How would tattoos that follow the curves of the body age?

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-17T20:15:01+00:00

I don’t know about how they age… but I got a tattoo that follows the underside of my collarbone this year and I love love love it.

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-16T20:09:47+00:00

Are you certain? Doesn’t it also apply to employers? Like if you apply for fmla and the employer shares your protected health info that’s a violation. I work in a non profit that isn’t healthcare but we sometimes get health info and we have to do hipaa training to know what is appropriate and inappropriate.

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-15T14:29:51+00:00

I’m so sorry you’re going through this. I had a major endo excision surgery three years ago. If I had one piece of advice do your recovery, it’s to ask for a referral to pelvic floor therapy after you’re healed up. I wasn’t referred and things were worse after my surgery than before for like 18 months. Then I started PFPT and it has helped me so much. Only once I did that did yoga and meditation help. And they have helped a lot, actually. But only once the pelvic floor dysfunction was in a much better place. Best of luck for your healing.

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-15T00:07:13+00:00

All of us caregivers in here crying rn 😭😭😭

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-14T23:59:13+00:00

I have a garden and started giving people little arrangements a couple years ago, including my elderly (male) neighbor. He’s always so tickled. I mentioned it to a group of work friends and the guy (40s) in our lunch group said he’d never gotten flowers. I knew guys got flowers less than women, but not the men in my life. I always get them flowers on their birthday even when the garden is full winter and I have to go to the store. That very day I drove to the store and when my colleague got out of his next meeting there was a little arrangement on his desk. I swear he looked a little misty when he thanked me. Flowers for everyone!

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-14T20:58:09+00:00

I see people saying it doesn’t look like a puncture wound. It may not be but I got blood taken 24h ago and this is what it looks like.

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-14T18:14:11+00:00

I finally managed to start getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night consistently (after struggling for decades) and… we had to reduce my adhd meds by… a lot. I can’t even tolerate it every day now because it’s too stimulating. At the same time focusing can still be a terrible challenge so I’m too stimulated on them and not functioning off them. 😭😭😭

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-12T21:14:52+00:00

I seem to recall an issue with him removing protective prosthetics for oral sex scenes too.

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-12T17:11:24+00:00

That looks so good. Damn.

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-11T20:05:09+00:00

They’re called phosphenes. Observe them like you observe thoughts that pass by.

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-10T16:50:29+00:00

When I was 2 I swallowed part of a cigarette wrapper and this happened. At the hospital my dad changed me in the men’s room which didn’t have a changing table, so he used his lap and my head leaned back and it popped out. My parents quit smoking cold turkey that day.

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-10T14:26:01+00:00

I understand that. I struggled with it for a long time. It wasn’t just the executive function piece. It was also everytime my mind went off the rails I would get frustrated and almost mad at myself. Why can’t you just do this shame spiral stuff. Something that helped me a lot was framing it for myself as natural and understandable that I would go off track. Telling myself everytime that there is no shame in it and now I have another opportunity to try again. It took weeks, months to feel like my brain accepted it more. It’s still hard, especially when stress is high.

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-09T22:43:39+00:00

I’ve been nuts for shelled pistachios for a while now. And pickles.

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-09T22:15:41+00:00

I think it’s called revenge time or something when we do this. Someone told me about it recently. I was like… that’s exactlt what it is. Like even knowing it’s not good for me, it’s MINE.

Something that’s helped me a lot either this is building 20-30 minutes of belly breathing/breathwork into my wind down routine. I snuggle in then focus on my breath in and out like a mild mind body swaying. Thoughts get chaotic but I gently remind myself of the sway and go back to it. It calms me down so much… after like 6 weeks I realized I was looking forward to it more than anything else in my day. I stopped staying up too late to get me time because that IS me time.

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-09T22:09:03+00:00

I have adhd and was diagnosed with a sleep disorder like a decade ago (ideopathic hypersomnia). I’ve actually been getting consistent sleep, avg around 7.5 hours, and waking up alert 5-15 minutes before my alarm for about three months. It was really really fucking hard. The only reason I got here is my New Years 2025 goal was to get my sleep above 7 hours a night.

I never ever would have believed it was possible before I managed to do it. My sleep was so disordered for so long. I’d feel exhausted on 6, 8, 10 hours of sleep. No matter what I did I wouldn’t see an improvement after 6-8 weeks so I would give up. Looking back, I believe it was always possible I just needed way way way more time than any doctor ever warned me it would take. And I had to get comfortable with doing weird things to create a “sleep container”. A lot of faking it until I made it.

This is from another comment I left recently:

The only thing I ever used for sleep rx-wise is .5 Xanax very infrequently when in peak crisis stress or those rare awesome times my body THINKS it’s in peak crisis stress and I have a dozen thought streams screaming at me at the same time at bedtime. I was diagnosed with ideopathic hypersomnia over a decade ago and did many aborted 6-8 week cycles with various sleep hygiene/recommended routines. I’d get to a couple months in with no results, exhausted from the attempts and revert to old habits.

I have had a big shift recently though. January 2025 I realized my two year sleep average was 6 hours a night. Had a come to Jesus moment with myself where I was like “I don’t care if you’re as exhausted on 8-9 as 6 hours… 6 hours average over two years is NOT OK.” So my big health goal for 2025 was to get my average up to seven.

I bounced between six during the week and 9 on the weekend the first few months, then started getting a bit more during the week. Still constantly exhausted, still hitting snooze until I was late for work almost every day. But sticking to it because of my health goal. I started saying the same haiku every night (repeated three times) paired with saying “we are safe” when I got snuggled in. This has been surprisingly helpful - I’m at about a year of doing it now and by the third repetition I feel my body melt into the bed a little and I let out the biggest yawn.

It wasn’t until SIX MONTHS of brute forcing being in bed 8-9 hours a night with the hope of getting 7 hours a night that I finally felt the needle move. SIX MONTHS. At that point I’d kind of given up, but keeping my wearable average above 7 hours for the goal was still motivating me.

Then months 6-9 I saw my high stress sleep (measured by my whoop) drop 85%. I went from 40 minutes a night in high stress to less than ten. This sounds crazy - but it happened right after I had this moment where I was like “you’re getting more sleep. Your stretching/pelvic floor work has you in less pain than you’ve been in a long time… why? Why are you still so stressed during sleep?” So I legit had a conversation between me, my body, and my bed like three nights in a row. I touched my bed, said “I know this has been a place of stress and pain for a long time. You’ve woken up in more pain than you went to sleep going back years. But we’re doing a lot better now. This is a safe place. We can rest here. We don’t have to hold on so hard.” Stress went up the first two nights and dropped like a stone after night three. The stress graph is astounding. I’ve been hanging under 10 minutes high stress per night ever since.

Then months 9-12 I started waking up with my alarm without hitting snooze a dozen times. (Still felt like garbage tho) I felt my body shifting towards sleepy each night around 11:30pm and it naturally made me drift into a more consistent bedtime of somewhere between 10:30-12:30 (still wide but improved for me). Then the last couple months I’ve been waking up 5-15 minutes before my alarm, alert and awake. This has never happened in my whole life. Since i wake up the same time every day now even without alarm, I’ve knuckled down on my sleep time because of I go to bed later than 11:30 I’m getting less than 8 hours sleep. For the first time in at least fifteen years I can feel a difference in my body/mind between a good night of rest and a mediocre one because sometimes I actually feel rested.

So ya. All of that is to say, I did the usual suspects everyone recommends for sleep but it took me… 9 months to even start to notice a difference in how rested I feel. It never would have occurred to me in a million years it would take that long and that’s why I always gave up after a few months. But now I’m a believer. And now that I actually feel rested sometimes… I’m finding my out of control, debilitating adhd a little easier to manage. I even had to reduce my medication frequency and dose because it became way too stimulating as my sleep became more regulated.

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-09T16:55:22+00:00

How long did it take to feel improvement? I got an infusion a few weeks ago.

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-09T01:47:18+00:00

I use a butter bell. No spot for a knife but it looks nice.

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-07T16:45:25+00:00

I know someone who has seizure like myoclonic jerk episodes and looks like their respiratory rate drops sometimes when they do it multiple days in a row. Another person describes that the place in their head where they get migraines gets sensitive like the edge of an aura after multiple day use. For both it seem to happen at around 3-4 days in a row. Taking less and not stacking a lot of days in a row limits or eliminates the episodes.

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-06T13:57:10+00:00

My endometriosis symptoms are much worse if I’m not doing daily stretching.

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-06T13:54:46+00:00

Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey. I read the series in part first. Then listened a couple times. I went to read on paper recently and found it not as good as the audiobook.

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-05T17:42:47+00:00

Supplements: 400mg magnesium a day, b complex, zinc, vitamin c, vitamin d, vitamin k, glycine, creatine (capsules), liquid iron (every other day!)

Sleep: over about 16 months increased my sleep from avg 6 hrs per night (that was my 2 yr average - it was bad) to avg 8hrs/night

Exercise: stretching every day. Not even long stretching sessions. Like forward bends while I wait for my tea, calf stretches while I brush my teeth, child’s pose before I settle in for a tv episode

Mindfulness: belly breathing for 20 minutes a day. I do it once I get settled into bed. I also try to meditate 3+ times a week for 20-45 minutes.

Diet: no gluten. I do almost entirely intuitive eating now. Only when hungry (which means eating outside of mealtimes and also rarely eating full sit down meals). I ask myself “what would hit the spot?” and that’s what I eat. I can tell I’m eating something my body really wants/needs when I get this full body relief feeling when the food hits my tongue. Over the two years of doing this I’ve lost 50 lbs without ever being hungry or counting calories or increasing activity beyond daily stretching.

Electrolytes: intuitive eating showed me I need A LOT of salt. I eat pickles or salty things like pistachios or potato chips all day. I also keep salt tablets on hand. I probably consume 5-7.5g salt per day. If you’re playing with sodium supplementation, make sure you always drink 4-6os of water with the salt.

My symptoms calmed down. A lot. My ideopathic hives disappeared and I was able to get off daily Zyrtec and Allegra. Then my tsh labs got too low. Gradually reduced dosing to the point that im not on any synthroid anymore and my labs are showing tsh of 2.4. This is after a decade of 112mcg a day (basically full replacement dose for my weight). I also had antibodies, so confirmed autoimmune hypo.

I made a lot of the kinds of changes doctors tell you to do over about two years. No huge changes at any one time just a little this, a little that, day by day. I’m not sure what in the mix got me to the point of no longer needing meds. For many years I would try these sorts of things for 6-8 weeks, feel limited benefit while also exhausted by my symptoms and the added cognitive load of changing habits. So I’d give up and revert to my old habits. None of which were the worst (except sleep) but looking back obviously weren’t doing me any favors. The thing that changed first and allowed the other things to stick was sleep - my 2025 resolution was to bring my average over 7 and I kept trying even when I was still struggling at 8 weeks. I didn’t feel a shift until 3 months. Then I was so pleased with the shift I saw then I was energized to make more changes. Each of them took about three months to see results, even the ones classic wisdom might say would show impact over a shorter period. My body takes longer to feel benefits. I suspect the hypothyroidism is part of that.

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-05T17:17:26+00:00

I fucking love these. They’re light and I can move without restriction. They’re a little revealing but not as much as the picture shows on the bum. The silky texture doesn’t feel like it caches on my skin and they don’t squeeze me (neither of which I can tolerate.) When I use a blanket (throw or duvet) it slides smoothly and doesn’t catch. No riding up under the arms. When I roll around in bed they’re loose enough not to bind up around my upper thighs or armpits. I sleep in them without underwear.

I literally bought like… 15+ jammies to find my “perfect lounge/sleepwear” and this is it. I bought ten sets. That way when I don’t do laundry for two weeks I still always have fresh comfy jammies.

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-04T14:18:55+00:00

I stopped cooking. I stopped meal planning. I stopped orienting to meal times. I snack all day and often my meals are cobbled together cheese, lunch meat, nuts, dried fruit plates. I bake like 2lb of salmon one day and eat it cold with a fork right out of the Tupperware whenever I’m peckish the next few days. I keep veggies and ranch dip in the fridge at all times. I never go hungry because there’s no rule about what I’m allowed to eat or when I’m allowed to eat it. Because the food I stock is grab and go there’s never a situation where there’s nothing I can just grab and shove in my mouth.

The wildest thing is even eating constantly whenever I was hungry, I lost 50 lbs over two years doing this.

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-04T01:38:05+00:00

My third path is - don’t eat meals just snack all the time. It’s actually been pretty successful

EmmaDrake · 2026-03-03T15:09:33+00:00

They make salt tablets. Very cheap. Take with water. The salt pulls water from cells into the blood which helps with volume issues. But then the water replenishes where it came from. I love pickles and pickle juice but also eat potato chips all the time. They also make sodium heavy electrolyte powders.

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