Zero painting experience. One profound psychedelic experience involving Bastet and a several questionable Michaels trips later, here we are.
My first painting ever. 24x30 acrylic with gold leaf. I have no idea what I’m doing, but unfortunately I’m obsessed now.
During a therapeutic psychedelic experience I had while trying to stop drinking, this incredibly strong, loving feline presence appeared to me.
I kept calling her “Miss Kitty” because I had absolutely no context for what I was experiencing. She felt protective and maternal, but also very much like she was there to tell me to get my shit together. I felt her inside me, almost like my heartbeat had become a purr.
Afterward, I started searching for who or what I had experienced and found Bastet. I’ve felt deeply connected to her ever since.
I’d never painted before, but I felt compelled to make something for her and somehow put that experience into a physical form. So this is my first painting, and my thank you to Bastet for showing up when I needed her.
This may not look like traditional psychedelic art, but it exists entirely because of a psychedelic experience, so I thought it belonged here.
About 2.5 years ago, after years of trying and failing to stop drinking, I did a therapeutic mushroom (I’d never tried mushrooms) session with a doctor. I had tried just about everything by that point. I desperately wanted to quit. I knew alcohol was hurting me, I wanted my life to be different, and yet nothing I tried ever seemed to stick.
I went into that experience hoping psychedelics might help me stop drinking. I was completely unprepared for how powerful, vivid, emotional, and utterly real the experience would feel.
During it, I encountered a cat-like presence. I knew absolutely nothing about Bastet at the time. I wasn’t studying Egyptian mythology or working with deities. I had no idea who this cat was, so throughout the trip I just called her “Miss Kitty.”
It’s difficult to even describe the intensity of her presence because she wasn’t simply something I was seeing. She felt like she was inside me. At one point my heart was beating so deeply and rhythmically that it felt like a cat purring from inside my chest.
And somehow that felt completely natural.
She was incredibly loving, strong and protective. The closest comparison I have is a grandmother who loves you unconditionally but will also absolutely whip your ass when you need it. There was this overwhelming sense of being loved and protected, while simultaneously being told, in no uncertain terms, “Enough. Stop drinking. Take care of yourself.”
It was one of the most profound experiences of my life.
When the mushrooms wore off, the experience didn’t feel like it disappeared with them. Miss Kitty stayed with me. I couldn’t stop thinking about her or shake the feeling that I had experienced something incredibly important. So I started searching for her. Eventually I came across images of Bastet. I recognized her immediately. That’s her. That’s Miss Kitty.
I still don’t claim to know exactly what happened. Maybe my subconscious had encountered Bastet somewhere before and remembered her. Maybe psychedelics gave a face and a voice to the part of me that desperately wanted to live. Maybe it was something spiritual. I’m completely comfortable admitting that I don’t know.
But I do know what happened afterward.
After years of trying everything I could think of to stop drinking and repeatedly failing, I stopped. I haven’t had a single drink in 2.5 years.
Over those 2.5 years, Bastet and that experience never really left me. Eventually, thinking about it and talking about it didn’t feel like enough. I had this almost compulsive need to make something from it, to take this experience that existed only inside my head and somehow give it a physical form.
There was just one slight problem:
I’d never painted before.
But I couldn’t shake the urge to paint her, so I bought a canvas and started figuring it out.
This is the result. My very first painting.
It’s not an attempt to recreate exactly what I saw during the trip. It’s my attempt to express what she felt like to me: powerful, protective, loving, ancient, colorful, strange and impossible to forget.
Whatever Miss Kitty was, she changed the course of my life.
So I figured the least I could do was paint her.
(I painted her on a 24x30” canvas with acrylic paint and 24k gold leaf halo)
Anyone here have experience with Dr. F + insurance approval?
Hey everyone! I just had my consult with Dr. F and we’re moving forward with surgery. I have Highmark BCBS and I’m trying to get an idea of how long the insurance process took for others.
I have multiple large Tarlov cysts, 3.4 cm left S2, 2.0 cm right S2, and 3.1 cm S3. They’ve caused significant bone remodeling with widening of the foramina and actual holes/defects in my sacrum. He said my sacrum could fracture at any moment, so I’ll need reconstructive work as part of the surgery. 😬
My symptoms include pretty severe constant sacral pain that gets much worse with standing/walking, radiating pain into my hip/leg/toes, urinary dysfunction (I have to push to pee), significant bowel/GI dysfunction and loss of the normal urge to go, saddle sensory changes, and painful sex.
For those who have gone through surgery with Dr. F:
* How long did his office take to submit everything to insurance?
* How long did approval take after submission?
* Anyone with Highmark BCBS, how did it go?
* Did you get approved on the first try, or have to appeal?
* Any issues getting the reconstructive portion covered?
* Once approved, how long until you had surgery?
I know every case is different, but I’m trying to figure out if I should expect weeks, months, or “see you next year” 😂
Thanks so much! ❤️
I’m looking for a reality check. I’ve been playing Puppy Keep for about 2 years, and I used to win a free prize every 2–3 months just by playing consistently. I haven’t changed how I play (if anything, I’ve gotten much better), but I haven’t won a single game since November.
Now, once I get down to the last 0.1% (or the last few cents), the progress bar barely moves. It seems like every 100g of food only increases the bar by about 0.01%, and I always run out of time before I can finish.
I’m wondering if something changed for long-term players, or if I’m just missing a new strategy.
A few questions:
Has anyone actually won recently without placing a bunch of paid orders or getting lots of referral clicks?
What value prize are you choosing? Are lower-priced items (around $15–20) easier to complete than more expensive ones?
(I always pick the $30 credit)
Any tips for getting more time? My timer always expires before I can earn enough extensions.
If you’ve won recently, I’d love to know when you won, what your prize value was, and whether you spent any money or relied mostly on daily tasks.
Thanks!
After being told yet again by an orthopedic spine doctor that my Tarlov cysts are “incidental” and “asymptomatic,” I’m beyond frustrated.
This week, I had my GI follow-up after yet another hospitalization for severe constipation. Instead of listing MRI measurements, I asked my gastroenterologist this:
“If I had two plums and a cherry tomato sitting on my sacrum, creating a combined mass effect about the size of a large navel orange, do you think that could be causing my constipation?”
Without missing a beat, he practically yelled:
“OF COURSE IT IS! Any further testing is probably useless until you get that taken care of.”
He was genuinely shocked that my spine doctor had dismissed the cysts as inconsequential, especially given their size and the fact that they’re causing bone remodeling and foraminal widening.
It was honestly validating to have a physician immediately recognize what so many of us struggle with, being told these cysts are “incidental” despite significant imaging findings and symptoms that line up with sacral nerve involvement.
Has anyone else had specialists in other fields immediately connect the dots while spine doctors dismissed your cysts?
Hi! I was hoping to hear from others who have had larger Tarlov cysts and whether your doctors still tried to dismiss them as incidental.
My most recent sacral MRI shows:
3.4 cm left Tarlov cyst at S2 with widening of the neuroforamen and remodeling of the vertebral body.
2.0 cm right Tarlov cyst at S2 with widening of the neuroforamen and remodeling of the vertebral body.
3.1 cm Tarlov cyst at S3 resulting in posterior remodeling of the vertebral body.
From what I’ve read, the fact that they’re causing bone remodeling and widening of the nerve openings (neuroforamina) seems like they aren’t just tiny incidental findings.
I’ve struggled for 20+ years with symptoms that include severe low back and sacral pain, pelvic pain, bowel dysfunction/chronic constipation, and pain that gets worse with standing. I even had my spine fused because they said L5-S1 was the cause of my pain.
I also have hypermobile EDS, so I’m trying to determine whether these cysts could be contributing to my symptoms.
For those of you with cysts this size:
Were your doctors still telling you they were “incidental” or “nothing to worry about”?
At what point did someone finally take them seriously?
Did bone remodeling or foraminal widening make a difference in getting evaluated?
If you eventually had treatment, did it help your symptoms?
I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences. It’s been frustrating feeling like these MRI findings are being minimized despite their size and the changes they’re causing to the surrounding bone.
Thank you so much for any advice or shared experiences.
Hi! I have degenerative disc disease and multiple bilateral Tarlov cysts spanning from T11 all the way down to the sacrum, with some reaching up to 5-6cm. I’ve been in pain for 26 years. I also have hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS). I’ve also had a L5-S1 spinal fusion, laminectomy, and a hysterectomy.
My GI issues have been severe and lifelong, resulting in 2 week long hospitalizations. But I’m increasingly convinced my DDD and Tarlov cysts are a major piece of the puzzle that hasn’t been adequately addressed by my doctors.
My specific symptoms:
• Frequently go 3–4 weeks without a bowel movement
• Complete absence of the normal gradual urge to defecate, no sensation of rectal fullness until sudden severe urgency hits
• Chronic nausea, intermittent vomiting, pain, severe bloating
• Severe abdominal and tailbone/rectal pain
• Daily Miralax plus frequent rescue treatments that barely work
• Two prior hospitalizations for constipation alone
The absent urge sensation is what makes me think this is neurogenic, the sacral nerve roots S2, S3, and S4 control bowel sensation and motility, and that’s exactly where several of my cysts are located.
My questions for the group:
I have a GI appointment Monday and I’m actively trying to get a motility workup started. I’d love to hear from others who have navigated this, what tests were useful, what was dismissed, and whether anyone has found anything that actually helps.
Thanks so much!
I need honest hair color advice
I’m posting a bunch of photos of different hair colors I’ve had over the last 2 years and an inspiration pics of more highlights I’m considering next.
As more grey has come in, I’ve gotten lighter and lighter. My natural color is a mix of grey and auburn and I’m trying to figure out what is MOST flattering on me.
Questions:
Which color suited me best?
Which color aged me the least?
Which color made me look brightest?