Who can be born black and not exault!

My face is having uncontrollable spasms. Great. It hurts really, really, really bad.

I think part of why I have trouble explaining pain to the doctor is when they ask about the pain scale I always think “Well, if someone threw me down a flight of stairs right now or punched me a few times, it would definitely hurt a lot more” so I end up saying a low number. I was reading an article that said that “10” is the most commonly reported number and that is baffling to me. When I woke up from surgery with an 8" incision in my body and I could hardly even speak, I was in the most horrific pain of my life but I said “6” because I thought “Well, if you hit me in the stomach, it would be worse.”

I searched and searched for the post this graphic was from, and the OP deactivated, but I kept the graphic, because my BFF does the same thing, uses her imagination to come up with the worst pain she can imagine and pegs her “10″ there, and so is like, well, I’m conscious, so this must be a 5, and then the doctors don’t take her seriously. (And she then does things like driving herself to the hospital while in the process of giving birth. Probably should have called an ambulance for that one!)

So I found this and sent it to her. Because this is what they want to know: how badly is this pain affecting you? Not on a scale of “nothing” to “how I’d imagine it’d feel if bears were eating my still-living guts while I was on fire”. 

I hate reposting stuff, but I’ll never find that post again and OP is deactivated, so, here’s a repost. I can delete this later, i just wanted to get it to you and I can’t embed images in a chat or an ask. 

This is possibly why it took several weeks to diagnose my fractured spine.

Pain Scale transcription:

10 - I am in bed and I can’t move due to my pain. I need someone to take me to the emergency room because of my pain.

9 - My pain is all that I can think about. I can barely move or talk because of my pain.

8 - My pain is so severe that it is difficult to think of anything else. Talking and listening are difficult.

7 - I am in pain all the time. It keeps me from doing most activities.

6 - I think about my pain all of the time. I give up many activities because of my pain.

5 - I think about my pain most of the time. I cannot do some of the activities I need to do each day because of the pain.

4 - I am constantly aware of my pain but can continue most activities.

3 - My pain bothers me but I can ignore it most of the time.

2 - I have a low level of pain. I am aware of my pain only when I pay attention to it.

1 - My pain is hardly noticeable.

0 - I have no pain.

It’s also really important to get this kind of scale to people who have chronic pain, because chronic pain drastically lowers your perception of how “bad” any kind of pain actually is, and yet something like this pain scale is extremely user friendly. 

For example, if someone asked me how much pain I’m in at any given time, I’d say hardly any, and yet I’m apparently at a chronic 2.5, and it only goes up from there depending on the day. 

There’s also a similarly useful “Fatigue Scale”

I haven’t been below a 5 on this scale for 4 years 

Here’s the fatigue scale

Fatigue scale image desc:

10: can barely move; can’t talk

9: can barely move; can talk

8: can move, but can’t do much more than watch TV

7: can watch TV and play a game on my phone simultaneously

6: can do work on my computer lying in bed

5: can get around the house, but definitely couldn’t go out

4: can run a light errand

3: can get in my 10,000 steps, making my fitbit happy

2: can do three or more activities in a single day

1: going clubbing!

See also the Mental Health Pain Scale by Graceful Patient:

Mental Health Pain Scale transcription:

MILD

1 - Everything is a-okay! There is absolutely nothing wrong. You’re probably cuddling a fluffy kitten right now. Enjoy!

2 - You’re a bit frustrated or disappointed, but you’re easily distracted and cheered up with a little effort.

3 - Things are bothering you, but you’re coping. You might be overtired or hungry. The emotional equivalent of a headache.

MODERATE

4 - Today is a bad day (or a few bad days). You still have the skills to get through it, but be gentle with yourself. Use self-care strategies.

5 - Your mental health is starting to impact on your everyday life. Easy things are becoming difficult. You should talk to your doctor.

6 - You can’t do things the way you usually do them due to your mental health. Impulsive and compulsive thoughts may be hard to cope with.

SEVERE

7 - You’re avoiding things that make you more distressed, but that will make it worse. You should definitely seek help. This is serious.

8 - You can’t hide your struggles any more. You may have issues sleeping, eating, having fun, socialising, and work/study. Your mental health is affecting almost all parts of your life.

9 - You’re at a critical point. You aren’t functioning any more. You need urgent help. You may be a risk to yourself or others if left untreated.

10 - The worst mental and emotional distress possible. You can no longer care for yourself. You can’t imagine things getting any worse. Contact a crisis line immediately.

These are so important! SO SO IMPORTANT SHARE THIS AND SAVE IT TO SHOW YOUR DOCTORS!

This is the first time I’ve seen the fatigue scale, and HOLY MOLY that’s a revelation!!! These should be on all hospital and doctor office walls.

I’ve never seen the mental health one! or the fatigue one! I printed out the pain one and gave it to my GP. 

somebody get that girl a large sized beverage before she loses it completely

TWO HOURS AGO: israeli tanks are headed towards rafah, they are moving forward with their ground assault. as we all watch the solidarity encampments across the us, REMEMBER WHAT THOSE STUDENTS ARE FIGHTING FOR! DO NOT LOOK AWAY FROM PALESTINE!!

I think it's really sinister how generative n language learning models have been weaponized against the workers to alienate us from creativity and self expression. It's literally the most human thing to find your own words and make art as a way of communicating and connecting with others but now we're being convinced that we don't need to do that and that any lack of knowledge or technical skill is now a personal failing bc after all you can just sit in front of a computer and let a machine do that for you right? It's really disgusting. I can't tell you how uneasy I get when I see people say shit like they use Chat GPT so they can have someone to ask questions and talk to 😕😕😕 and with how lockdown impacted many people's ability to socialize it's even more tragic and frightening. Idk. idk. I just have a burning hatred for the misanthropy of white supremacy and all its technologies

PSA

here's your friendly reminder that firefox is a nonprofit organization and they've rolled out a bunch of ACTUAL privacy features in the past year alone, including complete built-in protection from tracking

enemies to lovers but it's me and myself

platforming palestinian joy is just as important as sharing the suffering they're enduring during this genocide. despite continued displacement and bombardment, you cannot steal their joy and spirit. happy birthday to this sweet baby 🖤🇵🇸 may they grow up to see a free palestine

this beautiful baby is the son of ibrahim abu raida, the 25 y/o executive director of the al nasser charity in gaza, an organization working to distribute food to the displaced. they have many different ways to donate linked on their instagram (linked above) and also have a personal gfm to help with their own rebuilding efforts that is over 80% of the way to its goal.

Mentalhealthceo on instagram

[ID: An infographic on Red Flags from Medical Professionals.

1. ‘Medical Professional Red Flags’ with an image of a doctor with an angry expression

The rest are all text:

2. They label you as a hypochondriac (someone who has health anxiety) when you express your fears and invalidated your concerns

3. They don’t tell you the side effects of prescribed medication/brush them off

4. They insist that their diagnosis is right when you have evidence otherwise

5. They become defensive when you ask for a second opinion

6. They rush you through the medical process and don’t spend enough time to understand your condition

7. They don’t listen to you or your suggestions

8. They spend more time berating you and your choices than actually helping you

9. They talk more about themselves than to you

10. Many, people do not trust medical professionals because of these reasons, but the fact is that there are plenty of ethical doctors and nurses out there who do want to help you that these people give a bad name to.

Please feel free to swap doctors if they display any of these red flags until you meet a good one!

/End ID]

i had a good one and i didnt know why the heck my mom got so frustrated with her doctors and then i realized: not all doctors are like mine. not all of them listen when you have a health concern, and some of them just bounce you like youre a beach ball. and i really hope i dont have to go through that ever but knowing the medical industry i will.

unfortunately i Do feel better when i clean my living space and eat enough fruits and veggies and go outside and generally remember i am a mammal :| real pity that knowing this does not make it easier to do those things

transparent version of this post

Character: is a white man. That’s it.

Fandom: how dare you dislike this femme-coded female-coded gay-coded disabled-coded mentally ill-coded icon

[image description: tags reading #some of the people in the notes being like “me with so and so” #…besties do not #fandom criticism #text end ID]

This is a post about the racist tendency to focus on white men and project marginalised traits onto them rather than engage with the characters that actually have those traits. If someone is tagging this #me then they should think hard about there’s a pattern of their prioritisation of white male characters.