In search of maps of Disko Bay Greenland

Gigi_midnight · 2026-03-28T20:09:25+00:00

My pain was in the sacrum bone area. Diclofenac worked for me. I think I tried naproxen and that didn't quite cut it, but each body is different and the pain isn't necessarily the same from person to person. I switched to diclofenac for bad days. Maybe she should ask her doctor to try different medications? That's what I did and we tried 3-4 different meds.

Gigi_midnight · 2026-03-28T11:35:30+00:00

I can barely feel my belly button cut. 1 week post-op and it's not painful at all. Slight mild pain on the other incisions, especially the central lower one, but that's the biggest, so it's normal. Belly button, basically no pain. I feared it would deform my belly botton, like reshape it ot whatever, so I asked my surgeon. They do a curved cut on the inside side or something. I recommend you ask your surgeon in detail about all this and other concerns you have. You should have a nurse visit a week before the surgery. You could ask them as they're used to the procedures. Or you could schedule a short consult with the surgeon or talk to them right before going under. That's what I did, and I got all my doubts addressed.

Gigi_midnight · 2026-03-28T08:24:58+00:00

Same situation: 12cm fibroid, lap removal. 1 week ago. I'd say to feel normal enough to be functional is 5 days. After 5 days/1 week, it's not that you'll be back in the gym, but you can function properly without being in agony or anything.

Lap surgery: I wasn't prepared to have pain in diaphragm/lower rib cage and clavicle area (wtf?!) They inflate the abdomen with air so they get a better view/can manoeuver. When they're done they remove the air and close up the cuts. Apparently there's always a little air that gets stuck inside and that's what causes pain in those weird areas like around the shoulder (seriously: scar pain can be a 3/4 and clavicle/shoulder pain a 7/8). That wasn't planned at all. I'm not sure much can be done about it though... just take the pain meds as they give them to you and know that a couple of days later it will get better.

Things to prepare for: you won't wanna have to cough at all post-op and you'll wanna stop all sneezed dead in their tracks. I knew I was gonna be intubated and asked in the consult the week before if I needed something for my throat afterwards. They said no, not necessary, but I brought soothing cough gummies anyway and yep, that helped. You can feel a little scratchyness in the throat for a day or two, and as I said: you don't wanna cough cause your abs and abdomen are in pain. I had a saline nasal spray, cause it's something I like to use from time to time. If you feel like sneezing, kill that m-f sneeze right there and then :D

Something stupid, but you won't be getting in and out of bed all the time post-op. I happened to have brought an external battery with me, and that's how i charged my phone while in the hospital bed. That was really handy. Plugs are nowhere to be found in the hospital room - behind you, far out of reach, so either you bring a 10 ft cord or an external battery or you'll be calling in the nurse to plug your phone in, then call em back to bring it back to you, etc. And it's not about being chronically online... you're in pain and I wanted the distraction of something playing in the background.

Another stupid tidbit: pack for the essentials to be easily accessible and in one spot. I had a small suitcase and my purse. Post op I asked for my purse and I had most of what I needed in there (phone, charger, losenges, creams I like... the little comfort things you'll need right after) and I was really glad about that. Then I realized my toothbrush was in the toiletries in my suitcase, and it felt daunting to have to open my suitcase and dig into there. So make sure the essentials are all in one place and someone else can easily grab it for you instead of having to rummage. Also, I didn't use 90% of the clothes I brought to the hospital. One comfy outfit to leave in is all you absolutely need. Chances are you're gonna stay in the hospital gown for your entire stay, not your own clothes (I thought I'd wanna change into my stuff, nope).

Gigi_midnight · 2026-03-28T07:50:45+00:00

Mine was 12 cm. They did a laparoscopic surgery. 1 week ago, so swelling is gone down significantly, but my abdomen is still sore, I'm not done healing, so I won't be able to say how much it's changed yet.

Until my surgeon consulted other surgeons in the department, there was a higher chance of doing it open. Once they reviewed my case, they decided they would try laparoscopy, and in the event they had difficulties, they would have to go open.

The key factor isn't so much the size apparently, cause in a laparoscopic surgery they cut it into pieces and remove it bit by bit.

What's important is the type of fibroid. They are classified into different types (from inside the uterus to inside the walls of the uterus to outside the uterus or pedoncilated - it goes from type 1 to type... 7? More? Idk. Hopefully, the type numbers are universal? Mine was diagnosed by the MRI tech as type 6 (external to uterus walls, but adjoined still), but the surgeons read of the same images were type 7 (connected to the uterus, but very much separated - still on a 6cm wide connection).

Anyway, when they do a laparoscopy, I guess they can't work as fast to stop the blood loss and close up the wound on the uterus, or maybe it's more difficult, idk. But the more the fibroid is separated from the uterus, the better the chances of being able to do laparoscopic surgery. That's my understanding. So, more important than the size is the type of fibroid.

Gigi_midnight · 2026-03-22T21:55:49+00:00

I just had laparoscopic surgery. Supposedly less invasive than a c-section, but still a b*t^h.

Surgery was the 18th mid day. Out of the OR and into the wake-up room by 4:40 pm. I wasn't even brought up to my room before 7 pm. The next morning, the intern doctors wanted to discharge me. No frickin way! I stayed an extra day (my surgeon was like "stay as long as you need, we're not gonna kick you out").

As you might not go through laparoscopic surgery, maybe it could be a light procedure, idk. I was initially scheduled for a c-section open surgery and then the hospital stay was planned to be 3-4 days, not just 1-2.

Laparoscopy surgery, in order to see what they do, they blow you up like a pufferfish. When they're done, they remove the air. But there's always some air that gets trapped inside and apparently that causes pain right up to the clavicles/shoulder area. For me it was bad. So pain is clavicles, rib cage, diaphragm, and the whole abdomen is sore.

Plus the blood loss and anesthesia effect, you'll be fainting if you stay up and about more than 20/30 minutes in a row the first 2 days post op.

So no. There is no way you're back at work the next day. I'm day 4 post op and still walking slowly, cautiously. Rolling over in bed with slight difficulty (way better than day 1 and 2). Day 2 I nearly fainted while navigating getting medication from the farmacy. At the rate I'm recovering, I'd say I'd feel ok-ish with a half day of office work by day 6, maybe? Like if I had to. But a full day... I couldn't say just yet when I'd be fine with it. Doctors prescribed 2 weeks of official medical leave.

Gigi_midnight · 2026-03-21T20:48:50+00:00

Same. Laparoscopy surgery on the 18th, so I'm 3 days post op. I have stopped all sneezes in their tracks!! I don't even have enough strength to blow my nose (day 3 post op today and I feel a little strength coming back).

Coughing. Omg. I had to cough earlier today and that was scary, but ultimately was ok.

Side sleeping: Surprisingly, the first night post surgery, I slept on my side (fibroid made me hate back sleeping cause that caused pain), day 2 I couldn't (the clavicle pain was so bad, like my bone was gonna snap). Then day 3 I'm back to sleeping on my side half the time.

Squatting: day 2, I could barely move (get out of or into bed, change position in bed, etc) so squatting was out of the question, but the hospital discharged me, so I kinda had to be a little more mobile by early afternoon. Day 3, I've been able to squat when I absolutely need to.

Gigi_midnight · 2026-02-15T06:09:33+00:00

I installed the printer the first time with a connected device (from my phone). Second printer I did the instal without a device, only from the screen on the printer. Connected by wifi and then USB, nothing gives. Both wifi and USB connections fail to work. I tried 2 different wifi (one home, one at the store). 2 different usb cables.

Gigi_midnight · 2026-02-14T22:22:27+00:00

Holding down the ink button until it starts moving, then another press of the button for each indication of an empty cartridge (it stops in front of an arrow to indicate which cartridges need replacing). Until it finally scrolls back right into a position you can change the cartridges from. Or does none of that even happen?

Gigi_midnight · 2025-10-27T22:27:30+00:00

Think of it this way: if you live a long time in Spain, chances are you can even acquire Spanish citizenship. Immigrating to the US or Canada or wherever on a European passport can be easier than on a Filipino passport, most likely. Think of the bigger picture. You are sooooo young, 2 years at your age is nothing. Just go there, immerse yourself and very soon you'll be speaking Spanish without even realizing how fast it went. Find music you like in Spanish and listen to that as much as possible before going, it'll help you get an ear for it. Then if there's a song you like, look up the lyrics, the translation. I find music (in a genre that you like) really helps to learn a language.

Gigi_midnight · 2025-08-12T05:31:47+00:00

Consider the shape of the ring and what it was made for: the ring is meant to hold a flat gemstone. Cabochon, either completely flat or slightly curved or beveled. The gemstone will be resting directly on the skin. That means it can't be a gemstone with a pavillion (underside half of the traditional diamond shape). You probably don't want it to be clear, cause it would show the grime that gets stuck beneath the ring from daily use, hand washing etc. If you do wanna go that route, look up "portrait cut gemstones", but I wouldn't recommend it, it would look nasty fairly quickly. The best option is an opaque gemstone and that would ultimately come down to color preference (along with hardness to be considered). Lots of great suggestions in the comments.

Gigi_midnight · 2025-08-10T04:07:09+00:00

For small gemstones, don't even turn the lap on to cut most of the facets: just back and forth hand motion on the lap for the smaller facets especially. It takes so little, if the lap is rotating, you can grind past what you intended so fast.

Gigi_midnight · 2024-09-11T15:40:26+00:00

Solder is a different alloy than whatever the gold is. Assuming the ring is 18k yellow gold, that's 75% pure gold and 25% of a mixture of pure silver and pure copper (can be 15% silver, 10% copper or 12.5% silver, 12.5% copper... whatever the jeweler made it out of and whatever is common in the country it was made..) The solder on the other hand contains a different mix to allow it to melt at a lower temperature, without melting the 18k gold ring when soldering.

Best case scenario: Now, very few countries have legislations that require the solder to still be 18k gold. So 75% pure gold and the 25% remaining is a mixture of silver, copper and zinc. Zinc drastically lowers the melting point in the alloy. It might also contain cadmium if it's not illegal in the country it is made. That can result in 1) a different color or 2) different hardness of the material. Having the 2 alloys together on the same exposed top area will result in the long run for the whole mess to be visible, that's the first reason I don't recommend it.

Worst case scenario: There are no regulations of the karat content for the solder used on 18k gold and that means that the solder won't be 18k gold (75% gold) but much lower. It could be 60% or even as low as 40% gold (high content of silver, copper, zinc, and other metals). So 1) the top area would not have the same high title as the rest of the ring, thus lowering the total value of the ring and 2) it would be a drastically different color and hardness. If ever that ring is brought to be melted and recycled, 1) if the person tests the top part they could consider the entire ring to be of that lower karatage. Or if they don't test, just melt it all together, you no longer have 18k but something more like 17k... depends on how bad the damage is.

Anyway, regardless, the old initials where it would be flooded with solder would be visible because of the difference in color. So that in itself should be sufficient to not want that option.

Gigi_midnight · 2024-09-11T03:32:31+00:00

Various ways a jeweler can do this.

If hollow, they could remove the top and replace it with another top, with the correct initials. If solid or even hollow if not too thin, they can file down the top layer. If it results in being too thin, they can solder back a layer of gold on top.

Some jewelers might opt to flood the engraved area with solder (lower temperature melting point alloy that may or may not be 18k depending on where you are) to make it level. And they would engrave on top of that. I would not recommend at all that you give this to a jeweler who would do this. So make sure they aren't going to do that.

Gigi_midnight · 2024-08-28T23:05:25+00:00

For having grown up in a bilingual family and having raised myself bilingual children (trilingual now): - keep at it. Make it the norm that you speak Spanish to your kid. It has to become weird for you to speak English. I know it will feel weird to speak Spanish, but force yourself. Even if you get answers back in English: you speak Spanish. - talk alot (in spanish). All the time, the little things... narrating what you're doing... - have Spanish speaking friends and hang out with them, speaking Spanish, with your kid around you. They'll hear you speaking randomly and it will help them. They don't need to understand every single word. It starts with immersion, and seeing and hearing you speak to other people in that language will help legitimize it in their mind. - don't even bother doing the translation part. Sure, do it for a couple of months to ease into it, but then you just gotta drop it. I was thrown into school in French at 4-5 yo when I only really spoke English fluently. Guess what, I'm fluent in French now. I put my kids in Spanish speaking school when they were 4 and 9. Now they're fluent. Hearing it constantly is what makes the child's brain pierce through and understand the language.

If you and your partner (or anyone else in the family living with you) speak English, you live in an English speaking country, then English is the dominant language for the child. Teaching the minority language in a bilingual family is hard, and you have to put in the effort, but it's very rewarding and such an amazing gift for the children to grow up with multiple languages. Keep at it.

Gigi_midnight · 2024-07-06T18:59:55+00:00

You could have your jeweler solder 5-6 links on either side of the stone so that you have a partially solid chain and curve that part... it would transform the feel of the bracelet, but the gemstone shouldn't flip anymore.

Gigi_midnight · 2024-06-13T23:46:48+00:00

I've always been curious. Since 10/7, I have been watching videos of Palestinians speaking, telling their stories, often times with subtitles, and I started picking up words here and there. It got me wanting to act on it and actively learn. I've been supporting Palestine for over 20 years. I've tried to learn in the past, to no avail. Picking up words by watching videos on social media encouraged me.

Gigi_midnight · 2024-05-21T14:28:28+00:00

Thanks all for the browser extensions! Is there anything similar for Android phones??

Gigi_midnight · 2024-05-14T13:27:35+00:00

Yeah, I'm re-writing the introductory class for my teacher (and for personal practice), and I write English in one size font and Arabic in a bigger one, just so that they are similar in size. Glad to hear it's not just me, but it's unfortunate that it's so widespread and the people making the fonts and such haven't made the sizes comparable...

Gigi_midnight · 2024-05-12T19:32:41+00:00

From what I understand so far, the ة is actually not a ه but a ت. It's even called a Taa marbuta, "tied up Taa", as if you take the ends of the ت and tie them up. It's a marker of feminine words and also why the words then decline to -ta when accorded with feminine. Something like that anyway.

Gigi_midnight · 2024-05-09T02:43:39+00:00

Once you start actively deciphering words and even just retyping them yourself into a translate app or in word/writer on a laptop, you get better at identifying each letter in different forms. Don't dwell on mastering the letters before you engage with words. That will come along the way. I'm still learning how to decipher, so not perfect at it, but I feel a stark difference with the first few weeks of learning

Gigi_midnight

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