By Emmanuel Fashakin
First day back from a long vacation and my third patient was ushered into the office. “Please see down, sir”, I said politely. “I am actually a woman”, she quickly corrected me. I was logged into the system, and her medical records were loading up in the system. When they did, I realized my error. Of course, Karen is a woman. We still have a mask policy in place in the medical practice, which made it difficult to recognize Karen. You cannot tell from her dressing because, not only is she dressed like a man, she dressed like a very tough man.
Karen is a lesbian, the husband one, or what do you call them, dominant female? Karen had a wife who lived with Karen and Karen’s brother.
Karen worked two jobs to provide for her family. Karen was also a kickboxer, now retired but her exploits in the ring has badly damaged her both knees. We referred her to orthopedic and she was given medications and intraarticular suspension for pain relief. Karen came today to be referred to another orthopedic doctor for second opinion.
Karen’s knees are very bad. The X-rays and MRI confirmed the diagnosis. She has completely buggered up her knees when she engaged in professional kickboxing. Looking at Karen even now at 46, she looks formidable. You would not want her confronting you in a dark alley. OK, if you had a head start, you could run, because Karen’s knees are bad
The orthopedic surgeon refused Karen’s plea for surgery, because in his opinion, she is too young to have new knees implanted. Especially in a young active person like that, a new knee lasts only but ten years, and they have to put new ones. There are only so many times you could slam on new metals on God-given bones.
Karen had already taken too much of my time, and I am kinda busy on the first day back, so I did not ask after Karen’s brother. The last time I saw Karen, she was raving mad. Karen worked two jobs. She came home one day to find her brother making love to her wife. What the xxxx?
Oh my goodness! Sorry, I finally told Karen after I found my voice. So what did you do to them? “Oh, I cursed them out and packed my stuff and left”. You left? You let your brother snatch your wife? Doctor, what can I do? She felt sad and helpless
I told Karen to cheer up. “It’s all in the family. It’s not like you could get your wife pregnant. Maybe with your brother, you people would have babies.” From the look on Karen’s face, my words were of little comfort; she just wants her wife back!
Emmanuel O. Fashakin, is an Attorney at Law and Medical Director
