• 3 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 14th, 2023

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  • My BFF had this skill: whenever they sang an Elvis tune (like “Blue Moon”) their cats would start humping. They weren’t singing it weird, maybe a little more warbly than normal. Anyway, we were in this zoo once, and I said, “I wonder if that lion would react to your Elvis songs the same way your cats do!” I was just kidding, but my BFF started singing the same way and that lion suddenly became VERY alert and stared right at us. I started wondering if a properly motivated lion could leap that gap that was keeping us separated, and what I would do if it reached us. Anyway, my point is: it depends on how you sing it.



  • If you look at the meaning of the word “early” there are several senses.

    • One sense is “At a time in advance of the usual or expected event.” e.g. if someone suffered an “early death.” Another sense of the word is “Arriving a time before expected; sooner than on time.” e.g. “you arrived early today!” You’re right that in these two senses of the word, “early voting” sounds weird.
    • But there’s another sense of the word early: “Near the start or beginning.” e.g. “Shakespeare’s early works”. There’s also “Near the start of the day.” as in “It’s too early for this sort of thing. I’m not awake yet.” Another sense is “Having begun to occur; in its early stages.” e.g. “an early cancer”. In these senses of the word, “early voting” sounds a lot better.
    • For more info see: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/early










  • I think a general anesthetic, where they just knock you completely out, is usually considered unnecessary for a root canal, but you can ask. If you have anti-anxiety pills prescribed, that might work, just let the dentist know beforehand. Some places have movies or some other kind of “patient distraction” because yeah, it can get a little unnerving hearing all those sounds.


  • Like everyone else, I agree that pain management can be pretty good these days. For me the experience was:

    • dentist comes in, says hi, reviews what’s going to happen, asks if you have any questions; tell them if you feel nervous, it’s ok
    • doctor puts a “local anesthesia” (something on a q-tip) to your gum, so the needle won’t hurt too much
    • then the doctor injects the “real” anesthesia in the gum. (an assistant may do this part - it varies) Depending on how deep they need to put it, you may feel a bit of pain, but not too bad. Pinch your arm moderately hard, and imagine that happening in your gum, and that’s the most I’ve ever felt for a very deep injection for a removal. it lasts about 1 second. (some places might give you nitrous oxide for this part, but I’ve never had that.) They may give more than 1 injection, depending on the situation. From this point on you should feel no pain.
    • doctor/assistant goes away for 10-15 minutes to let the anesthesia spread. your mouth starts to feel numb.
    • the dentist comes back with an assistant, they get organized (figuring out what tools they need, etc) From this point on they’re mostly just drilling or doing whatever they need, and your job is just to move your head however they want and keep your mouth open and spit when they tell you. it’s a little boring, tbh, at one point I almost dozed off and made a bit of a snoring sound.
    • it can be a little weird having saliva pool in your mouth. the assistant should be vacuuming it out regularly. if they’re not doing this often enough, let them know. It is also very very helpful if you can breathe through your nose. if you have a problem with this just let them know.

    Good luck, let us know how it goes!


  • I was expecting to start the batton running, and pass it off to the next idea, or the continuation of the idea.

    I think I see what you’re saying. Lemmy is indeed a place where it’s very easy to get involved, and people get involved in different ways. A lot of us just pick a community and start posting regularly. Some of us adopt dormant communities and bring them back to life. Others contribute by becoming mods or admins or setting up their own instances or debugging/coding. Even those people who were giving you reasons why the “transfer your account easily” project was difficult, they were helping you by telling you the challenges involved. Whenever a well-run project is started, you think about the hurdles, risks, and mitigations, then integrate those into your project plan.

    I encourage you to keep getting involved. The trick is to find the right level of involvement for you, then sticking with it and seeing it through.



  • This is why healthcare in the US sucks.

    • A wealthy person will have a 24-hour hotline to connect with a nurse or doctor (immediately or through return call) with access to their medical history who will help them figure out what to do.
    • A moderately well-off person will have a web/phone interface where they can send a message and someone will return their message in a day or two.
    • Everyone else has to make a gamble: do I spent money to try to figure this out? Do I risk spending money and then it turns out to be nothing? But what if it’s something and it’s more expensive later on? What will my insurance pay for? How do I find someone that’s reliable, but also inexpensive? All of this causes stress which makes things worse.

    In your case, think of anyone who knows your medical history and who you can ask questions of. The doctor who prescribed your anxiety medications - can you call/message them and ask them? The pharmacist who dispenses the meds - can you go/call and ask a question about your medications? Some pharmacies also have nurse / clinic stations, too. If you have any kind of medical insurance, check out their web page - a lot of them have set up tele-medicine offerings recently. If your job has an HR department, this is actually one case they can be helpful; an HR person in my company helped me figure out what health resources I had access to, based on my plan. Finally, if you haven’t been getting annual checkups, you should start thinking of doing so (especially as you get older), and ask them how you can contact them to ask questions like this.

    Good luck fam, I hope it turns out OK for you.