‘Blood Cancer Heart to Heart’ - Facing Blood Cancer Together
Have you watched/listened to the latest ‘Blood Cancer Heart to Heart’ Podcast - “Facing Blood Cancer Together”
In this episode, Tris and Scott talk about how Scott’s blood cancer diagnosis has changed their life as couple. Scott was diagnosed with myeloma four years ago. Now in remission, he and his husband Tris discuss what’s changed, how they’ve coped and what the future holds.
The bit where the supportive husband noted his relief that a fellow LGBTQ+ nurse was treating his husband rang true for me. When I was diagnosed, despite introducing my haematologist to my husband, in the clinical notes he was described as “partner” as if our marriage didn’t exist.
Even in this day and age, not being straight, cisgender, or white makes you hypervigilant to the pretty constant micro- and passive-aggressive and sadly outright bigoted behaviour from others. In formal situations like hospitals there can often be anxiety about whether you’ll get the same or worse treatment just because of your random sexuality and someone else’s choice to be ignorant.
However, my first experience of going to hospital for Polycythaemia vera (PV) treatment was a pleasant surprise because my phlebotomy nurse was non-binary and they recognised my queerness and we’ve since become friendly which makes going to hospital far more tolerable.
Being seen for your entire self rather than some superficial identity label that others fixate on is a relief and helps treatment to go more smoothly. Something I imagine straight and white people don’t need to also spend any time or effort thinking about, or defending against. I hope other LGBTQ+ and non-white blood cancer survivors on this forum have found equality in your treatments.
Lovely to be ‘seen’ by this, thank you so much for sharing it @Alice_BloodCancerUK.
