I’ve made a lot of jokes about the self-directed, involuntary and unwanted medical education I’ve undertaken these past few years. Generally, I am more on the “ick” side than the “interesting” side when we’re talking about biology or bodies. So. Much. Goo.

Anyway, my health has forced me into learning way more than I ever wanted to know.

I used to teach Women’s Health at Mount Royal College in Calgary (now Mount Royal University) and I’ve always been careful to stick to my area of expertise, which is sociology, not medicine. Women’s Health was about the social determinants of health, the impact of sexism, racism, poverty and so on. I have been the victim of gendered bias. More than once. For example, I was told for two years that a strange group of symptoms were about peri-menopause (I was 37) but I actually had cancer. Frustrating. And I’ve unfortunately had the experience of having iatrogenic disease, that is, disease caused by medical intervention.

Nevertheless, I’m not distrustful of the medical profession; I’m generally thankful and in awe. They know so much. But they do make mistakes. No one is perfect. I’ve learned to understand our doctor/patient relationship as a partnership. We’re a team. I have responsibilities in all of this. So I learn.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I’ve also co-edited two quasi-medical anthologies with E.D. Morin, one about menopause and one about concussion and brain injury.

All this is to say, I’ve learned a shocking amount about various conditions, medicines, cancer, chemo, radiation, brain injury, neurology, hearts, lungs, blood, epidemiology, virology, and more. I read. I read huge medical studies. Generally, I understand them. I know the difference between a good and bad study. I look for what is peer reviewed.

I’ve learned all of this on an “as needed” basis. The order I’ve learned all this in is certainly not what any medical school would recommend, and I am no doubt missing some basics (like high school biology).

I got to thinking: what would I call this body of learning if I were empowered to give myself some kind of formal recognition of it? A Bachelor of Ad Hoc Diagnostics? I can’t help but notice the degree would be shortened to B.AD. That made me laugh. Then I got thinking about what else B.AD might stand for.

Bachelor of Applied Desperation comes to mind. Necessity is the mother of invention, but so is desperation.

I think I’m finally able to press pause on this ongoing degree. I’ve just been cut loose from two different doctors in the past two days. My life is getting simpler again. On to learning something else. Yay!