#even if they say their back is a bit achey and their main issue is the huge knee haemarthrosis

[help-im-a-medstudent]

When your patient insists on walking from the waiting room and then you diagnose them with a broken vertebra

[theanonymousfoxsimp]

Muzan + the upper moons reacting to you on your period(demon reader for the heck of it)

Featuring

- kokushibo,akaza,douma,muzan,daki and gyutaro

18+ content,blood warning,gross things said

Muzan

To tell you he was a bit intrigued more than worried is an understatement, outright asks you why you're bleeding down there

Lowkey wants to lick it

He's nasty yall

After you explain do your demon lord lover,he's immediately making sure you're comfortable and well taken care of

Yells at the uppermoons when they get too close to comfort, especially douma who really wants to take a bite out of you

He doesn't care if you bleed on him,if you find it gross then he won't, HE EATS PEOPLE FOR A LIVING,this man can handle this!

Wants you in his lap,has a lavish pillow for you to lay back on and a hot bag pressed to your stomach to relieve cramps

He's not as used to this so if he says something and your emotions are haywire,he dosen't really see the issue unless you start crying from his words

A bit shocked at how emotional you are?? Mostly concerned on what happens when you get mad

Douma found out,you took his arm off pretty quickly after he tried to take you from your warm basking spot in muzan's room. Muzan was surprised but nonthless proud after you sent douma running for his life

He pauses everything for as long as your period lasts,right now you are his main priority since he cannot go out with you because you'd attract demons(he dosen't blame you for it)

kokushibo

Outright hoists you onto his shoulder to sniff you,probably wants to have a taste if it weren't for you wacking him

Dosen't understand the concept of peroids until you explain in extruciating detail on what it was he dosent show it but he's a bit mortified

Same as muzan,you're his top priority but he'd only bring you out if you begged him to,he understands that you do need food and the raw animal meets won't suffice

He's a bit concerned on why a demon of all things can get this until daki kindly explains that this is normal and doesn't always happen every month like it should be for humans-

Outright asks if he can go down on you,he reads ALOT in his spare time and comes to find out that certian actions can help ease different parts of you.

Him and douma can and will wake you up with their head inbetween your legs,he's not feasting like he normally would, he's being gentle and honestly holds you close when he's done,messaging any achey limbs

Treats you like his GODDESS,if anyone gets too close,even muzan,he is insanely protective

You cannot go anywhere with this man,he's always watching you and following you,even if you don't know

Akaza

He know's what to do the moment you are on your period

Dosen't notice it at first until he smells your blood and is immediately concerned until he realizes where its coming from. Insert concerned spouce noises whenever you insist you'll be fine

Your wellbeing is his top priority,he cannot leave you alone for more than a few seconds without coming back and worrying how you're feeling.

Demons who get too close to you are forced to say muzans name as punishment,he dosen't like getting his hands dirty unless need be because he's more concerned about you

He doesn't ask if he can shove his head down there,he only asks for cuddles and gentle reassuring kisses for you

Hands down out of any uppermoon,know's the most and how to handle it without doing too much

His hands are not as warm as you'd like but he can easily stick his hand on your stomach and ease your cramps if he's warm enough

Gentle back massages,praise,bubble baths with oils that'll help,this man PAMPERS you the whole time.

Finds periods being a warrior thing,that whomever goes through it has fought a long and gruelling battle which increases his admiration and love towards you

Has daki with you whenever he can't be near you,he trusts daki more than he trusts any of the other upper moons and muzan

Brings you the most high quality human meat,makes sure its to your taste and mentally scolds himself when it isn't

Deals with your moodswings like a champ,you need to be angry? Don't worry, akaza is MORE than happy to let you hit him a few times to take out the anger. Need to be sad? Buckle up cause this demon is your pillow,an arm you always had needed to cry on. Anything you say,he handles it

Kisses 100%,stomach kisses while massaging you

Douma

To say this man wouldn't just shove his head down there between your legs is a lie,he can smell any kind of blood and the moment you start bleeding,he will feast

Has to take some time to understand it,yes everyone bleeds but why do you bleed down there?

Lowkey mortified the moment he finds out

Can't hide the fact he literally went down on you to taste it,it felt good but the fact he did it was a bit strange

Nonthless if you ask him to go down on you again as just a way to distract you from the pain

Otherwise,you HAVE to inform him on what is going on and your actual needs. Why does your body insist on bleeding for just a week--it can last longer?

He's ice cold to the touch so don't expect him to be a heating pad,he honestly has to get akaza to help him. Akaza laughs at him until he realizes how serious he is,insert now caretaker douma

Long baths,long happy baths that result in him messaging any limb that hurts,sitting in his lap depsite the blood which doesn't bother him. He's pampering you,highest quality human flesh he can find

He know's you can take care of yourself but just in case,he keeps you around at his side on the less stressful hunts

Cramps getting to you durring a hunt? He finishes hunting for you both and brings you back to your home. If not,he just kills an entire estate so he could just use their hot springs for you

He will honestly joke about it,not realizing how emotional you are and how careful he needs to be with his words. He learned that after angering you and lost a few fingers

Happily encourages napping if you need it,the fluffiest and softest pillows will be provided, a whole room dedicated for your comfort

Allows you to take his clothing and wear it if yours is too tight,his clothing is big on you so don't worry about that. Even if you get a lil blood on it,he dosen't care

Daki

Hands down the best out of everyone, she as a woman understood what you are going through. Shes surprised you still have it while she doesn't

Heating pads,lavish baths,uses anything in her power to make you more comfortable

Biggest cuddler,her sashes are soft and silky so she tends to wrap you up in them and carry you around

Her brother tends to come in asking if theres food but she pushes him out if you can't handle another demon being there

Dosen't handle your moodswings well but tries hard enough anyways,she gets offended REALLY easily

Hands down besides tengen and akaza,the best cuddler

Dosen't understand why you want higher quality drinks and meat,understands after that you have irresistible food cravings that shes very happy to fulfill

Gyuturo

Considering he has a little sister, he know's what to do

Notices it at first before you even do

He's not the cuddling type but if you ask realllyyy cutley he will join

Very happy to provide food for you,he loves hunting and his specialty is strong demon slayers

Daki helps whenever he can't, them taking turns to keep you comfort.

Deadass cannot handle moodswings,you get angry,hes angry. You are sad? He's sad

Akaza laughs at him when he says he isn't doing the greatest job,which fuels his need to help you

Keeps you around even when hunting,he carries you so its not a bother for him despite the little body mass he has

Daki pesters you sometimes so he has to usher her out whenever its too much

Dosen't like bathing as much but will sacrafice his discomfort to assist you in a bath

Isn't one to yell at you durring it,he always asks whats wrong if you aren't speaking as much as you normally would

He's oddly wark so he can sometimes act like a heating pad if you need it that bad

Bonus:

Demon uzui tengen + wives

He has wives,three at that who know what to do. even then,he himself knows how to help you

He hunts for you all the time,forbidding you to leave at all even if its just to get some fresh air,someone is by your side no matter what

Hands down would ask if he can fuck you or go down on you,he is strangley into this and doesn't really give a fuck about the blood. If you say yes,be ready for a night just for you and you alone

He is Warm,oddly warm but he uses that o his advantage. Loves it when you just snatch his hand and press it to your abdomen.

Runs you a bath every day,his wives join you in pampering you . Brings you to the hotsprings once in awhile for the warmth

You want lavish clothing and high quality human? You got it! These four are willing to help you while you're on your period

Suma helps alot,she tends to stay by your side the most while makio and hinatsuru tend to stand gaurd or nap near you both

One time a demon got too close and tengen personally dealt with it,lets just say demons don't come by the estate anymore

Handles your moodswings like a champ,it varies for the girls though

Need to let out pent up anger? He sets up a training area for you to use your blood demon art on,is always amazed with how flashy you are

[daeneryssansa]

GTKY Once edition

I was tagged by @theonceoverthinker! under the cut since it’s loooong

Musical episode: Yay or nay? Yay. I don’t necessary like the plotline in the episode - it felt a bit rushed to me, which they had to do in order to fit all the music in the one-hour episode. I enjoyed the episode overall and loved the songs - I eternally have “Revenge is Gonna Be Mine” stuck in my head, and I love Emma’s moment so much. And you can tell the cast had so much fun doing it. For a lot of shows, musical episodes don’t make sense, but it fit perfectly here.

When did you start watching Once, and do you remember why? Actually a pretty good story! I started in October 2011, the first episode I watched in full being Snow Falls. I was having a rough week. We had been hit by a monster blizzard out of nowhere, and had spent almost the entire previous week without power. To top it all off, my high school boyfriend had a generator at his house (while my family & I sat in the cold and dark) and didn’t invite me over once that week. I broke up with him (that being the culmination of a lot of problems with him), but since it was my first real “relationship”, I was pretty upset, and my parents were out to dinner, which left me home alone and desperate for something to do. I turned on the TV and saw that Once was on, and remembered thinking it looked interesting. I was immediately hooked, and it turned my whole week around. What made watching Once worthwhile? I think this show has something for everyone to relate to, whether it’s a specific character, a relationship, a particular arc, or just the whole concept of hope, love, and family. It’s also a way for us to watch some of our favorite childhood characters in a whole new light, coping with (some) issues that we ourselves might deal with. I also watched it with my mom, which made it a great bonding experience for us once I introduced it to her right before the Season 2 premiere. First + Current Main Ships? Snowing was my first OTP! I was a bit biased having seen Snow Falls before any other episode, and I think that’s their best episode as a couple. As for current ships, I ship pretty much everyone with everyone! There are so many great dynamics to enjoy, but if I had to pick a current top 3, I would probably go with Captain Swan, Swan Queen, and Rumbelle. First + Current Favorite character? My first favorite character is a tough one, since it’s been almost seven years since I first started watching the show. I want to say it was probably Belle - I adored her from the second she appeared on my TV screen. She’s still my favorite character, joined by Killian & Regina. Favorite arc (Why?)? I love the original arc most (Season 1), but I feel like most people do, so I’ll say Season 3B (the Wicked Witch). It had a lot of the same story elements of Season 1 without being a complete plagiarism of it, and there were a lot of great dynamics that were explored. I also think Bex made a wonderful villain! Favorite plot twist? In Season 3B, I loved Regina being the one to break the curse! Everyone spent the entire arc trying to find a way for Emma to break it, and it seemed like it would be a Swan Believer TLK, but instead, we got all the Regal Believer feels. And this time, Regina got to be the savior by defeating her sister with light magic. It was a great way for her character to come full circle. Speaking of 3B twists, an honorable mention to Snow White casting the Dark Curse by crushing Charming’s heart. Can’t elaborate or I will start crying. Hardest death to watch? I have to agree with Jenna on this one - although Killian’s deaths never really stick, his are the hardest for me to watch because (for those of you who have followed previous rewatch posts of mine) Colin’s mannerisms remind me so much of my boyfriend (not the boyfriend with the generator!!! a several years later and several years wiser boyfriend). So it’s really difficult to watch Emma’s reaction after he sacrifices himself at the end of 5A - Jen’s acting is incredible. And the elevator scene at the end of 5B always gets me too. This character should have gotten more time? *grabs megaphone* RUBY LUCAS! How do you summarize the show to your friends? (max. 3 sentences) Basically it’s a bunch of fairytale characters in the real world. They’re always cursed. They’re all related. Favorite Once specific trope (think Memory Wipe, Family Trees, Glowing Walkey-Talkey Hearts, Head Achey Timelines…) I don’t know if this counts but the theme of finding each other is really special in my opinion. It goes so far past Snow & Charming finding one another. Pretty much every character gets to experience finding someone they love.

Three quotes that mean a lot to you? “I am not nothing! I was never nothing! The power that you have, I don’t need.” “You are not all evil, and I am not all good. Things are not that simple.” “You don’t get to decide what I do or how I feel. I do.” If you could take home any prop from the set, what would it be? Either Henry’s book or Snowing’s ring! Favourite funny scene? One that comes to mind (that I recently watched) is when Charming is helping Rumple look for Belle in Storybrooke after she runs away, and Rumple has to awkwardly ask Charming for dating advice. And then it comes back later in Lacey when Rumple has to get Charming’s help to ask her out. Favorite Platonic Ship: Either Charming & Red or Belle & Red (definitely wish Red Beauty was not platonic even though I love Rumbelle) Favorite dish from Granny’s? I would have to say Granny’s burger! Belle highly recommends.

What part of the newly merged realms would you like to live in? Probably regular Storybrooke, within walking distance from Granny’s. 

[ernmark]

how does juno's power work in the soulmate au? can he only read nureyev's mind or is peter's just especially noticeable to him?

I almost feel like answering a question in fic form is about equivalent to answering it by bursting out into a random song-and-dance routine. I don’t know if this is a good or a bad thing, but I’m gonna roll with it regardless. 

Superpowered Soulmate AU | Part 2 | Part 3

Sleep is hard at first.

That’s what happens when you can suddenly read minds and you live in an apartment building with more than a hundred other occupants. 

Sure, it’s easy enough to tune them out during the day, when you can blend them all into the ambient chatter of a crowd. But then night comes, and slowly minds blink into unconsciousness, one after another. As the number of voices goes down, each individual one becomes more distinct– and as it turns out, I’m not the only one whose thoughts get darker as the night gets later. Three in the morning is the hour of the overworked and miserable: the college student who’s up studying until the words stop making sense in her own head; the little old man who counts the cans in his pantry and wonders how he’ll make them last until he gets his next social security check, the single parent who tries to look carefree for their kids while they’re wearing away into nothing. It’s bad enough dealing with my own issues without getting caught up in somebody else’s spiral. 

For weeks after I met Peter Nureyev, I can only manage to sleep after I’ve driven himself into exhaustion. Eventually I train myself to tune them out into a faint hum, and then to shut them out entirely, but it takes a constant effort to make that happen. Even then, sometimes other people still manage to slip into my dreams.

It’s wearing on me. I’m used to going with a few short hours of sleep– hell, when I was fresh out of the Academy I pulled all-nighters all the time– but I’m thirty-eight and my body can’t take this for much longer. What I need right now is rest. Real rest. You’d think that between Sasha’s promotion and Vicky’s ex, I’ll have covered my quota on stressful situations for a while, but I know better.

These things always come in threes. Right now the best I can hope for is that whatever happens next will come and go while I’m passed out in bed.

It takes less effort than usual to keep out the ambient voices as I trudge out of the elevator and into the hallway. Maybe it’s because it’s after goddamn midnight and most people are asleep for once. Maybe it’s because I’m so tired that nothing else is seeping through.

– should be here any minute now. Assuming he didn’t need to stop anywhere along the way? Vicky didn’t say anything about him being hurt–

Only one voice seeps through, and instinctively I try to shove it out of my head while I’m digging for my keys. It’s a loud one, though, and clearer than most. Funny, really. It almost sounds like…

Realization dawns on me just as I push open the door.

“Hello, Juno.”

The hotel must be soundproofed or something. And yeah, that makes sense, rich people have a lot of secrets and a lot of money to spend on things to keep those secrets a secret, but you’d think that they wouldn’t necessarily know to soundproof against mindreading. I don’t even know how you’d go about doing something like that. Where would you even start? Lead sheets in the wall, maybe? I’m pretty sure that would violate health codes.

But despite the fact that this resort is about as packed as a high-rise apartment building, it’s weirdly quiet inside my head. Sure, other people’s thoughts are there, but it barely takes anything to shut them out. 

All but one.

I don’t notice until I step out to call Rita. At first I’m glad to be rid of Nureyev and the hurt and resignation that’s radiating from him. The farther I go down the hall, the softer his voice gets, and the more it gets lost in the chatter of other voices in the surrounding rooms. I duck out onto the fire escape, but the fact that I’m alone makes no difference. It still feels like I’m in the middle of a rush hour crowd.

I try leaving a message to Rita, but my sentences are rambling and convoluted, because I can’t hear myself think anymore. Before I can spit out a single coherent thought, the voicemail ends my message. I stare at my comms in frustration for a few moments, debating whether I should call her back and try again.

Would it make any difference? I don’t think I’d be any clearer the second time. Besides, she probably gets the idea.

My knuckles tighten around the classy cast iron of the fire escape’s hand rail. Now that Nureyev has his coordinates, he doesn’t need me anymore.The garage isn’t too far from here. I could grab my car and go, and then drive out into the desert. Sure, it’s cold and desolate and completely empty, but at least it’d be quiet. 

Too quiet, sure, but right now I’ll take what I can get. 

Instead, I make my way back to the room Nureyev rented for us. 

I’m maybe three rooms down before his mind rises above the noise. It’s an oddly melodious mind: the main tune is steady and even, going through the routines of evening ritual. Every now and again it’s interrupted with staccato stabs of worry or hurt or anxiety, but just as quickly they’re tamped down and pushed to the back of his mind. The elements are still there, but they’re no longer driving the song. 

How does he do that?

The anxiety hits a crescendo when I open the door. I can feel him carefully positioning himself so he can grab the knife on his thigh in a single motion, and the mental list he’s making of people who might be coming through the door, along with plans of what he’s going to do for each one.

I raise my voice. “Hey, Rose. I’m back.”

The anxiety drains away, but the tension stays behind. He may not be worried about me trying to kill him, but he’s still bracing for the next accusation, or the next slap in the face, or the next...

Okay, so maybe I’ve been a bit shitty to him.

He’s still in the bathroom, washing his face. With most people I only really get surface thoughts and extreme feelings, but I can feel the cold water on Nureyev’s face and the sting of soap in his eyes.

There’s a door between us. That’s probably for the best. It’s easier when I don’t have to look him in the eyes.

“Hey, Rose?” I say, loud enough that he can hear me through the door. “Listen. I know I’m not--” Ugh. What am I trying to say, even? I’d blame it on the ambient voices, but they’ve all blended into an unintelligible babble. “You put yourself on the line for me earlier. I can be a bit slow on the uptake sometimes, but I do appreciate it. You... We make a good team.”

I’m not even sure if it counts as an apology-- and if it does, it’s a shitty one-- but Nureyev’s dread softens.

He opens the door with a smile so alluring that you’d think he’d forgotten the whole thing. I can feel the reality underneath, but I go along with his facade. 

“Why, Detective. Does that mean you’re actually going to try trusting me?” 

A part of me wants to tell him no, just because I’m an asshole. Instead I manage a grudging, “It means I’m thinking about it.” 

His smile warms -- and Jesus, how does he look just as good without a full face of makeup?-- but he doesn’t make anything of it.

“I’m finished in the bathroom if you need it,” he says, slipping past me.

I can feel him as I get ready for bed. Maybe that should be a bit more uncomfortable than it is, but mostly it’s just... nice. A companionable silence, or close to it. The other voices are so far gone that they feel almost like they’re on the other side of a concrete wall. I can’t even feel awkward about slipping into the bed beside him; after all, he’d feel just as close if one of us were to curl up on the couch for the night, and I’d still be feeling sore and achey afterward either way. We might as well use the big fancy bed while we’ve got it, right?

That’s all it is: purely practical, and nothing at all to do with the warm affection that rises from Nureyev when I lie down next to him.

For the first night in six months, I fall asleep without a fight.

[ellieptical]

Getting a little self-indulgent

I often see that post going round about women being misdiagnosed because Drs don’t listen to them or think they’re being hysterical and I add bits to it but I kinda just want to talk about my experience here. This is going to be kinda graphic and teeth related. 

So when I was 7 I’d had some headaches/toothache for a little bit but not really done or said much about it and then one day my top gum started leaking pus and blood. A lot. Mum took me to an emergency dentist who said I had an infection and gave me some antibiotics. A few weeks, maybe even only a week later it happened again, a lot. So mum took me to the dentist who said it looked like some sort of cyst or something in the gum area, but sent me to the hospital to check. X-Ray or two later and it was diagnosed as a cyst in my upper maxilla with an adult tooth that had grown up instead of down and was pressing on the nerves around my eye .The orthodontist shortly before slipping and sending the anaesthetic needle through the front of my lip rather than into my gum used this exact phrase to a 7 year old “if we don’t remove it you’ll go blind” so I had it removed through a Caldwell-Luc operation (don’t google this when eating or about to have one), they removed some jaw bone and removed the cyst and tooth.  Boom all fixed. 

At 13 I wanted straight teeth, so I went to the orthodontist who took an x-ray and told me I couldn’t have a brace (I already had a retainer) because there was a gap in my jaw bone and I’d have to have a bone graft from my hip. So I declined this. I wanted straight teeth but not that much, this will very much come back to bite me in the arse later. 

I felt lethargic, unwell, sore, headachey, nauseous, tired, angry, achey, tight in the jaw for a while, through uni, and early work days. It got worse and worse, my jaw started to get stuck so i couldn’t open it, my neck would start burning, I’d feel like my shoulders were on fire, I’d feel so impossibly exhausted. I started going for tests it was not: thyroid, cancer, a tumour on my adrenal gland, kidneys, diabetes, ME, CFS, Fibromyalgia, hypoglycaemia. Ferritin stores result came back very low. Took iron tablets, this didn’t fix it. Was referred to Maxillo-facial (henceforth macsfacs) who deemed it to be temporomandibular joint disorder. The consultant who diagnosed me also had TMJ and said on a bad flare up he’d rather get booted in the balls. Well that pain level seemed to tally with the pain I was feeling. So I took the tablets and hoped I’d learn to live with it. I did not. The pain got worse, I missed days and days of work. I would have attacks of pain for no reason, nothing would trigger them, or there’d be a draft at work and all of a sudden I’d lose three days due to pain so bad I couldn’t speak. I’d forget how words worked, I told someone I liked their sheep - I meant shoes. I’d start trembling, and lose feeling in my hands and feet, I start slurring my words, I’d pass out. Then I’d be mostly fine, sore and achey but fine really. But I kept going back to my doctor, and off for the next round of tests. I finally went to see macfacs and I saw an old, white male consultant, who sat in front of me as I cried hysterically and explained to him that the pain was so bad that I was going to step in front of a bus because it was intolerable and I will never forget what he said to me “well, I think you’re probably exaggerating, it’s not that painful or you wouldn’t be able to do half the things you do” I sort of gold-fished, and he said he was standing by the junior consultants diagnoses of TMJ and that I’d “get used to it eventually”. A few months later I was sitting outside my BSL course when I had one of my fits, I couldn’t feel my feet, I couldn’t say anything, I couldn’t ask for help. I was terrified. It passed, I was exhausted but I got through the class. I walked home. 

I called my mum at 2am the next morning, screaming down the phone that I was dying and didn’t know what I was doing, I kept asking her for help but gave her no instructions or anything, largely because I didn’t know I’d called her and left a voicemail on her machine. I think somehow texted my housemate with just the word ‘help’. She came bounding upstairs and helped. She tried asking me questions but I was out of it, I was just screaming, and she called my Mum who was already panicked trying to get a taxi after being woken up by her only child screaming into her answerphone that she was dying. I guess my dad was in respite at this point I don’t know. Eventually my housemate called an ambulance and they did the usual questions and determined I was probably having a stroke. Spoiler alert: I was not. The ambulance came, and the little man on the bike, and the slightly smaller ambulance - it felt unnecessary for 4 people to come out but they did and it cost me not a penny BECAUSE THE NHS IS FUCKING INCREDIBLE!!!!, and they took me downstairs whilst I flailed about and reassured my other housemate whom I worked with that I’d be ‘in tomorrow just a bit late’. I don’t really remember too much except a) gas and air is fucking incredible! b) i kept telling my mum and the man with the bleeding face next to me that I’d left my keys at home and I wasn’t wearing a bra. I eventually got seen and by this point the pain was subsiding and I kept apologising profusely but the A+E doctor pointed out that I’d experienced pain severe enough that a dispatcher and 4 paramedics (one of whom really thought I should have been admitted for a brain scan not put through A+E but it was 3 am so...) thought I was having a stroke. Not to worry but here were some lovely drugs. 

A few weeks later I saw my doctor again who this time thought it might be ME as nothing else was tying in but wanted to just rule out anything neurological so referred me to another Dr who as I described things listened and then sent me for a different scan. I got a referral through to ENT because it turned out there was a piece of bone in my face that shouldn’t be there. Basically the boney part of the cyst from when I was 7, they’d only removed the soft tissue. So I had an operation and they removed that. Some of the pain stopped. I didn’t have the same issues but it still didn’t feel right. I ended up seeing a locum as my doctor was off with their own medical issues. I kept saying it feels like there’s some swelling in my face and so I got two courses of antibiotics because eventually they referred me back. Another scan. Then an appointment out of nowhere with macfacs. 

Turns out macfacs has done a lot of reshuffling because everyone is new and when I mention the old guy they all go ‘ah yeah, he’s gone now’ with the strong implication that he was a cunt - possibly my inference but whatever. Turns out I had a tumour in my face. It’s benign in almost all cases, mine included thank god, but it’s rare 3% of the population get it, and almost always men, and it’s aggressive it’s main deal is that it recurs. I had one when I was 7, in 2012 and in 2015. It gets into bone and takes over. It’s why after my first operation my bone didn’t heal and I have a hole in my jawbone now. Like I said... shoulda got that brace! They’d have seen what was going on then. So I had another operation at Xmas in 2015.  I had the bone inside my upper maxilla, removed and sanded down, the nerves scraped or removed, and painted with essentially embalming fluid, I lost a tooth because the fluid touched it. It was a joint op between ENT and macfacs. I have to go back every year for 10 years and there’s something lurking but it seems to be just the weird shape I’ve healed into but I’m not taking it for granted. I still get some pain and flare ups because my bone is still regrowing. I can’t feel my top left lip at all or a lot of my cheek either. I have a permanently damaged shoulder because of hunching with the pain. I know now because they told me that I had trigeminal neuralgia as a symptom of this tumour, which it’s rare that it would have a tumour as an underlying cause but I did. It can flare up from eating, from the wind on your face or from nothing at all. I explained to person after person what I was feeling and it took so long to get a diagnosis and a fix. The only reason I got it was because of my Doctor who listened and persisted. She’s a female doctor. There are three other female medical professionals in this story. The paramedic who thought I should have a brain scan, the A+E doctor who told me my pain was valid and the neurologist who listened and thought to send me for a different type of scan. They all listened to what I was saying, or slurring. My doctor kept trying, she didn’t abandon me, she really did everything she could. Including handing me copious amounts of tissues whilst I hysterically sobbed at her. So many of the male doctors I saw and see regularly now are lovely and so kind but I had to fight to get them to listen, they had to be shown evidence before they’d believe me. 

I am so grateful that this whole debacle was on the NHS it didn’t impact me financially, I was able to work, I am very aware of the privileges I have but it’s only now as I start to feel fully better (well, the iron is still an issue), and have a friend experiencing migraines so look up things for her that I start to realise how much shit I went through and how angry I am that something that should have been solved when I was 13 was only solved when I was 29. If you know something isn’t right with your body keep persisting, get someone to come in with you - preferably a man, change doctors if you have to and you have that luxury, ask for a second opinion. 

And finally, if one more person says ‘oh it’s like having a wisdom tooth out’ I am going to fucking put pressure on their trigeminal nerve!!!!