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ORIGINAL: PeonForHer

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ORIGINAL: CRYPTICLXVI

Cargo pants, I know realize he hates loose pants, but they would keep him cooler.
As for the "faggot" remarks, time to go "Good Ol' Boy"...

Yep, well, guns do seem to be the alternative of choice in certain parts of the US of Sunny A if there's only the two options of those and education on offer. Shoot the cretins. 'Yep, if it was good enough for my grandpappy and my uncle [who are the same person] it's good enough for me. Yessirree!'

What, I wonder, happens to men who really are gay and who happen to need the same therapy classes? Do the rednecks get the same right of veto?

Pfft. Cynthia, if these people can't be educated, I should just get your and Bo's passports in order and move to a first world country somewhere.

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ORIGINAL: LaTigresse

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ORIGINAL: ChatteParfaitt


And cooler, icepacks....am I being ignorant in why this won't work?

That was my first thought as well.

Um, I am trying to find reusable cheap cooler type ice packs. They used to be everywhere when I didn't need them.

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ORIGINAL: CRYPTICLXVI
I tend to become irreverent when dealing with frustrating situations... and I find this intolerable and unthinkable; that someone with a medical condition is being met with such a short sighted and homophobic reaction and that a "professional" is not willing to deal with it.

Another reason I prefer my little corner of the Pacific Northwest over other areas of this country.

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ORIGINAL: CynthiaWVirginia

I am plotting about what to do about this, and even tiny hidden tape recordings are dancing in my brain...and so...some input from y'all might be helpful.

My slave has brain injury from a slate fall (he's a retired coal miner), and one of the ways this affects him is with his body temperature. He cannot take heat. His house must stay at no warmer than 75 degrees (he does better at 65) or his mind goes haywire. And then there's all the vomiting added in as a side benefit. This part of his disability has been a fact of his life and he/we deal with it as best as we can.

Summers are murder to get through. Mowing his grass right before sunset to avoid the worst of the heat has him sick for a day or two afterward. I could fry eggs on his back, chest, or top of his head after something like this, until he's feeling better. When the AC acted up in my minivan, a simple trip to Walmart had him down for the count for about 24 hours.

The problem that has me plotting and growling and fuming and wanting someones balls skewered and roasting over a low flame... His once every two weeks therapy sessions. He has to go, there's nobody else in his one horse town and the cost of gas (and his difficulty driving long distances) make it impractical to find some place an hour away in Charleston. For him not to be ill, we went shopping this year and bought him jeans shorts. Cut high like men wore in the 1970s. In back, where butt meets thigh, his shorts go 2 1/2 inches below that spot. In our neck of the woods, if your shorts aren't down to your knees, these redneck men call you a "faggot". The group therapy (redneck) patients went to the doctor and said they don't want a "faggot" in their group. The doctor TOLD bo to wear long pants during these sessions. bo explained about his brain injury and how it affects his body temperature and the doctor still demanded that to keep the peace, bo needs to wear long pants. (In other words, he may step outside when he feels the need to vomit.)

I'm PISSED.

These are plain jeans shorts. Hemmed, not cut offs. No chance of dangly bits slipping out and falling through. No bling, just plain ole jeans shorts. (So okay, bo is a size 5-7, depending on the maker, and it was cheaper to get them in the girls' area of Walmart than to buy long jeans in the men's area and then cut the legs off.) He is not dressing kinky, not "dressing like a girl", merely wearing jeans shorts. (If they are INDECENT, why are these redneck men buying these same short shorts for their tween and teenaged daughters?)

IMHO, he is not dressed indecently and I simply cannot believe they have the right to order him to do something that will make him physically ill. He has a bone spur from the accident, in his neck where the vertebrate goes up into his brain, that puts pressure on his spinal cord. On bad days, this can make him disconnect, kind of like being in a dissociative state. One punch to the head could kill him or turn him into a parapalegic. I do not drive him to his therapy appointments, he has to drive himself. There is no public transportation where he lives. If he is feeling okay, then he drives fine. In the daytime, for short distances. They are ordering him to make himself so sick that he cannot drive himself home safely.

It's not practical to take him to another doctor. If it were a viable option, I would. Is there any way we can fight this? Can a doctor force a patient into wearing long shorts just to shut up others in a group that are screaming "faggot!!!"?

I told bo to have that talk with his counselor, and I will probably have him tape record it. In WV it is legal to tape without their knowledge or consent. If he has to wear longer shorts down to his knees to shut up the other guys or else lose his doctor and counseling sessions, I am bitchy enough to tell him NOT to leave the room if/when he gets sick. To sit in their little circle holding a trash can and let them enjoy the sounds, smells, and visual. This is if we lose on all fronts and cannot even get the counselor doesn't crank up the AC in the room so that bo can handle the extra heat.

If it were me, I would eat hearty and swallow some ipecac to make my point. For every session.

I am protective over bo and I am pissed off. If I could get them into trouble legally, damn straight I would.

Btw, if he wore pants made to show off 3/4 of his naked butt crack, nobody would say a blessed thing.

*****
Edited to correct a typo, to turn 3/5 into what I had originally intended...3/4.

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ORIGINAL: ARIES83

Around here, it's the style to wear board shorts
all the time... Even for old people.
Why don't you get him some Bordies and a
Hawaiian shirt?
Then he will be cool and look cool

-ARIES

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ORIGINAL: LadyHibiscus

Oh honey. You're confusing West Virginia with the civilised world. It's a easy mistake to make.

Yeah, in California and other states, I never had to worry about teeing off some asshat. Here in WV, their sister's father's girlfriend's cousin's wife will burn your food at a restaurant, and her brother will be your auto mechanic (lots of things will go wrong with your car when you bring it in to get those slashed tires fixed...). I won't even get into what her brother's neighbor's cousin's kids will do to your house, garden, pets, or or what their mother-in-law's other daughter will do to your hairdo at the beauty parlour.

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ORIGINAL: CynthiaWVirginia

I saw something that looked like these at the Dollar Tree about an hour ago, as well as something a lot larger and thicker that needed some capsule broken inside to activate the coldness. These might be okay in the way that wearing a wet shirt might help, but we would have to try it out to see if it helps him.

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ORIGINAL: kalikshama

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Or, get a pair of those ultra-thin cotton trousers that they wear in various countries in the middle east and elsewhere.

I don't think that would go over in West Virginia.

Cynthia - what about military cammies, summer weight?

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My plan for the group would be to present the therapist with the full explanation, in writing, of Bo's injury and subsequent accommodations that he makes to live with the injury safely and comfortably. Use medical terms and make it something that his primary care doctor could approve and maybe has his signature on it if you have time and/or the inclination to do that. Ask the therapist after reading if he understands everything or needs more explanation. Tell him to put that copy in Bo's chart, I'm a bitch, I'd tell him to sign it as well to the effect that he understood the material. I might even persist and let the guy know that if he insists on long pants, to put it in writing and make a show of putting it in my pocket. Obviously with the unspoken factor that then Bo would have prosecutable material.

Inform him that at that point Bo will never put himself at bodily risk again for the opinions of others in the group. Have him tell the therapist to schedule a 15 min section in the next session where Bo will inform the others of his condition. Have him go to that session with copies of the paper for all the patients, have him ask them if they have any questions about his attire and that they can ask now. Addressing things in a controlled manner of your choosing and meeting it head on tends to deflect the snickers while giving others a platform to get their questions answered. The mystery, which gives rise to the gossip, is gone. No one in their right mind would ask a person who needs a wheelchair, to leave it outside the meeting room so others would be happy. Bo is NOT asking for the world, just for what is his right.

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ORIGINAL: Aswad

Ammonium nitrate cools when you put it into water.

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ORIGINAL: ChatteParfaitt

Education *might* work for the therapist, but I seriously doubt the majority of peeps in WV have a high school education. It's not the strong suit.

And yeah, I get what you are saying, try to match the ugly offense with a nice defense, easy to do when you are happy and healthy, hard to do when you have serious health issues and that is your main struggle.

It would be nice if Bo can get the therapist on his side, I'm not sure if that can happen at this point.

You make some good points. . . .but you know, when you are in the situation of having to continually educate people about your health, it gets old FAST. Sometimes, you just want to be like everyone else and just be.

If Cyn can't go with him, perhaps a friend can go? A big part of all this is carrying the whole weight of the illness on your back alone, and it gets to you. It's doesn't make for winning friends and influencing enemies in a backwoods places like WV.