sing-you-fools

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I recently started botox for my migraine. I knew it had gotten bad but until the botox kicked in, I had no idea.

The bone-deep exhaustion I was living with on a daily basis, that my adderall barely touched, that caffeine did absolutely nothing for, and that doctors said "yup, welcome to being an adult" about? Gone. The constant feeling of being vaguely nauseous that stomach medicines didn't help with and doctors assured me "digestive tracts get finnicky as we get older" about? Gone. The feeling that something is deeply wrong, that I am a walking corpse, that this can't possibly be normal but I don't really have anything specific to point to, symptom-wise, so what do I even say to a doctor? I feel like ass all the time? I feel like I'm rotting from the inside, but no, nothing is particularly bothering me, sure maybe it's anxiety even though I don't feel anxious about anything, I - yeah I know anxiety can be physical yes but shouldn't anxiety be a necessary symptom of - oh fine I'll talk to my therapist? Gone. And oh, yeah, those headaches, the ones that feel like someone's driving a spike through my skull that I have more often than not these days but honestly they're not that bad compared to everything else - gone. (And pretty much all the other headaches I got, too. The ones that "weren't" migraines.)

My first botox treatment wore off before the second one kicked in (for most people they last long enough that this doesn't happen; my treatments will be moved closer together to prevent this in the future) and I had about a week and a half of migraine again. I can't even wrap my head around how I used to function like that. I mean, I didn't, don't get me wrong! There's a fuckload of stuff I just never did because of it! But the fact that I was out of bed, out of the house at all, continues to amaze me.

Okay so I think one of the biggest reasons people don’t understand migraine or don’t get diagnosed with migraine or don’t realize they’re experiencing symptoms of migraine is because they don’t understand the difference between migraine and a migraine attack.

Migraine is an underlying condition, not a thing that only happens to you sometimes. Even if you get less than one migraine attack a year, you always have migraine, the underlying condition. Most people don’t get migraine attacks at all. Like, migraine is super common, and if you get a lot of bad headaches there’s a very high chance you have migraine, but most people don’t get headaches that impact their functioning like, almost ever. The majority of human beings on this planet could not experience a migraine attack if they tried— the majority of human beings on this planet can’t even experience a migraine attack if they’re injected with CGRP or PACAP, two molecules in the body that are some of the closest things to a migraine attack “cause” research has been able to find!

A migraine attack is a migraine flare-up. The classic comparison is that someone with asthma always has asthma, and then that asthma causes asthma attacks. Just like some people with more severe asthma deal with symptoms all the time, some people with more severe migraine deal with symptoms all the time (hi!) but the severity usually fluctuates.

The ICHD-3 does list diagnostic criteria for migraine attacks, and you need to experience 5 attacks meeting those criteria to be diagnosed with migraine, but that doesn’t mean every migraine attack/flare-up you experience will neatly fit into those criteria, or even that every bundle of migraine symptoms you have will be part of something you can clearly recognize as an “attack.” Many people with chronic migraine deal with persistent photophobia or nausea, or a lingering headache that doesn’t feel bad enough that they’d consider it part of a “migraine attack.”

I’ve had a lot of headaches that technically meet the diagnostic criteria for tension headaches, but almost all of them were symptoms of my migraine that have responded to migraine specific treatments, and my neurologist did not diagnose me with tension headaches— just chronic migraine and medication overuse headache (that one I don’t have anymore, the chronic migraine has unfortunately stuck). Since migraine attacks usually start fairly mild and then build up to more intense symptoms, the beginning of a migraine attack for many people will feel like “just a headache.” When I was a kid I didn’t even experience most of the symptoms I do now, as long as I could get some ibuprofen in me fast enough! But I still had migraine- it just presented a bit differently and was much better managed.

So anyways— if you get migraine attacks and also other headaches or migraine symptoms and have just been assuming those other symptoms are unrelated and there’s nothing you can do about them, maybe give your migraine rescue medication a try. I’ve had nurtec help more with fatigue than coffee. I’ve had mysterious nausea completely go away with a rizatriptan (though given how few of those I can take a month, I’d generally prefer to just take a zofran). Why does ibuprofen make me more clear headed!! What the fuck!! That sounds so fucking fake!!

And for the love of god don’t just tell your doctor about the headaches you think are “bad enough” to be migraine attacks. The other ones matter too.

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(be the change etc etc)

apple news trending headlines

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He *does* blend but as a painter myself: That Black kid is THE focal point of this painting, and I think the blending is an important part of it. It would be easy, wouldn't it, for your eyes to just skip over that part? To assume there was some reason the daughter stood a little further from the rest of the family? But the artist doesn't let you do that; he paints a white collar on the kid to make absolutely sure your eyes go "wait, what's that?" and return to the spot. And there, from as close to smack-dab in the center of the canvas as is reasonable to put your focal point - uncomfortably close to the exact center, even - a face stares back at you, and can you look away after that? You didn't see me, did you? it asks. They don't either. Can you look away? Look at this happy family, it says; every member of this family is so happy, aren't they? Can you look away? And as the viewer, you have to contend with the fact that, for a moment, at least, all you saw was a happy family. Just like everyone else.

Was the painter trying to make a statement, or just painting what he saw? I don't know. I know nothing about him. But does it matter, when what he saw was this kid, right in the middle and completely invisible?

Y’all.

Y’ALL.

So I’m in Minneapolis right now, and decided to visit the art museum. Y’all I need to show you what I just found in a collection of Dutch paintings.

Look at the boy’s eyes and smile.

Y’all.

I’ve seen that face before. On more than one person. Those exact eyes, that exact smile.

HE HAS DOWN SYNDROME.

He’s the focal point of this painting, or more precisely his fish is, and he’s got Down syndrome.

This is from the 1600s, y’all.

“Where were the disabled people back then” FISHING, APPARENTLY.

Disabled people have always been here. You just have to look.

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hey important agencies! if you are going to have your robo-callers use the phoenetic alphabet to make sure we're accurately getting the important information you're calling us with! please! make sure they can pronounce BOTH! the actual letter! AND! the word used to represent it!

signed, someone whose husband accidentally hit the "call" instead of "text" button and it took until repetition #3 to understand that "[unintelligible] as in LOW" was "KEEEE as in k'LOW" and would have interpreted it as "G as in Glow" if they did not already know G is Golf

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oh it starts out that way sure! but don't worry later they call her a fascist slut

i’m watching evita for the first time and i’m very surprised at how many songs are dedicated to calling eva perón a slut

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is your child off in space? look into our series of unique Truman Show-esque Capsules™️, in which we create an immersive reality for the child who needs to go on a heroic fantasy adventure in another world and slay an evil queen. but don't believe us! here's a testimonial from Crumberly, age 15: "What? What do you mean my parents - they - what? They signed me up for - no. No way. I - I fought in a war! You're telling me that was fake? I fucking killed people! My friend bled out in my arms! And it was all for nothing? Flera isn't even real?"

a big brother big sister type program except it matches young people with adult antagonists

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the agency works on a case-by-case basis to place your child with the best possible antagonist for their individual needs. in the past, we have provided everything from an almost-mentorship with an unnecessarily cantankerous 35-year-old man with whom the child could have a "screw you old man!" "what do you know, whippersnapper" sort of relationship, to a teacher or neighbor who fucking hates them for no reason, to a supervillain archnemesis. call us today and give your child someone to hate who's not you.

a big brother big sister type program except it matches young people with adult antagonists

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a big brother big sister type program except it matches young people with adult antagonists

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do you think, when Queen recorded a song that is all about doing lots of drugs and having lots of sex, going so far as to include the line "I am a sex machine ready to reload" such that no one could possibly misunderstand the point of the song, that they ever considered this would be their song that gets played at children's museums and on the carousel and MAYBE someday it'll even be the theme for a DISNEY movie!!!!!

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One (1) Snake On A Plane

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one hour until i can put some sugar in my coffee!

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i said i would do cupcakes for my kid's birthday party. she countered with both an Elphaba cake and a Glinda cake. so we compromised 🫠

i think i did okay

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if i ran a bakery we would start each day with a game of Butter Jenga using the softened sticks of butter we left out the night before

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I replaced the peas with thyme as another commenter suggested, and then I was out of ham so I substituted cubed bubble gum. I hate to say it but this soup was terrible! Really disappointed as I made it for a special anniversary dinner and we just couldn't eat it - we ended up ordering pizza instead, which is not nearly as romantic. Unfortunately just not a very good recipe imho!!

⭐️

I love the concept of stocks. I make a big batch of pea and ham soup every couple of months and I love that step 1 is "make a big ole pot of Ham Water".

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trying to invent Flying Monkey Tag for my kid's Wicked-themed birthday party. here's what i've got so far:

one kid is the Wicked Witch ("It"). the Wicked Witch is armed with a super soaker.

one kid is the Good Witch. the Good Witch is "armed" with a bubble wand.

the rest of the kids are Monkey Guards. the Monkey Guards have shields.

it is the Wicked Witch's job to turn all the Monkey Guards into Flying Monkeys (by hitting them with a Magic Spell from the aforementioned super soaker), at which point they drop their shield and gain access to water balloons.

it is the Good Witch's job to try to stop the Wicked Witch; it is the Good Witch's fate to fail. if one of her magic bubbles hits a Flying Monkey they are turned back into a Monkey Guard and must pick up a shield. but how hard is it to hit someone with a bubble vs a water gun?

it is the Monkey Guards' job to protect themselves and others from the Wicked Witch's spells.

it is the Flying Monkeys' job to create chaos.

the game is over when there are no Monkey Guards left. a new Wicked Witch and Good Witch will be chosen until the party dissolves into chaos.

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been teaching my kid to bake lately, which is loads of fun. she is consistently blown away by the precision required in measuring. "that's REALLLLLLLLLY specific," she tells me every time i tell her to measure out 161 grams of sugar.

tonight's her first cooking lesson. can't wait to tell her to add "most of the can" of tomato paste and shrug when she asks for clarification.