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CynthiaWVirginia -> I. Cannot. BELIEVE. This. (Aargh!) (8/31/2012 10:10:40 AM)
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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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