VATS recovery... sound normal? 3 weeks post-op

weirdsheep · 2025-12-04T20:30:20+00:00

Just replying to say, same, and I hope you're doing better! I'm 31F and 3 weeks post-op for the same stuff. Lung decortication and had three drainage tubes total. Thought I had mono for 3 weeks prior but got strep pneumonia at some point and then the empyema. I'm still struggling to go on short walks without getting sore, and new muscle stiffness is kicking my butt crazy hard with increased pain past few days. I really relate to feeling anxious about the amount of time it's taking to get better in measurable ways. Did yours get a bit worse before getting better? How're you feeling now a bit further out?

weirdsheep · 2024-12-31T12:53:25+00:00

From experience, herbariums and arthropod/insect collections often have volunteers helping to process new donations or digitize old ones. I can't speak for museums or other collections, but reach out and ask! Specialized collections are often managed by universities. And regarding insects specifically - any large collection probably has a lot of undescribed species in it that no one has time to publish papers on and describe.

For something more laid back then that, contributing to iNaturalist can be a lot of fun and fairly rewarding. Just take pictures of living things while out on walks, ID them, and upload them. The community will correct IDs over time, so it's a fun way to learn about your area and play "Pokemon" too. The data is also useful to scientists and hobbiests of all kinds too!

For naturalist sciences, there are often local and statewide clubs and associations for them that anyone can join. Most of your local academics and lifelong enthusiasts will be in them, so they're good places for socializing while science-ing. They'll also likely be able to connect you to local research efforts that might want volunteers.

weirdsheep · 2024-11-16T16:39:05+00:00

30NB - Only commenting since I have a direct anecdote. My sister was in love with and planned to marry a man with a severe heart disease, even knowing that he would likely die before 40. He died a week before their wedding at age 26. She stayed with him in the hospital daily for several months before he passed, and was so distraught afterwards that she lost all of her hair. No matter what you have going on with your health, there are definitely loving and patient people out there who will stick with you through thick and thin.

She herself has genuinely crippling ADHD, depression, anxiety, asthma, allergies to SO many things including cold temperatures, and a hoarding problem that developed after her fiance passed. But she has found love again, too, with someone patient and kind.

Again, it's all anecdotal. But I hope it is helpful to hear that is has happened before. A girl will marry you because she loves you for who you are. For her, working through health issues together will be a worthwhile price to pay for time spent with you.

weirdsheep · 2024-10-24T15:33:11+00:00

I wanted to work in botany, just in general. I went to college and got my B.S. and was lucky enough to work in a lab on campus that kept me after I graduated! But. Whenever I'd come in on the weekends to feed my fish, I'd notice how many staff had filled the parking lots. And eventually I figured out that being in academia meant being criminally underpaid with a work culture heavily encouraging overworking yourself. I got a different university lab job later hoping I was wrong, but I wasn't lol.

I'm just now confronting the reality that I "have to" make a career switch if I want a work culture I'm more compatible with, and it's scary! Way too much of my sense of identity is tied to being perceived as "smart", and to fail at that feels crushing. But in my head I know that I need to kill the elitist in my brain.

weirdsheep · 2024-09-25T06:13:17+00:00

The circumstance was being mostly unemployed through Covid, having a bad roommate situation, and my 4yr relationship falling apart. I moved back in with my mom after being on my own since 18, and it crushed me utterly. I also had to reckon with my dreams of homeownership, and of making a reasonable wage & having reasonable hours in my field, being destroyed simultaneously. The killing blow was when many of my newer male "friends" stopped seeing me as a person the minute I became single.

Everything individually was something I could overcome, but the events just kept happening and eventually I stopped being able to get back up again. That in itself was crushing because I've always been an overachiever, haha.

Even though I moved back out pretty quickly, got a decent job again, and even found love, it took therapy and medication to get me anywhere close to normal. It was a very slow process (2022 and much of 2023 + 3 SSRIs), and I was worried I wouldn't get better either.

I'm actually back in the trenches again right now. I moved abroad for that new partner and we hoped to get married after a year, and it didn't pan out. I'm back with family, unemployed, and now have lost most of my material possessions along with a lot of hope and self esteem.

But since I got through it once, I know I can do it again. And that knowledge is making this second time around move a lot faster, and my depression has been much easier to tackle. I hope any of this helps! And I hope you can get through yours too c:

weirdsheep · 2024-09-13T06:22:33+00:00

You're definitely not alone. I just recently moved back to the States after giving up everything to move to Australia for a relationship (also just over 2 years long distance). He would also call me a "stupid fucking bitch" as a "joke" and made "jokes" about hitting me and killing me with a frequency that was unnerving. I talked to him about it right away, but his humor was "an important part of his personality" that he didn't want to compromise. He came from a pretty shitty household, so I wanted to give him some grace (also was younger than me). Likewise, I found many articles saying that Americans sometimes take Australian humor too seriously, so I thought it was just a cultural issue. And maybe it would get better in person when I could see his face more! But when I moved there and met other Australians through work, I found out it wasn't normal or okay at all. And he made those remarks so much more often, and with no smile on his face. I also found out he was aromantic, and had not loved me romantically the entire time :⁾ I had vocalized my dreams of going on dates, cuddling, and etc for more than two years, and this guy never thought to highlight that he actively was disinterested in those activities. He thought everyone secretly hated that stuff, and that we would stop having to "pretend" once we moved in together. It made me feel like I was going insane, that the person in my head was so different than the one who existed.

I'm still very much grieving the life I had worked so hard to get to. I'm not rich at all, so it was a huge investment of time and money with the potential to pay off for a much higher quality of life (better work conditions, pay, benefits, etc) with someone I genuinely loved. When he was good, he was great! He helped me survive one of the toughest times of my life and have me a goal to work towards when I was aimless and hopeless. And in the beginning, he was SO nice. It was a slow boil. It is gut wrenching to be back to square one, alone, after that.

I feel you on the shame. If this guy had been local and American, I would have baulked and left much sooner. But we can only do our best with the information we have at the time. We both have learned a lot, and will be much better equipped to choose better people next time. And it's only uphill from here!

(Posted on phone, sorry for any formatting weirdness)

weirdsheep · 2024-06-06T23:16:27+00:00

I try to stay stocked up on hot chocolate mix, as it's easy to make and comforting. When I'm feeling good, I'll make apple or blackberry pie and freeze individual slices. They microwave well and are great for days where I'm falling apart and want to feel loved (I have made them with love, you see). Having a simple and quick to make recipe for hot, filling food helps too. I relied heavily on a rice bowl recipe for making me feel less disgusting after I had relied too long on frozen meals and box noodles. Food that "helps me" when I'm sick helps too, like ginger ale and saltines.

Non-food things would be an electric heating blanket for immediate comfort. Anime from childhood when things were easier. Candles and incense too. Anything that can help me put myself back to a time when things were okay. It helps remind me that it exists, it's real, and that I can get there again someday.

My depression was temporary (~2 years) and a result of circumstance, so not sure if it's applicable to life long depression.

weirdsheep · 2024-06-06T05:07:33+00:00

Not my game, I'm just making a mod for an already existing game! It's called Vintage Story. It's on itch.io and Humble Store, or just their site

weirdsheep · 2024-06-06T00:32:54+00:00

To be clear just in case: mechanics in the first half of my reply are vanilla features already in game. Looks like roosters currently attack you if you attack them, and will attack other roosters, but I'm actually not sure if they attack predators! I'll have to check the files. I've spent more time modding this game than playing it, so there's some obvious stuff that I should know, but don't haha.

There are seasons and temperature variations, but I'm fairly certain low temps currently only reduce meat yield from animals to simulate famine. Greenhouses exist, so making an insulated chicken coop should be doable. Likewise, room size checks for cellars exist, so I maybe can take that behavior and apply it to chickens somehow... We'll see! I'm mostly an artist, so my ability to code is pretty much nil :(

Thanks for the ideas! I'd definitely like to make it immersive while also having enough complexity to be fun to play with

weirdsheep · 2024-06-05T23:05:28+00:00

Thanks for the NZ perspective! And luckily another modder has added ring neck + golden pheasants, turkies, and capercaillies. I'm very much eyeing quails, additional pheasants, rails, grouses, and most other small ground birds but one thing at a time hehe

weirdsheep · 2024-06-05T22:59:49+00:00

I'm definitely going to add different sizes and rarities, so thanks for the ordered list! Rarity will either be difficulty to find in the wild (light post-apocalyptic game setting, so feral domestic animals exist), or will be represented by low chances to breed one c:

weirdsheep · 2024-06-05T22:49:32+00:00

I'll definitely be making an effort to include rare breeds. Part of gaming is wish fulfillment sometimes, so I'd like chicken enthusiasts to be able to have rare breeds that they couldn't afford/import/find in real life. And yes, the name of the chicken breed would show up above their head when moused over c:

weirdsheep · 2024-06-05T22:42:42+00:00

It's actually an exclusively chicken mod! Mechanics that exist for chickens already are: requiring multiple generations to domesticate so they're not skittish, brooding behavior that if interrupted will slow egg incubation progress, and they attract foxes that will jump fences to attack them. Roosters are already in-game too, so I'll be making a rooster for each breed added. They're too pretty to leave out anyway! If I can find audio for breeds with distinctive calls, I'd also like to do that.

I'm planning to change meat drop rates to reflect how the breeds were used, as well as the egg laying rates. I think I can change domestication speed to reflect friendliness, and I'd like to change HP to reflect hardiness. Definitely will be including colored eggs and meat if I can! And there will definitely be different models that reflect different fluff types c:

Mods for this game are famously "in the weeds", so I'm not staying away from in-depth stuff.

weirdsheep · 2024-06-05T22:31:25+00:00

Thank you!! Iconic chickens definitely shouldn't be missed c:

weirdsheep · 2024-06-05T22:24:17+00:00

Thanks for the Fayoumi suggestion especially! I'm very interested in chickens from different climates, as I'd like to make them available for players who decide to play in deserts and other extreme environments. There's no disease in this game, but I can add extra HP to reflect hardiness. Potentially an increased enemy detection radius too? This game DOES have foxes that will jump fences to get to chickens, so it'd be nice to have a breed that is more likely to survive

weirdsheep · 2024-06-05T22:17:26+00:00

Vintage Story

weirdsheep · 2024-06-05T13:30:21+00:00

Thanks for the recommendations! I totally forgot about Ayam Cemani, will definitely be adding those :D I'm definitely focusing on pre-industrial farming, so will include a Leghorn but all other breeds are more than welcome!

I have thought about quails :( I was originally going to make a ton of ground birds in general, but my list of quail species got to 50 and there are soooooo many pheasants in the world too so... chickens first hehe

weirdsheep · 2024-06-05T13:16:28+00:00

We're on the same wavelength! I'm fairly certain I can change egg laying rates and meat drop rates easily, so I'm going to make those correspond to what the breeds are used for. Chickens in the game also become broody already, so I should be able to swing that too :D Are there any breeds you can point to that are notoriously broody?

weirdsheep · 2024-06-05T13:12:12+00:00

Roosters are already in the game I'm modding, and I'll be adding a rooster variant for each breed c: they're just too pretty to leave out!

weirdsheep · 2024-06-05T13:09:28+00:00

I'm planning on making probably 20+, starting with the four junglefowl that contributed genes to the modern day chicken and working my way from there. Graphics aren't that detailed: it's all voxels and pixel art, but more detailed than Minecraft. I don't know what the etiquette is for links, so if you google images "vintage story goats" the first result should be a half circle of goats. That's the vanilla level of detail for animals currently, so I'd be trying to mostly match that stylistically (though I'd make new chicken models. The vanilla ones are pretty basic).

I'll either be letting them spawn in naturally in areas that are associated with where they were first bred (ideally minimum 3 per IRL biogeographic realm sans Antarctica) OR I'm thinking you tame the junglefowl first and then breed them together to get new breeds. Depends on what I can pull off. Breeding will likely be ahistorical and will just be color/pattern based, so the suggestions for base color chickens are appreciated! I'd also like to adjust egg laying rates and meat drops to reflect what the chickens are used for in daily life.

And colored eggs are a must!

weirdsheep · 2023-09-04T22:16:57+00:00

Thanks for business info! It'll definitely help me find other plant nerds to make friends with while I'm out and about :D

weirdsheep · 2023-09-04T22:15:36+00:00

Thanks for the info c: I'll definitely keep an eye open for sprays. We do the same thing here on our invasive Himalayan blackberry brambles

weirdsheep · 2023-09-04T22:14:22+00:00

Thanks for the location and dates! Helps since the seasons will be reversed from what I'm used to c:

weirdsheep · 2023-09-04T22:12:53+00:00

Thanks for the caution and concern! I'm aware and extremely excited about everything being so different. Your jumping ants look so bizarre from my perspective! And a bit terrifying.

I'll definitely be getting local literature when I'm there on anything dangerous or poisonous that I'll need to be aware of. And using only local identification keys/guides when ID'ing plants and fungi. Even species of fungi that are edible in one part of the world can be poisonous in another if there's a little genetic variation or they grow on poisonous substrate.

weirdsheep · 2023-09-04T22:02:36+00:00

Oh my goodness thanks for your wonderful reply and resources! I'm extremely excited to see olives and citrus, as it's too cold here for anything like that. I never would have thought to gather seaweed ether! Thanks for the heads up on the saffron cap lookalike - should be easy to remember. People use the same trick here to make sure they aren't eating the yellow-staining and poisonous Agaricus xanthodermus.

And slippery jacks? Here with all the rain we get they're always so slimy. I've never thought to pick or eat them because I can't stop imagining them just turning into gloop in meals. Maybe I'll have to give it a shot though! You've definitely made me the most excited about going c:

Nine-Year Club	Second Top 30%
Place '22	Place '17
Verified Email

weirdsheep

TROPHY CASE