Having had a defecography this is very similar to the encouragement the radiologist gave me…

Maybe, I imagine it’s much harder to have an auto shut off timer when you also need to mechanically close the gas valves. But I think it could just be the price point, the one at my current unit is an electric built in, but it’s also just a reminder timer. Not sure what brand it is, all the paint on the front has long since worn away (it was installed in 1998 according to the REA) - so I also don’t quite know what temperature I’m cooking at. (when I moved in I put a probe thermometer in there and spent about 4 hours playing with the temperature dial and marking it with nail polish so I could at least have a vague idea of what temperature I was setting the oven to)

I’m awaiting assessment, but there’s a strong chance I have both autism and ADHD (my brother and father are both autistic, I was never assessed because it wasn’t as obvious growing up as a girl that I struggled with similar things, but it’s hard to know without an assessment because my ADHD was undiagnosed for so long so there’s a lot of overlapping symptoms from all the maladaptive coping mechanisms I’ve developed)

I know poor hunger signals are a big part of autism too, so maybe I’ve got a double whammy 🤷‍♀️

But it also sounds like your sensitive to hunger signals the same way I’m sensitive to fatigue/drowsiness signals, so it sounds like the same underlying interception issue, just two different outcomes of that attempt to listen to our bodies.

The last 3 places I’ve lived in have come with various models of this budget burner

https://www.chefappliances.com.au/freestanding/gas/cfg517wb/

The timer on my oven might as well just be glued on the front after the fact. It’s just a little clockwork twist timer with no connection to overall the mechanism of the oven at all.

I’ve never used an oven that automatically turns off after the timer buzzes. That sounds luxurious!

(and honestly, sounds like a super helpful OT tool/accommodation for me to be more independent/safe when cooking, so I know what to look for in a new oven… Not that I get a choice of oven as a renter, you get what you get)

My partner bought me one of those all in one cookers (instant pot style thing) because it will automatically shut off when it’s done cooking…

It has saved our relationship with our neighbours because I’m no longer setting off smoke alarms every other night.

Case in point, while typing this I just heard it beep and it scared the shit out of me because I completely forgot I put some squishy old pears (that were always destined to rot in my fridge) in it to stew when I got home… like 2 hours ago.

It feels like past me has left a suprise gift for present me, because I have stewed pears for dessert now!

So true, even if I realise I’m hungry and have enough impulse control to put something in the oven instead of ordering in or resorting to a protein shake for dinner, there is an 80% chance that I will both forget that I’m hungry and completely forget I haven’t eaten, in the time it takes the food to cook.

40 minutes later I’m sitting at my desk thinking “why have I got such a bad headache? why do I feel so groggy and cranky? Wait, do I need a nap!? I probably need a nap… Hang on, Why can I smell smoke?”

Why do I always assume I need a nap, even if I haven’t eaten all day!? I have to basically run through a flow chart to figure out why my head hurts. Food, water, full bladder, sleep, eye strain? Why do I feel bad? Who knows?

It’s a mystery only neurotypical people can solve!

I genuinely thought I was NT because I was comparing my quantity of interests to my brothers quantity of interests. He’s autistic, he has one interest.

Then I’d compare my quantity of interests to my best friends quantity of interests, he has ADHD hyperactive type, he has 700+ interests.

And I have like, 25 (and that’s if I split up larger interests into subcategories)

So I’m normal…except for all the sensory issues, executive dysfunction, impulsively, social difficulties, memory issues, communication deficits, learning difficulties, inability to establish routines, poor interoception resulting in medical complications from failing to attend to basic needs because I’m “in the zone” on something else.

Jokes on me, I have AuDHD.

Some of my “symptoms” cancel each other out in a way I’m very grateful for, and others conflict with each other in the most debilitating ways. That feeling when you are somehow catastrophically overstimulated and also your brain is tearing itself down the middle in desperate need for some dopamine through sensory input…

Hmm, should I try getting it a fourth time? 😂

I managed to avoid it until Jan 2023 when I was hit the first time. Completely asymptomatic, I would have had no idea I was infected if it wasn’t for the fact I RAT/lat flow tested twice weekly because of my job.

Recovered fine, didn’t have any lingering symptoms.

Then in May I started getting a bit run down, my lymphnodes around my neck and jaw were really swollen and inflamed, and I was chronically congested, but not with any mucus or anything, just felt like my sinuses were swollen shut, and in the first week of June I had my second covid infection, still mostly asymptomatic, no cough or anything, just fatigue and headaches.

The headache never really went away. I’ve had chronic headaches my whole life due to arthritis in my neck, but this was different, more pressure and in a different location.

In September I got Covid again, and since then I have felt so crook. Migraines almost every week, moderate headaches every day from the moment I’ve wake up to the moment I pass out from exhaustion. The fatigue never went away but I can’t sleep anymore. I’ll lie in bed for hours but only get ~4 hours sleep a day, sometimes I’ll get 8 hours but in multiple naps. I’m thirsty all the time and can’t quench it, but I’m not really peeing at all, even less than usual despite drinking more water. Some days I can’t keep food down, some days food goes straight through me, there’s no middle ground. My lymphnodes are still swollen and now it’s all over my body, not just in my jaw and neck. I’ve had sinus bradycardia since September and dyspnoea (feeling like I need to yawn but can’t, like the air in my lungs isn’t getting in deep enough), and my nose bleeds every morning.

I’ve seen my doctor 8 times since June, basic tests have been run and all they can say is “it’s stress and long covid”

Im fucking sick of it. I’ve had to drastically reduce my hours (and pay) at work, and I miss my friends and all the fun active things I used to do.

I’m still managing to get by, but I wish I had a better understanding of why I feel the way I feel. “long covid” feels just as useless as no diagnosis at all.

I can’t drive because I’m visually impaired. I know I’m too visually impaired to drive because I can’t even grocery shop properly with my shit eyesight - with a basket, let alone pushing a trolley!

But I pass the eye exams they make you take before you get a license and ive double checked with my optometrist and yes, my vision score is within the legal limits to drive as long as I wear my glasses… It’s baffling, because I absolutely should not be driving! I can’t see shit!

So I don’t drive.

When I say “I’m too blind to drive” some people ask if I can just lie about my vision and fake my way through, because “you really need a licence” and when I explain I can legally get a licence I just don’t, for everyone’s safety, they act like I’m being a selfish child for not doing the adult thing and getting my licence. Just because it can doesn’t mean I should.

I do cycle, pedalling a 20kg frame of metal at 15km/h on a bike path feels a lot safer than driving a 1 tonne hunk of metal at 80km/h on a highway. Without my bike I’d be pretty fucked in terms of my independence and being able to do what needs to be done as an adult. Fortunately my vision isn’t degenerative.

But in the last 5 years, especially since 2020 covid locksdowns, I feel like there are more people on the road that shouldn’t be. There’s just a huge increase in the frequency of “silly mistakes” - people swerving into the bike lane without looking to avoid a speed bump, people running a red turn signal because they’re looking at the green straight signal, people merging lanes at dangerously low speeds, no one putting their headlights on in the rain, everyone forgetting to indicate, people stopping more abruptly instead of slowing and anticipating a stop sign, and my personal favourite, everyone cutting corners in residential areas like they’re a formula 1 driver, just turning into the oncoming traffic of the street they’re turning into.

This is why I love my current job and my friendship group’s. In both circles “I didn’t do that because I’ve been struggling with my ADHD” is a completely valid reason.

I mean, at work it’s followed by a short “what do we do to get over that hurdle?” because obviously I can’t just, not do my job.

But at least I’m not having to make shit up, and I can actually get to the root of the problem (being neurodivergent in a neurotypical world) and address it. Even if addressing it is just my boss giving me a fake deadline to put the pressure on the task.

But are those like a hot coffee dispenser, where you grab a cup and put it under a spout, push a button and it pours out a hot drink? Because we do have those in Australia.

But in Japan they have vending machines for canned drinks and cans of soup that are heated.

It’s also left open because that’s where the drop curb is for people getting out of a car parked in the accessible spot can physically get onto to sidewalk.

I mean, a little bit. I had to quit weed for a while job and so I was having a glass of wine at a party and a few people made judgemental comments about how I’m “drinking again”.

Similarly, now that I can smoke again, and as the only one in my extended social circle who can roll a joint that burns properly, I’ll ask the person who brought the gear if they want me to roll joints, spliffs, or a few of each, and how strong, and again there will be one or two people who say “I can’t believe people cut their weed with the tobacco, that’s disgusting”

But at the same time, those judgy friends would never campaign for alcohol and tobacco to be completely criminalised. They just think weed is much better.

That said, a few of us were pretty happy to see the 100% vape ban coming into Victoria, not so much from the drug side of it, but I’m sick of seeing “disposable” vapes everywhere and seeing the parking lot bins catch fire almost every day at work because people chuck them out and the batteries explode.

The actual law bans using the swastika to “glorify or profit from Nazi idiology”.

Wolfenstein would not be impacted by the ban because at the core of the gameplay, the Nazis are the bad guys. It does not glorify the Nazis or celebrate them.

Sure Bathesda is profiting from the game, but they aren’t profiting from the glorification of Nazi idiology, they’re profiting from people’s desire to shoot zombie Nazis in the face.

Bought a giant 250 meter roll of plain brown butchers paper a few years ago, it was like $45AUD from a wholesale packaging company.

Bought a “celebration” set of rubber stamps, and a few different colours of ink pads.

Now I just cut off the amount of wrapping paper I need, slap it with a relevant stamp a few times, wrap the gift, and voila, “custom” wrapping paper.

It’s come in handy for all sorts of things, not just wrapping. Sewing patterns, arts and crafts, emergency table cloths for family BBQ’s, grab 10 metres and roll it up to take to work for programs (I work in a community centre).

I think this depends where you live, having worked a summer as a trolley runner for blister pack production, we produced thousands of blisters, and at the end of the line half got pharmacy own brand foils and the other half got name brand foils.

Same pills, same packs, same factory same standards and testing, just different ink on the foils. But the pharmacy brands would have shorter contracts so they would only be identical to this name brand for 6 months, then try might get a contract with another factory and be identical to another name brand there.

I know with some drugs (Warfarin is the only one that’s instantly coming to mind) it is important to pick a brand and stick with it because the slightest change can effect the therapeutic value.

For myself, I have allergies so sometimes a certain brand or manufacturing company will use a filler, binder or dye I can’t have. And frustratingly there are no ingredients lists on pills for fillers and dyes.

Abacus comes from the Greek “Abak” meaning board or slab.

I never really noticed the lights as a Christmas-specific problem, between Diwali, New Year, and Lunar New year, there’s lights up from October to February in my country.

So as a migraine sufferer who does have issues with flickering LEDs at night (particularly the blue or blue-white diodes) I can’t blame Christmas alone for my pain.

But the carols! The fucking carols! I’m far more sound sensitive than I am noise sensitive with my migraines, and the vast majority of the “classic” Christmas carols just hit all the wrong tones for me. High pitched bells, weird twanging piano keys, blasting from speakers when I’m just popping into the shops to buy dunny roll, it’s awful. One of my jobs is a choir facilitator for an intellectual disability program, and this time of year is a walking nightmare because it’s carols, all carols, nothing but carols (and any attempt at musical redirection is a recipe for unhappy clients), I think I’m single handedly keeping my local chemist in business with my migraine med scripts.

I wear ear plugs where I can, but the pressure of something in my ears also triggers headaches, and obviously can’t wear plugs at work where my job is to listen and sing along.

It’s also just annoying to have everything December be Christmas - and I say that as a secular Christmas celebrator. There’s so much more to celebrate this time of year, but you’d never get a chance to know it.

I think a lot of people who celebrate Christmas have noticed it becoming even more overcommercialised than ever before, but it’s not really, it’s just a new type of commercialisation with so many industries being “fast”. Those on the outside of Christmas (Jews, Muslims, Pagans, basically every other religion and spirituality outside Christianity) the overcommercialisation has been obvious since the Victorian era.

If you like Sawbones you might also like “This podcast will kill you”, an epidemiologist and a doctor make cocktails and go into the history and pathophysiology of diseases and conditions throughout human history.

Not as classically funny as the McElroys, but really informative and they do a good job at keeping the “disturbing content” to a minimum even when going into detail on pretty devastating illnesses.

For a much more lightweight podcast “You’re Dead to Me” from the writers of Horrible Histories is fun. A historian quizzes comedians on their knowledge of historical events and figures.