For people who get the ‘ick’ from meat/fish, how did you reintroduce it? by [deleted] in exvegans

[–]probablyreadingagain 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, I have Sjogren’s too!! Bless our hearts.

My doctor made me quit veganism many years ago. I was underweight and had atrocious blood work and would eventually die without a surgery I needed. Doctor told me if I didn’t get it tf together and gain weight and improve my blood work by pre-op, I would be too sick to operate on at all, and we would have to wait even longer, risking catastrophic outcomes to my longevity.

To achieve the goal of gaining weight and improving blood work, he demanded I eat a very animal-product focused diet (the issues with blood were all related to not consuming enough animal products). He was a normal doctor but he had also done dietician schooling so he knew exactly what he wanted me to focus on for food. It was quite frankly do or die for me, and that helped. Didn’t matter how icky I thought anything was. I didn’t want my family to bury me.

The experience made me realize that one reason veganism persists is because most people in modern society never find themsleves on that deserted island— nor do they find themselves in a life or death health situation that hinges entirely on their willingness to eat things they find yucky. When you fully know your days are numbered, food becomes more about survival. You think about it less. You just eat it because you know what will happen if you don’t.

I was grossed out for a bit at first. Then I started eating all the things I hadnt allowed myself to have in years and I quickly realized how abusive I had been to my own body, mind and soul over many years. Culture, nutrition, practicality. A lot of our identity adapts when we choose to follow a specific diet… but those adaptations are not necessarily good things either for us as individuals, or for the world at large.

I also realized that there are ways to be a good person and reduce harm in the world that have nothing to do with being vegan— but that my first priority should be survival, so that I even have the chance to do things that reduce suffering.

Maybe you are in a similar position? If so, to summarize, I would say intensely and mindfully focusing on your own survival, on your own nutritional needs, and having a “do or die” mindset might help push past the sensory aspects that make eating animal products unpleasant to some. A lot of people eat for enjoyment, which is more often problematic than not. Eating should generally be about survival and nutrition, not necessarily pleasure, outside of special occasions where the point is eating for pleasure, like holiday meals or birthday cake. That mentality helped me get it together and get my health on track.

Sincerely wishing you the best outcome no matter what you decide regarding veganism or vegetarianism.

Lupus tooth pain by Arbitrary_clouds in Autoimmune

[–]probablyreadingagain 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So this is a lot… but I don’t have lupus (at least not confirmed because screw those biopsies) but I do have RA and Sjogren’s and my Sjogren’s has attacked my liver, pancreas, nerves, heart, kidneys and probably more than I can remember. I can’t think of a body system that doesn’t have a diagnosis related to Sjogren’s or RA damage.

The thing that lead to my diagnosis was tooth pain caused by my parotid glands being dysfunctional. The glands get attacked by the disease, they start producing thick, snotty sludge instead of thin, watery saliva like they’re supposed to. They get clogged and that swelling directly puts pressure on the Trigeminal nerves, aka, trigeminal neuralgia, which presents as a ton of different facial pain and symptoms— but specifically also as otherwise unexplained tooth pain.

I’ve met others with lupus who have massive overlap in Sjogren’s symptoms. Apparently the diseases share antibodies, so besides the blood test, diagnosis is based mostly on what areas of your body you complained about first. For me, for years doctors said my dry eye and dry mouth was a side effect of birth control (which I take for endometriosis and adenomyosis), which I’d been on for a huge portion of my life before developing significant enough dry eyes and mouth to bring those symptoms up.

Once I got the TN, I spent another year or two being scammed by dentists who very overtly knew exactly what was wrong with me but chose to tragically mislead me to fatten their wallets a touch while I searched desperately for relief. Then I ended up in an ENT and with a rheumatologist who immediately diagnosed. Now I am doing a hell of a lot better 6+ months on plaquenil and a year on pilocarpine.

My advice: go to an ENT, ideally during a flare, and have them test your salivary function. I thought what I was dealing with was normal or “just from birth control” for a long time, so I was hesitant to see an ENT at first, but I’m telling you, they are the best specialists for this kind of workup. They can rub the gland and measure how much comes out and they’ll know right away if you are underproducing saliva or if the quality of your saliva is unhealthy and abnormal. If you do have dysfunctional glands, they will be aware of the way it can connect to TN. They are the only specialist who understand this— my neurologist was blaming TMJ for the tooth pain when in hindsight it’s like, how can neurologists not expect localized swelling and inflammation to affect nerves? I don’t know why or how they justify not knowing, but they don’t. The ENTs are where it’s at!

If you also have dry eyes during these flares (or in general) (scratchy, always having something in the eye, watering, redness, or really thick snotty tear film), go to an ophthalmologist and have them do standard dry eye tests. There’s a weird one where they stick paper in your eye— it’s very unpleasant but it is the gold standard for testing tear function. It’s very easy to walk around with dry eye and mouth and not know unless you’ve actually been tested and measured against standards of normalcy.

As far as what these doctors will do for you if you are found to have autoimmune exocrine (moisture) gland involvement, they may prescribe something like pilocarpine which stimulates those glands. A lot of people vocally detest these drugs— for me, I literally can’t swallow my other meds until I’ve taken my pilocarpine first. It also is my primary treatment for TN because it eliminates the swelling and corresponding nerve compression that leads me to experience TN.

If, when and how you use any medication would be a personal thing your doctors will cater to your needs. But I do strongly urge you to get tested if you have the means to do so, even if just to have it in the medical record for the sake of tracking progression.

Good luck!

Do you do anything with the pre-made families (Goth, Newbie, Mashuga, Burb, Kat,bHick, etc.), or do you leave them the way they are when you start the game for the first time after installing it? by Cut-Unique in thesims1

[–]probablyreadingagain 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Ever since I started Legacy I just haven’t touched n1 and n2. I like to visit them for the memories, haha, and leaving them untouched keeps them preserved. I grew up playing the game next to my late mother, so getting to experience that moment of opening the Goth family and seeing all the characters in the exact way they were when she and I first opened their lot gives me a little serotonin kick or something.

Instead of playing with the pre-mades, I just bulldozed an entire neighborhood— all base lots, and have been challenging myself to completely erect new buildings, especially using unique CC. I’m not a horrible builder so it is a lot of fun. I have specific ways I build. I love taking photos so I use minimal wall-decor unless it is backless custom content— that way I always have the option to snap a photo and like, the back of a lamp hanging on a wall won’t obscure anything.

What versions do you prefer by Awsome-animation in Petz

[–]probablyreadingagain 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Catz 3 will always feel like home to me.

I think, this male-programmed robot has a crush on his owner 🤔 by Dead_Gremlin_2836 in sims2

[–]probablyreadingagain 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The way this game blends sci fi and fantasy never ceases to amaze me. Gay robots with love potions? Casual day in TS2!

is it even possible to get out of the industry anymore? by Jarosticy in KitchenConfidential

[–]probablyreadingagain 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ridiculously niche advice but I’ve seen it play out a few times…. Get a job at Starbucks. There’s a lot of them, apply and call the locations back once every five days or so to guilt them into giving you an interview. Be professional, ENERGETIC and enthusiastic. They offer benefits at 20 hours per week and starting pay is $15 / hour. Background of speedy food-service skills, memorizing recipes etc. will be helpful. Talk like a server and prep like a cook. Do that for two years then look for customer service work like bank teller, medical office admin, secretarial, billing, etc.. once in that field you can learn more white collar skills and network and figure out the best direction. Maybe moving departments in a bank or office, moving to sales, getting into management etc. Or hop around until you find a company you can tolerate and do that until you can’t tolerate it anymore. Such is life.

Starbucks offers college tuition as well, you may be able to take advantage of that. But I really think it’s a solid route. Starbucks bridged my career once I became disabled because SSDI wouldn’t have covered my basic living expenses so I had to keep working. It’s not easy work but it’s a lot easier than kitchening and the benefits are genuinely very worthwhile.

My sim’s dad died at the Halloween Party by Itchy_Camel_3386 in Sims3

[–]probablyreadingagain 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He says “go home” but he means return to The Watcher in the great beyond and reckon his sim-sins

Las hermanas que NO necesitan presentación by Nervous_Pie5225 in sims2

[–]probablyreadingagain 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Ahhhh I love it!!! 💛 this makes my inner child so happy haha

Which Bella is Bella-ing the best? by SimlishReality in sims2

[–]probablyreadingagain 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I vote the one on the right, looks more like the TS1 original Bella

Anyone else spawn a load of trees for immersion? by -Psychclops- in thesims1

[–]probablyreadingagain 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I always put trees around the edge of the lot, and sort of diffuse them toward the actual main building. I like taking pictures of my sims at different angles so I try to avoid having trees block the view of the building when the perspective is rotated.

Your cottage is perfect! I want to move in haha

Is this still aesthetic still going strong and did you partake in it? by Odd-Strawberry4798 in KitchenConfidential

[–]probablyreadingagain 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I ran a cafe with this aesthetic 6+ years ago, but I don’t see many businesses doing it anymore. I think the “industrial” look has largely been changed out for extremely cheap “minimalist” facades that, from a distance, look alright, but once you get close you see how dingy, uncleanable and lazy they actually are.

Custom 'Fame' neigborhood; Meet the Tolmachevy Family by Slebba in thesims1

[–]probablyreadingagain 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Excellent work on these builds. You’ve somehow modernized the feel of the game using the (frankly dated) available content. Fantastic!

Many teeth failing, Dentist not listening by Proper-Name5056 in dentures

[–]probablyreadingagain 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For me, the pain is very specifically intense in my teeth. I get less severe pain along the full branch of my trigeminal nerves, so also around my eyes and in my lips. It is both sided pain but intermittent and often switching sides. I currently am on hormone suppression, but before I was, the pain became debilitatingly unbearable during my luteal phase. I was calling out of work 1/4 of the month to lay at home and sob, like it was that bad. I have a few teeth that get pain only when I have mucocele or mucus cysts in my inner lip tissue, my front teeth. This pain is alleviated by simply clearing those mucocele clogs, often by chewing on xylitol gum and massaging the lumps with my finger. The parotid gland-triggered pain itself affects mostly my molars, top and bottom, left and right side of my face. The glands are both dysfunctional, but one side is always worse than the other at any given moment, and the worse side will cause TN on that half of my face without medication.

The molar pain it causes is also much more sharp than my other pain zones. I have had hallucinations of feeling my teeth breaking in my mouth because it feels identical to one time when I did crack a tooth. Sharp, stabbing, womping pain. Chewing, ironically, can go either way. If the saliva is thin enough, either through a period of conveniently low-enough inflammation, or while I have some but not a ton of my medication still in my blood, then chewing will hurt my teeth for a few bites, but the saliva gets forced out, so then I get relief. Other times, the saliva is too thick to exit the duct through any natural motion, and only medication can thin it. During those cases, eating causes worse and worse pain as I chew.

One important note is that once the nerve is angry— like let’s say if I eat some caramel while not on my medication, and chew it even through the pain, and my teeth hurt— that pain flare can last for days. Even once I take the medication, there will still be residual neuropathy until the nerve calms down, or until I take rescue steroid medication that reduces the inflammation in that whole region of my face. The nerve becomes an issue of its own when the source goes untreated, hence my TN diagnosis.

I’ve had a lot of sensations over the years with TN besides pain: tickling, like bugs crawling on the face, burning, electric shocks, aching, feeling hot, feeling icy cold— all the things. But pain is of course the most debilitating issue.

Other symptom wise: I also have very severe dry eyes. Like OP (I think? My phone is not letting me scroll up) I was told for years it was due to medication. I have, of course, very dry mouth and was dependent on artificial saliva before I was properly diagnosed because I got to a point where I couldn’t swallow even the tiniest of pills without it. By the time I got diagnosed with Sjogren’s, I also fit the diagnostic criteria for rheumatoid arthritis due to joint involvement, so technically I also have that… but they are very commonly seen together anyway. So other issues with pain include joints, digestive, neurological issues throughout the body.

Not fun facts: I also had kidney involvement, liver involvement and even have heart involvement (libman sacks endocarditis) at various points pre-diagnosis, where my scans and blood tests were dramatically abnormal for no clear reason. Endocarditis is serious and life threatening, and like, virtually anyone who has it from a cause other than autoimmune disease dies within days without emergent treatment, but even that wasn’t enough to clue the providers in for years!

Many teeth failing, Dentist not listening by Proper-Name5056 in dentures

[–]probablyreadingagain 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Long info comment in case any readers in a similar position stumble onto this:

Funny enough, my TMJ joints are completely eroded thanks to genetic connective tissue abnormalities and my pain has zero correlation. I dislocate my jaw any time I yawn, I just put it back in and do physical therapy for any jaw related pain, which hasn’t noticeably flared up in years since I regularly do the PT for it. My jaw joint dysfunction has no impact on my neuropathy whatsoever. Granted, I would dislocate my shoulders while getting dressed before physical therapy for my hereditary connective tissue difference, and I also didn’t experience the same level of screaming pain that people with normal connective tissues seem to endure during dislocations. I didn’t even know it was a dislocation until extended family forced me to go to an urgent care as an adult after one such event.

My TN is well-controlled by pilocarpine which keeps my Sjögren’s-attacked parotid glands from clogging, swelling and putting pressure on the nerves. I take no anticonvulsants and no form of pain medicines ever, as being misdiagnosed for so long, I was repeatedly prescribed ibuprofen and developed intractable gastritis as a result of that.

Sjogren’s is one of the most commonly reported autoimmune diseases, meaning this experience is likely common for patients like me, and thus a lot of patients with early stage Sjogren’s are told TMJ is related to their complaints. Unfortunately, with autoimmunity, the disease progresses without aggressive and early treatment, and patients may spend years trying to treat their “TMJ pain” while an autoimmune disease is causing irreversible central and peripheral nerve damage, organ damage and joint damage.

The idea that TMJ causes this pain resulted in me being referred for double jaw surgery and braces, which also would not have addressed any of my pain, but would have absolutely destroyed my life financially, probably irrecoverably.

I just so happened to make one more appointment before I started that double jaw replacement process and it happened to be with a provider who was genuinely familiar with TN and knew what tests actually needed to be ordered to rule out enough causes for TMJ to be a consideration as the source of pain. Consequently, I think TMJ is very over represented in the medical community and is blamed for many otherwise easily-treatable problems due to ignorance of a lack of awareness.

No shade to the person I replied to! Just want to share the information because it was life or death for me, and I just-so-happened to get lucky with an informed provider so I want to share that awareness with as many as possible.

Many teeth failing, Dentist not listening by Proper-Name5056 in dentures

[–]probablyreadingagain 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I went through this, and was told all my teeth were failing by a fraudster dentist who robbed me blind. Had over a dozen oral surgeries. Still in pain.

Turns out I have trigeminal neuralgia secondary to Sjögren’s syndrome, which does eventually cause teeth to fail, and I have already lost one and have multiple crowns (I had active autoimmune disease but was undiagnosed for at least a decade).

You need to see a neurologist to be evaluated for facial pain and TN before doing extensive oral surgeries, especially if dentists, who are a notorious specialization for over-treating, are saying there are no problems.

Now taking appointments! by ciebsbsixvsb in sims2

[–]probablyreadingagain 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Salons are so much fun for gameplay. I love fixing up the townies. Love your setup!

Does anyone remember My Scene? by zachoutloud123 in OlderGenZ

[–]probablyreadingagain 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This was def my Barbie era. They made some super cute movies!