Nine children LOL. Look, woman, the womb is not a clown car.

I think I have a high level of both suspicion and self-hatred that protects me from this stuff somewhat. I can’t see me falling for love bombing for example... a couple of different MLM-shillers have tried it on me and it automatically made me wonder why a stranger was being so nice LOL.

Poor kid. I hope she’s OK. Addiction is a hell of a thing. 

I’m glad you made it out. Kudos to you; that shit’s hard. 

I think that’s *exactly* what happened. Wafting about her perfectly tidy lounge, admiring herself in a mirror while wearing a dress that shows half her arse? That smacks of a set up.

Interesting perspective there from someone who hasn’t grown up in a centrally funded medical system! Yes, we are close enough to the UK model for comparison, and most of the issues he raises occur here too. My main gripe would be that sometimes I’ve had to push for things to be taken as seriously as I’d like them to…

Not just in Europe: in New Zealand independent midwives are the main maternity carers too. Anyone who wants to pay for their own care, or who are deemed to have a high risk pregnancy, are cared for by obstetricians. And a midwife can always send a patient to an OB if required, for either a check up or to take on care.…

Y’know what I want? I want more accomodations for me as a fat person. Not being sarcastic or snarky, I actually do want that. Also more privacy in buildings in general, I’m sick and tired of everything being open/open plan. Houses, public buildings, workplaces... there is almost nowhere where you can go and be…

Thanks (and I understand it’s an opinion, not medical advice). We don’t have ranking sites for doctors where I live, so that’s not an issue. The trouble is that when I’m seeing these doctors they are after hours or ED docs and you just get who you get. My kids are on good preventers and I don’t seek help for an attack…

Ugg. I’ve had that conversation with people close to me too. “But Aunty Edith’s feelings will be hurt!” Yeah, well, Aunty Edith is an adult and she can damn well get over it. No-one owes anyone else touching. I’ve had nieces and nephews refuse to hug me. Why should I care? There are plenty of other ways to show love…

Yeah it is different here; we have almost all (and all the important) legal benefits of a married couple (we’re each other’s next of kin, property rights, benefits, etc etc are all the same. Which is sort of why I don’t get why it’s still popular in my country. But what I *really* don’t get is the whole attitude of…

What I don’t get is why even these days marriage is still considered the norm. Even in my country where it isn’t fetishised as much as it seems to be in some other places, I have this conversation every now and again:

OMG that’s horrific - that poor woman! <sits here with her legs firmly crossed>

Yes! One of the reasons why I’m happy to pay more money to see my current GP is that she does exactly this; she also gives me an idea of her current thinking (why this med/treatment and not another) and where she’s thinking to go from here. Thank you from a patient! 

That’s interesting - are you able to name any of these? I’m not from Europe, I live in New Zealand, but we also have the ‘wait and see’ mentality rather than throwing out antibiotics or strong pain meds and I’d be interested if we have a similar class of drugs here that are not used in the States.

Rather than homeopathy it’s better just to wait and see. My experience both as a patient and a parent is that most things cure themselves with rest and fluids.

The mention of prednisone has inspired this comment; but as a patient (or in this case, parent of one) I do get a little annoyed at the way different doctors have different views of meds. I have asthmatic kids and so they’ve often been prescribed prednisone for a bad attack. I’ve had docs who treat it like morphine -…

That’s my experience (I’m in NZ). Though now I’ve had my doctor for a while and she knows I’m not a blithering idiot she will sometimes give me a prescription for antibiotics and tells me under which circumstances I should start taking them (if it goes on past X date, if it gets bigger, etc etc). And if none of that…

Re “You’ve gotta be tough”: My first career(sort of performance-adjacent) in my first full time real job, my boss took me out to lunch on my first day and told me “Just so you know, I push new people until they break. I need to know what everyone’s limits are.” And she did just that. I continued working in that same…

Mary claimed that she had the right to rule England, and she actively plotted against Elizabeth. The reason Elizabeth took so long to decide to execute her was that she was worried about the implications of killing a crowned and anointed head of state; especially as she was continually threatened with that same fate…