I’m supposed to take medicine every day.
But it doesn’t always work out like that.
Sulfasalazine calms down my immune system to stop it freaking out and attacking my own body.
I’ve been taking it for a long long time.
Normally, it gets prescribed by your local doctor, under instruction by the hospital. It’s something you can pick up on a repeating prescription. It’s a pretty boring drug. You just take the pills. It makes your sweat, tears, and wee a bit more yellow. Don’t worry! You’re not dehydrated, it’s just the sulfur.
The only thing to know is: You can’t start on your full dose. That would make you really sick (and I’ve tried). You need to gradually introduce it. A week on one pill, a week on two pills, a week on three, until you get to your full dose. For me, that’s four.
If you have to stop taking it for any reason (eg: you catch an infection, or you run out of pills), you have to redo the whole process. During the gradual process, your immune system will start attacking your body again. It’ll be hard to walk or run.
Stopping is very costly.
My doctor refuses to prescribe me sulfasalazine. They said that the hospital hasn’t asked them to do it. The hospital says they have. I’ve read the letter. They state that “Luke Wilson will be starting” sulfasalazine. It’s implied that my doctor will prescribe it, because that’s what always happens.
But not with me.
My doctor is very strict with me and my prescriptions. This is because I’ve periodically asked them to prescribe things like hormones in the past, and they’ve always refused. They were also very resistant to doing my blood tests, for the hormones I get privately. I have to travel into central London to get them done at another NHS clinic. They also refused to administer my triptorelin injections. My partner does them now, who isn’t a health professional. It feels unsafe.
Ever since they refused the injections, they’ve been really strict with procedures around my medicine. Before that point, there was no issue. They’d prescribe whatever medicine the hospital gently alluded to. What changed?
There’s a simple solution, right? My hospital could write another letter, with clearer wording, and then this miscommunication will be resolved.
Every time that I tell the hospital about my doctor’s refusal, they’re very surprised. “Why would they refuse to prescribe sulfasalazine?” they say.
I ask them to write a new letter, but they say, “Just come pick it up from the hospital. Give us an email when you start to run out.”
Maybe they’re understaffed, and don’t have time to write a new email? Surely it takes longer to manually deal with it?
Maybe they don’t believe me? Do they think I’ve just not understood how prescriptions from your doctor work? And they think it’s simpler if they prescribe it instead?
Every time I email, I need to re-explain the entire situation, which can take weeks. Otherwise, they refuse to prescribe me sulfasalazine from the hospital.
“Why can’t your doctor prescribe it to you?”
You tell me!
If your medicine comes from your local doctor, you can use various pharmacy apps to manage your repeat prescription. I’ve used it for various medicines before, and it works great.
When you start to run out, you just push a button, and you can collect it from your local pharmacy.
Instead, I have to email ahead, get a long bus ride to the hospital, and wait for one and a half hours to pick it up. And they’re only open during working hours.
This year, a new doctor changed my name on the hospital system from “Luke” to “Lu”. I didn’t ask him to do this. He just did it.
Multiple prescription requests have got lost in the system because they’ve either put down “Luke” or “Lu”, and then nothing appears under my name. They don’t tell you if something goes wrong - they tell you it’s been sent through successfully, even if it hasn’t. I guess they don’t receive any confirmation in the process.
In the past, I’ve travelled all the way to the hospital, only to find out that there’s nothing to pick up (after queuing for 40 minutes).
The pharmacy has a phone number, but I’ve never been able to get through to it.
I’m on the bus to the hospital. I didn’t receive the occasionally-functional text-message-confirmation that my medicine is ready for pickup, but the reception assured me that it is.
I’ve been off sulfasalazine for two weeks, and my bones ache like hell.
The lying tory government is trying to sell off the NHS bit-by-bit. The people who work at these places are trying their best, but they’re extremely overworked and understaffed.
The tory government also does everything it can to make life worse for trans people. Tufton street (the cunts that run their campaigns) are behind hate groups like the LGB Alliance. Local doctors are getting scared to treat trans people with any medicine, let alone hormones.
For god’s sake, do what you need to do vote out the tory government. Don’t be too proud to vote tactically. Don’t waste your vote. Do it for me, at the very least.
I picked up my sulfasalazine! There was only a one hour wait because I got their at opening time. My prescription was listed under “Luke” which confused the computer system. It seemed to work well to say my surname first. I didn’t have to do the whole “Lu or Luke” thing. I didn’t receive the new system’s text-message confirmation even though it was there. I was really hoping that it would help simplify some of the uncertainty. I said hello to the woman who works at the hospital subway. She knows me because I’m there so often and she gave me extra cheese for free. The woman who asked for my name and details was very smiley and patient, and I felt for her with the queue that was rapidly growing behind me. She was putting on a brave face for it.
And tode is still asleep and the video is taking too long.
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