Ashbet's oddities

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lizardsenjoyinglife:

Enjoying some watermelon
[x]

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thenewdoctorofarkham:

H.P. Lovecraft, Mary Shelly, and Poe respectively.
all by AbigailLarson on deviantart

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(Source: jenniwrenninorlando, via queensimia)

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therotund:

My new hair color by @katthehairstylist Kat Chase! She always does the best work. Also blew my hair out straight and now the long side looks like the most awesome apostrophe!

As always, you are my hair hero, Marianne! :D

Many thanks to ErnBird from the Ehlers-Danlos National Foundation Support Board for creating the graphic! Hope to get some awareness out there for my fellow zebras :)

(The familiar medical axiom is “When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.” Unfortunately for those of us with a rare disease, we need doctors to see a zebra sitting in front of them, even though that may not be what they’d expected to walk in through their office door.)

More awareness among both doctors and laypeople would help a great deal — you have no idea how many times a doctor has told me that I’m the first EDS patient they’ve seen, or that they haven’t heard the name since they got a 30-minute presentation on it in medical school.

The problem is that EDS isn’t actually that rare — they’ve probably had zebras sitting in that office chair before, but they didn’t recognize them for what they were.

Underdiagnosis and undertreatment are serious problems in the EDS community, as well as unwarranted psychiatric diagnoses (hypochondria, somatic symptom disorder, conversion disorder, etc.) The pain and damage that come with EDS is very real, and it’s not at all psychosomatic — but it doesn’t show up on tests unless they’re sensitive enough to see micro-tears in fascia and frayed nerve endings from repeated joint dislocations and subluxations and allover faulty connective tissue.

So — doctors, please keep an eye out for zebras!! Two signs to watch for are high arches that collapse on weight-bearing and an abnormal range of joint motion with complaints of pain that are not associated with inflammation or arthritis (note: patients with joint damage who have developed arthritis or frozen joints can still have a past history of hypermobility. Remember to use both the Beighton Scale and the Brighton Scale, which accounts for past history.)

Being more flexible is generally seen as a good thing, but it’s also damaging to every part of our body — so if you catch it early, you can often avert injuries that stay with us for a lifetime.

Thanks so much for reading, and for sharing — I hope to see this gain some traction!

The Hawkeye Initiative: Special Guest Edition: The Hawkeye Initiative IRL!

thehawkeyeinitiative:

05/15/2013 Update:
BROSIE Goes Viral

Original Post:
I recently received an email from an anonymous fan sharing how she pulled a Hawkeye Initiative themed prank on her CEO to illustrate a problem with some artwork.
My personal compliments to her and her accomplice on a mission well done;…

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Axolotls have the unique ability to regenerate most body parts. In a period of months, they can grow entire new limbs and even portions of the brain and spine.

(Source: devoureth, via hokuto-ju-no-ken)

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