I find it difficult the way my hearing aids distort what people say, but thinking of what Ally goes through puts my difficulties in perspective.

I think screens can be really good, although they have to be properly done.  There's a bit of research that seems to suggest that in some workplaces, they've caused problems where there's been enough screening to reduce airflow, but not enough to form a proper barrier, so it leads to what I think of as puddling of the virus.

But you'd think that if someone at national level got their act together, they could have come up with something suitable.   I'm thinking how there are various sorts of hazmat equipment used in relation to other things.  Sort of see-through tent-like things.  I bet in this day and age a sort of cubicle thing would be 3D printable.

I'm lucky that the GPs in my usual practice are good.  You know the GPs in your practice and what they're usually like so I'm not challenging your judgement of the GPs you know.

However, in general, I do have some sympathy with GPs over masking, and I say that as someone who, whilst not as dependent as you are on lipreading, am heavily reliant on it. 

You say do a lateral flow test and that's logical but sadly they wouldn't know whether you had. 

GPs are under so much pressure that not only are GP numbers still decreasing, more and more GPs are resigning from partnership to take salaried jobs, which in effect means they can limit their hours and get less aggro.

The BMA did some research last summer and found that over half the two thousand GPs who responded said they have mental health conditions such as anxiety, stress, burnout etc.

You may say well doctors are stressed anyway, hence the horribly high suicide rates in the profession even before the pandemic, but the aggro they have been getting during the pandemic, like the GP in Manchester who recently had his skull smashed by an angry patient, takes its toll.

Meanwhile, they see how people with covid-19 can suffer, and they can read what doctors with long covid say they're going throuh, and they can read what doctors with ME/CFS say about what they go through, and be frightened.

What I find difficult about all this is that I think that it would have been perfectly feasible for the government, instead of lining the pockets of their mates with scandalously high sums for basic PPE, a lot of it unusable, had kitted doctors out with really good stuff, including, by now, adequate supplies of masks with clear panels in the middle to facilitate lipreading.

Meanwhile, over time I've been asking various health professionals and receptionists etc. a particular question and the response is consistent.  I ask whether there's a field on the screen that first comes up when they type in your name that contains information about your communication or access needs.  Everyone I've asked has said no.  It's expletive ridiculous.

So as I say, you know your GP, and what he did or didn't already know about you and what you'd normally, reasonably expect.  I trust your judgement on that.

By contrast, I think a high proportion of GPs and other health professionals are on a hiding to nothing over this.

I'm still dreading my appointment next week in a secondary care clinic.  I'm less fussed about whether they're ok to take their mask down than whether they're ok to repeat, gesture, write etc.  But it's the same underlying problem.

Big hugs.

I think you make a fair point.

That being said, I phrased my comment about media rhetoric badly.  I wasn't suggesting it was the sole cause of common views about disability, just that it contributes. 

There are all sorts of other things like the vocabulary we use.  E.g.  'wheelchair bound' is, I think, still far more common than 'wheelchair user'. 

'Blind' and 'deaf' are problematic. At least with 'deaf' there's some vague understanding that deafness is on a range, albeit with a poor understanding of the mechanics, e.g. an assumption that if granny has the sort of deafness that means she asks you to speak up and you do, what she hears will be just a bit quieter than you would hear, not that with some sorts of deafness it bursts out of the silence as shouting.  But with 'blind', aargh, I can see why when my mother got old and was registrably SVI/blind but still with some vision, she didn't use a white cane, she relied on being old and using a walking stick, so that other women clustered round her to support her physically, oblivious to how little sight she had.   With a little vision, she was more readily believed not to be blind than she would have been believed if she'd said she was blind.

So my apologies if I was suggesting that the media push to characterise as many disabled people as possible as faking it ws the sole or even main cause.

You would think that the public wouldn't consider a Paralympian athlete who has won Gold in cycling and running lazy and doesn't do her best though but possibly in the same way people can't understand part time wheelchair users, they can't compute that the Gold medal winner can't do a tough 3 hour trial and get back and cook dinner for 11 people. I suspect it's limited understanding about disability rather than media hype about scroungers in this case. I'd hoped her sharing her experience would educate people but it's not sinking in.

I already eat a low carb diet to try to prevent further weight gain from the steroids in that 13 days out of 14 I don't eat potatoes, rice, pasta, bread or wheat products but my downfall is my fortnightly shop has treats in it for the day it arrives which I now must stop. My mainly keto diet is flipping costly though and sticking to it strictly will make it more so. At home I tend to eat a Seagan diet for animal welfare reasons, though eat vegetarian when out due to lack of choice but I think pulses and nuts are higher in carbs and calories than lean meat so I think I need to eat what my body needs over animal welfare for the foreseeable. I was feeling so ill earlier that I looked up whether diazepam lowers blood pressure and it does so I took 5mg and even that dose made me feel less like keeling over. I think I also need to eat less.


I really hate medication, apart from the cortisol replacement, I only take supplements that I could be eating but will discuss with my GP about medication to bring my blood pressure down because this level isn't safe if left. I assume that if I can lower my blood pressure by losing weight that I could then stop the medication. Plus it has to be said, I have been feeling so weak and ill the last few weeks and if that's caused by high blood pressure and there's something that would lower it, why wouldn't I take it. Historically my blood pressure has always been low though and my knowledge about high blood pressure and the medications that treat it is limited. I guess I may know more soon!