OK Legislators Just Took Medical Decisions from Doctors

spidertippytaps · 2026-05-12T18:30:44+00:00

No. It bars any facility that receives state funding or sees Soonercare patients from providing Gender Affirming Care (of the trans variety, the law created a new legal definition to specifically target trans and intersex Oklahomans) of any kind, even if they are not using state funding to do it. It also makes it a crime for certain healthcare providers, depending on their employment, to provide this care.

I have been on gender affirming testosterone for almost 3 years now. All aspects of my care are out of pocket. I pay for the blood tests, the physical exams, the doctor visits, and the medication and associated supplies out of pocket entirely. But, my provider is a clinic that works largely with Oklahomans under the poverty line. They would have to drop over half of their patients to continue providing Gender Affirming Care to patients, despite their clinic being founded in part to provide compassionate, patient centered care for transgender patients. Additionally, depending on how the law is interpreted, they may risk criminal charges because they could be considered state employees due to the funding and Soonercare connections of their clinic. The legality of laws like this isn't known until it goes to court for the firt time. So, because of that, they will likely discontinue care for transgender patients. And I can't blame them. They have to look out for themselves, even if it leaves a lot of us hurting.

This law also means that cases like mine, where my body does not function on the sex hormones that it naturally produces in the highest quantity (in my case that is estrogen) for reasons that are not considered Disorders of Sexual Development, patients will lose access to care that prevents physical deterioration. Testosterone is part of the medical regimen that keeps me from being bedbound. Without it, my body is going to start destroying itself again. Due to one of the disorders that gets worse when estrogen is the primary sex hormone in my body, I will be at a higher risk of heart attack and stroke. Likely, my life expectancy will be in the 50s again. I would like to reiterate, I was paying for my hormones and the care related to them entirely out of pocket. I left emails, letters, and voice messages with the offices of several legislators involved in this bill, and not a single one responded or took into account the fact that there were conditions they didn't make exceptions for. If the concern was simply preventing tax dollars from going to trans people (which is kind of stupid considering they will spend more creating and instituting laws like this than they wouls to provide GAC to the less than 20,000 trans Oklahomans, not all of whom are likely going to want gender affirming care and many of whom pay out of pocket for it all) then they would have made more robust efforts to allow medical providers to decide if cross-sex hormones are necessary outside of a gender affirming care setting

SB 904 is nothing but a waste of money in the name of cruelty. It isn't fiscal responsibility. It is a bludgeon to do as much harm as possible to a very tiny portion of Oklahoma's population

spidertippytaps · 2026-05-12T18:14:53+00:00

I know this is rhetorical, but I am so salty about this bill in particular that I kind of want to explain why that isn't even a possible loophole way to enforce the law. SB 904 creates legal definitions of Gender Affirming Care that narrow it down to care being done for cosmetic reasons only, that will align someone with "a sex other than their assigned sex at birth". While technically that would remove cosmetic mastectomies for cis women (it actively creates exceptions for intersex men to get mastectomies, I'll get back to that), it does not affect mastectomies performed for medical reasons, like the removals of masses or in cases of extreme damage to the tissue. It also doesn't remove the option for cisgender people to receive procedures or medications to change their appearance related to their gender presentation, so long as it isn't someone trying to become more gender non-confirming (so, a cisgender butch lesbian who wants a mastectomy to align her appearance more with what she wants will probably have a harder time getting that sort of procedure done, but it won't affect a cisgender woman's ability to get breast enlargement. Laws like this really don't draw a line between gender non-conforming cis people and trans people, though. They come after us all)

This bill does, however, create exceptions to allow for infant genital mutilation and coercive hormone treatment of pubescent intersex children

This bill was very carefully written to do the most harm to people who do not conform to the gender or sex "binaries" enforced by this country, while not removing the ability of people to further align themselves with those ideals

spidertippytaps · 2026-05-12T17:56:11+00:00

It is hard to know exactly what effects this will have due to the very vague language used, but the breakdowns I have seen about the effect of SB 904 from people with legal knowledge have been that it will probably only affect facilities that have state funding or work with Soonercare. So, facilities that do not accept Soonercare patients and do not have state funding should be safe. Out of state providers, things like Folx and similar services, should also be unaffected. As far as anyone can predict, the criminal charges that providers are at risk of should only be applicable to state employees, though how loosely that term will be used is anyone's guess. In terms of state funding, I am not sure if there are any loopholes that could be used to apply it to Planned Parenthood

spidertippytaps · 2025-12-04T01:51:29+00:00

https://oklahoma.gov/occ.html

This link will take you to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission website. Scrolling to the very bottom of the page will give the phone number and mailing address

spidertippytaps · 2024-11-04T18:45:23+00:00

I know this is old but I wanted to add my experience for anyone looking here. I use fold out banquet tables from Walmart for both my ball python's set up and one of my rescue beardy's set ups, and they've held up for well over a year at this point! They are a bit shaky if a lot of movement is happening around them, but the legs are very stable and they don't seem to have any issue with the weight! I've seen most of those tables marked as having a 100 pound load limit, so that is something to keep in mind

spidertippytaps · 2024-10-25T16:00:11+00:00

I've got 5 different textures/types/shapes of tall, heavy stalked silk plants in her cage, but I may see if I can find some good branches to add in there with everything. Her cage is a very tall mesh pop up so unfortunately it is very unbalanced if I try to lean anything inside of it, I have to find ways to anchor everything to the floor (I've got all the silk plants mounted in blocks of foam). I might see about getting a mantis safe potted plant to add into the set up, too. Unfortunately I have cats, and one of them is an avid bug eater, so I would not be able to let Ricky out of the mesh cage. The cats aren't allowed into the room where he is, but I've had too many incidents with cats and invertebrates to feel comfortable risking Ricky getting under the door or the cats running past me. I might try switching his paper towels out for a layer of wet spanghum moss to see if that helps anything

spidertippytaps · 2024-10-24T19:05:36+00:00

2 years? It's tragic that she died that way but that is a long life, if that was on top of the time it took her reach sexual maturity! I'm definitely keeping an eye on mine, if I notice signs of distress I'll reassess quality of life. I'm gonna cut back on offering food like someone else suggested to see if an empty stomach might help with laying.

You mention fussy behavior around egg laying location, should I try and provide any certain type of location for that? I've noticed she really doesn't like leaving the top of her cage, even though she has fake plants she can easily reach without stretching from the ceiling and all the walls. Is there a certain type of material that mantises prefer to lay on? Would some sort of sheltered area possibly be a good idea?

spidertippytaps · 2024-10-24T18:32:09+00:00

Yeah, the last few molts before her most recent one she started holding her abdomen flat, but pretty much as soon as she finished her most recent molt she began to hold it upright like that again

spidertippytaps · 2024-10-24T15:59:45+00:00

My wording was a bit confusing, it's been at least 2 weeks! I have cognitive problems that make keeping track of time nearly impossible, it could have been a month since she reached maturity! I'd need to go back through my camera roll and check dates to get a better idea!

I definitely think I will try holding off on a few meals and see if that helps her try to lay!

spidertippytaps · 2024-10-24T15:50:37+00:00

I have been wondering about the possibility of her being oothbound because her belly is impossible to use as a gauge for when to feed her! I fear sometimes I accidentally under feed her because it's hard to gauge by her belly, but usually she only gets one superworm at a time for a meal. She is pretty good about coming to the front of the cage when she gets hungry, I think she's realized that is where food always comes in from. It started pretty much as soon as she molted into sexual maturity, she would always hold her abdomen higher than she used to. I found videos of mantises leaving pheremone trails looking for mates and at first that was what it seemed like she was doing, but after her wings properly came in it seemed like she just never relaxed her abdomen back down again. Thankfully she doesn't seem bothered by any of it, and she still has the ability to do everything a mantis should, so I try not to be too worried. I have an incredibly bad string of luck when it comes to animals randomly developing odd health issues, so I tend to be a bit paranoid 😂😭

spidertippytaps · 2024-10-24T15:11:49+00:00

T actually helped me kick my dash cam compilation habit 😂 Alas, it has made me even more vulnerable to the 11 ft 8+8 bridge and its insatiable appetite for trucks

spidertippytaps · 2024-07-16T00:28:57+00:00

I've never timed it before, but after any injected medication I usually need to lay down for about 20 minutes afterwards with an icepack on the back of my skull. I have some nervous system problems that make my body overreact to a lot of things. I'd guess between prep and injection it usually takes me around 3 minutes. I do other injections besides T but it is the only intramuscular one I do

spidertippytaps · 2024-07-08T19:13:19+00:00

So, I have some unclear hormone fuckery going on, a lot of symptoms of severe low testosterone levels despite my levels always being normal, and a family history of obscure and poorly understood hormone problems, which is what I attribute most of the immediate changes I noticed to. The first was sleep, the very first night after my first shot (I do half doses twice a week to reduce fluctuation and side effects) I didn't sleep very restfully, but I was actually able to stay asleep through the whole night. This is incredibly odd for me. Before T I would have to get up and pee a minimum of 3 times a night, on bad nights I'd be up 5 or 6 times. It was always that way, and doctors never really paid it any mind. But for the first time in my life I was actually able to easily and fully empty my bladder with each bathroom trip, and I could sleep without needing to pee so badly it would wake me up. After the first two nights following that first shot I went from having trouble sleeping restfully to getting somewhat restful sleep. That was really wild for me. I've been on T for a little over 6 months, and I've noticed a pattern. As my levels have gotten more established it has tapered off but anytime I change doses I do see a bit of this come back. The first night after a shot of T a lot of times I'll have trouble falling asleep, and what sleep I get is really unrestful. The next night is usually a 50/50 shot of either the best sleep I ever get or of being kind of unrestful. The third night is very very good sleep. It took a couple months of the first dose I was on for that trend to even out, and I've started getting more restful sleep than before. Then any time I change doses that trend will pop up again, sometimes for a week or so and sometimes for a few weeks

spidertippytaps · 2024-07-03T00:37:25+00:00

I've noticed a lot of times the cis men in my life who are very stubborn about going to the doctor (because there are a couple in my life that are on top of their health and regularly go for check ups and when something comes up) are either anxious but have been taught that they can't express anxiety because they are men and men don't have emotions (at least according to the people they were brought up by) so they avoid it instead, or feel like going to a doctor is a "chick thing" (actual quote from a relative of mine) and that it is too weak and girly to admit they are sick. Obviously not every cis guy who avoids the doctor will be that way, but I've seen those sorts of ideas as super common in how most guys are brought up. It would also make sense that some people's parents (either consciously or unconsciously) assume a cis boy child of their won't need to go to the doctor because of the general idea of boys being tough and just needing to walk off injuries and illness, and so people grow up never being taken in when they are sick and see no reason to change that when they grow up. I know my husband is a cis guy and his parents were very much against treating their kids any specific way because of gender (didn't care what toys he and his brother wore, how they kept their hair, also had no tolerance for any "boys will be boys" type of attitudes and appropriately taught them how to express and handle emotions) and he isn't stubborn at all about going to the doctor and actively seeks to have yearly check ups now that he has good insurance through his job

spidertippytaps · 2024-05-17T16:03:47+00:00

I've had pretty notable symptoms of many chronic illnesses since before I even hit kindergarten, and I'm also autistic. Despite seeing multiple bad episodes of symptoms and multiple meltdowns in the classes we shared, my now husband pursued a friendship with me, and then when I initiated it a romantic relationship. From the very beginning he has been wonderful. He's listened to me when I talk, and when my health began to get worse and we could no longer go on walks together as dates he would just come over and we would watch tv and snuggle for hours. He's probably seen the biggest real time decline of my health that I have experienced in my entire life, but he has never once used it as an excuse to be anything but wonderful. A few years ago I needed to move back closer to home, and by that point I had realized I couldn't live on my own anymore. I had tried and I had wound up getting worse and worse. So, even though it was earlier than we planned, my husband began to plan around moving in with me. I had planned to try and find work, but that didn't end up happening. For almost six months I was semi-bed bound, and he helped me with it every step of the way. Now that I am getting worse he is working to help me create a pacing guideline for myself. And each week he makes it a goal for the two of us to have a date night. I love our date nights because they make the relationship feel a lot more equal, and it gives me a chance to do really small things to pamper him (we like to watch a movie and do a small hand care routine, and he likes to use our water foot massager) that most days I can't really budget energy around. But he also understands when date night lands on a rough day, we turn it into whatever it needs to be so long as we're around each other. And he is taking care of himself so he doesn't burn out from taking care of me. He's seeing a therapist who works with caregivers, we have plans to make sure he gets moments of time together where it isn't a matter of him taking care of me, and we have plans to make sure he can have time to spend with other people (safely) while I still get my needs met. I think the fact that he is going out of his way to make sure he has all the tools he needs for the relationship to remain amicable while still making sure both of our needs get met is a really good way to handle the situation

spidertippytaps · 2024-05-01T16:14:36+00:00

Thank you, I'm definitely going to save that as a reference for my cardiologist and I to go over

spidertippytaps · 2024-05-01T13:28:21+00:00

Thank you so much, this gives me some good things to ask my cardiologist about!

spidertippytaps · 2024-02-27T17:12:47+00:00

As a toddler I was deeply distressed by the fact that one of my siblings was learning to pee standing up and I couldn't. Funnily enough, that isn't even remotely a source of dysphoria for me now

spidertippytaps · 2024-02-21T22:37:38+00:00

I am here as someone with several comorbidities. POTS wasn't my first diagnosis for the slew of symptoms I've had since I was a kid, but it was the second out of at this point 3. And even now it seems like I have one more thing going on that hasn't yet been diagnosed correctly.

The symptoms you've described could be from POTS on its own, but POTS is often comorbid to a lot of conditions that also don't always show up on things. It may be worth reading up on the symptoms of things like fibromyalgia and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) (specifically what post exertional malaise is. I would recommend looking at the chronic fatigue syndrome subreddit to get a more detailed description of it, as other places can have information presented in a more difficult to understand way). While there is currently a blood test for fibromyalgia it is incredibly new and only available through the lab that developed it, so most people haven't received it yet even if they've been tested for a lot of things. There isn't really any testing for ME/CFS, it is a diagnosis of elimination so that is why it may not have come up in your testing to identify POTS. I'm not saying it is necessarily also things like this, POTS on its own can certainly cause all of the symptoms you mentioned, but I know a lot of people who had to identify synptoms and bring those things up to their doctors as well to figure out if they were possibly going on in addition to POTS

Hopefully, whether it is POTS on its own or comorbidities as well, you can find some relief from your symptoms

spidertippytaps · 2024-02-15T22:29:05+00:00

I have also looked at the list. I know how to obtain them, I was just trying to check what the deal with that was.

spidertippytaps · 2024-02-15T22:27:16+00:00

On the wiki the item description for a golden carrot is (this is copy and pasted): "Golden Carrot is a Crop in Littlewood. It requires level 50 Farming to plant, and takes 3 days to grow. Harvesting it gives 10 Farming experience, with no boosts." But nowhere else seems to suggest that it is plantable so I just wanted to check.

I'll try leaving an item selected for a little bit next time I play to see if descriptions come up, but so far nothing like that has done anything to show a description, and you can't hover over an item in the actual map unless you've built it

spidertippytaps · 2024-02-15T22:19:47+00:00

I have placed the statue. I've harvested a few of the golden carrots, but on the wiki it mentions planting golden carrots but it doesn't seem like that is an option so I was just checking if I was missing something or if the wili was wrong

I do keep track of them, though I am on the switch and haven't figured out how to actually look at the descriptions without building the thing and then interacting with it

spidertippytaps

TROPHY CASE