My face is having uncontrollable spasms. Great. It hurts really, really, really bad.
I think part of why I have trouble explaining pain to the doctor is when they ask about the pain scale I always think “Well, if someone threw me down a flight of stairs right now or punched me a few times, it would definitely hurt a lot more” so I end up saying a low number. I was reading an article that said that “10” is the most commonly reported number and that is baffling to me. When I woke up from surgery with an 8" incision in my body and I could hardly even speak, I was in the most horrific pain of my life but I said “6” because I thought “Well, if you hit me in the stomach, it would be worse.”
I searched and searched for the post this graphic was from, and the OP deactivated, but I kept the graphic, because my BFF does the same thing, uses her imagination to come up with the worst pain she can imagine and pegs her “10″ there, and so is like, well, I’m conscious, so this must be a 5, and then the doctors don’t take her seriously. (And she then does things like driving herself to the hospital while in the process of giving birth. Probably should have called an ambulance for that one!)
So I found this and sent it to her. Because this is what they want to know: how badly is this pain affecting you? Not on a scale of “nothing” to “how I’d imagine it’d feel if bears were eating my still-living guts while I was on fire”.
I hate reposting stuff, but I’ll never find that post again and OP is deactivated, so, here’s a repost. I can delete this later, i just wanted to get it to you and I can’t embed images in a chat or an ask.
This is possibly why it took several weeks to diagnose my fractured spine.
Pain Scale transcription:
10 – I am in bed and I can’t move due to my pain. I need someone to take me to the emergency room because of my pain.
9 – My pain is all that I can think about. I can barely move or talk because of my pain.
8 – My pain is so severe that it is difficult to think of anything else. Talking and listening are difficult.
7 – I am in pain all the time. It keeps me from doing most activities.
6 – I think about my pain all of the time. I give up many activities because of my pain.
5 – I think about my pain most of the time. I cannot do some of the activities I need to do each day because of the pain.
4 – I am constantly aware of my pain but can continue most activities.
3 – My pain bothers me but I can ignore it most of the time.
2 – I have a low level of pain. I am aware of my pain only when I pay attention to it.
1 – My pain is hardly noticeable.
0 – I have no pain.
It’s also really important to get this kind of scale to people who have chronic pain, because chronic pain drastically lowers your perception of how “bad” any kind of pain actually is, and yet something like this pain scale is extremely user friendly.
For example, if someone asked me how much pain I’m in at any given time, I’d say hardly any, and yet I’m apparently at a chronic 2.5, and it only goes up from there depending on the day.
The new campaign shines a light on homeless women who need assistance caring for their menstrual cycles. According to the Guardian, approximately 26% of people in the U.K. who receive “homelessness services” are female. But in most shelters, “sanitary ware or any kind of period ephemera is scarce,” Vice reported earlier this year. Three women have a plan to fix that.
Men not being allowed to be emotional & rampant homophobia are the reasons men commit suicide 3.5x more than women… most men are given no outlet to feel feelings. To the point that they kill themselves.
This is a strong man who has been pushed to his limit. There is no shame in this man weeping, just as there is no shame in getting comfort from his brother. This does not make him any less manly or any weaker. The strength in this video clip is stunningly, perfectly manly to me. @warriormale could you please chime in?
Showing emotions i.e. crying shows that you’re human.
Please don’t get mad at Toby Fox if he does a Gaster reveal and he:
– Doesn’t look the way you expect him to
– Isn’t related to Sans (and/or Papyrus) in the same sense you thought he’d be
– Has a different personality/background/character traits compared to how your favorite fanfic potrays him
Keep in mind that almost NOTHING about him is actually known besides what his followers say about him! Even his supposed “sprite” is never confirmed or denied to actually be him; everyone just collectively assumed that it was. So just try to keep an open mind as to what Gaster’s creator has intended for him from the very beginning! Embrace the things you don’t expect with excitement and new fan theories, not disappointment and anger!
And most importantly, have fun! Happy (almost) Halloween, everybody!
Please help raise awareness about a serious illness that hides in plain sight
My name is Ang. If you’ve been following my story then I’m sure you’ve heard about this, but I’ve come down with a chronic illness. I have severe-spectrum MECFS. Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, or cruelly called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which downplays how much of a devastating, horribly disabling and terrifying disease this is.
It is an illness that affects millions, leaving a good portion of us housebound or bedbound, some so sick they are paralyzed and need to be tubefed and others die from the illness or complications.
I’ve been bedbound almost 3 months now since my illness has been progressing (which is nothing compared to how quickly it can become years), so sick some days I cant lift a spoon to feed myself, talk, or tolerate light and sound. I can’t draw anymore which was my passion in life as an artist, let alone take care of myself. I can’t even tolerate watching TV or play games most days to distract myself from the trauma caused by being confined to a bed in this sort of agony.
I got ill like this after getting the flu in January, and it’s been downhill from there as I started having bizarre neurological symptoms and collapsing episodes where I was unable to move, the energy draining from my body as the days went on until I needed a cane to walk, then a walker, then I was housebound with a wheelchair, and now I am bedbound and the severity steadily worsens with no let up so far despite doing everything I can to stop or slow the progression.
It is a level of sickness that is overwhelming me and my life is uncertain, but it’s looking grim from this point. I’m in severe pain constantly, on top of having horrible dysfunction in every other part of my body. I’ve only been steadily declining.
I lost my entire life right as it felt like it was starting. I was an artist working my dream job at Cartoon Network, and now I may never be able to return to the animation industry or live out my dreams of telling the stories I wanted.
The worst part is this illness could have been treatable by now! But it’s not, due to a deliberate choice of abuse and neglect by medical institutions. Most doctors aren’t trained to treat or diagnose M.E. and it gets practically no funding. Most sufferers are told it’s all in our heads (wrongfully diagnosed with conversion disorder or functional neurological disorder) even with evidence coming out that it’s a physical neurological disease and the only treatment we are given is get told to take anti-depressants, see a therapist, and exercise (despite exertion intolerance being the hallmark symptom and dangerous).
So the only way people like me have any hope of getting better is if we get a surge in awareness and understanding, and hope it leads to more funding and research. With decades of neglect and lives lost, this can’t go on.
At first I asked for donations when I was trying to figure out what was happening to my body as I threw money at doctors appointments begging for help only to get turned away and given no help, dwindling away my savings from when I used to work. And while donations were loved and helped significantly in my financial situation, it will not give me access to effective treatments if they don’t exist.
That is why I am asking you to help spread awareness. Please educate yourselves and donate if you can to organizations that research M.E.
People like me are suffering with a monster illness as debilitating as late-stage AIDS or cancer, hopelessly sick and dying with little help and living in severe medical neglect. I can’t even get a caregiver which I need now because my family can’t care for me longterm, all because my illness isn’t taken seriously by health insurance companies!
We need help. People with M.E. need help so bad because a lot of us are even too sick to advocate for ourselves.
If you want to know more there’s a wonderful documentary on Netflix made by M.E. sufferer, Jennifer Brea called Unrest (2017). Please give it a watch.
Please share this. I am one of the #millionsmissing and while I have not been suffering with M.E. for very long compared to others, the trauma and destruction this illness brings is great and no one should have to go through this. I would not wish this suffering upon even my enemies.
We need awareness. We need advocacy. We need understanding. We need funding. We need diagnostic markers. We need research. We need effective treatments and hopefully one day a cure.
I may never have my old life back, and I don’t want anyone else to keep suffering the way I have since I’ve gotten sick. The pain is indescribable. I want one day for someone to get sick like I and others have only to learn they can be diagnosed and effectively treated.
Please help bring our stories to light. Please help save our lives.
Valuable information if some of your prized books were affected by recent flooding. The video even shows you what to do if you can’t dry the book out right away.
Hottest™ Take: society has become so sexualized and devoid of true friendship that those who feel deep, authentic feelings for those of the same sex are led to believe that they must be gay
Look i dont wanna sound like a Fandom Mom or whatever but what do you think women over 25 or so are supposed to do? Do u really think theyre supposed to drop all their interests and just talk about taxes and marriage or whatever? It seems like 25+ year old fanboys do not receive this kind of “ooh cringe” reaction either. There are guys in their 40s with comic book collections and shit and people might think theyre a nerd at worst, not a freak who shouldnt be trusted
Thank you.Because, here’s the thing, I literally tried that. And this sounds really dramatic but it kind of ruined my life for a long time.
Once I got out of grad-school and started working, at exactly age 25, I figured it was time to get serious because I was “too old for this stuff” and frankly I was afraid of being judged.
I sold all my comics, I stopped reading fanfiction, I stopped playing video games. All of it. It’s not that I never, ever watched anything “geeky” or spent a weekend binge-reading a kink-meme, but when I did, it was rare and I’d feel guilty about it like it was time wasted. I’d keep it all to myself, you know? And without any kind of inspiration, I eventually stopped drawing. After all, I didn’t need it for my “serious job,” so why bother? Unfortunately, my former skill is so atrophied now it’s nearly lost, but worse than that, it’s stressful now instead of the thing I loved to do for most of my life.
What was I doing instead? Well, I’d work my miserable, toxic job, come home and worry about how far behind everyone else I was, and how weird I was compared to all my colleagues. I’d go out with people and do the things they liked doing, but I only pretended to. But I’m not great at that and pretending to be someone else ate me alive. Unsurprisingly, by 31, my anxiety and depression was not in a great place, and I fuckin’ snapped. Not just because of this stuff, of course, but it honestly contributed. I quit my job and left town.
Suddenly I was completely alone, no job, no friends, and no reason to pretend to be someone else. So, I started doing all the things I’d given up. I read all the fanfiction I wanted, I bought a Playstation and an SNES and played them for hours. I bought back every comic book I loved, watched every Marvel movie I missed, and caught up on my favorite characters. I started traveling around just going to cons for the first time (NYCC, GeekGirlCon, DragonCon, etc). In fact, at @geekgirlcon and DragonCon especially, I saw groups of women who were 60+, just fucking enjoying things, and it made me feel so much better about my future. I’m not even joking, I literally cry every time I think about it, because I never realized how scared I was about aging in a world that thinks I’m already a decade too old for the things I love. Suddenly, that wasn’t so scary.
And then I just stopped pretending that I wasn’t into this stuff. I mean all of it, even the stuff no one understand, even the stuff people openly make fun of, even smutty fanfiction.
And look, I’m not saying this cured my depression, or that everything is perfect. For one, I picked a city that’s awful for geeks and I’m trying to figure out where to move and how. For another, I lost six years of making like-minded friends, and it’s hard to find them now because we’re all so worried about being judged and online – the space that was always a refuge for me as a loner weirdo growing up – is now apparently a Children of the Corn. But I’m happier here, actually fucking liking things, than being the unobjectionable robot woman I’m apparently supposed to be.
I don’t expect anyone to actually be interested in this, or have gotten this far, but because I’m having feelings about turning 36 on Monday, I just want to tell anyone who is about to turn 25 that you should just tell people to go fuck themselves. It’s your life. You’re going to offend people no matter what you do, at least choose the direction that makes you happiest, because those people certainly aren’t going to pay for your fucking therapist bills, are they?🦖
pssst
imma tell you a secret
the people saying you must give up the things you love upon reaching adulthood are
wrong
DO 👏 NOT 👏 GIVE 👏 UP 👏WHAT 👏YOU 👏 LOVE 👏 FOR 👏 SOCIETY’S 👏 SAKE
Hey everyone how’s ur day im in traffic bc a fucking plane crashed on the freeway
Average day on a california freeway
is. that a Luftwaffe plane??
It sure is!
Some veteran grandpa pulled out a machine gun during the family BBQ and shot it down
…………..no he didn’t. he literally did not spend money on that. you just made that up.
the plane is owned by the Condor Squadron Club, a non-profit organization founded by WWII pilots. the organization restores and flies WWII planes for reenactments and commemorative parades in order to educate people about history and celebrate WWII vets.
the organization also runs an aviation museum at the Van Nuys airport and maintains the Portal of The Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation, a shrine built on the burial site of 15 pioneers in aviation, including Elizabeth Lippinscott McQueen, one of the first female pilots in America and the founder of the Women’s International Association of Aeronautics. they also do community service.
the pilot of this plane that crashed is a commercial pilot and historical reenactor. a mechanical failure caused the crash and he had to be pulled out by rescuers after the plane burst into flames and he became trapped.
he’s not a fucking nazi and i’m glad he’s okay. some of y’all need to fucking sit down.