This is a story of an incident of a paradigm shift. This is a story of the shame I carry as a chronically ill person. I live in fear of judgment based on my experiences, both as a nurse and as a patient. This story is very important to me and it is 100% factual. But as I was about to publish, I found I couldn’t go through with it. Too much stigma associated with the labels, the words. And so I’ve retracted the names. I don’t know how I feel about my decision. So much shaming. So much stigma.
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