robert robertson ruined my life

Several decades later my sister had an MRI, as a long shot, to try to figure out why she was sick and deteriorating with a number of symptoms that were close to being written off as anxiety. She was sent straight to the hospital for adult onset hydrocephaly. Two days later she had brain surgery to put a shunt down her neck into her stomach and drain the fluid out. (No, you cannot usually get brain surgery that fast. Yes, it was that urgent.) Recovery was long and squiggly but it happened.

I think of that boy every once in a while. The one who died. I have no doubt that treatments developed for people like him, and tested on people like him, saved my sister's life.

I've been type 1 diabetic since I was about one and a half, and was incredibly sick. If my mother hadn't also been type 1 and recognized the signs I likely would have died.

I was born in 1982. Insulin was first given to a patient in 1922, and he survived. Before that, type 1 meant death, often very slow and agonizing. Before insulin, doctors advised a super strict "keto" diet to prolong life, and it could work for awhile - up to a year, I believe. But it was a miserable existence as the body was literally eating itself as the blood turned acidic until the patient eventually died.

60 years. Only 60 years before my birth did that procedure work for the first time. That's absolutely nothing given the span of human history and I think a lot about the people who died from it throughout time.

But yes, people tried. Healers and doctors of all sorts tried all manner of things to allow these (mostly!) kids to live. The fact that it was accomplished at all is nothing short of a miracle. The fact that I've been alive 42 years is fucking insane considering my body doesn't produce a hormone necessary for survival. If you think that doesn't blow me away on a regular basis you have another think coming. It's nothing short of a miracle.

Every medical advancement is. The amount of work that goes into it and the vast amount of luck necessary to get it right even when all the research and information is sound is just astonishing.

In 1930, having diabetes type I would basically mean being hospital bound, being woken every few hours for regular injections.

In 1965, you'd be able to live at home and get by with a very strict diet and a few timed injections. You'd struggle with chronical side effects. Having children wasn't done - passing on your genes would be immoral, and it might not even be legal for you to marry.

In the year 2000, you'd have a device clipped to your belt that would measure your blood sugar and distribute insulin, you only need to change the needle a few times a day. You might even be allowed to join in P.E. class

In 2025, you stick on two patches that do the same thing. They're synchronized through your phone.

He's lived long enough that three of his grandkids have been born with the same condition, and he's been there to assist with the recovery after the laparoscopic version of the same surgery he had.

He has a scar from collarbone to waist that's as thick as my finger--thicker, in some places. My nieces and nephews have scars so tiny you could mistake them for being from a particularly bad cat scratch. And their recovery was measured in weeks, instead of months.

starting my pridemonth posting by kindly asking artists/storytellers to reevaluate their interracial ships a little. having been in queer art circles for years, especially for zine illustrators and comic artists, i couldn't tell you how much black knight / white royalty kind of stuff i see everyday. always defaulting the dark skinned character to some butch or savior role. I'm not saying end this all now I'm just saying there's an awful lot of it, it would be nice if people were cognizant of stereotypes. queer communities just seem to bypass it all the time, probably because the focus is on fulfilling some need like "damn a strong butch woman with a tiny femme sounds so cute" but like, if your default vision of them is some stereotypical interracial couple, you should consider why you think that and change it up.

Sorry I'm currently stuck in the Gosling!Verse and shipping all the things, BloodyMary (honestly who came up with this brilliant name) included! Hope you like this spicy little comic :3

Mia ( @miainaction94 ) and Ren ( @mechabae ) are thinking about a Summer Bash exchange event. Sign-ups would run to June 20th while submissions are due the day before Flambae's birthday, August 19th. To that end, we wanted to ask folks what you'd be interested in creating and how.

Reply in comments with your suggestions, questions, write-ins, etc.