Misdiagnosed Stories

A collection of my short stories

Like way too many deaf people, sign language wasn't considered necessary for me. After all I was 'only a little hard of hearing'. My father also has a forty decibel hearing loss but a persons decibel range isn't everything. Especially from an intermittent loss stemming from nerve deafness. The fact is that signing would have been very useful since I didn't speak until I was three and all too often I was punished without knowing why. The Milan robbery of Sign language has affected too many deaf and hard of hearing lives : https://www.deafhistory.eu/index.php/component/zoo/item/1880 It will carry on negatively affecting the lives until the oral only approach has been banned. I was born premature Asperger and had an under active thyroid. Limited hearing was detected at 4. At 11 I started wearing hearing aids. By 30 my hearing was gone it came as a major relief since I hated wearing Powerful hearing aids Like way too many deaf people I was deprived of sign language. Since I was just hard of hearing sign language would not considered important. Despite the fact I didn't speak until I was 3. At 12 was my first eating disorder. Also self harm. At 13 temporal lobe epilepsy was detected. 17 I started having problems with my sight. It was diagnosed as psychological. But my eye doctor told me not to worry it would soon come back. I am now 52 and I am still deafblind. They still seem to assume it's psychological and so is everything else because once you're assumed to have psychological problems your health care takes a nose dive. Since then I won 2 awards, had 2 adorable guide dogs, rescued rats, worked as a volunteer masseur at a day centre, did 7 to 9 bungee jumps and spend time at a mental health unit for the deaf twice. I am also lesbian vegan and pro life. Welcome to my life!

An adolescent fell violently ill overnight in December of 2014. What was initially brushed off as common ailments turned into a referral from her primary physician to Boston Children's Hospital. From a stomach bug, to acid reflux, to Celiac Disease, to a gallbladder problem, the diagnoses piled up but the pain worsened and the fight dragged on, even more so to the point in which a doctor told her that the ailment "was in her head" and recommended a therapist. Not only did Kendra know that something was wrong, she knew that it could be something much worse than what was being described. What if the ailment were terminal or life-threatening? If doctors couldn't diagnose it, how could they cure it?