Jennifer Fitz

Alt for when @JenFitz_Reads is doomscrolling on her phone.

[Todd Davenport @sunsopeningband]

Principal Skinner getting a workout here. This one’s even older.

[Fr. Joseph Krupp @Joeinblack]

Threats of violence in the responses?
Please. The post was violent.
A life was snuffed out because it didn’t mean their standards of what they wanted out of their product/child.
The fact that you consider it normative to destroy a human and posted it shortly after their post celebrating the fact that they poured money into their dog and saved it is simply a sign of how diseased the American mind has become.
Our religion is sex, and we will sacrifice as many humans as we can to our god.

[Erin Callaghan @drerincallaghan]

I'm really sorry for all of the parents and loved one of those with Down syndrome that read this and saw someone talk about this condition with such callousness.

Resist throwaway culture. This is an affront to human dignity.

[Matt Swaim @mattswaim]

A lot of the discourse is driven by people who are not actively raising families

Because people who are actively raising families often do not have time to keep up with the discourse

[Frank J. Fleming @IMAO_]

For people who are steeped in Christian morality, the pre-Christian societies can often seem alien the way they would treat human life as if it had so little value. It's now even weirder to see that mentality expressed in modern language.

[Briana Mills, LMFT ♿️🏳️‍🌈🍉 @theBrianaMills]

We don’t talk enough about how exclusion is traumatic. Either by intentional exclusion or just from the fact that they don’t bother enough to even think about you. Disabled people are excluded by default and I can’t tell you how traumatizing it is to have that be the norm.

[Stefan Smith @TheStefanSmith]

If you’re curious how this is playing in Texas, it’s on all the local news and my hygienist and dentist spent 15 mins talking about it during my root canal. Everyone’s worried about beef prices.

[Lu for Alaska @luinalaska]

I keep coming back to this post. Inconvenient, difficult, unwell children saved my life. I remember the day I met each of my children. The intention of this post isn’t cruelty. I have made choices in my life that would bring me to my knees with grief if I didn’t know we have such a thing as redemption. Just hear me out. I’m not casting a stone.

My youngest was having a baby meltdown. She was in severe distress. I remember finding a chair and just letting her wail on my chest. Inconsolable. So I sat with her in her inconsolable moment. There for damn sure wasn’t fixing it. At least not then. I will spare the details for her privacy, but killing her in the womb would have felt merciful to the people who imagine death for unborn children could be a mercy.

So she wailed. I rocked. I explained the situation to her. So listen this is a bullshit situation we find ourselves in. You’re in foster care. This is confusing. I don’t smell right to you. My heartbeat is unfamiliar. My voice is unrecognizable. You also feel like dog shit. Like proper bad. I’ve got you. I’m going to just be right here. So she lived. We lived. We navigated that particular stormy sea as we have all the others.

My son was so sick when he came to me I had to put him in a warm bath to remove the clothes adhered to his wounds. This isn’t hyperbole. He wasn’t speaking. Hell I wouldn’t have talked to people anymore either. I’m like boo I would keep my mouth shut too. You don’t know me I might be plum crazy. Let’s go to Denny’s and get waffles and think about this relationship.

There are four more. All different in their own ways. My reactively attached kid. My kid we sent to rehab. Listen none of it is a nicely wrapped package like a hallmark movie. I didn’t snap my fingers and things were just cool. Hell things still aren’t cool. My kids have court dates. They make messy decisions. So do I. We fight. Sometimes we have to repeat classes because we can’t get our shit together and math is hard.

But see the promise isn’t easy. You get the road to travel. It’s proper hard. But my blessings come with actually participating. In showing up. I’ll go to court with you, babe. Want to get coffee on the way I’m thirsty. I mean maybe he had it coming.

Our children are not going to be perfect regardless of their genetics. Your sweet angel will meet the wrong man and develop a pill problem. Your healthy child will get a rare disease and need around the clock care.

All we can do is show up. Allow each unique human life to unfold. Participate in the absolute wonder of it all.

If you should so happen to try again, and that child has Down syndrome, consider this an opportunity for grace. This season will be hard. Your critics will inform you of their feelings. Reflect. Allow some to love you and allow others to speak truth to you. It will be a lifelong grief. But that’s the road you’re now on.

Be well.

[TheDisabilityEnthusiast @twitchyspoonie]

Adding to this, I recently couldn't get a medical exemption from jury duty until I paid out of pocket to see a doctor to vouch for things I've already been diagnosed with for years. And it was pure luck that I could pay for the appointment and had access to a doctor who...

[Todd Davenport @sunsopeningband]

Sometimes I make memes for fun.

[Le Canard enchaîné @canardenchaine]

✏️ Vu par Chappatte
#softbank #datacenter

[Jonathan Liedl @JLLiedl]

This past Easter, talk of a "Catholic revival" largely centered on urban hotspots and university campuses.

But the data reveals something surprising: some of the greatest spikes in convert numbers occurred not in big cities, but in rural dioceses.
https://t.co/hMNnwNqeLe

[Tom Kindlon @TomKindlon]

New blog post from Bateman Horne Center @BatemanHorne talking about orthostatic intolerance. Just because you don't have POTS doesn't mean you don't have some other form of orthostatic intolerance.

https://t.co/OEEAmDw6QF

#MEcfs #OrthostaticIntolerance

[Hillcrest Card Company 🔥🍉🇨🇺🏳️‍⚧️🇻🇪🔥 @HillcrestCardCo]

I've had a job teaching psychoeducation for years, and have been a therapist since the early 2010s. That means it is literally sometimes my job to teach people the "mind-body techniques" and CBT rituals.

PLOT TWIST. These techniques are COPING SKILLS not CURES.

[Jennifer Fitz @AltJenFitz]

A study with many limitations, but still good info.

Really should have gotten BP data. Orthostatic intolerance generally (not POTS-specific, not my zone) can become less troublesome if you have the undesirable but common fact of higher BP w/age or weight gain. Alas.

[Anil van der Zee © @AnilvanderZee]

"Patients who were NOT IMPROVED were more likely than those IMPROVED to have neuropathy, gastroparesis, and overactive bladder symptoms."

#pwme #myalgicE #millionsmissing

https://t.co/nI19bU1gMq

[Jennifer Fitz @AltJenFitz]

So how do we know someone w/an advanced degree and a clinical practice is engaging in grifter behavior?

Well, if you swear every person in a broad and poorly-defined category would be cured if only they'd do your thing you have a few case studies for? Yep. There we are.

End🧵

[Jennifer Fitz @AltJenFitz]

Ah. Okay I am seeing the situation here. Let's pause and look at a completely different pop-disease treatment thing. See if we can identify what makes a grifter different from a clinician with curious case findings. 🧵

[Hannah Spier, MD @hannahspierMD]

This whole thread is now proving the point of protectiveness of the illness narrative!

I’m not saying you aren’t suffering. I’m saying these disorders have a deeper psychological origin and should be treated as such before it becomes your identity.

[Jennifer Fitz @AltJenFitz]

Certainly if xyz helps certain patients in the broad-category (pain, fever, fatigue, depression, etc) no sane person would assume that therefore every case in that very broad group would be cured by xyz. That's just silly. Grifter-behavior. 11/x.