#Also! I'm recovering well from my surgery :) Thanks to everyone who sent me well wishes!

[essenceofarda]

I love your art! Your style is lovely. :D Hmm, how about Fingon for the modern fashion studies? I bet he'd look fabulous in anything, but I'm curious to see what you think he'd wear!

Thank you for the request!! Here's modern Fingon, the cute dork, :D

🥰

[welcome-to-the-petting-zoo]

Looking back on my life now, I'm seeing how formative it was to me to follow this blog. You presented challenging texts on psychology and queer activism, and gave me an example of a polyamorous life far richer than I could allow myself to imagine. From the bottom of my heart: Thank you. I wish you well. Thank you. How are you doing? Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you

Hi Frozenbasalt!! Cat ( @neuroglitch ) here! Thank you so much for this wonderful message! It means the world to me - us - that this blog was able to provide you with something that was helpful and formative to you ❤️ I sent it in the group chat and it's much appreciated!

While none of us have been very active on this blog, nor have we been making updates to the podcast for years by now, it's not because we aren't doing well, it's just that other projects took precedence and in some ways it's hard to come back to something like this years later, when everything has changed but also everything is the same. Also there definitely have been some rough patches of life where the energy just hasn't been there. But running this blog + making the podcast is a very dear memory to me and I'm so proud and happy to hear that it was helpful to someone!

I still live with Moose and Hound+TP&Co. Moose ( @moose-mousse ) finished his education and got a job as an engineer. The firm is kinda crazy, but hey, they pay him, so that's good :p He's doing a lot better overall now that uni isn't constantly fucking him over anymore.

I finished my education as a psychologist, but ended up on disability pension for now. I'm working hard on making time for my own projects and dreams, but it's a work in progress, especially as I've been struggling a lot with negative symptoms and/or executive dysfunction for a while.

Hound and TP are now more of a collective than they used to be (lots of new and old faces) but at the same time they also have less in terms of dissociative amnesiac barriers between them, and can better be described as a collective rather than two very seperate people who never get to hang out. This past year they've gotten back into driving around the countryside on a scooter, and they have collected an infinite amount of pebbles. Also he's 2 years on T!

The wonderful Bear ( @prygelknabe ) has found work helping students with special needs get through high school. They are on a type of partial disability called flex job, where they work 18 hours but get paid full-time. They are also rediscovering their kink social life and figuring out how to live their best life!

Bat ( @the-life-of-bat ) is learning how to draw, making a comic, doing an internship at a comic book store and more. She has long since recovered fully from surgery and it's been awesome to see her grow. And it's been great for the two of us to be able to meet each other on more equal footing ❤️

Katten is still going strong at @compassionatereminders , bless her - she was broken up with by her long-term bf, but as a result, she is also having a glowup bc dude was kinda .. uninspiring. She went down in medication, has had more energy as a result, and now she's starting to get involved with the local political scene and stuff!

and Lynx is trying to get back to the job market after a lengthy battle with her mental health + immigration services trying to throw her out of the country. Definitely early stages of picking things back up, but there's a momentum now and there's a sense of depression lifting.

This all to say, that yes, ofc we are all facing challenges, and have been as well, but there's good to be found in everyone's narrative too, and we are still in each other's lives, and there's love and care to go around!

I hope you are also doing well! I'm always happy to see you in my notifications, and this message means a lot to me. Thank you for sharing!

[letters-to-lgbt-kids]

TW: surgery complications, medical malpractice (If you have health anxiety or medical trauma, this letter may not be suitable for you as it mentions a rare health emergency)

@libraries-of-books said: "How are you after your surgery?"

My dear lgbt+ kid,

Thankyou for asking and also a big thankyou to everyone who sent me kind wishes. It may seem like a small gesture but it really made me feel better!

I'm getting better. I'm able to leave my bed again and even though the most mundane activities are still pretty exhausting to do, I am slowly getting back into my everyday routine. Most importantly, I am still alive - it's emotionally difficult to think about the fact that this was not a guarantee but I'm so grateful that I survived. The struggles of recovery are a blessing if I consider the alternative.

While I don't want to share too many details, I want to give a quick recap of what happened: After undergoing surgery, I was in a lot of pain that got rapidly worse, and also had some other extremely distressing symptoms (like partial blindness). I went to the doctor four times and told them that there is something wrong. I was literally in the doctor's office full-on sobbing from the pain and nearly passing out every time I stood up... and they brushed it off. Oh, you underwent surgery a few days ago, that's normal after surgery, you are just very sensitive to pain. On the fourth day, they told me "It's probably Covid and has nothing to do with the surgery at all, please stop coming here" without even testing me for Covid. (I took a test at home and it was negative).

Well, on the fifth day, I woke up and my face was so swollen that I had trouble breathing and could barely see anything. I went to the ER - and found out that fluids had collected in my head. Turns out that the surgeon forget a tool inside of me... which caused a massive infection that was spreading through my body and by now was super close to spreading to my brain. Cue emergency surgeries to 1, remove the tool and 2, drain fluid from my head, plus heavy doses of antibiotics to hopefully prevent a potentially deadly brain infection.

It worked, luckily. The infection went down and didn't spread further. I'm back home now and it looks like I will recover fully, without permanent side effects.

"A doctor forget a tool inside me" sounds like a silly plotline in a sit-com but it was a nightmare in real life. Next to physical recovery, I feel like it will also take me some time to recover from this emotionally. Still trying to wrap my head around everything that happened - but incredibly thankful to the ER doctors who took me seriously and reacted so quickly when they realized the severity of the situation.

With all my love,

Your Tumblr Dad