#i feel like anyone reading this will be

[balkanradfem]

Seeking medical advice (or shared experiences!) regarding a damaged neck muscle

So, I’ve noticed recently, that I struggle to walk long distances, without my neck starting to hurt. Later on, I realized I also can no longer carry heavy bags (anything heavier than 2kg), or even run, because every time my feet hit the ground, the impact hits my neck with a wave of pain.

I figured it’s possible the neck was damaged while I was collecting and selling chestnuts, because I sometimes carried 12kg in my hands, because my back is also very bad and I can’t carry heavy stuff around on my backpack. After that foraging season ended, my back and neck hurt for a long time, but I just thought it was a bit of inflammation and muscle ache, because I strained them a lot, and I thought nothing of it, just waited for it to pass.

Now the pain has escalated to the point where it hurts at all times, I can only walk for 20 minutes at a time, I can’t sit for more than 10 minutes. I also can’t do most neck exercises, because they hurt too much to do (I can do a few simple ones).

I called my doctor, told her whats up, and she said the neck muscles could still be inflamed, and recommended me a gel that treats damaged and inflamed muscles, to be massaged into the painful place every day. She also told me to get a medical neck straightener, to immobilize my spine.

I got the gel and it was crazy expensive to me, but when I asked about the straightener, it was not only expensive but the pharmacy didn’t have one. I looked online for some used ones to see if anyone is reselling, but they’re doing so at the same high price! I don’t want my neck getting worse (and it’s getting worse every day), but I’m also unsure if I would even be able to wear the straightener because I can’t stand anything being wrapped around my neck, like I can’t even wear shirts that have collars that come close to the neck area, I immediately feel like I’m suffocating and dying. I’m worried that if I buy this thing, I’ll immediately realize I can’t possibly wear it, and it’s a lot of money so I’m feeling lost and confused about it.

The gel is helping only marginally, the pain stops for an hour, then comes back. It’s also giving me a lot of prickling and cold sensations and I’m unsure if it should be like that, it feels like it’s both cold and on fire at the same time.

Did anyone experience a similar neck damage, and if you did, what helped? I’m starting to feel down because I can no longer do a lot of things, and if I don’t fix this, I won’t be able to do most of my planned life, which would suck.

Also is it possible do diy a neck-straightener safely? It looks like something I could put together myself, but I’m worried that if I mess it up I’ll make things worse.

(my fingers are not going numb and I can turn my neck in all directions, so it’s not an injured bone)

(also this might be completely unrelated and unnecessary to mention but I did have an accident a few years ago where I fell off of a tree directly on my spine just under my neck and my head hit a brick and I fainted but I was in so much shock at that time I never got checked up, also I could walk normally again after a week and after a month nothing hurt anymore so I believed I was fully recovered, I wonder if that situation made this situation worse =_=)

[starbuck]

reading and watching “classic” books and films is such an interesting experience because, before you get into them, when you only know them by name and maybe the vaguest plot outline, they’re intimidating and stuffy and up on a pedestal, but then you finally take the leap and check them out and realize that almost every story that’s achieved such a legendary level of popularity did so because something in its emotional core reached out and grabbed a lot of people by the throat and you are NOT immune.

[stil-lindigo]

warmth.

a comic about not being alone.

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creative notes:

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all my other comics

store

[hey-howsitgoin]

So I've had this joke in my head for a couple months (at least), but hadn't found the right spot to make it. Today it is complete.

A hole in my jeans?

Hmm? What's this?

A Patchypus?

REPAIRRY THE PATCHYPUS!!!?!!!

[welcometogrouchland]

[ID in ALT] I've made posts before about Talia/Dick co-parenting Damian moments (will never happen but let me dream) and this came to me in a vision. Took me ages to finish for some reason 😭 and then even longer to post

[eggwishing]

sans looking at ice or something

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

thinking about an estranged childhood friends to lovers story with gojo……

you’re a rowdy kid. during one of your adventures, you end up at the gojo estate; sneaking your way into a vast, beautiful garden, pretty pink roses as far as the eye can see. little gojo is crouched down, watching tiny sprouts grow, and you’re too captivated to look away. bright snowy hair, striking blue eyes, all dolled up in a fancy yukata. he turns to meet your gaze — and all you give him is a sheepish laugh, before strolling over to introduce yourself. he doesn’t seem to mind the company, so you keep coming over to play with him. you bring cool rocks, pretty cicadas you caught, a dusty gameboy. he listens to you speak. he watches the way you move, wave your hands when you’re excited. he grows so, so fond of you.

one day, you stop coming by to see him — and he doesn’t need confirmation to know that one of the maids must have chased you off.

twenty years later, you meet him again, in a crowded little café. he calls out for you by name and you have no idea who you’re looking at. a tall, handsome, cheery man… wearing a blindfold? and shooting you a charming grin. you have no idea who he is, but he remembers you. he remembers you a lot more than he should. he chides you for forgetting your very best friend, but there’s nothing but humour in his voice. you watch as he speaks, as he moves, as he taps his feet under the table after insisting you order something — his treat. you still don’t remember him.

but you’re captivated, all the same.

(from underneath his blindfold, gojo watches you smile. he thinks to himself that some things must truly never change; because he still feels that familiar swarm of butterflies, with every move you make.)

[milk-lover]

Sobbing uncontrollably reading through a dissertation about the college experience of students with ADHD. It is like reading a report about my life that just says over and over "My experiences are real. My hardships are real. I am not lazy, I am not dumb. My struggles were not my fault, and they were not a moral failing. The failure was with the system, not with me."

Here's a line that got me in particular:

"Hotez et al.(2022) compared the health, academic, and non-academic capacities of a nationally representative sample of U.S. first-year college students with ADHD and without ADHD. Students with ADHD self-reported lower academic aspirations and more feelings of depression and overwhelm, ranking themselves lower in their general emotional health. The fact that students with ADHD scored in the highest 10th percentile for many non-academic traits, such as artistic ability, computer skills, creativity, public speaking, social confidence, self-understanding and understanding of others, compassion, and risk-tasking, suggests that this population has strengths that are frequently underappreciated in academia."

(the paper is a thesis called "Understanding the Collegiate Experience for Students With ADHD" by Gia Long, 2022)

[mroddmod]

she’ll be alright because she had you.

[sainz100]

2024 Brazilian GP | x

[vaguely-concerned]

sometimes I think of all the on-the-surface warm, well-meaning but deeply ineffectual advice and attention john gives harrow through harrow the ninth (make some soup and get some sleep! get a hobby! don't be so hard on yourself! self care harrow! as long as I need take no actual responsibility in this relationship whatsoever I would have loved to be your dad!) set up against the stark truth that with his other hand he has been staging her attempted horrific murder again and again and again like a living nightmare on the logic that it will 'put her down or fix her'. and then I find that I wish there is a hell. a special hell where twitch streamers turned necromantic death emperors go

[tapeworrmart]

Red Dead Revenge (low honor Arthur)

[fakakta-art]

digitizing some sketches i made for my etsy and a completely unrelated song, because i like to add songs :)

[stil-lindigo]

the machine.

a comic about being a 'creator' online.

creative notes:

[mossy-aro]

ultimately i think my insistence on aro positivity honestly is as much a political stance as a personal one.

when i say aro positivity is crucial and that i dislike doomer-ist posts that express sentiments like 'I hate being aro so much I wish I was dead instead’ it's not because I don’t think there can and should be a space for negativity and acknowledging self-hate, or the many ways being aromantic can really suck sometimes. i find that to be very important!

that being said. there is smth here about how self-hate posts are sometimes just arophobia that we inflict on ourselves. and when we put that out into the ether it (intentionally or not) can become arophobia that we inflict on other members of the community. i think there absolutely needs to be a place for negativity and the expression of anger and frustration and self loathing even - these are all good things to talk about because these are things that we experience. that being said, it can also be genuinely upsetting and triggering to people to have what is essentially arophobia shown to them and then have that be validated by other aspec people. your personal thoughts can affect your wider community on a level you may not anticipate. and i understand it i truly do! it took me so long to be able to recover from accepting being aroace - it threw my entire world off kilter and made me question everything about my place in the world.

but my insistence on aro joy and positivity is because ultimately i do believe that building is at the core essence of it all. that ultimately discussions and the purpose of community should be about construction, not destruction. and this is both a personal and a political stance. talking about how much you hate yourself and cultivating online discussions/spaces where negativity about aspec identity is the main and only theme is destructive - if that’s where we let the conversation end. these thoughts can and should be used as a vehicle to look for a path forward!

joy and positivity create a space where the focus can become on forging a path forward, on construction, on community building instead of tearing ourselves and others down with negative thoughts. it’s not productive or healthy when it stops at a place of negativity - it becomes actively destructive to the essence of community.

and i do think that this is especially poignant considering the fact that being any kind of queer, but especially aromantic (and/or asexual) means forging a path for yourself and making your own happiness where there is no obvious way forward. our communities exist mostly online (right now, anyway), there is little recognition of our existence in the real world, the effects of amatonormativity are both pervasive and actively dehumanising, and there are legal, economic and social structures in place actively making our lives more difficult. yes that all sucks! it’s good to acknowledge that. we need to in order to change it. but more importantly, that’s not the end. we are still here and our happiness, our future is for us to determine. even if we can’t change the laws or society, loving yourself and understanding aromanticism as a political identity (as well as personal), as a radical worldview, and as a protest against amatonormativity is essential for both community and personal well being. the personal is political.

tldr. i guess my point is that as a community, we should focus on building, improving, and nurturing ourselves and each other (construction) as opposed to destruction. we should recognise aromanticism and asexuality as political identities as well as personal ones and rely on community and self-love in the absence of anything else as a form of protest and political power. destruction (the recognition of everything that is wrong) is essential as a starting point - but where do we go from there? we rebuild.

[askchuuyanakahara]

Chuuya~ we're not so lucky or worthy to get an actual kiss, can you at least blow us one 🥺👉👈

Chuuya: "Please leave my office."

Chuuya: "It'd be unfair if he knows where I live but I don't know where he lives, right?"

@darkwitchling

Chuuya: "I doubt Dazai's gonna get scared over a phone message."

@azapofinspiration

Chuuya: "Although I really can't say what I do in depth."

Chuuya: "I don't particularly like sitting down all day.."

Chuuya: "It's not always because of me. He sometimes turns red even when I don't hit him."

Chuuya: "Not that he'll check. He hates going to the hospital."

@lacunazai @bioluminescentcat