And in some *not* me me me -

Nora, all my digits are crossed for you that this all goes through.

Congrats, Toddson! You go on with your bad blood sugar-managing self!!

GC, I ain't gonna lie, my eyes glazed over about two sentences in (see above re: long day) but that was enough to see the ridiculousness.

smonster, as a homeowner who is currently having work done on her house, I would definitely prefer your work style.

Yup, ovary up. Those guys are not used to being challenged, and quickness is an attribute. However, it's one that should be balanced by quality, and the more you learn, the quicker you will be, even keeping up your standards. You can do it, just be firm, explain your reasoning briefly, and do what you need to do. You have skills, you just need to acquire these specifics, and ime guys like that respond to competence, so step in and do it as quickly as you can cleanly, and you'll be fine. Initial friction is worth a better working rhythm going forward.

I am known for saying "measure twice, cut once, go home earlier" at work.

Steph, what did the doc say? Or do they need to culture it?

The doctor said it's 95% likely that it's NOT a UTI. She's treating me for bacterial vaginosis (I have no idea why I whitefonted that; it's just that the name sounds...wrong) but said to call if the abdominal pressure turns into full-on pain, and/or if I have blood in my urine. Based on everything I told her w/r/t our sexytimes (we switched brands of lube in the last month or so, and that's when things started to just feel Not Right in the magical ladyparts), she said probably the different lube had something that was an irritant, and continued use of it just got overwhelmingly irritating to my ladyparts, and then some freeloading bacterium and its friends thought that would be a good place to set up shop.

The pressure in my abdomen that I thought was from a UTI is just because everything is all irritated and inflamed, and when it's inflamed, it has nowhere to go but towards the bladder. So -- pressure.

Treatment is topical, so no sexytimes (at least, no PIV sexytimes, and probably no recreational fun for my ladyparts in any way) for another 5 days at least.

Stupid internal plumbing. (Also, I hate peeing in the specimen cup. It's To Build A Fire without the freezing to death.)

Steph you might try taking AZO even though you don't have a UTI. It can sometomes help other types of bladdrer pain.

Steph, that sounds like absolutely no fun. Glad you went to the doctor! The ladyparts, they can be so delicate.

sj, Liese, javachik, thank you all. I know I need to strengthen my assertiveness. That's the positive that will come from this situation.

You can do it. It's super hard. But in your field you're going to need to, and you're badass enough the strength from it can come from your competence.

Ow. It was an exam day, and now it's a Vicodin night. Papers are heavy. Also, the exam was in one of those lecture halls where you need to walk up and down stairs to get to the seats, and the stairs had no railing, so I killed my knees and ankles going up and down to answer student questions.

Oy, Hil, that sounds tiring.

My eyebrow has been twitching since before the hockey game started. I thought you all should know. It feels like I should be making nefarious plans or something.