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That word DOES NOT MEAN you’re making it up. It doesn’t mean you’re imagining the symptom. What it means is that the symptom ISN’T DIRECTLY CAUSED BY ANY OF THE THINGS THAT WOULD NORMALLY CAUSE IT.

I fought to get a PCOS diagnosis for 2 and a half years. For the ENTIRE time I was fighting, I was dealing with 3 cysts that were not going away by themselves and eventually required surgery to remove. At one point close to the end of the battle, I suddenly went blind. I was visiting my parents and was standing on the veranda looking out over the tree we had planted in memory of my dog and suddenly I got one of the shooting pains that I was quite frankly used to at that point and my vision started to go dark. It was like the sun was setting while being completely hidden behind storm clouds but it was 2pm in the middle of Summer on a clear day. Within about 30 seconds I couldn’t see ANYTHING. I was 27 years old and I was screaming for my mother.

My mum raced me to her doctor (he was a 15 minute drive away as opposed to 45 minutes to the nearest hospital) and he quickly worked out that there was nothing wrong with my eyes and what had happened was totally unrelated to them. Then he said it was psychosomatic and I freaked out, yelling that I was NOT making this up and I definitely wasn’t imagining it. Very quickly he calmed me down and said he believed me and I had misunderstood. He explained that whatever was going on with my abdominal pains (he suggested PCOS which I hadn’t even heard of at that point) had been ignored for so long that my body was starting to do things other than the normal pain response to try to draw my attention to the problem. My sight going was my body basically jumping around in front of me going “HEY ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME HELLLOOOOOOO??????”

He gave me some prescription strength painkillers and my sight started to come back as soon as they started to kick in. About 45 minutes after it started I could see well enough to walk around without help and within a day and a half I was back to normal. On top of that I finally had a scan booked to figure out what the hell was causing all the pain.

Images from Fallout Shelter Handbook 1962.

Build a FALLOUT SHELTER, not a SNOWMAN! By Miriam Kleiman, Public Affairs

#OTD 1961, JFK urged Americans to build shelters for protection from radioactive fallout in the event of a nuclear war - and he promised the government would help. See tips, smiling citizens, and a DIY video below!

Letter from JFK to the Civil Defense Committee 1/6/1961, JFK Library.

"Survival Supplies for the Well-Stocked Fallout Shelter"! NARA ID 542103.

Forget HGTV - try this DIY Project!

Walt Builds a Family Fallout Shelter Produced by the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization, NARA ID 61040, online here.

“I spent a few evenings on it (the shelter) and a couple of weekends. It’s not so hard, anyone who’s not all thumbs can do it. And here’s the way for anybody to do just what I did!”

Happy Walt provides step-by-step DIY guidance:

Outline the shelter space

Mix the mortar

Remove furniture before the final wall is put up

Optional: paint the shelter to please your significant other!

Remember: it's a multi-purpose room, NOT just a fallout shelter! Other uses:

An extra bedroom

A room for grandchildren

A normal non-nuclear shelter against natural disasters

A photo darkroom!

Shelter built by Louis Severance, Akron, MI. "Ever since I was convinced what damage H-Bombs can do, I've wanted to build the shelter. Just as with my chicken farm, when there's a need I build it." Online here.

From lighthearted "Facts About Fallout" 1955, NARA ID 306714.

Nuns help stock fallout shelter at Villa Augustina, NH, 1/22/1963. NARA ID 7419775.

NJ citizens cheerfully review fallout shelter info, NARA ID 7386129. Related: To the Brink: JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis An inside look at the handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis via JFK's secret tapes.

See also:

Photographs and Pamphlet about Nuclear Fallout, DocsTeach