One of the (many) banes of chronic illness is the absurd amount of meds. Here’s some things I’ve found helpful throughout the years! Feel free to add on :)

As your doctor prescribes them, these questions may be helpful:

What will these medications be doing in my body? How do they work?

What will this be targeting? 

What symptoms should I expect to get better? Which may get worse?

What side effects should I look out for?

What signs are there that I need a lower/higher dosage?

What interactions will this have? Is it okay with all of the things I’m already on?

Should these be taken with food, on an empty stomach, other?

When you get them from the pharmacist: 

Make sure you get information sheets on the meds if they have them.

Always ask them about possible medication, food and substance interactions. 

Ask about storage, policy for missing a dose, whether or not they can be crushed, etc.

The bolded above are all great things that you should ask your pharmacist as well as your doc. 

Things you can do to make it easier:

Google your medications, see if there are any interactions you may not know about still. This post has some resources.

Make a list of all of the medications you’re on, what dose you have to take and when. Trust me. 

Set alarms for whenever you need to take a dose.

Make a checklist if you need to.

Separating them into pill boxes can be helpful, but time consuming. I’d recommend at least doing it for any AM dosages.

There are health apps designed to help you keep track too!

When taking them:

Reward yourself! Listen to music, watch a show afterwards, watch cute videos during, etc.

If they taste bad, taking them with a bite of food or a yummy drink can help. I’ve found honey to be helpful for the ones that dissolve quickly.

Also if they feel stuck in your throat, drinking something or swallowing a bite of food can help.

Disability Pride Month 07-09-20: cane questions of the invasive kind

Disability Pride Month 07-19-20: two types

hint…always be #2. we like #2.

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ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME TUMBLR!!!! So nipples are not okay becaue you want to be “kid friendly” but POLITICAL MANIPULATION IS OKAY???? Are. You. Kidding. Me.

Hygge is the Danish concept of coziness, simplicity, happiness, and well-being. I like to think of it as the feeling of curling up with a good book by a fireplace with a big cup of your favorite hot tea.

I’ve recently been really fascinated by the concept of hygge, and I’ve been incorporating it more into my daily life. Since school is starting soon (and for many of you it already has started!), I wanted to make a nice list of some ways we can incorporate this wonderful concept of hygge into our lives as students!

Set the lighting. Candles and string lights are very hygge, but sometimes they aren’t enough light to study by. Dimmer and warmer lighting is best, but make sure it’s not so dim that it strains your eyes! Natural light can also be pretty good for hygge if you’re studying during the day!

Put a throw blanket on the back of your chair. If it’s chilly, you could also have an extra blanket on your lap to really add to the coziness

Have a warm drink close by. I really like un-caffeinated herbal tea! Hot cocoa is also a great choice!

Turn on some relaxing instrumental music (if you like to listen to music while studying). I really like the music by Paul Cardall in particular!

Wear comfortable clothes. Pajamas are not always the best for studying since they can subconsciously make you more tired, so wearing some more comfortable clothes that aren’t just your pajamas is the best choice!

Wear some cozy socks or slippers! I especially love wearing fuzzy socks while studying

Have some snacks ready. Baked goods are very hygge, but anything that you love eating can work just as well!

Use your favorite stationery! It can make such a difference to actually use your favorite things, and it can make studying a lot more enjoyable

The accent circonflexe (^) exists in French words to replace the “s” that no longer exists but used to be there in older French.

For example: fenêtre used to be fenestre

être  → estre (es, est, sommes, ê[s]tes, sont ; ser-)

some French derivations become clearer :

fenêtre   → défenestrer → L. fenestra

fête   → festival

hôpital → hospitaliser (E. hospital, ise)

intérêt  → intéressant (E. interest, -ing)

ancêtre  → ancestral (E. ancestor, -ral)

arrêt    → arrestation

épître  → épistolaire (E. epistle)

some English cognates become more obvious :

hôtel  → hostel (E. ‘hotel’ borrowed from French)

forêt  → forest (tipp to remember ^ goes on the ‹e›)

bête  → beast

côte  → coast

honnête → honest

pâte, pâté → pasta, paste

quête   → quest

enquête  → inquest

tempête  → tempest

vêtements → vestments (ie. clothes)

baptême → baptism

sometimes, the acute replaces the circumfex for phonetic reasons :

ḗcole   → escole → L. schola (E. school)

ḗtranger   → estrangier (E. stranger)

ḗtudier   → estudier (E. study)

dḗgoûtant → desgoustant (E. disgusting)

dḗbarquer → desembarquer (E. disembark)

rḗpondre  → respondre (E. respond)

rḗpublique → L. res publica

Also, where « c → ch » (eg. cantare→ chanter) :

château → castel (E. castle)

pêcher → L. piscare

and « w → gu » (eg. war→ guerre ; warden→ guardian) :

guêpe → E. wasp ! (this is my n° 1 favourite cognate)

bonus etymologies :

tête   → L. testa

fantôme  → L. phantasma (E. ‘phantom’ borrowed from French)

Pâques  → Gk. pásxa → Am. pésaḫ (E. Paschal)

Someone twisted this Jewish family’s menorah into the shape of a swastika

Naomi Ellis and her her husband Seth spent Friday morning — the morning after the sixth night of Hanukkah — trying to explain to their three young sons why someone had vandalized the menorah the family had put out on their yard by twisting the metal pieces into the shape of a swastika.

So… if we say a human comes of age in fantasy worlds at 16, that means it takes an elf 6.25 years to age one human year. If we say the age of maturity is 18 that’s 5.55 years.

So then… okay with people that live a long time have to see their human friends die and probably see them like pets yeah that’s been explored to death. But what about a human just seeing their friend not grow up?

An elf toddler and a human toddler become friends at a playdate. At the time the human is two and the elf is 13. Emotionally the elf is just a little older than the human. But then the human grows up. He grows up and as he grows up his friend doesn’t. Not much, anyways.

She’s still sucking her thumb and throwing tantrums the entire time that he grows up. When he reaches the age where he’d choose a trade or go to an academy he’s earning extra money by babysitting her. During his initiation into adulthood on his 18th birthday she’s there with her parents holding a stuffed animal. Later that afternoon he sees her being shown some colorful flashcards with letters of the elvish alphabet on it by her father.

The human gets older. He learns how to fight, he goes from town to town getting work. At some point he joins the army. Every time he visits his hometown he has at least one more scar and by the time he’s 30 and the elf girl is mentally seven by human standards she starts to understand that something is wrong. Even after he settles down to be a home maker for the local blacksmith something feels wrong.

And she watches him grow old. When she’s in her 80s she babysits his grandchildren for extra cash after school, coming over in her school robes and ruffling his hair. She doesn’t remember why she became friends with this human or when but a strange sense of jealousy fills her heart.

Now she realizes it. She realizes it too late, on the day her friend learns that he is dying. The first day of her 100th year and the start of his last. Humans’ lifetimes may only last for the childhood of an elf if they’re lucky, but they learn so fast. They do so much. They cram their days full of love and hate and learning and wonder.

He knew this was coming. He knew all of this decades before she did, because elves are slow. Not stupid, certainly not stupid, but very very slow. She holds her old friend’s hand as he lays down on his bed. A man that has led such an ordinary life but feels so extraordinary to her. Because he has always, always been there and now he just won’t. Because in her eyes he became so wise so fast and now he’s just gonna be gone.

On an elf’s 100th birthday they are allowed to choose a new name for themselves. It can be important, or not. Usually it will follow them until the end of time. She stands in front of her family’s elders and is asked what name she will be called from now on.