I don’t know everything about my body, but I do know the different kinds of pain, and I definitely know the different kinds of skin problems – long term allergic reaction vs short term, heat rash, etc. So even if this link is buried if it happens (and I hope it doesn’t – Lyrica worked so well until the side effects took over), I’ll just go hmm, that looks new.

Skin example – because we just don’t talk enough about skin problems here! – yesterday I went home and spent time with my dogs because why not. They were all over me, presumably because Mom, as usual, does not love them. Dixie drooled on me, I held Mikey, put him down, he danced, I held him again. I sat down, pet Dixie, Mikey sat on me. So without scratching, my left elbow got really inflamed (the inside). And then there was the ride home from the vet with his Majesty, sir Wickett. I took a benadryl and a shower when I got home and conked out a couple hours later. This morning – not a trace.

So I don’t know the causes of everything, but hey, I’ve had skin problems since before this new fangled millennium. Don’t trust it, in my day, years began with 19!

About the eczema and the rash from Stevens-Johnson–I don’t know what your eczema looks like obviously, but I thought it might be helpful to link you to some pics of SJS. (NOT to scare you, just to show you what it looks like–honest. It’s really rare) So here’s a link from Google images: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.eczema-answers.com/images/sjs_baby.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.eczema-answers.com/stevens-johnson-syndrome.html&usg=__T_P4lc16_P0jylnh0ycRoRcwd_g=&h=224&w=180&sz=13&hl=en&start=16&itbs=1&tbnid=I1jYDQ18FujhwM:&tbnh=108&tbnw=87&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dstevens%2Bjohnson%2Bsyndrome%26hl%3Den%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1

If it’s not online, I could print stuff out, hand it out.

I wrote out a long post on schools (in the US) and No Child Left Behind on a message board where we frequently discussed everything, including US politics.

One response.

I got one response.

And it was from someone I’d hated who grabbed the word “behind” from NCLB and wrote a oneliner about thongs. He was being “funny,” I guess.

We’re all super familiar with various derailing tactics people use to shut down meaningful conversation about disability and feminist issues (I know I am)… and I’ve developed some good responses to some of them. But one I have encountered and can’t seem to deal with in any effective way is humor. Not saying humor is bad obviously, I’m funny, and I like to laugh – but it’s so annoying and infuriating when I am trying to express some frustration relating to disability activism, and someone uses humor to totally derail the conversation – cut me off, change topic, and minimize the issue.

How do you valiant activists cope with this? Have you found a good response or tactic for limiting the derailing potential of this tactic?? I have not, and it’s so upsetting.

And it’s not too late (for me, anyway) and I’m happy for you because it’s working for you. It would be nice if it stabilized my moods and helped my pain. Wonder drug!

Ok, someone needs to get off the computer and try to sleep… :X

He did say it was anti-seizure, but seizure=nerves=why can’t I control her pain, I’m dr ego dammit! (paraphrasing, perhaps.)

I’ll be on the 25 mgs for a month, and when I see him again, it’ll be near the end of the semester, but I’ll keep this in mind. (I have eczema that flares up when I, um, scratch. and the heat? Helpful!)

I don’t know why he didn’t want to increase it like that, but he did say it was a low dose and he wanted to wait a month and blah blah blah.

I know I’m way late to this, but I didn’t see any replies about the Lamictal, so I thought I’d share what I know about it. I am on it as a mood stabilizer, not for pain though. It’s in the general class of anti-epileptic drugs. I do know that they usually say to start at a low dose and move up gradually–25 mg at night for a few days to a week, then 25 twice a day for a week, then move up by 25 mg increments until you find a dose that works. They generally say it starts to become effective at about 100 mg, but it differs for everyone. I personally am on 150 mg. The big thing to watch out for is a rash. If you get a rash while starting Lamictal, please please please call the dr. right away. Other than that, it has the usual weight gain/insomnia/etc side effect thing for anti-epileptic drugs. I personally like the way it works for me very well. It’s the first mood stabilizer I’ve tried and I’m very happy with it.

Interesting play on PWD tropes… especially with the twist (I went in knowing, which only helps – look for clues!)… he chose to look like that because who suspects a “cripple”?

Don’t watch if you don’t like derogatory terms tossed at a PWD. But death and the f word – oh sure, why not! No boobies on screen, but a brief (flashback – lie?) rape scene.

It got me thinking – gangster movies, heist movies – they show people being really tolerant.
In Maqbool (Macbeth adaptation, bored me silly despite Tabu and Irrfan), Muslims and Hindus worked together!
Religion, sex, gender, race, ethnicity, BODY – all less important than money and/or murdering rats.