Get that thing off your chest... Now...

[pocoscon]

So my doctor thinks that I have Lupus--which sucks, but I'd love to agree. My lab tests, however, say I'm healthy as I can get--which is obviously not true, since it appears that my immune system is attacking my entire body because it thinks it's an intruder.

It was after a few "Super Healthy" test results that my doctor got concerned. Upon reviewing my symptoms, he got visibly upset, and said that he would like to treat me for Lupus Cerebritis as a precaution. Treatment apparently involves steroids, which are supposed to make my swelling go down. I've been pretty optimistic. That is, until I did more research into Cerebritis.

As it turns out, Cerebritis is really difficult to diagnose. Lupus is considered to be the "great imitator" and is hard to distinguish from other illnesses, and Lupus Cerebritis is no exception. In basic terms, Cerebritis is a brain infection that can lead to the formation of abscesses--you know, a collection of pus. In my brain. Which can cause necrosis. So my brain might actually rot.

I can now understand why my doctor was upset, because I sure am upset just reading about it. While some effects can be short-lived, Cerebritis can also cause permanent neurological damage and even death.

Lupus has no cure. This is something I've accepted. Lupus Cerebritis can be managed and treated by suppressing autoimmune activity. This is also something I've been able to accept.

Along with the "run-of-the-mill" Lupus symptoms, we noticed that I have had very strong issues with memory loss, severe depression and anxiety, and headaches. Those are all mild symptoms of Cerebritis. I also have vision problems, dizziness, and hallucinations, which are the "medium" point symptoms.
However, now that my left arm and hand have stopped working on several occasions, I'm pretty worried. "Cerebellar Ataxia" is the failure of muscle coordination, usually on one side of the body. It, along with nerve issues, which I clearly have, are considered to be severe symptoms.

I am now making sure that I am monitored closely as much as possible, because at this rate, judging by my symptoms, I could have a seizure or a stroke at any moment. And that's pretty scary.

I'm going to try to deal with it calmly, but my the earliest I can see my doctor is on February 6, and we've been trying to start my steroid treatment since November. I really hope there aren't any other delays, because I'm pretty scared.

My prayers are with you. I know you've dealt with a lot these last months and I really hope everything is okay. Please take it easy as well. It's really good that you're trying to stay in a positive light through tough times as well. It's very inspiring. Anyway, please take care of yourself.

[SelLi]

Visual novels are a medium.
It doesn't matter what language one's in, it's still a visual novel, so the name of the medium shouldn't change based on the language (Like OELVN), though of course, it would be right to say "This visual novel is in english" or any other language. But it's still a visual novel.
Animation is also a medium, regardless of the style.
Anime is a subcategory of animation, like American animation is.
Whether "Anime" or "American animations" are limited to art style or their countries of origin are up for debate, but they are both animations.

What bothers me the most regarding this topic, is when people think that anime, American animations, visual novels, manga, or other things that are not generas, are. They are mediums. Saying "This falls under the genera of anime" is extremely similar to saying "This falls under the genera of books", or "This falls under the genera of paintings".
As I understand it, a genera is an attempt at categorizing things based off of what a medium expresses. "Comedy", "Drama", "Mystery", "Horror", THESE are generas.
The basic misunderstanding of what a genera is pisses me off.

It can even go deeper, for example, there's the medium "animation", then the subcategory of "American animation" and then another level that's "Children's cartoons". While it makes sense to differentiate a children's cartoon from other animations, and while it's true that generally speaking there are some guidelines that most children's cartoons follow (such as not displaying explicit sex), a children's cartoon is still not strictly speaking a genera, but is a subcategory of a medium. Once again, what it expresses it what it's genera is. Though, I understand putting a mystery children's cartoon into "Children's mystery" to separate it from other mysteries.

[SelLi]

So my doctor thinks that I have Lupus--which sucks, but I'd love to agree. My lab tests, however, say I'm healthy as I can get--which is obviously not true, since it appears that my immune system is attacking my entire body because it thinks it's an intruder.

It was after a few "Super Healthy" test results that my doctor got concerned. Upon reviewing my symptoms, he got visibly upset, and said that he would like to treat me for Lupus Cerebritis as a precaution. Treatment apparently involves steroids, which are supposed to make my swelling go down. I've been pretty optimistic. That is, until I did more research into Cerebritis.

As it turns out, Cerebritis is really difficult to diagnose. Lupus is considered to be the "great imitator" and is hard to distinguish from other illnesses, and Lupus Cerebritis is no exception. In basic terms, Cerebritis is a brain infection that can lead to the formation of abscesses--you know, a collection of pus. In my brain. Which can cause necrosis. So my brain might actually rot.

I can now understand why my doctor was upset, because I sure am upset just reading about it. While some effects can be short-lived, Cerebritis can also cause permanent neurological damage and even death.

Lupus has no cure. This is something I've accepted. Lupus Cerebritis can be managed and treated by suppressing autoimmune activity. This is also something I've been able to accept.

Along with the "run-of-the-mill" Lupus symptoms, we noticed that I have had very strong issues with memory loss, severe depression and anxiety, and headaches. Those are all mild symptoms of Cerebritis. I also have vision problems, dizziness, and hallucinations, which are the "medium" point symptoms.
However, now that my left arm and hand have stopped working on several occasions, I'm pretty worried. "Cerebellar Ataxia" is the failure of muscle coordination, usually on one side of the body. It, along with nerve issues, which I clearly have, are considered to be severe symptoms.

I am now making sure that I am monitored closely as much as possible, because at this rate, judging by my symptoms, I could have a seizure or a stroke at any moment. And that's pretty scary.

I'm going to try to deal with it calmly, but my the earliest I can see my doctor is on February 6, and we've been trying to start my steroid treatment since November. I really hope there aren't any other delays, because I'm pretty scared.

I'm sorry, and you'll be in my prayers as well. I hope you get better. I know that's obvious, but I do.

[Morhighan]

Thanks for your kind words, folks. <3 It's helping my mood stay up.

[Kato]

After months of deflecting the misuss' request to get a bigger place I finally caved and we moved a couple of weeks ago. Among the stress of moving, giving up holiday leave to do so and having a lighter wallet by the end of it all, my computer didn't survive the move. Luckily all my important files have online back ups but amongst the lost files were days and days worth of coding for Summer Winds which has totally thrown me in the 'no motivation pit'. The missus is happy with the move though so I'm hoping once I finish building my new computer the motivation will wash over me again and I can stop stressing out about everything.

[Morhighan]

So I was the first person to notice that my friend had posted a suicide note on facebook...but I hesitated to cal 911. By the time I did, it was too late. He's dead now.
If you are ever in this situation, please do not hesitate to call emergency services.

[Mad Harlequin]

So I was the first person to notice that my friend had posted a suicide note on facebook...but I hesitated to call 911. By the time I did, it was too late. He's dead now.
If you are ever in this situation, please do not hesitate to call emergency services.

Oh, I'm so sorry. Sending you hugs . . .

Please don't blame yourself. You might be in that place right now, but the situation is not that cut-and-dried. I promise.

[KittyKatStar]

- Not looking forward to job hunting. AGAIN.

It's gonna be harder since the current job I had was great. Everyone was so nice, and I never dreaded coming to work (something I can't say I felt about my last 3 jobs... =,D ). Basically I'll keep working until the store closes, and trying not to stress out too much. ;_; My social anxiety is the worst whenever I have to job hunt.

[Godline]

- Not looking forward to job hunting. AGAIN.

It's gonna be harder since the current job I had was great. Everyone was so nice, and I never dreaded coming to work (something I can't say I felt about my last 3 jobs... =,D ). Basically I'll keep working until the store closes, and trying not to stress out too much. ;_; My social anxiety is the worst whenever I have to job hunt.

Awww. Job hunting sucks.
Sorry your current job has to end. Maybe an opportunity will come up from it that you won't have to job hunt.

blind Optimism.

[Rinima]

It feels odd saying 'I have glasses' after 20 years of having perfect vision.

[curry nochi rice]

>Final Defense Tomorrow
>Introducing my game to 7+ Professors with masters in IT
>IT
>game
>Where all my classmates have management, information, inventory systems and I'm like...
>oh ****
...
;_;

Welp I'm school at the moment. Continuing to plan my "what-if" kickstarter for Delicatessen 3.0. Welp planning rewards is actually complicated. Hahahahaha. /wrist

[yoshibb]

Ok so, this is a place to get stuff off my chest. right? Well, let me comment about how much I hate 2015.

First, I sliced my finger open while trying to cook something to start the new year. I got some stitches but for an artist and being a massage therapist, it was awful. It still hurts a little, I'm not sure if that will go away or not but it meant I pretty much couldn't work for several weeks.

But that's just the start, next my dog got sick out of nowhere. She was older but not too old. I spent about $600 at the vet desperately trying to save her. Mistakenly I believed the emergency vet when they said it was a simple bacterial infection(which really ticks me off since it's essentially them tell you it is your fault). It turns out that the new medication for her heart problems was to blame and caused her kidneys to fail. Not much you can do about that, she was a rescue. She would've died without that medication. I just wish I or the vet would've told me about this possibility before I spent all that money to simply give her another miserable week. I was forced to put her to sleep. Her heart stopped so fast she wouldn't have made it another 24 hours. So I lost my best friend.

Oh no though, that's not the end of 2015's horror. I finally manage to go back to work only for them to tell me that a client complained about my massage. They don't like my style so they essentially demanded that I retrain myself in a new style or I cant work their anymore. In the meantime, I will get very sparse appointments cause I guess I might scare customers away. Oh and my style? I'm a medical massage therapist, so I focus on actual treatment over relaxation. Unfortunately that severely limits my job opportunities because most medical offices don't believe in massage and spas only want the relaxing and flowing stuff. So I guess I'm SOL huh.

To top it off 2015 has given me one last gift. You see I'm currently posting this from my phone. Why? Well, water got spilled all over my laptop. Five years and never once has this happened but this is the year that I manage to dump water and destroy my laptop. I've gone through necessary phases but after 24 hours it still will not turn on. So now I need a new computer and with all the other things that have happened this month, I don't have the money to pay for it.

So 2015, I hate you. I wish I had a time machine to skip ahead of you and your awfulness. I can only hope that these horrible things will stop happening cause I seriously can't take much more of this.

[Angelee]

I'm really scared of where I'm living now. Recently, I got scammed out of $1050. Someone broke into my next-door neighbor's house, made a mess, stuck a knife in their bed, and left a message that he was going to kill them. He's a man that's wanted for actually, seriously, real life, murdering her sister. They moved. That was the house to the left. The lady from the house to the right told me that she heard someone trying to force her door open and come in through her bedroom window at night. Our locks have also been mysteriously damaged, like someone was trying to come in. Luckily, we have iron gates over all our doors and iron bars on all our windows on the first floor so it's difficult for people to break in. Someone left a stolen vehicle right in front of the house across the road from us. There was a yelling match in the street, right in front of my house, that I spotted from my window that ended with one man pushing the other to the ground and chasing him down the street. There are cops. Lots of cops here on our street and the streets adjacent to ours very often, questioning people, looking for perps, ect... I'm often woken up by the sound of helicopters circling our area, right over our house, over and over again. I get email alerts every two or three weeks it seems of sex offenders living in my area. I checked the local news website because I was so worried and located one to two miles from my house is an area that they called the most dangerous neighborhood in the city.

All of this (and things I've left out) have happened over the last year, or even the last 6 months. I've never felt so unsafe and never seen so many police in such a sort period in my life. You may say, "just move"! But that's where the $1050 came in. I was trying to move out but got scammed instead by someone pretending to own a place he didn't really own. He skipped town and supposedly moved to Florida but who knows. I don't trust anything he says anymore.

I'm a college student, so I don't have a lot of money and I can't move too far away from my college. But I'm going to try again once I've saved up some more money. :'(

Anyway. Rant over. I do feel a little better getting all this off my chest.

[Fungii]

I am absolutely determined to actually fully contribute to Nano this year, last year I had to drop out after only being able to deliver concept sketches due to being on my final year at university, and the year before that I was busy with another project. This year I'm out of the education system so I'll only have my own management to worry about.
That said, inb4 I overload myself again, specifically during the month of nano.

[curry nochi rice]

Welp the nanoreno timer is up and running.

;_; If I could graduate from college by the 15th of March. I'll make sure to join in lol.