DannyBoyinExile

Sadly, I’ve been incarcerated since I was nineteen years old. So I must admit that it’s very disconcerting (shocking, even!) to hear somebody calling, “Look out, old school,” or even, “Hey – OG!”, and realize that they’re talking to me!
Officially, TDCJ considers an inmate “elderly” once they reach the age of 50 – but that doesn’t mean I FEEL elderly. Then again, they didn’t feel I was very elderly when they gave me a job assignment – and they’ll quickly write my elderly butt a case if I miss work too often. Clearly, “elderly” and “retirement age” are not the same thing.
To add insult to injury, they summoned me to medical for my yearly physical the other day, and asked me if I would like to have my prostate checked. She (!) WAS helpful enough to inform me that I could do it via a blood sample rather than a… ahem… finger check, and asked which one I’d prefer. THAT was a no-brainer. I’ll admit to being scared of needles and shots – but I’m more scared of fingers in my butt, for sure!
So I got it over with (the shot, I mean!), though when I saw the used latex gloves in her trashcan, I couldn’t help but wonder who’d been in there before me.
I don’t have any health issues to speak of, but I have to admit that TDCJ is doing its part to keep us healthy. Many inmates will not go to medical until they have a serious or obvious condition – so it can save a lot of problems if they recognize and treat a problem before it gets worse.
I have always felt that if I had a problem, I’d let THEM know, and not the reverse, so I rarely even went to my medical lay-ins unless I’d requested them.
Until one time I had a cellie who came down with cancer. By the time it got bad enough for him to complain, it had spread until there wasn’t much they could do about it.
They removed a chunk of his intestines, installed a colostomy bag – and informed him that it was only a matter of time, but if they had caught it just a few months before, they’d have been able to treat it. Instead, all they could do was try to keep him comfortable (drugged) until he passed. That was really sad, because I knew him before he got cancer. He was old, but he was healthy, and loved to play basketball and handball on the rec yard. In fact, he could argue with the best of them when a call on the court didn’t go his way! Now he’s gone – and he could’ve prevented it if he’d only gone to medical and detected it when they asked him to.
That made me realize to take my health seriously. That doesn’t mean she’ll be using her fingers on me, for sure. But I WILL “take one for the team”, when it’s necessary. (A shot, I mean, not a finger!)
Let your loved ones know that it may not be fun to spend all day in medical, when they’d rather be watching TV or trying to sneak into the commissary line – but it’s important that they do so. Finding out that you have cancer is even less fun, and you want to do so sooner, rather than later. If it’s possible, arguing with my wife for thirty minutes about why I DIDN’T take the test is even less fun than that! So it’s best to just get it over with. So says DannyBoy.