weirdstrangeandawful

[weirdstrangeandawful]

We've been hearing about so much violence recently that I think the magnitude of bombing a consulate is being lost.

Israel bombed a consulate.

#not whump

[weirdstrangeandawful]

I did it! Go check out @obfuscated-abstract if you're curious, looking for info or want to contribute. It's currently pretty barren so please send me things to summarise so I can expand it!

Thinking of starting a sideblog where I share and summarise studies that are either not accessible to the public or that are difficult to understand to people who aren't used to reading scientific literature. I am doing a degree in astronomy, not medicine, but I have access to many papers through my institution and I spend a lot of time reading research papers so I can understand them better than most people.

Please please let me know if this would be helpful. And if I do it, please send asks to that blog (I'll briefly advertise it here if people think it would be useful) since I don't have the energy to summarise something that might not be particularly useful.

#not whump #shameless self promotion

[weirdstrangeandawful]

Thinking of starting a sideblog where I share and summarise studies that are either not accessible to the public or that are difficult to understand to people who aren't used to reading scientific literature. I am doing a degree in astronomy, not medicine, but I have access to many papers through my institution and I spend a lot of time reading research papers so I can understand them better than most people.

Please please let me know if this would be helpful. And if I do it, please send asks to that blog (I'll briefly advertise it here if people think it would be useful) since I don't have the energy to summarise something that might not be particularly useful.

#not whump #chronic illness #complex disease #disability #postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome #hypermobile ehlers danlos syndrome #myalgic encephalomyelitis #chronic fatigue syndrome #medical #fibromyalgia

[weirdstrangeandawful]

A wakes up dazed and in searing pain to what sounds like a cat hacking up a hairball only to find out that it's actually B on their hands and knees coughing up blood. Noticing A awake, B assures them that whatever injuries caused this aren't life-threatening -- at least not compared to the state A's in.

And A... really can't argue with that because they need medical attention now.

#whump #whump prompt #coughing up blood

[weirdstrangeandawful]

Two words: structural violence

#cinnamon roll whumpee all the way #whump #whump poll #whump community

[weirdstrangeandawful]

Friendly reminder that mobility aids aren't a neat spectrum. You don't have to follow the cane -> crutches -> rollator -> wheelchair pipeline

I went/am going crutches -> crutches + cane -> crutches + cane + wheelchair because that's what has been the most needed for me.

#surprise surprise I ran out of spoons to tag this right

[weirdstrangeandawful]

PLEASE!

IT WAS HALF AN ICE CUBE!

I HAVE TO BE ABLE TO KEEP AT LEAST THAT DOWN ;-;

what the fuck do I even do at this point…

I can’t do this… I feel so sick and I can’t eat or sleep or regulate my body temperature (I mean worse than usual I feel like I have a really really bad fever but I’m technically fine). I am in constant pain and I know drinking water and eating salt helps with POTS but I’m not even sure I can keep water down.

I have been to the ER too many times in the past month. I refuse to go back since this isn’t life threatening. If I go back to the ER it’s going to be because I can’t take this anymore and have to be certified. But I haven’t even started my taxes…

[weirdstrangeandawful]

I can’t do this… I feel so sick and I can’t eat or sleep or regulate my body temperature (I mean worse than usual I feel like I have a really really bad fever but I’m technically fine). I am in constant pain and I know drinking water and eating salt helps with POTS but I’m not even sure I can keep water down.

I have been to the ER too many times in the past month. I refuse to go back since this isn’t life threatening. If I go back to the ER it’s going to be because I can’t take this anymore and have to be certified. But I haven’t even started my taxes…

#not whump #postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome #I’m tagging this so badly I really don’t have to energy to type #this feels like the worst stomach flu and real flu combined

[weirdstrangeandawful]

Where there's smoke there's fire. More importantly, there are other components that are usually more dangerous including lack of oxygen, carbon monoxide (which binds to haemoglobin more strongly than oxygen and basically stops you from being able to absorb oxygen even if it's present), carbon dioxide which is always present but is present in toxic quantities in fires and is about 1.5 times heavier than oxygen, increased water vapour (hotter air can hold more water vapour -- think how hard it is to breathe when it's humid out), swelling of airways from the heat, and other toxic fumes depending on what's burning (some can be lethal or irritating in very small quantities. The actual particulate matter of the smoke isn't always the main respiratory irritant although it definitely plays a role.

On top of that, mild smoke inhalation symptoms sometimes don't show up for up to 36 hours after the event. If it's just the gases that are the problem, the patient might just be put on simple oxygen with a mask until their breathing stabilises (timeline can vary). If the difficulty breathing is caused by physical irritation or damage, then they will be put on a breathing tube which can actually cause its own damage. I was intubated for just a few hours and my throat is still intermittently sore three weeks later. It felt like it had been cut up for an entire week and that was a non-emergency surgical intubation; they will be a whole lot rougher with an emergency intubation.

Summary: If you're hoping for some coughing up of blood (haemoptysis), the most likely cause will probably be the intubation.

Would someone still be coughing (and maybe coughing up blood?) 3 days after they inhaled a lot of smoke? What other side effects they would suffer from even after 3 days?

Yes, symptoms can still last a few days after the fact -- coughing, wheezing, hoarseness, shortness of breath, feeling weak and tired, gray or black mucus if soot was inhaled, airway spasms. If there's enough damage, they could deal with shortness of breath for the rest of their life.

#whump #fire #smoke inhalation #asphyxiation #medical #intubation #haemoptysis #coughing up blood

[weirdstrangeandawful]

TW: alcohol, substance use, medical

I've always struggled to describe presyncope, near-syncope, and obviously full syncope to people who have never experienced them because I'm experiencing presyncope more often than I'm not.

But today I just realised that it's actually similar to stages of being drunk -- not that I can related because the POTS takes over before I can get past like 10 drinks and I have a horrifyingly high alcohol tolerance so I've never been properly drunk.

Baseline presyncope symptoms: Basically this is before you're experiencing any effects of alcohol but you know you're technically not sober. You are functioning as normal.

Mild presyncope: Yeah, you probably legally shouldn't drive.

Moderate presyncope: You definitely wouldn't want to be doing anything important in this state. You're solidly tipsy, maybe mildly drunk.

Severe presyncope: You're very drunk. People around you can tell you're not sober not matter how hard you try to hide it. With presyncope, this is where you are basically deaf, blind, and stumbling around.

Near-syncope: You're throwing up drunk. There's no way you're walking on your own. Near-syncope looks to onlookers like full syncope (you collapse and look unconscious but you're partially conscious).

Syncope: Passed out (literally what syncope is). With alcohol, you would seriously consider taking someone in this state to the hospital.

This is not at all an exact comparison. Most importantly, there are no pleasurable effects of pre-, near, and full syncope. Basically all of them are even less pleasant than a hangover. We are also expected to function as usual when experiencing anything from baseling to moderate (even severe) presyncope because, well, that's how we feel almost all the time despite the fact that these symptoms would put a healthy person in not just the hospital but probably an ambulance. With near- and full syncope, we're expected to recover quickly. I have regularly been to the ER for repeated episodes of syncope and even then there's very little they can do besides give you fluids and hope for the best...

#I know I'm a whump blog so I'll just say this: #I would prefer you not write a character with pots if you don't have personal understanding of how it decimates your life #but if you do anyway please consider this a very general guide to how difficult it is to function #postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome #medical #alcohol #analogy #presyncope #near syncope #syncope #fainting #chronic illness go brrr #disability go brrr

[weirdstrangeandawful]

This so much. Also people don't know what to make of my forearm crutches a lot of the time. Even healthcare professionals will look at them and not know what to call them. I could understand this in the US but I'm in Canada... we don't exclusively use stupid axillary crutches.

It's amazing how differently people treat you based on what mobility aid you're using. When I'm using my cane I get funny looks from people because I'm a young person and "do you really need that?". Almost nobody holds the door for for me and when I drop something almost nobody helps me pick it up.

When I'm using my forearm crutches people are a little nicer but not by much. I get less funny looks and more people hold the door for me, but still hardly anyone helps me pick up stuff I drop. And if I'm out alone shopping or something, nobody helps me reach stuff on high shelves unless I ask. I get not wanting to come off as ableist by offering to help, but if you see someone clearly struggling you might want to step in.

Now when I'm using my wheelchair, that's a whole different ballgame. Almost everyone is holding doors, helping me pick up stuff, helping me with high shelves, and being really nice to me. But people often infantilize me when I'm using a wheelchair. They always smile at me, which sounds nice, but it's usually in a way you would smile at a little kid out in public. If I'm with someone then people will talk to them instead of me, and if I'm alone people will talk slowly to me or in a high pitched voice.

It's literally not that hard to be normal around disabled people I just don't get it.

[weirdstrangeandawful]

my mom works in healthcare & was telling me today about a client who doesn’t have access to help right now because her mother is upset with her & refuses to assist her with what she needs. thanks to my mom’s company, an employed caregiver is able to help her, but otherwise she’d be fucked over.

it makes me so sad that we have to live in a world where, if someone is upset with you or simply doesn’t feel like helping, disabled people will have to go without the assistance they need. i want to live in a world where all disabled people to have access to help, all the time, no matter what. no strings attached care is a human right & i wish able bodied people would see that & act on it.

#I've been saying this for years! #as a disabled person who experienced 18+ years of medical neglect before moving 3500 km away #there needs to be more support

[weirdstrangeandawful]

It's been years since they lost A. Really -- years. The team's turned over since then. Some left, some retired, some were forced to quit. Some, like the ones they're retrieving now among the rubble, were laid to rest. The pain of some losses is still raw, but A... That pain's long since faded to a dull ache. Just a story, a legend, to most of the team actually. Very few remember them.

All the photos of all those who fought together are tucked away inside an album. But it's still A's photo that lies smiling, just behind the cover. There's a glimmer in their eye, just the tip of a bayonnet balanced in the corner of the photo. Lines at the corners of their eyes betray how much they'd seen before joining the team.

None of them expected A to turn up on the brink of death... as a civilian casualty.

#whump #whump prompt #military whump #team whump

[weirdstrangeandawful]

Okay, the four of you who want to be added, let me know!

I can't have a taglist without people to tag...

I don't post updates to A Good Man's Heart regularly so I didn't think to bother with a taglist but maybe I should have a taglist because I don't post updates regularly. What do people think? Military whump enthusiasts do you want to be on my navy whump novel taglist?

You know what?

#a good man's heart #whump #military whump #navy whump #whump community

[weirdstrangeandawful]

My solution is to make them entirely lame. The coolness just sorta happens to them... or doesn't.

God, I really want the energy to go back to writing A Good Man's Heart...

Honestly? My main piece of advice for writing well-rounded characters is to make them a little bit lame. No real living person is 100% cool and suave 100% of the time. Everyone's a little awkward sometimes, or gets too excited about something goofy, or has a silly fear, or laughs about stupid things. Being a bit of a loser is an incurable part of the human condition. Utilize that in your writing.

[weirdstrangeandawful]

Friendly reminder that not tagging and trigger warning posts does make more people see your blog but it also makes more people block your blog <3

Tag your shit properly and maybe I'll bother checking out your blog.

#and just trigger warning it with 'trigger warning' and no mention of the trigger... doesn't help #and remember #some people's trigger warnings are other people's searched tags #you're probably get more of the right traffic if you tag your shit properly #tag your shit

[weirdstrangeandawful]

Eating chilli is in fact an activity of daily living. I just forget that avoiding things because I can't do them counts as not being able to do them (if that makes any sense). I don't struggle to do these things because I don't do these things.

This came about because I was planning to apply for the disability tax credit but I didn't think I met the conditions since I need to struggle with activities of daily living as a result of my disability and my friend had to remind me that eating chilli (i.e., the ability to keep down food) counts.

#affirmations #activities of daily living #disability go brrr #chronic illness go brrr #food #eating #medical