#never forget the time I had an earache and a nurse asked me i was on my period and thats why I was crying

[upperranktwo]

It's 6:30 and I haven't slept at all, from what I recall, I've almost been awake for 24 hours. I can't keep doing this (have been like this for years) I need to see a doctor about my unhealthy sleeping at some point lmao (will not see a doctor)

[saccharine-suffering]

Some Whump Based On My Real Life Experiences

My favorite type of whump both to read and to write is where I can relate to the whumpee. I read sickfics when I fall ill, bone whumps when I fracture or sprain, ect.

Now, I am horrifically unlucky, and I, first hand, have experienced some very underrated pain. To add to my copious amount of injuries, I also live in the middle of a desert. So these are going to be in two categories: location-based & nonlocation-based.

Feel fee to use these for your whumpee. Take it from me, they H U R T. I can look back on them now and be like "Wow. Sucks for my poor whumpees because you best believe I will be writing this."

Location Based:

Cacti. I have a lot about cacti.

I live in one of the few places with natural growing cacti, which, I mean, cool, but they are everywhere. I have fallen into more than my fair share of cacti over the years.

I have two giant cane cholla growing in my front yard. When I was, I think about eight (8) years old, my sister and I were playing in the yard when I tripped and fell straight into one of them. I ended up breaking off a branch from the cactus and hit a tendon. I could barely move without getting spined over and over.

Under the tree in my yard, there is one powderpuff thistle, blending in perfectly with the grass. Long story short, sitting under the tree to get some fresh air and shade is not a thing at my house unless you want a thigh full of thistle.

One time I fell into a teddy-bear cholla at school. The bell rang and the nurse doesn't allow walk-ins without a note. We also weren't allowed to leave class 10 minutes before or after the bell rang. So I just had to suffer in silence.

I got bit by a bull snake. They aren't venomous, but that doesn't change the fact that there is still a scar on my Achilles to this day.

Flash Floods. These are more physcological than anything, but even so, as a young child, it was terrifying.

I've never been stung by a bee, but I have accidentally stepped on a tarantula halk wasp, which has the second most painful sting in the insect kingdom. You bet when I kept walking the thing was pissed and long story short, that was my first (but unfortunately not only) experience with paralysis.

Contaminated water. The tap water in my town is a dusty shade of gray, and I have gotten sick from drinking it. (Before anyone asks it tastes like , paper, and rocks)

Sunstroke aka the worst time to be alive as a human being. It's like having the flu, only maybe 13x worse, and it's not contagious, and you hallucinate.

Nonlocation-Based:

I have a fucked up mouth.

So, people often overlook jusst how painful a cavity is, because, you know, they get a cavity, their tooth hurts, they get it filled, they forget about it. WELL--

For a while my family did not have healthcare that covered dental work, so when I got a cavity, I just had to suffer.

I wasn't a big deal at first, but then as time progressed I began to experience the single most painful ache possible in a human being; what I like to call "The Triple Threat Sinus Ache"

Debilitating toothache mixed with a congested nose mixed with a pounding earache that leads directly to the skull equals laying in bad biting down on gauze and not being able to do anything else.

I couldn't eat, drinking was painful, sleep was only possible when I passed out, it was awful.

BUT it would make a KILLER hurt/comfort fic.

Another tooth thing: one of my baby teeth never fell out, and instead just got pusbed backwards into the roof of my mouth. Very painful on it's own, but thas not even where I was going with that story.

I had to get it removed. Surgically. So, they gave me laughing gas to numb the shot that was ment to put me under, but my body had other plans.

Anesthesia Awareness. I hadn't even realized it at the time because, laughing gas. Numbed the pain. I still felt every bit of pressure, so I thought that this was just supposed to happen. I couldn't move at all, but I assumed it was a side effect of the shot or something. No, turns out, I was ment to be fully unconscious.

Seriously, go research Anesthesia Awareness. ESPECIALLY if you like medical whump. I got lucky I was given laughing gas beforehand. Your whumpee might not be so lucky.

Cryotherapy. Basically, liquid nitrogen, q-tip, directly on my hands because of a skin malformation. Completely debilitating. Could not use my hands for days afterwards.

Dry ice burn. Pretty self explanatory. I was pretty young so I don't really remember this happening but I still have a scar on my wrist.

Panic Attacks, I've had several. The worst ones are always in public, so much so that I've blacked out before. Once again, would recommend for hurt/COMFORT.

[sardonicnihilism]

A Biography of the Woman Who Never Was

Part 4 The Adult

Chapter 8

Shannon walked hesitantly into her mother's room and sat down beside her bed. She mentally compared her to her grandmother. Her grandmother had looked like a skin suit draped across a body two sizes too small for it. Mary, on the other hand, looked liked a skeleton that was one size too big for the skin that covered it.

"She wasn't bothering you was she?" Shannon asked, glaring at Kathy through the doorway.

"No, not yet at least," Mary replied in a weak, small voice as a ghost of a smile crossed her face.

"The other night, Jerry comes into my room, crying. He has an earache. So I put a warm, damp wash cloth next to his ear, and have him lay on it, so the hot moisture can rise up into his ear. While I was doing that, I remembered how you did that with me when I had an earache. Funny how life comes full circle." Shannon's voice was low and trembled with tears as she looked down at her hands, not able to look her mother in the face.

"Yeah, it really does," Mary said with as much humor as she could muster. "You've become such a wonderful mother. I'm so proud of you."

"Maybe, but I'm a shit daughter. I should have done more. I should have signed you out every weekend to be with us. I should have visited every day, but I didn't. I left you to rot in that hell hole. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" Tears ran down Shannon's cheek as she tried to expell the guilt from her body.

"It's ok, you did the best you could. I didn't visit my grandfather when he was in the nursing home. I never visited my uncle Dick either. Our family never did do death well."

"It's not right! It's not fair! You wanted grandchildren as long as I can remember. You finally get them, and after four years, you're gone? You'll never see them grow up, graduate. They'll never get to hug you again, hear your laugh, it's not fair!"

"We're given life, not fairness. You're right, they won't see me anymore, but I'll see them in Heaven. And one day we'll all be together again up there."

Shannon felt like screaming. *No Mom, no! There's no Heaven, no soul, no afterlife! Don't you fucking get it? You're going to die, you'll cease to be, and the kids will eventually forget all about you, just the way I forget almost everything about Pappy.* But she didn't; she couldn't. What would that serve? Mary was facing her end with a grace and dignity she never could. What kind of monster would she have to be to take away the consoling fantasies of a dying woman?

"I wanted you in here, alone, because I need to talk to you."

Shannon turned her head just enough to show she was listening, but still avoiding eye contact.

"I'm gay," Mary said flatly.

Shannon whipped her head up, staring at her mother in shock and surprise.

"You remember Mrs. Frey? My best friend? She was more than my best friend, she was my lover. There was a brief time, a very brief time, when I thought about adopting you us moving in with her. We would be one happy family. Of course that would never, could never happen. Not back then, not in this area."

Shannon just looked on, stunned. "I, I, never, I never knew."

"That was the point. I did what I had to do to protect myself and you."

"I, I, don't know what to say," Shannon said as she was trying to force her brain to pull itself together. "Why now?"

"To let you know, I saw you; that I know you're like me."

Now Shannon was even more confused. Her brain was completely overloaded. Her entire thought process was collapsing in on it self. This wasn't possible. This couldn't be possible.

"That girl you used to hang out with, what's her name? Jen? You two were more than friends right? You were dating, weren't you?"

"Yes, we were," Shannon just blurted out, not even thinking.

"I thought so. I hoped and prayed you wouldn't be like me. I didn't want you to be alone like I was. I know things have changed out there, but people here still get pissy about interracial marriage and that's been legal since the sixties. If people round these parts can't cope with a man and woman of different races being together, how are they going to accept two people of the same gender being together?

"I was so happy when you met Sam, when you got married, had kids. Happy that you could fake it in a way I never could. But I also grieved for you as well because I knew you would always be living a lie."

"I don't get what you're trying to say."

"Once I'm gone, you might be tempted to come out, but you can't. You got them babies to think about. And Sam! Don't forget about him. He didn't ask for this.

"I once told you that women had a curse of blood. Yes, it's it's in the fact that we all must suffer under the lust of men, but it's more than that. Women must always be the ones to sacrifice our hopes, our dreams for the greater good. Men can't do it. Men are too violent, too selfish. It's our curse alone to bear.

"Shannon, I see you, I love you, I'm so proud to call you my daughter. Just promise me you'll do your woman's work, and put your family, your kids first."

Shannon didn't want to make that promise but how could she refuse, especially after how absent she had been over the last year?

"I promise Mom," she said in a small, defeated voice. This wasn't fair, but, like Mary said, we're given life, not fairness.

Mary continued on for another week, enough time to celebrate one last birthday. On Friday, she slipped into a coma. Sunday morning, at around 3am, Mary Margaret Brown passed away.