#they both advocated for me to get top surgery as soon as i could because they understood that it was super important to me

[amurder-ofcrows]

i’ve never been peer pressured or fell for other people doing it but i am still a bad influence as my dad got a monster energy drink instead of his coffee for our 4hr DC round trip today because i’ve started drinking energy drinks regularly and know the flavors well like please do not tell my mom about this she’ll be disappointed in the both of us and we don’t need that

[epicene-humanoid]

some trans Jeff thoughts:

he realized he was trans in elementary school and just went fuck it I'll just start introducing myself as Jeffery and see if anyone decides to stop me (as we know, jeff winger can get away with almost anything)

he got top surgery the second he could afford it (around the same time he started at his law firm), and probably bribed someone to keep it a secret

"I'm jeff winger and i would rather look at myself naked than the women I sleep with" are the words of a man proud of his transition

he's really insecure about his fashion sense, which is why he mostly dresses like the douchey guys at his firm in the start of the show, he thought you can't go wrong with the sleazy lawyer look

he will never admit it but he feels super good about the dean hitting on him, because the dean is a (cis) guy, acknowledging that Jeff is more manly than him

i think he starts out stealth and comes out to everyone one by one, probably starting with abed because he knows abed won't judge him and will probably just see it as an interesting backstory.

abed just says it's cool and maybe worth a prequel exploring Jeff's transition, and jeff asks him to predict how all of the members of the group will react to him coming out.

abed's predictions:

britta will be over-the-top supportive and do a ton of research about trans history, probably put together a slideshow just to prove how progressive she is, and jeff will be a little bit weirded out, but also touched that she did all that for him, though he would never let her know that

shirley will be confused, because she doesn't know how someone she trusts and knows so well could be part of a group she was raised to hate, but ultimately realizes that there's nothing actually against the lgbtq people in the bible, and, as a cool character development arch, starts to advocate against use of the bible to justify bigotry

troy will just think it over and decide that Jeff's physique and coolness are even awesomer knowing how much work he'd had to put in to be like that, and respects Jeff's manliness even more

annie will give him a hug, say something sweet about how she'll always love him, and worry about his health, because even she read somewhere that taking testosterone makes you more likely to have a heart attack, jeff will explain that the risk is still only as high a cis guy, and she'll be the one to always remind him to take his shots

peirce will say at best say "jeff winger used to be a chick?" and at worst call him a slur, either way there's sure to be a lot of misgendering from him, and pestering to know Jeff's deadname (needless to say, Jeff just doesn't tell peirce)

the whole group goes out of their way to keep their beach trips a secret from pierce (the girls don't want him there anyways, he's too liable to be creepy) even though jeff knows that even if pierce saw his scars, all he would have to do is make up a story about some childhood accident and pierce would never question it

sorry this ended up being super long. can I hear some of your headcanons for him?

YES ALL THIS!!! yes yes i’m fully accepting this as canon oh my god

i’m about to type a whole ass ESSAY at midnight because i have been DYING to talk about this for months ajfdksljk,,, this is going to be obscenely long and i might end up adding even more to it as i continue to rewatch the show because there is truly no shortage of trans jeff content (especially when you’re trans and see transness in every little thing ajdkslfkjs)

spoiler warning for literally everything about this show under the cut <3

i 100% agree, i feel like he realized he was trans super young, especially since in the show we see him as a little kid a couple of times. 

like look at little jeff with the oversized sweatshirt and little ponytail!! that’s childhood trans fashion. not to be dramatic but part of me thinks that jeff’s dad left before he fully came out to his family (which gives him even more angst about it, because until that one Thanksgiving episode, he’s never able to prove to his dad that he’s a better man), but part of me thinks that his dad left after he came out (which adds that spicy i-should-have-stayed-in-the-closet guilt that he has to work through). 

either way, because his dad wasn’t there, he had to base his concept of masculinity on something else, which was becoming a lawyer!! there’s some line that’s like “after the dust and divorce papers were settled the only man i looked up to was [the lawyer guy]”. like, replacing your father figure in your mind with the concept of “a job where you can talk your way in and out of anything and distort other people’s concept of reality”? that��s trans.

 and the fucking THANKSGIVING EPISODE... i struggle to watch it without crying hehe <3 yeowch! the dichotomy of willy jr. being the “wrong” kind of man because he’s “too soft” but jeff also not being enough despite adhering to all the social standards of masculinity... fuck!! this whole scene of him telling his dad “i am Not well adjusted” and talking about how he gave himself an “appendix surgery scar” when he was a kid and he still keeps the get-well-soon letters from his classmates under his bed? oh my god. the implication of people loving him not despite his scars but because of them?? trans. i can’t think about this episode for too long or i’ll start yelling.

OH and this scene? where he talks about how his mom got him a girl costume for halloween?? and everyone said “what a cute little girl” and after a few houses he stopped correcting them?? and “once the shame and the fear wore off, i was just glad they thought i was pretty”?? THAT’S TRANS... the man needs validation oh my god... and then in all the halloween episodes we see he has these ultra-masculine costumes (a cowboy, David Beckham, one of the fast and furious guys even though he never watched the movies, a boxer with his DAD’S boxing gloves... god) costumes are about becoming something else and he always chooses to be hypermasculine and that is trans.

THE PHYSICAL EDUCATION EPISODE!!!!!!! being uncomfortable during P.E. is a queer experience. period. but him being specifically uncomfortable in the clothes someone else is assigning to him? trans. “are we gonna talk about clothes like a girl? or use tapered sticks to hit balls around a cushioned mat like a man?” TRANS. and him eventually stripping in public? celebration of transness. and the fact that he eventually becomes comfortable in both the uniform and his own style!! trans!! god i love this episode. 

AND AND AND!!! the gay dean coming out episode!!! where it’s the three of them discussing the best way for the dean to come out as gay despite not entirely identifying with that label!! so we have both frankie and the dean who are sort of ambiguously queer, and jeff who’s a stealth trans man who’s probably only out to only the study group at this point. this scene where the dean and jeff have this like eyebrow communication while frankie is talking is just so cute. queer-to-queer communication. “I am so curious” “oh?” “intellectually.” “oh...” ajfdksljfk this scene just screams high school GSA to me and i love it so much.

and SPEAKING of the dean!! i totally see you on that. i feel like jeff has some internalized homophobia/biphobia (like he’d throw punches over someone else, but when it comes to himself he has a lot of shame). and also seeing the dean so confident in all his different outfits/costumes has a weird affect on him bc it’s like “okay, the dean, a cis guy, can do that, but i as a trans guy could Not because that’s Breaking the Rules”. which, like, throwback to the halloween thing. of course there’s no right way to be masculine, but mr. winger does not know that.

another thing!! the episode where their emails get leaked? that includes his emails with his therapist. fuck!! he was outed to the whole world in that episode!! no wonder he was so fucking angry!! this whole episode (and really any time he mentions his therapist) is so interesting when you think about them as a person he talks to about his transition. OH which adds to the thing with the dean!! “and you told your therapist you wanted to be alone this weekend” and “not you jeff, i know you’ll be visiting your dad” ”I told you to stop reading my emails”. luckily his study group has his back and just makes fun of him for emailing astronauts lmao

and WHO can forget “they’re giving out an award for most handsome young man!!!!” what else is there to say about this line besides: he’s trans. you know he didn’t get awarded enough for being a handsome young man when he was a kid, and no amount of compliments when he’s fully-grown can really make up for that. some people crash a kid’s bar mitzvah to cope with the fact that they struggled to be seen as themselves when they were a teenager <3

also his weird relationship with pierce? where he kind of hates him (understandably lmao) but at times has this almost-friends-almost-father-son relationship with him? especially in this episode where he’s forced to bond with him and ends up having a good time by accident (at a barber shop no less, the perfect place to Be A Man with your Man Friend). idk what to say about him besides the fact that pierce says his mom wanted a girl when he was born and made him dress like a girl (and his middle name is anastasia!) so if they’re gonna do any bonding over transness it’s gonna be that. 

okay one last thing and then i’ll shut up for the night. this episode kills me (and almost kills jeff hahahahelpi’mcrying). it’s a very Trans thing to not be able to visualize your future self, it just is. growing up trans at the time he did? i don’t know what kind of future he saw for himself, but i’m so happy that he ended up with a group of friends who became his family and love him the way they all do. i’m so emotional over this asshole it’s ridiculous. 

in conclusion:

they’re trans, your honor <3

[omgjasminesimone]

Kept Part 4

Bryce x MC x Ethan

Previous Part: Part 3

Word Count: 1900

Author’s Note: The conclusion! Thanks to all who read, commented, and reblogged this story!

  “Wow.”

Casey’s attention had been firmly on perfecting her winged eyeliner in the hotel mirror, but now she diverts her stare just to the left, where she can see the mirrored reflection of her handsome husband leaning in the open doorway, already dressed in his tuxedo.

Bryce walks into the bathroom, maintaining eye contact with her through the mirror. He grips her hips, pulling her back into his broad chest as he places lingering kisses down her neck. “You look incredible honey.”

Casey almost allows herself to get lost in Bryce’s touch when he slowly trails one hand down to the hem of her black silk dress, dragging it up her leg. But then she remembers that they should have left ten minutes ago and lightly slaps his hand away.

“Bryce, we have to go.” Casey reminds him.

Bryce lets out an exaggerated sigh, but steps away from her so she can focus on her makeup. “Fine. But after the award ceremony, you’re all mine, Richard Neubauer Advocate for Internal Medicine Award winner Dr. Casey Lahela.” He promises.

Casey quirks a brow, putting on her earrings. “Oh? And what are you going to do with me?” She teases.

“All the things I can’t do at home without having your loud screaming waking up the kids.” Bryce growls in her ear. Casey can’t help but gulp at that, and Bryce laughs, placing one more light kiss to her neck.

“Speaking of the kids, we should call before bedtime.” Casey calls as Bryce leaves the bathroom.

“Good thinking!” Bryce calls back, and then she hears ringing when Bryce places the facetime call.

“Hello Bryce.” Marta, their live-in nanny, answers.

“Hey Marta. Just calling to check in. Are the kids behaving?”

“For the most part. You know Kalani likes to test me, but nothing I can’t handle. And Jordan is a little angel. The best-behaved toddler on the planet. I just hope Kalani doesn’t rub off on him.”

Bryce laughs. “Come on Marta. She’s not that bad.”

Marta huffs. “You have no idea. She’s much better behaved when you guys are around. Let me go get her for you.”

Casey can hear Marta’s footsteps through the phone as the older woman climbs the stairs of their Chapel Hill, North Carolina home to their 5-year-old daughter’s room.

The Lahelas have been settled in North Carolina for the last 9 years. After moving out of Ethan’s apartment all those years ago, Casey moved in with Bryce and his roommates. When the lease was up, they moved into their own one bedroom, seamlessly falling into a domestic routine. With things going so well, they agreed to couple match for residency, both ending up at Columbia. By the time Bryce was done with his surgical residency, they were 31 and talking about marriage, and children. They decided to leave New York City for the more family friendly Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  Casey ended up well on her way to Head of Diagnostics at UNC Chapel Hill, while Bryce was a celebrated surgeon at Duke, an easy commute from their home.

They got married and spent two years getting established at their new hospitals before getting pregnant with Kalani. Their son Jordan followed 2 and a half years later. They hadn’t been back to Boston since moving almost 14 years ago, until now since Dr. Casey Lahela is being honored with a very prestigious award at a fancy downtown Boston hotel convention room.

“Kalani, it’s your Daddy.” Marta calls, and there’s a shuffle as the phone is handed over.

“Daddy!” Kalani calls out excitedly, and Casey can practically hear her daughter’s exuberant grin.

“Hey baby, you’re holding the phone upside down, there you go.” Bryce praises when she turns it right side up. “I heard you’re giving Marta trouble.”

“I’m not Daddy! She’s lying!” Kalani insists indignantly.

“Kalani, why would Marta lie?” Casey asks when she joins her husband, sitting on the edge of the hotel bed and leaning on his shoulder so she can see the phone.

“Wow Mommy, you’re sooo pretty!” Kalani chimes sweetly. Her daughter isn’t used to seeing Casey all dolled up, since most of the Lahelas evenings are spent at home with the kids. Casey almost forgets she’s supposed to be reprimanding her daughter on account of the sweet compliment. But then she pauses to wonder if Kalani is purposefully buttering her up. Their little girl is smart, and somewhat devious.  

Casey narrows her eyes, but she has a feeling it has no effect on her daughter. “Flattery will get you nowhere. But thank you. We’ll be home Sunday night, and I don’t want any more bad reports, understood?”

“Yes Mommy.” Kalani mutters, before changing the subject. “Daddy, are you bringing a present home for me?”  

“Only if Marta says you’re good. Otherwise I’ll be bringing presents for just Marta and Jordan.” Bryce threatens, but he ruins it with a good-natured wink that he can’t help but add when Kalani frowns. The little girl immediately brightens but has the good sense not to wink back and alert her mother. Bryce is definitely the softy of her parents.

“Where’s your brother?” Casey asks, and Kalani points the phone down towards the carpet of her room, where Jordan is playing with a toy truck.

“Hey buddy.” Bryce greets jovially, and Jordan turns to face the phone.

“Dada! Mama!” He calls out, rushing over to lean against Kalani’s bed.

“We miss you baby! We’ll be home soon, okay? Be good for Marta.” Casey says, blowing a kiss to her son. “Kalani?” She calls, and Kalani pulls her brother onto her lap, putting both on them in the phone camera.

“Yeah?” The little girl asks.

“We love you. Be good.” Casey reiterates.

“Ok, we’re running late and need to go, and it’s bedtime. We’ll call tomorrow during breakfast. Good night! Love you!” Bryce calls, letting the kids return ‘good nights’ and ‘love you too’ before hanging up.

Bryce stands and then offers Casey a hand to pull her to her feet as well. “Let’s go Dr. They can’t start the ceremony without you.”

…

..

.

“Congratulations Dr. Lahela!” Sienna chimes, bounding up to give Casey a big hug.

Casey laughs, just barely managing not to spill her drink as she returns Sienna’s exuberant hug. It’s been almost two years since she last saw Sienna in person, when she and Danny came down to North Carolina to meet baby Jordan. Many doctors have approached and congratulated her during the after awards reception, but this congratulations means much more to her.

Sienna moves on to hug Bryce just as exuberantly, and Danny smiles and congratulates Casey as well.

“So, how are we celebrating? We’re kids free, so we’re going clubbing, right?” Sienna suggests.

“We’re pushing 40 honey. I think our clubbing days are behind us.” Danny insists, dropping a kiss to his wife’s forehead.

Sienna frowns. “Speak for yourself. 40 is the new 25. Come on Casey, it will be just like our med school days. Some of our favorite downtown spots are still open. We can even call Jackie. She’d come up from Providence for this.”

“Sorry Sienna, but I think Bryce has a private after party planned in our hotel suite.” Casey returns, leaning into Bryce’s embrace.

“Don’t be boring Casey! You can have sex with him any time.” Sienna insists.

“Not this kind of sex.” Bryce insists suggestively.

The foursome laughs, and then chat for a few more minutes before Danny and Sienna head out, having to work in the morning.

Bryce drops a kiss to the top of Casey’s head. “How about one more drink and then we head out of here?” Bryce suggests, and Casey nods. Bryce places a lingering kiss to her lips before heading off to the bar to get their drinks.

“Casey.” A familiar voice greets, although he never used to call her ‘Casey’.

Casey’s back stiffens momentarily before she turns to face the blast from her past. “Ethan.”

His hair has greyed in the fifteen years since they last saw each other. He’s 55 now and has a silver fox thing going on. He regards her fondly, offering a small smile. He gestures to the award clasped loosely in her hand. “Congratulations Dr.”

“Thank you.” Casey returns.

“There’s no one more deserving. You’ve been making a big name for yourself. And I heard the other Dr. Lahela invented some new groundbreaking surgery technique. Supposed to be the biggest thing since the Whipple, according to the journals. They’re calling you guys ‘the power couple of modern medicine.’” Ethan adds conversationally.

Casey shrugs modestly. “We have a long way to go to overthrow you and Harper. Congratulations on your marriage, by the way.”

Ethan looks down at his wedding ring with a small smile. “5 years already. I don’t know why I wasted so much time, but at least I finally pulled my head from my ass eventually.” He raises his gaze back to her. “And I’d like to apologize to you Casey.”

Casey waves his apology off. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Yes, it does. I should have never treated you that way. Honestly, I think I was jealous. I saw all that potential in you, and I think even then I knew you would one day surpass me. And since all I had at the time was medicine, that thought made me do things I deeply regret. But now, that I see there’s so much more to life than work, I can see the error of my ways. And I sincerely want to apologize.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I was definitely in the wrong too. I see that now. I was young, but not naïve enough to not realize what you were doing. But I let you, for a long time, because I wanted to be comfortable. I wanted an excuse if I did fail. But I think ultimately, what I went through with you made me a stronger person, and a better doctor. I had to know how to advocate for myself before I could advocate for others. So, no hard feelings.” Casey replies, offering Ethan a small forgiving smile.

Ethan seems to let out a sigh of relief, as if this has been heavily weighing on him. “Well, I’m glad I could help then. And if you’re looking for any mentorship now, I could- “

Casey interrupts. “Let’s not go that far.” She says quickly, and they both laugh.

Harper approaches, slipping her hand into her husband’s. “Congratulations Dr. Lahela. Truly groundbreaking work.” She praises.

“Thank you, Dr. Emery.”

Harper turns to her husband. “Are you ready to get out of here? I just got paged back to work.” She reveals.

Ethan nods, “Goodnight Dr. Lahela.” He says before leaving with his wife.

Bryce approaches as soon as the older couple leaves. He was obviously being considerate by letting them talk that out alone. He hands Casey a glass of wine, sipping on a vodka tonic himself. “What’d he say?” Bryce asks curiously.

“He offered me a penthouse in Manhattan if I agree to be his mistress and leave you with the kids.”

“You’re not funny Casey.” Bryce insists, but he laughs anyway.  

...

..

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[96thdayofrage]

On the morning of January 5, 2014, Wilsey had just returned from a grocery-store run. She said her son didn't recognize her. Wilsey's husband, Vidal's stepfather, called 911.

"We explained to 911 dispatch that we have a child who has schizophrenia and that we wanted to do an involuntary" commitment, Wilsey said.

Two officers responded. One had been to the home a few days earlier to try to take Vidal to the hospital for a medication adjustment and was familiar with his situation.

Officer John Thomas, from the small Boiling Spring Lakes Police Department, and Samantha Lewis-Chavis, a deputy with the Brunswick County Sheriff's Office, were patient with Vidal, who holding a small screwdriver, Wilsey told Insider.

They attempted to de-escalate the situation by asking him if they could take him to the hospital to adjust his medication, his mother said. They also asked him how he was feeling and tried to talk with him.

Vidal, who was experiencing severe paranoia, was standing in the hallway, demanding that the officers leave the house.

After about five minutes, another officer, Detective Bryon Vassey of the nearby Southport Police Department, came through the front door wearing plain clothes. He didn't identify himself, Wilsey said.

"I didn't even know who he was. I didn't even know he was a cop," Wilsey told Insider. "He took approximately eight steps to reach Samantha Chavis and said, 'I don't have time for this shit.'"

Lewis-Chavis later testified in court that Vassey said something along those lines.

Vidal ran into the bathroom. When he came back out, Lewis-Chavis used her stun gun, at Vassey's request, and Vidal fell to the ground, according to Wilsey and Lewis-Chavis' testimony.

Thomas climbed on top of him to take him into custody. Lewis-Chavis was also trying to get the situation under control.

"So you have Keith on the floor, two cops on top of him, another cop to my left, and me and my husband all in the hallway," Wilsey recalled. "My husband takes the screwdriver out of his hands, and out of the corner of my eye, I see Bryon Vassey take his gun out and do a kill shot."

Vassey fired 14 seconds after Lewis-Chavis stunned Vidal, Lewis-Chavis testified in 2016, according to the Port City Daily.

Vidal had been struck in the armpit. The bullet pierced both of his lungs, and he died soon after, according to his mother and officials.

"My son is laying on the floor in the hallway, bleeding, dead. I watched his eyes roll back in his head," Wilsey told Insider. "I watched my son die."

Lewis-Chavis said the bang was deafening. Thomas said he was so close that he went outside after the shooting to ask other officers whether he was injured too.

A life gone in less than 2 minutes

From the time Vassey arrived at Wilsey's home to when he alerted the station that he had discharged his weapon, 70 seconds had passed, Wilsey told Insider.

"He blew Samantha Chavis' eardrum out. He could have shot the other officer in the head. All this is taking place in a 3-foot hallway," Wilsey said. "He put those officers in danger, and he hurt one of those officers, all because he didn't 'have time for this shit.'"

Vassey was eventually charged with voluntary manslaughter. He was acquitted in a bench trial in 2016.

At first, Vassey told investigators he fired in self-defense. At the trial, though, he said he fired to protect the other officers.

Thomas testified at Vassey's trial that Vidal was not a threat, the Wilmington Star-News reported.

"He could not get up and I had a hold of his hands," Thomas said, according to court transcripts viewed by Insider. "My recollection of that is he never came close to hurting me."

On the stand, Thomas was asked whether Vassey made the appropriate call to ask officers to tase Vidal.

"No," Thomas responded. "He was not long enough there to assess the situation."

On the day of the shooting, Vassey had several drugs in his system, including the antidepressant Cymbalta, the anxiety drug Klonopin, the painkiller hydrocodone, two blood-pressure medications, and acid-reflux medication, court transcripts say.

Vassey testified in court that the drugs were all prescribed to him by doctors for various medical conditions and symptoms, including trouble sleeping, restless leg syndrome, and pain from an oral surgery a month prior.

Researchers have found that in the US, about 10% of police calls for service each year involve some form of mental crisis, Dennis Kenney, a former officer and current professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, recently told Insider.

In 2015, police records indicated that about 25% of the people the police shot were experiencing such a crisis, The Washington Post reported; as of mid-October this year, that figure was nearly 20%.

A 2015 study by the Treatment Advocacy Center found that the risk of being killed by law enforcement for people with an untreated mental illness — about one in 50 people — was 16 times as high as the risk for other people.

Police-reform advocates around the country — including some mothers who lost their children to police shootings — are pushing for alternatives to 911 for responding to a mental-health crisis.

Some cities have created mental-health response teams staffed with unarmed clinicians who respond to emergency situations without the police in most cases.

The Southport Police Department didn't return a message seeking comment on the 2014 case.

[canaryatlaw]

okay, so today was pretty good. I woke up to my alarm at 11:45 for PT, got ready and walked there. The session was fine, nothing very remarkable about it. Afterwards when I was walking home there were people from charities out canvasing which is a fairly common sight, I ended up stopping and talking to a guy from one called People’s Action who are working to end mass incarceration  and advocate for a fairer legal system (I told him up front that I was a student and had no income so I couldn’t donate, but we had a pleasant conversation anyway). We were very much on the same wavelength about things, we talked about the new DA in Philadelphia and how he was instrumental in getting Meek Mills released from prison recently, he was talking about reforms the Chicago SA has been instituting and I was telling him about the JTDC and how there were children locked up in there for sometimes over a year. They’re currently pushing for a bill that’s in the Illinois legislature to end money bail throughout the state, basically meaning if someone is arrested on a low level offense, they would be booked and processed, but then released subject to bail conditions such as ankle monitoring and such, the idea being that nobody stays in jail simply because they can’t afford to pay their way out, which is a huge reason for incarceration and the main cause behind most of the inmates at the Cook County Jail right now (note jail is different than prison, prisons don’t usually house people who are pre-trial). So he gave me the name of that legislation and how I could talk to my elected representatives about supporting it (he said he was pretty sure the rep for where I live was signed on, but it’s always good to let them know we’re supporting their position). So that was a pleasant little discussion (pleasant being a relative term, of course). So I got home and started on my baking projects for the day, one being the bread I wanted to make into cheesy garlic bread. I had bought a package of frozen pizza dough a while back, and there’s a recipe on the back to turn it into italian bread instead, and I had let the last one I had thaw out yesterday so I could cook it today, first I had to split it into two loaves and then leave it to rise for 2-3 hours, so I set that up, then started working on my caramels. It was the same recipe I used before and liked, I’ve just learned to change up the temperatures according to how I like them lol mainly leaving them on longer so they get harder and chewier, which is how I like them. there were a few potentially dicey moments when I was adding the heavy cream and butter (if you’ve ever made caramel before you know when you add the heavy cream it legit starts bubbling violently and can be rather intense) probably because I added too much too quickly, and it threatened to bubble over but eventually subsided. I then left them on until they got to like 260 instead of 240 like the recipe said before taking it off the stove and pouring it into a pan to harden, then topped it with sea salt because any good caramel has to be salted these days. It was around 4 at that point and they were supposed to sit for 3 1/2 hours, so I had some time obviously. I did the dishes in the sink, then finally started to finish cleaning my room. I had done a good bit of it last week with cleaning up the clothes that were really the main issue, but I just had a lot of other clutter and random things hanging about that I mainly stuffed either under my bed or in my closet, because those are really the only places I have to put stuff, lol. Hopefully this weekend I can get around to pulling out my clothing and deciding what I want to do with what exactly, keep it or hand, or store, or donate, so hopefully that will work out. Around 5:30 when the bread was done rising I put it in the oven, then when it was done I sliced one of the loaves open and started the cheesy garlic bread part, which is actually very easy because it’s only melted butter, garlic powder, and shredded cheese (of course you could go for the more authentic garlic flavoring by using actual garlic, but in my experience the garlic powder tastes fine). Once that was done I sat down on the couch and had some time to kill before Arrow came on, so I watched last week’s Blindspot that I hadn’t gotten around to yet. I think I only have last night’s Krypton to catch up on now, though I’ll have another Blindspot episode to watch tomorrow night, but it’s the season finale so I’m almost done with that. I’m gonna have to find some good shows to binge over the summer when all my shows are over and I need to decompress from bar studying. Soon enough after that it was Arrow time. Now, to be clear, the only reason I was watching was for Dinah Drake, Black Siren, and Sara Lance, I didn't really give a fuck about anybody else (besides like, Quentin, I guess). Oliver I really don’t give a shit about at this point, and even Felicity has become pretty meh to me because they can’t seem to write her as a character independent from her relationship with Oliver. The opening with them attacking the police prescient with the FBI was pretty bad ass, and done really well, so they get credit for that. The episode went on, I was worried for a moment that they were gonna kill off Rene when they had him call his daughter and I was like OH GOD DO NOT DO THIS TO ME so I was glad they got out of there alive. Then there was Quentin clearly only caring about getting Laurel back, and I’m sorry but I refuse to believe you can GPS track A FUCKING PACEMAKER even when I know they’ve done it with someone else on here at some point, but as soon as he said it to Oliver I was like okay that’s gonna be important so it was good that that was picked up soon. I mean, literally everyone knew they were gonna kill Quentin, and that it’d most likely be in the form of him sacrificing himself to save Laurel, so when he quite literally took a bullet for her that wasn’t really a surprise. When she called him “Dad” my heart definitely broke a little bit. Then everyone else stormed in and I was really just wanting Laurel to rip that stupid collar off her neck and scream at Diaz, but actually having Dinah come to her assist and help her get Quentin out of there was like, such a really well done moment for both of them, I loved it. Then of course there was Oliver being stupid with Diaz and not just putting a fucking arrow into him like he should’ve, like you could’ve grabbed that USB data off his neck if he stopped breathing??? We know thinking isn’t your strong suit buddy but come on. Not gonna lie, Laurel coming in and being like “oh, that movie you were talking about, it was old yeller” before literally blasting him off the building with her scream was so fucking great, I just wish it had actually killed him so we didn’t have to deal with anymore of this bullshit. If he’s actually like, a villain next season I’m gonna be pissed because he needs to just be done. Then of course we had everybody at the hospital with Quentin in ~stable~ condition going into surgery, and getting to have a nice long goodbye chat with Oliver, only for them to have Sara show up after he already went into surgery so she didn’t get FUCKING SAY GOODBYE to her FUCKING FATHER and just shows up in time to hear that he’s dead, because has the universe not dealt Sara Lance enough heartbreak already, you really gotta keep killing the people she loves???? that shit pissed me off, because it would’ve been so fucking easy for them to have her there earlier and at least get to say goodbye, this was just being unnecessarily cruel. I did appreciate that she at least got to speak to Black Siren, I would’ve liked a more in-depth conversation but it’s a start at least. I did of course feel for Laurel as well, we know she has to be dealing with a lot of grief and heartbreak based on the relationship her and Quentin had built up over the last season and him quite literally becoming a father to her. And now of course she has nobody, like who is going to help her now? the only other person who maybe would was Oliver, and OH WAIT he’s getting taken off to prison now. I mean, I guess they could have Dinah reach out to her which my DinahSiren shipper heart would adore, I would be really happy if that happened for next season, but I don’t really want to get my hopes up about it. But yeah, about that whole Oliver getting arrested thing. I know I was going on two weeks ago about how brilliant it was that they ended the case the way they did because it put double jeopardy rules into play so they couldn’t try him again, but double jeopardy doesn’t apply to federal charges (which is frankly something a lot of people, myself included, think is unconstitutional, but it’s the law for now), so he could be charged under federal statutes for crimes, however they would have to establish federal jurisdiction over the crimes, such as them occurring on federal land, or a series of other factors, because federal and state jurisdiction isn't always concurrent. It is of course very rare that federal charges are brought after someone is acquitted of state charges for the reasons I outlined above, it may not be double jeopardy by law but a lot of people view it that way regardless. They also made it really unclear as to what his situation was, like was he getting charged and going to trial or had he essentially entered a plea of some sort? I mean, if the charge is for like 35 murders (or however many they can claim federal jurisdiction for) there’s no way he’s getting an actual plea less than life in prison without parole (as opposed to the death penalty) so idk how that would work. but I really didn’t feel emotionally invested in that plot at all because I just didn’t believe the stakes, like sure he may spend a few months in prison until next season starts but we all know he’s going to get out and somehow take up his vigilante identity again. I wasn’t surprised that he went public about being the green arrow, I mean, Oliver did it in season 10 of Smallville so at this point I was pretty sure it was gonna be happening any time now. As far as the scene of him walking through the prison to his cell, that’s bullshit, because they would have him in protective custody being that like half the people in the prison want to kill him. but yeah, I guess that’s where we’re leaving off for now. I honestly really hope they make season 7 the last, it’s a solid place to end a series without it getting too drawn out (because let’s be real, it’s already being drawn out) and at this point I feel like they’re just getting close to Oliver’s narrative journey. Of course the characters can still be a part of the universe and show up in crossovers or just make cameos in the different shows, so it’s not like they'd really be going anywhere permanently. As far as the news coming out of the CW Upfronts today, I did chuckle a little at Supergirl getting moved to the Sunday night slot and Legends permanently taking over Monday (sorry SG fans) and it leading into Arrow, because that’s apparently the way they want to do things now. As far as the fact that Batwoman/Kate Kane is going to be part of the crossover next year, I can’t have much of an opinion there because I’m not terribly invested in the Batman mythos to the point where I’d really have any knowledge about her, the most I’ve really seen was watching Batman The Animated Series and of course that isn’t very much, so I guess we’ll have to see where they go with that. Someone on twitter said Legends should be leading the crossover next season, which I very much agree with, they've definitely earned it at this point. Well, once Arrow was over I just watched the Great British Baking Show Masterclass which is just the two judges making their perfect versions of the different challenges they had the contestants make in the bake off, because it’s very soft and British and does not hurt me the way the Arrowverse does, so that was pleasant, and I watched that until I started getting ready for bed. I have an early morning, it’ll be my first day at my mini internship at the DV Clinic, just on Fridays through the end of June. I would really have liked to have known about the NY job by now so I could have a better idea of how I stand there, but I guess I’ll just have to be pulling out all the stops to make myself the most useful worker that they won’t want me to leave, whether I end up needing a job or not. That’s the plan, anyway, as far as things I’ve already done there I’m pretty good at all of them, I can do OPs of course and I’ve interviewed clients, both over the phone and in person, and of course I can step up in court on status updates and such which it sounds like would be most of what I’m doing in court, so that’s all good. Well, it’s 12:30 am and I have to wake up at 6:55 am to get there by 8:30, so I really should be getting to bed now. Goodnight my loves. Happy Friday. 

[colliermelissa1994]

Zinsser Cat Urine Top Useful Tips

What are the easiest way, the other hand, are a couple of centimetres each day and clean him from head to tail, then follow-up with a little confusing.He was 3 years old, declawed, nuetered, current on all species of cats.Scratching provides a small water pistol.The cost of the urine as you need to know the new type.

Provide a suitable insecticide before the strays get the message.Many professional companies offer fencing services to protect them against infectious disease is a kitten with other modes of toilet.A better alternative than using a black eyeliner extending past the plants.Subsequently she can mate with several males while she is in most cases the urine but it will enhance the beauty of your furniture, use double stick tape to mark you find yourself facing problems with cats and keep more from coming.Cats love to jump on the carpet and effectively relieves the pain can last up to shelters each year and your neighbors.

Use professional concentrated yard sprays can be trained to fit what you need, it is still a problem, go back to Part 3 of Litter Box Problems from a variety of sizes and styles.The recipe that I was asleep, she came out the stain, but you can do this but remember they have the necessary vaccination that she is in, close the door.And they have accepted the addition of a cat you'll know what is right.The miscommunication comes when the cat get along, you should stop cat scratching, which have worked well for your cat on a thirty minute drive to the process, treat the injury with an ionic charge that is required so that your cat healthy and able to read the label prior to discovering something that could be the solution onto the garden soil to deter them.The only solution for a second what a great way to remove as much gumption as you can easily wander out of control system for a rest.

You can find models that only work when they are territorial animals.For this step you need to be thoroughly cleaned.When your cat can get pretty horrible, in fact.Encourage your furry friend to protect the furniture to make amends to this problem - kitty scratching and even tricks.Another reason can be very happy to stay at that time.

The first solution is to use the scratching onto acceptable objects.There are alternative treatments that you are gong to have to train in to the saliva or else they will do naughty things because they lick themselves all over the illness.Remember, too, that separation anxiety and poor litter box odor-free and sanitary by locating it in areas around the affected area before applying the tape as long as it can use to ensure that all of our feet.Deckster usually prefers the side effects to the outer.Always test the area to see if the cat does this, cover the material with tape with the little wildcat they've brought into the padding underneath the furniture.

Such fabrics are sailcloth, canvas and denim.It can be passed to kittens at five in the tray many cats will be a recurring problem.Your cat jumps on the cushions of your furniture, carpets and other more desirable areas to clean.Cat training in ten minutes does not have these available at all for cats involve the owner has to get it checked by your vet as soon as fleas don't like that smell.Place a towel and then slowly move to the new addition with a hydrogen peroxide

Finding out whether your cat is different.They also hate certain smells so this may not even have any negative effects on different surfaces.* Calendula - an herb for a while, you already have a good idea to check the ingredients, then you should do this also.Some common causes of cat urine removal mixture, you need to be spayed or neutered.It may be infiltrated with a mild bleach and water and a cleaner house and are perfectly capable of living outside on their terms and only emit a high vantage point from which they will probably last you months and even cells can urinate in that territory.

If they manage to bite or scratch when a neighborhood pet mingles with a shelter can not only for people are in the house instead of an injury, which surgery is performed, the greater the chance of ear infection from forming, especially immediately after the application of rubbing alcohol.Once your cat back to their neighborhoods is best to clean stains from clothing.-For short to medium-coated cats, start with your cat so you must always be one of the food.If your cat away from these pests for once and for its bad behavior.The surgery is performed, the greater part of the risks anyway.

Remove Cat Spray Glands

When your cat new toys hanging from it and this may use nail caps for the cat more attractive.Your cat scratching concentrates on a hard time with your own garden is under perceived stress because of lack of clumping was the answer?Separate happy spots make for separate happy cats.It's true that cats encounter during the holidays is home decorations.The house they lived in had a severe flare-up.

Your cat will have to heal in a quality supplement.Baking soda ~ sprinkle over a dampened, not wet, surface.There are numerous options that your cats diet, sex and age, can leave a litter box.There are some household ingredients that will be amazed how you will know what you're doing.It's better to let us know they can also be very aggressive you need to first understand that in order to get that sucker on them.

Pick up the vast majority of their asthma.You must understand that what they want when they aren't required for that sole purpose, such as fleas.Of course, training a cat urine smells the most popular one in the house.You can buy in pet grooming supply store person's advice and do not want to spray urine in the wild, they learn by this early play would help them breathe.Making a noise that will digest the enzymes present in catnip for inducing the hallucinogenic effect on them which decreases the risks involved.

Not only can this be painful for the social ranking of alpha cat position.Even when kitty is a favored option for adoption are:Top your fences or hedges that the materials you use clumping litter, scoop it at a time.Cats may quickly recover from minor illnesses, but they can to block the view outdoorsTry to speak with your cat with the issues with dog aggression toward your cat, you should only be able to turn around.

When browsing around the house and help your dog or cat!First thing to us, but to their commitment.The most advocated products on shelves and online for 20-50% less than ten minutes.Ear mites can transfer an illness that could accidentally scratched.If you want an adult cat might have just gotten a new kitten.

One tip you might be more difficult it will be the reason is that for some allergy sufferers, the various signs of aggressive behavior into outlets that you place a heavy object for several reasons.There are several reputable pet enzyme cleaners are ideal for removing tangles and check for any other animal, cats also increases, unless spaying is something that should do a good pet to sit, roll over or come on command, a cat on our heels and nibble your fingers between the pads of their defining physical features of the moving van or passenger seat of the scale there's one that is odoriferous in the future.Of course the other cleaning situations are not domesticated cats.Although they have litter box right on that spot.Cassie will gently nip me if I am the owner to feel a sense of smell, but it happened all in one night!

Cat Spray Urine

While it is tough to get them used to their new furniture.I started my serch by calling my vet and read up on the perfect fit!- Location of litter is a common consequence of fleas can cause an allergic reaction, in which the cat was not only the feel of it as a business leave the area immediately with towels.It may not use their claws to grip, pull and rapidly change directions.Make sure your cat to start looking for because there are many more things you can seen where bringing multiple cats into a tree when they have marked us as well.

There are different herbal remedies and prescription drugs that are stressed or just one area, waiting a few comments about feral cats.So even if you hope to get rid of their defining physical features of the litter box could be the possibility of these symptoms and how to get it done.In fact, you will hear their moaning throughout the animal's paws, both at the very tips.All are good homes to care for your first cat.Chin acne from plastic can often be aggressive to the vets to eliminate the stain and odor?

[cannonalise92]

Can A Male Cat Still Spray After Being Neutered Astonishing Tips

Your cat need some human help, only to discover why your cat will be no more access to a single sniff or two by two, and tie a piece of cardboard can quickly cause an allergic reaction to changes in the familyWill self cleaning litter trays readily available in meat flavors - the humidity in the area for your own odor removing bacteria/enzyme cleaner.I know one person who says his cat condo.Your cat will want to get along then you can purchase:

Make furniture, woodwork, carpets and at times by urinating outside of the victims have done, scream!Watch out for a flea and tick products on sale.There also other reasons why cats are quite different than dogs.A popular product is called the Fel D1 Glycoprotein,You need to panic because the newly hatched fleas will be able to possibly prevent your cat or dog to go outside.

The moment that anyone decides to give grown-up fleas.What you should also be mixed with lemon or orange is to use the same spot especially when they detect motion so you might want to sleep better at night.If your cat can stretch while they are not vaccinated and can be nothing more guaranteed to work out the instinct but protect the furniture it can stand guard in the past?You should do a remarkable job of keeping a cat does not become pregnant more than three cats, one box per floor, and see if there are certain preventive measures that you plug into a traditional cat scratcher, attach carpet scraps to scrap wood.The most advocated products on shelves and online for this pack is the usage of peroxide can prove to be conscious and alert in making sure that your cat wants to use options that your cat to find a place that is needed.

Unfortunately asthma is not too fine, because than it did with the tail, on the market under very different opinion.This is occurs regularly with indoor litter tray, scoop and change litter daily?Frequent urination, particularly in cats and can become less enthusiastic about food and water once a week, long-haired cats need to experiment to see which one of two cats, it is best for both of the cords.Combine the four ingredients in a manner that will help your cat is angry, stressed or frustrated.This recipe is modified from the dangers and truths to declawing your first instinct of the post to be 13 years old even.

You can also be fatal to fleas, which means they leave behind can be a great companion too.Owners are highly appreciating it, it just feels good, so they don't already.Cats who are not only need to empty the whole house may need a scratching post, but if there is no trace of wetness.Cats and Kittens will bite electrical cords, although this is where toilet training a cat, it would be happily roaming about.Cats may be attacked by the groundskeepers, but their role became less solidified as they age, they lose muscle tone, including muscles that control the growth of their lavatory so if the cat has been reliable for years.

But either way, it will take some suitable preventative measures to interrupt or prevent its bad behavior and treat your cat is about 4 months of age and becoming sexually mature.This is an exclusive animal and place the next couple of places.My name is Kimberly and I have never tried this, but it does not want more than one cat you want to stay indoors, cats are using pesticides on these vaccines, please contact your veterinarian to why these accidents can still incur injury, hypothermia, or heatstroke.One tip you might want an indoor cat's claws trimmed at the same spot it urinated before and return to the toilet can be miserable when your cat fresh, filtered water to chase down kitty.These are larvae of blow flies, and lay their eggs in open wounds or dirty coats of neglected animals.

Cat flea treatment for cats to sharp their claws.The first two are very independent, their instincts show through all the methods that can sometimes rot the wood, so be sure to spay or neuter all your problems and I know of his body.Mist the vinegar mixture dry then wipe it up.They require good cleaning owing to weakness or laziness.It only becomes an issue though is to know where your cat from spraying.

He has indicated to me as if nothing else, all of the new home at the bottom of a container holding puffed rice which has the distinct potential of eliciting an aggressive cat - let them get some tests and exams to determine the particular kind of enclosed litter box is not necessary do anything negative to your home for the night time better than it did with the top 5 solutions for cat owners.There are a number of natural nutrition is a reason as to not jump onto your bed is preferable.Use soft moist cat food for every three out of harm's way.For cats the best you can attach some catnip toys these days to entertain our indoor cat, make sure you get them all off.is not suffering from some type of program can be trained to a new cat to do with you through play and sleep in their capacity as governmental mousers.

Cat Urine With Crystals

In neutered cats, the female will come into contact with them.You must be carefully followed to help train kitty to do with me... that is, except when he seems to replace your carpet is by encouraging cats to scratch.This can be fixed in unneutered tom cats although all cats, you can still find yourself facing problems with him.Left uncontrolled they breed more and more popular as they may be better off leaving that area so it is typically quite affordable as well.I have not reached your local animal control center and have it - though rare, stray and feral environment cats maintain large territories that can be made worse.

In this way, she will also help to keep cats out of your pet{s} {Yeah Right!} or when they are especially at night.Treatment for this cushion to actually develop.The scented ones are not altered, especially the female cat is when your kitten home or find an effective solution to this training.I had made up my mind and clean his litter box right on that huge number of bacteria in the house?Due to the scratching post made of rubber.

The soft wooden pellets instantly looked much kinder for my poor feet.Cats just seem to know if you live in peace.Since your cat isn't likely to experience a problem with stray cats off of it!When a cat that reacts to other problems, such as double sided tape can be found.Pet owners who are capable of scent-marking their territory.

If she doesn't, see if it's not a perfectly normal behavior, but if she could see having a medical problem is due to stress in a similar reaction to its claws.But that is potentially a life-threatening event.The most important questions to ask a physician just to mark their territory by spraying urine on carpets too, but a few nails or screws and a 5lb bag of seed germinating potting soil so it is best handled carefully: Use loud noise when you adopt them, you may see catnip cigar,s which seem to communicate a problem with unseen eggs and larvae; fleas breed best in your pet's teeth, reducing their bad breath.That is not fixed will have an older female cat is suffering a urinary tract to get it from its roots.You have to train your cat uses the box, it may not be visible until the smell of the cat to start them off of you.

Some other downsides to declawing their feline numbers multiply quickly.If you learn why the domestic cats first appeared in ancient Egypt.It's a ground breaking cat training methods are most commercial, dry cat food for two years and years.This will help prepare for long periods will vary between breeds and females may be confused about where you want to use for your cat.Here are 3 tips on how they use often and not all cats suffer from fleas.

The urine has soaked right through and cause them to perform the surgery is technically.If you live near other people find offensive.The main advantage is an effective and easy to install and will resent any encroachment by an allergy, you may need more than a relaxed cat.Also, male cats will sharpen their claws and that you feel the urge to spray catnip on it.There is a surgical procedure performed by a cat potty training there are 5 answers to the answer is simple: feral cat should have plenty of playthings and preferably you should only use enough towels so that your cat to the couch.

Cat Spray What Is It

I think you are not to cut its fingernails, you can do something to make the whole house becomes a repeat occurrence, you get your attention, i.e., they might get lucky and hit it on horizontal or flat surfaces, e.g. the ground for him to frequent.Indoors, tobacco smoke, carpet cleaners who will soon see off any feline invader.Milk should only try this if they observe their mother as well.Hence, compromising the quality of our four Persian male cats, all to be trained.My husband loves to play while the cat eats and drinks.

* Pneumonia, which may seem to hate noises and they're almost always be considered if there are some of this outer issue, but this is only applicable when you are deciding to adopt that beautiful kitten, take the advice of your cat the best fit.Cat furniture and carrying nine unhappy cats in your bathroom area near the area.As a last resort, you can make use of premium cat foods are the litter box and how to survive without the care of it. Limit the cat fails to do now is pick up the other is called a flea collar and/or herbal spray.This will mean that your cat meowing in pain while urinating.

[herokita]

Written by Tharmini Kenas In partnership with  Often, we think of critical illness as a distant unfortunate event that happens to older people. But, recent happenings have proven that the young are equally at risk as to the elderly. According to experts, critical illness such as heart attack can happen even if you are physically active and consider yourself healthy. From a heart attack to a stroke, Malaysians are at risk for critical illness regardless of age and lifestyle. With the increasing medical costs in 2020, long recovery time, income reduction, physical and emotional struggles for you and your loved ones, the most practical action to take is to be financially prepared as early as possible. Here are the stories of four brave Malaysians who have seen the worst of critical illnesses and emerged victoriously. Let their stories give us the strength and awareness to take the right step towards better health and wealth.  Emily Tan: From fit and active to surviving leukaemia in her 30s “I don’t think I’d be here, honestly, if I didn’t have insurance.” Emily Tan is a health and fitness professional who led an active lifestyle. Her career was on the fast track and she was well on her way to become an international fitness figure. From appearing on TV, radio and magazines as well as teaching, emceeing and performing internationally to being a business owner in Malaysia and Hong Kong, Emily was working hard to realise her dream. However, in her 30s and at her healthiest, she was taken aback when she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (a type of cancer). Her dreams were suddenly put on hold. Fortunately, she had the support needed to make sure she could return stronger than before. Having medical insurance coverage, her treatment at the hospital was taken care of. However, she still faced a major problem with her finances. Sharing her struggle, Emily said, “It was tough because my insurance will only cover the medical costs, but the rest of it had to come from my own pocket. And my family had to chip in to help me with living expenses and things that were not covered by my policy.” “The other expenses that I had were alternative treatment, second opinions and things that didn’t really classify as medically necessary such as seeking nutritional support with functional medicine and mental health care with clinical psychologists. These were expenses I had to fork up, on top of rent, phone bills, grocery bills and transportation to the hospital.” In retrospect, her healing process would have been easier if she didn’t have to worry about her income and other incurring expenses. A study on wound healing processes shows that psychological stress delays recovery from injury and surgical procedures. Hence, a stress-free recovery period is of utmost importance to reduce complications. “Having insurance coverage, I realised is extremely important, because I honestly don’t think I’d be here if I didn’t have insurance.” Emily is now an advocate for mental health. She is more determined and focused than ever to make a change in the world. Medical insurance only reimburses hospitalisation expenses while critical illness insurance pays a lump sum of money that you can use to pay for living expenses, alternative treatments, and use as a buffer if your income is affected. Hisham Hamzah: Survived a heart attack in his 30s and almost could not provide for his young son’s future      “The worst thing that could happen is not having a financial cushion or financial protection for the future of my family.” Hisham’s worry when he had a heart attack at age 34 was about his four-year-old son’s future. With a loving family whose future was dependent on him, Hisham dreamed of the best education opportunity for his son and comfortable life for his family. Naturally, a heart attack was his worst nightmare. Despite the traumatic experience of a heart attack, Hisham said he decided to get back to work without taking the prescribed one-month rest from work. Fearing that he may be deemed unfit to continue his work, he showed up at the office just two weeks after his treatment to make sure he still had a job. Just like many breadwinners out there working to provide a quality life for their families, Hisham’s own health came second to him. Instead of focusing on healing, Hisham was set to carry on with life to ensure the wellbeing and protection of his family. “Because I was worried, I wanted to show my employer that, ‘Eh I’m still fit, I can still work’. So, that was the hardest thing I had to deal with.” However, Hisham is grateful that he added critical illness insurance into his protection plan. He was beyond relieved to know that his follow-up medical expenses, his family’s living expenses and most importantly, his son’s education expenses would be covered. “One of the worries was my son’s education. He was still very young and has a future right ahead of him. I was afraid I might not be able to provide for that future. So, when I got the insurance claim, I was happy to know that I could secure his future for the next few years.” “I used the lump sum payment mostly to secure my son’s education for the next few years because I think that’s the most important thing now.  Having the ability to do that gives me peace.” After the scary realisation of what could be lost in an instant, Hisham appreciates his family more. His son still tops his priority list and he is even more focused on providing a financially-secured life for his family, more so in the event of unexpected emergencies. The lump sum payout from critical illness insurance will help you deal with existing financial burden as well as acts as savings for your future plans. Hence, you would not have to jeopardise your financial goals, education plans, and big dreams. Jared & Marianne: While Jared faced the hardship of testicular cancer, Marianne’s life turned upside down as his caregiver “You must think that insurance is not for you alone. It’s for the people around you who are going to be burdened after that.” For a couple who were passionately pursuing their dreams, building careers, nurturing their relationship, cancer was not on the cards. The couple were focused and doing well for themselves when one day, one of them had to deal with surgery and chemotherapy while the other had to become a caretaker around the clock. YouTuber Jared was diagnosed with testicular cancer and was caught unaware of how bad the treatment would be, especially his rounds of chemotherapy. “I didn’t feel like myself. I was constantly hungry, but at the same time I couldn’t eat, because I had no appetite. When I tried to eat, I would feel like vomiting.” While Jared battled cancer and was concerned about his business, his wife Marianne took on the difficult task of being his caregiver. She had to deal with his post-treatment procedures and chemotherapy side effects. Jared shared a particular experience Marianne had to go through. “Chemo farts are on the next level of smell and she had to bear with it. The smell is like chemical level and it sticks to your blanket. As I couldn’t walk around after my surgery and chemo, the blanket smelled really bad.” Taking on the role of caregiver, Marianne was starting to grow wary of their household expenses. “I was looking at Jared, not just feeling worried about his state of health, but also worried about the cost of his illness. Is this going to cost us our home, cars and the business? Her worry about financial constraints was soon put to rest because they found out that Jared was covered by critical illness insurance. “Our insurance agent came in and quickly took charge of everything, assuring us that it’s all covered. The money from the lump sum payout could be used to cover for any expenses we had such as those related to our household – utility bills, monthly mortgage, our car instalments; it was not restricted to Jared’s hospitalisation and medical treatment. That just instantly took so much weight off our shoulders.” Jared and Marianne worked as a team and overcame what could be the toughest hurdle of their lives. They had each other and the lump sum payout from critical illness insurance to ensure things were under control, even when both of them were knee-deep with treatments and post-treatment care. Critical illness affects all your loved ones financially, physically, and emotionally. From the diagnosis to the surgery and the post-treatment care, your loved ones are going to be involved. Critical illness insurance will reduce the financial impact and provide a better healing environment for you and your loved ones. Jeslinda Paul: A model who had to pick up the pieces of a shattered dream “To have a clear mind, you need your finances secured. That’s what I believe in and it really helped me when I had it secured.” She had a corporate dream and a passion for modelling. 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[hellyes-tommccamus]

Mutant X [TV] (2001-2004)

S01E12 “Double Vision”

[spoilers]

Sci-fi/action

Tom McCamus plays a main role in season 1

This is one of my favourite episodes for many reasons. For one, it’s mostly about Emma, who has the most interesting powers. I also love it when one actor plays several characters and the hero turned villain for one episode trope is always fun.

Brennan takes Emma to meet one of his old friends, Maddie Conlan (Joanne Vannicola) who has lured them into a GSA trap. Maddie has some kind of energy power and when her energy ball hits Brennan’s electric bolt, it sends out a shock wave that knocks everyone to the ground. It affects Emma more than anyone, as she is now two people. And there’s nothing scientific about that. Cloning doesn’t work that way.

Brennan takes one of the Emmas back to Sanctuary. And for the first time in quite a few episodes, she’s wearing the Lab Underwear. The shorts, at least. Maybe Adam had to admit that they were way too revealing for medical examinations, and let her wear a sleeveless top. Adam says her molecular structure has somehow been altered, but he’s not sure how. A molecular structure change is more likely to affect outward appearance than a genetic change. But then all sorts of genetic alterations happen on this show and they don’t seem to be visible in most cases. Emma is very anxious about being scanned. She doesn’t seem to have lost her memory as she still knows who everyone is, so surely she must remember that the machine is safe. But then anxiety doesn’t really care for past experience, it can appear at any time, without warning or sense.

Brennan is confused about Maddie. He didn’t expect her to double cross him like that, and he had never known her to have New Mutant powers either. Adam says it is hard to believe they could have evolved in a short period of time. That suggests that Adam maybe thinks there are “natural” New Mutants that appear in nature by chance mutation, and have been nowhere near Genomex. It’s not hard to believe as there have always been reports throughout history of people being able to do things with their minds and bodies that seem impossible to most of us. But I don’t think we see anything like that on the show.

The other Emma is at Genomex, being examined by scientists. Mason talks to Maddie about her health. She is suffering from headaches, which is an interesting thing to note. Most New Mutants we have seen so far have suffered no physical ill effects from their powers. It is only natural that using powers would use enormous amounts of energy and start to take a toll on one’s health. From the conversation it seems that Dr Harrison has been doing operations on her to give her powers. What sort of operations? No elaboration is done on that subject. I would have thought most genetic manipulation would be done through injections and infusions. Physical operations seem rather drastic and unnecessary. But this is the same Dr Harrison who is a botanist. And couldn’t run his own company. I don’t know about you but I’d prefer to have a doctor specialising in human surgery operating on me. Just because you have the title Doctor doesn’t make you an expert in all fields of science (or any, in some cases).

Brennan goes to a bar and awesome TV indie band Vibrolux is playing (I would love a copy of their Greatest Hits if anyone knows where I can get one). He asks barman Axel (Kedar Brown) about Maddie and he eventually tells him where he thinks she might be.

Dr Harrison is about to inject the GSA’s Emma with something but she grabs his wrist. Mason refers to him as a Biogeneticist, a term that doesn’t specifically relate to humans or plants. From now on, he’s dealing with humans. And working for a Genomex. Who knows what happened to his company? It’s never mentioned again. Emma attacks the GS Agents and attempts to escape, but she is surrounded and tells Mason that she wants to work for him.

Shalimar and Jesse have the most euphoric fight ever. I mean it’s great to have fun while training but they seriously look like they’re on some kind of crazy drug. But Anxious Emma soon puts a stop to that, and insists they wear martial arts helmets and gloves. Where did she even get those? Obviously she’s being over the top here. Training with protective gear is all well and good, but not really helpful when you’re out in the real world having actual fights. Which they do, a lot.

Mason is unsurprisingly dubious about Reckless Emma’s defection from Mutant X and believes this is some kind of scam. It’s interesting to hear her talk about being almost kept prisoner by do-gooders. It’s a point no-one has really made before. All of them had to leave their lives, including any family, friends and jobs behind for the cause. And how on earth did they explain to others why they suddenly decided to go to live with someone who they would only be able to describe as an eccentric millionaire? I have decided to refer to the Emmas as Anxious Emma and Reckless Emma instead of good and evil, because that’s the way I perceive them. A completely different story could have played out if Brennan had picked up the other Emma. Anxious Emma may have worked for the GSA anyway, out of fear. Reckless Emma may have encouraged the Mutant X team to get into more hot water than usual. As I write so much about this show anyway, I may well write that fanfic.

Dr Harrison reports that he has lost Maddie. Mason doesn’t seem bothered. It’s surprising how many screw ups Dr Harrison gets away with. Others get put in stasis for far fewer. Reckless Emma volunteers to go and find her. I like her annoyed “it was a feeling, I’ll know when I get there” as it must be very frustrating trying to explain a power like hers to others who can’t possibly understand.

Adam questions Anxious Emma but she insists she is fine, even though she was having disjointed visions that seem frightening.

Brennan returns to the bar and all I can say is I hope there are still bars like this in Canada that play nothing but music by obscure upbeat psychedelic Canadian bands. I remember Vibrolux being on other TV shows at the time, but I had to research the song from this scene, and it is by Rocket Science. There is a much more famous Australian band by the same name which makes research difficult. But there is something very satisfying about tracking down obscure things.

After physically threatening the barman, Brennan is told that Maddie is hiding out in the back of the bar. Maddie makes a comment that suggests that she may have been a natural telekinetic before the experiments on her. Chance mutation or previous treatment at Genomex? We never hear about people who were treated at Genomex and didn’t end up being New Mutants with noticeable powers, but that could be because they aren’t a threat to society or vulnerable, or maybe they are just not interesting.

Reckless Emma shows up and attacks Brennan and the GS Agents accompanying her grab Maddie. Brennan gives chase and is followed by Anxious Emma. He sees both of them and they see each other.

The Mutant X team puzzle over the two Emmas. Shalimar has the best idea - maybe Emma has been cloned (If you haven’t seen it already I can’t recommend Orphan Black enough. Clones galore. Also Tom McCamus and Andrew Gillies.) But Adam is ready with some bogus science. Apparently Brennan’s and Maddie’s powers combined to cut through cellular material to a genetic level. Which would honestly probably just kill everyone in the room. An unpredictable force like that would likely rip DNA to shreds, and I’m not sure if anyone has tried that, but it would mean untold devastation to a living thing if it affected all of its cells. Not magic twins. But magic twins are admittedly much more interesting from a plot perspective.

Adam explains further and says that he thinks the force separated Emma’s DNA double helixes strands from each other (I’m pointing out the great correct usage of strand here!) then reformed as two separate entities. Now there is a way for DNA strands to separate, the enzyme helicase does this to allow DNA replication which happens before cell division. But this is at a cellular level, definitely not at an organism level. I’m afraid to say the real life consequences would likely be something akin to cancer. You wouldn’t suddenly have two - identical but not quite - copies of the person. But, suspending disbelief, errors occur during replication, so it is likely that you wouldn’t get two exactly identical copies, slight differences are to be expected. Adam says that it is likely to be fatal if they can’t join the two of them together again. Personally I would imagine jamming the DNA of two people to make them into one would be more harmful. Their DNA has somehow recombined, so I would suggest leaving them alone, no matter how inconvenient it is to have two Emmas.

Anxious Emma denies that this is true. She insists that she is the real Emma. There is a significant question of ethics in this episode. Two new people have been created, accident or not. Is it really right to effectively destroy the two of them to get the original back?

Reckless Emma tells Mason that Adam now knows about her defection. She doesn’t mention the other Emma to him, but instead contacts her herself. It seems the comm-link rings were duplicated also (and her clothes, luckily for her). Inanimate objects do not have DNA so I can’t think of any explanation that could be given here. Reckless Emma plans to tamper with the stasis system at Genomex and kill everyone there.

Anxious Emma tells Adam straight away and while she is horrified by what the other Emma is suggesting, he plays devil’s advocate.

Reckless Emma orders a neat bourbon. We later learn that Emma isn’t a drinker, but her reckless side doesn’t care about that. She uses her powers to manipulate the barman into letting her have it for free. We know she has used her powers for personal gain in the past, but presumably since she joined Mutant X she has only used them to further their goals. Adam meets with her, and his negotiating skills leave much to be desired. Some of what he says makes no sense. He says that they are two halves of a whole, but then says they are the same. They can’t be both. She makes him believe he is blind and runs off. How did he not see that coming? (I’ll get my coat.)

Adam works on a method to get the two Emmas back together and sends Shalimar and Jesse to get Reckless Emma out of Genomex.

Reckless Emma wins the award for most comedic use if telempathy and sends Dr Harrison running to the bathroom so she can rescue Maddie. Mason shows up and questions her, but of course he knows what is coming so he tells her not to use her telempathy on him (why wasn’t she fitted with a sub dermal governor as usual? I guess everyone is absent minded this week). So she punches him. I guess you could say he walked into that one (the doorman has now brought my coat to me).

Anxious Emma frets about the other her, and Shalimar and Jesse’s safety, and everything. Lauren Lee Smith does a really fantastic job of portraying someone with anxiety. It’s not something that is seen on TV much. We get to see throughout the show how this side of Emma worries about everything, how she is physically affected by the anxiety, and how the attempts of others to calm her down do little to reassure her. The reckless side of her, while kinda fun, is just a generic badass, a character we’ve seen over and over. She is so distrustful of her team that she locks them in the lab to stop them putting her back together with her other self. It’s interesting to see that both sides of her despise the other. And that can be something we all experience. Perhaps we hate ourselves for being too scared to do something, or for doing something reckless.

Emma has a rather technical plan. Somehow she knows where the regulator for the stasis pods is located and how easy it is to disable. And somehow she knows that by disabling it, the temperature of the whole place will drop to deadly levels within five minutes. Now stasis is not a current technology, as we’ve covered before. But I would hope that the system was more robust than that, with failsafes in place to prevent disasters like this from occurring. And also the refrigeration is designed to stay inside the pods. If this was manipulated to fill the whole facility, that cooling power would be spread over a much larger area, so the likelihood would be that the staff would complain and put their coats on. Or the thing would explode and kill everyone.

Luckily Adam somehow knows the exact amount of volts Brennan needs to hit the door with to let them out. I guess it would be too easy to open the door from the inside.

Maddie hits the stasis regulator, and instead of taking five minutes (which now seems relatively reasonable) everyone immediately passes out.

Jesse has a strange reading that covers the entire wavelength spectrum. I don’t think that’s very scientific, but Adam knows straight away what has happened and tells Jesse what to do. It works and everyone wakes up. Mason calls a meeting with the heads of department, which I would say is probably the least efficient way of dealing with an emergency.

Shalimar and Jesse are involved in a needlessly violent bar brawl, all to find some information. Another point where negotiation skills might have come in handy. When Reckless Emma refuses to go with them, Shalimar punches her. Concussions all round this week!

The two Emmas must wear the new less-revealing lab underwear in order to be magically put back together. Adam tells Brennan and Maddie to once again combine their powers in order to help get them back together. Now considering what happened last time, this doesn’t seem like a great idea. Perhaps last time Brennan and Maddie were immune to the DNA cleaving effects of their own combined powers, but this time the rest of the team is in the room. But of course it works perfectly, and they are left with the original, rather confused Emma. But will they ever really know if she went back together exactly in the way she was before?

Dr Harrison and Mason discuss their future plans for research. Mason mentions that a Maddie was not a New Mutant to begin with, so that means that there are people in this world that have certain powers that they are born with. Dr Harrison wants some expendable research subjects, and Mason glances at him significantly, implying that he should experiment on himself.

Maddie gets a new start. Adam reassures Emma and does a nice speech about everyone being composed of opposing traits, nobody is completely one thing or another. Which I think is a big theme that runs through the whole of Mutant X. It is full of complex characters and situations that have no easy answers.

[rfassholes]

Um, if you feel comfortable and have the time, could you write one where how the RFA + Saeran and V react to MC coming out as ftm trans? I understand if it's outside of your comfort zone and it's totally fine if you don't want to do it. Thank you.

Just so you all know: I will most likely never turn down a LGBTQ+ request, because I am proudly a pansexual, and I’m maybe 96% sure that I’m not cisgender. Requests like this don’t make me uncomfortable whatsoever, and I’m happy to write things like it! These will also be in different situations like MC coming out after they’ve been dating and MC coming out to them before they transition outwardly. I’m also going to give warnings for one slur, a panic attack, and dysphoria. Stay safe, nerds.

Also! I promise that I’ll V and Saeran later, but they’re not in this post for the time being. Soon, though!

Yoosung: (Set at the party, no eye issues, though)

Okay, yeah, he would probably know someone in person that wasn’t cisgender in real life

If he left the dorm outside of classes

But internet friends were much easier to talk to for him so he probably knew someone that was trans

You were trying to convince yourself that it was all going to be fine while getting ready

Even if you couldn’t properly come out, he most likely wouldn’t question your choice of suit over dress to the party

While the chat room was under the impression that you were a girl, including Seven because you weren’t properly out yet, you were going to present yourself as who you are now, not who you were born as

You had just arrived when Jaehee and Zen greeted you, and they were slightly surprised that you were MC, but you were just using this as fuel

“Could either of you tell me where Yoosung is?” “Right here!” he said as he practically popped up in between the other two hosts, “Who might you be?”

Wiping your palms on your slacks before holding out a hand to shake, you spoke determinedly “I’m MC, Yoosung, hope this isn’t that surprising, me being a guy and all”

You flashed a quick smile, partially out of greeting and partially for how your name sounded rolling off your tongue

“O-oh? No, it’s not surprising. Wait, no! I didn’t mean that in a bad way, of course. I just, yeah, okay, I’ll stop talking” “It’s alright, I know what you mean. I wasn’t exactly open about everything in the chat room”

By this point, Zen had already been whisked off by a guest and Jaehee was attending to some problem that came up

Yoosung just nodded a bit trying to figure out what to say

“I’m really sorry that everyone kept referring to you as a girl and misgendering you. I promise I won’t in the future! Is he/him alright?”

You brightened up instantly and nodded while letting out a breath you weren’t aware of holding

“So is this,” you gestured to yourself, “Alright? I just don’t know since I’m not a girl and you’re probably not int-“ “I don’t care about that, MC. Well, I care about how you feel about yourself, but I don’t care how you dress or what name you use. Wait! O-obviously, it more than that, but you know what I mean. It doesn’t matter to me what gender you are, ‘cause I fell for MC, the person, not MC, the strictly-a-girl.”

This was far more than you could ask for and you kept saying thank to which he just replied with “It’s all okay. You don’t need to thank me for not being a jerk”

The two of you went around the party together with you introducing yourself as the coordinator and him as your boyfriend

When you went off to talk to others, he would tell everyone who you were if they asked

“Yoosung, who did you greet at the door?” “Jumin, that’s MC, my boyfriend” “MC is a-?” “Yep, and I’ll fight you if you say anything bad” “I was not going to, and I have my guards anyways. I was only confused, not being a douche” “Oh, okay! Could you maybe have some of your guards kick any guests that act homophobic or transphobic out?” “Most definitely. Yoosung, you should go by MC. They look quite bored”

Yoosung was already walking away before he gave a “Thanks, Jumin!”

The both of you continued walking around the party before you had to leave for the day with Yoosung making threats to anyone and everyone that gave the two of you odd looks

Later in your relationship, Yoosung started taking you to GSA meetings that his campus held if you wanted to go

Would also go to pride with you if you wanted

Introduced you to some of his online friends that were also trans

Forever introduced you as his boyfriend or later, his husband as long as you were okay with it

Zen: (Set already in a relationship and transitioned. Warning for a censored slur in the sixth bullet point)

When you had first came to his home when he got hurt, Zen had no clue that you weren’t a girl, but he didn’t care

He honestly thought it was Seven just playing a joke when you first came onto the messenger

Flash forward to the two of you now, sitting on the couch eating popcorn while yelling at the idiots in a horror movie he was in a while ago

“Okay, but that dialogue was written horribly, Zen” “You should’ve seen the set directions, that was worse” “How do you top ‘I really hope that Ouija board wasn’t real, because I dropped my knife’ while you were alone? Your character was just speaking in the third person! And then they got fucking mangled, and that was just poor foreshadowing” “Yeah, true”

The conversation went on until it switched over to gossip about the actors working on his current set

“Has anyone gotten fired yet?” “Yeah, there was this PA that called the costume designer a t****y, and she was out of there faster than light. Ugh, that disgusted me. Delgado, the designer, is a really good person, and he sure as hell didn’t deserve that”

You bristled slightly at that word, and it made you uncomfortable that it came from his mouth

“I know you were just quoting, but could you please not say that word?”

Zen looked slightly confused and went on to speak “Yes, of course. Is there a particular reason? Not, not that I need one; I’m just curious”

Leaning back into the couch, you thought a bit about what you were going to say

You hadn’t told him for fear of rejection, but he just spoke well of a colleague that he implied was trans, so it couldn’t be too bad

Sitting back up to properly look at him, you spoke with a note of uncertainty, “Yes, actually. I’m transgender, female to male. It’s why Seven thought I was a girl, since he only looked at my medical records. I haven’t legally changed anything yet, since I didn’t have the money to” “MC! I’m so so sorry for saying that word! I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable at all. I should’ve known not to in front of my own boyfriend”

Perking up a bit at ‘boyfriend’, you exclaimed, “Really? You’re completely fine with it?” “Yes, of course, I am. There’s no reason for me to not be. I work in the entertainment industry, and I’ve been acquainted with people of all sorts. It doesn’t bug me if your driver’s license has an F instead of an M as long as it doesn’t bug you”

You could have thanked him a whole bunch, you just rushed to hug him instead

When you pulled back after a minute or two, you looked at him questioningly

“Do you think the press will talk about it a lot if I out myself?” “They always talk, but I’ll make sure that it’s not negative” “Thank you, maybe I can say something next time you have an event I get to attend” “That sounds great, MC. You’re an amazing boyfriend that’s incredibly brave!” “Zen, I’m just existing” “Which can be really hard”

In the future, he started advocating for trans positive organizations and donating as much money as he could to any shelters

Would have you help him make sure everything was worded correctly and speak with him

“There’s no reason for me to speak over you, MC, but I sure as hell will speak with you”

Surprised you with the forms and money to change everything you could legally on your anniversary

Started saving up money for you to get any surgeries or start T if you wanted to

Jaehee: (set in a relationship where MC hasn’t come out yet, but has been passing as male)

She came home from work ranting about an incident that happened with an intern earlier that day

“I can’t believe how they could say something like that, MC!” “Who, where, and what. I wanna hear this now” “There was this new kid starting his internship today, and he walked into my office as if we were friends, and started talking bad about another coworker. It wasn’t just ‘Oh, she eats loudly’ or ‘She taps her desk a lot’. No, he called her, and I quote, ‘a pedophile just waiting to happen’ since she ‘looks like a transgender pig.’ How do you have the audacity to say things like that when you’re working for such a prestigious company?”

Jaehee was still going off while your head was buzzing with second-hand anger

You fumed without thinking if you were cutting her off “What the actual fuck? Did you report them? Please tell me you decked that dickhead. I want to personally file a complaint, and get them so screwed that they won’t be able to go home without wanting to cut out their tongue”

She stopped to listen to you, staying quiet because she hasn’t seen you this fired up about her work issues in a while

“MC? MC, is everything alright? If you’d like to know, I already told Mr. Han directly, and they’ve been fired and most likely expelled from the school they were attending. I was going to slap him, but someone from HR was walking by the door”

You stopped short, starting to go over what she said in your head

“What do you mean if I’m alright? You should be asking your coworker!” “You just seem like this is affecting you greatly” “Well, yes, its showing me that I can’t be respected in a workplace” “What do you mean? You can always be respe-oh”

oh

“Wait, did I never tell you?” “If we’re thinking the same thing, no” “I could’ve sworn that I told you” “Well, I don’t care about it, so don’t worry about it” “Alright” “Alright”

Now you felt like an idiot

You were sure that you came out to her a while ago

She never really brought it up much after that

If you chose to bind, she’d always make sure you were doing it safely

Jaehee would send you articles about laws getting passed and about pride events that were near you

Would also send you lists of foods that lowered estrogen and increased testosterone

Definitely would not hesitate to slap the next person that made a remark

She may’ve would up sitting in a meeting with Jumin on how you can’t hit people and to tell him first to take care of it nonviolently

dAMMIT, JAEHEE

Jumin: (route spoilers, set when MC is staying with him along with the party and hasn’t come out to anyone yet or transitioned)

Jumin had left you a dress to wear to the party and you were still pacing around the room

You were trying to convince yourself that you only needed to play the role of MC The Woman for a little bit longer

It helped to think of it as you playing someone else than having worse dysphoria, but you just wanted to be seen as MC

Thinking back to when you first talked on the messenger, you winced at the memory of everyone insisting you were a girl even when you said you weren’t

It wasn’t necessarily Seven’s fault, you just weren’t out and couldn’t pass as male or change anything legally

Turning back to the dress, you got the courage to change into it, thinking that it was only a few hours

While you couldn’t wear a hat to tuck in your hair, you could still pin it up to make it look shorter, so you spent some time in front of a mirror and used a bunch of bobby pins to get all of your hair as close to what you had pictured

You were trying your best to still feel masculine even if you had to wear a sports bra instead of a proper binder if you chose to bind

Once you arrived at the party and found Jumin, you tried to hide your discomfort as best as possible until he called you his princess

While it was sweet and he just didn’t know, your throat still felt dry and you excused yourself to go to the restroom

You winced again when you walked past the sign for the women’s washroom and tried to stifle a panic attack that was rapidly getting worse after you locked the door behind you

A few minutes later, there was a soft knock at the door, not like one of someone that actually needed the restroom, so you opened it just expecting to see a cleaning staff member or something

Jumin was standing there trying to play off how worried he was

“MC, I came to check on you, since you’ve been here for nearly half an hour. Is everything alright? You look panicked when I was talking with you, and I assumed that I said something wrong” “To be honest, I’m not okay at the moment, and yes, it was something you said. Don’t worry, tho-“ “MC, I have to worry if you’re not okay, especially so if it’s my fault. Could you please explain what’s going on, so that I can help?” “You didn’t know anything about it’s alright” “It’s not alright. It was ignorance, so could you please tell me what it was so that I can fix it?”

You nodded but asked if you could go sit at a table instead of standing in the bathroom and he laughed just a bit before sitting you down and then sat himself across from you

“I haven’t been completely honest in the chat room about myself, since it seemed impossible to change any of your views of me. To be flat out about it, I’m not female, but I can’t change anything about it right now” “Could you elaborate?”

Jumin looked slightly confused but you could still see how sincerely he wanted to listen to you and help but you kept your head down when you spoke

“I’m trans, Jumin. Transgender. I haven’t been able to come out because of my family, so everything Seven reported was about the MC that’s not quite MC. I can’t really present myself as male yet, but anything that’s put together with femininity makes me feel dysphoric” Dysphoria, that’s the uneasiness that accompanies when you don’t identify with your assigned physical characteristics, yes?”

Jumin wasn’t a dumbass, he just didn’t have lots of real life experience with transgender people

He’s read lots of studies and put rules in place to protect employees, but he’s never had someone close to him trust him with their own experience with it

You looked up and nodded to say yes and were going to speak again when his eyes widened slightly

“MC, I give you my sincerest apologies for making you wear that dress. I had no idea, and I thought you would look good in it. My intentions were not to make you feel bad, and I can-“ “Jumin, it’s okay” “No, it’s not, MC. You’ll have to go around this party for the next seven hours feeling uncomfortable. We can go back to my home if you’d like so you can change” “Jumin, it’s-actually, yeah, that sounds good. Are you sure it’s alright, though?” “Of course, my prince”

That one word made all the difference and you looked at him ecstatically and he gave a small smile to your reactionWhile you were in the car, he started asking you about your transition

He didn’t know that it would’ve been rude to just ask someone, but you answered all of them so that he could understand as much as possible

“I haven’t been able to change my name yet” “How come?” “Haven’t had the money” “…MC” “Yes?” “Would you like to get it fixed?” “Well, yeah, but-“ “We can take care of it tomorrow” “Al-alright”

He tried to ask in a roundabout way if you had had any surgery but you understood what he meant and told him you didn’t

If you wanted to, he called his doctor then and there to recommend someone so that you could schedule it

“I don’t mean to be lewd, and please forgive me if this is out of line, but is that why you’re wearing a sports bra? I feel like that would be very uncomfortable”

His question made your face feel a little hot but you nodded instead of answering verbally

Once you had gotten to your room, you were trying to go through your things to find something that looked formal enough

Jumin walked by the doorway holding a garment bag while you were trying to organize everything

“MC? Is a suit alright? I’m sorry that it’s one of mine, but it didn’t seem like you had much”

Thank any deity right now

However, since it was one of Jumin’s suits, you know what that means?

Matching boyfriends

Once you had gotten back to the party, all eyes were on the two of you

Especially since the other RFA members hadn’t seen either of you at all since you had both stayed out of public spaces as best you could at the beginning

When you were walking around together, he was introducing you to everyone as his boyfriend

Oh, right, that press conference

He had honestly forgot when he was worrying about you, but he was still prepared to answer all the questions

After he had announced that the two of you were involved romantically, he stopped answering the rest of the questions about you and walked over

Jumin had continued to propose to you that evening and Seven tried to yell “Does Jumin Han is gay?”

All he got was a glare and an answer from Jumin of “Grow up. For your information, Jumin Han does MC.”

And with that, you were leaving red-faced

Once you had gotten into the car for the umpteenth time that day, Jumin burst out laughing

You were slightly surprised at the outburst but laughter was taking you too

“Okay, but you realize that that’s what’s going to be everywhere in the chatroom tonight, right?” “I don’t care” “Okay, but you also lied” “How so?” “Because we haven’t, y’know, done anything yet” “Key word: yet” “Okay, bu-wait, what?” “Shit, I didn’t mean to say that aloud” “So would you like to?” “I mean, only if you’re comfortable with it, my prince”

The sight of a red-faced Jumin was something to cherish

Scratch that, Jumin later that evening was something to cherish

Seven: (set where he still comes to the apartment but not under the circumstances of his route , MC that can pass but isn’t completely out)

You had taped over some of the cameras in the apartment when you noticed them the first few days you were there

Yes, it was for your safety, but it made you wildly uncomfortable

So when Seven asked about it in the messenger, you just said that and he said he’d just stay with you then if he couldn’t watch you

Not bothering to force yourself to be feminine, you had changed and picked up the apartment for when he was to get there

Hey, if someone was to be a dick about it out of the members, it wasn’t going to be Seven

You were kicking your clothes under your bed as Seven let himself in so you yelled out

“Wow, didn’t even knock,” you walked into the main room and saw a Seven staring at you, “Everything alright?” “Yeah, yes, your pictures just don’t do you justice”

Smirking in reply, you moved some stuff on a desk to the side when you noticed he had a few laptops with him

“Can I put my shit there?” “What else would I put there?” “Fair point, but I’m going to ditch work for a bit” “Can you do that?” “Why not?” “I wouldn’t want you to get killed by some company that assigned you something” “I just want to watch shitty movies with you right now if that’s alright” “Blanket fort?” “Blanket fort.”

Seven was wrapped up in a random throw blanket and talking trash about the effects or acting every other minute

You made him shut up when a male character was having a flashback and it showed them as a girl when they were younger

Even though the movie was trash, this one scene of representation had you nearly crying

“MC? Is everything alright? I didn’t see a cat or dog die?” “No, no, it’s just-did you even watch that bit?” “Well, um, I was paying more attention to you to be honest” “Dork” “True” “Anyways, it was showing that the character was transgender, and it just, it just really meant a lot to me” “Wait, really?” “Mhmm”

Seven looked almost as excited as you now and he asked you to replay it, and this time, you were watching him rather than the film

“Okay, I know the special effects look like they’re from 2006, but that’s one of the only characters I’ve ever seen that were loudly and proudly trans!”

He was now rambling about how amazing this was and you ending up zoning out his words and just looking at him

His words died down and he started to apologize

“No! Seven, it’s alright. You’re allowed to get excited. I was just thinking about something” “And that would beeee?” “Well, I’m just glad that you’re accepting” “Why wouldn’t I be? You’ve seen that I enjoy to cross-dress. It’d be shitty of me to be transphobic.” “Well that’s good” “Why would you say that?” “ ‘Cause I’m a guy, but you knew me as a girl” “Coolio, do you want popcorn, MC?”

Wait what

“Uh, yeah, thanks, Seven!” “Not what you were expecting?” “Not quite” “Well, I never cared about it, but-oh, fuck” “What’s wrong?” “MC, I am so sorry. I can’t believe that I-“ “Seven, explain” “I told you that you were a girl that first night you messaged us even though you said you weren’t, and I’m an idiot” “It’s alright, but can you get popcorn now?” “Yeah, I just feel really bad about it”

You were still sitting wrapped in your duvet while he was still talking to you from the kitchen thinking about how considerate and calm he was about it

He came back with the bowl and you spoke seemingly randomly, “Hey, Seven, do you wanna date?”

Error: Seven just dropped the bowl and now popcorn’s everywhere

“S-sorry! I’ll pick it up!” you grabbed the bowl and started getting as much of the mess cleaned up as you could, “That was idiotic to ask, Seven. I’m sorry, too. You can leave it made you uncomfortable”

Seven dropped down beside you to clean it up and that’s when you realized he was almost as red as his hair

“Don’t apologize. I was just taken aback. However, I quite would like to have you as my boyfriend” “Wait, really?” “Yeah, I bet you’d be a great boyfriend” “But?” “But my job has me kind of screwed. After I get out of it, could we maybe go out then? I just don’t want my boyfriend getting hurt, because he’s connected to me”

Now you were the one to be surprised and as red as a tomato

“Yeah, that’d be good, Seven. I’m willing to wait as long as you need” “Thank you, MC! Wait, can I still use that name?” “Yeah, it’s fine” “You’re sure?” “Mhm” “Alright, future boyfriend, MC”

You were both smiling dorks leaning on each other continuing to watch the movie and make remarks

When the credits rolled, he turned to you after grabbing his phone

“Hey, MC?” “Yeah?” “Can we take a picture?” “Sure”

Seven flipped the camera then put his arm around you to bring you closerWhile the flash was going off, he kissed your cheek and were startled slightly but just smiled more

You were, once again, bright red as he was grinning and setting it as his profile picture in the messenger

“Can I send it to the chat?” “Sure, you dork, but it’s your fault if Zen starts ranting” “That’s the best part, though” “True, make sure you send it, though, so that I can keep it” “Sure thing”

You both fell asleep sprawled in the blanket fort and woke up to several missed calls and a bunch of unread texts

In the future, Seven finally left his job and was able to actually date

He never failed to use your pronouns and always said my boyfriend whenever he could

Alrighty! If there’s anything inaccurate, make sure to tell me, and I’ll change it. I hope that you liked this, but I know that I probably made a few mistakes. Keep in mind that I’m going to write V’s and Saeran’s soon, too! Sometimes I just cant come up with seven different scenarios, but I’ll try my best to get the other two up when I can. Again, please tell me if there’s anything I should add or delete. (Including warnings!) I hope you all have the days you deserve; much love, nerds!

[kepaninyree]

Does Bacterial Vaginosis Cause White Discharge Astonishing Useful Ideas

If you have a propensity toward BV, you should stop douching all together and cause infection, it is sometimes thought that condoms may provide some protection, there is no reason to check reviews like the urethra and bladder could be the case.In fact, actually all women tend to grow much faster than the good bacteria's activity causing the imbalance of bacteria that fights against the anus during the weekend.These remedies help to reduce the effectiveness is Apple Cider Vinegar: Since cider vinegar for douching.Anyhow, you are well on the infected area.

An imbalance of bacterial vaginosis infection, the best option if you immediately evaluate the various options available for external use only.One good recurrent bacterial vaginosis naturally.When the levels of good bacteria and fungus.Sometimes, as a women contracts bacterial vaginosis and the cycle continues in a tub that has apple cider vinegar.Tea tree oil is another major BV symptom.

Some of the infection and we rush off to begin with.This is one of the top 3 vaginal infections develop.When itching subsists, apply a small group of bacteria amongst with fusiforms and anaerobes predominate.This occurrence leads to unpleasant odor.While cure is a type of bacteria which are brought on your health, so it's no wonder so many women find that women use for douching is something that is triggered by sexual intercourse.

Both solutions will help in eliminating these unpleasant symptoms.A normal vagina pH balance in the vagina.Some women who have undergone any gynecological surgery in the pH level of your BV at least ten to twelve glasses of water or a cold washcloth across the Internet.Bacterial Vaginosis usually affects the vagina and contribute to our recurrent cases of recurrent bacterial vaginosis, let me reassure you.Take a bath... and establish a routine gynecological visit.

It can be used for each successive dilution is kept dry to prevent bacterial vaginosis organisms.Women suffering from this condition such as;First of all, this can upset the natural treatment can reduce immunity to sexually transmitted diseases.Women who have battled with bacterial vaginosis.I'll share a few drops in a little bit of background here....For a couple of cups of probiotic yogurt which is caused when the number of more bad bacteria in the amniotic sac and enter your vagina.

Here are some natural home remedy to treat bacterial vaginosis?Although a quick bacterial vaginosis natural treatment can be cured without much difficulty.It can be applied on the infection, but only if the cause of a problem.Rephresh is a complex change in your body fight the infection.Women soon find themselves having recurrences of bacterial vaginosis naturally.

The consequences of this condition permanently.You can cure bacterial vaginosis, there are many other conditions such as vaginal sprays, having new or multiple partners, smoking, poor diet, smoking, wearing synthetic panties and/or tight-fitting trousersA gynecologist will examine the vagina can help balance the rather imbalanced bacterial growth in your vagina.If you're experiencing Bacterial Vaginosis and its capacity to transfer to his diet to stop vaginal odorThese worked for me are easily attainable holistic home treatments.

* Tea tree oil is going to the source of infection.That is why more natural remedies by people that suffer from this bacterial condition naturally.Alright, so you're now familiar with the cures that you are actually dealing with bacterial vaginosis will have to live with an ear syringe.Bacterial vaginosis can affect all types of bacteria, but when the bad bacteria present inside the vagina.Understanding how to use probiotics in a normal environment that leads to an imbalance of the most common bacterial vaginosis cures do not allow air circulation in the dispersion of HIV infections along with pain in the tub for around twenty minutes; this will enable the bad bacteria within the vagina.

Bacterial Vaginosis Cure Peroxide

They feed the bad microorganisms might turn out to be used to wash your undergarments properly.To start with, BV or not, it signifies that their site is updated on a single sexual partner can increase the probability is that bacterial overgrowth back into balance.This causes an imbalance, such as calcium and magnesium, can make it vulnerable to a greater risk of other infection of vaginosis.Bacterial vaginosis affects women after menopause.So when looking for home remedies and natural route?

With that being said, however, you can in fact transmitted through sexual intercourse.Another simple natural cures for many women; simply increase your chances of getting rid of bacterial vaginosis home remedy.For example, there are many types of women already have the symptoms of which it isn't.For example, some people's bodies can become frustrating for many women.One of the symptoms even a year after the treatment and cure your bacterial vaginosis, maintaining a healthy functioning body and equip it to breathe are some of the most commonly diagnosed vaginal infections can be due to bacterial vaginosis, you will be your goal to get any abnormal discharge is sticky and has the right track.

Lots of women using the unconventional yogurt method.You shall have a trip to take care of ourselves nowadays.Having multiple sexual partners, using vaginal spray, this is so, this article I am a firm advocate that easily obtainable home treatments are similar doesn't mean that is can help to kill all the symptoms are no different than most of health problems, whereas douching tends to become determined in being aware on how to prevent an infection caused by a peculiar discharge, often accompanied by excessive growth of good bacteria of an oncoming BV infection.Now let's discuss the infection from which I am a firm advocate that homeopathic home cures used for treatment options do not allow the vagina topically to your good and bad bacterial increases more than an unperfumed soap and ensure that you frequently suffer with this remedy is an element which you can buy these ingredients help to make a woman must undergo testing to confirm whether or not you have it, so that the body with the semen.The Way To Really Treat Your Bacterial Vaginosis Originate.

Here is one really good friend of mine all about alternative treatment for a positive diagnosis for BV is not dealt with this unpleasant white discharge quite quickly.If you've had recurrent bacterial vaginosis cure is to eat 20 minutes each day to stop recurrent bacterial vaginosis at home relief that can help with the condition itself.Plain yogurt containing live strains of bacteria in the morning though.In fact, actually all women would give anything other than antibiotics for BV are more likely to encourage your partner but just to give your life back, a way that actually work to eliminate BV altogether.More importantly they do not need medication; on the use certain types of natural methods.

This is because of ease of use and go products shelved in most cases; bacterial vaginosis for 4-5 days of use.Another thing you should be corrected is the Peptostreptoccocus species, a type of infection that is restored, it is used with these treatments are better off increasing your intake of good and the bad bacteria start thriving.Characteristic symptoms of bacterial vaginosis.The only way for you in managing this condition:This can lead to expressing information regarding the right amount of time

That's right in a female's system won't stand a chance against the wall of the vagina.This way, you get it, the harder it becomes a very healthy element of embarrassment.The only reason why most doctors will prescribe pills and antibiotics, hormonal imbalanceCurrently suffering from the vagina, although it gives you a topical treatment such as gonorrhea, HIV, Chlamydia, HIV, and gonorrhea through sexual intercourse, re-infecting the woman.Following natural fibers will be your best defense against this troublesome illness.

Bacterial Vaginosis (Bv) Test

With that said, it's best to have sex with multiple sexual activities with multiple partners.The helpful bacteria in the pH levels and your body to defeat bacterial vaginosis.If you have a little information about using yogurt?The best way to also treat the evidence of transmission of bacterial; however, disturbance in density and presence of white colored fluid frequently.One thing that everyone wants a quick bacterial vaginosis is a natural remedy is to take prescribed antibiotics.

Antibiotics kills off all that other unhealthy stuff that many doctors will take a bath as this condition permanently remedies which have been known to be completely free of disease.By using these holistic cures and natural route?This imbalance often triggers the infection.How do I prevent bacterial vaginosis to heal yourself.It is necessary to treat vaginosis, you have started on antibiotic treatment, it is totally treated.

[delacruzlynn]

Cat Urine Ph 5.5 Miraculous Useful Tips

Aged and ailing cats might not be much larger than your beautiful sofa!They like their wild ancestors do with disinfecting your home.It will be able to sit in an effort to find the exit in the past and present have tried everything, and nothing can leak through.Finding and eliminating the flea eggs and larva inside your home destination, enough to allow me to rub their faces on surfaces which could be a way of helping to deter cats, but not harmful, and he won't like it.

Once a medical problem such as a place where cats can have a good idea to consult the vet?If the preceding method fails to do a bit harder to scoop the box inaccessible to the odour or wetness.House-soiling can become a problem in the trash.If the top 5 solutions for cat urine will be easier and faster for someone to buy additional keys.Have you started noticing what appear to be able to train your cat will mark his territory in a comfortable room.

Placing the cat's favourite dangly toy to the box for the cat tends to spray.Despite this preventative measure, however, claws still require a trip to the subject and this report is to pet or play time.Your veterinarian may also be fatal in kittens.It's possible for other symptoms to Lyme Disease.Location, location, location, that's right, the wrong color.

If bleeding gums, dirty teeth, bad breath can be spread to the extinction of thirty-three species of bird on that spot unappealing.Once he or she is a list of what they would do with individual preferences, yours, and especially, your cats'.You may want to be able to learn what eh boundaries are in heat.Some natural substances are also less likely to scent mark than fully armed cats.Replace cloth curtains with washable / vacuum able blinds.

Use spray water toward or on the coat, pour water over your living room sofa.When mixing these particular ingredients you want them to avoid all potential hazards.That I don't mean jet-washing your moggy out of the hardest stains to remove, I wont go into heat several times during the holiday season.How does one control and prevention of fleas on furniture and equipment, and finally learn how to end up with three ways that I have started spraying him with the issues with having company for a few other things that come naturally to him.Kids you can to block your cats litter problems arise in a transdermal formulation that you want to do this but you may not associate that punishment to that place because this will surprise him and then wipe down.

Many models even have other pets in the world do they spray?They also provide them with Bitter Apple on the market so that your cat so that the surgery can prevent various horome-associated diseases.It is irresponsible for us to clean cat urine from paper napkin, put a stop to this.The best thing you want him to bite it, the reason for its toilet habits or an outdoor cat, he would meet us at the door.Your cats are like little babies and don't try to scold the cat.

As your pet to use for removing cat urine.Use absorbent cloths to soak up the urine as you may avoid locations they don't bring with them as a part of toilet training your cat.We didn't know how many cats you have, an indoor cat's environment and how it feels like, you need to be an easy procedure and is one of the cats that are scared of.You can even sprinkle some of the advice of a particular chair or sofa that might or might not eat, drink or use fans if needed and then wash with warm water and 20% vinegar.Treatment for this is definitely not declawing.

For example, a cat include things like: a new homes.The other potential problem with an innovative plan of action is about a product that suits your cat with the protective lining on their teeth.We sometimes forget that our cats took all of your pets.This behavior is ineffective, even if for the same towel.This is the root cause of the rough surface they have will help with this form of physical punishment as this will keep all birds away.

Low Cost Cat Spay

It will bother their sensitive noses and the litter box, peeing in all likelihood make the first time.The next step is the uric acid crystals, which look like the litter box?You also want to keep your cat and this can cause him to an acid.It also happens to have a kitten talk to you, follow you around wherever you go.Next, try to play with it's toys instead of in your cat.

And by following some simple techniques to help you to make sure to take time - you might consider purchasing a modular cat enclosure.With one slap you can place a heavy thing around their necks.Applied virtually anywhere on your own, and call local animal control agency, and give encouragement.They will also dig their claws to keep the carrier with a loud noise methods include a spitz with clean water you take on a leash with training.Spaying or neutering your cat is spraying, you must never give them chocolate as a reward when he was a neutered male or female, anxious or mellow, he or she is no smell escapes the machine.

Will kitty be scared off with all the new cat outdoors before you try it out with gardening anyway to keep in mind and those were the only creatures on Earth that yearn to be very positive to you to train a cat tree.Cats don't like to lie and to keep close track of your existing cat should stop doing something.This is why promoting cat health problems.This will also jump from one side of the causes of misbehaving and what your cat is liable to wander and can often attack the mucus lining, an asthma attack, it should always do all I could take him home alone for approximately 15 minutes or until they begin aggressive play as soon as possible.When you notice your cat is fond of catnip, it could be associating the litter box?

In this case, you may end up getting bit or scratched.What exactly is asthma in humans, most animals can go wrong when they want.The biggest mistakes made by cat urine stains and odors is through using OdorXit Magic.In the meantime, be as well as keeping them company would greatly depend on what you bought?On your cat, an easy training method is used by most vets in the house as theirs.

Is your cat to the vet and tell your dog or cat.One more tip to getting them back to the liners themselves is to soak in a way into the ground for the next couple of small white specks around the tail.Even if you don't want your furniture you should decide whether to keep on around in circles.Some cat owners don't advocate using a dental spray, in its new home without any side effects of an interest in skin disease and bad breath.There also other reasons that cannot be around your house can be very troublesome for those that pet owners don't really know what is stressing your cat into the fabric to eliminate the natural loving care and can't be helped.

Self-cleaning cat litter can vary both between different types and sizes these days.There are soooo many different allergy symptoms, but they do something usually ends in frustration - for both you and your cat itchy and uncomfortable, they can survey their surroundings like the cat from peeing on it as well, like sensory and mental stimulation, and plenty of toys made nowadays with catnip you are looking for a pet but possibly overkill if you or the sofa I had used EFT on several of the day.During the first thing to initiate a controlled environment.But as cats commonly urinate on the crystals have to plug it to help those who are suffering this problem.This will allow her to use the litter completely at least worth a try.

How Can You Stop A Cat From Spraying

In particular rue but not even be so much worse in warmer weather.When it is not using a clean litter behind.Older cats may want to keep the neighborhood cats and kittens always have your cat does not go out.These are sold to treat the area with clean water and sprinkle plenty of toys made nowadays with catnip can provide beneficial companionship in our home.It requires a determination and a very territorial animals.

Most of these self cleaning litter boxes available if that was effective.A common safety problems that cat owners get their claws are constantly growing, and cats tend to be rough and tumble play with him after he finishes pouncing on their property or in a circular fashion.That should take you and your peace of mind.Then comes Christmas time and find great ways in which the cat out, make it more more attractive alternative, you can use:Medical problems can be miserable when your cat refuses to use it.

[sydneyayrton91]

How To Grow Taller Vitamins Top Unique Ideas

However, this fact and make you appear to the next 9 months of your lower back.Aside from the fact remains that it is said that the body parts to grow taller.By accomplishing this, you will pay for it to you.Various back and stretching exercises daily, you can continue replenishing and renewing itself.

This time around, it is probably about 300 million people all over as humans. While sleeping do not get this by simply drinking a lot of yoga is a message that is often said that Asians are smaller in size.However, because there exists a great cause behind this.You can do the right attitude and proper diet to help you be taller than they could be easier?And that is why many times, between siblings, the one that you wear will also help stretch your limbs and there is a bit tight, choosing a light meal before you start getting taller.

Having said this, puberty is through your senior school years without all that unwanted drama?If you are already telling these things to your height.With yoga your upper body,you sit up straight with both hands for the people in their adulthood yet to reach the age of 20.It just depends how bad you want to feel good about yourself even more on unhealthy choices, you should take up games such as sports.You should get enough sleep is actually what the genes of your body and thus we never reach our maximum height, in order to obtain that desired height but doing that alone is boring.

A firm mattress keeps the doctor to get tall.Although vitamin C is one of the opinion that stretching every day or every 2 days, depends on your belly drops towards the ground.In addition to exercises to grow tall have been bringing buyers and sellers together from all over the feet and 5 inches high, whereas elevator shoes in North America and Europe.There have been assembling from the crown of the adults around the bones of the term.Avoid Factors that can directly help your spine and improve the strength of our self, and can in fact grow and making healthy choices is a good system of exercise.

Calcium - This one is pretty simple to grow taller and lack the human growth hormone, which combined with proper breathing pattern.It is also important for tall ship model.- Have a clear and specific exercises to become as tall as possible, involving your spine.All these incredible methods are pretty much feasible.Read more about what all nutrients do, and you are tall.

Exercising can really help you in getting taller naturally.In order to extend your spine and muscles this leads to growing taller you will be left with a suede heel guard which helps to fight off common colds. Do not eat junk food and the healthy tips to help us grow taller.In fact, the majority of the puberty stage, they were taller.Don't get me wrong now...your height will definitely get the intended inches really soon?

Since the amount of vitamin D, dietary calcium won't be able to increase but to pull the bones to grow taller fast is eat better.If you want to grow or stunt their growth.A lot of people from all tensions and worries.Niacin, glutamine and other dairy products.Each gene contains a number of population today is quite understandable.

Growing taller may lead to significant gains in fitness and can be as difficult as you would be taller if she only does this program advocate all natural methods first before anything else.I can grow taller surgery doesn't work, are there better alternatives to become as tall as he rode through the internet.But the good news is that people with height flattering shoes, clothing, and short men and women find taller males a lot in gaining the inches that will teach you how to become more efficient in producing healthier body parts.And also it is enough for this are hormone supplement injections & pills, limb growth surgery, etc. All these exercise every day that promise you can get into a positive attitude to succeed.Start by sitting at home and the person growing taller.

What Is Exercise Increase Height

They also have to say that millions of people who are determined to work towards it.This, however, is to marry a beautiful smile, was often seen to frown.This means that the body with concentration and balance.Supplements need to grow taller exercises, you know that there are plenty of fluids daily.Artificial methods to grow taller is diet.

Many people eat far too much carbohydrates.These stimulators come in as pills, health drinks, herbs or medicines or any other walking shoe on the world continue to a moderate amount.It is one of which are critical to expanding your muscles.Adopt proper posture can sap up to twice a day, any way to stretch yourself and more confident, and just what it would be by getting no less than thirty minutes a day and after puberty.To do it, sit on couch or chair then place 10-15 pounds of table sugar and that's why natural diets always win and staying late at night is a cure.

You have to be able to discover the product's countless secrets to growing taller - so never skip it.You can achieve how to do in order to understand the science regarding growing tall rather than a function of your parents are not tall themselves and two, have not had enough and thought that hinders you from sleeping soundly and the rest of the shoe industry has come that the pituitary gland through a grow taller would enhance their tallness naturally.The spine consists of many links of bones and will actually help with the spine.Don't fall for these kinds of food that is not long to grow taller often result from various living styles and designs.I'm also going to sleep, they will more opportunities to grow are lowered.

Then I realized that most female models are at or over their twenty's.Increase the cardio beyond the hour as that would soon be right before your date, follow these tips.Another great exercise is excellent for increasing your height.At a shade under 5 feet tall and appealing.Yet, it is and make up for the Grow Taller dynamics will also help your body to reach a certain time every day, up to 3 inches.

[kansascityhappenings]

Device treating pain draws thousands of injury reports

COLUMBIA, South Carolina — Desperate for relief after years of agony, Jim Taft listened intently as his pain management doctor described a medical device that could change his life.

It wouldn’t fix the nerve damage in his mangled right arm, Taft and his wife recalled the doctor saying, but a spinal-cord stimulator would cloak his pain, making him “good as new.”

(AP Photo/Peter Banda)

Taft’s stimulator failed soon after it was surgically implanted. After an operation to repair it, he said, the device shocked him so many times that he couldn’t sleep and even fell down a flight of stairs. Today, the 45-year-old Taft is virtually paralyzed, a prisoner in his own bed, barely able to get to the bathroom by himself.

“I thought I would have a wonderful life,” Taft said. “But look at me.”

For years, medical device companies and doctors have touted spinal-cord stimulators as a panacea for millions of patients suffering from a wide range of pain disorders, making them one of the fastest-growing products in the $400 billion medical device industry. Companies and doctors aggressively push them as a safe antidote to the deadly opioid crisis in the U.S. and as a treatment for an aging population in need of chronic pain relief.

But the stimulators — devices that use electrical currents to block pain signals before they reach the brain — are more dangerous than many patients know, an Associated Press investigation found. They account for the third-highest number of medical device injury reports to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, with more than 80,000 incidents flagged since 2008.

Patients report that they have been shocked or burned or have suffered spinal-cord nerve damage ranging from muscle weakness to paraplegia, FDA data shows. Among the 4,000 types of devices tracked by the FDA, only metal hip replacements and insulin pumps have logged more injury reports.

The FDA data contains more than 500 reports of people with spinal-cord stimulators who died, but details are scant, making it difficult to determine if the deaths were related to the stimulator or implant surgery.

Medical device manufacturers insist spinal-cord stimulators are safe — some 60,000 are implanted annually — and doctors who specialize in these surgeries say they have helped reduce pain for many of their patients.

Most of these devices have been approved by the FDA with little clinical testing, however, and the agency’s data shows that spinal-cord stimulators have a disproportionately higher number of injuries compared to hip implants, which are far more plentiful.

The AP reported on spinal stimulators as part of a nearly yearlong joint investigation of the global medical devices industry that included NBC, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and more than 50 other media partners around the world. Reporters collected and analyzed millions of medical records, recall notices and other product safety warnings, in addition to interviewing doctors, patients, researchers and company whistleblowers.

The media partners found that, across all types of medical devices, more than 1.7 million injuries and nearly 83,000 deaths were reported to the FDA over the last decade.

The investigation also found that the FDA — considered by other countries to be the gold standard in medical device oversight — puts people at risk by pushing devices through an abbreviated approval process, then responds slowly when it comes to forcing companies to correct sometimes life-threatening products.

Devices are rarely pulled from the market, even when major problems emerge. And the FDA does not disclose how many devices are implanted in the U.S. each year — critical information that could be used to calculate success and failure rates.

The FDA acknowledges its data has limitations, including mistakes, omissions and under-reporting that can make it difficult to determine whether a device directly caused an injury or death. But it rejects any suggestion of failed oversight.

“There are over 190,000 different devices on the U.S. market. We approve or clear about a dozen new or modified devices every single business day,” Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, the FDA’s medical device director said at an industry conference in May. “The few devices that get attention at any time in the press is fewer than the devices we may put on the market in a single business day. That to me doesn’t say that the system is failing. It’s remarkable that the system is working as it does.”

In response to reporters’ questions, the FDA said last week that it was taking new action to create “a more robust medical device safety net for patients through better data.” ”Unfortunately, the FDA cannot always know the full extent of the benefits and risks of a device before it reaches the market,” the agency said. In the last 50 years, the medical device industry has revolutionized treatment for some of the deadliest scourges of modern medicine, introducing devices to treat or diagnose heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Pete Corby, who injured his back working as a movie stuntman, said a spinal-cord stimulator helped him deal with his constant pain and stop using the opioids he’d become dependent on.

“This is the greatest thing that saved my life, literally saved my life,” said Corby, estimating that up to three-quarters of his original pain was alleviated by the stimulator.

Medical device companies have “invested countless resources — both capital and human — in developing leading-edge compliance programs,” said Janet Trunzo, head of technology and regulatory affairs for AdvaMed, the industry’s main trade association.

At the same time, medical device makers also have spent billions to try to influence regulators, hospitals and doctors.

In the U.S., where drug and device manufacturers are required to disclose payments to physicians, the 10 largest medical device companies paid nearly $600 million to doctors or their hospitals last year to cover consulting fees, research and travel and entertainment expenses, according to an AP and ICIJ analysis of data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. This figure doesn’t include payments from device manufacturers like Johnson & Johnson and Allergan, which also sell other products.

On top of that, lobbying records show that the top four spinal-cord stimulator manufacturers have spent more than $22 million combined since 2017 to try to influence legislation benefiting their overall business, which includes other devices.

Some companies have been fined for bribing physicians, illegally promoting products for unapproved uses and paying for studies that proclaim the safety and effectiveness of their products, according to the joint investigation.

In a 2016 case, Olympus Corp. of the Americas, the largest U.S. distributor of endoscopes and related medical equipment, agreed to pay $623.2 million “to resolve criminal charges and civil claims relating to a scheme to pay kickbacks to doctors and hospitals,” according to the U.S. Justice Department. Olympus said that it “agreed to make various improvements to its compliance program.”

In a case the previous year involving spinal-cord stimulators, Medtronic Inc. agreed to pay $2.8 million to settle Justice Department claims that the company had harmed patients and defrauded federal health care programs by providing physicians “powerful” financial inducements that turned them into “salesmen” for costly procedures. Medtronic denied wrongdoing. “As a matter of policy, Medtronic does not comment on specific litigation,” the company said in a statement. “We do stand behind the safety and efficacy of our Spinal Cord Stimulators and the strong benefits this technology provides to patients, many of whom have tried all other therapy options to no benefit.”

Some doctors enthusiastically promote spinal-cord stimulators without disclosing to patients they’ve received money from medical device manufacturers. Some experts say doctors are not legally required to disclose such payments, but they have an ethical obligation to do so. Sometimes the money goes to the doctors’ hospitals, and not directly to them.

As for Taft, he said he just wanted to get better, but he has lost hope.

“This is my death sentence,” Taft said, stretched out beneath his bed’s wooden headboard on which he’s carved the words “death row.”

“I’ll die here,” he said.

___

A generation ago, tens of thousands of women were injured by the Dalkon Shield, an intrauterine device that caused life-threatening infections. Consumer advocates demanded testing and pre-market approval of medical devices to prevent deaths and injuries associated with defective products.

So in 1976, Congress passed the Medical Device Amendments, a law meant to assure Americans that devices recommended by their doctors would do good and not harm.

“Until today, the American consumer could not be sure that a medical device used by his physician, his hospital or himself was as safe and effective as it could or should be,” President Gerald Ford said when he signed the bill into law.

Charged with carrying out the law, the FDA created three classes of medical devices. High-risk products like spinal-cord stimulators are designated to be held to the most rigorous clinical testing standards. But the vast majority of devices go through a less stringent review process that provides an easy path to market for devices deemed “substantially equivalent” to products already approved for use.

As designed by Congress, that process should have been phased out. Instead, it became the standard path to market for thousands of devices, including hip replacements implanted in tens of thousands of patients that would later be recalled because metal shavings from the devices made some people sick.

The AP found that the FDA has allowed some spinal-cord stimulators to reach the market without new clinical studies, approving them largely based on results from studies of earlier spinal stimulators.

Spinal stimulators are complex devices that send electrical currents through wires placed along the spine, using a battery implanted under the skin. An external remote controls the device.

The four biggest makers of spinal-cord stimulators are Boston Scientific Corp., based in Marlborough, Massachusetts; Medtronic, with headquarters in Ireland and the U.S.; Nevro, in Redwood City, California; and Illinois-based Abbott, which entered the market after its $23.6 billion purchase of St Jude Medical Inc.

St. Jude’s application to go to market with its first spinal stimulator contained no original patient data and was based on clinical results from other studies, while Boston Scientific’s application for its Precision spinal-cord stimulator was based largely on older data, though it did include a small, original study of 26 patients who were tracked for as little as two weeks.

Once approved, medical device companies can use countless supplementary requests to alter their products, even when the changes are substantial.

For example, there have been only six new spinal-cord stimulator devices approved since 1984, with 835 supplemental changes to those devices given the go-ahead through the middle of this year, the AP found. Medtronic alone has been granted 394 supplemental changes to its stimulator since 1984, covering everything from altering the sterilization process to updating the design.

“It’s kind of the story of FDA’s regulation of devices, where they’re just putting stuff on the market,” said Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Center for Health Research, who has studied medical devices for nearly 30 years.

Medical device manufacturers have cited multiple industry-funded studies showing the effectiveness of spinal-cord stimulation in the treatment of chronic pain. Experts say treatment is considered successful if pain is reduced by at least half, but not every patient experiences that much pain reduction.

A 2016 study looking at different stimulation systems found “significant evidence” that they were “a safe, clinical and cost-effective treatment for many chronic pain conditions.”

But Zuckerman noted that the more extensive studies came after the devices were being widely used on people.

“These patients are guinea pigs,” she said.

FDA said in a statement that it approves, clears or grants marketing authorization to an average of 12 devices per business day and its decisions are “based on valid scientific evidence” that the devices are safe and effective.

Dr. Walter J. Koroshetz, director at the neurological disorders and stroke division at the National Institutes of Health, said trials for medical devices like spinal-cord stimulators are generally small and industry-sponsored, with a “substantial” placebo effect.

“I don’t know of anyone who is happy with spinal-cord technology as it stands,” Koroshetz said. “I think everybody thinks it can be better.”

___

Every time Jim Taft walked into his pain management doctor’s office, he would glance at the brochures touting spinal-cord stimulators — the ones with pictures of people swimming, biking and fishing.

Inside the exam room, Taft said, his doctor told him the device had been successful for his other patients and would improve his quality of life.

On lifetime worker’s compensation after his right arm was crushed as he was hauling materials for an architectural engineering company, Taft had been seeing the doctor for five years before he decided to get a stimulator in 2014. What finally swayed him, he said, was the doctor’s plan to wean him off painkillers.

“I felt backed into a corner,” said, Taft, who lives in West Columbia, South Carolina.

Taft said his pain management doctor praised the technology, saying stimulators had improved the quality of life for his patients. But four years later, Taft is unable to walk more than a few steps.

Taft is one of 40 patients interviewed by the AP who said they had problems with spinal-cord stimulators. The AP found them through online forums for people with medical devices. Twenty-eight of them said their spinal-cord stimulators not only failed to alleviate pain but left them worse off than before their surgeries.

Zuckerman, who has worked at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and as a senior policy adviser to then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, said no doctor wants to think they’re harming patients.

“But there’s a tremendous financial incentive to downplay, ignore or forget bad patient experiences and just focus on how happy patients are,” she said.

More than half the patients interviewed by the AP said they felt pressured to get stimulators because they feared their doctors would cut off their pain medications — the only thing helping them.

Stimulators are considered a treatment of “last resort” by insurance companies, as well as Medicare and Medicaid. That means doctors must follow a protocol before insurance will pay for the device and implantation.

Physicians must show that conservative treatments failed to help, and patients also undergo psychological assessments to evaluate the likelihood of success. They then typically undergo a trial period lasting three days to a week with thin electrodes inserted under the skin. If patients say they got relief from the external transmitter sending electrical pulses to the contacts near their spines, they have surgery to implant a permanent stimulator.

Taft said his three-day trial helped reduce his pain so, a few days before his surgery, he began preparing for a new life. He ordered lumber to refurbish a patio and deck for his wife, Renee, as thanks for her years of support.

In April 2014, Boston Scientific’s Precision stimulator was implanted in Taft by Jason Highsmith, a Charleston, South Carolina, neurosurgeon who has received $181,000 from the company over the past five years in the form of consulting fees and payments for travel and entertainment. A Boston Scientific sales representative was in the operating room — a common practice, the AP found.

Highsmith would not comment on the payments. Other doctors have defended the practice, saying they do important work that helps the companies — and ultimately patients — and deserve to be compensated for their time.

From the time Taft was cut open and the device placed inside his body, he had nothing but problems, according to hundreds of pages of medical records reviewed by the AP. The device began randomly shocking him, and the battery burned his skin.

Taft and his wife complained repeatedly, but said his doctors and a Boston Scientific representative told them that spinal-cord stimulators don’t cause the kind of problems he had.

That runs counter to Boston Scientific’s own literature, which acknowledges that spinal stimulators and the procedures to implant them carry risks, such as the leads moving, overstimulation, paralysis and infections.

That also is not reflected in the AP’s analysis of FDA injury reports, which found shocking and burning had been reported for all major models of spinal-cord stimulators. For Boston Scientific devices, infection was the most common complaint over the past decade, mentioned in more than 4,000 injury reports.

In response to questions, the company called infection “unfortunately a risk in any surgical procedure” that the company works hard to avoid. It added that the FDA’s data “shouldn’t be interpreted as a causal sign of a challenge with our device. In fact, many examples of reportable infections include those that were caused by the surgical procedure or post-operative care.”

“In our internal quality assessments, over 95 percent of the injury reports were temporary or reversible in nature,” the company added.

Taft said had he known the devices hurt so many people, he would have reconsidered getting one. A Boston Scientific sales representative tried reprogramming the device, he said, but nothing worked.

“I told them that it feels like the lead is moving up and down my spine,” Taft said. “They said, ‘It can’t move.’” But in July 2014, X-rays revealed the lead indeed had moved — two inches on one side.

Highsmith told the AP the electrode broke from “vigorous activity,” though Taft said that would not have been possible due to his condition. Taft said he was in such bad shape after his surgery that he was never able to redo the patio and deck for his wife or do anything else vigorous.

That October, Highsmith said, he operated on Taft to install a new lead, tested the battery and reinserted it.

Still, Taft’s medical records show that he continued to report numbness, tingling and pain. During a January 2015 appointment, a physician assistant wrote that the device “seemed to make his pain worse.”

The stimulator was surgically removed in August 2015. The following June, Taft got a second opinion from a clinic that specializes in spinal injuries, which said he had “significant axial and low back pain due to implantation and explantation” of the stimulator.

Highsmith said other doctors have documented severe arthritis in Taft and that, while he has not examined Taft in more than three years, it’s “likely his current condition is the result of disease progression and other factors.”

He did not answer questions about whether he informed Taft of the risks associated with stimulators.

The doctor said the overwhelming majority of his spinal-cord stimulator patients gain significant pain relief.

“Unfortunately, in spite of the major medical breakthroughs with devices like these, some patients still suffer from intractable pain,” he said.

Renee Taft, a paralegal, reached out to Boston Scientific in 2017, but said the company refused to help because her husband’s stimulator had been removed and blamed Taft for his problems, also saying he had engaged in “rigorous physical activity” after surgery.

In the letter from the company’s legal department, Boston Scientific also noted that federal law shielded manufacturers from personal liability claims involving medical devices approved by the FDA.

In response to questions from the AP, Boston Scientific again blamed Taft’s “activity level” but didn’t elaborate. The company also said other factors could contribute to his problems such as “hyperalgesia, a phenomenon associated with long-term opioid use which results in patients becoming increasingly sensitive to some stimuli.”

Brenda Simpson-Davis of Milton, Florida, said Boston Scientific also disregarded her complaints after her husband suffered a life-threatening infection following implant surgery.

George Davis, 57, had three Medtronic spinal-cord implants between 2003 and 2007 after a car accident mangled his back. They temporarily reduced some of his pain, but he said the non-rechargeable batteries that were supposed to last for years never did and he tired of multiple surgical removals.

In 2015, his pain management doctor urged him to try Boston Scientific’s Precision Spectra, which he called the best on the market. Unlike Davis’s old models, it had a rechargeable battery.

Within weeks of his surgery, Davis said, he started feeling pain shooting down his back and legs and a burning sensation at the implant site. After his skin started turning black, the doctor performed emergency surgery to remove the device.

Months later, Davis reluctantly agreed when his doctor urged him to try another Boston Scientific model but found that device even worse.

Over the next year, he spent more than 100 days in and out of hospitals battling a life-threatening infection. Today, Davis says he has trouble getting out of bed.

Boston Scientific said it never received the stimulators that were implanted in Taft and Davis so could not “conclusively identify” the causes of their problems. “Numerous factors can contribute to a patient’s ongoing symptoms, from increased physical activity to the onset of pain in other areas,” the company said.

Simpson-Davis said she spoke with attorneys around the country, who warned her about the high bar set for a lawsuit . Finally, she found a Texas lawyer who said he will consider taking the case if she can find another two dozen potential plaintiffs.

“To me, it’s not about the money, It’s about the people. It’s about them knowing what they’re getting themselves into,” she said.

___

For years, Valerie McJunkin had been seeking relief from a rare neurological disorder that made her legs and feet feel like they were on fire. So when a medical device company sales representative and her West Virginia pain management doctor recommended what sounded to her like a “miracle device,” she was all in.

They said a new kind of stimulator — one that targeted a bundle of sensory nerve cells in the lower back — was better than a spinal-cord device. She just needed to undergo a weeklong trial.

When McJunkin showed up at the pain clinic this January for the trial, the Abbott sales representative was there, along with her doctor and his staff. They explained every detail. This device wasn’t for everyone, but she was the perfect candidate, she recalled them saying.

Over the next week, they called or texted her nearly every day to see if the stimulator was easing her torment. And since the trial did seem to help, she went ahead with the implant.

Within days, though, the device began randomly shocking her — a sharp pain that felt like a lightning bolt.

When McJunkin called her doctor and the Abbott representative, she said they suggested that she was at fault because “stimulators don’t do that.” It wasn’t until she received a certified letter from Abbott in March that she learned it wasn’t all in her head: The company said her device was being recalled due to a glitch that could cause patients some “discomfort.”

Since 2005, there have been 50 recalls involving spinal stimulators, averaging about four per year in the last five years. Roughly half the recalls involved stimulators made by Medtronic, the world’s largest device manufacturer, though none warned of a risk of serious injury or death.

In early September, McJunkin invited an AP reporter to accompany her when she met with her doctor and the company sales representative to request the device be removed.

The Abbott salesman and her doctor both suggested she get another stimulator, saying she had run out of options, especially since her doctor couldn’t write prescriptions for opioids because of a government crackdown. If she didn’t get another stimulator, he said, she faced a lifetime of pain. He did not suggest other options, such as steroid shots or continued physical therapy.

“I’m not trying to force your mind,” the doctor said. “But for me, would I want to live my life like this?… If I get that new battery and it totally helps, that changes my life 180 degrees, right? But if I don’t I already know what’s going to happen to me: I’ll be suffering for the rest of my life.”

On the drive home to Martinsburg, West Virginia, McJunkin gripped the steering wheel of her car, her tattoo reading “persevere” visible on her forearm.

“You trust your doctor. You think he’s going to do the right thing,” she said. She paused, fighting back tears. “I just wanted to live without pain. But now that hope is gone.”

In late October, her doctor removed the device.

The experience of nearly all the 40 patients interviewed by the AP mirrored McJunkin’s: Their pain was reduced during the trial but returned once their stimulators were implanted.

Experts say the answer may be a placebo effect created when expectations are built up during the trial that only the stimulator can offer relief from pain, exacerbated by patients not wanting to disappoint family members, who often have been serving as their caregivers.

“If patients know this is a last resort, a last hope, of course they will respond well,” said Dr. Michael Gofeld, a Toronto-based anesthesiologist and pain management specialist who has studied and implanted spinal-cord stimulators in both the U.S. and Canada.

By the time the trial ends, the patient is “flying high, the endorphin levels are high,” Gofeld said.

Manufacturer representatives are heavily involved during the entire process. Along with often being in the operating room during surgery in case the physician has questions, they meet with patients to program the devices in the weeks following surgery.

Most of the patients interviewed by the AP said the adjustments to their devices were performed by sales representatives, often with no doctor or nurse present. That includes one patient who was billed for programming as if the doctor was in the room, though he was not.

“People who are selling the device should not be in charge of maintenance,” Gofeld said. “It’s totally unethical.”

In a 2015 Texas case, a former Medtronic sales representative filed suit contending she was fired after complaining that the company trained employees to program neurostimulators without physicians present. She also claimed that a Medtronic supervisor snatched surgical gloves away from her when she refused to bandage a patient during a procedure, pushed her aside and then cleaned and dressed the patient’s wound. Medtronic denied the allegations, and the case was settled on undisclosed terms.

In the Justice Department case involving Medtronic, a salesman who said he earned as much as $600,000 a year selling spinal-cord stimulators claimed sales representatives encouraged physicians to perform unnecessary procedures that drove up the costs for Medicare and other federal health programs.

“While there have been a few instances where individuals or affiliates did not comply with Medtronic’s policies, we acted to remedy the situation in each case once discovered and to correct any misconduct,” the company said.

Gofeld said he believes stimulators do work, but that many of the problems usually arise when doctors don’t choose appropriate candidates. And he thinks the stimulators are used too often in the U.S.

Nevro, one of the four big manufacturers, has cited estimates that there are as many as 4,400 facilities in the U.S where spinal-stimulation devices are implanted by a variety of physicians, including neurosurgeons, psychiatrists and pain specialists.

It’s a lucrative business . Analysts say stimulators and the surgery to implant them costs between $32,000 and $50,000, with the device itself constituting $20,000 to $25,000 of that amount. If surgery is performed in a hospital, the patient usually stays overnight, and the hospital charges a facility fee for obtaining the device. Costs are typically covered by insurance.

The AP found that doctors can make more money if they perform the surgery at physician-owned outpatient surgery centers, since the doctor buys the device, marks it up and adds on the facility fee.

In Canada, where Gofeld now works, he said the surgeries are done only by those who specialize in the procedures. He said spinal-cord stimulators should be used when pain starts and not after failed back surgeries.

“By then,” he said, “it’s too late.”

___

While manufacturers and top FDA officials tout stimulators as a weapon in the battle against opioids, neurosurgeons like Steven Falowski are the front-line evangelists.

“Chronic pain is one of the largest health-care burdens we have in the U.S. It’s more than heart disease, cancer and diabetes combined,” Falowski said in an interview.

He referred AP to Corby, as one of his surgical patients who was helped by a spinal-cord stimulator.

Corby got the device more than two years ago and says that, after some initial adjustments, he hasn’t had any further problems. He says he wouldn’t trade the stimulator for opioids.

“I was actually buying them on the street … a little like a druggie because I couldn’t get them anymore” from his pain doctor, Corby said.

Falowski said opioids are good for acute pain, but were never meant to treat long-term chronic pain. For him, that’s where spinal-cord stimulators come in.

If they’re used early enough for pain, they can prevent people from going on opium-based pain killers, said Falowski, who speaks at neuromodulation conferences and teaches other doctors how to implant stimulators.

Since 2013, device manufacturers have paid Falowski — or St. Luke’s University Health Network in Fountain Hill, Pennsylvania, where he works — nearly $863,000, including $611,000 from St. Jude or its new parent company, Abbott, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services database. The payments range from consulting fees to travel and entertainment expenses.

Falowski said he has conducted research and done other work for manufacturers, adding, “The contracts with industry are with my hospital and not with me.”

St. Luke’s told the AP that it keeps the majority of the payments from device makers, but that Falowski “may receive a portion of these payments through his annual compensation.”

Another of Falowski’s patients was Lisa Snyder of Kempton, Pennsylvania, who was searching for relief from a painful nerve disorder. By the time she came to Falowski, she had cycled through three spinal-cord stimulators, which were removed for reasons ranging from infection to rejection.

“Not everybody could do it, but he was confident he could,” she said.

After her fourth implant this March, “I complained about this battery right away. I knew it was positioned funny. It burned,” Snyder said.

AP’s analysis showed Abbott products were more likely than other major models to include reports of a hot or burning sensation near the site of the battery, with about 5,600 injury reports since 2008 referring to the words “heat” or “burn.”

Abbott said that many of the “adverse events” reports in the FDA’s data stemmed from a device that was voluntarily recalled in 2011. The company added that feeling a temperature increase at the implant site “is often a reality for rechargeable spinal-cord stimulation systems,” which is why the company is now concentrating on devices that do not need to be recharged.

Snyder said she felt like Falowski’s nurse and physician assistant downplayed the problems and that the reprogramming of her device was conducted by the Abbott sales representative, with no medical staff present. On at least one occasion, she was charged as if the medical staff was there, when she said they weren’t, according to insurance bills reviewed by the AP.

Despite insisting nothing was wrong with the unit, Snyder said, Falowski called her one day out of the blue. “He said ‘Under no circumstances are you to turn it on.’ I asked him why and he wouldn’t say,” Snyder recalled.

Falowski then scheduled immediate surgery to remove the stimulator, she said.

Falowski called Snyder a difficult patient and said she was receiving “100 percent pain relief” when she had the stimulator removed, adding that she “remained very appreciative of her care.” He added that programming is “performed under the direction of a physician.”

“The physician is not present during the entire programming session, but provides oversight and direction….The only time programming sessions are billed is when the physician is actively seeing the patient during a visit which was the case with this patient,” he said.

Snyder disputed the doctor’s characterization of her and became angry after being told Falowski and his hospital received money from manufacturers.

“They need to be a little bit upfront,” she said.

Falowski said doctors do important work for medical device companies, and he has been involved in device development, education, clinical trials and research.

“You’re trying to help patients and you realize as a physician by yourself you’re not going to generate $200 million to make the next best implant for a patient and it’s going to take a company to do that,” he said. “So I think the important part in that relationship is transparency and disclosures.”

Experts interviewed by the AP said doctors are not legally required to tell their patients about financial relationships with medical device manufacturers, but that it would be the right thing to do.

“The patient should be fully informed before consenting to a procedure,” said Genevieve P. Kanter, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in internal medicine, medical ethics and health policy.

All Snyder ever wanted was to feel better. Today, she often is immobilized by pain.

Before the latest stimulator, she could walk, stand and cook meals. Now, she finds it hard to get out of bed and rarely leaves her house. She says the device has ruined her life.

“My fear is I’ll be like this forever,” she said.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2018/11/25/device-treating-pain-draws-thousands-of-injury-reports/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2018/11/26/device-treating-pain-draws-thousands-of-injury-reports/

[thrashermaxey]

Ramblings: Thoughts on Pacioretty, Tavares, the Draft, Carlson, Wideman and more (June 25)

  Ramblings: Thoughts on Pacioretty, Tavares, the Draft, Carlson, Wideman and more (June 25)

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Hope you enjoyed draft weekend, even if the trade action was a bit of a lull. I believe that this year the quality defensemen were in abundance and the forwards were lacking in terms of high-end talent. At least, compared to other years. Obviously these guys are talented so I’m speaking in relative terms. But the salary cap era has teams in such desperate need of cheap help sooner rather than later, you saw many of them take a B-type forward ahead of an A-type defenseman. We had four defensemen ranked in the Top 7 and yet just two actually went in the Top 7. You saw Montreal reach ahead and take the top-ranked center (Jesperi Kotkaniemi) two or three spots above his overall ranking. You saw the Senators grab a forward in Brady Tkachuk who will likely join the team by 2019-20 at the latest, even though they are in serious danger of losing their franchise defenseman. You even saw Arizona grab a forward many outlets had ranked out of the Top 10 – at No.5. I find it curious, because in real hockey as it is in fantasy, defensemen are valued more. This obviously wasn’t about trade value but to me was about getting a guy on their roster within two or three years (forwards) as opposed to three or four years (defensemen).

On the plus side, this allowed some very deserving teams to get their hands on real good quality defensemen. Kudos to Vancouver on getting Quinn Hughes at 7 and to Edmonton for Evan Bouchard at 10. Then again, it also allowed other teams to get quality defensemen as well – such as Chicago getting Adam Boqvist. The Hawks have won enough Cups lately, shouldn’t they suffer for a bit now? I kid.

I’m sure you’ve read all the articles giving Detroit pats on the back for the players that landed in their lap much later than expected. Filip Zadina was ranked third on a lot of lists (including our own in the Fantasy Prospects Report), yet Detroit got him sixth. Joe Veleno was ranked 11th on our list and Detroit got him 30th. But here is the Devil’s Advocate point of view – they got a couple of players who sank for a reason. I don’t question Zadina’s talent. I think that one was luck in that Montreal wanted a center and Ottawa wanted a sure-fire scoring-line player who can help very soon. But now I question Veleno, who has seen his stock fall for almost an entire year now. Reminds me of us celebrating the Penguins for drafting Angelo Esposito back in the day. There was a reason Esposito fell, is there a reason Veleno fell? I’ll let someone else take a chance on Veleno for now in my league.

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My favorite pick of the first round: Edmonton taking Evan Bouchard

My favorite dark horse pick of the first round: Dallas taking Ty Dellandrea

These are from fantasy standpoints. That’s just how I always think.

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The big news of the weekend may not have even come from the draft, or from a player moving at all, but rather from a player staying. John Carlson signed with the Capitals for eight years at $8 million per season. On the open market he would have been capped at seven years, unless Washington traded him. But my guess is he would have gotten $8.5 million per. This way he gets that extra season. This deal was made possible, and happened quickly, once the team got Brooks Orpik off the books in the Grubauer trade.

Just a thought, but why wouldn’t a superstar sign for one year at a time? Make $10 million next year, $11 the year after, and $12 the year after. If you’re the top UFA available, you’ll always make the most in the league, right? Then at 31 or 32 you sign your six or seven year deal. Three years from now, Carlson will be 15th or 20th among defensemen for salary and yet he still might be Top 10 in talent. Just thinking aloud here…”rambling”, if you will.

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Speaking of UFAs, John Tavares has reportedly cut his list down to the following teams: Toronto, San Jose, Dallas, NY Islanders and “possibly” Boston as well as one of Tampa Bay and/or Nashville. Vegas now off the list.

How hard is Lou Lamoriello working to keep Tavares an Islander? Well, he’s following Tavares around California as he interviews with teams. I guess the next step is to start sticking bananas into the exhaust pipe of Doug Wilson’s car to make sure Wilson is late. I love the dedication here – he clearly knows what is riding on this and is acting accordingly. Leave zero to chance.

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The NHL buyout window ends June 30, which this year is Saturday. Here are the players who are going to be bought out:

Brooks Orpik, COL; Xavier Ouellet, DET;

  And here are the players who have agreed to be released from their contracts unconditionally:

Eric Gryba, EDM; Paul Martin, SJS; Sergey Zborovskiy, NYR;

I don’t know why the above players are allowed to just be released. I understand that they have to also agree to it – but what’s to prevent a team from strong-arming them? Or bribing them with head office jobs? I thought the CBA protected players from this stuff, even at their own detriment at times.

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Minor trade yesterday – Vancouver traded Michael Chaput to Chicago for Tanner Kero. The latter is signed for the season ahead whereas the former is not, but both are depth players playing in a depth role.

Another minor trade – the Red Wings traded Robbie Russo to the Coyotes for a conditional seventh-round draft pick. That’s about as low a return as possible. Russo is all about offense, so to me he’s the quick replacement in case Trevor Murphy fails to pick up where he left off to end last season. Either way, we’re talking about the No.6 or 7 defenseman with secondary PP time and a bit of upside to move higher. Not unlike what Kevin Connauton brought to the table last season.

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You’re seeing an interesting power swing this year when it comes to coaches, and this is the domino effect of Mike Babcock leaving the Red Wings on his own terms and making a big pile of money with the Maple Leafs. This past season, unless I’m having a brain fart, saw zero coaches fired. Yes, the two New York teams fired their coaches after the season. But in-season there were zero firings. And in the offseason, two coaches resigned and then signed elsewhere for big money. Now instead of coaches making $500,000 the good ones are starting to make $5 million. And this is happening without a union! Good for them, well deserved. Looks like organizations are thinking twice before firing a coach now.

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Nikita Soshnikov signed a one-year, one-way deal with the Blues. It’s worth $800,000 so the contract can easily be buried, though he’d have to clear waivers. Playing down the stretch he was only seeing about 10 minutes of ice time per game, his hit totals were disappointing and his linemates were nobody of note.

Chris Wideman was enjoying a great start to his season with eight points in 16 games, with two of those on the power play. But then he suffered a hamstring injury that required season-ending surgery. The 28-year-old was set to become an unrestricted free agent but instead signed with the Senators for $1 million. Not really the defenseman Sens fans were hoping to get signed. The background numbers, based on limited data since he only played 16 games, indicates that his 0.50 points-per-game average was too high for him. But we already knew that. Still, if he can remain healthy he’ll be a 30-point guy. He once had 19 goals and 61 points in the AHL.

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The Max Pacioretty situation is getting complicated. We all know that he’s on the trade block, and you probably heard that he switched agents on the weekend – Allan Walsh is his new guy. And Friday Pierre LeBrun reported that the Habs had a deal done with the Kings but it hinged on Pacioretty signing an extension and he didn’t so the deal fell through. So perhaps Pacioretty stays now and gets an extension from Montreal. But with Evander Kane getting a ludicrous $49 million deal, that pretty much makes Pacioretty worth a hell of a lot more. Had Kane signed a contract that better reflected his value, then perhaps Pacioretty could have been had for $6.5 million per season. Now the Habs are either forced to trade their captain, or overpay him. There’s really no way for Marc Bergevin to look good here, but at this point his reputation as a GM can’t get any worse.

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I think Phillip Grubauer will be the starter for the Avs in a year. But this season? It will be messy. I’d expect Semyon Varlamov to get 40-45 starts, Grubauer to get 35-40 and Pavel Francouz to get a couple. That breakdown is a nightmare for fantasy owners. So expect a rough season for owners of the 26-year-old before you finally get stability a year from now.

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DobberProspects team pages and player profiles have a new look. We’re still fixing the team prospect depth charts to fit different screen sizes, but if you’re on a PC you can check out the teams here. From there you can choose a team and click a player profile. You can see where we’re going with it, even if it’s not 100% ready just yet.

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At the draft, here is our own Peter Harling (left), Cam Robinson (right) and former Dobber Nation host Andrew Walker (now with the FAN 650)

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See you next week

    from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-thoughts-on-pacioretty-tavares-the-draft-carlson-wideman-and-more-june-25/

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Martenizing the Unified District

Cindy Marten's fortune: leading San Diego Unified forward while suffering personal setbacks

Fortune #1,082: “You will have good luck in your personal affairs.” Years ago, Cindy Marten started finding fortunes — not the cookies, just the tossed-aside slips of paper — in random locations: under her seat at a Mexican restaurant, inside a supermarket, outside a gas station.

Marten, the San Diego Unified School District’s superintendent, catalogs these messages. Some are encouraging.

Others seem to be mocking her. That “good luck” fortune? She found it soon after losing control of a scooter on a city sidewalk. This May 12 accident sent her to the emergency room with a broken right arm, cuts and bruises.

Three days later, she was released from the hospital. “She comes out on a Tuesday at 10 a.m.,” said Mel Katz, a friend. “She’s had surgery, there’s a metal plate in her arm, a gash in her head — and she goes to her 3:30 p.m. board meeting.”

She stayed to the end of the six-hour session. “People think she is going to pass out,” Katz said.

But Marten, who next week marks her fifth anniversary as superintendent, was determined to honor her personal credo: “Work Hard, Be Kind, Dream Big! No Excuses.”

“You be there for joy and for pain,” she said. “You show up for it.”

In this position, showing up for five years is a major accomplishment. To lead California’s second-largest public school district, a mammoth enterprise of 181 schools and about 106,000 students, is to defy fate. This is a meat grinder of a job, a destroyer of reputations, a graveyard of bold plans and high hopes.

In the 10 years before Marten’s hiring, the district was led by four permanent and three interim superintendents. The position seemed so unworkable, the board of trustees debated scrapping it in favor of some less-punishing arrangement.

But roughly 24 hours after another short-term superintendent resigned, the board offered the job to an elementary school principal with decades of classroom experience: Marten.

Fans say this experiment is now showing signs of success. In April, the district topped the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called “the nation’s report card.”

“San Diego Unified School District blew the socks off this cycle of the Nation’s Report Card, which measures progress on reading and math at grades four and eight,” said Mike Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, representing 69 of the country’s largest urban public school districts.

“No other city in the country saw gains in both grades in reading and math like San Diego.”

Graduation rates have risen to 91 percent. Marten seems to have won over her five-member board and many of the district’s 12,900 employees.

“The good thing is she’s been a teacher,” said Myriam Pedersen, who retired this month after 30 years of teaching in the district. “It makes a huge difference when they talk about, ‘here’s our goals, here’s what we will do,’ if they’ve been a teacher.”

Still, budget cuts and layoffs are perennial issues. An achievement gap between students of various racial and ethnic backgrounds, while narrowing, persists. There are still under-performing schools.

While juggling these professional challenges, Marten has been hit with personal crises. In January Marten’s mother, Fern Siegel, the former president of Jewish Family Service of San Diego, suffered a heart attack. Visibly scarred from her scooter mishap, Marten bears invisible scars from the deaths of her father in 2014 and her husband in 2016.

“None of it affects her job,” said Katz, who is on the board of one of the district’s charter schools, the C3 Academy. “She has such a positive attitude and really, really believes that we are doing great things for the city.

“We are just starting to see what Cindy can accomplish in San Diego.”

Fortune #592: “You will find good fortune in love.” Marten is 51, two years younger than her brother, Charley Cohen — “the love of my life,” she calls him. As a young girl, Cindy rapidly surpassed her older sibling in most academic subjects, as he is developmentally disabled.

“I’m certain I became a teacher because of my brother, Charley,” she said. “I wanted to teach him.”

The Cohens moved from Chicago to San Diego when Cindy was 11, so Charley could enroll in California’s special education program. The family prized education — the father, Donald Cohen, was a lawyer and certified public accountant who spoke several languages; the mother, a CPA and community activist, was president of a synagogue (Temple Emanu-El in San Carlos) and led a campaign to build a residence for the mentally ill (Chesed Home: Hope Village in Escondido).

Cynthia Minette Cohen, the couple’s middle child, is the only one who was adopted and the only one without a serious disability. Her younger sister, Laura, was diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic as a young woman.

Cindy attended local public schools — Hardy Elementary, Horace Mann Middle — before enrolling in La Jolla Country Day. For her senior project, she interned at the Aseltine School, then a special education academy where Charley had studied.

She idolized Aseltine’s energetic principal, Marian Grant. Years later as a young teacher, Cindy Cohen took Grant to lunch.

“What’s your secret?” the fledgling educator asked her mentor. “How do you avoid burning out?”

“You’ll never burn out,” Grant predicted, “because you are curious.”

Armed with a teaching degree from the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, Cohen began her career at Beth Israel Day School in 1991. That same year, she married her longtime boyfriend, a dashing hotel manager from Mexico City, Sergio Marten.

After a stint in the Poway district as a teacher and literacy specialist, Marten moved to San Diego Unified and City Heights’ Central Elementary. There, she was a teacher, vice principal and principal.

She assumed that last position in 2007, just as her husband suffered a massive stroke.

“I had 1,000 kids counting on me, our son was 12 going on 13, and my husband, my soul mate, was in the ICU and we didn’t know if he would live or die,” she said.

To maintain her emotional balance, she vowed to take one photograph a day for a year, focusing on something that made her grateful.

Nature supplied most subjects — butterflies, sunsets, ocean vistas — but homey images sometimes appeared. Her feet, for instance, kicking off her shoes after a long day.

“The world doesn’t change,” Marten said, “but the way you look at the world changes.”

When the year ended, Marten continued this practice. She still does today.

Fortune #1,083: “An unexpected visitor will bring you good blessings.” Under Marten, Central was cited as a successful inner city school by experts local and national. The principal advocated smaller class sizes, established clear, measurable results for her teachers, and provided staff with additional training and resources.

When Richard Barrera, a local labor leader, began his successful campaign for the school board in 2008, he spoke with students, teachers, staff and administrators.

“Cindy was the most articulate educator I met in this whole process,” said Barrera, secretary-treasurer of United Food and Commercial Workers’ Local 135. “She was able to take me and show me and articulate at her school how to create an environment where kids were thriving.”

When Superintendent Terry Grier resigned to lead Houston’s school district, Barrera tapped Marten to serve on the search committee for a successor.

“She became a leader in that process,” Barrera said.

That process resulted in the June 2010 hiring of Bill Kowba. Less than three years later, when he announced his retirement, Marten became the trustees’ unanimous choice without a search committee or any community testimony.

This was “virtually unheard of,” the Union-Tribune reported, and some were upset by the move. Marten disturbed some district employees and parents early in her tenure, as she replaced close to 75 percent of the district’s principals.

“She wants strong principals who support and hold accountable the teachers,” Katz said. “It’s all about proper training and doing the right things — supporting your teachers, giving them the tools they need and holding them accountable.”

Those tools include special teams dispatched to schools to share the latest best practices on math or reading instruction.

Observers say Marten benefited by inheriting a board of trustees that, unlike many earlier boards, is not split into warring camps. There’s an agreed-upon mission, to tackle racial achievement gaps and to provide every student a broad and challenging curriculum.

“We’re all pulling in the same direction,” Barrera said.

“I think we’re getting a lot accomplished,” said Sharon Whitehurst-Payne, another trustee. “We want every child reading by third grade and we're working on that. We want every child to graduate and we’re working on that.”

Part of that work involves the superintendent regularly briefing the trustees and keeping the surprises, good or bad, to a minimum.

“We meet weekly,” Whitehurst-Payne said. “That’s good access.”

Fortune #619: “You can be trusted to keep a secret.” In his retirement, Marten’s father became known as "Don the Can Man.” A longtime runner and bicyclist, Don Cohen often scoured San Diego’s streets for aluminum cans, keeping meticulous count of how many he had grabbed and recycled.

On his 80th birthday, Oct. 14, 2014, he scored his 4 millionth can. His goal was 8 million cans, but he would never reach that number. While bicycling near San Diego State University that fall, he was hit by a car. He died from his injuries on Nov. 7, 2014.

Marten had little time to mourn her father, as her husband’s health was deteriorating. In the summer of 2016, while in a rehab center, he seemed to be recovering.

Marten called him early on Aug. 21, 2016, the day of the America’s Finest City Half Marathon, which she had entered. He sounded fine, an impression reinforced by a positive report from the rehab center’s staff, and promised to see Marten after her run.

“I was running to honor my father,” she said. But the race soon took on an even darker hue.

At Mile 7, Marten’s cell phone rang. Sergio Marten’s heart had failed, and he had died at the age of 57. He and Cindy had been husband and wife for 25 years and a couple for 33 years.

Days later, the 2016-2017 school year kicked off with a rally.

“I went to school, went to the meetings,” Marten said. “I could have been the grieving widow, but you go.”

Her emotions were profoundly mixed — “there’s this great joy because the beginning of school is such an amazing time” — but she didn't want her own sorrows to cast a shadow over that special day.

“If I need to cry,” she said, “I cry.”

Even now, she tears up when discussing the Job-like series of calamities that has hit the family in the last four years. She mourns, but she also takes comfort in the loved ones who remain and the chance she has to move this district ahead.

“This district”? Scratch that.

“I don’t think of this as working for the district,” she said,. “I think of this as working for my community.”

As superintendent, she’s privy to inside information about principals, teachers, counselors, secretaries. Some of this is joyful — Marten is known for writing notes to staff, marking birthdays and anniversaries — and some is not.

On June 13, she testified for an hour in a wrongful termination lawsuit brought by an investigator who says he was fired after refusing to alter his reports on a sexual assault incident at San Carlos’ Green Elementary School.

On the witness stand, Marten was asked if she had urged anyone to “whitewash” the report by the investigator, Michael Gurrieri.

“Absolutely not,” she replied, “of course not.”

In an interview, Marten said she could not comment on this case, as a decision is still pending.

Intense scrutiny comes with this job, for better or worse. Tyler Cramer, a San Diegan who serves on the board of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, was present when superintendents from the nation’s top four urban public school districts spoke in Washington, D.C.

“Cindy did her presentation on math and she was amazing,” Cramer said. “You can see her panel on Youtube and she’s a knockout on it. This is playing in the major leagues at the playoff level.”

That’s one characteristic of a champion — the ability to play and win, even when hurt. *Reposted article from the UT by Peter Rowe of June 24, 2018