A good article on women who were illegal abortionists in 1968-1973.
Some of the stories she recalls are heartbreaking. They reflect a time when access even to birth control was limited; when a patchwork of abortion regulations meant that women with the economic means to travel could find care in states that allowed abortion, but low-income people, or those with other responsibilities, like caregiving, could not.
Doctor appointments, like the 3 I had in 2 weeks. (Mostly it’s because I emotionally freak out about it. I don’t like that but that’s what my body insists on right now.)
Medical tests, like the ultrasound I had during the same 2 weeks. (See above.)
Doing more physical things around the house, which for me includes more than 1 load of laundry or changing the sheets or carrying in a Costco run. (These currently take a lot of spoons.)
How about you?
Like, on stilts. Marketplace – the NPR show that became a favorite commute listen and eventually a favorite podcast commute listen – discusses how a woman who spent $97.5k on her house ended up spending $100k (mostly from a FEMA grant) to raise it more than 8 feet.
Half a dozen workers, drenched in sweat from the July heat and covered in mud, have tunneled under the house and set up piles of wood blocks, or cribbing, along with 38 hydraulic jacks. The men crawled in and out, making small adjustments, while a supervisor eyed dozens of gauges. “He’s adjusting all the pressures on each hydraulic cylinder individually,” explained Jason Soto. “That way when we lift the house, it guarantees it lifts at a constant rate.”
“What does it take to lift a house? A lot of money, sweat and hydraulic jacks.”
Marketplace also has a podcast series on adapting to climate change called How We Survive. Season one is on making better batteries for electric vehicles and improve the electric grid; season two is on rising water levels, especially in Florida and the Gulf Coast.
It’s a holiday in the US to remember (and hopefully learn from) the life of The Rev Martin Luther King, Jr.
Last week I noticed my jaw was hurting a bit. Always in the same place. Was something wrong? It went away over the weekend, but came back on Monday. It was bad enough on Monday that I called the dentist.
I soon had an appointment for Wed afternoon.
In the meantime, I took a Tylenol (which helped my jaw) and kept my GYN appointment.
Yeah, GYN. Mostly we’re monitoring some perimenopause-type things and treating uterine/fibroid bleeding with a hormone – progestin.
(Funny how “your hormones are a bit weird, let’s supplement” is old hat when you’re cis but Very Very Suspect if you’re trans but Oh Well…)
Anyway, visit went well, prescription renewed, request to schedule another ultrasound to see if the fibroids are growing, all good.
Tuesday night I realized “Hey, my jaw doesn’t hurt. It didn’t hurt at all today. Huh.”
Wednesday morning I was very conscious that (a) my jaw kept clenching and starting to grind my teeth and (b) I shouldn’t do that. I DO sleep with a night guard aka bite guard, and I DID remember to take it to the dentist with me. So we checked that it fits, it isn’t staring to crack, and so forth. Verdict was that the pain was probably due to stress and I should check during daytime that I’m not grinding my teeth.
Oh and I need two small filling that are completely unrelated to the pain I’d been having. Appointment in February. Joy.
Finally I have an appointment to do a brief blood check Thursday to confirm my blood thinner is at a good dosage for me.
In all:
Anyway, time to see if the imaging center has the info to schedule my ultrasound.
These days I use the blow-dryer on crevices and wear tummy liners instead of baby powder. (Yay not getting baby powder everywhere.) I continue the use of antifungals as needed, usually in other crevices.
Ah, the morning shower. Warm water to get the kinks out, bright overhead heat lamps to help wake me up, and the daily question: shampoo & condition or just rinse & condition?
To explain: I have naturally curly hair, which is also naturally fragile hair, which I’ve made more fragile by coloring it. Some recommend that you don’t use shampoo at all, set it with clips, airdry, use a diffuser, et cetera. I could spend time and money straightening it, but frankly I don’t have the patience. My hair is a bit like my body in that it takes some specialized care, and I’m working with it instead of trying to negate it. ;)
But back to my shower. How does being very fat affect showering? My belly doesn’t just stick out – it also droops. So do… [hm, perhaps I should warn you that this is another frank post that may be a bit, oh, too much information for some folks…]
My breasts droop too. I do have a handheld showerhead, which makes it easier to rinse under my belly & the girls. Using fixed showerheads when traveling does take a bit longer to get everything positioned and rinsed correctly.
After showering and toweling off, I lie down on the bed, lift up my belly “overhang”, and make sure the underneath is dry. Then I sprinkle some talcum powder in the fold and brush it about to cover the skin. I usually brush some powder under my breasts and where my legs meet my torso, too. I try not to use too much – I still blush at memories of powder falling out on the bed with a new beau – but I definitely want enough that I can move freely without causing chafing.
Why do I do this? For years I had horrible yeast infections & jock itch in the folds of my skin. Especially under my belly, but also under my breasts and in the crotch. Not only were they icky and smelly, but at their worst they’d provide a constant level of pain whenever I moved, which resulted in me limiting my mobility. I do keep Lotramin spray & powder on hand to deal with the occasional flare-up, but the talc is the best preventative I’ve found.
After ensuring that my underbelly will remain dry, I wash my hands and get out the moisturizer. I’ve had dry skin since I was a child – one of my earliest memories is feeling a parent’s warm hands rubbing moisturizer into my back. Wiping moisturizer onto my arms, breasts, belly and legs not only prevents itching (ick!) but is an act of self-care. (I also massage moisturizer into my feet before putting on socks. My feet work hard & I like them!)
Then it’s time to start fiddling with my hair. :)
Updates and more info:
In July 2009, Well-Rounded Mama posted a much more in-depth discussion of jock itch, skin yeast, and related infections and their treatments.
Intertrigo treatment and management.
On the more serious end, Skin Integrity in Critically Ill Obese Patients discusses the care of skin, wounds, and so on when immobilized due to critical illness or surgery.
Since I wrote this there’s been a bunch of changes.
I got an adapter that let me feed video from VHS to my computer. I made digital video copies of the various segments from the VHS tape. This lets me customize things a bit, such as doing a segment multiple times to work out more. Also reduces wear on an already old tape.
After I had a blood clot block blood flow to my lungs (pulmonary embolism) my cardiovascular ability decreased greatly. My main aerobic exercise has been on our treadmill at home. Post-hospital, I started walking around the house. Then I’d walk on the treadmill for an episode of The Hidden Almanac podcast – about 3 minutes. It’s been a slow recovery but I am getting more energy and stamina.
I don’t do this every day. But if I’m doing it, it’s before my shower. I use a copy of the Women At Large: 30-Minute Workout I picked up years ago.
I do make a few modifications. Such as:
Why do I do this?