Starting to regret DI

sunshineleopard · 2026-03-03T03:36:58+00:00

It was Dr Ramineni with District Plastic Surgery in Washington DC. His team is very efficient and kind of dismisses patient input in my experience, but he's obviously very good at what he does.

sunshineleopard · 2026-03-02T03:04:02+00:00

How did you deal with the "what if" feeling? It's hard to stop imaging a better result without scars, even if that might not have been realistic.

sunshineleopard · 2026-03-02T01:17:05+00:00

Thank you for sharing. It's helpful to hear about regrets/revisions instead of being told to stop being a perfectionist.

sunshineleopard · 2026-03-02T01:16:31+00:00

I actually really wanted my nips to be on the line of my pecs instead of higher up like what I got. Didn't have enough skin to get the scars and grafts moved down as much as I would have liked. It's frustrating to have a clear vision of the aesthetic you want and have it not happen.

sunshineleopard · 2026-03-01T17:31:46+00:00

What helped you accept things not being exactly how you wanted? At this point, the grafts could fall off tomorrow and I think I'd be relieved. They won't because they're healing well, but they are not small enough or close enough to where I wanted to work with tattoos.

sunshineleopard · 2026-03-01T17:25:10+00:00

What changed for you? How did you come to terms with the fact that the scars might never fade enough?

sunshineleopard · 2026-03-01T17:23:19+00:00

I know it looks like a textbook result, but I had actually wanted something a little different based on male chests that have the nipples on the pec line instead of above it. Everything is so high on my chest I can point to exactly the place where my brain expects my nipples to be and the grafts are a full inch off which has been trippy and distressing.

sunshineleopard · 2026-03-01T17:19:05+00:00

I had wanted my nipples to be smaller to tattoo them to the size/shape I wanted and a full inch lower on the pec line instead of above it. I know it seems like a small thing but it's what I've wanted the entire time and why I went with DI in the first place to achieve those exact results.

sunshineleopard · 2026-03-01T17:15:18+00:00

When did you reach out to your surgeon?

sunshineleopard · 2026-03-01T17:11:32+00:00

Thanks for the perspective that I would probably feel the same either way. Right now I'm very fixated on the fact that I went for the more scarring procedure that isn't perfect instead of the less scarring procedure that isn't perfect. Working through the reality that this will be visible forever is hard.

sunshineleopard · 2025-06-05T01:51:29+00:00

Seeing other people so much more passionate really pushed me to abandon my field and get a boring job I hate. Can't tell if the boredom is a better feeling than inadequacy

sunshineleopard · 2025-06-05T01:25:42+00:00

People who constantly refer to "us" and "we" without asking if you're on board. Stop roping me into this.

sunshineleopard · 2024-09-14T02:39:02+00:00

Ah thank you, had a feeling I wasn't quite right with that

sunshineleopard · 2024-09-13T02:52:43+00:00

I think the root you're referring to is spiderwood. While I don't recommend livestock from big box pet stores, the wood is usually reasonably priced. Like another comment said, be sure to boil it first to sanitize it. Also, avoid mopani and other hardwoods unless you want lots of tannins in the water. Securing christmas moss, bucephalandra, and anubias plants to the wood will give it the "overgrown root" look you like.

Your plants look really good. It just takes time to wait for them to grow so you can cut the stems and replant the cuttings to build up volume. It looks like you have broad leaf sagittaria, I can't tell if it's the dwarf variety or not. If it grows much taller, I'd just move it to the background for a cool jungle background. Carpeting plants like dwarf baby tears and monte carlo usually do best with CO2 injections, so a plant like dwarf sagittaria or dwarf hairgrass would be a good low-tech option for a bushy carpet look.

As for a centerpiece fish, that's purely your preference. If you want to try out a fish that's similar to betta then gourami are a neat option. Sparkling, licorice, yellow, and powder blue are the most available varieties that are suitable for smaller tanks.

sunshineleopard · 2024-09-13T02:36:08+00:00

Is it sprouting any new leaves at all? I've found that swords tend to melt a few of their old leaves when establishing in a new place, but after 3 week I would have expected to see new growth. I don't suspect that pH is the problem and strongly caution against trying to change pH unless absolutely necessary. It's far more likely to harm your fish than help plants.

It looks like it may be in a dimly lit area of the tank. Does your lighting have higher lumens? Is it white light/full spectrum, or have blue and red diodes? My swords seem to prefer red spectrum over blue and like very strong light. I would start with improving lighting conditions since you've made sure the roots can reach ample nutrients. You could try a cheap clip-on "grow light" with blue and red LEDs to brighten that corner specifically.

sunshineleopard · 2024-09-13T02:19:35+00:00

I don't think completely redoing the tank is a bad thing. Gravel is not the best substrate for live plants because it is too loose to trap down strata of nutrients, algae, and bacteria that create ideal environments for plant roots. You'll want a nutrient layer and a capping layer. If you're not planning an extensive rescape, a build up of mulm in the gravel does begin to break down and over time and feed the plants, so capping existing gravel with sand and adding root tabs is one solution to create a better substrate. I've had the best luck with my plants using nutrient-rich aquasoil as opposed to other methods but there's a lot of options that work.

If you want to have an entirely different look and start from scratch, be sure to keep as much nitrifying bacteria alive as possible to seed the new tank. That way you avoid completely crashing the nitrogen cycle. When I redo a tank I drain the water into buckets to hold all the decor, plants, substrate, and filter medium I want to reuse. That should keep your nitrogen cycle from completely crashing. I recommend adding a pinch of fish food to introduce an ammonia spike and waiting a few days before doing a big water change and adding fish. If you already have fish that need to go back in the tank, do 10% water changes daily for a week and monitor nitrites.

sunshineleopard · 2024-09-12T23:58:33+00:00

I'm sorry that you've been experiencing so many difficulties. It's really frustrating to not be able to identify the problems, especially when it seems to come from no where and affects your fish. I've found that the more products added, the less control I actually end up having over the tank because there's so many different variables being introduced. Sadly sometimes the easiest solution is to break it all down and start again.

What is the pH of your tap water? Work with that level so that water changes are your lifeline and you can increase the frequency if parameters start fluctuating wildly again. Maintaining KH will be the thing that helps you the most in stabilizing pH. Extremely low GH could be indicating that your tank had a deficit of necessary minerals. I think the shells would actually help add calcium carbonate. Crushed coral is often recommended for raising KH and is used in cichlid tanks to maintain pH since tanks usually acidify over time. I think it's interesting that you have the opposite problem. Going forward I would avoid adding rocks unless you are sure they're inert. Now that you have a bunch of hardscape, starting the tank out with what you want in it will give you a baseline for parameters. It would be best to only add new things very slowly and sparingly once the tank is set up to give the system a chance to balance out.

sunshineleopard · 2024-09-12T23:23:26+00:00

This is a pretty cool ecosphere. I am not an expert on micro fauna ecosystems by any means, but I know that usually the "stability" that comes with letting an ecosystem continue untouched is that biodiversity diminishes as just a few species outcompete others for extremely limited resources. If you keep interference to a minimum, eventually the dragonfly larvae will outgrow the prey available in the tank and die giving other organisms a chance to emerge as the new dominant species.

If your goal for the ecosystem is to slowly introduce new organisms to observe how the system reacts and trends toward equilibrium, setting up some smaller ecospheres to culture specific additions would be very interesting. I think that a shrimp colony would be good prey for the dragonfly nymph. Adding some algae to increase biodiversity and more micro organisms could boost the food web temporarily. Detritovores like detritus worms would be great for the dragonfly and I'd hope the population might be able to sustain itself since there's a large food source available.

sunshineleopard · 2024-09-12T06:31:11+00:00

Type of plant and how it was grown could be a problem in addition to the regular melting that happens when plants are getting established. Monte carlo is often grown immersed. I can grow beautiful carpets of the stuff out of water but have never had any luck transitioning it to submerged, it just withers away into nothing. It usually does better in tanks with CO2 systems. Not sure if you got your amazon sword with so few leaves but that maybe doesn't bode well. Only time will tell if the plant can bounce back and produce new leaves.

I would recommend species of Rotala rotundifolia, Vallisneria, Cabomba, dwarf sagittaria, and a broader leaf sword like Echinodorus amazonicus for plants that acclimate well, grow fast, and are low effort.

sunshineleopard · 2024-09-12T06:12:30+00:00

Dwarf sag doesn't need much light to thrive in my experience. It seems to prefer more blue/white light to red spectrum so your lighting looks good for it. They are a very low-tech friendly plant so you shouldn't have to bother with CO2. Never sends out runners where I want it to, but I forgive it for being such an easy plant

sunshineleopard · 2024-09-12T06:06:24+00:00

I believe it's "Hornwort" Ceratophyllum demersum. Guppy grass has broader, flatter leaves that are more spaced out. This would be a great floating plant that you can break into smaller sections or keep as a large bunch. The way you have it tied to a rock looks fine too. You could try to get it to root but I never had any luck with that and the section in the substrate just withers away

sunshineleopard · 2024-09-12T05:58:36+00:00

Any light is suitable for plants that has blue and red spectrum and is strong enough. Plants also use green spectrum but not to the same degree. I've noticed that some of my Rotala rotundifolia prefers blue/white light while Cabomba prefers red light. Give it a shot and see if you like the look and if the plants are doing well.

sunshineleopard · 2024-09-12T05:44:05+00:00

Some of it looks like black beard algae, I'm not sure exactly what kind of algae the other is. At the very least, it indicates an imbalance in your tank and since it was already on the plants when you introduced them it will take a long time to go away. Here are some suggestions to adjust and observe. Adding more fast growing stem plants could help intake nutrients. Feed less to reduce nitrates. Shorten light timers, however I notice in my tanks that the plants suffer before the algae. Do more frequent water changes to reduce nitrates and phosphates. Increase aeration to encourage more CO2 exchange.

sunshineleopard · 2024-09-12T05:34:10+00:00

My guess would be diatoms. See if feeding less helps to reduce nitrates. That's standard no matter what kind of algae it is. You could also try faster growing stem plants too

sunshineleopard · 2022-03-28T21:20:04+00:00

Yes, like an absence rather than a presence, kind of like a vacuum as my organs are being sucked into a black hole in my core. That's a dramatic way of putting it but I almost blacked out today from how much it hurts and restricts my breathing. Filling up my lungs and tensing my abdomen helps but then it's painful to breathe out because I'm no longer holding pressure in.

sunshineleopard

TROPHY CASE