#its a serious medical condition that gets worse if you let it go

[mushroom-through-the-stargate]

stages of hypoglycemia -

1. I could eat. prolly should, actually

2. I Don't Know Why I'm Being A Bitch

3. if i dont get food in five seconds im GOING to start biting people

4. lack of coherence that is lowkey concerning people around me (bad)

5. unconscious (super bad, usually about a minute or two after stage 4)

6. dead (no im not kidding)

its super important that you get your hypoglycemic friend food before or at stage three. it is actually a good sign if theyre ripping into that bag of crisps like a lion after a gazelle that means it wont take meds to get their sugars up. a good snack is sweets or carbs to GET the sugars up, then protein to prevent a bounce

[cool-fancier]

A Heartbreaking Decision

Synopsis: You were unconscious in a sterile room, on life support. Your family considered unplugging it.

Your loyal partner, Bada, entered the room, shut the door, and confronted them.

As tensions rose, machines were turned off and the room fell silent.

"I love you," Bada said quietly. In another life, we'll be together."

The decision had been done, leaving long-lasting scars of unhappiness.

The sterile hospital room seemed to be suffocating, its cold, white walls reflecting the hopelessness that hung heavy in the air. You were an optimistic person once, but now you lay still, attached to a complex web of machines and tubes. A cruel twist of fate left you unconscious and unable to move and Bada could do nothing but watch, her heart aching with desperation.

The agonising condition got much worse by the strict hospital regulations. Bada begged the medical staff from where she was standing, just outside the room, her face twisted in agony. She had supported you through everything and had loved you with all her heart, but she wasn't regarded as family. The barriers of regulations and bureaucracy seemed impossible.

Your parents were thinking the terrible decision that hovered over your life as they stood inside the room, overwhelmed with sorrow and tiredness. There had been no sign of progress for several weeks. The financial strain and emotional pain were becoming unbearable for your family, and the idea of letting you go had become practically unavoidable.

From where she was standing outside the room, Bada overheard their serious conversation, and her heart fell with every word she heard. She was aware that your family had made the decision to turn off your life support. She couldn't stand the idea of losing you in such a way, and her choice was the result of unimaginable suffering. She couldn't bring herself to allow your family to make such a terrible decision without her.

Without hesitation, Bada interfered to resolve the situation. She discreetly closed the door from inside the room as she silently entered. She was unable to watch while your family prepared to send you away. She had to stand by your side, hold your hand, and indicate her presence to you,no matter what.

As she examined your lifeless body on the bed, Bada's hands shook. She was aware that her actions could have terrible consequences, but she was prepared to accept them all in order to be with you. She had to think that there was a chance that you might still recover.

Bada gently and nervously reached out to touch your face when she was seated at your bedside. Her voice cracked with emotion as she uttered loving and uplifting words while wiping tears from her eyes. She expressed her love for you and how she couldn't bear to lose you. You were her whole world.

Outside the room, chaos began. Your family and the medical staff demanded to break through the barricaded door, shouting for Bada to come out. The sound of pounding and shouting filled the corridor, but Bada refused. She had made up her mind to be with you for as long as she could.

The situation worsened as a result of Bada's choice to barricade the door and stay with you at the hospital. When your family had taken the difficult decision to remove your life support, it led to in a tense confrontation, but she was determined to be by your side.

As the medical staff and your parents burst into the room, Bada stood stubbornly, her grip on your hand unwavering. She met your parents' eyes as they flooded with shock and pain at her bold refusal.

Your father yelled, "Get out of here, Bada," his voice a mix of desperation and rage. "You have no right to interfere with our decision."

Your mother begged Bada, "Please, Bada, we're doing what's best for her," as tears flowed down her face. "You need to understand."

But Bada's determination remained unbroken. "I can't just stand by and watch you take this step without me," she replied. "I love Y/N, and I won't leave her side."

Your parents and Bada got into a heated disagreement, which raised the tension in the room. The medical team made an effort to step in, but it was challenging to restore order due to the intense emotional nature of the incident.

Your father roared, his voice quivering with fury, "You have no say in this. "We are her parents, and we have the right to make this decision."

Bada's voice cracked as she responded, "I know you're her parents, but I love her. I need to be here with her, to let her know she not alone."

Your mother pleaded for help one final time, her face etched with agony. "Bada, we appreciate your love for our daughter, but this is our decision to make."

As the argument carried on with neither side wanting to accept, tensions reached a breaking point. Your parents were compelled to carry out their decision as the medical team insisted in trying to turn off the life support.

Bada's voice quivered as she whispered to you, "I love you, and I'm here with you.And I promise in another life we will be together" Her eyes remained locked with yours as she leaned in to kiss your forehead. She then hesitantly released your hand, allowing the medical staff to proceed with their duties.

As the machines were disconnected, and the room fell into silence, Bada watched in suffering.  Your parents clutched each other close as their faces were scarred with suffering.

The choice had been made, but Bada and your parents' disagreements and enmity would remain forever as a reminder of the painful decisions they had been forced to make. Your parents' enormous grief and sense of duty had ultimately come into disagreement with Bada's firm love and resolve, causing scars that would take a long time for them to heal.

[idyllic-affections]

Hiii^^ hope youre having a great day/night!! can i ask for platonic Tighnari and his child? where his child got a fever where its temperature hit 100 degrees, like how would he deal with that. If only its fine by you to do! take care and stay hydrated!!

what does tighnari do when his child is ill?

summary. how does tighnari handle his child's illness?

trigger & content warnings. fevers, descriptions of medicine and pills.

tropes, pairings, fic length, & other notes. comfort. tighnari & biological child!reader. 0.5k words. they/them pronouns used for reader.

author's thoughts. hello lovely!! i went with biological child!reader bc i think that would be a cute dynamic, just tighnari and his lil fox child <3 as someone who lives in a VERY hot state in the united states of america, i have had my fair share of experiences with the heat and fevers and whatnot. heat stroke sucks. getting EXTREMELY sick sucks. one time i had a fever of 106°F. that was crazy. pleaae remember to drink water this summer, especially if you live in a hot place like i do! dehydration can be very very serious.

tighnari, although worried, is confident in his ability to handle his child's fevers.

tighnari is no stranger to heat stroke.

he's no stranger to being extremely sick, either, much as he hates when it happens.

on top of all that, he is no stranger to illnesses and ailments. he's a forest watcher. he's seen his fair share of conditions, so he's more than qualified to take care of his kid.

(he also might be just a little posessive—he dreads the thought of letting some other doctor taking care of them, only to make them even more sick. he's a worried mother fr. he'd be furious with himself and with the hypothetical doctor if something like that ever happened.)

he's very doting, but almost in an overbearing way LMAO

tighnari has them take medication on a very regular schedule. it's as if he has a sixth sense for when it's time for them to take their medicine again.

he may craft the medicine himself using local flora, but if their fever is bad enough, he'll go to sumeru city to pick up pills or liquid medicine (depending on what his child can take; as a person who can't take most pills, i totally understand being unable to swallow them). in the time he's gone, he usually has collei watch them. he trusts her.

he also sets a damp rag on their forehead, changing it every now and then once he feels like its absorbed enough heat from their body.

tighnari just stays very close to them in general if possible. he's worried, and he's noticed that they get a little fidgety and restless in their fever-induced delirious state if he's not around. when their fever delirium is at its peak, they might even cry if they can't hear or smell or otherwise sense him.

if he's busy with something he absolutely cannot reschedule or push back, he'll leave them with a clothing item of his. it's not the same, but it's better than nothing.

he often ends up sat at their bedside because of this. he can't have them stressing out; it'll both make their fever worse and make it harder for them to recover.

tighnari also does his best to keep them cool. sumeru is both hot and humid, and he knows from experience that their ears and tail will retain a lot of that heat, so he does a lot to keep their overall body temperature down.

he'll often end up carrying them to the river below gandharva ville so they can cool off like that. he'll carry them back, too. they may be too unwell to walk straight and he doesn't want to risk them falling or otherwise hurting themselves.

another thing he does is makes sure they eat enough.

they may not want to nor feel like they need to, but they do need to eat. if he somehow fails to coax them into eating, he'll get collei. it's hard to deny collei when she cooks specifically for them.

tighnari is said to be a little irritable when they're ill.

best not to ask him any dumb questions if his kid is sick (there are no dumb questions... not until his beloved child isn't doing well LMAO)

you think "teacher mode" is bad under normal circumstances? wait until you ask him something silly when his kid is ill.

yeah...

he's overall just very doting and attentive and worried for their health. everything goes back to normal once they're on their feet again <3

please consider reblogging, it helps me out quite a lot!

[jedi-bird]

Recently I wrote up a guide for recognizing and treating heat related illnesses for my family and decided to share it here. DISCLAIMER: I am not a medical professional and do not work in the field; I did however work outdoors in a physically demanding job in all kinds of weather and had to help several people with heat issues during that time. This is not a comprehensive list, just an overview of what I learned.

Signs and symptoms of heat related illnesses

Heat exhaustion:

Faint, fuzzy, or dizzy feeling either in head or across whole body

Excessive sweating (check temperature if possible)

Clammy or cold sensation while sweating (if you are shivering, this is getting into serious territory and help might be needed. Shivering when it's hot is very bad.)

Rapid or weak pulse (test blood pressure if possible)

Muscle cramps anywhere in the body

Nausea 

Irritability 

Confusion

Heat stroke 

Throbbing headache (see note below)

No longer sweating with a body temp at 103°F or higher

Skin is red or hot to touch or looks irritated or dry

Rapid nonstop pulse

Loss of consciousness or inability to respond to questions or prompts

Vomiting

Delirium or confusion 

Slurred speech 

Excessive thirst or dry tongue or mouth feel

(Note: not all headaches cause pain. Pressure in the head, halos from ocular migraines, or just any odd feeling in the head should be treated as a headache at this point.)

If heat stroke is suspected, call emergency services immediately. Time is of the essence here.

How to treat heat related illnesses 

Again, please note that if heat stroke is suspected, call emergency services immediately. 

Heat exhaustion:

First, start by moving the individual to a cooler or at least shadier location if outside. If you are inside a structure and the humidity is high, go someplace where it is lower (outside in the shade is good, especially if there is a breeze). If you are inside and air conditioning is an option, turn the temperature down to quickly cool off the room. 

Next, remove any unnecessary clothing or covers. If a shirt can be unbuttoned, undo at least the first two or three. Propriety does not matter in emergencies. Roll up long pants to knees and remove shoes and socks. Remove hats, so long as the person is inside or in the shade. If outside with no shade available, put ice under the hat with a cloth between the ice and head. 

Next, provide a glass or bottle of plain room temperature water. This is vital! Do not provide ice at this point! Make them take two to three small sips. Immediately stop if nauseous or if nausea gets worse. 

(Side note: ice water might sound like a good idea but it can be dangerous at this stage. Hold off until the core body temp starts to come down on its own. Water that is too cold at this stage can bring on nausea.)

Take a cloth or a paper towel and moisten it with cool or cold water. An ice cube wrapped in a cloth can also work for this. Run it along the person's wrists, back of neck, forehead, and ankles. DO NOT LEAVE IT SIT ON ANY PART OF THE BODY! This is a trick to help bring the body temp down in a slow and safe manner without causing the body to go into shock (also why we don't give ice water yet). Shock is bad. Stock can kill you. Go slow.

Communicate throughout. Ask simple questions. If they start being unable to answer or appear confused, stop everything and call emergency services. If they can answer, move on to the next step.

If they are starting to feel better, let them have slightly larger sips of the still room temp water. At this point, if they can keep that down for ten minutes, it is okay to start offering food and other forms of drink if possible. Things like fruit juice or cut up cool fruit are excellent. That will get some sugar back into their body in a gentle way and can assist with recovery. Salad or popsicles is also good. Only allow a bite or two at first, slowly increasing if they don't get nauseous. At this point, it is probably safe to give ice water but alternate it with room temp or electrolytes. 

Monitor closely at this point but allow them some space. Keep them in a cool environment with access to lots of water and places to rest. If they stop improving, call emergency services. 

Heat stroke:

Call emergency services.

Seriously. Don't wait. Don't try anything else. Call for help first and follow their prompts. Heat stroke is serious and deadly. Time is of the essence and lingering does more harm than good. 

Side note: if you are unsure which it might be, just call emergency services. Better safe than sorry. A minor heat related event can change very quickly so don't take chances. 

Again. Can emergency services. Do it. 

Medications and heat interactions 

There are a lot of medications that can interact in dangerous ways with heat, so good hydration and keeping environments cool is a must. SSRIs, birth control, and blood pressure medications WILL make you more susceptible to heat illnesses. Treat this seriously. Limit activities during the hours of 11am and 5pm and drink plenty of fluids. A mix of electrolytes, water, and fruit juice are good. Ice in drinks is okay unless you have the above symptoms; to help keep cool though, they are great. Popsicles are also a good way to cool down and have the benefit of being fun. 

Hydration is your friend. If you feel muscle twitches, you are probably dehydrated. Start drinking more and rest if possible. 

Remember, SSRIs (antidepressants) can and will make you susceptible to the heat. Use caution in hot and humid weather. 

Side note: This is not a full list of the types of medications that can make you susceptible to the heat. Please consult your doctor or pharmacist or look at trusted medical sites online for a complete list. 

Heat exhaustion in the elderly 

As we age, we react differently to things so symptoms can change. Older adults sometimes do not recognize heat related illnesses for what they are. They will often start to feel cold when they are actually hot and will instinctively cover up and turn off air conditioning. This is dangerous, as they will quickly overheat and become unresponsive. They will also develop problems faster than someone younger. When in doubt, call emergency services. Again, better safe than sorry.

Making sure they get adequate meals and keep hydrated is essential. Jello is a good option for those who do not like drinking fluids regardless of age. Checking in regularly and asking questions can help so long as they are honest. Remember, with heat related illnesses, we are all trying to protect each other so talk openly and honestly about concerns. Let's all work together to keep each other healthy. 

Additional notes

Keep a very close eye on humidity levels, especially in homes. Houses tend to heat up quickly and because of appliances and sinks, tend to get very humid. High humidity mixed with high heat is deadly. There is a thing known as the wet bulb temperature that measures the ambient air temp by covering a thermometer with a wet cloth. Honesty, it's easier to just get a device that will tell you the humidity of a room. If the humidity gets too high, using fans will only make it worse since they can't cool the room down at that point.  Air conditioning is your only option at that point. Humidity at or close to the same air temperature is very dangerous. 

Lower humidity levels mean the moisture in the air is evaporating, which will help you feel cooler. Higher humidity will kill you especially when the outdoor temp is above 95°F/35°C. Use the air conditioning and if necessary cover up with a light and breathable blanket (something made of pure cotton or pure linen).

If air conditioning is not an option, placing a bowl of ice in front of a fan can help create a cooling breeze. Keep lights and electronics off as much as possible and keep windows covered to keep the light out. A fan placed facing outward in a single window or door can help push the heat out; keep doors to rooms open if doing this to create some airflow.

Avoid wearing polyester based fabrics in hot weather as they will just cause overheating. 100% cotton is best if possible. Loose clothing or thin layers is good. Keep hair tied back and away from the face and neck as much as possible. 

Do not cover your head indoors. Let that heat escape. Fans are good alongside air conditioning but they are not enough alone. 

Hydrate hydrate hydrate!!!! Seriously. Drink more water. Drink more electrolytes. If you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated. Drink. If you cannot drink lots of liquids for health reasons or you just don't like it, jello and fruits such as melons are great alternatives. 

Major appliances should not be run during the day. Early morning or late evening are the best times. They will heat up the house unnecessarily and make you more prone to heat illnesses. Early or late unless you have no other option is the best choice. Try to pre-cook meals while the sun is down or in the early morning to eat when it is hot if you can. 

Keep all windows covered from sun up to sun down to help keep the heat out. Keep them closed while the sun is out too. Putting a fan facing inward in a window at night can help pull cooler air into the house (remember to turn it to face outward once the sun comes up), but air conditioning is still better so keep it running even if it's a cool morning. It takes too long for it to cool down a house if you wait to turn it on later. 

Keep unnecessarily lights off during the day as they can also heat up a house. Unplug anything not in use or use power stripes with an off button. This also helps keep electrical bills lower so you can run the air conditioning more. AC is your friend if you have it. If not, look for cooling centers available in your area and take advantage of them. 

When in doubt about anything, contact a trusted source. Family, health professionals, emergency services. Things can change very quickly and the whole point of this is to help with prevention. Avoid being outside while the sun is out as much as possible. If something feels weird, call for help immediately. Stay safe. Stay cool. 

[aristotels]

Of course all problems and inequalities are direct consequence of modernity and in the past those who are now considered undesirable were considered divine and definitely weren't treated even worse and didn't have access to anything that resembles accomodations. Let's bring those times back!

In Ancient Rome specifically there was no hospitalisation, yes, but also people who were considered mad couldn't make financial and legal operations on their own at all and couldn't be citizens, and were considered pariahs by their communities. This is not to say that you are wrong because you picked the wrong time to see as "when things were better", it's that just because what causes problems now is capitalism doesn't mean that before it people were always kind and caring, everything is much older.

(Or that removing the money would fix everything on its own, for that matter)

are you literally so stupid to fail to see my point

the point isnt "LOOK WHAT THEY TOOK FROM US" the point is that fears and delusions depend on the society youre brought up in; and also sorry that a 5 sentences tumblr post didnt go into history of medical malpractice, it was a lighthearted post made by someone with those very issues

yeah, if i lived then, then id have a different delusion more fit to those times - but it would not resemble my current paranoia or nightmares of being drugged or talked to the way ive had medical staff talk to me bc those things are specific to our society.

(Also you can still have your rights denied for being mentally ill today as well?????? what happened to free britney??? And like My family doctor once literally suggested to my dad to involountary check me into psych ward which was smth my psychiatrist at the time was very much trying to avoid because he KNEW how dehumanizing that is, he spent more than sn hour trying to figure out if my visions of suicide were actual suicide risk or intrusive thoughts; telling me later that he was willing to gamble such a huge risk and responsibility he would have to take in case i actually did smth to myself - just to keep me out of the hospital stay because he worked there and SAW how dehumanizing it is. because getting in the ward here doesnt mean youre done when youre out, this shit affects FUCKLOAD of things in your life!)

are you really trying to be like "LETS TAKE AWAY ACCOMODATIONS FROM PEOPLE WHO SUFFER WOOW GOOD JOB" in my inbox rn btw considering that i am literally schizophrenic w some other mental illnesses, and that i take fucking meds upon meds for it, including antipsychotics??????? and i am also very grateful for those aids, but even with meds my condition will never be resolved and its severity very much depends on the people/society around me. my delusions while living in croatia might differ from someone who lives in the usa.

i literally have no patience or attention or care or anything to argue with you rn, if you wanna discuss political or economical or marxist or whatever theory in my inbox go ahead, but i am NOT arguing about my own fucking lived experience and having you speak to me this way, in an incredibly entitled and dismissive way. its late and im going to bed. i genuinely dont care for your "ummmmm ekshually capitalism is noot thaaat bad-" shit while i keep having episodes on the daily in a big part due to fuckin capitalism. losing my other job is putting me through stress because i have no money, but it also eased up certain aspects of my illness because i dont have to hit hardcore fucking deadlines every week.

p.s. who the fuck is talking about money not existing. if you are gonna bring that up within communist theory and up for a serious discussion thats a whole other thing, but moneyless and stateless society doesnt just rest on tadaaah no money, like theres a reason marx wrote books n essays on that shit and why daddy engels sent him checks. and even in ideal communist world we would still have mental illnesses, but i am absolutely positive that my thoughts would differ than the current ones and that they would probably be less severe. and also why is this implying that communism wont have like the fuckin medication

i usually take care to carefully reply to asks and try to actually give a serious opinion but i gen dont care if i sound incoherent rn, this legit pissed me off

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

I've never been a fan of sprint race weekends and just when I think the whole thing can't get worse they are talking about getting rid of all but one free practice session. It's just so unbelievably stupid and reckless. The FIA are just asking for disaster at this point.

They're already risking safety with how much they're overworking the crews with an over packed race schedule, taking away free practice sessions is yet another unnecessary safety risk. "We've driven on these tracks before" / perhaps but (1, rookies and some returning drivers may not have and majority of the rookies may have never driven an F1 car on that particular track before either, (2, if it's a new track no one is going to feel comfortable racing on it with only one free practice session under their belt ("but there's a sprint!" a sprint is a mini race, free practice allows for drivers to familiarize themselves with the track in a much more relaxed environment where they're not fighting for position, it allows for practice runs, experimenting with different tyre compounds and catching any and all issues that may affect the car during the race) and (3, the teams arrive on track every year with a different car from the year before, they are still working on the car from the first race until the last trying to maximize its performance. You can do countless sim races, and yes sim races are very important especially in regards to development of the car, but you cannot account for every possible scenario or factor until you put that car on track and see what it can do or see how safe it is to drive on that track.

Mechanics and the pit crew are also no longer allowed to go up on the fence at the end of the race. Let's be real that's not about safety because if it was about safety they'd have apologized for having a crane on track in Suzuka under yellow flag conditions, or they'd have upped security after Silverstone where the track was literally invaded by protestors and the only reason why that in of itself wasn't a more serious incident was because there had already been a significant crash on the opening lap (which sent two drivers to hospital for medical assessment and treatment), but instead of doing either, the FIA have moved to restrict the drivers' ability from speaking out about incidents like those I mentioned.

[incendio22]

FOR THE HOPE OF IT ALL

Chapter 22: Red Roses, White Lies

I can feel something changing about Ominis. He is growing more and more distant by each day that passes and is spending a worrisome amount of time on his own. He keeps dismissing my efforts to talk to him and blames it on the fact that he's stressed about assignments, as well as his faked medical condition. He told Nurse Blainey that he had tickling sensations that wouldn't go away, and for each time he seeks out it has gotten worse. Of course, this is a serious matter but I cannot blame myself for finding it absolutely hilarious that he chose that as his medical condition out of all diseases to exist. When I asked him about it he told me that it's a disease that is difficult to cure and that he had his doubts in Nurse Blainey to treat something like that. I assume that the idea is good, but I still find it extremely funny.

It's a sunny Saturday in February. The sun is announcing its appearance by shining through every window in the castle, creating a warm atmosphere. Today Ravenclaw is playing quidditch against Gryffindor and everyone having breakfast seems to be in a better mood than ever. You can feel the tension and the rivalry between the two houses, as they have the same amount of points in the quidditch cup and share 3rd place. Hufflepuff has a solid lead, followed by Slytherin. I sit down with Imelda, who also seems to be in an extraordinarily good mood today.

"Who do you think will win?" She asks with her mouth stuffed. "I hope it's Ravenclaw, because we have a much greater chance of beating them than Gryffindor. So I hope the Ravenclaw's can get their act together and just win."

To be honest, I didn't care much about today's game. All that matters to me is that Slytherin sina the quidditch cup and I'd rather spend my time practising, instead of speculating who we have a better chance to beat. The other houses have many quidditch talents on their teams, but I believe that is also one of their weaknesses. What separates us from the others is that we know that talent means nothing without hard work and practice.

"I don't know," I tell her. "I just hope they all fall off their brooms so we can have a last game against Hufflepuff and crush them like last time."

"Spoken like a true Slytherin," She says and looks proud.

When you spend five months with snow and a concerningly low amount of hours with sunshine, the first day of the year when the sun is warming up your face is undescribable. You can almost feel how spring is starting to Bloom. I try to catch every possible ray of sun as I stand on the Ravenclaw bleacher writing for the quidditch game to start. I got there sooner than most people, but I didn't want to let the sunshine go to waste. I stare directly at the sun, just to close my eyes and take it all in when I am interrupted.

"Just the person I was hoping to find," It's Sebastian walking over to me, holding his hand above his eyes to cover the sun. The sun makes his freckles even clearer and I think he looks like a daydream. "Enjoying ourselves, are we?"

I give him a smile while squeezing my eyes, they are in a bit of pain from my mistake of staring straight into the sun. He walks closer to me, reaches for my hand and gives it a quick squeeze.

"Hi there," I say, still smiling.

I've been thinking about how he told me about Madam Puddifoot's on our first date, but how he never brought me there after. The tea from her shop is marvellous and I would love to visit the café. Imelda told me that it's a common place to bring your date on Valentine's day and since that specific day is just around the corner I figure that I might as well work up the courage to ask Sebastian out, since he hasn't asked me yet.

''Do you have any plans for Valentine's day?'' I ask him curiously, trying to make this as smooth as possible.

''Actually I do,'' Sebastian tells me and looks up in the sky.

''Oh,'' My voice sounds shocked and I have nothing else to say.

He's nodding and kicking the ground like he always does when he's nervous. I am obviously disappointed since I thought we had something going on, but I can't afford to let him see me being sad and jealous. We stand in silence for a moment.

''There's this girl that I want to ask to go on a date with me. But I'm a bit nervous. I really like her,'' He says and looks at me.

At this point I'm not sure if he is taunting me or talking about me.

''You should just ask her,'' I tell him in a short voice.

''I suppose so,'' His voice is soft and the foot is still kicking the ground. ''Will you be my date?''

My heart starts beating faster. I nod and give him a massive smile.

''Then it's all set,'' He says with a grin. ''I'm taking you to Madam Puddifoot's. Wear something nice.''

Without thinking I give him a big hug and his arms fold around me. The bleachers are getting more and more crowded and I notice some people looking at us. Some are looking excited, some are surprised and others roll their eyes. Neither matters.

The quidditch game is intense but Gryffindor manages to win, which is bad news for Imelda. As the days pass and it's suddenly Valentine's day I notice that she is even more tense than usual. She spent the morning getting herself fixed up and in the afternoon she changes into a cute outfit. I barely see her in anything other than the Slytherin robe or her quidditch uniform, so it's odd seeing her in a skirt with a knitted sweater. She looks great.

''Do you have anything special planned for tonight?'' I ask her curiously.

She bats me an angry eye and turns around. I figure she is just stressed and I am also convinced that she does have special plans for tonight, I'm mostly curious about with whom. I put on the sweater Sebastian gave me for Christmas and undo my french braids, making the waves fall over my shoulders.

''I can't believe you have a date and didn't tell me,'' I say to Imelda who is still running around the dormitory.

''You didn't tell me either,'' She spits back. ''Not that I didn't know, of course. But still, we're friends!''

''Exactly,'' I agree with her. ''You already knew, but me on the other hand have absolutely no idea what you're up to tonight.''

''I'm going to Madam Puddifoot's with someone,'' She says and stops for a second to look at me. ''But it's nothing. Just an act of kindness.''

I'm just glad I got something out of her, so I forget to mention the small detail that I'm also going there. And given how nervous she is, I'm convinced it won't be a pleasant surprise.

I see Sebastian standing outside of Madam Puddifoot's with a bouquet of red roses. I smile as I walk up to him with his gift in my hand. It's a small red box tied up with a white ribbon.

''There you are!'' He says and wraps his arms around me. ''Here.''

He hands over the roses and when I see them up close I notice that there are small fireworks bursting from every flower. I smile as I thank him.

''I got you something as well,'' I tell him as I reveal my hand that I was hiding behind my back.

He opens it eagerly and goes silent as he sees the silver watch lying inside. Eventually, he looks up at me and smiles.

''Thank you so much. You really didn't have to,'' He sounds sincere and places a kiss on my forehead. ''I love it.''

He leads me inside and I notice the bell above the door tinkling as we enter. It's crowded with Hogwarts students that all seem to be on a date. The inside is tiny and pink-themed, decorated with bows and lace. We sit down at a table and he orders two sweet coffees that I never heard of before, but he insists that I should trust him. I suddenly remember about Imelda.

''Imelda is going on a date here, too!'' I tell Sebastian in an excited voice and he pretends to drop his jaw.

''I bet she's going with Ominis,'' Sebastian laughs slightly as he says it.

''No,'' I say hesitantly. ''They are just friends. He said so himself.''

Sebastian gives me a funny look.

''I have my reasons to think I'm right,'' He says with a grin. ''But if you're so sure, why don't we make a bet?''

Now that he said that he has his reasons to think they are coming here together, I absolutely don't want to make a bet and risk losing. Before I can answer the doorbell tinkles and I very much to Sebastian's satisfaction, it's Imelda and Ominis walking in together. He looks at me, leans closer and grins.

''You were literally saved by the bell,'' His grin is not getting any smaller. ''I won't forget this. I still won.''

''Oh you did not,'' I give him an angry look but I am quickly interrupted by Imelda who gives me a dirty look. Not more, not less.

''Did you two fight?'' Sebastian asks.

''No,'' I start. ''She just told me that she was coming here and I forgot to mention that I was too. She has been so stressed all day, probably about this.''

''This is hilarious!'' Sebastian says and laughs out. ''Ominis likes her, but refuses to admit it. And she seems to be doing the exact same thing. I wish they would just admit it to each other.''

I had no idea Ominis liked Imelda, in fact I was convinced that they were just friends. However, that was until I see them together. Ominis, who has been feeling off lately, looks happier than ever and Imelda's upset wrinkle between her eyebrows is gone. They look natural and seem to have forgotten everything around them. My heart warms up as I see them, but is quickly interrupted by another couple covering my vision as they make out. I have a sip of coffee. It's extremely sweet and tastes like brown sugar and cinnamon, which is comforting.

''This is a curious place to bring someone you want to keep secret,'' I tell him, remembering how he wanted to keep our relationship low.

''Oh darling, don't be silly,'' He says in a gentle voice. ''I never said I wanted to keep you like a secret. I wanted to keep things private. There's a massive difference.''

''Whatever you say,'' I say as I roll my eyes.

''Let's give them something to talk about,'' He says and leans over the table, pulls me in and kisses me softly. He tastes like sweet coffee.

Something about it feels so magical. Not because people saw us, but because I now know for sure that there is something between us.

This evening I struggle to fall asleep. I roll around, but no matter what I cannot seem to enter the world of dreams. Instead I get up and walk out into the Common Room. I sit in front of the massive glass window facing the Black Lake. Something about it is so calming, especially in the dark. The creatures passing by are impossible to tell what they are and it's so mysterious. My thoughts are interrupted by some male voices.

''I can't believe you actually went on a real date with her,'' The voice is so familiar to me at this point. It's Sebastian talking in a loud voice.

''Keep it down!'' The other voice belongs to Ominis. ''But yes. And I'm glad I got the courage to ask her. Thank you for the help.''

''Anytime,'' Sebastian says.

They don't seem to notice me. It's not surprising since I'm sitting on the floor, probably melting in with the room.

''How did you know Y/n was the one?'' Ominis asks. I feel as if I'm intruding on something that I absolutely should not hear.

''Honestly,'' It's once again Sebastian's voice and for some reason I feel terrified of what might come out of his mouth. ''Ever since I met her, there hasn't been a day I haven't thought of her. I guess that if it's right, you know it.''

I recognize his words. It's exactly what Poppy told me when I asked her if you knew if someone was right for you. I have to hold my hand over my mouth to not let any words slip out.

''You know, I spent lots of time with her the last weeks. She has kept my mind busy from everything going on. I really, really like her,'' Ominis then says. ''And tonight she said that she really, really likes me.''

[sabyfangirl]

Gila Bite!

The events in this fanfic take place in the "Roadnunner" episode, where Martin almost got bitten by a Gila monster. But of course, he ended just fine and without a bite. While I, the unsatisfied fangirl that I am, wanted him to get bitten so badly for obvious reasons caugh to stimulate some bro feels caugh… So I wrote my own version of the episode from the moment Martin bumped into that Gila monster. Spoiler Alert: Bro feels and lots of comfort… With a motherhen scolding Koki.

P.S: I recommend rewatching the episode just to avoid confusion.

Enjoy!

The venomous lizard launched its toothless jaw at the tiny Kratt in the roadrunner suit, who it had taken as its next meal.

Martin, who was small enough to fit in the creature's mouth, had to act fast!

Instinctively, he reached for the deactivation button on his chest, pressing it faster than the gasp he let out at the sight of the beast charging at him.

"Deactivate!" He yelled out, panic in his voice. The suit glowed in a typical blast of blue, transforming him back to his usual human self. For a brief second, he was relieved, thinking the dread was out of the way. But then, he felt it.

"OOOW!" He painfully cried out as sudden, sharp pain striked him in the knee. He looked down to find the lizard's bite sinking into his skin, forcefully gripping onto his crus, unwilling to let go.

The others - Chris and Aviva - came running as soon as they heared his cries of help.

"Martin, are you ok?" Aviva stopped when she saw the state he was in.

"Martin!" Called out a worried Chris. He swiftly rushed passed the staggered engineer and to his brother's side, gasping at the state he was in, paralysed with panic as his eyes widened from shock.

"Chris, please do something!" Martin cried, his voice marked by intense pain and distress.

Chris snapped out of his thoughts, bringing himself to get his brother out of his misery. He knelt beside him and eyed the venomous creature, becoming deeply pensive.

"Chris! Oh no, what do we do?" Asked a terrofied Aviva, seeing Martin's hurt face made her feel even worse. Before Chris could respond, a sudden ringtone interrupted them; Aviva took out her creature pod to answer the call.

"What's taking you guys so long?" Koki let out, irritated. "You were supposed to-" she stopped when she saw Martin's condition, her eyes widening.

"Martin? What happened?!" She turned to Aviva, confusion and concern in her eyes. But before she could find the right words, Martin started moaning loudly, startling everyone around him. This caught Chris' attention, he knew what it meant; the lizard's venom was starting to kick in, and they had to act fast before his brother got any worse.

"Agh… Bro, I'm not feeling so good," Martin's voice trailed off - arousing more concern from his friends - his face getting noticeably pale.

"Oh no, this is not good," Chris spoke with a serious tone as he turned to the two engineers, remarking expressions of disquietude and confusion.

"The Gila Monster won't let go so easily, and the longer it stays on his leg, the more venomous the bite; so we have to pull it off before it gets any worse," explained the knowledgeable biologist.

Sudden realization hit the girls. Koki was the first to react. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's get that thing off of him ASAP!" She let out determinedly.

At that moment, Jimmy showed up on the screen, catching a glimpse of what was happening. His eyes widened at the situation.

Koki - completely ignoring him - passed by him and to her computer, taking a small mic out of the desk. "A venomous bit from a Gila monster! We need an emergency medical evacuation! I knew something bad would happen if we didn't leave on schedule," she let out with a loud and clear voice before sceptically murmuring that last part. The ginger guy only followed her commands as they got on their emergency bike, then drove off to the trio's location with the speed of light.

Aviva ended the call before turning to the injured Kratt. "Martin, you'll be ok. Koki and Jimmy are on the way," she spoke reassuringly.

Martin only smiled thankfully, though pain was undeniably clear on his expression. Chris rubbed his back comfortingly, still eyeing the vicious beast.

In a flash, the duo appeared right in front of them. Koki hopped off with the first aid kit in one hand, Jimmy following behind her.

"We're here! Where's Martin?" She asked a nervous Aviva who fearfully pointed at him. Jimmy screamed at the sight of the lizard that still held onto Martin's leg.

Realizing Koki's presence, Martin gave her a look of pity and despair, which triggered her. She came closer and knelt on the opposite side of where Chris was holding his brother. She took one look at the lizard and knew what needed to be done.

"Alright, here's the plan: we need to pull that lizard off, but we have to be careful. We don't need his wound to get much worse or anyone else getting hurt…" She started, a firm look on her face.

The others nodded while Martin's eyes widened. Noticing his brother's discomfort, Chris squeezed his hand, looking down at him with reassuring eyes. "Hey, it'll be alright bro. I'm here for you," he spoke with a calm tone.

Martin could feel himself calming down, not completely though - the intense pain was still there - but that didn't stop him from forcing a thankful smile. "Thanks, bro." He whispered, his voice weakening as an effect from the lizard's venom.

The crew - Chris, Koki, Aviva and Jimmy - exchanged serious, comprehending looks. Chris signaled Aviva to hold Martin for him; she did just so. He then went over next to Koki with Jimmy behind him, who was taking out a few medical tools - keeping a safe distance from the Gila Monster.

"Hang over the gloves J.Z." Koki instructed the ginger guy who swiftly handed her the mentioned object. Shoving them on, she listened carefully to Chris.

"Alright Koki, we have to do this with caution. You hold his leg, and I take care of the lizard", he said with precision.

With her ears concentrated on his words and her eyes fixated on the creature, she nodded firmly.

Martin swallowed hard as a comforting hand squeezed his shoulder, he looked away from the duo to find Aviva giving him a sad, reassuring smile. He sighed, closing his eyes as to prepare himself for the upcoming pain - one he was sure to never forget.

Chris and Koki were in position. The biologist delicately grabbed the venomous creature by the torso, avoiding any unwanted reactions. The engineer had her gloved hands anxiously wrapped around Martin's leg. She was ready.

"On three," Chris said.

"One."

Koki tightened the grip.

"Two."

Jimmy buried his face in his hands, letting out a screetch.

"Three!"

Martin closed his eyes shut as he bit his lip. What came next was nothing but indescribable pain and agony for him.

Chris pulled the ferocious creature with all his strength as Koki kept his leg immobilized, resisting the force. Loud grunts quickly turned into cries of pain, tears rapidly escaping Martin's eyes. Aviva held onto him, his face turning paler by the second. Jimmy peeked through his fingers, only to yelp at the sight of horror.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the Gila monster let go of a now swelling and bloody leg.

Martin was in between awakeness and unconsciousness. He was breathing heavily as his bloodshot eyes slowly began to close.

"Martin?" Called out a worried Aviva, having him passing out in her arms. "Chris-" she alerted his brother who cut her off, anticipating the situation.

Koki took care of wrapping up the injury with Jimmy's help - who felt slightly uncomfortable at the sight of the wound - while Chris went to place the lizard away from everyone, keeping it as far as possible from his chest. The cold-blooded creature hissed as he put it on the ground before backing away. He sighed when it crawled away rather than attacking him.

Chris returned to find his unconscious brother laid down on the stretcher Koki and Jimmy had brought with them. Not knowing why, he felt guilty for what had happened. He approached Martin before placing a hand on his forehead, now feverish. The venom!

"We need to get him back to the Tortuga and give him Aviva's anti-venom shot," Koki informed while hopping back on her bike, followed by an anxious Jimmy.

Before Chris could say anything, they baulted back to the HQ as fast as they came, leaving him and Aviva all by themselves.

He stood frozen in his spot, completely speachless. Feeling a hand on his shoulder, he turned to meet eye to eye with a concerned Aviva.

"You alright, C.K?" She asked. Chris gave her an unsure look, squinting his eyes with guilt and inquietude.

"Hey," she squeezed his shoulder affectionately. "Martin will be fine, my anti-venom shot will get him back on his feet in no time." She said enthusiastically.

Chris only gave her a sad smile before looking away, upset.

Not baring his saddened expression, Aviva took out a familiar item from her pocket. "Hey, Chris, feel like returning to the Tortuga with roadrunner powers?" She waved the disc with a grin on her face.

Chris gave a hesitant shrug. "It's the fastest way back," she added persuasively.

That and a passing roadrunner were enough to convince him. He snatched the disc, touched the animal and-

"Activate roadrunner powers!" A blast of green light quickly transformed him into a speedy, running, green bird. He bent down. "Want a ride?" He asked humoristically.

"Sure!" Aviva replied with a smile.

As soon as she hopped on his back, the Kratt in the green suit ran off with roadrunner speed toward the blue ship. Unexplainable dread filled him as they got closer to the entrance. He gulped.

Suddenly, his eyes caught a distinct creature on a rock, one he'd recognize all too well. His eyes lit up as an idea came to his mind…

Back at the HQ, an unawoken Martin was being given the anti-venom shot by Koki. She properly bandaged his wound as soon as she was done, Jimmy helping alongside her.

Moments later, Chris and Aviva arrived at the Tortuga. Impatiently, he deactivated his suit after she had hopped off his back. They looked around. Nobody in sight.

From the automatic doors came Koki and Jimmy, exhaustion painting their faces. Spotting them, Chris came to them, eager to hear from his brother.

"Koki! Is he-" she cut him off, putting a stop to the unnecessary concern rising within him.

"He's fine, Chris. He just needs some rest," she spoke calmly. Jimmy nodded, confirming her words.

He let out a sigh of relief, yet still felt uneasy. Behind him, stood Aviva with an idea in mind.

"Why don't you go see him?" She suggested. His face lit up before turning to a firm Koki with pleading eyes.

Hesitant, she sighed. "Fine. But only for a short while. He needs rest," she grumbled. "Let's leave the Sonoran Desert, for real this time," she huffed.

Giving her a thankful look, Chris rushed to the room where he believed his brother to be resting. He entered their usual chamber. A typical, warm, cheerful atmosphere was now replaced by a dim and gloomy one. Chris' eyes scanned the dingy room before setting on a slumbering Martin - covered in his blanket with a wet washcloth on his forehead. He sighed.

He pulled a chair to sit beside his brother's bed, a sad look on his face. He gently laid a hand on his forehead, now less feverish than before thanks to Aviva's anti-venom shot. His thoughts consumed him as the scene from earlier replayed in his mind, bringing him guilt and self-blame.

Suddenly, moans escaped Martin, startling Chris. His eyes widened.

"Martin?" He whispered. Martin's eyes slowly opened, barely peeking through his eyelids, he met his brother's eyes.

"Chris…" His voice was weak. He tried to sit up but Chris forbad it, reminding him of his injury.

"Martin, wait! The bite…" He pointed at the leg beneath the blanket.

Martin's eyes, now fully open, narrowed as the disturbing memory of agony came back to him.

He groaned in annoyance. "Right," he murmured.

There was a moment of silence before Chris spoke again. "How are you feeling?" He asked, avoiding eye contact.

"I'll be alright," Martin reassured, sensing his brother's uneasiness. "What is it Chris?" He sat up in bed - careful with his wound - ignoring the washcloth that had fallen on his bed.

Chris stayed silent, still looking away from his bother, he closed his eyes.

An unexpected yet gentle squeeze on his hand brought him to look straight into his brother's eyes, a sad smile on his tired face.

"Hey, I know what you're thinking and you better forget it." Martin threatened with an ironically friendly tone.

"But-" Chris tried to protest but was instantly interrupted.

"Look, I wanted to stay too. We both asked for a few extra minutes, we both got ourselves into this mess, and I'm the one who got in trouble…" He recaped, a light chuckle escaping him.

Something about their rash and irresponsible actions made Chris let out a small shuckle of his own.

"So don't ever blame yourself for this." He finished, catching his brother off guard.

Chris sighed, knowing he was right.

Feeling a heavy weight lift off his shoulders, he gave his older brother a hug, his arms locked around his back. Without hesitation, Martin gladly returned the hug; their embrace was like a sudden beam of sunlight illuminating the darkest corners of the room.

"Get well soon, bro." Chris whispered in his brother's ear.

"Thanks, buddy." Martin replied, his voice less weak than before.

The warm embrace soon came to an end, before Chris gasped from sudden remembrance. His brother eyed him with curious eyes.

From his pocket, Chris took out a petit creature that his brother immediately recognized as-

"The mystery lizard!" He beamed as his eyes sparkled with excitement.

Chris laughed, delighted by his brother's pleasant reaction. He gently laid the little creature in his hands for contemplation. Martin smiled.

"A collared lizard," he stated in amazement. "Way to go, bro!" He praised.

Chris smiled warmly. "Yeah, I bumped into it on my way back with Aviva. Thought I'd bring it as a surprise," he clarified.

"Now I almost don't regret getting bitten. This creature's awesome!" Martin added humoristically. The brothers laughed.

A sudden movement - that they recognized as the Tortuga taking off - suddenly staggered them.

Chris' eyes widened. "Oh no! I gotta get this little guy back to the desert!" He snatched the lizard from Martin's hands and dashed out of the room.

"Koki, wait! Don't take off!" His shouts echoed through the Tortuga.

Martin remained motionless for a brief moment…before cracking up. He laughed his heart out, allowing the warmth of his brother's actions to sink in, bringing him joy and comfort.

Despite the unpleasant experience he had, he was still grateful for the wonderful brother he had.

[traumasurvivorshelpingsurvivors]

seeking advice, support, validation, reassurance, resources, or someone to listen to.

its been like this for me ever since i was a child but there are certain foods i cannot eat or be around or even the smell of will make me gag and sometimes even puke. there's a medical term for it but i just never remember what it is. i have ptsd, adhd, anxiety attacks, and depression. its difficult to say the least on the whole memory stuff. it causes triggers and trauma, its gotten a lot worse over the years and its so bad that if anyone has fruit(that's the trigger food) anywhere near my food or snacks, i wont eat. i cant even do those cleaning sprays with the citrus smell because its a fruity smell and i will get ill. its affecting my daily life, relationships, and physical/mental health. one of my parents thinks I'm "overreacting" or "its not that serious" but my own psychiatrist said i have this thing and its a legitimate medical whatever and i have it. food aversion is like the category its in but what i experience is a lot more intense. are there any books or websites or youtube channels or videos that exist so i can watch/show my parent and finally be seen and not judged? i haven't eaten in 2 days because my parent bought so many fruits and put them right in front of my snacks in the fridge. i already struggle to eat with some slight ED and borderline extreme diets. i make my own diets. i eat two big meals a day and 3 snacks in between. with the third snack being the dessert. usually one of my meals consists of 4 eggs scrambled, 4 strips of bacon, and either red bell peppers or carrot sticks on the side. i do that for either breakfast/lunch(i combine em) or for dinner depending on what i did. basically i have a real medical condition and my own parent thinks I'm overreacting but my medical doctor diagnosed me. what do i do here? im 30 and living with my parents but one of my parents is not well and i help out at home but i also cannot work due to "mental shit" or whatever but i do help out with my parents and chores and housework and the dishes and i cook and bake for them but i myself will flat out hide food or conversation it up to distract from not eating my plate.

Hi anon,

I'm so sorry to hear about what you've been struggling with. It can be exhausting to deal with this, both in how people respond to it and how that impacts your eating habits. Please know that you're not alone in experiencing this. It could be helpful to discuss what you've been going through with your parents, if you're comfortable. This way, they can be more mindful of where they put your trigger foods and you can make sure that you can eat when you want to.

I like to watch Seen Stories and there are a few people who talk about struggling with ARFID, which sounds like what you may be referring to. Here is another resource discussing ARFID. Here is an article by ARFID Awareness. In case it isn't ARFID specifically, here are some articles on food aversion.

If you can access or afford it, a mental health professional such as a therapist could help you navigate your food aversion, as well as the other disorders you deal with. A therapist, ideally one specialized in eating disorders, can work with you to process your experiences and develop a helpful strategy to creating a more balanced diet.

If anyone has any comments or suggestions, feel free to add on. Otherwise, I hope I could help, and please let us know if you need anything.

-Bun

[richataylor17]

Traumatic Brain Injury Symptoms: Mild, Moderate, Severe and Long Term

Here is a guide that explains the different types of symptoms people go through when dealing with traumatic brain injury and when to seek help from doctors. 

A violent blow or regular jolt to the head, or body, is enough to make a person suffer from traumatic brain injury. Secondly, extremely worst cases of TBI include severe Traumatic Brain Injury Symptoms. That is because changes usually get objected to penetrating the brain, damaging the brain tissues, like a bullet. 

It can shatter the skull and cause severe trauma in the brain. Mild injury is manageable, it will temporarily affect your brain, but more severe trauma will last for a long time. The impact on oneself can ruin a person's mental state or the long-term complications leading to death. 

It is essential for people going through the condition to seek immediate help, and doctors can assist and offer their advice for taking the right action and dealing with injuries.  Let us learn about the Symptoms of Traumatic Brain Injury, what to expect, and the long-term effects.

The symptoms

Traumatic brain injury can have a severe effect on an individual. However, depending on the reason and severity of the accident. It can be life-threatening. Some signs can appear immediately after the traumatic event, while others can occur late and eventually be a part of life. 

Mild symptoms:

Different people have different sorts of Symptoms of Traumatic Brain Injury. While some may go through all of it mentioned below. Some will only go through a few said! Ask yourself, are you going through challenges like this? You need to visit a doctor immediately. 

Headache

Feeling depressed

Nausea or vomiting

Blurry vision, ringing in the ears

Feeling anxious

Loss of taste, bad taste, or changes in the ability to smell

Fatigue or drowsiness

Sleeping too much

State of being dazed

Problems with speech

Mood swings

Sensitiveness to light and sound

Loss of consciousness

Difficulty to sleep

Dizziness or loss of balance

Moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries

It can happen because the injury is mild or severe. When you go through a potent form of TBI Symptoms, remember that your problem or condition is already in its worst state. 

The patient suffers from a serious injury that has damaged the skull and put a lot of trauma in the brain. If you are suffering from any of it mentioned below, seek immediate care!

Loss of consciousness for more than half an hour, or for several minutes, which is not normal

Convulsions or seizures

Nausea and a state of feeling like vomiting most of the time

Loss of control over body, body coordination

Weakness and feeling numb in the finger, toes, and another body part

Fluids running from the nose, ears, which is not due to cold or flu

Dilation is one of both the pupils in the eye

Headache that is persistent, long-lasting, and has worsened over time even after medication

Inability to sleep or excessive sleeping

Traumatic Brain Injury symptoms Years Later

A change in personality

Memory loss: In the minor form

Light sensitivity

Auditory complications

trouble in sleep

Depression

Loss of smell

These are a few of the Traumatic Brain Injury symptoms years later that a patient can go through. But, you can avoid it if you seek help from doctors, and these professionals will find a cure to treat your condition. 

Conclusion

Are you going through the troubles of traumatic brain injury symptoms? Do the symptoms not let you live a normal life? Do you feel overwhelmed and unsure of what to do? Is the pain getting worse, or do you feel uneasy, dizzy, sleepy all the time? Well These signs that you need to seek help from doctors immediately. 

Any sign, minor or severe, is why you visit the doctor and take help. Find details about TBI and get yourself the best doctor near you by researching Advantage Health Group.  

[fahrni]

Life and Sudden Cardiac Arrest

Popular Information

Hamlin lay on the field, motionless, for ten minutes as medical personnel administered CPR. Players from both teams kneeled, some with tears streaming down their faces, while Hamlin was placed on a stretcher and taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in an ambulance. As of Tuesday, Hamlin remains hospitalized in critical condition.

This hit home. I’ve been through this. You can read about it after I add some commentary around Mr. Hamlin’s event.

Scary is a good way to describe what happened to Damar Hamlin. You don’t expect a healthy, young, fit athlete to drop dead on a football field.

The good news is two fold. First, medical staff began working on him right away. Second, doctors have to be 99% sure what caused it. Getting hit in the chest while your heart is at a very specific point in its rhythm can cause Sudden Cardiac Arrest. It seems likely this is what happened.

It’s going to take a while but I’d expect Mr. Hamlin is going to make a full recovery and live a normal, hopefully very long, life. I’d also imagine the psychological trauma will harder to overcome than the physical trauma. Keep that in mind.

The next question is, will he play football again? That’s tough to answer and it will ultimately be between him and his doctors to decide. If it doesn’t work out that he can play again I hope he has another skill he can fall back on. No athlete can play their sport forever, especially an NFL football player. The average NFL career is around 3.3 years, give it take, so let’s be generous and say it’s four years.

It stands to reason Mr. Hamlin would eventually resign from the NFL a young man and do something else. I often wonder how many athletes consider this on their way into professional sports?

It was reported Mr. Hamlin was due to make over $800,000US this year. That should also afford him some runway should he need to change careers.

This brings me around to a little rant but I could see folks disagreeing with what I’m about to say.

From the article I link above.

But, with a few exceptions, NFL players, unlike other major sports leagues, do not have guaranteed contracts. That means the players, not the team, carry the financial risk of serious injury.

Here’s where I’m going to be controversial.

Why should contracts be guaranteed? I understand that these young men take hard shots to their bodies in every game they play. I’d imagine it’s like us being in a car wreck and walking away battered and bruised. Heck, I’d say their experience is probably worse than that in every game.

They know what they’re doing. These men decided they wanted to do this for a living, just as I decided I wanted to be a computer programmer when I was in junior high school. They must understand the risk they take with each snap. They must. Why do you think they’re paid so well? That’s right. There are very few who are good enough to make an NFL roster, much less play.

As a teenager in high school I knew football was a collision sport. I loved the collisions, which, unfortunately, I was usually on the losing side of. I saw my teammates get hurt. A few tore ACLs. I’ve seen players get concussed. Hell, I was concussed so badly I couldn’t really see and started walking to the other teams sideline. Luckily one of my teammates grabbed my jersey and took me to our sideline. I received no medical attention. I just shook it off. I watched the QB of my JV team play through a rib injury. After the game he lay on the floor of the locker room sobbing in agony. No, we were not Pro players at the highest level of performance. Just a bunch of snot nosed kids who loved football. I knew then I could be seriously injured but I still loved playing.

Many of us choose to become Professionals in business or other occupation. I’m paid a certain amount to do my job eight hours a day, five days a week. I’m a Professional Software Engineer. I’m paid to write software. NFL players are paid to play football.

I’m aging. I’ve come to realize all that punishment I put myself through as a kid is coming home to roost. Couple that with poor genetics and I feel physically broken at age 55. I have knee and back issues to contend with daily. Recently I injured my back putting on my shoe. It happened while I was off for a week to be with family after the death of my grandmother. When I got back I struggled with work and had to take some time off, some complete days, some half days. Work became concerned and it went all the way to our HR department who called to see if I wanted to take extended time off. It’s nice I have that option but at 60% of my income I cannot afford to take time off. Can you? So I’m “playing” injured, I know it’s not like the NFL but bare with me. Thankfully it’s not my brain and some time off between Christmas and New Year healed me up enough to get back to work without issue.

I do not have guaranteed income as a Professional Software Developer. Sure I have the option to go on disability for 12 weeks at 60% pay, but eventually that ends. What if I am injured so badly I need medical care my entire life? Like many other Americans I’m screwed and so is my family.

I disagree NFL players should get guaranteed contracts. I do believe the NFL Players Union could probably do a better job negotiating some guaranteed money and guaranteed healthcare, for life. Healthcare is going to, most likely, be the largest lifetime expense for many players.

I understand the punditry, players, and all us normals are talking about Mr. Hamlins injury now. It’s only natural and, after all, the young man almost died for a sport. But, let’s not forget things like this happen in the real world every day. It’s just not talked about every day on talk shows, so we are naive to it, and go about our daily lives as if everything is peachy.

h3 My Sudden Cardiac Arrest

When I was in my Senior year of high school – at age 17 – I had Sudden Cardiac Arrest while in the on deck circle of a baseball field. We were taking batting practice.

As it’s told to me I just collapsed. I wasn’t hit in the chest with a baseball, which can cause a Sudden Cardiac Arrest, my heart just decided it wanted to stop. You don’t expect to see a young, healthy, fit 17 year old drop dead on a baseball diamond.

I was resuscitated by my best friend, Pedro. Pete, as we called him, was a hemophiliac and wasn’t allowed to participate in sports so our high school sent him to Sports Medicine training and he became a student trainer for various sports. Luckily he was on the baseball field that day. Pete was joined by Mr. Conley, a teacher, and they performed CPR on me until the ambulance arrived.

I apparently arrested again so the EMT’s worked on me for a bit then loaded me into the ambulance. Being in a small town word gets around really quickly. My family doctor heard what was going on and asked the ambulance to pick him up. He continued working on me as we drove to neighboring Visalia. I was resuscitated before arriving at Kaweah Delta Hospital.

When we arrived at the ER I arrested again and was subsequently resuscitated once more. This time my heart continued to beat on its own.

Once stabilized I was put into a medically endured coma. When I was allowed to wake up I had no idea what had happened and I was loopy for quite a while.

Doctors tried to recreate my arrest by performing a heart catheterization, inserting some type of wire, and shocking my heart. They were trying to create an electrical malfunction. They were unable to recreate it.

No true cause was ever detected but I do have mitral valve prolapse and the best theory doctors had was my mitral valve stuck open and caused my heart to stop. Mitral valve issues can cause Sudden Cardiac Arrest.

Eventually I was released from the hospital, put on beta blockers, and went back to my life. No driving for the next six months and no sports until the doctor released me.

The most difficult part of this entire episode was dealing with the thought it could happen again, at any time. I went through bouts of depression and had to be treated for it. Eventually things returned to normal. I worked in the packing house over the summer, played hoops with my friends, and went to pool parties. Like a normal 17 year old.

A couple years later I married the love of my life, had two amazing kids, and now we have two wonderful grand kids. Overall I’ve had a wonderful life.

All that to say your life can still be quite full after a major, life threatening, event. Even if you don’t have a true cause.

[danikavasile]

hanxjun​:

ᕙ(^▿^-ᕙ)

Following the soft instructions, Minjun forced air into his lungs, making ragged, pitiful noises as he continued to swallow the sterile air. It did nothing to comfort or aid him in any way, but again, he did not want to disappoint Danika further. He had already embarrassed himself enough, and whatever inkling he’d had that he was somehow winning this appointment flew out the window. He was failing. Miserably, at that.

He couldn’t even perceive the shock of cold that hit him as the rag touched his heated skin. He felt like a ghost in his own body, staring at the doctor without truly being able to look at her.

And yet, the moment the marble is placed back in his hand, Minjun feels a sense of calm wash over him, and his base, most feral instincts settle back and away until he’s just Minjun. Unassuming, unperturbed Minjun who continues to flush a bright red and can’t make eye contact with his doctor out of shame.

Yes, he hadn’t been able to help it, but he wished he hadn’t acted like a cornered animal. He had lived too long to feel such fear, but that fear had been what kept him safe for all his time existing.

It was hard to put into words just how empty he had felt the moment he had been parted from the bead. The thing didn’t have a drop of energy left in it, and yet it still made him feel more whole. Maybe it was a panacea, or a placebo, or his mother’s memory.

He didn’t want to address her acknowledgment of his condition because it felt too personal. Which was basically the whole point of him being here, but still. He wasn’t quite ready to come to terms with that fact just yet.

"I should be the one apologizing, you did nothing wrong. I do sincerely apologize for my behavior. I was just… alarmed.”

A startled laugh erupted from him, because of course she was used to dealing with the dead. And it was all so ironic, a doctor who made her living in death, just to turn around and prolong the lives of those who already lived forever. If he wasn’t so scared of her, he would try to make a joke about that.

“And that—” at the mention of the marble, he fidgeted with it in his hand for a moment. If he had any sort of sense, he would swallow the thing right back up, but for a multitude of reasons, he could not find it in himself to do so just yet. “Is correct… but it should be a non-issue, right? I mean… I’m still one of your patients that’s alive… after all…?”

⋆♱✮♱⋆

Danika waves away his apology. The over-six-hundred-year-old vampire has seen so much gory death and gruesome disease that nothing bothers her anymore. His outburst piques her interest more than it disturbs her. He's presented her with a mystery, a medical one, and she finds it hard to let go. 

"It appears that we disagree on what constitutes a 'non-issue.' However, I am an epidemiologist, not a therapist, and my role as the Guan's physician is limited to ensuring its employees are able to perform their duties. That being said, I am concerned that whatever is happening to you will eventually render you unable to work. Or live.” She stares at him. “In my professional opinion, Mr. Han, this will only get worse." 

She propels her stool backward with the toe of her high heel, rolling to the computer. "This incident will be noted on your record.” She scrolls down his chart. “Do not fret. It will have no real consequence. Its primary purpose is to serve as insurance claim evidence in case you decide to order additional tests or consult with a specialist. But of course, you are in charge of your healthcare and have the right to refuse further treatment." She turns to look at him once more. Her face is serious. "The choice is yours. You have a blood test scheduled for today, so I will collect a sample for lab analysis, but otherwise, you are free to go. Please let me know how to proceed. If you are indeed determined to make this a 'non-issue,' I will take the blood sample and not say anything further about your condition.”

Her expression softens moderately. “However, I have a sense that you must be genuinely concerned about whatever is happening to you; otherwise, you would not have reached out to me."

[worldserasingandcreatinginmymind]

Useless | Kaz Brekker x Sister!Reader

Requested by @inquistitorebony​ : “Hey could you please do a kaz x Sister reader please where she has some medical issues and is really weak and gets inured on a job with kaz and he get all protective brother mode”

Pairing: Kaz Brekker x sister!reader, Jesper x reader (platonic)

Word Count: 1297 (I havent proof read because its late and im tired so this might change tomorrow)

Warnings: angsty stuff and sibling fluff

A/N: I didn't specify what the readers condition is so you can personalise that as you want. As always, spelling and grammar are not my strongest skills so please be kind :)

Masterlist

- - - - -

“We’re all clear on the plan?” 

The Crows nod in reply to Kaz and hurry off to prepare for the task ahead, leaving you stood alone with your brother. 

“What about me?” You ask

“What about you?” he replies as he gathers up the floor plans, blueprints and various other papers spread on the table.

“What do you want me to do?” 

“Relax. Read a book. Whatever you want to do while you’ve got this place to yourself” he walks away.

“Place to myself…” you stand up and follow him “No, Kaz, I’m coming with you!”

“Absolutely not. You're staying here and that’s an order”

“An order?” You laugh "Who do you think you are? The General?” 

He stops suddenly, turning to look at you.

“I’m serious Y/N. This job is too dangerous, especially with your condition.”

“My condition? What about you?” You gesture to his cane “If you can do it then so can I”

“You're weak”

“No weaker than you”

“Y/N!

“Kaz!”

You reach a stalemate as the two of you stare at each other, each waiting for the other to back down. He’s stubborn. But so are you. 

“I think she should come” Jesper breaks the silence.

“Stay out of this Jesper” Kaz warns, still not taking his eyes off you.

“Oh come on Kaz!” Jesper continues “You know she’s the best actor here…we could really use her help distracting the guards.”

“I could even use my condition. Guards can’t resist helping a poor sick girl. Please Kaz, let me prove I’m not useless” you flash your puppy eyes at him until eventually he lets out a sigh of defeat.

“Fine! But if your condition gets worse you head straight to the meet up point. Okay?” 

“Yes sir” you salute and he rolls his eyes before heading off to his office. You look over to Jesper, a big grin on your face as you thank him.

— — — — 

 The job had started off smooth. 

The guards completely fell for your ‘poor sick girl’ act and were fully distracted trying to help you. They didn’t notice Jesper sneak past the door or Inej scale the side of the building, effortlessly pulling herself up onto the roof. They did however notice the loud crash as something came smashing through one of the upstairs windows. The three of you jumped as you turn to see what had caused the damage.

Your heart sank as your eyes fell upon a familiar cane laying on the pavement in a pool of broken glass, blood covering the metal crows head.

“KAZ!” You yell as you make a run toward the building entrance but you're stopped by the on of the guards holding you back while the other sprints past you to investigate.

“I cant let you in there”

“Let go of me!” You fight to try and free yourself “I have to find my brother!” 

“You're brother?” The guard asks, holding you even tighter and you curse yourself as you realise what you’ve said “Was this the plan? You distract the guards while he robs the place?”

“Please let me go”

“The only place you're going is jail where you belong”

You fight again but you can feel your strength leaving you at a rapid rate. You swing your legs wildly and manage to kick the guard in just the right place. He yells and throws you down to the floor, your head hitting the pavement with a loud thud. You groan as you roll onto your back, clutching your throbbing head in your hands. Your vision is blurry but you can just about make out the guard looming toward you, gun in hand pointed at you. 

“Assaulting a guard is a crime punishable by death” 

You allow the pain to take over and let your eyes flicker shut as you wait for it all to end. 

The last thing you hear is a gunshot followed by Jesper calling your name.

— — — — 

When your eyes open again you're surprised to find yourself back home in your own bed, bright light pouring in through the window. You squint your eyes from the brightness as you look around the room and realise Jesper is asleep in the chair next to you, his head resting on the edge of your bed. You reach out and gently poke him awake. He yawns as he sits up. It takes him a moment to register that you are also awake. 

“Y/N! Are you okay? How are you feeling?” 

“Like I’ve done a full body workout. Ugh, why does everything ache?!”

“How much do you remember?” Jesper asks

“Fighting with a guard. Falling to the floor. He was going to shoot me…”

“He wasn’t quick enough” Jesper winks as he blows the tip of his gun, spins it around his finger and shoves it in his pocket. You smile at him, but then your eye is drawn to something behind him. A cane resting against the wall. Your memories come flooding back and yo sit up suddenly panicked. 

“Where Kaz?! Is he okay?!”

“Y/N, you need to calm down. You're still weak” 

“Where is he?!” 

“He’s…” Jesper starts but is cut off. 

“Here” Kaz appears at the door “I’m here” 

You jump out of bed quicker than your legs can carry you and stumble into his arms. He grabs you in his gloved hands and Jesper rushes to you, helping Kaz hold you up and lead you back to bed. Once he’s sure your safe he lets go of you, taking a small step back. Jesper sits next to you, arm around your shoulder as you cant stop the tears flooding down your face.

“I thought you were dead” you cry

“I thought YOU were dead” Kaz replies “when I saw Jesper carrying your lifeless body, it took me back to Jor…” he trails off, unable to finish. He takes a steadying breath “I’m glad you're okay” 

“Me too.” You say wiping your face “and I'm sorry. I guess you were right, I was too weak to go on that mission. I’m useless.” 

Kaz looks at you for a moment before looking to Jesper, silently asking him to leave. Jesper gives your shoulder a quick squeeze before getting up and leaving the room. Kaz fills the empty space next to you on the bed, taking a deep breath before placing his hand on yours. 

“You are not useless Y/N. You are brilliant.” He says and you look at him “I was watching you distract those guards and I was so proud. You live with your condition every single day and you never let it hold you back. On my darkest days I look at you and you inspire me to keep going, because if you can do it then so can I.” 

You give him a small, genuine smile which he returns as he squeezes your hand affectionately. 

“Now you go back to sleep, get your strength back up and I’ll check on you later” he releases your hand and moves to the door. 

“Thank you Kaz” you say as you get yourself comfy.

“Don't ever think you are useless Y/N” he says when he stops at the door and turns back to you “that’s an order”

You let out a small laugh as you salute him and he rolls his eyes. But you see the smile creep onto his face before he leaves and you drift back into a peaceful sleep. 

[shadyteacup]

Hi! Im the one req 7 for chuuya sorry i didint specified, i just realized it. Can i get angst prompt 7 for chuuya?

Hiya! This pained me to write, so I made it fluffy at the end... sorry if u were looking for pure angst! I can't go to sleep peacefully peacefully after writing angst, I need to clutch my soft toys and cry myself to sleep..

Warnings: Angst to fluff, maybe a swear word at the end.. dw, it's just "bish", but like the actual word.

Word count: 2006 😳yes, I got carried away

Nakahara Chuuya + “Please wake up”

Forewarning

“Don’t move, Chu.”

You grumbled against his chest. It was yet another lazy morning for the two of you. Lazy mornings consisted of waking up late, cuddling on the bed till lunch time, getting dressed and having dinner at some exotic place, going for a long drive, then coming back home. It was a perfect day for a traditional lazy day, except for the fact it was a weekday.

Chuuya sighed. He had to get to work, and so did you. You both couldn’t afford to miss any workdays, considering that you both worked for the same organization, one that didn’t hesitate to punish for untimely work. Chuuya was an executive, and so were you. You both had multiple solo missions planned out for today and one mission wherein you both had to team up. It was going to be quite a busy day, and Chuuya wanted nothing more than to just get it all over with. He was looking forward to some lazy cuddles in the evening, after both of your jobs were done.

“We have to get dressed, dove.”

He tried reasoning with you. You were a workaholic, just like him. It surprised him to see this lazy side of you. But then again, you must be tired, he thought.

“I know. But let’s bunk today!”

You looked up at him with wide eyes, hoping to convince him.

Chuckling, he pet your head affectionately.

“The mafia isn’t some school that you could just bunk. Besides, don’t you love working?”

You frowned at that. You were feeling weird today. It’s like something was forewarning you. But about what?

“I just have a bad feeling about today. I don’t know why, but I feel like something bad is going to happen.”

He sighed. He was never one to believe I such things. That was why you weren’t telling him until now.

“We work in the mafia. How worse can it get?”

“I suppose you’re right.”

You smiled, getting up to get ready.

....

“The target is in the warehouse.”

Chuuya said to you. You both were currently seated in Chuuya’ s car, parked on a hill. Your stakeout point had a clear view of an abandoned warehouse. Apparently, it was the location where a rival gang was coordinating with some members of the mafia and stealing their goods. You both had already executed the moles and had sent in one of your trusted members as a pretend mole. He would send you both a signal when he felt that the security was the weakest at the entrance. You both would then attack. He was supposed to cause a commotion in there, resulting in majority of the guards to rush inside and leave the entrance wide open for you two. Your men had already sealed all exits to ensure no one got out. Now you were both waiting for the signal.

“Yeah, no shit, Sherlock.”

Chuuya pouted at your jab.

“I was just being thorough!”

“By stating the obvious?”

“You’re so mean.”

“Says the angry redhead.”

“What has my hair got to do with anything?!”

“Your hair has got to do with everything! I-”

A sharp sound was heard. Both you and Chuuya were blinded for a second as white filled your vision. You felt your torso pinch a little. It almost felt like someone was sticking a few needles into your tummy. You heard screams. They sounded frantic. A few moments later, your vision cleared, and you saw yourself floating in the air, a frantic Chuuya saying something to you. It all sounded mangled and mixed up. If you could have laughed at the moment, you would have laughed at how funny he sounded.

The screams had turned to cries, now. You were so confused. Who was crying? And why was Chuuya pressing down on your stomach?

Looking down, you saw the blood. There was blood everywhere. It had completely soaked your shirt. Chuuya was using his ability and his hands to keep it in. He seemed hurried. His eyes were watery, and streams of tears were flowing down his cheeks.

Finally understanding the situation, you realised that you were injured. Looking down at your torso, you saw the two bullet wounds. And now, you finally felt them. The pain was overwhelming. It rushed in like water at the breaking of a dam. It completely filled you up. You now realised that those cries of pain were actually your own. You wished to have never woken from your daze. You wanted to remain oblivious. You wanted the pain to go back to mere pinpricks. It was too much. Succumbing to the enormous pain, you let your eyes shut close. You realised that your body was going to sleep. Maybe for the last time.

....

Chuuya sat in a chair next to your sleeping form. You were lying unconscious on the clean white sheets of the hospital bed. Your entire torso was covered in bandages. You had taken two bullets, one in the side and one right next to your belly button. The doctors were able to save you in time, and it was a matter of time till you gained consciousness.

Chuuya held his face in his hands. The memories of just moments prior to visiting the hospital kept running through his head. He kept seeing flashes of your blood oozing out of your body. He kept remembering the way your eyes had glazed over while he tried to apply pressure on your wounds. There was so much blood. His mere two hands were proving to be inefficient. So, he had activated his ability to push the blood back in. He had no clue if that had helped. He remembered activating his ability the moment you had let out a blood curdling scream. He had levitated you both out of the car and high up in the night sky.

He should have listened to you. Your forewarnings were right. Something terrible had ended up happening. The mole he had sent inside was found murdered by the backup team, and the head of the organization had fled. His men had taken up sniping positions all across the hills. Two of them had shot you at once. He remembered going on a mad spree and pelting boulders at all the men in his sight using his ability right before he flew to the hospital with you in his arms.

“Has she gained consciousness?”, the doctor asked as she peeked in. Chuuya had asked all medical personnel to leave him alone with his sweetheart, a little too passionately, after they were done treating you, and hence the poor doctor was a tad bit scared to check up on your vitals.

Chuuya whipped his head up.

“No.”

The doctor scrunched her brows in worry. Rushing in, she did some tests.

“I’m sorry, sir, but if the patient doesn’t wake up in another hour, we will have to declare a coma condition.”

“What?!”

The doctor jumped at his outburst, but answered him, nonetheless.

“The body is behaving as if it is already in coma. This can also be because it is repairing itself. It doesn’t necessarily have to be coma.”

She sighed.

“But, if the patient retains this state of unconsciousness, we will have to rule out a natural healing process. I suggest you try to communicate with the patient. Sit close, hold hands, maintain physical contact. Try speaking. That way, maybe the body will react to a familiar scent, touch or voice, and gain consciousness.”

Chuuya gulped, worried, and nodded.

“I understand.”

He shakily made his way to your face, observing your serene features. He hesitantly put your hair behind your ear, breathing unsteadily. He felt immense guilt and anger. He was guilty of not paying your uneasiness an ear, and he was angry because he couldn’t save you. If only he had been more vigilant, more aware of his surroundings, he would have been able to smell a rat.

“I’m so sorry. I should have listened to you. I should have been able to protect you.”

He gasped inaudibly, trying to keep his sobs in. He couldn’t stop the tears. They flowed freely down his cheeks, a symbol of his immense fear of losing you. He couldn’t bear the idea of loosing you. It might be selfish of him, but he wanted you to live, because God-forbid, if you didn’t, he wouldn’t know what to do with himself. He knew that if such a devastating situation ever occurred, he would lose all sanity and go mad. He would lose his mental balance and completely fall off the edge. He couldn’t bear to be separated from you for two days, forget the rest of his lifetime.

He caressed your cheek, smiling bitterly at your sleeping form. Nuzzling his head into the crook of your neck, he let himself truly cry. He let out all his emotions into your hair. He found comfort in your warmth. He has always felt the safest in your embrace. That’s where he could truly be himself.

He didn’t realise how long it had been when he began talking to you. Telling you how much he loved you and how he couldn’t live without you. He pondered on how he would take his life if you left him.

“I’d have to go to that stupid mackerel for guidance. But then again, he has been unsuccessful in killing himself for 22 years. He’s probably the worst suicidal guy out there.”

He was lying next to you now, cradling your frail form in his arms.

The doctor waltzed in, a serious and sorrowful expression straining her pretty features.

“Nakahara-san, I’m so sorry.”

Chuuya gritted his teeth, holding onto you tighter.

“No! There’s still a chance that-”

“Its hopeless. The patient has already been in this state for 16 hours.”

“16 hours?”

The doctor smiled sympathetically.

“I gave you a lot more time. I thought maybe the constant contact would help. But sadly, it’s out of our hands now.”

Chuuya sat up, holding your face in his large palms.

“Wake up! Wake up, damnit!”

He shook you gently, desperate to get any kind of reaction out of you.

“Nakahara-san! Please get away from the patient! You mustn’t cause any harm! Security?!”

The doctor rushed forward to pull Chuuya off of you, but he held onto you. He grabbed your arms, looping his own around them and pulling you towards him.

“Wake up!”

He rested his face on your chest, sobs escaping him.

“Please... please wake up...”

The doctor reached forward to clasp his shoulder, trying to pry him off of you.

A large gasp followed by couple of coughs were heard.

You took in a large breath, trying to swallow. Your throat was dry and scratchy.

“Y/N!”

Looking up, you saw Chuuya holding you in his arms, a relieved and surprised expression on his elegant features.

“Hey.”

Your voice sounded raspy, but it was music to his ears.

He engulfed you in a hug, one that knocked the air out of your lungs.

“She’s still a patient!”

The doctor reprimanded as the security guards pulled Chuuya off of you.

You smiled at the tiny ginger.

“I’m alive, Chu. Stop being dramatic.”

Chuuya laughed at your carefree attitude. He didn’t resist the men as they pulled him out of the room. He was relieved to see you awake. He didn’t care about anything else. Just as he was about to leave, you spoke up.

“Call Gin and tell her that I’m not dead!”

“You don’t need to call me, idiot. I was waiting right outside.”

You smiled as she walked in, giving you a hug.

“Why does she get to go in but not me?!”

Chuuya whined.

“Hey Gin, guess what?”

Gin smiled at you, sitting at the edge of your bed at the nurses did their check-ups.

“What?”

“I’m alive, bitch!”

Your snickers could be heard till the hallway, where the rest of your friends were seated. Shaking his head, Tachihara snickered.

“Good ol’ Y/N.”

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Machine learning's crumbling foundations

Technological debt is insidious, a kind of socio-infrastructural subprime crisis that’s unfolding around us in slow motion. Our digital infrastructure is built atop layers and layers and layers of code that’s insecure due to a combination of bad practices and bad frameworks.

Even people who write secure code import insecure libraries, or plug it into insecure authorization systems or databases. Like asbestos in the walls, this cruft has been fragmenting, drifting into our air a crumb at a time.

We ignored these, treating them as containable, little breaches and now the walls are rupturing and choking clouds of toxic waste are everywhere.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/27/gas-on-the-fire/#a-safe-place-for-dangerous-ideas

The infosec apocalypse was decades in the making. The machine learning apocalypse, on the other hand…

ML has serious, institutional problems, the kind of thing you’d expect in a nascent discipline, which you’d hope would be worked out before it went into wide deployment.

ML is rife with all forms of statistical malpractice — AND it’s being used for high-speed, high-stakes automated classification and decision-making, as if it was a proven science whose professional ethos had the sober gravitas you’d expect from, say, civil engineering.

Civil engineers spend a lot of time making sure the buildings and bridges they design don’t kill the people who use them. Machine learning?

Hundreds of ML teams built models to automate covid detection, and every single one was useless or worse.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/02/autoquack/#gigo

The ML models failed due to failure to observe basic statistical rigor. One common failure mode?

Treating data that was known to be of poor quality as if it was reliable because good data was not available.

Obtaining good data and/or cleaning up bad data is tedious, repetitive grunt-work. It’s unglamorous, time-consuming, and low-waged. Cleaning data is the equivalent of sterilizing surgical implements — vital, high-skilled, and invisible unless someone fails to do it.

It’s work performed by anonymous, low-waged adjuncts to the surgeon, who is the star of the show and who gets credit for the success of the operation.

The title of a Google Research team (Nithya Sambasivan et al) paper published in ACM CHI beautifully summarizes how this is playing out in ML: “Everyone wants to do the model work, not the data work: Data Cascades in High-Stakes AI,”

https://storage.googleapis.com/pub-tools-public-publication-data/pdf/0d556e45afc54afeb2eb6b51a9bc1827b9961ff4.pdf

The paper analyzes ML failures from a cross-section of high-stakes projects (health diagnostics, anti-poaching, etc) in East Africa, West Africa and India. They trace the failures of these projects to data-quality, and drill into the factors that caused the data problems.

The failures stem from a variety of causes. First, data-gathering and cleaning are low-waged, invisible, and thankless work. Front-line workers who produce the data — like medical professionals who have to do extra data-entry — are not compensated for extra work.

Often, no one even bothers to explain what the work is for. Some of the data-cleaning workers are atomized pieceworkers, such as those who work for Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, who lack both the context in which the data was gathered and the context for how it will be used.

This data is passed to model-builders, who lack related domain expertise. The hastily labeled X-ray of a broken bone, annotated by an unregarded and overworked radiologist, is passed onto a data-scientist who knows nothing about broken bones and can’t assess the labels.

This is an age-old problem in automation, pre-dating computer science and even computers. The “scientific management” craze that started in the 1880s saw technicians observing skilled workers with stopwatches and clipboards, then restructuring the workers’ jobs by fiat.

Rather than engaging in the anthropological work that Clifford Geertz called “thick description,” the management “scientists” discarded workers’ qualitative experience, then treated their own assessments as quantitative and thus empirical.

http://hypergeertz.jku.at/GeertzTexts/Thick_Description.htm

How long a task takes is empirical, but what you call a “task” is subjective. Computer scientists take quantitative measurements, but decide what to measure on the basis of subjective judgment. This empiricism-washing sleight of hand is endemic to ML’s claims of neutrality.

In the early 2000s, there was a movement to produce tools and training that would let domain experts produce their own tools — rather than delivering “requirements” to a programmer, a bookstore clerk or nurse or librarian could just make their own tools using Visual Basic.

This was the radical humanist version of “learn to code” — a call to seize the means of computation and program, rather than being programmed. Over time, it was watered down, and today it lives on as a weak call for domain experts to be included in production.

The disdain for the qualitative expertise of domain experts who produce data is a well-understood guilty secret within ML circles, embodied in Frederick Jelinek’s ironic talk, “Every time I fire a linguist, the performance of the speech recognizer goes up.”

But a thick understanding of context is vital to improving data-quality. Take the American “voting wars,” where GOP-affiliated vendors are brought in to purge voting rolls of duplicate entries — people who are registered to vote in more than one place.

These tools have a 99% false-positive rate.

Ninety. Nine. Percent.

To understand how they go so terribly wrong, you need a thick understanding of the context in which the data they analyze is produced.

https://5harad.com/papers/1p1v.pdf

The core assumption of these tools is that two people with the same name and date of birth are probably the same person.

But guess what month people named “June” are likely to be born in? Guess what birthday is shared by many people named “Noel” or “Carol”?

Many states represent unknown birthdays as “January 1,” or “January 1, 1901.” If you find someone on a voter roll whose birthday is represented as 1/1, you have no idea what their birthday is, and they almost certainly don’t share a birthday with other 1/1s.

But false positives aren’t evenly distributed. Ethnic groups whose surnames were assigned in recent history for tax-collection purposes (Ashkenazi Jews, Han Chinese, Koreans, etc) have a relatively small pool of surnames and a slightly larger pool of first names.

This is likewise true of the descendants of colonized and enslaved people, whose surnames were assigned to them for administrative purposes and see a high degree of overlap. When you see two voter rolls with a Juan Gomez born on Jan 1, you need to apply thick analysis.

Unless, of course, you don’t care about purging the people who are most likely to face structural impediments to voter registration (such as no local DMV office) and who are also likely to be racialized (for example, migrants whose names were changed at Ellis Island).

ML practitioners don’t merely use poor quality data when good quality data isn’t available — they also use the poor quality data to assess the resulting models. When you train an ML model, you hold back some of the training data for assessment purposes.

So maybe you start with 10,000 eye scans labeled for the presence of eye disease. You train your model with 9,000 scans and then ask the model to assess the remaining 1,000 scans to see whether it can make accurate classifications.

But if the data is no good, the assessment is also no good. As the paper’s authors put it, it’s important to “catch[] data errors using mechanisms specific to data validation, instead of using model performance as a proxy for data quality.”

ML practitioners studied for the paper — practitioners engaged in “high-stakes” model building reported that they had to gather their own data for their models through field partners, “a task which many admitted to being unprepared for.”

High-stakes ML work has inherited a host of sloppy practices from ad-tech, where ML saw its first boom. Ad-tech aims for “70–75% accuracy.”

That may be fine if you’re deciding whether to show someone an ad, but it’s a very different matter if you’re deciding whether someone needs treatment for an eye-disease that, untreated, will result in irreversible total blindness.

Even when models are useful at classifying input produced under present-day lab conditions, those conditions are subject to several kinds of “drift.”

For example, “hardware drift,” where models trained on images from pristine new cameras are asked to assess images produced by cameras from field clinics, where lenses are impossible to keep clean (see also “environmental drift” and “human drift”).

Bad data makes bad models. Bad models instruct people to make ineffective or harmful interventions. Those bad interventions produce more bad data, which is fed into more bad models — it’s a “data-cascade.”

GIGO — Garbage In, Garbage Out — was already a bedrock of statistical practice before the term was coined in 1957. Statistical analysis and inference cannot proceed from bad data.

Producing good data and validating data-sets are the kind of unsexy, undercompensated maintenance work that all infrastructure requires — and, as with other kinds of infrastructure, it is undervalued by journals, academic departments, funders, corporations and governments.

But all technological debts accrue punitive interest. The decision to operate on bad data because good data is in short supply isn’t like looking for your car-keys under the lamp-post — it’s like driving with untrustworthy brakes and a dirty windscreen.

Image: Seydelmann (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GW300_1.jpg

CC BY-SA: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[whump-a-la-mode]

I request fluffy fluffity fluff with feverish, injured villain, hero caretaker, painkillers and a kitten. Please.

This is so cute ヾ(•ω•`)o I don’t write a lot of fluff, but this is some cute cute sick fic. Hero caretaker? Check. Painkillers? Check. A kitten? You know it! Thanks so much for the ask!!

CW//Fevers, injury mention, intoxicated/feverish character, painkillers

The text had been unexpected, to say the least.

That wasn’t to say that Hero wasn’t unused to receiving messages, especially strange messages. Half of the time, a buzz on their phone indicated that they were about to have the record for ‘weirdest thing they’ve ever seen’ broken.

Yet, this text said nothing of giant lizards attacking downtown, or a mad scientist’s experiment gone wrong. So, perhaps, to a normal civilian, it would have been quite a normal message to receive.

“Hey, Hero? I have a really big favor to ask.”

From another hero, it would have been quite the daunting request. But, it was not from another hero. At least, not in the traditional sense.

Hero had known Doctor for quite some time-- hell, every powered person in the city knew Doctor. In some ways, they were more of a hero than the rest of them, put together. While most hospitals flinched and scurried away from the world of villains and vigilantes, Doctor embraced them wholeheartedly.

A particularly egregious wound, carved in the heat of battle? A power malfunction? Any one of these things could result in the doctor being awoken in the middle of the night, an exhausted, limping hero upon their doorstep.

Or, a villain. Doctor insisted upon making their policy for such things very, very clear. Adamantly, they refused to involve themself in the matters of heroes and villains. Their battles, their allegiances, to the doctor were all naught. As they explained it, no matter one’s actions, no matter their beliefs, no one deserved to have their wounds go untreated.

Thus, their home had quickly become a neutral ground. Lifelong sworn nemeses could have their injuries wrapped mere feet from one another, and not one glare would be shot. In Doctor’s presence, there were no heroes or villains. Only patients. Only those who needed aid.

But, it was the first time that Hero had been on the receiving end of such a request. Of course, they were not about to refuse the doctor. With how much help they had given them, it would only be right to return the favor.

“What is it?” Hero tapped in reply.

Given the length of the doctor’s response, the three dancing progress buttons hung on Hero’s screen for far too long.

“Do you know Villain?”

It wasn’t a name they’d ever expect to hear in a conversation so casual. Villain. Though Hero did not consider themself to truly have a nemesis, if they had to define one, it was Villain who would be on the very tippy top of their list.

That was, especially after their battle the day prior. Their wounds still screamed at them, no matter how they tried to quiet them with painkillers and icepacks.

“I know Villain.” Hero replied simply.

“Okay. Do you think you could take care of them for a few hours?”

Instantly, the conversation shot up to the top of their list of ‘strangest possible talks to have over the phone.’

Take care of them? Take care of Villain? What cold they have possibly gotten themself into that required Hero, of all people, to aid them?

Then again, they had looked quite rough after their battle...

They had no need to question, as Doctor continued on their own:

“They’re sick. I need to go to work, but they shouldn’t be left alone, right now. I know it’s a big favor, but they need this, Hero.”

They bit their lip.

As a protector of the city, they had a very, very long list of priorities, and upon that list, helping Villain in any way, shape, or form was at the very bottom. Helping Doctor, on the other hand...

“Okay.”

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It was only upon arriving to front door of Doctor’s home that Hero had a rather odd realization: Never before had they been to that place in a completely stable state of mind.

If they had made the decision to bother the doctor, it meant that, whatever injuries or illness had befallen them, they could not manage it on their own. Thus, far more often than not, when they stood in front of this home’s door, they did so with a head full of cotton and legs formed of gelatin.

Now, however, their mind was not clouded by any malease. Instead, it was clouded by the stark realization that they had, perhaps, just made a terrible decision.

By the time they had arrived at the house, however, it was already far too late. When Doctor opened their front door, Hero knew full well that there was no turning back.

The doctor looked terribly bedraggled, and they could not help but wonder if it was wise for them to even go to work in such a condition. Yet, every powered person in the city knew far better than to distrust Doctor’s judgement.

“Thank you.” The medic began, a warm smile creeping onto their cracked lips. “I know this was awfully short notice, but I couldn’t think of anyone else who would know Villain as well as you.”

Well, Hero certainly knew what Villain’s fist felt like, crashing into their face, though that was about it.

“Okay, come on, come on.” The doctor rushed. “I need to be heading out soon.”

The hero nodded, hurrying after them into the building. It wasn’t exactly a sprawling thing-- certainly not large enough to house all the equipment that it did-- but, nonetheless, it functioned, through some miracle.

Against their prediction, Doctor did not lead them to the home’s makeshift infirmary. Instead, they moved to the cramped dining room, which, truly, consisted of little more than a table with just enough chairs to seat a guest or two. The house itself was not impressive, its owner only made it so.

But, Hero had seen that dining room, barren table and all, more times than they could count. There was nothing unusual to be seen about it. No. The strangeness of the hour came in the form of who, exactly, was seated there.

Villain.

Oddly enough, either they had forgotten to take off their ostentatious garb, or they had simply not had the time. The villain’s cape draped over their shoulders as they hunched over, forehead pressed to the table’s surface. A full glass of water and a small pile of crackers sat near them, untouched.

Hero bit their lip. Seeing their nemesis was never a good thing, of course, but something about this simply made their heart stutter.

“What’s wrong with them?” They began, before their voice took on a more panicked pitch. “They’re okay, right? They’re gonna make it?”

Doctor snorted.

“Hero, they’re fine. They say they had a fight, overexerted themself a bit.”

A fight? Oh, god, was this all their fault?

“But... They look terrible.”

“They just have a fever.” Doctor reassured. “Power exertion is nothing to scoff at, but I promise, they’re not in any serious danger.”

Hero hummed. “Then, why did you bring me here?”

“Because we need to make sure they stay out of serious danger. They can hear you, by the way, so don’t be an ass, please. But, yes, I’m confident this fever will break, so long as it stays down.”

“You’re putting them in my hands?”

“Yes. I trust you. Seriously, Hero, you look like a deer in the headlights. I’m not asking you to perform open heart surgery, here.” They smiled playfully. “All you need to do is keep them cool and keep them comfortable.”

“What does that entail?” Nervously, they chewed the inside of their cheek.

“Not a lot. Keep a wet washcloth on their head, make sure they drink water.” As the doctor glanced to the nearest clock, they began to hurry their words. “There’s a thermometer on the counter. If their fever goes over 103, call an ambulance. But, as long as its below that, you’re safe.”

“And... keeping them comfortable?”

“Just... try to get them to sleep. It won’t be easy for them, in this state. But if you can manage it, it’ll be a lot better. Oh, and, there’s Advil in the drawer. Give them some if they’re uncomfortable, okay? Okay, I really need to go, so, you got all that?”

“Uh- I think so?”

“Good. Okay, bye! Remember, above 103, call an ambulance. What temperature is dangerous?”

“103.”

“Great. Thank you so, so much! I’ll get you like, some chocolates or something. Bye!”

By the end of their speech, Doctor’s words had sped to the point of blending into one long stream of syllables. They tossed a coat over their shoulders, shoving their feet into their already-tied shoes.

“Oh, and try not to kill each other, okay?”

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Hero was alone.

They supposed that wasn’t entirely true. In fact, it was quite far from the truth. The house was anything but empty-- their nervous glances to the dinner table’s current guest ensured them of that. But, that did not help the chord of nerves that wrapped itself about their stomach.

Power exertion was nothing to be scoffed at.

Though they weren’t alone, they were the only one in the situation who could be described as responsible. It was they who had to keep their nemesis alive. And, worse... comfortable.

How were they supposed to rock their sworn enemy to sleep? Maybe, a good place to start would be stopping staring at them like some kind of creep.

Yeah. They should probably do that.

The hero inhaled through their nose, letting out a long exhale from their mouth, before approaching the table. Throughout the whole conversation, the villain had not so much as raised their head-- their movements coming only in the slightest of twitches.

Standing at the stalled villain’s side, Hero could not help but feel to have walked into the den of a lion. Yet, not the slightest movement was made. In an attempt to gently draw their attention, they ghosted their hand over their nemesis’s shoulder.

“Hey, Villain?”

There was a twitch, and a groan, but nothing that could be described as words.

“Um, Doctor is gonna have me take care of you now, okay? Can you look at me? I think I’m supposed to take your temperature.”

If the villain had been listening before that point, there was little indication. Had they already been asleep? Had Hero already ruined everything? Either way, blearily, Villain lifted their head, unfocused eyes fixing on the wall before their face.

Placing their hand to their forehead, Hero nearly jerked their palm away. Their skin felt like the burner of a hot stove. But, if Doctor said they were okay...

“How are you feeling?” As they spoke, they felt the slightest bit of the doctor’s voice slip into theirs. That soft, coaxing tone that all medical providers seemed to be able to imitate. “You haven’t touched your water.”

“Mmm...” The fevered villain murmured. “Can’t...Swallow.”

“Does it hurt?”

“Mmm.” They were unsure if that was an affirmation or not.

“Okay. Um, well, the doctor says you need water. Let’s get you some water, then... What do you need, Villain?”

The villain blinked, seeming, by all accounts to be on another planet.

“I’m cold...” At last, they muttered a pair of coherent words. “And hot...” Well, maybe not so much on the coherent part.

What was it that Doctor had said? Something about keeping their head cool. That was it, right?

“Okay, um. I’ll cool you down, and warm you up, okay?”

“Hero!” It was an excited cry, even with the way the syllables all blurred into one another. “Hero...”

“Yeah, Villain?”

“Hero, I looooove you.”

Oh.

No, they were just feverish. Delusional, they probably didn’t even know where they were. They had no clue what they were saying, just making sounds.

“I’m gonna go get you a blanket.” Hero spoke hurriedly, rushing off to do just that. For a few moment, they dashed about the house, gathering supplies and, hopefully, not rummaging too much through Doctor’s things. When, at last, they returned to the kitchen, it was with a dripping-wet washcloth and a bottle of tylonel.

Villain, so it seemed, had fallen back into their half-restful state, head on the table. With a gentle hand, Hero tipped their chin up, brushing the washcloth over their forehead.

“You want something to help with the pain, bud?”

“Head hurty.”

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

They placed down the washcloth, and, in an exercise in tedium, coaxed a pair of white pills down the villain’s throat, alongside a wash of water. Hopefully, it would be enough, as a snowball would make it too the depths of hell before any more water went down.

“I have everything set up on the couch. Can you walk?”

“Mmm... Carry me... I love you!”

“Y- Yeah, alright.”

Despite the feverish villain’s words filling Hero’s chest with an odd sensation, they obliged, plucking them from the chair and draping the washcloth over their forehead, taking care to ensure that no water would drip its way to their eyes.

The couch, as opposed to most of the furniture in the house, had seen some serious use. With only one bed in the building, when a hero was wounded with such severity that an overnight visit was necessitated, it was upon the couch that they slept. Though, luckily, use had not worn away any of the seat’s comfort.

A large, white, puffy comforter had been draped over the seats, and, upon laying Villain down, Hero secured the blanket around their body, tucking it in in the corners and ensuring that no draft would disturb them.

It was all medically necessary, of course.

Though, they couldn’t help but giggle at just how ridiculous their nemesis appeared, dwarfed by the fluffy comforter, face half covered by a rag.

“Alright.” Hero smoothed a hand over Villain’s hair-- to make sure they weren’t sweating excessively, of course. “Are you alright? Comfortable?”

“I love you! Love you...”

“Okay. Well, do you need anything?”

“Sleep...”

“You’re tired?”

“Sleepytime.”

“Alright, bud. Sleepytime.”

They couldn’t help but smile.

With a few more strokes through their hair, the fevered person soon let their muscles go limp, sacrificing themself to the whims of the blanket they were half-submerged in. The sight alone was enough to make Hero’s own eyelids droop.

It wasn’t like they could disturb the villain while they slept-- no, they needed their rest far too much for that-- and, there wasn’t anything else threatening the city...

What would a nap hurt?

Though there was no certainly no room on the seat for another full-grown human, that was a problem easily solved. In a blink of white light, Hero’s bleary form was replaced by that of a feline, with a countenance just as exhausted.

The felidae-turned hero leapt onto the couch, settling themself near the edge, before shifting themself against Villain’s feet.

To know if they woke up.

After all, it was very medically necessary.