#liposuction without surgery

[medesthetiks]

Does Hair Transplant Work

Hair Transplant Surgery

Hair transplantation is a surgical process that involves moving hair follicles from one region of the body, known as the donor site, to balding or bald areas, known as the recipient site. This surgery is mostly used to treat male-pattern baldness, but it can also improve the hairline and restore brows, eyelashes, and beard hair. The most popular approaches are Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) and Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE), each with benefits. Furthermore, new techniques and instruments have made the treatments less painful, resulting in faster recovery and less scarring. These types significantly affect hair transplant costs.

The Success Rate of Hair Transplants

The effectiveness of hair transplants varies greatly across individuals, but when performed by trained and experienced surgeons, they have a high success rate. According to studies, 85–95% of all implanted grafts thrive in their new location. However, it is essential to establish realistic expectations. The success of a hair transplant is determined not only by hair growth but also by creating natural-looking hair density and pattern.

Factors Influencing the Success Rate of Hair Transplant Surgery

Several factors influence the outcome of a hair transplant procedure:

Quality of Donor Hair: The density, texture, and quality of the donor hair considerably impact the final appearance.

Technique: FUT and FUE have varying success ratios, recovery durations, and the possibility for natural-looking outcomes.

Surgeon Expertise: The skill and expertise of the surgeon performing the procedure are critical to its success.

Post-Surgery Care: Following post-operative care guidelines can help with the healing process and the development of transplanted hair. It can also reduce the hair transplant cost.

What to Expect After Surgery

After a hair transplant, it is usual for the transplanted hair to fall out within the first few weeks, a process known as “shock loss.” However, this is a natural part of the healing process, and new hair growth should begin within three to four months. It may take up to a year to see the full impact of the transplant, with hair progressively growing thicker and more resilient.

Realistic Expectations

A hair transplant may substantially enhance one’s look and self-confidence, but setting realistic expectations is crucial. It is not a treatment for baldness but rather a method for redistributing existing hair to cover bald or thinning regions.

Schedule Your Consultation Today!

The success of a hair transplant depends on many factors, including the surgeon selected, the method employed, and the patient’s dedication to post-operative care. With realistic expectations and careful care, hair transplants may produce life-changing effects, allowing people to reclaim their hair, confidence, and self-esteem.

If you want a hair transplant, schedule a consultation with Dr Lokesh Handa, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Delhi. He will provide insights on hair transplant procedures so that you can make an informed decision.

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[genderkoolaid]

How do you respond to people who try to argue against various gender affirming surgeries with anorexic people wanting liposuction? I tried to point out that theres a lot of gender affirming surgeries for cis people who dont feel feminine/masculine enough, but my sister said that those people need therapy too. I feel that there's a difference between trans people and anorexic people but idk how to put it into words, im scared i accidentally made her more transphobic bc i didnt have arguments :(

Good question! It's important to question and critique our ideas of what separates "good, natural desires which should not be changed" from "bad, unnatural desires which should be changed," and I think sometimes trans people are too quick to reaffirm this binary in our attempts to defend transness.

I would say that the difference here is based in anxieties. Anorexia is born out of anxiety- which is to say, a persist concern over something that triggers strong emotional reactions and which you keep returning to over and over and over without resolution. Dysphoria can and does cause anxiety, but you can be dysphoric without having anxiety over it. You can have dysphoria, find relief, and be satisfied with your body, while there is never any satisfaction point with eating disorders. There is always a feeling of "not enough" because the desire to be skinnier is born out of anxiety over what it means to be fat & fatness' place in society (lesser value, moral weakness, medical abuse, etc.).

Like I said, dysphoria can and does cause anxiety. There are trans people who obsess over their bodies being too masculine/feminine because they are concerned with what it means for them to be too masculine/feminine: it means they aren't real, they are ugly, they're failure. And this is why its important for trans people to sit with our dysphoria and analyze it. If you are constantly worrying about your body being "real" enough, no amount of surgery or HRT will fix that (although it may fix many things).

Now, I am generally against any solution thats like "we should stop Those People from doing x because We know whats best for them!" because autonomy is a vital part of my beliefs, and I think that people rarely ever react well to being banned from doing something Because Mother Knows Best. The real goal with, say, EDs, is to get rid of the artificial desire for thinness by combating fatphobia (ah, if only all the anti-ED campaigns out there did this). The same with plastic surgery: I would much rather we focus on dismantling the system that makes people (esp. perceived women) feel they need to make their bodies fulfill the beauty standard, than saying that plastic surgery is Evil and we should stop anyone from ever getting it, because those little people aren't capable of using their basic right to bodily autonomy correctly. When we ban something, what we really want is to change people's desires. But that requires cultural change, and laws don't create cultural change out of thin air. Its like how yelling at your kids doesn't make them more honest or better people, it just makes them better liars.

Given that trans people exist in every society, potentially going back to the Stone Age, even after we unwork systemic misogyny & homophobia, trans people are still gonna want surgeries. So we should just work on combating those things instead of trying to control people's bodies.

[mikasasrippedtoenail]

The average woman spends -

• $28 on makeup

• $34 on haircuts

• $15 on hair products

• $11 on hair removal

• $23 on moisturizing skincare

•$17 on anti-aging products

• $ 5 on eyebrow threading

• $85 on teeth whitening

■The cost of common cosmetic surgeries:

• Breast augmentation: $6,450

• Liposuction: $6,000

• Nose reshaping: $5,046

• Eyelid surgery: $4,525

• Tummy tuck: $5,798

● The yearly cost of getting a botox : $1200 ● The yearly cost of getting lip fillers : $800

□Yearly cost without Botox/fillers/surgery: $2616

□ Yearly cost with Botox/fillers/surgery $4891

In a study by Advanced Dermatology, it was revealed that the average woman spends $285 more than men on grooming services. While men spend more on gym membership, supplements and haircuts, women spend on skincare, hair products and colour.

If you compound the aboves costs, women spend - $156,960 and $450,420 respectively on unnecessary beauty procedures in their lifetime. Some women might even spend millions of dollars in their lifetime on their appearance. This extra expenditure feeds pockets of (male) CEOs of beauty companies who thrive off of women's insecurities. The more women fall into these traps, the more unrealistic the beauty standards will become.

● Meadian House cost - $227,000

● Average car cost - $48,000

● Average Overseas Vacation cost - $3250

● Cost of a nice hobby in a lifetime - $72,000

●Cost of a book collection(150 books) - $1800

Making women waste money on useless items allows men to hoard capital. Moreover, there is a huge gender gap in trading. Men are much more likely to invest extra income into the stock market than women, however, when women do invest they tend to perform much better when it comes to trading owing to their diligence and loss assessment.Female ownership of monetary property and real estate is paramount to their liberation. Society has created an ecosystem that dissuades women from possessing capital. What's worse is that when crisis hits, it's women that have to give up their savings for their need of money is disregarded as they rely on their husbands for financial support. Women amassing wealth and knowledge is the key for their freedom.

[fatphobiabusters]

Hank Green released a short about whether y'all people are more likely to get cancer. The answer is yes! Every 5 cm of height increases the risk of several cancers by 5-10%.

In the screenshot of the website explaining this he was showing, it said "unlike being ov*rweight or ob*se, height..." I assume that was followed by "cannot be modified." (Censorship mine). But of course weight cannot be modified either, and there's no proof it makes people healthier to force it. We certainly don't advocate for leg shortening surgeries or artificially halting growth hormonally when someone is tall.

Exactly, we don't encourage people to cut their shins in half "for health". I looked the youtube short up, basically bigger you are the more cells you have but fat cells don't actively divide like say, skin cells. You start with small cells, they get bigger and if needed will divide. So even loosing weight without lipo won't reduce your cells (weight loss basically changes density and size of the cell ? Is again my understanding i could be wrong) and it sounds like the cells aren't replicating like other cells. (My limited understanding is) Every time the DNA inside a cell is read to make a new cell it runs a risk of being read wrong which creates mutated cells (cancer) (iirc benign cancer is when it's read wrong but isn't spreading, it's made limited error copies and the other type of cancer is making nothing but the wrong copies) instead fat cells get big and split, there's no code reading.

I suppose it is correct that it is generally more accepted to perform liposuction on a person than one of those height altering surgeries (usually it's to make someone taller however).

This makes me wonder how much cancer rates change with appendix and gallbladder removal. Obviously without them you can't get those organ specific cancers but the thing about statistics is, there's always fine print.

"Your overall cancer rate drops 5% if you remove your appendix and gallblader" is a hilarious headline to imagine. When in reality your risk of appendix and gallbladder cancer goes to zero outside of like accidentally left behind pieces or something.

Anyway what a weird place for the article to go to. At most you can argue bigger bodies are at a higher risk of certain cancers related to hormones (I can't recall the exact phrasing) because fat cells can also store hormones (iirc) and could be problems for hormone sensitive organs like ovaries. So the website itself was being weirdly fatphobic for no reason if my grasp of things is accurate to the thesis.

But anyway, I'm 6 feet (182 cm) tall and come from a family of giants where I'm the shortest sibling so this is actually somewhat relevant to my personal life and something I'll be extra aware of!

-mod squirrel

[haggishlyhagging]

Between 1984 and 1986, the number of liposuction operations rose 78 percent—but the procedure barely worked. Liposuction removed only one to two pounds of fat, had no mitigating effect on the unseemly "dimpling" effect of cellulite, and, in fact, often made it worse. The procedure also could produce permanent bagginess in the skin and edema, just two of the "variations from the ideal" that the plastic surgery society cataloged in its own report. Another "variation" on the list: "pain."

Furthermore, the plastic surgery society's survey of its members turned up several other unfortunate incidents. A liposuction patient lay down to have stomach fat removed and woke up with a perforated bowel and fecal matter leaking through the abdominal cavity. Three patients developed pulmonary infections and two had massive infections. Three suffered pulmonary fat embolism syndrome, a life-threatening condition in which fat can lodge in the heart, lungs, and eyes. And "numerous patients" required, as the survey delicately put it, "unplanned transfusions." On March 30, 1987, Patsy Howell died of massive infections three days after a liposuction operation performed by Dr. Hugo Ramirez, a gynecologist who ran a plastic surgery clinic in Pasadena, Texas. The same day Howell had her operation, Ramirez performed liposuction on Patricia Rogers; she also developed massive infections, was hospitalized in critical condition, and eventually had to have all her skin from below her chest to the top of her thighs removed.

Howell, a thirty-nine-year-old floral shop manager and the mother of two sons, submitted to liposuction to remove a small paunch on her five-foot-one frame. She weighed only 120 pounds. “This literature she got at a shopping mall said the procedure was so simple,” her friend Rheba Downey told a reporter. “She said, ���Why not?’” She made up her mind after reading Ramirez's newspaper ad, calling the surgery "the revolutionary technique for reduction of fat without dieting." No one told her about the dangers. Ramirez operated on more than two hundred women, causing numerous injuries and two deaths before his license was finally revoked.

By 1987, only five years after the fat-scraping technique was introduced in the United States, the plastic surgery society had counted eleven deaths from liposuction. A 1988 congressional subcommittee placed the death toll at twenty. And the figure is probably higher, because patients' families are often reluctant to report that the cause of death is this "vanity" procedure. A woman in San Francisco, for example, who was not on the surgery society's or Congress's list, died in 1989 from an infection caused by liposuction to her stomach; the infection spread to her brain, her lungs collapsed, and she finally had a massive stroke. But her family was too ashamed about the procedure to bring it to public attention.

The society's 1987 report on liposuction, however, seemed less concerned with safety than with "the reputation of suction lipectomy," which its authors feared had been "marred by avoidable deaths and preventable complications." It concluded that all problems with liposuction could be easily solved with "guidelines governing who is permitted to perform and advertise surgical procedures." In other words, just get rid of the gynecologists and dermatologists and leave the surgery to them.

Yet some of the liposuction patients had died at the hands of plastic surgeons. And the most common cause of death was the release of fat emboli into the heart, lungs, and brain—a risk whenever inner layers of epidermis are scraped, no matter how proficient the scraper. As even the report acknowledged: "[Liposuction] is by its nature a tissue-crush phenomenon. Therefore, fat embolism is a realistic possibility."

Surgeons also marketed the injection of liquid silicone straight into the face. Vogue described it this way: "Plastic surgery used to be a dramatic process, but new techniques now allow doctors to make smaller, sculptural facial changes." This "new" technique was actually an old practice that had been used by doctors in the last backlash era to expand breasts—and abandoned as too dangerous. It was no better the second time around; thousands of women who tried it developed severe facial pain, numbing, ulcerations, and hideous deformities. One Los Angeles plastic surgeon, Dr. Jack Startz, devastated the faces of hundreds of the two thousand women he injected with liquid silicone. He later committed suicide.

For the most part, these doctors were not operating on women who might actually benefit from plastic surgery. In fact, the number of reconstructive operations to aid burn victims and breast cancer patients declined in the late '80s. For many plastic surgeons, helping to boost women's self-esteem wasn't the main appeal of their profession. Despite the ads, the doctors were less interested in improving their patients' sense of "control" than they were in improving their own control over their patients. "To me," said plastic surgeon Kurt Wagner, who operated on his wife's physique nine times, "surgery is like being in the arena where decisions are made and no one can tell me what to do." Women under anesthesia don't talk back.

-Susan Faludi, Backlash: the Undeclared War Against American Women

[mithliya]

Hi! Do you think you could explain how gender critical people can support body autonomy in cases like abortion but not transition? I know you believe that medical transition doesn't change someone's gender. But under the ideals of body autonomy, would you support a woman taking T if she still called herself a woman instead of a calling herself a trans man?

And in general, I know radfems are anti-plastic surgery, but wouldn't that too fall under one's body autonomy?

I'm just trying to figure out radfem and gc ideas but I'm running into some inconsistencies.

honestly i was a bit baffled by this ask and couldn't help but feel like its bait bc ... how is cosmetic surgery that is harming your body, incredibly expensive, and done as a result of self-hatred the same as not wanting to carry a baby & go thru the risks of pregnancy for 9 months? to me these are such blatantly, fundamentally different things. but let me assume this isn't bait and you're asking in good faith and address your points.

I know you believe that medical transition doesn't change someone's gender.

this shows a complete lack of understanding on what beliefs i even hold. i don't think medical transition "doesn't change someone's gender" i know it doesn't change a person's *SEX*. this difference is very crucial. gender = gender roles, gendered expectations, etc. it is a social construct. it has nothing to do with anything medical nor biological, its a social contruct that varies across time and cultures.

But under the ideals of body autonomy, would you support a woman taking T if she still called herself a woman instead of a calling herself a trans man?

why would i support the act of taking synthetic hormones which are actively harming your health just as long as you Identify a certain way? it doesn't matter to me what you call yourself. i'm critical of medical transition because it is costly, harmful, and rooted in questionable beliefs. i'm critical of how readily it is promoted. i am critical of how profitable it is to pharmaceutical and medical industries. i am critical of how little research is being put into ensuring the safety of it as well as research into other methods of dealing with sex dysphoria. whether you call yourself a man or a woman is the least of my concerns.

you use the term bodily autonomy, but you seem to be under the belief that bodily autonomy = a person gets to do whatever they want with their body and their choices are always above any criticism or analysis and it does not matter how much their choices are harming them or others. by that logic, if you don't support an anorexic woman starving herself or getting a liposuction, you are against her bodily autonomy because you are not allowing her full agency over her body. by that logic, if a woman tells you she wants to get a BBL or have implants put in, you need to validate and encourage that choice because to question harming your body is to oppose bodily autonomy. but that is not what bodily autonomy is. here is a definition:

Body autonomy is defined as the ability of one person to demonstrate power and agency over choices concerning their own bodies. These choices must be made without fear, threat, violence or coercion from others.

Body autonomy allows individuals the freedom to make their own choices about their bodies. This is significant to a person’s health and wellbeing.

now, if there is a group of people being told that they need to transition ASAP and being told constantly that without transition they will kill themselves, is that or is that not going to instill fear? because if i was told that i need to take an action as early as possible, lest my life be miserable and doomed, then im going to want to urgently take such an action out of fear. if parents are being told "do you prefer to have a dead daughter or a living son?" or w/e, is that not coercion and threats?

moreover, we know taking synthetic hormones for cosmetic purposes can be extremely harmful for one's health. women with high levels of testosterone naturally suffer from a lot of health consequences as a result, nevermind people who alter their body's hormones. this is fundamentally different from a woman choosing to get an abortion because a pregnancy is costly, risky, has health consequences, and will impact her entire life for at least the next 18 years of her life.

that said, i'm not blaming people who do pursue cosmetic procedures or artificial hormones and i'm not against them. i am against the industries promoting this and making it difficult to even have a conversation on this, even pushing against research that does not benefit their financial interests. i am against the promotion of cosmetic surgery as necessary, healthy, and somehow healthcare. i think that there NEEDS to be more research into medical transition, the impacts it has on health, its usefulness and helpfulness, and alternative treatments. the lack of such research and the lack of constructive conversation on this topic is where my concerns lie. not with identity politics like what someone calls themselves while harming their bodies.

so ultimately, i'm not understanding what you think is an inconsistency here. questioning profitable industries and cosmetic surgery which are modern inventions rooted in amplifying people's, namely women's, insecurities for the sake of profit is not at all the same as an abortion and it's worrying to me that you don't see the difference. providing blind affirmation to every choice an individual makes is not bodily autonomy, its individualism and liberalism to another degree. bodily autonomy is allowing individuals the right to make informed, healthy, decisions for themselves. a woman deciding she does not want to go through 9 months of pregnancy and 18 years of child-rearing is not the same as a woman deciding she hates her body and thus MUST get a boob job (which ultimately harms this person's health rather than helping), or someone deciding they hate their sex and thus MUST get surgeries to pass for a different sex (which also ultimately negatively impacts the person's health, even if it provides some psychological relief which potentially could've been gained via a different approach like therapy).

[mueritos]

hey, i'm a trans guy and i'd really like to lose fat especially in my thighs and hips, is it possible to target a certain area to lose fat? And if yes, how?

heya! unfortunately you cannot spot fat removal like that without like, liposuction. if you want to remove mass from one part of your body, you’ll need to lose mass overall. you can however build muscle instead and you can build muscle in other parts of your body so that your frame looks different. either way, consult with a doc if you do want to lose weight so you have a plan to safely do so.

id also like to note that even if mass was lost in the areas you want them to, your body’s genetics and whether or not youre on T can only do so much, so you may still have some mass there. see what you can do, but if youre interested, there is body masculinizing surgery for folks who have a lot of dysphoria in their hips.

hope that helped! i hope youre able to find comfort and joy in your body in all states of being <3

[spongeydee19]

Linda and Stephen Stotch Evolution (Character Analyisis)

hey y'all, here's a first.

I dont usually make posts like these, but I kinda have the motive to make this one in particular to help clear up misconceptions or what not.

Today's topic is about THE STOTCHES. Notorious stotch, aka, the most hated characters in SP. if not Pip. These two are loathed by the fandom and are seen as just abusive parents without much development. While a bit underused compared to the Broflovskis, Marshes, and even Liane, they get a lot of screen time and development. I think they are actually the most complex between them, and the McCormicks. So let's dive into the evolution of Butters' parents, Linda and Stephen Stotch.

Chapter 1: Early Years

Did you know, Stephen was actually present in the show before Linda and was even a bit more prominent than Butters. He made his first appearance in "Chickenlover" as apart of a riot after Officer Barbrady quits. Interestingly, he has a different look here;

He has pink cheeks for some reason

He is missing his tie and collar

his eyebrows are slightly bigger

Stephen continued to make background appearances in the show, from working at a movie theater to jury against Cartman's "hate crime"

Stephen made his first speaking role in "Quintuplets 2000", as a protestor. We get a glimpse of his comedic potential, which I believe is a crucially overlooked part in Steve's character.

"The Wacky Molestation Adventure" marks the episode where Stephen is shown as Butters' father and Linda's own debut. From this onward, just like with Butters, the Stotches oversaw an increase in prominence. "How to Eat with Your Butt" is the first time the Stotches ground Butters, for making a silly face apperantly, and from here, this is where the Stotches became noticed as characters. After this, the family have their first major role in "Butters' Very Own Episode", by far their most infamous appearance.

Chapter 2: Stotches' Spotlight

Butters' Very Own Episode is the first instance where the Stotches recieve any crucial development. At first, they appear as a loving, normal family. At the events of the episode, it is the wedding anniversary of Butters' parents, and here, we get a bit of characterization from Linda; she feels that Stephen outranks her gifts with his own, implying a bit of insecurity and/or an inferiority complex. When she sends Butters to spy on his dad, they discover that Stephen was actually going to gay bathhouses while calming he was "working out". She snaps from this revelation and goes insane.

What comes next is certainly one of the most infamous moments in the entire show. Linda tries to drive her son into a lake, and then attempts to commit suicide. These moments right here is what makes Butters' Very Own Episode of the most horrific yet well excuded episodes. I dig this characterization of Linda, being mentally unstable. Stephen was actually relatively lenient in this episode, and had the personality of a well meaning father.

What was revealed in the episode makes me believe that the Stotches are one of the most layered parents in the show. Stephen's sexuality is an interesting concept, and they do tackle it in a later episode in a more subdue way. Linda stole the show, though, and her moments are some of the most iconic.

After this episode, the Stotches become a bit of wild characters. While most would sum up their personality as just "abusive parents", I'd argue they had a bit of inconsistent characterization. They seem to be strict, but they sometimes range between normal, insane, abusive, or just stupid. Case in point, "Jared Has Aides" portrayed them as very strict and downright abusive. When Butters was manipulated into performing liposuction surgery after gaining weight, his parents grounded him (seems understandable, albiet a bit harsh, right). Then, when Cartman had to fill for Butters and impersonated him while calling his parents, he curses them out, angering them. When they arrived home, they start beating up Butters. Meanwhile, "Asspen" sees them as completely normal parents.

Throughout Season 6, they flip-flip between being strict to loving. In "My Future Self n' Me", they enlist Butters a Future Self in fear of him taking up drugs and achohol in the future. When Butters finds out about this and covers their house in feces as revenge, instead of punishing him, they realize their mistake and apologize to Butters for lying to him. A lot of people overlook this moment when talking about the Stotches' parenting. Even though they are often strict and authorian, they are capable of realizing the errors of their ways and treating Butters better.

Throughout their appearances, Linda and Stephen are often resonable when they aren't punishing Butters, such as "Raisins". By Season 8, their abusive tendecies and incompetent parenting start to become more frequent, doing deeds such as selling Butters to Paris Hilton, not letting him as Trent Boyett threatens him while Butters screams in fear, falsely believing Butters had multiple personality disorder and putting him through hell, also falsely believing he was bi-curious and putting him in a gay conversion camp, etc.

"Majorine" is their biggest episode since Butters' Very Own Episode, and it puts the Stotches closer to insanity. Butters fakes his own death and leaves his parents in shambles. Linda is absolutely heart-torn by her son's apperant death, and is a good example of her being an impactful character. Stephen goes insane as well, and decides to dig up "Butters' Corpse" and revive him. After Butters actually comes home, they believe him to be a hell spawn. Freaking out, they lock him in the basement, where they feed him the corpse of a lady Stephen had killed. It's probably the most insane episode, tbh. We also see that the Stotches apparently have homicidal tendencies, as Linda was about to drown her own son while Stephen killed someone just to feed Butters.

At the same time, the Stotches seem to have their own characterization outside of their relationship with Butters. Stephen in particular is often a major secondary character in the episodes focusing on Randy. He helps him and Gerald stop Global Warming in "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow". Linda has a major part in "South Park is Gay!", where she is one of the moms who protest against the Metrosexual trend. In "Night of the Living Homeless", Linda and Stephen alongside Randy, Jimbo, and few other fugitives get stuck on a roof after an outbreak of homeless people. Linda has a major role in "Die Hippie, Die", where she is the engineer for Cartman's crew that tries to get rid of the hippies. Linda also gets a good bit in "Eek, A Penis!", where she gets scared of Mr. Garrison's penis that runs across her house. Stephen is also a major side character in "More Crap" as one of the people who supports Randy after his world record for biggest crap gets beaten by Bono, and even gives a powerful speech to Randy. Stephen also gets a funny bit in "About Last Night…", where he is a John McCain supporter and goes livid after he lost to Obama. He is also one of the fathers who rally to get rid of the UPS man when they believe they were banging their wives, and plays a pretty big part.

All that being said, there's one episode that reveals a backstory for the Stotches. After Butters has a meltdown at school, his parents decide to send him to Hawaii for him to discover more on his origins. Turns out, the Stotches aren't from South Park, but instead, Hawaii (or Hava'i).

In short, the Stotches had an odd history since their first spotlight episode. They seem to had inconsistent characterization, going from a normal family, to a dysfunctional one. That being said, one should that they share a bit in common with Randy and Sheila, namely their incompetence, insanity, and strictness. They seem to have good-intentions, but are too stupid to realize their terrible actions. But contary to popular belief, they aren't entirely Butters centric characters. At times, they seem to act as supporting characters to Randy subplots, especially Stephen, who is usually featured heavily in these sort of episodes.

Chapter 3: Modern Era Stotches What a lot of people seem to overlook when the Stotches are a point of discussions is that, they aren't really the same characters as they were in the early seasons. Well, in terms of being abusive and callous. They are a lot less cruel towards Butters and only really ground him when he absolutely deserves it. Stephen in particular gets a lot of roles in episodes as just a guy, and is primarily uses for the sake of comedy. In "The Magic Bush" for example, he goes insane after believing his drone had a mind of its own, and seem pretty passionate about drones in general. But what really stands out is how he never thinks about the possibilty of Butters flying that drone, which he, Cartman, and Kenny did. He is a lot more loving in this episode, and people seem to overlook that when they discuss how abusive they were in early seasons. He also gets a funny bit in "Franchise Prequel" where he grounds both Butters and Vladimir Putin.

In general, whenever Stephen makes an appearances, it usually for a quick joke, or as just apart of the guys. He gets a good bit in "Sponsored Content", where he provides hillarious commentary on pop-up ads. In "Sons of Witches", he is apart of the band of witches led by Randy and was nearly sacrificed. In "A Boy And A Priest", he cracks a few jokes with Randy. He also helps Liane give Cartman his flew shot in "Shots!!!".

In Season 19, Linda is seen more often with the City Council than her with her own husband and son, though she rarely spoke. In general, from this point, she started to become less depent on Stephen and Butters as a character. In "Dead Kids", she and Harriet Biggle bring Sharon to South Park Elementary where Randy sings. In "Turd Burgular", she, Sheila, Laura, and Harriet are given a much bigger role, where Stephen and Butters are not present. Linda gets jealous of Sheila's fecal transplant and tries to steal her feces. In "End of Obesity", she, Laura, Mrs. Tweek, and other moms are hooked onto an obesity drug, and after running out, they start robbing sources of the drug.

Meanwhile, Stephen was also the main protagonist of the Amazon Dulogy where he gets a new job at the Amazon Fulfillment Center. He is among the adults who loses their Christmas spirit after liquor is banned in "Christmas Snow". He also gets multiple shining moments in in "The Pandemic Special", mainly in protest against the Pandemic and how people wear their masks, calling them "Chin Diapers", which was pretty funny. They get yet another big episode with Linda and Mr. Mackey in "Back To The Cold War".

Chapter 4: Video Games

Aside from their mainline episode appearances, the Stotches are featured in the video games as well. There's not much to note in the first, but Fractured But Hole has a slew of lore for them.

Stephen himself is a boss, and players are finally given the satisfaction of beating him up. I believe this is one Stephen's best appearances, seeing him as incompetent, authorial, and hilariously evil. Apart from that, there is a small quest where the player must break into a safe in Stephen's room. In the safe, there is a picture of him having sex with another man. Additionally, Linda is seen taking a bath while reading "Dealing with your gay husband". Linda herself shows more of her insanity when you talk to her. She also shows herself to be a bit of a neat freak. Chapter 5: Conclusion

So in short, the Stotches are pretty interesting characters to say the least. They had a wild evolution, and most people don't even pay attention to it. They went from generic background characters, to the occasionally abusive parents of Butters, to supporting players in Randy plot tines, to comedic characters on their own. Whenever I see a discussion relating to the Stotches, its always about their abusive relationship with Butters. Even since the beginning, I disagree with this notion, they started out as silly side characters with tons of quirks. They evolved into dickish characters, but the later seasons appear to have abandon this in favor of comedic and entertaining characters.

In my opinion, their modern character traits are being stubborn, silly, insane, and well intended. They are pretty iconic characters, and Majorine and Butters' Very Own Episode are probably some of the most iconic episodes. I feel like they're criminally underappreciated, especially for their comedy. I'd argue they rival Cartman in hilarity.

So yeah, that was my character analysis on The Stotches. Um, yeah. Hope you enjoy, i guess :>

[emphasisonthehomo]

An incomplete list of things that instragram has arbitrarily decided that I’m interested in, when I have never sought out or interacted with any of said content, except to say again and again that I don’t give a shit and I don’t want to be shown it:

Christianity

Islam

Judaism

Neo paganism

Witchcraft

Lana del Rey /Taylor Swift/Chappell Roan (I’m lumping these into one, because it’s like every other week the algorithm decides I must love some random white popstar)

Hairdresser/barbershop (braiding, extension installs, fades, hair dye, wigs, etc.)

Cars/motorcycles (including street racing, low riders, classic cars, etc.)

Nails (press on, nail decorating, etc.)

Lash extensions

Mommyblog/family blogging content

Pro vegan propaganda

Anti vegan propaganda

Right wing qanon brianrot

The worst liberal hot takes you’ve ever heard

Fishing (creating handmade lures/people holding up fish, etc.)

ASMR/satisfying videos (slime, soap cutting, people clacking their nails on shit, etc.)

Pimple popping (🤮)

Van life

Text to speech readings of reddit posts

10000 podcasts I’ve never heard of in my entire life

Gymfluencers

Bigoted memes

South Park/Family Guy/other bad tv shows

High school theater content

Random sports (baseball, cricket, f1 etc.)

Cosplayers

Anime clips

Furries

Joe Rogan

K pop

Balloon arch companies

Weddings (photographers, planners, people getting married, etc.)

Nurses violating HIPAA

Cosmetic procedures (botox, lip filler, liposuction, plastic surgery, etc.)

Niche memes about industries I’m not in (construction, car sales, landscaping, etc.)

Straight couples

Those man on the street videos where people shove a mic and a camera into a stranger’s face and ask them questions.

Full on tradwife shit

It’s not that these are all “bad” things or anything (though obviously some of them are absolute horseshit) it’s just that I Do Not Care, and no matter how many times I’m say this, I can’t avoid that content.

And I think that says a lot about how you can’t curate your own online experience anymore, without some algorithm trying to shove something down your throat.

[panaeolus-fimicola]

3) You had top surgery? Out of curiosity did you have dysphoria beforehand? Do you regret it now? I’m sorry if you do.

firstly, sorry this answer was a bit later, wasn't sure how long it should be. i'm settling on 3 paragraphs, 2 of them under a read more. thank you btw for asking these questions without mocking me for transitioning <3 (/genuine)

yes, i had a double incision double mastectomy, about a month after i turned 17. i had dysphoria beforehand and still do. i regret it to the core of my being, especially the order things went, surgery before hormones. and i did that to myself before i could vote, before i even graduated high school. it has repercussions for the rest of my life, many of which i hadn't conceived of or given real consideration to, because i thought, "why should i? no one ever regrets this, and i AM trans. i am not a girl. i don't want to be a woman." i wanted to kill myself because of my breasts, i hated, hated how large they were and how they attracted male attention. i wanted to try just going smaller, to an A or B cup, that i could easily hide, but the only options presented to me were full removal or staying where i was after a reduction, which was still big. i remember breaking down crying when i went to get fitted for a bra after the reduction, when she said what size i was. more regret aspects + discussion of reconstruction options below vvv

another part of why i regret it, is that i have numbness on my chest now and other nerve issues, like itching under my skin, and sometimes pains. i never had these issues before mastectomy. i regret it because it didn't make my bare chest look male or male-passing, it made my chest look unnatural and clearly altered. it made my body actually look 'wrong'. and one of the really sick parts? the discomfort and dysphoria i felt once i really started passing. i was scared that i was making women uncomfortable because even just my voice was not clearly recognizable as female, except to other people familiar with transition. and i regret it because i made that choice before i could even truly understand what i was doing, i hadn't even been evaluated for autism when i transitioned.

the options for reconstruction suck. all more surgery, more damage done to my body, in pursuit of something purely cosmetic. as it stands, i will never have real breasts again. i can have pure fat mounds harvested by violently jabbing me elsewhere (liposuction/fat transfer), with good potential to cause more numbness, i can have plastic implants under my skin, or i can have huge flaps of my skin, fat, and muscle taken from elsewhere on my body and sewn together on my chest to look like breasts. all of those options sound hellish to me, and none of them would even properly restore what's lost. my options to change my voice are training (which would still be artificial) or surgery that could make me permanently lose my voice. in the end i don't need to do anything more to my body to be a woman, i don't need to pass as a woman because i just am one. though it would be nice to not feel so painfully disconnected from so many women, and not worry about being mistaken for male when i need to use a public restroom.

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s4 episode 6 thoughts

today's adventure with our favorite agents didn't really do a lot for me but. at least it wasn't super sad? so let's go? i guess?

liveblog begins NOW!

this episode sounds like it is gonna make me squeamish. extremely so. and also i just read the rest of the episode descriptions for the season and i’m sad so i really hope this is SOMEHOW a happy one. hey, listen, it’s possible!

author’s note: sometimes i hate being right. sometimes i hate thinking, boy, this sure looks like it’s gonna make me feel lightheaded, and it does.

oh, how i look forward to diving into the fluff fic recommendations from my last post…. <3 

but we must suffer through canon, no?

we open with someone about to undergo some liposuction, a thing i have never wanted to see. the patient is being wheeled in and the doctor is being informed of what kind of appointment he has next. the doctor is really really scrubbing his hands to the point i thought he was shaking and OH! his hands are very bloody. oh. i do not think that is clean. 

oh god i’m in for a rough ride this episode aren’t i, i realize as we see him bleed through his gloves and begin the surgery. OHHHHH an incision. I AM NOT LOOKING I AM NOT LOOKING. i am looking a little OUGH is THAT what this procedure looks like from the doctor’s end??? oh my gosh. oh man. the… sucking…

deep breathing.

the nurse goes to see a different patient and explains she doesn’t know where the doctor is. the doctor is… currently REALLY going ham on the sucking. WHAAAA we see the blood fill up the tube and oh man i’m not joking like straight up being so honest w you i can feel my body growing faint. i actually did not look at the screen until the intro because that was too close for me. and yes i understand he was….um. going TOO hard.

oh mein gott… the things i do for these two agents….

save me intro. save me pretty picture of scully. and that scene where they burst in with the guns and flashlights. save me.

okay. i’ve regained most of my feeling in my head. now the doctor is here, very sorrowfully explaining how he was watching himself do those things without having any control over it.

ah, he is speaking to mulder, who suggests that it may be spirit or demon possession. 

so mulder and scully are here talking to the doctor, but the lawyer says he did NOT want mulder talking to him lmaooo. 

scully asks what meds he’s taking and the lawyer again shuts them down. rude as hell. she wants to know about his sleeping pills. let her doctor as needed tf

oh…. scully going straight into a detailed explanation of how his medication worked <3 i just love her… this is why i suffer through the fat sucking (which has now occurred multiple times??)

why is mulder eyeing this nurse. don’t think i didn’t notice that…

this doctor was taking more than a sleeping pill a day, and she says it has controversial effects, so maybe that could make a guy do such a thing. it’s a good start to a theory.

she seems mad as hell that this space is being used for cosmetic surgery and not as a hospital and i love that she has some righteous rage going on there… let her save some damn lives!! 

“everyone’s doing it… or so i’ve heard” <- the thought of mulder getting plastic surgery is so silly… like is he not already the most gorgeous fellow alive

mulder’s on the floor looking at some weird marks and drawing a pentagram in the victim’s blood. average behavior for a guy like him. not convincing to scully, however.

scary facts with scully: deaths due to doctor's errors are upwards of 80,000 a year! that’s horrific and for my own sanity i’m not going to google how those stats have changed 

“i don’t think it’s a simple possession, scully, i think it’s sorcery or black magic or something like that” (said with his hands on his hips in the standard mulder pose) love him so bad…. please recite to me the different levels of magic in order of complexity

they run into the nurse who was on call at the time the sucking incident went down, and she is like idk how it could happen… but when mulder tells her the doctor is claiming he was possessed, she says “i guess it’s cheaper than malpractice insurance” LMAO i like her… don’t tell me she was the one doing the sorcery or something, let us have one nice side character who makes it out alive 

(author's note: ...)

then the agents try to talk to a doctor, but she says the patient can’t wait, which sparks more scully bitterness. mulder is watching the surgery stream. weird fellow

cutscene to a table with a conspicuous pentagram on it. someone is saying they need to keep calm. it seems they are the doctors at the facilities?

okay, so another procedure is going on. the patient says she’s getting a skin peel but the nurse is putting LEECHES ON HER?? man what the hell is going on here. and it’s the nice nurse who is doing it too 😭😭😭

mulder is making faces in the mirror now, seeming to mull the possibility of getting rhinoplasty over LMAOOO but scully knocks at his door… it’s video time!! woohoo, pop that bad boy in the VHS player!!

aww, it’s not a fun time video. it’s the video of the killing, and mulder claims to see a pentagram. scully is gagged that the doctor stabbed/sucked the dude to death, but i’m choosing to focus here on her beautiful freckles…..

he’s saying that a pentagram is for protection, so it wouldn’t even make sense, BUT “it does make sense that witchcraft or black magic would find a theater in a place like this, preying on the weak and vainglorious” <- woah... he's a philosopher

get yourself a man who can explain the positive connotations of pentagrams and other nerd stuff with 100% sincerity

oh my god, mulder is sitting on the bed and looking up at scully here, and i need it FRAMED. do you know the scene i’m talking about? i’d give you the time stamp if i had it. the way he’s looking at her…. oh my goodness... my heart. 

the stomach pills the doctor was taking had an ingredient used in hexing rituals. live scully response: “well, if it’s that simple, why don’t you put out an APB for someone riding a broom and wearing a tall black hat?” <- LMAOOOO get his ass

he scrunches up his nose at this comment and oh my gosh. oh… i want to hold this grown man.

BUT he is saying the ritual might not be over yet, while he stares up at her so adoringly, and man… i’m so sensitive 

okay back to the hospital, where this shady coalition of doctors seems to be debriefing. the nurse is there, who i am now suspicious of for engaging in leech-related activities. 

oh! one of the other doctors went into a patient’s room and started burning their face with a laser. luckily, this is visually unrealistic enough for me to not nearly faint this time.

so this doctor who did the face lasering- dr. ilaqua- is now being seen by scully. and he is on the same sleeping medication as the first guy!!!

back at a computer, mulder is looking at before and after rhinoplasty pictures. NO... i love his nose… he had BEST NOT DO A DAMN THING to it. and he’s holding a pencil up to test how straight his nose is and MY MAN. STOP. you are beautiful. who told you otherwise. i love his nose.........

oh! the leeches were used to make a pentagram on the victim’s body. this is not a good sign.

this creepy panel of doctors is meeting again when the agents arrive and do not give a fuck about their meeting. yes!! more agents walking into places without knocking!!! it is my favorite! it sustains me!

scully says she’s sorry to barge in but it’s a matter of urgency whilst not looking sorry in the slightest. which suits her!

and one of the doctors- dr. franklyn- is explaining that there were similar deaths 10 years ago… and they’re pinning the blame on the nurse!!! saying she was there 10 years ago and just transferred back in!!!

i do not believe it in the slightest that if she IS involved in this, she is doing it on her own. but the doctor says she left early. where to?

well, the camera takes us to go do some creepy chanting, of course! in a room filled with candles and statues and jewelry. and she’s naked i think too which is a risk around so many open flames. okay and now some hair is being cut. but it’s not the nurse who is doing the chanting nor the trimming. whoever it is seems to be falling asleep. 

the agents are here, and it is dark, and they are not messing around. they are going to this creepy house. with a cat meowing and a broom on the steps! i see what you did there.

mulder jokes that the broom gives them probable cause LMAO and then he starts to open the door as if it actually does… only to find a pentagram!!! dun dun DUUUUN!

it’s kicking the door down time, a good time in my opinion. where they hold the flashlight in one hand and the gun in the other… yeah. always a showy move. never gets old.

oh no!! scully finds the ritual space!! what could she have been doing in here?, she asks... girl i think you know damn well lmao

dr. franklyn from the council is coming home to his mansion… and his lights won’t turn on. that’s suspicious. that’s weird. 

it’s very very quiet as he goes into his bathroom… AND FINDS SOMETHING WRITTEN ON BLOOD IN THE WALL!!

it looks like latin which i sadly cannot read :(

well, it could be blood OR lipstick, all things considered

and the tub is flowing with blood which is not a welcome sight. as he stares at his reflection like narcissus, something LEAPS out and GETS HIM!! so now there is a very bloody person loose in his house!!

he goes to call 911 but gets put on hold… as this person is going to TOWN on him with a knife. 

the agents roll up and we see that it is the NURSE who is covered in the blood and just did the stabbing!!!! she says she needs to be let go, but i’m not gonna lie, i think that would be a very bad idea. mulder wants to chat. she’s saying she’s trying to stop “them”, but they’re too powerful… and then she… chokes up needles?? oh. and blood. 

scully says get her in surgery NOW and also i’m going with her to the ER. while mulder looks at all the pins on the ground from her insides and then PICKS ONE UP???? the germs…..

so dr. franklyn got away and is being stitched up by one of the other doctors. they are not seeming to be enjoying the witchcraft theory. mulder watches dr. franklyn lay down in his bed and then when he leaves he starts to levitate!!!! what!!! and he’s smiling while doing this!!!

who are these weirdos…

it’s 3:40 AM and mulder has his demon books out, but really he’s looking at himself again in the mirror. bro is insecure and it’s making me sad. 

a knock at the door. scully!! at nearly 4 am. “god, you look tired”, says mulder, in a way that expresses concern rather than being mean. and she actually doesn’t look tired at all because it’s TV, but i’ll suspend my disbelief again. 

anyway, the nurse died from throwing up hundreds of pins. but how did they get IN there…

it has to be allotriophagy, says mulder, consulting his witchcraft encyclopedia! when you’re possessed and cough up strange and horrible things! which i shall use as an excuse next time i need to call in sick to work.

he stole the book from the nurse’s house, and also a calendar, where he found april 30th starred. and he explains it is one of the “four greater witches’ Sabbaths”, a natural thing for an FBI agent to know! /s

oh get this… the high holy days correspond to the birthdays of the victims!!! so that would be a good way to predict who is next.. but mulder says the nurse was trying to protect them with the pentagram, and she must have known something about dr. franklyn!!

so the doctors are talking about having a good thing going and people trying to take it away… i guess they're all in on this?

dr. franklyn has another procedure coming up, but the other doctor is like no dude you look terrible and you can’t mess this up, we'll get shut down, i’m doing it 

and gasp!! there is a patient going in that was born on one of the holy days!!! and that patient is going into surgery right now!

OH MY GOSH HE BURNED HER FACE OFF. THERE IS NO FACE LEFT. WHAT. WHAT DID I JUST SEE. 

so now they’re talking to another doctor, dr. shannon. they’re talking about how they successfully covered up the death cases from 10 years ago because they have made a TON of money doing plastic surgery. she says 4 patients died and a doctor named dr. cox worked himself to death. hmm...

mulder says to run dr. cox's photo through a cosmetic program… and it makes dr. franklyn… woah… spoooooky……

now we hear some labored scraping as dr. franklyn is doing knife twisting. carving… something. very sweatily. gross.

mulder’s theory is that dr. cox killed those patients in order to become dr. franklyn through some blood sacrifice to make himself pretty. i mean... did it work? let’s discuss. he looks fine, but not "i killed four people to look this good" fine.

now he’s getting some more tools… and he’s hurting the other doctor, dr. shannon!! with his mind! he didn’t even touch her!

mulder is at dr. franklyn's house with scully and they have their guns. god they’re beautiful. and she’s standing on a pentagram!! that has been inverted!!! 

“they represent the goat of lust attacking heaven with its horns”, he says about the pentagram <- he’s SUCH a nerddddd omfggg

and he wrote in all the names of the patients he killed in his carving!! including dr. shannon!!! uh oh...

and they’re bringing dr. shannon in for surgery, saying she swallowed something.

dr. franklyn is…. cutting into his scalp. i am not looking so don’t worry. 

mulder says do not let them operate on dr. shannon!!!!

oh my goodness, franklyn is just. cutting into his face. and i’m not looking but i am HEARING. the noises that are being produced.

they’re cutting into shannon and bleh. blehhh.

scully bursts in and says stop the surgery NOW!! and they’re all, who tf are you, get out of here!!! but she says i am a DOCTOR you need to LISTEN TO ME!! i love when she does that!

mulder is on the prowl for dr. franklyn. and he sees that he made a pentagram in blood. OH MY GOD HE CUT HIS OWN FACE OFF?? and left it there like a snake shedding it’s skin 😭😭

they pulled a ton of surgical instruments out of dr. shannon… so mulder says franklyn must have failed to complete his ritual….

but he managed to kill some other person who was born on halloween…. okay, that wasn’t a happy ending….

OH! dr. franklyn has a NEW FACE and is now getting a job in LA!

so… he’s just gonna… keep doing successful surgeries for 10 years and then take a little break to go on a killing spree, get a new face, and dip?

well. at least he sticks to a schedule?

um. okay. so what am i thinking here….

well, i did nearly faint many times. i am not looking forward to editing my notes and reliving that. i do not think this is an episode i would give a rewatch based on how i reacted to it.

but, the last few episodes have been super dark, and this one somehow felt… lighter? despite everything. we got some jokes in there and some silly time. and even if it ended on a “oh no, he’s still out there!” reveal, it was somehow less emotionally draining than the last few. 

was it ridiculous? yes. but was it also kind of refreshing after the last two episodes? also yes! which i think is a testament to how dark things have been rather than the quality of this episode. 

it was fine. it didn’t really do a whole lot for me. i mean, interesting to think of plastic surgery as devil worship, i guess, but potentially a reductive take. idk. i guess i don’t really spend a lot of time thinking about these things. 

things i DID like in this episode: that conversation mulder had with scully, where he was sitting on the bed looking up at her like he was going to ask for her hand in marriage or to be best friends forever and ever or talk about the meaning of being alive or some similar topic. it was so terribly tender. also, facts with scully! tell me about controversial drugs!! and mulder, tell me about the symbolism of a pentagram! i love these nerds! that was kind of it, though.

it was an episode. an episode with some good things and some meh things. that’s sort of par for the course. just… next time, less surgery. please. for me?

[oleanderblume]

Hey I'm healing from top surgery so I'm gonna masterwork the stages of healing I've been experiencing cause people are always leaving shit out :D

• You will sleep. Often.

So, basically after I got my surgery done, I had a whole concoction of medication and all of it knocks you the *fuck* out. If you fight it, you're simultaneously fighting God. That being said, take it. It's made to make your existence more bearable. Because if you're Top Surgery came with liposuction, like mine did, wherever you had liposuction will hurt. So just count on doing just about fuck all during that first week.

• You will need help, accept it.

And I mean with things you don't think you should need help with. Yes, getting tall things, but also in that first week and ESPECIALLY the first couple of days post op, you might even need help getting out of bed, opening doors.

The general rule here is you can't life anything over 15lbs, but *really* it's "you can't do anything where you can feel your stitches pulling" which is basically everything sans going to the bathroom. For me, the hardest thing was being so in need of assistance, that I legitimately couldn't lift my torso up enough to get out of bed, I figured it out after day 3 though.

• You will probably have to have drains, get over it. And yes. They suck, but for a specific reason.

Everyone talks about how shitty drains are, but I've never heard them say *why* drains suck because they hurt after a period of time. Usually around end of week 1, and for me, all of week 2. By week 2, I legitimately wanted to Rio these Fulkerson out.

But I wanted to rip them out because of a bunch of reasons.

1. They werr placed in a way where i couldn't see them and had limited access to the insertion site, closer to my back than my side. This made it very hard to deal with near the end for reason 2.

2. They fucking itch, and if they don't itch, they legitimately hurt. (This is why that pain medication is helpful imo.) The insertion site has loose stitches keeping the drains in your body, and your skin eventually wants to heal around it, now imagine constantly itching and/or aching, in a place you can't touch or even fucking see— constantly.

3. It's kind of gross. This wasn't a big issue for me. I have a morbid curiosity (I wanted to take a video of my sister pulling out my drains bit they didn't) but for folks who don't like the idea of having to pour out your body juices to measure and record, that can be squicky.

4. Fucking dogs. Dogs and quick movements, especially of other people is the MOST terrifying, because I was constantly afraid of pur dog jumping up and tearing those fuckers out of my body.

Now I'm gonna talk about the actual healing process and how that feels.

Week One— The least painful, but most disabling.

The first couple of days, I was essentially entirely reliant on my sister. I couldn't go to the bathroom without her help to get out of bed. At this time, you still have the anesthesia in your system so you can't feel a whole lot, other than gravity, and you're still pretty sleepy. It's advised to get up Avery few hours to shuffle around, but honestly, taking a nap is all you'll want to do.

Of course, the sitting up rule still holds, you can't really lay flat on your back, and you won't want to, because it's hard to fucking get up without help.

As far as pain goes, you don't feel much in the actual surgery site. Some surgeons include additional liposuction (this method is used to reduce the liklihood of dog ears or excess skin from the procedure itself)

^^^this will be the most painful thing during the first week^^^

It's because you get a lot of bruising, both external and internally when you have liposuction and it causes a lot of aching. The ache will gradually fade around the week 1 end, especially if you heal well from bruising you might have some numbness left over, but likely not from the liposuction. Those bits will be tender. You'll be given (or have bought) a compression garment that will come in very handy. It's not the same as a binder in that it's much easier to remove. The tightness won't be as restrictive, and it will help with liposuction healing and keeping your gauze in place. This is made to be worn basically 24/7 with exception of showers and washing. It *will* chafe, and you *will not* feel it. Prepare for that.

You can't physically do much of anything during this week, I couldn't open or close heavy doors, grab anything heavier than maybe 5 lbs, and most definitely not reach for anything. As mentioned, I couldn't lift my own ass out of bed, so I definitely couldn't drive. They *say* you can drive after the first 2 days. Don't. 1, you're probably on pain medication which knocks you put in about an hour of taking and 2, you're probably underestimating the strength and movement involved in using a steering wheel.

Over all, this is actually the easiest part of healing, pain wise. It's definitely the hardest if you don't have someone to care for you and help you during this time because you most definitely can't do it on your own.

Week Two— This one fucking SUCKS.

This is the week that the anesthesia has definitely worn off and you're running in pain medication. I was given a concoction of Gabapentin, Oxycodone, Diazepam, and over the counter Extra Strength Tylenol. Use them. Probably more than you think you should, honestly.

I had/have a very bad habit of not taking my pain medication as much as I should be because I'm low-key afraid of overdosing, but honestly. You won't overdose unless you take waaay too much of all your meds at once.

You'll still have to be sleeping sat up a bit, but you'll have significantly more mobility and strength— that doesn't mean you can over extend yourself. The 15lb rule still exists, and you don't want to extend your arms fully.

At this point, you'll be regaining feeling, it won't be a whole lot, but it comes in stages. (I'll go in depth near the end of the post)

This is when the drains become an aggravation. If you haven't had them taken out by end of week 1, week 2 you more than likely will, and up until then, they will get worse and worse to deal with.

For me, because of where they were placed, they were directly where I couldn't see them and couldn't fuck with them, but I laid on them every night, and of course, my skin was beginning to heal over the sutures, causing aching and unbearable itchiness. THIS is why you want to take your meds. In addition, remember how I mentioned the compression garment and the chafing? You're still wearing that. And if you haven't been closely watching your chafing, by week 2, you're made fully aware of it, because your under arms and sides will have gained feeling by then, and it will fucking hurt. Get band-aids. I have a stack of them up and down my sides where my drains were, and where I've chafed the most.

By your first week post op appointment, the surgeon has probably removed your gauze and any sutures covers for nipple grafts. They'll tell you how to do nipple and scar care. This varies from surgeon to surgeon, but I'll tell you about mine.

I had nipple grafts, so for week 1, I had little gauze squares on top of my nipples and sutures into my skin to protect them. At my post op those were removed and my nipples were covered in Vaseline and telfa paper. (It's basically a medical gauze covered in a plastic that easily sticks to moisturizing gels)

As for my actual top surgery scars, instead of having open sutures, I have my stitches, along side these sticky "brackets" they are plastic and run along my front and sides, except for directly under my nipples because of proximity. The plastic little brackets act as a tension that essentially pulls my skin together and keeps the stitches from stretching and forming wide scars. They fall off on their own once the skin has healed to the point that the tension isn't sufficient for them to keep sticking to my skin (they legit look like little plastic bridges and they are very satisfying swimming tools if you like running your fingers along the bumps they make under your binder) they also move over time, my two center ones have formed a triangle lol.

These brackets prevent me from having to do regimented scar care that some other folks have to post op, so I'd ask about them in your consultations :) you still have daily nipple moisturizing, and draining if you still have drains, but that takes a load off of the laundry list of shit you have to keep track of every day.

NOW FOR PAIN :D

You will be in pain. First it will be itching. The most annoying, persistent itching you have ever felt in your life, and you have to be incredibly care where it's coming from. This itching is actually normal. Itching is the lowest registry of pain your body has, and as you heal and your nerves regenerate, you will feel a variety of very weird things, but most definitely it will involve pain and itching.

Next will be what I'm gonna term "zingers" these are like spikes of tingly pain that you get in your chest, probably in your nipples the most. They don't really hurt, so much as just feel particularly strange and they are annoying too. Not everyone will experience this, and not necessarily both nipples or at this stage, it's highly dependent on how you heal and if you regain feeling in your nipples at all.

I was expecting myself to never regain feeling in my nipples again because of the type of surgery I had (double incision) so it took me by pleasant (and also awful) surprise.

Other weird sensations as your nerves begin regenerating are "hot/cold" and "inexplicable tightness" and of course, "let's ache".

•hot/cold is basically if you took IcyHot or Vicks Vapor Rub or any kind of menthol topical ointment and rubbed it all over your chest. It doesn't hurt, but it is very interesting. It only lasted about 2 days for me, but it was notable.

•inexplicable tightness is exactly as it says. It *feels* like your skin is being pinched, this also doesn't exactly *hurt* but it's not a particularly pleasant feeling. It's just your nerves waking up and going "Oh hey, I'm closer than I was to my neighbor than the last time I checked" it's more noticeable when standing and you feel compelled to hunch over a bit because it's sort of tricking you into thinking your skin will somehow rip open if you don't. At least, it does that for me lol.

• let's ache is also exactly what it's called. It's specifically (for me, mind you) a persistent and constant ache directly along my stitches, specifically the part that wasn't given brackets because of how close it is to my nipples. This is probably the only part of me that hurts not *just* because of nerve regeneration, but also because of increased movement and higher tension because j can't put brackets there. However, I do put scar tape there, which helps, if possibly only through placebo.

By far though, the most distracting pain will be from your drains, if you still have them in.

Medication does weird stuff to your sleep pattern and dreams— additional notes.

So, because I've only just ended my Week Two of post Top Surgery, I'm gonna talk about the weird shit that the medication does and it's major affects.

So, my prescription is 2 antibiotics, 2 pain pills, 1 anxiety med, 1 antinausea. I also have over the counter pain medication, but it's functionally useless right now.

My personal routine is wake up, take antibiotics, and take at least 1 of the prescribed pain meds. My oxy lasts 6 hrs, the gabas last 12. Both will make you sleepy and dizzy, and also give you weird fucking dreams and royally fuck up your sleep schedule.

So, if you've not noticed, you'll be sleeping a lot. You're in the process of healing, and your body literally won't let you stay awake for much longer than 3 or 4 hours in that first week. Later on, it gets much easier, and if your me and don't *want* to be unconscious 90% of the time, it becomes a toss up between "Do I want to take ineffective Tylenols and be awake but in pain the whole time? Or do I want to take effective prescribed pain meds and have to lie down for a nap in roughly an hour because I'm too loopy/mentally foggy to carry on a conversation?"

The prescription wins most every time lol. Soon, as a result, I sleep a vast majority of the time. I can technically stay up in spite of the medication, but it is *very* hard, and even harder if you're trying to be active. Gabapentin is longer lasting and stronger than my oxycodone, and it makes your head feel like it's full of cotton balls. It works fantastic for pain relief, but at the cost of precision motor function and focus.

It gets harder to walk and carry on a conversation because it's a sedative and you're actively fighting your body saying "go the fuck to sleep"

Other weird side effects from the drugs and the healing have are psychological and emotional!!

It's commonly said that post top surgery you can have depression, and I would say yes— but also no.

It's more of being at the mercy of wildly fluctuating emotions and how they manifest. Typically in the form of crying, I've noticed. But not necessarily depression as I'm familiar with it.

Now, this can be for more reasons than *just* medication, and it has no bearing, in my opinion on how one might truly feel about their operation. Some factors include whether or not you take testosterone.

Low testosterone is known to be a cause of depression in cis men, and it works exactly the same for trans men and people who take testosterone. Previous to your surgery, you'll be required to stop taking a lot of your medications, including T if you're on it. This massive dip in T can *definitely* contribute to feeling depressed post op, but for a lot of guys familiar with T, this is a kind of depression you can largely tell is artificial— because it goes away the next time you take your dose XD

Other things that affect your mood is of course, your own hormones. The human body runs on hormones, and our body having gone through invasive surgery like top surgery will of course put your body in overdrive to repair broken connections, and to do that, it releases hormones. Which, in addition to reaction chemically inside you for healing purposes, also are the things that literally control your emotions.

This, in combination with the medication you've been prescribed, and the medication you've had to delay taking, can have a major impact on your mood and mental health. It doesn't necessarily mean you regret getting top surgery (you would know if you did)

But it can manifest in fluctuating mood, how you respond to emotional or psychological stimuli, dreams, nightmares, and how subconscious fears may manifest in them and the occasional intrusive thought. Also you will probably cry. And probably a lot. Over stupid shit too.

Things I've cried over in the past 2 weeks.

Typing "things I've cried over in the past 2 weeks"

A 5 second clip of futurama

A 15 minute excerpt from a 3 hr video essay of a gay furry dating Sim I have literally never heard of or played.

Talking about crying or what I've cried about so far, even when no emotions are attached.

Thanking a person for talking to me.

A good hug

The fact I can't watch Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius.

A video essay about Wizards of Waverly Place.

A donut

That my brother helped me get cheerios down from the pantry because I can't reach that high right now.

My sister getting me curry

Curry in general (tearing up typing it right now)

Getting top surgery

As you can see, a lot of those are just weird shit to sob over for a solid 5-45 minutes.

I've also had a bunch of super weird dreams, and the biggest cause of that (aside from drugs and healing) is sleeping position and pre-existing conditions.

I have sleep paralysis, it's a chronic condition triggered by sleeping on my back, and unfortunately, when healing from top surgery, you have no choice but to sleep on your back for at least two weeks :D

So that's a thing to be wary of, if you deal with that.

Okay, that's all I got in terms of stuff that I haven't ever seen people talk about or even mention in regards to top surgery. So yeah.

Oh also, I have 2 (lightly used) GC2B tank binders to give away. One is trans pride colors, the other is a olive green. Size XL (ideal for folks with at least 38 C cup size) so if anyone is interested dm me :)

[autisticwriterblog]

one year and five months ago, I had top surgery. 🏳️‍⚧️ And I thought I'd post a photo to show what my scars look like after that time. putting it under the cut in case you don't want to see my naked chest 🤣

But in all seriousness, having this surgery was the best decision i've ever made in my life and I feel like rambling a little.

Obviously, some semi-graphic discussions of surgery under the cut.

To help with perspective, the photo is a cropped selfie. The little scar at the bottom is from liposuction that the surgeon did in my armpits to help everything lay flatter (yes, they really put in the tube at my sternum and then fed it all the way up to my armpits from there) although as you can see, i still got a bit of dog-earing in my right armpit. The puckering in the middle is because my scars were so big that there's barely half a cm between them (they said mine was the biggest chest they've ever operated on). I chose not to get a nipple graft because my nipples were really big, and even with the areolas getting trimmed they'd still look ridiculous on my chest imo, so I went without. I'm thinking about maybe getting nipple tattoos someday.

Anyway, this is what my chest looks like now. £11,000 well spent imo. 🥰

[ovaruling]

Hey! Sorry if you get this a lot, but you mentioned in your one really long post that you'd maybe talk about the "non-invasive" procedures one day. I have a friend considering a few (notably that ice fat removal one, cryo something) and I was hoping you could tell a bit more about your experiences with them. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

hi! i’m happy to discuss, definitely. i hope you don't mind my publishing this, because i haven't yet had a chance to publicly talk about CoolSculpt (similar if not identical in fashion to cryo- methods of "fat removal") or other med spa procedures, and i'd like to add this to my anti-cosmetic surgery tag. if you're not comfortable with this ask being published, please let me know asap and i will remove it without issue!

if your friend is indeed interested in CoolSculpt, my caution there is firstly going to revolve around Linda Evangelista, the 90s supermodel.  

her story about PAH (paradoxical adipose hyperplasia) that she experienced because of CoolSculpt is harrowing. here’s an article about it.

this happens a lot more with CoolSculpt than most people realize. i didn't experience PAH necessarily, but i will say that when i got CoolSculpt on my inner thighs, it left them extremely, extremely lumpy, and hardened. i already had one spot--about the size of a prune--on one of my inner thighs from when i got actual liposuction. i figured it wasn't the end of the world, and ignored it as best i could.

but when i went in and got CoolSculpt, i noticed in the weeks afterward that my thighs looked... bumpy. lumpy. like there were small, hard avocado pits underneath my skin. of course, i freaked out. i didn't know why it looked like that--the technician and the ads had all said it would be left smooth, fat-free, no trace of a procedure left behind.

before my last session (CoolSculpt takes multiple sessions), i asked the technician to take a look. she said, "oh, that'll go away in a few weeks. your body just has to detox it."

i was skeptical, but i wanted so much to believe she was right.

i waited, and i waited. i waited some more. weeks and weeks and weeks passed. not a single change.

i still don't rightly know what happened. i haven't quite had the time to get it checked out, because, depressingly, this disfigurement is very low on my list compared to my more pressing issues atm.

i also want to mention that i got CoolSculpt on my arms (they offered me a free "area" with my purchase of the inner thighs) and so i figured i'd try to get rid of some of my the fat under my biceps and triceps. all that happened was that the skin began to droop and sag. CoolSculpt did not transform my arms into firm, smooth limbs, not by any stretch. (there was no muscle there, so obv this was gonna happen!)

so, the inner thighs remain a mystery to me. the hardened lumps are still there, and seem benign, but they are extremely annoying. and i no longer care what they look like, but back when i did, the extremely firm lumpiness really, really bothered me. it was like huge ocean waves, frozen. Linda described her aftermath as "protrusions," and i kind of relate, honestly. i don't have it nearly as intensely as she does, but protrusions is a perfect way to describe the behavior of the flesh post-CoolSculpt.

as i've built more muscle in my legs over time, the lumps are less visible, but i still feel them there. it's really unsettling. makes me think of having parasites under my skin, which then makes me really queasy and panicked. but i can't do anything about them.

i got one suggestion to try to massage them, because they may just be gnarled tissue of some kind that could be broken up and metabolized if given proper stimulation and circulation. but no such luck--they're still there.

so, again, not totally sure what happened to me--not quite what happened to Linda Evangelista, but. i still had an adverse affect, which is frightening.

the people at the med spa i went to, btw, refused to acknowledge this as an issue. they told me i must just "metabolize fat poorly." not their fault, evidently. and i was powerless to challenge them, because i had signed a lot of waivers.

so, here i am. CoolSculpt just gave me another in a long line of apparently permanent side effects, even though it was noninvasive.

i wish so much i had just... fucking stopped, honestly. i should've begun my fitness journey then, if i wanted "toned thighs" so much, instead of spending a ridiculous amount of money (that i didn't have, btw) on this completely unregulated procedure that remains wildly popular. it is 100% a scam.

at least with working out, i gained confidence and strength and stopped caring so much about how i look once i realized that how i feel is so much more important. having done both, i can firmly say that i would choose my strong, big, muscular thighs over the trim, slim CoolSculpted ones any day.

and to drive the point home, i do still have the lumps in my thighs.

CoolSculpt is a waste of time, money, and health.

please do encourage your friend to look up the side effects reported from CoolSculpt, and keep in mind that most women who get CoolSculpt do NOT follow back up with the med spas they received treatment at. so when you see "over 95% of patients reported satisfaction with their treatment," know that they are NOT returning the calls of those who received adverse effects.

as i do with all cosmetic procedures, both invasive and noninvasive, i believe the percentage of those who have been "botched" is way, way, way, WAY under-reported, underrepresented, and vastly, vastly underestimated.

technically, because my surgeons never returned my communication, and because i never participated in an official survey (usually provided by the place that gives you the surgery, lmfao), i would not be included in the data collected for "botched procedures."

so please, please keep that in mind. most of us who have received life-altering results from any manner of cosmetic procedures either A) are not being communicated with by the providers of the procedure afterward, or B) are not even thinking about communicating with the provider of the procedure because they are now at their doctor or a hospital, trying to find answers to what went wrong.

or simply C) are too embarrassed to come forward and admit that we were “botched.”

or even D) have accepted it in numb silence or deeply flat denial because it would be too painful or too much effort to acknowledge that we most certainly didn’t get the results we were promised.

like, trust me, no one is calling me or knocking at me door asking me if i’m happy with my surgeries or my noninvasive procedures. not a single one. as far as the world was concerned, until i spoke up this year, i was a happy customer. so idk WHERE the fuck they get all these surveyed patients from. but sure as hell, no one ever asked me.

my point is, i don't believe the data collected on procedure satisfaction is AT ALL trustworthy, let alone accurate.

if there's another procedure you have a question about, i'd be happy to answer it to the best of my ability.

[genderqueerpositivity]

I've been saying this all along: they were never going to stop at banning access to trans healthcare for minors. It was never about protecting kids, it was always about laying the groundwork to take access to gender affirming care away from everyone.

I've been sitting with the knowledge for awhile now that I'm very likely to lose access to my hormone therapy in the near future, and this bill would ensure it.

This is South Carolina Senate bill 274. Filed last week, if this becomes law it would ban gender affirming care for anyone under the age of 21. The list of procedures included is extensive, including even voice surgery, liposuction, and facial feminization surgery.

The bill is worded in a way that would effectively ban access to gender affirming care with informed consent for everyone. If this bill becomes law, there will be no way to access gender affirming care in the state of South Carolina without a referral from a primary care doctor and a diagnosis of gender dysphoria from a psychiatrist.

The bill would also ban the use of public funds to pay for gender affirming care, prevent students from being taught anything that could seemingly "encourage" transitioning as a treatment for dysphoria, and would require schools to 1) out trans students to their families and 2) "encourage students who are afflicted with a gender identity condition to seek assistance from a mental health professional".

And of course, as all transphobic conservative bills would, this one would allow nonconsensual procedures performed on intersex people to continue unchecked.