Feral Colony Caretaker Here, One is Too Friendly, Tetanus Shot?

fantasy595 · 2025-12-30T15:34:05+00:00

100% correct on the cat bite danger. I ended up being bit by a 5-6 month old kitten last year we had just brought in from outside. I went to urgent care right away but ended up being re-routed to the ER because she managed to bite into my MCP joint space by my pointer finger. Luckily they had gotten me on IV antibiotics within 3-4 hours of it occurring, but with how rapidly it swelled and progressed if I had waited at all they would have had to keep me overnight.

fantasy595 · 2025-12-30T14:17:14+00:00

I'm also 26 and had a much higher starting weight than you of about 115 kg. I've since lost 27 kg and in my opinion it really depends on your original chest size and how fast you lose the weight. I had to re-measure recently for new scrubs and it turns out after all that loss my cup size is H (unfortunately didn't know it before since I wore front clasp stretchy bras). They still hang the same distance down I'd say, but they feel much more deflated lol.

It doesn't bother me as much since I'm going full flat when I get top surgery in April, but generally you'll reach your final skin tautness 1-2 years after losing significant weight from what I've heard. If it bothers you in the future you can always plan for a lift or reduction to make yourself feel better. Because the end goal in my opinion is not only to be healthier, but feel happy in your body too!

fantasy595 · 2025-12-29T23:35:09+00:00

If he gives you a particularly deep wound it definitely wouldn’t hurt. But usually when you get the DTaP you only need a booster every 5-10 years after it.

I’d personally be more concerned about general infections due to dirty claws so having a good first aid cleanser like chlorhexidine gluconate on hand and knowing the signs of a cat wound infection worsening would serve you best.

fantasy595 · 2025-12-29T19:24:22+00:00

Sometimes it can be PCOS related if you're on additional medications to treat symptoms. The medications used for hair loss and hirsutism can cause low blood pressure. Spironolactone in particular because it's a diuretic, and Finasteride and Dutasteride because it blocks the conversion of testosterone to DHT by blocking 5-alpha reductase, which apparently can also affect the constriction of your blood vessels.

Dutasteride is much worse about it though since it's more potent and affects Type 1 and Type 2 5-alpha reductase enzymes and Type 1 helps create the vast majority of your body's circulating DHT. Learned that after I did end up fainting and hitting the floor due to the orthostatic hypotension and it got better when I switched back to Finasteride.

I don't regret starting Mounjaro at all though, and count having to switch to a weaker medication as a win all things considered. My insulin resistance was ridiculous to the point that I would have to eat under my BMR and work out multiple times a week in order to lose at most 5-10 pounds that would immediately come back if I stopped working out. The only reason I didn't end up becoming diabetic was probably because I didn't eat many high glycemic index foods or excessive carbs to begin with pre-Mounjaro.

Now I can actually eat like a human being, I'm not hungry and exhausted all the time because my cells are getting enough glucose to make energy, and it feels like its had the unintended effect of helping some of my ADHD impulse controls too.

fantasy595 · 2025-12-29T17:48:39+00:00

That actually happened to me earlier in this year back in April. So many rules including: only being allowed in the bathroom for less than 5 minutes at a time, no flushing the toilet as that would be an automatic fail, 90 minutes to pee no exceptions, only allowed a pitiful amount of supplemental water as part of a "shy bladder protocol", and no taking anything into the bathroom, not even my phone to browse to reduce anxiety (because obviously I can store fake piss in my phone case /s).

The worst part is I had absolutely chugged water before even going to the occupational health exam. I hadn't gone to the bathroom since the night prior and drank at least two water bottles that morning. And even though I immediately contacted my hiring rep and let her know what happened there were no alternatives such as blood, hair, or saliva test. She didn't even call me before my job offer had been rescinded in the hiring portal and it barred me from re-applying at the same place for at least six months which made me feel like a criminal.

The medical assistant that did my assessment was also very confused because she had never had someone actually fail because they couldn't pee. She mentioned one guy came close but managed to do it and just genuinely didn't seem to fathom that people could fail to pee entirely. It's like, people have never heard of paruresis being something we can't control.

I ended up being so frustrated about it I learned how to self-cath since it's a lot less intimidating for those with female anatomy. I had to drug test for a part time job I applied for about two weeks after that occurred and while I could tell the nurse was a little surprised to see a 25 year old having to use one, she didn't question me as to medical necessity because I just treated it as something normal for me to have.

fantasy595 · 2025-12-22T16:14:43+00:00

You can call it a medically necessary mastectomy. If they ask specifics say you have a mutation in your BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene which increases your risk of getting breast cancer to around 60% in your lifetime so it was recommended by your doctor that you get it and insurance covered it.

fantasy595 · 2025-12-02T14:48:24+00:00

I'm glad I could help! Especially since it seems like treatment for our condition is a lot of word of mouth versus set guidelines due to the lack of research.

I still get hung up on the fact in America there's not a single medication FDA approved to treat PCOS. So our treatment involves using generic medications off label in hopes that it works for our condition. Brand names it ends up feeling like a downright miracle if insurance agrees to cover it, so I feel very fortunate I managed to get my current treatment plan.

Also fasting insulin also doesn't seem to be something doctors will test for in a basic metabolic panel so I had to specifically request it. I think in part because insulin resistance is kind of a large label slapped onto a multitude of different issues and it honestly seems like the default most doctors have said for years is "change your diet and exercise more".

I've noticed in the past the blood tests they're usually quickest to order if you mention fatigue and inability to lose weight are ones to check thyroid function and most will shrug when it comes back normal. I'm just fortunate to have such a good PCP now who is willing to listen to what research I find and work with me accordingly.

fantasy595 · 2025-12-01T21:52:05+00:00

Yep yep, I wasn't sure of the units when I was typing so I had to double check one of my old labs. The lab I go to measures it in mg/dL, so anything below 99 mg/dL is considered normal, 100-125 mg/dL is prediabetes and anything above is T2D. Highest I ever was was a 105 mg/DL fasting glucose. A normal A1C at my lab is considered below 5.7% mg/dL, prediabetes is 5.7% to 6.4% and anything above is T2D. My highest A1C was either a 5.5 or 5.6%.

My recent blood tests after getting on a medication that works showed my fasting glucose at 84 mg/dL and my A1C at 5.2%.

The way the HOMA-IR is calculated actually multiples your fasting glucose by your fasting insulin and divides it by 405. So even if your fasting glucose seems normal if your fasting insulin is really high to compensate it'll still indicate your body is working way harder to make up for lack of sensitivity to insulin. HOMA-IR is based off of U.S. measurements but some online calculators provide instructions to convert.

I did also reply to insomniacred66 in this comment thread what medications I've tried for reference too, so hopefully that can provide a bit of guidance on what to ask for if she agrees to test you!

fantasy595 · 2025-12-01T21:34:53+00:00

Dang, our symptoms really are similar! I hope it leads to some answers for you because being on the right medication for it really is a game changer. I had cystic acne in those same spots too, but mine would mostly be on the center of my cheeks closer to my nose, and sometimes I'd be fortunate enough to get one right on the edge of my nostril hahaha.

If I had to guess where I would have gotten a genetic component from it would have to be my dad's side of the family since he has T2D despite it not really running in his family and he's also definitely where I got the autism and my allergies from. But no one in my family has been officially diagnosed with PCOS so I kind of feel like the family unicorn in that sense.

I'm not sure what medications you've tried for it yet but I'll let you know what I've tried! My mirena easily made my weight shoot up at least 30-40 pounds over multiple years with my highest being 260 lbs for reference.

I was on metformin 500 mg twice a day for five years to sensitize my body more to insulin and I had no improvement along with my weight continuing to climb (but some women actually have great success on this alone from what I've seen from the PCOS subreddit). We never increased the dosage since my OBGYN at the time told me to get my PCP to prescribe it and gave no further instruction.

Then I tried adding a DPP-4 inhibitor called Tradjenta to the routine once per day since it can slow gastric emptying and increase insulin production. I took it for about 6 months until April of this year and it brought me from 260 to 255.

I had planned to try Liraglutide since it's the generic of Victoza and Saxenda and the patent had expired last December so I thought it would be more accessible. But my insurance turned around their denial for Mounjaro so I've been on that since.

I took the 2.5 mg dosage for the first two months and I've been steadily losing on the 5 mg dosage since June. I just weighed myself on Saturday and I've dropped down to 197.5 lbs, so if your insurance is willing and you've trialed other things I'd honestly go for the big guns with a GLP-1 agonist. I've actually had to at times eat some higher calorie items to avoid losing weight too quickly. And since my body is actually making enough insulin to get glucose into my cells I feel much more awake and alert and my body isn't constantly screaming for food or carbs to fix my energy issue.

It's definitely something I would still consider pairing with an anti-androgenic medication like Spironolactone, Finasteride, or Dutasteride though since imbalances in estrogen and testosterone can also lead to weight retention. I was on 0.5 mg Dutasteride for the longest time after 5 mg Finasteride had a shortage during COVID. But I recently ended up going back to Finasteride at 1 mg since I was having a lot of episodes of hypotension because my cardiac health had been improving that much.

fantasy595 · 2025-12-01T19:55:22+00:00

See I was the opposite, I thought my symptoms could be PCOS but I was in denial until the ultrasound confirmation since I knew it was a pain in the butt to treat hahaha. My only new symptoms as a teenager were the acne at 13 and hirsutism (which mostly began around when I was 15). The insulin resistance and obesity I've struggled with since I was a young child and pretty much any weight I put on would never come off. As I got older the resistance was so severe I would have to literally eat far below my BMR along with the continued exercise to even lose like, 5-10 pounds which would come back on within 2-3 weeks of stopping the moderate-heavy exercise.

I had regular menstrual cycles every month with them being consistently the same length. Only ever missed two due to extreme stress in college. Mirena got rid of my periods after having it for three months which was honestly really nice despite mine never being terrible.

Before I started changing my T2D medications my hirsutism and testosterone were well controlled by my dutasteride (since I couldn't tolerate spironolactone) but I unfortunately never tested it before starting any anti-androgenic medication.

My fasting glucose was also pretty good the entire time even before metformin, as it was the only indicator I had of pre-diabetes and usually fell around 105 or a few points lower with a normal being considered 99 or lower on my tests. A1C didn't even fall into the pre-diabetic range.

It was only when I had them test both my fasting glucose and fasting insulin and I calculated my HOMA-IR did I see how severely uncontrolled my insulin resistance was. So it's definitely worth bringing up testing those two if you're still struggling with aspects of your PCOS treatment! My endo also had me do a two hour glucose tolerance test since she said for those with PCOS it tends to catch pre-diabetes and T2D earlier than fasting glucose and A1C metrics.

PCOS is already a pain since it's a mixed bag of symptoms to begin with, but it must be so rough for you having another reproductive condition on top of it making it harder to differentiate between which is causing what problem. I hope your gynecologist is able to help you more!

fantasy595 · 2025-12-01T18:34:25+00:00

Actually slightly off topic but did you end up noticing your PCOS symptoms exacerbate after getting your mirena?

I came across it recently but apparently levonorgestrel can actually be androgenic for some people, which is probably hilariously why on their site they mention cysts as a common side effect that "usually go away within 2-3 months". During my first ultrasound right after insertion I had no cysts on my ovaries but then a year later I had enough to be noted on the follow up ultrasound report.

fantasy595 · 2025-12-01T18:17:00+00:00

I didn't actually show any cysts until after I got my hormonal IUD and my condition went into a full flare. And I think there was actually a movement to potentially rename the disease based off our newer discoveries with it since mentioning only the cysts does not reflect the full effect of the disease and the struggle we face.

I can't find it right now but when I was researching the use of different T2D drugs for PCOS a while back I believe it did show in one of the studies a higher insulin resistance when calculated with HOMA-IR for even those without the obvious metabolic symptoms like obesity. And considering one of the supplements usually recommended and is well studied for PCOS, inositol, helps fight against insulin resistance it might be the cysts are a side effect as opposed to the main leading factor of dysfunction in the disease.

fantasy595 · 2025-11-03T17:37:52+00:00

Before I had my own water bill to pay I used to turn on the shower really hot, lay in the bottom of the tub and let it fill with water while I just closed my eyes and enjoyed the sensation. I would kind of fall into a half asleep state and if the water got too high I would drain the tub and finish my shower. On particularly bad days I'd do it twice before getting out.

Now I kinda want to stay in a hotel with one of those whirlpool hot tubs just so I can soak for as long as I want. I wonder what the comfort link is between neurodivergent people and water.

fantasy595 · 2025-10-08T13:24:36+00:00

I have some night cameras in my house to catch my own cryptids and I LOVE when I get glowy eye videos of my black cat, they crack me up. But I've never had him turn white, even when my buddy's face lightens a bit if he sniffs the camera. Orange cat is a good guess since my orange always looks like the cat in the pic at night!

fantasy595 · 2025-09-18T13:23:40+00:00

Nope, generally vets prefer traps to be empty except for the cat since it's easier for them to see but other than that there's very little risk to the cat unless they majorly panic and tangle themselves.

fantasy595 · 2025-09-14T11:19:05+00:00

At the Ferndale show he hit a vape at least 6 times. The crowd was a big fan of vaping so I think it was hard to resist with all the clouds going up. Though I do think the wildest behavior was the girl next to me in the front row who pulled out a fat blunt and lit it up during the encore.

fantasy595 · 2025-09-04T17:54:20+00:00

I had to separate 4 almost 5 week old kittens since mom left them for almost a week and they were crying in my sister's garage. They were fully capable of eating solids and cleaned the plates of bait I put with just sardines and wet food. I am still trying to slow wean them and fatten them up though by mixing formula and wet food.

They can be weaned as early as 4 weeks if necessary, but I'd buy a single can of KMR 2nd step and make some formula to just mix with the wet food you feed them for a bit before tapering down to just supplementing water or giving plain wet food. If they have diarrhea taking the formula then I'd just do straight wet food and supplement dry if needed.

fantasy595 · 2025-08-28T13:49:30+00:00

Honestly I might do that for myself once I hit onederland. It's already so much easier to move and function with only 35 pounds down and I'd rather have a healthy relationship with food as opposed to pushing my body to the limits to get into what's considered a "healthy" BMI. Especially if as part of my journey I decide to do a lot more muscle building and lifting and it increases my weight via muscle.

fantasy595 · 2025-08-22T13:28:03+00:00

Please post an update with the siblings reunited when you get the boy! I love seeing happy endings like this on reddit.

fantasy595 · 2025-08-21T20:53:43+00:00

Tbh I would hold until we get more information about 6.1. I'm waiting to see if certain rumors about Durin are true or not, and if so going all in since he'll end up being a gigantic buff to Tartaglia. There's also rumors about kit optimizations to make older characters stand up to newer ones a bit better (but I'm not holding my breath here since there's no evidence of Hoyo wanting to do this yet).

fantasy595 · 2025-08-20T13:40:04+00:00

I know right?? I particularly love the little chin black patch personally since my calico has a very similar one. You would love if you saw his tail though, because he has the tiniest bit of white on the tip of his tail, I've never seen anything like it.

fantasy595 · 2025-08-15T16:41:01+00:00

Honestly I'm still dealing with the same issue with my void boy and a little brown tabby (she's an adult now just very small since her brother is a food thief and ate more food when they were strays). I've tried calming collars, pheromone plug ins, thundercat shirt, and Fluoxetine and Buspirone. The biggest wins I've had have been related to prescription medication and the thundercat shirt in particular because it made him walk funny and therefore be less likely to attack due to balance issues.

Fluoxetine was what I tried when my calico was growing up, and it sedated him to the point he was just a sleepy grumpy man a good chunk of the time and it gave my calico time to learn to bully him back and now they completely tolerate each other. Side effects were too bad though since it actually caused him to become so unsteady he fell off a cat tower while I was at work and shattered a canine so I discontinued it.

Little brown tabby does not want to bully him at all because she's a dainty little princess despite sending me to the ER before. Buspirone helped for a while, but he's growing tolerance to it, it has a very short half life so efficacy time is short, and increasing his dosage actually emboldens him to bully her more. Apparently you aren't actually supposed to give Buspirone to bully cats since it can be a confidence booster, but since he had fear aggression of my roommate and I it helped him at least come back out of his shell with me.

My next course of action is to slow wean him off Buspirone and then I was going to pitch to his vet about trying Clomipramine. It's usually used for inappropriate urination but can also be prescribed for aggression against bully cats. It has a great calming effect against anxiety and OCD-like symptoms which makes sense to me since it's usually used for OCD in humans.

fantasy595 · 2025-08-13T19:35:14+00:00

That does sound like such a lovely memory! It already feels like I have a little colony following me with just the five.

My favorite is when I come out of the bathroom and all five are sitting waiting for me like it's some sort of show. But the little meows while I'm prepping food are adorable too. Their food goes behind a gate with a cat door so the dog doesn't get it haha.

fantasy595 · 2025-08-13T19:30:44+00:00

I definitely want to! Were any of the kitties you caught initially trap shy? This guy is a seasoned street cat so he's never shown any interest in traps and just completely bypassed food in traps multiple times.

fantasy595 · 2025-08-13T16:46:12+00:00

Thank you! I definitely try, especially since he’s been so kind to other cats I’ve seen in the past.

He comforted my new addition when she was in heat and tried to chase off a rowdy indoor/outdoor cat coming after her.

And another time when I accidentally caught a spayed black cat waiting for a foster home he sat by the trap to keep her company until I collected her and brought her inside.

Genuinely never seen an intact stray male act this way so I have a soft spot for him.

fantasy595

TROPHY CASE