#compression fracture

[gay-victorian-astronomer]

Ooh I'll be interested to see Kim go from thinking about shooting Harry to defending him and the Hardies in the tribunal. Really looking forward to this fic

thank you!! I am very glad to hear that you’re excited for it (you gave me the idea so I want to do it justice)

I’m definitely treating the tribunal as a turning point in how Kim sees Harry, for a variety of reasons— most of which he doesn’t figure out until after the fact, because the man is being held up by the sheer force of his emotional repression at this point and processing any of the stuff that has happened to him within the last couple hours is Not Happening until he gets the chance to sit down for a sec

[forensicfield]

Types of Bone Fractures

The various types of bone fractures exhibit distinct characteristics and can be classified accordingly. #Typesofbonefractures #forensicscience #forensicfield #forensicbiology

Continue reading Untitled

[medifact]

The bones or vertebrae of the spinal column can sometimes fracture owing to trauma or a disease condition that causes the bone to break. Compression fractures can cause a collapse of the vertebrae. On a side-view X-ray, a compression fracture usually looks like a wedge-shaped vertebra.

[gay-victorian-astronomer]

been a few weeks since I did this! finished up one WIP and decided not to start another so I just have one lonely filename this week:

Compression Fracture

Snippet from chapter 3:

OBSERVER (Hearing) — As you tie off the bandage, you can make out the word “apricots.”

Ask him about it. 

Let it go.

YOU — “Apricots? What about them?” 

HARRIER DU BOIS — He looks up at you with bleary, red-rimmed eyes. “They’re everywhere, Kim… It’s all over you too. Your jacket— the way it almost seems to glow…”

NOTE KEEPER [Medium: Success] — But it’s not apricot-colored, not really— it’s a very specific shade of blaze orange. 

ELOQUENCE — The exact color isn’t the point. There’s some other association he’s fixated on. 

HARRIER DU BOIS — “Maybe you should have just killed me. I… I’m not entirely sure what happened when she left, but I don’t think I do so well with that kind of hurt. And it really fucking hurts, Kim…”

WIP Wednesday Game

It’s WIP Wednesday, time for a little accountability, sharing your work, and getting a kick in the pants.

Here’s how it works:

In a reblog of this post (so people can find you in the notes) or new thread (w/ rules attached) if you want to play on your own, post up to five (5) filenames of your WIPs; not titles, file names.

Post a snippet from one of them. Snippet must be words you wrote in the last 7 days. We’re posting progress here. If you haven’t made any, go make some and come back to play!

After you’ve posted, people can send you an ask with one of your file names. You must then write 3 sentences in that file. If the filename is one you can't share from (for example, an event or gift fic), write 3 sentences on it anyway, and then 3 more on another to share.

That’s it! You can invite others to join in, or just post. I’ll be searching the reblogs to find people to send asks to!

If you’re reading this, you’re invited!

If you see someone posting a WIP Wednesday Game snippet, send them an ask! Make them write.

Requested/Friend event mentions under the cut! If you'd like to be pinged next week, let me know!

Friends @fiore-della-valle @redbirdblogs @greenbergsays @idkfandomwhatever @luckyspike

@obaewankenope @mad-madam-m @anonymousdandelion @geometricfractal @prettybirdy979

@eriquin | Requests @aparticularbandit @madnessfromthemountains @makeroftherunes @1attheedge

@whimsicalmeerkat @kidsomeday @lizhly-writes @skyderman @adhdavinci

@owlbearwrites @anachronismstellar @anyctibius @rilannon @lazinesswrites

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@kalira @virgulesmith @i-want-delfeur @selkies-world @exceedinglygayotter

[ophthalmotropy]

Pain and serious injury are so terrifying, tbh. I'd probably do anything to avoid it.

[ryanthedemiboy]

If NASCAR can make stock cars (this means chassis and shape that are the same as yours) that can go 200mph and wreck head-on and do a dozen flips in the air, and the worst that happens is a concussion, with the car even still almost intact, then you can make a street legal car do the same at 40% of that speed.

Here's one of the wrecks btw. He was taken to a local hospital for observation, not even a concussion (NASCAR reports injuries to everyone for transparency), and he raced the next week. (Although he did have a couple bruised eyes iirc)

He climbed out of the car almost completely under his own power.

[stormyrainyday]

this is prob such a long shot but im writing a fic where a character suffers an injury in his foot leading to disabling nerve pain. I've been doing research on the nature of the pain, exacerbating and relieving factors, management and prognosis, and any kind of aid that can help, but I'd like to get a firsthand account for realism and sensitivity reasons (as my own chronic illness is not even remotely related). if anyone is okay with me asking some questions I'd really like to know how such pain can affect your day to day and especially ambulation. no pressure but please lmk I really really would like it to be true to life and not over-medicalized in writing

directing to a page or resources where I can learn more is also welcome btw !!!

[chicagoneuropain]

Shingles Pain: Causes, Symptoms, and Effective Relief Option

What Is Shingles?

Shingles, or Herpes Zoster, is more than just a skin rash—it's the reawakening of the chickenpox virus that has remained dormant in your body, sometimes for decades. For many people, Shingles is a short-lived and painful inconvenience. But for others, especially older adults or those with weakened immune systems, it becomes a long-term, physically and emotionally draining experience.

The pain isn’t just on the surface. It seeps deeper—into your nerves, into your routines, and sometimes into your sense of self, impacting focus and mental wellbeing. 

How Shingles Affects Your Nerves

The Shingles virus targets your nerves, which is why the pain often feels burning, electric, or  stabbing—sensations that don’t match the rash alone. It typically strikes one side of your body, wrapping around the torso, but it can also affect the face, eyes, or limbs.

As the virus travels along nerve pathways, it leaves behind inflammation and damage that your body can take weeks or even months to repair. For some, that nerve disruption doesn’t go away, leading to a lingering condition known as postherpetic neuralgia (PHN).

What Is Postherpetic Neuralgia?

Postherpetic neuralgia is nerve pain that persists long after the Shingles rash has healed. Think of it as your nerves stuck in an alarm state. Even the slightest touch from clothes or a breeze can cause intense discomfort.

If you feel like your pain is outlasting the Shingles episode, you’re right(it’s not imagined), PHN can alter sleep, mood, and memory and outlasts long term after Shingles rash completely healed. Many patients describe becoming more withdrawn, emotionally exhausted, or hyper-aware of every twinge. It’s not just the pain—it’s how unpredictable and demoralizing it can be.

Symptoms of Shingles-Related Nerve Pain

Burning or tingling pain in a localized area

Extreme sensitivity to touch or temperature

Shooting or stabbing pain without a clear cause

Itching, numbness, or a crawling sensation

Emotional distress—low mood, anxiety, irritability

This pain may begin days before the rash appears and often continues even after the visible symptoms fade. The impact on mental health is just as real. Chronic discomfort can cause people to lose confidence, become socially isolated, or even develop depressive thoughts about their bodies and sense of control.

Treatment Options for Shingles Nerve Pain

Managing Shingles nerve pain doesn't have to be overwhelming—or something you handle on your own. If the discomfort has lingered longer than expected, or if it’s affecting your quality of life in ways that are hard to explain, you're not alone. And the good news is, there are several proven treatment options that can help bring real relief.

Effective pain management isn’t one-size-fits-all. The right approach depends on your symptoms, how long they’ve been present, and how the pain is impacting your daily routine. Often, it’s about layering different strategies that work together to help you feel better, physically and emotionally.

Some of the commonly recommended options include:

Antiviral Medications – These are most effective when started early and can help reduce the duration and severity of the Shingles outbreak, potentially lowering the risk of lasting nerve pain.

Nerve Pain Medications – Medications like gabapentin or pregabalin are frequently used to calm irritated nerves and reduce abnormal pain signals without dulling your senses.

Topical Patches and Creams – These may seem simple, but they’re often helpful in reducing skin sensitivity and calming localized nerve irritation.

Nerve Blocks or Injections – When the pain is concentrated in one area, targeted injections can offer significant, localized relief by interrupting the pain signals at the source.

Counseling and Emotional Support – Chronic pain can affect more than just the body. Emotional wellness plays a key role in recovery, and having someone to talk to—or joining a support group—can help ease the mental burden of living with pain.

In cases where medications and creams aren’t providing enough relief, additional therapeutic options are considered under the guidance of your specialist:

TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) – This non-invasive treatment uses gentle electrical impulses delivered through the skin to help reduce pain by interfering with the signals traveling along your nerves.

PENS (Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) – A more targeted version of TENS, this treatment uses fine needles placed near nerve endings to deliver impulses and provide more focused relief.

Spinal Cord Stimulation – For individuals experiencing more persistent or widespread nerve pain, this method uses implanted electrodes near the spinal cord to help modulate pain signals. It’s typically considered when other treatments haven’t provided enough relief.

At Chicago Neuro Pain, our goal isn’t just to treat pain—it’s to support people through it, with compassion, clarity, and customized care. If you or a loved one is navigating the challenges of Shingles-related nerve pain, we’re here to talk through your options and create a plan that feels manageable, hopeful, and centered on your needs.

When to See a Shingles Pain Specialist

If you've been dealing with the aftereffects of Shingles and are unsure whether it’s time to seek more focused care, consider this: when pain becomes persistent or begins to interfere with everyday comfort, it’s worth speaking to someone who understands the complexities of nerve-related conditions.

As Chicago Institute for Neuropathic Pain, our focus is on helping you understand what’s happening beneath the surface and guiding you through options that go beyond standard pain relief from general medications—offering more targeted, effective pathways to recovery.

You don’t need to have all the answers before reaching out. You don’t need to wait for the pain to get worse. The first step is simply a conversation that prioritizes clarity, calm, and care from the beginning.

At Chicago Institute for Neuropathic Pain, it isn’t just about treating pain—it’s to support people through it, effectively manage it to the point of it not interfering with your activities, and having a complete relief. If you’re ready to explore your options, our team is here with insight, compassion, and a clear plan for Shingles nerve pain treatment that meets you where you are—without judgment, and without pressure.

[gay-victorian-astronomer]

🌹

OBSERVER (Sight) — Your reflection matches your internal state better now, at least. Cracked, distorted. A large piece of it is missing entirely.

[htxpaincare]

Is My Pain Normal?: Understanding Neuropathic Pain and Why You Shouldn’t Ignore It

Persistent tingling, stabbing, or burning sensations? You might be living with neuropathic pain. Learn what it is, why it happens, and how we treat it at HTX Pain Care.

Introduction: It’s Not “Just a Pinched Nerve” – Your Pain Deserves a Closer Look

If you’ve been brushing off tingling, shooting pain, or strange electric shock-like feelings in your hands, feet, or back, let me stop you right there—your body is trying to tell you something. And it’s not “normal.” These aren’t simply signs of aging, overwork, or “just stress.”

I’ve met many patients who delayed getting help because they assumed these sensations were trivial or that they had to “just live with it.” I want you to hear this from a pain specialist who’s treated thousands of cases: neuropathic pain is real, diagnosable, and treatable.

So let’s talk honestly about what’s happening inside your nerves, why that pain lingers, and how we at HTX Pain Care approach treatment with compassion and precision.

What Is Neuropathic Pain?

Neuropathic pain occurs when your nerves are damaged or not working properly, causing them to send faulty pain signals to the brain. This can happen even in the absence of a clear injury.

It’s a pain that doesn’t always make sense—it may flare up suddenly, persist after a wound has healed, or worsen with seemingly harmless contact like bedsheets brushing your skin.

Unlike short-term pain that protects you, neuropathic pain can become chronic and exhausting.

Why Does Neuropathic Pain Happen?

Your nervous system is like an intricate highway of electrical cables. When these cables fray, misfire, or get inflamed, pain signals may fire uncontrollably. Common triggers include:

Diabetes (often causing diabetic neuropathy)

Infections like shingles (post-herpetic neuralgia)

Trauma or surgery (nerve entrapment or damage)

Spinal cord injuries

Nerve compression syndromes

Autoimmune diseases

Cancer or chemotherapy

Idiopathic causes (yes, sometimes we can’t find a cause—but the pain is still very real)

In some cases, like Small Fiber Neuropathy, people experience widespread pain and autonomic symptoms (such as changes in sweating or heart rate), often without obvious nerve test abnormalities. Many of these go misdiagnosed for years.

Symptoms: What Does Neuropathic Pain Feel Like?

Here’s the thing—it doesn’t feel like the pain you’re used to. Neuropathic pain has a character of its own. It may show up as:

Burning, stabbing, or shooting pain

Numbness that feels “deep” or icy

Pins and needles (paresthesia)

Hypersensitivity (even a breeze can hurt)

Electric shock-like jolts

Pain that worsens at night

Twitching or muscle cramping

Feeling like you’re wearing a glove or sock when you’re not

Worsened balance or coordination issues

Why Awareness Matters – Especially for the Aging and the Unaware

Here’s a pattern I often see:

In reality? Their nerves are degenerating, and the pain is not psychological or inevitable. It’s neuropathic—and very treatable.

And it’s not just seniors. I’ve seen young adults with post-viral neuropathy, women post-chemotherapy, and athletes with nerve entrapments all suffering quietly because no one told them what neuropathic pain feels like.

How We Diagnose It at HTX Pain Care

Every patient’s pain story is different and deserves detailed investigation. At HTX Pain Care, we use:

Nerve conduction studies & EMG (to measure electrical activity)

Imaging (MRI/CT scans) to rule out compressive causes

Quantitative sensory testing for sensory threshold mapping

Skin or nerve biopsies, when necessary

Thorough clinical history & neurological exams

We also screen for underlying conditions like diabetes, vitamin deficiencies, autoimmune disorders, or prior viral exposures. Identifying the “why” behind the pain helps us personalize your treatment.

How We Treat Neuropathic Pain at HTX Pain Care

You deserve relief—and we believe in layered, patient-specific treatments backed by the latest science. Here’s what we offer:

1. Medications:

Gabapentin or Pregabalin

Duloxetine or Amitriptyline

Topical agents like lidocaine or capsaicin

2. Interventional Treatments:

Nerve Blocks: https://htxpaincare.com/injections-blocks-specialist/

Steroid Injections: https://htxpaincare.com/pain-center/

Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS): https://htxpaincare.com/pain-center/

3. Regenerative Therapies (as applicable

4. Lifestyle & Supportive Therapies:

Physical therapy, anti-inflammatory diet and sleep restoration

5. Patient Education and Emotional Support

When to Seek Help

If you’re:

Feeling unexplained burning, stabbing, or numb sensations

Losing sleep due to pain

Finding your balance, mood, or daily function declining

Frustrated that nothing seems to help

It’s time to speak to someone who listens and understands.

Conclusion: Relief Isn’t Just Possible—It’s Within Reach

Pain can be isolating. But you don’t have to endure it alone or assume it’s your “new normal.” If something feels off—whether it’s your skin feeling “weird,” your feet always tingling, or your sleep becoming unrestful—trust your instincts.

At HTX Pain Care, we combine empathy, science, and experience to help people like you reclaim comfort, control, and quality of life.

Let’s start a conversation. We’ll listen. We’ll investigate. And we’ll treat you with the respect your pain deserves.

[mcmansionhell]

we've found it folks: mcmansion heaven

Hello everyone. It is my pleasure to bring you the greatest house I have ever seen. The house of a true visionary. A real ad-hocist. A genuine pioneer of fenestration. This house is in Alabama. It was built in 1980 and costs around $5 million. It is worth every penny. Perhaps more.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Come on, Kate, that's a little kooky, but certainly it's not McMansion Heaven. This is very much a house in the earthly realm. Purgatory. McMansion Purgatory." Well, let me now play Beatrice to your Dante, young Pilgrim. Welcome. Welcome, welcome, welcome.

It is rare to find a house that has everything. A house that wills itself into Postmodernism yet remains unable to let go of the kookiest moments of the prior zeitgeist, the Bruce Goffs and Earthships, the commune houses built from car windshields, the seventies moments of psychedelic hippie fracture. It is everything. It has everything. It is theme park, it is High Tech. It is Renaissance (in the San Antonio Riverwalk sense of the word.) It is medieval. It is maybe the greatest pastiche to sucker itself to the side of a mountain, perilously overlooking a large body of water. Look at it. Just look.

The inside is white. This makes it dreamlike, almost benevolent. It is bright because this is McMansion Heaven and Gray is for McMansion Hell. There is an overbearing sheen of 80s optimism. In this house, the credit default swap has not yet been invented, but could be.

It takes a lot for me to drop the cocaine word because I think it's a cheap joke. But there's something about this example that makes it plausible, not in a derogatory way, but in a liberatory one, a sensuous one. Someone created this house to have a particular experience, a particular feeling. It possesses an element of true fantasy, the thematic. Its rooms are not meant to be one cohesive composition, but rather a series of scenes, of vastly different spatial moments, compressed, expanded, bright, close.

And then there's this kitchen for some reason. Or so you think. Everything the interior design tries to hide, namely how unceasingly peculiar the house is, it is not entirely able to because the choices made here remain decadent, indulgent, albeit in a more familiar way.

Rare is it to discover an interior wherein one truly must wear sunglasses. The environment created in service to transparency has to somewhat prevent the elements from penetrating too deep while retaining their desirable qualities. I don't think an architect designed this house. An architect would have had access to specifically engineered products for this purpose. Whoever built this house had certain access to architectural catalogues but not those used in the highest end or most structurally complex projects. The customization here lies in the assemblage of materials and in doing so stretches them to the height of their imaginative capacity. To borrow from Charles Jencks, ad-hoc is a perfect description. It is an architecture of availability and of adventure.

A small interlude. We are outside. There is no rear exterior view of this house because it would be impossible to get one from the scrawny lawn that lies at its depths. This space is intended to serve the same purpose, which is to look upon the house itself as much as gaze from the house to the world beyond.

Living in a city, I often think about exhibitionism. Living in a city is inherently exhibitionist. A house is a permeable visible surface; it is entirely possible that someone will catch a glimpse of me they're not supposed to when I rush to the living room in only a t-shirt to turn out the light before bed. But this is a space that is only exhibitionist in the sense that it is an architecture of exposure, and yet this exposure would not be possible without the protection of the site, of the distance from every other pair of eyes. In this respect, a double freedom is secured. The window intimates the potential of seeing. But no one sees.

At the heart of this house lies a strange mix of concepts. Postmodern classicist columns of the Disney World set. The unpolished edge of the vernacular. There is also an organicist bent to the whole thing, something more Goff than Gaudí, and here we see some of the house's most organic forms, the monolith- or shell-like vanity mixed with the luminous artifice of mirrors and white. A backlit cave, primitive and performative at the same time, which is, in essence, the dialectic of the luxury bathroom.

And yet our McMansion Heaven is still a McMansion. It is still an accumulation of deliberate signifiers of wealth, very much a construction with the secondary purpose of invoking envy, a palatial residence designed without much cohesion. The presence of golf, of wood, of masculine and patriarchal symbolism with an undercurrent of luxury drives that point home. The McMansion can aspire to an art form, but there are still many levels to ascend before one gets to where God's sitting.

If you like this post and want more like it, support McMansion Hell on Patreon for as little as $1/month for access to great bonus content including a discord server, extra posts, and livestreams.

Not into recurring payments? Try the tip jar! Student loans just started back up!

[gay-victorian-astronomer]

kim looking at telescope (I think he'd think it's neat)

both of them

go nuts, just credit me. I wanna see where they go