dosciencetoit | Update and rants

Tomorrow night I'm leaving to go to the airport to fly down to Orlando for my half marathon for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada. If you want to sponsor me, you can go to my Team In Training page. Thanks to everyone who has sponsored me so far. It's for a great cause.

So when I'm stressed and angsty I end up on my soap box with rants that probably aren't that important. I figure this time I'll share briefly what I'm stressed and angsting about, and then the mini rant for today.

Stressors

1) That half marathon I mentioned above. I didn't do as well on the fundraising as I'd like to, and I've been sick, so I've missed the training runs this week.

2) I've got a grant due next Tuesday. I just have to edit it and insert the figures, but I have absolutely zero motivation because I've been sick. The same goes for lab work.

2) The doctors don't really know what's wrong with me. I've been having stomach problems and fatigue since October. I've been diagnosed with everything from low B12 levels and acid reflux to depression. None of the medication they've given me seems to be helping all that much. My doctor has finally refered me to a gastroenterologist, but it's going to be around two months before I'll see one. She also wonders if it might be endometriosis. I had a major freakout, because even though I don't want children now, I might in the future, and endometriosis is often associated with infertility. FML.

Mini-Rant

I've talked to other people about this (mainly

fleshlycherry), but I sometimes question the use of warnings for fic. Some warnings are just plain idiotic. Don't warn for M/M relationships and gay sex if you're posting to a slash pairing community (i.e.

deancastiel or

padacklesrps). People posting and perusing these communities are expecting that. At the same time, I'd like to know before hand if the fic is going to contain rape or male pregnancy, because they are two things that squick me. But at the same time, one person's squick is another person's kink.

In all honesty, there's nothing wrong with rape fantasy, as long as it's between two consenting adults. Writing it in a fic isn't going to hurt people as long as the authors and readers understand that in real life consent is key. And if male pregnancy is what turns your crank, all the more power to you. I just really don't want to read about either.

Personally, I have kinks I know squick some of my friends, but I kind of feel like "Warning" people about these kinks or preferences puts them in a negative light. There's nothing wrong with liking what you like, as long as it's safe, sane and consensual (to borrow the motto for BDSM communities). "Warning" against kinks almost vilifies them. As if liking these things makes you wrong or immoral.

I kind of want to put forth that we should use the term "Contains" instead. It lets people know the content of the fic, including potential kinks, squicks and triggers, without making them seem like something we should be ashamed of.

Thoughts?

I feel a little better getting it all off my chest.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hey, I'm not sure if you're up for this, but if you can find a Chinese acupuncturist, I recommend going in for a consultation. See, two years ago, after a couple miscarriages and failed IVF, I went to one. Turned out my unexplained infertility was due to my body being so overstressed that my blood flow was just wrong. I had fatigue like whoa, and there were other side effects that my regular doctors couldn't even guess at the cause. My Obgyn was the one to recommend acupuncture, and I figured, why the fuck not, I'd tried everything else. One month of treatments along with chinese herbal medicine and tea, and - yep, you guessed it - we got pregnant naturally. My son is 16-months now. :)

So, acupuncture might provide an answer and relief of your symptoms. Hell, I miss going! It's so relaxing and you really don't feel the needles at all. Good luck either way. Unknown medical issues are scary enough.

That's actually not a bad idea. If nothing else, acupuncture is supposed to be relaxing, and it certainly couldn't hurt. I've been on so many different medications to treat the symptoms I'm getting a little sick of it.

Funny thing is my doctor and I were talking about a similar story because she's pregnant right now. Aparently a friend of hers was going through fertility treatments and IVF, and nothing worked. Turned to eastern medicine and got pregnant rather quickly, then was pregnant again less than nine months later.

Thanks for the advice :)

I like the idea of "contains" a lot. I agree with you. I overly "warn" because the first time I wrote about rape in fandom I was flamed for not warning. I've had rape fantasies since I was 13 and have been writing them since then, too, but I can understand that for someone who has been raped, it can trigger. I think I'll switch to "contains". It'll get the same message across but without the negative, because, yeah, one person's squick is another person's kink.

Maybe we can get a movement going on in fandom. I've been spending a lot of time lately looking into sex positivity, and I've come to the conclusion that a lot of sexuality is viewed in a negative light. It isn't a good thing.

I don't usually have much to warn for in my fics, but I'm working on one that has elements of D/s and dub-con, so I was thinking about it recently.

I really like the switch to "Contains", it seems more respectful. :)

Side-not to a comment above me: All my experiences with acupuncture have been great. And I'm terrified of needles. I hope you find something that works for you :)

Exactly :)

I'm going to look into my insurance to see if it covers acupuncture. Hopefully it'll help.

You know my thoughts on this :)

Glad to hear that you're picking up the "contains" banner in your pie slice of fandom :D

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