Pronoun Trouble

I shared this on Tumblr, so I thought I'd put it here as well. These are my personal rules for wearing a mask.

If I am in an indoor space that is not my home, I will wear a mask if:

- There are more than five people in the room, including me, for longer than five minutes at a time
- It is an area with high traffic
- Any of the other people there are wearing a mask
- I am not confident that every other person there has been fully vaccinated for Covid (minimum full original course, one or more boosters preferred)

This means I do sometimes take my mask off at work, and might if I'm visiting someone's house. Not that I've had much occasion to visit anywhere but my brother's family these days. It's reasonably close to the first "Yes, you can visit other people" guidelines that the CDC announced after the vaccine became more publicly available, just plus one extra person.

This also means that there are some people at work that I don't unmask around, because I have asked and they've flat-out told me that they haven't gotten vaccinated. At this point, I figure that if they've decided not to vaccinate, I'm not going to be able to change their minds by confronting them about it. If they decide that they're curious later, I can share my own reasons for getting the vaccine, and they can have another chance to decide if those reasons are good enough for them personally; otherwise, I'll keep my mouth shut. I also don't ask about their reasons for not vaccinating, because I don't want to be any angrier than I already am, either at them (more likely) or at The System (forcing people who cannot get vaccinated back into the workforce/public/etc).

It's looking pretty good! It seems pretty well sealed up, and while I've still got a persistent scab in the area closest to the knuckle where there was also the most infection, it seems like a pretty normal scab and I'm reasonably sure everything is good to stick together. The area is still a little painful to stretch in some ways or when it's bumped, but that's not too surprising. I plan to still treat it a little delicately at least until the scab goes away, possibly a little after, but I'm cautiously saying that I'm in the clear.

Got cut at work; had to get stitches on my thumb. Otherwise fine. Wearing a thumb brace for at least a day, so typing will be slow/low priority for me.

I have successfully returned from getting my first filling! It was... a lot. I'm getting my care through the local dental college, so appointments average around three hours; my last one ended a little earlier than that, so this one balanced the scales by ending a little later. The pain was rare and minimal, but the metal collar for my molar slipped a good four times before the procedure was over, and my jawmeats are a bit tender now. But! Teeth protected! Further cavities and pain less likely! Preventative dental medicine: Achieved! Also the tiny chip in #7 I got in late May has been patched up, making it easier to floss and more pleasant to feel with my tongue.

In other news, kittens_and_spitefic is also off to a roaring purring start 😺 I don't know if it'll be able to keep up this momentum, but if the comm manages even one post a month by someone who's not me, with at least one person who's not me responding to posts, I think I will be able to consider it a success.

That RSD feel when people keep piling on you because you are vocal about not liking that the con you've been working for 14 years:

1) Has changed their mask policy from "mandatory" to "recommended"
2) Did not give the staff at large a chance to comment on this change
3) Made the change public and official without informing the staff at large via email, thus going against convention bylaws

Dear brain, can we work out a thing where you don't actually make me feel like shit for trying to defend the health and safety of the con-goers and trying to make sure that staff-at-large is included in big decisions that affect the entire con? Because I would really appreciate that!

(Hugs very welcome, as are cute and funny animal stories. Also people reassuring me that I'm doing the right thing, because I know I am, I know, but brain weasels are being very loud 😥 It probably wouldn't be so bad if I had at least one person to back me up in the staff Discord, but... Well, last I checked it was five against one, and my staunchest ally is on a camping trip and unavailable to help. I'm not sure I dare to look again just yet.)

Ha ha ha ha ha!

Took a Covid test this morning, as planned. There was an extremely thin and faint line by the positive test check area, to the point where I could go either way on whether it was positive or negative and my parents were also split. Called the doctor to ask for advice, we'll be doing a telehealth check thing this afternoon. In the mean time, I will not be going to work today.

Update: Doc said to go ahead and assume the test results were positive. Apparently, most people catch it within five days of cohabitating with a contagious person, and even if Dad just barely falls outside the range, Mom doesn't.

I did all I could to improve my odds, but if you roll the the dice enough times, eventually it'll still come up a natural one. On the plus side, everything I did to improve my odds should make the actual experience of Covid less terrible and dangerous than otherwise.

I'll be staying home from WisCon. We'll see what happens after that. If I develop symptoms before May 30th, I stay home until June 4th; otherwise, May 30th is my "release date".

It's been just over a day since I had the IUD put in, and I'm... feeling pretty good? At most I have very mild back pain, only a 1 on the pain scale. I ended up using only two of the three heat packs the hospital gave me, and haven't taken any painkillers yet today (though I might take one soon, for just-in-cases).

Considering I went to sleep with the full expectation that I would be cramping horribly within minutes of waking up, if not woken up by cramps in the first place, this is a pleasant surprise.

Edit: Currently need my heat pack again, but it's still worlds better than yesterday. Very cozy.

I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for 10am today. I had my alarm set for just after 9am, so I could get myself ready and get there on time. Usually I have my alarm set for 10:30am, because that's how much time I need to get to work by noon, but 9am isn't too bad.

8am comes around, and I get a call.

It's from the doctor's office. My PCP is working from home today, and my insurance probably won't cover video calls; would I be willing to reschedule?

Anyway, my physical is now scheduled for Valentine's Day, and that's the story of how I got to sleep in an extra couple of hours this morning.

Tomorrow morning at the hour of 8am: OB-GYN! ...Probably.

Doctor agrees that current pills are also not working for my adenomyosis (and also said that it's sounding more and more to her like actual endo rather than off-brand endo, it's just that they didn't happen to find any growth spots outside the uterus walls in my ultrasound). After some brief chatting, we agreed that I'd see an OB-GYN for more detail/to get another brain on the problem before diving directly into an IUD. (Honestly, after this OJST strip (NSFW), I'm a little bit wary of IUDs, especially since heavy periods and cramps are what I'm trying to get rid of. But maybe it's not as bad with non-copper IUDs? ...Are there non-copper IUDs? Edit: Yes, there are; okay, then. /edit Edit 2: Info from Planned Parenthood! It looks like the heavier periods and more cramping thing is only a copper IUD thing, so I'm cautiously optimistic. /edit 2)

Did my level best to actually call an OB-GYN and make an appointment myself, but the doctor didn't actually recommend anyone, and the place the receptionist suggested doesn't take people on Medicaid 😩 And here I thought I'd manage to get one over on my executive dysfunction for once by taking care of things ASAP...

Other mildly disappointing things from the past few days:

1) Apparently the Hulu subscription we got free through Sprint is no longer good/a thing, so there goes the only streaming service I had; if they do the $2/month offer again for Black Friday Weekend this year, I may go for it.

2) Pod-type laundry detergent is bad for the washing machine! This sucks because I had very good experiences with pods after switching over from powder, because powder had a tendency to get stuck on my clothes rather than washing out completely (and has destroyed at least one garment). Time to research alternatives, I guess!
Edit 3: Snopes found the claim that laundry pods clog drains or ruin washing machines to be unproven. Which might be good news, except I'm not sure I can convince my parents to bet an appliance on that, and honestly I wouldn't blame them. Back to researching! (Bleh.)
Edit 4: Trying out these powder-only laundry pods, no plastic to worry about. Fingers crossed!