Thomas Graham, a hemophilia patient advocate, shares how unexplained pain before his diagnosis was often dismissed and why speaking up about symptoms matters.
Transcript
Before I was diagnosed with hemophilia, I had a lot of times when something hurt and I never understood why.
And in retrospect, I look back now and I think I was probably having bleeds, but I didn’t know it at the time, and I got to the point where I would stop telling people that things hurt because I would always be looked at like I was making it up. Doctors, you know, parents, just didn’t understand and they stopped paying attention. So I stopped saying anything about it.
I wish, you know, and again, in retrospect, that I had known better and could have spoken up for myself better. I tell people, and I tell myself, speak up and don’t stop speaking.
If something hurts, it’s real, you know, and you have to bring attention to it even if you don’t know why. There is a reason. It’s up to that someone else to find out what that reason is.
