the poor historian

I had a brief conversation with someone on Twitter the night before my interview last week. She'd shared something really interesting which I retweeted. We had a brief conversation the following day and I said that I'd recently read something online which was about the different personality types of people with MS. I planned to dig it out and share it with her as it kind of backed up her point.

It took a couple of days and several hours rooting around in my browser history to discover that the article I wanted to share was the one she'd shared in the first place.

Like I say, the first time I read the article was the night before my interview so my being distracted might be excusable.

But seriously. What a div.

Anyway, the article, "Who Is The Poor Historian?", appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1984. I reproduce it in full below because I think it mirrors a lot of things I've noticed since I was diagnosed, both in myself and others.

Personally I can be all too ready to kick off if a medical professional doesn't appear to be listening. At the same time I've always recognised that I can be like the third patient in the penultimate paragraph who is too eager to minimise or deny symptoms.

Similarly, I've met many people who can go the full on drama route (as an aside, I wince when I think back to the early days of my diagnosis when I went to the Neuro team in Nottingham practically begging them to give me steroids because I had pins and needles in my hands. True story).

Yep it's another example of somebody pointing out a personality trait which I've long recognised in myself. And making it feel like a huge, eye-opening epiphany. Go figure.

Anyway, this also serves as a bit of a kick-up-the-arse as I have my MS MOT next week. Let's get real.

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In other news, I didn't get the job. I'm waiting for some feedback as I felt like I did a really good interview. I certainly didn't embarrass myself, and I'm still proud to have got an interview with a national, big-deal organisation. Plus I drove 109 miles there and back to attend the interview.

Anyway - heartfelt thanks for all the good vibes and well-wishes that I received here and elsewhere. It - genuinely - meant a lot.