching many youtube clips people had put up. It was only then I realized how much masking I had been doing, as I only had considered my manual masking done where if I found myself in a larger group of people for a lengthy time (E.g. in school or college or in a work situation) I was acting thick with a sense of humour in order to connect with people as it was the only way I knew how to connect so I could be on the same wavelength and avoid being Bulleid.

But going back to the teacher. In her 30 years of teaching, I can imagine how many individuals who were on the spectrum that she had taught who she did not know were on the spectrum, and most of them never knew themselves.

 

Most autistic people who were diagnosed later in life only find out when they hit some sort of crises which commonly tends to happen from their late thirties onwards, and they hit it because they have gone on for so long without having the help they need to adjust. (Most adjustments one tends to have naturally done by oneself but some one does not realize are an issue so one may not know how to avoid them... A perfect example is that it is only after talking to others via the autism site that I started to realize that these shutdowns I was having had certain triggers, and if I can avoid those triggers, I avoid having shutdowns. I know it sounds so obvious to me now..., But look at it from this point of view. I had been having these shutdowns and partial shutdowns since I was a young child. Now I thought they were some sort of physical issue as they played out in a physical way. I never made the connection to realize that they were a mental overload which played out in a physical way!).

 

 

 

[Mountain Goat]

3 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

Very true Ian, but I was thinking of something like this:

 

https://www.autism.org.uk/products/resources/alert-cards.aspx

 

Or this

 

https://sostalisman.net

 

I have discussed the issue with the local autism team and they said to show my autism card... And I replied "How can I show an autism card unless I have been assessed and know I am autistic?" The man said "Ahhh!" But he did say something could be arranged. Then this lockdown came. 

 

Now since then someone on one of the autism sites did tell me that I was able to download and make my own card up, which I have and I put awaiting assessment on it, but then listed the difficulties I had with shutdowns (Not easy on such a small card). I keep it in my wallet, but one issue is that if I am having a shutdown, I could not get my wallet out to show it... Well. I get partial shutdowns first before a shutdown comes and most partial shutdowns I can deal with by removing myself from the trigger, so I can avoid a full shutdown, and I don't think to take the card out, as I am concentrating on avoiding a shutdown at the time.

[MrWolf]

Sounds like your childhood experience of so called experts much like mine. I remember having brain scans when I was about five and the doctor reassuring my parents "He'll grow out of it."

I remember riding home in my dad's ancient Vauxhall 101 and thinking: "Really?" And "When?".

Life became somewhat disappointing after that day.

[Stubby47]

Not easy - and although paramedics, etc are trained to recognise indications of special needs (which might include an allergy to plasters or certain anti-biotics) actually looking for something (in a wallet) could be considered an invasion of personal space, so is a difficult dilemma.

 

Having a more obvious, but subtle indicator, such as an SOS Talisman might help.

 

Another idea is to host a private (unsearchable) website somewhere, with all the details of your condition, which is linked to on your card.

[Mountain Goat]

Another issue I have which I don't know if it is wize to mention, is that both myself (It took years to work this one out) and my Mum have difficulties where if we are stressed we cant have adrenaline. My Mum went into a fit at the dentist once and I also have had great issues, as I find my body starts to shut itself down and I go into a major shutdown where I have to direct all the energy and strength I can to keep breathing through manual focussing on it. I have been lucky that I have kept calm enought that my brain did not totally shut down so I could not concentrate on my breathing.

It puzzled me why but I believe I now know why. I am so anxious and stressed at the experience, as I am already shutting down so I can't wait in the waiting room, and am back and fore to the toilet inbetween partial shutdowns due to nurves, or on occasions recovering from the odd full shutdown...

So I am fully charged up with a major boost in adrenaline to begin with and I have no way to release that adrenaline. In my teens to my early 20's I would have an injection for a filling, and I would be told to take my time cycling the 7 miles home, but I would be cycling a good 35 to 40mph on the flat because I had such a charge of adrenaline that the cycling and overtaking cars as I made my way home was the only way of releasing it so I could get back to normal levels.

I have since been told (And I agree) that I need to be knocked out for any dentistry work, which can be years of waiting unless I am officially diagnosed, so my dentist is waiting for me to be assessed so she can officially get me seen to quicker if I need treatment. I have been knocked out once after an eight year wait to have initially one tooth out, but it ended up being four by the time I was seen. By then my eyesight in my left eye was often going due to the swelling underneath it, but I had to endure that for a month or two and luckily the appointment was brought forward about a month due to a cancelation. 

The being knocked out part went fine. One minute I was awake and then I was waking up but not awake enough to open my eyes and I heard two ladies chatting and I was thinking "Why are there ladies in my bedroom?"

[Mountain Goat]

30 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

Not easy - and although paramedics, etc are trained to recognise indications of special needs (which might include an allergy to plasters or certain anti-biotics) actually looking for something (in a wallet) could be considered an invasion of personal space, so is a difficult dilemma.

 

Having a more obvious, but subtle indicator, such as an SOS Talisman might help.

 

Another idea is to host a private (unsearchable) website somewhere, with all the details of your condition, which is linked to on your card.

 

SOS talisman? Not sure what that is.

 

The great thing is, that I end up on the floor in a semi controlled fasion and before that stage, if I am walking, I start to look drunk. So if I end up in a shutdown, it looks like I am drink and people leave me alone. Due to sesory issues I tend to wear old clothes, so the really good thing is that being left alone means I can recover more quickly. If a fuss was made of me I would start to recover and then go straight back in to another shutdown. 

Another good (Sometimes bad) thing is that when I start to recover from a shutdown, I can recognize english but I can only catch what certain words mean. It is like I recognize the words but to me it is as if they are a foreign language. Secondly to that, as I am doing all I can to avoid another shutdown, so I am doing all I can to avoid speaking, if someone tries to talk to me (And I can shut down and then start to recover when no one else around me has noticed... As for years I would shut down and get told off for shutting down as to family it looked like I was doing it to be lazy etc... As one teigger I have found is when I sudenly get asked to do sometjing I did not expect to do... A sudden change of plan! So I learnt how to try to hide that I was shutting down by making it look like I was naturally going down on the floor (Or slouching in a chair etc)  just before I did shut down, so I could avoid anyone realizing what was going on).

Now when I was recovering, because I was avoiding all communication, if someone asked me something during this time, I was not always able to understand english, so I would ask them to say it again and again... And they would get frustrated (And I could still not understand half the words) so they would say "Do you understand?" and I would say "Yes" even though I had not, because I desperately needed to be quiet so I could avoid another shutdown, and pull out from the one I had been in.

This has got me in trouble more then once. The strange thing is I can remember what was said, but it can take a couple of months to even years before it clicks into my long term memory, where I can then bring it back to my short term memory to realize what was said. By then I realize why certain people stopped talking to me or were annoyed with me about something... And I lost a good workmade as a friend and had an awkward situation in the last two months when I worked on the railway because of this, and it was only necause I saw another workmate months after I stopped working at the last job as a bicycle mechanic, that I was able to explain... As to tell the truth, even I did not realize what exactly was happening until I had asked questions on the autism site when others had shared experiences etc, and I realized their experiences were familiar!

Edited June 15, 2020 by Mountain Goat

[Mountain Goat]

41 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Sounds like your childhood experience of so called experts much like mine. I remember having brain scans when I was about five and the doctor reassuring my parents "He'll grow out of it."

I remember riding home in my dad's ancient Vauxhall 101 and thinking: "Really?" And "When?".

Life became somewhat disappointing after that day.

 

Never had a brain scan as doctors and even I assumed the shutdowns (I was never fully able to describe them) were "Some sort of allergy", and it took a change of doctors almost 30 years later and asking many times over many years for an allergy test before I finally had the simple six point one and it came up clear, and I realized that though certain things effect me (E.g. my throat closes up and if I have artificial sweetners), I realized after all the years of gettig no where with elimination diets that the shutdowns were caused by something else. When I changed doctors it was like coming from a third world into a first world country, as for years my previous doctors... Because they could not find anything, they assumed I was making it up and treated me as if I was. I was limited to one appointment a year which was 3 minutes, and the entire time the doctor was ignorig me and watching his watch! When I finally changed doctors after having my heart violently jump up and down after exercize when asked to play tennis, and my body felt as it was cut in half, even though on numerous occasions I explained both over the phone and visiting the surgery, it took eight and a half months of continual phonecalls to get an appointment to see a doctor. I had initially asked the receprionist if I should go to the hospital and she said "No". 

 

It was after then being seriously told off by the doctor when I did see him when he said "Why didn't you see me earlier? There's nothing I can do about it now!", where I then decided with my Mum to change doctors surgeries. (They had once refused to visit my grandmother saying they only come out in emergencies if the patient is elderly. My Mum said she was 82 years old, and the receptionist repeated that they only come out to the elderly and put the phone down on my Mum despite two phone calls!)

When I did change doctors, my Mums and my medical records went missing from the last doctors computers, which was a very good thing, as rhe new doctors had to work from scratch as they had nothing to go on.

Edited June 15, 2020 by Mountain Goat

[Mountain Goat]

Sorry. I am typing too much!

[laurenceb]

SOS Taliman - https://www.sostalisman.co.uk/