Howdy! Welcome to the impending brain invasion!

First up, an answer to a comment:

"Hi, I am looking for info on weaning from flonase. I stopped it abruptly and quickly discovered that was a bad idea. I find very little info on nasal sprays, a lot of it is contradicting as well. Most doctors say that nasal sprays don't need to be tapered but I have steroid withdrawal symptoms. Any input would be great :) thank you." 

1. Doctors don't believe anything can suppress the HPA axis beyond 10 days of high dose steroids. Unfortunately, bodies do not give one shit about science. You can make eyes read the textbooks and brains memorize the 'facts'...but you can't make the body perform to the scientific standards. It doesn't work that way. Bodies are post-truth. 

My body has defied science when it comes to HPA axis suppression. Any body can. Doctors need to do a better job of understanding how much variation there can be at the intersection of science and the human body...particularly in the realm of the HPA axis.

2. What I would do, if you think you're going through withdrawal, is taper your Flonase. Try skipping one dose on alternating days.

So if you were using 1 spray 2x a day, drop one of those...try taking one dose in the middle of the day (to help it get out of your system by nightfall to help your HPA axis reboot and to avoid taking it during the am hours when cortisol production peaks). The next day take the full dose and 'rock' back and forth until you no longer feel like utter shit from the missing dose. At that point you cut one dose permanently and then alternate dropping the remaining dose.

If at any time you feel horrible, just go back to taking the initial full dose. Sometimes you have to go back wards to go forward with tapers. Once you feel okay, start tapering again and you'll likely find it goes much better the second time around.

So Hi.

I'm here.

Doing okay.

Nothing worth complaining about.

Except for this raging tooth infection trying to cross my blood brain barrier. OF COURSE there's a bad doctor story behind it. You think it's weird that it always goes down like that for me?  Well, so do I! I'd love for it to STOP.

Anyway, I had a botched filling last year that left me in a lot of pain. I went back once or twice and they were unable to fix it. They couldn't figure out the problem (code for: We fucked your teeth and don't want to own it) and suggested I might need a root canal...

for a tooth that never bothered me until they touched it.

So I've lived with it for over a year because the other thing they said was the nerve might need six months or so to calm down.

Which didn't happen.

I just stopped chewing on that side of my mouth.

But then that started fucking with my jaw so I had to chew over there and suck it up.

And now I have an infection.

On the weekend.

Which always makes these things so much more fun. (There are ZERO emergency dentists in my area by the way.)

My tongue is numb. How about yours?

Lucky(?) for me I have antibiotics on hand and they seem to be kicking in. I don't have chills anymore and mostly don't feel like I'm choking to death. I have a (new) dentist appointment tomorrow where we'll have to sort out whether I need a stronger antibiotic or not. And how many root canals this is going to take to fix as it's more than one tooth now.

Meanwhile Reddit is feeling super sorry for medical professionals who have to deal with abusive and nasty patients.

Snort. Yeah. Right.

I'm gonnna file that one under 'lies people tell themselves' and 'things people project onto others to deflect from their own shortcomings, see also: gaslighting.'

On the writing front...eh. Last year sucked. It would help if I would write to market, but I've decided to write some off-the-wall shit that sells at a slower rate instead because GENIUS...I am not. And my current novel is due next month for a group project and well, I killed the hero. My heroine is actually sort of relieved as she wants nothing to do with him. So that is not going so well.

I was accepted to a kinda, sorta prestigious competitive writing workshop. They even checked my references and writing samples. Perhaps I'll get somewhere someday.

If the bugs don't get my brain first.