Om du har levd omtrent like lenge som meg (eller lenger), så husker du muligens en morsom tv-serie med det snodige navnet «Pantertanter«? Originalnavnet er The Golden Girls, og serien handler om fire nokså voksne kvinner og deres liv. Serien gikk på TV i USA fra -84 til -92. I Norge var det TV3 som viste den fra -89 til -97.
For en god stund siden så jeg et klipp fra serien, og ble veldig overrasket over at M.E. blir nevnt. Det vil si, det kalles Chronic Fatigue Syndrome i USA, så det er CFS-navnet som blir brukt.
I dag så jeg klippet på nytt. Jeg bestemte meg for å sjekke litt, for jeg tenker at det neppe er helt tilfeldig at en av hovedpersonene har ME. Og ganske riktig, Susan Harris, en av skaperne av tv-serien, er selv ME-syk og skrev det inn i serien hos en av hovedpersonene.
Ettersom jeg synes dette klippet er så bra, og at jeg tenker at det faktisk kan være allmenngyldig, for det er mange som har dårlige møter med sine leger, der de ikke blir lyttet til eller tatt på alvor, så deler jeg klippet med dere her. Og siden teksten er viktig og jeg ikke fant den gjengitt i tekst noe sted på nett, så har jeg skrevet den ned for dere. 🙂
Dorothy: -Doctor Budd?
Doctor: -Yes..?
Dorothy: -You probably don’t remember me, but you told me I wasn’t sick. You remember? You told me I was just getting old.
Doctor: -Sorry, I really don’t…
Dorothy: -Remember. Maybe you’re getting old? That’s a little joke.
Well, I’ll tell you, dr. Budd, I really am sick. I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, that is a real illness, you can check with the Center for Disease Control.
Doctor: -Oh. Well, I’m sorry about that.
Dorothy: -Well, I’m glad! At least I know I have something.
Doctor: -I’m sure. Well, nice seeing you.
Dorothy: -Not so fast. There are some things I have to say. There are a lot of things I have to say. Words can’t express what I have to say! What I went through, what YOU put me through… I can’t do this in a restaurant.
Doctor: -Good.
Dorothy: -But I will!
Woman: -Louis, who is this person?
Doctor: -Look, miss…
Dorothy: -Sit! I sat for you long enough. Doctor Budd, I came to you sick. Sick and scared. And you dismissed me. You didn’t have the answer, and instead of saying I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with you, you made me feel crazy like I had made it all up. You dismissed me! You made me feel like a child, a fool, a neurotic who was wasting your precious time. Is that your caring profession? Is that healing? No one deserves that kind of treatment, doctor Budd, no one!
I suspect had I been a man I’d be taken a little bit more serious, and not told to go to a hair dresser.
Doctor: -Look, I’m not going to sit here anymore…
Woman: -Shut up, Louis!
Dorothy: -I don’t know where you doctors lose your humanity, but you lose it. You know, if all of you at the beginning of your careers could get very sick and very scared for a while, you’d probably learn more from that than anything else. You better start listening to your patients. They need to be heard. They need caring. They need compassion. They need attending to. You know, someday doctor Budd, you’re going to be on the other side of the table, and as angry as I am and as ANGRY as I always will be, I still wish you a better doctor than you were to me.
Under stjernene 