#medical discussion

[living-history-lesson]

Anxiety is rising... I just got an ultrasound scheduled for tomorrow to look at my lymph node that's enlarged for like a month or more. (Wanted a test sooner but doctor wanted to be careful or whatever). Anyways. I know I need a test but at the same time I'm scared to actually find out potential issues? Like most likely it may not be the only test but regardless. I know I was scared of it being something bad but I'm even more scared to hear if it is.

[farsight-the-char]

Getting blood drawn for testing did not go badly, which is good.

Now we wait for results.

[cassyapper]

so i did a little research about how jotaro's injury at the end of stone ocean would impact him if he had survived, cause while cutting through all that thick bone with just a butcher's knife wouldnt lead to much cutting of the brain even with pucci's speed, it would still cut a Little. and that's the frontal lobe dude. so it Would impact him. so i did some minor research and this is what i got

i think his memory is fine cause that involves processes further back in the brain, however i think he has difficulty with fine motor function (has trouble holding things, definitely can't write with a pen anymore or use silverware the same, it's hard for him to shave, etc) afterward and his expressions become even flatter than they were before. ironically however, since this is the right frontal lobe, he'd get a bit wordier, so that part evens out (ie he loses some of his nonverbal communication but he becomes a bit more verbally communicative so)

however he has a lot of difficulty with spatial awareness afterwards, not even just cause of his eye making him lose depth perception, but cause the frontal lobe deals with stuff like that. so i can see him get a cane to help him with balance and to help him. for example he can tap forward to double check his estimation of a distance is actually the same distance in reality

but yeah since it's not very deep i dont think he undergoes much personality change. he gets a bit wordier and a little more prone to mania rather than depression than before but that's about it i think

[bonefall]

I mean fermented doesnt necessarily mean alcoholic - after all kimchi is made with fermented cabage and bread is fermented too. So is yogurt and a ton of other things we eat. Theres even some meats that are fermented for dishes too.

This is very true! And I did look into a couple of other things that are fermented-- but the problem with cats having anything fermented at all is yeast.

(CW: I talk about yeast, fermentation, alcohol, and the horrors of what yeast can do to a cat's belly. Skip this one if medical discussion of a cat in pain upsets you!)

In fact it's good you mentioned bread, because I was just looking at different types of unleavened bread exactly for this reason. If a cat eats raw dough, yeast can actually ferment in their stomach! This does exactly what you think it would, it turns their body into a chemical nightmare, distending their belly and causing alcohol poisoning

(doing research for these projects is like taking a class on how DURABLE human being are, it's insane! This isn't even unique to cats! Pure carnivores are so fragile!)

The baking process would kill all the yeast inside of the bread, but I decided that I would just not work with it. Unleavened bread and alternate rising agents are cool so I decided to explore those instead. I even found this one really interesting tidbit about how apparently bannock from Britain and bannock from American Indigenous people in America may have evolved independently, down to the linguistic roots being different.

BUT ANYWAY back to yeast

So when I was looking at fermented products, I was looking for things where there isn't yeast present, but also checked off my other rules; namely, that Clan cats are obligate carnivores.

-Kimchi is fermented vegetables, a lot of work for a Warrior to get no nutritional value. Not to mention that without pepper, garlic, and fish sauce it's just... sad cabbage. (also go watch this cool video I found about one of the last traditional onggi pot makers left in Korea because this is actually a very beautiful craft and my life has been enriched by seeing how much care goes into this process)

-This also eliminates sauerkraut, which is a more region-friendly take on fermented cabbage. No nutritional value to the cats.

-Miso can be made from barley but it requires a region-unfriendly type of fungus (Re: The reason I usually start with British tech and work backwards, another example of this principle in action)

-Yogurt and Cheese are dairy products. Warriors are lactose intolerant to begin with, but also don't have an animal they can milk on a regular basis. I don't think a nearby sheep or cow would stay still long enough for a warrior to sit and milk them

What I DID find that we could make, though?

-Vinegar. As long as it's used sparingly and diluted, it can be used as a basis for other recipes including Worcestershire sauce. Though from what I read, cat aversion to the smell of vinegar is legendary.

But I will rule vinegar-based sauces under the 'Stronger Stomachs' exception.

In addition, vinegar is an EXCELLENT cleaning product and something I can keep in mind as an excellent antibiotic next to honey.

-Hard sausage. Pepperoni, chorizo, salami... aside from finagling with the spices I have access to, hard sausage is totally within my reach and sounds like a perfect ShadowClan recipe.

-Something that breaks down poison. I'm willing to be a little bit flippant about the biology of one type of insect or animal to make a Warrior Cat version of hakarl, specifically because I want to show off ShadowClan's crafty food culture and how good they are at creative problem solving.

This one will be in addition to "slug-purging", because I learned some really neat stuff about how to make wild gastropods safe to eat and it'll be a really really cool thing to include in a "How ShadowClan can eat things other Clans can't" type entry

Come to think of it, fermentation would definitely be a very ShadowClan-based activity...

And lastly,

Alcohol

It just feels... wrong to me that there would be a culture of sapient cats who don't use any alcohol at all. Getting tweaked on purpose is practically the mark of a species' intelligence. Dolphins, elephants, monkeys, crows... all recorded finding ways to turn their terrible brains off.

So I do want to make an entry on alcoholic fermentation too, it's just like I said though, it'll take a while to get to because I have dumb math brain and a To-Do list.

But for right now, I've got another ask to answer that will give you a good "basic" alcohol for your cats if you so choose

[remythelad]

So I am one day on T now and lemme tell you about it! Im going to go through my whole expirence!

I live in the US where there is informed consent and I was able to pay for everything out of pocket due to me saving money for this all and having personal issues where I am not going to use my health insurance.

So this morning I had an appointment with a Nurse Practitioner from Planned Parenthood. It was a virtual visit where we just talked and I used my phone. She asked me about my sexual history, asked me to describe my experience, walked me through the process and gave me some resources. She talked about the changes I might expirence on T and since I did a lot of research over the years I was able to just nod, awnser questions and the whole appointent took 25 minutes. She prescribed me testosterone and sent me to get bloodwork done before I started T.

I drove and got my bloodwork done which was very easy, they just needed one vial of blood which is a lot less than the blood work I have needed in the past.

Once that was done I went to the pharmacy and I had to wait while they finished up my acript. It was pretty easy and I pulled up a GoodRx coupon which made the testosterone cost go down to 27 dollars. Note that you will have to pay for needles, syringes, bandages, shraps disposal bin and alcohol swabs. I got more than enough supplies for months and I got one month’s supply of testosterone. The total cost of everything was 63 dollars. Here a breakdown of that all

13 dollars for syringe disposal

7 dollars for alcohol prep pads

6 dollars for needles

6 dollars for syringes

Then another few dollars for bandaids

I have more than enough of those supplies to last me a long while but if you are first starting T injections make sure to factor those into costs and talk with your pharmacy. I only need one syringe a week and I was give fifteen I think, so lots to last me and 100 alcohol swabs and plenty of bandaids. This should last you a while so the cost goes down once you have the supplies.

I am still waiting for the bill for my blood work but it should be less than 40 dollars

I prepaid for my doctors appointment and it was 115 dollars and my follow ups will be 70 dollars

Usually there is not a follow up appointment until three months have passed at which point I will have to get bloodwork done after that appointment as well.

Now onto actually injecting T! I looked up some youtube tutorials from actual hospitals and was able to find a few good ones! Something of note is how I was given two different needles, one already on the syringe. I used that one to draw testosterone into the needle and then swapped them and used the next needle to actually inject my testosterone. It was fairly easy once I got over the nerves and now I have my lil frog bandaid on! I put all of my needles into my sharps bin and put away the rest of my testosterone vial in a safe place for now and put away all of my needles and syringes as well as my bandaids. It helps to get everything you will need out onto your table before you get working on injecting. I was a lil clumsy with a needle but felt more comfortable at the end. My thigh, I chose to get the kind that I could inject in my muscle is a bit sore now and it hurts a bit but actual injection was extremly easy.

It took less than one week from scheduling my appointment to the first injection. If you are in the United States and are in a position where ypu will be safe, I cannot reccomend planned parenthood more. Everyone I spoke with two was extremly nice and it was easy and simple. It was honestly the best medical experience I’ve ever had and thats coming from a disabled guy.

Overall easy, not as expensive as I had planned for and for the next few months it will be the same 27 a month which is less than a seperate prescription that I already pay for. I will probably talk about it more but I think there needs to be more things outlining the whole expirence!

This is not medical advice at all but just me sharing my experience in hopes that it will help someone else.

The most important thing that I found is how nice everyone is. I had a lot of questions for the pharmacy and they were so kind in explaining for me. My doctor was fantastic and I am telling you that I cried from joy on my drive home from the pharmacy. Trans joy is real and today I felt it as I took my life into my own hands and became a man.

[menthol-drops]

about your post about menstruation and testing- your uterus is not just for menstruation, it also regulates hormones, supports your pelvic floor, etc. it's not something that can just be taken out like a mr. potato head doll it's a very invasive surgery that also puts you at higher risk for certain cancers if i'm not mistaken

best wishes

Aw hey, thank you! Yeah, one of the unfortunate aspects of having a body is that things tend to have more than one function.

I have a few medical issues involving my reproductive system, hence the need for testing. i just don’t go into a lot of detail about it online usually, and I won’t go into further detail but i am under the care of an endocrinologist for both my transition and some of these issues, and am looking for a new OB/GYN due to changes in my medical network (fucking American insurance hellscape).

Also! Fun fact, you can have a partial hysterectomy done (take out the uterus, leave the ovaries), or tubal ligation which would reduce the need for supporting hormonal replacement but that’s something that’ll be discussed with the doc as far as what the best option would be given that i am trans and my hormonal goals/balance are different from a cisgender (or healthy) person’s. Personally i would prefer to have a full hysterectomy given my conditions but realistically i know that my doctor may recommend something different.

I have done research into this and discussed with my current and previous medical team, which is why we are at this point :) I appreciate the concern tho!

[metalheadsforblacklivesmatter]

Using terms like "mutilation" for gender affirming surgery is really weird to me. Because like...

Tw for gross medical discussion.

I had a friend that had a double mastectomy due to breast cancer. For some reason it didn't show up on scans well so the doctors were not mentally prepared for how bad it was when they went in. And like looking back after the surgery they can kind of see it on the scans, but before they legitimately couldn't. It's one of those "when you see it" type of things.

So what was supposed to be a one to two hour surgery ended up as an all day surgery. And when the doctor came out to tell us how she was doing. It was graphic. It was gross. It was disgusting.

Are we gonna say her double mastectomy is less valid because they had to scrape cancerous tissue off the skin?

Using gross words to describe gender affirming surgery doesn't make the gender affirming surgery less valid. Surgery is just gross.

-fae

"When people talk about gender-affirming surgery using words like “mutilation,” that's not very nice. Is that how you think about people who've had surgery for other things? It's a disgust reaction, and I do not take disgust into account as a legitimate point of discourse. I don't have to entertain it and I'm not going to. It's a waste of everybody's time, it's knee-jerk, it's not grounded in reality, and it's not useful. And it's a squeamishness about medical intervention. I think the idea of making legislative or cultural decisions in and around [that] is laughable. Your squeamishness is not what the world turns on; it doesn't matter."

Liv Hewson in Teen Vogue (italics added by me for emphasis)

[rivetgoth]

It's honestly crazy that discussion around testosterone HRT skews so much towards the beginning stages of it (to the point that you have dozens of guys thinking their transition is "failed" if they don't pass by like a year in lol) and what the initial changes of the first couple of months to years look like, like the classic laundry list of those early basic changes like bottom growth, voice drop, etc, when IMO literally none of that compares remotely to the depth and intensity of the long term total masculinization you start to experience like 3-5+ years in.

[tabletop-hotdish]

now that I finally have a week that (currently) doesn't have any doctor's appointments for the first time since February, I've been taking inventory of all the different things I had to tackle. there are physical, mental, and emotional things that, individually, are asking for more than I've got. one of the biggest things is starting to talk to my therapist about maybe being autistic. there's too much baggage to unpack on that right now, but the one thing I have for sure learned is...

I know way too much about autism to take any of the do-you-have-autism tests and getting a genuine result. but, as it turns out, feeling more worried about answering the questions "right" than truthfully feels like a pretty clear answer

[abitofencouragement]

I had an appointment with a podiatrist today to talk about my foot pain. She mentioned that the floors in our new house might be if not causing then at lease exacerbating the problems.

I told my husband this, later, and he said, "Do we need to replace the floors?"

I just... I don't even... How did I deserve this person in my life? What is this kind of love?

[hiddentreehouse]

unless you've literally been poisoned, just avoid the charcoal.

i know vitamin c basically neutralizes adhd meds but lemonade good

[parisoonic]

TRICK OR TREAT

+ worthers orginals!

[inkskinned]

you have to go to work so you can pay for your doctor, who is not taking your insurance right now, and if you say i can't afford the doctor's you are told - get a better job. it is very sad that you are unwell, yes, but maybe you should have thought about that before not having a better job.

(where is the better job? who is giving out these better jobs? you are sick, you are hurting - how the hell are you supposed to be well enough for this better job?)

but you go to the doctor because you had the nerve to be hurt or sick or whatever else. and they tell you that it is because you have anxiety. you try your best. you are a self-advocate. you've done the reading (which sometimes pisses them off worse, honestly). you say it is actually adding to my anxiety, it is effecting my quality of life. so they say that you are fat. they say that all young people have this happen to them, isn't it a medical marvel! they say that you should eat more vegetables. they say that you probably just need to lose a little more weight, and that you are faking it for attention.

(what attention could this doctor possibly give? what validation? that's their fucking job, isn't it?)

there is always a hypochondriac, right. someone always tells you about a hypochondriac. or someone who is unnecessarily aggressive during the worst days of their life. or someone looking "for a quick fix". or some idiot who wasn't educated about how to properly care for themselves who just abandons their treatment. and again, the hypochondriac, the overly-cautious hysteric. these people don't deserve to be treated like humans (right), and since you might be one of these people, you also don't get treated like a human. because those people can really fuck with the system, you now have to pay for it. and besides. you're actually probably faking it.

(more often than not, you find a 2:1 ratio of these stories. for every "hypochondriac", there are 2 people who knew something was wrong, and yet nobody could fucking find it. the story often ends with pointless suffering. the story often ends with and now it's too late, and it's going to kill me.)

you are actually just making excuses. someone else got that procedure or that diagnosis and he's fine, you should be fine too. someone else said they watched a documentary about other inspirational people with your exact same condition, maybe you should be inspirational, too. you're just too morbid. your pain and your experience is probably just not statistically concerning. it is all self-reported anyway, and you're just being a baby.

(once, while sitting down in the middle of making coffee, you had the sudden, horrible thought - i could kill myself to make the pain stop. you had to call your best friend after that. had to pet your dog. had to cry about it in the shower. you won't, but that moment - god, fuck. the pain just goes on and on.)

you know someone who went in for routine surgery and said i still feel everything. they told her to just relax. it took her kicking and screaming before they figured out she wasn't lying - the anesthetic drip hadn't been working. you know someone who went in for severe migraines who was told drink water and lose weight. you know someone who was actively bleeding out and throwing up in the ER and was told you're just having a bad period.

in the ER there are always these little posters saying things like "don't wait! get checked today!" and you think about how often you do wait. how often the days spool out. you once waited a full week before seeing the doctor for what you thought was a sprained wrist. it had actually been broken - they had to rebreak it to set it.

but you go into the doctor. the problem you're having is immediate. the person behind the counter frowns and says we're not taking your insurance. you will be paying for this out-of-pocket.

they send you home with tylenol and a little health packet about weight loss or anxiety or attention deficit. on the front it has your birthday and diagnosis. you think about crying, and the words swim. it might as well say go fuck yourself. it might as well say you're a fucking idiot. it might as well say light your money on fire and lie down in it. and the entire fucking time - the problem persists.

it's okay. it's okay, it's just another thing, you think. it's just another thing i have to learn to live with.

[gophergal]

You get wrecked by a Heavy+Medic duo and see one of these taunts before you respawn. How do you react?

(aka: @cursed--alien and I were bullshitting about potential taunts that would kill homophobic gamer boys on sight and these shitty doodles are the result)

[spindrifters]

among other things, the wga strike is a shatterpoint moment in deciding how much of a critical profession within an industry can be reduced to a poverty wage gig economy while ai takes over

if you think this doesn't affect your job somewhere down the line, reconsider that thought

[cartoonguy08]

I recently was looking at the TF2 sketches by someone who officially worked on a comic, and remembered that Medic has a wife lol

I got some headcannons, if anybody wants to read em 👍

- I think I interpret Medic and Makani (his wife) as like almost an open relationship? I consider it that because of this:

And this:

And that:

Need I say more?

- I think they love each other. They obviously do, there’s multiple sketches of them just being together and also are quite happy around each other (one of them has Makani kissing Medic’s cheek). But it also makes me wonder if it’s just platonic? (Stick with me 🙌) They could be married but not really like each other romantically (you know how some people marry cuz they’re closeted? I don’t wanna go there but that could be a possibility). But for now I’m just gonna go with that they do love each other. Besides these are really sweet:

That was me just thinking tho, I don’t think I’m gonna believe they only love each other platonically but there is always the case. 🤷‍♂️

- Um, Medic may or may not be bisexual (he is)

And if I COULD FIND THAT ONE PHOTO OF HEAVY AND MEDIC IN THE SHOWER ROOM TOGETHER I WOULD BUT I CANT FIND IT FOR THE LIFE OF ME- I would put it in here to prove my point but my ass can’t find it. If someone knows the photo I’m talking about please send it to me 💀🙏

- Oh and Makani is a doctor too! Or nurse, which ever, but man this is cool

My guess is that she COULD have worked with Medic if she wanted to, but since Valve hasn’t really said much about her I guess not? Not too sure, but I think it’s cool to headcannon that she visits Medic’s work sometimes. Just to say hi maybe.

- They live together, but Medic’s probably at work all the time so she can’t really see him much (which is why she sometimes visits).

Okay, I think to tie this all up on gonna actually tell my ships cuz I have a few:

BLU Soldier X RED Demoman

Scout X Miss Pauling (drawing this lovely woman soon 😌)

RED Soldier X Zahnna

Spy x Scout’s mom (RIP Scout’s dignity 😔🙏)

Heavy X Medic

And because Medic has a wife, Medic X Makani. The way I’m going to interpret it though is Medic is married, but it’s an open relationship, and both agree on it. Does that make sense? Hope it does

This entire post was just me yapping about how Medic is married but is very open with the fact he’s gay for Heavy lol, sorry if people get mad about this. 🙏