Nausea, stomach cramps, headache, sore throat

Hello! Just checking people's experiences and tips as usual. I read here a lot that fasting/intermittent fasting is probably the best thing you can do to clear out your body from a food-given histamine dump (assuming it doesn't work if the dump is due to hormones or mold or other factors) - the issue being, personally if I delay or skip a meal I will have cramps, nausea, and dizziness (and crankiness) bad enough it can reach the point I won't even be able to stand long enough to get a snack (I call my husband in those cases).
So I was wondering: are there tricks or tips to being able to teach your body how to bear this and do it safely, or could it be that whatever root issue I have (idk, could be H. Pylori given it does cause a lot of pain if the stomach is empty) would make it a bad idea for me to keep trying and I should wait until I have a better overview on my root cause? Or are there perhaps tips and advice about fasting I may not know because it's not common knowledge? All that comes to my mind is "drink a lot, and when you eat add proteins as they will keep you full for longer."

Started wegovy at .25 3 weeks ago tomorrow starting weight was 317 went on the scale at the gym today it read 301 !! Not sure how accurate hopefully close lol Over all my experience has been alright I do feel nauseas at times and it’s the stomach cramps that I feel the most. ITS TRUE THE FOOD NOISE GOES AWAYYY
Ps. I do workout out daily 5 days a week at least at least a hour or 2 a day weight training
Im M 22 5’11

I have been sick probably catch a cold or flu for a week, and have been much better since the last two days. And today is my biologics day, so I inject my once/month Taltz, after that I feel my cold/flu symptoms is back and worse again. I feel chest pains and sore throat and headache and huge panic. I am worry will this be serious consequences? I have never get sick and inject biologics in the same week. Now I am very regret I have done that, what should I do? Will this get much worse bc my immunity system is suppressed? Thank you for the advice🤣🤣

“Ready to make history, baby?”
I looked over toward Sheila as she stood on the gangplank leading up to The Burger. I still couldn’t believe she named our research ship ‘The Burger’... emotional relevance be damned.
“It's not exactly history,” I corrected.
“Oh come on! If your survey is right, this trench might run even deeper than the Challenger Deep, and you’re gonna be the first person to explore it! How is that not exciting?”
“Might be deeper, we only have a limited amount of topological data. And even if it is deeper, we’re talking only a few hundred feet at most, it’s really not that im-”
Sheila silenced me with a kiss.
“Nerd.” She teased, and I found myself too flustered to reply. After five years of marriage, she still could leave me speechless with just a kiss. God… how did someone like me end up with a woman like that?
Then again, how did someone like me end up where I was in general? It was honestly a little overwhelming. Standing on the dock, getting ready to board that ship and join the ranks of Jacques Piccard and James Cameron (yes, that James Cameron) as one of the few people to take a manned submersible down to the deepest parts of the ocean. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little scared too. Diving down that deep could easily be a one way trip if even the slightest thing went wrong. My submarine would be experiencing between 600 to 1100 atmospheres of pressure and while we’d tested it over and over again to make sure it would actually be up for the challenge, there was still a lingering iota of doubt in the back of my mind. All that needed to go wrong was one little thing, and that would be it for me.
The scariest part is that I probably wouldn’t even know what had happened… I’d simply be gone… and Sheila would be alone. The thought of that caused a momentary spike of panic in my chest that almost made me want to call this whole thing off.
Almost.
But, then I felt her hand close around mine. I looked up into her bright blue eyes, and saw her gentle smile.
“You’re gonna be okay, hun,” She promised. “You and your team have been running the numbers, right? It’s gonna go just fine!”
I nodded slowly.
“It’s gonna go fine…” I repeated, before she leaned in to kiss me, and gently pulled me by the wrist up onto the deck of the Burger.
She was probably right.
It probably would be fine.
Probably…
The trench I’d be exploring was a fairly recent discovery, located south of Greenland, in a vast stretch of water situated directly between Newfoundland and Iceland. It’d been uncovered during a topological survey in the area, and my team had taken an interest in investigating it further. At minimum, it was believed to descend to about 35,000 feet deep (over 10,000 meters), although the current theory was that it might have run even deeper. Determining the exact depth of the yet unnamed chasm was just one of the intents of our dive. The rest was studying the organisms that might be found down there, and how they might have differed from the ones found in other deep ocean trenches (some variation being expected given the isolated environment they were developing in.)
I had to admit, it would be exciting to see what new life might have developed in a place such as this, especially if it ran even deeper than our predictions… and that excitement was enough to make me chase the fear of the risks out of my mind, even if it was only briefly. While Sheila went to make sure we were ready to embark, I caught myself wandering out toward the rear of the ship where my submarine, The Tempura, waited for me. Did this submarine deserve a better name than The Tempura? Probably. But, this was my project, so I got to name it and since Burger was already taken, Tempura was the next best name I had. I liked to think that the subs namesake might approve… if she hadn’t died fifteen years ago. Shrimp don’t live very long.
As the ship began to depart, I caught myself reminiscing on how I’d ended up here… it really was all because of those damn shrimp, wasn’t it? Well… maybe not all because of the shrimp. But they were certainly part of it. Back when I was a lot younger, I never really gave much of a shit about anything at all. I guess I did have a thing for the ocean… the great, romantic vastness of it. The sense of adventure that it beckoned with. The endless mysteries that lay within its dark depths. I used to read about it all the time when I was a kid and I especially loved the classic adventures: Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, and Melville’s Moby Dick… but that love was just confined to my books. I didn’t really have any interest in actually going out and seeing the ocean. Hell, the idea of going to a beach and standing in the sun with my toes in the sand seemed miserable to me. I was happier (although calling myself happy might’ve been a little disingenuous) alone in my room, enjoying the company of books as opposed to people.
Then came the shrimp.
One of my online friends kept them as a hobby. He used to post pictures of his tanks all the time, and I always thought they looked kinda cool. He said that if I was interested in them, I should try keeping some for myself, and during a particularly bad bout of depression, I figured that maybe it might be worth a shot. So, I bought a cheap tank and some cheap decorations, bought myself some shrimp… and promptly watched them die over the next few weeks. That… that bothered me. I don’t know why but… it really bothered me. I’m still not entirely sure how to describe what it was that I was feeling. Guilt? Defeat? Shame? Here I was, trying to set up a habitat for these creatures just to have something to do to keep the suicidal ideation at bay, and I’d failed almost right out of the gate.
Was I just that bad? Was I just that much of a failure? Was this just going to go to shit just like everything else in my life did, because I was just such an abysmal piece of shit who barely deserved the life she had? Had I just not tried hard enough? Was I too apathetic? What had happened? What went wrong?
It bothered me.
It bothered me enough that I made up my mind to just dump the remaining shrimp down the toilet and toss everything. Forget about it. Move on. End of story. But… that wasn’t fair, was it? The shrimp didn’t all deserve to die just because I couldn’t be bothered, did they? Sure, they were just shrimp, but they were alive too, just like me. They deserved to be alive.
I owed it to them to try and keep them alive, didn’t I?
So… I didn’t dump the shrimp.
Instead, I started doing some reading. Started looking into what I was doing wrong and how to do it all better. I actually got really into it and a few months later, I had a nice planted tank. Looking back, it was amateur shit… but it made me happy. I’d even picked out names for my two favorite shrimp. Burger and Tempura. They’d been the last survivors of my original batch, and they were the ones I ended up caring about the most. Caring for Burger and Tempura gave me a purpose. It became an obsession… and that little obsession drove me to finally start turning my life around.
Like I said, shrimp don’t live for very long. Burger and Tempura were long dead by the time I graduated with a degree in Marine Biology. But they were the ones who inspired me to finally get my life in order. Hell, the shrimp were half the reason that I met Sheila. She was something of an aquarium fanatic too… we’d met on a forum, and gotten to talking. I found out that she just so happened to be studying Marine Biology at another school, and we bonded pretty quickly after that. After graduation, I moved to California to be with her and after that, the rest is history. She was my rock. She was the one who always pushed me to be the best possible version of myself… and I loved her more than I ever knew I could love someone.
A glance back at the shore, fading into the distance tore me out of my reminiscing, and I shifted my focus to the present, going over The Tempura to perform some quick checks. My colleagues and I would be checking and rechecking the submarine over the next two days as we made our way toward the dive spot. Considering the danger that descending that deep posed, I didn’t want to take a single unnecessary risk.
I had too much to live for, after all.
***
The day of the dive, I couldn’t notice how excited the rest of the crew seemed… well… Sheila’s usual crew seemed excited. I guess to them, this was just another research expedition, no different than the ones Sheila usually took this ship out on. Lately her research had been focused on the analysis and study of whale calls. Her recent voyages had involved following their pods, recording their calls and playing them back to see how the whales reacted. It was fascinating stuff, but my research was admittedly a lot different than that.
My obsession had drawn me to the denizens of the deep sea. I’d used The Burger for expeditions before, although none of them had been on quite the same scale as this one. Up until today, the most ambitious thing I’d done was send down unmanned submersibles with cameras. Those submersibles had typically returned. We had lost a few early on due to technical glitches, but the past few years had been blissfully uneventful. Logically, this dive would probably be uneventful as well. But it was still hard to get the jitters out of my head.
My team and I did the final checks necessary to make sure that The Tempura was good to go, before setting up the crane to begin lifting it up. In less than an hour, I’d be inside of that thing, descending to the darkest depths of the ocean.
It didn’t feel real.
I felt Sheila’s hand on my shoulder, and looked over at her.
“Moment of truth, huh?” She asked. She probably meant it to sound encouraging, but it just sounded ominous.
“Moment of truth…” I replied.
“You’re gonna be okay, honey. I know you will.”
She reached out to gently squeeze my hand and gave me a reassuring smile that I meekly returned.
“Yeah, it’s gonna be okay,” I agreed, although there was an element of a lie in it. Statistically, yes. It probably WOULD be okay. But there was that lingering anxiety in the back of my mind that just wouldn’t go away. I looked quietly out at the submarine before me and couldn’t shake the thought that it sort of looked like a giant coffin. Unconsciously, I found myself squeezing Sheila’s hand tighter than normal. She just held me close and pressed a kiss to the top of my head, before gently rubbing my back.
“You’ll be okay,” She promised.
“Dr. Jenner, we’re ready for you.” I heard one of my colleagues say.
Moment of truth.
I took one last look at Sheila, and gave her a quick kiss on the lips for luck. She smiled at me, and I smiled back anxiously at her before heading over toward the submarine.
The crew helped me enter the cockpit and get myself situated inside. The cockpit of the Tempura was fairly cramped and not particularly comfortable. Space and comfort aren’t really luxuries you can afford in a submarine like this. The instruments I needed took up a lot of space, leaving little room for me in there… and I am not a very big person.
Once I was inside, they sealed the hatch. Then the diagnostics checks began.
“Grayson, can you hear us in there?” I heard Sheila say through the radio.
“Loud and clear,” I replied.
“Great. We’ll keep in constant radio contact, just to monitor the signal. In the meanwhile, how’s everything looking in there?”
“Green across the board so far,” I said, although I hadn’t finished running all my final checks yet. Ultimately, nothing was out of place.
This submarine was as good to go as it was going to get.
“I’m all good in here,” I said once I was done. “You can drop me when you’re ready.”
“You got it, honey. Let’s get you in the water, run one final round of tests and start lowering you down.”
A short while later, I felt the submarine begin to move as the crane lifted it off the deck and lowered it into the water. The Tempura honestly resembled its namesake in a way, being long and cigar shaped, only vertically oriented instead of horizontally oriented. We’d admittedly taken more than a few design cues from James Cameron’s Deepsea Challenger. Why fix what isn’t broken, after all?
Once I was in the water, a 1000 pound releasable ballast weight would cause the submarine to sink. Releasing that weight was also my ticket back to the surface, and I could either trigger it from inside the cockpit, or, in the event that the release failed for any reason, it would trigger automatically after roughly 12 hours of exposure to salt water.
Ideally, this would be the first of a number of dives I’d be undertaking… and if all went according to plan, the Tempura could be the first of many similar submarines that would allow other researchers to safely and effectively descend to extreme depths. If all went well, this could be a massive leap forward for researchers like me, allowing us to better explore the deepest depths of the Hadal Zone and learn all we could about the ecosystems down there via direct observation.
If all went well.
If.
Through the viewport, I watched as I was lowered into the ocean. A few of the other crew members had donned diving gear to escort me down, and after they did their final checks and I did mine, we were fully ready to go.
“All’s green across the board,” I said into the radio. “You can start my descent.”
“I hear you, honey,” Sheila replied. “We’re letting you go. Have fun down there.”
“Yeah, I’ll try…” I said quietly as finally, my submarine began its descent.
I took a deep breath, and told myself again that everything would go fine. We had checked everything on this submarine. We’d tested it rigorously. I wouldn’t have allowed myself to set foot inside of it if I hadn’t personally assured that it was safe. But anxiety never really goes away, does it? The crew couldn’t accompany me far. After only a few meters, they fell behind me as I sank deeper and deeper into the infinite, empty blue of the ocean. Soon after, the tether was released.
I was officially on my own.
“60 feet,” I heard Sheila say over the radio. “How are you doing in there?”
“Good,” I replied. “Doing… doing good.”
The submarine continued to descend. Through the viewport, I could see a few stray fish, but nothing particularly eye catching. I almost felt alone down there… almost…
“120 feet…” Sheila said.
“Still doing good,” I replied.
The descent continued, as the waters slowly grew darker and darker.
“400 feet…”
Everything around me just kept getting darker and darker. Only a fraction of the light from the sun ever reached these depths… and I’d be lying if I said that darkness didn’t feel a little… oppressive.
“800 feet… still feeling good?”
“Yeah, still feeling good…” I said, although it was a bit of a lie. If anything, I was second guessing all of this, but I wasn’t about to say that out loud.
“1000 feet… still good?”
“Still good…” I murmured. “I hear you loud and clear.”
Deeper… deeper… deeper.
“1500 feet…”
Three miles. I was three miles away from home. Three miles away from Sheila.
“2000 feet…”
Still a ways to go.
“3000 feet…”
By this point, it was fully dark outside of my cockpit. Outside, all I could see was inky darkness. Even the submarine’s lights didn’t really cut through it. And the kicker? Relatively speaking, I wasn’t that deep. Fishing trawlers reached deeper than this. Better to conserve power until I was at the bottom. My descent continued.
“6000 feet… still good?”
“Still good…”
The check ins were becoming less frequent. My descent still continued… deeper… deeper… deeper. By now, I’d entered the Hadal Zone. But there was still so much deeper o go.
“8000 feet…”
This was past the depths that most whales would dive to… and I still had a ways to go.
“10,000 feet.”
This was close to where the ocean floor usually bottomed out… and yet there was still so much further to go. No. I was really only a third of the way there. How long had it been?Not much had happened beyond my descent and a few sightings out of my viewport, but time had been passing. A glance at my watch confirmed it’d been almost an hour since I’d started to sink… and I knew I wasn’t even close to the bottom yet. The submarine continued to descend, sinking ever deeper as I dropped into an infinite darkness that few had ever dared to witness.
“15,000 feet.”
This check in came later than the others. At this point, Sheila and the crew must have figured that no news was good news, and they were right. I just continued to sink peacefully, down into the crushing depths of the ocean.
These were the depths that one might normally find deep sea fish… and yet I was going somewhere even deeper than that.
“20,000 feet…”
So close…
I continued to sink.
“25,000 feet.”
Soon… and finally…
“30,000 feet. You still doing alright, honey?”
“Yeah… yeah, I’m doing good,” I assured her. I was so close…
By this point, my real work had begun. I’d engaged the lights and begun documenting what little I could see using the on board cameras. Granted, there wasn’t much life at these depths and what little there was, was scarcely documented. Most of what was down here consisted of invertebrates and microscopic life that seemed to float past my viewport.
The light seemed to draw a few creatures in search of food. Small, hardy things that resembled shrimp.
“How’s it looking, Grayson?”
“Dark,” I said, half joking. “We’ve got some life… shrimp. They’re translucent. Can’t get a great look at them… but we’ll see what the cameras pick up.”
“They’ve recognized you as a friend,” Sheila said. I could almost see the smile on her lips as she said it.
“Yeah…” I replied, “Tempura sent them a message, told them I’d be down. How am I looking on depth?”
“35,000 feet… you seeing a bottom yet?”
“No… not that I would until I was there.”
“Damn… how deep does this go?”
“It can’t go that deep…” I murmured, although I really wasn’t so sure about that.
The submarine continued to sink…
36,000 feet…
37,000 feet…
38,000 feet… and then finally, just past the 39,000 foot mark, I finally saw solid ground below me.
Looking through my viewport, I could see a familiar dark brown diatomaceous sludge, covering the seafloor. Microscopic life, likely similar to what had been observed in other deep sea trenches, such as the Challenger Deep.
I needed to gather a sample.
As my submarine reached the bottom, I extended the mechanical arms, pressed flat against the surface of the Tempura, and opened the collection port near the bottom of the ship. Slowly, I sifted some of the sludge into the port. My disturbance of the seafloor kicked up a cloud of the microbial colony, and I could’ve sworn I saw something wiggling through the debris. A pale, white thing, perhaps some sort of sea cucumber? I hastily angled my submarines camera to try and catch a glimpse of it, before returning to my collection. Even in this forlorn place, there was still so much to see! And here I was… completely forgetting my fear as the excitement took hold of me! Few people had ever been down to these unfathomable depths… and yet here I was.
It didn’t feel real but it was! I had reached the deepest part of the ocean!
“How’s it going down there?” I heard Sheila ask. Her voice was a little garbled. The connection down here was faltering.
“It’s beautiful…” I said. “I can’t wait for you to see it!”
“I’ll bet…”
“I’m going to do a sweep of the area, see what samples I can gather,” I said. “What’s my time right now?”
“Three hours. You’ve got nine before your connection to the weight deteriorates and you start to ascend.”
“I’ll make the most of it,” I said. The plan was only to stay down there for six hours, and I didn’t want to push that limit. Life support would only last me for so long, and one little error was all it would take for the ungodly pressure down here to crush me.
I began to move the submarine. Mobility was limited. This thing wasn’t built to travel far. But I still had some limited movement. I recorded all that I could, filming the shrimp that investigated my light, and the things that slithered and crawled through the muck, likely feeding on the carpet of single celled organisms that populated these depths.
The first two hours were… well… I hesitate to call them uneventful, they were actually very fascinating, but little of note happened beyond my recording of a few specimens.
Midway through the third hour though, as I was reaching one of the rock walls of the abyss, I noticed something just above the edge of my viewport swimming away from the light. I could’ve sworn I saw slender, pale tentacles of some sort. Was that a squid? Were there squid down this deep? I wasn’t aware of any species of known squid who could reach these depths… but in this unknown place, what use was the known?
I moved my light and my camera to try and catch another glimpse of it, but whatever it was, it seemed to be gone. Maybe I’d see another one. I still had plenty of time.
“You made a noise. What’d you see?” Sheila asked.
“Something big… I think,” I said.
“Down there? Like a fish?”
“Squid. You wouldn’t find any vertebrates down this deep… the pressure would crush their bones.”
“Jeez…”
I didn’t reply to that, still searching for the thing I’d seen. I shone my light up along the walls of the chasm and angled my camera up as far as it would go. I could see a few volcanic vents, spewing dark clouds into the darkness, and more diatoms. But not much else. Strange invertebrates crawled along the walls. Small creatures, no bigger than an inch long. Related to isopods, perhaps? If I could collect one as a sample, I would have… although taking any of those back to the surface would surely kill them. They were built to live under the impossible pressure of these depths. Taking them to the surface would rip them apart.
I went back to my research, and it wasn’t long until I saw something in the darkness, just on the edge of where my flashlight reached. Trailing white tendrils, snaking their way through the darkness. My eyes narrowed as I moved the submarine forward, trying to catch whatever it was in the light. I saw the shape move, its body turning… I saw its tendrils unfurling. Whatever this was, it was big. It was almost as big as The Tempura… although it was also slender. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought I was looking at some sort of floating debris, but this far down? No. And debris wouldn’t move like that.
This had to be a deepsea squid… or perhaps some other type of cephalopod? Something that preyed upon the various invertebrates down here, perhaps? It seemed to float, just out of sight for a bit, as I tried to get closer. I angled up my light to get a better look at it. The light seemed to shine through it, like some sort of ghost… but I did manage to get a look at it.
Although that look…
That single look made me freeze up.
This things slender tendrils certainly resembled a cephalopod of some sort, but the rest of it… the rest of it looked like something else entirely. Its body was thin, emaciated and translucent, yet despite that it still had characteristics that almost seemed… human. It wasn’t human! Not by any stretch of imagination, but the resemblance was there. It almost reminded me of an exhibit I’d seen in a museum once, depicting a preserved, fully removed human nervous system. I could see a similar shape in its translucent body. Its head seemed almost human as well… albeit with no eyes, and a lamprey like mouth I could only describe as fleshy yet crablike.
Still, despite having no eyes I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was looking at me. And that was when I felt something hit the submarine.
I felt a sudden jolt of panic in my chest. For a moment, I thought that the pressure had started to crush me, but no… no, everything was still fine. Something had just hit me. But what? It didn’t take long before I got my answer.
Another pale creature floated past my viewport, swirling gracefully in the cold dark waters. I watched it for a moment with wide eyes, before noticing its ‘head’ turning slightly toward me. Then, almost instantly, it launched itself at the submarine, darting toward me with blinding speed.
I heard a distinct THUD as its body collided with me, and I could see its pale tendrils pressing against the viewport, twisting and writhing violently. It was trying to attack me. The first creature that I’d seen lunged as well, pounding on my submarine with another THUD. And moments later, I could hear more impacts against the hull. There were more of them… and they did not like having me down there.
“What’s going on?” Sheila asked.
“Somebody doesn’t like me…” I said. “One of the animals down here… some kind of squid, it’s just started attacking the hull.”
“How bad is the damage?”
“Not sure… could be nothing, could be-”
I felt the submarine shake as I tried to move it. The thrusters that pushed me forward weren't responding. Had something gotten caught in it? One of the creatures perhaps?
“Grayson?!” Sheila asked.
“Lost propulsion…” I said. “Fuck… I can’t move.”
“Then drop the weight and come up!”
“No, it’s fine, there’s no other damage, I can still use the port and starboard thrusters to-”
“Grayson!”
I paused. There was genuine panic in her voice… enough to make me realize that even if these things stood little chance of actually breaching the hull, taking the risk would be a fatal mistake.
“I’m on my way up…” I finally said, before reaching out to disengage the ballast weights.
Immediately, I felt myself beginning to rise, although the tentacles clinging to my viewport didn’t disappear.
“We’ve got you…” Sheila said. “Rising up to 38,000 feet.”
The submarine continued to rise, but the creatures clinging to me went nowhere. In fact… I was sure I could see more of them. More pale shapes coming up through the darkness, and these ones filled me with dread. I thought I had been looking at some sort of eerie undiscovered life. But seeing what was coming up toward me now… I knew that I was looking at so much more. The creatures swimming up toward me through the darkness carried weapons… makeshift stone spears and daggers. Primitive tools… but tools all the same.
Signs that these were more than just undiscovered animals.
Much. Much more.
The word: ‘Mermaids’ crossed through my mind, but these were something far different than the ones I’d heard of in folklore. These looked like they’d swam out of the depths of hell itself. Boneless pale tendrils reached for me… and they were getting closer. The pale shapes reached my submarine as I rose higher. I kept praying to whatever God may be listening that the dropping pressure would force them off. The air in a submarine is pressurized, so during normal operation, there should have been no danger of decompression sickness for me.
For them… well… normally I’d feel a little guilty about subjecting an undiscovered species of deep sea mermaids to the horrors of the Bends. But given my circumstances, I didn’t have a lot of other options.
They didn’t let go, though.
They should have. But they didn’t.
What were these things?
I saw a splayed hand press against my viewport. Or… it somewhat resembled a hand. It had suckers on it, like a tentacle and the ‘fingers’ curled open like tentacles. The creature crawled over my viewport, clinging to The Tempura as it rose, and I could see the folds of its crablike mouth opening and pressing against the glass. I could see some sort of bile rising up through its translucent throat, before it secreted it all over my viewport. Was it trying to digest me? Was that how these things fed? How strong were its stomach acids? Were they strong enough to-
The window cracked.
My heart skipped a beat.
“No… no, no no…”
“Grayson, what’s wrong?!”
“They cracked the window… S-Sheila they… oh God… oh fuck, they just…”
“THEY DID WHAT?”
“It’s secreting some sort of enzyme… it’s on the window, it’s… FUCK… I’m gonna die… I’m gonna die… I’m gonna die…”
“You’re not gonna die, baby! Just… just keep ascending, okay? You’re at 30,000 feet… just keep going…”
I nodded, and kept on rising, although the question of whether or not the rest of the creatures were trying to digest the other parts of my submarine floated through my mind. How much damage could The Tempura take before it imploded? How much longer did I have? The submarine still continued to rise… 25,000 feet… almost halfway home… almost… almost.
The creature outside of my viewport slithered along the glass, searching for a better area to try and digest. Past him, I noticed a few of his companions dropping off. Maybe the change in pressure finally was getting to them?
From the corner of my eye, I suddenly noticed a flashing light. A warning. The hydraulics on one of the Tempura’s arms were shot… what else was damaged?
I checked my oxygen levels. 32%.
I should’ve had at least 14 hours of air. I’d only been down there for about 6 hours… I shouldn’t have been this low.
31%.
No… no, no, no, no… they’d damaged the air tanks!
30%.
29%
“20,000 feet!” Sheila said. “You still with me, baby?”
“Y-yeah…” I said. I didn’t mention my air situation. I didn’t need to worry her further.
The submarine continued its ascent.
15,000 feet.
24%. I was running out of time.
The creatures still clung to the Tempura. How had the pressure change not killed them yet? My oxygen was dropping faster than before. I was hemorrhaging air. Another crack formed across my viewport. I let out a little, involuntary gasp before trying to force myself to stop hyperventilating.
“Grayson, what was that?”
“I-it’s fine…” I stammered, “It’s fine!”
“Grayson what the hell is going on down there?!”
“They’re still on the submarine… they’re still…” I paused, looking at my oxygen levels. “19%...”
“19% of what? Grayson what’s going on!”
I paused.
18%.
“Air… I’m… I’m losing air…”
“That’s fine, you’re going to make it!” She said, although I heard her voice cracking a little. “You’re gonna make it!”
I didn’t answer.
12,000 feet.
11,000 feet…
My oxygen level continued to drop.
15%.
14%.
12%.
9,000 feet.
The creatures still clung to me, as the submarine continued to rise. The one on my viewport was still there, slowly crawling along the glass again. I stared into its eyeless face and swore I was looking at the face of my killer.
7,000 feet…
Oxygen had dropped to 9%. It dropped to 8% before I even got to 6,000 feet. I was going to die here…
The viewport cracked again and I squeezed my eyes shut. The submarine rocked. I was sure one of the thrusters had been damaged. My ascent slowed.
“Grayson, what’s going on?”
“I’m sorry Sheila…”
Another crack spread across my viewport.
“I’m… I’m not making it back up…”
“YES YOU ARE!”
“I’m sorry…” The tears started to come as the reality of my death became clearer and clearer… this was it.
“YOU’RE COMING BACK UP, YOU HEAR ME! GODDAMNIT, I’LL BRING YOU BACK UP!”
“I love you…”
That creatures face pressed against the glass. It vomited more of its stomach acid onto the cracked glass, and I wondered if this might finally be what broke it. Part of me hoped it would be… the one good thing about dying this deep was that at least I’d die quickly. My suffering would be over. Then, the creature suddenly pulled back, twisting and writhing violently. I saw other shapes moving past it in the water, other ‘mermaids’ that had been clinging to the submarine.
Something was agitating them.
Something was scaring them off.
Then I heard it, over the radio… whale songs.
“What the hell…?”
“Grayson, are you still there?!”
“I… they’re finally breaking off. Sheila, what did you do?”
“I’m broadcasting some of the orca recordings we’ve been using. Are they still clinging to you?”
“No! They’re backing off! I… whatever you’re doing, keep doing it!”
The submarine kept rising.
5,000 feet.
4,000 feet.
4% oxygen.
I could still do this, right?
The submarine continued to rise.
3%.
3,000 feet.
2,000 feet.
2%.
1,000 feet… so close… I was so close…
I could almost see the surface through my viewport, rushing up toward me. I tried not to breathe. Tried not to move. All I did was hope.
500 feet.
I closed my eyes.
“Grayson we have your signal, we’re coming to pick you up!”
Sheila’s voice sounded so far away as my submarine finally breached the surface of the water… and with the last of my strength, I pulled the emergency release on the hatch, and threw it open, taking in lungful after lungful of fresh salty air.
I didn’t dare so much as touch the water beneath me… but I was topside again, and in the distance, I could see The Burger!
“We see you!” Sheila said, “We’ve got you baby… we’ve got you…”
“I see you too…” I said through the tears. “Thank you… thank you…” I didn’t have any words left in me after that.
As soon as I was back on the ship, I collapsed into Sheila’s arms, breaking down into tears as I clung to her, terrified that at any moment, some sort of unspoken other shoe would drop and I’d lose her all over again.
“Shh… it’s alright baby… I’ve got you… you’re safe… you’re safe…” I felt her fingers running through my air and I knew that what she said was true.
I was home.
I was safe.
***
I left my colleagues to review the data that the Tempura gathered during its short expedition. As far as I know, they haven’t published anything. I have a few ideas as to why, but I’ll keep those to myself. Let’s just say that some people would rather this information not become public.
I have a feeling that the Tempura may not be diving again for some time, if ever. I will confess that I do consider that a bit of a shame. Despite everything… I would consider it a success. It endured far more stressful conditions than I had expected, and from what I heard, required fewer repairs than I’d thought it would. But, even if it was approved for another dive, it wouldn’t be me piloting it. No. I will never be setting foot inside of that machine again, nor will I ever be returning to what my colleagues have been quietly referring to as ‘The Jenner Trench’.
I can’t.
Every night, I wake up crying after dreaming of pale shapes outside of my cracked viewport, clinging to Sheila and sobbing. I can’t put myself in that situation again.
I can’t.
Instead, I think I’m going to spend the next few years on solid ground. There’s a teaching position available at a local university. I think that might be the best place for me right now. Who knows, maybe I can help some other deadbeat discover a passion for marine biology.
After everything, my love for the sea remains unchanged… I’m just a little more wary of it, these days.

How does no one else care? Why does everything hurt me so bad? I’m so angry all the time. Oh my god the symptoms of anger are killing me. The headaches, nausea, twitching and jerking, the heavy breathing, intense heart rate, my stomach hurts so bad, the sweating, everything. My thoughts are making me insane. The constant desire to tear myself apart and bite and punch. How much more can I possibly take?
How is the world so cruel? Why do I have to be here with all these people? Why can’t I be heartless and happy? I feel so sick. Everything hurts. Sorry I care about other people (sarcasm). I’m rotting from the inside out. It never goes away. I feel like I’m going to puke. I wish I didn’t have empathy. I wish I never felt anything. I hate being me. Killing myself seems like the only option left. No one is safe to be around. I can’t take it.

Looking for advice for dealing with gynos as I am getting frustrated with my symptoms and lack of gynos taking my symptoms seriously.
For the past few years I’ve been having irregular periods and periods that that have lasted as long as two months. I started going to gynos about it right before COVID. I’ve had multiple ultrasounds all came back with nothing and from unrelated medical issues have had multiple abdominal CT scans and full abdominal ultrasounds and none have ever shown anything wrong with my reproductive organs. I’ve also always had clear pelvic exams.
I am on oral contraceptives - I’ve been through a few different brands over the years bc every time I go to the gyno asking to help trouble shoot why I keep having multiple week long periods I get told it’s my birth control when nothing shows up on an ultrasound and they switch me to a new one. I’ve been on Mili for around 2.5 yrs now.
I understand the ultrasounds not showing anything concerning enough to make it into imaging reports and lack of an evident pathology but I’m having very real symptoms that I can’t get any of the gynos I’ve been to to take seriously. Including horrible cramping, stomach upset, period headaches, having periods mostly consisting of clots, and while mostly fairly light extended over usually 2-3 weeks. I usually only have 1-2 weeks free of bleeding between cycles.
I don’t know what else to do or push for. Any advice for dealing with gynos or a similar situation would be appreciated.

Is it safe/beneficial to take supplements such as mastic gum, oil of oregano, and lactobacillus reuteri even without an active h pylori infection? I had multiple stomach ulcers that were h pylori positive in 2022. Recently just had another endoscopy due to having similar silent reflux/LPR symptoms again and the endoscopy all came back normal this time around. Just trying to find some supplements to help my LPR symptoms (trouble swallowing, sore throat/feeling like something is stuck in throat, burping, not being able to eat a lot, etc)

Is it safe/beneficial to take supplements such as mastic gum, oil of oregano, and lactobacillus reuteri even without an active h pylori infection? I had multiple stomach ulcers that were h pylori positive in 2022. Recently just had another endoscopy due to having similar silent reflux/LPR symptoms again and the endoscopy all came back normal this time around. Just trying to find some supplements to help my LPR symptoms (trouble swallowing, sore throat/feeling like something is stuck in throat, burping, not being able to eat a lot, etc)

Initially my seizures were diagnosed as panic attacks but anxiety meds never really helped or stopped them. They always seemed really strange to me and I am conscious during them and remember them. They start with a odd sensation either in my throat which is hard to describe but like I am going to dry heave but it sort of slowly builds up and then bam I will intensely dry heave with no nausea and there will be a up and down rising feeling from my stomach to my throat it last about 30 seconds, afterwards I am tired and family says my speech will be slow as in I talk slower. Other times it is pretty much the same thing but the feeling will start with a odd sensation in my stomach which is hard to describe kind of a odd fullness and again it will rise up and down and I will dry heave with no vomiting or nausea sometimes lately afterward I am sensitive to light afterwards.
I saw a neurologist and I captured one of the incidents on video on my phone and she said that doesn’t look like a panic attack and put me on topamax and had me do a 4 day at home eeg and reduced my topamax to 50 mg during the testing since she couldn’t take away my meds at home without a doctor present. I had 2 episodes during the testing but they didn’t register as epileptic, however during the eeg it showed I had sharp left temporal waves both when I was asleep and awake during the day and they want me to stay at the EMU.
Can anyone offer any insight on my symptoms? I am on 400 mg topamax now but I still have these episodes, do they sound like focal seizures? I know people on here are veterans with this and I am so confused. Thanks for any help.

hi, female 5’4 1/2, around 9 stone, here i don't know whether this is the right place to post but feel like it is, when i was in primary school i lost my dad at the age of 6 to a heart attack (now i'm 17) and ever since then i have had a constant worry i am ill, i could have the slightest stomach pain and i believe it's deadly, headache? nope brain tumour, i would go to the GP or a&e a lot of the time, practically spend all of my teens there, i have also struggled with my mental health and would always be in hospital for attempts i had taken on my life, it's gotten so bad that now my own mother doesn't believe when i'm seriously ill or not, last year i had severe stomach pain and ended up with appendicitis and even then she wouldn't belive me until i had actually had the surgery to remove it, now for the past 3 days i've been having really bad abdominal pain on my left side that goes towards my shoulder blade, i don't want to waste doctors time if i'm overreacting again, main concern atm is that i have been using ketamine (like street not therapeutic) for the past 2 months more or less every night (i haven't been for about 4-5 days) before that i struggles with binge drinking alcohol for around 4 months or so i'm very concert i have damaged something inside of me, and before anyone says i am awake of the possibility of K cramps but i am unsure of whether or not this deserves a trip to the GP, or to ride it out for however long it takes to go, any advice would be much appreciated thank you!!

So I’ve been on the implant for about 4 months now, and I randomly started getting cramps, feeling bloated, stomach pain and a sore uterus. My periods not due for another 2 weeks. So it’s not because of that. I thought maybe it was because of having sex to much? Or my bf semen? Or maybe even a uti? Has anyone else been experiencing this???? It’s so weird because I never get cramps even when I’m on my period.

Female 30 years old, recently I posted that I had upset stomach. It started last Wednesday I had little fever and watery diarrhea + bloated and nausea. I went to the gp he didn’t run full check up he gave me some painkillers and told me it’s viral and will get better. I no longer have watery diarrhea but still soft stool and I feel I have cramps and gases.
I have anxiety and I always vomit when am anxious. Before that I always had probiotics dairy drink every morning .. I never have any probiotics in my life it was my fist time. I have probiotic for week or more
Should I worry. I can feel it’s improving but am little worried maybe because of my anxiety
My question is : how many days it lasts ?

My period has lasted from 5th-9th may, had unprotected sex both during and after my period, since the 12th ive been feeling very ill, ive had abdominal cramps, twinges and tiny sharp pains if that makes sense lol and just general sickness: nausea,headaches that wrap around my head and i cant move, hot flushes,etc. my partner, doesnt have any of these symptoms and usually within a day or two, if one of us gets sick the other quickly follows. I'm nervous about if ill need to take a test, and just sorta waiting for him to become sick 😅 is there a chance or could it just be an illness?

I (17F) have been feeling a little off since my last period (ending 4/15). I've had a little bit of nausea which is not abnormal for me, tender breasts, sensitive stomach, and I've been like really moody... crying all the fucking time. I didn't think to take a pregnancy test and just attributed my physical ailments to stress of graduating HS and just thinking about life and the fact that I'm going to be a real adult soon and all that jazz.
I only became worried and took an early pregnancy test on Sunday morning (5/12) because I was a few days late (which i also attributed to stress), and there was a very very faint line which did not show once the test was dry so I assumed it was just negative and went on with my day.
That night I started feeling some cramping which was the same as my normal period cramping and went to bed thinking I would just wake up and start my period the next day.
At school yesterday, Monday (5/13), I started bleeding and it was much much heavier and darker than usual, with a few really large clots of blood that I haven't seen before in the 7 and a half years I've been menstruating. I use a menstrual disc, so I see everything. I am still bleeding heavily, but less so and there has been less frequent, more period-looking clots today.
I know my body and I don't feel normal right now but I don't want to believe that I was pregnant and looking at pictures of other people's miscarriages is not helping me figure it out because I didn't have any of the white tissue or anything just big blood clots and a lot of cramping.
My boyfriend and I only use condoms and we had a little malfunction during my period last month but he didn't like finish inside of me or anything.. we caught it first.
The only person who knows that I am concerned is my best friend. My boyfriend doesn't know, neither my parents nor my sister know, and I don't know if or whom I should even tell.
Can someone please help or just lie to me and tell me I'm fine and it's just my period because I can't bring myself to talk to my mom because I don't want to upset her as she had 4 miscarriages and a hard time getting pregnant in general so I don't want to trigger anything for her. I've been crying all day and I just feel so... guilty? I don't know what about but I feel awful. I feel like I lost something but I don't know if there was anything to lose to begin with.

I (17F) have been feeling a little off since my last period (ending 4/15). I've had a little bit of nausea which is not abnormal for me, tender breasts, sensitive stomach, and I've been like really moody... crying all the fucking time. I didn't think to take a pregnancy test and just attributed my physical ailments to stress of graduating HS and just thinking about life and the fact that I'm going to be a real adult soon and all that jazz.
I only became worried and took an early pregnancy test on Sunday morning (5/12) because I was a few days late (which i also attributed to stress), and there was a very very faint line which did not show once the test was dry so I assumed it was just negative and went on with my day.
That night I started feeling some cramping which was the same as my normal period cramping and went to bed thinking I would just wake up and start my period the next day.
At school yesterday, Monday (5/13), I started bleeding and it was much much heavier and darker than usual, with a few really large clots of blood that I haven't seen before in the 7 and a half years I've been menstruating. I use a menstrual disc, so I see everything. I am still bleeding heavily, but less so and there has been less frequent, more period-looking clots today.
I know my body and I don't feel normal right now but I don't want to believe that I was pregnant and looking at pictures of other people's miscarriages is not helping me figure it out because I didn't have any of the white tissue or anything just big blood clots and a lot of cramping.
My boyfriend and I only use condoms and we had a little malfunction during my period last month but he didn't like finish inside of me or anything.. we caught it first.
The only person who knows that I am concerned is my best friend. My boyfriend doesn't know, neither my parents nor my sister know, and I don't know if or whom I should even tell.
Can someone please help or just lie to me and tell me I'm fine and it's just my period because I can't bring myself to talk to my mom because I don't want to upset her as she had 4 miscarriages and a hard time getting pregnant in general so I don't want to trigger anything for her. I've been crying all day and I just feel so... guilty? I don't know what about but I feel awful. I feel like I lost something but I don't know if there was anything to lose to begin with.

30M, here, married to a 30 (f) and have two boys 5 and 3.
What happens when yall get sick? 5 year old brought a bug home Sunday to me with fever, headache, sore throat, congestion. Wife is super supportive, but acts like i should be doing everything the same as normal (very active in all activities with kids and house), when she’s sick i send her to the bedroom and handle it all . Kids still wake us up at 5/530 every day , and it’s hard to sleep when congested. Any tips to resting and getting better while in the trenches?

I’ve been wanting to post for a couple months now, but talk myself out of it every time but I’m really losing my mind now. I have a doctor appointment set for Monday but with the terrible health care in my town I’m not very hopeful but hopefully it can lead somewhere.
Female, about to be 27, overall healthy besides the fact I’ve been overweight my entire life. I have had a really bad vitamin D deficiency for a few years but was always bad at taking supplements.
In November after a long car ride I got out of the car and my legs felt very weak and like they were shaking inside it was really strong at first and then it calmed down but the whole night my legs felt like they were shaking/buzzing. The next day I felt normal, a couple of months later we did the same long trip and the same thing happened; I told myself it would go away in a couple of days but it didn’t really. My legs felt like they were buzzing non stop for a few weeks, then the twitching began. I had made a dr appointment for the initial buzzing sensations and I got an ultra sound done to check for blood clots. The ultra sound found nothing. A few days before that appointment I started getting random twitching in both my legs. I don’t really remember where but I think my calves and thighs. I hadn’t even mentioned it at my appointment. I’ve always had terrible health anxiety and I was having some insurance issues, I just got married so the change over messed some things up so I didn’t go back for my follow up.
The twitching started in mid December and was only in my legs for what I can remember. A couple of weeks later it started all over my body. Legs, arms, hands, eyes, tongue, and face, butt, stomach, back, shoulders, neck. You name it, it’s twitched.
I’ve spent countless hours reading and freaking the hell out that it’s the big bad. It consumes me from time to time when the twitching gets bad. It’s so weird, it seems as though it happens in phases now. It will get really bad for a few days to a week and then calm down for a few days to a week and then repeat like a cycle. I wouldn’t say anything has gotten “worse”. I do feel like my muscles feel different. Not “weak”, definitely not clinically weak. I can walk on tippy toes and heals, I can pull myself up but I just feel like I get way more sore way quicker than ever before. Could be getting older and the weight of my body? Could be something more?
I used to be able to calm myself down by thinking it’s BFS but it seems most have a hot spot? Or only one area will twitch at once while for me it’s like my knee will twitch then half a second later my arm will and they will jump all over from place to place. Like I said I’ve mostly talked myself out of it being something serious by telling myself I have no clinical weakness, etc. but today I was watching my calves and they were just moving like crazy. Little pops here and there up and down my calf. Most of them I could feel but a majority I couldn’t. And seeing this has really really freaked me out. Since reading about *** more and more I’m back on being convinced it’s what it must be. Also, my hands feel weird a lot of the time, like my dexterity is off. I occasionally get tightness and cramping feeling in my calf, mostly my left.
Another odd symptom I’ve developed is eye floaters. Occasionally I think I’m having problems swallowing but only my saliva and I don’t know if that’s from me getting freaked out. I’ll also have a few days where my facial muscles are twitching like crazy and my jaw/teeth almost feel like they’re clattering?
If anyone took the time to read this, thank you and I’m sorry again for the long post just a fellow person freaking out and hoping a doctor will listen to them. I don’t really know what I’m hoping to gain from this post, maybe others who have had similar symptoms and a similar order of them. I don’t know.
I’m editing to add that I have been taking magnesium and vitamin d supplements for at least four months now. I started them back after these symptoms started and haven’t noticed a difference.

So I just started the combo bc pill a little over two weeks ago, but last week I skipped a pill on Monday and took two on Tuesday I believe. Then had unprotected sex Wednesday. It didn’t occur to me until today but the past three or four days I’ve had spotting, food aversions, cramping and nausea. Like I’m literally obsessed with coffee but the past few days I just can’t stomach it and the thought of it grosses me out. I’m worried since I was so new to taking the pill and skipped one if i might be pregnant or if these symptoms are just my body still adjusting to the new hormones. Help!!

i’ve been having pregnancy like symptoms for almost 3 months now like breast tenderness, cramping, bloating, nausea, frequent urination, headaches, and sometimes light headness. These symptoms are kinda on and off but the only one i’m missing is a missed period, and ive been loosing weight. I’ve also never had sex, but i’ve been fingered with a possibility of precum but that’s about it. My periods for the past two months have came exactly on time and were just as heavy and painful as always lasting 6 days. Why is this happening?!?

i’ve been having pregnancy like symptoms for almost 3 months now like breast tenderness, cramping, bloating, nausea, frequent urination, headaches, and sometimes light headness. These symptoms are kinda on and off but the only one i’m missing is a missed period, and ive been loosing weight. I’ve also never had sex, but i’ve been fingered with a possibility of precum but that’s about it. My periods for the past two months have came exactly on time and were just as heavy and painful as always lasting 6 days. Why is this happening?