oh no dont eat food, dont you know it has autism chemtrails in it?! your star sign beams you all the vitamins you need

just found out water has a molecule in it, NO THANKS PAL! You know what else has a molecule?? a knife

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. 

There’s also a similarly useful “Fatigue Scale”

I haven’t been below a 5 on this scale for 4 years 

Here’s the fatigue scale

That exact pain scale is what got me to finally talk to my doctor about what we now suspect is endometriosis (the diagnostic process requires surgery, so as long as birth control keeps working we’re not going to pursue a formal diagnosis.)

I was rating my menstrual cramps around a 3-5 for exactly the reason op describes. “It could be worse.” After finding this scale, I realized my pain was hitting a 7 nearly every month. It’s been as high as a 9 on several occasions.

(For reference, now that I’m on birth control, my cramps are sitting comfortably in the 2-3 range. So it’s not, as I told myself for several years while not seeking help, that I can’t handle a normal amount of pain. I just chronically understate it because I always tried to compare my pain to hypothetical worst case scenarios.)

There are some very angry people in my notes and inbox this week. Apparently,  I am “toxic” and “evil” because I reported the results of 50 years of weight-loss research. They are mad because the research definitively and conclusively demonstrates that long-term maintenance of weight loss is virtually impossible. They also think I am “delusional” because I criticize the medical establishment for keeping this fact a secret from the general public.

The truth is that the ineffectiveness and harmful nature of intentional weight-loss is well known within the scientific and medical communities. If pressed, most doctors will affirm that their clinical experience conforms to the scientific results: Basically everyone who loses weight will go on to regain that weight within 3-5 years. In 75% of cases, they will regain more weight than they lost. 

This knowledge is why doctors became so desperate that they resorted to amputating parts of the digestive tract in the hopes that it might finally result in long-term weight-loss. Except oops, that doesn’t work either. Oh, and it causes death,  addiction, malnutrition, and suicide. Whoopsie daisy.

Diet culture is fucking toxic. And people deserve to know the truth.

From The Homeless LGBT Youth of NYC Are In Trouble from Kazimir Lee

Did you know? “A higher percentage of bisexual students reported running away from home one or more times compared to their gay and straight peers. In addition, more bisexual youth stated they were homeless because of physical abuse by parents than their straight and gay peers. Gay, lesbian, and bisexual homeless youth also have greater HIV risks and these risks are greater among bisexual female youth. Therefore, stronger policies are needed to provide bisexual+ youth with safe environments to live that are off the streets.“ ~excerpt from “Caring for Bisexual+ Homeless Youth” by BRC (24 March 2016)

Did you know? Transgender people and people of color comprise large portions of the bisexual community –– with more than 40 percent of LGBT people of color identifying as bisexual, and about half of transgender people describing their sexual orientation as bisexual or queer (according to various other research studies Bisexual is the largest self-identity for Trans people. Followed by percentages: Queer, Heterosexual/Homosexual, Other, and Asexual) –– making these groups vulnerable to further disparities that occur at the intersections of biphobia, racism and transphobia. ~from “Health Disparities Among Bisexual People” by HRC (September 2015)

I will never get over this

My God

honestly

things we really have to stop:

using fat people to illustrate greed

using thin people to define health and happiness

using fat people as an example of ill health and sadness

bringing up a fat person’s health at all

the use of headless fat people in news reels

using fat as an insult

thin people jumping in on conversations about the lived experiences of fat people and making it about them

the idea that a fat person who is in comfortable clothing is “sloppy”

basically, treating fat people any differently than a thin person.

i never wanna see this BS again god

Listen, no matter what your fave youtuber/”health guru” says, the following things are absolute bullshit:

#this is all true#plus the tea thing is important#because being on laxatives for that long can actually give you bowel cancer#for serious yep if you wanna drink tea and be healthy just find a type of nice green/herbal tea you like and brew it properly

VACCINATE YOUR FUCKING KIDS

i know this isn’t my first time reblogging this post to this blog, and it probably won’t be the last. Stay educated.

It’s really unbelievable that people don’t want to vaccinate their kids. It’s the stupidiest thing in the world.

we need to translate this

Sì, qualcuno di buona volontà si prodighi davvero…di buona volontà e con un minimo di competenze grafiche, ché se lo facessi io userei MS Paint e i suoi inguardabili font.

A student created Hylux, the taste and benefits of a sport drink without the sugar and calories. Get more information here

Back in the 1960s, the U.S. started vaccinating kids for measles. As expected, children stopped getting measles.

But something else happened.

Childhood deaths from all infectious diseases plummeted. Even deaths from diseases like pneumonia and diarrhea were cut by half.

“So it’s really been a mystery — why do children stop dying at such high rates from all these different infections following introduction of the measles vaccine,” says Michael Mina, a postdoc in biology at Princeton University and a medical student at Emory University.

Scientists Crack A 50-Year-Old Mystery About The Measles Vaccine Photo credit: Photofusion/UIG via Getty Images

VACCINATE. YOUR. DAMN. KIDS. 

Questioning whether or not someone on disability benefits actually deserves them is literally always ableist, because you are assuming your limited knowledge of someone else’s situation is more important than what they, their doctors and government officials know about their health.

You are not helping disabled people when you talk about ‘fakers abusing the system.’ You are contributing to a culture of doubt, and you are keeping us from being able to live life without shame.

*sees good informational post about menstruation or uterus health*

*sees post ruined by “men will never understand” or “this is why women are badass”*

Get the low down on the HPV vaccine.

need to get my “third poke” soon, and as always I will blog it.

they’re doing a clinical trial in Canada right now (which I’m a part of) seeing if you actually do need the third dose for the vaccine to be effective so keep your eyes open for updates!

Yes! They are currently looking into how much protection only one or two doses offers.

Also, they are looking into making more vaccines for more strains of HPV. I remember posting an article a while back about how people of different races, primarily black, tend to get different strains of HPV that the ones Gardasil covers. Because there are so many strains of HPV, and it affects so many people, I look forward to the advances being looked into and I hope they become a reality soon.

Is the age limit I’ve read about actually a big deal, is it never too late to get them? I think I heard 26, and I’m past that.

That’s another thing they’re looking into. It’s a fact that at some point in their lives everyone will get at least one strain of HPV, usually something little that either has no symptoms or affects or something like a wart on a non-genital part of your body. It has been assumed that by your mid to late 20s you’ve already come in contact with one of the strains so they’re not sure how helpful the vaccine would be after this age group and in the past the research has only been done on this age group. Right now they’re running tests for older ages, and that’s another thing I’m really excited to see. I’m confident in the future it will be available to a larger age group because there are definitely many people who haven’t been exposed to those strains of the virus yet, it’s just to get it approved for general use they have to have substantial proof. 

You can definitely still talk to your doctor about your options, some are willing to give it later than others.

what are your thoughts on ‘skinny shaming’?

its stupid to act like it doesn’t happen and as if it doesn’t harm the person in question especially if they struggled with eating disorders, have fast metabolisms, and have a tough time gaining weight. but its also stupid to act as if it goes hand in hand with fat shaming

As someone who has been “thin-shamed” I can say it does Not at all go hand in hand with fat shaming. People “thin-shaming” me was mostly verbal harassment- you’re too skinny, you look like a boy, eat a fucking cheeseburger, what’s wrong with you why don’t you like food?

But guess what, I don’t have a problem finding clothes that fit me. There aren’t companies that refuse to make clothes for my size. There is no shortage of messages telling me that despite the harassment of some, I am still beautiful and ideal even if I’m unhealthy. Despite being thin-shamed, I still PANICKED when I started a medicine that made me gain weight, and I had to really analyze that, because no matter what my culture will still say that “fat is unideal” “fat is bad” and “honestly its fine to starve yourself / but shameful and bad to overeat.”

So “thin-shaming” is shitty because it’s shitty to be judged and have people make assumptions about you. But Fat-shaming is institutional, it’s not just individuals harassment and judgement, it’s potential jobs, it’s clothing companies, it’s media and advertisement, all telling you you’re bad as you are. Like what a way shittier thing.

This is the difference.

i’ve noticed this recent uptick in really lovely, kind, affirming posts about how executive dysfunction and disability impact hygiene, and how you are not a bad or lazy person for struggling with hygiene when you don’t have the energy or brainpower

and i’ve seen the responding posts calling this “enabling” and “toxic” and telling disabled people we have “no excuse” and, essentially, try to shame disabled people into Better behavior, and it is with the intention to shame no matter how sugarcoated in ~self care~ the words may be

here is a secret: shame is not an effective motivator. do you realize how much shame we feel already when we can’t even wash our hair or brush our teeth? we’re already told that it’s shameful and we already believe it and all that shame and self-loathing have done fucknothing to help us function better. shame makes us function worse because it is an extra emotional burden to distract us and sap our energy reserves

sometimes self-care - genuine self-care - means being kind to yourself even when you are unable to perform tasks. being cruel to yourself will not get those tasks done

look. this isn’t “enabling,” this is literally the kind of CBT practice used by licensed therapists. i am an Officially Mental Ill with the seal of approval from Psychiatry so if you’re into that whole mindset of “doctors are psychic and can do no wrong” then you should give my words a little more credence here: in my therapy sessions once a week one of the main things we work on is helping me be proud of whatever tasks i have accomplished, even if they are small, and be at peace with the tasks i did not accomplish

good doctors don’t shame their patients. good doctors affirm the lived experiences of their patients and help them be at peace with themselves, because trying to fix the external chaos in your life when you still have to settle the internal chaos of self-hatred and guilt that comes with disability is like trying to bail water out of the ocean. you’re not going to get very far

if it were so easy for us to take care of hygiene that we could accomplish it by just ~pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps and doing it~ then i assure you we would have already fucking done it, and also you have no fucking clue how disability works or what executive dysfunction even is

give us this one fucking inch to love ourselves and be okay with our existence as disabled people. back off.

No, Bones Don’t Make a Corset Curvy

Credit: Pop Antique “Vixen” ribbon corset | Model: Nicole Simone | Photo © Max Johnson

Caption: Though boned only at the center front, back, and side seams, this ribbon corset is very shapely. If you include each individual strip of ribbon, there are a total of 26 panels contributing to the fit. Fur wrap used in styling is vintage.

Ok, this is NOT curvy.  Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe, Catherine Zeta-Jones are “curvy”.  It means not stick-model thin.  I’m so tired of the overdone political correctness of calling obesity, even near-morbid obesity, “curvy”.      And for the record, I’m not thin—I got lbs I need to drop too…

1) The word ‘curvy’ here is in reference to the corset, and, specifically, whether or not the bones are what give it that curving shape.

2) Body shaming is trash.

As someone in the medical field I support body types from all corners of the world, but that doesn’t mean that I have to support obesity, diabetes, heart failure, sleep apnea, necrosis of the limbs leading to amputations, ect ect ect… If that’s your perception on beauty then there’s something horrendously wrong. This is not a vanity issue, this is a health topic now. But yes I admit this corset is beautiful.

Honestly, I’m team “people get to look however they want because they’re adults and their health is their own business unless they tell me otherwise.”

I *don’t* think the point is what I personally find beautiful or attractive or any of that (though I do happen to think Nicole is very pretty). Mostly, I just believe people should be able to live their lives without constantly having to deal with negative body comments, even when they’re cloaked in some vague concern for someone’s health.

^ agreed. sugarcoating your fatphobia doesn’t make you less fatphobic, regardless of whether or not you’re in the medical field. everybody knows there’s a huge bias for thinness in western medicine. medical professionals have shown time and time again that they respect skinny people far more often than fat people. a fat person could be healthier than a skinny person but the latter will still be shown a modicum of human decency. body shaming is trash.