#flare day

[chronically-cat]

✨ Flare with flair ✨

Image description:

Text that reads: “You gonna behave today”

Image below text depicts a sassy little pink bean-like cartoon character dancing with arms in the air yelling NO with starbursts lines for emphasis.

Thank you @runningwithfangs for helping me rewrite my first image description, you’re a rockstar!

[kayoshibe]

Flare and Ina singing Bridal Dream together 🧡💜

[fizziepopangel]

Chronically Ill Valentino

Val never really thought much about the random racing of his heart or the occasional “passing out thing” since he was someone who enjoyed partaking in the wonderful world of a vast amount of drugs and was oftentimes high or recovering from a good high. He always assumed it was whatever he took since Vox was always scolding him about not always knowing what he was taking or even sometimes accepting unknown substances from strangers at parties…. 

But when it started happening to him while he was stone cold sober, the moth demon started to worry. And in true drama king fashion, Val started getting his affairs in order and making arrangements for his funeral.

Velvette, being just as dramatic, designed him a funeral outfit and everything before Vox dragged Valentino to a doctor for some actual legitimate medical testing. Blood work, a full physical exam, CTs, MRIs, nerve tests, all of it. Vox wasn’t letting any stone go unturned during this little health scare and he acted on multiple threats to multiple doctors who claimed Val was fine despite worsening symptoms (totally not cause he like… cares or anything, cause that would be gross…..)

Val stayed sober throughout the scare, no drinking, no drugs, which revealed that there were actually a few more symptoms he’d written off that didn’t come from excessive drinking or drug use.

Brain fog, headaches, tremors, heart palpitations, fatigue so severe it actually scared Vox and Velvette when they began to see it, and some gastrointestinal issues that were far from sexy…. It was worrisome and unpleasant for him to say the least.

The tilt table test is what actually got them a diagnosis of Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, which is a little hard for Valentino to say, so like most people, Val just calls his condition POTS.

Val wasn’t thrilled with there not being a magic cure for POTS, and he absolutely wasn’t thrilled with the fact that he’d have to make lifestyle changes to manage his condition.  Especially compression garments. He hated them and he called them ugly (of course this gave Velvette the idea to create custom compression pieces for him and eventually add compression garments to her fashion line)

Velvette also whipped up a few enchanted anti-nausea teas with ginger and peppermint, amongst a few other little enchanted teas, potions, and salves to help her friend manage some of his more severe symptoms. Val absolutely adores her efforts since she makes everything functional but also accounts for his taste in fashion, scents, and his likes and dislikes for anything he’ll have to ingest.

Vox took over the cooking for the trio to make sure Val was getting the recommended salt intake to help with managing his condition since Val hates salt and often tells the kitchen staff not to salt food at all or to make him a separate, unsalted meal during meal times. Vox claims he’s taken up cooking more because it relieves stress, but really it’s to sneak more salt into the moth demon’s diet without him really noticing.

Much like Vel, Vox also makes something using his own skillset; a symptom tracking app (and while it is mostly for the moth, he does later patent and market across Hell). 

Although he grumbled about it, he did take the doctor’s advice in cutting way down on his alcohol and drug use after his diagnosis to try to help manage symptoms.

So many naps. And since the moth demon hates being alone during bad flare days, he often ropes Vox or sometimes Velvette into watching one of his comfort movies with him, which usually means he lays in them and traps them in cuddle jail since he usually falls asleep during movies in the days he's flaring.

Heat intolerance. Vox had to put a lock on the thermostat since Val constantly tries to turn down the thermostat because he himself overheats pretty easily and somewhat often. He occasionally turns the temp in the tower so much that Vox has woken up in immense pain because he got so cold in the middle of the night that his screen cracked and his wires started to freeze. Now, thanks to a suggestion to Velvette, Val now has a separate heating/cooling system to the rest of the tower to kinda combat that.

Bumps and bruises from falls.

Much like the other Vees, Valentino keeps his diagnosis and struggles with POTS from being public knowledge….. Though he does employ a vast amount of demons with not only his chronic illness, but others as well so he can use them in his spicy movies, often using their various disabilities for fetish content. He got the idea after using his own disability in one of the movies he starred in himself.

Val finds a lot of peace in art when he has a flare up, and often draws when he has to spend the day in bed or during the breaks he needs to take throughout the busier days.

Frustration when fatigue hits and the exhaustion makes it hard for him to hold a pencil.

The robo butler known as Kitty that seems to be at Valentino’s beck and call has been reprogrammed from the sex doll it was originally purchased as to be to a robotic companion that acts as a sort of service animal for him. Complete with the ability to send an alert to Velvette and Vox when a fall or fainting episode occur, being equipped to monitor his vitals and give him warnings when his heart rate increases, and the ability to make a delicious margarita, its pretty easy to see why you so often see the robotic being close behind the moth demon.

[davidzochi]

this was me thinking i was dying last night:

(i was about to pass out)

[kimplezia]

🌩️ Flare Report: Pain

Pain is one of the loneliest symptoms because so much of it happens where no one else can see.

It’s the ache that follows you all day.

The burning that won’t quit.

The stabbing pain that catches you by surprise.

The exhaustion that comes from fighting your own body every single day.

People often assume if you’re smiling, you must be okay.

The truth is, many of us have learned how to smile through pain because the world doesn’t stop when we’re hurting.

💜 If you needed permission today to slow down, this is it.

You don’t have to earn your rest. Pain is reason enough.

To everyone living with chronic pain: I see you. You’re not weak. You’re doing something incredibly hard every single day.

Question: If you could make one healthy person understand ONE thing about chronic pain, what would it be?

[the-lightning-bug-network]

So I'm writing a post for the end of today for October Slide (you'll see what that is when I post it or whatever) but I think it's funny you can see us getting more and more pissed off with our flare-up as the day goes on... like at the start it's just a basic run through of the symptoms I've gotten but at this point I'm also just fully crashing out while writing cause FUCK YOU OCTOBER SLIDE (October is my favorite month but I can never enjoy it cause of this BULLSHIT!)

[fragile-victorian-enby]

Its a flare day and I'm in need of reassurances.

Is there anybody out there who could imagine falling in love with someone who's asexual and has multiple chronic illnesses?

[mental-mona]