#i'm a great person to have in an emergency

[catrasredemption]

Man this one hit hard.

My mom raised me pretty much by herself - she had her family helping, and technically I have a stepfather, but he was useless and the rest of her family had their own damn lives.

When I was in third grade, we learned about the American Revolution, and we did a little classroom play based on it about if the war was a baseball game (idk man, the 90s were weird). All the big people in the war were baseball players - Washington, Hamilton, etc. for the Americans, King George et. all for the British - and I forget who I was, but I was the person who hit the winning home run that gave Americans the game (I think I might have been Lafayette?).

Parents are invited to see the one-day play, which is in the middle of the day during school time. I get it, it's hard to get out of work. My grandparents were sick so they couldn't come. But my mother promised up and down, over and over, left and right, that she would absolutely be there. It was a really big deal to me, I'd never been in a play or had an event that needed to be attended. I was excited. I wanted my mom to see me get the winning home run.

She showed up five minutes after the play ended. I was absolutely devastated. She apologized, she said she hadn't been able to get out of work. I cried.

And that pretty much set the tone for the rest of my life.

She managed to make it to my fourth and fifth grade chorus concerts, which was great because I had leads in all of them, but she never enjoyed it much and made it pretty obvious. She was the same way about my high school band concerts - worse, honestly, because I think she stopped caring about hurting my feelings.

When I turned twelve, my grandfather said he wanted to have a birthday party for me at his house (it was kind of a big deal because I always had my birthdays at that house, except for the year before because my grandmother died and we just didn't want to celebrate there). My mother said she'd get the day off work. She got the day off work. We're all gathered at my grandfather's house eating cake while I unwrap my presents, aaaaaaaand her phone rings. It's work. They need her to come in. She can't say no. It was the last birthday I had at my grandparents' house, and we ended up cutting it short because she never learned how to say no.

Fast forward to age twenty-six, when I'm getting married. My mother makes a big fuss about it because the wedding is in Texas, and she lives in Massachusetts. She is, by the way, the only blood relative I have in attendance at the wedding (my aunt and her husband were going to come, but there was a medical emergency with my sixteen-year-old cousin and they didn't want to leave him. Totally understandable). My mom shows up at 10pm the night before the wedding, makes it obvious she's miserable the entire ceremony and reception, then leaves at 5am the next morning because, you guessed it, she couldn't miss too much work.

I'm 33 now. My mother has never visited me - we always have to go to her. She will absolutely never take the time off to get on a plane and come see the life I made for myself. I know this, it sucks, but I'm used to it by now. That's just how she is.

I don't have a kid yet, but I am going to make damn well sure that in thirty-some odd years, my own child isn't on the next version of Tumblr rewriting this story with their own experiences.

my parents never came to anything I did.

I have so many memories about this, but one in particular: when I was away at camp with 89 other teenagers, and at the one-month mark the post was collected distributed to all the dorms. 89 other children tore open their boxes and, shovelling handfuls of sweets their parents had sent them into their mouths, read pages-long letters and handed around photos of their brothers and sisters.

I didn't. I didn't get anything, I sat on my empty bed watching them. The teachers had to call my parents and ask if perhaps the post had gone missing...? but my parents were surprised they were required to interact with me while I was away.

Well, today, my 3-year-old daughter had a fun-run. The childcare centre invited parents to come but stressed that if we weren't able to, it was alright. There was no fucking way I wasn't going. My daughter wasn't going to be the only child there without a parent watching.

I got time off work and stood there in the beating sun and plastered in greasy sunscreen waiting to see my little girl emerge from inside the centre and stand on the track.

When she did, her little eyes searched through the crowd person-by-person for me, and absolutely lit up like the sun when she spotted me.

Mine filled with tears as I waved at her and cheered.

I'm breaking the cycle.

[morganski-19]

Alright, this is a post basically to lower our expectations in preparation for tomorrow's episode.

I am not expecting there to be a feelings realization in tomorrow's episode. Personally, I don't feel like there has been enough growth in either Buck or Eddie to get to that point. But, this is something I called from very early on in the season, and even a bit before. I think that this isn't something that should be rushed, and other things take precedence before it.

The Brad plot is going to take up much of the episode. Either that be him causing general chaos, or maybe going off the deep end. But, that means hopefully scenes with all of the 118, with some solo scenes between him and Bobby.

I am also really interested and honestly a little excited for the conversation Brad is going to have with Eddie. Especially with the language that the actor used to describe the difference between the two of them. If I'm right, and it will involve talking about estranged children, I think it could be a great plot point to move Eddie toward trying to reconcile with Chris more.

Athena was also mentioned in the synopsis, so we can expect her to get a good chunk of screen time dealing with that emergency. I hope she doesn't get as much screen time as she did in the previous episode, simply because we are crammed for time to actually wrap up storylines, but I'm not expecting much tbh.

They also better move something with the Eddie and Chris storyline, because it needs to do something before the midseason break. I had hopes that it would end with Chris coming home, but now I'm not so sure. I think now it should end with Eddie realizing he needs to go to Texas and work through things there in person, instead of over the phone, but again, not getting my hopes up because they are really fumbling this whole thing.

Then I have my hopes and dreams that are probably not going to come true. Those being, mention of the pregnancy again, and a storyline introduced for Hen. Those probably aren't going to be touched again until we come back.

[theragamuffininitiative]

.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

also if only the physical copy of how to disappear completely & never be found i first encountered & read a few years ago (sort of [roughly avg age ten] reader book, not any similarly titled How To) hadn't disappeared completely & not been found since, probably b/c i put it somewhere i intended to be For Safekeeping, which is also how my binder vanished....b/c it's one of those like. those book for late elementary/middle school readers when they just weave in this unrealism which makes for a delightful range & unpredicability? and with a cynical protagonist girl like off to the races like wow her mom is depressed asf & smoking? and it's about A Family History Secrets Mystery so blatantly a haunting that the inciting incident is basically introducing a haunted [family history secrets mystery] house. and spoilers don't matter like it's stemming from there being this missing uncle who grew up so in contrast to the Winsome Winning Sibling Who Does It All Right while seeing his own affiliation with rats that he tried to disappear completely & never be found which led to this Tragedy which led to this more unintended disappearance of his & he haunts this house & wants to be left alone & only goes out at night with this [ambiguous Is That A Giant Rat Or Weird Small Dog (protagonist affected by these family situations who expresses her preoccupation with an awareness of how fate can Strike and Get you with this interest with roving packs of killer chihuahuas. people think she's weird though she spontaneously befriends this other girl struck with this bolt from the blue & a bit weird / outcast & then Insightful who i wish was in it more)] & plays into the hauntedness danger like playing into the [something's Wrong with you then] until having to take yet more action where the urge to express the truth comes out more both b/c living that hidden is more threatened but also b/c now the niece children are more threatened as well. ft. a sort of preternatural blurring of time b/c of only being communicated with through this uncle via his comic pages (that he paints?) of dubiously accurate translations of irl events that are created so quickly it seems to verge on foresight, imagine like "hmm what's this painting. it's me standing in this room looking at this painting??? as someone ominous lurks in the shadows right behind me?" in both [now how could you know this & paint it really fast ahead of time] and [horror]

[labetalol]

Thank you for your perfectly reasonable tags about that pharmacy post. I hate pharmacy posts on this site because it's always like "the pharmacy didn't preemptively order my meds that I waited until the last minute to ask for", "the pharmacy won't break federal regulations to give me my medication", "the insurance/my doctor fucked up but the pharmacy is denying me my medication because they hate me" and it is exhausting.

no thank YOU for the reply! i honestly saw someone in my inbox and was like. great here comes the hate for a very normal sentiment. i see you've been a tech for a while, which is awesome! i just graduated pharmacy school but have been working as an intern for a few years and literally i love retail pharmacy, i love helping people, i love having that rapport with patients and solving their problems, but majority of the time it really could've been avoided with a call to the pharmacy ahead of time.

i've been licensed now as an rph for a month and while i love it, it is a thankless job WHICH is to be expected being in healthcare but the way my team and i move heaven and earth to get a patient their medication and they're like. took you long enough. like OK !!!! LOL

but no seriously it is exhausting and i usually bite my tongue with posts like those that are ALL over tumblr but like c'mon. does OP seriously expect us to remember they take some weird manufacturer's generic qty 120 for a 30 ds and to order ahead of time??? like girl. give us a BREAK and call.

anyway thx for the message! that one part about "the pharmacy is denying my medication because they hate me" - throwback to the girl who reported us to the DEA, board, and corporate that we were sexist ageist AND ableist for not giving her her dilaudid... because we were out of stock and CII rx are nontransferable. like c'mon LMAO

[softquietsteadylove]

Hi :) I read all of your prompts here and I really love them all! So I was thinking how about and hospital Thenamesh AU? You choose if both are doctors or one of them being a doc and the other one a patient!

Pretty sure you will write something great!

"Just look at them."

"You mean look at Gil."

"I bet when he does CPR their bones are just shattered."

Thena huffs, slapping down the tablet with her charts (that is exactly why they have shock absorbent cases). "Are you going to actually help with the incoming patients?--or would you prefer to stand around them and watch them save lives instead of participating?"

The various interns and a few nurses scurry to cover up their open appraisal of their colleagues. "S-Sorry, Doctor."

Thena just rolls her eyes at them. It's a phenomenon in the ER that the EMTs and paramedics are the desired dating pool for anyone looking. And unfortunately for Thena, her emergency room is the hub for such dating pools. "Tell me what we've got."

"Kid fell off his bike, has a pretty nasty lesion from it," she gets briefed, receiving the necessary information. "He'll live, but we told him to prepare himself mentally to get stitched up."

Thena looks up at Gil as he gives her the lowdown on her patient. Gil is such a softie at heart, and he absolutely has a weakness for kids. She smiles, "did you tell him he was coming to see the scariest trauma specialist in town?"

"Nope, but I did tell him my very good friend Thena would take extra good care of him," Gil beams right in the face of her cynicism and snark with upturned eyes and full cheeks. He leans down to whisper, "especially since one his dads has been panicking the whole way here?"

"I see," Thena nods with a sigh. She's not the best at dealing with those accompanying her patients; she's not exactly known for her bedside manner. "You've talked to them?"

"Tried," Gil shrugs, still walking with her as the young man gets taken down the hall and transferred from his stretcher to a proper bed. "You know how parents can be."

"Yes, I certainly do," Thena mutters, speaking quietly and quickly with Gil as she prepares to deal with her least favourite part of her job. She pulls on a pair of gloves, "but usually your charm is more effective at subduing them before they reach me."

"Maybe I'm losing my touch."

"I doubt it," she gives him a coy little smirk as she sits on her stool and wheels it over to the boy. "Hello, Jack. My name is Thena, I'll be stitching you up tonight."

The kid sniffles a little but nods, putting on a much braver face than one of his fathers.

"Where did that nice paramedic go?" the panicky one asks, his glasses moving on his face as he looks around.

"Gil has to brief the nurse's station on their run and release their equipment so it can be restocked for the next one," Thena answers straightforward as she starts her most basic examination of both Jack and his injury. "How did this happen, hm?"

"Riding around with those hooligans, that's how!"

"Dad," Jack sighs up at his anxious father. He looks at Thena again, "we were taking turns going down the big hill by the old library. I guess I hit a rock or something, and..."

"You know," Thena looks at Jack with the smile Gil tells her is more effective than she thinks it is, "it's a good thing you were wearing a helmet when this happened. Or I'd be stitching up...all this-"

Jack laughs away the rest of his tears as Thena motions to the general vicinity of his head.

"Okay," Thena looks at Jack as she picks up her scissors, "are you ready?"

Jack looks at his parents and their held hands before nodding.

"Sorry," Thena mutters as she cuts his pants at the knee.

"I never liked those jeans anyway."

"Phastos, please," one husband says to the other, who physically zips his lips.

Thena lets out a faint laugh as she knots her line and takes her sutures in hand. "Did Gil tell you about how things work?"

Jack nods, watching her with her hooked needle anxiously.

"Gil told me that he already applied the topical anaesthetic," Thena explains, although she remembers after the fact that she needs to use more everyday terminology. "The numbing cream is going to help with the pain, okay?"

"Okay."

"How's...this?" Thena asks, applying some very light pressure on the cleaned wound's edges.

Jack squirms, "it kind of stings a little, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be."

"It's okay to be scared," Thena says as she makes the first bite and anchors her monofillament. "But this is just going to ensure that your scrape here heals properly."

"Jack, how we doin'?" Gil asks as he rejoins them, leaning over Thena's shoulder as she works. "See?--didn't I tell you she's the coolest doctor in the place?"

"She's pretty cool," Jack concedes, less tense as he looks at Gil instead of at Thena sewing up his shin.

"Gilgamesh, I am trying to work," she says in a light tone, since they both know she could complete Jack's suturing with her eyes closed.

"It's been a quiet night," he shrugs, winking at Jack, who laughs. He looks at his fathers again, one of whom seems to appreciate his sense of humour (the other one is just trying to breathe). "Don't worry, Doctor Thena here is the best at what she does. I trust her with my life."

"Don't let him fool you," Thena murmurs as she throws her next knot, "most of the people I get in here already have the benefit of his care before they even see me. I quite literally couldn't do my job without him."

"Aw, honey," Gil jokes, blushing and pushing his hands into the pockets he's thrown on over his uniform. "You're embarrassing me in front of the patient."

"Was he like this in the ambulance?" Thena peeks up at Jack, who is still laughing at their interaction. She shakes her head, already done with her work. "He's all charming on the way here and then people get scared of me--makes me look bad."

"Come on," he nudges her with his fist within his hoodie pocket. The parents startle a little at the thought of him jostling her when she has a needle in their child's skin. But they also notice in this moment that she's already done and handing her needle back for disposal. "You couldn't look bad if you tried."

Thena rolls her eyes, although she's smiling--she can feel it. It really hurts her reputation of being the 'scary' ER doctor. She looks at Jack, "guess what?"

"What?"

Thena holds up her hands, pulling off her gloves and throwing them away. "I've been done for five minutes already."

"Oh," Jack blinks down at his stitched up leg. He can barely even tell what happened, "whoa."

Gil nods at Jack and rests his pocket on Thena's shoulder, which she swats away gently, "best in the biz."

"Thank you, Doctor," the less nervous father expresses with a winsome smile, gripping his son's shoulder. "You've both made this a much more bearable experience for us."

"That's what he's for."

"That's why she's the best."

Gil and Thena both look at each other for the contrasting statements, although they share the same sentiment, in a way.

"I'll get your paperwork done and then I do believe you can head home," Thena smiles as she stands, her ponytail swinging as she does. She nods at the calmer husband, "your husband deserves to take it easy the rest of the night, I think."

The father smiles at her, "as does yours!"

Thena blushes. She honest-to-god blushes, her hands flailing around in front of her as she tries to form the words. "N-No, h-he's not--we're-"

"If only," Gil just laughs, heading back to the nurse's station with Thena's charts in hand (which he's really not supposed to be doing, but everyone knows that Thena and Gil kind of play it fast and loose with how much he's really allowed to hang around at her side).

[running-in-the-dark]

aw man. for a minute there I thought I might be allowed to take Ibuprofen again since I stopped taking the antidepressant that I was on. but sadly no, you're also not supposed to take it when you're on the anxiety medication I'm on 😔

[galwaygremlin]

working with medics i respect personally but disagree with professionally... hm.

[of-another-broken-heart]

Damn, that survey about jam on toast really has me wishing we had bread (and butter) because I could DESTROY like half a loaf all by myself right now.

Which of my menagerie of maladies is to blame for me craving salt and fat above all else?

I don't fucking know.

Even day-old bread costs like $4 a loaf now. And butter, that shit's like, double digits for a pound.

I don't remember the last time I could eat enough to actually feel full.

I say, while just wanting fucking. Bread.

Hit me with the peasant scraps. I will take your stale heels and I will be delighted.

[arielmagicesi]

hey, do you want to lose money AND your will to live all for the opportunity to make very little money doing a job that everyone warns you will sap you of your will to live? try applying for teacher certification oh my GOD

[imagineagreatadventure]

so i've had a little lump/bump on my neck right where the hyoid bone is since sunday. came out of nowhere which is alarming and it has been lightly choking me since. doc proclaimed it was a boil on monday and lanced/biopsied it will so we'll see if she's right.

do you know how terrifying it is to have a lance/biopsy like that?? cause honestly i must've flashed back to a past life or something where i got my head cut off bc the terror gripped me.

but anyhow been taking sick since yesterday afternoon bc i am extremely fatigued from it lightly choking me (it's only recently started shrinking) and it's been a pretty awful time esp. with the C word hanging above my head.

[pa-pa-plasma]

so this post is definitely about me lol & i just wanna say that

me only having mental illness is a really big assumption

the experiences i talked about were my own & some friends i'd had while going to an alternate school, they weren't secondhand or made up

idk what is wrong with this person but they are super fucking ableist, & going through their blog, it's clear they love to accuse everyone of faking being disabled or needing accommodation for some reason & are obsessed with interacting in bad faith.

just gonna assume they're constantly having a really bad day every day but man if you're gonna make multiple blogs dedicated to speaking about disabled issues, maybe don't alienate a majority of the community & accuse them of not being "disabled enough" for you to fucking listen to them

[arctic-reptile]

help girl i'm coping with my illness poorly

[cesium-sheep]

she has texted me directly 2 total times since we left her place on monday. she didn't tell me we were going to have a lapse in insurance until I asked her directly in person 3 days before it started. she still hasn't actually told me herself that she can't come to the concert. communicating with me (or failure thereto) has always been the biggest stumbling block but the past couple weeks it's been super bad.

and part of that is cuz sometimes my phone wasn't receiving texts either until much later or at all, I think I fixed it but I have no way of knowing. but if she'd been texting me a bunch and not getting responses she would've said something to one of us about it by now. so it is a minor contributing factor at most.

[hedgewitchnecromancer]

My college has kicked everyone out of the main dining hall for the entire weekend so that somebody can host a banquet in there. This includes the kitchen staff, other than the ones setting up the banquet, which means all the specialized areas, including the allergy-free area, the pizza ovens, and the ice cream machine and freezers (less important but the most popular thing in the entire dining hall) are completely off-limits. This is our only functioning dining hall on campus. Technically we have two, but the second one is only called a dining hall because it has access to the main one, not because it can function on its own. It's used, fun fact, mainly as event space, like banquets, and is not designed to be the main dining hall for 1500 kids. It can't even physically fit the entirety of the crowds that come at the busy times of the day!

But nope. Why would a college halfway to the brink of failure due to, among other things, incredibly bad relations between the students and ground-level staff and the administration, consider doing something that won't anger the student body even more? That's just absurd!

[syrinq]

if the ''magical cure-all'' for mental health shit like therapy and anti-kys meds and sniffing flowers and whatever else could 1) be more available to the public besides shittily-run healthcare or bullshit expensive private fees & 2) work wonders for me like it does for 99% of people. then that would be fucking awesome