#went to urgent care to get antibiotics

[mollyrolls]

do you guys ever have days where you’re just absolutely losing

[buscemifan]

please … no more utis for me ever … PLEASE

[shinysteph]

Cannot sleep because kidneys hurt so bad!!!

[chapstickbrandchapstick]

It's bitchin' time!!

[heartsbreaking]

locked in on writing until midnight that being said i am a lil 😐 cause my piercings are fucking infected again and i'm allergic to most antibiotics so i can't do anything about it

[poprockspillage]

i have been awake since 10am yesterday

got maybe 2 hours worth of sleep earlier in half hour chunks

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Am I the asshole for lying to my friend I needed a kidney transplant because they didn't read my message carefully?

The title is insane, but there's context here.

I (18F) have a friend (17X, let's call them Cloud) whose reading comprehension is piss poor, to be honest. I wouldn't mind this, but they consistently ask questions about my messages that are answered in the message (for example, I've said "I have Calculus from 2-3 today" and they've responded with "What time do you get out of class?"). This pisses me off, so in an attempt to curb this behavior, when I have something important to say, I've started bolding and italicizing important information in my messages so it's easier for them to see.

I've been having a few pains I won't go into detail about here, and went to urgent care because my mom said it was probably a UTI. It turns out I had a pretty mild kidney infection, and I just needed some antibiotics and would be fine. I missed a few texts from Cloud when I went to urgent care, so I sent this message (the asterisks are to bold and italicize the text):

"Sorry just got back from urgent care i guess i have a kidney infection? ***I'm okay*** though ***i just need to take antibiotics for a week***"

And they replied with "ARE YOUR KIDNEYS OKAY???? DID THEY GIVE YOU MEDICINE OR SOMETHING?"

As you can see in the message above, I already answered both of those questions. I was in pain and bit irked, so I told them "No, they said I'm going to need a transplant," fully expecting they'd realize how ridiculous that was. They did not, and freaked out about it, and I felt pretty bad, so I told them I didn't actually need a transplant and was just messing with them. They got really mad and said it was mean to lie to them about something so important, and haven't talked to me in a few days. I thought that I wasn't really lying, seeing as I told them the truth and they ignored it, but perhaps I should've acted differently.

So, Tumblr, am I the asshole for telling my friend I needed a kidney transplant, when I actually just had a mild kidney infection?

What are these acronyms?

[bordysbae]

could you please write a fanfic where y/n gets really sick, maybe she even passes out? and mark takes care of her until she feels better, like he makes her soup, cuddles, holds her hair back, and other fluffyness

“i’ll kiss you even if you’re sick”

mark estapa x fem!reader

warning: vomit, cursing, not proof read

also i think i used this gif already but there’s like none of mark sooo

you stir awake, immediately noticing the empty space beside you in bed. you rub your eyes and begin to notice the familiar things in marks room, which slowly brings back memories from last night.

the boys all decided to have a hang out, and of course being one of the girlfriends, you were invited. you all went out to a new restaurant in ann arbor and afterwards went back to nolans place. at nolan’s you started to feel quite sick, so you told mark that you’d catch an uber back to your dorm but he immediately shut that down.

“babe no, you’re coming back to mine.” he said, as he grabbed his phone from off of the living room table and stood up. you sighed and stood up from the couch, following marks actions. he explained to the rest of the group why you guys were leaving so early, as you ordered an uber for you both. once you guys made it back you both crawled into bed and called it a night.

you don’t feel much better, if anything you feel worse. a sudden nauseating feeling rushes over you, and you bolt out of bed for the bathroom. you make it just in time to the toilet, where you begin to vomit, drawing the attention of ethan who’s leaving his bedroom.

“oh shit! you okay?” he asks as he quickly rushes over to the doorway of the bathroom.

“uh, yeah,” you manage to get out, still with your face in the toilet bowl.

“let me get mark,” he says as he scurries to find mark. mark comes rushing in and holds you hair back for you, while gently rubbing circles onto your lower back. you eventually feel a little better and mark helps you get cleaned up.

“babe you’re so pale! go back and lay in my bed, i’ll bring you some medicine,” he says, as he takes your hand in his, and leads your now weak self to his bed. you shuffle around gently, still uncomfortable due to the sick feeling in your system. you hear the bedroom door open and a shuffling noise coming towards you, and you open your eyes to see mark with water and pills. you smile up at him, appreciative of his kind gesture.

once you take the pills mark gets in his bed next to you and plays with your hair, meanwhile whispering sweet nothings in your ear. your eyes then begin to feel heavy, so you shut them allowing yourself to rest. when you wake up the next time, you’re awoken by the same nausea from earlier. you jump out of marks bed, accidentally waking him in the process. he instantly gets out of bed and follows you to the bathroom, only to see you in the same state as earlier. he sighs at the sight of his sick girlfriend, and holds your hair back for you again.

“babe, i think we need to go to urgent care,” he says, kissing the top of your head as you flush the toilet.

“what? no way! i’m fine babe,” you say, standing up way too quickly for your weak state. you suddenly get a rush in your head, and next thing you know mark’s holding your body in his arms, as he sits on the bathroom floor calling out for ethan.

“ethan help! she passed out!”

—

“well, looks like the only diagnosis we have for you is food poisoning,” the urgent care doctor says.

“is there anything you can prescribe her?” mark asks, standing next to you in the small room. he has your hand in his, and he’s rubbing his thumb atop yours.

“yes, we’ll give her antibiotics. she’ll need to take the medication twice a day for a week. if she’s not feeling at all better by then, definitely come back,” the doctor says, and you nod. the doctor leaves for a few minutes, leaving you and mark alone.

“thank you for taking so much care of me mark,” you smile up at him.

“of course, that’s my job!” he smiles back before leaning down to kiss your lips. you quickly turn your head to avoid his kiss, making him gasp.

“i threw up like an hour ago! no way am i letting you kiss me!”

“oh, y/n. i’ll kiss you even if you’re sick!”

“i’m not letting you. let me brush my teeth first,” you chuckle, making him groan.

“whatever, it’s your loss. you’re missing out on free kisses!”

“since when do i have to pay for kisses?”

“starting now, since you dodged mine,” he pouts jokingly, crossing his arms and huffing too.

“oh you’ll be fine estapa.”

[itsrlymine]

hi again it's 🧷!

the last 24 hours have been a whirlwind. i laughed. i cried. i peed myself. but im a person who likes a little journey. i've been affirming my ass off bc that's what works for me and i'm already feeling so much more control and better about myself. so thank u for the reality check.

also i have some successes....

yesterday, i thought i had a uti bc a girl keeps drinking apple cider cocktails i fear. it's just too good and it’s the holidays. 😫😭 but i kept telling myself i don't have one bc no way am i dealing with antibiotics (and no me time) for 2 weeks. and when i went to urgent care bc i still was a bit anxious in the 3D yk how it is. but guess WHAT. I WAS NEGATIVE 🤩. so that was cool. and they gave me stickers even though im like 20 which was very sweet LOL.

also today, i manifested that the type of pasta i needed for thanksgiving wasn't gone. bc if ur on tiktok and you've seen tini's mac and cheese recipe. the stores r sold OUT of cellentani shaped pasta... and i live in a big city.... so i made my sister go out and get 2 boxes on her way home from her rural ass college and she texts me like "hey you'll never believe this there were 2 boxes left all the way at the back of the shelf where no one would see them" and i was like😮‼️

but omg i'm like. wow!!! yay!!! all it took was a decision!!! i'm still learning to trust myself but i'm never turning back again. i'm embracing my title as queen god boss bitch of reality, and that even when i have off days it doesn’t mean bad things bc shit always works in my favor no matter what!!

All it takes is a decision!!!!! Yes babe like wtf lke this is so easy for you bc it is you!!! I love these successes of yours babe. You better keep drinking them apple cider cocktails. Lemme get one rq actually.

Health, appearance, food, getting people to do what you want.... All these "types" of manifestations are easy bc they are all the same!! There is only one way to get what you want and that is by accepting you have it. period.

This is amazing and I'm so proud of you babe!!!

[lady-harrowhark]

If anyone remembers/still cares about my bizarro jaw bone spur debacle from this summer, I have an update for you! I'm fine now, this is all past tense, but probably don't read this if you don't want to hear about dental/bone stuff.

So to recap, earlier this summer I felt some irritation in my mouth and when I checked it out in the mirror, there was a tiny little off-white shard of something sticking out of my gums on the inside of my lower molars. I figured it was a little piece of food that poked me, but when I touched it, it 1) was hard and sharp, 2) would not move, and 3) hurt so bad that it about knocked the wind out of me. Even in the moment I knew this sounded dramatic and highly improbable, but I was immediately Very Sure that it was a little shard of bone.

By the next morning it was so swollen that I couldn't see if it was still there, and after four or five days I ended up calling around and found a dentist who could get me in to take a look because my usual dentist at the student health center didn't have any immediate openings. By that point I was taking Tylenol + ibuprofen around the clock as well as using Orajel numbing gel and icing it, but nothing was touching the pain. Also, the side of my face and down into my neck was starting to swell, and sleeping and eating was extremely difficult due to the pain.

The dentist I ended up seeing was very friendly and pleasant but ultimately pretty dismissive. Nothing showed up on an X-ray but he could see a spot of "hyper-irritation" where I'd had the little shard, and he said it was possible that a "bone spur" worked its way out through my gums. Usually that only happens after oral surgery or an injury, but I'd also had a dental cleaning a few weeks prior that was weirdly aggressive and left that part of my gums bleeding and sore for several days, so it was possible that was enough to dislodge something left over from when I had my wisdom teeth removed years and years ago. Or maybe it was just a little cut. He then told me to alternate the Tylenol and ibuprofen instead of taking them simultaneously and to call back in two weeks if it wasn't better or if it started getting hard to eat or sleep. I reiterated that it already was hard to eat and sleep, and asked if I was understanding him correctly that he wanted me to take LESS pain medication. He paused, and then said to call back in one week if it wasn't better.

So obviously I went out to my car and cried. I have a very skewed pain tolerance from a lifetime of chronic illness experiences and I'm a very smiley and friendly person in general, so I do acknowledge that I don't usually LOOK like I'm in pain, especially to someone who's only just met me. But for me, the fact that I even made an appointment for it is a giveaway that this is like, off the charts levels of pain. I called my dad since he's a doctor and he was able to prescribe some antibiotics for me just in case, and walked me through how to adjust the ibuprofen dose to be the equivalent of prescription strength. I'd decided that if it wasn't any better by the next day, I was going to urgent care. Thankfully it was a smidge better, and over the next maybe two or three weeks it mostly went away, although for while I could still feel sort of a divot on my gum where the bone spur had been.

ANYWAY yesterday I had my regular dentist's visit, the first time I'd been in since then. I told the hygienist about it, and she seemed kind of alarmed, especially because she could also still feel the little spot on my gum. The dentist ALSO seemed pretty shocked and could feel where it was as well.

So here's the update: I apparently have a little bit of extra bone built up around my back lower molars, which is unusual but not unheard of, and mine is very very mild in comparison to what you see when you Google "mandibular tori" - mine is really just that it's slightly rounded or mildly bowed right below my molars rather than going straight down to the bottom of my mouth as is typical, minor enough that no dentists have ever mentioned it to me. I never even realized that wasn't what everyone's were like until this spring when a massage therapist I saw for TMJ stuff mentioned that she noticed it. So in general that's not any sort of issue for me, EXCEPT that the dentist yesterday said that the gum tissue can be pretty thin where it has to stretch over the extra bone, which can also be kind of pointy or sharp.

Given that plus the fact that I hadn't had any sort of recent injury or surgery in the area like you would expect for a bone spur, she said it was more likely that I somehow scraped or cut the gum right down to the bone.

It wasn't a bone spur. That was my literal, actual jaw bone showing through my gums.

[topsurgerystuff]

Now, I will expound upon the scary things. These are things that happened after top surgery that spooked me.

All of these things ended up being harmless, I just wasn’t told they would happen and couldn’t find any info about them so they scared me shitless. My intention here is to save others from similar needless panic. This is not medical advice, just a description of my experience. Well some of it is advice, but keep in mind that I’m fucking stupid and I don’t know shit. Also, Never for one second have I regretted this surgery. The only thing I miss about my tits is being able to grope them whenever I wanted.

Okay so first of all there was the bruises. Blood from the surgery had pooled in my love handles and all over my thighs under my skin and made these HUGE bruises, right, and they didn’t hurt but they were large and had funky colors and I thought “What if the blood rots under my skin”. I googled it, I asked all my friends, I tried to reach my doctors but it was the weekend so they didn’t answer so I went to urgent care and the doctor there was like “I dont know…. That’s scary….” So I was freaking out and decided I would simply wait for death to claim me. It was fine. When I finally got ahold of the doctor she said she’s never seen it before but to just watch it and tell her if it gets bigger. My body slurped that shit back up in a couple weeks, totally harmlessly. Why haven’t surgeons ever seen shit like that before? Probably because nobody’s ever freaked out about it enough to mention it to them. Either way, it was fine.

Secondly, when I had those drains in me, that was spooky because I thought “What if they get yanked out and tear up my shit” and I couldn’t take off the bandage too see or nothing but when I did eventually take them off, I saw that there are stitches around the pipes but not like holding them in you, just there to make sure the holes they put in you stay the same size they are. So if they get pulled out you don’t get seriously damaged, you just call them up and say yo can you put this shit back in me pls. There will also be little meat chunks coming through your tubes with your soup and the soup will be mildly funky smelling. That’s normal. I was told to tell them if there was like CRAZY amounts of meat or if the soup smelled absolutely nasty. Also the bolster things they put on your nips are attached directly to your nips and nothing else, so if you feel shit sliding around under your bandage, that’s the bandage sliding, not the bolsters. They didn’t tell me that so I thought I was gonna wake up with one on my back or something and not be able to put it back where it was. And they make it so it’ll be nice and slippery in there the whole time so don’t worry about the bolsters getting ripped off, there’s not enough friction in there to do that.

There was also the hydrocodone they gave me. For me, the incisions didn’t hardly hurt at all even immediately after surgery but they prescribed me hydrocodone so I took it, and I assumed I wasn’t hurting because of the drugs and that if I stopped taking them I would hurt a LOT. So here I am taking opioids and I’m so fucking dizzy and I’m violently throwing up for two days. I texted my doctor and begged to stop taking it because I thought I would get in trouble or something if I stopped without asking and she’s like “Yeah, you didn’t have to take it if you didn’t want to, its just there if you need something stronger” ohhhhhhhh well fuck me I guess. So I stopped taking it and it turns out I didn’t need pain meds at all because it barely hurts, it just feels like a really long paper cut.

Some other things, I popped a stitch in my armpit because when you first come home and your shits still all numbed up, you can’t feel it when you overstretch your arm so if you forget you’re not supposed to do that, you can pop a stitch. It got infected, I put some antibiotic on it, it took a long time to heal and it made the scar a little uglier but it didn’t cause anything crazy. I will say that my incisions go up into my armpits really far and it was real hard to keep them clean on account of all the sweat. My nipple grafts also had many tiny, shallow stitches and I thought “What if they fall out because they’re so shallow”. That’s normal. My dad said that’s how you do stitches for sensitive areas so they look pretty, and they do look pretty, and also they are supposed to fall out after a couple weeks, that is also normal. Just make sure they don’t fall out too soon I guess. Pretend you’re made of glass for the first 4 weeks, honestly.

Also, your nip has the little oil glands in it, right, and when you’re nip scabs over as it is supposed to, it will scab inside these oil pores and you’ll lose the whole rest of the scab and have these little leftover scraps, and you Must. Not. Pick them. Those pores in my nips are little craters now because I picked the scabs out of them. Every scab you pull off, even the ones that are thin and tiny and already hanging halfway off, is going to make your nip even uglier. You wont die but you will say “Ugh why did it do that”.

Also, my nip hole collects nasty shit in it that I have to clean out all the time and since I can’t feel anything in there I have the be VERY careful. Skin is actually very easy to puncture. And there’s like little caverns in there that also get stuff in them a lot so I still put antibiotic on my nips after I shower just in case? Not really sure if its infection or like dead skin… its been getting better over time at least. Sorry if that’s TMI but listen, somebody’s gotta talk about it.

Sometimes my scars, the main incisions, will get these little blackheads right in the middle of them or little pockets of infection, and I always pick at them and the scar tissue isn’t very strong so when you pick at things on your scar, you will break open all the blood vessels around it and have a big red spot and the scar tissue is such that you will not get the blackhead out anyway so just dont do that. Put some antibiotic on it. Honestly just put antibiotic on anything that looks sus. Antibiotic can solve anything.

Okay idk what else to say so end post goodbye.

[kristihines]

Can you trust AI Answers about your health?

During the summer of 2020, when the entire world was focused on the pandemic, getting treatment for other health issues became a challenge.

I started experiencing a lot of back pain, but I shrugged it off as an injury and took Advil to cope.

A week later, I thought I had food poisoning.

I tried an at-home service where they pumped me full of IV fluids.

I went to urgent care. They sent me to get scans. I paid hundreds of dollars out of pocket to get them quickly.

The imaging place never sent the scans to the urgent care.

A day later, I had the worst chills. It was July, in Phoenix. Most likely 100 F. I went outside and was still freezing.

At that point, I was taken to the ER. I ended up in the ICU in one of those rooms they zipped up in plastic.

While most of the focus was on COVID, I had something else: a large kidney stone. The kind that doesn’t pass on its own.

I was in septic shock and acute renal failure according to discharge papers.

The hospital stay itself wasn’t too long, but the treatment with specialists took three months to complete.

Surgeries during COVID were extra special because if you tested positive, your surgery was delayed.

Two years later, in 2022, I ended up in the same hospital for the same reason.

And now, I’m a few days into aggressive antibiotic treatment for my kidneys, yet again. Wondering if I make it to the next followup or have to Lyft off to the ER.

So what does this have to do with Google AI Answers?

In 2020 and 2022, I spent a lot of time perusing Google Search results on kidney stones.

Now, I get AI Answers above at the top of SERPs (search engine results pages).

This wouldn’t be a bad thing if one could trust the AI to accurately summarize its sources.

That’s the big if.

In the first screenshot, you’ll find an AI Answer from Google Search results for the phrase how to pass kidney stone.

The first mistake involved an error with paraphrasing a source with legitimate information.

Because I can assure you after four years of seeing urology specialists, no one has ever suggested drinking two quarts or liters of urine.

The basil leaves suggestion, on the other hand, is suspect. I’ve never come across that as a suggestion. It would have stood out, because I have a lot of basil growing around the garden.

I don’t even remember that website from my previous Google searches. I had to check Wikipedia and other sources to find out what the company even was.

Much like the search quality raters and AI Answer checkers do...

In the second screenshot, Microsoft Bing with Copilot offered ads for supplements and advice from five sources, two of which are the MSN Health Hub.

The hub includes a section where you can Ask a health professional questions.

In the third screenshot, ChatGPT using GPT-4 with browsing offered a concise response based on its training data, but claimed not to have access to external sources.

In the fourth screenshot, Perplexity provided the best AI Answer with 19 sources I recognized from my previous research into this health issue.

Moral of the story:

You can’t trust generative AI with your money or your life issues.

But if you do, start with the right AI Answer engine. One that cites sources you trust and doesn’t suggest drinking your own pee.

Think of Perplexity as a better starting point for more in-depth research that you can discuss during your next doctor’s visit.

Not as a definitive answer.

Follow @kristileilani on X for more on AI news, trends, and tools.

[secretlythepits]

Scary Halloween

My 15 year old struggled with Halloween this year. Same thing happened when my other kid was 15. He couldn’t come up with a costume because the teen side felt too old, while the kid side wanted to go trick-or-treating. He’s always had the offbeat costume everyone talks about and couldn’t just grab something easy, but also couldn’t put the effort into coming up with a cool idea. All month I nudged and was rejected. I think this is the hardest age for Halloween. 14–15, because they haven’t transitioned to adult like parties so they just feel self-conscious but sad because they want to have fun like a kid.

Anyway, I finally got him to admit he would be sad if he didn’t go 2 days ago. We threw together a pumpkin head mask and a witches hat we already had. Dressed all in black, it was pretty cool, but this kid has never worn a mask. He hardly went to any houses before he stopped. It was one of those moments that you know is a mistake (self-sabotage) but I couldn’t prevent him from making it. His older brother wouldn’t take him out with his friends, which I had pushed for (something I never do) and I think that would have helped, but I didn’t feel like it was appropriate to order him to take his brother.

Anyway, kid comes home and is dejected. My husband and I felt awful. Finally thought of an idea to save the night. Let’s watch a Halloween movie, but nothing scary because he doesn’t like scary. Ghostbusters! I’ve never seen it and neither has he. It’s surprising funny. He is eating his tiny haul of candy and we are laughing. I’m feeling so good about this because it was such a turnaround. Husband is enjoying himself too.

Then husband goes to lock the back door. He has a coughing fit, completely loses consciousness and falls, landing hip and then head on the only room in our house that has a tile floor.

So fccking scary!

Two days ago we had a fight. He was mean to me when I pushed him to go to the doctor about coughing. It felt like I got pertussis again last week, which doesn’t make sense because I just had it. Then the kids started getting that very distinctive cough. It occurred to me that perhaps the bacteria was mutating in his body since he hasn’t cleared the infection in 8 weeks. I remembered learning that it’s in immunocompromised hosts that viruses mutate during Covid. Same thing happens with bacteria.

I’ve been to 2 urgent cares this week and fought with doctors over this. Apparently they only test for pertussis at hospitals and we just have coughs that aren’t that bad, so I’m not going there. Anyway, I know the antibiotics you need so I pushed for them. I know the doctors thought of me as THAT mom, but we hardly ever have antibiotics. This was the second and third times in my children’s lives that they’ve gotten them, because I really feel in my gut that it’s pertussis.

My husband hasn’t told his doctors about how bad his cough continues to be. He’s been seeing them irregularly since the main treatment ended and he cancels two check in appointments as a waste of time. I’ve let him be in the driver’s seat. But when we got sick, I told him he really needs to let his doctors know. We can’t just endlessly get sick from him and his medical team is not aware of how bad this is. He got mad because I’m weird about health stuff. This is true, but I also find myself in unique health dilemmas, where I’m just to the side of normal and no doctor will take enough time to listen and get the whole complicated picture. It’s incredibly frustrating for me. I constantly wish Dr. House was on the case, because I need a medical expert who really wants to get to the bottom of what’s going on.

As a side note, I figured out why weird health issues happen to me. There is a perfectly clear reason if you look at my astrological chart (6th house Aquarius) but I did not bring that nugget up to him since that would have sealed the deal on me being crazy about health stuff.

The thing is, I just know I’m right about this. We have a guest coming next week and I don’t want to get her sick. My children attend a school where kids are bussed in from every high school in Miami. It would be wildly irresponsible to not try to stop the spread of a highly infectious disease that is on the rise in our community. Doctors aren’t used to treating it in teens and adults. But we have been exposed to so much coughing from my husband that it is possible that this much exposure broke through vaccinations. Our health care system is so fragmented that no doctor will see our family as the ecosystem it is. My kids had to go to a different urgent care than me because of different insurance. I am the only person seeing the whole picture.

Anyway, my husband apologized yesterday morning. It’s so hard for him to talk. He has been in a dark place with his mortality. He’s been having pains he hasn’t told me about that terrify him. Our disagreement was the outlet for so many bad feelings. He got his medical card and has been taking gummies to sleep. He feels like any time he smiles, he’s faking it. It was very sad.

That was the morning. I figured I’d bring up going to the doctor about his cough again the next day, it being Halloween and all.

Then he fell.

It wasn’t an emergency. He’s still asleep so I’ll see the bruise this morning. An odd angle of his hip took the brunt of the fall. His head didn’t seem to bother him last night.

But like, he could have just crashed his skull open if he had landed differently. How do we live with this?

[devilatelier]

Finally home,,,,, what a journey. Ok ok, storytime

So a minor scratch ony heel got infected pretty bad last month, and Ive been low-key trying to get something done, I went to an ER and got sent home with one antibiotics IV and a simple "oh just wash it with soap and water and use topical antibiotics" so fast forward it gets worse.

I go to another urgent care clinic and they tell me it's an ulcer and they recommend I go to have it inspected by a surgeon

Then my doctor is only in for one day of the week, so when I go to visit it's already cellulitis and uh, pretty bad

Third ER visit, I get admitted to the hospital and they just say "fuck it we'll use literally every antibiotic to see what kills it" so I stay for 3 days, it starts looking better and then they send me home with a new set of antibiotics. And here I am

[carrickbender]

Sunday 7-

I had 2 drs appointments on Friday, one of which was a CT that was supposed to help figure out why I have so much pain in my right testicle(TMI). It saw nothing, so now we get to keep guessing. Boss told me to "take weekend off", but was doing the morning orders/teams call every day between 5-7, trying to fix stuff and do reconciliations. Glad they trust me with this, but wanna give a 'high five' to my imposter syndrome telling me im gonna get fired any day.

- had to take Henry to urgent care on Saturday, and it turns out he has the start of pneumonia. Wanna give a big shout out to the ARNP who told me she really thought he should just 'ride it out' after 10 days of awful coughing and that their kids 'were still in it after a month'. Yeah, the PA said there was no way he wasn't leaving without antibiotics. Made me feel like an asshole parent... he's on day 2, and already more of himself.

- I went back up there today for me, and I have pretty severe bronchitis. He put me on a different antibiotic, more steroids, refilled my inhaler, and actually listened to me. I mean, I appreciated his care and actual concern. Fun situation: while I was there, a tree fell across the powerlines and tripped off most of town, so they had to go to back-up generators. There was a hall full of people, in a brown out, that the staff were managing like pros. Seriously, we are lucky to have that place.

-after today, I have 4 payments left on my car. 4. I think we will wait till June, and then it's 4 door vehicle time. The lunabug is getting taller, and we want to go see my dad/stepmom in Eastern Wa in something that has space. Everybody and their dog has sent me one of those damn, "interested in a new car loan? It's OK to check your rate, and won't hurt your credit" messages and as soon as my credit union chimes in, I'm sure we'll have something to talk about.

- speaking of something to not talk about, I learned a new term and joined a subredit today called 'dead bedrooms', and yeah, checks out completely. I don't have a therapist yet, so it's not a bad sorce of info or me trying to figure out what I have messed up(apparently, yet again).

- so I had to stop at Walmart(yay for small business destruction by a corporate giant!) for meds/a few groceries and this dingus in an f250 with a WA st license plate celebrating wrestling decided he needed to back into a compact space that was in front of me. He almost hit the first car on the way in(who had to stop and back up), but then he literally backed his 'not a farm truck but a penis extension' into the compact space in front of me, and thanks to me backing up knowing he would have been sticking out if I didn't, he took 3 feet of my spot and his hitch was literally 4 inches from hitting my car. In my space. And that entitled piece of shit didn't even look to see how close he was, he just walked away like he was the king of backing up. Look, I have no problem with wrestlers, but the only one who matters in my life is John Irving, and I think he would have been sensitive enough not to be a shit bird like that! (Part 1 of 2 rant)

- I wanted to share a thought or 2 about something I've seen going about on here for a little bit, because I think i need to say avfew things:

I love that I have so many people I follow here who take stances for the poor, marginalized, POC, and other underrepresented communities-not just in a perfunctory way of saying 'I support you'; but quite a few of you are actually involved in helping bring about change and strengthening communities by being unselfish hands that help heal hearts- you inspire me to be a better person, really. As a person of faith, I see you doing the work that many faith leaders of old spoke of when they talked of when they said, "serve as you have been served, and love as you have been loved"- and seeing that faith in action, it has made me read more about liberation theology and revisit the works of the Rt Rev Bishop Desmond Tutu, Dietrich Bonhoffer, and Dr Martin Luther King jr(and of the later, 'Why I oppose the war in Vietnam' is just as relevant now as it was then). I thank you all for this inspiration and work.

But what I have really come to realize about myself is that I am a person of privilege. I am a white CISmale, straight, accessed a good education at a young age, had a huge extended family that helped raise me when my mom had me at 17, have never had to worry about my gender causing me to be looked at differently, have a good job(for now), have access to clean water, don't live in a food desert, and save for the fact that I understood discrimination at a very young age thanks to my last name, I know that I have lived a mostly privileged life.

But there is one privilege I will never take for granted, and that's voting. And yes, I don't always vote my conscience because at heart, I am a democratic Socialist. But I always vote in my local and state house election because it is in places like your local school board or your city council where you can stop the spread of groups like 'Moms for Liberty' or any of the other neo-fascist organizations that seek to change education or change for the worse how cities deal with their population experiencing homelessness. If I stay home from these elections, I feel like I'm spitting on my great grandmother's grave(whose name I found on the voting roll of the first year that women could vote in Basin, Montana). I feel like I'm not being a good parent or a community member for sticking up for my sons right(or other kids rights) to read books in the school library that have a rainbow(let alone letting kids see representation for non-traditional families that are just the same as everybody else!). So please, if you're feeling crappy about the election, this right here is the biggest way to affect change if you don't know where to start or affirm.there is something you can do to really make a difference. Don't see enough representation of POC on your city council, especially in multi-ethnic communities? Hear a trans voice that would make for a great representative for all people? Fill in those boxes, act locally, and get those folks elected! It works if you work it!

I hear a lot of voices talking about Joe Biden these days, and I feel numb and angry about a lot of things that have been done in our names too: I hate HATE what is happening in Gaza(PBUT); I hate our support of Saudi Arabia and the proxy war in Yemen; Our jaunts in Zaire and Jordan; I hate that we are no closer to universal Healthcare, but I understand that that road and others lead through a Republican congress. I love that child poverty is declining, but programmes that were designed to make this a reality are sunsetting. We have a barbaric and truly archaic policy on immigration, and every time(that's not hyperbole, either), every goddamn time a good bill has been proposed to deal with the issue, the bill has been met by the xenophobic forces on the right and their deep pockets fueling the media and it is destroyed out of fear. And let's not forget student debt forgiveness, the continued dismantling of public education by states like Texas and Florida, Our goal of dismantling of the prison industrial complex, the protection of reproductive healthcare, and the dire need for nationwide police reform.

Yes, our laundry list is long, but it is full of necessary things that need to change or be codified in order for a great change to happen for generations and the continuatonof this great experiment called the U.S.A.

And for all of this and more, I ask: where are the leaders of our generation on this? Where are the ghosts of John Lewis, of Paul Wellstone, and of Shirley Chisholm? Thankfully, our leaders and the ghostsbof their forebearers are there- they are doing their best, and thankfully we(those of us on the progressive side) are represented by POC women who will go to the mat for these issues and more, being inspired by those who came before them. But the more that I think about it, it's time that we offer an ultimatum: we'll give you our voting block, Joe. We'll help bring along the majority of the 9 million new voters who are coming of age this year, so you will have a supermajority with which you can put forth truly transformative legislation. Sure, you'll get us- for now. But if it's businesses as usual, if we are not knocking over the tables of the money changers, and if we are not investing more in programmes of social uplift than we are for the military industrial complex, then we strike. Not in 2028, as one of my absolute favourite people on here suggest, but in 2026, in early summer. Because it is people like me, those of us who have know privilege and continue to know it, who are finally waking up to the truth that we need to do the work. We need to do the heavy lifting. I'm willing to make that offer, and I hope I'm not alone, because there either needs to be a change in the way our political system operates, or we walk away and start our own political entity. I hope I'm not alone in the way I feel, and I hope that we can all make the proposition. We have the leaders, we have the people, now it's about courage. It's time.

But for today, if you can pull the lever for democrats nationally, I totally get it. But consider what I said about voting locally, and in local races and elect people who represent your values. It matters.

- ok, rant over: if you made it this far, know that I love you all and I hope this week brings good things for you. Remember what Pete Seeger always said: "Take it easy, but take it". Much love yall!

[wellthatschaotic]

btw i am documenting the healing process of my dog bite for writers/artists who want to know what a fresh/healing dog bite looks like

disclaimer: this was most likely a play nip gone (very) wrong, blue isn't aggressive he's just a dumbass- if the dog your character is bit by is aggressive/trying to hurt On Purpose, it'll probably be a lot worse. he is a big strong doggy though so it did hurted like HELL

we also went to the urgent care immediately for proper antibiotics and bandages so if your character doesn't have access to those the nurse said about 50% of dog bites get infected. also its best to keep them covered so even if your character doesn't have meds a makeshift bandage is better than nothing

putting pictures under a cut because yucky

day 1:

took this right after the bite (mostly because i wanted to make sure if my boss needed proof or something i'd have it) so. at this point stung like HELL to the point where i started crying and i don't cry from physical pain often (very easily from emotional pain but that's beside the point). hurt to walk on/put pressure on and ESPECIALLY to touch the area of the wound itself

day 2:

took this while changing bandage (was told to change it once a day). it looks. about the same. slightly more bruised. less pain than day 1 but only slightly

forgor to take pictures for day 3 and 4 but essentially the bruising just went Up and the pain went Down (i can put as much weight as i want on the leg by end of day 3, but no touching the wound without pain)

day 5:

...yeah it's bruised pretty bad BUT there's no infection (so you can make the wound pretty gory if you want even without infecting it). it looks worse in person too. none of those colors are the color skin should be. you can also see the outline of the bandages lmao. in terms of pain the only time it hurts is when i put any pressure on the wounded area. rest of leg is now completely unaffected

will continue to update when i rember 👍