Just got back from my latest surgery, it went fine. The staff were nice, ones I hadn't seen before. Although I got the dreaded question, "So what do you do?" And had to say "Nothing at the moment," and then justify it by explaining all my health issues, but these were some of the rare people who accepted I couldn't be expected to work in my condition instead of being judgmental about it. Although they did do the whole "You'll get better soon," thing, and imply that I can get back to work eventually. Why is our society like this? No matter how insurmountable your health issues society can never just accept that you're on the scrapheap, work-wise. There always has to be some undercurrent of "You should be working." Hence why even people with degenerative conditions get re-assessed for disability benefits again and again instead of being left in peace.
And don't even get me started on "So what do you do" being the standard conversation opener for everyone, everywhere, always. Always immediately judging and classifying someone by their job. Are we really so unimaginative that we can't think of another way to start a conversation with a stranger? How about "So what music do you like? Been anywhere nice lately? What's your favourite film?" I mean, literally anything that is about an individual's personal interests rather than how productive they are to capitalism and where they fit on the job-based social respect scale.
I get where they come from but at some point it's like, no. you won't "just" get better. Science doesn't have all the answers and sometimes the only thing you are left with is to accept it. It gives people false hope and repeats things they have heard a hundred times already. Sometimes it also implies that the patient hasn't done everything they could and should find that magical cure that doesn't exist. Which cure? Well you know, the one that you don't know about, your doctor doesn't know about, even the person telling you about this cure doesn't know what it is. But still, have you tried it??
Everyone thinks they know how they would act better than you in a given situation but they would never want to be put into it.
This is so true. There is always this assumption that there is a cure, or at least a way to effectively manage, every condition well enough that you can return to work (because returning to work is all that matters, they never care about you being cured so you can be pain-free or have a life) and won't accept that medical science can't fix everything already. So you're treated like it's a moral failing on your part for still being ill/disabled. A moral failing that you still need help - you're a lazy scrounger.
Absolutely. This even exists inside medicine. The magic phrase to make a doctor take you seriously is "This is impacting my ability to work"
If you still wouldn't be able to work, well...