Abled-bodied people on twitter and Facebook are using Continuous Glucose Monitors for weight loss programs. Using a device for a disability for their own beauty and ‘healthy and fit!!1’ purposes.

CGMs, as they’re called more commonly, were specifically made for Diabetics. And only for Diabetics. It’s to help make our lives just a little bit easier with the chronic condition we’re stuck with.

CGMs were NOT made for able bodied people to sit there and use it for their weight loss programs. They don’t even bother to to any tests beforehand to make sure someone can use the damn things right. Nor did these groups consult doctors about the risks.

These groups need to be stopped. They need to be reported for malpractice and harm to the general public. They’re fucking ableist assholes who are doing harm to the Diabetic community and the general public and I will not stand for that.

If any info I’ve presented here is wrong, please correct me in a reblog.

Using a CGM when you are not diabetic (or pre-diabetic, if advised by a doctor) will do nothing to benefit your health. It is a complete scam.

Diabetics use CGMs because we have to regulate our blood sugar/glucose (BG) with insulin, if our BG goes up, we need to know so we can bring it down with medication. If an able-bodied person's BG goes up, it will go right back down because their bodies can self-regulate. If you're really worried about your blood glucose levels, talk to a doctor. Getting a CGM will not help you, especially if you're taking advice from Levels.

Additionally, like many fads that come out of "fitness" and "health" communities, this can be really fucking bad for people with eating disorders. Carb counting is already bad enough, if someone is constantly seeing a little line go up every time they eat a bagel, they might stop eating that bagel, and then any other foods that make that line go up because they have been mislead into thinking that their blood sugar being 120 mg/dL for a few hours is going to give them diabetes (it won't). If you're familiar with EDs you probably know how quickly those kinds of ideas and habits can turn into something extremely unhealthy.

Able-bodied people: your blood sugar going up is Not A Bad Thing. It's completely normal, and it will go back down once your body processes the glucose (and, reminder: you need glucose to live).

Please don't support Levels or any other scammers that use medical equipment made for disabled people to make you feel bad about your health.

Are you diabetic? Are you a part of the LGBTQ+ community? Are you specifically trans or nonbinary?

Oh boy do i have a place for you! Me and a couple of other wonderful humans are putting the finishing touches on a shiny new discord server catered to trans/enby folks who also have diabetes!

(super niche, i know)

We're looking to have a couple more interested parties join us as mods!

If youre interested, go hit up @gluten-free-challah for more info!

For the final time, there’s nothing wrong with writing fanfiction. I write fanfiction myself to keep my skills sharp and to relax and have fun! It’s fun to write a Thorkyie pegging fic and it’s fun to write my Moonlight Royalty AU because it doesn’t take as much effort, and I’m just messing around with my friends. I’ve been writing fanfiction since I was eleven and I have the terrible Fanfiction.net writing to prove for it.

As great as fanfiction is, it’s not what solidified me as a writer. Fanfiction didn’t get me published; fanfiction didn’t get me to where I am now (published, about to have my full length novel published). What got me to this point where I’m a confident author was creating my own characters and writing original stories. What made me a stronger writer was lots of reading (not fanfiction, but the works published by so many talented authors of color, books in general) and coming up with ideas of my own.

Please read this and try to understand. Don’t get defensive. Don’t start writing your scathing critique on me being a big, mean bully and a pretentious bitch. Think, honestly, about the work that’s published on A03 compared to the works published by established authors. And then remind yourself that if you’re searching for a career in writing/publishing/editing that you cannot rely on the same tools you have from fanfiction. With fanfiction you’re using somebody else’s characters and universe. You may have created a plot or a complex AU, but you have not created the base of the universe, the base of the characters. You haven’t made a compelling protagonist, haven’t put in any of the hard work of world-building and character design—someone else has done that for you and a huge part of writing fiction is creating your own character/voice. Not using the voice of someone else, not using the same sentences used by other fic writers, not relying on fanfiction tropes/

To grow, you must grow. To become a better artist, you must become a better artist. And if a post on Tumblr that’s not entirely rainbows and flowers and gently patting you on the back for mediocre work is going to make you quit, then you never had any intention of improving anyways! 

I also do genealogical commissions. I do record research through ancestry.com and I am very thorough and have helped dozens of people who can testify to my work. I charge $20 an hour which I think is a fair price for the work that I do. If you’ve commented on my last post expressing interest and I haven’t gotten to you yet, I apologize but I promise I will get to you. Comment and I’ll DM you more about it.

My goal is to get through the month is $1,100. I am so extremely grateful and appreciative for all the help I have received received in the past. Thank you all so much! 💖

My cash app and Venmo are @ lesbiandykely Comment and I’ll DM my Paypal

You are so brave and an inspiration to us all!

I will now impart all of my profit killing resources onto you, in case you don’t know them. I think most of you know them, now. But just in case you don’t.

THIS IS US-CENTRIC. I’M SORRY. 

1. GoodRx - this thing has an app now, so you can look up the best places to get your expensive medicines at the lowest possible prices without insurance on the go, and you no longer have to print coupons because you can just hand over your phone or tablet. Times have changed for the better with GoodRx. Definitely use it before trying to fill your scrip, because it will tell you the best place to go. (You can do that on the website, too.)

2. NeedyMeds - Needymeds is basically the clearinghouse of drug payment assistance. They have their own discount cards, but also connections to many patient assistance programs run by drug companies themselves. They are good assistance programs, too.

3. Ask your county - This is not a link. This is a pro tip. Most county social services will have pharmacy discount programs for people with no and/or shitty pharmaceutical coverage. You can often just find them hanging around at social services offices; you can just pick one up and walk off with it. 

4. Ordering online - There are a few safe online pharmacies. I keep a little database in a text file on my computer. Most of them are courtesy of CFS forums, my mother or voidbat, so a lot of that is a hat tip to other people, but if you’re in need of a place to get a drug without a prescription … first I’ll make sure you 100% know what you’re doing for safety reasons and then I’m happy to turn over a link. 

5. Healthfinder - A government resource that helps find patient assistance programs in your area. This might also point out the convenient county card thing. RxHope is something a lot of people get pointed to via Healthfinder that’s a good program.

Do a Google search for “patient assistant programs” + (your med), or search the manufacturers website. Sometimes the info is online; other times you have to call.

Even some of the big name pharma companies have this. It’s certainly not all companies, or all meds, but it is worth a shot.

Before Obamacare, I lost insurance and couldn’t pay for my mood stabilizers (kiiiiinda important to have those when you’re bipolar.) I was on generic Lamictal, but I went to the official Lamictal website, filled out a form with a valid prescription, and they mailed my meds to me every month for free.