My worst surgical living nightmare is a walk in park, compared to what children undergoing surgeries without anesthesias are suffering right now.
I had multiple surgeries in childhood for my polio paralysis. During one foot bridge surgery, I woke up in massive pain & was screaming from pain & felt terror upon seeing my foot all opened up with blood, bones & everything else showing. I was sedated again quickly but still remember that clearly.
I worry about psychological impacts of Palestinian kids & been worried about that for decades. Unlike me, who had family able to find safe refugee camps & eventually migrate to Canada - kids in Gaza have no safe refuge spaces. No one in Gaza or Palestinian areas have any true safe spaces. I want more people in Canada & US to try to imagine being bombed out of homes & refugee camps. Imagine trying to keep you & your loved ones alive, fed - while under constant violent sieges.
It took me decades to overcome my childhood related medical traumas - that happened almost all under safe hospital spaces. I can't even begin to imagine how much help Palestinian kids need to overcome their lifelong traumas since no kids there these days have ever experienced peace. My heart hurts for all of the Palestinian kids, especially the disabled ones who have no other family members left. I wouldn't have survived if it wasn't for my parents. I see Palestinian kids in my nightmares 💗😪
@_L1vY_ I bet you most of those Palestinian kids, like almost all longtime war suffering kids, don't like when folks call them/us resilient. They/we, know, they/we are born resilient - when we're conceived & born amidst violent wars. Being forced into living a life of resilience isn't a choice though. I'm sure that almost every Palestinian kid, are similar to most war children - we just wanted to grow up in safe place, with our families, around our friends & able to grow our own foods at home.
@msquebanh Yes. No one who's suffering wants to be called resilient. It's another way to put responsibility for safety onto an individual instead of alleviating systems of suffering. People would rather be okay and safe.
@justafrog Yes - my elder patriarch Auntie was an ICU nurse - before she quit & joined resistance army as medic & comms controller. She left Saigon & lived in tunnels for years. She did surgeries & many medical ops with very little supplies. All underground. They had built a hospital unit, within the tunnels system. She has massive PTSD to this day.
In my nightmares, where Palestinian kids appear, I almost always wake up shaking, sweating & crying. I have recurring nightmares where I'm trying to save the injured children by wheeling out a few of them on stretchers. Doors & windows are being blown out as I'm wheeling the stretcher filled with child patients. I get shot in the back, right as I'm nearing exit doors. Same nightmare happening for past 4 months.
@feijoa I'm familiar with that. I don't usually have it activated this much. I know from therapy, it's due to seeing/hearing almost exact same experiences as me & my family lived through. It is like re-living it again (and also feeling disturbed about similar racism we faced).
@feijoa I suggest people with vicarious privileges recognize them. I also suggest people who have never suffered any real wars - never been bombed out of your homes multiple times & such to count your blessings & use your spare time to try to help people suffering a lot more than you will ever face. I suggest people who have never suffered any real war horrors to stop telling war survivors how we should think/feel/act. Stop going there!!!
@feijoa Part of taking care of ourselves, as war child survivors, is speaking out about what we feel & taking actions to help those still suffering from unimaginable horrors that we have since escaped. These are both pretty essential to our war child survivors toolboxes.
A huge thing almost all of us struggle with off/on is feeling guilt for being safe & fed - when so many others still aren't & are under ongoing violent sieges. We sometimes feel guilty for feeling thankful about being safe.
#Children in #Palestine are suffering so much, just trying to get essential #MedicalHelp & much needed #surgeries & #amputations - all while being displaced, homeless, starving & being bombed while trying to find safe refuge. These are brave kids - forced to be brave to survive.
I don't care what your political beliefs are at this point. This is all so wrong & evil, on multiple levels. If you're not speaking up against these kind of evil horrors, you simply lack humanity & you lack courage too.
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