The Feed

TW: diets and diet culture, including describing extreme dieting techniques of the 80's and 90's. I've been waking up really late recently, daylight savings time is not helping this, and I had an 11:30am appointment yesterday. A normal person would have plenty of time to pull themselves together, but I slept until nearly 10am, and it takes my stomach a couple more hours to wake up than the rest of my body, so I went to that appointment on water, coffee, and collagen powder. A

TW: American Disability & Medicaid systems, medical neglect, discussions of surgery/post-op injury, and genocide. You know how I was denied Medicaid for 2026 because of a perfect storm of events that most people would simply write off as personal laziness ? Well, I'm writing this blog post to kill some time as I'm on hold with my County DHS to speak to someone about how to get the denial overturned. First of all, I had to hang up and call back to start on the automated menu f

And I mean that in the very southern "bless your heart" way. TW: American Disability & Medicaid systems, post-op recovery, chronic illness including seasonal migraines, neurodivergence, mental stress, discussion of distress, danger, and genocide. I just got denied Medicaid for 2026. Why? I didn't return the re-application form. Why wouldn't I do that promptly, it's not hard to return a form, right? I had a total hip joint replacement on January 5. I spent most of the month of

TW: weight gain and loss, plus clothing sizing, fatphobia, body dysmorphia. I took the nice weather and having some energy yesterday to try on some of the things in my closet that I haven't put on in awhile, to see if it even still fits. And the most surprising pieces do and don't fit! A little storytime about my size and clothing sizes over the years - at 18 years old, in 2000, I was a perfect Lane Bryant size 18. I could go into Lane Bryant and put anything in a size 18 on

How to know you're an 80's baby... my mom would make going to see the doctor less scary by playing this on the drive over and singing "let's get a physical!" and encouraging my brother and I to join in. TW: weight loss, with numbers. Obesity & BMI. Surgery & recovery. I had my six month check-up with my PCP today (you get semi-annuals when you have enough wrong with you), which of course means a weigh-in. I'm at 205lbs, which is 12lbs lighter than the 217lbs I was on surgery

I announce that I'm joining a hair growth challenge, and two days later my hair starts falling out. Y'all think you're so slick? Hope you enjoy being bald, I sent that back right away, and haven't lost a hair since. I can't even grow my own hair in peace, for fuck's sake. Hey WitchTok, take note - this is the life you're choosing. Witch Wars are part of it, whether you want to get into it or not. I sure don't, but here we are. Make sure you're ready for the heat, everyone's a

TW: medical neglect I've read from a few sources that it was believed for a long time that autistic people don't feel pain, or feel it at far lower levels than neurotypical people. As a neurodivergent person with multiple chronic pain issues that have brought me to the Emergency Department on many occasions, I've experienced this personally. But it's not that my Emergency staff knew I was neurodivergent and therefore assumed I wasn't feeling pain, it was that my neurodivergen

TW: medical diets, food allergies. I tracked my food intake and how that breaks down nutritionally for the first time a few days ago, for a What I Eat In A Day blog post over on Auntie's Allergy-Free Eats . That used to be about the most toxic, controlling thing in the diet culture, making you account for every single thing that goes into your body every single day. Even if it wasn't on social media, it was usually shared with weight loss groups. I refused to participate unti

TW: medical neglect I'm going to let you in on how the medical system works. When you go to your PCP, they're there to treat normal stuff - colds and flu, high blood pressure, etc. They can be your first gatekeeper when it comes to determining if your condition is "normal" enough to see a specialist or not. Otherwise, they refer you to a specialist. Now, here's the thing. Your body is intimately connected. And you may not be seeing the right specialist based on the symptoms y

TW: bullying Yes, I know, thank you. I'm going to tell you why I chose it. See, I was very badly bullied as a child. Why? Well, hindsight being 20/20 and all, it was because I was hella neurodivergent, and the neurotypical kids had no idea what to do with me... beyond make me the school scapegoat. And the first thing they did was get a hold of a derogatory nickname, and use it against me fiercely. I learned this game very early. I also watched closely when Gen Z joined the in

TW: American SSI Disability & Medicaid systems, discussion of mental health & stress, genocide & eugenics. Today is one week post-op. I was on the table exactly seven days ago right now. Today, I also was notified by US SSI Disability that my request to review my hearing from April 2025 has been denied. Which means I'm starting the application process over from scratch, for the third time in six years. Why was I denied last year? Because the "employment expert" at the hearing

I'm getting asked this a lot lately, so here's the deal. And TW on pretty much every physical and mental health topic out there. tl;Dr, my genetics are such a bitch (comment where that's from if you know it!) And MeeMaw is Neurodiversity. My first flare happened in 2001, when I was 19 years old. It took me out of dancing and into reiki. And it involved my old hip... my left hip subluxed, and caused a severe muscle spasm in my piriformis muscle to hold it out of place (and sho

One of my favorite topics! TW: Corporate capitalism, influencer culture, medical surgery, plastic surgery, hygiene, survival living. Especially since it's been so twisted by corporate capitalism and influencer culture lately. I'm looking at you, TikTok. For instance, I just did a huge act of self care by consenting to a painful major surgery. And it wasn't a BBL just for the lewk, I'm really hoping my right leg sciatica that I've been getting steroid injections for for the pa

TW: weight loss, weight gain, fatphobia, medical neglect, medical advocacy. If you were overweight as a kid, and it just kinda got worse the older you got, and then you spent your adult life fluctuating between gaining and losing the same 20-30 pounds that didn't quite get you to the 60-100lbs you need to lose... Check your hormone balance. Get tested for food allergies. Get treated for "dopamine eating" if needed, whether you go the medication or therapy or surgery route. Ma

Violet, Michael Myers, and my new panties TW: weight loss, weight gain, weight loss medication. The problem with learning you need surgery in five weeks on literal Black Friday is that shipping isn’t any “two days” like it usually is. This is why we order early! As long as it’s here by January 4th, we’re good. I’m getting an anterior hip replacement, so my surgeon will be going in from the front… and I need Hi-Cut panties that won’t sit the leg seam right on the incision. Bu

One thing about being a middle eastern dancer in the 90's is that the Algerian pop music scene was happening, and I was there for it way more than a teen girl from Michigan should have been. I discovered I was hypermobile when I started an Arabic dance class at 16 years old. I could bend in ways no one else could… and also just could never develop the muscles in certain places to do certain things. While this led to frequent muscle spasms in my lower back starting at 19 years