See if there are any decent government jobs in your area (USAJobs.gov). The bureaucracy is a major pain in the ass, but everything is quantified including your application / interview etc - your score will crunch against other candidates, and you get in on merit with pretty much zero consideration put into anything that isn’t on the job posting, including being trans.

I figured passing out when in a cadaver lab was a clear sign that I wasn’t a good fit.

You might actually reconsider if that was your only hurdle, and if you haven’t found something else you enjoy. I started as a surgical tech when I enlisted into the Air Force… conversation with the recruiter went something like “You’re going to be a surgical tech!” me: “Cool! …what the fuck is a surgical tech??” …and that’s how most of the staffing is done in the military - zero consideration into whether the recruit is actually interested in medical, it’s just “hey you’re ASVAB score matches this slot that just opened up; you ship for basic in two weeks.”

So, we see a lot of panicked first steps into the field from people who pass out at the sight of blood or seeing organs through an open abdomen, etc. But they all get used to it. Within like 6 months, those same people can go elbow-deep into some stranger’s abdomen to push some bowel out of the surgeon’s way - any hint of queasiness long gone.

It’ll make for a rough start for sure, but only the start.

Food for thought.

Don’t know anything about that procedure, but some solid advice for any surgery:

Pre-op, avoid looking up videos of the procedure; or if you do, look for animations vs real surgery footage. Surgery’s gory as fuck, don’t freak yourself out by injecting uncomfortable images into your brain.

Take a thorough shower the morning of. They’ll use an antimicrobial prep on the actual surgical site, but the fewer microbastards crawling on your skin leading up to the cut, the better. And don’t forget your belly-button… fucking wild how often the nurse doing the prep fishes out a plug of lint and grime from the patient’s belly-button when they’re doing an abdominal prep.

Wear super loose clothes that’ll be easy to get into and out of. If you think they’ll keep you over night, bring a change. And anything else you might want if you’re going to be there a while, like a phone charger, headphones, etc.

DO NOT eat or drink anything the day of or at least 12 hours prior. Your pre-op instructions surely say this, but it seldom says why: when you’re under anesthesia, you lose control of all your muscles, including the ones that keep the contents of your stomach actually inside your stomach. So if it’s not EMPTY when those relax, all that shit goes up your esophagus, then down your trachea and into your lungs, which can kill you in a hurry. This includes water, tobacco dip, and even chewing gum - even if you don’t actually swallow anything, it can stimulate gastric juice production.

Tell your anesthesiologist EVERYTHING you put into your body. They’ll ofc ask about your prescriptions, but if you take like OTC ibuprofen regularly, tell em. Herbal supplements/teas, energy drinks - tell em. Recreational and/or illegal drugs - yup, tell em. They aren’t cops, they don’t give a fuck if you’re breaking the law - but a lot of that shit can interact with anesthesia meds so they definitely care about the chemistry and how it’s going to effect your care. Withholding that kind of info can result in a lot of unnecessary discomfort, or kill you.

Shortly before you go under, they’ll put an oxygen mask on and tell you to take big deep breaths. Pure oxygen is fucking magical, so legit take actual big deep breaths. Same when you wake up, if you’re coherent enough to remember - it’ll shake off the anesthesia brain fog much quicker.

Post op, adhere to your medication instructions TO THE ‘T’. Especially the pain meds - if it says take every 4 hours, take it every 4 hours. Don’t wait for it to hurt, cuz in the time it takes to kick in, it’s gonna hurt a lot worse.

If you’re given a narcotic for pain, you’ll probably also get a stool softener. DO NOT skip it lol - narcotics will make your turds feel like a cinder block.

For the first few weeks post op, however good you feel… NO YOU DON’T. It’s the pain meds. Act as though you’re at about 30% of what you feel. Rest rest rest - do not exert. If you live with someone who can help you, don’t feel guilty about asking them to do menial shit, cuz they’d much rather get up to fetch you something that’s just a bit out of your reach than rush you to the ER cuz you strained your abs, popped your stitches, and now something is sticking out of your abdomen.

…and when they bill you afterward, ask for it to be itemized if it isn’t already. Hospitals like to do sketchy shit like charge you for an entire case of sutures when they only used one - look up any item that seems suspicious (although some are legit just expensive af).

That’s everything off the top of my head. Happy to answer any questions, but a lot of my answers will probably be “I dunno” – I’m a surgical tech, which is rock bottom of the medical food chain, but I’ve been at it for almost a decade so I’ve picked up a few things.

If anything your provider tells you conflicts with what I’ve posted, your provider ALWAYS supersedes random internet stranger, so disregard any part of my post that doesn’t mesh.

As though god wasn’t trans in the first place.

You gonna tell me a being with absolute power to just will anything into existence doesn’t tinker with their own identity, sexual or otherwise?? You’ve seen the biblically accurate angel depictions - replace eyes with a kaleidoscopic, everchanging conglomeration of penises, vaginas, cloacas, spore/pollen pouches, etc and that’s my bet on what the contents of god’s pants looks like.

The moistest part of the multiverse!!

Grew up on the SNES and the only EDF I could think of was… Earth Defense Force. But apparently a different game by the same name.

You just brought me WAY back lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Poh_C9hrsMM&ab_channel=PEG

EDF?

…you really gonna throw out a teaser like that without giving us a list of corresponding games??

Defending their country and the environment in one swoop!

Thanks Ukraine!

mysteriously fall out windows in Russia.

conscripted into Russia’s army where they’ll be sexually abused and used as cannon fodder for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Putin really needs to die, preferably at the hands of a fed up Russian citizen, in way that sends a clear warning to whoever takes his place.

Different country, but absolutely NOT the wrong one. We all want accountability and justice.

Especially the one Trump ‘won’.

Rigged primarily by the electoral college by making some people’s votes worth more than others.

They look like they could use a haircut.

every 1/10 of a degree of warming we can avoid sharply lowers the risk from here on out.

So… we’re extra, all-the-way, hopelessly fucked.

So… since calling this generative language model shit “AI” isn’t going away any time soon, what’s the term for actual AI? The thinky kind that currently only exists in sci-fi. Distinguishing that from just an algorithm is going to be very important if/when we ever manage to create actual AI.

Not a really useful list without some kind of context with each name.

We don’t care if some celebrity showed up to the same dinner event as Epstein; we want to know which ones were fucking kids and what’s being done to bring them to justice.

Removed by mod

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism