#maybe it’s the MCAS thing

[batwynn]

I’m back at the, ‘I just won’t eat’ because there isn’t anything I can immediately grab and put in my mouth stage of things again. My blood sugar is taking a hit out on me as we speak.

[normal-with-adhd-is-a-joke]

As if I wasn't struggling enough I had another scary allergy thing. I was literally cooking soy sauce, celery, and tomato paste in a pan and the steam caused my face to swell and turn blotchy. My hands are blotchy too and I hurt in many places. Literally what the hell

[rabbitindisguise]

man mcas sucks first you're scared out of your mind and feel like the world is ending (because anaphylaxsis)?? and as if that wasn't enough you're nauseous and can't eat (or get sick when you eat) and since you can't eat you have "didn't eat disease" with all the normal symptoms (on edge, hangry, low blood sugar, etc) plus you're convinced to your bones that you're going to die of some mysterious disease and THEN after all this is done (because you took allergy medication) you're depressed and start pacing the floor thinking about how you're going to be alone forever because you feel nuts and everyone must have noticed and hates you forever for being anxious and weird for weeks because of it

and then you talk to someone and they're like "lol it's not that deep" and you're like. oh. I guess it isn't. my bad. it was just the histamines again.

anyway this could be about anyone and definitely isn't me personally at all the past couple week wdym

[bucketsofgiggles]

Wait tell me something about commercial aviation safety that sounds cool.

okay so like, the engines being Important is an obvious statement right? because not only do they make the Plane Go but they're also the plane's electrical power plant. it's why you've got cabin lighting and A/C and flight attendants can make you food of various quality, and also, ya know, let the pilots have instrumentation. and modern aircraft can fly safely on only one engine! granted, your pilot will be landing that thing at the closest suitable airport ASAP, but it'll all in all be a fairly standard landing, probably just earlier and likely at a different place than you were planning.

but what if you lose both? like US Airways Flight 1549? i mean, beyond the fact you're now in a Giant Glider, the pilots are now flying said Giant Glider without all but the most basic, analogue instruments, right?

nope! (unless your pilots panic/are busy trying to keep the plane in control/incapacitated, to which then you have Bigger Problems, Sorry). there's the Ram Air Turbine, which will deploy automatically and use the air blowing past it to make electricity, though it'll be prioritized for cockpit instruments only. there's also the Auxiliary Power Unit or APU which has to be deployed by the pilots, but gives them even more power than the Ram Air Turbine because, if you've flown, i guarantee you've been on a plane that's used it, because that's the plane's power source on the ground when the engines are off, such as when at the gate.

if Flight 1549 sounds a bit familiar, that's because it's better known as the Miracle on the Hudson, AKA the A320 that landed on the Hudson River in NYC in 2009 after losing both engines to bird strikes at low altitude. and among the many brilliant things Captain Chelsea "Sully" Sullenberger did in that accident was almost immediately start the APU, which gave him and First Officer Jeff Skiles way more instrumentation a lot faster. in fact the emergency checklist made after Flight 1549 (because checklists for dual engine failure before it assumed you were at higher altitude, and thus assumed you had much more time to troubleshoot/try and re-start the engines) is pretty much just everything Sully and Skiles did based on pure instinct during that emergency, with starting the APU one of the first instructions. it's colloquially called the Sully Checklist for that reason.

anyway here are some more links to Wikipedia articles about really interesting air accidents (FYI none of these have fatalities so don't worry if you're sensitive to that sort of thing!):

TACA Flight 110: Proto-Flight 1549 effectively, a 737 loses both engines during final approach into New Orleans after hail ingestion into the engines. Captain Carlos Dardano (who is worth a look up on his own, this dude is a badass) safely brought the airliner to a stop on a levee.

British Airways Flight 5390: First Officer Alastair Atchison lands a BAC One-Eleven alone after Captain Tim Lancaster is partially ejected from the aircraft after the cockpit windscreen on his side is blown out due to improper maintenance. to an airport F/O Atchison is unfamiliar with. while also overflying London, some of the busiest airspace in the world.

Air Canada Flight 143 AKA The Gimli Glider: another loss of engine power, this time due to incorrect fuel loading due to Canada's then-recent switch from Imperial to Metric. pilots landed the plane safely at a closed down airfield that had been converted to a drag racing course. one of the most famous airplane crashes.

Federal Express Flight 705: (TW: attempted murder-suicide) okay this is technically a cargo flight, but it's one of the most badass displays of flying ever. a disgruntled Federal Express employee attempts to hijack the flight and crash it for life insurance payout and also revenge (he was targeting Federal Express' hub). despite inflicting all three pilots (this is old enough that this plane still had a flight engineer) with severe head wounds, they all fought off the attacker and landed safely, while also flying a fully-loaded DC-10 frighter like a fucking fighter jet to throw the attacker off-balance.

i also recommend the Mentour Pilot YouTube channel. it's run by an active 737 pilot who's also trains new pilots, so there's tons of good insider knowledge and he breaks down complicated aviation concepts into plain language very well. his videos are very well done and i always learn something new, even with accidents and incidents i've read extensively about.

[cesium-sheep]

randomly sad that when matt is 80 I'll still be in my late 60s. I'll have to find someone else that can be trusted to take care of me before my partners die of old age and hard living, since it's best to assume I'll still need it. granted that's probably still well more than 40 years down the line, but I'm still randomly sad about it.

(very strange and kind of silly to be both definitely literally slowly dying Right Now but also sad about the potential of outliving loved ones who are currently still alive.)

edit: maybe it's just because acute episodes are often very lonely, and now I'm starting to come back out of the worst of it but I'm still alone. arin has to focus on herself and matt isn't here. they haven't even gotten to truly start taking care of me yet but I already feel like I have to brace for when they have to stop.

[thebibliosphere]

(This is an MCAS related ask.)

I hate to bother you with this as I know you are Going Through It as they say, so please feel free to ignore this outright or answer whenever you feel up to it. I also come to you with this because the internet is… woefully not up and up with info on MCAS at all.

If/when they did the initial allergy testing for you, did your results show you as reactive to only a few things at the time even though you were having reactions to many more things? And/or did you show up reactive to all?

I ask because I’ve finally talked to my dr and gastro about the possibility of having MCAS based on my entire life’s worth of random, miserable symptoms that check all the boxes of a mild to extreme allergic reaction depending on the day. Gastro was on board with this, dr has been hesitant but sent my bloodwork in for the basic panel of things. (Eggs peanuts shrimp etc.) Only shrimp and sesame came up, even though I have a wide range of reactions to things like tuna that they also tested for. Then again, the reactions don’t always happen so maybe this is normal?

With MCAS, it's very possible to have reactions to things that you don't have an IgE reaction to on paper -- which is what they are testing for with those tests.

It's also possible to have "random" reactions with MCAS, which seem inconsistent. So, one day, I can eat a certain food, but I can't do it every day or even every third day, or my window of tolerance will get used up and push me into a reaction.

You'll sometimes hear this referenced as a "histamine bucket."

Sorry for lack of ID, my hands are shaky today.

Tuna, especially tinned tuna, is incredibly high in histamine, so it's possible you are having a histamine reaction if your mast cells are wonky; even if you're not having an IgE reaction, they can catch via testing.

MCAS is a bastard like that. Actually, having lots of reactions you test negative for on a standard IgE test is one of the first warning signs your mast cells are wonky, and a knowledgeable doctor will look at that and hopefully start you on a mast cell stabilizing protocol to see if it helps.

So best of luck. Sorry you're going through it, but I hope you get the answers you need <3

[kirby-the-gorb]

we are about an hour into rare disease day in my timezone! (it's always the last day of february, whether that's the 28th or the 29th.) the true prevalence of mast cell disorders is unknown, as they are often misdiagnosed or ignored. and mast cell activation syndrome, the most prevalent kind of mast cell disorder, only had diagnostic criteria laid out for the first time in 2010. so whether or not it's truly rare is really up in the air!

(personally I suspect it is just aggressively underdiagnosed but I'm not a research scientist or diagnostician right now. and even if it is rare, it's gonna be a lot less so than it was 5 years ago as certain respiratory infections are known to trigger it into visibility. that's what happened to me when I got mono at the end of 2015, further compounded when I got covid in 2022.)

all chronically ill people face a lot of hurdles when it comes to seeking diagnosis, accommodation, and treatment (all of which can be severely complicated by any intersecting marginalities), but rare diseases present a special challenge.

for example, I have an immune disorder. my immune system does not like being alive, my mast cells are way too jumpy and throw a tantrum over every little thing. you'd think an immunologist would be the one to treat me, right?

I've had 6 immunology referrals rejected in the past 9 months alone. multiple major immunology clinics in my major city tied to a major research university outright refuse to see patients with "mcas" written anywhere in their chart.

after 8 years of being debilitatingly ill, and suspecting it was immune mediated for 6, and getting it confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt by the bone marrow biopsy last month, I will have my second ever appointment with an immunologist. another 2 1/2 months from now. the first immunologist lied to me about the reliability of the one available blood test, when I first came up with the hypothesis by myself 6 years ago, and forced me to abandon my (correct!!! now proven!!!) hypothesis for 3 entire years while we wandered around lost and got nowhere other than even more thorough process of elimination.

okay, well if my immune system is attacking me, maybe it's technically autoimmune? that's the rheumatologists instead of the immunologists, what do they have to say? dick all my dude, I don't have rheumatoid arthritis so they just shrug at me and go "idk, fibro? I don't know why you're here" and send me home with nothing. (I literally had a rheumatologist say to me, verbatim, "I don't know why you're here." buddy it's your job to read the chart and decide if I get seen or not, you tell me. at least he had a snazzy outfit.)

being chronically ill can be a terrible struggle no matter what, but a disease that is perceived as rare, accurate or not, adds a whole new layer of bullshit. (and of course there are much much rarer diseases out there, with even more hoops and dead ends and struggles and all-new layers of bullshit that even I don't have to deal with!)

anyway I'm having a shit time and using this awareness day as an excuse to productively bitch about it 👍

[tj-crochets]

Hey does anyone else with one or more forms of dysautonomia* have a thing where if they have a moderate-to-severe physical stressor (like a severe allergic reaction, getting a vaccine, stuff like that), they get a new bonus dysautonomia for a few days to a few weeks? I thought it was a side effect of allergic reactions for me**, but this vaccine I had pretty much zero allergy symptoms but am having new issues, so I think it might be more general. A few times, I've had increased issues with low blood sugar for usually only a few days, but sometimes as much as a month or two after a severe allergic reaction. Once, I had waaaaay over-sensitive adrenaline reactions for a while (bad enough that I watched an episode of gamechanger and had to stop because I got too tense and my heartrate shot up). A few times, including this time, my thermoregulation seems to be very off. Like, it's not great in general, but now I am sweating so easily which is not normal for me (and not good with my salt issues) *my diagnoses that fall under that umbrella, more or less, include but are not limited to: salt wasting syndrome, POTS, possibly MCAS, tachycardia (separate from the POTS), and "something is weird about your endocrine system, maybe Addison's?" **I did bring this up with my allergist! He said "Allergies don't do that". I said "If it's not allergy related, then why does benadryl help?". He stared at me for a while, then said "I don't know. Allergies shouldn't do that"

[lazypeachsoul]

Are you a good girl?

Summary: First meetings are important, but what happens when Fanboy forgets to actually tell you before hand? 

Pairing: Mickey "Fanboy" García x F!Reader

Word Count: 2.6k (whoops)

Rating: No warnings, except maybe a bit cringe worthy.

A/N: It's been a while since I've written something and it's the first time I've ever written for Top Gun, so please be gentle. Also, this is completely inspired by an episode of Grey's Anatomy Oh, and english isn't my first language so be warned.

Few things could make the sweltering San Diego heat better for the troops stationed at MCAS Miramar base, and one of them was the Annual Miramar Air Show. For the US Armed forces it provided a chance to bring the Navy closer to the civilians, but for most of the troops there stationed it was the best occasion to receive their families in their workplace without the higher ups grumbling about loss of time. An open doors day of sorts. 

And this occasion proved even more important for the naval aviators who could show said families how incredibly cool their jobs were – and show off their elite skills–. The Dagger Squad had been talking and planning about this occasion since the days were announced. And the evening before the exhibition was not going to be different. The Hard Deck was buzzing with conversations about the upcoming weekend of uninhibited air time and family visits. Sitting around the pool table –for once not competing against each other for a win– aviators exchanged attendance lists.

“My mother is arriving just in time for the first show. She 's been talking my ear off about not wanting to miss anything.” Coyote explained before taking a swig of his beer. “I think she just wants to snoop around the base for a bit.”

Laughs could be heard all around the table, the air relaxed and happy. Conversations about family were usually scarce, not because of a lack of love but of understanding that in difficult situations the thought of loved ones can break your heart more than mend it. Especially in the presence of people who suffered loss because of this job like Rooster. But the Airshow was the moment when those conversations could occur without fear. 

“What about you Fanboy? Your girl is coming, right?” Payback asked his partner who was playing with the sticker of his beer bottle.

“Yeah, she’s pretty excited too. Said she wants to see Phoenix fly, something about her being the best pilot on the squad.”

A confident I am was spoken before laughter turned into playful groans of disagreement. Mickey’s girl had spent evenings in The Hard Deck with the pilots to the point of becoming almost an honorary member of the squad, so her opinions about their abilities raised more playfulness than bad blood. Although Payback’s face of betrayal was very convincing. 

“My mother and grandmother are coming too. First time visiting me on base.” Mickey spoke bashfully. His excitement was difficult to contain at the thought of showing the women who had raised him, and supported him when he joined the Navy, how his hard work paid off. “They don’t want to miss any of the demos either.”

“That 's great! Now I get to show off to Abuela García instead of your girl since she prefers other pilots.” Payback joked and both men raised their beers as kind of a promise to fly their best. “Speaking of, is she excited to finally meet your family? You’ve been dating for a while, took you long enough to introduce them…” 

The words died in the pilot's mouth when he saw his WSO’s face fall. And the same reaction could be seen all around the table, small conversations stopping to look at Fanboy’s face for an answer. The entire squad knew how important those three women were for their team mate –and being as close as they were to Mickey’s girlfriend they also knew how important it was for her–, so their interest in the situation was high. 

“Shit, Mickey” And when no callsign was used the importance of the situation really dawned. “You haven’t told your girlfriend?”

And fuck, Mickey knew there was something he was missing. He really wished he could blame work or the stress of preparing the airshow, but the truth was that it really had just escaped his mind in between all the excitement. Nothing would go wrong, right? 

The next morning was an early one for the Dagger Squad, and out of solidarity with your boyfriend Mickey you woke up just as early to make him breakfast and show him all your support. What you didn’t expect is to be on the receiving end of all his affections. It started with a good morning kiss that left you breathless followed by cuddles while you tried to brush your teeth and wash your face. You weren’t about to complain, because if there was one thing in this world that you really loved was any moment spent next to him, but it made some part of your brain light up with curiosity. 

Still thinking -maybe overthinking– about his weird behavior you walked into the kitchen to find the star of the day pushing a mug full of coffee in your direction. Maybe the nerves of the show were making him antsy and he needed to clear his mind, and that’s why he took over all the acts of service possible in the world. Your internal monologue was interrupted when he placed the mug in your hands and more or less crashed into you in a mess of kisses and good mornings. 

“M-Mickey…Baby, careful.” You murmured against his lips with a smile on your face.

“I’m trying but you just look so good I need to keep you close.” He mumbled against your cheek, before pushing back a little to drink from his own cup. 

You lifted the coffee mug to your lips when something caught your attention. In your hand was his Star Trek mug. And for anyone who didn’t wake up next to Mickey everyday it would just be a nod to his callsign, but you knew the deeper story. Because when you had made breakfast for the first time for Mickey you used that mug for your coffee and he had to bashfully explain that it was his good luck mug and that you could use it but you should be super careful because, you know, it was very important. And ever since that mug had remained a ritual before big missions or events. So why wasn’t he using it for himself if he’s the one supposed to fly? 

“Everything good, my love?” He asked nervously with a tiny smile behind his mug. See Miguel García was a lot of things –a great boyfriend, even better son and grandson, one of the best WSOs ever seen…– but above all he was smiley. Worthy of a toothpaste commercial smiley. So when you saw that his smile didn’t reach his eyes you knew. 

“Good luck mug. Why would I need good luck, Mickey?” You drank a big gulp, searching for the energy you would need for whatever was coming your way.

“Yeah…uh… luck is always good.” He tried to explain but your poor boyfriend could never find it in his heart to lie. “I might have forgotten to tell you something kind of important.”

Okay, maybe not the conversation you might want to have at 7:00 am on a saturday on your first cup of coffee but if it was important you couldn’t say no. Mickey’s face looked worried and that worried you. Was something wrong at work? Is he feeling sick? Has something important happened? In the middle of coming up with your thousands of theories the doorbell rang. And the way your boyfriends face fell you knew whatever he forgot to tell you was behind that door. 

Moving out of the kitchen and into the foyer you took a peek through the peephole to find the same two women whose picture rested in your living room. No way. No way you were about to meet the two most important women of your boyfriend's life while wearing your ratty house clothes and disheveled hair. You turned to look at the door of the kitchen and you saw his head peeking out, looking back at you with the biggest case of puppy eyes ever seen. He was mouthing something that looked like ‘sorry’ and ‘i love you’, but you just couldn’t process it at that moment. 

Looking at yourself in the mirror you tried to smooth your hair and the wrinkles on your t-shirt, but quickly abandoned it when you realized that’s the best you would do. Meanwhile, Mickey had moved towards your position and smiled encouragingly at you in the mirror before kissing the back of your head lovingly and turning towards the door. Taking a deep breath you turned towards the door with the biggest smile you could muster.

“¡Mamá! ¡Abuela!” Your boyfriend exclaimed before throwing himself towards the two women. And just hearing the love in his voice made you almost forget the complicated situation he left you in. “Pasen. Give me your bags, they must be heavy.” 

Being a spectator to this reunion you felt out of place, not really knowing how to react. At the end you decided to just move aside to allow the two women to enter the house, although they were too busy squishing your boyfriend's face and fussing over him. Slowly the three of them made their way inside and that’s when Mickey held your hand before speaking at the two women. They looked at you almost expectantly, knowing who you were but waiting for the official introduction. Probably the same way you were looking at them, although you could see something deeper in Abuela’s eyes. 

“Ma, Abuela. I want you to meet my girlfriend-” 

His introduction was cut short when Abuela stepped forward and held your cheeks with a soft grip. Your breath caught in your face at the unexpected move and looking at the other two García you didn’t know if you should relax or be even more scared. 

“Nice to meet you ma’am-” 

“Are you a good girl?” Out of all the things you would have expected, that wasn't on the list.

“I-am I- What?” 

“A good girl. I don’t mean perfect, I mean relatively speaking. Are you?”

“Yes.” You answered with probably too much emphasis but nothing could have prepared you for this conversation.

“How many sexual partners have you had?” And it was that question that seemed to snap your boyfriend out of his stupor because he seemed to choke on air and took a step towards you.

“Abuela-” But it was quickly shushed by the older woman.

“Um…six. No, seven.” You replied meekly. It was too early for this and you didn’t have the clearest mind since you hadn’t even drunk your coffee. “Kind of six..kind of seven.” 

You could feel your skin get hotter by the minute because even if deep down you knew your answer wasn’t bad and Abuela had said she wouldn’t judge, what if she did? What if she didn’t approve? Jesus, she was going to hate you.

“Criminal record?” She asked with a face that rivaled that of any Admiral in Miramar and a beautiful accent that you were kind of sad her grandson didn’t share. 

“Speeding ticket.” Why were you more scared to lie to this woman than to the police itself?

“How fast?”

“12 miles over.” You answered and you realized that if you hadn’t messed up with the previous question you definitely messed up when she gasped and her hands fell from your face.

“That 's fast!” Damn it, not a good answer.

“It wasn’t too fast.” You started but seeing the woman’s serious face you cracked. “It was way too fast. I’m sorry. But I was in a rush because Mickey had told me he needed me and I thought something happened.” 

You rambled your explanation trying to look at your boyfriend to silently ask for help. But he only answered your silent pleas with a forced smile and a small shrug. Coward. Meanwhile, Mickey’s mother looked at you with a genuine smile which was unexpected seeing as you thought you were over in their eyes. 

“Well, I don’t suppose you could tell me where I can leave my jacket, can you? It’s been a long trip, mija.” 

Even if you wanted to be shocked at the change in her voice you jumped into the opportunity to leave the foyer where the entire interrogation had taken place. You took their bags that had been discarded on the floor and showed them the house, leaving them contemplating the living room with your boyfriend with the excuse of needing to change for the airshow. 

You were in the middle of putting on your blouse when the door to the bedroom opened and the man of the hour appeared. He closed the door almost all the way and tried to walk you way before he was hit in the face with the t-shirt of your pajamas. 

“You didn’t just let me embarrass myself like that.” You whisper-yelled to avoid your guests hearing you tearing their darling boy a new one. 

“Mi amor. Beautiful. You know how much I love you.” He spoke huskly while walking closer to your position. And damn him for knowing you so well and for knowing how you reacted to that voice. “I promise I didn’t want to frame you. It slipped my mind with all the excitement. I’m sorry.”

He wrapped his arms around you once he made sure you wouldn’t push him away and you were grateful the height difference allowed you to rest your face against his chest. He rocked you slowly whispering sweet nothings and you couldn’t help but start to melt into his touch.

“They hate me.” You spoke muffled by his t-shirt. “She hates me.”

He chuckled and squeezed a bit harder. “She doesn’t hate you. Trust me she would have let you know if she hated you.” His chin rested on top of your head and you could hear his words reverberate in his chest. “Also, you looked really cute being interrogated. Like a deer in the headlights.” 

His laugh reverberated even stronger than his voice and you smiled against him before you pinched his side. He groaned and pushed back, but now it was your moment to laugh and squeeze him. “And you looked like a coward. What kind of man doesn’t defend his girlfriend when she’s being interrogated?”

“The one who got on his grandmother’s bad side once and has no intention of ever doing it again.”

The airshow went as good as anyone could have expected. The weather couldn’t have been nicer and the crowds of visitors went wild when they saw all the performers. Having finished their turn and after clocking out for the day, the Dagger Squad made their way towards the camping spot where their families were waiting for them. Payback and Fanboy walked side by side talking about their performance and how cool they looked up there when the picnics came into view. 

Payback could see the very familiar face of his backseater’s girlfriend sitting on one of the picnic tables talking animatedly with two older women who looked too much like Fanboy to not be related. He gently slapped the younger man’s chest and discreetly pointed at the image. 

“I guess it went well even without a warning.” Payback spoke jokingly, the good relations between the women obvious.

“It went…well. Not a single bump or problem.” Fanboy confirmed way too sure of himself, which in reality only showed his pilot that something had indeed happened. 

“If I ask her, will she say the same?”

“Nope.”

Payback’s chuckle could be heard from the tables now that they were closer because you raised your head to look for the owner of the contagious laugh. Once you saw the pair walking your way you smiled at them, leaving Fanboy almost without breath at the image. 

“You don’t deserve her man. I would leave you sleeping on the couch for a month after that stunt.”

“I really don’t.” He exclaimed, patting his friend on the shoulder as a goodbye before jogging the rest of the way to your table. Eager to spend the rest of his day –and weekend– with his girls.

[eirenical]

9 Fandom Peeps to Get to Know Better:

Tagged by @merinnan. Thanks! ^_^

3 Ships You Like: FeiHua, PingXie, Yan Dan X Ying Yuan x Yu Mo (started an Immortal Samsara rewatch last night, so sue me. At least I know @slangerogkatter will appreciate that one ;D)

First Ship Ever: ...I have distinct memories of constantly telling @tirrasae when we were in high school that "Captain Kirk and Uhura should get marriiiiiied." But I'm honestly not sure if that was 1) even genuinely a ship and 2) if it was, if it was my first one. I'm pretty sure it wasn't. XD

Last Song You Heard: (Side note: very much approve of your listening choices, merrinan ^_^) Also uh... it was probably whatever my last morning alarm was, which means it was something from the MLCB OST. Probably... 一壶莲花醉 by Hu Xia. ^_^

Oh, also whatever the Hangzhou City background music is on the DMBJ game that's been playing nonstop because I have the game open on my phone next to me. XD

Favourite Childhood Book: I'm not sure what really counts as "childhood" for the purposes of this question, but probably the answer either way is Snow Dog by Jim Kjelgaard. I was OBSESSED with that book for a decent chunk of elementary school. Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry was was up there, too.

Currently Reading: NOTHING REALLY. Everything I started reading I Have since stalled out on. I was able to read again for like... TWO WEEKS and then the ability to focus on reading left me again. *sobs aggressively* But if it ever returns, the books I was in the middle of when I stalled where Into the West by Mercedes Lackey and The King's Avatar/QZGS (全职高手) by Butterfly Blue (蝴碟蓝).

Currently watching: AHAHAHA. I'm watching too many things and almost all of them are rewatches. Nothing new. Things I'm rewatching with watchalong friends: The King's Avatar with @buriedbybooks and @thearchivisttheprime), Mysterious Lotus Casebook with @elenothar, South Wind Knows with @kalypartemis. Things I'm rewatching on my own: Immortal Samsara and I just finished up Leverage and and moving on to Leverage Redemption. Also just recently finished rewatching all of The West Wing. ^_^

Currently consuming: Nothing at the moment but my tummy is a-grumbling, so maybe I should fix that. XD To anyone following my MCAS saga, though, I am happy to report that most of my sense of taste has finally returned from the war! So that's exciting. ;D

Currently craving: A break <-- ...omg, merinnan that is such a mood. TT^TT But also these curry puffs with cucumber salad that the Thai place in town used to serve. Unfortunately, they're closed and will never serve them again. TT^TT

Tagging: if you've been tagged in this post, consider yourself tagged to do it ^_^, also if you just see this post and want to do it, please feel free ^_^, and specifically: @bbcphile, @difeisheng, @fixaidea, @takethewatch, @adorablecrab, @sephstones, @doh-rae-me, @ anyone who I'm forgetting because my brain just went splat. XD

[cookinguptales]

in the continuing adventures of "body, please be normal" I've been dealing with pretty awful GI symptoms for the past month, and they have finally resolved themselves in a frankly bewildering fashion.

it feels gross to talk about, but I guess it was other people being gross and talking about their own symptoms that helped me figure out what was going wrong with me so like. maybe this will help someone else.

(cut for talk about medical issues, particularly gerd, endometriosis, and mcas)

Now... I've been dealing with pretty severe acid reflux for several years now. It seems to be attached to hormonal changes in the body because it flares up when I'm on any kind of hormonal medication (including birth control) or my period is approaching. It tends to manifest in ENT symptoms because the acid gets up into my sinuses and it's a whole fucking mess.

(Best guess is that it's related to the endometriosis and potential internal scarring, but the docs are REALLY hesitant to open me up to see the extent of the scarring because the EDS means that I heal poorly.)

Since I came off hormonal birth control, it hasn't been nearly as bad. I used to have to take fairly high doses of omeprazole at all times, but now it seems to be sufficient to take small doses of famotidine when it flares once a month.

That said! It's been flaring more often and worse since late last year, and I've been experiencing a particularly bad flare that's lasted for about a month now. Not to be too graphic, but I've had pretty severe burns in my mouth and pretty extensive oral bleeding. It's been... not fun!

(plus other GI issues, but they've been relatively mild compared to the... blood...)

I've been taking both omeprazole and famotidine, my usuals, but it's barely made a dent in it. I have been, safe to say, In Hell, but I wasn't able to get an appointment with a doctor until late May so I've just been kind of putting up with it.

Yesterday I really wanted to go to a street festival and I was like... okay, who knows if I'll be able to eat anything because even broth and oatmeal have been making me sick, but we'll give it a try. And I took some allergy medicine because it's spring and -- it went away. All my symptoms went away.

I AM... BEWILDERED... but yeah like I took the allergy meds and my symptoms went from 90% down to like... maybe 10%. Not perfect, but very bearable. And when I took my acid reflux meds, it actually got a little worse...?

So today I am off all reflux medications and on quite a bit of allegra and I feel almost fine. I am incredibly bewildered. All I can figure is that this time, as opposed to my regular flares, things were caused by some kind of allergic reaction...? I'm not sure to what, as I haven't really done anything differently lately, but I guess it could just be environmental.

I googled and Dr. Google says that acid reflux can be triggered by allergies, which has me back in the "wait, is MCAS a thing that's been ruining my life??" place. It's a diagnosis that my doctors have been toying with, but I've never worried about it too much compared to the others. But I guess the GI issues I've been experiencing aren't too unusual to MCAS, where your body has weird heightened allergic reactions to a lot of things, so like. orz

I guess I have been so allergic to the universe that my body was trying to literally eat itself.

I'm still going to go to the GI doc in a few weeks and see what they have to say but like. I guess I just keep mainlining allegra for now. It's a thing I'll have to be careful with (allergy meds give me eye problems, so I guess I'll be doing eye drops 10x a day again) but it's better than the life I've been living! :')

I guess I'm just happy that I've found some kind of solution but like. jesus christ. what the heck.

[mariacallous]

(New York Jewish Week) — The corner of Ludlow and Rivington streets in New York City is now officially known as Beastie Boys Square.

The co-naming of this Lower East Side street corner — where the shop featured on the Jewish rappers’ second album, “Paul’s Boutique,” once stood — was the result of a 10-year effort spearheaded by Leroy McCarthy, an activist who has successfully lobbied for other New York City streets named in honor of rappers, including Notorious B.I.G. and the Wu-Tang Clan.  

Hundreds of New Yorkers packed the downtown intersection Saturday afternoon for the official unveiling of Beastie Boys Square. Though some kvetched about the humidity and the unexplained 80-minute delay, the Gen X-heavy crowd — plus a smattering of their offspring — was a respectful one, singing along to years’ worth of Beastie Boys songs played on loudspeakers as they waited for the ceremony to begin, and for the appearance of the two people everyone had come to see: Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz and Michael “Mike D” Diamond.

Horowitz, Diamond and Adam “MCA” Yauch, who died in 2012 at 47, formed their highly influential band in New York City in 1981. Though they started as a teenage punk band, they eventually pivoted to hip-hop — and after their first rap album — 1986’s “Licensed to Ill,” produced by fellow Jewish hip-hop fan Rick Rubin — produced a series of hits, the Beastie Boys became household names. 

The group followed up with 1989’s sample-heavy “Paul’s Boutique” — featuring the photograph of the Lower East Side street corner — which flopped upon its release but is now widely considered a masterpiece. Their next albums, 1992’s “Check Your Head” and 1994’s “Ill Communication” were cultural juggernauts, and four more albums followed.  

All three Beastie Boys have Jewish backgrounds: Horovitz, 56, grew up on Park Avenue, the son of playwright Israel Horovitz and a Roman Catholic mother. Diamond, 57, grew up on the Upper West Side; his father, Harold, was an art dealer and his mother, Hester, was a famous decorator and art collector. Yauch hailed from Brooklyn Heights, the only child of Frances, a Jewish social worker, and a non-Jewish architect.

In 2004, the group gave a very Jewish interview with Heeb magazine, in which Yauch disclosed he was trying to get his Uncle Freddy to teach him some Yiddish “so I could work some Yiddish lyrics on an album.” Diamond said he was raised by “a Barney Greengrass family,” referring to the famous Upper West Side appetizing shop.

Following Yauch’s death from cancer, the group disbanded. So, on Saturday, anticipation crept up alongside the mercury in the thermometer as the crowd waited to catch a glimpse of the remaining Beasties. 

But first, local politicians had things to say. Kicking off the speeches with a “mic check” or two was Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, who put the Beasties’ Jewishness front and center.

“I was 16 when ‘Licensed to Ill’ came out — it was like a thunderbolt came down and struck me,” he said. “Now, I know these guys didn’t advertise it, but trust me: Every Jewish kid in America, we knew they were Diamond and Yauch and Horowitz.”

“Were you a Jewish kid in America back in the 80s and 90s?” Levine shouted to the crowd, and many — including this reporter — cheered back. “Yes you were! Personally, that was the first moment I realized there was maybe a faint hope that I could be cool. It didn’t work out, but I still have hope.”

As it happens, the Beasties have a few Jewish lyrics in their stable, including biblical references, a shoutout to Ellis Island, and Ad-Rock’s line “Well I’m a funky-ass Jew and I’m on my way/ And yes I got to say f— the KKK” on “Right Right Now Now” from the 2004 album “To the 5 Boroughs.”

Three other local politicians spoke: Assembly member Grace Lee and City Council members Carlina Rivera and Christopher Marte, the last of whom Levine credited with making Beastie Boys Square happen.

“You have no idea how hard it is to get a street renamed in New York,” Levine said of Marte. “He did it.” 

The activist McCarthy’s initial proposal for Beastie Boys Square was rejected by Community Board 3 in 2014 because the name change didn’t meet requirements. McCarthy was subsequently barred from reapplying for the name change for another five years. His renewed proposal was approved in 2022 with the support of Marte and other local politicians. In 2013, a small Brooklyn playground was named for Yauch. 

At last, it was time for the main event, and Horovitz and Diamond took to the stage while the crowd cheered. Horovitz, who said he “brought notes,” spoke first, exclaiming that he didn’t realize other people would be speaking. “Sorry if I’m saying what they said,” he said, thanking McCarthy and “everyone who loves Beastie Boys music.” 

“I don’t really understand why, but I know that I love it, so in a way that makes us kind of friends, right?” he added. “Like we bonded over these weird records, so thank you.”

He also thanked New York City, not only for the street renaming, but “for teaching us what to look at, what to listen to, what to wear, how to love, how to live.”

Next, Diamond took the mic, thanking the crowd for coming despite the heat. “Everyone is so dedicated, willing to put in the work to show the love, not only for this band, but, I think, everything we came from, coming from New York City.”

After giving a shoutout to his deceased parents, Diamond also expressed his love for New York, saying that the Beastie Boys couldn’t have come from anywhere else. “Growing up here in New York City and hearing all this incredible music, being all this incredible art, being around all these incredible people — this only in New York City,” he said. “So thank you so much, y’all.”

He concluded his remarks with moving words for Yauch, whom he described as their “brother on this amazing journey.” The crowd responded with chants of “MCA! MCA!”

But Horowitz, who appeared to get a bit verklempt as he concluded his speech, arguably summed up the meaning of the event best. 

“We walk around these streets and we don’t really think about who they’re named after, like Ludlow Street, Irving Street, Father Demo Square,” he said. “But it makes me really happy to know that some kid on their way to school 50 years from now is gonna pass by this and look up and be like, ‘What the f— is a Beastie Boy and why do they have a square?’ Just like I did when I was a kid, looking at Perry Street, Charles Street, wondering what it’s about.” 

[doberbutts]

I just saw your post about how testosterone has helped your disability tremendously, which if I remember correctly is hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (but maybe I’m wrong). I’m agender and have been considering early menopause to help with my abundance of menstrual health issues, but if t helped your hEDS too that makes me really want to consider it further. If this is too private you absolutely don’t have to answer it but I’d love to know more as a fellow disabled person.

It's POTS actually :) though POTS is highly comorbid with hEDS and I *am* hypermobile, to a degree that I made my physical therapist wince with how easily I can assume positions that should noooooot be possible without pain when I was in recovery due to my car accident. She actually asked me if I have EDS and I said well I have POTS so... not officially but is it possible sure I guess.

So no, I do not have hEDS. But also yes I might have hEDS. Schroedinger's diagnosis.

No, testosterone helped my POTS symptoms disappear to almost nothing. This is at least partially because POTS does not get along with estrogen ans menstrual cycles, and taking testosterone lowered the estrogen in my body and also stopped my menstural cycle. Don't get me wrong, I still have some symptoms, but they are dramatically improved. I can do all sorts of things I used to not be able to.

There is... a bit of debate whether I have POTS at all. But I do have MCAS and, as said, I'm hypermobile, so very likely yes POTS is very likely. But with my NCAH diagnosis, it's equally possible that I *do not* have POTS, because NCAH also causes weird changes to your vasovagal response and your autonomic nervous system. In other words, do I have POTS AND NCAH... or do I just have NCAH?

Personally I don't really care because adding testosterone fixed the symptoms way better than anything the POTS meds were doing so w/e, if it works it works.

It's "makes you intersex and sometimes gay disease but also you faint a lot and your body *really* sucks at handling stress disease". To be fair the classic form of CAH can just outright kill you if not well controlled. Nonclassic CAH by comparison sometimes still tries really hard but is less likely to do more than give you some serious medical trauma.

So like. Am I fainting because my body doesn't know how to handle stress which triggers a response of my autonomic nerve and because my adrenal glands are too busy making androgens to give me some fucking cortisol to communicate with my autonomic nerve, the thing guesses wrong and I hit the ground as my body attempts the biology version of "have you turned it off and then back on again"? Or am I the unluckiest fucker on the planet and I have two annoyingly underdiagnosed but much more common than we thought disorders which both hate estrogen and make me faint a lot?

Or, bonus, since POTS joins PCOS in the "disorder named for a symptom that's not even diagnostuc criteria and no one actually knows what causes it" family, is what we're calling "POTS" actually a group of symptoms that has a wide range of causes and my cause for my own symptoms IS NCAH? Who knows 🤷‍♂️

[wendingways]

ROTS Padmé time travels to AOTC AU

AU where Padmé dies at the end of ROTS and wakes up in 22 BBY, on the night of Zam Wesell's assassination attempt.

Padmé wakes up, rolls over, and realises she hasn’t been able to do that this easily for months. Remembers everything that happened in the past couple of days. And realises her babies are nowhere in sight.  And it’s dark, but this looks a hell of a lot like her room in the senate apartment complex.  And oh shit, what’s that shadow moving along the wall?

She doesn’t know how she got back here, or where her children are, but she does know the galaxy is not a safe place for her right now, and shadow-skulkers are rarely up to any good.  So, she grabs her blaster from under her pillow and shoots. Voila, dead assassin bugs.

Anakin predictably comes running (and Obi-Wan too).  Padmé turns the blaster on him.  But he’s very young.  Obi-Wan is also very young.  And Padmé is very confused.

Anakin is like, “Hey, what are you pointing that thing at me for?  I’m supposed to be protecting you!”

And then her eyes focus on the long braid hanging over his shoulder.  Short hair. 

I hold that finding Padmé aiming a blaster at him would make Anakin a little less prone to AOTC-type creepiness.

And then it all starts to maybe-kind of-sort of make sense.  No kids.  Young Anakin.  The dead bugs on the floor.  Is it really possible that the Force sent her back in time as she died?

Obi-Wan still goes out the window after the droid.  Anakin stays behind, however, because Padmé’s Force presence feels distinctly rattled, and she still looks frazzled, and he’s not at all sure she should be left alone.

Padmé, alone with Anakin and not exactly comfortable with it, tries for humor.  She points to the bugs.  “Want a midnight snack?”  Anakin just stares at her.  Oh, right.  She hasn’t found out about that particular dietary habit of his yet, in this timeline.

Anakin is a little perplexed as to why there’s the slight ring of an inside joke to her words?

They clean up the bug carcasses, he returns to the living room, and she goes back to bed and has a long cry.

She hears a clattering from the kitchen, and a little later, Anakin knocks on her door.  “You okay?  I thought… I brought you tea?  Obi-Wan always says this one’s good for when you’re feeling… uh… unsettled.”

Padmé is torn between equally strong desires to deal him a good, hard slap and to bury her face in his tunic and pretend the next three years haven’t already happened.  Neither of which is appropriate at this juncture, so she compromises, and graciously accepts the tea.

She still goes into refuge.

Debates not even trying to show up for MCA vote, because she knows clones are already there, on Kamino.  She knows Palpatine will weasel his way into getting an army even if the majority votes against MCA.  And hell, she knows the vote will fail.  So what’s the point?

But decides the point is to strengthen her faction and demonstrate her position.  She needs to build her coalition.  The good news is she already knows who she’ll be able to trust, so she can get them together faster, and then focus on recruiting more difficult allies.

She wears much more sensible clothes for refugeeing.

On the way to Naboo, she asks Anakin if he’s heard from Shmi lately.  A perfectly normal conversation topic.

“No.  I’ve been having dreams, though.  Of Mom, she’s hurt, she’s dying, and—Obi-Wan says it’s nothing, but I just… they feel real.”

“I have a friend who’s spent time on Tatooine,” Padmé said.  “I’ll ask her if she can get in touch with your mom, if that will give you some peace of mind.”

“Really?  You would do that?”

“Of course. 

Then she calls Sabé, and she’s like, “Hey, I need you to meet me and a friend in Mos Espa, and pretend that you found out that Shmi Skywalker was freed by and married Cliegg Lars, and lives on his moisture farm near Anchorhead.”

Sabé is like, “Ohhh… kaayyy….”

“I’ll tell you the whole story,” Padmé says, “but later, in person.  First, there’s something I need you to help me with.”

A couple days into their trip, Padmé tells Anakin that Sabé reported Shmi is no longer with Watto, but she was able to find out where she went.

And Padmé’s like, “You know… we could always go to Tatooine instead.  I’d probably be safer there than on Naboo, really.  No one will think to look for a spoiled Mid-Rimmer on that dustball.”

Padmé and Anakin arrive in Mos Espa, and Sabé takes them straight to the Lars farm.

Padmé praying that a few extra days will buy them enough time to save Shmi.  She knows she should be grateful for the chance she was given, but damn it, why couldn't the Force have dropped her even just a little farther back in time?

When Anakin heads out to go to Tusken camp, Padmé is like, "We're coming with you.”

He protests, because she needs to stay safe, but she’s like, “If you want to talk about unsafe, how about running off without backup?  Sabé was a queen’s bodyguard, don’t forget, and I have the same training.”  And three years more practical experience.

Anakin relents, mostly because no way he’s going to out-stubborn both Padmé and Sabé. 

Padmé gets water, maybe other med things, blanket?  And then she and Sabé head out with Anakin.  She’s determined that there will be no slaughter today.

They get there, Shmi’s not good.

Padmé her hand on Anakin’s shoulder as they approach.  Steady.  I’m here.  Sabé is here.  You’re not alone.  Shmi’s going to be okay.  I hope.  If she isn’t, Sabé has orders to shoot Anakin with a stun bolt while Padmé distracts him.  After that… Padmé supposes she would have to call the Jedi, and she and Sabé would just have to keep stunning Anakin until one of the Order arrives to deal with him.  Tough love.  She prays it won’t come to that.

“Sabé, stand guard.  Anakin, help me get your mother loose.  Give her a little of the water.”  She needs to keep him focused on being useful, and not on thoughts of bloody vengeance. Has she always been this unrattled in a crisis, or is she keeping her cool only through her determination to change the future?  Padmé doesn’t even know.

Man, if Anakin fell in love with Padmé before, he really will now that she's helped save his mom.

She has a bit of euphoria from averting disaster, and then she sees Anakin staring moodily out, saber in hand.  Oh, no.

“I hate them.”

“I know.”

“Jedi aren’t supposed to hate, but I want them to hurt.  Like they hurt her.”

“I know.  I've hated the Neimoidians ever since they invaded my planet.  Hating those who harm us is a natural reaction.  Just... it doesn't mean we have to act on it, you know?  Because then we aren't acting any better than the people we hate."

She places one hand over his, and with the other gently tugs on the lightsaber.  “Let me keep this for you.  Just until you’ve got some distance from all of this.  I don’t want you to do something you might regret, Ani.”

He lets go, and she hooks the saber to her own belt.

“Come on.  Let’s get your mom home.”

He gives a jerky nod.  “Okay.”

Padmé tries to draw Anakin out, have actual conversations instead of terrible flirting, and give him options so he doesn't feel that he's stuck in the Jedi Order.

"Anakin... I know, years ago, Master Jinn said you would be a Jedi one day, and I know you wanted to then, but... people change, you know?  And there's nothing wrong with that.  I just want to make sure... that you know you aren't trapped, if you find it's not for you.  I have lots of connections, if you ever need them, or even if your family does."

She takes a moment, lies down, stretched out in the sun, on the sand.  Just being.

Anakin wanders over.  "What the kriff are you doing?"

"I'm enjoying being alive.  It's something I didn't appreciate often enough, before I... before now, I guess."  Teasingly, she adds, "Why don't you come join me, Ani?"

His nose wrinkles in disgust.  “No thank you.  I hate sand.  It’s coarse, and rough, and irritating—and it gets everywhere.”

“If you say so.”

She gets up, and proceeds to shake sand out of her clothes.  And hair.  Anakin gives her an I-told-you-so look, as Beru tells her not to track sand inside because it gets everywhere and she just cleaned the floors.  And then a wounded look, as he dodges a handful of sand she tosses at him.

“Sorry,” she tells him, only half meaning it.  “I’ve wanted to do that for a long time.”

“A long time?”

Oh, kriff.

“Yes.  Five minutes feels like forever when you’re waiting to throw sand at someone.”

Padmé tells Sabé everything?  And then she's not keeping secrets from her like before.

"You're not getting together with that idiot Jedi again."

"Not right away."

"Not ever, you hear me, Padmé Amidala?  I will fight you, knock you out cold, and carry you away to some hidden corner of the galaxy before I let you throw your life away like that."

"If you tried to fight me, you’d lose.  I've had more practical experience than you at this point, Sabe.  But I'll be careful, I promise.  I'll only do it if I see that I can trust him.  And only once Palpatine is out of the way.  I, we've, already kept Anakin from the first step toward the Sith.  We can do the rest.  Shorten the war.  Save the Republic."

A few days later, Anakin finds Padmé in the kitchen, reading from her datapad.

“I just wanted to say—thank you, Padmé.  You… you really are an angel.  If you hadn’t suggested calling Sabé, and if you hadn’t been there tonight—well, I don’t know what I would have done.”

“I know.  It’s terribly cliché, but that’s what friends are for.”

“Friends?”

She can see the disappointment he tries to hide.

“Yes, Ani.  I hope I can call you my friend.”

“It’s just… I thought, maybe…”

She lays the datapad aside and gestures for him to join her at the table.

“I was in a whirlwind romance once.  It ended very badly.  I can’t do that again.  I won’t.  I… I like you very much.  But I need you to give me time, and space.”

Geonosis happens.  Padmé tells Anakin to be careful before they part and he fights Dooku.

“Be careful, Ani.  Try to come back in one piece, okay?”

And Anakin, being in a much more balanced frame of mind than he was in the original timeline, actually heeds her and isn’t quite so arrogant when it comes to fighting Dooku.

As the war goes on, Padmé builds an anti-war, anti-Palpatine coalition.  It goes faster this time, because she knows who she should reach out to and what arguments to use

Gives them all more time to spend on recruiting other senators to the cause.

She also does some work to dig up dirt on Palpatine.

Has the Handmaidens quietly investigate his estate, financial affairs, or whatever on Naboo, too?

Padmé gets closer to the Jedi Order, spends more time with Ahsoka when she can, and gets Ahsoka to introduce her to Barriss.

Tells Barriss if she ever needs a confidante outside the Order, she’s here.

Consequently, Barriss goes to Padmé when she’s struggling, and Padmé talks to Anakin and Obi-Wan about getting her transferred out of active service.

Becomes either involved in Senate duties, working with Padmé’s coalition, or healing

Padmé also finds some way to minimize the damage from the Rako Hardeen incident.

She invites Satine to Coruscant for a political meeting of some sort, just before she would be imprisoned/Maul would appear

Maybe she and Anakin are a little matchmakery with Satine and Obi-Wan.

The war ends, maybe a little ahead of schedule or maybe not.  Palpatine is outed as a Sith.  Anakin has a bit of a struggle with that, but not nearly as much, and he’s able to do his Chosen One thing and help defeat him.

The Jedi look at the closeness of the crew, Barriss shares how she was floundering until Padmé stepped in.  The Jedi review their stances on attachment, etc.

Padmé and Anakin, who’ve been building a close relationship over the course of the war, marry.  Not secretly.  Shmi gets to be there.  And Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Rex and the rest of the 501st, and the Naberrie family.  Probably Satine, as well.

And let’s say Luke and Leia are just fated to exist, because it’s hard to imagine a SW universe without them.

I’m posting this as a bullet point AU, because frankly, I’ve been getting what seems like a crap ton of plot ideas lately, and there’s just no way I’m going to be able to write fics for them all.

If anyone wants to pick this up and run with it, flesh it out, make a oneshot or a multichapter fic or whatever, be my guest! (Please just make sure to notify and credit me!)

[thebibliosphere]

so I’ve always had dermatographia, but since getting Covid for the 4th time this fall, I also am spontaneously breaking out on hives on my back a couple times per week. It doesn’t seem to do much, just kind of itches and then goes away after a half hour. I have no known allergies. Do you think this is indicative of some kind of mast cell issue? I can’t tell if this is an episode of weird body, meh, or a red flag of a huge impending problem.

There was a study released this year about long-covid and how it can result in symptoms similar to MCAS.

Let's see if I can find it... Ah. Here.

So, obviously, we won't know the full ramifications of covid for probably decades, but in the meantime, there is some evidence to suggest that long-covid patients show abnormal mast cell release of excessive cytokine (among other things), which is, well, when it fucks up, it fucks up.

That's what made the cytokine storms patients were experiencing in the early days of covid so dangerous. It's like the immune system equivalent of throwing napalm onto a housefire.

(I also suspect that's why so many front-line doctors now believe in the severity of MCAS. They were watching this shit happen in real-time.)

So, is it possible your recurrent covid infections have led to a bit of mast cell instability and causing spontaneous hives? Speaking anecdotally from the sheer volume of emails people have sent me and the MCAS forums now flooded with people who got covid and can't stop itching, yeah, it's possible.

But it's also possible it won't progress beyond that point.

I'd advise keeping an eye on it and talking to your doctor if you have concerns.

Also, maybe look into getting re-tested for allergies. Allergies can develop at any time in your life, and there could be another explanation for the hives.

Basically, don't panic, but do take care of yourself and watch for any other symptoms. Don't ignore any sudden new food allergies or gastro or cardio symptoms. The sooner MCAS is treated, the easier it is to manage. Mine had decades to run rampant on my body to get to the stage it was at. It doesn't have to be that way for everyone.

Take care, and I hope the hives stop!

[kirby-the-gorb]

reply roundup!

I've done basically nothing but lay down and be exhausted since kirb2k over 2 months ago, but I did at least get the kirbox orders fulfilled. I have an immunology appointment in another 2 1/2 months and maybe they might do something to help me feel better. (it's a bad time. I know it seems to be most of what I talk about, but it is kind of all-consuming. even this roundup wore me out.)

also there are sometimes comments that make me smile but I don't have anything to add to them so I just read them and smile and don't put them in the roundups, but I promise I do see them all, like the many yeehaws (and yes haws and heehaws) for [cowboy kirb] <3

on [the last roundup] @hive-heart said: Hope things get better, kirby guy 💕 thanks for the reply :) also yeah! Sitting by the window during a storm is quite nice

they haven't lol, but thank you!

on [kirb2k] @ceylonsilvergirl said: HAPPY Y2K EVERYBODY!! I am joke, but it did give me serious “turn of the century’’ vibes. oof… that sentence hit me like I drank out of the wrong grail

that was intentional, that's also why we started with the macarena in the 1990s :>

on [errands] @crypptiid said: ME! MY ROLLATOR IS BLUE AND EVERUTHING @sunflowerinthemidst said: oh look it's me only my walker is hot pink 1😅😂

nice! I should really repaint mine if I'm ever feeling well enough lol

on [the last roundup] @gudetamalover said: :O!!! I’ve been noticed! My surgery went very well btw, thank you! [details removed for privacy.] I love your art so much btw, it brings me and my mom so much joy! I love this little pink dude, he’s got a permanent place in my heart ❤️ 

man that sounds rough, good thing it got ironed out quickly! and I'm glad it brings you both joy <3

on [errands] @pilcherthegreat said: oooo might add this one to my Kirby brigade tattoo 👀

oh hell yeah that sounds so cool! (for anyone else wondering, tattoos on your own body count as personal use and are totally fine by me!)

on [screaming] @persimmonlions said: i always forget how much i do not like the chaotic cacophony of a crowd until i am in a mall, like ‘oh yeah i DO get overstimulated no wonder i constantly skipped classes when i was 10’. anyway i got back home at 3 and proceeded to sleep for 6 hours

ugh omg yeah especially when you actually reblogged this 2 months ago and there were still holiday crowds and all the extra decor and stuff, the mall can be So Much.

on [macarena] @unconventionalvoidaxolotls said: holy heck, go kirby go! oh yeah this is a great first post. beautiful

ehehehe it's an honor :3

on [plushies] @the-void-is-a-disappointment said: finally getting around to reblogging this but thank you bunches for the commission!he looks so comfy and cozy i love it, he deserves this

he does! he does deserve to be so cozy and cute! (and thank you again for the support!)

on [bloodstream] @lord-chiopet said: Kirby in my blood could fix me

well he certainly wouldn't make me worse lol (fun fact: you kind of already have a bunch of kirb-likes in your blood! macrophages are a type of white blood cell that engulf and isolate or destroy foreign matter like splinters, viruses, and even tattoo ink! they're basically eating anything that tries to get into your blood that's not supposed to be there -u- )

on [fire] @jupiterlandings said: kirby I am hurrying to you with blankets and a tent and a warm meal, we may be in the wilderness kirby but we can still look at the stars even when the night is cold. and even if we can’t see them they’re still there and they’ll send the sun to look after us tomorrow. it’ll be ok kirby we’ll be ok

waah this is just such a sweet thought ;n; thank you for sharing it.

on [frown] @shapeshifterwithafez said: get well soon OP :c <3 this kirby nevertheless brings joy to my dashboard thank you!

I will not but thank you! I'm glad he brings joy regardless :)

on [worm] @thecosmickitty said: Hey fam just wanna say i love your art. Thank you for sharing (:

aww thanks!

on [mcas] @untoldsoup said: Im sorry about the health issues 😞 hope you get the treatment your looking for

I appreciate it <3 it's still gonna take a while one way or the other, but hopefully eventually someone will do something.

on [float (up)] @ceylonsilvergirl [added] a ufo to abduct him, then on [rainbow] they [added] an alien kirb to greet him, and on [freckles] they [added] the view out the ufo window :) this little saga was very cute and did cheer me up a bit, thank you <3

on [float (down)] @angst-and-fajitas said: Ah he's floatin away

the kirb's not made for helium balloons! (a reference to [this vine], and good news this upload is actually from the person that made it!)

on [sacrifice] @joekingv1 said: *sits next to baby and waits to see what happens*

I really wanna draw a short comic for this but it seems like I'm not gonna feel up to it anytime soon -n-

on [stars] @gidkog said: *GASP* at world’s ass…

oh no you're right :x that was not on purpose lol

on [earring] @roboticutie said: yay!!!! he's here again today :D thank you!!!

your enthusiasm is sweet! he will be here every day! :)

on [sora] @ducksandlemonsandbigoldfish said: Kiev Kernel Kirby I hate autocorrect

this made me laugh lol

on [sora] @canvascoloredin said: congratulations! I've played all the kingdom hearts games (except Melody of Memories, Sorry Kairi), and started when I was around six but haven't had the time to buy a console I can play 3 on. Have fun for me!

I haven't played melody of memories yet either, the rhythm for all the rhythm minigames was always so janky that I'm kind of worried about how it might play tbh. but I am having lots of fun, I'm sure it's enough for both of us!

on [tattoos] @theraphos said: high five kirby i just recently resolved to finally get myself a tattoo this year also

nice! I hope it goes well :)

@turpial-thoughts asked: hi

hello!

on [worry] @graycoin said: I hope the wait is worth it.

yeah me too :s (thanks. and for all your other sympathetic comments whenever I complain about it as well <3 )

on [float (side)] @joekingv1 said: *asks baby what they think about when they go floating*

probably very little I imagine. even less than usual lol

on [bread] @joekingv1 said: *asks baby what they got while secretly hiding some extra treats for baby, Bear and Cake*

this one is just very cute, I had to read it aloud to my partner when I saw it.

on [sea] @graycoin said: This gets across the vibe very well. I get why you'd feel that way, I think. It's understandable. I'm glad people are trying. You deserve it.

thanks. I've always had a hard time conveying like, internal stuff for some reason, so it's nice when it seems to make sense to someone else.

on [sea] @ceylonsilvergirl said: Kirbo is in the storm, tossed by the waves, threatened by lightning at any moment in the dark. not even the stars to shine through the clouds. but he’s still floating, and that has to count for something

surely it must count for something TnT <3