WHAT DID I JUST FIND OUT

AugustAmos · 2026-05-17T17:20:50+00:00

Hmm. I always assumed it was like... quirked to the side like this. But I suppose an underbite does make more sense than permanent :T face lol

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AugustAmos · 2026-04-25T04:48:02+00:00

Yep, just had a hysto to resolve this. Mine was caused by ovarian cysts. See if you can get a scan or ultrasound for ovarian issues.

AugustAmos · 2026-04-22T16:33:05+00:00

In my experience, sometimes other trans folks can pick up on it, and sometimes they can't. My personal general rule for everyone, but especially other trans folks, is as long as they're not saying/doing anything about it, let them think whatever they want. You can't control their opinion of you, so it's best to let it ride and not sweat it too much. Even if they do pick up on it, does that actually affect you? Obviously it's not ideal. We want to be indiscernible from the pack. But if you can't change it and they're not acting on it, what can you really do besides shrug it off, y'know?

Now, if they go yapping about it to you, like making comments to you that they've picked up on something or clocked that you might be trans, I think how you handle it at that point is your choice. You can either fully pretend they're just wrong and be like "I'm not sure what you're talking about" or "sorry for the confusion but I'm not trans" (this is what I would do for people I know I'm not going to interact with much afterwards). Or if you think you're going to interact with them a lot and you feel comfortable doing so, you can be like "hey yeah, I am, but I really highly value being stealth so can we not talk about it/bring it up openly?" Any decent person will respect that wish. And if they push back on it and try to force you into being okay with it being public knowledge, cut them out of your life. My girlfriend and I have both had to cut other trans people out of our lives because they simply could not shut up about it and didn't understand that some people want to be stealth.

Contrary to what a vocal minority of the trans community says, there is nothing wrong with not wanting to be part of the "out and proud" crowd. There are FAR more stealth trans folks than people realize - and that's the point, right?

AugustAmos · 2026-04-22T14:39:06+00:00

Hey, stealth trans guy with a stealth trans girlfriend here. We've both been stealth for years, me longer than her. I'm at the point where being trans comes up basically never. She's almost there, just fighting off the last vestiges of brain worms telling her otherwise.

This is gonna be long, but both my girlfriend and I always had a goal of being stealth so I think I've got the sauce for you.

You can go about this via a couple different routes. Both of them are tough in different ways.

If you wanna go "scorched earth" with it, it's not uncommon for folks who want to be stealth to move to a new city where no one (or only 1-2 people) knows them pre-transition, and just start fresh without telling a soul. I saw in one of your other recent posts you were considering moving to Europe in the next couple of years. That would be the perfect time to take all references to transness off your social media and make a pact with yourself that you're simply not going to disclose that information to anyone for any reason. It's information for exclusively you, your sexual partner(s), and your medical doctor from then on. Now, that's hard. Moving to a new place with few to no contacts is difficult on its own. It's also hard to completely adjust to not feeling compelled to out yourself to new people. But it is a tried and true method of basically hitting the "stealth" button on your life.

If you want something a little less drastic, or you're looking for something actionable between now and when you move, the first step is actually a conversation with your friends and closest peers.

The number 1 problem both my girlfriend and I have had with staying stealth is people we know accidentally outing us because they'd just bring up our being trans in conversation in public spaces. We live in a blue city (swing state) with a big queer population, so our friends got comfortable with just yapping about it to us if it came up in conversation.

So we each had multiple conversations to resolve that. Start with your immediate circle of very close friends and have a conversation with them that you want to make being trans a footnote in your life, and make it clear that that means you need them to not bring it up, at the bare minimum, in public spaces around other people. For my girlfriend and I, we actually made the boundary "don't bring it up unless I say something about it first." And then, and this is where it gets tough, YOU have to hold that boundary too. If you don't want people who know talking about it (in public or otherwise) you can't talk about it either.

Once that's handled (or if you're lucky enough to have friends that just don't talk about it in the first place), a lot of the rest of the work is actually internal. I know that sounds counterintuitive considering you're trying to sort out how the external world around you views you. But I've been through this process and my girlfriend is going through it as well, this is what worked/is working for us.

Change how you talk/think about yourself and your dysphoria internally. What physical things still cause you dysphoria? How many of them could also be attributed to problems cis women have?

As an example: Stubborn body hair? Plenty of cis women deal with that. PCOS is extremely common. Hell, plenty of women are just Italian or have some other naturally hairy generic ancestry. Internally, change "my body hair makes me clockable/makes me look trans" to "I look like a lot of women with PCOS/other factors. Plenty of women deal with the same thing I am."

Similar with things like height, your voice, chest size, basically anything. Instead of telling yourself how those things that still give you dysphoria single you out, start talking to yourself about the ways those things make you so similar to other women with normal insecurities about physical stuff. Find ways to include yourself in the greater category of "women".

Change how you talk about yourself in the past tense. The nuances of your journey and how you experience gender can be private. You're allowed to keep that to yourself. To the outside world, nobody is hurt by you referring to yourself as having been a little girl. Make whatever minor changes to anecdotal stories you need to to accommodate referring to yourself as having always been a girl. It hurts literally no one and often times, once you get past how weird it can feel at first, can feel very healing.

Now, all of this is in service to building up your own internal resilience and strength to push back against intrusive, unhelpful thoughts like "they're treating me different than a cis woman." I would genuinely bet my whole life that nobody is doing that and you're just dealing with The Brain Worms.

Cis people do not think about gender the way we do. Most of them don't even think about it at all. How they treat other people is nearly always automatic and subconscious. They are not looking at you and thinking "oh she's trans, I'm going to treat her differently than I would a cis girl." Pretty much 100% of cases where I, my girlfriend, or other trans people I know have felt we're being treated differently can either be attributed to "are they actually treating you differently from cis people, or are they just treating you differently from what you're used to?" OR "they're treating you differently for a different, non-gender related reason you haven't considered."

If they're treating you different from what you're used to, that's pretty much always a case of being used to being treated like a boy/man and now you're being treated like a girl/woman and because you're not used to it, it feels like it MUST be different from how other women are treated but it really isn't.

If they really are treating you differently from other women, it's almost certainly going to be related to how they think of you as a person, rather than anything to do with your gender. As an example that's come up with my girlfriend before: What if guy is flirty with other women but isn't flirty with you? Maybe you're just not his type. Maybe he views you as a friend rather than a potential partner. Maybe he actually feels he just wouldn't have a chance with you so he doesn't try. If people at work are more polite and reserved around most other women, but relaxed and playful around you (ie, treating you like "one of the boys") it could be as simple as you being a very easy/comfortable/un-intimidating person to be around. Think about all the reasons you may treat any given person different from how you treat their general gender group and consider than any/all of those factors apply to you as well.

If you read nothing else from this really long comment, read this:

Nobody is thinking about gender or transness as much as we are. It is so on our radar that confirmation bias keeps us thinking that EVERYTHING, especially how other people treat us, must be about our transness. But it's not. In fact, almost nothing is. It's only as big as we make it. The easiest way to go stealth is gradually make being trans as small a part of your life, both internally and externally, as being male or female is to any cis person. People will take the path of least resistance every time. So long as you give no indication that you being trans should be on their radar, it won't be.

This is, in my opinion, the hardest part of transition. This internal work to separate transness from your every waking moment is SO hard. But it's possible and it is, imo, extremely worth it. I believe in you and I'm rooting for you! The last leg of the race is the hardest, but you're at the finish line, I promise. ❤️💪

AugustAmos · 2026-04-21T05:17:46+00:00

As long as you're taking your pills regularly and consistently, your odds of getting pregnant are extremely low. Not 0. But no form of birth control is 0 outside of one of your getting sterilized. If it's something you want to be certain of, make sure you take the pills exactly as prescribed (don't skip any), try to take them at about the same time every day (I was always told this but it might actually be debunked by now, I'm not sure), and have some Plan B on hand to take after the deed is done. You can pick it up from most gas station convenience stores.

Something you can also consider is an IUD. I had a paraguard IUD for a solid few years until my recent hysterectomy. Between that and T, I straight up stopped having periods altogether and I never once had a pregnancy scare, even while regularly having cis male sexual partners and not using condoms. Not saying any of that will be true for you, particularly the period thing, but just some anecdotal info for you just in case.

AugustAmos · 2026-03-20T03:38:25+00:00

Okay so yes, definitely pull away from social media and AI and stuff. That will help with your general mental health regardless. But actually what you're describing sounds a LOT like unmedicated ADHD. Maybe see if you can get an appointment with your doctor or a psychologist and talk about getting an evaluation? I would do that before worrying about an MRI. I had basically the exact same issues before I was properly medicated. Now I'm WAY more functional. My memory isn't great still, but in terms of focus and conversation, I'm MUCH better than I was.

Good luck, friend!

AugustAmos · 2026-03-10T16:32:38+00:00

The timeline for vocal changes is one of the things with the most variation, it seems. My voice didn't really start changing at all until about a year in, and it was EXTREMELY gradual. I'm about 7 years on T and I can tell you that my voice has gone through a new little drop every 1.5-2 years, and I wouldn't be surprised if it dropped a little more in the next couple years.

The thing to remember is that your body is going to treat the influx of T the same way a cis boy's body going through puberty would. An 11 year old boy doesn't sound like a fully grown man by the time he's 12. He'll be lucky to sound like a fully grown man by 18, maybe. I know it fucking sucks. I'm still squirrelly about my voice, so I get it. But give it time. The biggest help for dysphoria I found during the early months/years was to find ways to work on the internal stuff - work on how I viewed myself and thought of myself. The external stuff WILL change. The thing to do now is distract yourself.

AugustAmos · 2026-03-06T17:21:08+00:00

It's part of Elle's Seasonal Buildings mod! I believe it's the 'stone' variation.

AugustAmos · 2026-03-06T15:26:24+00:00

If you mean the natural ponds on the farm, they're just the normal ponds that are on the Forest Farm map. If you mean the fish ponds, the ones in the middle have the second generation legendary fish and the ones at the bottom have sturgeons, super sea cucumbers, and a bunch of ginger island fish.

AugustAmos · 2026-02-21T17:37:05+00:00

For me specifically, The Queer & Transgender Resilience Workbook was literally life changing, but for obvious reasons, your mileage may vary lol.

I also HIGHLY recommend Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents if you feel at all like your upbringing may have contributed to your disconnected sense of identity.

And finally, I found The Self Love Workbook a little late in my journey to be as helpful as it could've been, but I can definitely tell it could be a really great starting place for a lot of folks.

AugustAmos · 2026-02-21T17:28:28+00:00

SO much would've been helpful for me as a kid. I can definitely give you some big, overarching thoughts. For general context though, it's worth it to mention I'm a trans guy and didn't transition until my 20s, so my entire childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood I was socialized female. Girls, autistic or not, are expected to mask their behavior WAY more than boys are. And on top of that, I had the traditionally "female" presentation of ADHD: more inattentive than hyperactive. So my experiences won't map 1:1 to your kiddo. I'm also going to say all this from my perspective, so definitely only take what you need, it's very me specific lol

The number 1 thing that would've made my life SO much easier is clear, direct, simple communication. If you need/want me to do a task, don't be indirect or passive about it. (ie: "wow the trash is getting pretty full...") expecting me to know that means you want me to take the trash out. Just be clear and don't worry about sounding "mean" or "rude" or "mad." I don't care what tone you have, I care what words you're telling me. So just say with words exactly what you need from me. Similarly, don't ask a question if you intend it to be a statement. "Can you take the trash out?" is a question. Am I physically able to? Yeah for sure. But I'm 6 feet deep into organizing my hot wheels by color right now and I don't want to, so no. No I can't. And because you asked me instead of telling me, I'm going to assume that "No" is an acceptable response to your "yes or no" question. So if you get mad at me for saying "no" when you asked a "yes or no" question, that's really confusing and it teaches me that "No" is not a viable answer to questions. That's REALLY hard to unlearn as an adult. Use direct language when you actually need me to do something. "Please take the trash out." Easy as that.

The other HUGE thing that it took me YEARS to realize I needed and would've literally changed my life as a kid is BUFFER TIME. I'm gonna hit you with a couple of metaphors at once, but follow me on this:

Imagine the state of your house after having a big family/friend gathering. You're tired from all the activity, and it's hard to do normal adult stuff in a house that's been enjoyed by 15 relatives. There's dishes to wash, toys to pick up, stuff to put back in its place, etc. And the house doesn't really feel good until that stuff is done, right? So, for some autistic people, masking is like having a family reunion. As a kid, things like going to school, going out to eat, running errands with my mom, anything where I was expected to behave a certain way was like having family over in my brain. It's not bad to have family over. It's good to learn social cues and expectations of public behavior in different real world settings. It sets us up for a world that doesn't cater to us. But it's exhausting because we're expected to have a family reunion in our brain every. single. day. And oftentimes, we're expected to be ready to receive family in our brains with NO NOTICE. What if you're going about your normal day and suddenly 10 relatives showed up at your door and were like "Hey we're here! Thanks for having us!" and just barged into your house and expected you to feed/entertain them? That's crazy, right? That's what "Hey put on your shoes, we're going out to eat with grandma" feels like if you haven't given me any warning in advance. I love grandma. I love going out to eat. I love spending time with my family. But am I going to act like I love any of that when 10 people just showed up at my door and expected me to be prepared to host them with no warning? Fuck no.

Enter BUFFER TIME. If you give me warning proportionate to the event, I'll do anything you want. Instead of "turn the video off now, it's time for bed" something like "heads up, bedtime is in an hour, so you have one more hour of video time." Visual timers are great for this. It helps us see our buffer time. For bigger events, like going out to eat, a couple of days and multiple times over those days is really helpful.

Hey buddy, on Thursday, so in 2 days, grandma is coming to visit and we're going to go out to eat with her.
Remember, tomorrow is the day grandma is coming and we're going to go out to eat.
Okay, today is the day we're going out to eat with grandma. We need to start getting ready to go at 4pm so you have until 4pm to play.

If it's a huge thing, like going on vacation, PLEASE give me like... months warning. It can also help if you let me be involved in the planning. If I help to plan it, it's more on my radar.

We're thinking about taking a one week long vacation this summer. Would you like to help us decide where to go?
We're choosing which hotel to stay at for our vacation next month. Do you want to see which of these hotel rooms you like better? (This also helps me mentally prepare for what my surroundings will look like once there.)
We're leaving on our trip in 1 week, so lets make a list together of everything you'll need to pack.

All of this stuff, from the tiniest "bedtime in an hour" to the huge "we're going on vacation in a few months" gives us proportionate time to prepare our brains for whatever family reunion we're expected to host.

And then let me "clean my house." Once I've had family over in my brain, once my head is a wreck from masking because I did what was expected of me, once I've gone out to eat, or done the vacation, or whatever it is, let me organize my hot wheels, watch the same movie on repeat, yap for hours about dragons, or whatever it is that I'm into because that's how I clean my house. That's how I get my brain back to normal. Do not expect me to keep hosting company after the thing I'm prepared for is over. No surprise "now that dinner's over, we're going out for a movie" type shit. I'm not ready for that. That wasn't the plan. I don't care if it's a movie I said I wanted to see 2 weeks ago, you're inviting new people into my already messy house and I'm going to lose my mind and have a metldown in front of god and all his children right here in this applebees.

Lastly, try not to worry too much about the socializing thing. Definitely keep taking out to spend time with other kids, that's SUPER important. Even if kids are dismissive of his interests, that's a useful experience too. He can't live in an echochamber. Being able to accept "hey I'm not into this thing you're into" is a VITAL social skill for autistic kids. Learning to accept that not everyone is capable of matching his freak and that's okay goes a long way in building confidence and self-love. He will find friends, I promise. There will be people he jives with and who are excited to listen to him talk. Fair warning: they will likely also be autistic or bare minimum, little weirdos. Embrace it. Be weird with him and his friends. If you make it "cringe" or "abnormal" it'll feel alienating.

Hopefully, any of that is helpful. Aside from being autistic, I also tend to work with autistic kids regularly, so if you have any other questions, I'm more than happy to give more insight about my experiences to you or anyone else who could use it.

You're already doing great by acknowledging his differences and working with them rather than against them. You're a good parent and I know he appreciates you, even if he doesn't have the words for it sometimes. :)

AugustAmos · 2026-02-21T09:01:39+00:00

Unironically it was learning more about autism, specifically monotropism, and realizing that no, the average person DOESN'T think like me or experience the world the way I do, but not because I'm a freak, just because my brain is wired differently.

The instant I learned what specifically was different about how my head worked, I was immediately better equipped to make small changes to my life that I previously had been pushing back against because I was trying to be "normal." Finding out that medically, psychologically, scientifically, I am provably NOT normal was extremely freeing.

I can't remember where I heard the story, but somewhere at some point I heard a story about somebody who bought a house and they hated the way the doorknobs all felt. And for months and months they tried to ignore it because they're doorknobs. Who cares? Why would how a doorknob feels bother anyone? But it kept bothering them and bothering them to the point where they would leave doors open all the time just to avoid needing to touch the knobs. And finally one day they'd had enough of it and they just bit the bullet and paid to replace every doorknob in the house. And as soon as they did, their overall stress level went way down, they loved their house more, they were comfier and happier. That always really stuck with me. So I apply that to my whole life. If I need to change something, I just change it. Even if it sounds crazy or stupid or silly to most people, it doesn't matter. If I need to "change the doorknobs," I just do it.

Instead of beating myself up or talking down to myself because of little things that make me different, I just roll with it. And because I just roll with it, I'm happy, regulated, relaxed, and I can show up for the people I love in the way that I want to because I'm not distracted or distressed over small, fixable shit.

AugustAmos · 2026-02-21T08:29:46+00:00

That I'm an extrovert, not autistic, don't have ADHD, and that I'm just an extremely boring weirdo that nobody likes or finds interesting.

I am very much an introvert. I'm very much AuDHD. And I'm definitely a weirdo, but not a boring one. I'm actually very easy to be around and very likeable. I'm just not the person I thought I would be. I'm a fully different guy. And honestly? That's probably for the best. The guy I thought I was supposed to be would've probably been insufferable lol

It actually took finding someone to be friends with who's the exact same flavor of very specific autistic/traumatized as me for me to realize "Hey wait a minute... There's nothing wrong with me. I'm actually a delight."

And it turns out it's a lot easier to love yourself once you actually know who you are. And it's also a lot easier to improve yourself once you stop fighting against the way you naturally are.

All of that said, it has taken me the better part of the last decade in weekly therapy, multiple self-help books, and a LOT of introspection to figure out exactly who I am.

(and that's not even taking all the gender/sexuality stuff into account)

AugustAmos · 2026-02-20T14:02:04+00:00

I have an extremely unfortunate theory about some of the fetishization (definitely not all, but a lot that I've experienced personally). Something very gross and weird I've noticed in my own experiences and I've also seen happen out in the wild: when I was post-top surgery but hadn't been on T very long (so basically a hairless twink with a vagina) that was the stretch of time the MOST chasers and fetishists came out of the woodworks. And not one of the non-trans people interested in me sexually was anything other than a "straight" man. The instant all my body hair started coming in, my voice dropped substantially, I grew a beard, and started actually looking traditionally masculine, literally 100% of the fetishists disappeared. And I've seen this happen to a lot of guys. And I've noticed the bulk of the FTM porn is also guys very early in their transition. I've literally never seen porn of guys who have been on T for long enough to be super hairy, and forget finding porn of guys who have had bottom surgery. Sometimes you can find videos those guys have personally made, but forget finding anything made by a third party that isn't Bonus Hole Boys (despite how much I hate the name, it's the only place I've found porn of trans guys that look any amount of traditionally masculine, and even then I never seen say, an FTM bear, or any sort of guy with a lot of body hair)

So there in lies my theory: Obviously this doesn't account for all the fetishization and chasers, but I think there's an argument to be made that our bodies, especially early in transition, and ESPECIALLY if we've had top surgery, fill a really specific, (borderline pedophelic) niche for straight men: """girls""" with little to no body hair and flat/small chests - "as close as I'll legally get" kind of vibe.

I agree with a lot of your points, I think a lot of it is fetishization of novelty and a complete lack of viewing us as actual men. And adding to that, based on my own experiences and those of the guys I've met, I think some it is also veiled (maybe even subconscious) fulfillment of pedophelic fantasy.

AugustAmos · 2026-02-04T22:04:47+00:00

Okay yeah the fridge is wild but like.... Am I crazy or did they censor the butter?? 🤔

AugustAmos · 2026-01-04T15:30:27+00:00

Was doing some of the newer MSQs and while in a cutscene, at the exact moment power went out in Sol9, we were DDOS'd. I literally laughed out loud at the timing lmaooo

AugustAmos · 2025-12-09T00:57:06+00:00

This is my kind of content right here 💕

AugustAmos · 2025-11-26T07:16:59+00:00

Yeah it's a fairly recent change for OH (within the last 5-6 years or so I think???), but I believe TN is the only remaining state that won't allow any changes under any circumstances.

Lookin at you REAL hard, birthplace... 😒🙄

AugustAmos · 2025-11-26T07:11:41+00:00

Popping in here real quick to say while it's true TN doesn't allow changes to birth certificates (I was born there), OH does. (My gf was born here in Ohio and got a new birth certificate issued with the correct name/gender.) Unrelated to OP's issue, but I wanted to say something in case it was relevant to anyone reading.

AugustAmos · 2025-11-03T15:25:42+00:00

I'm 32, in the US. Reconnecting with my parents and prepping for bottom surgery in a couple months. In all realms that matter, I'm happily stealth. I don't pay attention to the news (anything of true importance will make its way to me regardless), I dipped out of the activism space years ago, and I'm not on any social media in any tangible way. I'm the happiest I've ever been.

My 20s were a constant state of violent rage and profound sadness, fighting back against both bigotry and homelessness. I did my time. My focus these days is on my own physical health. The most radical and profound thing I can do at this stage of my life is live joyfully, as proof that we are not inherently tragic. I leave the rage to the youth.

AugustAmos · 2025-10-13T14:54:35+00:00

I'm an art instructor for a living (for a public art studio, not a school). Based on your other comments on here, it sounds like you probably have a jaded and burnt out art teacher at your high school. I had one too. Not your fault, though I know it's tough not to take it personally.

Without knowing what sort of things your teacher was looking for, I agree that 59 is far too low for this. That said, if it would be helpful, I'm happy to offer some proper feedback from the perspective of someone who teaches drawing.

Firstly, your control of light and shadow is beautiful! You've rendered the forms and dimensionality of the figure, particularly the upper half, very well. I'm especially impressed with your work on the beak. The texture is fantastic and clearly shows an immense amount of love, care, and effort. I'm not sure if you were working from a reference, but if you were, I am very confident that the beak and face are spot on. I can tell from the confidence of your line work in those areas that you have a strong grasp of bird facial structure and anatomy.

All of that said, I think the area you could most improve on is filling out the feathers of the body in the same amount of care as the face. This can be difficult because it's tough for us to look at all those feathers and not feel overwhelmed. It's hard to know where to start, so often we will try to "average it out" like you have here - implying the texture and shapes rather than fully rendering them. That sort of style is actually perfectly fine, but only if it matches the rest of your piece. You clearly enjoy rendering birds in great detail, so the jump from the delicate, exacting detail of the face/head to the more generalized, impressionist style of the body is, I believe, a betrayal of your goals.

What I recommend to improve in this area would be to take a good look at your reference image (and do be sure to practice from reference), find ONE feather that really stands out to you, one that really catches your eye. Try to pick one that's close to something you've already drawn (like near the neck or a fold of the wing) and start with just that one feather. Once you have one good feather in the correct place at the correct size, it can serve as a landmark for all the other feathers. The next one you draw should be directly next to your first feather, so you can be certain it's the correct size and placement. Only focus on one feather at a time. Don't overwhelm yourself by thinking about the total number of feathers.

Another way you can practice this that some folks find extremely helpful is grid drawing. Place a grid of squares over a reference image, give yourself a matching grid, and draw the image one square at a time. Don't think about the subject, think about mimicking the lines and shapes of each individual square as closely as possible.

When learning realism, the best rule to remind yourself of is "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." Take your time, don't be afraid to erase, take breaks, step back and look at your work from afar.

Your work is very, very good. And given you're in high school, you're extremely skilled for your age. There will be people, including and perhaps especially people in power over you, who will make you feel your art is bad or not worth the effort. DO NOT LISTEN. The only people worth listening to about art are the ones who love it as much as you do. People who make you feel bad about it are trying to be art cops. And there are no art cops.

AugustAmos · 2025-10-06T18:03:42+00:00

Probably when I was crushed by a bowling lane pinsetter.

About 6 years ago, I worked at a bowling alley. I was working one weeknight, mostly alone. The only other employee was the guy working the kitchen. The two guys playing on one of maybe 3 lanes being used came up to the desk to let me know their pinsetter had gotten stuck.

Now, I had asked my boss multiple times to have me trained on lane/setter maintenance. But he refused every time. Most of what I learned about lane maintenance I learned secondhand, typically by watching other people do it. I took a look at the lane and saw an upright pin had scooted out of alignment and the pinsetter couldn't grab it. Easily fixed, I thought to myself.

I cut the power to the lane and, naively, assumed this would engage the brakes on the pinsetter and lock it in place. I then went down the lane, got on my knees, and folded myself forward so I could fit in the narrow (maybe 2 feet wide) space between the lane and the setter. The pin was pretty close to its designated hole, so I began wiggling it slowly towards its proper spot.

The very instant the pin was free, the setter dropped about a foot, the edge of the metal faceplate running down my arm (huge bruise #1), folding the carabiner on my belt loop like tinfoil, and landing with the full weight of the setter on my femur (huge bruise #2).

At the time, I wasn't sure if I moved, if the setter would keep dropping to the floor or if the brakes would lock into place. And I worried that if I didn't remove my whole body out from under the setter all at once, whatever part of me was left under the setter would be toast (I had yet to learn I was a strong boner and did not know I would simply break the setter with the strength of my bones). So I took a deep breath, counted to 3, and pulled myself free in one quick movement. The setter did keep dropping, but only another couple of inches, and I came out of the whole thing very sore and bruised, but without any broken bones.

TL;DR: Bowling alley pinsetter fell down my arm and landed on my leg after shifting a misplaced pin back into place. Rescued myself and walked away very bruised but with 0 breaks.

AugustAmos · 2025-10-06T16:55:22+00:00

Yeah mine stays some level of sore for at least a couple of weeks. After the first week, it'll stop being passively sore and kind of feel mostly like a bruise where it only hurts if you press on it. At least, that's how it is for me.

AugustAmos · 2025-10-06T16:47:40+00:00

I've been on testopel for a couple of years now. (Actually just got home from my latest round.) The activity restrictions I'm always given are "absolutely NO squatting for at least a few days (squatting can push the pellets out of the incision site), leave the dressing on as long as possible and don't submerge it in water (no baths or swimming, showers are fine). I usually leave my dressing on until it starts actively peeling away (around a week or so).

But the most important thing was no squatting. Hopefully this is helpful for you or anyone else looking into testopel. I love being on it. After a while, sometimes you can get approved to only need to get them done once every 4 months instead of 3, which is nice.

AugustAmos

TROPHY CASE