3/5/1997 and 3/5/2010

3/5/1997

author comments first

I'm employed by Disability Entitlement Advocacy Program. Ain't that a kicker? I am helping rich people win their disability cases, but since I really need the monies from a disability case and I am homeless, I cannot win my own case. Here are my comments below, written on 3/5/1997

2 p.m.

Rotunda Mall Office of Hearings and Appeals

God, my life is ironic! Who am I today? It's all a game. People pretending that the system works. I'm here on an assignemnt from D.E.A.P. Actually getting paid to just sit around. Well, at least it's a quiet office.

3/5/2010 (written on 3/8 because I was not allowed access to my journal or even a pen, while in the hospital)

My hearing at the hospital. The presenting doctor, presents with lies, lies, lies that are written in my chart. There is a social worker presenting against me too. She told me she hates this part of her job, and feels it's so unfair that she has to present against me, even though I am her client. (if that ain't a sick system i don't know what is) She was theoretically the social worker assigned to me in the hospital, nonetheless I didn't know what my rights were, so I never went to her, 'cept to make "long distance" calls to Baltimore.

My defense attorney presents a clear cut, abbreviated case. It's a slam dunk. I won, and am dismissed from the hospital immediately-though it takes 4 hours for the hospital to get me a cab home. That's o.k. because I knew that I had technically been dismissed, so When you realize you're free to go, being in psych isn't as horrifying as when you are technically still under their thumbs.

When I lived in Baltimore, both county and city, arrangements for cabs were never made for folks who didn't have family or friends to give them a ride home from their hospital stay-regardless of whether it was an overnight stay or just an outpatient procedure. I was in the hospital during the blizzard of 2/2003. The ambulance didn't arrive on the first day. It didn't come until day 2. But it got stuck on the ice, and they called for a humvee. That's a shocking story too. I had to walk home to the flat I was renting in Mt. Washington. The doctor at that time said that I was faking my symptoms and therefore did not keep me overnight. I was having a reaction to a med I was on. It was the first time in my life I ever experienced uncontrolled movements of the head, mouth, face and tongue.


My medical assistance will pay for this cab on 3/5/2010.