Cindy MacDougall

Well, hi there and welcome to Mast Cell Disease Awareness Day! I am Cindy; I have a mast cell disease, either #MCAS or #mastocytosis. Yes, I am STILL not yet diagnosed, or NYD. Still waiting on the lab test. But this year, I have hope. #MastCellDiseaseAwarenessDay #NEISvoid

@1goodtern Good for you!!!! I mask continually, but I have an immune condition and can no longer get the vaccine (I am the extremely rare person who had an actual adverse event). I've had it twice now. One was worth it (travelling to see my dying mother, took it off to eat.) The other, not.

Just to clarify something - A few people have been asking me how I'm doing recovering from catching Covid. *I'm not*. *I haven't caught Covid yet*.

@WlooGal @1goodtern Never ask. Tell them. You're taking a purifier and no one enters your room unmasked.

@1goodtern I'm going to be in hospital soon. At pre-op I asked if I could bring an air purifier for my room. She was shocked. "I don't know. Nobody's asked that before." I'm taking one.

Oh I bleeping don't believe it. Visiting someone who has just come out of hospital after a stroke. They come to the door. "Sorry, I'm not feeling very well, I've got such a nasty cold now." I get a covid test for them from the car. Immediate thick red line. 🟥🟥

I've just got off the phone with a lady who has been denied a life saving operation because she has just had Covid. The doctors won't operate on her because of the *increased risk*. The same doctors don't mask when they see her. They don't mask in the wards or break rooms.

@dockevinmcleod PS The solution to this is not a for-profit system. It's proper funding of the public system. If we had a profit system, I would be bankrupt or dead.

@dockevinmcleod Wait times are a HUGE issue. I am never going to downplay that. You *also* have problems beyond wait times in this province with the rise of Long COVID related heart issues (many may be mast-cell-implicated). The system lacks continuing medical education at the community level.

We have a serious problem with waiting times in BC for patients who need urgent cardiac care. Long term patient I diagnosed with multi-vessel coronary disease. Young. Off work because of it. Needs urgent bypass surgery. This was back in February. Constant delays. No staff. Worsening. Ultimately now admitted because of the delays to hospital. His surgery should have been done in March. It’s October. This is dangerous and puts his life at significant risk not to mention the mental anguish. Delays like this are not just an inconvenience.

@dockevinmcleod *could, love the irony of this typo though.

@dockevinmcleod My immunologist and I had to find my current cardiologist on our own. She properly diagnosed and treated me. Untreated I cold have had another MI any time I experienced a significant temperature swing. 2/

Someone covid cautious messaged me about making a a large funeral safer, and although that's incredibly hard, I thought I'd share a few tips for them, and share them here now.

Unemployment rates for disabled people fell to 7.2% in 2023, which is the best it's ever been, but this is still double the unemployment rate of nondisabled peers (3.5%). Largely this is because disabled people CANNOT FIND JOBS THAT WILL OFFER PROPER ACCOMMODATIONS 3/8

My employer asked for all of us to observe a moment of silence in memory of a past tragedy and as we stood there the silence was interrupted by coughs from a current tragedy.

For the “masks don’t work” crowd…We never gave them a fair shot. Cloth & surgical were all that were required & many ppl wore below nose, under chin or not at all. Mandates were loosely enforced at best. Yet despite the lacklustre implementation - cases still went down /1 🧵

When you have a complex chronic illness - you often go through the 5 stages of grief while you mourn the loss of your health & previous lifestyle. Those stages are straightforward - but the stages you go through learning when to seek medical care are far more jarring. 🧵/1

If you ask me “were you like this before the pandemic?” I will be honest with you and respond that no I was not like this before the pandemic, for you see before the pandemic I truly believed (I foolishly believed) that in the face of catastrophe we would stand together.

False eyelashes are incredibly popular but can I just say as an ophthalmologist, they look horrifying under 10x magnification. The lashes are so densely packed that they trap all the dead skin cells, dirt, and oily secretions from your eyelids. It’s a sebaceous swamp in there and frequently results in red, itchy, swollen, irritated eyelids.

@studentaidbc It's ridiculous that you don't offer technical help on weekends and evenings, when people wil be filling out these forms.

@studentaidbc Your site is not allowing new applicants to register. We're using the BC Services card app and all. Getting error message: SYSTEM ERROR :: failed to create account. Profile Fault error #100431-3.

@studentaidbc Also wondering when you are opening the loan applications for this year! Two eager students at my house.

@JEVLloyd @CamMarZip My neurodiverse needle phobic kiddo goes into our local public health for a private appt for his shots, even as a teen. Maybe call public health and ask for the nurse who specializes in needle phobia. Worked for us. Wishing you the best.

@CamMarZip Yup, BC. So glad to know that everything's been going smoothly for your son.

I accompanied an autistic loved one to a vaccine clinic. The person is frightened of needles & took a long time to settle. Just as they made up their mind they wanted the vax for sure, the nurse said, "Sorry you took so long. We're now closed." It was 1 minute past closing. /1