In the medical field, they treat you like you don't matter as much as you did when you were under 60.

You are ignored, dismissed or just plain left for dead.

Be your own advocate. Speak truth to power. Stand up for yourself like I did a few weeks ago when I told my doctor, repeatedly, that I needed a drain put in my leg after they removed a lipoma and Iwas left with a 5-inch hole that was filling up with fluid faster than I could eliminate it. After 4 weeks of doing laundry daily, having to have my furniture professionally cleaned beause it was nearly ruined with fluid pouring out my leg (and no amount of guaze and tagederm to keep it from flowing out of my leg,) I finally pitched a fit of astronomic proportions in the clinic.

They finally gave me an ultrasound and found the early stages of necrotic fasciitis (flesh eating bactieria) and an abcess where the hole was left in my leg. I was admitted to the hospital later that day and they finally put a drain in my leg.

You know your body better than anyone else. SPEAK UP! ADVOCATE for those who need help and are too frail or timid to speak up. It's your/their lives at stake. Don't let medical professionals play Russian Roulette with your life!