Last summer, when I was going through my MS attack, I went immediately to the hospital—but it was a Sunday night and I didn’t have an appointment. I knew what the problem was. I knew exactly how to fix it—I needed a three day infusion of steroids. My eyesight was only starting to

blur, so I knew if they treated it immediately that day or the next, that I would be okay. But they denied me. At the doors of my hospital, they denied me and made me make an appointment to see a different neurologist—and the only way to do that was to go to the ophthalmologist. Next day, I went

to the doctor. They told me I had to go ALL THE WAY ACROSS TOKYO to another “specialist” to confirm that it was an MS attack and said they would be able to get me my meds. I asked her to make SURE that before I made the one and a half hour trek there that I would leave with medicine.

Mind you—this isn’t new. This has happened to me before. I have MS. I know my disease, my doctor knows my disease, but he was on sabbatical and because of that I guess my medical records no longer fucking exist??? So, I get to the doctor all the way across the city. I tell him my doctor’s name, I

run through the same goddamn tests all over again, he tells me shit I ALREADY KNOW, and then tell me “sorry, I can’t give you medication.” I wish I could tell you I was kind. That I was patient. I was not. I was barely holding it together, in agony from my eye, and this man is telling me he

Can’t give me that much of a STANDARD DOSE of steroids for Optic Neuritis—despite the fact that I’ve done it twice and it IMMEDIATELY stopped my symptoms from worsening and very quickly improved my sight. Anyone with MS knows that repeated ON can cause permanent scars to the nerves, so the faster

They’re treated, the way better things are in the long run. I burst into tears. I was inconsolable. They had to call my regular hospital, who called my neurologist AT HOME to get him to come into the hospital a few days later from his FUCKING VACATION. My neurologist was furious that the

Hospital denied me the medication on Sunday, and was even more angry that the clinics were so awful. As I was leaving the far away clinic, they told me I needed to pay my bill, and then said “oh, cash only!” I didn’t have cash on me. I only had card. So I handed the woman my insurance card,

walked out the front door, and just fucking SCREAMED. All of my anger and pain and literal physical agony, I just fucking screamed in the middle of some random street in Tokyo. And I don’t even know is the door was entirely closed. I don’t think it would have mattered because I am sure everyone

Even if he is not there, I am to be given my steroids. An hour later I had a needle in my arm. Within 24 hours, the pain dulled and the eye stopped getting worse. Within the next three days of transfusions, my eyesight was back to 80%. Why do I tell you guys this? When someone is dealing