This article on male rape in the military is really, really good and very difficult.
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A Scenic Guide to Your Abnormal Pap Smear:
Sorry that I’m not an artist like you but rather a nurse who saves lives with nothing but her bare hands and raw intuition. (Did you like the little bowties?) First, you have to get HPV, which is seriously so easy to do that almost everybody does it at least once, like dropping your cell phone in the toilet. Then, the HPV you get has to be a high-risk strain — especially either #16 or #18, the two strains responsible for 70% of cervical cancers. Ninety percent of infections clear at this point and never go any further. 90%!! The remaining 10% become persistent, which takes years. After this, the HPV has to get all pissed and cause more changes in your cervical cells (dysplasia). THEN the dysplasia has to progress further and further, but it’s still not cancer until it breaks through the bottom layer of the membrane in a process known as “invasion,” because the people who name things in medicine do so from deep within the irony-free zone. Only after invasion is the diagnosis of cervical cancer made. “CIN” stands not for “Cancer Impossibly Near” but “Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia,” the fancy name for the cell changes that HPV makes. The number after the “CIN” stages the proportion of cells affected. With all this said, as slow as it is, HPV turns into CIN3 faster than CIN3 turns into cancer. Seriously, do you see how the cancer part doesn’t happen until that very last cervix all the way on the right? At every step there is something we can do to manage or treat it. All of this is how an estimated one fourth of all women in the US age 14-59 have some strain of genital HPV, and 23% a high-risk strain, but there were only about 12,000 diagnoses of cervical cancer predicted in 2011.
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Do not talk to me about abusive murderer Oscar Pistorius almost certainly avoiding jail time. Do not look at me in the eyes. Set it on fire. Michelle Dean did a great explainer about how this happened. I hate everything. Except Roxane Gay.
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We’re finally watching The Wire and we finished the fourth season on Sunday after averaging, like, four episodes a day, and I’m dead inside now and filled with tears and tooth-gnashing, so. I know there’s a fifth season, but MY HEART.
Then I watched the Miss America pageant, which was…different.
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“I always got the phone call that said: ‘I have a great project for you. You’re going to be with, hypothetically, Vanessa Redgrave, Julianne Moore, Annette Bening,’ ” she said, sitting in the living room of her San Fernando Valley home, barefoot on the couch in a gray T-shirt and leggings, her hair wrapped under a black turban. “Then I get the script, and I have a role that lasts for a page or two.”
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Please read all of Mark Sanford’s super-emo Facebook whinefest about his ex-wife. Then scroll back through Shrill Cosby’s feed for the play-by-play.
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Give my little baby pertussis before my little baby can get his goddamn DTaP bc of your utter nonsense and I will actually kill you. I will literally find you and kill you. And, oh, man, guys, people will say “well, my school won’t enroll without vaccination records, so we’re safe,” but basically all states will accept some form of exemption (thanks for fighting the good fight, though, West Virginia and Mississippi), they just don’t publicize it. And private schools that accept ANY government funding (most do!) have to follow their state’s exemption policies. And LORDDDDDD knows there are plenty of resources online telling parents what they need to say and file and when to weasel out of it. And do not think that you need to point to WORDS IN A RELIGIOUS TEXT to claim religious exemption status! Many, many places you just need to affirm your sincere religious objection.
Canada? Even easier not to vaccinate, weirdly, considering we’re generally more into compelling people to do shit for society.
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AMERICANS, lol
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From Lucinda Williams’ audio memoir:
That should explain to you why and how I became a writer, because my dad always credited me with that line. He has Alzheimer’s now, and he told me he couldn’t write anymore. It just crushed me, because that was my whole connection with him. We were sitting in the sunroom drinking wine, and very matter-of-factly he goes, “I can’t write poetry anymore.” I said, “What?” He goes, “I can’t write poetry anymore.” Can you imagine? It was like somebody said “I can’t walk anymore” or “I can’t talk anymore.” And I just sobbed and sobbed. I still can’t believe he said that. That’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard, since I was fucking born. I love my dad so much.
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Richard Lawson and Mike Hogan talk about TIFF, which is very important. There is also a picture of Benedict Cumberbatch, even though people are saying no one is gonna take down Eddie Redmayne this year.
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If someone ever steals sperm from my prized stud horse, I will def seek legal counsel from CROMWELL & BLOODSTOCK LLC pic.twitter.com/z39niG4Hi7
— Leslie Jamison (@lsjamison) September 13, 2014
Tags: feminism, link roundup, the internet
The link about abusive murderer Oscar Pistorious almost certainly avoiding jail time appears to be broken? This is probably for the best though.
Appears to be fixed now, but I kind of wish it wasn’t.
I once saw a listing of all the illnesses we vaccinate for and what they actually do to children. Pertussis? Whooping cough breaks little tiny babies’ ribs and keeps them coughing until they die. Measles? Measles can inflame your child’s brain, give them seizures, and stop their breathing. Diphtheria? Nobody knows what diphtheria is today and that’s a good thing because it can choke children to death.
Jesus, our great-grandparents would have crawled over broken glasses to get their children immunized. I wish nothing more than for anti-vaccination people to see one Third World country where children are dying of these “natural” diseases and tell the parents there who are watching their children suffer that they would be totally fine, not to worry, just make sure their kids are breast-fed and eat organic foods.
The immunization records for my extremely educated but granola-leaning town were published a few weeks ago and there were schools where a full 25% of students got exemptions. What the actual fuck. Breast milk will not protect your child from pertussis!
Right? I don’t even have kids, but the anti-vaxxers make me incoherent with rage. You don’t get to choose your own “science,” assholes. Stay away from my (hypothetical, future) kids.
I know it is logistically and ethically unfeasible, but I kind of wish you could make every person who decided not to vaccinate their child because it’s not ~natural or healthy*~ actually go to a hospital to hold and take care of an infant with whooping cough or measles or some other “unimportant” childhood disease, so they can see with their own eyes what kind of suffering they’re blithely discounting.
*obv this doesn’t include kids who weren’t vaccinated due to medical stuff or allergies or etc
I would support the fuck out of this. (Also, Jenny McCarthy would be sentenced to work in a pertussis ward for the remainder of her natural life.)
I cannot fathom standing over your infant in a hospital bed, watching them wail in pain and convulse in fever and shiver and moan and know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you could have prevented that. You could have saved your child that utter misery and terror and pain and chose not to.
BUT HEY DIFFERENT STROKES AMIRITE?
(I’m not right, not vaccinating your children is heinous and should be a crime.)
My daughter had to get the Td shot last Halloween after she stepped on a rusty nail at a party. Because of this, they had to put off her DTaP booster at her 11-yo well checkup a few months later. The pediatrician assures me she’s still covered and will be OK, but I still have periodic nightmares about her getting pertussis from some unvaccinated kid with assholes for parents. Grrr.
So I knew that Ontario schools used to be pretty strict about vaccines, and freaked out at this roundup thinking that it had changed. And, apparently, according to the McGill article, Ontario is still pretty strict, but it is practically one of the only Canadian provinces that is:
“However, only three Canadian provinces mandate children to be vaccinated before entering the school system.
Ontario and New Brunswick require vaccination against diphtheria, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, and rubella, while Manitoba demands vaccination against measles.”
You’ve got to be kidding me.
I recently scratched myself on some barbed wire and realized I was out of date on my TDAP vaccine … then read about what tetanus does to you. Muscle spasms strong enough to break your bones? Yeah, I proceeded directly to Walgreens.
I live in a state with reeallly lax exemption rules for childhood vaccinations and it makes me rather paranoid.
True story, when I was 13, I came down with a case of parapertussis, which is like whooping cough only less severe. The coughing fits were still strong enough to make me, an otherwise healthy human teenager, vomit multiple times throughout the day, for like six weeks. That shit is NTBFW. Vaccinate your kids!
They should make parents read that before they get exemptions for their children. like, eff, it should not be easier to get your kids exempt from LIFE-SAVING VACCINATIONS than it is to get an abortion in some states.
We don’t know a lot about diphtheria, and that is a good thing. Diphtheria toxin is one of the most potent in nature. A dose that is one ten-billionth of your body weight is fatal.
Ugh, RIGHT? I wasn’t vaccinated as a kid (hippie parents) because of some misguided idea that I would be healthier somehow. Aaaaand I’m the sickliest person I know. Seriously, how many 24 year olds have had shingles 3 times? Pretty much none, according to my doctor, except maybe those who are severely immunocompromised due to being HIV+ or going through chemotherapy. Anyway, not saying my shitty immune system is directly caused by being unvaccinated, but good god, it sure isn’t helpful.
Apparently the rotavirus vaccine isn’t yet on the official recommendation list in my province, although it is in many places. My doctor told me I could add it for an extra $70 and she highly recommended it, so OBVIOUSLY I went for it – it’s a no-brainer. If that $70 will prevent my kid from getting a horrible virus, and protect younger, unvaccinated babies, why the heck wouldn’t I? $70 well spent.
There is a great Sawbones podcast episode about vaccines that also talks about your second point there. So good.
Actually all of sawbones is great, unless you don’t like hearing about the hilarious/gross ways we used to try and cure people. If you do, like I do, it is awesome.
love sawbones. pretty sure I listen to it based on a toast recommender!
My dad had polio when he was a child and almost died. He never walked again and has had very serious health problems his entire life as a result of the illness.
When I was 5 he took me to my well child checkup and I had some vaccines. He teared up a little; one of the few times I have ever seen him (almost) cry. I told him I was okay, it didn’t hurt that much and he said something like, “No, I’m just so glad you’ll never get sick like I did.”
People don’t understand what a privilege it is to be able to vaccinate and how much suffering those vaccines have prevented.
Jesus, I want to copy/paste (with proper attribution) this comment to every fucking social media available, once a month.
I asked my grandmother how her siblings died: measles, pertussis, dehydration from something because he was so small, he died before the doctor could get there. I asked my father-in-law how his brothers died: measles and measles. Check out your family tree, see what took down your relatives. It’s instructive.
yeah. I have an uncle who died of pneumonia because my grandparents lived too far away from the hospital and were too poor anyway. You better believe they are in favour of healthcare (Canada).
I couldn’t get vaccinated for pertussis when I was a kid because I was allergic to the stuff they used to make the serum. Thank fuck the vaccination rate was almost 100% for my generation. I finally got it as an adult last year and at times it had me reeling around the room banging into things because I couldn’t breathe between coughs. I tore three muscles in my ribs. It was awful to deal with as an adult. It’s hideous to think of it happening to kids.
Thanks to this thread, today I made an appointment for a Dtap booster on Thursday. YAY VACCINES!
Oh my godddd, season four. After finishing season four, I turned to my partner and sobbed “It’s as if my whole heart and every feeling I have ever had have been run through a MEAT GRINDER and are now mulch.”
Season five will offer solace only in the cleansing fire of your loathing for Jimmy McNulty, possibly the worst fictional man ever to plague this earth.
I HATE JIMMY MCNULTY
I would really enjoy hate-fucking Jimmy McNulty.
Ugh I am such a priss but my first thought was “God, his apartment would be so dirty, though.” I mean, you know that Jimmy McNulty never does a dish. Jimmy McNulty probably clips his toenails on the bed and then vacuums … whenever. When was the last time Jimmy McNulty washed his sheets, or indeed, his underwear? Do Jimmy McNulty’s towels smell sharply of mildew?
I mean, I guess if you are going to hate-fuck Jimmy McNulty it would probably be in a bathroom or a darkened alley or something anyway, but STILL.
Oh god, I don’t even want to think about how crusty and smelly McNulty’s sheets are.
I’m mostly with you, but I don’t think I could handle all the fake whiskey on his breath.
*a sober, freshly bathed, laying-in-a-hotel-bed Jimmy McNulty
Jimmy McNulty is the goddamn worst.
I cheer every time Rawls does something shitty to McNulty. I love Rawls. I would put McNulty on a goddamn boat for life.
Season 5 is worse if you already hate McNulty as all right-thinking people do, because it sort of tries to pervert your assumed affection for his whole “I’m such a little stinker”/”the fuck did I do” mien – kind of like how The Sopranos tried to take the audience’s assumed enthusiasm for mob life and turn it against them. I find it’s better to just read McNulty/Stringer fanfic.
From the beginning of season 1, I immediately started seeing McNulty as a proto-Don Draper. Less developed, noticeably more reliant on the “cop who doesn’t like the rules” version of anti-hero-ness. So I mostly got through the seasons on ignoring him and paying attention to the more interesting characters (literally all of the rest of them).
Somehow, I’m almost as annoyed by how much they jerked him around the “interesting little fellow doing weird things to move the plot” vs “sooooo annoying with his whiny neediness” spectrum as I am when they do that with Don. They definitely didn’t get the balance right too often.
It’s funny you mention Don, because I actually paused a second before my initial comment to think, “Wait, is he worse than Don Draper?” But yes, I agree, he is absolutely worse than Don Draper, both as a written character and as a person in a fictional universe. For me at least, Don is actually more compelling and has more redeemable moments to temper my anger towards him into something less virulent than the disdain and loathing I have for Jimmy.
Yeah, Don benefits from having “explanations/background/nuance of Don’s assholery” as being basically being Topic #1 for his show. It’s a smaller cast, with waaaay less plot to accomplish in a season, so you can basically spend 10%+ of an episode on just one extended scene between two characters, one of whom is often Don.
But I will also say this: season 5+ DD is definitely more nuanced than season 5 McNulty… but if you go rewatch season 1 of Mad Men after finishing The Wire, you can really, really see the jumping off point.
I am on the penultimate episode of season 3 (my first time viewing “The Wire”) and AT LEAST ONCE per episode, I say, “Goddamn it, Jimmy, you’re such a prick!”
Oh no! I watched Season 3 … 6 years ago (!), and haven’t yet sufficiently recovered to watch Season 4. How can it be worse?
I… you’ll see. (if you watch it.) it’s SO GOOD, but it’s like multiple knives to the heart.
(oh god oh god SEASON 4.)
I do not wish to spoil you, but I will tell you what a glance at the DVD box would tell you: season four is primarily about kids.
I know!! My partner (who is the opposite of sentimental and kid-friendly) actually said, “Yeah, maybe never watch it? It’s devastating.”
Season five will also begin to heal the Bubbles-shaped hole in your heart.
Oh no.
I never thought I could cry so hard just watching
SPOILER *SPOILER*SPOILER*SPOILER
a man walk up a flight of stairs.
Since Andre Royo was what convinced me to stay with the first season at the confusing beginning, I felt true catharsis.
this is me, furiously blinking back tears. THAT SCENE.
Before the fifth season, I asked the gods of TV scripts to let Bubbles be saved, because it’s David Simon and at most one character will be saved. And that scene is what I got.
This is my obligatory post to tell you all to watch Homicide, Life on the Street, if you haven’t yet. It’s the David-Simon-affiliated gritty Baltimore cop show that came before The Wire and was on network TV, it had a wonderful cast that included Andre Braugher and Melissa Leo, and it was really character-driven in a brilliant way. It’s not at all a prototype for The Wire; they’re very different shows, but I think Homicide is at least as good as The Wire.
Stonrgly seconded–I loved this show. Haven’t seen The Wire but hopefully someday.
Does it get worse than thinking about D’Angelo? Because everytime I think about him I want to cry. Just a kid who was let down by EVERYONE who should have been looking out for him, from his family to the state. 🙁
From the Oscar Pistorius explainer on Gawker: She [the judge] said she didn’t find either the arguments or the soft words that the couple had over WhatsApp to prove anything about their relationship. “Normal relationships are dynamic and unpredictable sometimes,” she reportedly said.
These are the WhatsApp messages where Reeva Steenkamp told Pistorius she was scared of him, right? Got to query the definition of “normal” the judge is employing here.
This is only briefly mentioned in the post, but… I am so excited about The Imitation Game, though I am confused why the British film industry has decided to gather all together to make me a film and convince other people to watch it. Someone actually made a film about Alan Turing’s life, after weird metaphoric Doctor Who episodes and cameos in Neal Stephenson books and films about WWII code breaking where they ignore him entirely.
And I have to wait for November.
I had pre-cancerous cells in my cervix show up on my very first smear. (In the UK we get smears every three-five years starting at 25, on the NHS). They were removed with an LLETZ. Before the procedure she asked me if I was planning kids. I said yes, so she took slightly less. I was very sore afterwards, but the cells they took came back showing no signs of further problems. I went for smears every year for three years, and my latest showed no signs of HPV so I’m back to the regular time frame.
All this to say: Get your smear. Don’t freak out if it comes back with something dodgy. They can cut this out of you well before it’s even cancer. The treatment leaves you sore and achey for a few days and then you’ve forgotten. GET YOUR SMEAR.
My (US) doctor has always recommended yearly smears to me, but that may be because I have a family history of endometrial cancer. Either way, it’s one of the few appointments I try to keep to very, very regularly. And I am so glad I got the HPV vaccine.
I have friends who haven’t gone at all ever because they’re embarrassed.
While I respect that it can be difficult and embarrassing to let someone shove a speculum up you, it’s far less horrific than the alternative. I take the embarrassment over the potential death, myself.
I try to keep my appointments (pretty much same arrangements in my country as in the UK) but embarrassment isn’t the problem. It can really, really hurt, and sometimes I wish that they would tell you this instead of “it doesn’t hurt at all”, since it is better to come prepared. I think I might have an appointment coming up this winter and I am already feeling unhappy about it.
I have to get valium before my pap because I get so tense/anxious and it’s just a horrible situation. (Once I had to have a second one done about six weeks after the first because there was too much blood in the sample. THAT WAS GREAT and before I asked for the valium.) I don’t know if it’s the muscle relaxation, the anti anxiety stuff or just a placebo thing but it made it a billion times better for me.
There’s part of me that thinks there has to be a better way to do this, and someone would have invented it by now except no one cares if women are in pain due to their reproductive organs!
For those who don’t mind drinking (aren’t pregnant, not in long-term sobriety, YMMV, etc.), doing a shot or two before the appointment is not the worst idea. My doc is on board with it: “Hey, if it’ll help you relax a little and get the care you need, I have absolutely no objection. Not everybody finds the exam that stressful, but for the people who do, I want them to take the steps that’ll make them more comfortable.” So I book a morning appointment each year, Irish the shit out of my coffee, and get donuts afterward.
I can’t decide! Valium or booze? I’ll have to explain to my boss why I show up pissed at work, though (unless I can get a late afternoon appointment). He sometimes get a slightly worried look from just remembering that there are FEMALES among his staff and I suspect that I should bring brandy and valium for him too before sharing.
Brilliant advice from both of you, though, and it’s comforting to know that it’s not just me.
It’s a fine line between “a bit relaxed” and “oh shit I think I just told the doctor I loved her”; know your tolerances! And, ideally, make sure you have a little time between the appointment and anything for which you need to be 100% compos mentis (the post-visit pastry is a key part of my strategy).
But no, wow, is it ever not just you.
“Post-visit pastry”. I’m starting to look forward to my visit.
Edited: And no, I should know that it’s never just me. V grateful to be reminded. I don’t think I’ll find it much fun, but I’m not feeling slightly sick just from thinking about it anymore.
I don’t mind these exams at all, but I still make a point of having a post-visit pastry. (There’s a Walgreens in the bottom of the dr’s building, so it isn’t a very good pastry, but I have one nonetheless.)
I seriously considered booze (there’s a bar or three between my office/the doctor’s), but considering the excess blood issues I decided to go for something that wasn’t a blood thinner.
I think yearly is pretty standard in the US. I like to make the appointment around my birthday and consider it my gift to myself. (Because I am a weirdo loser.)
I think the recommendations have been shifting in the US over the past few years (I’ve been right on the edge of yes, get one and no, don’t get one as they’ve changed, so I’ve been paying attention). From memory (not, like, research or anything)- at this point it’s every three years, provided you’ve stuck with one partner or are sexually inactive and haven’t had any abnormal results. I think the three year standard got pushed out around 2010/ 2011 or so- just before that it was every two years (same if:thens). If you’re doing fun things like running around having sex with more than one person, I think the recommendation is still annually.
I really should get around to scheduling mine this year, though…
I get mine every 6 months, due to IUD, and a few weeks ago my gyno had to repeat this one because of abnormal cells. She saw my D: face (we’ve got a history of generally lady-centric cancers in my family), so, like, cervixes (cervices? weird) are just geeeeenerally on my mind, especially when it’s check ups season. My doc said not to worry, she would run the test again, and it was Not One Of The Dangerous Strains, and we would be monitoring it every six months anyway, and I am too young to worry, you’re worrying aren’t you? it is OKAY, this kind of thing takes years and we will be watching it .
Which is basically just me saying, oh, this was a timely and much needed read. I’m still going to call my doctor and anxiously inquire as to the results of the repeat pap, though.
6 monthly visits because of an IUD?
In NZ you get your first one at 20, then a follow up one year after, and then (barring abnormal smears) every three years after that. I’m still on that frequency even with an IUD. What reason have they given you for upping the frequency of visits?
Hmmm. I’ve been getting yearly pap smears since I was 18 (18 was my first visit even though I wasn’t ~sexually active~, and that’s also when I started getting my HPV vaccine shots), and now that I’m IUD’d, my doctor wants me back every six months. Since the results of this year’s pap were abnormal, she said she wanted me back in six months anyway just to keep an eye on it, but she said that six months was normal since I have an IUD now…?
Does this seem like too many paps to other American Toasties? Once a year seemed pretty normal to me, although that might have something to do with my family history. We’re pretty into surveillance. Like, I’m only 25, but I’m probably going to be starting mammos and stuff this year, since my mom had her first bout of breast cancer at 36. I’m already seeing a breast surveillance specialist and everything 😐
ETA: From reading other comments in this thread, seems like yearly paps are the norm in the U.S. I’ll ask my gyno in March about the 6mo thing. I’m gonna keep that one, though, because of this year’s weird impostor cells.
Fingers crossed your weird cells decide to stop being weird at some point. And/or that they get competently removed and never darken your vaginal canal again. Good luck on the rest of the surveillance.
darken your vaginal canal hahaha
Thank you!
Not normal to need a pap every 6 months with an IUD in the U.S. Maybe they think birth control means you will have a different sex partner every few months, or something? IUDs don’t make HPV more likely, unless your doctor thinks your exposure is just crazy high because your sex life is so awesome. I’ve had IUDs for ten years (about to get my third), and most doctors I’ve seen want me in every 2-3 years for a pap (used to be every year, but they have reduced that frequency in many offices now). It’s only gone up to every 6 months when a pap has been abnormal (which has happenedtwice), for which the office did a colposcopy (which was normal both times) followed by 6-month follow-up paps for a year.
She did mention that I should be extra careful to practice safe sex with new partners, because there is a slight increased risk of pelvic inflammatory disease. My first gyn doctor refused to even consider giving me an IUD “until you’re in a committed monogamous relationship” (direct quote).
This doctor didn’t even do a colposcopy, just a repeat pap, because she said the abnormality registered as only the tiniest bit outside of normal margins. The results aren’t in yet, though, argh.
I am pushing all my awesome thoughts your way. This happened to me, and after a follow up pap all was good. I went for the colpop and there was nothing to take – the repeat pap had apparently got them all. I was a mess at the time, but in the five years since my paps have been golden. I took the opportunity to splurge on a lot of fancy healthy juices, in case that helped 🙂
Aww, thanks! I actually *just* got back from the health food store. No juice, but a comforting array of veggie chips and tabouli salad. And passion fruit ginger ale, because ginger is like, a miracle plant, right? (Also, yummy.)
That’s completely irresponsible. Did the doctor refuse to prescribe the pill to single women, too? (Probably not!) It has the same risk as an IUD as far as “encouraging” people to have unprotected sex that can result in an STI, I would think. Glad you finally got one, but your doctors could use some growing up about adult women making adult choices!
Yeah! That’s actually a large part of why I left her. She is also my mom’s doctor, and every time I saw her for a check up she was all, “So, Christina, are you behaving yourself?” …Which I used to think was maybe just awkward doctor-speak for hi how are ya/breaking the ice…but in conjunction with the no-IUD-for-you (after I’d told her why I didn’t want to be on the pill again), ehhhhh.
My doctor now treats me like a grown up. She’s very, “Here are the facts, here is all the relevant health information, go forth and make the best choices for yourself.” I like her.
Mine were yearly and then after I think 3 normal ones, the doctor said I could go to every other year. But I am 32. I also have a copper IUD, and no one has ever told me that I needed more regular PAPs as a result. Yes, after I got my IUD in I had a follow up visit (I think 6 weeks), but I didn’t have any increased frequency of exams (and I was seeing my doc every 6 months for other reasons, so I was there to exam if he had felt the need).
Sounds a little aggressive to me- at 18 my doctor was all “Not sexually active? No need to start Pap smears, then.” And my doctors since then have been happy to follow the ever increasing Pap smear time frames for people with boring sex lives and no family history- I’m on the every three years cycle at this point (and I’ve changed doctors a bunch- this has been across more than one practice).
there is no need for paps that often UNLESS family history. the US is also super interested in pap smears compared to other countries though. The WHO recommends every three years, regardless of a person’s behavior.
Oh man, I wish I had seen that article when it was first posted, which was after I got my abnormal pap results back and was freaking out! I had to get a colposcopy and a follow-up smear a year later, when they told me it had cleared. I wish that someone had told me before I got those results that HPV was incredibly common, because I was so embarrassed and guilty about getting an STI. It was actually a step towards realizing something pretty healthy, which is that even if you do everything “right” (i.e., hormonal birth control, condoms, getting tested, making sure the other person was tested), having sex still involves some kind of risk, and it’s OKAY to decide to take that risk at the level that’s comfortable for you and, of course, for the person/people you’re sleeping with. Where was that kind of sex-positive health education in high school, man?
I got my first abnormal result a little before that article came out, and my doc was pretty cool at helping me understand it all/trying to explain why he was unconcerned about it all. But then seeing the timelines (Years! So many years in between!) put me much more at ease.
I may have sent that article to him and strongly hinted that other women would benefit from reading it in the case of a mildly abnormal test result.
My experience was so similar, although it took over three years (and three colposcopies, ow) to clear. When it first came back abnormal, I did a little googling about it (not recommended, really) and found all this stuff about support groups for people living with STIs and STI-positive dating sites, and I was convinced I was a pariah who would never date a “normal” person again. Thankfully, I discovered the writing of Emily Nagoski shortly thereafter and began to feel much better.
I had an abnormal smear the year after college, with a follow-up colposcopy and (ouch ouch ouch) removal of some iffy cells, and I really wish the doc had told me 1. this was HPV, and 2. that HPV’s an infection you usually get over. I didn’t figure out either of those things for years!
I know someone who announced to her friends and family that she had been diagnosed with cervical cancer. Everyone was, of course, very worried and rallied around her, especially when she said her doctor said they should take a “wait and see approach” before treatment. Eventually, it comes out that what this woman interpreted as “diagnosed with cancer” was her doctor saying “your pap smear has some abnormal cells”. So get your smear, and then don’t freak out.
I just got the letter asking me to make an appointment for my first smear (my 25th birthday is fast approaching). I am nervous (because the thought of pain is scary), but weirdly excited about it too, in a “yay, taking care of my health!” way.
I wanted to chime in as one of the unfortunate small percentage who don’t clear up. I had my first abnormal pap about a decade ago, and went in for repaps 2-4 times a year depending on how bad my cells were ever since. I’ve gotten a colpo about once a year. After a couple years with CIN3, I got a LEEP that took out a chunk of cervix about the size of the tip of my thumb. The procedure wasn’t too bad, and it heals up quick. It cleared the HPV, but nonetheless I keep testing for CIN1. Once the HPV tests came back negative I was able to go back to annual paps, thank goodness! The risk for cancer is absurdly low if you keep on top of it, but it’s a lot of work having to hit the dr that often.
I’m not interested in having kids, but severe and/or multiple LEEPS/laserings will increase your odds of miscarriage, which is something to consider if you’re in this situation and wanting to get pregnant in the future. My doctor and I have discussed it and if I progress back to CIN3 we will likely go with a hysterectomy, since my cells seem so damn determined to not Let it Go, and I don’t have a whole lot of cervix left to give.
The only thing I saw about the Miss America pageant, and now I kinda wish I’d watched it:
I have sooo many questions.
Did she slap the shark with a dueling glove? Or just with her hand?
Is that a scrunchie in her hair?
The talent portion of the pageant is far and away the most entertaining part of the show, even better than the short answer portion. Who doesn’t love an extravaganza of cheese? And slapping sharks?
We’re all going to get our flu shots, right? I haven’t done mine yet, but I think they’re $15 at Costco, so that’s my plan for my next big trip to the suburbs.
My local supermarket has just started its advertising so I will be going shortly.
I am calling my pediatrician this week to find out when I can take my kids in for their flu vaccines. We’ve been watching the “Sid the Science Kid” episode on vaccinations at least once a week to try and ingrain it in my kids’ minds that shots and soap keep you healthy.
I always make my well-woman appointment in early fall so I can get my flu shot while I’m getting all my other bits taken care of. Highly recommended!
I mean, the appointment itself sucks but it feels really good to check a couple things off the list at once!
I have to wait until I go home because the Dutch don’t believe in them but it’s one of my major To Do things when I go to the States.
You can request one at your GP though, afaik. It’s just that they’re normally only for the ‘elderly and infirm’
Yeah, in Europe this is sometimes because of more limited supply, not because doctors don’t support the vaccines. They prioritize high-risk patients the way we used to have to in the U.S. But now that the vaccine is so widely available in the U.S. that after high-risk populations have had their chance (just in case something interrupts distribution and there is a shortage, they get first dibs through doctor’s offices), it then goes to broad distribution, at which point everyone is encouraged to get it.
I’m headed to my PCP next month for a flu shot AND a PAP smear! Go, preventative medicine!!
My gf had some kind of allergic reaction to a flu shot. She went into anaphylactic shock and almost stopped breathing. I am now irrationally terrified of flu shots. I promise I will not handle anyone’s babies, though? Sorry.
You should still probably try to get it. That is _extremely_ unusual (egg allergies aren’t even a problem anymore), and it’s probably possible for your doctor to test you for the relevant allergy sources. It’s just really not worth the risk of contracting and spreading flu. Unless a doctor tells you not to get the vaccine, it’s worth doing. There are also often nasal sprays available if you don’t want the shot formulation!
Medical person speaking here. You can get the nasal version of the vaccine if you are irrationally worried about allergies. Sorry about your gf. 🙁
Can I get the nasal version if I’m not worried about allergies but do have a debilitating fear of needles?
Yes, actually. But you may need to call around a bit to find someone who has it. The consensus (at least at our hospital) seems to be that they would prefer that people are immunized, even if it means using the harder-to-find form of the vaccine.
At my Walgreens they have both and let you pick which you want (unless you are a child or pregnant person, who isn’t supposed to have the spray). Also it’s free with my insurance ($20 without I think), and you don’t need an appointment or anything.
Also if you are in any way immuno-compromised — if you are, you should NOT get the nasal version!!! (Nasal version will make you sick — i.e. with flu — if your immune system isn’t normally-functioning.)
And it’s a good idea not only for you but the people you are around all the time–maybe you personally will not be handling anyone’s babies, but you may work with lots of people with babies or shop at crowded stores or take public transit with loads of people, all of whom may have small babies or elderly relatives or immunosuppresed conditions or what have you and don’t necessarily want to have any more germs than necessary hanging out with them. It’s not only for you and little people you personally are touching, but lots and lots of other people. Thousands of people die yearly from the ordinary flu and we can all help bring those numbers down with flu vaccines.
Yes, please and thank you. Get vaccinated for your coworkers, one of whom may be my Beloved. He is diabetic, though otherwise strong and healthy. While the flu won’t kill him, the flu makes controlling his blood sugar nearly impossible. His otherwise controllable diabetes will kill him if he gets the flu.
Whoa, crazy, that’s a combination of conditions I hadn’t considered. How does flu make it impossible to control blood sugar? Like by what mechanism?
All the usual techniques become toothless when the body is fighting an infection. Oral meds, insulin injections, careful diet, rest: these often have no effect on blood glucose levels when he’s sick. Though we try them anyway, of course.
Then there’s the elevated blood glucose that results from the body fighting an infection. And the dangerously low blood glucose that can result, too.
And then there’s the effect of medications taken for flu that effect blood glucose levels. And flu meds that counteract the oral meds usually taken for blood glucose control.
It’s the way his liver and pancreas process meds and food. Or the way they fail to. The body prioritizes insulin and meds differently when fighting infection. His organs and chemistry were crippled before he was infected, but at least they responded predictably.
It’s all a crap shoot when he’s fighting infection. We just measure blood glucose more often and I am ready to rush to an emergency room at any moment until the infection is vanquished. Yes, we’ve been in a few emergency rooms.
I need to swing over to my GP because they’re covered by my insurance! Though $15 out of pocket, can’t complain.
my workplace has a free flu shot program every fall, and you’re damn right I’ll be signing up the moment HR sends out that email.
Have they even started yet? There is apparently going to be a shortage in Canada this year (thanks GSK), so trying to decide if I should go anyway or, as a perfectly healthy 20-something, wait for a while and make sure the more high-risk peeps get theirs first. But we get them for free (i.e. the government pays) at the drug store and various clinics around town!
I checked my local flu shot clinics schedule, and they don’t start until October 20 here. I assume they’ll change or update the recommendation before then if they need to.
Also, I think there are still some provinces where it’s only free if you’re high risk or will be around high risk people. They do try to get everyone to get it in my province now, though.
The last big flu that hit us here in the SF Bay Area was somehow (I am not knowledgeable about these things) hijacking healthy immune systems and killing healthy people in their 20s and 30s. So, I recommend a shot!
Cytokine storm! Basically, your immune system goes into overdrive and turns on your own body, so the healthier you are, the worse off you end up. It was one of the factors in the extremely high death toll of the Spanish Flu, as well.
I’ve never had a flu shot in my life. Do I really need one? I also haven’t had the flu in many years. I guess my parents never bothered either, so I don’t think I had them when I was a kid. (I have all other vaccinations, don’t worry.) Are flu shots something I need to start getting? I’m 29 and in great health.
I’d say look up your local recommendations, which will depend on things like whether your area usually has enough vaccine to immunize everyone.
If they do recommend it for everyone, then I think it’s a good idea. Partly because the flu sucks even if you only get a mild case once every several years. But also because you probably know people with weakened immune systems and/or small children, or go places where you interact with strangers who may have weakened immune systems and/or small children, and getting the flu shot helps to keep them safe.
Also, as Alicia mentioned above, occasionally there’s an unusually awful strain of the flu that kills a fair number of younger adults who were in great health.
Seconding this. Get it if there’s enough. My daughter and I need them (high-risk with heart conditions), but even my ridiculously healthy husband gets one every year – he’s a high school teacher and thus exposed to the giant petri dish of teenagers.
Yep! My brother works in a critical care unit and last year’s flu was notable for taking down otherwise healthy 20-40somethings. They had 14 patients who had to go on ECMO (basically heart-lung bypass) in his unit, which was very high for any flu season. Plus, even if you just get regular old basic flu, it’s still multiple days of feeling like absolute, complete shit. A flu shot will substantially reduce your likelihood of getting the flu in the first place, and if you do get the flu, you’ll probably have much milder symptoms.
I was a “never gets the flu” person also until a few years ago (in my mid-30s then). I am healthy too but I had a very mild case of the flu that turned to bronchitis which eventually turned into pneumonia. I was so sick for 2 weeks I couldn’t get out of bed and I fainted at the doctor’s office waiting for someone to finally give me antibiotics. I now get the flu shot every year.
PS- I think part of the reason I got so sick was because the flu was mild. I didn’t stop to take care of myself when I had it and it got into my chest and stayed there.
My employer offers free flu shots, so all I have to do is get up from my desk on clinic day, walk up a flight of stairs and get shot. I have asthma, so I am ALL ABOUT preventing respiratory nastiness.
Hell yes I’ll be getting a flu shot-the nasal spray one that does not involve needles! My Td is 4 years out of date because terrified of needles and not particularly accident-prone, but the rest of mine are done and I get the flu nasal-spray-immunization every year.
This is a pretty entertaining review of Jenny Sanford’s memoir… http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/20…
John Darnielle apparently wrote a book. (http://www.amazon.com/Wolf-White-Van-A-Novel/dp/0374292086) Anyone read it? Worth my time? I know there are a lot of Mountain Goats fans on the Toast…
I am excited to buy it!!
I read it in…July? And am still thinking about it. It’s not like a novel-extension of his songwriting, but it is very strange and sad and beautiful. It’s also short, so it is worth your time unless you plan to spend that couple of hours curing an infectious disease or otherwise engaged in bettering our larger world
Thanks! I’m sold.
I have already purchased my ticket to the reading in Chicago, which comes with the book, and I CAN’T WAIT.
I’m looking forward to it! io9 gave it a good review, and they also have an excerpt (http://io9.com/read-an-excerpt-from-john-darnielles-haunting-novel-wol-1632598722)
He wrote a 33 1/3 book too, about… Sabbath, I think?
I read an advance copy a few months back and it’s one of my favorite books of the year! When I first finished it I was kind of confused and a little frustrated by it; it was beautiful but elusive. The next day I was just doing some stuff around the house with music on, still mulling that strange and sad and elusive book over in the back of my mind, and “Lakeside View Apartments Suite” came on the playlist and I just wanted to sit down and cry, but in the best possible way. I definitely think it’s worth your time, if you like the Mountain Goats!
Nicole, I don’t know for sure that your link roundups are the reason I’ve started reading Hazlitt (possibly with that amazing Prey essay?), but you’re generally the most Canadian part of my internet, so it’s very likely. In which case, thank you. I had no idea it existed, and it’s got a lot of terrific stuff.
Like many of us out there (organ transplant recipients! people undergoing chemo! HIV-positive folks!), I am chronically immunosuppressed. Fortunately I’m currently healthy enough to get preventative vaccinations, but there are a lot of my buddies trying to live life out there who’d be absolutely and totally FUCKED if they caught pertussis, or diptheria, or pneumonia. At best, we’d get a lot sicker for a lot longer that your dear child. At worse, we’d lose our transplants, or have our chronic illness worsen, or, y’know, just die. From preventable illness.
Vaccinate your fuckin’ kids.
Agreed. My kid was and going through chemo for ALL when there was a chicken pox outbreak in his class and he had to stay home from school until everyone was checked out. Varicella attacks the central nervous system and it would have been horrible for him. (He was vaccinated, but the shot doesn’t give 100% protection, so kids really depend on other families to come through.)
Toasties, in random news, I just chopped a medium-sized butternut pumpkin and now have a blister from chopping.
A BLISTER FROM CHOPPING A SMALL AMOUNT OF PUMPKIN!
What??? How??? Why???
I have a thin flap of skin hanging off my hand because I wielded my vegetable slicer a bit too enthusiastically last night…
Haha, nice!
I’m not sure which scar I like better: the burn on my forearm from taking a bacon-and-egg pie out of the oven, or the scar on my finger from cutting bread.
Because pumpkins and squash are a bitch to peel and chop, that’s why. I enjoy them, and I’ve gotten a bit better at dispatching them, but when my farmshare stops coming in, I just buy cans of squash puree. Cheap and super easy to dump into butternut squash risotto or vegetable soup. No blisters.
I just feel like I’ve failed at knife-skills
If it makes you feel better, my baker friend who aced an actual class in actual knife skills agrees that there is no good way to peel or chop an autumn squash, other than slowly and carefully and a little bit at a time.
The last three pairs of shoes I wore this weekend completely ripped my feet apart. Ballet flats (that I wore all last year! they should be broken in by now!): blisters on the back of my heels. Super cute new black Madewell booties: blisters on the back of my heels AND they rubbed off the skin on my pinky toes. Flip flops: blisters on the inside of my arch from the strap. I mean, wtf?? How are my feet so sensitive all of a sudden? I’m currently band-aid-ed and limping around in sneakers. It sucks.
OWW!
My mom microwaves her winter squash a bit (to about halfway cooked) in order to soften it for peeling and cutting. Just sticks the entire squash in there and leaves it to cool afterwards.
My friend works down on King street, which is where TIFF takes place, and she was within touching distance of Benedict Cumberbatch.
My boyfriend saw him from the streetcar! Let’s all trade Benedict Cumberbatch sighting stories.
MIRANDA WHERE ARE YOU
mirandawmeyer was seated at the table NEXT TO HIM at a restaurant a few months ago. She texted me just as I’d gotten back from the gym and heated up some curry so I smelled of physical exertion and curry and pouted on my couch about the injustice of it all
The article on MST was definitely hard and definitely necessary, but this almost encapsulates the whole issue (so many issues):
The rape of a male soldier has a particular symbolism. “In a hypermasculine culture, what’s the worst thing you can do to another man? Force him into what the culture perceives as a feminine role…”
The worst thing that could ever happen to a man is that he becomes a woman, because for some men, that is their definition of “less than a man.” Until we’re all collectively done with this bullshit mentality, none of it is going to get better, for women or for men.
This is why it infuriates me so much when people say they don’t “agree” with feminism. FEMINISM SOLVES SO MANY OF OUR PROBLEMS. Discrimination against women, sure, but also discrimination against men, like in this article! The kind of hyper-masculine bullshit that the patriarchy has created and glorified is harming men every single day, and erasing that kind of culture is a huge step toward eliminating the problem and helping the victims.
Can we also just talk about how fucked it is that MST survivors get involuntarily discharged for having “personality disorders” while the actual rapists just get to stay in the military? That is an impressive (read: horrifying) level of sweeping-it-under-the-rug/victim blaming/maintaining the status quo, right there.
These diagnoses also spare the government the costs of aftercare: The VA considers a personality disorder to be a pre-existing condition, so it won’t cover the expense of treatment for PTSD caused by a sexual assault.
Disgusting.
Ugh, I’m having a crappy morning, but all for really petty reasons that are definitely White Middle-Class People Problems, which makes me feel guilty for being so annoyed, which just makes me feel even crappier.
I would watch that Viola Davis show, it sounds badass
Viola Davis is A Perfect Human and I would and will watch her in anything.
I have always love love loved Viola Davis, I want her in all the things, and I’ve debated watching a lot of those movies she mentions just for her 2-5 minute scenes.
I even wrote a (crappy) screenplay draft for her a couple years ago, because I wanted her in more movies so badly. I should get back to that…
Mark Sanford is the gift that keeps on giving (unless you had the misfortune to once be married to him, anyway). Poor guy, experiencing all these CONSEQUENCES of his behavior. It must be rough.
Your childhool immunizations for whooping cough wear off when you’re around 30 if you do not have them updated. So do that. Want to know how I know this? I live in a rich-people town where vaccinations aren’t always a thing. Yes! I got whooping cough! It was like the worst thing ever and I would never wish it on anyone, never mind a small child. So make sure you’re up to date, even if you had all your shots as a child. !!!
And yeah, I’m totally a fan of flu shots because I like to play outside and the flu gets in the way of that. Also, it’s good for the herd. I like to help out my herd people.
yes, I got it in college and it SUCKED. It’s one of the less-effective vaccines out there just by nature of how vaccines work – only about 80% effective, a statistic which anti-vaxxers use to support their claims that no one should get it. So if you had 100 vaccinated kids in a room that were exposed to the illness, yes maybe 20 of them would get it, but that is way better than EVERYONE.
right? it was the worst.
You and your math conspiracies! Why must you oppress everyone by using numbers like that?
Yup! But it’s now packaged with the tetanus vaccine, and has been for many years, and you should be getting a tetanus booster at least every 10 years (and more frequently than that if you spend a lot of time digging around in the dirt or climbing over barbed wire fences). So if you’ve been up on your standard boosters you should be fully protected against pertussis.
Yeah — I had an up-to-date tetanus, but hmm, somehow it wasn’t enough! Because yes, I do things in the dirt.
you can get the tetanus with diptheria (which is SO rare in the U.S. it’s kind of a joke) that doesn’t have the pertussis…
no no no not a joke. My mother got diphtheria and nearly died of it. Also, you might take a trip, even a short one, or be in contact with immigrants or travelers who have been exposed. Get your full booster for everything – it’s an easy risk to avoid!
Spending “a lot of time digging around in the dirt or climbing over barbed wire fences” pretty much exactly describes my life. I can’t recall ever having a tetanus shot. Oops.
There’s different forms of the tetanus vaccine, though. I got my standard tetanus & diphtheria booster a couple years ago. They showed me the bottle first to confirm it was the right thing, and I’m certain it didn’t have pertussis.
Some people are sensitive to the pertussis vaccine (I am, me, it is like a low-grade flu for four days) and when everyone was vaccinated, they didn’t auto-vaccinate with pertussis because probably you’d never encounter it.
Now it’s different, and you should definitely get a booster! I did and it was not great!
Moo!
(Translation: As a member of the herd who ended up in the ER after a flu shot and who probably should have gone to the ER after a tetanus update, I thank you!)
The anti-vaxxers should be forced to live on a reservation. I take immunosuppressant drugs for MS, and don’t want to die of polio, smallpox, whooping cough or any other dread disease. And if one of them gets one of my children sick I will join Nicole in the posse that rounds them up for hanging.
Sorry to post a completely unrelated comment here, but HOTFORCHOCOLATE, if you’re reading this, please send me your mailing address. You responded on my pattern purge post, but never sent me your mailing address–at least I didn’t get it. Please follow the instructions on the post for getting me your info/paying. If I don’t hear from you by Wednesday, I’ll have to assume you didn’t want those patterns.
BTW, if anyone else is interested, I’m keeping the offer open until midnight this Friday the 19th and then they’ll all be sent off to Littlehuntingcreek. I won’t be around for this Friday’s Open Thread, but I’ll check my email first thing on Saturday and get them sent out this weekend.
The MST article is really tough. Also, today is a really appropos day for me to read it, since I happen to working on the Soldier of Marius right now, a lovely Roman rhetorical exercise about…rape in the military with lots of awful victim-blaming and homophobia. (Link here to what I think is the only English translation: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A56915.0001.001… )
I’m not sure when the next Open Thread will be, so I hope it’s ok to ask here!
Austin folks! I will be by myself in your city next Saturday and I’m wondering if anyone has any recommendations for things to do without a car in Downtown Austin for one day? Any great restaurant recommendations? I’d also be down for meeting some Toastfolk for a coffee or taco or something.
Do you know which part of downtown Austin? There are so many different areas that I feel like that could describe. Also, we have a bikeshare program (austin.bcycle.com), if you’re into that, and downtown our public transportation isn’t completely horrible. It’s also Pride weekend (austinpride.org).
Thanks! I figured “downtown” might indeed be too general. think I will be near sixth street? Great to know about the bikeshare program, and I was just reading about the Pride festival! I might have to stop and see Milk and Michelle Visage.
“I hate everything except for Roxane Gay” pretty much sums up my state of mind on any given day.
Apparently Surge is back? I didn’t even know this was a thing, and the dudes in charge are calling it a movement… I find this confusing. Thoughts?
The reviews on Amazon are depressing.
“I am getting married in 5 days, and getting this for my first drink as a married man is better than any other gift I could possibly receive outside of gaining a wife.”
…what?
Oh man I used to know some surge borders. There should be a word for that feeling you get when you realize you have just stumbled onto some tiny but deep cultural niche.
I had an abnormal pap last time I went (last Christmas or so), so I just… never went back. I’m also not reading the article linked above, because I don’t want to think about it. Someone please kick my ass and tell me to change that please. Or enable me, I dunno, I’m comfortable not caring and then suddenly dying one day, I guess.
It’s probably nothing, but you really should go back to make sure you KNOW that it’s nothing. Doooo it.
The gist of the article above is that abnormal results are nbd and easily sorted out. HOWEVER, if you don’t deal with it, it can become a big deal over (several years of) time. So it probably is worth going back for one visit now, so as to avoid many, many visits at some later stage?
(I always procrastinate for TWELVE CALENDAR MONTHS after the reminder comes in before i make an appointment, though, so I feel you on this.)
Asskicking: Patient non-compliance is for anti-vaxxers and their ilk! >:[ Stahp procrastinating!
I was just complaining that HBO Go is only available with cable. I rent a room in a house; I don’t have the decision-making authority to get us cable. But I could (and probably would) pay for HBO Go if it were available as a stand-alone service.
A number of networks will make their stuff available online only to people with cable subscriptions, and while I understand that they want people to pay for things, it shouldn’t be tied to your cable purchase (or lack thereof). Either create a stand-alone service for your network (ala HBO Go) or work with Netflix, Amazon or Hulu to make your programming available reasonably soon after air for folks who are interested. (This message brought to you by a desire to watch Outlander but no legal means to do so).
Cable companies (in the US) have no direct competition. Until/unless that changes, they will do nothing unless it fattens the wallets of their stockholders.
Well, but the cable companies don’t make the content. They’re just the primary means of distribution. HBO et al can come up with alternative means of distributing their content direct to viewers without cable subscriptions being necessary. This is already in place with things like Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hulu Plus. But sometimes shows on Hulu will be available to people with cable subscriptions first (they used to do this with So You Think You Can Dance – you had to wait 30 days unless you had a cable package, which was extra ridiculous b/c Fox is a broadcast network so you don’t even need cable to get it in the first place).
But, of course, since the cable companies ARE such monopolies, the networks don’t want to risk angering them because they don’t want to risk being dropped from cable packages and losing viewers who still access their content in traditional ways. And since in many places, the cable company is the Internet company, there is an added risk. Imagine if HBO said “we’re going to make HBO available online without a cable sub” and Comcast said “fuck you, we’re dropping HBO from Comcast” and then ALSO slowed down HBO streaming for its customers (which is a possibility if there is no net neutrality).
My law firm actually has a file about stolen bull semen, so, yeah. And a bunch of it had to be seized because there was cause to think that it would be destroyed as evidence. So, yeah! And seizure has to be conducted by lawyers… just imagine all these lawyers attending to seize bull semen. Hilarious.
Just posting to register my disappointment you’ve changed the way posts show up in readers – pretty much none of the post shows up without having to click over. I know page clicks = money and I’m thrilled to support The Toast, but during the workday it was nice to be able to filter “Yes, read this whole thing now and comment/read the comments” versus “Read at home later.”
I’m glad you’ve been successful making a profit so far, and I would rather The Toast exist-with-truncated-reader-posts than not exist at all, but this change is kind of a bummer.
OK NICOLE GET OUT OF MY HEAD. My sister came downstairs this morning in tears because her doc had called to tell her that she has to get a LEEP, and I thought of that article and had planned to search for it, and here you are, posting it for my ease and convenience. A two year old Hairpin article, apparently apropos of nothing. This is not helping my latent narcissism. THE WORLD (TOAST) EXISTS FOR MEEEEEEEE.
I was looking at the Mark Sanford fb post and I realized I have a tendency to hate-read things aloud. Not to myself, although I’m sure I would if I couldn’t find a captive audience. But anyway, it can be really fun and I recommend it.
One girl in my class went completely hysterical with panic over the BCG. Her best friend had to sit on the floor at her feet, trying to calm her down, while they did the vaccination.
Hell yes I'll be getting a flu shot-the nasal spray one that does not involve needles! My Td is 4 years out of date because terrified of needles and not particularly accident-prone, but the rest of mine are done and I get the flu nasal-spray-immunization every year.
(hi I know right? small — and sometimes awesome, as in places like this — world!)
Super, super late (work=hell) but maybe this will make tomorrow’s link round-up… has everyone read the “I am an abortion doula” piece on NYMag/The Cut? It’s great but WARNING WARNING do not read the comments, Will Robinson.
Holy shit, that military rape article.
Oh my god. That's horrifying (to me, a person with a needle phobia). That is the worst.
I vividly remember brokering a deal with my mom to cooperate with a vaccine. She did a great job of talking me through what would happen– nurse, doctor, one needle, bandaid, sticker, ice cream. I was ready to be brave. But when we arrived, the doctor wanted to give me, not ONE, but THREE shots– and I had IN NO WAY prepared enough tiny-child-bravery for THREE shots.
I'm still proud of my mom for standing her ground when the doctor tried to convince her that promises made to six-year-olds don't count. He was disgusted by our inefficiency, but I calmly complied with one shot, and then returned a week later for the next two. It meant a lot to have my self-determination listened to. Plus, double ice cream!
no no no not a joke. My mother got diphtheria and nearly died of it. Also, you might take a trip, even a short one, or be in contact with immigrants or travelers who have been exposed. Get your full booster for everything – it's an easy risk to avoid!