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#like I haven’t been diagnosed with actual acne but my skin is like… not good. it’s super oily.
tuituipupu · 3 years
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cw ?? food mention below;
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cuttlefishkitch · 4 years
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hello! i haven't talked to you before, but ron said that i could ask you for some advice on writing eds? (i'd like to know things to avoid/common things that could come up in everyday life that would be good to mention/the sort of aids and stuff they'd have maybe?/anything else you think is relevant)
Hi! Sorry this took so long, a combination of ADHD and chronic pain slowed me way the fuck down. Thank you for being patient! 
EDIT: WEIRD HEEL THINGS I FORGOT!!
So, before I get into this I should probably say I technically haven’t been diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS for anyone reading) because it’s one of those syndromes that takes forever to get diagnosed with (it took a friend of mine’s mother over 30 years to get dxed). Many doctors, and everyone I know who does have EDS agree with me that it’s probably what causes my chronic joint pain and some of my other chronic issues. But just because three separate doctors have said “Yeah Probably” doesn’t mean I’m diagnosed!! Only a geneticist can do that!! And they had two-three year waitlists BEFORE the apocalypse happened.
I am diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), Small Fiber Neuropathy, and potentially misdiagnosed with Fibromyalgia (once I get properly tested for EDS I might get undiagnosed with this because I don’t have most of the main symptoms of Fibro, but I got diagnosed with it anyway because it’s what doctors misDX you with when they don’t know what’s wrong with you and don’t want to do more tests).
All that said, I’ve done a lot of research about EDS (mainly because it’s the only thing that explains all my symptoms since doctors seem incapable of doing so), and know a few people who have either confirmed or suspected EDS, so I’ll link to some stuff, talk about the symptoms that often come with EDS, explain how the symptoms I have affect me, because just because someone’s not diagnosed doesn’t mean they aren’t having symptoms, and probs elaborate a bit about writing physical disabilities and chronic pain in general because it’s super important to me! 
So RESOURCES aka how to make sure your post never sees the light of day because you’re linking things and tumblr hates it when people give other people information!!
Youtubers! If you want to know about the day to day of living with EDS or any disability or chronic illness I super suggest finding a youtuber that makes videos about their life. My EDS favorites are
Jessica Kellgren-Fozard
Annie Elainey
Amy Lee Fisher
Websites! If you’re asking random folks on tumblr I’m assuming (and hoping) you’ve already done the basic WebMD google searches and looked over the seemingly ridiculous lists of symptoms and related conditions, so here are a few websites that are made more for people than for doctors.
The Ehlers Danlos Society
OhTWIST (That’s Why I’m So Tired)
ChronicPainPartners (the fact that they have an entire section of articles called “Dealing with Doctors” should really tell you something)
Books! If you feel like doing actual reading! I suggest reading books written by people with Ehlers Danlos, to get a feel for how they portray themselves. I’m not saying steal, but it’s probably a good point of comparison to see how your portrayal feels. (haven’t actually read these b/c my ADHD doesn’t let me read)
Ria Ruse by Morgan S. Ray (a superhero book with a disabled super MC!!)
Mysteries of Maybelle by Imani Benfell (Imani is still in high school and has already written and self-published a book cause she didn’t have enough representation for herself how cool is she!!)
Bodies in Motion by Liana Brooks (tw for pregnancy problems and miscarriages in the link, because it’s a blog post talking about integrating EDS symptoms into the story without explicitly naming them as such)
OKAY, now for some rambling about EDS SYMPTOMS!!!
Ehlers Danlos is one monster of a genetic condition in complexity and variety. There are THIRTEEN different identified types of EDS, it often comes with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) and/or POTS, and can lead to various other conditions like gastroparesis, chiari malformation, craniocervical instability, and/or bad teeth. So if you’re going to be writing a character with EDS consider what other comorbid conditions they might also have. I’m mainly going to be talking about Hypermobile EDS (hEDS) because it’s what I probably have and what I’m most familiar with. That said there is a lot of overlap in symptoms with the other varieties.
I started typing this section and realized I was going to have to break it down even more so we’re going to talk about Chronic Pain, Unstable Joints (Dislocations and Subluxations), Skin Things, Mobility Issues, and Other Weird Shit and how those things get addressed separately.
Gonna get the Other Weird Shit out of the way first. Because EDS is a malfunction of connective tissue it can fuck up all sorts of random things. For instance, I and many other people w/ hEDS have trouble swallowing. Shit gets stuck in my throat, I sometimes choke on and have to cough up food, and pills can be hard to swallow, which sucks cause I take A Lot Of Pills. If it doesn’t cause full-on gastroparesis it can cause IBS or other digestive problems b/c the digestive tract is mostly made of connective tissue. It can potentially cause heart problems even if they aren’t as big of a risk as in some other forms of EDS. Premature osteoarthritis is common because what you need is more joint pain. And Fatigue OH BOY THE FATIGUE. And of course the headaches, can’t forget those pesky migraines can we!
AND piezogenic papules!! I completely forgot!! Piezogenic papules are little white bumps that appear when you put weight on your heel. In some people they hurt, but in others they don’t. They’re technically tiny little herniations of fat peaking through the fascia in the heel. They were added as part of the diagnostic criteria for hEDS in 2017!
Now for Skin Things cause it’s not as big a thing in hEDS as it is in other forms. Basically, in a lot of forms of EDS, the skin is extra stretchy and extra delicate. It bruises and tears easily, people with the extreme versions of this can accidentally scratch something into an open wound if they aren’t careful. My skin is pretty soft and sensitive, I def have the typical velvety skin, and as is pretty par for the course of someone with hEDS my skin is a little stretchy, and sorta delicate. I’m not as tissue-papery as some people get, but I almost always have at least one mystery bruise or scrape b/c existing is hazardous. Most of scars are also pretty normal, unlike the extremely papery and atrophic scars (though I have a few tiny acne scars that are atrophic) that are common with other kinds of hEDS. Something that I DO have is Lots of Stretch Marks, all over my thighs, and even down to my calves. Which wouldn’t be abnormal, except for the fact that I’ve never been over 145 lbs and I’ve never been pregnant. Having a lot of stretch marks or striations in the skin without due cause happens because the structure of the skin isn’t as strong as it is in people with a normal amount of connective tissue.
I don’t have to worry as much about my skin but people that do are usually very careful with adhesives because they can irritate or tear the skin, which sucks when you need a lot of bandaids cause your darn skin won’t do its job.
Now on to the meatier stuff and since I’m mostly working backward let’s do Mobility Issues!! These can happen in loads of ways, but a lot of what causes these in people with EDS are the other two things I wanna talk about. Unstable joints lead to increased risk of injury when doing stuff people with fully functioning joints can do.
For context, I’m an ambulatory wheelchair user, meaning I can walk, but a lot of the time it’s better if use a chair. Mine is mostly for my POTS symptoms, but the fact that my legs aren’t also in absolute agony is a big plus. I use a custom manual wheelchair with a SmartDrive (b/c I’m very fucking fortunate and have good insurance) whenever I leave the house and have to be “walking” for more than a few minutes at a time. I can’t fully self-propel in a manual chair because it would be damaging to the joints in my arms and hands, but the smaller chair is easier to maneuver in less than accessible spaces (like almost everywhere). There was about a month-long span where I used a very cheap and very bulky electric chair while I was waiting on the ideal set up I have now. Before that, I also briefly used, and sometimes still use, an up-right posture cane.
People with EDS have widely varying mobility issues because of how uniquely it can manifest. My cane only gave me a little help with balance because if I used it in any prolonged capacity any pain it took away from my legs was relocated to my arms, and as an artist, my arms are more important to me!
If you’re going to write a character with EDS having mobility issues as a result of their EDS the best thing to do is to narrow down their specific needs. Are their knees complete and utter garbage but their shoulders and wrists strong? Maybe they can get away with using a cane. Can they not stand for longer than 5 minutes because of the vertigo from their POTS? Maybe they need a manual wheelchair. Would propelling themself damage their back and arm joints? An electric chair might be necessary! Plenty of people with EDS use all sorts of combinations of these aides to get around their life, consider how your character’s good and bad days would be. Do they have back up plans if they overestimate themselves? There can be a lot to manage, but don’t let it scare you off! Sometimes I try and make it into a resource management game (because I’m a game designer and that’s what I do), to make evaluating my energy and mobility needs more fun!
But now let's tackle some of the reasons those mobility aides might be needed. Unstable Joints.
Ever stepped wrong and rolled your ankle? It hurts for a few steps and then kinda fixes itself, or maybe it bothers you for the rest of the day and you put it up and ice it when you get home? When I was walking around outside my house that would happen AT LEAST once a month, usually more. Some times I’m sitting wrong and when I get up my knee isn’t a knee anymore and decides to just give out from under me. My knuckles are made of unruly popcorn and they Don’t Want To Stay Home!! Oh! And my shoulder is more often out a little out of its socket than it is fully in.
Unstable joints lead to Dislocations and Subluxations of varying intensity, and some people get them more frequently than others. Some can be severe enough to necessitate hospital visits and even surgery, some subluxations are so banal (like my fUCKING SHOULDER) that you just learn to live with the pain.
If a character is going to be in high action, combat-heavy scenarios, chances are they’re going to be popping out joints left and right. Hell, depending on the severity of their joint laxity they could be doing the same sitting at a desk. Again, it’s incredibly varied. I’d suggest setting some sort of baseline for yourself, of what a character’s joints can and can’t stand up to, and maybe do some research on which joints are most likely to pop out in general (hips and shoulders are big culprits being the wacky ball and socket motherfuckers they are). Then maybe have something pop out or hold up every so often when it shouldn’t cause hey! EDS is kinda just like that! Unpredictable!
Some ways people manage joint laxity is with braces, KT tape, and physical therapy. Braces come in many different forms, since I’m currently getting pretty much no treatment for my shitty joints I use mostly compression braces made for sporty people. It really is amazing how much a bit of tight fabric can do to keep my wrist in place.
More specialized braces often have solid parts to prevent the joints from hyper-extending (bending the wrong way) and causing further damage. If you ever see someone with what looks like diamond shaped rings around a bunch of their finger joints, chances are those are Ring Splints, and are there to keep the finger shaped like a finger. I want to get my hands on some and get some on my hands Very Badly, because my fingers hyper-extend SO MUCH when I type, and it makes my hand pain way way worse.
KT tape is another thing people often use. It’s stretchy tape you put on your skin and it basically functions kinda like a second ligament as well as reinforcing the joint and keeping the bones mostly where they’re supposed to be. The problem with this is a lot of people with EDS have very sensitive and fragile skin like I mentioned before, so KT tape can cause allergic reactions, chronic skin irritation, or just straight up take the skin with it when someone goes to remove it. Hence a lot of folks are really careful with it.
Physical Therapy is kinda the best (and only) treatment for joint laxity aside from Very Invasive and sometimes Highly Experimental surgery. It focuses on strengthening the muscles around the joints so they can do the work all those bone ropes made of body glue can’t. The problem is finding a physical therapist that 1) knows what EDS even is, 2) knows you have it, and 3) knows how to treat it without doing stuff that’ll Phucking Hurt You Worse!! Because exercising wrong with EDS can do Permanent Damage!!!
Again most folks use a combination of all of these things, or have next to no access to them b/c healthcare sucks.
Anyway, on to one of my favorite topics, Chronic Pain!! One of the reasons this post took me so long!!!
Chances are if your character has chronic pain as a result of their EDS there are gonna be some things they hate, including stairs, rain, thunderstorms, stairs, hills, uneven terrain, oh and did I mention stairs??? It’s going to vary person to person, but almost everyone I’ve met with pain from EDS has complained about their knees. For me the most debilitating pain is in my fingers and wrists. They’re by far my least stable joints but I use them constantly for stuff like drawing, typing, and sewing.
Because my joint pain is so wide spread, like most people’s with hEDS, it effects every single part of my day to day life. I can’t carry a heavy ceramic plate, open a bottle, or even use my computer without pain. It’s practically impossible for me to get comfortable in any position be it sitting or laying down, and as you can imagine that makes it hard to sleep a lot of the time. Moving too much hurts, but so does sitting still. I’m constantly taking braces on and off or cracking/stretching my joints so they pop back into place and hurt less.
Also being in pain makes everything else That Much Worse. I get tired way faster than I did before my pain was this bad (I had chronic pain for a while before actually realizing it wasn’t normal to not be able to walk down the block without feeling like your foot bones are trying to escape). My sensory issues and anxiety disorder are more easily aggravated because my base level of comfort is way worse. It fucks with my depression. And OH BOY does it make my ADHD worse because being in pain is fucking distracting as hell and makes it harder to make decisions and switch tasks. Also my ADHD often makes my other symptoms worse cause I forget to take my meds, don’t drink enough water, or can’t find my fucking braces because the item eating black-hole that comes with ADHD stole them. The intersection of mental and physical disabilities is probably a rant for another time though, so back to chronic pain.
Does it suck? Yes, undoubtedly. Is this incredibly debilitating? Of course it is, I spent the last several months unable to feed myself without assistance because there was a staircase between my room and the kitchen and I could only manage to climb it once a day. Is it overwhelming? Definitely, I’ve frequently broken down crying from a combination of pain and frustration because I’m having a bad day and there’s no relief to be found. Am I able to predict when it’s going to rain with uncanny accuracy because any change in barometric pressure makes me feel like every bone in my body is trying to kill it’s neighbors? You bet your fucking ass I am!! Does it sometimes make me irritable, angry, and occasionally dismissive of when abled people get cold or a temporary injury because the stuff they’re complaining about is my life every single day and all avenues of treatment and recovery I have could take years and still not entirely solve my issues? Yeah, and while I deserve a little extra patience I also have to be sure to check myself because I don’t want to turn into someone who’s nasty to be around. Do I sometimes need to sleep for 17 hours straight because it’s raining, I have migraine, and I’m in too much pain to be conscious? Yup, sometimes a few days in a row. Does living in constant pain mean I’m unable to do all the things I want to and does that sometimes make me wanna curl up in bed and never leave? Yeah, it happens.
But! And here’s the big important but, that’s not everything! I still write, draw, and talk to my friends!! It might take me a little longer but I get there. I’m still happy and excitable and make the time to write out five page long posts about EDS because it’s something I’m passionate about! My chronic pain doesn’t stop me. I refuse to let it. I never really wanted to go mountain climbing anyway, so I’m perfectly happy being able to make it up and down the six steps in my house, even if sometimes I have to sit and bump down them on my ass, or crawl up them like a cat. Chronic pain isn’t all I am. It isn’t a fate worse than death. It isn’t the only thing your character should talk about (though I do talk about my pain a lot cause I’m a complainer about almost everything). You can have your character be hindered by their pain, realistically they would be. You can have them seek comfort, support, and relief. Other characters can commiserate and be sympathetic, but it doesn’t mean their whole life is going to be one big pity party, that would be incredibly fucking boring. I know I’d be bored out of my mind.
All that said dealing with chronic pain, especially from EDS, is Complicated. Physical Therapy is the gold standard, but like I said before it can be a long and difficult process, and isn’t always accessible. Stabilization methods like I talked about before can help prevent pain, or reduce it by keeping bones mostly where they belong. Heat and cold help joints, relax muscles, and reduce inflammation but keeping them applied is rough and the relief doesn’t always last. Doctors prescribe anti-depressants, anti-anxiety, and sometimes even anti-epileptic medication to help manage pain, but everyone’s mileage with those varies. And I’m not at all qualified to talk in-depth about narcotics or other heavy duty pain-meds, but suffice to say the war on drugs fucked shit up for people that legit need that kind of help BIG TIME.
Now for my closer/bonus rant about EDS and Disability Writing in General!
Everyone always says write what you know, so if you really want to do disabled people justice, get to know disabled people! Make friends with disabled people, get involved with advocacy groups, consume content made by disabled creators both about disability and not! Disabilities are so fucking diverse, even EDS is such a complex disorder, and comes with so many potential co-morbidities, that practically everyone with it has a unique experience. There’s no way I can fully explain everything in a tumblr post. Hell, even if I could talk to you for hours probably couldn’t give you enough info to answer all your questions (especially since I’m still in diagnosis hell :,) ), so talk to a wide range of people with EDS and other disabilities!! I know it sounds like a lot of work but trust me, disabled people are some of the strongest, raddest, coolest, people you will ever meet that it won’t feel like it.
And don’t be afraid either, the fact that EDS and other disabilities are so wildly varied means that you have a little bit of wiggle room with your character’s experience. There’s so little disability rep out their I think people are WAY to scared to try their hand at writing it. So long as your character is a fully developed person in addition to being disabled, you give some logical thought as to how it would affect their life, and you don’t make their disability the butt of any joke it isn’t difficult to avoid ableist writing. PLEASE WRITE MORE DISABLED PEOPLE AND PEOPLE WITH CHRONIC PAIN/CHRONIC ILLNESS!!
Okay that’s it, again sorry it took so long for me to get back to you! My fingers were being little pests about it, and my ADHD (which is honestly more disabling than everything else a lot of the time lmao) was being an asshole! Hope this helps, and feel free to ask me more questions if you need clarification! It might take me a bit but I do love talking about this stuff.
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jyndor · 3 years
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Oily skin anon here...Yeah, effaclar is great and not too stripping like a lot of acne products can be. I've tried the cleansers and the salicylic & glycolic acid serum. Unfortunately, the moisturizer is nothing special. Honestly, I've never had much luck finding a decent moisturizer. I'm currently using one of the toleriane line, which at least doesn't have fragrance. As for sensitive, red skin anon, I know they have a cream for rosacea and my mother uses one called kerium for red and flaky skin. She seems happy with it!
hi again anon! love talking acne and oily skin, and I don’t do it enough smdh. so lets talk moisturizers because they are important as fuck and often misunderstood by like everyone, especially people with oily skin. this is something that imo can exacerbate skin concerns and make oily skin oilier/dry skin drier/etc. so I’m gonna talk a bit about WHY they are important and then I will get into what different skins might need, and what you might consider trying.
the main purpose of a moisturizer is to lock in moisture (lol) and prevent transepidermal water loss (water evaporating through your skin’s top layers, aka your epidermis). without getting too technical, your skin has this handy thing called a moisture barrier/acid mantle that is integral to maintaining healthy skin. our skin’s barrier is naturally acidic due to sebum production (so oil) and sweat, around a 5 pH, to protect our bodies from viruses and bacteria.
so when we talk about stripping our skin of its natural oils, you know that squeaky clean feeling? that’s bad. it’s actually damaging your moisture barrier, making your skin more alkaline and leaving your skin vulnerable to germs and irritation. this is very common in dry skin, but people with oily, acne-prone skin have been sold so much nonsense for ages - the charcoal masks, baking soda cleansers and exfoliants, pore strips etc all spring to mind - and so often they will strip their skin’s natural oils and then send their sebum production into overdrive to compensate. this is why many people with oily skin actually find introducing certain kinds of oils into their skincare helps control oil production - sort of like tricking your skin into thinking it already made enough oil.
and to be clear, all skins need a good balance of water and oil - in fact this is what decides your skin type.
when skin is dry it lacks oil. normal skin has a equal balance of water and oil. oily skin has too much oil. combination skins have some areas that are one type and others that are another type. sensitive skin is also a skin type and it tends to be dry. your skin type doesn’t really change, although as we age our skin does produce less sebum over time. this is why people with oilier skin tend to look younger.
all skins can be sensitized and dehydrated - think moisture = oil and hydration = water. these are conditions, not skin types, because they can go away with treatment. my skin is always going to be somewhat dry even if it needs less oil during the summer and through good skin care. thanks genetics XD
if I don’t drink enough water, my skin will look crepe-y and older because I am dehydrated. thanks to environmental factors like pollution, stuff I put into my body, my stress levels, allergens, the amount of sun I get, etc - my skin can get more sensitized and irritated. when we deal with that stuff, the condition goes away (until the next time).
so all of that out of the way, what do the skin types need in moisturizers? so all of this is variable and depends on what other products are being used.
dry skin needs an oil-based moisturizer, non-negotiable. dry skin NEEDS to feed that acid mantle to prevent irritation, infection, etc. a thicker ointment is a great option for dry skin (like the cerave healing ointment I stan, it’s very lightweight and doesn’t have lanolin so it really is great for all skins). normal skin needs a good balanced moisturizer, often a light cream as opposed to an ointment or a lotion.
oily skin needs LESS oil in a moisturizer than dry skin does. that doesn’t mean NO oil, and again I do think that some topical oils are beneficial to oily skin, but generally speaking a lighter, water-based lotion is going to be better.
some moisturizers that I recommend for oily skin (besides the cerave healing ointment):
neutrogena hydro boost
dermalogica active moist - I am certified in dermalogica and while I don’t love all of their moisturizers I think this one is great. oily skinned folks lucked out.
glow recipe pink juice moisturizer - I actually have a mini bottle I use during the day under my SPF because my facial skin is pretty balanced at the moment. this does have fragrance but I am not opposed to fragrance by default (does the fragrance have other purposes - ie preservative, does it irritate my asthma, obviously do I have issues with that particular brand, etc. I want to talk about why fragrance (and other ingredients tbh cough parabens) isn’t inherently evil at some point because it’s all a matter of labeling practices, and clinique - a fragrance-free brand I worked for which works so well for so many people, is a NO NO for me)
I have also heard really good things about the cerave hydrating hyaluronic acid serum as a moisturizer for oily skin but I haven’t used it myself YET. if it is at all similar to my beloved b-hydra serum by (blegh) drunk elephant (eurghhh) then it’s a go.
belif aqua bomb is a good one, too
clinique’s dramatically different hydrating jelly is probably my favorite product from when I worked for the brand
on rosacea, I want to be clear that because rosacea is a medical condition it is important that if someone thinks they might have it they go to a medical professional to get it diagnosed and treated clinically. same thing with cystic acne (lol not to be a total hypocrite).
here are some really good videos from two actual dermatologists online who I really respect:
dr dray (so a lot of her videos have sponsorships but like who cares, she is clear about it and a dermatologist) -  best oily skincare (sponsored by walmart i know guys but like it’s a good video), 10 best products from lrp, best sunscreens for oily skin
dr vanita rattan (specialized in skin of color) - oily skin moisturizers, cleansers for oily skin, best sunscreens for oily skin, all of her videos omfg
anyway wow hope this helped!
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hollyteague · 4 years
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Adult Acne Battle - £3000 Later (What I’ve Learned)
If you HAVEN’T struggled with Adult Acne - congratulations! Long may it last! The below is less relevant for occasional breakouts, but you still might find some bits useful... here is a table of contents so you can skip ahead.
NB: I am a normal person with 0 skincare qualifications, the below is my advice based on my own experience.
1. Intro
2. General Useful Info
3. Active Acne: Drugs from Docs
4. Easy Fixes/General Well-Being
5. General Rules
6. Acne Scarring (Clinical Treatment, Home Remedies)
7. Recommended Brands
8. Points of Interest
Intro
... it’s all you see in the mirror and every photo... it feels like a constant battle against yourself, you feel unhealthy and it actually REALLY HURTS. ... And it makes no sense, because you NEVER struggled with acne at school?! And you’re 25?! Life is hard enough!!!
Good News: you DON’T deserve it. Here is a list of things I’ve tried/researched and paid for (🤦‍♀️) so that you can explore some options with much less financial upheaval.
Bad News: it’s probs going to take 6-12 months before you see some results/work out what’s most beneficial to you. Sorry! But - slowly slowly catchy monkey & you will learn SO MUCH MORE than people with good skin in the process (knowledge = power) ... think that’s the only positive thing I can offer right now.
General Useful Info
- Your skin takes between 26-30 days to completely regenerate
- Your face is 64% water... DRINK DRINK DRINK
- LESS. IS. MORE. If you have problem skin, you are the beauty industry’s DREAAAAAM. There are SO many brands, SO many treatments and SO many people wanting to help, and you will pay ANYTHING for better skin. Proceed with caution! (Recommends for what I believe is “worth” considering are at the end of this doc)
- FROM NOW ON, use ONE cleanser TWICE a day & ONE moisturiser TWICE a day, then ONE scrub to be used ONCE a week. Even LESS if possible
- As an NB to the above 👆🏻 right now, you may well be making things worse (sorry). I visited a dermatologist who reminded me that the skin I do the LEAST with (he used my inner thigh as an example ... bit dodge 🤨) is currently the healthiest. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem, but does highlight the importance of giving yourself a break. Scrubs and I washes will really really irritate if used excessively.
Active Acne: Drugs from the Docs
(... because it’s NOT normal and it’s been going on FOREVER and the NHS need to sort it out and life isn’t FAIR 👊 💕 🌈 )
- LEVEL 1 - “Zineryt” - antibiotic which you apply to the skin. Note: you’re really only treating the epidermis here but if used in conjunction with:
- LEVEL 2 - Oral Antibiotics (various names) - internally treat 👍 you need at LEAST a three month course for this to be beneficial, and I don’t personally believe that using one without the other (oral and topical) would have much of an effect. They need to happen together
- LEVEL 3 - “Benzoyl peroxide” ... this really stings 😣 works as an antiseptic to reduce bacteria. NB: “peroxide” = bleach 🤢 😳 This is effective almost immediately but definitely causes skin irritation, and needs to be applied regularly... ie, regular stingy stingy. For some people, surface bacteria is the cause (even post-washing) so this treatment is a life-saver!
- LEVEL 4 - DUN DUN DUUUUUN - 🧙‍♀️ “Roaccutane” also known as “ Rizuderm” or “Isotretinoin” ... “when all else fails”. This is a nasty naaaasty drug and there are lots of waivers to sign before taking including promising not to get pregnant! I did not take this medication (although I was eligible) because it is highly dehydrating, and I didn’t know what effect it might have on my voice. However, I have three friends who have undergone the course, and aside from having to bath in coconut oil ever day, it was by FAR the most effective treatment. IMO, this is absolutely a last resort - read the side effects and decide if you really HAVE tried everything else before going to argue with a doctor 👩‍⚕️ 👨‍⚕️ 💕 they don’t particularly like prescribing it either
- For women, contraceptives willllllll be discussed as they’re the cheapest & easiest of the hormonal offerings (combi pill recommended for adult acne). This is really a personal preference thing, DONT feel pressured into switching like it’s the ONLY option. Try to keep a log of any significant skin changes through the month (even if you’re on a pill where you don’t bleed 🩸yum!) and if you HAVE recently switched contraceptives, it’ll take a good 6 months for things to settle/work through your body
- Topical Retinoids (various names) - discussed later under “Home Treatments” but occasionally prescribed by doctors... much less popular and much less effective for very active acne IMO
Easy Fixes/General Well-Being
- Try to drink a minimum of 2litres of water per day - much more if you are exercising. For every caffeinated or alcoholic drink, you -2 glasses of water 🍷 ☕️ ☹️💔 keep drinking! (Water, not wine!) Permanently attach a straw!
- Vitamins with biotin & keratin can really help (if you’re good at taking vitamins!) although I’m sceptical (I don’t think a keratin deficiency is the root cause of acne) & results are too slow for someone like me. However, if you DO have brittle nails/thinner hair, it may be worth considering
- Usual Mantra - happy body, happy mind - and undoubtedly better skin. Feed the machine good foods, and be mindful of sugar content, which really will have a direct effect. NB: Post-workout glow is definitely a thing! 💪
- Adult acne can often be a sign of something going on internally... have a health check & gets some bloods done. Initially I was diagnosed with early menopause (yikes!) but after additional tests I was told I (like lots of women) have PCOS. Not life threatening, but very useful information that I would have really appreciated a good 5 years ago 🤦‍♀️ and now shapes a lot of my diet/approach to health
General Rules
- Try not to touch your face/back/areas with breakout. Even clean fingers will transfer additional oils
- If you have a spot NEVER. EVER. EVER “pop” it!!! Leave it ALONE until it comes to a head, then use a sterile needle to make one SINGLE hole and gently squeeze. The more you pop, the more scarring you will have
- Wash face twice a day - once additionally if you exercise (try to wash as quickly as possible after you run to rebalance pH).
- Use medium temperature water. If you need to open pours or want to help a spot along 🤦‍♀️ use a hot towel on the one area rather than across your whole face, and make sure you finish with a cold compress to close everything back up again
- Invest in a silicone sponge to wash your face (link attached) they are cheap and help to keep hands away & bacteria at bay. There are lots of expensive silicone products (eg foreo luna have a silicone range that also vibrates ... I have one, it feels nice, but it’s just a gimmick!). Get rid of any muslin cloths/face flannels you’ve previously invested in
- Use ONE moisturiser, ONCE a day and make sure it has a good SPF. Brands recommended under ... “Recommended Brands”
- Exfoliation &/ glamorous face mask MAXIMUM once a week. (Less is more less is more less is more). Again, see “Recommended Brands”
- ... Ahhhhhh lovely makeup covering all of those unlovely lumps and bumps and then making additional lumps and bumps 🤦‍♀️ MINERAL MAKE UP ONLY, HENCEFORTH. And whatever happens, do NOT fall asleep in it.
Acne Scarring
😔😔😔😔 (when the battle is kind of (mostly) over, you realise this is the hardest bit to fix).
If you have scarring AND still have active acne, DONT BOTHER WITH ANY OF THE BELOW. There’s really no point. Get the initial problem under control, THEN you can start thinking about how you’re going to get yourself to bare faced freedom.
Clinic Treatments
- LEVEL 1 - “Milk Peel”- the least abrasive chemical peel... between 4 & 8 treatments recommended, each treatment lasts about 45 mins. Lovely experience! No makeup for 24 hours and healthy skin looks kind of glowy for a day or two......... however, absolutely zero effect on scarring (total cost, £200!)
- LEVEL 2 - “Chemical Chemical Peel” - this was called a “Cosmo” - no idea what that means really other than it hurt MORE than the milk peel and left my significantly more red, with peeling etc. These treatments definitely DID have an effect, and perhaps with another round of 4, I would be a disciple... I really feel that the aftercare is annoying though... and it really is an uncomfortable procedure (acid on the face... yeah... hmmm). Cost - £250 for 4 appointments
- LEVEL 3 - “Micro Needling” - NOW. THIS ONE, if you can afford it, makes the most sense. Essentially, the needle re-damages the skin, encouraging it to re-heal itself, promoting collagen and elastin in the process. Hurts less than a chemical peel too 😂🤦‍♀️ course of 4 - £400. Excellent. 🤦‍♀️😒
- LEVEL 4 - “Laser Skin Resurfacing” ... I’m too poor to try this, but I would imagine the results are amazing .... it’s a laser, and it re-surfaces your skin, so 🧙‍♀️. Single Treatment, costs range from £600-£1000. Advice: GO TO A DERMATOLOGIST. I’m sure cheaper alternatives are available at salons and I’m SURE all salon practitioners are registered and hygienic but ... again - IT’S A LASER... ON YOUR FACE.
Yum yum yum - after most of these treatments, you might be asked if you want to sit under a LED Light Box - say yes! It takes 15 mins ish and kills bacteria.
DON’T BOTHER WITH:
- Dermaplaning! You might not be eligible anyway if you have particularly bad scarring.... lovely treatment with many benefits, but won’t fix anything
- Microdermabrasion! As above! Also really might not be a good idea if your skin is particularly sensitive after all the lotions and potions you’ve been using to try & clear up all that acne
- Any kind of facial that claims to use super special fancy lotions. It will be a lovely experience, but it will do very little.
Home Treatments
- The Ordinary (see “Recommended Brands”) have an exfoliating peel (ONCE A WEEK. ONCE A WEEK!) which does certainly lift and brighten - search for “AHA 30% + BHA 2% Peeling Solution” (easy to type, eh)
- Retinols ... to be used with caution. The Ordinary provide an affordable range of %s - retinol works to increase cell renewal and tackle blemishes and pigmentation... Start a lower % and be super careful to use an SPF. If you have active acne, avoid - it will irritate it further
- Home Derma-Rollers - similar concept to the microneedling treatment, but you MUST. MUST. Keep your equipment sterile and keep rolling to a MINIMUM. Every two weeks is still too much! Give your skin a break!!!!!! Rome wasn’t built in a day!
Recommended Brands
- Bare Minerals, for all make up. Other mineral brands are available, but I like the ethos of Bare & the customer service they provide is second to none. They will give you lots of samples to try, and ALL of their staff are real brand pioneers. They’ll also do you a full face of makeup with no appointment, which is very much appreciated on a bad day. Love u Bare Minerals 💕 (Cost: Mid-Range)
- For me, Dermalogica is the one and only skincare brand 💋💋 It’s the easiest of all and feels like a professional product at all times. You only need ONE cleanser (Ultra Calming, to calm me down - thanking you) ONE moisturiser (more options available, but I would stick with Active Moist) and ONE exfoliator/scrub (Daily Microfoliant is fine, but - don’t use daily 🤦‍♀️). For heavier make up wearers, Precleanse Oil is a blessing. Again - samples available and if you go to a department store, lots of advice will be offered. Don’t be seduced by serums. (Cost: Mid-High Range)
- The Ordinary (mentioned above) are kind of cool because they just sell the BASIC product ingredients, making them much cheaper. Woohoo! You can concoct your OWN lotions and potions, how exciting! However, proceed with caution: you may find you end up a failed skin scientist, as lots of the chemicals will cancel each other out/won’t be effective. Eg. Vitamin C Suspension with Retinol in Squalene which you might be tempted to use after some research. There are articles available online to help with this
- CHEAPEST OF ALL - “Kaeso” (available online) sells a box containing cleanser, toner, moisturiser, exfoliator and mask for approx £20. The “Rebalancing” collection is for problem skin, although the hydrating collection may also be nice to try. You get SO much product for so little here, but IMO, if you have particularly bad acne, the cleanser actually isn’t strong enough. Useful to have in the cupboard though/when payday feels a long way away.
- Other brands: Juliette Armand (Cleanser & Moisturiser yum yum!) ZO Skin Health (although these are usually salon based only) Environ (far superior, but less affordable for me!). Again - you only need ONE cleanser & ONE moisturiser, then ONE scrub to be used ONCE a week!!!
Dermalogica, The Ordinary, Kaeso Beauty & Bare Minerals are all cruelty free paraben free microbead free formaldehyde free etc etc but more research needs to be taken with other recommended brands. NB: If you choose to use a moisturiser/makeup that doesn’t contain an SPF, you WILL need an SPF additionally, even on a cloudy day ☁️ Embrace the Vit D but say no to sun damage
Points of Interest
- Male & Female skin have different structures and will respond differently to different products and treatments. Most notable, male skin is about 25% thicker so much tougher, which more sebum production ie. guys are more prone to blackheads.
- There is much research being done into the acne occurrence as a predictable side effect of masculinizing hormonal therapy in transgender patients, after six months or more of testosterone treatment. More research necessary but I HAVE read that antibios have proved to be effective, as well as low doses of Isotretinoin, although this is far less likely to be prescribed due to anxiety/depression side effects.
- Super weird - peanut butter (aside from having high fat & sugar levels ... brand dependent obvs) CAN sometimes contain androgens (male sex hormones) ... give it a google, it’s all a bit strange but might lead you to cutting down
- Toothpaste DOES help to dry problem spots out ... the cheaper the brand the better 😂 🦷
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desroundtree · 4 years
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Diagnosis
Silence.  That's what I have had.  I have had all the feelings in the world, all the pain one can muster, all the love one can accept - but I simply could not find words big enough to carry them.  The lack of stability in my world right now has sent me to a place where explanations hurt but are still demanded.  I want answers no matter how badly they may hurt or what steps they may bring me to take.
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Recently I have been struggling in every way possible.  Physically I have dealt with new symptoms, new diagnoses, new medicine.  Emotionally it has been new news (good and bad), new realities, new goals, new losses.  Psychologically there are no ways to explain the upheaval my emotions have gone through.
New diagnoses always come with new questions and protocols - what do we do now, how do we handle it regarding the other medicines and things I have introduced or removed into my daily routine.  The first was Hidradenitis Suppurtiva, a very painful inflammatory condition that effects the skin glands and pores.  Don’t click on that link if you have a weak stomach but I can tell you it’s pretty bad. It is autoimmune and one of the worst conditions I have had to deal with so far.  Since it has come on so suddenly and now seems to be taking roost it effects just about every aspect of my life.  The pain is immeasurable, the tenderness, and constantly feeling like there is something painful like a needle underneath your skin is not something that helps at all with any thoughts of being active at all.  I have read all I can about it and decided that changing my diet completely is the only thing I can do to get even the slightest bit of relief. 
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Yet another pain condition to deal with.
Fatigue has been something I have always dealt with.  Since I was a teenager it was one of the symptoms I always believed was "something" - it was attributed to IBS which I was diagnosed and treated for.  Turns out they removed my appendix and there went my IBS but the fatigue always remained.  I remember being so tired I would cry myself to sleep and wake up hours later when dinner was ready.  A touch of depression probably contributed to it but I was tested for everything under the sun and everything was negative.  
As I got older and was finally diagnosed - in my 30's - with fibromyalgia and lupus, the pain and fatigue made sense.  I finally had an answer but I didn't realize that this answer would lead me to a whole lot of other questions where no answers seem to exist. I finally got my thyroid tested, and of course there was something not right there either.  Hashimoto's thyroiditis - leads to a lot of the symptoms I am struggling with now so there was a happiness with another diagnosis because at least now I had answers in order to try to help myself.
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I was opting to have my thyroid removed and met with the surgeon.  I was excited to at least be able to eliminate some of the symptoms I was feeling.  It might not be full relief but some relief was an option I was willing to accept.  As a matter of fact, I can tell you I was betting on it, all my eggs in the basket for 10% relief.  That's how desperate existing with chronic illness can be.  Grasping at whatever tiny sliver of painlessness is offered, even if it means taking a pill for the rest of my life.  I could care less, I already take pills everyday.  What would one more make.  
I sat across from a doctor that told me he would not remove my thyroid.  He explained how he had seen worse cases.  I had nothing to worry about.  I should wait another six months and have a sonogram to see if there are any changes so we don't rush - as if I haven't been dealing with symptoms for over 11 years.  I was told the nodules that are less than a cm smaller than the criteria for biopsy are nothing to worry about.  When I asked about my thyroid growing 2cm in a little over a year was nothing because he has seen thyroids that are 12cm.
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The tears were immediate.  Not because he didn't think I needed surgery, I guess that's great news.  The tears came as he continued to list every single thing that could possibly go wrong with the surgery - a) thyroid medication depends on absorption if you get generic versions (which would not be my actual case since I have tier 1 insurance) one week they could be from Mexico, the next from India, the next China.  This could be a problem.b) the medicine might not leave you feeling the same (I think that's the point) and he doesn't think the removal of my thyroid that is barely functioning would help.c) the vocal cords could be damaged.d) the papillary thyroid glands can be damaged.e) your metabolism might change.
Then he looked at me, completely thrown off by my tears, and said, "I mean I will take it out if you want me to."
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To sum up the appointment - I am sick just not sick enough.  I am sick enough to suffer just not sick enough to treat.  I am sick enough and I have had enough. Yes.  I walked out of the office without my surgery scheduled and feeling like I had just been in a boxing match with Mike Tyson in his best days.  I was physically beat, emotionally crushed by the fact that my hope to feel slightly better wasn't all that it was cracked up to be and was also very short lived.  I walked out of that appointment thinking that under the jail is where I am meant to live my life.  The happiness was sucked out of my day, the wind in my sails were battered and torn by a conversation with one person.  One person who I felt maybe didn't take me all that seriously, one person that does nothing but remove organs and glands from people's bodies - he was right taking the least empathetic job in medicine, a surgeon.
I won't lie and say that this didn't knock me for a loop.  It certainly did.  The most sadness settled when I saw my daughter because I thought that just a bit of a burst of energy daily could change things for us immensely.  Instead of being stuck in bed maybe I could be stuck outside.  I had broken the cardinal rule, I made plans with something I didn't have yet.  I made plans with something I had not yet tasted or felt or held in my hand.  And that's called excitement and I will be guilty of it time and time again if it helps me find hope. Six months more of night sweats, fatigue, pain in my throat, hoarseness, hair loss, dry skin.  Forever of painful acne inversa.
All diagnoses I don't want to hear. Yet I persist.
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afireinsarah · 5 years
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Emotional post/novel and potential trigger warning for body image again, be warned. 
Apparently was Mental Health Awareness Week or something along those lines. I know that this is a little bit late, but I’ve been struggling with whether or not to even post it. It's inspiring to see how people are opening up more about their own struggles with mental illness, and I don’t think it should be a “hush-hush” type things that it’s been for...ever, really? I don’t know. Anyway, I decided to try to write up one of my own.
Anyone who knows me as more than just a casual acquaintance knows in some capacity that I have struggled with mental illness for years. I have been diagnosed with depression and anxiety and am actively trying to better myself and work on it. One thing I don’t feel like I HAVE talked about is something that weaves throughout basically all of the other issues I deal with, and I’m going to be blunt and honest about it:
I hate my body. I hate it. Ever since I went through puberty (earlier than a lot of my peers) and my body changed shapes, I have never ever been comfortable with it. My body image is awful. And honestly, I don’t know what it stems from. I just know that it has been deeply, deeply ingrained in my brain for as long as I can remember that I don’t like my body. And it’s hard to put my feelings on it into words. It isn’t just the occasional “ugh I’m bloated and feel gross” or just feeling a little icky. It is an intense, intrusive, nagging feeling that I can’t get rid of. I’ve been bigger than most since I went through puberty. The smallest I was was a size 8-10 pants size, which is still technically considered plus sized. It’s where I’d like to eventually get back to, in terms of my body, but I feel helpless in doing so. 
I know I am overweight. I am very aware. It is a constant, uncomfortable fact that shapes so much of my life. I try to eat healthy. I walk a minimum of 2 miles a day, do a lot of heavy lifting at work, and walk my dog 4-5 times a day, so I am not totally sedentary. I will admit to being a little more... lenient? with my diet recently, out of depression/stress and of being upset that even when I AM good, I see no results. I know that it isn’t a healthy way to look at it, and I am trying to change my thinking on that and my habits. But like I said, the only way that I have seen visible results is to stop eating. I’ve not developed an actual eating disorder, but I think that I’ve come really, really close to it. I get obsessive about counting calories and am prone to taking it too far: I find myself becoming proud of how few calories I can get away with eating in a day. I recognize that this is unhealthy and that I have a tendency to take things to an extreme, so I try to be careful with any calorie counting that I do.
My body image affects my life every single day. I can’t leave the house without makeup, unless I want to feel anxious and worried all day about my uneven skin tone and blemishes. I don’t like wearing my hair up because I don’t like having the sides of my face and chin showing because I feel like my chin and face are massive. I dress as fashionably as I can to detract from my size. (That said though, I truly do enjoy fashion. But I use it as a crutch.) I don’t like my picture taken unless it’s on my terms and I am in control. I have angles that I am comfortable with and am extremely uncomfortable with candid photos. And worry about the effect that my size that it has on my love life. I worry that people will judge me for my size, because people can be... really shitty about larger people. I look at other plus sized people, especially women, and find them to be so beautiful and don’t judge them at all. But I can’t hold myself to the same standards. 
I’m not sure how to phrase this exactly, but I’m not sure that I have an actual concept of my looks and of my size. I know my features and I know that I am bigger, but I don’t think I have a good grasp overall of what I actually look like. I feel massive, like this bumbling, hulking, awkward figure. I know that I’m not morbidly obese, but I still feel big and disgusting all the time. And it is really hard to put into words. It’s disheartening and I don’t know what to do to improve. 
I haven’t been diagnosed but it wouldn’t surprise me to find that I have body dysmorphia disorder. (Good job self-diagnosing, Sarah. :| ) Like my eating, I am obsessive about the way I look. It isn’t in a vain way. Or, I don’t see it in that way. I see it as trying to meet the standards of “normal” and “acceptable.” It is anything and everything. My skin (uneven skin tone, acne), my teeth (their color and slight crookedness), my hips (and how everything, everything, everything seems to emphasize them), my thighs, my nose, my hair (and how easily tangled and messy it becomes), my crooked smile. I obsess about hiding and/or masking them just to make myself feel comfortable to leave the house.
I don’t really feel like I’ve explained this well. It’s just such an intrusive and chaotic issue in my head that it’s hard to put into words. I am trying to find ways to become more positive. But I am still at a loss. I just hope that I can eventually learn to love myself the way that I should. 
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Glitter’s Fave Skincare/Beauty Products of Fall 2018
Hi guys! So I know this is a lot different from my usual writing/VLD content, but this is a pretty high-stress source of contention for me. I have TERRIBLY sensitive skin, to the point where I can only wear makeup once in a very blue moon, and only when I have the next day or two off in case I have a flare-up of swelling/itching/watering eyes/redness/acne/styes. I haven’t been properly diagnosed, but I’m thinking it’s a combination of allergies to whatever is in a lot of mainstream skincare products/cosmetics and rosacea. I’ve tried boatloads of products, thrown away hundreds of dollars worth over the years because it just wasn’t worth the misery. I was resigned to never being able to use makeup, which, I know, first world problems. But it’s hard for me personally to feel like I’m actually doing okay when I always look like I’ve just rolled out of bed, with a terrible sunburn and two black eyes, especially because I work in luxury hospitality. 
SO IMAGINE MY JOYFUL SURPRISE when I found a handful of products that not only DON’T irritate my skin, they actually kinda help soothe it? And they’re mostly stuff you can find in your local drugstore or can get easliy off Amazon, because ain’t nobody got the funds for all these fancy-schmancy makeup brands like MAC and BareMinerals and Urban Decay and shit. All of the products I’ve listed cost less than 20 bucks.
I’ve literally cried myself to sleep over the insecurities I’ve had about my face/my skin, so finding these products have been a HUGE boost to my pitifully low self-esteem. I’m sharing these not because I’m saying “you can’t be beautiful without makeup,” but in hopes that I can help even one person who has shared my struggles. So let’s get into this shindig!
Eucerin Redness Relief Night Creme (~$12 USD)
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I use the whole three step system, but if you’re looking to just start off with a moisturizer that won’t leave you itching, start with this. I wear it after I’ve washed my face and settled in for the evening. It’s nice and cooling, and it doesn’t feel tacky or greasy at all once it’s settled into the skin. I have an issue with dryness because my skin doesn’t agree with even the lightest of moisturizers and so I’ve just gone without for years. I recommend not washing your face in the shower if you like the water hot. Try to keep your face out of the spray or take a slightly cooler shower. The day-time lotion has a light green tint that neutralizes redness without leaving you looking ashy. It just feels so GOOD.
Physicians Formula The Healthy Foundation (~$12 USD)
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Let me tell you folks something. Me and foundation? We don’t get along. Me and LIQUID foundation? EVEN. WORSE. I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve had to call off work or school LITERALLY because my face was so red and splotchy and I’d gotten terrible styes after bad reactions to trying a new foundation. Yes, even Clinique did not sit well with me (they’re not as hypoallergenic as they like to say they are, just saying). So imagine my suspicion when the Ulta attendant swore by this stuff and urged me to just give it a try. Her sister? Friend? I don’t even remember, had cystic acne on her face and this stuff was the only thing she could wear. I figured at 12 bucks it couldn’t hurt. And boy am I glad I tried it. It’s so light, it doesn’t feel like I’m wearing anything. THAT NEVER HAPPENS. It’s medium coverage and buildable though I have to preach because I learned this the hard way--DON’T USE YOUR FINGERS. Use a brush!! Doesn’t have to be a fancy one, hell, even a five dollar one from Five Below will work. But there’s oil on your fingers that will make even the friendliest of foundations work against you. This has a semi-matte finish, but it lasts ALL DAY. I don’t even have to set it with powder. I love this stuff.
Innisfree Skinny Waterproof Microcara (~$8 USD to ~$11 USD)
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I admit this is a little harder to find and a little pricier (but not as pricey as I’ve seen some cosmetics go. Shudder.) and it’s not technically hypoallergenic. But when I was living in Korea, Innisfree products were some of the very few I could use with any sort of consistency and give me the least irritation. Generally Korean cosmetics are better than American ones in terms of chemical inclusion, because they’re SO conscious about their skincare. This mascara is great for those of you with short lashes like me, and I go with the waterproof variety because the more that stays on my lashes, the less that can fall onto my face and potentially irritate it. It does come off easily with cleanser, too, and the thin wand is great for those of you who are clumsy at putting on mascara (coughcoughmecoughcough).
Clinique Chubby Stick Moisturizing Lip Colour Balm (~$19 USD)
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The most expensive item on this list was a splurge I bought on a whim when I had some extra money left over from my birthday. I don’t like wearing lipstick a whole lot because it dries my lips out (shoutout to EOS for keeping my lips from being chapped all year round) but this is a nice happy medium between a chapstick and a lipstick. It has a nice color payoff while being nice and light and moisturizing. I will say the color doesn’t last as long as I’d like, but I also have a very light shade (curvy candy) because my work doesn’t give me a whole lot of wiggle room for some of the bolder colors. A good investment because it lasts a good long time. Speaking of EOS...
EOS Smooth Stick in Sweet Mint (~$3 USD)
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This one I’m sure doesn’t need much explaining. Well worth the extra buck over traditional Chapstick brand chapstick, which leaves me more chapped than when I started. I love this flavor too ;w; And ever since they came out with the stick version I’ve been favoring it over the little ball. Easier to use, carry around with me, and less product waste.
Love Beauty and Planet Shea Butter & Sandalwood Body Lotion (~9 USD)
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This stuff is AMAZIIIIING. I bought it on a whim because it was on sale at my local target and it smelled SO GOOD. Another big selling point for me over my usual Gold Bond Ultimate Healing was that this company is eco-conscious, utilizing responsibly sourced ingredients and free of the usual suspects on the list of irritants. Even not on sale, it’s about $9 for 400 mL, which is more than double the product than I get with the Gold Bond (which runs about ~$6 for 160 mL). It’s not greasy at all, and it leaves my skin feeling sooooo soft. Speaking of the Gold Bond, though...
Gold Bond Ultimate Healing Hand and Body Lotion Trial (~$1 USD)
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The sad thing about Love Beauty and Planet is that I’ve yet to find any trial size of their products. In the meantime, I still swear by the Gold Bond to carry in my purse. Northern midwest US winters are BRUTAL and my hands get cracked and dry and it hurts like a bitch. This stuff isn’t greasy in the slightest, a little bit goes a long way, and even if you’re generous with your lotion, at a buck a piece, it’s not going to hurt to pick up a couple tubes. It’s got a nice mild scent, too, so nothing irritating in that department. You can find it at any big-box retailer in the travel/trial size section of the beauty department.
BioRepair Intensive Night Repair Toothpaste (~$11 USD)
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Okay, I know this isn’t technically skincare, and 11 bucks is a little steep for a bottle of toothpaste. BUT. LET. ME. TELL. YOU. SOMETHING. This stuff is actual magic, okay. Actual. Magic. You may remember that I had to have my wisdom teeth removed in an emergency procedure earlier in the summer, and in the process, I lost three fillings, so my remaining teeth have been super sensitive. My dentist recommended Sensodyne Rapid Relief, but guess what? IT DIDN’T DO JACK SHIT. Lo and behold a glorious friend of mine had tried this and sent me a bottle and I am an ITALIAN TOOTHPASTE CONVERT (lol that sounds so fancy). Worth the price, imo, and yeah, again, higher end of the cost spectrum for toothpaste, but when you’re not spending $50 on a .25 oz jar of ~fancy~ hypoallergenic moisturizer or foundation, you should splurge in taking good care of your teeth. They’re the only ones you get. 
That’s about all I got. Thanks for reading this far! If you have any suggestions of things you think I should try, or any comments about the things that have worked for you, please let me know! 
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beerbaby210 · 3 years
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Stress + Depression + PCOS = *insert exploding head emoji here*
I’ve dealt with stress for most of my life. Was it not making the right grade in school or how am I going to pay my car payment this month or I am now responsible for a functioning business...how do I not fail?! Stress comes in all shapes and sizes and it can be extremely hard to manage. I am a naturally emotional person, catch me on a bad day and look at me funny....TEARS! Or cursing...depends on the mood lol. But in being a natural bag of all the feels, makes dealing with stress even harder. Sometimes you just gotta cry it out or lock yourself in a walk-in (damn should’ve kept one of those around). Imagine the trash compactor scene in Star Wars: A New Hope, that’s a real feeling. Do I manage my stress very well after years of dealing with it...hell no. Have I tried to find some useful ways to help cope...hell yes. Sometimes they work and sometimes I’m right back where I started, or worse than I started. And then there is trying to hide said stress so everyone thinks you’ve got your shit together on a regular basis. That only makes it worse, that dual persona thing...I don’t recommend it. Fake smiles are harder to create than natural ones. I’ve been to therapy, loved it in fact, but got to a point where I thought “I’m cured!” so I quit. Lies. I wasn’t cured, I was on the path, but I never picked it back up. People are still to this day so hush hush about seeing a therapist...why? Because that must mean that we’re psycho...completely unhinged...could snap at any minute. Here’s a clue...people that have been in therapy for YEARS still have those moments. It’s natural. Doctors have told me that a certain level of stress can be healthy. Ha! I guess I’m the one that has to decided my levels but certain situations call for certain levels of stress. Not everything in my life has been stressful mind you, and even things that used to cause me stress don’t anymore because I’ve worked on that particular piece and gotten it to a maintainable level. But something that causes what feels like never ending stress...PCOS.
Now depression...I’ve only been knowingly dealing with it for about 6 or 7 years, for all I know I was probably dealing with it before that. The only reason I know about it is because I went to see a new Primary Care doctor and I had a questionnaire to fill out on a tablet before my appointment. I answered the questions the way I thought I should answer them, and then I get back in to see the doctor and before the end of my appointment she’s telling me that some of my responses in that questionnaire registered as warning signs of depression. Of course I’m in shock...you think about it sometimes but you never want to be that person...the person you see in all the Zoloft® ads on tv. I’m not as bad off as some people, but I’m not dismissing their illness, depression, like stress presents on all levels, and I admire the people dealing with more crap than I am. So of course she prescribes me medication, that’s also supposed to help with my migraines and my lack of sleep...it didn’t. I was on that crap for 5 years and it didn’t change a thing, I still felt sad about a lot of things, I still felt stressed about a lot of things. I gained even more weight which just added to the depression and the stress. I moved across the country and decided that I was going to stop taking the meds, I wasn’t seeing that doctor anymore, and I didn’t feel any benefit to taking some drug that was doing god knows what to my body. I’m 100% positive that I’m still dealing with the depression as I am with the stress, and not seeking help for it is my own fault. Hopefully some day soon I will pursue said help and start making progress on my mental health. But something that causes what feels like never ending depression...PCOS.
PCOS is a new term. Not new in the sense that I’ve never heard of it but new in the sense of...I have it. Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. More or less the lack of or off schedule ovulation (I know...eww avert your eyes) for those unfamiliar with the term and potential infertility. This is the gist...there’s tons more information about it. But man...add that to the other 2 and you’ve got a recipe for female mass destruction. I was diagnosed with PCOS early summer of last year, Kyle and I had been trying unsuccessfully for 2 years to conceive children. You wanna talk about stress and depression. Wow.  I’m 33 years old...my time is starting to run thin as far as the window for conceiving healthy children. Ya know that whole “biological clock” thing...it’s a ticking. In just 2 more years if we haven’t conceived anything after that will be considered a geriatric pregnancy...at 35...a geriatric pregnancy. And there are women out there who’ve conceived past 35 and they deliver perfectly healthy babies, but the chances of that are significantly lower the older you are. Having PCOS makes those chances even more miniscule. Doctor says I’m not infertile, but we’re still struggling. We’ve gone through almost 6 IUI cycles now with zero success, even a miscarriage would’ve been ideal because at least it means I can get pregnant. It’s a million times worse going through a procedure with a 10% success rate, when you conceive naturally its a surprise when you miss your period and take a pregnancy test to find out yay you’re pregnant! But going this route every month I go through a set of blood tests and ultrasounds, and 2 IUIs and then in 14 days I have to go back for another blood test and then sit by the phone and wait for them to call me with the bad news. Those are the most agonizing 14 days...they tell you not to stress, don’t do anything differently, think positive uhh yah...sure...right. I got another negative test just yesterday, and I assure you positivity was the furthest thing from my mind. I’m constantly left wondering, what did I do wrong? Especially after 5 of these things...with one more to go before we move on to the next option. IVF. I wondered to myself last night...if I had known years ago that I had PCOS would it have made any difference now? Maybe? But I suppose it’s one of those things that you always think to yourself “no way, not me!” The weight gain over the years from the stress and the depression...that helped lead to PCOS. Along with that I get acne breakouts like I’m twelve and going through puberty (I actually had better skin when I was going through puberty), weird hair growth on my face where women, well even men don’t want hair growing. I’m sure my migraines are at the root of it somehow and this could’ve been going on FOR YEARS! Ladies, with little girls, I implore you to be pro-active when your daughters start getting older to be part of their life in this most delicate way. I’m not saying everyone assume that their daughter will have PCOS but it’s one of the most undiagnosed and common female disorders. Most women don’t even know this exists, my mom sure didn’t, how would she have known to even suggest asking my doctor about something like that. For me it falls under the same category of my skin issue, there’s so few out there that know about it so there’s not a lot being done to create awareness. Something like 5-10% of women of child-bearing age have PCOS and a lot of them don’t even know it. It’s treatable/manageable, I’m told, I guess I’m being treated for it correctly and managing it to the best of my ability, taking all the vitamins and what not that I’ve been prescribed that can help combat it. But man after almost a year of treating and managing it and still not having a kid...it wears on you. And I know there are millions of women out there going through the same crap I am and my heart goes out to each and everyone of you because damnit...this sucks. I always see friends of mine posting this one particular meme on Facebook about “Please Stop Asking Women Why They Don’t Have Kids Yet” This is one of those reasons, because it’s a sad, debilitating thing to deal with and then on top of that to have to smile when someone says why don’t you have kids yet...and then think well geez do you have a minute so I can make you feel terrible for asking?! 
I know it’ll happen when it’s supposed to happen for us, but until that perfect moment comes along I try to remind myself to stay positive as hard as that may be at times. Just remember that life isn’t always cupcakes and unicorns for everyone...sometimes it’s dark and scary, but we’re built of stronger stuff, I won’t let me illnesses defeat or define me. This is just a detour around to the cupcakes and unicorns. I’m just putting this out there for a little awareness, maybe someone sees it that had no idea and this could possibly explain their issues. These are real illnesses that I and many others struggle with on a daily basis. I don’t typically put my business, out there like this, I didn’t write it because I want anyone to feel sorry for me, all hope is not lost yet. Just throw some good juju out into the universe on my behalf, whatever your juju may be. I certainly could’ve gone into more detail than I did...but it’s raw and it’s real. If you’re reading this thinking this could be me and you wanna talk about it, please by all means, reach out to me. You’re not alone. Thanks for reading :)
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gendertrader · 4 years
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Physical
279 lbs / 5’9” / 24 / Spiro: 1/1/19 | E: TBD
All right, y’all. I know I’ve been away for some time now, but there haven’t really been many changes to report. Until now.
I’ve set a date. Well, an approximate date, but a date nonetheless. My birthday is coming up (February 10) and I figured now is as good a time as ever. I’ve been on Spiro for a year now and I’ve been happy with all the changes. Of course, there have been mental issues arise since I’ve started, but I like to think of it as unlocking a new level – it’s harder because I’m further in the journey. I originally looked into going to a Planned Parenthood (because they’re informed consent and offer payment options for those without insurance) but there aren’t any near me that offer HRT, merely service referrals. Now I’m shopping around but still plan on setting the appointment for early February. Anyway, let’s get into the data.
Skin
N/A
Hair (body/head)
My hair is a little softer and a little easier to tame than it used to be. Of course, I’m working to improve my haircare routine, but it’s been visibly less crazy even on days when I use the same routine as previous years. It’s not quite as full, but I think that’s due to the hair-loss I experienced a couple weeks ago. I also recently cut my hair (from a lob to a bob) and even though it’s shorter than I wanted, it’s still a cute cut and has gotten me “ma’am”ed a couple times so I’m not unhappy.
My body hair has been growing a little slower for sure, but since I’m on biotin, some of it is growing at regular speeds but is easier to maintain. Chest and armpit hair has been growing slower for sure. I don’t believe anything has gotten thinner or finer, though.
Face
Not much cheekbone growth since my previous mention. I wish there were more, which I guess is why I will be (hopefully?!?) starting E soon.
I finally got my eyebrows thin enough for the look I’m going for! There’s still a little trimming to be done, but I think I finally found what I’ve been looking for.
I experienced a slight increase in facial acne around the chin and forehead, but I imagine this is normal.
Body
Not much here, either. I’ve seen very minor breast growth, but still in a gynecomastia kind of way, and not a breasts kind of way. Which is fine. But I’m starting to doubt (surprise surprise asksdkgskd) my decision in an “I’m just using gender dysphoria as a cover for my desire to be thin” way, which is problematic but a very real worry I’m having. I keep telling myself that I’m actually happier with my fatter body because it feels closer to my desired shape, but there’s no denying that the idealized version of myself that I’m trying to build is thinner, and I’m not sure that I’m appropriately disassociating weight and happiness from transness. Am I falsely assuming that transitioning will help with my weight problems and happiness problems inherently, or do I believe that transitioning will increase my happiness, which will in turn affect my compulsive need to overeat to substitute for the organic happiness I’m not receiving, which will result in my being thinner? Who knows! It is kind of helpful to get it all typed out (thanks for the help lmao) but still doesn’t clarify anything. I’ll have to wait and see.
Ummmmm I’ve been literally so horny recently. Like wtf horny. Like masturbate twice a day as opposed to once a week horny. I guess it’s fine, it just makes me concerned that my Spiro isn’t as strong as it used to be, or that there’s a ‘spillover’ (if you will) of T since Spiro blocks the reception but not the production. I’d like to speak with an endo sometime after I start E to discuss switching to something safer (like bicalutamide or cypro).
I noticed a distinct scent change probably like two or three months ago, I’m not sure if I’ve recorded that, but my shower schedule has had to change because it’s more difficult to hide if I’ve not cleaned in a week. Good for depression or something.
Mental/Emotional
Depression: Definitely getting worse. It could be the SAD or that I’m changing jobs or that I’m hitting a new trans milestone that’s got me all fucked up, but I’m tired of it. I was told that there’s a free clinic near me that would prescribe meds, and I’m seriously considering it. I’m not sure if I want to go before or after my E appointment but I imagine executive dysfunction will cause it to be after. Speaking of which...
I’m p sure I have ADHD: inattentive. Like symptoms and coping mechanisms are lining up interestingly close to those with diagnosed ADHD and some other things are clicking into place. I’m not sure if this means anything, but thoughts are happening for sure.
Anxiety: Not as bad, though I switched the weed strain I’ve been smoking last month, so that could be playing in. I’m definitely smoking more (or for different reasons?) than I used to so I’m trying to keep an eye on that, make sure that I’m not withdrawing too much. This world is a shithole and I sometimes despise being forced to exist here, but it’s the only one we got.
I keep catching myself nervous beyond belief to actually start E, despite having wanted this since high school. I know this is a normal reaction with many valid points, but I can’t help but worry that mine are one of the few that are unfounded (#narcissism). I’m going to have to detransition because I was experiencing mental traumas that made existing as a woman-aligned person easier that confronting my relationship with masculinity and my body. In reality, I think my grasp on masculinity and its role in my personality will become clearer with HRT and I will have an easier time displaying it when “masculine” is no longer the default seen by the people around me.
Finally, I wish to share this with the parents. I think. Probably.
I know I want to share the decision to start E with my Facebook friends, as they’ll likely realize something is up via my posts and pictures, but I can’t do that until I’ve explained this to my family, which will be...interesting. I’ll have to prepare some resources for understanding nonbinary identities and answers to all those pesky questions nobody wants to have to answer, and I’m sure it’ll be a while before they get it, but...this coming out will be different from my first. I guess mainly because I’ve mostly socially transitioned at this point so few people should be surprised, but also because I have more power in how I decide to exist and am a stronger person now who has weathered this before. I think this is where some of my anxieties stem, that I’ve forgotten how to be that person, but I’m working on remembering that I’m stronger than I think, and that I’ve been through much worse.
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15 Filipinas On Why They Need Birth Control, The Contraceptive Ban And Why It’s Stupid
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Unless you haven’t heard, The Supreme Court has issued a TRO (temporary restraining order) on contraceptives in 2015. At first, they were only covering Implanon and other implants. It was later expanded to cover pills, injectables, intrauterine devices, vaginal rings, and other brands. Slowly but surely, oral contraceptives have been disappearing off the shelves of drug stores and health centres, including my brand, with the great possibility of them disappearing forever in about three years.
If The Supreme Court has it’s way, we Filipinos will only be left with two options: condoms and “Family Planning”. For my readers abroad or anyone who simply doesn’t know, “Family Planning” basically means ABSTINENCE. Yes, they are basically asking us to abstain from sex, which by the way is one our basic human needs. Because fuck science, right? 
Personally, I am outraged. I am outraged because The Supreme Court refuses to look at the country’s real problems, like overpopulation and immense poverty. They are so focused on turning a blind eye on the real issues only because [Insert Bible verse here]. We are sorry (no, we’re really not), but that will never be a good enough excuse. Wake up, guys! What year is it? People are definitely having sex and birth control is ABSOLUTELY NOT only about having sex. Oh my god, what a shocker. Let me give you 15 Filipinas On Why They Need Birth Control, The Contraceptive Ban And Why It’s Stupid.
First thing’s first:
SIGN THE PETITION HERE
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“I am currently using trust pills. It's cheap as hell, does the job, and it’s the only one I have tried so far that doesn't make me feel awful side effects like headaches and nausea. My partner and I were alarmed by this TRO on contraceptives as we're both not ready to have kids yet and let's be real, we're both consenting adults in a committed relationship. We're having sex responsibly. I take the pill for my peace of mind. I like having the choice of deciding when to have kids. We've decided to hoard on pills and hope this TRO will be lifted soon enough.” 
-Koko
“I am absolutely furious. This will directly affect my health as I do take Yasmin for a number of things. One, to balance my hormones, because I suffer from hormonal imbalance, which affects my skin, my mood, my hair, my appetite, and much more. Two, I use it to avoid unwanted pregnancy, because I cannot afford more than one child. I feel very violated that a bunch of lawmakers could even think of interfering with women’s health rights. My next move would probably be to buy contraceptives abroad. I will definitely not allow these idiots to control my body.” 
-Anonymous
“I use Diane birth control pills, and I take it because my ob-gyn diagnosed me with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). Apparently, it's like an epidemic now, and many young women have it, as it's linked to stress, which I really am. That's my main reason for using it, because without it, I get really crazy hormone imbalance, crazy weight gain/loss, and I skip my periods months at a time, but sometimes bleed for months at a time. I don't really use it for actual contraception uses but, sure, why not? [If] bringing BC in from abroad [becomes] illegal, I have no idea how I'm going to survive.” 
-Meriela
“In transition from male to female, you are to take two medications, estrogen and anti-androgen. Estrogen pills are very difficult to find so we substitute it with birth control pills, which has estrogen content in it. Anti androgen is by prescription but unfortunately gender doctors are not available in the country due to laws. Contraceptives are the only alternative for us to transition until we are able to finance ourselves to buy our medications abroad, which is quite expensive. Banning contraceptives here in the Philippines is taking away the freedom of us transgender being able to transition and express who we are. Not only that, it is taking away freedom of women the choice of what happens in her body. The only way for me to be able to transition is if I move to other countries to continue my medication. Transgender people will no longer be able to transition of contraception is not allowed in the Philippines.” 
-Ish
**As a former fashion student that has been in fashion school for more than three years, I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of having such a wide array of people with different genders and sexualities around me, including transgender women. The talk of birth control and injections for their transition was a normal, everyday conversation for us. I really can’t explain why it took me a couple of days to even realize that they too will be greatly affected by the TRO. Now, it comforts me to know that we have more beautiful souls to fight for the right to our own bodies.
“Pills have changed my life. For almost a year, I’ve been in and out of the hospital (monthly) because of my ovarian cysts. Antibiotics and other medication have been given to me but they would just cure the cysts for a certain amount of time, then the cysts would still come back. But when I decided to ask for a third opinion from my third OB, she asked me to take Dianne pills for 3 months. I tried it and goodbye cysts for almost a year now.” 
-Shin
“For years, I have always been irregular with my menstrual cycle. After getting checked, my doctor told me I have PCOS and that I needed to take birth control pills. It took me three different brands (roughly six months) to finally find the pill with barely any side effects. Finding out about the TRO made me sick to my gut. Most pro-life groups argue that there are "natural" ways to treat PCOS, and trust me, I've tried doing that already. I was on metformin, and I changed my lifestyle. However, nothing made me feel more in control, less anxious and less worrisome than the pill I'm taking now. I think working with the government to lift this TRO is the first step. I know that they agreed for a public hearing, so all efforts must be geared towards that. My last move is to talk to my doctors for alternatives because I'm hopeful that we can do something about it!”
 -Ekay
“Ayy, that’s basically preventing Filipina transgender women, like myself, from their transition. We, the transgender community, don’t even get any support from the government to begin with and now they even dare to take away our pills! Worst comes to worst, I’m just going to order hormones from Thailand.” 
-Yuko
“As a student nurse, I would go and visit communities and talk to pregnant women, mothers, and families. I was distraught by their lack of knowledge with sex and reproductive health. To have a community of people,  men and women who are not used to using condoms and did not undergo proper sex education. What happens to women if you take away the only contraceptive they are using or the only contraceptive that works for them? As a woman, I should have rights that protect myself from the closed minded sectors of this country like the government, religious groups, and the church. Although I have respect for the religious communities and the church, they must understand that not everyone has the same belief system and values as them and the way I live my life should be my choice. I am using birth control pills and my reason for using the pills is that I have a boyfriend, we are sexually active and I do not want to get pregnant. [If it gets banned permanently,] one option would be to get an injection in another country when I travel but also my boyfriend would always use a condom.” 
-China
**Just to get a clear picture on how bad it really is here in the Philippines, the same student nurse told me about the one time when she and her co-students were demonstrating how to properly use a condom to a local community. To demonstrate this, they used their thumb as the penis and used the condom accordingly. A few weeks later, they got a complain from a couple in the said community. They were upset that they have been using the condoms just to find out that the girlfriend was pregnant. The nurses later found out that they have been using condoms, except they were using them on their thumbs. 
“I’ve been on oral contraceptives for the past 6 years, and every time I had to take a short break from them, all the symptoms that came with my PCOS (month long periods, irregular cycles, extremely painful cramps, acne, mood swings, insecurity, etc.) would start up again. As a Filipina, who is very dependent on birth control, to hear that there is a TRO on contraceptives is absolutely horrifying. It shouldn’t matter if a woman uses BC because she wants to have safe sex, or if someone like me needs to take BC to regulate her period and be able to do the simplest things and not have deal with the inconvenience and pain of irregular periods. 1 out of 5 women in the world have PCOS, and each one differs in symptoms, so I can only imagine how many women have worse symptoms than mine and really do need the pills just to be able to do regular things.” 
-Maji
“Since we, my boyfriend and I, do not use condoms, I drink contraceptive pills as an alternative. We do not like using condoms because we feel less every time we do. I actually do not know [what I’m going to do about it]. Abstain, maybe? Or take extra precautions when it comes to having sex. It's going to be hard though. This is why I believe that the TRO is unnecessary. It's like taking hope away from people. We just want to be sexually free, you know?” 
-AA
Ladies (and gentlemen), now is the time to act! Please make your voice heard, educate those around you, share the petition, and get our bodies back!
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nawafithme · 5 years
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A Week In Austin, TX, On A $99,000 Joint Salary
Welcome toMoney Diaries , where we’re tackling what might be the last taboo facing modern working women: money. We’re asking millennials how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period — and we’re tracking every last dollar.
Calling all entrepreneurs: We want to hear from you! If you’re a freelancer or self-employed, we’d love to feature your Money Diary. Submit here.
Today: an executive assistant working in manufacturing who makes $59,000 per year ($99,000 when combined with her husband) and spends some of her money this week on Cherry Coke Zero. We previously published a diary from this OP back in December 2017.
Occupation: Executive Assistant Industry: Manufacturing Age: 29 Location: Austin, TX My Salary: $59,000 My Husband’s Salary: $40,000 My Paycheck Amount (Biweekly): $1,660 (not including quarterly bonus) My Husband’s Paycheck Amount (Biweekly): $1,300
Monthly Expenses Mortgage: $1,550 (This includes property taxes and insurance.) Loans: $990 for two cars and one motorcycle and $100 for solar panels Electricity: $20 Gas: $15 Netflix: $12 (I share this with my BFF, and she shares her Hulu account with me.) Cell Phones: $100 Vivint Home Monitoring: $90 Car Insurance: $195 (Mine is $75, and my husband’s is $120.) Health Insurance: $32 (Through my work; covers me and my husband, plus a $20/paycheck contribution to HSA. My company puts $1,000/year in our HSA as well.) Husband’s Pension: This is awful but I don’t actually know how much they take from his check. He’s a firefighter and has no say in what gets taken out. I don’t contribute to my company’s 401(k) anymore. I previously did, but once my husband became a firefighter and gained the pension, I stopped. Savings: We have ~$20,000 in direct savings and ~$350,000 invested. The investment money came directly from an inheritance I received.
8:15 a.m. — Got to sleep in this morning because I have a doctor’s appointment. Normally I am onsite at work from 8 to 5, so I’ve low-key enjoyed having morning appointments during my pregnancy because I’ve gotten to sleep in. My husband hasn’t attended the majority of my appointments, but after a bit of arguing, he’s requested I schedule them when he isn’t working. So we get up and let the dogs out, I make myself a small breakfast of two turkey sausage links and a Babybel cheese, and then we head out. We drive separately because my doctor’s office is just down the road from my work.
9:30 a.m. — I check in at the doctor, and they ask if I’d like to make a payment. I know our HSA is basically empty since my company contribution has not yet hit, so I decide to just pay $125 today out of pocket. I know the $1,000 my company contributes to my HSA won’t cover these last two months of my pregnancy or the birth, so it makes no real difference if we pay out of pocket now or later. Luckily, my insurance has a $3,000 deductible and a $6,000 max out of pocket. So no matter what, these visits and the birth will be cheaper than my gallbladder surgery a few years ago. (I had horrific insurance then.) $125
10:30 a.m. — All done! This doctor is a MFM (Maternal Fetal Medicine) specialist, because I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes at 23 weeks. My husband had never even been to her office yet, so this was a first for him. They do a full ultrasound every visit, and he very much enjoyed getting a glimpse of our baby girl. I’m 31 weeks as of today, so there was a lot to see compared to the last scan he saw at 20 weeks.
11 a.m. — I arrive at work just in time for lunch. I get to my desk, check to make sure I don’t have any urgent emails or IMs, and then head to the cafeteria. My company gives us $30 for lunch per month and then matches an additional $30, so my lunch doesn’t cost me anything. I haven’t had to pay $30 yet this month because last month was so full of catering that I had a significant amount of rollover. Today, the options are carbs, carbs, and more carbs. So, bunless burger and side salad for me. People have a ton of different opinions and advice on how to manage gestational diabetes. My specialist told me that if the only way I can manage during the day without meds is to eat minimal carbs, I should do that. As long as I’m eating and getting nutrients, the baby and I will be fine. I find my body can handle certain carbs (rice, corn, potatoes) way better than bread or pasta. If I have any bread, my levels are through the roof. ($5.75 expensed)
12:15 p.m. — I finally waddle my way back to my desk. I’ve started waddling over the last week or so, and it’s made me move even slower. My office is almost a quarter mile from the cafeteria. It’s good exercise for me and baby girl, but also UGH, I’m exhausted. I plop down in my chair, turn on my heater because pregnant me is always cold, and start checking my email.
5 p.m. — I’M OUT! I used to spend a lot of money randomly online shopping, but ever since I got pregnant, I haven’t had much to stuff to buy. We don’t want to buy too much before our shower next month.
5:30 p.m. — I need gas. I absolutely hate getting gas. I’m one of those people who is literally zero miles from empty before filling up. I’m almost home and want to just get gas in the morning, but I also don’t want to be out of gas and pregnant at 7 a.m. when my husband is an hour away at work. So I opt to not push my luck. $32.18
9 p.m. — After getting home, cooking dinner (carnitas in the Instant Pot), and watching a couple episodes of The Magicians with my husband, we start our bedtime routine. I got bangs a while back so I can no longer wash my hair at night, so I opt for just a body shower to make tomorrow morning go faster, wash my face with an H-E-B makeup remover wipe, and then slap on some random moisturizer. My skin is wicked dry always, so I’m currently using some random lotion from LUSH on my face. It was a gift, and all I know is my face isn’t super flakey. Luckily I haven’t had to deal with any hormonal acne *knock on wood*. Lights are out by 9:30.
Daily Total: $157.18
5:15 a.m. — My husband’s alarm goes off. Since my last Money Diary, he went through the Fire Academy and became a firefighter/EMT in a city about an hour away. I’m incredibly proud of him, but his schedule has been tough to get used to. He works 24 hours and then has 48 hours off. He has to be at the station by 6:45, which means he is always there no later than 6:35. He gets up and tries his best to get ready quietly, but I always wake up to give him a hug and a kiss and to say I love you and to tell him to be safe. He’s been working on shift for seven months and hasn’t seen a fire yet, but I always want him to stay safe out there. The problem is I can never fall asleep after he leaves. I used to, but this far along in pregnancy, as soon as I wake up I become harshly aware of all the pain in my hips and just lie there snuggling the dog until 6 when I get up and get ready.
8:15 a.m. — Nothing I had at home for breakfast sounded good, so I waddle over to the cafeteria for breakfast. I opt for a scoop of eggs, a sausage patty, and a Cherry Coke Zero. People have lots of opinions on diet soda to begin with, and it gets super extra if you’re pregnant. Step off world, pregnancy is hard enough as it is. ($2.75 expensed)
11 a.m. — Lunchtime. I waddle over to the cafeteria. Taco Tuesday, FTW! I get mine in a bowl with rice, chicken, pico, pickled red onions, and sour cream. Delicious. ($7.52 expensed)
2 p.m. — My baby shower is coming up, and I would ideally like to wear a new dress. I browse the internet’s pathetic selection of maternity clothes and find a dress that miiight work. $14.12
5:45 p.m. — Get home and let the dogs out. We have two rescue dogs, and they are our everything. They used to spend every day in their crates, but since my husband’s schedule has him home quite a bit, they only spend a max of two days a week in their crates. They are both crate-trained and have no issues in them — they are loved, spoiled, and very content with their lives.
8 p.m. — I let the dogs out, clean up from my dinner (meatballs and marinara), and within five minutes they’re both at the door like MOM IT’S BEDTIME LET’S GOOOO. We all head upstairs. I turn on the TV in our room, do some general cleaning, and then crawl in bed by 8:45. I call my husband to tell him goodnight, and we are all one big snuggle puddle all night long.
Daily Total: $14.12
6:30 a.m. — I get up, get ready, and let the dogs out. Then I heat up the last of the low-carb pumpkin muffins I made last week for breakfast. I let the dogs in and let them roam instead of putting them in their crates, since my husband will be home by 8 a.m. This is mostly because it’s still so early for them that they will just go upstairs and get back in bed. They can’t be trusted alone for more than about 45 minutes, though.
11 a.m. — My morning flies by. Out CEO is coming in a few days, and this morning my boss asked me to create some slides for a presentation for him. It’s kind of wild to know that you’re creating something that will be shown to the CEO. It is also a great confidence booster that he trusts me to create this content. I finish by lunchtime and then waddle over to the cafeteria. Options look bleh, so I just do salad bar. Spring mix, mushrooms, hard-boiled egg, and ranch. It’s fine. ($4.18 expensed)
5 p.m. — I try to not take the toll road very often because I discovered the hard way how much the bill can add up. But I miss my husband and want to get home ASAP, so here I come toll road and 80 mph speed limit. $2.07
5:25 p.m. — I get home in 25 minutes, and my husband immediately asks if I took the toll because I’m so early. He then asks what’s for dinner, because he’s been hungry for the last hour but didn’t want to ruin dinner by snacking. Dinner is chicken thighs stuffed with cheese and bacon, plus Brussels sprouts for me and broccoli cheddar pasta for him. It’s easy, and he helps make it all, so I don’t have to stand for 30 minutes. I normally do 95% of the cooking, because when we met, his philosophy about food was that he only cooked things that took less time to cook than to eat. He’s a big fan of Chef Mic(rowave).
9 p.m. — BEDTIME! Yes, even when neither of us has to get up before 6:30, we go to bed at 9 p.m. I don’t function well on less than eight hours of sleep. Having a newborn is gonna be awesome.
Daily Total: $2.07
7:30 a.m. — Sausage links and a Cherry Coke Zero on the drive to work this morning. There’s a ton of fog, and it takes longer than normal to get to work. Feeling grateful no one actually cares/notices if I’m 10 minutes late.
9:30 a.m. — Breakfast did not cut it this morning, and I’m desperate for a snack. I grab a mini Kind bar.
11 a.m. — Y’all know what time it is. Waddle over. Beef and broccoli it is. I want another Coke Zero, but I opt for water. I normally drink four bottles (20 ounces) of water a day at work plus random amounts at home, but I’ve found this hasn’t been enough and need to start drinking more. Have I mentioned I’m pregnant, and that it’s a pure joy? Ugh. ($6.86 expensed)
2 p.m. — The baby has decided to stretch in a way that genuinely feels like her tiny hand might pop out down there. This is wildly uncomfortable as you might imagine, so I get up and waddle around the office hoping she changes positions. It works, kind of. She moves but only to a mildly less uncomfortable position. I try to stretch a little, and my boss notices. He asks how I’m doing and asks if there’s anything I need to help make working less of a pain. He’s a nice guy.
5 p.m. — Headed home. I don’t have to cook tonight because we are having steak, the one thing I trust my husband to cook completely with no supervision. I get home, love on dogs, love on husband, and plop my ass on the couch. He lets me know when they’re almost done so I can get up and prep my salad. I have a steak Caesar, and it hits the spot. It’s also low enough in carbs and sugar and all that so I can have a spoonful of peanut butter for "dessert." In case you were wondering, one of my Christmas gifts was literally a full cheesecake that is waiting patiently in my freezer for my return from giving birth.
9 p.m. — Bedtime routine. Husband works tomorrow, and I feel like I’ve barely seen him. I get pouty and hormonal and proceed to cry in bed for a bit. It’s unproductive since there’s literally nothing we can do about it, but he snuggles me until I fall asleep.
Daily Total: $0
7:30 a.m. — TGIF! Drive to work, settle in, check email, and do general admin work things.
11 a.m. — Waddle waddle. Pork loin, salad, green beans for lunch. ($7.35 expensed)
3:30 p.m. — My husband is off all weekend, which is GREAT and only happens like once a month, so I order groceries online for curbside pickup tomorrow because I don’t want to spend an hour shopping. I’d rather spend the time doing something together. I order chicken thighs, breakfast sausage, eggs, milk, cheese, produce, soda, chips, etc. It adds up to almost $90 somehow, but our soft grocery budget is $125/week, so whatever. I fight my impulse to add stuff I want but don’t need since I’m under budget. I remind myself that as soon as I can drink again, these savings will come in handy. $87.35
5 p.m. — My best friend is coming over for dinner and works closer to my house than I do, so I take the toll road home so I can beat her there. We eat pesto chicken and stuffed mushrooms, chat about nothing, and lounge around. She’s that awesome friend who is happy to come over and do nothing with me. She’s also that friend who understands that taking off your pants definitely means you aren’t leaving the house again. My husband texts that he’s jealous he’s missing out because even though he’s generally not very social, he really likes my best friend because she’s entertaining AF and always has stories to tell. $2.07
8:45 p.m. — I guess I yawned one too many times, and my friend insists on going home so I can go to bed. I keep saying I’m not tired, but I’m not fooling anyone. Say goodbye, let dogs out, and crawl in bed.
Daily Total: $89.42
7:58 a.m. — Our girl dog can hear my husband’s car when it enters the neighborhood, and she immediately jumps up in excitement. DAD’S HOME! He comes in, comes upstairs, and crawls in bed with me. We proceed to sleep for another hour or so.
9:30 a.m. — We finally get out of bed and decide since it’s nice out we’ll take the dogs for a walk instead of just letting them run in the backyard. We don’t walk them much because our yard is very large, and they get plenty of exercise. Also, one of them has severe anxiety and walks can be super fun until they are super not. We take the small loop around the neighborhood. It’s about a half mile and about all I can handle. Pups don’t encounter any other pups or people, so anxiety stays at bay.
1 p.m. — Neither of us feel like cooking, so when I suggest Chipotle my husband is super down. We get in the car and drive over there. My husband inhales his burrito in three minutes. $19.45
2:30 p.m. — I drag my husband to Target after we eat because we need new bedding. Well, we don’t actually NEED it, but I hate what we have and want all-white bedding because I can bleach it if the dogs make a mess and my husband agrees. Of course, one cannot simply go to Target and get only what one came for, so we leave with new sheets, new slippers, a bath mat, a dog toy, and a super cute onesie for baby girl. $185.22
5 p.m. — After a few hours doing absolutely nothing, I decide to start dinner. Lemon chicken in the Instant Pot. My mom got me an Instant Pot for Christmas. I didn’t ask for it, but she thought it would come in handy when the baby comes, and she was right. This thing is awesome, and I love it. Thanks, Mom! You da best.
9 p.m. — We take bedtime super seriously in my house. And by we, I mean me and the dogs. 9 p.m. rolls around and to bed we go. My husband is playing computer games and says he will join us after one more. I throw a fit because apparently that’s who I am now. I cry and cry about how I go to bed alone when he works and I don’t want to do it if I don’t have to. I surprise myself with valid points, but he apologizes and admits he didn’t even think about that. He crawls in bed for snuggles and that’s that.
Daily Total: $204.67
9:30 a.m. — And we’re up. I let the dogs out and start cleaning. When my husband has Sundays off, we have a group of friends over to play Dungeons & Dragons. I’m not that nerdy and was never interested, but after my husband asked me for literally years to give it a shot, I finally said yes. It’s fun. I don’t love it the way he does, but I enjoy it enough to spend my Sunday playing it. We literally play all day. Everyone brings their own lunch usually and then we provide dinner for the group.
8:30 p.m. — Everyone has left for the evening. It was a fun day — we recently added my sister-in-law’s husband to our group, and he’s proven to be an awesome addition. My husband and I do our bedtime routine and discuss how the game went today. Lights out by 9:30.
Daily Total: $0
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I sit in my living room, contemplating the slim, smooth aquamarine tube. Its color is a few shades removed from Tiffany blue, and it’s an inch or so longer than a cigarette. I do not smoke anything ever, but in order to psyche myself up for the full experience of the thing, I try to channel that famous picture of Audrey Hepburn on the Breakfast at Tiffany’s movie poster, a long, slim cigarette holder hanging out of her mouth.
This isn’t a cigarette, though. It’s a Breathe “citrus flavored vitamin B12 mist” — a.k.a. a vitamin vape. It costs $45 for three pens. And disposable vaporizer pens like this one, containing substances like vitamins and essential oils instead of nicotine “e-juice,” are increasingly being marketed to wellness-minded consumers.
After one drag on the vaguely sweet-tasting vape, I promptly start coughing, spewing out a fruity puff of vapor. It doesn’t really feel like wellness. It feels like a violation of my alveoli.
Vapes, or e-cigarettes, are all over the news right now, especially Juul, the brand that’s trendy among teens because of its sleek profile and fruity flavors. They’re so popular and so controversial that the Food and Drug Administration is now actively targeting manufacturers that push nicotine vapes; it may even move to ban some. There is growing concern in the medical and public health communities about the immediate harmful effects on young people’s developing brains and bodies and the unknown longer-term effects.
But there is another market popping up whose purveyors suggest vaping things that are not nicotine can be healthy. It’s a jarring visual to see what looks like smoke coming out of someone’s mouth in a wellness ad, except brands like Breathe and its sister brands VitaminVape, VitaStik, BioVape, NutroVape, and Monq are doing just that.
And like so many concepts that catch on in wellness circles, companies that sell these products take something with a veneer of scientific backing or credibility, couch it in language that sounds healthy, and then sell it to you via a marketplace with very little regulation or oversight. It’s not surprising that vape technology, which is so trendy right now, is the newest frontier for selling so-called wellness. But this technology is so new that it’s not clear if these vapes are helpful or harmful.
The Breathe vape is a good case study in how the wellness industry uses an inkling of evidence to package a product as healthy. The company’s founder, George Michalopoulos, is not a physician, but during a phone call, he said he worked in social media. He developed a B12 vape in 2013 for his personal use, he says, because he was a vegan at the time. (Many vegans need to take vitamin B12 supplements so they don’t become deficient.)
He says he was interested in it because he “enjoys the process of vaping.” He points to a few studies done in the 1950s and ’60s that showed promise for the use of inhaled vitamin B12 for people with deficiencies, which are linked prominently on Breathe’s site.
Michalopoulos says people have told him anecdotally that their vitamin B12 levels increased after using it and have shared “copies of their blood test results” with him. He also said he is paying an outside lab to perform a clinical study, sometimes done by supplement and skin care companies, mainly for marketing purposes so that they can quote data and make more specific claims. “I’d rather people understand that this is still a young science,” he says.
What he did not say in our phone call, but which I confirmed later, is that he also owns VitaminVape, which charges $39 for three pens. He founded it a few years before Breathe, which he launched at the end of 2017 to appeal to “vegans and B12 enthusiasts.” The website language, design, and testimonials are all the same as what’s on the Breathe website. The difference is that VitaminVape uses a synthetic form of vitamin B12 and Breathe uses a naturally-derived form. A representative said “serious vegans and wellness consumers” prefer the latter.
VitaminVape has been mentioned in several negative stories in the press exploring the legitimacy of these types of vapes, mainly pointing out that they are scientifically unproven and have potentially unknown risks.
Michalopoulos is savvy about the claims that he makes for Breathe. The site states, “Each diffuser contains 100s of breaths of natural energy with no caffeine, no sugar crash, no calories and no nicotine.” It’s considered a supplement, and as such, the company cannot make any specific claims about what it supposedly can do. There is nothing about veganism on the site. The FDA can issue a warning to supplement companies that make claims that seem drug-like. Michalopoulos says he tells people to check with their doctors first, but that recommendation is buried in an FAQ section on the site.
Breathe sells only one type of vape, which it claims delivers vitamin B12. According to the company, five to 10 breaths equals “approximately 333 mcg of B12 (>8,000% Daily Value).” Vitamin B12 is a substance humans do not produce themselves yet need for a variety of important bodily functions like forming red blood cells, promoting neurological functioning, and synthesizing DNA. It’s present in foods like meat, milk, fish, and eggs, which is why vegans are often deficient.
There’s also a rare disease called pernicious anemia whereby people can’t absorb vitamin B12 via their gastrointestinal tracts because they lack an important protein called intrinsic factor. Older adults and people with other gastrointestinal problems can also be susceptible to vitamin B12 deficiencies. They can get it via injections or nasal sprays or gels, according to Dr. Ron Crystal, the chair of the genetic medicine department and a practicing pulmonologist at Weill Cornell/New York Presbyterian. He’s also studied nicotine vapes and their propellants, which can include things like propylene glycol, flavorings of unknown origin, and glycerin.
What’s important to note, though, is that true deficiency is rare and you can’t self-diagnose it. Vitamin B12 deficiency can have vague side effects like fatigue, so doing proper lab testing through a doctor is crucial, according to Crystal. And taking too much vitamin B12 can have side effects such as rashes, acne, increasing blood pressure, facial flushing, and discolored urine. “It is a drug, essentially,” says Crystal.
“If you’re deficient, your doctor should prescribe what you should be doing. If you have normal levels, adding more doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t help,” he says. “The concept of just taking vitamin B12 to increase your energy and so on is a myth.”
But because some of the symptoms of deficiency are so vague, it’s a myth that has helped promote a long history of dubious vitamin B12 usage, popularized by celebrities. Who can forget the now-infamous episode of The Simple Life when Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie got vitamin B12 shots in their butts? (I, for one, cannot.) Madonna also gets them and supposedly once even administered one to Justin Timberlake. They’re commonly offered via injection or IV drip at wellness clinics; some services will even bring them to you.
There’s not a lot of evidence that you can absorb vitamins by inhaling them, though. There have been no studies more recent than the old ones cited by Breathe and others, except for a few on nasal sprays, which exist in prescription form. There certainly haven’t been any studies on B12 delivery via vape.
Normally when you take a vitamin (or eat food, for that matter) enzymes in your stomach and all along your colon break it down until its smaller chemical components can be absorbed into your bloodstream. Nasally, vitamin B12 can be absorbed across epithelial cells, which line the nasal cavities and airways. Epithelial cells act as a gateway for things to be absorbed or blocked. This is how medicines like asthma inhalers are able to penetrate into the lungs.
Crystal says if a person is deficient, “the concept that vitamin B12 can be absorbed through the lung epithelial cells is a rational concept.” But he says this with caveats: For one, the effects of delivering that aerosol via vape are totally unstudied. “You’re putting something inside your body and it’s unknown.”
With vaping, there’s also the matter of the propellant, as well as the other chemicals that help give the formula its flavor and convert it into an aerosol when you puff. Heating up the liquid ingredients could potentially affect how they act in the body and produce new chemicals. They “may cause some damage to the cells,” according to Crystal, though he says we just don’t know for sure yet how that would look long-term.
There haven’t been a ton of conclusive studies about vaping essential oils, flavorings, and propellants that can be in vaping fluids, but a preliminary study on cells suggest that some flavorings might cause cell damage. Breathe uses vegetable glycerin as its propellant, whose long-term effects when inhaled are not known. The bottom line is that no one really knows what kind of damage vapes, especially ones without nicotine, can do in either the short or long term.
The other potential problem is that because these products are considered supplements, they aren’t regulated by the FDA the same way drugs are. There’s not even a guarantee that the ingredients a company says are in a vape actually are there. Customers are expected to just trust that supplement companies are honest and that the ingredients are there in the amount they’re supposed to be. But studies, as in the one that was just released earlier this month that found 800 supplements were contaminated with prescription medications and other substances, prove that this is sometimes not the case.
Besides Breathe and VitaminVape, other brands on the market include VitaStik, which offers multiple combinations of essential oils and different vitamins, and Monq, which is just essential oils. Some brands call themselves a “mist” or “personal diffuser” or an “aromatherapy stick” and seem to want to avoid the word “vape.” Make no mistake, though: They are vapes.
The combination of an unproven mode of delivery plus a lack of regulation and transparency is something you’d be advised to stay away from. Even Dr. Oz, a person known to endorse all sorts of questionable practices, says to skip it. Need vitamin B12? Forget about Breakfast at Tiffany’s comparisons and … just eat breakfast.
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Original Source -> These new vape companies want you to inhale … vitamins
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7 Things No One Tells You About Life After You’re Diagnosed With A Chronic Illness
New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/happiness/7-things-no-one-tells-you-about-life-after-youre-diagnosed-with-a-chronic-illness/
7 Things No One Tells You About Life After You’re Diagnosed With A Chronic Illness
Giulia Bertelli
No one tells you that your life will never be the same when you’re diagnosed with a chronic illness. No one tells you that all aspects of your life will be affected in some way, shape or form. Unfortunately, it’s the reality and nature of being diagnosed with a chronic illness.
For me, everything changed from being able to do certain things to losing friends. When doctors diagnosed me with multiple chronic conditions, they didn’t tell me I’d lose friends or that I wouldn’t be able to brush my teeth standing up any longer.
If you or someone you love or know suffers from chronic illness or multiple chronic conditions, keep in mind that they’re experiencing a world of change and they weren’t given a guide or manual on how things in their lives will change.
Here’s what doctors and professionals don’t tell you when you’re diagnosed with chronic illness.
1. You will lose friends
Some may accuse you of lying when you can’t go out. They might say you’re exaggerating or accuse you of just not wanting to hang out with them. There may be some friends who drift away until they become a distant memory of what your life was before your diagnosis.
2. You will not be able to, at some point throughout life, perform daily activities as you once did
No one ever told me I’d get tired when I’m straightening my hair or that I’d have to sit down at times because my body is so weak just to brush my teeth. No doctor or other professional warned me or made me aware of the fact that daily life activities that were once an automatic thought were going to become a conscious effort.
3. Establishing and maintaining intimacy in relationships will become increasingly difficult
Does anyone know how extremely awkward it is to have to explain your health issues to a date or someone you are in a relationship with? It’s anxiety provoking as you are never sure how a person will react to what you’re saying.
You also have thoughts about relationships and how some people may not want to deal with”the sick person”. Being young with diagnoses of chronic conditions is a struggle in terms of relationships and intimacy.
4. Many people in your life will not understand what you’re going through
People who don’t live in your body will never understand what you go through on a day-to-day basis. People who are considered “healthy” will not understand the pain, exhaustion and fatigue you live with day in and day out.
The best thing you can do is provide them with basic material about your condition. Provide information that is clear and simple that isn’t too medical but provides a general overview of your condition, symptoms and how treatment may affect you.
5. Your insecurities will reach an all time high
Have you ever thought you were overweight or felt self-conscious because of acne on your face? That is nothing compared to what you’ll experience after a diagnosis of a chronic illness.
You may become more self-conscious than you were before. Your illness may cause skin reactions or gaining of weight. You’ll be hyper aware of these issues that you never thought about prior to your diagnosis.
You may isolate yourself because of these insecurities and tend to avoid any type of intimacy in order to protect yourself. Let me be the first to tell you that there will be someone who will feed your insecurities at some point during your journey and it’s just the unfortunate reality of being young with a chronic condition.
But remember, there are so many more out there who will be able to see beyond your chronic condition. You are not your diagnosis and it doesn’t define you.
6. People you thought loved you will drift away until they’re no longer a part of your life
Just think of this as a natural process in life because that is exactly what it is. You may take it a bit harder than if you weren’t suffering from a chronic illness because we tend to become hypersensitive and think it is all about our condition and not just a part of life that happens.
7. Friends and family may minimize what you’re going through or say you’re lying about certain symptoms and feeling
They do not understand the exhaustion and fatigue we feel. They don’t know what it’s like to sleep for 12 hours and feel like you haven’t slept in days. The exhaustion we feel isn’t the same as if we just played a weekend of sports. The exhaustion and weakness, at times, is unexplainable.
The strength it takes to brush my hair on certain days could be seen as pathetic or exaggerating but they’re not in my body and they don’t have to live in my body day after day.
Not everyone is going to understand what you’re going through or how you’re feeling. And that is okay. You need to always remember that when someone is judging you or anything like that in regards to your physical health, it’s a reflection of their character and not yours.
Here are a few things to keep in mind for your own peace and sanity.
Some people will not be willing to learn about your condition even if they say they will. It’s not worth having someone in your life who isn’t willing to learn about you and what you’re going through.
Your condition isn’t going to be at the forefront of everyone’s mind whether it be a friend or family member. You need to remind them constantly.
YOU ARE NOT YOUR DIAGNOSIS.
It’ll take time to settle in and cope with but that is an ongoing process as well. Learn to separate your character and your diagnosis. It’ll help in so many ways.
There are good and bad people in the world. That’s just a reality in this gift of life. You will come across both and you need to keep reminding yourself that everyone is different and not everyone is bad.
I became very bitter and angry at the world. I became isolated from everyone who actually did care about me. I was so focused on my hatred for other people and their ignorance that I was pushing away good and decent people in my life. Let go of the ones who aren’t willing to go to any length for you and hold on tight to the ones who will and I promise you will get through this. Stronger and wiser. 
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foursprout-blog · 6 years
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7 Things No One Tells You About Life After You’re Diagnosed With A Chronic Illness
New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/happiness/7-things-no-one-tells-you-about-life-after-youre-diagnosed-with-a-chronic-illness/
7 Things No One Tells You About Life After You’re Diagnosed With A Chronic Illness
Giulia Bertelli
No one tells you that your life will never be the same when you’re diagnosed with a chronic illness. No one tells you that all aspects of your life will be affected in some way, shape or form. Unfortunately, it’s the reality and nature of being diagnosed with a chronic illness.
For me, everything changed from being able to do certain things to losing friends. When doctors diagnosed me with multiple chronic conditions, they didn’t tell me I’d lose friends or that I wouldn’t be able to brush my teeth standing up any longer.
If you or someone you love or know suffers from chronic illness or multiple chronic conditions, keep in mind that they’re experiencing a world of change and they weren’t given a guide or manual on how things in their lives will change.
Here’s what doctors and professionals don’t tell you when you’re diagnosed with chronic illness.
1. You will lose friends
Some may accuse you of lying when you can’t go out. They might say you’re exaggerating or accuse you of just not wanting to hang out with them. There may be some friends who drift away until they become a distant memory of what your life was before your diagnosis.
2. You will not be able to, at some point throughout life, perform daily activities as you once did
No one ever told me I’d get tired when I’m straightening my hair or that I’d have to sit down at times because my body is so weak just to brush my teeth. No doctor or other professional warned me or made me aware of the fact that daily life activities that were once an automatic thought were going to become a conscious effort.
3. Establishing and maintaining intimacy in relationships will become increasingly difficult
Does anyone know how extremely awkward it is to have to explain your health issues to a date or someone you are in a relationship with? It’s anxiety provoking as you are never sure how a person will react to what you’re saying.
You also have thoughts about relationships and how some people may not want to deal with”the sick person”. Being young with diagnoses of chronic conditions is a struggle in terms of relationships and intimacy.
4. Many people in your life will not understand what you’re going through
People who don’t live in your body will never understand what you go through on a day-to-day basis. People who are considered “healthy” will not understand the pain, exhaustion and fatigue you live with day in and day out.
The best thing you can do is provide them with basic material about your condition. Provide information that is clear and simple that isn’t too medical but provides a general overview of your condition, symptoms and how treatment may affect you.
5. Your insecurities will reach an all time high
Have you ever thought you were overweight or felt self-conscious because of acne on your face? That is nothing compared to what you’ll experience after a diagnosis of a chronic illness.
You may become more self-conscious than you were before. Your illness may cause skin reactions or gaining of weight. You’ll be hyper aware of these issues that you never thought about prior to your diagnosis.
You may isolate yourself because of these insecurities and tend to avoid any type of intimacy in order to protect yourself. Let me be the first to tell you that there will be someone who will feed your insecurities at some point during your journey and it’s just the unfortunate reality of being young with a chronic condition.
But remember, there are so many more out there who will be able to see beyond your chronic condition. You are not your diagnosis and it doesn’t define you.
6. People you thought loved you will drift away until they’re no longer a part of your life
Just think of this as a natural process in life because that is exactly what it is. You may take it a bit harder than if you weren’t suffering from a chronic illness because we tend to become hypersensitive and think it is all about our condition and not just a part of life that happens.
7. Friends and family may minimize what you’re going through or say you’re lying about certain symptoms and feeling
They do not understand the exhaustion and fatigue we feel. They don’t know what it’s like to sleep for 12 hours and feel like you haven’t slept in days. The exhaustion we feel isn’t the same as if we just played a weekend of sports. The exhaustion and weakness, at times, is unexplainable.
The strength it takes to brush my hair on certain days could be seen as pathetic or exaggerating but they’re not in my body and they don’t have to live in my body day after day.
Not everyone is going to understand what you’re going through or how you’re feeling. And that is okay. You need to always remember that when someone is judging you or anything like that in regards to your physical health, it’s a reflection of their character and not yours.
Here are a few things to keep in mind for your own peace and sanity.
Some people will not be willing to learn about your condition even if they say they will. It’s not worth having someone in your life who isn’t willing to learn about you and what you’re going through.
Your condition isn’t going to be at the forefront of everyone’s mind whether it be a friend or family member. You need to remind them constantly.
YOU ARE NOT YOUR DIAGNOSIS.
It’ll take time to settle in and cope with but that is an ongoing process as well. Learn to separate your character and your diagnosis. It’ll help in so many ways.
There are good and bad people in the world. That’s just a reality in this gift of life. You will come across both and you need to keep reminding yourself that everyone is different and not everyone is bad.
I became very bitter and angry at the world. I became isolated from everyone who actually did care about me. I was so focused on my hatred for other people and their ignorance that I was pushing away good and decent people in my life. Let go of the ones who aren’t willing to go to any length for you and hold on tight to the ones who will and I promise you will get through this. Stronger and wiser. 
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celiacposterboy · 7 years
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(Often) It doesn’t work that way sadly  (because people won’t take Vitamins these days) (seemingly) . . . but it should (and does) for those who take a Vitamin for their health ... subtitled Time for a Vitamin Reformation Part 2 or How Niacin and/or Niacin as the Amide form Niacin aka Niacinamide treats the Skin Issues associated with Pellagra (like Eczema, Psoriasis, Acne etc) now commonly confused for the DH of Celiac diagnosis today by the Celiac Posterboy
It doesn’t work that way sadly . . . but it should… How Niacin and/or Niacin as the Amide form of Niacin aka Niacinamide treats the Skin issues associated with Pellagra now commonly confused for the DH of a Celiac diagnosis today by the Celiac Posterboy
This is a summary of a thread of fellow sufferer from a former sufferer
When I first started blogging on my Celiac Posterboy blog.  I thought those who need to hear it most (if I was right and it could help Celiac's) then they would want to know.  
It doesn’t work that way sadly . . . but it should…
Sadly it doesn't work that way often . . . despite giving away 500+ books and  probably 100+ bottles of Niacinamide to people I still get it given back to me instead of people trying a vitamin.
Education is hard . . . and it doesn’t happen overnight sadly it takes a generation (often) for people to relearn what the generations that knew these things (Vitamins help people stay healthy) for the current generation to learn. I say https://celiacposterboy.wordpress.com/2016/02/06/time-for-a-vitamin-reformation/ if we take back our cornerstone's (vitamins and minerals) then our health will correct itself.
My way is not the only way.  It is the only way that helped me.  It is actually a contrarian opinion that in this genetic age often falls on death ears way more often than I could imagine 5+ years ago when I thought if I wrote a book about my experience then people would listen and be helped.  But I find the longer someone suffers the less they are apt to listen because   "everybody is right" in their own mind.
see this post are you a starfish quoting the poem by Loren Eisley https://celiacposterboy.wordpress.com/2015/12/28/are-you-a-starfish-part-2-of-a-former-sufferers-journey
The Starfish Story Original Story by: Loren Eisley
“One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean (world wide web) . . .
Son, the man said, don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish?
You can’t make a difference!
After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said I made a difference for that one.” .  .  .
People hear so much in this day and time that Celiac is genetic that when they hear a vitamin could help them . . . they often don’t believe it.
Want you listen? A vitamin can help us when we are STRESSED out. https://www.celiac.com/articles/23506/1/Stress-Common-Before-Celiac-Diagnosis/Page1.html  
And why my blog is/has mostly been about GI problems so far it (Niacin) does help skin issues as well.  I regularly give a bottle to friends with Acne and they all get better.
People get “locked in” and people lose hope because if it is genetic then why/how could a vitamin help, right?
See this link about the Pike Syndrome and how people get “locked in” often without realizing even most of the time. http://joshlinkner.com/2010/the-pike-syndrome/  
People stop believing there is hope anymore.
But they have to believe it will help before they take it/use it.
But more and more evidence is surfacing that epigenetics (environment) plays a role in a celiac diagnosis.
See this new research as reported in Popular Science how it is thought a virus (environment) can trigger a gluten reaction. http://www.popsci.com/virus-triggers-celiac-disease  
Lifestyle/environment is a risk factor for Celiac disease and the doctor’s haven’t figured it out yet.
The very definition of a Vitamin – something we need in a minimum amount without which we become sick.
It (GI issues) is just one of three 3 D's of a Niacin deficiency.  When it was first diagnosed in the mid 1700's it was skin disease today it mostly is associate with GI issues and hence my focus up until now.   Pellagra in Italian where it was first described means “Rough/Sour Skin” who knows that today anymore?
But I have seen it work for other's and wanted to give you hope that it could work for you by calling out people on the Celiac.com board/forum who had been helped in the same way.
See this thread on celiac.com https://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/topic/114082-at-my-wits-end-with-this-rash/ and this longer thread where sbatson has lost hope that links the above topic about how Niacin can help DH (because presumably) Pellagra is being diagnosed as DH today instead. https://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/topic/116368-dh-maybequestionsrash-is-driving-me-nuts/ But if you will notice not one Celiac/DH commenter actually tried it because they don't believe and the one who did try it from the forum thread "at wits end" did not comment on her experience with it because presumably her (DH) got better . . . mostly people on this board never find the answer they are looking for and if they do they go away just like Knitty Kitty who hasn't commented in 6 months because she/her DH got better using Niacin.
And note from the thread knitty kitty did not find it (her answer about Niacin) here either she was just reporting in the forums she found it after reading a book about it.
I didn't come to this conclusion for my self until 3+ years of study and the Lord being my help I have not looked back.
Reader Good luck on your journey. YOU will have to find the answer for yourself the way knitty kitty did. She didn't find out it from me. I just commented/messaged her that if Niacin helped then she had Pellagra Co-Morbid with her gluten problems.
The International Journal of Celiac Disease reports this http://pubs.sciepub.com/ijcd/3/1/6/
"Not only did/does the Journal of Celiac cite common symptom’s 58 percent of the time in Celiac and Pellagra but they also cite that Pellagra has been described in a Celiac Disease diagnosis.
I would argue that it should be the other way around if the majority (58 Percent) of the time Pellagra symptoms are described in a Celiac diagnosis it stands to reason that medical science is identifying the wrong disease."
from my post https://celiacposterboy.wordpress.com/2016/09/19/how-pellagra-is-often-confused-with-many-gi-diseases-like-uc-gerd-ibs-chrons-ncgs-and-even-celiac-disease-or-other-digestive-problems-in-its-late-stages-part-2-the-science-of-pellagra-a-hidden/
but they don't see it though their own research bears it out. Here is why it happened https://celiacposterboy.wordpress.com/2016/02/19/when-myth-becomes-medical-fact-people-suffer-unnecessarily-the-case-of-mistaken-identity-how-pellagra-now-thought-to-be-rare-became-known-as-celiac-disease-a-white-paper/
This is the only time I know this conclusion has been reached and I could be wrong. I am not afraid to say it.
But what if I am right? and a Vitamin will help you can you afford to wait another couple years till the doctor's figure it.
It took 35+ years for me to get a Celia diagnosis. And quoting Knitty Kitty again "Trying to get a diagnosis is frustrating.  I didn't get one for years" and it is even worse today for Pellagra because nobody knows today to look for it!
And not until her research matched up did/was she willing to try the Niacin for her DH.
Again good luck on your journey I hope it doesn't take too long.
2 Timothy 2: 7 “Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things” this included.
The Celiac Posterboy by the Grace of God,
Joe “Rock” Pen Name
2 Corinthians (KJV) 1:3,4 3) “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; 4) who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble (starfish), by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”
I include these keywords for search purposes only but since I don’t have any support or marketing to support the knowledge of the difference one Vitamin – the right Vitamin can make when it is found can make even putting these key words in my blog post will hardly make a blip of a difference . . . in the number of people who will read this blog post or the number of people it reaches but alas . . . but it only takes one – to make a difference I hope for YOU (reader) that is you.  Praise bee to God!
But the Truth of the right diagnosis has freed me (us) and hopefully will fee YOU (reader) from the error of the wrong diagnosis.
*** This is not medical advice and should not be considered such. Results may vary. Always consult your doctor before making any changes to your medical regimen.
Get the correct diagnosis and get better! Praise bee to God!
THEN tell others is all I ask – however that is (post on facebook, twitter, comment on my blog,  post it on you tumblr account, email a friend this link or link this blog to yours, or review my book on Amazon when you are BURPING for the first time in years or (EVER) – tell a friend about this blog or my book is all I ask but don’t let the chain break with you.
Or your Acne, Psoriasis, Eczema and//or other GI problems are better than they have been in years and years and Acne is in permanent time out (remission) and your “skin” flares have gone away even though you still eat your trigger foods.
It usually takes 6 months of taking it (Niacinamide) 3/day to get rid of most of the symptom’s of Pellagra.  The GI problems, Skin Issues etc.
There a lot of starfish (sufferers’) who STILL need help and haven’t heard because the doctor’s don’t see Pellagra anymore even when it is staring back (Acne, Psoriasis, Eczema, DH etc.) at them in your faces.
As always search for the “Celiac Posterboy” or “Celiac Poster boy” or “Fight Gluten Win” or “Fight GERD Win” if you want to read all my blog posts for as I have said elsewhere in this blog and it bears repeating “To Educate is to Free” Truly.
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