#spleen diseases and symptoms

[kaizenhospitals]

Exploring Effective Treatments for Spleen Diseases

Discover comprehensive approaches and innovative therapies for managing various spleen diseases. From conventional medical interventions to emerging treatments, learn about options to improve patient outcomes and enhance quality of life. Explore the evolving landscape of spleen disease treatment strategies and their potential impact on patient care and well-being.

[cripplecharacters]

Disabilities that You Should Consider Representing in Your Writing More… part 1

[large text: Disabilities that You Should Consider Representing in Your Writing More… part 1]

While all disabilities are underrepresented in basically all sorts of media, it’s hard to not notice the trend in what disabilities make up the majority of representation. It’s especially visible when having a blog like this, where we can see what disabilities writers even consider including in their writing, and which ones never come up.

One in four people are disabled. With eight billion people alive it means there’s a lot of disabled people, and a lot of reasons why they are disabled in the first place - but this diversity is rarely represented, even on this blog, and anyone who has been following for a while has probably noticed that fact.

To be blunt: there are disabilities other than “amputee” and “(otherwise invisibly disabled) mobility aid user”. Does that mean that it’s wrong to write either of those? Of course not, and we don’t want to imply that it is. Does it mean that either of these have a ton of good representation? Hell no. Does it mean that when you are deciding on what to give your character, you should think beyond (or along! people can be multiply disabled!) just those two? Absolutely. Disability is a spectrum with thousands of things in it - don’t limit yourself for no reason and embrace the diversity that’s built into it instead. 

This is, simply, a list of common disabilities. This is just a few of them, as this is part one of presumably many (or, at least three as of right now). By “common” we rather arbitrarily decided on “~1% or more” - so at least 1 in 100 people has the disabilities below, which is a lot. Featuring!: links that you should click, sources of the % that are mostly just medical reports and might be hard to read, and quick, very non-exhaustive explanations to give you a basic idea of what these are. 

Intellectual disability (about 1.5%) Intellectual disability is a condition we have written about at length before. It’s a developmental disability that affects things such as conceptualization, language, problem-solving, or social and self-care skills. ID can exist on its own or be a part of another condition, like Down Syndrome, Congenital Iodine Deficiency, or Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders. This post covers a lot of basic information that you might need. We have an intellectual disability tag that you can look through!

Cancer survivors (5.4% in the US, about 0.55% worldwide) A cancer survivor is a pretty self-explanatory term. There is a lot of types of cancer and some of them are very common while others are very rare, which makes this a very diverse category. Cancers also have different survival rates. While not every survivor will have disabling symptoms, they definitely happen. Most of the long-term side effects are related to chemotherapy, radiation, and other medication, especially if they happened in children. They can include all sorts of organ damage, osteoporosis, cognitive problems, sensory disabilities, infertility, and increased rate of other cancers. Other effects include removal of the affected area, such as an eye, a spleen, breasts, or the thyroid gland, each of which will have different outcomes. Cancer, and cancer treatments, can also result in PTSD.

Diabetes (about 8.5%, ~95% of that are type 2) Diabetes is a group of endocrine conditions that cause hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) for various reasons depending on the type. The vast majority of people have type 2 diabetes, which can cause fatigue, poor healing, or feeling thirsty or hungry. A diabetic person will use insulin when needed to help manage their blood sugar levels. There are many complications related to diabetes, from neuropathy, to retinopathy, and chronic kidney disease, and there's a lot of disabilities that coexist with diabetes in general! You might want to check out the #how to write type 1 diabetes tag by @type1diabetesinfandom!

Disabling vision loss (about 7.5%) Blindness and low vision are a spectrum, ranging from total blindness (around 10% of legally blind people) to mild visual impairment. Blindness can be caused by countless things, but cataracts, refractive errors, and glaucoma are the most common. While cataracts cause the person to have a clouded pupil (not the whole eye!) blind eyes usually look average, with strabismus or nystagmus being exceptions to that fairly often (but not always). Trauma isn't a common cause of blindness, and accidents are overrepresented in fiction. A blind person can use a white cane, a guide dog or horse, or both. Assistive solutions are important here, such as Braille, screenreaders, or magnifying glasses. We have a blindness tag that you can look through, and you might want to check out @blindbeta and @mimzy-writing-online.

Psoriasis (about 2-4%) Psoriasis is a chronic skin condition with multiple subtypes; it can cause intense itching, pain, and general discomfort, and often carries social stigma. It’s an autoimmune and non-contagious disability that affects the skin cells, resulting in raised patches of flaky skin covered with scales. It often (30%) leads to a related condition, psoriatic arthritis, which causes joint pain, tenderness, and fatigue, among other things.

Stroke survivors (0.5-1%) A stroke survivor is a person who has survived any kind of stroke (ischemic, hemorrhagic, etc.). While the specific symptoms often depend on the exact location on where the stroke happened, signs such as hemiplegia, slurred speech, vision problems, and cognitive changes are common in most survivors to some degree. When someone has a stroke as a baby, or before they are born, it can result in cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and other disabilities. We have a brain injury tag that you can look through!

Noonan Syndrome (about 0.1-1% - mild is 1%, severe 0.1%) Noonan Syndrome is a disability that is almost never mentioned in any context, but certainly not around the topic of writing disabled characters. It’s a congenital condition that can cause cardiomyopathy, chronic joint pain, hypermobility, short stature, facial differences such as ptosis, autism, and various lymphatic problems among other things. Some people with Noonan Syndrome might use mobility aids to help with their joint pain.

Hyperthyroidism (about 1.2%) Hyperthyroidism is a condition of the endocrine system caused by hormone overproduction that affects metabolism. It often results in irritability, weight loss, heat intolerance, tremors, mood swings, or insomnia. Undertreated hyperthyroidism has a rare, but extremely dangerous side effect associated with it called a thyroid storm, which can be fatal if untreated.

Hypothyroidism (>5%) Hypothyroidism is an endocrine condition just as hyperthyroidism is, and it causes somewhat opposite symptoms. Due to not producing enough thyroid hormones, it often causes fatigue, depression, hair loss, weight gain, and a frequent feeling of being cold. It’s often comorbid with other autoimmune disabilities, e.g. vitiligo, chronic autoimmune gastritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. Extreme hypothyroidism can also be potentially fatal because of a condition known as Myxedema coma (or “crisis”), which is also rare.

Deafblindness (about 0.2-2%) Being DeafBlind is often considered to be an extremely rare disability, but that’s not really the case. DeafBlindness on its own isn’t a diagnosis - it can be caused by a wide range of things, with CHARGE syndrome (congenital), Usher syndrome (born deaf, becomes blind later in life), congenital rubella, and age-related deafness and blindness being some of the most common reasons. DeafBlindness is a wide spectrum, the vast majority of DeafBlind people aren’t fully blind and deaf, and they can use various ways of communication. Some of these could be sign language (tactile or not), protactile, the deafblind manual, oral speech (aided by hearing aids or not), the Lorm alphabet, and more. You can learn more about assistive devices here! Despite what various media like to tell you, being DeafBlind isn’t a death sentence, and the DeafBlind community and culture are alive and thriving - especially since the start of the protactile movement. We have a DeafBlindness tag that you can look through!

It’s probably worth mentioning that we have received little to no asks in general for almost all the disabilities above, and it’s certainly not due to what mods answer for. Our best guess is that writers don’t realize how many options they have and just end up going for the same things over and over.

Only representing “cool” disabilities that are “not too much while having a particular look/aura/drama associated” isn’t what you should aim for. Disabled people just exist, and all of us deserve to be represented, including those whose disabilities aren’t your typical “cool design” or “character inspo”. Sometimes we are just regular people, with disabilities that are “boring” or “too much”, and don’t make for useful plot points.

mod Sasza (with huge thank yous to mod Sparrow, Rot, and Virus for their contributions with research and data!)

[justkidneying]

Why the Spleen Sucks

The spleen is a really shittily placed organ, making it prone to injury. This injury is usually severe and can lead to death if not properly managed. We're going to look at the function of the spleen, what happens when it is damaged, and how to write about.

Where is the spleen? It's in the upper left quadrant of the abdominal cavity, nestled right against the ribs (typically 9-11) at the midaxillary line. It's behind the stomach and is considered intraperitoneal. The main thing is that the spleen is very vulnerable. It is literally right up against the ribs without much protecting it. It's shaped like a little bean and is purple in humans. It is fed by the splenic artery, which comes off of the celiac trunk (which sticks off of the abdominal aorta).

What does the spleen do? Its main job is to filter out old and malformed red blood cells. It also holds immune cells. Certain diseases can cause the spleen to enlarge, including cirrhosis of the liver (it's connected to the hepatic portal system), sickle cell anemia (RBCs are stuck in it), and autoimmune disorders. The spleen also holds about 250 mL of RBCs in reserve in case you need them.

What happens when it is injured? The spleen can be ruptured and lacerated kinda easily. Blunt trauma to the ribs can cause it to rupture, and this is seen in contact sports and car accidents mostly. Because of those giant gaps between the ribs, it's also prone to injury from knife attacks. Gunshot wounds are another common cause, as well as broken ribs penetrating it (broken ribs are very sharp, like way sharper than you imagine). Rupture is more likely when someone has splenomegaly.

When the spleen is damaged, you're going to get a lot of intraperitoneal hemorrhaging. The spleen filters a lot of blood and has blood in it, so there's going to be a lot of blood in the abdomen (obviously). This will lead to distention, guarding (abs are tense), and hypovolemia. The left upper quadrant will be painful, and there can also be referred pain to the left shoulder (Kehr's sign).

If the patient has a small laceration, the symptoms aren't always as dramatic. Sometimes they'll just have low hemoglobin (which is on RBCs), maybe some thrombocytopenia (lots of platelets in the blood).

How do you fix this? If the injury is small and the patient is hemodynamically stable, they can usually be given a blood transfusion and the spleen can heal itself. Sometimes surgery is also performed to clamp a vessel or repair the outer layer of the spleen.

If the injury is major, then surgery will be performed. If the patient is less critical, they may go in and try to fix the problem. If it can't be fixed, they may do a splenectomy (remove the spleen). In a critical patient, they might forgo the nice pretty incision on the left side, and instead just split the patient down the middle. In these situations (in my experience), there isn't a lot of time to waste. One thing that we aren't going to waste time on is anesthesia, for example. This is with a lot of very critical surgeries, at least from what I have seen. Like the surgeon will start cutting as they are working on knocking out the patient, but usually they are in so much pain that they don't even register it.

If you remove the spleen, the patient is more at risk for infections, but with modern medicine and vaccinations, it's not as much of a big deal as it used to be. The patient will probably be fine.

Writing tips: (new section idea, hope you guys like it, lol) As with any injury, you have to make sure that you are giving them an acceptable mechanism of injury. With the spleen, this is either blunt trauma or penetration/laceration. Getting tackled, getting stabbed, getting shot, all great MOIs.

Second thing, present the appropriate signs and symptoms. A sign would be like bruising, hypotension, tachycardia, etc. A symptom would be LUQ pain, Kehr's sign, etc.

Next, figure out what you're going to do and where you're going to do it. In the field, there probably isn't much you can do. The most would probably be a laparotomy and clamping the splenic artery, but I mean, when I was an EMT, we were not doing this. There's a lot of stuff you can theoretically do, but never gets done. But I mean you can write it. If the patient makes it to the hospital, I think it would be more fun to do emergency surgery and just split them right down the middle. There's going to be a lot of blood in the greater omentum, very high stakes and exciting.

Anyways, hope you guys liked this, please let me know if I got anything wrong. I wrote this off of my personal experience and a few good textbooks, but there can always been mistakes in things.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Plague

Plague - a serious, potentially life-threatening infectious disease that is usually transmitted to humans by the bites of rodent fleas. It was one of the scourges of early human history.

Endemic—A disease that occurs naturally in a geographic area/population group.

Epidemic—A disease that occurs throughout part of the population of a country.

Pandemic—A disease that occurs throughout a regional group, the population of a country, or the world.

There are 3 major forms of the disease: bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic.

Bubonic Plague

Two to five days after infection, patients experience:

A sudden fever

Chills

Seizures

Severe headaches

Followed by the appearance of swellings or "buboes" in armpits, groin, and neck

The most commonly affected sites are the lymph glands near the site of the first infection.

As the bacteria multiply in the glands, the lymph node becomes swollen.

As the nodes collect fluid, they become extremely tender.

Occasionally, the bacteria will cause an ulcer at the point of the first infection.

Buboes—Smooth, oval, reddened, and very painful swellings in the armpits, groin, or neck that occur as a result of infection with the plague.

Septicemic Plague

Bacteria that invade the bloodstream directly (without involving the lymph nodes) cause septicemic plague. (Bubonic plague also can progress to septicemic plague if not treated appropriately.)

Does not involve the lymph glands is particularly dangerous because it can be hard to diagnose the disease.

The bacteria usually spread to other sites, including the liver, kidneys, spleen, lungs, and sometimes the eyes, or the lining of the brain.

Symptoms include:

Fever

Chills

Prostration

Abdominal pain

Shock

Bleeding into the skin and organs

Septicemia—The medical term for blood poisoning, in which bacteria have invaded the bloodstream and circulates throughout the body.

Pneumonic Plague

May occur as a direct infection (primary) or as a result of untreated bubonic or septicemic plague (secondary).

Primary pneumonic plague is caused by inhaling infective drops from another person or animal with pneumonic plague.

Symptoms, which appear within 1-3 days after infection, include:

A severe, overwhelming pneumonia

Shortness of breath

High fever

Blood in the phlegm

If untreated, half the patients will die.

If blood poisoning occurs as an early complication, patients may die even before the buboes appear.

Life-threatening Complications of Plague include:

Shock

High fever

Problems with blood clotting

Convulsions

Bioterrorism—Use of disease agents to terrorize/intimidate a civilian population.

Treatment

As soon as plague is suspected, the patient should be isolated, and local and state departments notified.

Drug treatment reduces the risk of death to less than 5%.

The preferred treatment is streptomycin administered as soon as possible.

Alternatives include gentamicin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, or trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole.

Prevention

Anyone who has come in contact with a plague pneumonia victim should be given antibiotics, since untreated pneumonic plague patients can pass on their illness to close contacts throughout the course of the illness.

All plague patients should be isolated for 48 hours after antibiotic treatment begins. Pneumonic plague patients should be completely isolated until sputum cultures show no sign of infection.

Residents of areas where plague is found should keep rodents out of their homes.

Anyone working in a rodent-infested area should wear insect repellent on skin and clothing.

Pets can be treated with insecticidal dust and kept indoors.

Handling sick or dead animals (especially rodents and cats) should be avoided.

Vaccines

Plague vaccines have been used with varying effectiveness since the late 19th century.

Experts believe that vaccination lowers the chance of infection and the severity of the disease. However, the effectiveness of the vaccine against pneumonic plague is not clearly known.

Vaccinations against plague are not required to enter any country.

Because immunization requires multiple doses over a 6–10 month period, plague vaccine is not recommended for quick protection during outbreaks.

Moreover, its unpleasant side effects make it a poor choice unless there is a substantial long-term risk of infection.

The safety of the vaccine for those under age 18 has not been established.

Pregnant women should not be vaccinated unless the need for protection is greater than the risk to the unborn child.

Even those who receive the vaccine may not be completely protected.

The inadequacy of the vaccines available as of 2014 explains why it is important to protect against rodents, fleas, and people with plague.

A team of researchers in the UK reported in the summer of 2004 that an injected subunit vaccine is likely to offer the best protection against both bubonic and pneumonic forms of plague.

Source ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References ⚜ Virus & Vaccine

[bogleech]

Ive always really admired your ability to draw just like super grotesque shit and I was wondering if you had any tips? grotesque not that its like "oh thats a spleen guy gross" but more the amount of pain and tension at the coffee shop, or any of the mortasheen creatures that involve maggots and moisture. I have tried several times to draw things that are rotting, or lumpy, or suffering, etc, and I can never finish those pieces.

If you mean it's just arduous designwise, I start with a huge canvas size (like 3000 pixels across), sketch it all out within that size and then zoom way in to draw little details with a normal size pen, or lately the "hard-edged" pixel pen so even the tiniest lines are fairly sharp. White highlights (even simple little white dots) make things look very moist and a dark blot of blurred colors, underneath the lineart and white highlight layers, can make them look translucent, here's what those quick steps do to a simple doodle of a slime:

Additional wrinkle lines and simple messy speckles make a design look even more detailed and grungy. As an aside, these little details look best when they're clustering near solid lines and leaving some open space towards the center:

If you mean how I can just "stomach" it though, I guess I just don't draw any gore or grime that really bothers me! Even when I drew Awful Hospital creatures based on revolting disease symptoms that I can't stand looking at in real life, it wasn't a problem because it was just natural to those creatures. A human eating a rotten smelly corpse would be horribly unpleasant but the video of the hyena rolling around in a maggoty wildebeest guts is cute because that's healthy normal hyena behavior. I do have a hard time allowing a creature to "suffer" even fictionally, and all my monsters end up being basically happy the way they are unless it's just a really crucial plot point that they aren't.

virtually everything in mortasheen likes being whatever it is (you can also see that this design just has the same couple things applied as the slime doodle but with a couple more layers of shading)

[shiftchii]

My Quirk in my MHA DR !

Blood Manipulation / Hemokinesis

Type: Emitter

Intended Use: Combat

Range: Close to Medium

tl;dr: My Quirk lets me control blood, primarily my own but with limitations on others'. I can adjust its density, making it fluid like water or solid like metal, and alter its temperature or state—turning it into mist, ice, or boiling liquid. I can shape it into whips, weapons, barriers, or waves. Increasing my blood pressure boosts my strength and speed. For external use, I need a wound but can reabsorb the blood. I can control others' blood by touch (up to a liter), but consuming it lets me manipulate it remotely in larger amounts. I mostly use it for clotting and healing, and I can survive extreme blood loss.

Manifestation Age: 3

Quirk Heritage: A combination of my mother’s and father’s Quirks

Invisible Alterations: I have a specialized organ called the Hemovault, located near my liver and spleen. It acts as a reservoir for storing and rapidly producing blood, allowing me to maintain a higher blood volume than normal without suffering the typical effects of blood loss. The Hemovault can quickly replenish my supply, letting me use my Quirk extensively without risking severe anemia or exhaustion right away. However, overuse can still deplete it, and I’ll need time to rest and regenerate afterward.

Visible Alterations: I have prominent, vampire-like fangs, like everyone with a blood Quirk.

In-Depth Mechanics

To use my blood externally, I must inflict a wound to access it.

Basic Control: I can control by blood similar to waterbending. I can use it like whips, shape it onto tendrils, sharp spikes, etc. I often use it to swing around or wrap people up.

Density Adjustment: I can adjust the density of my blood. I can form solid weapons or barriers as hard as metal and turn them back into liquid instantly.

Temperature and State Change: I can alter the temperature and state of my blood, turning it into boiling liquid, freezing it into solid ice-like forms, or even transforming it into mist.

Speed Enhancement: By increasing my blood flow, I can temporarily boost my physical strength and speed.

Blood Reabsorption and Detoxification: I can reabsorb the blood through an open wound to minimize waste and expedite recovery, while also purifying the blood in the process.

Controlling the blood of others: I can manipulate the blood of others only when in physical contact with them. I can control up to approximately 1 liter of blood from a single person at a time. However, if I consume their blood I can control it remotely and in larger amounts and a few people at a time, though this requires great focus.

Blood Sensing: I have something like a 6th sense. I can detect the presence of blood and its flow speed within around a 50-meter radius, even through obstacles. I also can detect the smell of blood better than an average human.

Coagulation/Clotting: I can rapidly clot blood to close wounds, both on myself and others. Conversely, I can also un-clot or reopen wounds as needed, to regain access to my blood.

Drawbacks

Overusing my Quirk causes significant physical strain, resulting in symptoms such as bleeding from my eyes, nose, and mouth. It also makes me anemic, this means I will become fatigued, dizzy and weak. I can also get heart palpitations, cold hands and short breaths.

Side Effects

Due to my Quirk's nature, I have a heightened resistance to bloodborne diseases and toxins. My Quirk makes me naturally not grossed out by blood and gore.

© credits: some dividers

[tarotfairy0919]

✧—⊹ ˖🥟⊹ ˖—✧Health meanings in tarot - Major Arcana edition✧—⊹ ˖🥟⊹ ˖—✧

©tarotfairy0919 - all rights reserved. do not copy, translate, alter or repost my work.

Please REBLOG if you find this information useful! ༄˖°🪐.ೃ࿔*

Health can be a complex and multifaceted issue, involving physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being. Tarot, on the other hand, is a tool that can be used for guidance, insight, and self-reflection.

When it comes to health readings in tarot, it is important to approach the cards with a sense of openness and curiosity. The cards can provide perspective on your current health situation, potential obstacles or challenges, and possible paths forward.

It is essential to remember that tarot readings are not a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment. If you have concerns about your health, it is always best to consult with a qualified healthcare provider.

🩺Fool~ Unexpected health events such as accidents and pregnancies. Diseases that are out of our control.

🩺Magician ~ An over-active mind, watch for illnesses with thinking, communication, learning difficulties, memory problems.

🩺High Priestess ~ Health issues involving hormonal imbalances. This card rules women, the uterus, ovaries, and breasts.

🩺The Empress ~ If poorly aspected it denotes laziness, sexual transmitted diseases, and stress from making poor lifestyle choices.

🩺The Emperor ~ Sports injuries, war injuries, injuries inflicted in anger, sharp objects harming us, isolation, injuries involving animals. Problems with head and face, blood and muscles.

🩺The Hierophant ~ Nutritional deficiencies, lack of emotional support, inadequate medical advice. On a positive note, a strong immune system that resists illnesses.

🩺The Lovers ~ Health issues of the skin, eyesight and hearing. Issues with any part of the body that comes in pair, such as eyes, ears, arms, legs, lungs, kidneys.

🩺The Chariot ~ Health issues related to genetics, mouth, womb and breasts. Ailments specific to women and pertaining to motherhood.

🩺Strength ~ Issues with overwork, exhaustion, unhealthy lifestyle and habits, and intimacy issues. Problems with the heart, circulation, spine, vitality, and ribs.

🩺The Hermit ~ Problems with the intestines, lower stomach, gallbladder, and spleen.

🩺Wheel of Fortune ~ This card governs the liver and its functions. Toxic build-up in the liver can cause skin eruptions, low vitality, poor eyesight, and allergies.

🩺Justice ~ Ruled by Libra it governs organs in our core: lower back, kidneys, adrenals, ovaries and inner ear.

🩺The Hanged Man ~ This card rules drugs of all kinds and suggests issues with drug addicts, drug poisoning, over-medication or lack of medication. It also suggests sleep disorders, asphyxiation, hypnosis, memory problems, insanity, nervous breakdowns, delusions.

🩺Death ~ It rules groin and elimination organs, it suggests problems with the genitals, anus, colon, gonads, prostate, bladder, urethra, pubic bone, and hernias.

🩺Temperance ~ This card rules anything hot, fast and intense, it suggests a sudden onset of fevers, burns and intemperate behaviour gone too far. Temperance rules exotic places indicating infections from a foreign land or person.

🩺The Devil ~ Issues with teeth, bones, joints and knees. Devil also suggests old age, colds, rheumatism, arthritis, aging skin, broken bones and chronic conditions.

🩺The Tower ~ This card suggests a sudden onset of symptoms, complications, infections, accidents and confrontations. Be aware of your blood pressure.

🩺The Star ~ Issues with ankles, legs, blood circulation, spasmodic complaints, nervous system.

🩺The Moon ~ Issues with mental health, alcohol, drugs, malnutrition, disorder of the lymph system, sleep issues, hidden diseases.

🩺The Sun ~ Sun burn, sun stroke, eyesight problems, skin cancers, vitamin D deficiency, heart disease, depression.

🩺Judgement ~ Issues with man-made polluting, toxins, nuclear power, and waste.

🩺The World ~ Melancholy about aging and issues with aging. Stress from government agencies. Burdens and stress from carrying the world's problems on your shoulders.

ʕ•ᴥ•ʔﾉ♡ ʕ•ᴥ•ʔﾉ♡oopsie you already reached the end ʕ•ᴥ•ʔﾉ♡ʕ•ᴥ•ʔﾉ♡

[justadeadreaper]

CW: Gore, Death, Puke, Decaying flesh, Buboes, Blood, Description of the symptoms of the different plagues in The Black Death, Gruesome description of how the representation would look like, Please tell me if anything that should be put as a warning was not, thanks.

The most feared plague in history, The Black Death.

Mainly the bubonic plague mixed with its two more deadly brothers the pneumonic plague and septicemic plague. It was the deadliest plague of the time as it ran through Europe, Africa, and Asia and conquered any village, town, and city it found itself in, flooding the streets with blood, mucus, and rotted flesh as once healthy humans dropped dead from the plague that seemed to come from nowhere before it dragged everyone to the Hell it had seemed to have spawned from. It did not care who you were, it did not discriminate, rich or poor, loved or hated, known or not, it would blow out the little life that you had. It thrived off the fear and only seemed to grow stronger as another soul joined the long chain of victims that had already succumbed to the disease. Anywhere from twenty to sixty percent of the population of the time was taken by it.

The perpetrator? Yersinia pestis. The carriers? Fleas. The spreader? Rats but some say it could have actually been hamsters that were stowaways. But how were the rats able to spread? Trading ships that jumped from town to town leaving a deadly gift as it sailed away that would lead to the death of all that were unfortunate enough to live there.

Now you may ask what would happen if you were to catch it and let me tell you it was living torture. It would start with a simple flea bite but that flea was infected with Yersinia pestis causing it to build a barrier in its stomach so no blood could be digested or go into its stomach causing it to build up and be infected by the bacteria, and this blood would be thrown back up by the flea onto the wound infecting it as it would be absorbed into the bloodstream. From entering the bloodstream it could take one of three routes: the lymphatic system, continuing through the bloodstream, or directly to the lungs. If you were lucky enough for it to infect your lymphatic system then you had a sixty percent chance of dying meaning you had a forty percent chance of surviving. Even though you had more chances of surviving it did not mean that you were saved from not suffering, from one to seven, or if you were lucky eight, days of contracting the disease was when it would show symptoms. At first it would trick you into the false belief that you only had the flu. You would have a general feeling of being ill, lethargic and weak which only grew into worse fatigue as the days went on, followed by chills and a high fever which anyone would know just seems to be like a normal cold but then that soon developed into muscle cramps in your aching limbs as seizures overtook the body. Then it would present the symptom that gave it the name the bubonic plague, buboes. These were when the lymph nodes would balloon to become large, painful, smoothe swellings which would occur near the original area of infection alongside the groin, neck, and armpits which would continue to grow until they burst. You also had the issue of your skin slowly beginning to necrotise as it died alongside the lenticulae which were small black dots that would be scattered across your body and gangrene took over your lips, nose, toes, and fingers which all caused severe pain to the point you would rather die there and then instead of waiting it out to see if you had the lucky chance of surviving. Of course there were other symptoms like heavy breathing as your lungs felt like they were being held down by rocks, your own body becoming like the flea as it would start to vomit gallons of infected blood, coughing, gastrointestinal problems, and spleen inflammation, but in some cases even the sleep would be disturbed to the point of insomnia where sleep would be impossible to get as your were forced to stay awake to feel all the pain that riddled your body. But then the worst of the systems came at the final stage as delirium came and took over any rational thought as all organs began to fail from the disease overcoming them and causing them to shut down which only led to a coma, but it all ended the same way, death.

If you were unlucky enough for it to infect your lungs first or just infect your lungs before the other systems became worse then you had a ninety-five percent chance of dying meaning you had a five percent chance of surviving. To make the pneumonic plague even worse you could develop it even after being infected by either the bubonic plague or the septicemic plague; it could also be caught from not just it infecting your lungs after a bite which infected the bloodstream but by also breathing in air borne droplets of the bacteria from another thing that was riddled with the plague. As it would normally be caught after having bubonic or septicemic plague it meant that at first you would present all the symptoms from the other plagues before experiencing the specifics of the pneumonic plague. At first you would think you have a fever but a severe one as headaches, nausea, and weakness run rampant as if it was trying to warn you that this would be no normal bubonic or septicemic plague. Luckily compared to the bubonic plague the time you would suffer with this plague was a great short, even though it would take around three to seven days before the symptoms showed as soon as the symptoms worsened or even showed you could guarantee that you would be dead within thirty-six hours, most likely less. You would be constantly vomiting for three days straight as your lungs slowly began to feel as if they were being sewn shut at each bronchus, only leading to each breath becoming shorter and shorter as you seemed to constantly be coughing and rasping for the tiniest bit of unrestrained air. Then soon enough your lungs would spew out a bloody and watery mess that would stain your tongue with its mercury taste which you would continue to cough out in between the vomiting until you went into shock as your full respiratory tract went into failure and just stopped, finally leading to death.

But if you were the most unfortunate person alive on Earth at the time that every God seemed to hate since it stayed in your bloodstream and completely infected your blood it meant you had no chance of surviving as you had a hundred percent chance of dying. It made the other two diseases seem like child’s play as it normally only took around fourteen hours before it shut down the body, worse of all it could even kill you without showing any of the symptoms. Like the others you would think it was a common cold due to the fever, chills, and low blood pressure but soon enough severe abdominal pain would set in as it felt like you were dying due to the extreme amount of diarrhea which would be accompanied by nausea that only led to severe vomiting. But soon enough the vomit and diarrhea would be filled with blood until it was fully red as the body lost most of its clotting resources from the tiny blood clots that had formed throughout the body so it could no longer control the blood which started to bleed into the skin and organs creating red or black patches of rashes or bumps which could be seen on the skin. The blood clotting also caused necrosis as tissue and organs would die from the lack of blood flow as it all leaked into where it should not, the most obvious spots of the decay were the gangrene in the fingers, nose, and toes. Then the bleeding would extend from not just bleeding in the body but blood coming out from the rectum but most noticeably the mouth and nose where it would come out like a waterfall. Obviously due to the blood leaking into everything it would cause difficulty breathing as it would fill the lungs and deprive it of the blood outside the lungs that was needed to exchange the carbon dioxide for oxygen. And with no blood to deliver the oxygen needed for the organs to live they all would go into organ failure causing the body to go into shock before the final moments where everything went back as it was taken over by death.

As it can be seen all of them had the same outcome, death.

Luckily nowadays the plagues are a simple pest if the person has access to treatment to stop it from progressing further but at the time that The Black Death ran rampant no one had the luxury of those treatments leading most to die who caught it. Masses upon masses of bodies continued to build up only attracting more of the rats then the ones that had already been attracted to the large towns by the excrement and rotting butcher’s meat that made a river through the streets. With more rats that withered away from the disease it just meant more fleas would jump to more human hosts to use which only led to more living corpses to roam the streets as the disease turned people into skeletons while still living before turning them into an actual corpse.

It was understandable as to why humans of the time would be so scared of such a thing as to them it just seemed like their fellow mortals were dropping like lowly flies that would eat away at the flyblown flesh that continued to pile away in mass graves to create more nests for their larvae and eggs to incubate inside. Imagine the terror and fear that must have filled their minds as they did not understand pathogens at the time, to them it would have seemed like divine wrath but no one could think of a reason as to why their Almighty would betray them like this as everyone appeared to be on their best behaviour. They needed something to blame. They found something to blame. 

Simple rumours turned into truths.

Somewhere in England there was said to be a village. Small, nothing of concern as it was like every other village of the time. Like every other village it had a butcher, a silent man who was rumoured to once be a knight but no one knew why he was not anymore. He tended to be quiet, avoiding others who were not his friends and family. It was said that he loved his nephew and that if he had enough swigs of barley that you could get him singing and dancing on the roof or you could convince him to give you his primest cuts of meat. He was deemed as normal, he was like everyone else, until one day.

No one knew what happened. It was supposed to be a joyous day to celebrate the coming of winter but it was far from that. Nearly the whole family was found butchered with a precision only expected to be known by a trained killer. The lower left leg and most of the fingers of the right hand of the older brother laid in a puddle of blood but they could not find the rest of his body; the mutilated body of the brother’s wife was spread around slightly from each different part as if when she was being attacked the culprit had went after another member while still holding onto the part it was hacking off; the body of their son was curled into the corner clutching onto the leg of his mother while out of the stab holes that covered his body in ten folds nearly making him unidentifiable oozed out blood into a bloody puddle that collected around his body; and finally the grandmother of the family who was found decapitated in her rocking chair with her head being found outside within the well. The only one not found dead was the butcher and when he returned, covered in blood, everyone turned their suspicions to him. When he tried to explain that he had been out hunting but had been attacked by a large grey man no one believed him, especially when they saw the crazed look within his eyes that could only be produced by when they had let Beelzebub into their soul. Everyone agreed to grab their pitchforks and chase him out so no more could be hurt.

It was only a few months before the figure started to appear across the world. People from the village murmured to other villages and beyond when they heard what the figure looked like in its earlier stage that they believed it to be the same butcher infected with the plague of Beelzebub to infect the world with their sin to bring more to Hell. Everyone believed him to be the reason for the spread of the plague. It was said that if you were to see him within the fields outside of any town, village, or city that all the inside were destined to die. 

The Ghost of The Black Death.

A figure that would strike the fear into the hearts of all.

A horde of rats followed behind him in trails as flies buzzed around his head, if he was near you would always see a Black Shuck which commanded a storm alongside it as if they were his hounds of doom brought along to give the townsfolk warning of their dire fates and to pray to the Almighty while they were still apart.

A black coat hid the majority of his body as bloodied rags of old hunting gear of a peasant hung off of skeletal remains with a jaw hanging off his neck as if it was a necklace as it was tied there with rope. Messy blonde hair spread out in all directions as blood leaked out from the tear ducts in a false mockery of the tears that millions had split in their last moments. No nose or bottom jaw could be found, decayed off long ago. The face looked skeletal as teeth, gums, and a tongue were exposed to the bitter air that reeked of death and loss as the cheeks were tattered in form as more skin continued to flake off as it continued to decays; once blue eyes so full of life were left sunken, dead as if they were another victim that had succumb to the plague that the Ghost was said to bring alongside him. A trail of buboes surrounded his neck as if it was a noose to which he could hang himself with as the tail was marked by a diversion of buboes that wrapped around and under his arms to around his groyne. His spine and ribs jutted out for all to see underneath the greyed skin which was littered with blackened patches of decay as branches of red veins leaked and bleed out to leave a path of blood in his wake for all to track him by. Still, as he rotted away, vague faints of the muscular body that had been far gone from its prime lingered where it once remained. The bottom of his calves with his feet and the bottom of his forearms with his hands had turned black and mummified from the decay and gangrene that had taken them over, leaving no remaining sensations within the hands to feel the warmth of a human ever again for the rest of eternity.

If you were to see him late at night, staring into your soul you better pray that The Ghost does not turn you into another soul like him.

[monratarot]

Health indicators in tarot - Major Arcana meaning

Please like and reblog if you find this information useful! 🌸🎀💕

//don’t claim it as your own and/or repost it on other platforms//

ꕥFool~ Unexpected health events such as accidents and pregnancies. Diseases that are out of our control.

ꕥMagician ~ An over-active mind, watch for illnesses with thinking, communication, learning difficulties, memory problems.

ꕥHigh Priestess ~ Health issues involving hormonal imbalances. This card rules women, the uterus, ovaries, and breasts.

ꕥThe Empress ~ If poorly aspected it denotes laziness, sexual transmitted diseases, and stress from making poor lifestyle choices.

ꕥThe Emperor ~ Sports injuries, war injuries, injuries inflicted in anger, sharp objects harming us, isolation, injuries involving animals. Problems with head and face, blood and muscles.

ꕥThe Hierophant ~ Nutritional deficiencies, lack of emotional support, inadequate medical advice. On a positive note, a strong immune system that resists illnesses.

ꕥThe Lovers ~ Health issues of the skin, eyesight and hearing. Issues with any part of the body that comes in pair, such as eyes, ears, arms, legs, lungs, kidneys.

ꕥThe Chariot ~ Health issues related to genetics, mouth, womb and breasts. Ailments specific to women and pertaining to motherhood.

ꕥStrength ~ Issues with overwork, exhaustion, unhealthy lifestyle and habits and intimacy issues. Problems with heart, circulation, spine, vitality and ribs.

ꕥThe Hermit ~ Problems with the intestines, lower stomach, gallbladder, and spleen.

ꕥWheel of Fortune ~ This card governs the liver and its functions. Toxic build-up in the liver that can cause skin eruptions, low vitality, poor eyesight and allergies.

ꕥJustice ~ Ruled by Libra it governs organs in our core: lower back, kidneys, adrenals, ovaries and inner ear.

ꕥThe Hanged Man ~ This card rules drugs of all kinds and suggests issues with drug addicts, drug poisoning, over-medication or lack of medication. It also suggests sleep disorders, asphyxiation, hypnosis, memory problems, insanity, nervous breakdowns, delusions.

ꕥDeath ~ It rules groin and elimination organs, it suggests problems with the genitals, anus, colon, gonads, prostate, bladder, urethra, pubic bone, and hernias.

ꕥTemperance ~ This card rules anything hot, fast and intense, it suggests a sudden onset of fevers, burns and intemperate behaviour gone too far. Temperance rules exotic places indicating infections from a foreign land or person.

ꕥThe Devil ~ Issues with teeth, bones, joints and knees. Devil also suggests old age, colds, rheumatism, arthritis, aging skin, broken bones and chronic conditions.

ꕥThe Tower ~ This card suggests a sudden onset of symptoms, complications, infections, accidents and confrontations. Be aware of your blood pressure.

ꕥThe Star ~ Issues with ankles, legs, blood circulation, spasmodic complaints, nervous system.

ꕥThe Moon ~ Issues with mental health, alcohol, drugs, malnutrition, disorder of the lymph system, sleep issues, hidden diseases.

ꕥThe Sun ~ Sun burn, sun stroke, eyesight problems, skin cancers, vitamin D deficiency, heart disease, depression.

ꕥJudgement ~ Issues with man-made polluting, toxins, nuclear power, and waste.

ꕥThe World ~ Melancholy about aging and issues with aging. Stress from government agencies. Burdens and stress from carrying the worlds problems on your shoulder.

[kaizenhospitals]

What are symptoms of spleen problems?

Signs of possible spleen disorders include pain or discomfort in the upper left abdomen, which is frequently connected to spleen enlargement. The left shoulder may also be affected by this discomfort. Furthermore, people may experience bloating or a fullness sensation after consuming small amounts because of the enlarged spleen pressing against the stomach. 

Anemia, weariness, recurrent infections, bruising or bleeding easily, and other symptoms are also suggestive of spleen diseases. In order to properly address these symptoms and receive an accurate diagnosis and treatment for spleen diseases, it is imperative that you seek medical attention as soon as possible

[scotianostra]

July 18th 1792 saw the death of John Paul Jones in Paris.

I covered the life of "The Father of the US Navy" in my post on his birth date a little over a fortnight ago so wont cover old ground, instead will go through his final days and his death, which many deemed to be mysterious, in Paris France.

As far as we know, John Paul Jones was in good health until 1770, when a severe fever sent him to bed for 16 days and left him ‘much reduced’. Nothing more is known of the character of this illness or its treatment. He was 23, serving in the West Indies and recovered. Except for two other unnamed illnesses and recurrent psychological highs and lows bordering on manic-depressive disorder, he seems to have been well for the next seven years.

In 1780, after many months at sea, he complained his eyes were so sore that he was almost blind, and for a time was so incapacitated that he gave up visiting friends on shore. His behaviour then was ‘Qweeg-like, suspicious and slightly dotty’, and though only 33, he felt like an old man. Three years later, during further service in the West Indies, a severe attack of ‘tropical fever’ caused him to travel to a Moravian sanatorium in Bethlehem, Palestine, for hydrotherapy, after which he recovered.

At the age of 41, Jones became ill during an overland trip in an open carriage from Hamburg to Copenhagen. From Copenhagen, he travelled to St. Petersburg through ice floes in a small open boat to take command of a Russian fleet, arriving exhausted, sick and depressed. The illness lingered on for months. Although its specific characteristics are unknown, it is believed to have involved the lungs; afterwards, he had a persistent hacking cough and ‘Grey visage

Shortly before his 45th birthday, Jones’ health declined rapidly. The nature of his final illness is described vividly in a letter written by a close friend, Col. Samuel Blackden, to Jones’ sister shortly after the naval hero’s death. In it, Blackden says of Jones:

" But for two months past he began to lose his appetite, grew yellow, and showed symptoms of jaundice. For this he took medical treatment and for a short time seemed to grow better. A few days before his death his legs began to swell, which proceeded upward to his body, so that for two days before his decease he could not button his waistcoat and had great difficulty in breathing ... [He] put off the making of his will until the afternoon of July 18, when he was prevailed upon to send for a notary and made his will. M. Beaupoil and myself witnessed it and left him sitting in a chair in his parlor. A few minutes after we retired he walked into his chamber and laid himself upon his face on the bedside, with his feet on the floor. The Queen’s physician, who was attending him, came soon after, and on entering the apartment found him in that position, and on trying to lift him up found that he had expired. His disorder had terminated in dropsy of the heart. His body was put into a leaden coffin [and submerged in alcohol] on the 20th, that, in case the United States, which he had so essentially served and with so much honor, should claim his remains they might be more easily removed "

One hundred and thirteen years later (in 1905), the remains of John Paul Jones were recovered and autopsied. According to L. Capitan and Victor Cornil, who performed the autopsy:

"The only organs which were injured were the kidneys As far as can be judged, by examination of the badly preserved viscera(which included the heart, aorta, liver, gallbladder and spleen but not the brain), we believe that the case in point is interstitial nephritis, with fibrous degeneracy of the glomeruli of Malpighi, which quite agrees with the symptoms observed during life. "

The autopsy goes on in some detail, I wont bore you with it but at the end of the day, the kidney failure/disease killed him, but there is no explanation of how it came about.

Jone's liver was normal, he wasn't the cliched stereotypical Scot, he abstained from spirits, his tipple was wine and it is said he drunk no more than three glasses,so alcohol was ruled out, as was lead poisoning, which would have come from the wine of the era. Cardiac arrhythmia or some other complication of uremia has been the conclusions. The first is a group of conditions that cause the heart to beat irregular, too slowly, or too quickly, the second occurs when your kidneys become damaged. The toxins, or bodily waste, that your kidneys normally send out in your urine end up in your bloodstream instead.

With regard to the question of the true ‘father’ of the United States Navy, no one person emerged as singularly worthy of the title in the aftermath of the American Revolution. Following the war, Jones left America embittered by a lack of recognition and served briefly as an officer in Catherine the Great’s imperial fleet before fleeing Russia over an apparently trumped up rape charge. Hopeful of securing another naval commission, he travelled to Paris where he died in 1792, lonely and forgotten. Because the American minister, Gouverneur Morris, refused to claim his body, a French official paid to have the corpse packed in straw and alcohol and sealed in a lead coffin for possible future transport to the United States.

If it wasn't for the foresight of this unknown French official the fate of John Paul Jones would have been unknown.

[fooltemps]

Leukemia and Lymphoma Awareness Flags!!

This flag was designed by us, as we currently have a family member with Leukemia and wish to bring awareness to this kind of cancer.

color meaning:

#FF2D34: Myeloma

#00DC0E: Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

#FF8C2E: Leukemia

#D12DFF: Hodgkin Lymphoma

Below is information all about Leukemia and Lymphoma Cancers.

Leukemia and Lymphoma are both cancers that are not associated with a tumor. Lymphomas are cancers that affect the lymph system and start in cells called lymphocytes. Leukemia is a cancer of the early blood-forming tissues, including your bone marrow and lymph system.

There are many types of lymphoma. Some grow and spread slowly and some are more aggressive. There are two main types of Lymphoma:

1. Hodgkin Lymphoma is cancer that starts in the B lymphocytes (B cells) of the lymph system. Your lymph system helps you fight infection and control the fluids in your body.

2. Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL) is cancer that starts in the lymphocytes anywhere lymph tissue is found:

Lymph nodes

Spleen

Bone marrow

Thymus

Adenoids and tonsils, or

The digestive track.

Leukemia typically involves white blood cells, the cells that are your infection fighters. Leukemia can be divided into categories: fast growing (acute) and slow growing (chronic); and by which white blood cells are affected:

Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL)

Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML)

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL

Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML)

A screening test is used to detect cancers in people who may be at higher risk for developing the disease. With leukemia and lymphoma, there are no early detection tests. The best way to find them is to be aware of the symptoms:

Swollen lymph nodes which can appear as a lump in the neck, armpit or groin;

Fever

Night sweats

Weight loss without trying, and

Fatigue.

Leukemia can have similar symptoms but also can include:

Easy bleeding or bruising;

Recurring nosebleeds; and

Bone pain or tenderness

Myeloma is cancer of the plasma cells. Plasma cells are white blood cells that produce disease- and infection-fighting antibodies in your body. Myeloma cells prevent the normal production of antibodies, leaving your body's immune system weakened and susceptible to infection. The multiplication of myeloma cells also interferes with the normal production and function of red and white blood cells. An abnormally high amount of these dysfunctional antibodies in the bloodstream can cause kidney damage. Additionally, the myeloma cells commonly produce substances that cause bone destruction, leading to bone pain and/or fractures.

Myeloma cells are produced in the bone marrow, the soft tissue inside your bones. Sometimes myeloma cells will travel through your blood stream and collect in other bones in your body. Because myeloma frequently occurs at many sites in the bone marrow, it is often referred to as multiple myeloma.

Signs and symptoms of myeloma include the following:

Hypercalcemia (excessive calcium in the blood)

Anemia (shortage or reduced function of red blood cells)

Renal damage (kidney failure)

Susceptibility to infection

Osteoporosis, bone pain, bone swelling, or fracture

High protein levels in the blood and/or urine

Weight loss

In 2022, more than 62,650 people are expected to be diagnosed with leukemia. In addition:

Leukemia accounts for 3.6% of all new cancer cases.

The overall 5-year survival rate for leukemia has more than quadrupled since 1960.

62.7% of leukemia patients survive 5 years or more.

The diagnosis of leukemia requires specific blood tests, including an examination of cells in the blood and marrow.

Treatment and prognosis depend on the type of blood cell affected and whether the leukemia is acute or chronic. Chemotherapy and blood and marrow transplant are often used to treat leukemia.

If you wish to read more about Leukemia and Lymphoma cancer, please visit this website!

[bodyalive]

“According to Eastern medicine be it Indian, Chinese, Tibetan or Thai, the left side of the body is totally different from the right side. Even some Buddhist monastic traditions include within their precepts for monks to sleep on their left side. Although it sounds weird resting and sleeping on the left side has many health benefits.

The lymph drains to the left.

The left side of the body is the dominant side of the lymphatic system. Most of the lymph drains down to the thoracic duct which is located on the left side. In its path the lymph transports proteins, glucose metabolites and waste products that are purified by the lymph nodes to be drained to the left side.

Derived from the above it is common to deduct in Eastern medicine that the diseases of the left side of the body may be due to chronic congestion of the lymphatic system.

The priorities of the body.

According to ayurveda congestion occurs in the body following certain priorities. If the lymphatic system is digested, the liver and blood are subsequently saturated with toxic substances. Primary symptoms of congestion present on the left side of the body before moving to the right side where they make their later appearance.

Feeling bored after a meal?

The Indian suggestion is that if you take a break after eating, do it lying on your left side. The rest should not exceed 10 minutes and is different from the evening nap which is usually 20 minutes or more.

Stomach and pancreas hanging to the left side. When you lie on your left side both naturally hang allowing for optimal and efficient digestion. Food is driven to move naturally through the stomach and pancreatic enzymes are secreted in a paulatin way and not in a single stroke, which happens if you lie down on the right side.

Laying on your left side your liver and gallbladder hang from your right side. Resting on the left side allows them to hang and secret their precious enzymes into the digestive tract, emulsifying fats and neutralizing stomach acids.

When the digestive system is stimulated this way your digestive cycle is shorter and doesn't leave you stranded for the rest of the afternoon. Try resting 10 minutes on your left side after eating.

Feel energized and not tired after eating.

Try to eat in a relaxed way mid-day and don't forget to rest on your left side and check that you will feel more energized and with better digestion.

Sleeping magic from the left side.

Best elimination.

The small intestine flushes toxins through the ileocecal valve (VIC) on the right side of the body at the start of the large intestine. The large intestine travels down the right side of your body, crosses your stomach and descends down the left side.

Through the VIC, sleeping on the left side allows gravity to stimulate bodily waste into the large intestine from the small intestine more easily.

As the night passes and continue sleeping on your left side the debris moves more easily toward the downward column and morning removal will be easier.

Best cardiac function.

More than 80% of the heart is located on the left side of the body. If you sleep on the left side the lymph drained to the heart will be driven by gravity taking work out of your heart while you sleep.

The aorta, which is the largest artery in the body, comes out from the upper part of the heart and is arched left before going down to the abdomen. By sleeping on the left side, the heart pumps blood more easily into the downing aorta.

Sleeping on the left side allows the intestines to move away from the cava vein that brings blood back to the heart. Noticeably the cava vein rests on the right side of the thorn, so when you lie down on the left side the viscera move away from the cava veina. Again gravity makes the heart job easier.

The sparrow is on the left side.

The spleen is part of the lymphatic system and is also on the left side of the body. Its function is that of a large lymph node which filters the lymph and additionally filters the blood. When you lie on the left side the fluids return to the basin is easier and is more easily produced by gravity.

The lymphatic system drains all cells in the body through contractions and muscle movement and not by heart pumping. Helping the lymph drain into the pelvis and heart with gravity is a simple way to purify your body.

And while there are no scientific protocols on it, sleeping on the left side does make sense. Understanding ancestral wisdom based on knowledge of modern anatomy clears up many doubts about the reasons that exist in the east to sleep a certain way.”

Original article written by Dr. John Doull

[Leila L'Abate]

[madamlaydebug]

🌿Nettle:: The herb's diuretic action also flushes excess uric acid from muscles and joints, helping to relieve arthritic pain and inflammations. Also in its role as an anti-inflammatory, nettle tea is effective in treating the symptoms of itchy, watery eyes, runny nose and sneezing common in allergy season.

🌿::Nettle tea is a powerful detox drink due to its diuretic properties and its ability to flush out toxins from the body. Drinking a cup of nettle tea can increase nutrients and optimize metabolism, thus helping in weight loss.

🌿::Acting as a diuretic, nettle herbal teaeliminates sodium from your body. It also decreases sugar levels in the blood. ... If you have intestinal disorders, nettle tea is recommended. It also helps with cases of dysentery, diarrhea, hemorrhoids and it is goodfor aiding the treatment of liver, bile and spleen diseases.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

greensick

adjective /ˈɡriːnsɪk/ /ˈɡrinˌsɪk/

in pathology: refers to chlorosis (an iron-deficiency anemia formerly common in adolescent girls that may impart a greenish tint to the skin)

earliest known evidence is from 1605, in a translation by Joshua Sylvester, poet and translator

notes from: Lovesickness and Gender in Early Modern English Literature by Lesel Dawson

One of the aspects of women's lovesickness which has caused the most confusion is its relation to three other female maladies: hysteria, green sickness, and uterine fury. Although many critics assume that lovesickness is a version of one or several of these illnesses, lovesickness, hysteria, green sickness, and uterine fury are understood as separate maladies in the early modern period, with their own unique set of symptoms, stereotypical sufferers, and cultural associations. There is, however, an exception. When a woman's lovesickness develops into full-scale madness (as in the case of Ophelia), her illness is frequently seen to be related to her virginity and menstrual cycle and is thus represented as being similar to uterine disorders.

Green sickness, also known as the white fever, the disease of virgins, and from the 17th century onwards chlorosis, was thought to be an exclusively female malady, which was caused by suppressed menses and seed (also called sperm, or sperma).

Women afflicted with green sickness are held to exhibit a variety of symptoms: they are pale or badly coloured, have puffy faces and bodies, and suffer from headaches, nausea, impaired respiration, heart palpitations, and a racing pulse. They also have strange appetites, either craving odd and unusual food (a symptom known as pica) or having no appetite whatsoever. The absence of menstruation, however, remained the illness’s defining symptom. Women who were labelled as ‘green sick’ but who subsequently menstruated were rediagnosed as having an ‘obstruction of the spleen’.

Although a variety of remedies could be suggested (including phlebotomy, physical activity, a change of diet and various medicines), sexual intercourse was thought to be the most effective cure as it would open up the veins of the womb, releasing the trapped menses and seed. Young women who were believed to be green sick were thus advised to get married as soon as possible. As Helen King writes in her study of green sickness, ‘the cure for the disease of virgins was to cease to be a virgin’.

Contemporary theorists have sometimes tried to discover the ‘real’ malady behind green sickness. Clearly it has some affinity to what we now call premenstrual tension, and in later periods it is increasingly associated with anaemia and eating disorders. However, given the fact that the chief symptom of green sickness is the absence of menstruation, the condition that it most clearly resembles is pregnancy. In fact, it seems likely that, in certain circumstances, women disguised unwanted pregnancies as green sickness, an illness which simultaneously provided a justification for a speedy marriage. Once married, the hidden pregnancy could then be ‘discovered’, retrospectively confirming the doctor’s original diagnosis of green sickness; within this context, pregnancy would appear as the cure of the woman’s puffiness, nausea, exhaustion, and disorderly appetites, rather than their cause. Alternatively, women who were pregnant, but who claimed to be green sick, could ask doctors for the means with which to provoke menstruation, seeking remedies which would in effect cause an abortion.

Of the three uterine disorders, green sickness is the malady most relevant to lovesickness. Like lovesickness, green sickness is associated with a young woman’s emerging sexual appetites, emphasizing a woman’s readiness for marriage and providing a rationale for her contrary, unsettled emotions. The discourse surrounding green sickness also provides an alternative, negative way in which to imagine a woman’s virginity, countering Petrarchan and Neoplatonic traditions which grant virginity an elevated ethical and spiritual meaning. As such, green sickness reinforces the MISOGYNISTIC VIEW that women are fundamentally incomplete without men, suggesting that a woman’s virginity, rather than being the sign and source of her rational self-mastery, is an unnatural state prone to illness.

Green sickness furnished writers with a negative way in which to view virginity, allowing predominately male writers to denigrate overly chaste maidens as sickly or ‘stale’.

In Fletcher and Massinger’s The Elder Brother (1637), Lewis’s derogatory reference to green sickness as a debilitating illness associated with inexperienced young women is the standard way in which the illness is viewed in the early modern period. There are, however, some exceptions. Edward Herbert of Cherbury and Thomas Carew write poems that prettify the malady, depicting it as an erotic innocence that guarantees the woman’s sexual purity. Their poems portray green sickness as a state of sexual ripeness, which enhances the woman’s ethical status as well as her physical allure.

If green sickness reveals the peak of a woman’s sexual development, it also warns how quickly this ripeness will transform into rottenness if the sick virgin will not submit herself to her lover’s cure.

“If you have not died in the womb, or fallen prey to infant mortality, or to a young girl's greensickness, or to the dangers of childbirth, or if persistent pregnancies and perennial breeding have not worn you to a shadow, and you have not dwindled into a premature grave, then if war, sickness, accident or disease all keep their distance, your chances may be strong for a long life.” ― Elspeth Marr, Aunt Epp's Guide for Life: Miscellaneous Musings of a Victorian Lady

Elspeth Marr (1871-1947)—also known as Aunt Epp—was the great-great-Aunt of author Christopher Rush, who only knew her for two brief years before her death. She lived in the Kingom of Fife, Scotland, where she wrote copious letters and diaries to an unnamed "young girl" in her life. Those documents, which remained undiscovered for years, form the basis of Aunt Epp's Guide for Life.

Sources: 1 2 3 4

[saanphoenix]

Horrible news!

Kitty's problem wasn't the URI. It was, in fact, Bobcat Fever!

Early symptoms of ‘Bobcat Fever’ are quite generic and can mislead an owner into thinking that the cat is just ‘a bit under the weather’. These initial signs include sluggishness and a loss of appetite. But once the onset of the infection starts in earnest, the cat will start to deteriorate rapidly.

At this time symptoms may include a high temperature accompanied by dehydration, jaundice, an enlarged liver and spleen, pale mucus membranes and respiratory distress. The early symptoms of the disease are seen within 5-10 days after a tick bite. It only takes a few days for the disease to progress to the final stages and if not treated almost inevitably causes death. [X]

And given how kitty had, like...next to no white blood cells anymore, warped red blood cells, and was approaching liver failure, and the drugs used to aggressively "treat" the disease are on back order...

Had to put her down. Because even with the aggressive drugs administered extremely early, you have a 60% chance of survival.

I am making this post because I need to caution y'all with:

This cat had been treated with flea and tick medicine. She was an indoor cat.

But, as this website points out:

It should also be remembered that no treatment can protect a cat 100% because though tick treatments discourage bites, they cannot completely prevent them. Therefore people with cats in an area where ticks carry C. felis need to stay vigilant for the early signs of infection.

Despite your best efforts with treatment and keeping your cat indoors, a fucking tick can still kill them in a handful of days.

I am Pissed. And distraught. But mostly Pissed.