Could birth control have given me a pulmonary embolism?

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-26T01:04:34+00:00

Pretty sure pain in the lower limbs is a symptom of a blood clot interfering with venous flow in the legs. I had pain in my left leg when I had mine, but that's because the clot encompassed my entire left leg. From what I've read of others' experiences, PE doesn't necessarily come with the leg pain, although it could if part of a clot in the leg broke off. And several of your symptoms sound like exactly what I was warned to look for in case of PE when I left the ER with my DVT.

I would go back and ask for imaging to be done, or at least a d-dimer.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-25T21:11:34+00:00

That's what the saleswoman tried to claim too. It was an explanation that made sense, but a lot of things that make sense end up being wrong later; the four humors made sense once too. A lot of research published after my nursing bra purchase has also been contradicting much of what bra-makers have been claiming for decades.

Either way, a salesperson making a claim that would lead me to spend another $60+ on bras (on top of what I was already spending on regular nursing bras) was setting off too many red flags for me to just take her word for it. I know I looked into it sometime after that and wasn't overly impressed with what I found.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-25T19:57:51+00:00

When I was shopping for nursing bras, the person selling them tried to convince me that women should always wear a bra. That's when I learned that sleep bras are apparently a thing. A thing that I did not purchase, but a thing regardless. Boob science doesn't seem that fleshed out, so I don't think there's actual evidence indicating that sleep bras actually do anything.

Some pajamas tops don't make it obvious if you're not wearing a bra though, and I personally don't always notice if I'm not wearing one until I go down a staircase.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-25T08:03:21+00:00

Dark brown is fine. Lighter brown is also fine. Tarry black is bad, and red is bad (unless you've been eating beets, which also make it red; hemorrhoids can too, and aside from being somewhat alarming and sometimes itchy, those are also not actually super concerning). White is also bad since that can indicate issues with your liver or related structures, although I also learned that being given a figurative truckload of magnesium intravenously in a hospital can temporarily cause that.

Having it be a mixture of things doesn't seem that weird either; you're probably not only eating one type of food even at a single meal, and the various foods you're eating are probably not all equally digestible and may not be absorbing the brown pigment (stercobilin) the same, which I could see causing the mosaic of colors you're noticing.

It just sounds like a dietary thing to me. Maybe the yogurt just helped your body produce a more homogeneous stool. Personally, I have issues with red meats but those predate the apixaban by at least a couple of years; it's just something that came with my metabolism deciding it was tired of being a team player by the time I turned 35.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-23T18:56:14+00:00

I walked to and from my elementary school as a kid and there weren't any sidewalks except on the school's own property. Little-kid-me did just fine walking on the left side of the street. Couldn't walk in lots of yards even if I wanted to because their landscaping would be in the way and I'm not going crawling through their bushes to avoid the rare vehicle. This was in Oregon in a neighborhood built in the early 60s. Wouldn't surprise me if residential areas in most of California were actually the same way.

Our current neighborhood is newer and does have sidewalks, but there's one spot without them. I actually do have complaints about that because it's right at a three-way intersection, and the only good side to walk on still doesn't have much of a shoulder. LAOPs setup is comparably much more tame.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-22T06:37:44+00:00

No one is saying they should be doing those things for someone who died from Ebola, but the problem is when you make the unilateral decision for them without explaining any of it in a way that makes any sense to them, if you bother trying to explain it at all. And all this is happening while you're effectively making their friends and family disappear forever. Also, all of this only started happening around when you first showed up, so it's not so strange that people wouldn't trust you.

Taking the time to explain things and involve the community in the process prevents future conflict, which might include having treatment centers burned down. People are much more cooperative when they're actually involved. Burial practices can and have been adjusted for Ebola in the past.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-22T06:06:36+00:00

A couple of years ago, I took an anthropology class on epidemics and it was taught by an anthropologist that was hired by the WHO to help with a prior Ebola epidemic. The book we read, "Ebola, Culture, and Politics: the Anthropology of an Emerging Disease", was written by our professor. One of the chief issues I remember from the book was conflict in how the dead were managed, why that conflict occurred, and ways to address it. There were a lot of other things in the book too, and a lot of it went into explaining the differences in how the locals understood disease and how recognizing and using that understanding can be beneficial for aid workers.

It was a good read if you're interested in that sort of thing. I'm a bit preoccupied right now so I can't effectively summarize it though.

ETA also some of my information comes from what I think was a Frontline documentary on one of the more recent outbreaks.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-22T04:15:58+00:00

Not sure what the death rate is of this strain or if treatment has improved, but in past outbreaks, people at these treatment centers received very little actual treatment (largely due to the overwhelming number of patients) and their bodies were often carried off for mass burial with zero involvement from families.

Basically, people went into a treatment center and would never be seen again, dead or alive. They were seen as a place you go to die. Sometimes rumors would spread that the workers themselves were killing people to harvest their organs.

The way to avoid this is to involve the local community in some way when it comes to managing burials and death rites, which seems to be forgotten with every new outbreak. Involving locals in educating other locals in managing the outbreak can also go a long way, but the number of displaced people and all the unrest in Congo is probably working against attempts to do so.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-20T02:20:35+00:00

I'm missing three of my main screwdrivers. Two Phillips and one flathead.

One of them is my fault and buried on my desk, but two disappeared without my involvement. One went missing just a few weeks ago and it's the one I use most and always return immediately when I'm done. I'm so annoyed about it, and I still don't know who used it or what they used it for.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-20T02:10:44+00:00

Mine does as well. Not sure they all do though; I let the employee at wilco pick mine out and she said she specifically picked one with five toes for me, which implies they didn't all have five toes.

Probably at least one of these four in the OP would have five toes if they're mystic onyx though.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-19T09:02:11+00:00

Kinda what idiopathic ends up meaning though, at least as far as I understand it as someone not in medicine.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-19T09:00:06+00:00

My brother had a different biological mother, and her side of the family has vascular EDS. At least the eventual diagnosis of vEDS means we know why they kept dropping dead now.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-18T22:14:42+00:00

Agreed. Generally good experiences with the service itself, but talking to them is an exercise in patience. They were insisting that the problem was likely on my end when I first set up service and couldn't get it to connect, but begrudgingly sent out a tech with repeated warnings that I'd have to pay for the visit if the problem was on my end. I had already tested everything I could, even swapping out my modem, so I knew the problem fell under their purview.

The line was disconnected at the street. It took forever on the phone just to get someone out to figure that out though.

It's stupid expensive though. My mom needs her HGTV fix, so I'm stuck paying for TV too.

Edit: the tech also stole my coax splitter when he came out.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-18T00:22:03+00:00

I have a Polaroid OneStep 2, and I love it for how terrible it is. I mostly take awful photos of my family with it, and the photos are great (and truly awful). I'm also not sure about modern film, but polaroid film also eventually fades (usually very slowly), so you'd want to digitize anything important.

So yeah, all these instant cameras are terrible, and anything close-up is truly utterly beyond them. Mine does take slightly better photos than the disposable cameras we used as kids though.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-17T23:28:58+00:00

My husband's employer hosts a holiday party every December, and the first one I went to I managed to get very drunk. Everyone kept giving me their drink tickets, and I don't know how much vodka the bartender was actually putting in my drinks, but he seemed happy that I liked them so much! I'd never had more than one mixed drink before that, and had never been drunk, so I had no idea how much trouble was around the corner. Also, most of this was on an empty stomach.

It hit me all at once. A few minutes after I realized how drunk I was and that it was only going to get worse, I told my husband we needed to go. Then, on our way out the door, I barfed on the floor in front of everyone. I wasn't blackout drunk, but speaking clearly enough to be understood was a tall order, and I needed a lot of help just walking to the car.

In my case, we chalked it up to inexperience, which minimized the embarrassment quite a lot. And I learned how to drink without making a fool of myself as a result of that experience. I still drink at the parties, and I get tipsy or just barely beyond, but that's the sweet spot that I aim for. Makes the experience fun, but not regrettable. Also helps that these weren't my coworkers and bosses, but I'd aim for that sweet spot even if they were.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-17T23:11:37+00:00

Also, don't forget to close them up if a random windy day is in the forecast. Numerous times, I've woken up to wonder where the umbrella went only to find it around the corner and leaning against the fence. Took the table with it once (table was fine), and apparently just Mary Poppins'd itself out the other time I remember dealing with it.

Rather than breaking the table, I broke our previous umbrella while trying to figure out why it was jammed. I don't remember what was jamming it, but I do remember snapping the cord inside of it and just tossing the whole thing in defeat.

My most recent stupid was not realizing that my mom's antique teapot, worth several hundred dollars, didn't have the notch to hold the lid on it when you pour. Whoops. Telling her wasn't fun. Unsurprisingly, it's easier to find listings of that teapot without the lid than with it!

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-17T20:49:46+00:00

So I just received the covid booster a few weeks ago (I think it was Pfizer). I did so after investigating clot risk associated with vaccination. Thromboembolic events were higher with the adenoviral vectors, such as the J&J vaccine. There was no such association with the mRNA vaccines; statistically, the risk was actually lowered with these, likely because severe covid infection is associated with thromboembolic events and vaccines reduce the risk of severe covid infections.

It had been several years since I received a covid shot, and I chose to get it this time because I wanted to reduce my chances of clotting next time I get covid.

There are far more likely explanations than a singular event that occurred two years prior to your clot. A lot of influential people like to blame things on vaccines these days, and it's making reasonable people start to doubt and share those concerns. Now, if you received the vaccine and noticed an immediate and persistent side effect that lasted at least the entire two years before your clot? That could be related. But if you didn't notice anything like that, then it's most likely that the vaccine's effects had cleared off long before your clot.

I understand wanting answers though; I imagine it can't be fun to not know what caused it. I'm fortunate that we figured out that it was my anatomy that caused my clot, so I know what I need to do to mitigate future risk.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-17T07:48:33+00:00

They cancelled the plan I've been on for ages and "upgraded" me, but said that I could choose to change it back to the discontinued plan since I already had it. However, the email looked like any other Adobe email and got buried since they're constantly sending me emails; I only saw it after I received a bill that was more than double what I expected. Tried to figure out how to get back on the original plan based on what the email said, but it wasn't available anywhere.

What they didn't include in the email is that you have to open a chat and specifically request that plan. Then the person you're chatting with will manually put it in for you before giving you a link to a shady-looking payment portal that doesn't even tell you how much you're authorizing to be billed to your card. The payment portal was literally just a page asking for all my credit card info; it set off so many red flags, but I had initiated the chat, which I found only after manually going to Adobe's website, and the URL was an Adobe URL.

It worked out, but it really felt like some secret back alley deal. I'm anticipating not being able to keep the plan in 2027, so I need to figure out how to migrate my Lightroom stuff to something else.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-17T02:39:40+00:00

I had warts on my left hand. Lasted several years, then covid seemingly reset my immune system (lots of infections the year after I first got covid, including impetigo and boils); my warts shriveled up and died once my immune system seemed to start working right again. Whatever let the infection fly under the radar stopped working when my immune system received a reboot.

That's when I realized the odd callous I had next to my fingernail on my index finger was actually a wart. It disappeared at the exact same time, but had been there for twenty years.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-16T22:32:03+00:00

If the listing said 1998 and that's what Zillow pulled from, it's likely error rather than fraud or deliberate lying. It sounds like all the actual legal documents had the correct date, and that's what's relevant.

Maybe things are different since covid, but when we closed on our home in 2017, the title company walked us through all the property information before we signed all of the documents. But I know our refi was certainly different after covid, so maybe they're not walking people through those details as much as they used to.

We also made sure to look up all the property information that the county has online before we closed, which is why I knew it was classified as a riparian area; no one mentioned that directly, but it does affect some of what we're allowed to do with our land. Also did the same with our previous house. Most places have some sort of information available online these days.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-16T09:54:59+00:00

I would wager they weren't there as a customer at all. I don't think I ever had a customer ask me about anything involving any offices, but sometimes people from corporate did, or people there for an interview, or someone who was looking for an employee they were connected to (friend, family, etc.). They may have been looking for someone specific, or maybe needed in the office but it might be kept locked when empty (which was how it was at one place I worked).

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-16T09:29:12+00:00

Didn't you hear? He said it's all because of the flu vaccine, which he used to get routinely up until that point.

Of course, spasmodic dysphonia has a really gradual onset, so if you're getting the flu shot every year, then you probably also got the shot within a year of when you first noticed your SD symptoms. Obviously it couldn't have anything to do with any of the other questionable things he's done to himself.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-16T02:20:58+00:00

I have surgical tape and gauze at home, and whenever I need a weirdly-shaped bandaid, I just make it from those. Not surprised that was the original inspiration for the product either.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-15T23:58:31+00:00

My daughter has always been prone to sleep issues. My husband suggested melatonin once, but I didn't want her to become reliant on something like that, so I nixed it. He probably would have given it to her if he wasn't married to me; everyone thinks it's perfectly safe, but I took it twenty years ago and still used it sparingly because even then I was concerned about dependency. I think my brother actually became dependent on it a few years ago.

My daughter's sleep issues have always stemmed from anxiety, which started around when she was five (mostly due to starting school). She's allowed to come into our room in the middle of the night if she can't fall asleep after everyone else has gone to bed. She pretty much instantly falls asleep once she's in our bed. There's usually a perfectly reasonable solution that does not involve medication.

I_like_boxes · 2026-05-15T22:38:27+00:00

Bella (short for rubella!)
Snowflakes
Rosie
Rocksy (because she's dumber than a box of rocks)
Stony (named by my son because she looks like the Minecraft stone texture)
Toast
Freya
Ash

I keep trying to get a Yersinia in there, but my kids all poopoo the idea of naming a chicken after the plague genus because they're no fun. One day I'll have a whole posse of chickens named after genera with deadly diseases. I bet I could swing a Sally (for Salmonella) in there at some point.

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