#do adults even get strep?

[liberalfartsdegree]

I know I’m a hypochondriac but I THOUGHT I had psychosomatic stress body problems and THEN I thought I had Covid but I took 3 tests and they all came out negative and then I said “lemme peek at those tonsies” (tonsils) and lads. I’m no diagnostician but I think I have strep throat?

[captainjonnitkessler]

Genuinely so fucked up that being sick will deprive you of the pleasure derived from sleeping AND eating. Those were like 80% of my dopamine sources! What the FUCK am I supposed to even do now

[mosspapi]

I hate constantly being debated about. I'm so fucking sick of it. Do I have this disorder or that one, do I need those tests or these, am I completely fucked or partially fucked, do I deserve treatment or not, are trans people real or not, do trans people deserve healthcare or not, was I actually abused or not, am I crazy or not, do I really have any problems or am I just making it up for fun. Every fucking part of my life is a fucking debate and I'm never allowed to participate in it. I'm not even a fucking mediator of the goddamn thing. And I'm so sick of it

[jenroses]

Hey! Please feel free to ignore but you did say to ask you about masks :P the ones I've found that are multiple layers for max protection are really stiff, which squishes my face and leads to gaps. Do you have recommendations? Thanks!

I know that there's a lot of noise about elastomeric masks but for me they're a nonstarter because of the stiffness you talk about. I think it's important to understand that most of the 94-95 standard masks that actually meet that standard are going to be plenty good enough where most people are concerned. Is it possible to catch Covid with a mask on? Yes. I've done it.

Is it likely? No. I'm immune compromised. This isn't data, but our experience has been that a combination of masks, reasonable common sense and good filtration are enough that despite having a school-aged child, a husband who travels for conventions, and me, immune suppressed, with a college student living in our house, I have only had covid twice, the first time was an unfortunate collision of me going to a store at the wrong time where a clerk had both covid and the flu and gave them to me, and the other one involved a family member not using a mask at a public event while eating. Even then, when I caught covid and the flu at the same time and isolated immediately with filtration and everyone coming into my space being masked... not one other person in our house caught it, and when someone else caught it a year later, the only people who caught it were sharing sleeping spaces. Our roommates did not catch it, and everyone was masking from the moment of the first positive test. When my kid got half-assed about masking at school, he immediately got flu and strep at the same time. I pointed out that his lack of care about it could mean a lot of missed school for him and serious health impacts for both of us, and he started wearing a mask again, and did not get sick for the rest of the school year. He HATES the masks that go behind the head and wears Armbrust kn95 masks exclusively (dark blue, lol) And it's pretty clear that without the masks he was getting sick a lot and with he just...doesn't. He is wearing them all day except for lunch through full school days, so that says something. Armbrust will send little behind the head doohickies to keep them off the ears but he never uses them. At $2ish per mask they're not the cheapest but he uses one mask for multiple days so it's not too bad overall cost wise. They have kid sizing, but he's in the regular adult size now at 11. Now, I'll talk about Armbrust for a minute because I really like the company. On pretty much every mask they sell you'll see a video of one of their people reviewing the mask and going over testing data... but they ALSO have reviews of almost every other mask on the market, bad, good and in between, and if you find a mask on Amazon or something and want to know more about it, search the mask name and "armbrust" and the youtube video and product data page will pop up. I've found several special masks for very particular needs by looking through their database for combinations of breathability and shape that weren't even masks they sold. So if you are struggling, take a look at the database, eliminate "failed" masks, look for the ones that meet your needs and then watch the video to see what he says about them first. There are some VERY inexpensive masks out there that work very well, and some masks that are incredibly breathable or incredibly high filtration and a few unicorns that are both.

Now Hubby is okay with the same KN95 masks that our son likes but he exercises and his lungs get a little touchy sometimes so he needs maximum ease in breathing, so using that database I found Dr. Puri masks. Here's the Armbrust review. Here's the listing I found them on. Hubby LOVES them. He also prefers behind the ear. About $1.50 each.

I *hate* behind the ear with a hot hate, they bug me. But I can't just use one type of mask all the time because I have EDS and neck issues so pressure there can be awkward, plus I get short of breath sometimes anyway (history of pulmonary embolism that long predates covid) and I have sensory skin issues.

Bar none the most breathable mask I've ever tried, which also does not fog my glasses, is the Drager mask. These are soft, extraordinarily easy to breathe through, and have a unique strap that makes on/off very easy, and lets you pull the top strap and let it hang around your neck if needed. Unfortunately it has a VERY snug fit across the nose and leaves marks on my cheeks, or it would be perfect, but it's a good option, and possibly someone with a smaller face would have an easier time. These are possibly the best filtering and most breathable masks on the market, so for high risk situations this is the mask I would use. They filter 99.7% in testing. They're a little more expensive at about $1.25 per when I checked today. For a good intersection of fit and comfort, but a little less breathable, are the ACI N95 surgical respirator duckbills. These do not leave marks, don't fog much, good seal around the face, and the single most comfortable head strap I've ever seen. The fabric is very smooth, it is sensory good, but the breathability is not as high. It's not hard to breathe through, it's just not as easy as Drager or Dr. Puri. But... They could probably pass an N99 standard by Armbrust's testing, as they filter >99.4% of particulate, where the standard is 95%. These are also incredibly cheap. If you get their subscribe and save discount (you can do every 6 months) you can get 50 for $25, so 50 cents apiece.

All of these masks are pretty soft, easy to wear, and very good at what they do.

The TL:DR though.... The important thing is to find a mask that you will wear consistently and correctly every time you need it. A mask that hangs on your face and slips is not a good mask for you. A mask you hate so much you make excuses not to wear it is not a good mask for you. A mask that breaks easily or makes it hard to breathe so you end up taking it off is not a good mask. If what you have isn't working, there are LOTS of things that might.

Last Armbrust plug: THEY HAVE A SAMPLER PACK. You can buy a pack of a zillion different types and styles of mask and try a bunch! And order the one you like best! If you aren't sick, one sampler pack can be tried by the people in your household so everyone can figure out what works for them!

Also, I used to get sick very very often and now I just...don't. Not from contagious viruses, anyway. I don't understand why people are so cavalier about it. I've been sick less since 2020 than in any given six month period in my entire life. Despite being on immune suppressants.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Erin Reed at Erin In The Morning:

Last week, Partners for Ethical Care, a group that supports conversion therapy for transgender youth, filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court. The brief, submitted in support of Tennessee's gender-affirming care ban, aimed to present parent narratives on the alleged harm of youth transitioning. In doing so, it disregarded the voices of transgender youth and relied on pseudoscientific explanations for the “causes” of being transgender. Among these supposed causes were sore throats, Lyme disease, and even manga.

The brief was submitted on behalf of Partners for Ethical Care, co-founded by Jeanette Cooper. Cooper gained notoriety for rejecting her own child’s transgender identity, which led to her losing custody to the child’s father due to creating a mentally and emotionally unsafe environment. She has repeatedly testified before the Ohio legislature in support of gender-affirming care bans. In one instance, Cooper controversially compared gender-affirming care for trans teens to “walking kids to gas chambers” during the Holocaust. She later testified in Ohio that her organization represents “thousands of parents” who do not affirm their trans children's gender identities, further stating that being transgender should be treated “like an addiction” to be addressed through conversion therapy practices. The amicus brief details the experiences of parents of eight transgender youth, who claim that transitioning either harmed their children or that their children no longer identify as transgender. It also attempts to attribute their children's gender identity to various potential “causes,” none of which have been proven by any study to lead to gender dysphoria.

[...] Many of the parents in the brief resorted to extreme measures to prevent their transgender youth from accessing supportive communities. One family cut off their child's friends and internet: “they shut off communications with people who were negative influences. The Coxes found that turning off the internet for a time was the most effective response.” Another family practiced strategic misgendering and deadnaming, explaining: “After doing more research and believing it important to ground their child in reality, Kristine and her husband stopped using the preferred male name and pronouns at home. Kristine told S. that she could change her name when she was an adult, but until then, she did not get to choose her name.” Importantly, the briefs from PEC do not include any testimony from the transgender youth themselves. Often, a parent's narrative about their child’s gender identity can differ significantly from what the trans teenager might say about their own experience. Many of the parents' stories hint at “rapid onset gender dysphoria” or “social contagion” as explanations for their child’s identity. However, research shows that most transgender youth are aware of their gender identity for an average of four years before coming out to their parents. There is no known “cause” of gender dysphoria, and the only proven treatments involve social and medical transition. 

Partners for Ethical Care, a pro-conversion therapy/pro-gender exploratory therapy organization, filed an amicus brief in support of Tennessee SB1 in the United States v. Skrmetti case that is set to be heard at SCOTUS. Their amicus brief in Skrmetti pushes the discredited “social contagion” myth to oppose transitioning of trans youths.

[antonarcana]

I really just don’t have the energy to feed myself lately. I don’t talk terribly often about how being autistic affects my relationship with food and cooking and keeping myself fed, so here’s a brief tangent on that I suppose. There will be no mention of weight, neither gaining nor losing, but there will be discussion of habits around food that arise because of sensory issues.

So first off, for how much I appreciate food and cooking as an art form, I have so little energy for cooking when it’s for myself. Both because things like figuring out what to make, planning it, shopping for it, cooking it and actually eating it all require tremendous energy, but also because the act of cooking just overstimulates me very easily, especially on difficult sensory days. The smells, noises, textures, deliberate concentrated effort etc etc all overwhelm me. As such, I usually rely on convenience, and when I don’t have the energy to do even that, I just end up not eating at all.

It’s weird though, right? When I have guests a switch goes off in my brain and I can cook whatever elaborate and time consuming dish without issues. Almost like the instinct to nurture others and be a good host is stronger than my self preservation instinct.

Lately, because I’ve been too physically ill to cook until a couple days ago, I’ve been eating a lot of takeout/delivery which hasn’t made my body feel good, but was none the less necessary for me to eat at all - Which, obviously, if you’re sick you’ll probably recover faster if you keep yourself fed. This, along with having been unable to work because I’ve been sick, has kind of toppled my budget for the rest of January. It’s only been thanks to kind donations from lovely people on here that I was fed throughout my entire infection.

I’m no longer sick with strep throat, but I’ve been left with even less energy than before. Today is a really hard sensory day and I’ve spent all day trying to summon the energy to cook something or other in the air fryer, because it’s quick and easy of course, but the trouble is it’s noisy in a way my brain just is unable to cope with today. I have eaten a carrot and a bowl of frozen strawberries today because it was all I had the energy for.

Doesn’t help that the act of eating itself overstimulates me quite often because I’m so sensitive to texture.

I’m not posting this in an attempt to get pity or whatever, I’m just venting my frustration at being a grown man with adult responsibilities, who has been moved out of his parents’ place since he was 17, and who is simply too autistic to have a healthy relationship with food. It sucks, and it’s definitely one of the less palatable parts of my particular version of autism.

[renee-mariposa]

Nothing in my day-to-day job shows me the limits of modern medicine like vancomycin does. And it makes me insane.

(extremely long, somewhat incoherent nerd rant below the cut)

See, vanc is really good at, like, three things: treating MRSA (when given IV), treating ampicillin-resistant enterococcus (when given IV), and treating c diff (when administered orally ONLY). Most every use outside of that, like when it’s used to treat methicillin-susceptible staph aureus for “penicillin allergic patients” (don’t get me started on PCN allergies), actually has data that it increases risk of morbidity and mortality (i.e. harm and DEATH).

Unfortunately, due to the prevalence of multi-drug resistant organisms, vancomycin is empiric therapy for a lot of presumed infections. And it's a lot more difficult to actually tell if someone has an infection than you'd think. A lot of medical conditions imitate each other and when time is of the essence to identify what's going on, the most ethical thing is to start an antibiotic and rule out infection as the hospitalization continues. Lab techniques have gotten a lot quicker: I can remember 8 years ago, it would take 3 days just to identify what microbe the patient had in their presumed infection. These days, anno domini 2023, PCR comes back in a matter of hours, identifying gram positive/gram negative staph/strep/bacilli/etc, and it's the sensitivities that take 2-3 days. (Don't get me started on contaminated cultures.) But even with improvements in lab technique, we might not culture any microbe at all or the provider might keep vancomycin on "just in case" because we don't know IF the patient is infected, WHAT they're infected with, or if the infection will get better with a different drug.

And vancomycin is terrible on kidneys. Extremely nephrotoxic. It isn’t as bad as the 80s when the drug first came out and was called Mississippi Mud colloquially, but it will fuck the patient up if not monitored closely.

But finding the correct dose for each patient in a timely manner is nigh impossible. This is because vancomycin is renally eliminated. We have to mathematically estimate how well the kidneys are working. Unfortunately, our mathematic equation is next to useless if you are:

-Less than 50 kg

-Shorter than 5 foot tall

-Have a BMI of more than 40

-Are an adult younger than 45 (twenty-year-olds get astronomical doses that would be destructive in an older patient)

-Are older than 65 (the official definition of 'geriatric', i'm relatively sure)

-Are female (this is really only applicable if the patient is less than 50 kg or older than 65 - think: little old frail lady - we have absolutely no fucking idea how their kidneys are doing until we order the serum drug level. It is next to impossible to accurately dose vancomycin in little old ladies on the first try.)

-Are missing limbs (lots of leg amputations in the older and impoverished diabetic population!!)

-Have a lot of muscle mass (think bodybuilder or really tall guys)

Fun fact: we estimate renal function by looking at height, weight, age, birth gender (few, if any, studies on trans patients taking HRT), and a lab value called serum creatinine. Creatinine is a byproduct of muscle metabolism, I don't know the fine details, but we can generally estimate how well kidneys are working by seeing how much creatinine is in the blood: low creatinine usually means kidneys are excreting it as they 'should' be. High creatinine means there's something wrong, the kidneys aren't able to excrete it as efficiently as they 'should' be. But the effect of low muscle mass and high muscle mass haven't been studied enough to be able to adjust our mathematical equation to compensate for them. And with high BMI: we often overestimate their renal function because we don't know how to estimate their muscle mass vs their body fat.

(I work out in the boonies. ~70% of our patients have diabetes. ~80% of our patients have a BMI of greater than 35. So what I'm trying to say here is: we are shooting in the fucking dark when we're estimating the renal function of the vast majority of our patients.)

Complicating this: vancomycin is useless until it reaches steady-state concentration in therapeutic range. On one side of this problem: a lot, if not most, medical providers assume that vancomycin starts working its magic from the first dose. So we sometimes get orders for "vancomycin 1 gram now and see how the patient is doing in the morning". That isn't going to solve jack shit! That's just going to increase the incidence of microbial resistance!!

OR, like in the multiple situations I dealt with this afternoon, you make an educated guess on what regimen is going to work for the patient. You get a level 48 hours after the dose starts. And you find out that you fucking guessed wrong and the patient is subtherapeutic. It has been two fucking days and the patient hasn't started being treated for their (presumed) infection yet!! And we've increased the possibility of microbial resistance! *muffled screaming in frustration*

So what I'm trying to say here is: on almost every presumed infection that comes into the hospital (which we're guessing like 30%? 50%? of the time), we're starting an extremely toxic drug, oftentimes 100% guessing what regimen will be therapeutic, only finding out in 2 days that it is not therapeutic, and it can sometimes take days and days to titrate the dose sufficiently to find a therapeutic regimen. And sometimes we're really fucking unlucky and we destroy the patient's kidneys temporarily (or permanently! but kidneys can be very resilient so that's thankfully rare) because we guessed a regimen that's too high!! This is a fucking nightmare!!!!!!!!

And if all of this wasn't bad enough, we don't really have any drugs that do what vancomycin does therapeutically. We have things that can be used to cover some of what vancomycin does, but nothing that's equivalent AND less toxic.

Like, to fix this situation, we need:

-Better education to providers on what drugs are appropriate empiric therapy for different presumed infections (we're working on it, we are working on it)

-Better ways to estimate kidney function (there needs to be more research on kidney function in patients with BMI greater than 35!! And little old ladies!! And patients with low body weight and high body weight and amputations and...)

-Better prognostic tools to tell 1. when the patient is infected (looking at you, sepsis!!!) 2. what they're infected with

-Less-toxic antibiotics AND/OR better ways to treat infection (this would be the evolution of medicine as we know it)

And I want to be clear: vancomycin isn't bad. It's an extremely effective tool when used correctly but we often either don't have enough data to use it correctly or the provider doesn't understand that this tool is fucking useless for the job they're trying to perform.

[doctorguilty]

Ugh

My grandma unloaded the whole dishwasher while coughing open mouth nonstop like she sounds sick, I pray it's just like allergies though, but it's not like this is a one off thing either both of my grandparents are like this like they don't cover their mouths for any reason ever, also yesterday my grandma was making some meal with raw chicken and it was like Texas chainsaw massacre on the counter and in the sink there was raw chicken pieces and juice everywhere including the "clean" dishes, my sister tried to clean everything the best she could, but it's just so stressful like I try really hard to keep my things separate, I like to think if they go through the dishwasher they're sanitary but that's not always guaranteed because, gestures to the above words, sometimes behind my back my grandpa will not put my cutlery (blatantly mine, is bright colored plastic for children) in the dishwasher at all and just rinse it and put it back and i don't even know why like forks don't take up so much space in the dishwasher, he does it with the regular silverware too sometimes which is gross but I keep begging him to stop "hand washing" anything of mine PLEASE just put it in the dishwasher, if I can't trust anything I use paper plates and plastic cutlery and solo cups, but it's exhausting, to keep up, and keep buying those things, and even then there's no guarantee I'm safe cause again like what can you even do when cough/sneeze shrapnel is all over the counters and fridge and everything, and it's still crazy to me that when I had strep everyone was suddenly more careful than ever to not get sick from me, when I'm the one most vulnerable, it feels like just days after I was done with the antibiotics I feel congested and shitty again like that's really just my default state, while I was taking them I felt pretty great, which I'm gonna mention to my doctor I think like uhhh that seems kinda weird to me

Anyway I just wish I could move cause like i barely get to leave the house yet I'm still not even getting the At Least I'm less exposed to pathogens, it's the opposite of having your cake and eating it too, but! I can't afford it and I'm not mentally willing to do any roommates anymore my ptsd from a million things is too strong and it doesn't help that when I visited my partner their sister triggered all of that and CONTINUES to be insane like lying to her family making up stories about things I allegedly did while my partner was at work like I'm so scary and the adults just believe it and I'm like,,, I was asleep, but that's very reminiscent of insane shit in the past like one of the people I lived it in real time messaging a mutual (their now ex) friend that I was yelling and throwing a fit and being crazy when I was actually in the living room with my headphones on watching tuca and bertie,, I just want to live alone or with my partner (and we're working on that but it's rough between their lease stuff and immigration things) but if I could just afford to live alone in a shitty apartment I'd be fine but these days even the cockroach and bedbug infested studios are like $900+ /mo no utilities included no washer dryer MUST make >2.5x rent to be approved

[roosterbox]

Random Inception Headcanon Time!

Today’s episode: Sick days! Who’s a whiny baby when they fall ill, and who lives in denial? Who likes using more natural medicine, if anyone?

As a parent, Cobb is no stranger to ‘the crud,’ AKA the relatively minor illnesses that ravage through children when enough of them gather together. They are essentially human-shaped Petri dishes after all. So stuff like colds and flus don’t often slow him down. And he’ll even do his best to power through the more serious illnesses. Like the time Philippa caught chicken pox, which was a helluva time to find out that Cobb had never had it before. Or the time the whole family, Cobb last, had strep throat. Through it all, he never loses sight of what’s important - that, sick or not, these children depend on him, so he better act like an adult.

Arthur refuses to acknowledge sickness, any time it hits him. He figures it’s a mind over matter thing, and that if he ignores it, it’ll go away. A philosophy which drives Eames insane… especially when it seems to work at least 75% of the time. Most of time, Arthur is sick for a day, then fine by next morning/afternoon. The times when he’s not, however, he spends it mostly in bed. He also gets a bit more clingy, which Eames would tell you is the only silver lining to his partner being sick. And Eames does enjoy waiting on his darling hand and foot when he’s ill.

Eames is quite the terror when he’s sick. Needy, whiny, very much the ‘woe is me why were we made to suffer such indignities’ type of person. Arthur will only roll his eyes and take it all in stride. And they’ll snipe at each other, playfully. Because that’s just Eames exaggerating, being dramatic, in order to be taken care of. It’s when Eames is curled up under blankets, monosyllabic and quietly miserable, that Arthur knows he REALLY doesn’t feel good. That’s when he’s at his most vulnerable, physically and emotionally, and those are the times when Arthur is the one waiting on his lover hand and foot. Both of them have an unspoken understanding that these moments of illness - when they feel their absolute lowest - are never to be used as ammunition in a domestic spat. Whether a teasing one or a more serious one.

Ariadne has been known to overwork herself when she’s working on a passion project. Sometimes to the point of exhausted sickness. She’s trying to be better about this, though. Especially when the only person around to take care of her… is herself. And don’t even start talking about that, in her own words, “herbal remedy shit” around her.

Yusuf self-isolates at the first sign of trouble. A little throat tickle? A slight cough? Temperature risen by more than a degree or two? SHUT EVERYTHING DOWN. Part of this comes from growing up among a gaggle of siblings, who were always giving each other ‘the crud.’

Saito never gets sick, and that’s the story he’s sticking to. Everyone in his employ is sworn to secrecy. Literally - they signed NDAs and everything. If ever one of them were to, say, see him walking down the hall to his office, nose red with a box of tissues under his arm, well…

Robert takes care of himself quite well. Vitamins and other supplements are a regular sight in his house. As such, he’s rarely sick. But when he is, he powers through it. His father taught him that.

[middlemistcs13]

“The Strep Situation”

Another CS one-shot! This was not based off of a prompt but instead based on myself and strep and the unfortunate location of my steroid shot. (Yes, I am Emma. Yes, I have strep even though my roommate told me that 3 days ago before I went to the doctor).

On AO3 if that’s your thing. 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/45559738 

I appreciate any and all feedback! Words: 1.2K

*WARNING: some curse words; story beneath the cut! 

“Stop laughing- this is not funny.”

“Actually, it’s quite humorous love.”

“Getting two shots in the ass is not funny! They hurt like hell.” Emma said, frustration and discomfort in her actual butt cheeks lingering around her. 

“Swan, I told you to go to the doctor several days ago.” Killian pointed out. 

“Getting checked out three days ago would still have ended with two shots in my ass. Not my arms, like a normal place for a shot- but in my ass.” Emma grumbled. 

“I suppose you’re right. Did you at least get any medications to help your ailments?” Killian questioned his wife. 

“I have to go pick them up from the pharmacy in a little bit, but I have an antibiotic and something else I can’t remember. I just hope it helps my ears and the awful earaches. Plus one shot was a steroid shot, and one was an antibiotic. The guy said something about the shots helping to heal me quicker, so we’ll see” Emma explained, finally making her way into their house past the foyer. 

“What did they call your illness again? Is it quite common here?” Killian asked, still trying to hide his amusement as his wife was walking towards the kitchen with a strange gait to attempt to ease her discomfort. 

“It’s strep throat, The bacteria that causes it is called strepto-something another. They just shorten it to strep. It’s pretty common, and I’ve had it a few times before. A few times I had it as a kid, and a few times I’ve had it as an adult. If kids get it a lot then they usually remove the kid’s tonsils, but there was no money for a foster kid like me to get my tonsils removed.” Emma explained, grabbing two soft ice packs out of the freezer and waddling to the couch in the living room. She plopped herself on her stomach on the couch and arranged the ice packs over each injection site. Killian came over and sat down on the floor next to her head. 

“I am sorry your arse is sore, love. But, I am glad you got some medications so you can feel more like yourself soon.”

“Have I been making you miserable the last few days, Captain?” Emma smirked. 

“Of course not, you couldn’t do anything to make me miserable. But you’ve been plenty miserable yourself due to this strep throat.” Killian said. 

“I’ve been fine!” Emma argued. 

“The sore throat? The swollen tonsil- touching your uvula!? The earaches in both ears? The cough? The lightheadedness earlier while eating a small orange?” Killian said, with a raised eyebrow. At that point, Emma knew his argument had won out. 

“Alright alright, I guess, I have been pretty miserable, and they are clementines, not ‘small oranges’. Henry has already been over this with you,” Emma commented while running her fingers through Killian’s hair. He smiled softly at her before turning his head and kissing Emma’s wrist. “I can’t believe you actually looked up throat and mouth anatomy to convince me to go to the doctor,” Emma said, secretly very impressed with her pirate. 

“Anything to convince you that your ailment was quite real,” Killian commented. 

“I have head colds like this all the time, the earaches are the only thing really bothering me, and apparently my ears are ‘very clean’ so they aren’t even infected. They just hurt from the strep and I guess swelling and just lingering infection? I don’t know how ears work.” Emma rambled. 

“Your cough has also been keeping you up at night,” Killian added. 

“Wait a minute- you said that you had been sleeping fine and hadn’t heard me!” Emma said, catching her husband in his lie. 

“I was being polite my love, I’m sure Henry woke up from you coughing the last few nights. I could have heard you if I was on the Jolly!” Killian joked with her. He earned himself a smack across the shoulder and a bewildered look from his wife. Just as Emma smacked Killian’s shoulder, the side door in the mudroom opened and Henry came into the house. 

“Hey Killian, hey Mom. Are you feeling any better?” Henry greeted his parents. 

“Killian tricked me into going to the doctor’s office,” Emma grumbled. 

“It wasn’t a trick Mom, you’ve been sick for like a week!” Henry said, exasperated with his mother’s antics. 

“It has not been that long!” Emma argued. 

“Lad, have you heard your mother coughing at all the last few evenings?” Killian asked, interrupting Emma with an amused smile on his face. 

“Oh yeah. One time I came to your door because I thought you were choking.” Henry said, coming into the living room and situating himself in the recliner facing Emma and Killian. 

“Okay that is being a bit dramatic mister,” Emma said with a playful roll of her eyes. 

“Maybe just a bit.” Henry laughed. “Why are there ice packs on your backside?” 

“It’s my ass Henry, you can just say it. And I had to get two shots when I was forced into going to the doctor’s office.” Emma explained, with a pointed look at her husband. 

“Mom, the only curse word I’m allowed to say is ‘hell’, and that is only over here. I can’t say that at my Mom’s house, she would flip out.” Henry said. 

“Regina needs to chill. You’ve been to actual hell and back, kidnapped by your evil great-grandfather, saved us all from self-imploding in the author’s twisted world, and single-handedly made a group of New York citizens believe in magic to get literally half of our family back from The Land of Untold Stories. I think you’re mature enough to say a few cuss words.” Emma sighed. 

“We’ve had a hell of a last few years,” Henry said with a smirk, causing Killian to bark out a laugh and Emma to chuckle so hard the ice packs moved from where she placed them. 

“That was an excellent use of your single curse word, Lad!” Killian finally choked out through laughs. Emma nodded her head in agreement and smiled proudly at her son. 

“Proud of you kid,” Emma said, fixing her icepacks because her ass was still sore. Numb, but still sore. “We sure have been through the wringer, huh?” 

“Yeah, but I’m glad we are where we are. I like our family and everything crazy about Storybrooke.” Henry said with a smile. 

“Me too kid”. Emma added with a soft smile at her boys. 

“Henry, have you ever had this ‘strep throat’ your mother has?” Killian asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. 

“Yeah, I had it a bunch when I was little, so eventually Mom had Whale take out my tonsils so I don’t get it anymore,” Henry explained. 

“What do we want to bet Killian gets strep in a few days?” Emma asked Henry. 

“I bet a week’s worth of trash duty that Killian doesn’t get strep. He is literally never sick. It must be from his extensive history,” Henry joked with his stepdad. 

“It’s called experience lad, and as I must remind your mother often, I have still retained my youthful glow,” Killian defended himself. 

“You’re on kid.” Emma agreed, ignoring her husband. “If Killian gets strep in the next week, then you have to do your regular trash duty and do the dishes for the week.”

“Deal!” Henry exclaimed, before picking up his book on the coffee table and starting to read where he left off. 

------------- cs -------------

Henry was not so happy four days later when Killian had switched spots with Emma on the couch, ice packs on his ass, and antibiotics on the table to treat a diagnosis of strep throat. 

“Don’t worry babe, at least I can sympathize with your pain and discomfort and we can be on the same antibiotic schedule!” Emma commented in an effort to console a very grumpy- and sore- Killian Jones. 

----------------------

Thanks for reading! Hope you all enjoyed! 

[theyellowroseofsodor]

I apologize for lack of content this week. I have caught Strep Throat and being a mom of two and a homesteader, life has kicked my trash. I was ahead on writing chapters but I’ve fallen behind now and I’m needing a few days to get back to where I want to be, plus I’m putting another chapter in the middle of what I’ve already written because it furthers development where it didn’t before.

I also havent posted any shorts either. It’s been a yucky week and I’m gonna try and catch up this weekend before my husband starts his week on/week off work weeks on Monday. His work schedule affects my writing one so we will see how this goes.

In further news, I have discovered how The Yellow Rose of Sodor will end and it’s a bit of a doozy. Tragic, even I would say. But not horribly so. It’s still a happy ending but it’s got conflict.

I also have been, possibly against my better judgement, writing a more mature themed fanfic in the A/B/O theme. Nothing graphic, but I’m an adult and I have needs lol If I do decide to post that, I will let you all know but it will be marked, at least on here, as “thorny rose” to indicate it’s a spicy post 🌶️ 🔥

Other than that, I’m just in recovery for now. It won’t take long, but maybe a bit longer as a mom. I’ve also got a vacation coming up and my birthday. Summers are busy for us. We have our fishing trips, bear baiting, moose hunting in the fall, etc. Pure Alaskan wild times!

So, thanks in advance for your patience! I will be doing my best to keep things as they are. A new chapter should drop on ao3 on Monday as scheduled.

[alowlycaterpillar]

Note that this only works when all parties take the rule seriously. Even the adults. Even if they think they are right and the kid is wrong.

As a kid I used to get into these horrific fights with my mum, and she'd get scary angry with me sometimes and it was making basic kid-parent-life hard, so mum suggested we have a word that means the other has gone too far. She said if either of us says the word, the fight stops, no matter what.

This was an amazing parenting move by my mum. Big kudos. Here's the problem: she didn't use the word often, but when she did I followed the rule. And then one day, I was feeling unwell and said I could not go to school. We got into a fight about it, she said I had to go, I told her "I Cannot Do This. I Need To Stay Home," she gave me all the reasons that I had to go, and I said "Bird." Bird is the word, I meant business: I could not go. She said "that's not what that's for," and proceeded to force me to get dressed and half-carry me out of the house by my wrist to walk all the way to school.

I never used the word again, because I knew it wouldn't work. It wasn't a safe word anymore, it was just my mum's way of shutting me up.

(and not that anyone was keeping score, but it turned out I had strep throat on the day I asked to stay home)

TLDR: if you have a safe word w your kid(s), you honour it, full fucking stop.

[molsons112000]

So men you don't understand that E. coli can cause urinary tract infections... And after 50, they become even more common.

But they can lead to all kinds of other health issues....

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) in men are less common, but they can occur when E. coli bacteria enters the urinary tract through the urethra. The urinary tract is made up of the urethra, bladder, ureters, and kidneys. The urethra is a tube that carries urine from the bladder to the penis.

https://www.medicinenet.com › art...

How Does a Male Get a UTI? Causes of UTIs in Men

This is also what they don't understand in adult entertainment. You can get toxic shock syndrome and that is caused by E coli and it can damage all your organs, including your heart and it can cause you to die. It literally poisons your body.

Now this is another reason why women have to be very careful with tampons. Because if the tampons get exposed to ecoli because you haven't cleaned off the exterior of the vaginal area, the tampon will push it internally, and then it can cause all kinds of internal organ problems and it could kill you as a female... Why do you think I make sure I'm so clean when it comes to females this is another reason, homosexuals. You need to be very cautious because they carry so much e-coli on them. And also, if you're wearing a maxi pad, it's the same way if your number 2 contaminates the front.The heat from the maxi pad causes the bacteria to grow on the pad.And then the bacteria can make their way into the vaginal canal.... So females need to make sure they're clean..... And screwing a female i* t** a** and pulling out all that flew it out of the anal, and it drips down into the vaginal area.Aint no sex in any way?Shape or form is not good and it also is not good for men... Rectum, tears can cause taxic shack syndrome.

Yes, Escherichia coli (E. coli) can cause toxic shock syndrome (TSS) when it grows inside tampons. TSS is a rare but potentially deadly condition that occurs when bacteria release toxins into the bloodstream. These toxins can spread to body organs and cause severe damage. 

Johns Hopkins Medicine

Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) | Johns Hopkins Medicine

PubMed

Effects of toxic shock syndrome Staphylococcus aureus ...

aureus and Escherichia coli grown inside tampons. Depending on tampon brand, when all 3 factors were combined mortality ranged from 20-100%. In controls inoculated with single effluents, or effluents from growth in the presence of cotton, no deaths were observed. Likewise, when hairless mice were inoculated with exotoxin, endotoxin, and tampon leachables, mortality was 100%. In the absence of any 1 component, mortality ranged from 0-40%. Lethal toxicity can be the result of enhancement, since animal death in apparent shock was observed in all pools containing the 3 components, and in all pools containing effluents of TSS S.

WebMD

Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) - Basics & Causes

Oct 11, 2023

TSS is typically caused by Staphylococcus aureus (staph) or Streptococcus pyogenes (strep) bacteria, which are common in the body and usually harmless. However, under certain conditions, these bacteria can overgrow and produce large amounts of the TSS toxin, which can then enter the bloodstream. Tampons, especially super-absorbent varieties, that are left in the vagina for a long time can encourage the bacteria to grow and stick to the vaginal walls, causing tiny abrasions when they are removed. 

Other risk factors for TSS include:

Having cuts or burns on the skin

Having had recent surgery

Using contraceptive sponges, diaphragms, menstrual cups, or superabsorbent tampons 

Symptoms of TSS include:

Fever higher than 102°F (38.9°C)

Chills

Feeling unwell

Headache

Fatigue

Rash that is red and flat and that covers most of the areas of the body

Low blood pressure

Vomiting

Diarrhea

Muscle pain 

TSS progresses quickly, so immediate medical treatment is needed. 

Less often, having anal sex or putting things into your anus can overstretch the skin and cause a fissure. Too much pressure, tight anal sphincter muscles, and poor blood supply to your anus may lead to their development and poor healing. Anal fissures don't usually give way to more serious problems.Sep 25, 2023

https://www.webmd.com › anal-fiss...

Anal Fissures: Causes and Prevention - WebMD

Yes, anal sex can cause rectal tears, also known as anal fissures. These tears can be caused by rough behavior, sharp edges, or rubbing, which can damage the rectum's sensitive lining and skin. Anal fissures can also be caused by overstretching the skin from anal sex or inserting objects into the anus. 



Healthdirect

Anal injury | healthdirect

Anal injuries can also be caused by sexual activity and insertion of objects, fingers or a penis through the anus and into the rectum. Rubbing, sharp edges or rough behaviour can tear the sensitive skin and lining of the rectum, which can cause pain, inflammation and bleeding.



WebMD

Anal Fissures: Causes and Prevention - WebMD

Sep 25, 2023 — Less often, having anal sex or putting things into your anus can overstretch the skin and cause a fissure. Too much pressure, tight anal sphincter muscles, and poor blood supply to your anus may lead to their development and poor healing. Anal fissures don't usually give way to more serious problems.

Symptoms of anal fissures include:

Visible tear in the anus

Pain during bowel movements

Blood on toilet paper

Blood on stool

Bleeding that discolors toilet water

Bad-smelling discharge 

Most anal fissures heal within a few weeks or days with home treatment. However, if the fissure lasts longer than 8–12 weeks, prescription medications may be needed. These may include cream or gel vasodilator medicines or botulinum toxin (Botox) injections. In rare cases, surgery may be necessary. 

If the fissure has been present for at least three weeks, a topical nitrate, such as 0.2% glyceryl trinitrate ointment, can be used. The patient should insert 1–1.5 cm of ointment into the anal canal three times a day. Nitroglycerin can also help reduce the pressure of the internal anal sphincter, which can decrease pain and help with healing. A small, pea-sized dot of 0.2–0.4% ointment can be applied around the anal opening twice a day. 

You should call your healthcare provider if you see blood in your stool or if your bowel movements are so painful that you avoid using the bathroom. 

And this is what they need to check for and children who have been sexually abuse. Because if these fishers get infected, it can cause pain but also it could cause toxic shock or internal poisoning of the organs.

Yes, an infected anal fissure can cause an anal abscess, which can be painful and may require surgery. Anal fissures are tears in the anal sphincter that can be caused by trauma to the anus during a bowel movement or other stretching of the anal canal. Children with a history of constipation or anal fissures are more likely to develop anal abscesses later in life. Other causes of anal abscesses include: Blocked anal glands, Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and Intestinal disorders like Crohn's disease or diverticulitis. 



American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons

Anal Fissure | ASCRS

Fissures are usually caused by trauma to the inner lining of the anus from a bowel movement or other stretching of the anal canal. This can be due to a hard, ...



Penn Medicine

Anorectal Abscess - Symptoms and Causes - Penn Medicine

Alternative Names. Anal abscess; Rectal abscess; Perirectal abscess; Perianal abscess; Gland abscess; Abscess - anorectal. Causes. Common causes of anorectal abscess include: Blocked glands in the anal area. Infection of an anal fissure. Sexually transmitted infection (STD) Trauma. Deep rectal abscesses may be caused by intestinal disorders such as Crohn disease or diverticulitis. The following factors increase the risk for an anorectal abscess: Anal sex. Chemotherapy medicines used to treat cancer. Diabetes. Inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis) Use of corticosteroid medicines.

Healthline

Anal (Rectal) Abscess: Everything You Need to Know - Healthline

If an anal abscess isn't drained, it can cause a lot of pain and may require surgery. What causes an anal abscess? Who is at risk? A rectal abscess can happen when a tear in that area becomes infected or an anal gland becomes blocked. A sexually transmitted infection (STI) can also cause anal abscesses. Toddlers or children that have a history of anal fissures (tears in the anal sphincter) are also at a higher risk for developing anal abscesses later on. Such anal fissures might occur in children who have a history of constipation. Anal abscesses are twice as likely in males compared with females. Some other risk factors include:

Anal fissures usually heal on their own within four to six weeks. Treatments include:

Dietary fiber

Stool softeners

Creams applied to the affected area

Soaking in warm water for 10 to 20 minutes several times a day, especially after bowel movements 

If symptoms persist, further treatment may be needed. Other treatments for anal fissures include: Nitroglycerin ointment, Calcium channel blockers, Botulinum toxin (Botox®) injection into the anal sphincter, and Surgical division of a portion of the internal anal sphincter. 

I wonder if Jen's husband has done this to her and threatened her health a*** s**... I would have never done it ever done it....

Anal fissures can cause crohn's disease. That means Internal organs getting damaged.

fascrs

https://fascrs.org › patients › anal-fi...

Anal Fissure Expanded Information | ASCRS

Less common causes of fissures include inflammatory conditions and certain anal infections or tumors, such as Crohn's disease

So anal sex can cause life threatening situation... It can cause the destruction of internal organs. Again? I would never do this to Jen. Put her at risk of this type of sickness and organ damage. I would to know if her husband has ever done anal Is sex with her threatening her life....... 😳 And doing anal oral, you have to be nuts.

Yes, an untreated anal fissure can cause severe sepsis with septic shock, which can be caused by P. aeruginosa. 



Critical Care

Severe sepsis with multiple organ dysfunctions caused by ...

Nov 14, 2012 — Positive diagnosis of severe sepsis was based on clinical and laboratory findings. We have established the likely starting point of the patient's severe condition to be the multiple skin lesions and untreated anal fissure. Although the patient was immunocompetent, he developed a severe form of sepsis with septic shock caused by P. aeruginosa hardly responsive to treatment. We believe that the patient's favorable development was due to this germ's increased sensitivity to antibiotics, most probably community acquired.

Toxic shock syndrome (TSS) is a clinical illness caused by a toxin released by Staphylococcus aureus. Symptoms include: rapid onset of fever, rash, hypotension, multi-organ involvement, and vomiting. 

Cutaneous and subcutaneous lesions, especially in the peri-anal area, are a major contributor to atypical TSS. 

Anal fissures, also known as anal tears, are longitudinal tears in the anal canal's mucous membrane. They are the most common cause of bleeding and pain during bowel movements. Symptoms include:

Sharp or burning pain during defecation

Bright red, fresh bleeding

Dull pain that lasts for hours

Itching

Anal dampness

Constipation

Increased flatulence 

Most people do well with conservative treatments and the fissure will heal and not recur. However, if the condition becomes chronic or comes back after treatment, surgical options can provide relief. 

So doing anal oral you can cause damage to your kidneys and You're intestines......

Yes, some strains of E. coli (Escherichia coli) can damage the kidneys and intestines, and can cause serious illness. These strains, called STEC (Shiga toxin-producing E. coli), produce toxins that can severely damage the lining of the intestines and kidneys. STEC infections can lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a serious kidney and blood problem that can sometimes be fatal. 



kidshealth.org

E. Coli Infections: Diarrhea (for Teens) | Nemours KidsHealth

Most people recover completely from an E. coli infection. But some can develop a serious kidney and blood problem called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).



NCBI

FAQ: E. Coli: Good, Bad, & Deadly - NCBI Bookshelf

coli) attaches via intimin protein, but produces a poison called Shiga toxin. EHEC strains cause bloody diarrhea and can sometimes damage the kidneys and progress to the potentially fatal hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).



health.state.mn.us

Escherichia coli (E. coli) - MN Dept. of Health

Oct 5, 2022 — Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (EHEC). STEC strains can cause serious illness in humans by producing toxins that can severely damage the lining of your intestines and kidneys. Infection with STEC strains can lead to serious complications like hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which sometimes is fatal.



HealthLink BC

E. Coli Infection From Food or Water | HealthLink BC

E. coli (Escherichia coli) is the name of a germ, or bacterium, that lives in the digestive tracts of humans and animals. There are many types of E. coli, and most of them are harmless. But some can cause bloody diarrhea. Some strains of E. coli may also cause severe anemia or kidney failure, which can lead to death. Other strains can cause other infections.



Saint Luke's Health System

E. Coli Infection | Saint Luke's Health System

They can cause severe illness because they make a toxin called Shiga. These types of E. coli are called STEC (Shiga toxin-producing E. coli). The most common STEC in the U.S. is a type of E. coli called O157. In some cases, STEC can cause life-threatening symptoms such as a type of kidney failure (HUS or hemolytic uremic syndrome). You can be infected with E. coli by swallowing food or water that has the bacteria. Contamination occurs when food or water comes in contact with stool from infected humans and animals. The foods that have been affected in E. coli outbreaks include: Meat (especially ground beef) Sprouts. Lettuce. Onions.

E. coli is a bacterium that lives in the digestive tracts of humans and animals. Most types of E. coli are harmless, but some can cause bloody diarrhea, severe anemia, or kidney failure. Symptoms of an E. coli infection usually resolve within 5 to 7 days, but can last up to 10 days. Mild to moderate symptoms include:

Abdominal cramping

Watery diarrhea that may turn bloody

Gas

Loss of appetite or nausea

Fatigue

Fever

Vomiting in rare cases 

Severe symptoms include: bloody urine, decreased urine output, pale skin, bruising, and dehydration. 

You should call your doctor if you experience any severe symptoms, or if symptoms continue for longer than expected. 

You can get E. coli by swallowing food or water that has been contaminated with stool from infected humans or animals. Risk factors for E. coli infection include:

Age

Weakened immune systems

Eating certain types of food, such as undercooked hamburger, unpasteurized milk, or soft cheeses made from raw milk 

This is why we have to be so careful with organic farming... This is why I told you there's a process of killing off the e-coli and then using it as fertilizer. You cannot use raw waste....

This is why I came up with ways of cleaning out the animal before the animal is parted and I came up with ways of cleaning out fish's track and this is important with shrimp... You need to clean out the vein and wash that area of the shrimp....

coli) attaches via intimin protein, but produces a poison called Shiga toxin. EHEC strains cause bloody diarrhea and can sometimes damage the kidneys and progress to the potentially fatal hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). EHEC has caused many large food-borne outbreaks worldwide; O157:H7 is the best known strain.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › NB...

FAQ: E. Coli: Good, Bad, & Deadly - NCBI Bookshelf

So that vain on the shrimp needs to be cleaned out of the manure, and it's with any shellfish, any fish. Any animal any plant life?

For instance, just like ground beef, raw shrimp can contain bacteria like E. coli. But if you cook it thoroughly, the heat will kill off the bacteria, as well as other potentially harmful pathogens that may be lurking, before it could wreak havoc with your digestive tract.May 23, 2023

https://www.self.com › Food › shrimp

Is the Black Line in Shrimp Its Poop, and Is It Safe to Eat? | SELF

Yes, eating raw or undercooked shrimp can cause food poisoning from E. coli. E. coli is a bacterium that can cause food poisoning and other gastrointestinal illnesses. The presence of E. coli in shrimp indicates fecal contamination, which can occur during harvesting, processing, or preparation. Other sources of contamination include the water supply, ice used for storage, and contact with other seafood or water. 



self.com

Is the Black Line in Shrimp Its Poop, and Is It Safe to Eat? | SELF

May 23, 2023 — That's not to say you can't get sick from eating shrimp in general. You certainly can, but the food poisoning risk related to shellfish typically comes from eating it raw or undercooked, says Dr. Love. For instance, just like ground beef, raw shrimp can contain bacteria like E. coli. But if you cook it thoroughly, the heat will kill off the bacteria, as well as other potentially harmful pathogens that may be lurking, before it could wreak havoc with your digestive tract.



MedicineNet

What Happens if You Eat a Raw Shrimp? - MedicineNet

Oct 3, 2022 — Both these bacteria varieties can cause severe diseases. Contamination of the water supply can also infect shrimp with Escherichia coli. The ice used for conserving shrimp may be a source of contamination. The E. coli infecting shrimp can be toxin-producing. Viruses that infect shrimp include caliciviruses (including norovirus) and hepatitis A virus. Shrimp may become contaminated during harvesting, processing, or preparation. Storage at the wrong temperature, contamination by an infected food handler, or cross-contamination through contact with other seafood or water can also infect shrimp. Salmonellosis.



Healthline

Raw Shrimp: Safety, Risks, and Cooking Tips

May 31, 2019



pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Detection of pathogenic Escherichia coli and microbiological quality of ...

Foodborne illnesses caused by Escherichia coli are one of the most important gastrointestinal diseases and therefore represent a public health risk. The presence of E. coli in water or in products such as shrimp indicates faecal contamination.

To avoid food poisoning from E. coli, you can:

Cook shrimp to an internal temperature of 145°F (63°C)

Separate raw seafood from ready-to-eat foods in your shopping cart, refrigerator, and meal preparation area

Wash your hands before handling, serving, or eating food, after touching animals, and after using the bathroom 

E. coli symptoms include bloody diarrhea and cramps, and usually end in about a week. However, some people may experience severe blood and kidney problems. 

Again, this is why Jeffrey Dahmer had all kinds of mental health issues.And this is why you get so many gay male serial killers... But this is why you get so many males and females that have psychotic issues. Because E. Coli can cause psychotic issues, they can cause psychotic manifestations. I am highly clean.... And I also make sure my environment is highly clean... You are pigs and filth and discussed.But the funny thing is psychologist.S don't know this that it could be e, coli, causing the mental health and neither do pharmaceutical companies treating you for an e.Coli infection that can cause inflammation in the brain..... So this is why you have so many fucked up gay people and lesbians... How do all sexuals if they do the right thing?They're at very low risk and compared to the LGBTQ and then hanging around them as my brother-in-law banned them from being around the children and it protected the children from all kinds of infections.....

Yes, Escherichia coli (E. coli) infection can cause psychiatric disorders, including psychotic manifestations. This can be a result of neurological involvement or meningitis, and some antibiotics used to treat the infection can also cause acute psychotic symptoms. 



NCBI

Interplay Between Human Gut Bacteria Escherichia coli and ...

Feb 25, 2020 — coli in the gastrointestinal tract can cause psychiatric disorders with gut inflammation and the superiority of anti-inflammatory bacteria such as L. mucosae can alleviate psychiatric disorders with the attenuation of altered microbiota (Figure 6).



NCBI

Psychosis and E. coli Infection: A Forgotten Issue - PMC - NCBI

Sir, The outbreak of Escherichia coli infection from Germany that is presently widespread in many countries is a really important medical problem. The well-known intestinal manifestation and its complication, hemolytic uremic syndrome, are well recognized. However, the psychiatric problems due to the infection are mentioned rarely. Indeed, the E. coli infection can have a psychotic manifestation. This can be the result of neurological involvement, meningitis. [1] In addition, the use of certain antibiotics in the treatment of the infection can also induce acute psychotic symptoms.

E. coli in the gastrointestinal tract can cause psychiatric disorders due to gut inflammation. The gut microbiome produces neurotransmitters that regulate brain activity, and E. coli produces serotonin. Abnormalities in the gut microbiota-brain axis have been identified as a key factor in the pathophysiology of neural disease. 

E. coli infection can also have other long-term health consequences, including:

Abdominal pain

Bowel control

Kidney function

Bladder control

Permanent neurological damage

Psychological and behavioral consequences, such as anxiety or phobia of medical treatment 

E. coli infection can also cause life-threatening symptoms, such as: Adult kidney failure, Fever, Bleeding, Confusion, and Seizures. 

So some serious serious issues are going on with your disgusting. Sexual actions of the LGBTQ are filthy, filthy people and Bow at Children's was putting the children at great risk..... These children were already sick at the children's hospital.And now they're at risk because somebody wants to be sexually immoral... Now they're at greater risk......

So watching ABC News channel 7 Chicago with Karen Jordan as I put this together. She should be doing community awareness announcements. Telling, if you choose to be LGBTQ, you're going to go nuts......

[amlao]

Day 261 of Being Single for the First Second Time in My Adult Life

I think I fumbled Shawn.

He invited me out for a low-pressure opportunity to meet, and I was super sick with strep at the time but thought that sounded lame and embarrassing (???) so I told him I was busy.

And now he hasn’t talked to me in over a week.

I know it doesn’t make any sense now, okay?!

When someone nice and normal takes interest in me and I have an absolute inability to act right, it really reminds me how messed up I am in the dating realm.

I’m so used to men being insanely persistent and ignoring my boundaries and feigned disinterest that I almost count on it.

I know that every day that I don’t reach out, it’s going to get weirder and harder to reach out, and the stakes are going to feel higher and I’m going to be more anxious, and I don’t know how to fix it.

The longer I go without talking to him, the more I feel like what I potentially say to him has to be perfect and strategic and hilarious.

I see the connection floating away and I feel powerless to stop it.

But the worst part is that I don’t get to be self-righteous or indignant, because he was literally just nice and normal and respected my boundaries and I’m the one acting way too cool and detached on the outside but way too fixated on the inside.

I’ve been lapsing on my connections in general. I’m letting my friendship with Rebecca slip too. She’s put all the legwork into the relationship: initiating it, texting first, orchestrating the two hangouts.

I know it’s time for me to take the reigns.

It just causes me so much anxiety.

And the anxiety is inhibiting, which makes being myself and reaching out harder.

So, how do I fix this?

I like my therapist, but her solution to anxiety just seems like such a do-nothing solution.

“Acknowledge the feelings but don’t try to fight them, and you’ll get desensitized to them in time,”

So, how am I feeling?

I’m feeling inhibited. I’m feeling self-conscious. I’m feeling uncertain in my social abilities.

I feel paralyzed in indecision, because I’m avoiding reaching out to escape rejection, but I also know that my prolonged distance guarantees rejection.

Okay. And what might happen if you put yourself out there?

Shawn has lived so much life and has seemingly been a self-sufficient adult for so long. I think he sees me as an equal in a professional career on the surface, but he doesn’t really know yet. I’ve had like, the world’s longest childhood. I’m immature. I can’t cook, I don’t know how to garden—I just found out that babies don’t drink water last year. I’m sexually inexperienced and have only slept with three people. I’ve also never felt self-conscious about the fact that I’m sober by choice, but when it’s in the context of everything else, it feels…uncool and like a lack of life experience.

But that’s just your life and the stage you’re at now. If he doesn’t like these things about you, doesn’t that just mean you’re incompatible? And wouldn’t you rather find that out for sure rather than making up his mind for him and always wondering?

Yes, but…I also don’t want to witness his disappoint in who I am in real-time.

Who says he’s going to be disappointed in you because you don’t know the same things he knows or have experienced the same things he’s experienced? Isn’t learning from each other the beauty of a new connection?

Does he know about the medical things you’re learning about?

Does he know about your hobbies and interests?

Why do you always discount the things you know a lot about as unimportant or general knowledge, but are mortified when you don’t know something?

Sure, you don’t know anything about kids and you couldn’t pick out a philodendron in a lineup of flowers, but how many people your age are as financially literate as you are?

Sure, you live with your parents in your 30’s, but you’re comparing yourself to someone who was forced to grow up and never even had that opportunity. It’s not a fair comparison.

Okay, true…but what do I do now? It’s been over a week. He’s probably over it by now.

Dude, he’s been DM-ing you since 2017. I don’t think he’s going to be over it in a week.

Just be yourself. If he doesn’t like you, you just get to know it’s not right and move on without regret.

What if I say something stupid or am acting in a way that’s so obviously weird and hot-and-cold?

Remember when you talked to Nick and he was like the way you act when you like someone x 1000? Super hot and cold? Weird and detached and pushing you away, but also very obviously enamored with you under the surface?

You can’t be ANY worse than that, and that didn’t stop you from being attracted to him for like, five years.

You’ve acted normal to slightly disinterested on the surface. Just make your interest in him more obvious.

I think you’ll be fine.

But what if I show interest and he thinks it’s too much and rejects me?

Taylor, SHUT UP. If Liv from Tiktok can text her crush daily with very minimal reciprocated effort for TWENTY-SIX DAYS, you can text a guy who literally put himself out there and expressed interest in you first. JESUS CHRIST.

And what about Rebecca?

JUST TEXT HER AND MAKE PLANS. She knows you were recently sick. There’s no pressure to be alluring.

[brehaaorgana]

That isn't the same situation at all.

Athletes use electrolyte solutions all the time....that's why sports drinks with added electrolytes are so wildly popular. Electrolyte drinks are readily available and good for a variety of illnesses.

In case you didn't know, drinking heavily can cause: vomiting, sweating, diarrhea, dizziness, fatigue, dehydration, lowered salt levels, and low blood sugar. Medical websites recommend ... replenishing your electrolytes! This is common medical advice. It might've been repeated recently on TikTok, but this isn't new. Also like...anyone whose parents ever gave them Pedialyte or Gatorade with electrolytes when they were puking as a kid is going to assume it still helps when they drank too much and puked as adults.

You also have no idea if any of those people are alcoholics doing basic harm reduction (I'm including binge drinkers as alcohol abusers). Of course, sustained alcohol abuse does the bad "hangover" stuff times a bajillion even if you do drink electrolytes, but this is still harm reduction. Also related: Alcoholics sometimes disguise their addiction as frequent stomach flu/food poisoning/pneumonia bouts — either intentionally or because they'd rather blame these things than consider the addiction and booze is the cause. It also might actually be those things too bc alcoholism weakens your digestive and immune systems.

There's like, dozens of different electrolyte solutions on the market available for people that folks take for all kinds of reasons: Heat exhaustion. Hangover. Strenuous workout. Stomach flu. Food poisoning. Flu. Strep throat. Experiencing high altitudes. Fever sweats. Breastfeeding.

It sucks the parents didn't get what they wanted, but drunk people buying electrolyte solutions to correct the low salt/sugar/dehydration that makes hangovers so miserable isn't actually misusing a resource.

apparently people are now purchasing thick water to make slimes with because of a trend on tiktok

thick water is for disabled people who can’t swallow properly. stores usually have extremely limited supplies of it.

please don’t buy thick water for fun or to make slime with. it’s literally the only way some disabled people can drink anything. It’s not a fucking toy

[thetravelerwrites]

Drigka (Orc)

Rating: Explicit Relationship: Male Orc/Female Human Additional Tags: Exophilia, Monster Boyfriend, Orc, Orc Boyfriend Content Warning: Psoriasis, Psoriatic Arthritis, Disabled Character, Chronic Illness, Skin Condition, Physical Illness, Depression Words: 4183

Commissioned by @acahope311​​! A young woman in college breaks up with her boyfriend after his callous attitude toward her medical condition, she suddenly reunites with him years later. Please leave feedback!

Drigka had been your highschool sweetheart. The two of you had grown up together in the same small town and started dating in eighth grade. The puppy love the two of you had fostered over the course of your childhood turned into real love as you blossomed into adults. He was everything you could have ever hoped for in a partner. He was perfect. Everything was perfect.

Then, halfway into your second year of college, you got sick. At first, it was just a case of strep throat, but it didn’t explain the sudden rashes that developed on your body a few weeks later. The doctors simply thought it was stress from college causing hives, but after a few months, the symptoms got worse, becoming more like scales rather than human flesh, making you extremely self-conscious. Before, your weight had always made you feel very self aware, but you thought you wouldn’t complain about being overweight for the rest of your life if this skin condition would just go away.

It took almost a year and several rounds of testing to be diagnosed with plaque psoriasis. Then, you began having stiffness in your joints, pain when you walked, and constant aches all over. Another battery of tests revealed that your condition had the potential to evolve into psoriatic arthritis, and there wasn’t a cure for either condition.

You started on preventative anti-inflammatory medications and considered going on immuno-suppressants as well, with talks of the possibility of joint replacements in the future if treatments didn’t work. The entire ordeal put you in a deep depression and it was all you could do to complete the semester.

Drigka tried being supportive, but it was clear he couldn’t relate to you anymore. He had never been sick nor had he ever known anyone who had been sick, and as such, had no idea how to help you or what to do about it. Well, neither did you, but you didn’t have a choice in the matter.

A few months after the diagnosis, you could feel him pulling away. He didn’t take you out on dates anymore, whereas before he had always made it a point to make time for you, regardless of how busy he might have been. He stayed at work later, and started taking more overtime. He began screening your calls and leaving you on read. It made you feel even more anxious when he made excuses not to see you, and made your depression worse.

You were pretty sure he wanted to break up, as much as the thought hurt. You were getting tired of the anxiety of wondering when he would finally drop the bomb, and of him tiptoeing around you like you were made of glass, so eventually you decided to confront him.

It was then that he broke your heart.

He hadn’t meant to say it; it slipped out of his mouth in the heat of the moment during the ensuing fight, but once he said it, there was no taking it back.

“Look, I deserve to know if you’re going to break up with me!” You told him. “You’ve been avoiding me for weeks.”

“I haven’t been avoiding you, I’ve been busy!” He retorted, though he wasn’t looking you in the eye, and instead was focused on his work. “I’m not going to break up with you, will you stop being paranoid?”

“I’m not being paranoid!” You insisted, pulling the papers he was going over from his hands, making him look up at you angrily. He tried to reach for them but you held them away. “I’ve known you my whole life, Drigka. I know when you’re losing interest in something. Maybe you don’t want to admit it to yourself, but at least be honest with me.”

“I am being honest!” He said, standing abruptly. “Look, we’ve both just been stressed out, okay? I’m not losing interest. Do you want me to break up with you?”

“No! Of course not!”

“Then why are you harping on this?” He snatched his papers back out of your hands and sat back down. “I’m trying to get my work done, my thesis paper is due. Just leave me be for a while.”

“You asked me to come over, Drigka,” You reminded him in frustration. “You told me we were going to talk about things. But you’ve been ignoring me since I got here.”

“Because you don’t want to talk, you want to fight,” Drigka said dismissively, sitting back down at his desk.

“That’s not true! I wouldn’t be fighting with you if you’d actually sit down and have a conversation with me!”

“What do you want from me?” He shouted back. “I have my own life! I have my own problems! I can’t drop everything I’ve got going on to take care of you!”

“I’m not asking you to!” You shot back. “I’m just asking you to stop pretending everything is fine and ducking around me like I’m contagious! Acting like nothing is wrong is just making the problem worse!”

“Then you’re doing that on your own, because I don’t have a problem!” Drigka said, glaring at his work.

You sighed explosively. “If I’d known you were going to behave like this, I wouldn’t have come.”

He snorted derisively without looking up.“And if I’d known you were going to get sick and make that your whole life, I wouldn’t have asked you out in the first place.”

Your mouth fell open in shock and you actually stumbled backward, feeling as if you’d been stabbed in the gut. Tears prickled your eyes and you couldn’t find your voice. In the silence, he looked up and saw your face and sighed.

“Look, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry, okay? Can we just--”

He stood up and reached for you, as if you hug you, but you darted out of his grasp. You shook your head slowly at him, the tears rolling down your face, and you backed away.

“I didn’t get sick on purpose, Drigka,” You said softly. “This isn’t something I’m doing to you.”

“No, I know that--”

“Am I inconvenient?” You asked him in a venomous undertone. “Are my health problems an inconvenience to you, Drigka? Is me being sick and sad a bother?”

“Babe, I said I was sorry--” He said impatiently. He reached again, and you ducked him.

“Don’t touch me,” You spat.

“I’m trying to apologize,” He said, folding his arms, a scowl on his face. “Calm down for a second and listen to me.”

“You don’t even know what you’re apologizing for, do you? You just want me to stop being mad at you. Let me save you the trouble and save myself from the headache of waiting for you to do it: I’m breaking up with you.”

“What?” Drigka said, scoffing. “Seriously? Just like that?”

“Yeah, just like that,” You said, folding your arms over your chest.

He looked at you incredulously. “So ten years of dating means nothing to you? Twenty years of being friends? Just because you’re mad?”

“When did I ever say it didn’t mean anything to me?!” You retorted. “The problem isn’t even that you don’t understand, it’s that you’re not even trying to understand! Maybe it’s best we don’t talk again until you do.” You turned and walked toward the door.

“So you’re shutting me out? Completely?” Drigka said in disbelief. “You’re not even giving me a chance?”

“I gave you plenty of chances, Drigka,” You said. “Every time I asked to spend time with you and you made an excuse, every time I ignored my pain to listen to all of your troubles, every time I expected a shred of concern from you but all I got was disinterest and disappointment, those were your chances. It’s not my fault you failed.” You turned back to look at his furious face for a final time. “Admit it: you’re not mad that I broke up with you. You’re mad you didn’t do it first.”

And then you left.

The first few months after the breakup were hard, especially because he kept texting and calling. He vacillated between being hostile and apologetic, insisting that you were overreacting and if you’d just listen to him, he could explain. Eventually, you blocked his number and deleted him from all your social media. It was when you made plans to transfer to another school in another state that he finally got the message.

What he’d said hadn’t just hurt you, it made you feel like a burden; like getting sick hadn’t just ruined your life, but his life as well. You felt guilty and ashamed of yourself, even though you knew it was just something that happened and wasn’t really anyone’s fault. There was no one to blame, but there was an instinct to try and blame someone, and it was easiest to blame yourself. Drigka’s words made that blame seem justified.

Six years had passed since the two of you split, and you had settled as well as you could into life after college and in a new town. You’re symptoms were well managed and you hadn’t yet developed any severe arthritis problems, and the doctors were optimistic about your long term prognosis. The new medications and therapy was working wonders. You still had flare-ups and days of fatigue, but you were doing better than you could have hoped.

You were working in a forensic accounting firm and the boss was understanding about your condition, letting you work from home on days when you felt like going into the office would be too difficult. He suffered from Crohn’s Disease himself, so he was intimately familiar with how sudden chronic illnesses could strike. You felt extremely fortunate to find this position; you’d had a few jobs before this that weren’t quite as understanding, and it was extremely disheartening to hear your boss and coworkers dismissing your condition as not a big deal.

You still thought of Drigka from time to time. He had been your best friend since you were babies and your first love. You hadn’t dated anyone since breaking up with him, partly because you’d been too busy, and partly because… well… what he’d said stuck with you. What if the next person thought your condition was a burden, too? Those words had echoed in your heart and mind ever since and it always made you feel like garbage. You didn’t know if you could handle hearing it a second time.

About a month after starting your new job, your boss called you into his office.

“Ah, I’m glad you’re here,” Mr. Bronston said, looking up. “A representative from the car dealership will be here with the internal accounts. He thinks someone in his team has been embezzling money and needs someone to do the forensics. Are you up for that?”

“Of course,” You said immediately, taking the invoice from him and scanning it. “Do they have a suspect yet?”

“No, but their books definitely aren’t adding up. There’s a deficit of about three hundred thousand.”

Your head rocked back in shock. “Whoa.”

“They’ve been taking small amounts over a long period of time, so it must be one of the senior associates.”

“So not the representative, then? Didn’t you say he was a new employee?”

“Yep, he was hired a few months ago. He’s actually the one who caught the discrepancies.” A knock on the door interrupted him. “That’s probably him now.”

Mr. Bronston walked to the door and opened it, and your heart dropped into your shoes.

He looked different than when you last saw him, but you’d have recognized him no matter what he wore or how he presented himself. The familiar orc man standing at the door was wearing a fitted grey suit rather than his normal jeans and t-shirt. His long hair, which he’d normally let fall free back in college, was pulled tight and braided elegantly behind his back. His face, which paled with shock when he saw you, was just as handsome as it had always been.

You felt as if you’d been punched in the gut. Seeing him now when you’d just found your stride was nothing short of infuriating.

“Hello, Drigka,” You said with a frustrated sigh, staring at him dryly.

“...hi,” He replied in a small, startled voice.

Mr. Bronston looked between the two of you in surprise. “Do you know each other?”

“...we dated,” You told him flatly.

“Oh,” Your boss said, frowning. “Do you need me to take you off this account?”

You sighed and contemplated saying yes, but this was the first big case you’d been assigned. This would be a perfect opportunity to show Mr. Bronston how professional you could be.

“No, it’s fine,” You said. “As long as he can keep personal matters out of it, I have no problems working on the account with him.”

“If you’re sure,” Mr. Bronston said, putting a hand on your shoulder sympathetically. “But if you change your mind, do tell me.”

“Yes, sir,” You said, smiling gratefully at him. Mr. Bronston was a fatherly type and you felt thankful for his generosity. You turned to Drigka and the smile faded. “Do you have the records with you?”

Drigka jumped as if goosed and motioned to his briefcase. “Yes, I have them here.”

“Then let’s go over them in my office,” You said, not looking forward to spending time with him alone. “If you’ll follow me.”

Drigka gulped but trailed behind you as you walked back to your office. You could feel his eyes on you, boring a hole in the back of your head. You opened the door and stepped aside to let him in.

“Now, show me the discrepancies you found and I’ll start on the framework.”

“Uh… yeah, sure,” He said, sitting on the chair across from your desk and opening his briefcase. “Several vehicles have been sold for a few hundred dollars less than the asking price, but several customers have told us that they are paying the full amount without discounts, so the money has gone somewhere and we can’t find it. The problem is we can’t pinpoint it to one individual, since the cars were all sold by different salespeople.”

“Could multiple people be at fault?”

“I certainly hope not. It would mean that everyone at the dealership is involved,” Drigka said, frowning.

“Unlikely, but it could be one or two, or possibly a team,” You said, rifling through the papers. “Did they have an internal accountant before you were hired?”

“No, one of the salespeople was handling the books.That’s part of the problem, the accounts were a mess. I had to call every single person who bought a car from that lot in the last five years to get accurate details.” He grimaced and sighed. “It was a nightmare.”

“Okay, well, I’ll start making a spreadsheet,” You said, laying the papers out in order. “It won’t take long, I’m a fast typer.”

“I remember,” He said with a slight smile.

As you worked, he sat quietly, but you couldn’t help noticing how he kept looking at you surreptitiously.

“How are you?” He asked after a few minutes.

You paused and looked at him over your glasses. “Fine,” You answered shortly.

“How’s your condition been?”

“Managed.”

“Do you--”

“Drigka,” You said curtly. “I don’t want to talk about personal matters at work.”

He nodded diffidently. “Right, of course.” He placed his elbows against the edge of your desk, clasping and unclasping his fingers. “I don’t supposed I could persuade you to have dinner with me tomorrow evening, for old time’s sake?”

“No,” You said, concentrating on your work and not looking at him. “I have a full day tomorrow and I won’t have the energy for dinner.”

“Do they pile on the workload here?” He asked, attempting a casual smile.

“No,” You replied, glancing at him. “I have physical therapy and a dermatology procedure scheduled tomorrow.”

“Oh, I see,” He replied. “Do you still not drive?”

“It’s not that I don’t drive, it’s that I don’t see the point of owning a car when I can walk to work and the grocery store just fine.”

“Isn’t it bad for you to walk with pre-arthritis?”

“It can be if I’m not careful, but I take precautions.”

“I could drive you,” He said. “To your appointments. I don’t mind.”

“I’ve already got the ride-share service booked.”

“Cancel it.”

“It’ll be all day.”

“I’m fine with that.”

Your hands stopped typing and glared at Drigka. “Why are you doing this?”

“I just… I just wanted to talk. And apologize. You said we shouldn’t talk again until I understood why I was saying sorry. I think I understand now.”

“Really?” You said, folding your arms doubtfully. “And why is that?”

He sighed heavily. “About two years after we broke up, I contracted Mono. The kissing disease, you know? I got a pretty severe case: in addition to the normal symptoms, I also got rashes and an enlarged liver. My throat hurt so bad that I didn’t eat and I lost a bunch of weight. It lasted for months. I felt like I was going to die, but everyone around me laughed at me and asked me why I was making such a big deal about such a normal illness and told me to suck it up and get over myself. My boss actually got angry and fired me because he accused me of using the illness to slack off.” He looked at you with a contrite expression. “I thought of you and I wondered, ‘Is this what I sounded like? Was I this callous? It’s no wonder she was so mad at me.’ I wanted to apologize, but I didn’t know how to get ahold of you anymore.”

“So you got something like the flu and now you think you understand?” You said brusquely.

He shook his head. “No, I know I don’t. But I do know it’s hard to live a normal life or be happy when no one is understanding to your struggles. I do get that part now. And I’m sorry for what I said. It was stupid and selfish and it never should have even crossed my mind, let alone come out of my mouth. It was a shitty thing to do to my best friend and the woman I loved. And I’m really, really sorry.”

With your arms still folded, you sat back in your chair. “Just because you apologized doesn’t mean I have to forgive you.”

“I know,” He replied.

You chewed the inside of you lip pensively. “I have to be at physical therapy at nine in the morning, and the dermatologist’s office at eleven. Is that fine with you?”

He perked up. “Yeah, sure. What procedure are you having done?”

“I’m having a pre-cancerous mole removed.”

“Ah, I see,” He replied. “Skin cancer is more likely for psoriasis sufferers because of the chronic inflammation.”

“How do you know that?”

“I read some literature about it.”

“Hmm,” You unfolded your arms and started typing again. “Can we get back to work now?”

“Yeah, of course,” He replied, seemingly more comfortable.

The next day, he arrived at your apartment with a light breakfast and a smile. It reminded you of the early days of your relationship with him and you smiled in reminiscence.

Physical therapy started with massaging lotion into your skin before doing various exercises to keep your joints loose. Drigka sat patiently in the waiting room until you were done, and then took you to the dermatology office. He went with you into the examination room and even held your hand while they numbed the affected area with a local anesthetic and removed the mold, sending it off to be biopsied. It was just after lunchtime by the time it was done.

“Are you hungry?” He asked. “You only had a small breakfast. We can drop off your prescription at the pharmacy and get some lunch, if you’d like.”

“Sure,” You said. “Although, I don’t know many places yet. I just moved here a month ago.”

“Really?” He said with a smile. “I’ve been here for about a year. It’s amazing we haven’t run into each other yet.”

You snorted. “In a city this size? I doubt we’d have run into each other if we’d lived here our whole lives.”

He laughed. “Do you still like Thai food? There’s a really good place nearby that I think you’ll like. I’m a regular there.”

Your brows furrowed. “But you don’t really like Thai food.”

He shrugged and side-smiled. “Yeah, but since it was your favorite, it reminded me of you, so I developed a taste for it.”

You smiled softly to yourself. You almost forgot how sweet he’d been to you when you were together.

Lunch was delicious, and the two of you sat there for what seemed like hours, catching up on what had been happening these last six years and reminiscing about the past. At some point you realized his hand was covering yours. He went silent and stared at the table.

“I’ve missed you,” He said softly. “I regret the way I treated you after you were diagnosed. I was an idiot and I took you for granted and I’ll never forgive myself for that.” He looked up at you. “I’m not arrogant enough to ask for your forgiveness, or even for a second chance to be with you, but… can we be friends again?”

You sighed and linked your fingers with him. “Friends sounds nice, but you’re going to have to earn it. At least another thirty lunches. Maybe even delivery on demand.”

He grinned widely. “Deal.”

He’d been incredibly supportive and caring in the weeks after you’d reconnected, buying you expensive specialty lotions and giving you massages, reigniting your desire for him. Whether he was doing it with that intent in mind, you weren’t sure, but you were enjoying the attention all the same.

It was a month later when you kissed him again. The two of you were celebrating closing the embezzlement case: it had been a team of three salespeople working together to skim money from the company, and they were all fired. You’d earned a huge commission for closing the case and you treated him to dinner for the first time. When he escorted you home, you kissed his lips, surprising him.

“Do you want to come in?” You asked him.

“Very much,” He replied, pulling off his tie as he crossed the threshold into your apartment.

The two of you shed your clothes as you made your way to the bedroom. He laughed when he looked at your bed.

“You still have that awful cheetah print comforter,” He said, grinning.

“It was a gift,” You said, pulling his hair out of it’s glossy braid. “And it’s comfy and warm. It’d be a waste to get rid of it just because it’s a little ugly.”

He snorted and kissed you again, lifting you up and wrapping your legs around his waist. He entered you while holding you up, then eased onto the bed while inside you. He lay you down on the pillows and began to thrust, moving in that circular way that he knew you liked. No one knew you like he did. You reached up and touched his nipples, circling and flicking them with your fingertips, and he groaned. You dug your heels into his ass to encourage him to speed up, and he obliged, smacking his body into yours.

“I missed you, too,” You told him. You’d been careful never to talk about your relationship in the past with him or your feelings toward him after the breakup, but it felt right to do it now. “I never forgot you. I was angry, but I still loved you. I’ll always love you.”

“Oh, honey,” He breathed against the skin of your collarbone. “I love you so much.”

He thrust hard and fast, and you could feel him pulsing inside you, close to his peak. You cried out as the wave of pleasure hit you and your body tensed all over. He grunted, thrust three times, and stopped, his hips jerking, groaning with each spasm, before growing still, perched up on his hands while still inside. Slowly, he lowered his body on top of yours.

“I love you,” He said again, though it was sleepy-sounding and slightly muffled as his mouth was squished sideways on your chest.

You laughed softly through your nose. “I love you, too, Drigka.”

He picked himself up with a grunt and looked down at your face. “Does this mean we can start over?”

You nodded. “Yeah. If you want to.”

“I want to,” He said. “All I’ve thought about for these last six years was seeing you again. I won’t make the same mistakes I made.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

“Okay. But you still have a lot of forgiveness to earn, you know.”

He smiled at you fondly. “Whatever you wish, honey. You’re stuck with me.”

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