You're a manipulator, Claudia de Lioncourt! ➝ @pscentral​ event 35: parallels [insp]
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You're a manipulator, Claudia de Lioncourt! ➝ @pscentral​ event 35: parallels [insp]
spoiling their daughter…
Romanticizing exam season (STEM edition)
Heavy textbooks, messy doodles on tables as you start overthinking your life again, discarded empty ink bottles, colored pens, messy markings on loose sheets, anatomy sketches, ink smudges on your hands, on your clothes, nervous pacing around your room as you try to memorize every part of the human body, physics formulae scribbled in walls, tables in a frenzy, dramatic scribbles of poetic epiphanies as you get lost in daydreams, dirty tea cups, bed half covered with books, making reading lists trying to romanticize what you will do after exams are over, dreams of a white coat, a perpetual haunting in your eyes, a longing for your dreams, permanent dark circles and hunched back, the blessing and curse of an academic hell
Fun fact: there’s a virus that makes bugs iridescent
disease that makes you beautiful then kills you
Can you do something about fevers? Like their progression, causes, and symptoms as they get worse?
*sighs* you know you’re a nursing major when the index directs you to page 1,941 to answer a question…. anyway….
Also this is a super ass-long post that I’m ridiculously happy about. Be prepared.
And if anyone can find a good picture for this post, I’m coming up empty.
There, I’m done, enjoy!
Introduction:
The human body is basically a protein, fat, and mineral vessel made up of symbiotic chemical processes that have come together for the purpose of… well, as far as we can figure, continuing to run those chemical processes. Meaning of life. You’re welcome. Now, somewhere along the line, evolution figured out that the best temperature for the majority of those particular human chemical processes to take place was between 36.5C and 37.5C, because those within that parameter tended to live and reproduce more often than those who didn’t. Most of the rest of the gene pool died off.
Nature likes efficiency.
Somewhere along the same line, evolution also figured out that the ability to temporarily raise that temperature in response to certain stimuli (pyrogens) gave us a better chance of fighting bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms that might seek to do us harm (called pathogens), thus also allowing us to live longer and make more little chemical reaction vessels.
Current thought is that the increased survival is because some of those human chemical processes (like the kind necessary to fight infections) actually work better at slightly higher temperatures, and at those same temperatures, toxins produced by those pathogens aren’t as effective at causing us problems.
Still with me?
Fever occurs when the body detects something called a pyrogen. Pyrogens are chemical messengers that, when present, tell the body that something is wrong that might be helped by turning up the heat. Sometimes this is purposeful (we evolved to recognize the coatings on some pathogens as pyrogens) and sometimes accidental (medications and poisons can also act as pyrogens by coincidence (turning up the heat probably won’t help, but worth a shot)).
Other pyrogens come from inside the body as a result of inflammation. This can be because of tumors, a prolonged diet of white sugar/flour, damage to blood vessels, bad sunburn or other tissue damage.
Whatever the trigger, the part of the brain that sets temperature (the hypothalamus) reacts to the pyrogen by “setting” that temperature higher.
Now, with that temperature set higher, your body goes “oh $#*%, I’m too cold!” And promptly does everything it would do if you were actually hypothermic (see this post for info on hypothermia). First, it makes the blood vessels near the surface of your skin smaller so they lose less heat (and make you feel really cold so you pile on clothes/blankets and curl up). If that doesn’t work, and you’re still “too cold,” you begin to shiver, which further raises the temperature. Between these two processes, the body can pretty efficiently reach the new “set point.”
That’s a fever.
Now, only in super duper limited circumstances are true fevers actually dangerous. Uncomfortable, maybe, and the body ends up burning more calories and using more water to maintain them, so hunger and dehydration become a problem more quickly, but because they’re entirely controlled by the “set point,” they’re typically not going to get so high on their own that they start being detrimental to life.Â
Hyperthermia, on the other hand, is pretty awful and definitely needs treated ASAP. Hyperthermia is not a fever. Where a fever is a higher temperature because the brain’s temperature set point is higher (brain is in control), Hyperthermia is where the body’s cooling systems have failed and body temperature gets too high despite a “normal” set point (external forces (hot tubs, dehydration on a really hot day, stroke, certain medications different from those above) are in control).
Now, The Part That Might Actually Help You Write About Fevers:
How fevers present:
Fevers come in cycles. A body develops a fever, has the fever, gets rid of the fever. One “fever cycle” is known as a febrile episode. Certain fever-inducing problems may have one long febrile episode, several febrile episodes, or may have a specific pattern of febrile episodes (different disease processes have different fever patterns).
One Febrile Episode:
The Chill Phase: The first phase of a fever is called the “Chill Phase.” In the chill phase, the person feels very cold, their skin is pale and they may or may not be shivering (baseline temperature –> peak temperature)
The Fever Phase: The fever phase is when the person’s temperature has reached the new set point. At this point, the person feels neither hot nor cold, but may feel thirsty, weak, achy and generally sick. Their skin is hot and flushed (peak temperature –> peak temperature). If the fever hits about 40C during the fever phase, neurological symptoms start to occur- most commonly because of dehydration and electrolyte imbalances (this is seriously the main reason. Not kidding. Drink fluids when you’re sick). These include drowsiness, restlessness, delirium (difficulty concentrating, mood swings, anxiety, euphoria, behavioral changes like becoming combative or particularly withdrawn, irritability, nightmares, hallucinations). Seizures may also occur, especially in children. Cerebral nerve cell irritation due to temperature can cause similar problems, but not as commonly.
The Crisis Phase: During this phase, the person feels warm and flushed and becomes extremely diaphoretic (sweaty). This is another period where the person may experience severe dehydration (peak temperature –> baseline temperature).
Treating Fevers:
The interesting thing about fevers is that the general population assumes that they are super dangerous and need to be treated super aggressively. This is great for you as a writer, because it is yet another way you can freak your characters (and audience) out without putting them in serious medical danger. Honestly, if the fever is under 39C, it doesn’t need treated. If its over that, the goal is to get it under that. Completely eliminating a fever isn’t going to do much good, and if your story is in a lower resource environment, it will just deplete supplies much faster.
That being said…
The first thing a character needs is comfort/prevention of further symptoms. If the fever is below 39C, give them lots of water. It will make them more comfortable and reduce their chances of having worse neuro symptoms if their fever gets higher. If they’re hungry give them food, and if they’re not, get some kind of drink with calories and electrolytes (sports drinks or clear supplement drink (especially if the fever has been going on for a few days and they still haven’t eaten)).
But say the fever gets higher than that? Here’s what your supporting characters can give/do:
Antipyretic medications: These medications help move the set point back down. They work for fever, but not for hyperthermia. They also may make a person more comfortable, because they’re painkillers (aspirin and ibuprofen will reduce inflammation as well). Examples:
Acetaminophen
Aspirin
Ibuprofen
Acetaminophen and ibuprofen can be given at the same time.
Mechanical cooling: These are more effective for hyperthermia, but are only very temporary measures for fever.
Bathing a character in slightly warm or tepid water
Dressing a character only in very light clothing/blankets
Placing a fan in or cooling the character’s room
Cold or ice water baths will actually make things worse, because while they lower external temperature, they encourage shivering, which raises core temperature and is just really, horribly uncomfortable for someone with a fever (Winchester the Younger can’t get a break, can he?).
Antipyretics are a good starting point because they are treating the biological cause of the fever. Mechanical methods will only work for very short periods of time, and like I said, they’re usually uncomfortable for the character (unless this is what you’re going for, then be my guest).Â
R E F E R E N C E S
Craven, R. (2009). Fundamentals of nursing: Human health and function (6th ed.). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Lippincott, W. (2013). Brunner and suddarth’s textbook of medical-surgical nursing (12th ed.). Wolters Kluwer Health.
Follow @macgyvermedical for more like this!
Proximal, middle and distal phalanges articulated over a living persons finger
16.01.2025
Shared here today by Matthew Boroson on Facebook.
Tanith Lee was the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award for best novel, for the second book of the Flat Earth series. She died in 2015. You can buy Tales From the Flat Earth here in paperback or here on Kindle.
“There is the dove, and there is the serpent.”
Or: understanding the meaning of Ellen, Thomas and Orlok love triangle in the 2024 “Nosferatu” adaptation.
“Love is the law, love under will. Nor let the fools mistake love; for there are love and love. There is the dove, and there is the serpent. Choose ye well!”
Aleister Crowley, “Book of the Law” (Thelema, occult system)
“He is Infinity… Eyes shining like a jewelled diadem. Putrescence. Asphyxience. Devourance.”
(Pigeons and doves are from the same family bird)
Herr Knock eats the head of the pigeon/dove in a very graphic way. Dr. Sievers asks him why he does this. There's no verbal explanation. The occult explanation it's him not choosing the "dove" in this Thelemic dichotomy of dove/serpent ("choose ye well!").
The “Dove” is religion and its worship. Crowley saw the "law of the dove” as repressed Christian love: pure and divine. It’s blind and obedient love, taught in religious circles, but also peaceful and harmonious, like the “Holy Spirit”. It’s brotherly love, as well. This is what Herr Knock rejects, and what Ellen has with Thomas and Anna.
Thomas and Ellen share pure and Christian love, sanctified by marriage, as they made a holy oath before God (sacrament).
“Our love was supposed to be sacred.”
"Thank you for loving me.”Â
The “Serpent” is Spirit with its devotion, wisdom and delight. While the “Dove” descends; the “Serpent” rises. It's the fire from below, kundalini (divine feminine energy from Hindu tantrism) ascending, it's Eros: erotic sexual love. It’s physical and animalistic expression of love. It’s ecstasy, passionate and hungry love. It’s spiritual and transformative love, the circle of life and death, and rebirth (immortality).
Ellen: “I have felt you like a serpent crawling in my body.”
Orlok: “It is not me. It is your nature.”
"My vocation is the Serpent", says Babalon (the deity Ellen is a earthly manifestation of). Which is why Orlok says "love" (as in "law of the dove") is inferior to Ellen. The “law of the serpent” is the love Ellen and Orlok share, it's beastly, sexual and ravishing love. As she tells Thomas: "You could never please me as he [Orlok] could."
But “love”, according to Aleister Crowley, is “harsh” as well, as he defines it as “love may best be defined as the passion of Hatred inflamed to the point of madness, when it takes refuge in Self-destruction.” Which explains why Ellen says she abhors (hates) Orlok: what they had was so intense and passionate “it turned to torture, it would kill me” (self-destruction) as she confesses to Thomas.Â
Orlok cannot love as in the "law of dove", he loves as in the "law of serpent" (“I cannot be sated without you”). Ellen, as a manifestation of Babalon, loves both ways, because the Dove (Thomas and Anna) is love, and the Serpent (Orlok) is love, too.
“Choose ye well!”
“You are not for the living. You are not for human kind. You shall be one with me ever-eternally […] Do you accept this, of your own will? […] Then the covenant is fulfilled. Your oath re-pledged […] As our spirits are one, so too shall be our flesh. You are mine.”
“I relinquished him my soul […] I am blasphemy.” Herr Knock fanatically begs Thomas to kill him
“Set free the daemon’s [demon] body!” Von Franz tells Thomas before they open Orlok sarcophagus
More context here.
this feels like a sensitivity training for how to not commit micro aggressions against vampires in your workplace
"No Angel of Temperance" watercolor, 2024.
Private commission for @lickthecowhappy inspired by their poem of the same name
Prints!
“A maiden's token I see.”
Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu” is the only Dracula adaptation that skipped the Mina/Ellen portrait in Dracula/Orlok castle as the vampire recognition of her. Instead, Eggers decided to go with a silver heart locket with a strand of Ellen’s hair and have Orlok acknowledging her because of the scent of lilacs.
And had him doing this, after he kept the locket for himself:
“You are fortunate in your love."
Giving a lock of hair to someone is considered a sign of love and devotion, indeed. But in the Victorian era, it was common to keep locks of hair from deceased loved ones in pieces of jewelry, especially lockets. This is another connection between Ellen and Death (Orlok).
Peak gothic horror romance.
when I was in college in the 1990s I took a document design course and we had to go talk to an archivist at the university library
the library had a single page from a gutenberg bible (the bible had been damaged by fire and the remaining undamaged pieces cut apart and sold) and a CD sitting next to each other
we looked at the bible page, marveling at this 500+ year old page with its neatly set type, carefully kept under a sheet of glass to protect it
and then she held up the CD and pointed out that in 500 years, if a CD could even last that long, it was unlikely we'd possess the technology to read it
and we all got very quiet and look at the book page for a long time
and is evidenced by the fact I'm telling you about this almost 30 years later, I have never forgotten that blank-looking shiny piece of plastic sitting next to a beautiful, ancient piece of paper that someone pressed words into with a machine and left for me to read, hundreds of years before I was born.
turns out mustaches are really fun to paint who knew
A Constant Hum (found in a derelict factory)
Official ominous sign