theory

Éric’s Conspiracy Theory Theory

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Hello Imaginary Friends,

The world is a scary place right now. Other than the virus that has killed over 350,000 people worldwide and left countless others with life-long side effects; there are other things going on.

Some countries have taken this worldwide emergency as a great time to trample over civil-rights. I’m talking about China, the Saudi state, and Russia. The lockdown is hurting people. Joblessness is hurting people.

And the world will be different when this whole thing is over. Whether it’s for better or worse is yet to be seen.

It’s completely understandable that people are scared. It’s that fear that has driven people to believe in the most ridiculous things.

Image of Benjamin Franklin and the quote, “Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead. “

I’ve stated before that human intellect is based on pattern recognition and that leads to a biasing effect. We want to see the patterns and we want to see that the world is organized and controlled, therefore controllable.

It’s hard for those most fearful to accept that the universe is random and sometimes bad things happen for no reason. It’s easier to believe that Bill Gates wants to GPS tag everyone so he created the virus than believe that poor conditions in animal markets might be to blame.

In these trying times, it’s important that we keep vigilant and listen to the experts. Read and watch with critical thought. Here’s some more advice from me four years ago.

Be Kind, Be Aware, and WASH YOUR HANDS!

Éric

Blush: Chest pain during pregnancy

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The past few nights, I have slept with my Teddy.

This is not my Teddy. This one looks more like Raoul, Dragon’s sleep bear. Image from www.chapters.indigo.ca

He was given to me by my grandfather when I was born, and he is VERY well worn. I haven’t really slept with him since I was a teenager (possibly earlier, but I don’t remember the exact age when I stopped cuddling him in my sleep).

So why am I all of a sudden cuddling him again?

Because yes. (Sorry. Inside joke.)

I am cuddling my Teddy because I need the extra support between my arms as I lie on my side, otherwise my rib cage feels like it’s being crushed. And Teddy is exactly the right size to give that support and allow for easy rolling over.

Chest pain was not something I experienced in my first pregnancy. Heartburn, yes. Feeling like my upper arm was too heavy and crushing my sternum, no.

This seems to be a fairly common symptom, or at least, it was easy to find a reason why I was feeling this way. The expanding uterus puts pressure on the diaphragm, causing the rib cage to widen. Poof, pain. It’ll go back to normal once the baby is here because my internal organs will go back to their normal places.

If I had to guess, I would say that the placement of the placenta is what is causing the differences between this pregnancy and the last. The last one, I had an anterior placenta (forwards), and this time it’s up top.

Differences:

  • last time, I couldn’t stand the pain and nausea of being on my stomach, even at the very beginning; this time, I have woken up on my stomach several times and the only thing that hurts is my back
  • last time, no chest pain; this time, chest definitely hurts
  • last time, baby was mostly on the right side of my body (I felt very lopsided in third trimester); this time, baby is hanging out at the very bottom almost constantly (we’ll see what happens in third trimester)
  • last time, didn’t really grow out very much; this time, I feel like I’m already the size I was when I delivered

Hmm…that last one doesn’t really fit the hypothesis – you’d think the anterior placenta would mean a bigger belly because it’s taking up more room.

Reference

UPMC

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