Adventures in ACA: In Which I am (apparently) fat, anemic, and a hypochondriac

Let's get something straight. I am not a big eater. I like food, I just don't have a huge appetite and I can be a fussy eater (partly because I am so sensitive to taste and smell). I calculated out my caloric intake and I get roughly less than 1,000 per day. I don't think that's normal.

But, eventually, I had to see a doctor here in Baltimore. First, there was the gynecologist. I was underwhelmed there. I honestly felt just rushed through the whole affair and I really hate when people tell me that something doesn't hurt after I tell them it does. Pap smears HURT for me. No, I have no clue why. Yes, ma'am, the brush is soft like a baby toothbrush. If I say it hurts, it hurts.

After that, I was supposed to hear back about the results of all the tests she made me get, including a blood test. I even called them (I have serious phone anxiety, I don't do that often or well). No reply. So, I figured I had an appointment at the same facility to see a Personal Physician, maybe I'd hear something then.

I feel like this whole appointment devolved into "what can go wrong?"

--They didn't get my ethnicity right on the paperwork. In fact, they didn't bother to ask. They just put me down as white (I am so not white).

--The doctor shot down any of the research I'd done on possible tests and conditions, saying he didn't put any creedence in patients doing their own study. Uh, excuse me?

--The doctor then proceeded to feel my neck for a goiter. He was squeezing the wrong place. When the guy who went to medical school can't find a major gland, there is an issue.

--He told me I wasn't hypothyroid, just fat. When I pointed out what I eat in a day, he told me I needed to be counting calories. What.

--He told me the only test that came back badly from the gyno visit was my iron and that I was just anemic, without seeming to care why.

--The final blow was the fact that he kept laughing when he replied to anything I said. He genuinely sounded like he thought I was a total idiot or a hypochondriac.

I don't care how stupid you think a patient is, none of this is professional or acceptable.

Next appointment is next week. I think it goes without saying that I am not seeing anyone at this facility.

My hair and WTF to do with it

     So, I have long hair. Very long. While most people are chopping their locks off, I'm trying to make mine grow more. I love my hair, even when it won't cooperate, which is often. Being mixed, I do have a pain of a time finding products that work (yes, my hair is baby-fine, but it's curly and there's so much of it that volumizing is redundant). When I do find things that work, it costs a fortune that I don't have. I'd love to invest more money into my hair care, but that implies that the money exists.

     When I was in 7th grade, I was followed home by two girls who threatened to cut off my hair. As a child, I cursed the fact that I could have neither blond (I have a very sallow complexion), nor straight (my mother is mostly Black and Puerto Rican), nor stylish (layering and bangs ain't happening, just sayin'). But the threats traumatized me. I have not had scissors near my hair without fear since 1999. Now? Of course I have learned to love "The Beast" as I call it. I just have neither the spoons nor the time to do much to it. I usually pin it up in a bun and call it even. I brush it out as often as I wash it, which isn't, due to the dry brittleness of my hair, but I try to look as well-groomed as I can.

     Now, being both a LARPer (Live Action Roleplayer) and a recent convert to Lolita fashion, I find that a simple bun just won't cut it. This weekend, for example. A friend talked me into playing in a Werewolf: the Apocalypse game, right before my standard Changeling: the Lost. I have my first Loli coordinate all lined up with makeup and accessories, but my hair has me stumped. I will be washing it and, for Werewolf, I'll probably wear it in tons of little braids, but what do I do after? Unbraiding it will save me some styling (huzzah for hair that holds a curl/wave), but do I do the ever-popular baby doll half-pigtails? Just sweep it back? AUGH.

     What do you do when your hair leaves you stumped?