Daily OpusEverything I write is freely rebloggable. Just keep the source and tell people about my books :D [Until I decide otherwise, my pronouns are Ze/Hir/Hirself. As in "Ze went to the shops to get hir medication hirself". Thank you for the respect.]
Challenge #02966-H043: Non-crucial Failure State
In the early days, humans had just been allowed into the Alliance, but quite a few were still wary. These were very dangerous deathworlders. Sure they were smallish, depending on the species that worked with them, and somewhat squishy, but damn were they tenacious and dangerous! It was well known they were predators, too, that could, and would, eat pretty much anything, including quite a few things that were poisonous.
However, what the crew wasn’t prepared for, was during dinner. The human was a bit of a joker, liked to smile and was easy-going and easy to work with. So the crew’s fear and nervousness was fading fast. Then the human got a bad case of the hiccups during dinner. And they had no clue what in the heck was going on – Anon Guest
Humans have a great love of sharing things. Sharing meals, sharing games, sharing humour, sharing weird little facts about whatever they happened to enjoy. Shared meals, they insisted, were a wonderful bonding experience. Or… it would have been.
Humans, at this stage in things, were the ones who knew the most about Humans. All the rest of the Alliance had were testimony from close encounters, anecdotes, translated documents, and a lot of rumours and myths. Some of which were actively encouraged by mischievous Humans.
This was, officially, the first formal meal that Alliance civilians shared with a Human. Though the conversations were largely in GalSimple, everything was going well. Until the Human - Gef - started having a breathing issue. They started speaking oddly, with peculiar stops in their breath. Even when they weren’t talking, there was a peculiar noise accompanying the spasms. Human Gef seemed to treat it as a minor annoyance.
Imagine a world where people are required to get vaccinated, required to wear masks and take precautions if there’s an outbreak, and are given universal healthcare and a basic universal income. Now imagine that these rules are enforced by law. If people refuse, they are required to be placed in quarantine areas away from the general population due to the risk they pose to the population. Now imagine “pure lifers” coming in. Knowing full well the polity they were trying to move to, wanting to go there due to the fact the population was so healthy and their planets kept clean, had these laws.
Can you imagine the fit they throw when they find they are not being allowed to be exempted from those laws no matter how hard they try to avoid it? – Own Good
Once upon a time, basic health and safety measures were politicised. Interestingly, those on the side of profit above all were counter to the health measures that would maximise labor exploitation. They favoured speaking out against even the simplest of measures that could protect the workers, because the allied “health care” system could wring more money out of the populace via over-inflated billing regimens.
This lead to widespread poverty, disease, and business losses, but by then it was an identity, and all they could do was double down on it. When the chance arose to make a world in their own image, the faithful Pure Life movement threw themselves at the stars, aiming to live an all-natural, all-pure life. It was the One True Way, to which the universe’s population would naturally move towards.
You can imagine their outrage when they found that the rest of the world had carried on in the opposite direction. It had such pros as being able to afford medicine, shelter, and food. It had such plus sides as an almost nonexistent infant mortality rate. There were even bonuses like a longer and more enjoyable lifespan, which was heresy to the Pure Life Cult. Obviously the solution was to spread their wisdom to every corner in the Alliance.
[Be sure to visit internutter (dot) org for a link to the rest of this story, and details on how to support this artist. Or visit peakd (dot) com (slash at) internutter for the stories at their freshest]
Your mom and aunts aren’t on tumblr. Please warn them about this as well.
[Bless, now I can scour the old one off]
Pic to Text:
I am a family doctor and I want to keep a promise made to a patient
Jule was a healthy, post-menopausal woman in my care who came in for a perodic health examination. One of my routine questions, in what is called the “Review of Systems”, was to ask if she had experienced any vaginal bleeding.
She said “No” but then laughed and added, “Other than when my period came back for a few months last year”.
All health care professionals are taught early on that ‘vaginal bleeding in a post-menopausal woman is Cancer of the Uterus until proven otherwise’. This comment by Julie was, therefore, a red flag (no pun intended) prompting further questions, an examination and an ultrasound of her pelvis.
Julie was surprised to see me so concerned, especially since the symptoms had not recurred over many months.
Sure enough, a pelvic ultrasound and tissue sampling confirmed Cancer of the Uterus.
Julie underwent a hysterectomy and radiation therapy. She is now healthy, cancer-free and is expected to stay that way.
After all this was done, Julie sat ME down for a talk. She told me she’d had no idea a ‘short return’ of her period after menopause was a danger signal. Furthermore, she addressed the topic with friends over coffee and discovered that, out of 20 women, NONE of them knew this symptom was abnormal! She admonished me to “Tell women this! Don’t assume we know it!”
From that day on, I have kept Julie’s advice in mind when talking with post-menopausal patients. But recently my wife suggested that I should take this to a wider audience.
So, Julie, this is for you:
If you are a post-menopausal woman and your period ‘comes back’ or you have even one episode of vaginal bleeding, TELL A HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL and insist on having it investigated!
Wishing you all good health and long lives.
TLDR: Anyone who has a uterus that should no longer be bleeding and experiences unexpected bleeding should tell their medicos. Better to be safe than sorry.
Sometimes, someone with a life-threatening condition decides, “What the heck! I’m going to have Fun!” – Anon Guest
The prognosis sucked. The good news, according to the doctors, was that with expensive drugs and even more expensive therapy, Jeremy could stretch his painful last days by maybe three months.
Six months in increasing pain versus nine in absolute agony. What a fun choice.
“You know what?” said Jeremy. “Fuck it. I’m not going to spend my last days in medical agony. I’m going to live what’s left.”
Doesn’t it sound so scientific? It sounds like it comes with a free Guy/Gal in a Labcoat to explain in big words and complicated sentences why they are essential and how you can sign up for a special blind trial.
But really, today, I’m talking about silver.
Specifically, colloidal silver.
Colloidal silver is water with a tiny bit of silver in it. You can wiki it if you want to. And it can slowly improve your health over a matter of months.
It can help cure and prevent cancer.
This is not bullshit, like all the other “miracle drugs” that appear in great fanfare and vanish quietly into obscurity.
This is real. I have two cancer survivors in my family who have both amazed their doctors by surviving chemo with improving health. One said survivor was even expected to be long gone by now.
All because they take colloidal silver.
I’ve been taking it for a little over two months and I’ve noticed a change in my skin tone, a general lack of need for my asthma meds [I’m not stupid, I still take my Preventers] and less reactions to the things that usually send my health into a tailspin.
It may even be helping me lose weight. Along with portion control, healthy eating habits, chia and moderate exercise… That sorta makes it hard to tell what’s really working.
I know damn well it’s helping me avoid catching lurgi whenever I handle a shopping trolley. I haven’t had a lurgi or near-lurgi incident since I started taking the stuff. When I swept the floor, this Monday, I had neither sneeze nor sniffle nor a single wheeze.
The catch is, it works S-L-O-W-L-Y. You have to be taking it for two months, minimum, before you can notice a change.
I have some eczema on my face. Little rosy patches on my forehead and near my nose that flake and itch. No doctor-prescribed lotion has done a thing. Colloidal silver gel has reduced the area and “ugliness” of the patches. And I’m sure the process would go faster if I remembered to apply it morning and night, every day.
It may even be the reason that the royals are called “blue bloods”, since they spend most of their time eating with silver, drinking tea made in silver, etc. they’d get a natural overdose, which turns human blood blue-ish.
When you tell people, “I’m taking an Essential Trace Element,” you sound wise and scientific and you could even introduce them to the idea of a little silver in their own diet.
When you say, “I’m taking an alternative medicine,” they instantly assume you’re undergoing some hippie bullshit and ignore everything that comes out of your mouth. Even if it’s clearly working.
So look up colloidal silver. I know there’s a billion and one places selling the stuff care of the interwebs. Don’t be scared. Silver is an essential trace element. Everyone needs some in their lives to improve their health.
It’s worked for two cancer survivors. It’s worked for me. It’s worked for everyone who’s tried it, as far as I’m aware. Even my mother, who is scared of the world, is looking in to getting her hands on some. That’s how awesome it is.
Look it up. Try it for a couple of months. See what happens.
My weight went up yesterday. Not because of extra eating now that I’m on my feet [7th Mar] but because of the extra moving I’ve been doing.
I put on some muscle mass.
Muscle weighs more than fat, so I’d rather have it.
My fat-weight’s been going down, too, according to hubby’s technoscales. And I have some nice looking graphs to show for it.
Today, I’m getting some laundry done whilst the sun doth shine. Though I do have to check the clouds now and again for signs of rain.
My heel still hurts. Less and less with the heel insert in/on. That still doesn’t stop me having “rock days” or “knife days” when it feels like treading on the aforementioned nouns. On a good day, it’s like having something round and hard lodged in one’s footwear.
On a bad day, it’s like trying to walk with an open wound.
The extra good news seems to be that my knees are behaving themselves.
You know you’re getting old when your body says “snap, crackle, pop” and your breakfast says nothing.
I should keep a look-out for my passport, but the way my feet are going, I think I’ll just pick up the “we missed you” card and collect it from the post office.
I’ve already decided that, should I need a cane, I want it to be just like Lawrence Talbot’s :) only in my size, of course.
Ah well. That’s for another day. I have a washing machine to check and laundry to put out.
