Just tickles my balls!
Banned
It depends on whether it is a disposable mask or a reusable one. Disposable does not wash. Reusable is washed, but after washing it is advisable to iron it with an iron. Of course, it is better to take a reusable mask from natural fabrics.Originally Posted by allegate
Active Member
I bought a 24 pack of the N95 off amazon. I reuse them if they're not dirty** and put a cloth mask over it. I had bought these cloth masks that came with 10 filter inserts.
**I figure if healthcare workers were reusing theirs, I could do the same.
Active Member
she/her/hers
they didn't find anything on my MRAs/MRIs to indicate why i've been having so many health issues. i have a minor disc bulge/narrowing of the spinal column between C5-C6, which might account for some of my pain, but otherwise this has provided no answers. not sure what to do, now.
Active Member
pain sucks because sometimes your body just says "today's the day!" and that's what you have.
I hope things get better eventually.
Bite me
I've never had back problems in my life, but NOW I do; lower-right back pain.
I've been through various times in in my life where I've gone to the doctors for various pain, with my elbow or wrist or whatever, and I suspect this is something brought on by something I'm doing. I know if I go to the doc, they'll send me to physical or occupational therapy, and I usually do that for 3-4 times and then drop out and do it on my own and bam, pain is gone.
This pain, I've pretty much narrowed down to being Covid-related. Too much sitting; and when I AM sitting, I'm sitting WRONG. I have what is known as a pretty emphasized pelvic tilt, meaning if I lie flat on the floor, you can stick your hand under my lower back, and this kind of throws things off. And I think my mattress wasn't doing me good, either, so we went out and got a new memory foam mattress. And that's been helping so that I don't wake up in pain. And I sit differently on the couch, and don't sit for too long at a time without standing and walking.
BUT, here's what been helping more and more: STRETCHING.
I didn't realize how fucked-up a body can get from Covid isolation, omg.
I found this video about a QL stretch and wow does it help
I've also been doing all-over stretching EVERY DAY to counteract being isolated. I try to get whatever activity I can get. If all of this doesn't significantly improve (right now, I am having trouble washing dishes and vacuuming without pain), I'll have to relent and see my doctor. But I'm going at this like it's my JOB.
Last edited by allegro; 02-12-2021 at 04:59 PM.
she/her/hers
for me it's chronic pain that has additional friends. i've had the chronic pain for 20+ years (yes, since i was about 14). the crazy shooting-pain headaches started last year(?), but i've always gotten plenty of regular headaches/migraines (which i think i've mentioned here). i'm just tired of being in pain all the time and i want some kind of answer as to WHY. maybe i have fibromyalgia, and the other stuff is from environmental or diet factors, idunno. it just sucks. constant physical pain on top of mental health issues & emotional anguish is really getting old. i started getting depressed when i was 8 and hit (very early) puberty, and it's never gotten better.
Active Member
That sucks. Like I said pain is the worst because it is the hardest to pin down. Sure it hurts *here* but that could be a nerve that starts over *there* and you'd never know it. Or like my wife you sever the nerve and that causes the pain instead of deadening it. You run out of professionals after awhile and you get depressed. She wanted to move to Oregon at one point because they have assisted suicide laws.
I hope that you find something that works, even if a little, because that's better than nothing.
Bite me
@eversonpoe My doc told me that chronic depression can cause chronic pain?
https://www.healthline.com/health/me...-of-depression
I’ve been considering “alternative” medicine, lately. Integrative, non traditional, etc. Because most of the time, I don’t think these docs at Big Box Medicine (who see patients every 20 minutes) can be all that comprehensive.
The PROBLEM is that a lot of this alternative medicine isn’t covered by insurance, etc.
Yeah, diet and stuff can be huge. I’ve read about these metabolic panel tests that can tell us a lot about stuff we eat that we SHOULD NOT be eating that can make a huge difference, etc.
Last edited by allegro; 02-14-2021 at 03:08 PM.
Active Member
It's very, very true. Although, I tend to look at it this way... the chronic pain eats the dopamine slowly over time... and without respite from the pain, the lack of dopamine leads nicely into a chemical depression (this is to say, that if everything else in your life is subjectively good, there are no environmental factors contributing to the depression... so, you have a good job, good family, good hobbies and the bills are paid and all that good stuff but you are still very much depressed, well... that's usually caused by a lack of correctly functioning chemicals in our brainmeats ((dopamine, serotonin)). This is mild anti-depressants are often prescribed for chronic pains... it's to give the brainmeats a tiny crutch to stand on while we try to find out the source of the chronic pain and deal with it in a way that lets out brainmeats be much relieved.
Unforuntately, chronic pain does not have to be physical and so if there's deep therapy to get the root cause, well... it's not fun but it's better than the chronic pain.
Personally, my acute chronic pian comes from an [at present] inoperable osteochrondroma (about 1.5cm in length) on my right tibia that grew during adolescence and tears into the calve muscle with every step... BUT this wasn't discovered until 15+ years after the fact. And while I did have huge environmental factors affecting my life at the time, it was the pain the ground me down and the environmental factors just were amplified and this lead to a whole host of maladapting behaviours to try and compensate for it all. So I was on antidepressants for a while and things were better... and then I was off of them... and then, like 5 years later, I back on again... and then off and back on a half decade later... and then we switched antidepressants and I became disabled because of it (acquired pyramidal tardive dystonia... but it also was an unlucky die roll, hardly anyone gets/has dystonia that way at that age... dyskinesia's, sure... but not dystonia's) ... but through that I got to just focus on where was my pain really coming from (as I laid in a hospital bed for 5weeks)... after a few MRIs and assorted other tests we found the osteochondroma.... and that explained a hell of a lot.
Got myself a cane to take the pressure off that calve a little bit and that helps a whole bunch.
I can't take antidepressants any more because it could cause the whole dystonia thing to get dramatically worse annnnnnd... I don't want that to happen.
Fortunately, like, 6 months after I acquired the disability, I found that inhaling cannabis manages the shaking for 18hours at a time... which allows me to have some sort for positive quality of life. It doesn't kill the pain though, but again, it does manage it pretty well... (hell, it takes a lot of consistant smoking for me to get high for like 10 minutes due to pain and that's just not really worth it in terms of cost). it also helps manage the depression side of things.
I wish it weren't this way, but it is.
So aside from rambling... yeah, SSRI's are useful for chronic pain management and hopefully also provide an opportunity to find the source(s) and resolve them.
Bite me
@MrLobster - I'm so sorry to hear that, that really sucks. I hope you do have some semblance of quality of life in there, somewhere.
tempus est umbra in mente
Ok, I'm just going to say, I'm in complete hell. I'm about to impulse move to the other side of the country. I feel like I can't talk to the people I love without dealing with how much they resent me. I have no discernible future in anything I'm trained in. I'm honestly considering minimum wage jobs again. For the first time since I was a teen. I'm just broken. It's really really awful.
Bite me
It was that situation that got me to move to Chicago, with no job, three cats in tow, where I knew nobody. And I ended up in an abusive relationship. BUT ... I did temp work, which led to a whole new career, and ultimately I met my 2nd husband, so things all worked out! Sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
If you can TYPE and you have a degree, there are lots more opportunities out there than you imagine.
she/her/hers
was talking to my best friend yesterday and how horrible i'm feeling (and have been feeling for such a while) and she mentioned that i may be having med interactions. so i called and left a message for my psychiatrist and am waiting to hear back.
meanwhile, i called walgreens to ask there. love to hear a pharmacist tell me there's no interaction between lamictal (for borderline/bipolar 2) & estradiol (part of my HRT regimen) while i'm staring at the paperwork that says there is. in some cases, taking estradiol "reduces plasma levels of lamotrigine by 41% to 64%." that's a pretty big fucking deal.
systemic sexism in medicine is real and is (sadly) also perpetuated by women (as in this case). i don't really know what to do.
Bite me
Omg pharmacists in general; sometimes can be lifesaving and notice shit that docs don’t, other times are total ASSHOLES.
Like the pharmacy MANAGER at Osco by me who INSISTED that the reason why BC/BS refused to give me more Sumatriptan was because I was getting REBOUND HEADACHES from taking TOO MUCH SUMATRIPTAN. I was so pissed at her, I transferred all of my prescriptions out of there.
BC/BS wouldn’t pay because they are CHEAP profit-focused ASSHOLES.
My MAYO CLINIC NEUROLOGIST said there is NO SUCH THING as “rebound headaches” from sumatriptan, he has patients who are on it every day.
But, yeah, drug interactions are big. You also may need to switch one of the drugs you’re on, it could be making you feel terrible.
I hope they find what it is, soon. Don’t give up, push your docs to find it, okay? Meanwhile, give yourself some love.
Active Member
Active Member
I'm laughing waaaaay too much at this thing right now...
Banned
Unfortunately, doctors make conclusions about the effect of drugs without taking into account other drugs taken. It is extremely difficult to find doctors who assess the state of health taking into account all pathologies and medications taken.
Bite me
This is SO true.
Absolutely.
she/her/hers
two days back in group therapy so far (in case y'all didn't see in the mental health thread, i'm having a really hard time and am back at the place i went in fall of 2019 in hopes they can help me). it's so weird to be around people again. unfortunately it's kicking my dysphoria up to 11 because i haven't done anything to work on my outward gender presentation and i'm still just wearing yoga pants & t-shirts with no makeup. i haven't even done my eyebrows. blugh.
anyway, yesterday during check-in (name/pronouns/mood rating/etc.), an older woman literally said "i don't use pronouns" and it was all i could do not to burst out laughing and then yell at her. what a fucking moron. thankfully the group therapist took her outside after check-in and obviously addressed it with her, because during check-out she said "i use she/her/hers pronouns." but also the idea of a person literally NOT using pronouns is just hilarious to me. can you even imagine how difficult and awkward it would be to talk like that?
today, a woman literally said "...a couple hundred years ago when we were still hunter-gatherers..." and, again, i really had to stifle some laughter. i haven't figured out a way to ask her about it without making her feel awful about herself so i just haven't said anything. but i really wanna know if she was just caught up in the moment of the conversation or if she really thinks that the entirety of human evolution has happened over a very short period of time (or if she even believes in evolution?)
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she/her/hers
Administrator
How long ye reckon we've been here? Two weeks? Five months?
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she/her/hers
https://eversonpoe.bandcamp.com/album/lebensm-de
another bandcamp day, another everson poe release haha
new song featuring my friend db (aka the sun came up upon the left) on verse vocals. he also co-produced & mixed it.
this is a bit different for me and leans more into some of the harsh electronic music i listen to. i hope you like it as much as i do <3
Alt-Left Leaning Cunt
I got my first dose of the Moderna vaccine yesterday and holy fuck my arm hurts so bad. I can't remember a shot ever feeling like this.
... I had to sleep with my bra on because I couldn't get it off with just my one arm.
Bite me
They say the second dose is so bad, and makes you so sick (with both Pfizer and Moderna), you are advised to stay home from work.
Active Member
other than a super sore shoulder it was alright. Granted that's one out of several million so take it easy regardless.
(Unused symbol)
I noticed this, too. I usually get very mild soreness on the evening after I get the flu shot. The Moderna dose was worse and lasted two days. It didn't keep me up at night nor did it get so bad I took Advil but it was noticeable.
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