READ. EVERY. WORD. OF. THIS. Account Of A Medical Team Out In St. Paul Last Night.

Researching Herb Safety

Hey witchblr and everyone else who is interested! I’ve noticed a lack of awareness when it comes to herbal remedies/medicines having side effects and interactions with medications, and realized a lot of people don’t know where to look! (All sites linked are free):

Articles on herb-drug interactions: [1] [2] [3]

Chart for possible herb-drug interactions

HerbMed has a search function where you can look up the herb and find possible interactions.

WebMD has a search function where you can look up an herb, and then select interactions and pull up very thorough medication lists. 

University of Maryland Medical Center has some info on common side effects and how to safely use herbal remedies. 

NIH has a search function where you can look up the herb and find credible articles and info on it. 

iMedPub has scholarly journals and articles on herbal medicine.

Elsevier also has scholarly journals and articles on herbal medicine.

Please send me more if you know of them, and I’ll start a part two! :)

i love bell hooks … so much

continually awed by how american states function like separate countries

I held back on getting my gender changed in the state of Georgia because it required filing a court case and appearing before a judge to prove that I had transitioned enough to warrant calling myself male on my documents. there was a strong possibility they could deny me because I hadn't undergone any type of surgery (a requirement under Georgia law that is waived only sometimes), despite passing as male 100% of the time.

this morning I went to the Maryland vehicle administration building and they had a touch screen with buttons that said "male" and "female."

I paused and asked the lady "I can choose male, right?" and she looked at me (again, I'm just some guy with a beard) (and I think she misheard me) and she was like "Oh! Do you want to be female now?" I said no, my Georgia license (directly in front of her) says female, they wouldn't let me change it, can I be male now?

she said to just pick whichever I wanted. I got my updated license in 5 minutes.

A samurai does the sword thing but instead of someone dying it’s perfect top surgery

As per usual, I forgot I have boobs now, and should probably care about this more than I used to

This campaign defies censorship in social media to raise awareness for early detection of breast cancer

child handling for the childless nurse

My current job has me working with children, which is kind of a weird shock after years in environments where a “young” patient is 40 years old.  Here’s my impressions so far:

Birth - 1 year: Essentially a small cute animal.  Handle accordingly; gently and affectionately, but relying heavily on the caregivers and with no real expectation of cooperation.

Age 1 - 2: Hates you.  Hates you so much.  You can smile, you can coo, you can attempt to soothe; they hate you anyway, because you’re a stranger and you’re scary and you’re touching them.  There’s no winning this so just get it over with as quickly and non-traumatically as possible.

Age 3 - 5: Nervous around medical things, but possible to soothe.  Easily upset, but also easily distracted from the thing that upset them.  Smartphone cartoons and “who wants a sticker?!!?!?” are key management techniques.

Age 6 - 10: Really cool, actually.  I did not realize kids were this cool.  Around this age they tend to be fairly outgoing, and super curious and eager to learn.  Absolutely do not babytalk; instead, flatter them with how grown-up they are, teach them some Fun Gross Medical Facts, and introduce potentially frightening experiences with “hey, you want to see something really cool?”

Age 11 - 14: Extremely variable.  Can be very childish or very mature, or rapidly switch from one mode to the other.  At this point you can almost treat them as an adult, just… a really sensitive and unpredictable adult.  Do not, under any circumstances, offer stickers.  (But they might grab one out of the bin anyway.)

Age 15 - 18: Basically an adult with severely limited life experience.  Treat as an adult who needs a little extra education with their care.  Keep parents out of the room as much as possible, unless the kid wants them there.  At this point you can go ahead and offer stickers again, because they’ll probably think it’s funny.  And they’ll want one.  Deep down, everyone wants a sticker.

important personality test: if you had wings, would you rather have insect wings, bird wings, or bat wings?

one time this nondescript guy came into my dunkin donuts and ordered a small black coffee with blueberry flavor shot, and for some reason that peculiar order stuck with me so much that when, seven months later, i saw him in the parking lot walking towards the door, i quickly made a small black coffee with blueberry flavor shot. he ordered it and i was already holding it. 

i would describe his demeanor that second time as “incredulous”