Arcane Compendium

No shirt, no bra, completely bare torso, just like cis men are allowed to

It's about desexualizing breasts and "female presenting nipples" and not being criminalized for our bodies if we want to go topless because it's a million damn degrees out. This was a popular growing movement that was still widely known a decade ago!

trans women are at lower risk to get breast cancer than ciswomen generally, but when we do have it, we're at much much higher risk of it being missed or not treated until too late

a huge principle of medical practice is that it is more likely for a common issue to have a weird symptom or presentation, rather than a rare issue or condition to have its most common symptom show up.

First off, the tumor I have is called a microedanoma. Its really small, less than 5mm wide, and it's pushing my on pituitary gland, causing it to produce more prolactin.

The way I found this out was through:

Spontaneously developing nipple discharge. Spontaneous is key here! As the posters above have mentioned, if you've recently changed medications, those should absolutely be investigated as a potential cause first. My doctor specifically asked if I'd started any new medications when I went to them with symptoms.

Physical exam. My doctor physically examined my chest, breast tissue, and glans. When they found no lumps, swelling, or anything else to suggest tumors or infection, cancer immediately became far less of a concern. This is an important step. If a doctor tries to send you for an MRI without doing even a cursory physical exam, push back on that immediately. Even if its not cancer, it could be a tumor in your breast tissue.

Blood test. My doctor sent me in for lab work, and my prolactin levels came back elevated while everything else was normal. Again, if your doctor tries to send you for an MRI before doing any blood work, PUSH BACK ON THAT. Bloodwork could also reveal any other issues or rule out certain causes. Mine was straightforward because only prolactin was raised, but if other hormones were present it could have been a lot of different things.

Breast ultrasound. My doctor was pretty sure I'd need an MRI at this point, based on symptoms and blood work, but as a final step I got a breast ultrasound done to definitively rule out cancer or infection. (As a side note, its also far more common for insurance to cover breast ultrasounds/mammograms than MRIs, so this is also a cost saving measure for the patient). No tumors or infections were found.

MRI. With a probable diagnosis and other avenues definitively cleared out (no medication changes, infections, or tumors elsewhere), I finally went in for an actual MRI. It was at this stage they found the microadenoma.

If you're like me and one of the very rare people who actually have this kind of tumor, dont worry! There's medication to both manage symptoms (nipple discharge) and manage tumor size, and they're less than 20 USD for 3 months supply. You will be okay.

If you're not like me, congrats! You don't have a tumor. That means you're likely having a weird symptom for something really common, and you should go down the list of steps described above to figure out the issue. I have a transfem friend who does not share my tumor condition but did experience nipple discharge, turned out she had an infection that wasn't discernible through physical exam but was identified through bloodwork. Bodies are weird!

Do exactly what you're paid for and nothing more

Absolutely refuse to be available to contact when you're off the clock

Never prioritize work over your own health, wellbeing, or family because that would be insane, it's just a job.

Have a little glass of wine

Take as long as you feel like for lunch

Deeply understand that work doesn't matter

Old Millennial American speaking here. I need you to adopt this mentality as early as possible and hold to it. The older you get, the harder it is to begin this practice and claw back the extremely unhealthy effects of a workaholic lifestyle. I am speaking from 20 years of experience.

This does not mean having a shitty attitude at work, or not doing your job, or relying on co-workers to carry your water.

This means you do what it says above. It also means not making work and productively your entire personality; not tying your productivity to your value; and not becoming so emotionally enmeshed in your work and workplace so that you are living and dying by what happens there.

People killed: around three quarters of a million.

Happy 30th Anniversary, NiGHTS! ♦️✨

And then you got the ultimate example of bird intelligence and they make it everyone else's problem.

Also here's a couple destroying a police car cause why not.