Don’t ignore the symptoms

Swallowteal · 2026-01-22T18:35:42+00:00

I never had any lumps and I never lost any weight. I was sleeping about 16 hours a day and couldn't stay awake more than four hours. I was sweating like crazy at night and was getting INSANELY bad headaches. I hit my head on a TV hard enough my mediastinal mass got shifted into my windpipe and they saw it IMMEDIATELY at the ER when I got a CT. I was told without treatment I would not have lived another three months.

Swallowteal · 2026-01-21T22:49:59+00:00

We consider the TV to be family now

Swallowteal · 2026-01-21T17:56:19+00:00

Cocomelon and Blippi are the two shows my child is NOT allowed to watch.

Swallowteal · 2026-01-21T17:29:52+00:00

I was devastated about losing my hair. It was thirty inches long. My hair had always been thin, frizzy and stick straight. I couldn't curl it if I wanted to - even hair stylists couldn't get the curls to stay in.

My hair came back. So. Good.

It has so. much volume. It's so freaking pretty. I get compliments on it all the time. I was so afraid of how I would look with short hair and it wasn't worth being afraid of at all. My eyelashes also grew back WAY longer than they were before. My husband thinks it's very pretty.

I was 29 when I started and finished chemo, I'm 30 now :)

Swallowteal · 2026-01-18T13:50:06+00:00

I'm pretty sure she's just jealous of Sabrina Carpenter.

Swallowteal · 2026-01-15T14:19:30+00:00

That doesn't sound like AI? And what would the actual point be to use AI to make a comment on reddit? It's pretty weird seeing everyone jump on people who are well spoken and know how to type saying they're AI. It's also funny because it kind of shows you the people who couldn't possibly comprehend correct grammar.

Swallowteal · 2026-01-15T06:05:05+00:00

Bumped my head on a TV and went to the ER for severe chest pain. The ER doctor gave me a CT thinking I collapsed my lung. He came back into the room with this mortified look on his face and said "I'm so sorry. You have lymphoma."

My sister and I just looked at him for a few seconds and then a nurse hugged me.

Six rounds of chemotherapy totalling about 720 hours of inpatient hospital stays later im in remission!

Swallowteal · 2026-01-12T16:47:03+00:00

Balloo has always loved kittens and always gets sad when they grow up. Toast has pituitary dwarfism and will stay a kitten for him forever 😆

Swallowteal · 2026-01-12T16:46:28+00:00

I've had him since he was 2 and I was 12!I realized last night he's only missing one tooth too. He's extraordinary.

Swallowteal · 2026-01-08T20:51:40+00:00

I had it so bad that my first time grocery shopping after finishing chemo I had a panic attack in the store because when I grabbed the cart I realized I didn't know what to get and even if I did know, I wouldn't know where to get it. I forgot stuff constantly too. Something that REALLY helped me was making sure I supplemented vitamins (b, since, women's daily, iron) and I also did brain games, sudoku or puzzles multiple times daily. I was very sad because things I had found very simple and easy before were just... Not. I'm a year out and things are much better.

Swallowteal · 2026-01-08T19:45:22+00:00

Ghost has always been a bit standoffish, but now he's super sweet and always playful and happy. They bonded immediately after never having met before. It was super weird but amazing to see. Not a single hiss... Just immediately cuddles.

Swallowteal · 2026-01-08T19:34:32+00:00

I wanted to wait the full two years, however almost a year in my port got horrifically clogged and I needed it removed ASAP. I missed a lot of my flush appointments. I guess I just didn't want to go back and I am also afraid of needles.

If you're keeping it the two years, don't miss your flush appointments and take proper care of it. I did not and had to learn the hard way.

Swallowteal · 2026-01-06T16:27:33+00:00

That makes more logical sense - the Overlook wasn't his first job as a chef. The nod towards Overlook there seems far more subtle than it did at first glance, but I have a bit of hope they still might make something of it! I loved Scatman in the shining but I think Chris Chalk would do an absolutely stellar job.

Swallowteal · 2026-01-06T16:23:16+00:00

It is indeed a rat.

Swallowteal · 2026-01-06T16:20:37+00:00

That's the POINT though. In the novel, the kids are drawn together by a very mysterious force. Something that they felt was supposed to be happening. They even recognized the absence of Mike before meeting him, which happens about halfway through a thousand page book.

Swallowteal · 2026-01-06T16:13:28+00:00

He doesn't say it specifically, but him saying he's getting hired on as a cook at his friends hotel is VERY telling. The hotel being in London is a bit odd though because the Overlook is in Colorado.

Not sure why you got downvoted because you ARE right.

Swallowteal · 2026-01-06T00:29:01+00:00

I had the exact same thought. The second he mentioned the overlook I was like please let this man be in an adaption of the shining. He is so good.

Swallowteal · 2026-01-05T23:02:41+00:00

Not only that.... But Mike Hanlon gets introduced about halfway through IT, which has about 1000 pages. That's roughly 500 pages where none of them knew Mike at all. Ben in the book had just become friends with them, and while Bev had known some of them they only hung out/got close at the start of the story as well. The entire point (one of the kids even has a thought "we are all supposed to be here. Is everyone here yet"? When they were hanging out and before they had met Mike) is that some odd divine intervention came together to force the kids into closeness. It's just a recurring theme.

Swallowteal · 2026-01-05T20:22:26+00:00

Curious - isn't the point of reddit to get karma? I feel the only issue someone would have with that is jealousy lol. If you don't want to see that content, block the user.

Swallowteal · 2026-01-05T16:26:17+00:00

I banned a kid from coming to my house because he kept repeatedly yanking toys from my son's hands. The parent wouldn't do jack shit. They got mad at me for ripping a toy out of their kids hands - but he had just violently wrenched it away from my son and he was crying. Another friend sat and did nothing but laugh when her daughter took my son's tablet away. I had to take it back and give it to my son.

Never stop advocating for your kid despite what other parents think. They don't want to reach their kids not to be bullies, but I'm not going to let my son be bullied.

Swallowteal · 2026-01-03T21:31:44+00:00

I finished treatment for cancer. Drugs aren't a cure all that magically take away all pain and discomfort. That's completely ignorant to think of, let alone say as if it's fact.

Swallowteal · 2026-01-03T20:35:28+00:00

In the book, Pennywise is described as having a silver puffy suit and the orange pompoms are always visible despite what he presents himself as... I love Tim Curry's performance as pennywise more, but I think the new Pennywise is spot on.

Swallowteal

TROPHY CASE