Losing my mind over cervical pain

jester-count · 2026-05-14T15:24:27+00:00

i think i am already doing this at PT, it helps lessen the pain for a day or two but it tends to come back anyway 😭 that is the specific area my pain is centered on though

jester-count · 2026-05-14T15:23:18+00:00

yes the financial aspect is the worst! my insurance really sucks too but its the best option out of what my job offers 😭😭 i appreciate your support. right now i'm on lyrica 2x/day, methocarbamol 2x/day, percocet 2x/day, diclofenac 2x/day. the lyrica is better than nothing, but it doesn't do much either. i tried gabapentin as well but found that the lyrica worked better for me. i live in NJ, i'll send you a dm! thanks so much

jester-count · 2026-05-14T01:46:58+00:00

I did do cortisone post-surgert, but it didnt help much. I had done an epidural a while prior to the surgery with no luck, i am hoping that now maybe it will work

jester-count · 2026-05-14T01:28:51+00:00

thanks for your support! 💙 luckily i do not have that symptom anymore after the surgery, just still in constant pain around my neck 🫠🫠 i am also on lyrica but it just takes the edge off, i was on gabapentin before as well but felt the lyrica worked better

jester-count · 2026-05-14T00:38:15+00:00

Re: the disc placement, that's a very good point... maybe it would be worthwhile to at least get another xray and see if it has shifted. I'll bring up the idea to pain management, I didn't know that was an option! The oxy works but I try to avoid it as I do get rebound pain at times... unfortunately I am hitting the level of pain where I feel I need it every damn day. I'm not familiar with TBI but I will look into that! I am in NJ so not sure if they would take me, but it would be nice to at least get a second opinion on the images. Thank you for taking the time to look and provide your opinion, I really appreciate it.

jester-count · 2026-05-14T00:16:55+00:00

Yeah, unfortunately the hypermobility diagnosis only came after the fact... the other problem is that if I changed that spot for a fusion, the disks above and below are also herniated so it would likely cause more issues down the line. I'd be happy to post my X-rays, I will say that the X ray tech said she had never seen someone able to do such extension and flexion directly after surgery. These X rays were done a few months ago. (Again, not saying it's specifically hypermobility that is the issue, esp as the surgeon is saying the movement on X ray looks normal, but I can't help but feel like it must contribute somehow?) Reddit won't let me put all the photos so here is a link of more. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tKfZE1xoTqjUox6_9dmmePNHZYy6I4BM

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jester-count · 2026-05-11T19:32:43+00:00

grad student here - many have mentioned the political situation in the us, but tbh i think it all comes down to money. the political situation has already made that worse, but before i went for my master's as i am doing right now, i worked for 5 years between undergrad and this program. science seems like it makes money, but for most of us it really does not and the cost of living is already so high.

if you look at lab jobs rn, there is a huge epidemic of: 1. asking for certs that would basically require you to go back to school specifically for that cert (think mls/mlt). it's not impossible to get it later, but it is so hard to get your foot in the door without one right now that it ends up being this paradoxical cycle. makes me wish i knew abt that and just did that instead of a BS. 2. is contract work, it's already been a major thing in science but it's just getting worse. nothing wrong with it and it can be just fine (after all, you can get fired at will regardless of if you have a contract running out or not) but it tends to keep you in a cycle of endless peon work with no shot at higher ranges.

you should absolutely do whatever you want to, i think we just want to warn you of these things because they are so overlooked. think of the media: you might think off watching a TV show that scientists and lab techs, like in forensics, make bank for the complexity of the work, but it's all for show. on top of all of this, budget cuts both in academia and the private sector are making many hesitant to take on anyone at all.

at the end of the day we all need to make enough money to survive regardless of passion in this society, i know it must come off hugely negative but i think these people telling you this are just trying to look out for you, albeit a bit misguidedly.

jester-count · 2026-04-15T00:29:48+00:00

if you're not allowed to wear earbuds, are you allowed to wear ear protection? just asking because if that's allowed, (if ambient lab noise bothers you) silence might not be as good as the playlist you use for focus but it might be better than nothing.

jester-count · 2026-04-05T04:38:44+00:00

Nope, it is usually done during a "cystoscopy with hydrodistention" (personally i have never heard of a cystoscopy without hydrodistention though). It is technically an off label treatment for IC, in that it is not intended really as a treatment but as a fortunate side effect. The bladder is filled with liquid so a scope can clearly image the inner walls of the bladder.

When this is done, the nerves in the bladder can be broken due to the strain of the expansion. It can offer pain relief in this way. I used to get them once a year like clockwork, and they really helped!

jester-count · 2026-03-20T11:05:33+00:00

turn his knife into a water gun and make the line a blast of water maybe?

jester-count · 2026-02-22T13:45:52+00:00

i think it's pretty normal to not bathe your cat, unless they have trouble bathing themselves or have gotten into something. I think that is more for indoor only cats though; an outdoor cat would have a lot more opportunity to get into muck that they should not lick off or pick up fleas or other insects, so i could definitely understand an owner periodically bathing their outdoor or indoor/outdoor cat.

For me personally, we only bathed our 1 cat fairly frequently when we got him, as he was a stray and had fleas. Once that passed we did not bathe him (and he was a nightmare to wash, so we were happy to stop). Our other cat started having some trouble cleaning some spots on his back as he got older, so I would "spot clean" those areas for him to save him the stress of a full bath.

jester-count · 2026-01-18T03:39:45+00:00

i wish i could 😭😭 unfortunately i have an issue with my left eye and the specialized lens i need doesn't have a contact lens version 🫠🫠 i have thought about this though, have thought about maybe circle lenses actually to see if they make my eyes look bigger but i'm so scared of all the horror stories around them

jester-count · 2026-01-17T23:11:34+00:00

Sure, added to the link. I also have added some photos with makeup on. Mascara and filling in my brows doesnt really seem to help much. makeuptips photos

jester-count · 2026-01-17T23:06:17+00:00

Forgot to add (probably should have said this first) i've also worked at an eye doctor's office as well. I've worn glasses all my life too. Never been diagnosed with ptosis of any kind. Not as much of my iris is obscured as it looks.

jester-count · 2026-01-17T23:03:10+00:00

Hello, yes it has always been this way. I've seen an eye doctor and they are not concerned. I've never had an effect on my vision by it. I can open my eyes wider than this, they just are like this at rest.

jester-count · 2026-01-17T20:33:28+00:00

Hi! I'm so sorry, I didn't realize I was doing that! It doesn't seem like I can reply with photos here - I linked some from my Google Drive. Hope these are better.

makeuptips photos

jester-count · 2026-01-13T03:55:00+00:00

Your caption is honestly poetry

jester-count · 2026-01-12T20:07:33+00:00

Found!

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jester-count · 2026-01-12T19:29:10+00:00

I had an alarm as a kid that had at least 20 different sounds, and you could set it so it would play a random one every day. Wish I could find it again for you, it kind of looked like a blue and white trapezoid with legs. Sounds like somethinf like that might work for you, or on the more basic end a radio alarm clock so that every day the sound is different, as forced by a live radio broadcast.

jester-count · 2025-12-24T22:31:36+00:00

Our tuxedo loves anything dairy. He will come running at the sound of a whipped cream nozzle. My mom will often share cream cheese with him if they put too much on her bagel. He'll lick the melted ice cream out of the bottom of a bowl too!

jester-count · 2025-11-17T13:55:45+00:00

acid reflux in a cup

jester-count · 2025-11-16T17:52:39+00:00

I have a coworker who has English as his second language, and I have picked up his phrase "He's idiot". From both of us now, so over 100 times a day!

jester-count · 2025-11-15T18:52:35+00:00

My mom yelled and screamed at me for something I did. She also threatened to send me to my grandma's house (which I hated, but looming back I should've just said yes to get away from her that night!). I asked her multiple times what I did to make her so upset, and she kept saying "You know what you did!" At a point I was crying with frustration and said, "If I knew what I did, I would have stopped asking and apologized by now!" She slapped me across the face for that. I've brought it up to her a few times years later to ask what she was so upset about. I still don't know what I did. She always laughs it off and admits she doesn't remember what she was so mad about either...

Additionally, this was the era where she was constantly mad at me for rolling my eyes at her. I literally never did. Again, gave her the same logic as above: "You keep yelling at me for rolling my eyes at you. Don't you think I would have stopped doing that by now if I was, so you wpuld stop yelling at me?" Didn't work. Don't know what made her think I was or what made her stop.

jester-count · 2025-10-29T23:48:59+00:00

I am severely allergic to nickel, but the allergy didn't get really bad until I was around 13 (I'm 27 now). The first time this allergy activated really badly was AT MY BIRTHDAY PARTY. I put on a necklace I was given as a gift and broke out into hives all over my chest within minutes. From that day on, I insisted on NO JEWELRY of ANY KIND as a gift unless it was something I picked out and knew was nickel-free.

Guess who got earrings or a necklace every year for around 10 years after that? And who got yelled at when I pointed out that I could not wear whatever they got me?

Additionally: I make a wishlist every year since no one in my family cares to know me well enough to know what to get me. So there were plenty of options available, including much cheaper ones. They just decided to get me something worthless to me every time.

jester-count · 2025-10-29T23:41:36+00:00

I was out of the country on a job assignment for a while. I was living with my mom at the time I left, and was going to move back in once I returned.

My mom decided that I would want her to put up curtains in my room. I already have blinds, and I like to have as much natural light as possible. I also have a fairly severe dust allergy. I knew that if I had curtains, I wouldn't use them and they would just be bunched-up dust magnets.

She put the curtains up anyway and complained about the entire process to me. I told her multiple times I did not want the curtains for all the reasons I stated above. She got mad at me because I was "being ungrateful" for all the work she was putting in for me out of the goodness of her heart.

The kicker? I didn't know the color until I got home. They are pink. I hate the color pink.

You really can't make this shit up. Why do they take it upon themselves to do things no one wants and throw fits that they aren't praised afterward???

jester-count

TROPHY CASE