Labels

Gass Passer's post today inspired me to write this.  At first it was just a comment on her blog, but it has stirred up more feelings than I can write in a comment.  Those that know me well, know that I HATE, yes HATE LABELS!  It all started in elementary school I was labeled as a "B" student.  You may not think that is so bad since "B" comes just one notch below "A", but there were only two class levels and "B" didn't stand for "better"!  I realized that we "B" students were labeled when I got to high school and the talk around school made me realize that I was sheltered to the point of not knowing that I was good enough to go to the smart peoples public school or smart enough to apply to a university.  Luckily I did get into a Catholic school, but it didn't take long to figure out that we were the "red-headed stepchild of the Archdiocese", a school full of "B" and low-income students.  I am however proud of my alma mater because we had the best damn volleyball team in the city.  The "A" Catholic schools shivered in fear at the sight of our team.  I also belonged to the best class ever to walk those ancient halls.  Anyway, I digressed.   

One of the biggie labels that sticks out there is "Infertility".  That is one that is written on the forms at my doctor's office.  I didn't know that I was infertile until I read that, nobody ever really told me.  "Spontaneous abortion" was one for me also, as it was with so many others, so I've read here in the blogosphere.  When I went to get my RhoGAM shot after my first miscarriage, they gave me this card to carry in my wallet and on it was a box checked "spontaneous abortion".  I nearly came unglued.  How dare they ACCUSE me of having an abortion!  HeHe, yeah it's funny now, to think of how ignorant I was of these things.  I must have googled those two words fifty times.  

Anyway, I really think in this case only that insurance diagnosis codes should be listed as numbers.  That way I can have something else to google and I will not have to be reminded in BIG BOLD LETTERS that I am anything less than perfect.