#firesidoni

Depends if you’re leaning serious or silly! “How do they rise up” is good for the former, vs maybe the rallying cry (“truth... egg”) for the latter?

Probably not silly. And I have both biceps and my left forearm available, as well as the inside of my right forearm. 

So it looks like I’m allergic to Keflex/cephalexin, joy of joys. I’ve been taking it for most of a week, and have now started slowly breaking out in hives, by which I mean it started a couple days ago as what I thought were a handful of bug bites and has progressed slowly into what I finally recognized as hives today.

I spoke with my doctor, who told me to stop it immediately, which I’m thinking means it’s probably anaphylactic, or rather that it has the potential to develop into same. Thing is, the reason I was taking it is that my sinus infection apparently has the MRSA resistance gene(s), though no MRSA growth*, and this was the only antibiotic that would knock it out.

They’re waiting to hear back on the results of a second culture, but assuming nothing’s changed, does anyone know what they’d about it? The only thing I can think of is them admitting me to keep me under anaphylaxis watch while they administer the antibiotics. Does anyone have any idea how accurate that might be?

I was originally gonna send @thebibliosphere an ask about this, since I figure she’d likely know if anyone would, but given her current medical issues (and also that her asks are turned off), I figured I’d do it this way instead. Anyone else who might know is encouraged to chip in.

(To be very clear, I’m wondering if anyone knows what would happen, not looking for medical advice - there’s just no point in asking my doc until we know for sure if it’s even relevant. Don’t rely on the internet in lieu of actual medical advice.)

Also, oh shit, I really hope I don’t need to be admitted - my brother’s getting married this weekend in Houston, which is like five or six hours away. I mean, I’ll miss the wedding if I have to - this is not something to fuck around with - but I really hope it doesn’t come to that.

It’s not personal, really. I just... hmm, how to put this?

Okay, so I write fanfiction with the express intent of sharing it in fannish spaces with a fannish audience, right? So the more people who see it, the better, and if it gets reblogged and shared around, great! If it gets shared around in a messy rough-draft form? Whatever, the final version will be on AO3. It’s all good. :)

My original fiction isn’t exactly more personal -- I put quite a lot of my own preoccupations into my fanfic, and feel free to do extensive worldbuilding and OC development -- but it’s more... unfiltered, I guess? Because it’s all me, unmediated by working within anyone else’s framework. So I’m a little protective over it and want to make sure I only post those works on sites where I have complete control over their presentation. I can edit or hide my Dreamwidth posts any time I want. I can’t edit or hide Tumblr reblogs, even if I change or delete the original post.

Also I might want to sell some of this stuff someday, so. Again I want it in places that are under my complete control. *wry*

Hi! This is probably too late (sorry about that), but if you need this for the future or if anyone needs it, here’s an answer.

I’d definitely call ahead and make sure that the wheelchair is ready and that they remember to have one for you and that they have someone to wheel you to your gate if you’re not able to do that/don’t have someone with you who can do it. If you’re wheeling yourself, I’d suggest looking at a map of the airport so that you know how to get to your gate. If you don’t want to do that (I probably wouldn’t because I’d get overwhelmed trying to read a map), make sure you pay attention to the signs that tell you where your gate is. Following them normally helps me when I travel (I feel like I’ve spent half my college career on planes going back and forth between Houston and Vermont and the signs have been a lifesaver when I’m confused). I know saying to read the signs might seem obvious, but when you’re stressed and overwhelmed a reminder is always helpful. It took a few panicked calls to my mom for me to remember that signs are a thing the first few times I flew by myself when I started college. If you’re ever just too lost and you’re getting upset, ask someone who works there for directions to your gate. If, for any reason, you need to use a shuttle to get to a certain gate give yourself plenty of time to navigate that in a wheelchair. The signs to the shuttles are not always as obvious and easy to find in some airports as the signs for the gates (for whatever reason) and also navigating a wheelchair in any case is often a struggle (as I’m sure you know).

Also, if you’re going to have trouble getting to your seat once you’re boarding the plane, make sure they have a different wheelchair ready for you there too (because they’re often two different wheelchairs and the bigger ones can’t fit in the aisles of the plane). My family and I made that mistake right after my accident and they didn’t have a plane wheelchair waiting for me. Not. Fun. We asked for one and they didn’t have it ready, which goes back to what I said about calling ahead and making sure the staff is prepared to help you. If you’re going to be using a wheelchair while going through security (because I’m pretty sure even with a wheelchair, you still have to go through some kind of security), you also should probably prepare yourself for some touching. With me, they pat down my whole body while I was in the wheelchair. Better to prepare yourself for that now rather than be surprised by it like I was.

When you get through security and get to your gate, talk to the people who will be running the boarding process and go ahead and let them know what’s up and what you’ll need. Both you and they will be happy that everyone involved is prepared before the chaos that is boarding starts. This, again, will also help make sure a wheelchair that can navigate the narrow plane aisles is ready for you.

Remember, above anything else, making sure that the staff at the airport knows what’s up and that you’ve prepared them as much as possible is very important. They’re busy helping a lot of people so the reminders will help them help you and keep things going smoothly.

Only that we knew this was coming. Trump openly said he’d do it; he’d already said it by the time I wrote History May Not Repeat Itself. Now he’s doing it, soooooo. (To be fair, apparently some whack job introduces this bill to leave the UN ever year. Still...this is not a normal year.) 

Maybe I’ve had time to become numb to it, but that’s why I wrote that post: because I saw the writing on the wall, and I wanted other people to see it in time. If my friends and loved ones have to flee this country, I would rather they flee than die, and I want to be ready to help them. If necessary, I want to be the one to say, go now. History May Not Repeat Itself reminds me that the time hasn’t come yet, and hopefully will never come, but at least I have a map. 

I can be numb to the ongoing anxiety of this country’s infestation of plague rats and still engage in activism and protest, so there’s that at least.

In some ways I’ve been watching this happen since Dubyah was president; the parallels between millennial America under Bush and the disintegrating Roman Empire are there for anyone who wants to plow through Tacitus. (It’s not the most engaging classical lit ever but it’s better than some.) I haven’t gone back to Tacitus in years because I find the parallels frightening and depressing, but I should check in on him, and I’m willing to bet I’d find a Donald Trump in the fall of Rome. 

This is why protest is so important now: because they’re going to try to do everything they said they’d do, and every single thing we stop, even temporarily, is one less brick in the road – or the wall – that they want to build. Fighting now is hard, but fighting now is a cake walk compared to what’ll happen if we don’t. And maybe it’ll happen anyway, but I don’t plan to go gently. 

I don’t have much money and I’m not that politically astute and I’m bad at debate. All I have are words, but I’m good at those, so the most powerful thing I can do is to keep writing and hope someone brighter and stronger than me can use what I say to do more than I can. And that those who have even less power than I do can use what I say to protect themselves because hell knows if I’ll be able to.