Hello, hello!  How is everyone this bright and beautiful (or dark and gloomy depending on where you are) Wednesday?  So, August and September are usually time for my yearly check ups with my specialists (pulmonologist and neurologist) and whatever doctors they randomly decide I need to see.  I dread these appointments for various reasons, but mostly because hospital staff are the worst when it comes to making assumptions about me.  And it got me thinking about the most common assumptions people in general make (even my friends to some extent, at least in the beginning).  Anyway, I thought I’d share the first five that popped into my mind.

1. That I have to be on some kind of prescription medication.  This is the one that gets doctors and nurses the most.  They ask if I take any meds and poise themselves to take notes, then when I say no, their faces always do this weird cross between awed and unbelieving.  Like, chill.  I take Aspirin if my pain levels go above my normal pain threshold for too long.  I take Benadryl and Zyrtec for seasonal allergies as needed.  But no, I don’t have any prescription drugs I take on a regular basis.  And they always act like that’s an impossible answer.  People can be cripple and still be relatively healthy.  It’s a thing.

2. That I’m mentally disabled (or whatever the current term is).  The majority of people I meet make this assumption.  Even doctors.  Hell, even some of my professors over the years obviously thought I was mentally disabled until the results of our first test or essay of the semester came in.  It’s weird and sometimes annoying.

3. That I’m a democrat.  This is mostly assumed by my friends.  I’m a disabled woman with a questionable sexuality, so I must be a democrat.  But I’m not.  Nor am I a republican.  I don’t believe all the issues can fit neatly in either box, so I take each issue separately and find my own opinion on it regardless of a political label.  Some of my thoughts lean left and some lean right.  Then, I keep my opinions to myself.

4. That I’m a devout believer in some kind of god.  And then people have the audacity to look upset when I tell them I’m not.  If I’m being honest, I’m agnostic leaning atheist.  I don’t deny the possibility of a higher being, but it’s really low on my list of “how everything came into being.”

5. That it’s perfectly acceptable to touch me without asking first.  This is mostly limited to doctors, nurses, and strangers.  I mean, I get it’s your job to take my blood pressure or check my range of motion or whatever, but I break easily.  Communication is key.  And it has gotten to the point where I repeatedly tell doctors and nurses that Dad has to do everything just to avoid grabby hands.  Strangers mostly just like touching my arm or shoulder or stuff like that, which is fine, but still a little weird when they do it with that “poor thing” look in their eyes.  I never realized this was awkward until I met a guy at an anime convention who asked if he could love on me for a minute (just rubbing my arm and hugging me).  It was one of the strangest questions I’ve ever been asked, but the consent part made the whole experience much less awkward than someone randomly hugging me.

What about you?  What kind of assumptions do people make about you?  Feel free to share your lists or stories here or on my social media pages!