#tw gross medical discussion

[metalheadsagainstfascism]

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

Tw for gross medical discussion.

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

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

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

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

-fae

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

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

[rip-naked-peet]

Okay listen i don't really notice vaginal dryness from being on T EXCEPT for the fact that not as much discharge is in my underwear, right? WELL

I'm wearing an old pair of underwear and I just.. forgot? That discharge is acidic? And that I used to produce it regularly? So I pulled down my pants to use the toilet and thought I had shit myself so much that it turned most of my underwear brown. Very concerning (both because I didn't want shit in my pants and also because I forgot about basic anatomy).

[transfemme-shelterdog]

One of Many Experiences with Transandrophobia (TW: Medical Trauma):

Went to a Planned Parenthood clinic because I was told it was a 'safe' place for trans people to access care. At the time it was the ONLY place in my town and within 75 miles that trans people could access care.

Had an appointment for a pap smear, which PP said I HAD to have done before I could get an HRT appointment. Had been assured that the clinic was very up to date on working with trans clients. Had been very clear about my gender identity and my overall discomfort with having a pap smear done due to previous sexual trauma.

Appointment started off normal, until it suddenly wasn't. The OBGYN decided it was the perfect time while she was poking around and up in my body to start talking about how "beautiful the female reproductive system is", and starts talking, in vivid detail, about how my genitalia looked, and how healthy it was, and how it would be such a shame for me to ruin it with transition, and how atrophy would make sex painful for me, and how I wouldn't be able to have children if I did the unthinkable and got a hysterotomy.

It was so incredibly triggering, and I was frozen for the rest of the appointment because I felt incapable to doing anything since I was up in the stirrups and in a vulnerable position. This woman knew I had trauma she still fucking pulled that shit on me. To this day, I still feel like she did what she did to me because of my trauma - like she thought doing this would be a sure fire way to get me to not want to transition.

I tried lodging complains about the experience about a week after that happened, but the complaints went nowhere. I was told I must have "misunderstood" what I'd been told, and MAYBE it was because of my previous sexual trauma, or MORE LIKELY I'd been dysphoric during the appointment so I clearly must be remembering in wrong! And after getting gaslit about it so hard, I've never had an exam since. I'd honestly rather get surprise cancer and have that take me than ever experience something so gross and demeaning again.

To add insult to injury: When I tried talking about the experience at the local trans support group (where it was totally normal to talk about discrimination members experienced) I got shut down because the group was 6 trans women to 2 trans men on that particular day and they had a vote on if I could talk about it, and the vote ended up 6 against 2. I was told that as a man, it wasn't okay to talk about that particular type of medical trauma, because only the women in the room were allowed to talk about medical trauma around their genitalia.

I ended up dropping out of that 'support' group because it was clear there was no actual support available for trans men in attendance - we were expected to be good listeners and to support the trans women in attendance unconditionally, but not to talk about our personal lived experiences if they were negative - we could only talk about the happy, twee things! So validating! /s

I also came to find out later that the PP location I went to predominately worked with trans women - MTF HRT was made available about 5 years before they started selectively doing FTM HRT (that's a whole other story) - and after comparing notes with a few other guys, came to realize the handful of us trans men that went there were treated like freaks.

I would like to think that time passing would have made it possible to talk about this, as it happened to me in 2017, but over the years when I've attempted to discuss issues trans men have accessing medical care and the trauma we can experience trying to do so, and use this example as shit I've experienced that should never happen, I STILL get shut down.

I've been made fun of, told "that didn't actually happen", or my transness and/or my identity as man gets questioned/belittled/turned into a joke by both trans and cis women. I had one lesbian (a former friend now for fucking good reason) joke that "maybe she (the OGBYN) thought you were a lesbian and was trying to hit on you!"

Same thing has happened when attempting to talk about sexual assault and intimate partner violence - talking about/admitting to having that experience has gotten pointed to as me being a "man trying to talk over women's experiences", or as a "sign" I'm not ACTUALLY a man, because those things don't happen to men.

So when people say that trans men don't need a term to talk about the kinds of shit we deal with that is unique to our identities and experiences, and they mock us for using the term "transandrophobia"?

I want to spit bullets.

(Cue the haters saying I'm a monster and 'dangerous violent man' for saying so.)

.

[butterscotch-goat]

Live laugh love Sushi Soucy (lyrics from "Missing Hell")

(A LOT of OC rambles + bonus doodles below the cut!) (no pressure to read all of it, I talk a LOT. Like a ridiculous amount, I didn't mean to talk that much)

(OCs in order of appearance: Charles - he/him, Aster - she/they)

👏. The Manor trio in late 1891. RRRAUUUUGHHHHHH

(tw medical malpractice, emotional manipulation, implied physical manipulation, brief descriptions of depression) sorry this is very rambly

so this is right after Aster's awake-vivisection and after she got "betrayed" by Beatrice- that Big Meanie Thing I mentioned that Bea was manipulated into doing, might as well finally elaborate on it. It's nothing special fhdhhdhd but uh Aster finally had the guts to say no, she doesn't want her blood to be drawn today. She's tired and exhausted and weak and she just doesn't want to. And of course Bea is like "yeah that's fine 👍 we can wait til ur ready!" But Charles does NOT want to delay their tests and experiments(that being mostly injecting various animals with magic essence and seeing how it affects them/using it to combine them with other life forms). So!! He pulls Bea aside and is like "hey Beatrice you're,, Friends with Aster right?" And Bea looks at him like "..yeah?" And he goes "cool cool cool do me a favor and like. Trick her? And get blood from her with force?" And OBVIOUSLY Beatrice is like "NO!!!!???? have you gone MENTAL??? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU" and Charles explains that it's the most efficient way, since Aster would let Beatrice closer to her than she would Charles, but if Beatrice refuses, Charles will do it himself, and Bea doesn't trust Charles to be careful with Aster. I mean duh the other day he was operating on her with no anesthesia so it's a reasonable assumption. Plus, despite everything, Beatrice still loves Charles so very much, and it's still difficult for her to deny him. So after a very very long discussion/argument, Beatrice feels like she has no choice but to go through with it. Regrettably!! Beatrice talks to Aster like nothing is happening, and in the middle of their conversation she gently takes Aster's hand and kisses it as she unbuttons the cuffs. I won't describe how the rest went down but it's gonna be ugly!! It's horrible!! Beatrice is as kind and gentle as she can be and Aster is fighting for her life. At one point Aster just gives up. She feels like an idiot for ever trusting Beatrice. Aster is left on the floor against the wall, one unbuttoned sleeve rolled up, and as Beatrice tries to explain/apolgize/comfort Aster after the fact, Aster punches her in the nose with all the strength she can muster(not much). So Bea leaves with her case of vials filled with fresh blood.

Beatrice is completely broken, she feels horrible and like there's nothing she can do to make anything better, and the only person she has to go to is Charles. The same man who put her in that whole mess is the one who has to comfort her, holding her and petting her hair as she sobs into his shoulder. With nothing else to do, Beatrice continues with the experiments and tests and plans.

Aster doesn't leave her room for the rest of the day. Or the next day. Beatrice knocks on Aster's door once in the evening to no response. The next day, Beatrice leaves Aster a tray of food and water. It's gone the next day, which reassures her a little. This becomes routine; Beatrice leaves meals for Aster, notifying her with a knock on the door. No one sees Aster for days, weeks. After 3 weeks, they're out of blood samples again. Charles (without Beatrice's knowledge) takes a chance and enters Aster's room. It's gross and smelly, piles of half-eaten meals on a nightstand, Aster rotting in her bed, hiding under her comforters, definitely unshowered. He gets a blood sample from her, Aster not even trying to fight it (see where that got her last time.) She doesn't do anything, really. The most that she does is flinch, wince, and glare at Charles. While he's there, Charles replaces Aster's bandages because she definitely hasn't had the drive to replace them herself. This too, becomes routine, against Beatrice's wishes. Charles visits Aster every day, replacing her bandages, making sure she eats and drinks and gets up to use her muscles, etc. Even though Aster hates Charles more than anything, it's easier for her to face him because she knows what to expect. She knows he's not gentle or kind and gets frustrated easily, but she feels like she doesn't know Beatrice at all anymore.

THIS is what I LOVE to write. Charles somehow ending up as the one being there for both Aster and Beatrice, and he's thriving! And Bea just has to watch as the love of her life lets in the man who's hurt her the most, and refuses to see Beatrice herself. Ok I'll shut up now

[handoverthekawaii]

We Go Together | Homelander x You | Chapter 13

Taglist: @hom3landr

TW: This chapter includes discussion of medical experimentation conducted on a child.

The conversation with Auntie Em weighs heavily on your mind all morning. Although you feel terribly guilty that you made her so upset, at the end of the day you stand by what you told her. Taking this job, learning more about your dad, felt like something you HAD to do.

And even though the personnel file has proven less enlightening than you had hoped, that doesn’t mean you regret your actions… after all, this path led you to Homelander, didn’t it? You aren’t sure where that path leads from here but, somehow, meeting him makes all the challenges along the way feel worthwhile.

Speaking of Homelander, the man himself intercepts you at lunchtime and suggests spending your lunch break in Central Park rather than Vought’s sterile, impersonal break room. You agree immediately, eager to spend every moment with him that you can, and once you’ve grabbed your brown bag lunch from the fridge, the two of you are on your way.

A short flight later, you and Homelander have settled onto a wooden bench in the park’s secluded Ramble. He sits alongside you, one leg crossed over the other at the knee and an arm slung casually over the back of the bench.

“So how was your morning?” you ask as you begin to eat.

“Absolutely fucking ridiculous!” Homelander answers with an exaggerated roll of his eyes. “I had back-to-back meetings, but I could hardly pay attention thanks to the insane bullshit I could hear Deep spouting in the next room over.”

“What kind of insane bullshit?” you want to know.

Based on your recent interaction with The Deep, you suspect that he might have been bragging about his latest sexual conquests with the hottest ladies in the Tri-State Area. It turns out you are half-right.

“Apparently he fucked a dolphin last night,” says Homelander, making you promptly spit out your drink and begin laughing in awed disbelief.

“I-I’m sorry,” you sputter after a minute. “That was so gross, I’m so sorry.” But Homelander doesn’t seem to mind at all — in fact, he throws back his head and laughs, too, a big booming guffaw, and slaps a hand on his knee.

“I don’t even know whether you’re laughing at what you heard or my reaction to it,” you tease once you’ve both composed yourselves.

Homelander reaches over, placing his gloved fingers on the nape of your neck as he smiles broadly in response.

“Definitely your reaction,” he tells you. “Because, trust me, the shit he was describing was just… no.” [continued in AO3]

[terraliensvent]

Anyone remember the suggestion for adding a trigger warning for any drawings/depictions/pictures of bugs in the server? When Terraliens literally has an entire category for the bug subtype.

I still laugh about it to this day. It makes no sense compared any other harmful triggers like gore lol.

ive never been all too crazy about people who ask for extensive TWs on stuff, and ive also been really stringent about the use of TW vs CW

TW (Trigger Warning): understandable for things like gore, s/h, or things that could trigger someone (like egregious stuff you wouldnt see irl)

CW (Content Warning): things that arent really on the level of triggering someone, but it makes sense why you could censor it (horror, photorealistic bugs)

however i just think it can be excessive to censor stuff, like im not gonna censor food or things that you would encounter on a day to day basis, and i also make the argument that individuals are responsible for their OWN triggers. like, i dont think you should be posting gore and horror and gross medical stuff without warnings because thats not really something that you encounter regularly; BUT if someone is triggered by bugs then maybe they shouldnt put themselves in places where bugs are being discussed a lot. its not discrimination to say that if something triggers you, its on YOU to Avoid That Thing. granted, theres different circumstances if its on like an individual level, like its not unreasonable if you dont want your boyfriend talking about the centipede he saw at work, but asking whole communities to censor arguably harmless things is pretty ludicrous

its become really commonplace in online spaces to expect others to coddle to each individual scenario that could ever arise even though thats not how society works. (see: bean soup.) in the world we live in, sometimes you gotta deal with being uncomfortable. yeah, sometimes theres shit you cant avoid, sometimes the baby is gonna cry on the plane and you cant exactly tell the parent to take it somewhere else, just like how people are gonna talk about bugs sometimes and its on you to decide whether to suck it up or avoid the discussion.

(for an explanation on “bean soup,” basically someone on tiktok posted a recipe for a soup where the PRIMARY INGREDIENT was beans, and lots of people commented things like “what if there are people allergic to beans?” maybe then dont make the damn soup? this type of sentiment is echoed a lot with TWs and things of that nature in current day online circles)

[memeapple2]

Huggbees reacts to spiderman one more day starters part 1 (TW: Coma mention, shooting mention, familial death)

"So let's re-read it together so we can all be stupid!!"

"Apparently him fucking old fat women wasn't in the market."

"Bold to assume the dearest person in my life is a her...God bless you Danny Devito!"

"Let me see if I can make up some lines, I'll do it on the spot! What would you do if your cable went out and Batman called you fat? I'm not very good at this."

"He has one more day in his delectable bondage web outfit! I mean look it. It's constricting all the places you want, but still leaving room for the erogenous zones! "

"Tune your ear to the frequency of despair. By cross reference the longitude and latitude of a heart in agony. Listen, this is kmlfm giving you the biggest boner in the back seat of your Ford Bronco!"

"Who the fuck would think just shooting spiderman with a bullet would work?"

"___ probally had good insurance, beacuse they got ____hooked up the the pudding suction device immediately!"

*LOUD GROSS SUCKING SOUNDS*

"Careful ____ save some tapioca for the rest of the residents!"

"They're gonna die, beacuse you didn't check them in with any insurance you stupid new identity assuming fuck!"

"What the fuck!? Everyone knows Peter Parker is spiderman, how in the shit did a fake name work!? He's a God danm international celebrity! Yet not a single human being in this hospital recognized him, Expect this one doctor who has all the kindness in his heart even though he's is still a dickhead! Huh????"

"Not a single person in New York God danm city, wants to help aunt may and spiderman get a pot of flowers for her icu room! We're off to a great start!"

"'Everyone knows my face' says the man who used a fake name to check into a hospital in a major metropolitan area!"

"So they break into ____'s surveillance room where they're apparently nakedly bathing in red jello???"

"Thank fucking god it was a superhero that they hit! If it was a regular burglar or some kind of human, they would have torn their spine in half. Good going committing murder ____!"

"So the best way to take down a man in super high tech armor is to punch him! Punches him real hard!"

"But he punches the guy...Oh fuck!"

"Punch the iorn man! Punch him! Punch him real good!! Punch him good!! Punch him! Fuck you!!"

"So after Peter introduces Tony to the exciting thrills of hard-core bondage, they have a discussion!"

"Keep in mind there's no guarantee this will save her! Keep in mind she's already a brain dead vegetable! Keep in mind aunt may is 80 something years old and lived a full happy life!!!! NOPE! PAY MY FUCKING BILLS TONY!!"

"NOPE! TONY STARK THE MAN WITH MILLIONS AND BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, THE MAN WHO SNEEZES PROTOTYPE WEAPONS, CAN'T GIVE PETER THE MONEY FOR AUNT MAY'S MEDICAL BILLS!! BUT HE CAN LET AUNT MAY DIE A HORRIBLE OLD PERSON DEATH IN A HOSPITAL!"

"It's a fucking miracle! They're still brain dead! Crazy, I know!!"

"We need to be reminded of this 50 times so maybe you'll the the subtle message of this comic!"

"By the way here's all the money you need for all this horrible shit that happened!"

"You know your aunt who's over 80 years old, who was shot in the chest and is brain dead...WHAT YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW HOW SHE'S DYING!?"

"Spiderman gets spiderpissed and decides nothing is gonna stop him from saving his aunt!!"

"If you want to read another comic this decade read this! Beacuse it's so bad you'll never want to read another comic again!"

"The good news is aunt may isn't in the charity ward anymore and has her own private room! The bad news is she's still fucking dying!"

"The art is so good, and I feel so bad, beacuse so far this is written by a fucking idiot! But god this art is so amazing!"

"So I get to look at something nice, while I question who the fuck thought this was a good idea?!"

"Dr. Strange's stupid magic is the only thing that's gonna help aunt may!"

"I was given magic abilities and a purpose, and this shit's important, and you don't fuck around with it!"

"I know if I had a bitter enemy who life I wanted to end, who constantly thwarted my plans, and he was my sworn nemesis, and he was like 'yo yo yo, time out, time out! Yeah, hey stop, woah! Time out, time out! My aunt's dying.' I would just put a halt to everything, I'd put an arm around his shoulder and I'd say, look man it's okay to express your feelings. Where's my check book!?"

"Let me get you something to drink! You want some Sunny D? Some apple juice? Maybe a diet coke? I drank all the regular. After all, traveling with your mind is stressful and the only way to sooth it, is the cool refreshing taste of mountain dew code red!"

"He tried to punch the guy who shot her in the brain, but he's a ghost! So that doesn't work!"

"Spiderman you're too hard on yourself! You need to respect yourself man! You need to give yourselfa break! Come on, positive thinking!"

"That's fucking stupid! Imagine you're watching a marvel movie, and you're watching Iornman 2.5 the legend of Tony's toenails! Tony stark is in iornman, and he's about to punch the hulk and he goes, 'And now for the for the reason I'm punching you and we're enemies'; and the movie cuts to black, and they're hanging out, and there's a little subtitle that goes 'watch The Incredible Hulk's amazing Sunday to find out what happened!' BULLSHIT!"

"People die when they're killed!"

"What you should do is stop being a fucking idiot, stop being a whiney desperate teenage baby!"

"Go to your aunt, tell her you love her, and give her a big old kiss! Beacuse she can probably still hear you in her comatose state. In her comatose stupid body, she probably embarrassed as fuck you're having a temper tantrum! That her brittle old skeleton is gonna be dust in the wind soon! So get some ice cream, and have a nice treat, while she fades into the ether realm. Go hang out with her! Okay?"

"Then we get to a cover art with spiderman's deadliest foes! A little girl, Cyclops with depression, and Jay Joanna Jamieson if he wanted to go to a fancy tea party!"

"It's not safe to go down that alley way! Beacuse it has a nerd in it!!"

"That's why I play video games! Beacuse I look at the world and go, UGH! What wasted potential, earth! Fuck you people! Now, Mario, he's got it all figured out! Mario's on a different dimension!"

"He's like a mini devil, he rules pocket hell, he fucks with people and it's funny!"

"Beacuse I'm the fucking devil and I can do what I want!"

"If you had a demonic fetish we could have just played Doom eternal together!"

"I like to dwell in misery and pain! I like to make exchanges that hurt people, beacuse it's great! It's yummy!"

"Hey mafisto! You can take my fisto into your anus!!"

"That yummy yummy suffering of your soul, is what I'm gonna snack on for the next trillion years!"

"Spiderman man wakes up in his spider suit. I guess they're his spiderman pajamas?? God danm, they make him look ripped! I need a pair!"

[jeraliey]

Fooding experiments!

(TW: Discussion of food and nutrition)

So I took a CME course on nutrition from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, and I liked some of the ideas for eating slightly healthier, so I'm a-gonna try some! It's basically going to be eat-less-animal-product-and-more-plant-product stuff.

(Note/disclaimers: I am a big non-fan of orthorexia; I have the same mistrust-to-scorn for the dieting-and-extremist-yoga-juicing-guru industry as I do for anti-vaxxers. The healthier and least sin-and-virtue-oriented a person's relationship to food is, the better. Also note: I have the privilege of never having had to worry about weight or body image issues, so use appropriate grains of salt. My decisions are only right for me for who I am as a person. Also note: I am a medical professional.)

Anyway, I decided to add some new food items to my repertoire! Some will be additions, and some I'm going to see if they work as substitutions.

-I've had tofu and tempeh before (not something that I preference when ordering, but also not anything that grossed me out). But I never learned how to cook them, so I never bought them for my fridge. I decided I didn't want to mess with the whole press-your-tofu situation, so I got some silken tofu to put in my smoothies instead-of-or-in-addition-to-yogurt (I'll report back if I like it), and some tempeh to use as a meal protein. Also got some cornstarch because apparently that makes these things crispy when you fry them.

-Got some dried-seaweed snacks and edamame for snacking. These are things I already know I like.

-Got some pre-made seaweed salad. I think I've had it before, and I remember liking the texture even though it's not one of my normal expected food-textures. I'll probably make some sesame-ginger marinated tempeh and have those for dinner sometime, I think that should work.

-I bought oat milk. Never bought a non-dairy milk before. Anyway, I'm gonna see if I like it in my tea instead of half-and-half. I got the "extra-creamy" version. I suspect I'll eventually go back to half-and-half (though I've never tried oat milk before so who knows!), but let's see what happens.

-Got some mixed greens for salads, even though I've been trying to eat more salads for years and usually the greens end up wilting uneaten in my fridge. I suspect this pattern will not change anytime soon, but I'm going to continue giving myself the opportunity.

-I got some pre-made tuna salad for sandwiches. Maybe some of the greens will make it onto those too.....

-I also re-upped my requisite ice cream and oreos and bought a pre-made pound cake. And the pre-made curry chicken salad looked good too, so I got some of that even though the overall goal is to reduce the amount of chicken and beef and stuff that I usually eat. Because reduction is not the same thing as elimination.

-I also got some ricotta cheese, because my zucchini plant in my garden is making squash blossoms, and I hear they taste good stuffed and fried. Planning to chop up some parsley and maybe oregano from my garden, make a ricotta stuffing, and fry them up as they arrive. I'm trying to make sure this zucchini plant survives long enough to make female flowers (unlike multiple previous attempts) so I can actually grow zucchini, but even if it doesn't....at least I'll get something out of it this time. -I was actually surprised that buying all of these snooty plant-foods as additions to my usual grocery list actually cost around the same as a normal grocery store visit. And that's even with buying a few new multi-use items like pre-made marinades (for the tempeh). Was not expecting that.

Anyway, let's see how it goes!