When you blow off my patient and they have asked nicely for the umpteenth time for that wheelchair cushion that will help heal their pressure ulcer. You couldn’t have known that when I was 11 years old I came out of the hospital in a wheelchair and I had to learn how to walk again.

You don’t realize that when you, as a doctor, don’t call my patient back with the order that I have suggested for their well being, that I, too, have been treated like I am invisible.

You may think that I am just joking when I say that hospital bed needs to get here this week for my patient’s comfort. You couldn’t know that I joke a lot but never at the expense of one of my patients comfort level.

You don’t see my jaw clench or my blood pressure rise when I realize that someone in the healthcare field has treated one of my elderly patients as if they are second class because I have been treated less than that in the family law courts.

You see my life has been anything but easy. Most would not have survived what I have endured so when you mistreat someone that is less fortunate then me I have a whole lot of baggage that comes to the surface and with it a lot of anger.

I have been in a wheelchair, I have felt as if I was invisible, I have been lied to and cheated by lawyers who I paid good money to, I have had unjust and unfair treatment in the family court system by judges, I have been discriminated against many times and I have took it all in stride and still have a smile on my face. I have put it behind me and done so without bitterness but when I see it happening to someone else the fury starts raging like a fire within my heart and I become determined to stop the evil.

You may not have known me but when you mistreat someone less fortunate then me in my presence I can guarantee that you will remember me and the memory will not be a good one.