Community Munchausen's by Internet (Malingerers, Munchies, Spoonies, etc) - Feigning Illnesses for Attention

[Thomas Eugene Paris]

Gotta plead the 5th on all of the above.

Absolutely understood.

Like bulky orthotics over the pants of a kid who is already in a chair, the biggest, loudest chair even though the kid appears to have the ability to cope with a lot less, boosting meds (or something) into the line in the middle of an activity in front of the whole group rather than timing it for before or after so it could be done privately.

I can see why you're concerned. I would be, too.

AFO braces can be used in non-ambulatory patients to correct positioning of the foot/ankle and to help prevent painful joint contractures, but it's unusual (and almost certainly really uncomfortable) for them to be worn over pants.

From what you've written, it also sounds like the parent(s) rarely allow the child to be out of sight, which I find troubling based on what you've indicated about his or her support needs and age. I also think that regardless of how old the kid is, it's pretty weird that they're giving medication and doing other personal care tasks in front of the whole group. It's just not respectful of the child's dignity, and it's rather inconsiderate of the other kids in class. I don't particularly like it.

Truly, even if there's nothing sinister going on, you deserve respect for even noticing that the situation is unusual. Too many people would just let it go. Hopefully, kid is safe and just has weird overbearing freaks for parents.

 

[everybody in Portugal]

think you should document what you observe. You don't need to keep extensive notes, but include dates and the names of anyone else present. Don't do anything with the information yet, but keep an eye on the situation and look for patterns and inconsistencies. It's sometimes really helpful to have everything laid out in front of you, and if you do decide that you're obligated to take action, it will be useful to have concrete information.

Does the kid have an IEP? Will he or she return to your school next year? Are you a mandatory reporter?

From what you've said ITT it sounds like the parents are definitely playing up and illness if not actually outright fabricating it, how much harm is coming to the child through this is harder to judge.

Absolutely agree with everything TEP is saying, (take their wise words on board, they know of which they speak as far as medspergery goes) but if you have even the slightest suspicion that the kiddo is being harmed then please remember that you don't have to be a mandatory reporter to report a concern, @Larry David's Opera Cape.

Collecting evidence will help you work it all out in your own mind but one phone call could save that kid from actual harm, if you have the suspicion of it.

 

[often puzzled]

From what you've written, it also sounds like the parent(s) rarely allow the child to be out of sight, which I find troubling based on what you've indicated about his or her support needs and age.

I find it particularly troubling because you specifically said that the child will sit up in the chair and reposition themselves until mom tells them to lie back down. I would be concerned that they're hovering precisely because they know the kid could and would be out of the chair and playing with the other kids if given half a chance.

 

[Android raptor]

I think any time kids are potentially being harmed, it's better to be safe than sorry and report. Kids have ended up dead at the hands of MBP parents.

 

[Point and Laugh]

(mom, really, appears to be in the drivers' seat

I wouldn’t take that as a sign of anything. It’s almost always the moms that handle anything medical related in families.

 

[Larry David's Opera Cape]

I wouldn’t take that as a sign of anything. It’s almost always the moms that handle anything medical related in families.

Oh definitely, there's just a familiar dynamic between her and dad, and both parents and the non-ill kid, that sets off alarms for me. The mom who has that quirk chungus mien, flamboyant attire, the dad who is wallpaper paste and completely limp and passive.

 

[WarpedTourWasFun]

This is reminding me of someone I used to follow on Instagram... She had her daughter in a wheelchair with braces, a feeding tube, I don't think the kid even went to school. I don't know exactly what happened with them, but from what I heard, they got caught when they did a fundraiser. I wish I could remember their names... The mom also had a feeding tube.

 

[self-diagnosed dumbass]

boosting meds (or something) into the line in the middle of an activity in front of the whole group rather than timing it for before or after so it could be done privately.

Like another commenter said, this is the biggest red flag for me too. If you're a parent of a kid who needs lots of medical care why would you interrupt an activity unless it was an absolute emergency/special one-off thing? Not only is it disruptive to the class but it's not good for the child's development either (assuming a younger kid) to constantly have their schooling/interaction with peers interrupted for medicine, especially if they already are missing lots of school for appointments/etc. Like if the kid IS sick and the mom is just OTT it's still not okay to ruin their small moments of normalcy (i.e. being in class) by pulling them out to push meds if it can wait for a break.

 

[Kate Farms Shill]

This is reminding me of someone I used to follow on Instagram... She had her daughter in a wheelchair with braces, a feeding tube, I don't think the kid even went to school. I don't know exactly what happened with them, but from what I heard, they got caught when they did a fundraiser. I wish I could remember their names... The mom also had a feeding tube.

Any chance it was Dusty Mae and her mom Violet?

Mom claimed all the zebra diseases. Baby was actually premature but then they claimed she had all sorts of shit including the EDS/MCAS/GP/POTS, autism, burnside-butler (which is probably not a real thing), cerebral palsy, at one point tried to roll with the narrative that she was the only person on earth with her disability . . . I remember watching a livestream where Dusty kept very obviously trying to speak and her mother kept shoving a pacifier in her mouth to keep her from talking and pushing her down in the wheelchair every time she sat up. Then they claimed the Australian government was refusing to give them a wheelchair she needed when it turned out they were actually approved for one and they were also renovating the house when they ran the fundraiser. Here's an old gossip thread about them where they talk about mom chimping on support workers who think the kid is being infantalized, about how the kid was removed from a special needs school placement who determined she was nowhere near as disabled as the mom claimed, the inconsistencies abiut mom's claims re: the kid, which all match with my memory. For a long time there were videos of Dusty running, talking, and seeming perfectly normal on youtube but she deleted them when people found them.

Mom still posts about doing roller derby with EDS () but has quit talking about her child because of the fallout.

 

[IBSnarkin]

She’s spent ages going on about how she absolutely needed those adaptations but then in her stories has shown her DIY efforts that clearly demonstrates she doesn’t need it. It’s like when she was simultaneously making badges whilst talking about how she can’t cut up food. Which is still a claim she’s having now. Love how her carer basically let her know she’s onto her

I love that she’s clearly checking here frequently or got alerts set for it. Way to prove you are a no life narcissist. She’s really tying herself in knots trying to prove it’s normal to use fucking drills and sanders but need help with anything else. I think keep talking about her, the more she tries to refute things the more she has to lie and leave a trail of munchtastic evidence

How shitheaded do you have to think your sycophants are to say this BS? How is sanding and drilling not repetitive wrist movements? This woman is a fucking idiot. Dunning Kruger in full effect. I hope her doctors get a clue and cut this bitch off from all her substances

 

[IBSnarkin]

Another one I’ve been watching a while I’m not sure has been discussed here is one of Jess’s friends who loves to show her (clearly fake) tits and has a story about being institutionalised and getting nerve damage in her leg.

Is this because, while she’s clearly an attention hungry lolcow, her previous disease was likely for real? Just can’t help but feel there’s munching going on there

 

[Special spoonie]

I love that she’s clearly checking here frequently or got alerts set for it. Way to prove you are a no life narcissist. She’s really tying herself in knots trying to prove it’s normal to use fucking drills and sanders but need help with anything else. I think keep talking about her, the more she tries to refute things the more she has to lie and leave a trail of munchtastic evidence

View attachment 5890921View attachment 5890922

How shitheaded do you have to think your sycophants are to say this BS? How is sanding and drilling not repetitive wrist movements? This woman is a fucking idiot. Dunning Kruger in full effect. I hope her doctors get a clue and cut this bitch off from all her substances

They all read here which is amusing when they are supposed to hate this website so much. Way to make it obvious though, Jess. It took me just a couple minutes to find a videos of her doing repetitive motions and small grip. Her plaiting her hair, administering meds and clown makeup applications.

Spoiler: Spoiler

 

[SNU]

She'll likely claim the power tool does all the work even through you have to move it around and apply constant pressure. If you aren't strong enough to hold it firm then it'll bounce and vibrate which would make things significantly worse. Are you strong enough to hold it firm? Or are you gimpy but the jerky movements of a poorly controlled power tool aren't painful? Why even post about using power tools if you're telling people you're sick? It's a no win situation even if you are actually sick. It'd be like sprinting around the block then saying you're too gimpy to get a job. Even if it's true people won't believe you. Maybe if you used a drill press with everything clamped down it'd be believable

 

[Blanche]

So if I had an IEP does that mean I'm dumb enough for moneys

 

[capybaja fresh]

The mom who has that quirk chungus mien

I love all these words together but I've gotta know what this actually means.

 

[Free the Pedos]

So if I had an IEP does that mean I'm dumb enough for moneys

Sadly no. Better take a hot shower and then claim MCAS!

 

[George Michael's Freedom]

I searched the word "Havana Syndrome" in this thread and forum and I couldn't find the posts from the last week or so about whether it is an area of interest for this thread so I can't quote the interested farmers, but wanted to drop this here as I read about it in the NY Times today:

For those interested there are some rumblings from Russian investigative reporters at The Insider who teamed with 60 Minutes and Germany's Der Spiegel to file the report at the link below that some nefarious Kremlin baddies may actually be fucking people up with percussion:

https://theins.ru/en/politics/270425

Edited to say I have no dog in this race so no need to dog pile if you think it's mass hysteria. Just wanted to share the report as people in this thread expressed interest in the phenomenon and reading about it.

 

[TheBigZee]

Regarding the girl with the total spinal fusion.

Spoiler

I’m looking at it and it just seems total overkill - why would you do that?

It was the old lady who swallowed the fly. Fusing the top part of the neck creates a wrecking ball for the rest of the cervical spine. Then they'll have to fuse progressively more of the c-spine as discs fail and joints break. That will need revisions and stabilization so they'll put in hardware down the T spine. Bio mechanical changes can lead to disc disease/susceptibility to or worsening of spondylolithesis in the lumbar spine.

This was several surgeries over four or five years. Assuming any of them were done by competent doctors and paid for by insurance/nhs she would have had to have objective neurological issues from spinal instability or arthritis

Also the thoracic section is kind of flat along the back and there should be a curve there. Why was that done?

Probably because they had to connect to other fusions and they didn't want to break fused vertebrae to achieve proper lordosis. Surgeon had to work around what was already there. Flattening it like that wouldn't have been good for her lumbar spine.

My munchie radar is activated.

The last surgery was because a return of the "seizures" she originally got the upper cervical fusion for. Broken screws wouldn't cause that - especially if she'd achieved a solid fusion. The halo only would have been needed if motion was compromising her nerves - like she moved her head and things stopped working, started jerking, or bursts of sensory stuff. That would be treated as a surgical emergency.

You can get things that look seizure-ish because impaired reflexes kick off a chain of muscle movements (similar to clonus). You can also get large myoclonic like jerks.

If she had clear signs of spinal cord compression, reputable local doctors would have done the surgery. "No doctor was willing to do it" just means that her symptoms didn't match the problem and the doctors didn't think it would help. The last surgery was a crazy risky revision for broken screws.

Look at what he did to her - her entire spine is fused. That’s horrific. She’s going to be in absolute agony for the rest of her life

Not necessarily. Not all of this would have involved decompression/discectomy. If they didn't have to disturb the nerves there shouldn't be a lot of pain after the bones heal. She'll probably always have limitations and need a lot of rest - I don't see her being a teacher.

[/quote]

 

[Otterly]

If they didn't have to disturb the nerves there shouldn't be a lot of pain after the bones heal. She'll probably always have limitations and need a lot of rest - I don't see her being a teacher.

Interesting - the people I know who has had a spinal fusion (admittedly not many people, but a few) has had pain endlessly from it. Not from the thing itself, like you say that area is fixed, but from areas around it. So one guy who had part of his lumbar spine fixed ended with terrible mobility and leg issues - it kind of refers outwards. If there’s no flexibility in one place others need to move more, if that makes sense? Like if you injure your foot running and end up with hip and back problems from distorted gait. If her whole spine is fused she’s going to have problems later with her hips, knees etc becasue it’ll utterly fuck up how her body moves as a whole.

 

[Larry David's Opera Cape]

I love all these words together but I've gotta know what this actually means.

The recently coined quirk chungus:



The mom in this case is this type I recognize readily (alas) : she seems to be wearing a costume rather than just being a person, and probably has shifted between various costumes in her life. Right now it's the Super Cool Disability Mom Tradwife, at some point in the past she was probably a Tumblr girl with dangerhair and problem glasses. Many such cases et cetera.