This is not a drag. This is an opportunity to learn. If you're black, reply with a story about inequality you've faced in medical situations since this person believes that there is no system in play, just "bad apples." https://twitter.com/SternTeddy/status/1276338810138345478

I'll start. In 2015 I had intense stomach pains, and asked my OB/GYN about testing for it. She said "I did a pap smear, you're fine, but if you want to waste your money on more tests, here's some specialists' info"

First I saw a gastroenterologist--twice. Endoscopy and colonoscopy. The diagnosis was "red and puffy" but they couldn't figure out why. I then had to convince my primary care doctor recommend a CT scan. And I mean convince. I was in pain, but he didn't want to find out why.

After the first CT scan was completed the technician came in and said they needed to do another CT scan, more of my body because "they needed to check something." It was then revealed that I had benign tumors on my liver that had grown to the size of a grapefruit and a golfball.

Because they were benign, no surgeon would agree to operate. I was young. I wanted to have kids, right? "Benign tumors shouldn't cause problems" even though I'd been in pain for nearly 6 months at this point.

Fast forward, my dear (white) friend who is not only extremely wealthy, but also whose father is somewhat of a medical celebrity (he invented tech that is used in every hospital and doctor's office) recommended a new doctor. This doctor takes care of his daughter. Remember this.

This doctor reviewed my chart, and asked if I was in pain. Every day. By this point I'd been hospitalized twice for embolisms and oxygen problems twice. She said "maybe you're just stressed out about this. I don't want to give you pain medicine. But maybe xanax will help."

Dear reader, pain medication is often a controlled substance. Xanax is a controlled substance. So under the guise of "not wanting me to get addicted" to pain medicine that I needed, she prescribed me Xanax, which I did not. I did not take it.

A week later I have a pulmonary embolism and am rushed back to the hospital. This same doctor CALLS the hospital and tells them NOT to give me pain medicine. I go into shock hours later.

Once discharged I make it my mission to find a surgeon to operate. I take meetings directly where I am laughed out of the room, told that I should live with the pain and constant hospital visits. At this point you can literally see a lump on the right side of my body, but ok.

After going to four (!!!!) top hospitals in New York, I meet a surgeon at Mount Sinai in New York. He is like a top five liver surgeon in the country. He looks at the chart for 1 minute and says "great, so when can we take these out?" In three days I have a surgery scheduled.

I am now fully recovered, with a giant stomach scar, which I probably wouldn't have if that first doctor had just listened (cause laproscopic surgery would've been possible). This is one of many instances in my life. So either it's a systemic issue or there's only a few good s

My mom was told by doctors that she had "lung nodules" and to watch for six months. After getting sicker, a diff doc said she had a rare form of cancer that statistically only Asian people get, and that a caring doctor would have immediately clocked it because it's THAT RARE.

Following that surgery she complained of tightness in her chest and couldn't walk the floor. Doctors mocked the way she was breathing, acted like she was being melodramatic. Days later they found out her lungs were filling up with liquid and had to do another procedure.

I mean, I've had asthma my entire life, and medicine rarely helped, and it turns out that albuterol just doesn't work for black people. But they prescribe it all the time. That's not a system? Medicine that only works for white people? https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/news/2018/genetic-study-reveals-why-asthma-inhalers-fail-minority-children

The HPV vaccine doesn't address the kinds of HPV black women are most likely to have, doesn't lower their risk of cervical cancer. https://healthland.time.com/2013/11/01/the-hpv-vaccine-and-the-case-for-race-based-medicine/

And this one especially pisses me off because so many hack comedians used some version of the joke that "all the cool kids have HPV" when black cool kids were the ones who couldn't recover.