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A full-time wheelchair user since 1998, Claire lives in an adapted bungalow in England with her Partner of 10 years and their two dogs: Ziggy, a 4 year old ex-racing Greyhound, and Hector, a 1 year old Whippet.
Claire loves photography, cups of tea, fluffy pyjamas and writing gritty fiction. Androgynous musicians rock her iPod, whilst her hounds rock her world. You may read more about Claire, here. It is worth noting that comments/Emails make Claire all warm and fuzzy, therefore contact is very welcome.
Oh, love you!
I remember when M and I ‘lost’ a condom and had to go to the doctor’s to have it retrived. I fucking died. I was a student and M was on the dole (you can imagine how much my Dad loved him) and at 11.30am on a Monday morning, I was lying legs a-kimbo in the surgery having to tell my VERY ass-tight Doctor that we’d last had sex twenty-five minutes ago and yes, I was on the Pill and no, we don’t think we have any STDs … So see? We all have stories like that!
Stuff like that is never fun or amusing and rarely gets less embarrassing as you get older. Having a baby desensitised me to it all, but only because I’d tilt my pelvis to anyone at the drop of a hat now; I’ve completely lost any self-respect I used to have!
V xx
p.s. Am appalled at your doc’s “forgetfulness” though. No excuse for something like that. Yet another example of shockingly poor disability-awareness in our fucking health service. *sigh*
LOL, well I’ve got to admit, your story does make me feel a little better
For the mostpart, I’m quite desensitised to the physical examination part of it all. After having an audience of over half a dozen whilst having a catheter changed and being bed-ridden for the best part of three months at 13 (oh the joys of slip pans and having my aunt change my sanitary towel for me), most of my dignity has sailed out of the window. I think it was the questions that got to me the most.
Well, that and the “forgetfulness” — You should have seen me trying to get on and off of the examination bench from my wheelchair, that was a feat in itself. (I’m only 5’2/5’3, so I don’t exactly have legs upto my eyelids, cue lots of upper body strength, strategic wiggling, leg dangling and sheer will). So, to be witness to that and then “forget” 5 minutes later really does raise questions about her observation skills!