People might find this amusing: while at the hospital recently, they asked what drugs and supplements I take, during a phone conversation, where the person of the other end of the line had never heard most of things I mentioned (and had trouble pronouncing them). One that I mentioned was ālithiumā, and I explained that I took it for its potential health-promoting uses, and I said that what I take was āthousands of times lower dose than psychiatric patients takeā. She had trouble finding it in the system she was entering it into, and said something like, ālithium carbonate?ā I said, ālithium orotate, like less than a milligram of elemental lithium. Maybe itās 500 micrograms.ā And what ended up on my chart was, ā450 mg of lithiumā. I kept getting people ask about my psychiatric state, and maybe thatās why.
A similar problem was with inulin. Some people thought I was diabetic, and read it as āinsulinā. I had to keep correcting them, āno, itās fiberā¦ itās IN-U-LINā.
And then there was another lab that thought I had kidney problems, because I take creatine. I explained to the lady technician today that it raises creatinine, and that those numbers they think are telling them something are wrong. She left the room, talked to the head of the group, then came back and said, we think you should stop taking that and taking the lithium (which is about the same amount you get in food!) for a few weeks so we can run the panels and get a clean signal.
Interestingly, the more educated people I had interacted with knew immediately what I was talking about, and even said, āOh, yeah, I take the gummies. Yeah, they mess up the blood panel interpretations. You should probably tell them.ā Well, I triedā¦ but just kept getting moved away from people I could tell these things to.
Another small issue is that one of the nurses wanted to inject me with anti-coagulants. Alas, I have very low body fat. Iām like solid muscle. She triedā¦ but ended up bruising my belly. I should have told her to inject me in my butt.
The problems with being a littleā¦ different from what people expectā¦
