oh, worm?

I know I owe you a bunch of stories, and I’ve got them all lined up to tell, including Kouku and Girlgirl and Leika. I just finished with the hardest patients I’ve ever had. One was literally shredding, so needed two different stuffed animals of my own to act as models, and the other pair had fabric that was disintegrating in a way that made it sticky, so every time the needle went in and came out, I needed to clean it off! They were stuffing inside, and the top layer of their fabric was coming apart, but the backing of their fabric was sticky. It was new. :-/

But, today I am going to share the story of a turtle named Turtle, and for a rare special treat, you get to see part of the patient’s family. I don’t usually show families for privacy reasons, but, well, this is Turtle’s warm blooded being, Murphy:

They’d been together for six years, since Murphy was a puppy. Here’s their baby picture:

As you can see, Murphy has grown and Turtle has, well been worn a bit. Here are a couple of his diagnosis photos:

We agreed that Turtle needed transplants for his balding, and wounds sewn up. Usually, I don’t clean patients belonging to animals, as scent is so important, but in this case, the humans decided a spa was in order too. So Turtle flew down to the Bay Area and started his treatment with a spa:

You can already see him getting cleaner!

Once dry and restuffed, he got a heart with a bit of original stuffing:

And then the humans chose a fabric for his transplants from two options:

Soon his surgery was done and he was ready to head back north:

Normally I’d stop here, with a quote from the humans “He looks great!” But that’s not the end of the story. You see, once Turtle got home, Murphy sent some photos to make everyone smile:

Happy as a puppy that they’re together once more!

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I have a BMI of 35. I am the cutoff for most of medicine. My size or larger, we can't access:

Fertility treatment

Gender affirming surgeries

Most surgeries, in fact

bc we can't donate our bodies to science and drs don't study on larger bodies. Medications aren't made for us bc we're often excluded from scientific studies. We're systematically excluded and then blamed for poorer outcomes.

I don't care whether you 'like' looking at me or bodies like mine; we deserve equal access to healthcare [all caps].

I have a BMI of 35. I am the cutoff for most of medicine. My size or larger, we can't access:

Fertility treatment

Gender affirming surgeries

Most surgeries, in fact

bc we can't donate our bodies to science and drs don't study on larger bodies. Medications aren't made for us bc we're often excluded from scientific studies. We're systematically excluded and then blamed for poorer outcomes.

I don't care whether you 'like' looking at me or bodies like mine; we deserve equal access to healthcare [all caps].