FIX YOUR HEARTS OR DIE

I’m Claire. She/her. 32 years old.

[without-ado]

Strawberry Full Moon over Ely Cathedral l VeronicaJoPo

[master-john-uk]

29th June 2026. This year's Strawberry Moon was extremely low in the sky, which made it look very large and bright. (A perfect photographic opportunity!)

[johannestevans]

It's really funny when doctors and medical professionals don't like, meaningfully understand how comorbidity works. "oh, it's very unlikely someone would have all these rare conditions at once"

yeah. maybe that would be fair to say about say, discrete viruses. but about syndromes?

like. the conditions of the human body don't know that they're taxonomically discrete. they don't know that they have different names or lists of symptoms. if a human body has a consistent issue with say, its heart rhythm, or its inflammatory response, or its glandular response, or immune system

the reason that ehlers-danlos syndrome (EDS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS), IBS (irritable bowel), autism, and even shit like coeliac and PMDD or endometriosis overlap is bc like. these are largely inflammatory issues or issues with the fascia

It's not "what the fuck, how can this person have all these different things wrong with them", bc these are largely like. syndromic definitions of how x bodily issue manifests in different systems, structures, or organs of the body

many of these conditions change in definition over time

and that's bc they're studied and understood more over time where people more meaningfully understand underlying causes and issues, such as through hormone or genetic profiles, or largely like. immune response

it's also how "rare" conditions become understood as more common over time

idk like. not to be on my soap box on this specific issue but this is what happens when you don't teach medical professionals philosophy beyond the basic ethical shit. the reason philosophy is important to medical study is so you don't mistake etymological or philological issues for scientific ones

[madanimalscientist]

I got told by a -medical geneticist- that it was extremely unlikely for someone to have both celiac and EDS because both were so uncommon so therefore I probably didn't have both, despite clear physical evidence to the contrary. I pointed out that there's enough people out there that even with low incidence of both, even assuming there was no link, statistically there were going to be people with both just by basic probability and that 'rare' didn't mean 'doesn't happen. I also pointed out I had 2 younger half-sibs with celiac and a cousin with celiac, T1D, and EDS-h, so odds are that no it wasn't as unlikely as she thought especially given that kind of family history.....She did not in fact care for my attitude. I didn't care for her lack of understanding of her own job, so the feeling was mutual.

[vaspider]

Lol I definitely have both.

[hasufin]

I think many medical professionals are very narrow-focused on their specialty, forget the rest of the body exists, and don't think of it all as an entire system.

I recall reading the book A Slow Death: 83 Days of Radiation Sickness. It's about a nuclear worker who received a lethal dose of radiation due to a prompt-critical accident while making nuclear fuel. As the title implies, he died over the course of 83 days.

What struck me about the book was, it's pretty clear his DNA was just shredded and nothing was really replacing itself effectively. His organs and systems failed at a rate consistent with their typical cellular lives. At each step of this, they brought in specialists to manage the problem: he wasn't producing erethrocytes, they brought in hematologists. His stomach lining was breaking down, they brought in gastroenterologists, &c. Each one had this faith that if they kept him going past this crisis, his body's natural healing would take over and he would get better. But looking at his body as a whole, it was obvious from very early that was Just Not Happening. Each specialist was looking at it as "Oh no, my one part is failing, I need to get him through this and the rest of his otherwise healthy body can pull him along!" except the whole damned body was going because that's what a lethal neutron flux does. And somewhere around day 30 or so they should have said "I'm sorry, this is not going to work, we are switching to palliative care" and he could have died a week or two later, but that's not how specialists think.

The body doesn't know we've divided it up into organs and systems and specific types of cells. It's just a body and each part affects everything else.

[whetstonefires]

the number of doctors and other medical professionals, including knee specialists and physical therapists, who were completely unable over the course of several years to give me any advice about a problem with one of my knees once it was determined that 'tingling and numbness' meant it was 'something with a nerve, probably getting pinched or something' was staggering.

finally i asked my neurologist, whom i had because i'd eventually gotten some weird symptoms in my neck identified as part of a pattern of chronic migraines.

she agreed it was a compressed nerve, possibly not in the knee itself but in the hip or where it runs parallel to the iliotibial band down the outside of the thigh.

regardless her recommendation was. a specific stretching exercise.

which didn't 100% erase the problem, but ameliorated it enough that it's no longer one of my major mobility concerns or sources of pain.

absolutely insane this was not on the radar for anyone who was supposed to be an expert in knees or stretching, simply because it involved Something To Do With Nerves.

[kiragecko]

Eczema, allergies, and asthma are all likely to overlap, because they're all different ways of the body overreacting to harmless substances.

Autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, and Tourette's are all neurodevelopmental conditions, and guess what? When the brain decides to develop abnormally, it doesn't look at a checklist for a specific condition and then follow the list! It just develops weird, and people label the results. Sometimes with a LOT of labels.

Generic names that cover all the possible manifestations of an issue often aren't very helpful. Because not everyone whose skin keeps trying to self-destruct ALSO stops breathing if they try to jog. Even if the "manufacturing error: air causes breathing shutdown" and the "manufacturing error: skin breaks down when in contact with necessary skin yeasts" are coming from the same source, the solutions may vary.

So breaking things up into discrete labels is helpful. But it sure would be nice if medical practitioners were TAUGHT that this was what's going on!

[cozy2000]

time to post my favorite far side comic of all time

[goatsandgangsters]

an interesting linguistics find! so I'm reading this text from 1908 and it keeps referencing "hp" in the context of "not being at full hp" "applying your full hp to a task" etc

and I'm like....... okay that is a perfectly normal way to describe energy and reads totally clear to me, but I KNOW you don't mean hit points/health points which is the first place my brain goes, so what are YOU using hp to mean

and it's not explained in-text, which means it was common enough to not warrant explanation to the 1908 audience, so gotta look elsewhere

horsepower. turns out it's horsepower.

and I'm absolutely FASCINATED that a commonly used initialism from 1908 now stands for something different AND YET the contextual meaning is still the same to a 21st-century reader

I could hand this guy my nintendo switch and he'd be like, ah yes I understand, this ''''pokemon'''' loses horsepower throughout the fight

language is amazing

[parkchanwoohoo]

[mrsterlingeverything]

Okay

[sunday-bug]

[overseer-picard]

“These new shows are just too expensive to make!” cry the people in charge of the choices that make shows too expensive to make

[overseer-picard]

I watched a bts clip on ST: Picard about how expensive things were and that’s why we get such short seasons now then the next clip was about how the starship prop models were plated in real gold.

Okay so step one: don’t plate props in actual gold. This will save at least several dollars.

[superiorjello]

I guarantee you at least a third of the money could be saved on most of these shows if 1) every episode script was written before anything goes to camera 2) they stopped cutting prep days before filming and 3) directors have to provide a shotlist and 90% stick to it.

Seriously, the amount of pure bullshittery that happens because nothing gets planned is ridiculous.

If you're only going to film 6-8 episodes anyway, you can finish the damn scripts before going to camera. It's not a 24 episode season anymore, stop acting like it. What you also need is to let art department have enough time to do their damn jobs and not be constantly pulling overtime and costing you double and triple union rate to get your props and sets done. Likewise, not having a concrete plan for what your camera is going to be looking at on the day will once again be costing you overtime, but this time its the entire crew you've got on set. Because you keep making up shots and then the lighting takes an hour to change every time and camera has to send a runner for a new lens and-

You get it. Proper planning prevents piss poor performance. And saves money in the long run.

[baycitystygian]

Why would they do anything that makes sense?

[anthonycolonthree]

(guy who's not getting anything done voice) I need to learn every skill and all information

[5weekdays]

the noble cheesesteak was invented in seventeen seventy eight when benjamin franklin ordered his cheeseburger "vagina style"

[kingcheddarxvii]

Now I know logically it is historically impossible for Benjamin Franklin to have been a hentai enthusiast but have you seen a picture of the man

[nem23]

[aurpiment]

I wish insomnia at least gave you more usable hours in the day instead of just more hours where you are stupid

[bloodclotbitch]

[slowspinningredemption]

who is scott free and why are so many people getting him off

[electronicmail]

id lie right to willy wonkas face. “did you drink fizzy lifting drinks” of course not. And then id hit him

[kittydoggie]

This is why you won't inherit the factory.

[electronicmail]

i dont want the factory. I want to see fear in his eyes

[corvidcall]

to anyone in the areas impacted by the wildfire smoke, my #1 biggest piece of advice as someone whos been dealing with wildfire smoke in the NW united states for years, is build yourself a Corsi-Rosenthal Cube

they perform as well as expensive HEPA air cleaners, and are comparatively VERY inexpensive. all you need is a box fan, 4 air filters, a piece of cardboard, and some duct tape!!!!

i think it took us maybe a half hour to put ours together, if that, and we replace the filters every 3 months. it's really made a HUGE difference, both when the air quality is bad, but also with our allergies

[o0fyuu0o]

Saw these easy to read instructions on Twitter. Stay safe 💚

[sun-cheyne]

Also just a handy, DIY air filter in general, if a bit bulky. For a less bulky and cheaper (but also less effective) solution, you can simply tape one filter to the fan, cut a shroud if you'd like.

[snowriddenwolf]

just FYI, this is quite literally what the climate scientists at my work who specialized in wildfire smoke impacts recommend. it works great, it's cheap to make, and it will make a noticeable impact on your air quality.

[mechanicalriddle]

i have asthma & keep one of these running in my room perpetually. after I set it up the difference in my sleep quality was pretty much night and day. Dont waste your time on proprietary air filters; SIMPLY bust out the duct tape