#gross medical stuff

[rubenesque-as-fuck]

Gross medical stuff below the cut 🤕

Anyway I finally had to slice out two more pilar cysts from my scalp today because they were both growing and pressing on pressure points, which was causing more neck pain/migraines and it was becoming unbearable. I have several more still but I can only do so many at a time and these were causing the most immediate pain.

I hate our healthcare system so much. I sincerely do not enjoy having to ~occasionally~ perform a basic surgery on myself but it would cost me Thousands of Dollars each time to have it done professionally and I don't have insurance 🙃 and even when I had insurance I was told that removal of the cysts wasn't covered because it was considered cosmetic surgery. So instead I have my own small kit of sterilized surgical tools for this specific purpose.

Honestly right now the DIY feels worth it because even with current soreness at the actual removal sites my scalp/neck overall still feel so much better. No more pressure points! And I took the Batman route and bought black hand towels to work with this time so the bloodstains won't show, so no ruined towels 😂 going to wear a bandana over my hair at work tomorrow to hide the bandages

[poke-entomology]

I used to get real sick as a kid. Like, have to sleep in the living room just so my parents could watch me from their room, sick. My stomach would hurt so much it would actually feel like something constricting me and I couldn't move without risk of throwing up. So yeah, a throw up bowl needed to be something a child could both lift on their own and grab at a moment's notice.

Maybe it's just because of U.S.'s shitty healthcare that made us develop all these illness habits?

OK this question has been bugging me all morning so y'all please let me know

bc ours did nd I never thought much of it as a kid but know I'm thinking about it and it feels kinda gross? so pls tell me if this experience was universal or not it will haunt me forever otherwise

[shiftythrifting]

1. Rainbow zebra shirt(there is random years printed under each zebra, that are so faded you can barely read/see them)

2. Used pilgo cup that looked like it hadn’t been washed

3. Costco jigsaw to remind you of good times fighting off five rabid shoppers for the last rotisserie chicken

4. Canadian salt and pepper butt plug shaped shakers

[technicalgator]

This might be a hot take, but if you claim your blog is “SFW Non Kink/ Safe Space for Minors” and you yourself are an adult, and you write multiple fics about vore, you should probably change that claim and edit the description of your blog.

[coffinup]

I’m convinced every health-care and death-care worker has that ONE thing that, no matter how thick-skinned or non-squeamish they are, absolutely sends them into a sickened frenzy or makes them gag.

Mine is def anything to do with dentures. I literally have to like close my eyes and grimace every time i have to deal with them, or just in general when someone’s mouth or teeth are deteriorating 😵‍💫

If you’re in healthcare or deathcare let me know in replies or tags what your one thing is lol. I was thinking about making a poll but I think there’s too many to list!

[palms-upturned]

.

[clatterbane]

Quite a haul from the gastroenterology appointment this afternoon!

We've now got quite a supply of disinfectant stuff and "glideslime", plus a fistful of gauze swabs to use with them.

Plus that (useless for me) box of individual packs of lidocaine goop.

They also threw in about half a pack they had handy of hospital barf bags. Can't forget the barf bags, apparently! 🙃

Not to mention the centerpiece, looking like the world's crappiest hose to beat people with.

Which I am intended to snake down my throat on a regular basis, with the tape line as a guide of how far to go. Which I did in office already, a couple of times. That was fun. At least I did show the foresight to skip lunch beforehand, is all I can say.

They pulled out what looked for all the world like some particularly large pool cue case, but full of a graduated set of tapers rather than cues. (Small blessings? 🥴) I halfway expected to get sent home with that, but no today they decided to just cram that smallish one in a plastic bag.

I am actually trying this shit voluntarily, btw.

Home self-torture was mentioned as a possible option not that long after we got here--I think partly to hopefully cut down on how often I needed the gastroscopy treatments while we were still having to pay completely out of pocket before I was covered by the local system. Then it didn't come up again. I actually brought it up myself pretty recently, after they decided to switch me over onto the much more involved (and totally fucking miserable) full outpatient day surgery under general anesthesia plan for the procedures.

I would really like to continue being able to swallow and, like, live. But, I truly do not know how much longer I can force myself to do that on a monthly basis. So yeah, I will gladly snake out my own damn throat like a balky drain if it might hopefully mean that I can keep going without the standing appointments in Medical Trauma Hell* which are also physically much harder on me than the previous arrangement.

Anyway, they were really not sure about this, especially since the worst of the damage to the esophagus is way down the pipe, almost to my stomach. These drain snake hoses are apparently what they were relying on themselves for dilation treatments before endoscopes were a thing, so it (thankfully) wasn't necessarily a question of how effective that approach might be. More how well the person might be able to tolerate reaming out their own throat that far.

Their department has evidently only had two other patients taking the DIY approach, both of them with strictures much higher up. (Though I was reassured that both of them did manage to go at least several years between needing further professional help.)

But yeah, I am highly motivated and pretty damned stubborn. I do appreciate that they are actually willing to talk to me, and seeming to consider comfort as a somewhat important consideration. All of which is one hell of a lot better than I could say for the clowns in London during actual procedures.

I did try the next size up in the office too, but that was enough trickier today with several people watching me deepthroat plastic plumbing snakes that for now they just sent me home with the small 5mm hose. I am scheduled to go back next week for another round in Day Surgery Hell anyway, and they might give me more then. It should also be easier to manage with bigger ones once they've reamed the esophagus out again.

_________

* They have been treating me like an actual person at that hospital, consistently. But, PTSD just being stuck in a situation like that for most of a day. No wonder medical professionals keep not being happy at what my blood pressure is doing.

[r2-d2-soon]

Medical Fun

For two weeks I noticed a sore spot on my lower back when sitting. It was a growth/lump that had been there for years. I was told last year by a dermatologist that it was likely a cyst or lipoma. It didn't hurt then, so I left it alone.

By last week it was getting annoying, red and irritated, and made sitting uncomfortable, so I went to a doctor. He said it was likely a cyst or lipoma and wrote me a referral for surgical removal. That day I scheduled an in office appointment for this Friday to get the thing taken out.

Cut to this weekend: it gets more irritated and a whitehead develops. On Sunday night the whitehead pops on its own (I swear I didn't pop it on purpose.) It seemed okay overnight but when I woke up it started weeping heavily. Very stinky, yellow and red pus and blood.

I called the Urgency Room, scheduled an appointment and drove myself there. If ydk, Urgency Room is like a mini hospital that handles minor injuries and illnesses that fall between urgent care and full on hospitalization. The staff was very polite and helpful. There's pop music piped in overhead. Not loud, just noticable.

The Urgency Room Doctor said it was a cyst. They numbed me up with some lidocaine and tried to remove as much bacterial slop from the hole in my back as possible. That hurt like fuxking hell. I yelled and swore the whole time. Then they packed the hole and gave me a painful saline shot for all the naughty swears and blasphemous curses uttered.

I got some antibiotics at the pharmacy and have been resting today with Samus. She's a good nurse, except when her solution to a problem is biting.

I'm still going to get the growth removed on Friday, unless anything else fun pops up.

So yeah, that's been the last few weeks.

[liesyousoldme]

i saw my surgeon for a post-op and everything is good - she told me that my gastro issues i’ve had for months that i’ve blamed on the chemo were actually because i had multiple gallstones, some of them impacted and blocking the tube out of my gallbladder, and apparently it built up “sludge-like” stuff in my gallbladder (or what the doctor who did my ultrasound called it - “gunky” 😂😭) until it was so inflamed that i was just in constant awful pain. so im honestly so relieved to find this out because my oncologist and i had been discussing potentially lowering my chemo dose to ease the symptoms but now we know it wasn’t the chemo! so things may be looking up!

[saytrrose]

If I’m scrolling normally on here one more time and I see that one fucking game ad of that disgusting woman’s foot I will delete tumblr and throw my phone out my window

[lascapigliata]

i have had dry mouth like you cannot believe for like a week now and i have no idea what caused it specifically except maybe allergies? not sure. but i've been swallowing so hard and trying to generate saliva so hard that i literally think i strained my throat muscle bc it feels like i'm swallowing around something and there keeps being this like bubble in what i assume are my saliva glands. and i am drinking tons of water!! so i really don't know what to do and i'm actually considering going to a fucking doctor for this like i don't know if it's meds or what. but i've been on this dose for a while now and this is just popping up now?? doubtful

[wobspots]

i writ 😎

(this is a first draft dont look too close) (also the formatting is all janky but again. first draft) (i also used the comic sans trick and i actually think it made it a lot easier!!) (hehe :3)

           Entering the infirmary, the common-born surgeon of the Band of the Hawk can’t help but to be a bit awestruck – the interior looked almost like a cathedral’s. The high ceiling, ample space and polished marble floors combined to echo the small group’s hurried steps, their boots still dirty from the battlefield and the travel back to Windham Castle.

         The steely royal physician awaited them. Greying hair tied back, apron utterly spotless and leather gloves already on: he stood beside a rolling table whereon his tools were neatly set. He seemed admirable, professional, absolutely confident in his abilities. However, as with any serious job, he is a bit nervous and makes a conscious effort to hide it, for the sake of the patient. That, in this case, being the Hawks’ very own commander, Griffith.

– Here, gentlemen, set him down, if you will – the doctor motions to a bed more luxurious than any the soldiers had seen before, despite being only temporary.

Griffith tried to help his comrades transfer him from the stretcher to the bed, moving as little as possible. He dared not to speak; it was hard enough for him to breathe as it is. That is the first thing the older man notices in meeting Griffith. The second, of course, is his beauty. He had seen the illustrious white falcon a few times around the castle and at court affairs, but never had the chance to get close. “He really does look like an angel, or a doll... something undoubtedly beautiful, but fearsome, in a way.” – he thinks, before catching himself staring. He clears his throat.

– Sir Griffith, gentlemen, I am Doctor Lazarus. It is a pleasure to meet you, occasion aside.

         The young commander only nods, his breath shallow. He didn’t like it, to be fully conscious but have both his movement and speech restricted. The pain that stabbed in his ribs whenever he inhaled didn’t help, either. For the past four days of travel, he had to balance out the pain of a proper breath with the feeling of not getting enough air. Now, he was so focused on it that he could hardly keep up with both medics’ conversation.

         – Well, then. What happened?

         – He was thrown against a wall, Sir. Hit his back – they don’t look at each other as they speak, too busy undressing the patient. This could have been awkward if Griffith wasn’t used to being naked in front of others, and the doctors weren’t, well, doctors. – I believe he’s broken a few ribs, but nothing more. There’s a nasty bruise, but it doesn’t seem to be any notable bleeding.

         – Right. Were the fractures displaced?

         – A bit, but we set them right after the battle was over.

         – I see. Sir, please lift your elbows – Griffith does his best, allowing the royal physician to get a better look at his ribcage as he circles around the infirmary bed. There is a dark, ugly bruise along most of Griffith’s back; one he’d be glad he’s not able to see. Lazarus brushes the locks of white hair over the knight’s shoulder to see it in full. In that, he notices a section stained reddish-brown, and reaches out to feel the scalp around it – And the head?

         – Hit the ground when he fell. Knocked him out, but he awoke later with no other issues. –  Lazarus furrows his brows, making the field surgeon waiver – It looks worse than it actually is, Sir! We were also running low on water, so…

         – No, no, I understand. – Lazarus is reassuring –Was the bleeding excessive?

         – Not for a head injury, no.

         – Hmm…

         With a soft “excuse me, Sir”, Lazarus cups Griffith’s face in both hands, getting a bit closer. If this is a bit uncomfortable, the physician doesn’t notice, as he’s fully focused on the job at hand. He examines Griffith’s eyes, one at a time, gently pulling his lower eyelids down to see the underlying tissue.

– Looks pale… – he mumbles, more to himself than anyone else.          Right as Lazarus starts to feel in his own element, Griffith meets his eye. He doesn’t mean to, they’re just so close and he’s so curious about this promising stranger but can’t say anything…! Even so, he can’t help but feel a bit proud when the doctor freezes under his gaze.

Lazarus, on the other hand, is thoroughly unsettled, his thoughts racing a mile a minute. It’s a good thing he’s good at concealing his thoughts – it’s a vital skill, as a healer – it’s important to exude a sense of welcome safety for the patient, transmitting them the feeling that their caretaker has the situation utterly under control, even if that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Unfortunately for him, that is not enough to thwart Griffith’s sharp eye for deception/farces/insincerity – takes one to know one, after all. A sly glimmer runs through his eye: Griffith has power over this man, and he’s going to make the absolute most of it.

[atrophytohell]

as of today im no longer a deviated septum girlie! hurts like a bitch but we gonna be breathin soon!

[a-crowcats-nonsense]

did y’all know about the filtered cow fetus blood sold for medical purposes because i didn’t until today and i think that’s kinda cool actually

[iirulancorrino]

Long before Roe was overturned, providers’ desire to avoid risk—from professional ostracization to picketing to shootings—shadowed abortion care. This is why medical schools often refrained from offering training in terminating pregnancies, and why abortion procedures were not regularly performed in the vast majority of public hospitals. Since Dobbs, some medical institutions have gone further, hesitating to provide care to women such as Christina Zielke, who was rushed to a hospital in Painesville, Ohio, last September after experiencing heavy bleeding from a miscarriage. Instead of performing a dilation-and-curettage procedure to remove the pregnancy tissue from her uterus, the hospital staff discharged Zielke, apparently in response to a six-week abortion ban that had been passed by the Ohio state legislature. Zielke was soon lying in a bathtub in a pool of blood, wondering if she would die. After she lost consciousness, her family called 911, and paramedics eventually took her back to the hospital, where a doctor performed the procedure.

Such horror stories are a predictable consequence of the fear that criminalizing abortion has spread through the medical community. For fifty years, Roe protected providers from legal risks like the ones taken on by the Jane Collective, an underground network of women in Chicago. Collective members arranged more than eleven thousand illegal abortions in the late nineteen-sixties and early seventies, until a team of detectives raided their makeshift clinic and charged them with multiple counts of “conspiracy to commit abortion.” (Just before their cases went to trial, the Supreme Court legalized abortion.) Arguably, providers face greater legal dangers now than they did before Roe. Carole Joffe, a sociologist who has written about the history of abortion, told me that doctors who performed illegal procedures in the past “typically received sentences of a few years,” whereas physicians today face “an aggressive anti-abortion movement that, in some states, is calling for life imprisonment.” Abortion opponents have also targeted organizations such as Planned Parenthood with spurious lawsuits and violent attacks, in an effort to shut them down.

Planned Parenthood’s motto is “Care. No matter what.” These words suggest an uncompromising commitment to serving patients. Yet some pro-choice advocates feel that the group, along with other large organizations that have shaped the modern abortion-rights movement, has lately seemed more focussed on self-preservation than on taking bold risks. Tracy Weitz, a reproductive-rights scholar who directs the Center on Health, Risk, and Society, at American University, told me she is worried that these groups are being guided too strongly by attorneys whose priority is to shield them from lawsuits. The mission of Planned Parenthood is not “institutional survival,” Weitz said. “Their entire goal, their mission, is to serve patients.” If caution supersedes this goal, she warns, not only will patients suffer but the pro-choice movement will fall into a familiar trap. “One of the critiques of the abortion-rights movement is that we put too much faith in the law, believing that it would protect the right to abortion,” she said. “I think it’s ironic that all of a sudden we have turned over this movement to a whole new group of lawyers—not constitutional lawyers but risk managers.”

In the fall of 2021, a preview of how these dynamics could play out in a post-Roe era unfolded in Texas, after Governor Greg Abbott signed the Texas “heartbeat” bill. Better known as S.B. 8, the law banned abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, and it offered a ten-thousand-dollar bounty to any private citizen who successfully sued someone involved in such a procedure. In the view of some analysts, S.B. 8 was plainly unconstitutional—Roe v. Wade was then still federal law—and designed to intimidate both patients and providers. (Indeed, Planned Parenthood joined the A.C.L.U. and other groups in a lawsuit to block S.B. 8.) One might imagine that Planned Parenthood and other large pro-choice organizations, including the National Abortion Federation, which funds and supports many independent clinics, would have responded to this threat by urging providers to continue offering care and by pledging to defend anyone named in a lawsuit. Vicki Saporta, who served as the N.A.F.’s president until 2018, believes that such a strategy would have been both feasible and effective. “There could have been a legal-defense fund set up to pay out various ten-thousand-dollar suits while S.B. 8 was being challenged, and, in the meantime, care could have continued to be provided,” she said. Planned Parenthood and its affiliates, whose net assets exceed two billion dollars, have “the wherewithal to raise the legal-defense money,” she added.

Instead, Planned Parenthood’s South Texas affiliate instructed its providers to stop performing all abortions, even before six weeks. The affiliate’s apparent anxiety about lawsuits was shared by Planned Parenthood’s leaders and by its attorneys in Washington, who warned that Republicans in Texas could weaponize S.B. 8 to try to bankrupt the organization. Meanwhile, the N.A.F. announced that it would stop funding any providers and patients who didn’t comply with S.B. 8—and even pressed clinics to perform a second ultrasound after patients had endured Texas’s mandatory twenty-four-hour waiting period, in case a heartbeat could be detected then. Many Texas doctors refused to adhere to the N.A.F. directive. In fact, some physicians had the impulse to publicly flout S.B. 8. Shortly after the law took effect, Alan Braid, a provider in San Antonio, published an op-ed in the Washington Post in which he acknowledged having performed an abortion after the six-week limit. He explained that in the early seventies, while completing his ob-gyn residency, he had seen several women die from illegal abortions. “I understand that by providing an abortion beyond the new legal limit, I am taking a personal risk, but it’s something I believe in strongly,” he wrote. Braid told me recently that, at the time, he’d talked to several physicians who shared his feelings and who, like him, were willing to defy S.B. 8. If doctors were willing to fight, he wondered, why were institutions designed to protect women’s rights capitulating?

[ambassadorquark]

i have such a like perverse interest in Fucked Up Medical Malpractice bc i feel like being trans these days is at least 40% people trying to make you scared of procedures that will literally save your life and 10% the way gender confirmation is lumped in with other elective surgeries at an outrageous price point many trans people (especially those who are otherwise marginalized) can't afford despite, again, being life saving, sometimes forcing trans people to undergo cheaper, worse procedures that are then cherry picked out of a sea of good results as proof that gender reassignment is mutilation. like this makes me so mad that i have to abstract it into some kind of fictional evil doctor horror story or i will just start biting people. this isnt even getting into the fact that you still often have to grovel for cis approval of your gender identity to even qualify for a lot of stuff in some places. truly hateful stuff.