When I was 17 my appendix ruptured because I thought I was just having period cramps and didn’t go to the hospital so don’t tell me PMS symptoms are no big deal
this actually happened to me during my math final and i didn’t think anything of it and when i was later admitted to the hospital my math prof was asking me ‘you didn’t have to take the final! why didn’t you tell me it hurt?!?!’ and i told him i’ve had cramps worse.
he gave me 100
This is actually an extremely common occurrence simply because in sex ed they don’t teach you how to tell the difference between menstrual cramps and other more serious pains. The way to tell the difference between cramps and appendicitis is that while menstrual cramps are generalized toward the middle of the stomach below the belly button, pain from a swollen or burst appendix will start in the middle of the stomach and relocate to only the lower right side, even lower than menstrual cramps, and is a very localized pain. It also comes on extremely suddenly and will worsen over time or when you make a sudden movement, like a cough or a sneeze.
Basically, if you’re feeling any sort of pain, even if it’s menstrual cramps, don’t hesitate to tell the school nurse or a parent, or if you’re out of school and home even make a doctor’s appointment. Chances are if your cramps are that bad there’s something they can do to improve that as well.
I am boosting the shit out of that reply, because I am twenty-fucking-five years old and did not know how to tell the two pains apart
Adding another diagnostic tool! This is something we use in the ER called the rebound test. Basically, appendicitis and cramps react differently to certain things. If you’re still not sure if you have cramps or appendicitis, take two fingers and press them into your abdomen where the pain is (try repeating this on the lower right quadrant of the abdomen just to be sure.)
When you press in firmly, it will probably hurt. Here’s the test: LET GO. Does it get better or get worse? Appendicitis will immediately hurt worse when you let go. Cramps will not. Go to the ER if the rebound test makes it worse!
THE REBOUND TEST IS REALLY IMPORTANT.
My husband got sent home from the ER with a rupturing appendix. When he came back and was rushed into surgery, the surgeon was super angry – “Why didn’t anyone do the rebound test?!”
All great info, but there is another lesson to be learned here: if you’re in major pain, it’s probably important – so don’t let anyone tell you it’s not. There is a documented pattern of women who go to the ER with complaints of pain being dismissed as overreacting…when in reality women have an incredibly high tolerance for pain, to the point that some don’t even realize exactly how serious their condition is. These stories only serve to illustrate this point.
Reblog to literally save a life.
I know a girl who thought she was having cramps but because she’d never had them before, when they got bad she went to the ER. Turns out she had a cyst the size of a grapefruit on her ovary and it had ruptured. Sometimes it really is just cramps, but sometimes it isn’t. Look out for that shit.
I will take every opportunity to warn people against these genetics testing “services.” They are huge data mines and prospecting firms, and if you are Indigenous, your submission may be their way around tribal moratoriums against these sorts of collections.
Plus, they don’t mean anything as far as Indigenous identity.
Oh wow, read this. Excerpt, emphasis mine:
“Buried in
the “Informed Consent” section, which is incorporated into the Terms of
Service, Ancestry.com warns customers, “it is possible that information
about you or a genetic relative could be revealed, such as that you or a
relative are carriers of a particular disease. That information could
be used by insurers to deny you insurance coverage, by law enforcement
agencies to identify you or your relatives, and in some places, the data
could be used by employers to deny employment.”
This
is a massive red flag. The data “you or a genetic relative” give to
AncestryDNA could be used against “you or a genetic relative” by
employers, insurers, and law enforcement.
For example, a young woman named Theresa Morelli applied for individual
disability insurance, consented to release of her medical records
through the Medical Information Bureau (a credit reporting agency for
medical history), and was approved for coverage. One month later, Ms.
Morelli’s coverage was cancelled and premiums refunded when the insurer
learned her father had Huntington’s disease, a genetic illness.“
Oh tf wow
Ancestry.com is the woooorst. Don’t use them ever.
They also are owned by the LDS church, and get all their genealogy information for the genealogy work the members are pressured to do to make sure their extended family (and all of humankind) gets eternal saving ordinances. The church coerces people into providing free labor in genealogy research under the threat of losing your family in eternity if you don’t. They then take that free labor, aggregate it, and sell it for a profit through Ancestry.com.
So
like
Ancestry.com exploits the free labor of people to sell it, and also exploits your DNA test results to sell them, so that people can exploit you based on the results of those tests, and they make you pay for the privilege.
Don’t ever touch that fucking company.
@ all my followers: i have looked into this and it is completely true. please click through on the links and do not use this service.
England, and from what I hear, Europe, is undergoing a heatwave.
Temperatures in the UK are around 30°C. Where I am it’s gonna hit 32°C in the next couple of hours.
To you Americans, you Australians, that’s nothing. It’s a mild day, we’re weak, whatever, I’ve heard it all, the thing is, WE AREN’T EQUIPPED TO DEAL WITH THIS.
The average temperature in the UK in July is 17°C. It is in the 30’s today. We simply are not used to it. We are used to rain and sleet and hail and wind, not heat. And our heat is a damp heat. A humid heat.
Because of all the sea around us we have an extremely humid climate if it gets warm. The air literally feels heavy right now. I am struggling to cool down because the humidity is fucking with my sweat, and as a trans man, the high amounts of water in the air, combined with my binder make it difficult to breathe, and I assume a lot of asthmatic people have a similar problem.
When temperatures in the UK are like this, people die. Don’t laugh about it. It is serious. It may not seem like much to you, it may not seem warm to you, but in a similar heatwave in 2013, 760 people died.
Our infrastructure is not built to cope with this. The house I live in, for instance, was built when the Thames still used to freeze over. It was built to be warm. The walls are thick, the windows are small, some rooms don’t even have windows that open, it was built with no though to air circulation, and this is one of the most common types of home in the UK. The UK government subsidises insulation. People fill every gap in their home with stuff that will keep the heat in. And nobody – literally nobody – has aircon. A lot of businesses don’t even have it. We have no use for it 99.9% of the time. Hell, I don’t even own a desk fan or even a hand held fan.
It is very different here to where you are. And we are used to and equipped for very different things. Instead of laughing, teach us how to stay cool. Instead of making jokes or quips, make info posts, and things that will help us.
Remember, this may be an average day to you, but to us it’s a heatwave. We cannot cope. And for some, particularly children and the elderly, it’s literally a matter of life and death.
Repeating this cause there’s another heatwave going on in Europe at the moment. This is reality for us.
A few good tips to deal with it, from someone from the south:
It’s not going to help with humidity, but it will cool things down a good couple of degrees.
It’s really cheap and easy to do. Also? Freeze half-75% full water bottles or jugs. Just to have them around. That way you can have something really cold to drink around as it melts.
I don’t know if y’all have them? Or can get them, but the uh.. Evaporative towels, I know there’s a brand called Frogg Chilly Pads, they help cool you down a LOT. I walked 5 miles in similar heat with one of those and it was probably the only thing that kept me sane. All you do is wet it down and then wrap it around your shoulders. You can refrigerate it for extra coolness. It helps to wick away heat and moisture.
Even if you don’t have aircon? Keep your house open. All your inside doors should be open so air can circulate, even if you don’t have fans to help facilitate that. There can still be parts of your house that are cooler than others, so opening those up and letting that equalize can definitely help.
This one is obvious, but STAY HYDRATED. I know it sucks to be sticky and hot and with that humidity water is like, the last thing on your mind, but just drinking it will help keep you stable.
If you can’t cool your whole body, focus on arteries and veins. Cool your wrists and ankles. Cool your armpits and thighs, or the back of your knees, or the inside of your elbows. Cool your neck. Cooling major arteries will cool the rest of your body, too. You also lose a lot of heat in your head, so make sure you keep your head as cool as you can. Summer is a good time for a haircut. If you need to, just rinse your head with cold water. It helps.
Try not to be active during the hottest parts of the day, if you can help it. Stay out of the sun, relax, take it easy. Do more in the earlier parts of the morning and later in the afternoon. It tends to be its worse around 12pm-3pm. Any time before 11am and after 5pm is a good time to get things done. Otherwise? Take it easy.
If you get heat exhaustion, GO TO A DOCTOR ASAP. It can go from bad to worse VERY quickly.
If your face gets red and you feel exhausted, dizzy, nauseous etc. PLEASE lay down asap. Start drinking slow, small sips of water. Keep your head elevated. If it does not pass, it could be heat exhaustion. Call or go to a doctor ASAP.
willowfoot 