The Epic Adventures

start being comfortable posting Black people's words in your blogs, the same way you'll reblog posts about transness, gayness, disability, because these specific topics can affect you

Name: Little Beepo

Skill: Fucking Miserable

what does the name mean? my = muscle. algic = pain. encephalo = brain. myel = spinal cord. itis = inflammation.

ME is classed by the WHO as a neurological disease. the Decode ME study found immune and neurological genetic markers in its analysis of 15,000 subjects.

ME is more complex than just fatigue. many experts and patients dislike the old name ‘chronic fatigue syndrome’ because fatigue is only one part of the condition, and it’s the least unique trait.

the most unique trait is post exertional malaise, where, 24-72 hours after any exertion outside the patient’s limits, there’s a peak of worsening and new symptoms affecting multiple bodily systems. PEM often involves immune activation, such as sore throat and a low fever, and a loss of muscle recovery after exertion, measurable through CPET testing. (normal muscle recovery takes 200 mins, but muscle recovery in ME takes days, with some patients taking longer than a year to recover from a single exertion.)

ME can range from mild to profoundly severe. these severity levels are only within the context of ME, not general illness; ‘mild’ ME is still a severe illness as it includes a 50% loss of functioning. ‘mild’ ME can feature debilitating pain and complex symptoms and can turn basic activities of daily living into a marathon.

severe ME is (naturally) even more physically limiting than mild ME. people with severe ME are largely bedbound and only rarely able to leave their room in a wheelchair, and usually can’t perform their own care tasks, needing help dressing, washing, and eating.

in very severe ME, the person may be unable to leave bed at all and may not be able to speak, swallow, roll over, sit up, read, or be exposed to light or noise, for years or decades.

ME has a measurably lower quality of life than any other illness studied, including cancer and stroke.

"We'll fire you if you tell others how much you're making" The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 specifically protects employees who discuss their own wages with each other (you can't reveal someone else's wages if you were given that information in the course of work, but you can always discuss your own or any that were revealed to you outside of work duties)

"If we can't fire you for [discussing wages/seeking reasonable accommodation/filing a discrimination complaint/etc], we'll just fire you for something else the next day." This is called pretextual termination, and it offers your employer almost no protection; if you are terminated shortly after taking a protected action such as wage discussion, complaints to regulatory agencies, or seeking a reasonable accommodation, you can force the burden onto your employer to prove that the termination wasn't retaliatory.

"Disparaging the company on social media is grounds for termination" Your right to discuss workplace conditions, compensation, and collective action carries over to online spaces, even public ones. If your employer says you aren't allowed to disparage the company online or discuss it at all, their social media policy is illegal. However, they can forbid releasing information that they're obligated to keep confidential such as personnel records, business plans, and customer information, so exercise care.

"If you unionize, we'll just shut this branch down and lay everyone off" Threatening to take action against a group that unionizes is illegal, full stop. If a company were to actually shut down a branch for unionizing, they would be fined very heavily by the NLRB and be opening themselves up to a class-action lawsuit by the former employees.

"We can have any rule we want, it's only illegal if we actually enforce it" Any workplace policy or rule that has a "chilling effect" on employees' willingness to exercise their rights is illegal, even if the employer never follows through on any of their threats.

"If you [protected action], we'll make sure you never work in this industry/city/etc again." Blacklisting of any kind is illegal in half the states in the US, and deliberately sabotaging someone's job search in retaliation for a protected action is illegal everywhere in the US.

"Step out of line and you can kiss your retirement fund/last paycheck goodbye." Your employer can never refuse to give you your paycheck, even if you've been fired. Nor can they keep money that you invested in a retirement savings account, and they can only claw back the money they invested in the retirement account under very specific circumstances.