Gate Keepers

I have been dealing with some gatekeepers in the health field the last few days. Their job is to understand the work that a doctor does and to steer people to or away from that doctor. This is easy to do when they are dealing with a constant deluge of the same type of patients. For instance the Gastroenterologist I am trying to see only takes appointments with people who have a cancer diagnosis.

What this means is that when I call (and I don't have cancer / just ECD) I need to convince the gatekeeper that there is a reason they would want to make an exception for me. To do this I explain how ECD is similar to cancer, how it has manifested itself in the same parts of my body, how it is invasive, destructive, and deadly. Then I mention how great it would be for the doctor to get to work with something so rare and different.

Then I sit and wait, to see if the large packet of tests, scans, and reports will help me get past the gatekeeper to the doctor I need to see. 

We do this in our own lives don't we! We partition our work from our personal lives, our school friends from our church friends, and our partners from those we've been in relationship with before. We do this because we like to be in control. We don't want one part of our life invading the other. I have done this in the past, never letting my work relationships get to personal, never letting my vulnerability known.

Now though I share it all with no boundaries, because I simply don't have the energy, will, or ability to keep it all separated anymore. What I have discovered is that these different parts of my life have been waiting all along to support me, to hold me up when the gravity of it all weighs me down.

I just had to open the gate and let the people in.