Hi everyone!
For the last few months, right before my period I have been dealing with dry-skin that gets itchy and even quite painful due to how itchy it is. It’s located only on a small part of the labia (TMI IK SORRY). At first I thought the dry skin could be related to my imbalanced hormones and searches on the internet said right before your cycle estrogen drops which can cause dryness and itching. It’s not an STD and I’m pretty sure it’s not some sort of bacterial or viral infection since it only occurs the few days leading up to my period and the rest of the month is fine. From further searches on the internet I think it is cyclic vulvovaginitis….
It’s been happening for a few months now, I am going to speak to my doctor soon.
Has anyone else experienced this?? Is this PCOS related at all? I’m only 23 not sure if this is related to hormones or not but my estrogen is normal, with low progesterone and high DHEAS.
Thanks for your insights!

(I am not a creationist, but I am a bored contrarian and I need to argue with somebody right now. Also, I'm trying to get a better grasp of the rules of phylogeny, so maybe y'all can teach me something.).
Reasons that I think the LUCA was an animal:
1: Unicellularity is hard. We have this idealized conception of a unicellular microbe, where you stick a single cell on a petri dish and then overnight it becomes a million cells, but the vast majority of life can't do anything like this--certainly the LUCA couldn't, right? I think there would be an advantage to early life being multicellular, in that early life could "borrow" RNA/DNA/proteins with neighboring cells. Also they wouldn't need a full complement of molecular machinery if their neighbor can help out, even if their neighbor is a different species. Just like I can borrow my neighbor's stove if I'm making a special meal, early life probably borrowed very basic molecular machinery from the neighboring cell. And if any of their genes broke, they could maybe get a replacement from their neighbor? I think that it's hard to live all by your lonesome self if you're a primitive life form, so being multicellular is easier since you can rely on neighbor cells for various things and don't have to do everything yourself. I also think there's a very blurry line between a single multicellular organism and an interdependent community of unicellular organisms where none of the organisms could survive without the others. Many scientists agree that early life was like this—an interdependent community—and much life still is like this. But why should this type of community be considered to be closer to unicellularity than multicellularity?
2: The nucleus seems like a leftover relic from the RNA world. The primary function seems to be to separate transcription and translation, but why would you want to do this in a DNA organism? Why are you separating transcription from translation if you already have this elegant system in prokaryotes of just having the ribosome and the RNA polymerase right next to each other doing their things almost simultaneously, much, much faster and more efficiently than eukaryotes. Why make everything ten times slower by evolving a nucleus when you could just not evolve a nucleus? Evolution doesn’t plan ahead, and I fail to see how the nucleus is a favorable adaptation in the short term. On the other hand, a nucleus makes a ton of sense for an organism with an RNA genome because you'd need a way to separate your genomic RNA from your RNA transcripts so they could be regulated separately -- You wouldn't want to splice up or run a ribosome over your RNA genome, that would be a disaster.
3: Having a nucleus would make it easier to evolve DNA. Whatever enzyme is deoxygenating the RNA backbone wouldn't run into the problem of accidentally deoxygenating the RNA transcripts. Since the transcripts are outside the nucleus.
4: The nucleus could be an early form of cell specialization for a multicellular life form. If we think of the nucleus as a separate cell from the cytoplasmic space, I think the picture of early RNA life becomes clearer. Some cells/compartments evolve to specialize in replication and transcription -- these become the nucleus -- wheras other cells/compartments become specialized for translation of proteins --these became the cytoplasmic space, which ultimately engulfed the nucleus. In this primitive RNA organism, there would have been little distinction between replication and transcription. The cells of various sizes would have shared proteins, allowing the smaller cells specialized for replication/transcription to still benefit from the gene products being produced in the larger cells specialized for translation. The smaller cells would do a more faithful job of replicating the genome and not have to risk damaging their genes in the messy process of gene expression.
5: Based on the multiple chromosomes in the nucleus, the first Eukaryote was a likely a synthesis of multiple organisms. Multiple organisms implies multicellular. If we look inside the nucleus, we see multiple, weird, x-shaped chromosomes, with a bunch of dumb hacks (centrosomes, telomerase, etc) to keep them from falling apart as they replicate. The bacterial system makes so much more sense for modern organisms -- just having a single circular chromosome: simple, elegant, effective. Again, the eukaryotic system seems like a molecular fossil from an earlier era where these features were actually necessary. I'd argue that the eukaryotic system supports multiple chromosomes because the original chromosomes were the RNA genomes of different interdependent organisms that lived in a multicellular community. Their RNA migrated into a single nucleus for better regulated and better synchronized replication of the community genes.
6: The homologies between Porifera and Amoebozoa make no sense if Animals came from Choanoflagellates. It is widely assumed that multicellular eukaryotes evolved from single-celled eukaryotes, and this seems to be the case in land plants, at least, since they're so similar to algae which obviously came before land plants--but are we sure that it isn't the other way around for animals? Conventional wisdom is that animals evolved from choanoflagellates, and we see very similar cells to choanoflagellates in Porifera called choanocytes. BUT: Porifera (sponges) also have amoebocytes, which look and function a lot like amoebas. Amoebas are believed to be relatively closely related to animals, although not as closely related as choanoflagellates. Yet animals cannot have evolved from both amoebas and choanoflagellates, and choanoflagellates look nothing like amoebas. Isn't it an odd coincidence that amoebocyte cells in sponges are so much like amoebas? If animals came from choanoflagellates, then the similarity of amoebas and amoebocytes would have to be a coincidence. An alternative direction of evolution makes a lot more sense to me: Animals came first, and amoebas and choanoflagellates are separate lineages of reduced animals that have evolved down to only being a single cell. Other eukaryotes (such as fungi, algae and plants) could be evolved from these single-celled descendants of animals.
7: Gene homologies between microsporidia and prokaryotes. Since microsporidia are very obviously reduced fungi, this makes no sense in the current prokaryote-first paradigm, so these gene homologies are handwaved away as being the result of horizontal gene transfer. But what if it isn't horizontal gene transfer? Microsporidia is a parasitic clade of fungi which has lost most of its genes, seemingly lost its mitochondria (are we absolutely sure they ever had mitochondria?) and shrunk to about the size of a bacterium. Its shrunk so much and lost so many genes that it actually is able to withstand mutations to very basic molecular machinery such as its ribosomes, which are very different from the ribosomes of other eukaryotes and seem more similar to the smaller ribosomes of prokaryotes. Perhaps prokaryotes are just even-further-reduced microsporidia that have lost their nucleus, circularized their DNA (which can also happen in cancer cells, google "eccDNA") and further streamlined their molecular machinery.
8: We can learn a lot about the order of the clades from the type of ecological niches they currently occupy. For example: there do exist extremophile bacteria, so there's nothing inherent in bacterial microbiology that prevents them from evolving into extremophiles. So why do we see mostly extremophile archaea, but bacteria occupy almost all of the generalist, high productivity microbial niches? I'd argue: Probably, archaea had a head start in evolving specialized adaptations for extremophile environments. Probably, archaea came first. Imagine an archaeon existing before there were any bacteria, and it evolved to occupy all microbe ecological niches. Then bacteria came along in a new adaptive radiation with superior molecular biology. They were able to supplant archaea from most generalist niches but haven't been able to challenge archaea for extremophile niches for which archaea have specialized genes and specialized adaptations. And neither bacteria nor archaea seriously challenge eukaryotes for the larger ecological niches which require even more specialized adaptations. This to me implies that Eukaryotes came first, archaea came second, and bacteria are the most recent domain.
9: Animals almost exclusively occupy the large, complex, predator niche. I'd argue that the large predator niche, of all ecological niches, is the one where the greatest advantage is given to the organism who evolves to fill the niche first. Because selection pressure changes a lot once the predator appears: Things that can't run away from the predator are forced to make themselves as unappetizing as possible. So they can't have complex proteins, since complex proteins = tastier. So how can any clade evolve into a predator if there already exists a predator clade that could eat it? The fossil record seems to think: It can’t. Throughout the entire fossil record for which we have good records (since the Cambrian), the predator is always an animal. Never does a slime mold or a fungus something evolve muscles and teeth and start competing with animals for the predator niche. But this isn’t 100% true -- you have Venus fly traps, I suppose? So that’s one exception, the only one I can think of. Animal predators today have billions of years of evolutionary head start evolving such things as muscles, a nervous system, circulatory system, etc. If anything else other than an animal starts evolving complex structures or energy storage, it's only going to make itself tastier to an animal. The predator is also the niche that cares the least about the efficiency of basic molecular processes -- it doesn't need to be efficient when the world is its buffet. For this reason, I'd argue that the predator clade must have established itself very early. Probably the kingdom that occupies the apex predator niche at any given time is the absolute oldest lineage of multicellular life. Because long, long after all the original autotrophs have gone extinct, replaced with things that don't waste so much energy and have more efficient and streamlined molecular biology, the apex predator clade would remain on its throne, since nothing, I'd argue, would be able to compete with its evolutionary head start evolving so many complex adaptations for multicellularity. Are we to believe there was ever a time when the apex predator niche was something other than an animal? It's difficult to imagine. If that apex predator was a prokaryote, what is it about animal molecular biology that allowed it to overcome such extreme odds and supplant that prokaryote as the apex predator?
10: The fossil record of animals before the Cambrian is probably very incomplete. The first complex animals in the fossil record (the cambrian explosion) seem very, very advanced already -- I think this is a representation that our fossil record is incomplete and animals are a much older clade than they seem. Since predators are rarer in an ecosystem, and may have been even rarer when energy was scarcer due to less oxygen in the atmosphere (early heterotrophic life likely breathed sulfur compounds), we may simply not have any good fossils of animals from before the cambrian.
11: It's also possible that early animals simply weren't made out of the right material to fossilize. Maybe Archean-eon animals had no bones or anything like that and so they didn't fossilize, so we don't have examples of them. We can't assume that just because you don't find fossilized animals from ~3 billion years ago doesn't mean they weren't around then. And even if we did find fossilized animals from that long ago, they were probably so radically different from modern animals that we might misidentify them. For example, we have many fossils of strange creatures from billions of years ago, nobody knows what they are. Maybe they are animals? Example: Google “Grypania”. Currently there is a debate on whether these are algae or bacteria. But they are quite large, and they look sortof wormlike, so, in my view, there’s no reason they couldn’t be primitive animals.
12: Animals are slow reproducing but have the most sophisticated adaptations for multicellularity. The slower something reproduces, the slower it evolves, since there’s less opportunities for mutations. So how did animals have time to acquire so many complex adaptations for multicellularity? They must be an especially ancient lineage, something that has been multicellular much longer than anything else – otherwise they wouldn’t have had time to acquire so many complex adaptations for multicellularity.
13: Phylogenetic trees based on bioinformatics suffer from "long branch attraction" artefacts -- where fast reproducing, simple, and numerous organisms group together at the base of the tree. This is a well-known problem for making phylogenetic trees. Since prokaryotes are so much more numerous and reproduce so much faster than eukaryotes, it’s natural that they would have the most genetic diversity, even if they evolved later. The appearance of prokaryotes at the base of the tree of life derived from bioinformatics algorithms may be a product of long branch attraction.
14: Counterpoints on mitochondrias. I’ll admit that mitochondrias do look a lot like bacterial symbiotes, but that doesn't necessarily mean the original eukaryotes had mitochondrias. Once alphaproteobacteria evolved, it might have infected many lineages of eukaryotes simultaneously, since nothing had resistance to its infections yet. Maybe it impersonated the mitosome and supplanted its function, and did such a good job as a mitosome that the only surviving eukaryotic lineages are ones with alphaproteobacterial infections. Also, if we assume that bacteria are reduced eukaryotes, then many of the gene homologies for mitochondria associated genes could have been present in the eukaryotic LUCA, and perhaps they were used for regulating the mitosome which preceded mitochondrias. I think that the mitochondria is an interesting piece of the puzzle, but it doesn't conclusively demonstrate that prokaryotes came first.
….
I make ASCII phylogenetic tree for fun:

 _______________________________________________Placazoa 1____LUCA_____________________________________________5_____Ctenophora _______Cnidaria ___Bilateria ______________________________________________Porifera _____________Choanoflagellatea _________Dinoflagellata _______Algae ____Viridiplantae __2___________________________________Amoebozoa _________________________________Fungi _3_______Microsporidia __4____Archaea ^ ______Bacteria (endosymbiosis into various eukaryotic clades) _____Mitochondria ^ (horizontal gene transfer from now-extinct RNA life forms to bacteria and archaea) ______________________primitive RNA life forms (extinct) 1: A community of highly interdependent organisms evolves into multicellular eukaryotic progenator with a DNA genome inside a nucleus. This hypothetical LUCA is a relatively large and complex heterotroph which fed on primitive RNA life forms. 2: First truely unicellular (non-colonial) organisms (independent living isn't easy!) 3: Extreme miniaturization 4: Loss of eukaryotic nucleus 5: Complex adaptations for apex predator niches (neurons, etc) 

hey i was desperately looking through reddit for answers when i was scared and confused but i finally got my period this morning so i thought i’d explain my situation and update/give advice!
i got bacterial vaginosis from sweating into underwear when i had the flu. i couldn’t go commando because i was still slightly menstruating. i knew that infection was probably going to happen and took my chances rather than free bleeding in bed
i got the yeast infection first, immediately took fluconazole, then noticed that it smelled off even after the itching went away. my doctor gave me a week of antibiotics (sorry i don’t know which ones) and it fixed everything for a week or two
then i started getting itchy again. i knew it was a mild yeast infection and put off getting the pill for it. it went away on its own but my period was 7 days late. in fact maybe even up to 10 because my periods start later and later in my cycle. like i finally started bleeding day 39 which was scary.
i spotted on day 36 and then it went back to regular discharge
whether the cause was antibiotics, or just the stress and illness of the flu from a month ago, i want to give hope to anyone with a late period. it might come today!

Hi everyone, I had my abortion four days ago (feels much longer) on the 9th May. My bleeding was pretty moderate for the first couple of days, but has fluctuated from being heavy to a medium flow over these four days. I’ve also had mild but constant dull cramps ever since which does clear up with painkillers. I’m a very anxious hypochondriac and don’t want to bother my abortion clinic (again) by phoning up just to check in, so I’m asking here: does this all sound normal? The bleeding is still going strong 4 days post MA and had fluctuated and been rather heavy at times (no flooding) with these constant mild - but noticeable - cramps (no lower intestine pain, feels like normal period pains). Just hoping the cramps aren’t sign of any infection (I feel fine otherwise).

Asking for my sister. Is this the eliza and western blot? Does this mean its positive?

It's been a long time since my last update.
Prev updates summary: Have anal abscess on May 2022, that turned into fistula (seen on endoanal ultrasound scan, on March 2023) and later had my first EUA + fistulectomy surgery by end of May 2023. Having episodes of wound reopen, swelling, unresolved pain, persistent discharged (serous, fresh blood and sometimes purulent discharge) on and off in which had been dismissed again and again due to the abnormal discharges were no longer there everytime I went to primary care/ED/post surgery follow-up; until a visit in mid-October where the primary care doctor confirmed there's concerning swelling filled with pus on the op site. Warded for pain management + infection management several times starting October 2023 till January 2024. Scheduled for Pelvis MRI to rule out recurring FIA by mid December 2023, which shown no internal opening. Going thru another EUA + original plan to excise the infected sinus tract as shown in the MRI; but turns out it's indeed a recurring fistula.
Having similar episodes of wound reopen and purulent discharge + pain on and off (but less nuisance than previous one) post 2nd EUA + re-fistulectomy. I asked all the unanswered questions during my first follow up (3 weeks post op), but was told it's normal and the wound is nicely healing. The same comments during my 2nd follow up (6 weeks post op). In the same week, was discharged from dressing clinic (there's tiny little puncture wound left but most of the time either has no discharge or only seeping serous discharge) and was planned to be discharged by surgical clinic on the next follow up (mid April) if there's no sign of recurrent.
Still taking pain meds religiously, but reduced the dosage since it's Ramadan starting mid-March and I need to fast (I'm Muslim). Having more throbbing and swelling pain episodes, thought it's because I lowered my dosage and didn't taken any pain meds in the day time. Up until the last week of March, my loose stool episodes since forever turned into diarrhoea. Each BM would be accompanied with dripping purulent + fresh blood discharge. Still thinking positive since the wound will resealed itself in few hours (before reopened again after ea toilet visits).
Thursday night, was in so much pain, cramp up to my pubic area and lower abdomen. Sweating so bad, feverish, palpitations, and rapid breathing after each BM. The wound either reopened and has not much fresh blood + purulent discharge, or resealed with pimple like swelling (just a size of peanut). Was a hectic week in office so I can't afford to take any sick leave. Hold until the Saturday, 30/03/2024 where I surrendered myself to ED. Of course the swelling is no longer swollen while I waiting for my turn (triage to green zone due to stable vital and not in so much pain after the swelling wound pop earlier). But, due to my history of recurring FIA that had been dismissed as normal wound healing progress before, they readmit me for another EUA.
31/3/2024 My case was post as emergency case although there's no pus seen on pre-op exam. Plan, 1. EUA 2. If has fistula, to insert seton OR if there's no fistula to proceed with I&D + wound debridement. It's the latter, thanks God. The diagnosis was updated to infected gluteal sinus instead. They debride larger area this time for easy dressing - ~4x4x4cm (my op wounds opening used to be 1.5x1.5cm at large, with 4cm depth).
Today The wound is smaller and only has a very small area waiting for the epidermis layer to be generated fully (~1cmx0.5cm) and the original sinus tract is said to be fully closed.
The thing is, I had another diarrhoea episodes last week and the original tract opening that's been sealed up has been swelling like pimple again (this time only a size of mung bean), reopen, seeping fresh blood and serosanguineous discharges. As per before, since the opening is so small - like a size of needle puncture hole - it easily resealed (and reopen again with each BM). To make it worse, during 5 days I'm having constipated diarrhea last week, there's internal throbbing pressure + I can feel a tract bulging up underneath my skin + there's stool like discharge from the small puncture wound (this didn't happen during the end of March infection pain). I tried to convince myself that I was having incontinence due to having frequent loose stool episodes, but the other signs that came together with it are not helping.
Currently having normal BM with 1-2 loose stool episodes per day; No longer stool like discharge nor can feel the bulging tract-like swelling any longer since the constipation is gone. But starting last afternoon (Sunday, 12/5/2024), for each of my BM, there's fresh blood dripping down into the toilet bowl. It's from the tiny puncture wound which seems to be bigger (if compared, previously it's the size of 24g cannula puncture wound if not sealed and now it's 16g every time it's reopened).
Pain is currently minimal. I only taking pcm BD/TDS + celebrex/tramal/voltaren OD/PRN, but usually only pcm. The most painful is during and few hours after BM. Now I am confused are all these signs of recurring of FIA/infected sinus tract or is it only partof healing process. I hope it is the latter.
Oh, and they transferred my case from colorectal case to general surgery case post op - since there's no longer internal opening found during my latest EUA. They planned to discharge me once the tissue are all regenerate and heal, but there's a part of me telling that I still need to be rule out from recurring FIA with all these recurring symptoms.

After you read below: do you think my issue is PCOS or does it sound like something else? If you think it is PCOS, do you have an idea on what type? How are you guys finding good specialist? Any recommendations on what to do? Any other thoughts are welcomed as well.
I was a skinny child and was very active until late teenage years. However I continued to gain and gain weight once I started my period and it never stopped. I stopped being active and doing the physical activities I loved when my weight started to affect my ability to do stuff.
First period in the third grade at 9/10 years old.
Unknowingly diagnosed with PCOS at 11-12. The obgyn told my mother the results, I was not told the results by my mother, I was told I was fat and needed to lose weight.
I went to the OBGYN on my own when I was 18 because I thought I had endometriosis and was then told my diagnosis that I had PCOS.
My periods at this time were bleeding for a whole month and then like having a month off and then bleeding again for a month. They put me on metformin, all I did was 💩. It did not help.
They put me on bc and all it did was make my periods last longer, bleed harder, and cramp worse.
I was also told that I was fat and I needed to lose weight and that was the cure for PCOS so I went many years without going back to an OB/GYN or any new medication because all I ever heard was I was fat.
I would try more exercising, intense work outs, I would try fad diets, and I would even take a diet pill that was not prescribed for me and would pass out from taking that pill. I might lose 1-5 pounds and then I’d gain it all back if not more.
My periods now are bleeding for 4 to 6 months then I have a day or two break and then I bleed again for another 4 to 6 months. Heavy bleeding every day, clumps the size of my palm every day, and in pain every day. I have hair growing on my upper lip and chin. No hair thinning that I’ve noticed on the top of my head. I’ve been “pre-diabetic” for years but idk when I was initially told that.
I live like this for years, my whole life pretty much. I’m 27 now but we have to go to me at 26 in September of last year. I start having extreme pain in my right ovary that is worse than anything I’ve ever experienced before. It’s continuing to get worse and worse so I finally take myself to a new OB/GYN that was recommended by a friend. That OBGYN did not want me to be her patient. She even asked me to find a doctor that was closer to me to go to, no I did not complain about having to come out so far to see her. She asked me this on her own with no prompting from me. She does an exam and tells me to go get an ultrasound and find a new doctor. She also takes a test that apparently says I was HPV positive however I have never gotten actual documentation from her besides a piece of paper with it written in her own handwriting that I was HPV positive. The next time I got an HPV test it was negative. I don’t think I was ever actually HPV positive. I go get an ultrasound done and it says I have a cyst on my right ovary, but I’m going to need a follow up with a new OB/GYN so I set up an appointment however it’s months from then because everywhere is busy and booked.
We’re now in October 2023, the pain is so bad and debilitating I end up in the ER. When I am in the ER, they only give me an ultrasound and a vaginal ultrasound where they still see the cyst on my right ovary. The person notes that there is inflammation occurring but no one decides to follow up on this, which is important to note. They sent me home with a new birth control and pain medication naproxen (shout out to naproxen because you helped my pain so much - miss you). Very quickly, my bleeding stops and the pain goes away. I think I’m in the clear but I would be very wrong.
November 2023 I end up back in the ER due to pain in my leg, shortness of breath, and the pain is coming back in my right ovary. One month on this birth control gave me blood clots in my left leg and both my lungs. They admit me to the hospital, they tell me they think the birth control caused the blood clots (we would find out later that they did). They tell me to stop taking the birth control and I can no longer take the pain medication because they have to put me on blood thinning medication. The blood thinning medication starts working very quickly but the pain in my ovary is next level bad like I’m actually convinced I’m going to die in this hospital from this ovary pain and my vagina feels like the whole thing is on fire. I’m not even worried about the blood clots. I’m worried about the ovary which should truly suggest how bad of pain I was in. They give me strong pain medication and nothing works and they won’t give me naproxen because you can’t take it while on blood thinners. We eventually landed on oxy after a couple tries of different pain medication and that finally helps. However, after a couple of days in the initial place, where I was admitted to, they moved me to the OBGYN wing. My leg feels better, I’m breathing better, but my ovary is still killing me. They’ve tested for STDs. They found nothing. At this point I was hoping(but like not really I don’t want an STD) it was something like that so they could find what the problem was. They’re pretty much telling me that it’s in my head and it’s my anxiety and they put me on anxiety medication while I’m in this wing. Well guess what wasn’t my anxiety? The pelvic inflammatory disease and the abscess they found on my right ovary. The hematologist comes in and sees that I have ice packs on my hips and asked me what’s wrong and I tell him and he goes “I think you might be bleeding at your hips so I’m going to order you a CT”, this is where they find the pelvic inflammatory disease and the abscess that is severely infected on my right ovary. Again no STDS found because they were convinced I had them 🙃. They put me on antibiotics and within a couple days. I start feeling better and they release me from the hospital on a whole bunch of medication‘s. Including the blood thinning medication that I would now have to take for six months and then do more blood test to see if I have to be on them for the rest of my life.
So we’re here now in May 2024 and I am doing these follow up test. I’ve had to fight with the hospitals outpatient OB/GYN doctors multiple times they’ve refused to give me follow-up CT to check on the abscess. I eventually started bleeding out of my asshole, which led me to seeing the G.I. who would then give me a new CT. I still don’t know what the bleeding out of my asshole thing was. I’m waiting for a colonoscopy. It’s only happened twice so far. This cyst is still showing up on the CT. I will be getting an ultrasound done soon, but I’ve refused to get one because they refused to give me a CT. Now that I’ve gotten the CT I’m fine with going to get an ultrasound.
Anyway, there’s a lot of body hate, a lot of mental health problems, multiple medical professionals failing me and only seeing a fat POC, and multiple SA accounts as a child that I’m not going get into. I feel like I’m losing my mind. Ive hit 300 pounds as of the begging of this week and the want to KMS is high. I have an appointment scheduled with a RDN to try and help but they’re not a PCOS specialist.
I’ve only been recently doing a little more research into PCOS and it sounds like a lot of people are just umbrella’d underneath PCOS and later they find out it wasn’t PCOS at all. I have no idea what type of PCOS I have. I can’t take birth control which is an issue because apparently birth control can help with PCOS. Or at least people say so. At times, like now, I’m convinced I don’t even have PCOS and it’s something worse. When people talk about their PCOS online or in person, they say they have a loss of a period. I’ve never heard anyone have periods like I do. This further worries me that it’s something else.
I need help badly. So as I said at the beginning: do you think my issue is PCOS or does it sound like something else? If you think it is PCOS, do you have an idea on what type? How are you guys finding good specialist? Any recommendations on what to do? Any other thoughts are welcomed as well.

I started taking 875 mg of amoxicillin Saturday night for a sinus/ear infection. I took the Saturday night dose and Sunday morning dose (I’m supposed to take 2 per day). I began feeling n yesterday at 11:00 ish (took my first dose at 10 with only a banana). My family went for Mother’s Day brunch and I felt n the entire hour or so of food. I felt okay afterwards and did have 2 ginger gravol. I drove 2 hours back to my home as I was just visiting my family. When I got home I felt okay until about 4:30 and got hit with n that eventually turned jnto d and stomach pains. It’s been constant since then (now 8:30am) I haven’t tu but have felt n for so long and have cramps still and d. I skipped my antibiotic last night due to the n and I don’t think I can take one now as I don’t think I can eat right now. Last thing is my sinus and ear pain is significantly better today so I think it maybe wasn’t bacterial? Maybe I don’t need to take the antibiotics? Is it a really bad idea to not take them? I literally only took 2 and feel better so I’m thinking it’s not an infection like I thought. Advice and kind words would be appreciated

I never had 'the talk' in any way, including basic personal hygiene. I'm about to turn 18 and I still have no idea how to properly clean this area or take care of it, so I thought I'd ask. Personally, I forget that my vulva and vagina exist almost always (we have a complicated relationship) so I am never monitoring for symptoms and it's hard to know if I've noticed changes.

1. how am I supposed to be washing it? I currently just use the showerhead and my hands but am I supposed to be using soap? a washcloth? if I use a washcloth should it be a different washcloth to the one I use on the rest of my body? how do I make sure that washcloth isn't collecting bacteria and making things worse?
   
2. what is the normal smell supposed to be? I feel self conscious about it and like mine smells bad. I feel like the smell lingers on my hands if I touch that area (I obviously wash them, but it just seems strong smelling)
   
3. is it normal/okay to have hair on parts of the outer labia? I feel like I only ever see people with hair above their vulva but I have never shaved so mine is like covering basically all of it, is it normal to have that much hair?
   
4. how can you tell whether you have actual issues or if it's just normal? Sometimes I get a little bit of pain after penetration like a random cramp and sometimes my discharge seems too clumpy or yellow, how do I tell what's normal and what isn't?
   
5. is it supposed to hurt when I trim my pubes? I haven't in a few years, but when I was like 15 I have this memory of trimming it pretty gently and it being super painful, like a mixture of itchy and just really spiky/harsh?? is this normal?? I can't find much about it, but I want to be able to trim and stuff
   
6. can you be allergic to lube? I want to use it but i'm kind of scared that i'd be allergic to it
   

My main worry is just the hygiene. I used to wash the actual vagina itself using soap and I think it led to me getting some sort of bacterial infection which (hopefully??) is now gone but I am quite scared of using soap down there now but I'm so afraid that it smells.
Thank you !!

"Great days and glorious victory! My name is Spifflemonk and welcome to my Letsplay! Today I am back from my medically mandated break from playing human videogames after a rather... cathartic experience with a game called Teardown. Subnautica, even among humans, is labeled as a notorious experience with... mixed reception for its sequel. A survival crafting game apparently. I have experience with those so presumably the gameplay loop should be predictable enough. So... Let's go in!"
Spiffle starts the game, going for standard Survival Mode, with aspects of food and water mechanics alongside health and oxygen. The game loads very, very fast with Spiffles overpowered computer, and the introduction sequence begins. The camera pans to the panicked sight of the payer character moving down a ladder followed by a sight of a starship above exploding.
"Oh dear... oh dear! They weren't kidding about survival! Do I even survive this or am I a ghost or something..."
The pod rattles, the screen shakes, a fire extinguisher falls from its mounting. Velocity causes the pod to dislodge a panel from a wall and it flies around the cabin. The panel flies into the player's screen, making it go black.
"Oh... well okay then. I uh... well."
Spiffles' character awakens and panics at the buttons securing him to the seat. Spiffle quickly figures out that fire in this game is in fact bad, and grabs the fire extinguisher, putting the fire out. The game's introduction plays, showing his PDA, the game's inventory UI.
"Oh! I have seen these things in real life when visiting human stations! Do all humans have these?"
Spiffle starts exploring the escape pod, noting all of the damage to the radio beacon and the wiring panel.
"Hmm... craft the repair tool... Well... For later I suppose. Now how do i-AH, the ladder!"
Spiffle clicks on the ladder and goes through the animation. The character exits and dramatically stands. Spiffle looks around. His face visibly pales as he looks in every direction, finding the only thing nearby that looks 'safe’ or like 'land' is the destroyed ship in the distance.
"Water... it's... water... everywhere! How big is this game's map!? Structural hull failure... zero human lifesigns detected. That's.. not nice. Well... Here we go!"
Spiffle jumps into the water. His mood changes, the underwater environment significantly different than above ground. The water is absolutely teeming with life and color, as Spiff swims towards a reef to stare at some coral. Spiff gets distracted and starts chasing a fish, specifically a Peeper, and grabs it.
"Oh! Good god! THAT'S how humans catch fish!? That's very... inefficient! What is this thing? Can I eat it? I know I'm supposed to take care of my food and water, so how do I eat it?"
Spiffle wanders about for a while, gathering resources and exploring his general location, eventually getting back to the pod. He had gathered up a decent amount of stuff while he was swimming around and accessed the Fabricator to see what was available.
"Ah! I see, the fabricator cooks things too. Uhm... cooked fish thing and... these transparent fish give me water bottles? Okay then! Well. Sorted for food anyway. Let's see. Copper wire, batteries. A Scanner? Does that mean I can like, scan things and tell what they are? And... Oxygen tank? Oh hell yes. I'll build that then."
Spiffle goes through the process of building a few things, checking out how the game's crafting system works, and spending more time collecting resources. He quickly realizes how much work he has to do and finally finishes making a Scanner.
"Okay then well... I can see how much time is going to be spent collecting resources so i'm going to edit all of that out and keep you all in the loop on all the fun parts instead."
Spiffle continues playing, inserting a creative, albeit mildly annoying fanciful scene transition in between resource loops. He comes to a cave looking for salt to make more equipment, when he encounters the first hostile enemy of the game: The Crashfish. He does not notice it at first, the strange sloppy noise it makes as its pod opens, the beast makes a terrible gurgly noise and charges straight at him.
"What is that noi-AH! OY! OI! OIIII what are you what are-!"
Spiffle is cut off as the fish explodes, causing him to lose half his health. He quickly surfaces and takes a breath.
"Okay then... OKAY... THAT... makes absolutely no sense from an evolutionary perspective... but okay then. Avoid those. What even was that? I can't even scan it because it was moving so fast! Gods... exploding fish."
Spiffle shakes his head and resumes his hunt for resources, eventually finding enough for a repair tool. He makes the repair of the pods' broken wiring and looks around a bit more, noting some of the details in the game.
"Hard to believe these games are over eight hundred years old! I keep getting requests to play 'them gud ol' gamez' instead of any new releases. Maybe I'll get to those eventually. I have quite the backlog though."
Spiffle quickly tabs out and shows the huge list of human made games on his list that he has been gifted or purchased himself. The list includes Space Marine, Starship Troopers, Spyro Trilogy, Crash Bandicoot, and so... so many more.
"I am also told about this thing called 'anime', whatever that is. Maybe I should look into that. Anyway..."
Spiffle shrugs for now and resumes playing, swimming around for a bit before finally deciding to use his scanner. He gets the first scan - the Acid Mushroom - and painstakingly reads the supplied article. He then goes on a scanning frenzy, scanning each thing he can find, comically chasing after various fish and objects, trying to scan them then taking an irritatingly long time to read the article aloud.
He gets to the point where he encounters his first real hostile enemy and tries to scan it. The stalker, of course, doesn't appreciate that, and attacks.
"Oooh what's this thing? Oh lovely, it's a big one. Can I scan it? The... Stalker? Oh okay is it friend-OW! NONONONO go away!"
Spiffle panics and scans it while running away from it, trying to swim backwards. He's so focused on scanning it he can't run far enough away that he gets ambushed by another Stalker nearby and manages to scan it just as he gets hit with his first Death in the game.
"Oh.... o...kay. Well... it seems things aren't as friendly as expected. I'm going to guess there's more things like that around. So... I'm just going to finish working on repairs and equipment then I'll take those things on."
Spiffle reads the article on the Stalker he scanned and spends more time collecting resources, scanning local entities and building the rest of the gear he has. Fins, high capacity O2 tank, rebreather and some more food and water which he stores in floating containers for later. He starts to explore a bit farther in search of fragments to scan and finds a Sand Shark, as well as a biome resembling a desert-like area. He encounters his first piece of the wrecked ship here.
"Oh! Hello! Pieces of wreckage! What are these for now do you suppose? Can I disassemble these for resources or-Oh! Is that a door? Oh! I'm supposed to go in here and look for things? How do I get in? Oh I can't. I need a laser cutter. Is one of those here? Need more fragments I guess..."
Spiffle gives up trying to enter and goes up for air, then returns to the floor to hunt for fragments. He eventually unlocks the Bioreactor, pieces of the Scanner room, a couple fragments of the Seaglide and Seamoth. He comes across the first cave entrance to the Mushroom Caves Biome.
"Oh... oh my. That's... deep. Good thing I unlocked the Seamoth thing. Its a miniature submarine I think. I can use that. But that's... kinda scary. I can't see the bottom. I kinda see just... purple. Mostly purple. But it scares me that I can't see the bottom."
Spiffle hangs around the cave entrance for a bit before a call for Oxygen forces him to the surface. He swims back down to the cave entrance and then hangs around a bit longer before once again resurfacing, heading for some new things to scan. It is however at this point that Spiffles exploration is cut short.
"EMERGENCY - SEISMIC READINGS SUGGEST A QUANTUM DETONATION HAS OCCURRED IN THE AURORA'S DRIVE CORE. THE CENTRAL DARK MATTER REACTOR WILL REACH A SUPERCRITICAL STATE IN -"
The computer aboard the PDA shakes Spiff out of his daze and he quickly rushes to the surface and looks at the ship.
"Wait wait wait what's that!? What's going on!? I see the ship? The Aurora! That's what its name is? Whats a Dark Matter reactor and wha-"
The computer continues its countdown muffled by Spiffs panicked squealing and he has a front-row seat to one of the most spectacular explosions in the history of gaming - the Aurora's Reactor Detonation.
It happens. The world goes dead silent for a short moment, and one can see Spiffles heart visibly stop beating. Then explosion as the Aurora lets out its magnificent blast. As the shockwave expands outwards, Spiffs skin visibly turns a paler shade of blue, and his eyes go wide. The sound of a geiger counter follows, leaving him breathless and pale as the world suddenly goes dead quiet again. The sound of the geiger counter ominously leaving him shaken even more than he already is.
"FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE - THE RADIATION SUIT HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR BLUEPRINTS."
Spiffle stays completely silent, bobbing in the water for a solid few minutes, staring in shocked wonder at what he just witnessed. He regains his composure for a few short moments and returns to his scanning venture, but one can easily see he isn't in the right mind after that. He returns to the seabed, at the entrance to the mushroom caves and dives again. He does this several more times, popping up to the surface, looking at the shipwreck, then diving at the entrance again. Finally, after much hesitation, he dives one last time.
"Screw it. it's just a game right?"
He smiles at the camera with a shrug and swims far below the surface, into one of the caves. As he enters the cavern his jaw drops at the sight of a massive underwater cavern filled with gigantic glowing pink mushrooms. The Mushroom caves as they are known. He spots something in the distance, entranced, forgetting his oxygen situation. He cant get far however and a terrifying shriek of some unknown entity shakes him out of his stupor.
"What in the red dawn was that noise!?"
Spiff can't finish asking his invisible audience what's going on as he strays too close to a mushroom, occupied by a Crab Snake, a gigantic sea worm. He is grabbed from behind, spun around and he visibly panics as the giant worm digs its enormous tusks into Spiffles character. Spiffle immediately freaks out, a combination of both the terrifying shriek emitted by the creature and the shock of being attacked makes poor Spiffle jump out of his seat and duck under the table.
"GOWAYGOWAYGOWAGOWAYGOWAY!!!"
The worm comes back and finishes Spiff off before his oxygen runs out. Spiff's character respawns but the footage continues, a slight whimper can be heard in the background as Spiff hides under the desk. This carries on for a few minutes, and his head very slowly appears above the desk. He gingerly puts himself back in his seat and breathes heavily for a bit. When he finally gains control, he tabs out of the game and takes a look at the wiki for Subnautica. He returns a few moments later and stares at the camera in that strange haunting glare he's become so famous for.
"WHY DO YOU STUPID DEVELOPERS NOT PUT GUNS IN THE GAME IF YOU HAVE SHIT LIKE THAT!? ARE YOU INSANE!?"
He grabs the camera and shakes it violently as he rants at it, questioning why there are guns in every other human game he has played and not THIS specific game, especially considering how there are 'giant water snake monsters that eat your face' in a game with no guns. He rants for a good minute or two then plays his outro.
TOP COMMENT: "Are you absolutely sure after Teardown, Factorio and Project ZOMBOID, you should be playing Subnautica? I mean seriously, try something less... psychologically terrifying. It's known as Thalassophobia Simulator for a reason."
_______________________________________________________________
"Great days and glorious victory! My name is Spifflemonk and I still don't understand why we have giant worm monsters but we have no guns!"
Spiffle stares at the camera with an expression that can only be summarized as 'Seriously bruh?' and resumes his last playthrough. He becomes confused at the lack of stuff in his inventory.
"Why is my... Why do I not ha-Oh right... I was eaten. When you die your inventory is wiped... I need to build more tools then."
Spiffle starts some silly music, an alien version of Benny Hill to a montage of him collecting resources, occasionally ranting at various oddities and questioning game logic. He restores all of his tools then goes hunting for a Vehicle Bay fragment so he can build the Seamoth. He continues to scan what he can, developing something of an obsession with the task, then painstakingly reading every word about it to try and understand it. It is at this point Spiffle, during his explorations finds another derelict chunk of ship near the desert region, encountering his first Sand Shark.
"What... What is this? Oh... careful Spiff. This one looks angrier than the last one you found. Wh-What in oblivion!?"
Spiffles attention is once again diverted by the appearance of a Reefback Leviathan and its signature low drone. This one appears to be a fully grown adult.
"You-you... You've got to be... You gotta be fucking kidding me. A Juhara Eelfish!? WHAT IS THAT DOING IN A HUMAN VIDEOGAME!!!??"
Spiffle squeaks in shock as he sees a creature that is an absolute spitting image of a large oceanic dwelling sea creature, which is both the games and his native homeworlds version of a Whale. The Reefback has some dissimilarities, but its close enough to the real thing that Spiffle is genuinely shocked. He quickly pauses the game, opening various wikipedia articles, then displays a full picture of both Subnautica in game Reefback, and the Juhara-Kal-Rehar, colloquially known as a Juhara Eelfish, a shockingly similar creature that lives in his homeworlds oceans.
The only difference between them is the color of the exterior chitin shell. The Reefback has a blue/purple shell, the Juhara Eelfish's chitin has a red/green shell.
"WHEN was this game made!?"
Spiff checks, the current Earth-date is the year 2886. Humanity only entered the galactic community in 2752. Subnautica was released in 2018.
"HOW.... How is that even possible!? You didn't even know the galaxy existed until only a few decades ago, yet you almost PERFECTLY matched the appearance of one of our homeworlds native species! How is this even possible!? Okay. If the name matches then I have to call bullshit."
Spiffle approaches and scans it, then reads the data article.
"A... Reefback Leviathan? Oh thank God... Now let's see... A herbivorous creature that... that likely got so large due to the fact that its predators went extinct. Well... that's... okay... A hard chitinous shell of multiple layers, a microcosm of different creatures and flora growing from its back, hence the name. Hmmm..."
Spiffle gets that cold, empty stare on his face and glares menacingly at the camera. The screen goes black, then returns, seeing Spiffle nursing a beverage of some kind while wrapped in a blanket.
"I realized something... Call it a message from the Ancestors or a Divine revelation. But I have a funny feeling this isn't going to be the last time I see a creature from the galaxy represented in human media. I hope to the Gods that doesn't happen... the concept of this situation is nothing short of terrifying. In any case, I'm sorry about that. Lets.... let's continue."
Spiffle resumes where he left off, doing his usual routine of scanning, then obsessively reading. Eventually he unlocks the Vehicle Bay, and returns home to his pod where the situation with resources is growing obscene with at least fifty floating resource containers hovering around the area.
"Alright... A Vehicle Bay... This means I can build things like the Seamoth now. This will be nice. Right, I shall for the sake of my audience skip the resource collection mechanic that's here and focus on the actual result. I shan't waste my time either though. MONTAGE!"
Spiff yells excitedly and a montage to that same odd Benny Hill type music plays out, with him collecting the resources he needs to build both machines. Most of it is already in the floating containers strewn about. With a few visits to the fabricator, he compiles the Power Cell, Titanium Ingot and Lubricant he needs to make the Vehicle Bay. He deploys it and chases it to the surface just away from the pod in the deeper end of the shallows.
"Right... Not too hard. Let's see then, how do-Ah. Get on it and... The Seamoth. Cost of two glass, one titanium ingot, a powercell, lead and lubricant. Right."
He quickly gathers and makes everything he needs for the Seamoth, then stands on the platform ready to go. He chooses the Seamoths recipe and the sequence starts. His eyes light up as drones start flying around the platform, then begin assembling atom by atom, the small, adorable minisub known as the Seamoth. It finishes the process and flops into the water with a splash.
"My gods look at this thing! It's so cute!"
Spiffle explores the sub for a little while and hops inside it, testing the controls and playing around with it a bit to see what it can do.
"Hm... Maximum Depth, 200 meters? So if I go below that does it implode or something? I need to be careful of that. OH dammit I remember! I have to make that Radiation Suit don't I? I shall do so now!"
Spiffle seems to have found a new resolve, quickly gathering resources together and making both a Seaglide and radiation suit in short order.
"Does this thing have any weapons? How do I repair-Oh... Repair tool? That makes it easier I suppose. Now... Where do I go now? Is there anything I can do?"
Spiffle stumbles about in the blind for a few minutes, trying to figure out his next course of action beyond simply wandering aimlessly while scanning things. He gets back in the pod and fixes the radio beacon. His face visibly contorts into an expression of irritation when he hears his rescue is in 9999 hours. He resolves to come back every now and then to check the radio. He decides to gather more resources to make up for building the seamoth and comes back a bit later. He finds a radio transmission when he returns.
"RADIO: ▀▖┗▛Nine new biological subjects designated. Mode ▄▖▜▚┣: hunting/analyzing.
Sharing subject locations with other agents."
"What... in the Nine Hells was THAT!? Why was it in such an odd voice? What was that language? What were those letters!? Somethings going on here... SO now what? I have the radiation suit. i guess... go into the Aurora? Oh no, I'm not going in there unprepared! Lemme make some tools and spare batteries, then i'll go in. I need... Oh... I need more fragments is what I need."
Spiffle resumes his fragment hunt, looking around for fragments of various tools. He uses the Seamoth to traverse around.
"WHEEE!!!"
Spiff seems more than just a bit happy as he trundles around in the Seamoth, using his speed to launch himself out of the water. He splashes about a bit, testing the limits of the craft and trying to see what holes he can squeeze himself into or out of and how deep he can go.
"Okay okay. time to get to serious work. Now... I need to find... A Laser Cutter and a... STASIS RIFLE?! Wait... rifle? That means GUN! I NEED A GUN!!"
Spiffle charges forward towards the desert biome where he found the Reefback and resumes his search for things to scan. It is now he comes across a Reginald.
"What... IS this fish? Wait, let me just..."
He gets out of the Seamoth and scans it.
"Huh... Reginald. That's a... fish? It's so cute! Wait, come back friend!"
Spiffle spends an unreasonable amount of time trying to catch a Reginald. When he finally catches one he gets back in the Seamoth and heads towards the aurora, new friend in tow. He trundles over to the side of the crashed ship and scans some random stuff here and there, finding fragments to a few small items, including a few he needs such as a Powercell Charger for the Seamoth’s battery. He gets close to the front of the ship and the haunting, evil noise of Subnautica's most iconic killer suddenly echoes through the gloomy water.
"What... Was that? Is it another worm thing? Please don't let it be one of those..."
Spiffle wanders around the side for a bit longer. An ominous shadow looms in the background, catching his eye. He ignores it for the moment and simply carries on, eventually arriving at the entrance to the ship. Through the mangled steel and fire he squeezes into the front of the ship and looks around. The environment ominously rattles and his screen shakes as the ships structure isn't exactly stable. The howl of the creature in the shadows makes Spiff even more uncomfortable.
"I... Do NOT like this. I really dont."
Spiff parks the Seamoth where he can see a ramp leading up, and gets out. He is immediately accosted by Cave Crawlers and uses his knife to defend himself, poorly, but he gets rid of the three or four around him.
"WARNING: SCANS SHOW THE DIGESTIVE TRACTS OF INDIGENOUS LIFE FORMS CONTAIN HUMAN TISSUE."
Spiffs face turns an even paler shade of blue and he swallows visibly as if he's trying not to vomit.
"Yeuch... I can scan this thing and read it later. I don't want to be here any longer than I have to."
Spiff scans and follows the path to the interior, uses his fire extinguisher to put out some fires in the area and gets inside. The ship rumbles as he wanders around and gets into one of the rooms. He finds the poster of the P.R.A.W.N. Suit.
"Ooh! A poster thing? Can I take it or? I can! PRAWN Suit eh? Can I actually use that thing?"
Spiff takes the poster, scans some furniture and collects a PDA. Spiff continues down the corridor and retrieves his Propulsion Cannon from his inventory and uses it to pick up some furniture in the way.
"I am SO glad I got this thing from scanning the area before I came here. This is super useful! I wonder if it has other uses..."
He gets to the door and looks at his databank.
"Hmm... Here it is! Code for the door is 1454. Right."
Spiff moves through, repairing a door to get the Seamoth Depth Upgrade Module. He continues and clears a fire to enter the main reactor. His inner loot goblin shines through and grabs the Cyclops engine efficiency module before he starts work on repairs, scanning the breach and starting work. It doesn't take him long, but he gets issues with a Bleeder that lives in the waters. He scans one then finishes repairs. Foolishly, he uses the propulsion cannon and shoots the bleeder at one of the reactors, undoing his work. He looks at the damage he caused and repairs it.
"Well... what was I expecting... Why did I do that? It's a CANNON... why did I aim it at the reactor exactly? So stupid..."
Spiff finishes and heads to the PRAWN Bay, and looks around at the damage. He spots the prawn suits and starts scanning, grabbing a storage module upgrade from a console and starts extinguishing flames so he can scan. He runs out of fire extinguisher juice though.
"Blast! Can I still scan these if they're on fire?"
Spiff walks around, finding cheeky angles he can use and scans the debris, finding all four fragments he needs. He heads upstairs and goes through the rooms and everything he can find. He gets into the Galley and sees the Kitty in a Space Helmet Poster.
"What the- 'Keep Calm'? What in the blue balls is this? It's.... cute! What is this creature!? Can I keep this? I can!"
Spiffle excitedly grabs the poster and moves on. He goes through cabins, picks up PDAs and collects the Natural Selection 2 poster, the Prawn suit in the sea poster and the collectible arcade toy in the locked cabin. Lacking the code to the Captain's cabin, he returns to the prawn bay and tries swimming around, eventually finding a passage in the hull debris to the rest of the ship. He moves through in silence, recovers the black box data and exits the ship. He removes debris, grabs the local wildlife with the cannon and tosses them into fires or the water with glee.
"BEGONE BEAST!!! Ha! Right... uhh... where did i park? Oh, there it is. Should I go home? I wonder if there are any fragments I can use around here?"
Spiff exits, finding Liefpod 4 floating upside down on the surface of the water. He collects the PDA data and a new blueprint. Then, as he gets in the seamoth, the horrifying roar of the Reaper Leviathan suddenly sounds. Spiff is thrown into a panic, screams in terror and tries desperately to get away. The beast appears with jaw chomping and claws clawing at the poor Seamoth. The entire time Spiffle is screeching like a bird with a broken leg, his entire body now an almost ghostly white out of absolute terror.
"GOWAYGOWAYGOWAYGOWAYGODNONNONOGOWAYGOWAY!!!"
Spiffle manages to get out of its grip and in a panic charges away towards his lifepod and continues to scream, breathing hard between screams. He gets to the pod and then hides under his desk, continuing to scream. His channel outro plays.
TOP COMMENT: (This has been translated from Eridani) "I am starting to believe this whole sojourn was a very BAD idea. Do you humans have those kinds of beasts on your homeworld? How did you ever survive them?!"
RESPONSE: LOL no we never had Reapers. The only Leviathan Class creatures we have on our planet are Whales. And they're mostly peaceful plankton eaters. Mostly.
RESPONSE: (Translated from Eridani) "Seriously? I think I find it more terrifying that these creatures are made up in your minds. What kind of nightmares do you people have to be able to create this level of fiction!?"
RESPONSE: Do. Not. Ask. This is only Subnautica - we have FAR worse.
Spiffles response: "You're going to make me play these 'far worse', aren't you?"
RESPONSE: "Damn right we are! :)"
________________________________________________________
"Great days and glorious victory! My name is Spifflemnonk and welcome back to Subnautica!"
Spiffle looks visibly stronger, his usual lanky appearance now looking like he's been working out like a Gym Bro. One can see muscles on muscles and Spiff seems to have an abnormal amount of energy.
"I am now relaxed. It is now time to get eaten by giant scary sea monsters. And yes, before you ask, I have successfully finished fully soundproofing my office. And also yes, I am indeed expecting a new addition to the brood... THANKS DAMN HUMANS! You and your damn musical magic nonsense..."
Spiffle starts the game and is swimming outside the pod next to the Seamoth. The first thing he does is repair the seamoth from the damage incurred by the Reaper, and recounts what hes been up to, checking inventory and equipment. He heads to the radio and gets a new transmission.
RADIO - "This is Avery Quinn of trading ship Sunbeam. Aurora, do you read? Over.'
'Nothing but vacuum. These Alterra ships. They run low on engine grease, they send an SOS; you offer to help, they don't pick up.'
'Aurora, we're out on the far side of the system, it's going to take more than a week to reach your position, do you still need our assistance? Over.'
'I'll try them again tomorrow. Damn charter's going to have us wasting our profit margin running errands for Alterra.'
'See what the long-range scanner picks up in the meantime."
"Oh? Oh lovely! There ARE people in this game! I wonder when they will be here? Meh, I have things to build, so I'll keep an eye."
Spiffle resolves himself to start building a base, trying to find a good spot. He finds the Mushroom Forest Biome and starts gathering resources to ferry them around. He installs the Depth Module and the Storage module to the Seamoth, then builds the Moon Pool. The Mushroom Biome becomes one of his favorite spots and a close encounter with a JellyRay cements it.
"Those creatures are beautiful! Look! JellyRay! Its glowing blue and pretty! I love that! Oh... I have a new radio message. I need to listen to that then."
Spiff returns to the pod and listens to the message.
RADIO - "Aurora, this is Sunbeam again. We just picked up a massive debris field at your location.'
'I didn't know how bad... How many of you... I didn't know.'
'We are now en route to your location. We're going to bring you home. Sunbeam out.'
'What else can I say? The only time I parked a rig this big on a rock that small was in VR, and I blew it'
'Oh, it's a bad option alright, but so are all the others."
Spiff smiles and carries on working, parking the Seamoth inside after powering everything up.
"So lovely! But... Is that a win condition? I know human games by now I have played enough of them. Is that a win condition? Get rescued? I dunno..."
Spiffle carries on building for a little and gets a storage system up, spending a few in-game days transporting resources to his new base. He returned to the pod and played a new radio message, again from the Sunbeam.
RADIO - "This is Sunbeam. Y'know, Aurora, we're from a little trans-gov on the far side of Andromeda, and we have a saying there.'
'There's no bad without the good, no good without the bad.'
'Sounds like you tasted a bunch of the former, but that only means you're overdue a whole lot of the latter.'
'Might just be we're it.'
'We're scanning for somewhere to park, we'll be in touch when we find it. Sunbeam out."
"Ohh... That... that's a lovely saying! What was that uh... There's no bad without the good, no good without the bad. I like that! I think i'll have that framed on my wall! Now lets see.. i ca- I CAN GIVE THE SEAMOTH A NAME? OOHHHhh okay, okay.. I can customize the color too! I think I'll just do this..."
Spiff leaves the name as 'Seamoth' for now, changing the color to a mix of purple for the main, and blue for the trim and name color. His two favorite colors. Spiffle does a little more work, acquiring the last fragments for the Cyclops and starts gathering together the resources necessary to build it.
"Hmmm.. Cyclops... Personal large scale submarine capable of carrying other vehicles! Ooohhh I want to build that! I need to fetch the Vehicle Bay though. Im almost done moving house!"
Spiff returns and packs up the last of his resources, then gets another radio message.
RADIO - "Aurora, we're approaching the planet now, and we have a landing site for you that's... well, it's better than the alternatives.'
'We've sent you the coordinates.'
'It'll take us a couple of days to align our orbit, we should be able to establish direct contact with you during that time, then we're coming in to get you.'
'Cross your fingers the weather holds, and don't leave us waiting. Sunbeam out."
Spiffle gets a new beacon on his HUD. Sunbeam Landing Site.
"What!? Is this game over If I'm there!? Okay... well. At least it's no longer terrifying! I'll get the Seamoth and go for the beacon then. I hope it's okay... Strange... this... doesn't feel like the end, you know? But if it is then it is."
Spiff heads home, deploys the Vehicle Bay and deposits his gear and resources. He heads towards the location, occasionally squealing 'WHEEE!!' as he uses the Seamoth to jump out of the water like a dolphin. However, he miscalculates and the Seamoth jumps up, out and sustains a bit of damage as it hits a rock formation close to the surface. He gets out, repairs it and looks at the camera.
"Why no I didn't just damage my Seamoth by having too much fun. I don't know what you are talking about. Hehe."
Spiffle smirks at the camera with a glare and carries on. Eventually, he encounters the largest of the Islands in the world.
"Wh... WHAT. This has been here the whole time!? Is this an island? Who cares! LAND! Sweet land!"
Spiffle now notices the timer and hops onto the island from his Seamoth. He walks up to the landing zone and stops dead in his tracks at the sight of the massive al;ien structure known as the Quarantine Enforcement Platform. In essence, a giant alien cannon.
"What... the *beep* is THAT?"
Spiffles' editing has gotten better, his editor learning how to censor Spiffles foul language, in both English AND Eridani. He moves closer to the building, scanning the broken tablet and the Forcefield Controls.
"What is this? I mean it's clearly alien... What do the codex entries say... 'possible to reconstruct the device' Oh... hmm.. I can make more of these then. 'Matches no known technologies... functions like a lock'. Okay then so... Standard video game logic I guess. That's nice! So A purple tablet will unlock the gate there. What are those?"
Spiff moves towards the Cairns marking the way into the island, pathways leading up the mountainside. He follows them, finding a Purple Tablet in the process on one of the pathways.
"Oh! Lovely! That saves me resources and a trip I guess. This pathway keeps going though. hmm... Welp, we still have thirty minutes, so let's go."
Spiff explores the pathway, getting lost a bit before finally figuring that following the large cables is a good idea. He comes across the Teleportation Arch and scans it, in between dodging the Cave Crawlers.
"Right, let's see... Alien Arch... not much to speak of here. Maybe this thing will be useful later I guess. Likely.... Hmmm..."
Spiffle continues exploring and eventually finds himself back at the forcefield with another twenty minutes to go.
"Screw it, let's go."
Spiff activates the forcefield platform and the animation of the key being placed plays out. He moves into the building, activating both data platforms and acquiring two Ion Cubes for later, scanning everything he thinks he can scan. He enters the Moonpool in the bay and gets two more Ion Cubes, plus data on a rifle and a Doomsday Device. He ignores it for now, acquiring one more purple tablet and accessing the control room.
"Right... what's in here? Hmm... Energy Core, right. I shall scan that and... press button?"
Spiff presses the button. An animation plays where a device locks his characters hand in place, viciously stabs it with a pointy metal bit and then releases it.
"OH GODS what the hell! Why is that?! That's just nasty!"
"THE TERMINAL IS BROADCASTING A MESSAGE. TRANSLATION READS: 'Warning, infected individuals may not disable the weapon. This planet is under quarantine.'"
"Quarantine! What? Infected? I-Hold on...."
Spiffle gets his scanner out and performs a self-scan. It is only now he notices something very bad has happened.
"I-infected!? Wait, what!?"
"SELF-SCAN COMPLETE - DETECTING STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT BACTERIAL LEVELS. NO ADVERSE EFFECTS DETECTED. BE VIGILANT FOR SYMPTOMS."
"Oh brilliant! Does that mean I can't leave? I KNEW IT! Wait... weapon!? This is a weapon!?"
Spiffle panics and runs out of the facility as fast as he can and waits the last few minutes for the Sunbeam to arrive. Sure enough, it does. In the last 30 seconds, the Sunbeam plays a message.
RADIO - "Survivor, we see you!
'Man, I don't know how you held out down there.'
The sunbeams message plays, and Spiffle gasps in terror from the sound of the gun platform starting up and starting to move around.
RADIO - "We've broken atmosphere and we're descending towards the landing site.'
'Is that a building down there?! What do you mean you can't identify it?"
The weapon powers up and turns, aiming itself high at the sky.
RADIO - "Hold on, no turning back now.'
'Positions everyone, touching down in 10, 9, 8-'
The weapon charges up and a loud vicious hum can be heard echoing through the valley.
RADIO - "It's coming from the building?! Change course, set thrusters to (full)-"
The radio goes to static, the weapon fires and the Sunbeam is vaporized instantly by a massive blast of bright green light. The sunbeam disappears, its hull structure completely disintegrated. Spiffle sits in stunned silence as the platform returns to a stable position, shuts down, and everything goes quiet.
"Well... Okay then... That was... horrifying. I guess thats all we have time for! Hehe! Oh dear..."
Spiffle looks a bit defeated as he sits back in his seat.
"S-see you next time! I guess... Holy shit..."
Channel Outro plays.
TOP COMMENT: "Are you okay? You seem a little bit too disturbed by that. Its fine though, compared to what happens in the Rise Of The Ancients Mod, this is tame! Lol! I love that mod!"
Spiffles Response: "Please don't make me play that mod..."
((Authors note - due to how bastardingly huge Subnautica is, this will be a multi part series. Other Spiff stories will come inbetween. Hope you enjoy!))

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Mission Log: Day 0024

Addendum 04

Packard and his 'scouts' made their way back up to the foyer, and gave their verbal report to Lord Zee and the rest of the crowd. Reviewing the security footage let me know that the 'nobles' and their personal servants had been jockeying for positions, each one trying to claim their own 'scandalously common' picnic tables of the four, while Lord Zee had been 'inspecting' the lavatories'. Fortunately, with one lady seemingly fast asleep at one table and the other, alone among the lot in her willingness to share, simply claimed the opposite side of the same table. That left the 'boys' bickering more about which of the three remaining tables held the more 'prestigious' or 'auspicious' position; I honestly wasn't all that certain how the screaming-match would have progressed if there hadn't been enough tables to go around. The overall enthusiasm for the arguments died down as soon as Lord Zee exited the lavatories and proclaimed them 'less than perfectly dignified for those of the nobility, but safe enough' that his family could avail themselves of the two rooms. Nehdud, with Stakkeg in his wake, made a pretty obvious dash for the door Lord Zee had just passed back through. Haruinn, weighed down with all his cutlery, had no chance of beating his relative... cousin? Brother? Nephew?... to the 'room of comfort', but followed as quickly as he could. Midmolk, bless the man, lugged that tower-shield along and even into the lavatory.
It would take a few clock-cycles to collate the data made available from what the Lignignories left in the lavatories. However, I had no doubts that as soon as I had the medical-bay finished, there would be a lot of recommendations for each one of them just in terms of diet. And the collection of infections, bacterial and viral and possibly parasitical, among the lot would likely be lengthy...
Ah, well. “Disaster recovery” covered quite a wide array of needs, did it not?
My inventory-monitor let me know that at least one of the men had indulged in their curiosity about the mysterious 'extra boxes' on the walls of the lavatory-stalls. Nothing terribly impressive there, considering that the Fuin-Braetehl boys had done the same and promptly used the resulting pads as insoles for their boots. However, the 'culprit' turned out to be Kregorim. I had half-expected Lord Zee to play around with the dispensers, or even his servant, but I suppose that one doesn't become a magician without having considerable curiosity about any strange new phenomenon.
Kregorim came out of the room behind Lord Zee and the other man, carrying a small bag of faded blue cloth in his left hand and loitering around beside the other door while Lord Zee made his announcement. He also pretended to be fascinated by the water-dispenser while the two boys and their servants made a stiff-kneed, mad dash for the lavatory Lord Zee had just exited; regardless of the layout inside, the fact that Lord Zee had entered that one made it “Gentlemen's territory” by fiat.
Ah, well. If I really needed to, my nanites could move the 'feminine necessities' into the other room.
Kregorim waited until Adallinda and her personal attendant Pippa had exited... which took almost 30.57 minutes after Lord Zee and the others had completed their own 'business'... and begged a momentary indulgence from them while he entered. And it really did take only 1.503 minutes for him to come back out again.
Adallinda delivered some choice words on the subjects of the stalls themselves as well as the magician's 'audacity' of entering the Ladies' room of comfort to the slowly-growing audience of Lignignories, attendants, and other ragged-looking folk. Though directed primarily to her father, of course. While she delivered her monologue to Lord Zee, Kregorim showed the six samples of 'feminine hygiene products' he had received from the dispensers in the other room to Pippa. Her look of mild confusion switched to wide-eyed blushes as he murmured an explanation to her behind his upraised hand, but at least she wound up smiling and nodding when he straightened up. Pippa proceeded to discreetly signal to Totra and Yera, her working counterpart-servants to the other Lignignory ladies. Kregorim gave a shallow bow in their direction, letting the servants exchange the necessary information in their own way.
While the whisper-line spread the word among the ladies, Lord Zee conferred with Packard about next steps. Well, 'conferred' might be the wrong word; Lord Zee demanded to know which of the available units were best suited to his lordly self, and that he and his servants get escorted there immediately. Packard had Tianna and himself lead the way, winding up with Lord Zee, his flock of attendants, and Kregorim trailing behind.
The magician kept up with the group, running his hands along the railings and staring at the odd 'not-moss' on the stairs undersides. He also got a very good and close look at the biometric scanner, as Tianna demonstrated that the flat panel of the door would only open after someone's hand pressed on the black not-glass.
“Hmph!” Lord Zee snorted. “So any random brigand could just press their hand to the door and gain access to my noble self? Packard, we'll be discussing guard-rotations as soon as our luggage is in place!”
Tianna and Packard led the way inside, Lord Zee following and the rest of the 'servants' behind him. The tension around Lord Zee's eyes relaxed just a little as he noted the space just within. The layout amounted to adding a second bedroom and bathroom on the end of the 'main suite', extending the 'utility room' so that all the fabricators stood in a line along one wall, and expanding the kitchen for more counter-space and cabinets on the opposite side of that wall. Back home, an apartment unit like this would've been suitable for a young couple climbing their way out of the less-reputable neighborhoods and willing to have a child or two in the process, or off-campus housing for a few college students.
For Lord Zee, though...
“Hmph! Space enough for myself, I suppose, and to quarter my servants to act as guards until we get some proper deterrents installed... And not so much as a trace of a decent carpet or rug, just more of that strange... stuff... for flooring?”
“Correct, sir,” Packard answered, before gesturing at the fabricator-banks. “However, these 'magic trunks' over here will help with at least some of that...”
It felt a little bit like listening to one pre-Information Age grandfatherly-type trying to explain a modern desktop computer to another. Admittedly, Packard and Tianna did do a decent job of walking Lord Zee... and his now-named chief personal servant, Delweard... through the process of fabricating dishware, bedding, and various other basics. Lord Zee nodded in the right places, even mastered his own obvious nervousness about touching the 'mirror' on the 'magic trunk' well enough to design and trigger the 'build' for a simple chair.
“These markings...” Kregorim said, examining the screens on the 'laundry' machine. “They seem similar to the written form of Trade Tongue, but with traits more commonly used by those further north...”
“Well and good,” Lord Zee answered. “Clearly a sign from the Master Navigator that we of House Lignignory are meant to return there and rebuild our power. We shall use this... outpost... as a staging area for our journey to Baerston Stronghold...”
I tuned out yet another extended monologue on the subject, focusing more on Packard, Tianna and Kregorim as they gathered around another fabricator out of Lord Zee's direct line of sight; Delweard motioned for the rest of the ragged-looking servants to take their places as an almost-literal captive audience to hold Lord Zee's attention while the other three talked.
“Why five magic trunks...?” Kregorim asked, half to himself and half to the others.
Packard turned his head in Tianna's direction, and nodded.
Tianna frowned, holding a stance that left the magician facing her left shoulder while she kept her right hand close to the hilt of her knife. “Stockley and I didn't feel comfortable examining them too closely when we first searched the quarters, magician,” she explained. “Nothing sprang to mind except that, perhaps, whatever power built this place intended it for use by a family, perhaps to allow the Mam, the Da, and the young ones of age to use them properly to do so all at once?” Then she nodded in the direction of the hip-high surfaces on the walls at the side and rear of the room. “No sink, no lines, no washtub, but something about those tables made both of us think of laundry-rooms for some reason.”
Kregorim glanced over his shoulder, his hands drifting through movements much like folding clothes, and he nodded. “A reasonable assumption, Miss,” he answered, his tone distant. Then he turned back to the pair. “I take it that you've already determined who is to be quartered where?” he asked, tilting his head in Lord Zee's direction. “For the safety of House Lignignory, of course.”
One of Packard's eyebrows rose a millimeter, returned to place. He gestured to the side, then curved the hand downward. “Beside us is another set of chambers like this, but mirrored,” he explained. “And directly below us, duplicates of both. Further dawnward are four smaller such, two above and two below. I and mine haven't as much need for space as the Lignignories, and at least two of us'll be on patrol at any given hour, so we'll take two of them for guard-quarters and rotate in and out as needed. Figure that the clients will want us close to hand, so we've left you the one on the end, down on ground level.”
Kregorim nodded. “Fair enough,” he answered. “Need either of you be present to grant me entrance, or may I make my way there alone, now?”
At their headshakes, he stepped over to Lord Zee's side and waited for the man to take a breath. “With your permission, your lordship, I shall go inspect my own quarters before deciding where to set my luggage,” he said.
Lord Zee turned in place, flustered at the interruption. “What, what, what?” he stammered, before recovering himself a bit. “You dared to claim a space before I, your Lord, had chosen one for you?”
Packard stepped up, one hand up with palm out. “It was a security decision, your lordship,” he said, his tone even. “The two units at the end of this line are closest to what seems to be a trail leading to the opposite cliffside. Between my people and the magician's arts, we should be able to form a suitable defense against any intruders approaching from that direction.”
Mollified, Lord Zee nodded. “Very well, you may proceed then, magician.” His 'chair' build completed, he opened the build-chamber hatch and glared at the contents. “Packard, what manner of japery is this?” he demanded, and Tianna took over explaining that the 'blocks' inside constituted the compact, even portable, form of the chair he had requested. She handed the pieces, one at a time, to Delweard and the other servants, who were able to get them all snapped and twisted together into a solid-looking straight-backed chair.
Lord Zee gestured for them to move the thing into the center of the main room and settled into it, wriggling in place before returning his attention to more important matters. “Delweard, where do you suppose we should quarter the stock for the night?” the balding 'noble' asked.
Kregorim took his leave, walking back to the lobby-area and taking those stairs down to the ground floor, then proceeding past the other doors... and to my considerable surprise, ignoring the maintenance staircase... to the last panel, next to the final door.
He pressed his hand to it. I took a clock-cycle to include notes in my own files to warn Thakhibi, Sudryal, and the others that I had needed to let someone else use 'their' quarters until I could finish getting another floor's worth of accommodations finished, then granted him access. The magician nodded as the door opened, and he stepped inside.
He glanced around, noting the presence of the fabrication units in the utility room. Then his eyes roved across the walls...
“I take it that you were waiting until I was somewhat separated from the others, and in suitable privacy,” he said, addressing the air and taking a balanced stance in the center of the main room. “I do hope that you've decided to introduce yourself. I am called Krunorim Kregorim, magician, oathbound servant to Lord Zortemos Egenor Lignignory the Fourth, and I would very much like to speak with the one whose mind I touched not to long ago..."
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Sorry this took so long, kinda got caught up.
Don't have too much to say, other than Maple Whiskey is rapidly becoming one of my favorite drinks, and I'm sorry this took so long to come out. Real life kinda got in the way for a bit (I have one of those?), and I had to put stuff on the backburner. Sorry.
That about covers it.
Previous/Main/Discord/Next
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Fries limped his way down the ship’s hallways, using the wall to his right to support himself. Twisted metal and debris littered the hallways, but it had clearly not come from this sector. He was in the center of the ship, far enough away that nothing was dangerously damaged yet, but they were obviously putting stuff in the wide, CEVA-rated hallways for the time being. He gritted his teeth from the pain and was forced to take short, shallow breaths as he walked. He clutched his side as he shuffled along, almost wishing that he was in one of the suits to help support him.
“Fuck me.” He muttered, pausing for a moment outside of his room to breathe. He was about to type in his code to unlock the door when he realized that it was already unlocked. Not sure why and fearing the worst, he drew his personal pistol from the back of his suit’s waistband, keeping it close in to himself to make sure that it couldn’t get pulled away from him. Exhaling sharply as he brought his arm away from his chest to hit the button that opened the door.
It quickly slid open with a sharp hiss and allowed him into the room. The lights were on, and the room didn’t seem to be different, but he distinctly remembered having locked the room prior. He slowly walked in, trying to clear as much as possible while coming in. He took note of the new bag in the room, but couldn’t see anything else new in the room.
His attention was rapidly divided by a shipwide alert that the admiral had left the vessel, causing him to turn around suddenly.
“You alright?” a voice behind him asked, causing him to rapidly turn around to aim the gun, but wound up hurting him more and causing him to drop to one knee.
“What in the fuck are you doing in my room?” the ODST whispered, barely able to speak from pain.
“Got moved down here for safety, you can ask Donahue.” she stated, helping him up and taking the gun from him.
“Got it… he just left the ship?” he asked, immediately attempting to lay himself down on the bed.
“Yeah, he’s heading to see the Tikaqick.” Firdaus stated with a slight bit of disdain in her voice.
“You got a problem with them?” the ODST muttered, barely looking at her.
“Not as many as with my own people, but certainly a fair number of problems with them.” she hissed, helping the man move towards the bathroom.
“You’re going to need to explain, but in a bit. I have like six different bandages to switch.” Fries grunted, closing the door behind him.
_____
“Sir?” the lieutenant Marine beside him asked, racking a round into her rifle’s chamber, “You alright?”
“Hmm?” The man asked, his head quickly snapping up to look at her, “Oh, yes. I’m fine.”
“You’re sure?” she asked again, watching as the man sealed on his helmet.
“Yes.” He nodded, shooting a glance back at the ship they left from, “Yes… it’s not my first time doing this…”
The crew continued on in relative silence. The Marines and ODSTs were a mix of the two crews, one of each being from the old crew and one of each being the replacement crew. The Marine Lieutenant was one of the new crew, along with the ODST Sergeant. The Marine Sergeant and ODST Captain, however, were both well experienced in combat.
“We’re approaching the landing bay.” The pilot called out over radio, “Thirty seconds.”
“Copy that.” Donahue nodded, standing up and bracing himself against the roof to avoid floating around, “Well… Guess it’s that time again.”
“There’s no CIA on board and the ship isn’t a USS.” The Marine sergeant stated, unbuckling himself but not standing up, “It’ll be different this time.”
“Let’s hope not. Flu’ron’s still on board.” James Orwell, the xenobiologist muttered, attempting to raise his reflective visor, to little avail.
The Marine floated over and helped the man with his visor before floating towards the pilots’ cabin door and letting himself in, floating between the two so he could see out the front window.
“Siddown, Sergeant.” One of the pilots muttered, not looking back as he did minute adjustments to the ship’s trajectory as they approached.
“This whole damn thing could be made of gold…” The Marine muttered, magnetically locking himself to the floor and kneeling down as they approached.
“Crossing threshold, standby for turbulence.” One of the pilots radioed out, a hydraulic whine reverberating through the ship’s hull as they lowered the landing gear.
“Back and seal the hatch, Sergeant.” The other pilot snapped, barely looking back at the Marine, instead focusing on the windows and displays ahead of them.
“Copy that.” The Marine nodded, taking the time to check the two pilots’ weapons stowed behind their chairs before floating himself back into the crew compartment and sealing the hatch behind him.
“Ten seconds to landing. Artificial Gravity is off in the bay, disarming OMS.” A pilot called out, still keeping a smooth voice about him, “Threshold crossed, stand by.”
The ship seemed to do nothing for a moment before a very light shudder echoed through the hull, followed by a sharp, metallic ‘thud’.
“We have contact, maglocks engaged.” The first pilot informed.
“Gravity systems and harmonics coming online. Disengaging RCS.” the second pilot called out, likely talking to his partner over the crew in the back. After a few seconds of silence, the ship seemed to spool down and orange lights came on in the back of the crew compartment, showing up just over the CEVA-sized, round airlock doors at the sides of the craft and above the regularly-sized hexagonal door at the back of the craft. After a moment, a female robotic voice called out ‘Pressure stable’ and the lights switched to green.
“We’re down. Thank you for flying Air Peregrine, please take your bags from the overhead compartments and leave in an orderly fashion.” one of the pilots called out, putting on an extremely good and smooth ‘airline’ voice.
“You are aware that you’re talking to an Admiral, right.?” the Marine Lieutenant asked, seemingly disappointed at the pilot.
“Oh, I imagine he does.” Donahue smiled, motioning for the ODSTs to head out the door first.
The two armored figures were already moving towards the door, letting the ladder come out first before checking pressure one last time and opening the rear door. To their shock and horror, the void of space lay just outside the door, though nothing was losing pressure.
“Plasma barrier?” a Marine asked, his voice faltering slightly when he saw the smoking form of the Dracula in the distance.
“Something like that…” James muttered, waiting for the Admiral to head down the ladder after the ODSTs before following him down.
There were no aliens directly off their ship, which surprised them slightly, but gave the crew time to prepare themselves. They were supposed to form a ‘triangle’ with Donahue at the front, the two ODSTs behind him, and the two Marines on either side of James, behind the ODSTs. However, they had more than enough time to prepare, to the point of it becoming awkward. The team moved to the left side of the Ranger, and sat in waiting. The Marine Sergeant began to get skeptical and checked the chamber of his rifle while his reflective visor dropped into place, subtly preparing for a conflict.
However, before their thoughts could fester any further, a door off the left-side nose of the Ranger opened to reveal the creatures that owned the ship. They were around the same height as a Human, albeit seeming a little taller on average. They were obviously Avian-esque, with short, stubby, owl-like faces, in opposition to the long beaks of Afi’end. They had two large eyes just behind their beak, with what appeared to be two sets of closed eyelids underneath them. Their feathers were gray and black, with a small amount of crow-like iridescence in them. They had long wings which wrapped around their bodies, making a ‘cloak’ around them. Their legs were similar to that of an Afi’end’s, but seemed slightly thinner.
They wore thick, heavily stylized armor. It had gold plating with ivory and blue-diamond accents, glassy pauldrons, and other, seemingly glowing, lines and accents in it.
The rest of the ship looked similar; with gold, ivory, and blue-diamond glass seeming to come from all parts of the ship. The ship looked incredibly clean, with no smudging seeming to come from anything except the Humans. The flight deck they were on was made of some kind of ivory-esque compound as well, with the only scuffs on it being from the RCS thrusters the Ranger had used earlier. Against the gold, whites, and blues of the alien vessel, the greens, grays, and oranges of the Human suits contrasted hard;
Donahue’s suit was nothing special, nor was it too dirty, but it was not perfectly hermetic, like the rest of the ship seemed to be. James’ suit did seem to fit their criteria of cleanliness everywhere except his boots, where it was obvious that he hadn’t put hours of work into cleaning the dirt out of the fabric on the last surface mission he had done. The Marines’s suits were the most well-loved; boasting patches of stained mud, foliage, and other assorted junk all over the suit. The ODSTs were clearly battle-damaged, however: Cuts and scrapes into the plating could be seen around the arms and chest, with plasma burns etched into the metal of the helmet on the more experienced man.
Donahue almost wished he had been able to wash his suit now, but he hoped they would understand.
“Hey, we’re not the only ones to bring armed guards.” The ODST to his right stated.
“Oh thank Christ.” Donahue muttered, shifting his reflective faceplate up, “I would have felt awful if they trusted us that much.”
“Feel better, they don’t.” The ODST muttered back, standing up straighter as the aliens approached.
“Admiral Donahue?” the creature at the front of the group asked, looking at the admiral in the front of his own group.
“Captain Kinlykc?” Donahue asked, stepping towards the aliens. The creature seemed mildly amused at the Admiral’s suit, but went back to looking him in the eyes shortly after.
There was an awkward silence for a moment before the alien decided that it was likely in everyone’s best interests if something was said.
“Apologies for my awkwardness in this situation; it has been a long time since I’ve had the pleasure of doing a proper first-contact scenario.” it stated, clearly motioning for his own guards behind him to be less on-guard. The Humans were taken aback a bit, as the creature didn’t move his mouth to speak, but more seemed to emanate the words from itself.
Donahue nodded, but didn’t have to motion to his own men, as they had already come to stand down themselves.
“Entertainingly enough, I was still captaining that ship out there for our true first contact.” Donahue nodded, making sure that both his hands were visible in front of him.
“Really?” the avian asked, motioning for the admiral to follow him deeper into the ship, “Is your ship the only one in your fleet?”
Donahue paused for a moment before following the alien Captain, motioning for his team to follow shortly behind him.
“Negative, we’re just lucky.” The Admiral smiled, attempting to hide his trepidation through humor. The ODSTs were just as slow to follow behind, but eventually caught back up, seemingly worried about leaving the pilots alone. They were brought into a wide hallway. It had the same stylings as the docking bay had, but seemed to have ‘tiling’ instead of the solid piece that the other room had. James slowly pushed his way through the column of armored personnel and wound up beside the Admiral.
“Umm, excuse me, Captain Kinlykc?” He asked, fiddling with his suit to attempt to make sure the external speakers were working.
“Yes?” the avian asked, looking back at the scientist.
“How… are you talking?” He asked, not sure whether the question was to be considered rude or not, “As in, your mouth isn’t moving, how are you talking to us?”
After the scientist clarified himself, the avian seemed to understand the question.
“We do not breathe through our mouth, I’m assuming like you do then.” It nodded, tapping on its beak and unfolding its wings. It raised its arms and pointed at a set of openings under the creature’s armpits, “We breathe and vocalize through these.”
James was speechless for a moment, but the Admiral was relatively sure that was because he was deciding whether or not it was entirely wrong to lean in closer for a better look.
“If you do not mind me asking a question of my own, what are the clothes you’re wearing?” The avian asked, motioning to everybody except the ODSTs, “Are they your uniforms?”
“These?” James repeated, pulling at his suit, “These are pressure suits. To keep our own atmosphere in.”
“But why?” The bird asked, continuing down the path, “We scanned your vessel as the door opened to analyze what your atmosphere was to accommodate, and they were almost identical.”
"We pressurized our vessel to the bay’s atmosphere.” Donahue stated, nodding at the two, “Our atmospheres are similar, and very breathable, but not the same.”
“Why the pressurized suits then? We can breathe the same atmosphere, no?”
“Our people are not nearly as advanced as some others, who can do bacterial scans of atmospheres before they even land to make sure that neither side will infect the other. We cannot do that, so we hermetically seal off from everybody else to avoid infecting them.” James stated, finishing Donahue’s explanation.
That was an answer that seemed to sit well with the avian, who nodded at them and continued down the hallways.
_____
Kinsey practically dive-rolled out of her vessel’s docking port and into the Dracula’s gravity field, her helmetless RHEV suit’s bulk causing her to roll erratically to the side. She quickly got back up and started jogging her way to the other side of the ship, her quickly-moving, armored figure moving everybody out of her way. She wasn’t in any actual hurry, but the message did have to be delivered relatively quickly.
She quickly dog-legged down a side hallway and towards flight bay 3, near the primary medical bay. As soon as she was at the area, she started heading back towards the outer hull of the ship again, turning only when she was directly on a course with the med bay. After a few moments of running, she turned into the medbay, where Flu’ron was inspecting a rifle another Marine had given him.
“Feathers!” she called out, skidding to a halt outside the door.
“Oh Hells.” Flu’ron muttered as he looked up at her. He handed the rifle back to the Marine and walked towards her, “What do you need, Doctor?”
“Only us Marines can call him ‘Feathers’.” the Marine muttered, putting on a fake pout for her.
“Look!” She exclaimed, ignoring the Marine’s protest and shoving a datapad into the avian’s face.
After pulling back a bit, he took the pad from her and started reading the text on it. After a moment, during which the Marine came over to see what the commotion was, Flu’ron looked up from the pad and nodded at her.
“Well… Goddamn!” He smiled, handing the pad back and pulling out his own tablet, “One-hundred. Going your way.”
“Woah, hold on, I think I missed something. What’s going on?” the Marine asked, confused as to why the Afi’end was sending the scientist money.
“Her brother, who was listed KIA a month and a half ago, is not dead.” Flu’ron explained calmly, watching as the scientist practically bounced off the walls with excitement. He wasn’t sure whether it was because of the money or that Frost was still alive.
“And the fucker made it onto Xalantun before me!” Kinsey stated, calming down enough to get the words out.
“You saw the ‘sent’ date, right?” Flu’ron stated, making sure she knew how recently she had received it.
“Three hours, forty-five minutes ago!” she stated, nodding enthusiastically.
“If the round-trip time isn’t that long, why’d it take him nearly a month to respond?” Flu’ron asked, just sitting down to enjoy the show.
“I’ve got two theories; either he’s been too busy to respond, or this is the first time he’s gotten a data dump in months.” She stated, “Where’s Firdaus, she owes me money!”
Flu’ron shrugged, but the Marine perked up, “To my knowledge, she’s down in Deck 5, section 6, subsection 3, room 156. She’s keeping hidden from the alien ships around us.”
Kinsey perked up at that knowledge, suddenly looking concerned, “Hold on, what?”
“Yeah, she’s residing in an ODST’s room, to my knowledge. Not sure why she’s hiding though. I’m not saying anything to anybody who isn’t a crewmember on board this ship though, aside from you, doc; she wants to stay hidden, we’ll keep her that way.”
“In an ODST’s room?” Kinsey asked, looking immediately at Flu’ron.
“He’s got four broken ribs, you need to go stop her.” the avian stated, rolling his eyes, “I’ll prep the machines, just in case.”
“Ok, I gotta check on two things with her then.” Kinsey stated, nodding at the two before running out of the room and yelling “Carry on!” at the pair.
_____
“Peregrine, we’re going deeper into the vessel, think you can handle yourselves?” The Marine Sergeant asked, slinging his rifle onto his back.
“Hey! Keep that thing out!” the Lieutenant snapped, motioning to his gun again.
The man rolled his eyes, but unlimbered his rifle again.
“Copy that, Praetor. We’re good for the time being.”
“Understood. Keep us apprised, yeah?” the Marine radioed back, shifting his suit around to relieve a pinch he had created in his armpit.
“Copy that, Praetor. Out.” one of the pilots responded back, killing the communications network afterwards. The Marines and ODSTs walked alongside the Admiral and xenobiologist in silence, taking intrigued glances down hallways as they passed them, and receiving intrigued glances back from aliens as they passed them in the hallways. They weren’t entirely privy to the conversation that was happening ahead of them, but they weren’t looking to be part of it either. The two veterans were far more interested in getting a good look at the ship than having to talk to anybody, and the two newer members were still too paranoid to pay attention to anything other than their duties.
They were brought into an unoccupied room with a large window that looked out into the deep space just beyond, though the Dracula and other alien vessel blocked the view. The guards from both species gave a quick visual sweep of the room as they came in. Upon watching the Tikaqick guards sit down or generally relax, the veteran ODST and Marine slung their weapons and moved towards the back of the room, motioning for the other two to do so as well. Despite obvious hesitation to do so, they eventually moved to the back with the other two soldiers.
“So what, if you are able to tell me, are your people doing out here?” Captain Kinlykc asked, glancing back at the soldiers momentarily before returning his gaze to the Human ship.
“Sadly, I am not able to give you our reasoning for being out here. That’s not exactly something I can give away freely.” Donahue sighed, not even sure why he’d actually have to explain that, “What I can tell you is that we weren’t planning to be out this far.”
“Really?” the avian asked, looking at the man with surprise, “Scans have indicated that your vessel is prepared for long-range assignments, based on compartmentalization and areas theorized to be for food.”
Donahue raised an eyebrow at the statement, realizing that they likely had a near-perfect model of the interior of the ship if they could theorize about the ship’s rooms, even if they couldn’t entirely see the contents of the rooms. He was relatively concerned at the revelation, but didn’t let it show.
“Well, that ship is a modification of our first attempt at a long-range exploration ship, but the project was canceled five years before first contact.” Donahue explained, watching as a few suited figures climbed around the hull of his vessel, “There were only ever three of the ships created, all of which got converted to combat duty."
“Really? I know they got converted, but what became of the other vessels?” the avian asked, seemingly entranced by the same men on the hull.
“Well, the Armstrong-Class exploration vessels, named the AC-00 J.T.K., AC-01 J. Harker, and AC-02 M. Reynolds, were all brought back to our home planet as soon as possible, be that from assignment or construction, for retrofit.” Donahue explained, turning away from the window so he could better look at the avian, who saw the gesture and did the same, “The J.T.K. was a prototype, and was axed shortly thereafter. The Reynolds was renamed to Serenity and moved to be part of the United States Space Force, but was destroyed on assignment after the newly-fitted reactors went on runaway and melted half the ship off.”
“And the J. Harker?” it asked, indicating towards the window, clearly already knowing the answer.
Donahue nodded and motioned out the window, “Refused the new reactors, renamed to Dracula, joined the USSF, made first contact, made first contact negotiations, made first Human-to-alien combat, limped back to our space, received the first official ship-systems AI, became the first ship in the UNITF a year later, and still remains in combat as the oldest space combat ship in our service. As a species.”
The bird looked at the vessel with a new form of respect in its eyes, though whether for the crew or the vessel was unknown. It gave a shallow nod to the vessel before turning back to the man in front of him, “How old is it?”
Donahue had to pause to think for a moment, trying to remember everything he could about his ship.
“Well… the program to make them started nearly seventy years ago, and she was the first ‘production’ model. After decades of systems upgrades and additions, she’s the embodiment of Theseus’s ship, but her original christening would have been… forty-eight years ago.” He muttered, ignoring the confused look on the alien’s head when he mentioned Theseus, “I remember her first launch. I would have been around seven at the time.”
“How… Do you keep something like that running for that long? Especially if it’s a combat device.”
“Same way we keep the grandfather clock and jukebox in the primary lounge running; good care from a good crew.” Donahue nodded, watching as the blue sparks from a plasma cutter lit up a section of hull that was surrounded by CEVAs.
_____
“Watch it! Merde!” The Marine snapped out as Kinsey sprinted past him, intent on quickly making it to the room.
“Sorry! A life is at stake!” she called back, hearing another string of words in French that she didn’t care to translate yelled back at her.
The scientist slid to a halt in front of room 156, trying the door, then knocking on it rapidly. When nobody came to the door, she looked up and down the halls, locking eyes with the Marine, who was still watching her.
While still looking at him, she grabbed a tool out of her belt and started to plug it into a receptacle below the keypad.
“Code is two-five-four-eight.” The Marine called out, shaking his head and just walking away.
“Oh.” was all she could manage, pausing for a second to put the tool away before waving back at the Marine, “Thanks, Frenchie.”
“Je m'appelle Mauvieux…” he mumbled from down the hall, turning down another hall, seemingly to get away from her and the scene of the crime.
She ignored him entirely as she punched in the code and hit the button to open the door. The door had barely slid open entirely before she slipped inside and looked around for the snake.
“Firdaus, don’t! His ribs are-” She started, pausing when she realized that the snake was not doing anything other than sitting curled up in a corner of the room, a book in her hands. She looked surprised when she saw the suited Kinsey enter the room.
A door slid open to the scientist’s right, revealing the ODST she was looking for. Unfortunately, he was covered only by a towel around his waist, was clutching at his floating ribs with one arm, and had a pistol in his other hand, pointed directly at her head. As soon he recognized who he was looking at, he lowered the sidearm and leaned against the doorframe.
“Jesus Christ, Ev. What th’ fuck yeh doin’ in here?” He hissed, letting her take the gun from his hand and put it on a nearby desk, “And who th’ fuck gave you the emergency code to my door?”
“Someone who I forgot the name of.” Kinsey shrugged, stopping the man from bending over to pick up his clothes, which had been unceremoniously dumped onto the floor. She handed them to the ODST, who nodded at her and headed back into the bathroom, leaving the door open and hoping, or simply not caring, that the two women didn’t look into the room while he was dressing.
“Ok then, better question; and one I already asked you: Why the fuck are ya barging in here?” he wheezed out from the bathroom, obviously struggling a bit as he tried to dress himself.
“Making sure the thirty-odd foot long constrictor isn’t doing anything to the poor man with the four broken ribs.” She shrugged, shooting a shit-eating grin back at the snake, who flipped off the woman as she smiled back.
“Hey, don’t worry, I drew a gun on her as well.” Fries chuckled, grunting immediately afterwards. After a moment, he came out of the bathroom far more clothed than previous. He immediately went towards the scientist and gave her a quick, one-armed hug that leaned a fair deal of his weight on her, something that took her off-guard.
“Hey… you alright?” She asked, clearly realizing that something was wrong. She knew how the ODST usually acted, and he wasn’t generally the kind to hug without a stiff drink or three in him, let alone put weight on somebody else.
“Yeah, just… didn’t like what happened out there.” He sighed, pulling his weight off of her and going to lean against a wall.
“Didn’t hear what happened. You mind filling me in?” She muttered, moving to sit in a nearby chair. It creaked in protest to the woman’s suited 6’2” frame sitting down, but didn’t break.
“Thought I was going to die stranded out in the middle of fuck-off=nowhere space.” Fries wheezed, knocking his head on the wall behind him, “Kinda… put into perspective what I was told from day one was still a possibility.”
“Well, now I’m more interested in who told you what from the start.” She chuckled, clearly attempting to lighten the mood.
“Me mum always told me that I’d die alone in space, a billion and a half miles away from home.” He muttered somberly. He thought for a moment before his face twisted into a sad grin, “First time she’d shown concern for me in years.”
“Jesus, man. I’m sorry.” the woman muttered, feeling bad about her previous attempt at humor.
“Seriously; my condolences.” Firdaus piped up, simply sitting in her coils and watching the ODST sadly.
“Ehh… Whatever. That cunt never wanted to have me to begin with.” the man shrugged, grunting slightly as he sat down, “I did her a favor when I joined the forces.”
“That’s… not how you should look at that…” Kinsey muttered, standing up slightly when the man sat down, but sat back down when he waved her down.
“Ehh. Don’t care anymore. She’s six feet under an’ can’t bitch at me anymore.” He stated callously, rolling his eyes.
Kinsey quickly snapped to look at him, an expression of horror and sadness on her face. Firdaus seemed to share the same reaction as her, but was far less expressive in her movements.
“What the hell, dude?! Your mother died?! When! How?!” she exclaimed, getting out of her chair and motioning her arms out.
“Three years ago, MDMA overdose.” he muttered, clearly wanting the subject to change.
“Fuck…” the scientist muttered, picking up on the man’s clear reluctance to continue the conversation, “You could have said something.”
Fries paused for a moment, before simply shaking his head, “Nope.”
Kinsey paused for a heartbeat before nodding and stepping back towards the door, “Well, I’m sorry that there’s no better place to leave this at, but I’m going to head out.”
“Alright. Have a good time doc.” the ODST muttered, looking down at the floor for a moment before looking back up at her and nodding again, “Check in again sometime soon, yeah?”
“Yeah. Can do.” She nodded, opening his door and stepping out.

Hi everyone, I have been experiencing nasuea, bloating, headaches, body aches, dizziness and painful abdominal cramps since Tuesday of this week after going on then going off Candidastat. Here is some background on my gut health for reference, since while it has been especially bad lately I have been having gut health issues for the last 5 years:
Fall 2019:
After no previous issues with dairy I am no longer able to eat it without having stomach pain and frequent + painful bowel movements. I start taking lactaids and cutting out most dairy products like milk and cheese but don’t stop eating it entirely. Stomach pain and cramping gets continuously worse over time.
Spring 2021:
I get campylobacteriosis that lasts 7 days with intense abdominal pain, dirrarehea and a fever. Afterwards I have several secondary infections, a uti, an ear infection and a sinus infection. My stomach felt very sensitive for months after this.
SummeFall 2022:
By this time I have almost stopped eating dairy entirely and am experiencing a lot of abdominal cramping and pain as well as regular dirrearea + constipation alternating on and off. I see a naturopath that has me take a SIBO test that comes back with very high methane levels. (in the 200s) Also have an ultrasound that comes back saying all my organs are normal other than nonspecific fluid-filled duodenum that is given clinical concern for IBS/adhesions. I treat the SIBO with Xifaxan for 2 weeks, and berberine, neem supplements and allimed drops for a month, but as I am on a long international trip my doctor and I decide that the FODMAP diet at this time is not practical. After 3 weeks I begin to feel a lot better and am able to eat food with little pain. I am even able to eat dairy but I am also in Europe during this period of time so that may also have to do with the dairy industry there?
Winter 2023:
After traveling for 5 months, the last 3 of which were in SE Asia I am experiencing abdominal pain + bowel issues once again. I get blood work done which all comes back looking good other than my thyroid which has higher levels than normal. I believe this may have been due to stress at the time. Since the winter my stomach problems seem to have plateaued, I am still experiencing pain and irregular bowel movements through the fall of 2023. I am eating very little dairy at this point but the occasional parmesan or goat cheese.
January 2024:
Have been noticing that when I eat gluten I experience bloating. Eat so much gluten in one day that I have such terrible bloating and cramps that I decide to cut out gluten entirely for the month of January. Eating no gluten and no dairy takes away some of my symptoms but I am still experiencing abdominal pain after eating and loose stool. In February I reintroduce small amounts of gluten but don’t notice a huge difference in how I feel.
April 2024:
Take a food sensitivity test that comes back saying I have a moderate candida infection as well as a mild intolerance to ginger (This came back the highest.)
May 2024:
Looking at the results my PCP has me begin Candidastat from Vitanica along with Saccharomyces 10B for support. I begin treatment on May 2nd taking 1 Candidastat per day. By Friday I am already starting to have bad and frequent dirreaha and am experiencing a decent amount of abdominal pain. This continues throughout the weekend and gets worse each day, I am not feeling able to tolerate foods that are not bland by Monday. On Monday I begin urinating more frequently and start to get headaches. I wake up Tuesday morning and my stomach hurts so bad, I feel incredibly fatigued and have full body aches, I have to call in sick from work. Tuesday I have frequent loose stool and pain while passing a BM and anytime I eat I have a small, painful BM movement in the following 10-15 minutes. Wednesday I stay home again as I am still feeling a lot of the same symptoms except having BMs less frequently, even when it feels like I need to and I am trying. I am only able to have 3 very small BMs this day. I go back to my PCP on Wednesday where I tell her my symptoms and she says that she should’ve prescribed a more localized capsule for the amount of candida that I have. She then recommended this treatment plan. 1. Stop Candidastat 2. Bland diet - rice, sourdough, bone broth. Protein shakes. 3. Electrolytes - 2 servings per day. 4. RF Plus soothing GI - 1 capsule twice a day. 5. Probiotic - Vital-Plex 1 capsule daily On Wednesday I do not take the Candidastat. I experience headaches and body aches as well as feel overheated for most of the day. After the doctor appointment I am able to eat some rice with bone broth. I stay up late Wednesday night experiencing abdominal pain. Thursday I do not take the candidastat, still feeling headachey and fatigued (candida die off?), constipated for the beginning of the day but able to pass 1 solid BM in the afternoon. Still experiencing abdominal pain but not as bad as in previous days. Friday I am still only able to eat rice and bone broth as I can’t tolerate other things. I wake up with mild cramps, and go to the GI doctor and am prescribed medication for the cramping and ordered a bunch of tests including a colonoscopy/endoscopy, blood work, celiac test etc. This is all exciting but not solving the immediate issues of how I feel. Saturday morning I wake up with cramps and then around 10am start to suddenly feel very nauseous, dizzy, and flulike. I tried but was unable to vomit. I am incredibly nauseous for 45 minutes while so wait for my prescription to be ready. After taking the medication for cramping I fell asleep (it causes drowsiness) and woke up feeling a little bit better in the evening but still pretty beat. Today I woke up with cramps and then eventually started feeling nauseous again, I called my gi doctor on call and she prescribed me anti nausea meds and said that I should go to the ER if I develop a fever or vomit. I took the meds and they seemed to help at least temporarily. I am still feeling weak and have flu like symptoms and more moderate cramps. I’ve had to miss 5 days of work so far and I have been losing weight because I can’t tolerate foods that aren’t bland. I am planning on finding a new PCP (for other reasons other than this too) but am wondering in the meantime if anyone has any idea what might be going on or has any tips for symptom relief? I am wondering if the nausea is a candida-die off symptom or if that should’ve already happened since I stopped using the medication last Tuesday. Thank you in advance!

I have been battling SIBO/an intestinal infection for over a year now. Have been in and out of the ER, and doctors found constipation on my right side every time. Frustrated with my doctors and the lack of adequate care that I received, I began doing my research and ordered a stool test and sent that in and found out that I have various levels of pathogenic bacteria in my colon - some of which are associated with hydrogen sulfide SIBO, ulcerative colitis, and Chrons disease. Did a TRIO smart breath test, and that also confirmed hydrogen sulfide SIBO.
Hydrogen sulfide bacteria are notoriously known for creating copious amounts of biofilm (biofilms are mucus layers that bacteria use to protect themselves - they supply these layers with everything from nutrients to heavy metals), that, in turn, can cause constipation. This may be why I end up constipated on my right side every time. A lot of biofilm production ends up near the cecum, and ileum, the valve that connects the small and large intestine together.
I am currently on antibiotics, and I have seen some improvement in my condition. However, I am still trying to break open the biofilms that are causing my illness.
I know these are frowned upon here and elsewhere in the medical community, but I have been getting colonics and have been getting relief from those. This is NOT medical advice, just my own personal experience with them. I have passed all sorts of things like parasites, biofilms/mucus, etc, that initially made me so ill. Biofilms are connected with the development of cancer, for example.
I AM AWARE of the risks associated with colonics. I have done my research on them and determined that the benefits outweigh the risks for me.
The gist of my post is --- there could be an underlying cause of your constipation - whether it is something genetic, bacterial/parasite/candida-related, or even a weak pelvic floor.
Please explore your cause!!!!
Sources:
Biofilms/cancer connection: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6436866/
Hydrogen sulfide/inflammatory bowel disease connection:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37627565/#:~:text=H2S%20has%20been,and%20ulcerative%20colitis%20(UC).
Subreddit dedicated to biofilms:
biofilms
Pictures of biofilms found in ulcerative colitis/Chrons patients:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34146566/#&gid=article-figures&pid=supplementary-figure-1-uid-4
Dr. Ghannoum, PhD, discovered that pathogenic fungi/bacteria hide behind biofilms in 2016:
https://www.reddit.com/biofilms/s/2WVyGEIzYW
Biofilms can prevent antibiotics from working properly (i.e., antibiotics can't penetrate the biofilms to target the necessary bacteria):
https://asm.org/articles/2023/march/the-role-of-bacterial-biofilms-in-antimicrobial-re#:~:text=Various%20components%20work%20in%20tandem,a%20phenomenon%20known%20as%20recalcitrance.
Locations of biofilms throughout the intestinal tract:
https://ibb.co/586Rq2R
Biofilms may impede nutrient absorption:
https://www.longdom.org/open-access/the-probiotic-biohm-improves-nutrient-absorption-by-disrupting-gastrointestinal-biofilms-44470.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1obVKB115csrtff4HM_BEm0P69eWHPpYwLYdSckwsubtCw2Z7JkSN-6xc_aem_AV_eKTeXJ_mqwwsF55HUvyKodl7FeT_c1lR_jUYELPs8YrNbtHd46oX55nqoj4G4Idbn4I7B604FY2XCRAAPuOrC#:~:text=By%20forming%20a%20thick%20layer,nutritional%20source%20for%20their%20survival
Biofilms may be linked to leaky gut (intestinal permeability):
https://oc-integrative-medicine.com/biofilms-in-the-gut-microbiome/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0WDj4iphWkZVk53GIfBMrzYI46N9AtUi30QZgaN5PiudDtqEGFzP54olk_aem_AV-sWaxR-ZNeQsJjMKJDcTYEEMsdfCnuDib6UY-VWuR5QzGT-YuphEBFIu_GC2M0RiPCUnvPChSQTbUroSW4nx_T

I recently developed Crohn’s disease (started five months ago, just diagnosed) and I have noticed burning and stinging on my vulva and kind of a burning feeling when peeing. Some itching, but not nearly as bad as when I have actually had yeast infections. I got all the usual tests done about a week ago- no bacterial vaginosis, no UTI, no yeast infection. Also, I am not sexually active. Given that I clearly have autoimmune issues, I am terrified that I have lichen sclerosis. I am a 21 year old woman. It’s freaking me out bad. Im confused though, because I was in the ER due to Crohn’s about three months ago, and apparently the urine test showed bacteria in urine. A week later, another urine test showed the same. (Was looking through lab records) But I went to my gyno about a week ago and the tests showed no UTI. But I’m having symptoms. Something is off down there. I’m so scared of lichen sclerosis. I know I can’t be diagnosed here. But do you know of what else it could be? Added information: my whole body has been inflamed. I have been experiencing SI joint inflammation and hip pain too- arthritis from the Crohn’s disease. I’m not sure if this could cause UTI- like symptoms, but figured I’d add it in.

I live in a home built in 1948 and I have been having a large amount of dust, which I assume is coming (at least partially) from the duct work. I decided to have a contractor come over and clean my ducts in hopes it would lighten the dust problem. This was a legitimate company with a website, company-themed wraps on their vehicles, etc. (aka- not a fly-by-night person).
The result of this cleaning was horrendous. There was more dust around my home than I had ever seen after he was done. Vent covers broken, paint scratched off of walls, dirty hand prints on my walls and sheets (yeah...sheets), disgusting dust covering literally everything in my house. I called the owner as soon as I could to report this, and he offered me a refund.
Unfortunately, that refund did not cover the hours and hours I spent (still not done) cleaning up the disgusting mess. Additionally, I have now been sick for going on three weeks (diagnosed with bacterial sinus infection, doc took chest x-rays, extreme lethargy, etc.). I called another duct cleaning company to come see what they could do for me, since piles of dust continued to spew out of my system (and because the original company owner refused to do anything beside the refund). The second contractor went in to my basement and immediately pointed out broken asbestos tape on my ducting. He insisted that he would not touch my system until the asbestos was gone, and that the first contractor shouldn't have come anywhere near it.
Now I am hiring an abatement team, paying thousands of dollars to remove asbestos/replace ducts, not to mention the toll on my health and many hours of work missed from sickness. Until it's all said and done, I have no A/C or heat. I informed the original owner once again and all he did was apologize, no offer of any help.
I've called every lawyer in my area (small town Idaho) and none have offered help. Do I take this company to small claims court? Call the BBB? Can he be liable for the entire cost? How do I recuperate my lost time and money due to irresponsible work? How about being liable for the asbestos exposure?