I have appalling neigbours. They are 2 polish people. They came to Australia posing as a couple. Hes 59 shes 50. She also had a daughter from another man, and they had 1 son together. He is never happy, always miserable. Shes the same. So, when tbey first moved in. They were okay.. Well, they were nice to us. So, When he first moved in. She asked if I wanted to go over to gt to know them. I was like okay, sure. I took around a bottle of wine as a gift. And everything was fine. After the guy had a couple drinks. He started acting passive agressive. And soon I found out, that he was in fact a full blown alcoholic. Now, i didnt find that out right away. But,, only, days later. She approached me and said, thanks for the wine. But can you please not buy him any alcohol,? I said oh.. sorry, my bad. Why is he bad on it? She looked at me and said yeah, he hits me. And I cant handle him when hes drunk, he gets all agressive. And acts silly. I apolagised and, with that. I decided to just keep my distance from them. Some tine passed, I was very generous toward them. Even at christmas, they had told me they love football, and tokd ne their favirite football team, so at christmas I bought them a scarf each. She was so thankful she returned the favor with chocolates. Things were fine. Buy, It was clear from the more occuring arguments they were having more issues at home than they made out. As mentioned above, They also had a daughter. She wouod scream all the tine every day at around dinner tine "DONT TOUCH ME" STOP!! She woukd yell. Everyday, it was awful eventually 1 day I heard her crying, "stop touching me" she said sobbingly. I knocked on the door. No answer. I knew they had a problem, but, I didnt kmow it was this bad. He was the 1 with the main issue. Always abusing them. I knew he was probably molesting the daughter. And hitting his partner. Fast forward to about 1 year ago. At thos point. I know for a fact he is an alcoholic. He quit/lost his job. Stopped going to work. She started going and staying out all day. The daughter moved out, And, slowly, he has gotten worse. So, About 6 months ago. He got really angry, mainly because we stopped talking to them. He expressed his anger, but he was hitting her again now . We just ignored it. So, he started yelling anytime we were outside.me, My elderly mother, an amazon delivery, its gotten really bad now. just last week, traffic on our street was banked up, a car tooted thier horn. "SHUT THE F UP!!" He yelled. He must have thought it was us. Again, I even have him screaming on camera, and you can clearly see there was a car eho cut off another out in the street. We would have visitors pull up for holidays etc. Oh f this f that he would shout in polish. Keep in mind, hes screaming around my 80 year old mother ll, our other neigbour whos elderly, the kids behind them. Its like really bad. Now, she has begun wearing sunglasses all the time. The other day while checking the mail, i saw her he really must have hit her hard cos she had a black eye. So, after I left to go out. He walked over to my mother while she was in her garden. And he started dribbling nonsense. And said something to the effect of you stay there, never come to my siide. My mother said I never in my life have come there. Can you just leave me alone? And the whole thing was caught on my survielance camera. Which by the way, I had to get because of him. He was quite aggressive, and my mother being elderly and a survivor of Domestic Violence herself, she git scared and had to go inside. She said, I cant go out there.. keep in mind my mothers garden is her peaceful, safe place.. She doesnt need that. I was LIVID watching this playback too. Cos he waited for me to leave. Soon as I left, he siezed the opportunity like a true coward. But recently things got worse.. his 'partner' who was being abused, has trued to divert his behaviour toward us. She has told him to make noise while we sleep. I know this as I captured her saying it after getting in the car, in english. She said slam the door harder wake them up. Then when they reversed. He yelled like a high schooler some jobberish in our direction. We werent even outside. But NOW, He has now started banging on our fence really loud at 530am every single day. He also dumps the alcohol containers in the recycle bin at the same time. For a while. I could ignore it. I am the son if a veteren. However, My nerves are pretty bad, and i suffer anxiety as my dad was exposed to a nerve agent called agent orange or something. But really, Im really suffering here now. And, I did have cancer. I had to endure all this during my treatment. severe health issues like this need rest and less stress. I have other issues that prevent me from stopping him if things got physical, not to mention hes bigger than me. And I am not the violent type.. and, He is far too unpredictable. So. Can someone please help me? I am worried he will upset my mother to the ppint of a heart attack. Or me. Im a peaceful guy. I never retaliate, i am also a believer in karma. My mother has a bad heart. And heart problems runs in our family. My anxiety was so bad once, i couldnt sleep for 17 days. I swear it was hell on earth. It nearly drove me crazy, literally. But I really need someones advice. I cannot afford to move. If i had $ id move 100%. But I cant even afford to rent somewhere else. And get away from here. I also am a cancer survivor. Id really like to take my drs orders and remIn stress free. But its extrenely hard. If anyone out there has a sollution. I would be indebted to you forever. I just want him to stop.

I've got 2 ancestors along the same line that got it (a male and a female), and I have had a prostate issue since I was 17 (!), and since that issue has the everpresent urge to urinate and generally weak urine stream (yes, I am very envious of men in the restroom that can pee like a fire hose), I am concerned that that will mask symptoms of bladder cancer later in life. And oh, I'm already a urological cancer survivor (testicular, non-seminoma, mixed cell, Stage 1, orchiectomy only - no lymph node dissection, no radiation, no chemo, no imuno).

My mom was diagnosed with glioblastoma (grade 4 brain cancer) about 16 months ago.
Her tumor took a lot of her vision and now she's legally blind. She has no left peripheral vision at all, and the rest of her vision is also affected to some extent. She has some mobility issues - what she calls being "wobbly" - mostly struggling with balance and strength. She walks with a cane or a walker. Her short term memory isn't great but her long term memory is intact. She still is able to care for herself with daily tasks, but her vision loss and mobility issues are definitely disabling for her. She's also had seizures in the past and it would be nice to have a dog that can detect seizures.
But glioblastoma is considered a terminal illness. Most people die within the first year from diagnosis. But there are a ton of long term survivors out there, and we've been told her prognosis is better than most. She also recently started a clinical trial that's very promising.
Can someone with this type of diagnosis qualify to get a service dog? We're animal people and she talks all the time about how much she wants a service dog to give her some independence back.
Would a guide dog for her vision loss be out of the question for someone with mobility issues? What type of service dog should we look for if she could potentially qualify? Are there any specific organizations that would work best for our situation?
We're in Kentucky USA

Did it feel weird or did you think you might "jinx" your survival so far by going?

So I’ll try to keep this short. I love her more than anything and she’s a great woman. I’ve tried for the past almost decade to get her on the right track to be healthier for her own happiness and ability to travel and be healthy when she retires. She is 60 now. She recently got her hands on semaglutide or “ozempic”. She depends on me to give her the injections because she’s not responsible enough to do it herself. When I realized she wasn’t doing the bare minimum of what needs to be done for her goals, I told her that I’m not putting this chemical into you that has negative side effects when you aren’t even doing the smallest, most effective things like diet, light exercise and just not coming home and sitting on the coach all night. She has every excuse in the book as to why she sat around all day. She’s a cancer survivor, has had 3 knee surgeries (she doesn’t pt her knees and wonder why they are in pain) and lives a very inactive lifestyle. I’ve tried over and over again…..This was 2 months ago. She hasn’t even lost any weight while using it. Today we got into a fight because after I’ve expressed my deep concerns for her months ago, she still has the nerve to get mad at me and treat me like the bad guy and act like I don’t want to help her or like I don’t want her to succeed. She’s someone that’s always looked for a “magic pill” or “get fit fast diet” that never works. I try to explain to her what she is taking and she can’t even say the name of the chemical she wants to put into her body so bad. She’s not mature enough to administer injections herself and the worst is her blatant disregard and lack of care for my concerns and what I’ve tried to explain to her over and over again. If it matters to anyone I’m in great shape and used to be a personal trainer when I got out of the marine corps. I also used to powerlift and bodybuild so I know ALOT about peptides, steroids and hormones all together. Endocrinology is one of my biggest interests.
Thank you for any feed back that I receive.

Are you a patient or survivor in the South Texas area? Testicular Cancer Foundation is organizing a meetup in Houston from May 17-19th!! It will be a weekend with Tex Mex, kolaches, darts, culminating in the Astros game on Saturday evening! If you are interested, check out the details HERE.
We also have a Discord HERE! It's a another great resource to connect with current patients and survivors to get any of your questions answered, and to have a community for support.

I tried to to cancer by My Chemical Romance as a tribute to my late aunt, is it worth keeping on tik Tok?

I tried to to cancer by My Chemical Romance as a tribute to my late aunt, is it worth keeping on tik Tok?

cycle 7, megan talks about having survived a plane crash where her mother died. AJ from that same cycle is a cancer survivor. tiffany’s situation with her grandmother and living in poverty. shandi suddenly dropping that she had a record and had dabbled in drugs. what other contestants had memorable backgrounds to share in casting?

Hello interested in joining the reserves I’m a cancer survivor 39 years old and 5’9 240lb it Been a dream to join the military I live at at home with the parents and have doctors and appointments also a part time job I want to join to get benefits learn a cool skill what job do you guys recommend thank you for your time

When I found this forum about a month ago I was reading the back posts and weeping the whole time.
Background:
I have processed this in therapy, made my peace, and have empathy for the situations that made her who she is.
I don't want to cause her harm, and fortunately I am really bad at relationships, and do not have children. Because it would be very painful if she had grandchildren that she has no access to. My sister and BIL can't have kids. (Details omitted for TW)
I work in the MH field, I'm an Nurse Practitioner. I worked as part of a DBT team. I am not DBT trained or certified but I got really good at boundaries, and sensing manipulation, without having an emotional response.
Before I went NC I would directly and clearly set limits. I stopped her when she would try to split my Sister and I, or gossip about her. There were several times every visit where I would stop her, and explain how I would not engage, did not want to hear, or set a reasonable expectation. Her reply a few times was "Don't analyze me."
Which is amusing because after the last estrangement, I asked her to go to therapy.... never happened.
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Current Situation:
My Mother visited my Uncle who is dying of cancer and has by his estimation about 2 months to live.
My Mother sent me a text that I should visit him that she was down there and he does not have much time to live. I forgot I hadn't blocked her number on the new phone.
I have been NC for 9 years other then sending her a 9th Step (AA) letter. I intend to be NC for the rest of her life or mine whichever ends first.
I asked if she was present in the room. She left the morning of him calling me. I said I appreciated him not doing "One of those Ophra type interventions" as it's usually destructive.
I asked about visiting. Everyone has been invited down but me. He says he would like a visit.
He wants me "As a personal favor" to reconcile with her. I should mention he's a retired corporate attorney. Yes it's not amateur hour on either side of the phone. He said she was "Distraught that I would not talk with her."
I said let's address the second item, as you may not want me to visit depending on how I answer.
I would prefer having this conversation in person and to not have this conversation on a 2 sided Cell phone call either.
I said "no."
He pushed back and said this was not normal. I explained how it's more common then you would think both from people I know and also from being in clinical practice for almost 20 years.
He said "I can hear it in your voice that you want to reconcile." (Defining my feelings) I said I am speaking to you in the same tone I use with my patients.
I said that I will not be interacting with her for the rest of our lives. That this was a carefully made and considered decision.
I said we can discuss my reasons if you would like.
He said that was not his concern that it was between my Mother and I.
My mind formulates, "So no matter what happened, there is no reason that would cause you to find estrangement acceptable." Secondly you are implicating that I am being unreasonable, or worse yet cruel.
This goes in circles.
He bounces off a few boundaries, answer stays the same.
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I figure I am going to let him know some of the situation. Because he's dying and I don't want him to think I am just being unreasonable and stubborn.
I then explain a little of how our childhood was. The abuse that my mother and I got. I also said I suspect my sister getting other abuse. Left that one hanging out there... Remember this is what I do for a living so that should have significant weight.
The things I did that I regret, and have made amends, as well as going to therapy, stopped drinking, worked the steps, and so forth.
I mentioned my sister goes to Trauma therapy, partially because of me.
Which also puts out there "Has your Sister ever had any therapy for all the stuff she has been through?"
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He says "I can hear you are angry at your mother.." (defining feelings again) "
"Help me understand why do you feel that way."
"Based on what you said (above)" I said back, I am not angry at her. I have accepted and made my peace with this situation. I only listed my part in it, and what I have done to become a better person."
Which floats the unsaid question "What is her part in this?"
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I said the offer is on the table to talk about this, or not talk about it. That is up to him. If you do want to have this conversation then it needs to be scheduled so I can have my notes.
The offer of a visit is "We shall see, and depends on how I am doing, check back in a week." I know the answer already. I also explained if I visit I will be getting a hotel room and a rental car, and that it's probably better if we do 2-3 hour visits so I don't tire him out.
The unsaid part is I want to be able to leave if I need to immediately, I want to be able to go to daily AA meetings, I want my own space process this coming loss. I
wrote a poem about this situation and read it in at my AA homegroup (The meeting you go to most and help keep it going.) I haven't written a poem since HS writing class. I've been weepy about the whole situation on and off.
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I have a letter penned to my cousins, who I am in contact with explaining that he is a father figure in my life, that this is a very painful situation for me anticipating his passing, and that I apologize for not attending major life events in their lives and their children's lives because of this estrangement. That I won't be attending his service because it's the place for my Mother to mourn her last living sibling.
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Conclusion:

1. That firstly he feels that there is nothing that would justify estrangement.
2. That my Mother probably said she has no insight into why I estranged her.
3. Based on #2 I am guessing that she has had no therapy. A good therapist would turn that around and use certain questions to help her develop insight.
4. That he feels I am angry and I want to reconcile.
5. Defining my feelings is a huge red flag for me.
6. I bet he didn't expect me to be calm, collected and give a rational and consistent dialogue.
7. Having to hear about his Sister's home life probably hurts. The fact that he probably had no clue until my father passed, he has a lot of guilt.
8. He's formally trained and skilled in negotiation tactics.
9. He's dying so he has a huge ability to guilt me.
10. I gave him the option to understand, that I would visit if asked, that I would limit exposure, and that we did not have to address this, or we can look at photos and tell stories, etc. What is not on the table is reconciliation with my Mother.

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Things have been busy here so I thought I would catch up on our two latest race adventures.
It's time for another race, so I hook up to the trailer and bring it to work. The Miata has been in the enclosed trailer since I ran it through the Christmas parade, but now it is time to wake it from it's winter slumber and start preparing it for Barber, our 10th 24 Hours of Lemons race.
The car should not need much as we ran nearly flawless at the last race at Road America. We had one spin and the wing mounts broke but that was about it.
I get it to the shop and we hurry up and start in. I already have one bay tied up with the next car we are building (more on that later, it is epic) and can't afford to tie up a second during business hours. Youngest jumps in and rebuilds the entire wing assembly. Manny comes by and drives the car to his place and keeps it there until a few more parts come in. It's a block or two away from the shop, we can nearly see it from the front sidewalk. No plates, no insurance, no problem.
Next we change out the brake pads, front rotors, front brake hoses and rear pads. We also change the timing belt after a debate on exactly how many race hours the old one has. Change the oil and the car is ready to load.
Racerguy comes down and we leave out Thursday night. I am driving a little fast as the website shows the gates close at 9 and our gps says we are expected to get there at 9.01. A quick fuel stop and a brisket sandwich at Buccees off I65 in Alabama and we are rolling on through the night.
Finally we get to Barber Motorsports park in Leeds Alabama. Just before 9pm we get in line and get signed in. The team ahead of us is just realizing they lost a wheel off their enclosed sometime on their tow in. The way I was driving before we stopped for fuel I could have lost the car out the back like in the movie Cars and not noticed. Luckily everything seems to be in one piece, we give everything a check over and drop the trailer and head off to the hotel which is thankfully just across the street from the entrance to the track.
The next morning we are up early. No Gill this race as he has had foot surgery and is out of commission, which means we are sorely missing his cooking skills. So we take advantage of the breakfast at the hotel and head over to the track. After we unload the car we have a discussion which ends with us moving across the paddock to the far side as the side we have had for the last few years is shorter and we can't park the trailer in that area as the new trailer is about ten foot longer than the old open trailer.
After the first of two drivers meetings of the weekend (many tracks do the practice day and hold their own drivers meeting to explain their own rules, then the next day Lemons runs the race and has their drivers meeting) we load a driver in the car and send him out to practice. Rinse and repeat until we have sent all the drivers out for a few laps.
By then it is time for inspections. First off all the tech inspection. They have a big crew this race but our favorite inspector Dale Strimple is there. He's knowledgeable, affable and very popular among all the racers. Every day is also his birthday, a story best told later. He and the other tech people soon pass our car then it's time for BS tech.
We have gone all out this race for our theme. This has been a long time thought of mine, it just took a while to get it enacted. So for context I am a cancer survivor and we are always doing crazy themes to try and draw attention to the importance of early detection in cancer improving your chances. In the past we have done free colonscopy tests with huge antique cameras and motor oil for props which thankfully no one took us up on. Later we have done dinosaurs with the inflatable dino costumes to bring home the point that that "dinosaurs never got checked and now they are extinct" which is also on the side of the car. It was popular, I mean who doesn't like to see a inflatable dinosaur walking around?
Today we have again upped our game. We are taking a scene from one of the funniest movies I have ever seen, Johnny Dangerously. There's a part where Micheal Keaton's character is counseling his younger brother not to have sex until he is married, which is funny in itself because Micheals character is always surrounded by a crowd of ladies who apparently are all competing for his affections. Anyhow he shows his brother this video of all these poor guys who are suffering from poor choices that have caused them to have severely enlarged testicles. Like basketball sized. Watch it sometime, it's hilarious. So we made up special pants to hold some dodgeballs and shirts that said: "mens health is no joke, get checked before you croak!" We got a lot of attention for that and even made the wrap video. Walking in those pants with the dodgeballs was not easy!
The next day it's race day. It could not be a nicer day in Alabama. Temps are great, sun is shining. We get through the drivers meeting and line up the cars. Racerguy is going first, we are trying to balance our drivers so that everyone gets one start or one finish for the weekend. It's fun to finish the race or the day and fun to start as well.
The flag drops and we are off. It was a complete fiasco at the start! Someone oiled down half the track on the pace laps and the track was not ready when they dropped the green. It was an immediate yellow but cars where stacking up and passing then realizing the yellow was out. Race control messed up that one pretty badly. It took another ten minutes to clean the track. Finally it really is time for a start and we go green for real. Racerguy is driving smooth as always and moving up. He brings the car from 87th out of 131 cars there to a respectable 39th when the first incident happens. A car spins and hits our rf wheel. Racerguy didn't think much of it but they flagged him in anyway. While in the penalty box we realize the rf is going flat. I did not see it then but by the time we get the car up to our spot in the paddock the wheel is destroyed. We slap another wheel on and send him back out. We lost nearly all the spots we gained, dropping to 78th on the board. Sucks but it happens.
The rest of his stint goes great and he brings the car back to pit road and we put in Youngest. He is running great and the car is showing no signs of any issues from the earlier contact. He starts making up ground and we get all the way up to 54th. Then I get a radio call. "The car is on fire and stopped running!"
What?!!! I radio back asking if he needs to get out of the car. "I'm trying to decide that" Ok, maybe not such a big fire then? We have to wait for more information and in a few minutes the rollback shows up with him in the car. We have had a wiring fire from the passenger side floorboard where the stock PCM harness is. I immediately think the car is done but after Youngest gets some fresh air he jumps in and cuts all the burnt wires out and patches it all up. Start to finish we are off the track an hour and a half and drop to 90th.
I suit up and take the car out to see if it will run or not. It struggles and will only get up to 45, so I bring it right back in. Youngest thinks he knows exactly what is wrong and jumps in again and patches one more wire. I go out and the car is spot on. I start clicking off laps and trying some things the guys said to do to improve on my lap times. There's a few parts where I just need to be more aggressive and roll through and trust the car more. I pick up about four seconds off my best time and am pretty pleased by that. The car runs flawless for the rest of my stint and I bring it back to pit road for the crew to fuel and driver change. We put Manny in the car and send him out. He's running some fast laps and really pushing the car. All the sudden we realize we do not see the car going by. One of the other teams say our car is in the wall on the front stretch. Manny comes over the radio "I FUBAR'ed it" Great, The front stretch at Barber is one of the places I have noted will bite you pretty hard. I have seen a few Lemons cars get really messed up there including a 63 Valiant last year. I am expecting the worst when the roll back comes by with the car for the second time this day.
It's pretty bad. The nose is knocked sideways, the steering is all out of sorts, a closer look reveals the lf tie rod is broken. The right rear is all messed up, the wheel is pushed so far forward it is into the quarter panel and won't even turn. We put the car up on jack stands and look it over. Not good. But there's glimmers of hope. The radiator is not broke. The engine is still fine. The core of the car seems square. And we have almost an entire Miata in parts in totes in our trailer. Maybe we can fix this. I start dragging out parts and we start changing them. The tie rod on the front is soon changed and we now have both wheels pointing the same direction. Youngest takes the nose off and straightens the brackets that hold it and the splitter in place and adds a whole lot of zip ties.
On the rear it just keeps going and going deeper. We change the knuckle, the lower control arm and the upper. We spend a long time saving the bolt that goes through the lower control arm and knuckle, we do not have another. This one is bent and has questionable threads too. In true lemons never say die fashion we beat it out of the bent parts, straighten it and when we cannot find the correct die to chase the threads we use one that is close and pray it works. It does, but then we get it all back together and realize even with all the parts replaced we still have two inches of rear toe. Just a wee more than the 1/16th we started with.
Turns out the rear subframe is bent, so we all go out and start walking the pits looking to borrow a port a power. This small hydraulic jack comes with rams and other attachments and has a pump attached to a hose so you can jack and bend parts that are bent like ours. We actually end up borrowing two after searching almost every team that is still around. It's getting dark, rain is moving in after midnight and the clock is ticking on the car being done. Is it fixable or is the damage terminal? There are three guys under the car jacking and measuring and I am handing them parts and tools and making a run for food.
In a dramatic fashion, they pull it out. I run for food and they finally announce the car is perfect. I think they worked until nearly midnight, but everything they measured was on the money. It was an amazing effort and a huge comeback. We all fall into an exhausted sleep wondering if the car will drive good tomorrow or did we miss something important.
The next morning dawns and as expected its raining. And colder. I cannot emphasize enough just how wet and cold it was. All day long it rained and I think the temps dropped. Made for a miserable day, pretty sure even a duck would have been unhappy.
I go out first, I had called this stint early on. Sometimes you have to pull the car owner card. It's a two hour stint then a quiet hour then the race resumes.
We gas up the car and I line up. The car seems to drive straight, but it is raining and the track is slippery so who really knows? The car stumbles a bit on accel and I wonder if we outsmarted ourselves with our home made ram air system that sucks air from right below where the left headlight was. It keeps on doing that for a few laps then finally gets better.
Driving in the rain is not without it's challenges. You have to drive very carefully and not push the car too hard. The fun part is the Miata goes straight when you floor it so anytime I get a chance I gas it up and go hard to the next corner where I slow down and ease through it. Soon enough another issue arises. The windshield starts fogging up. It gets real bad on yellow flags where we all slow down then gets better if I have a good run at speed, but there are times a smart person would have pulled off as you cannot see much at all. But most of us aren't real smart. I can't reach the windshield or I would try to wipe it. The temptation is there to loosen the belts and get enough room to reach but even I am not that crazy. I keep the belts tight but do take off one glove and give it a few swipes under a long yellow then hasten to put the gloves back on. There's probably not much chance of a fire in these conditions but no sense chancing it. I've seen pictures of burns from race car incidents and they aren't pretty.
On one corner I make a mistake, I get off line to let a really aggressive car go by. It's the Party Girl car and they are hyper aggressive. If you would think they would wait to pass until you get through a critical part you'd be wrong, they typically will jam their car in wherever they can and go on. Other fast cars are a bit more respectful and do a better job on the give and take. Not wanting to make an issue, I get over and promptly realize there is zero grip outside on this corner and slide through the grass. I go to penalty and explain what happened. The judge asks if I learned anything, I said "Yes, next time to be a jerk" I might not have used that exact wording but I meant it. The same car also was what indirectly caused the wreck the day before, their aggressive driving was what caused Manny to get the red mist when they did the same thing passing him. He over drove the car after that and lost it. Mental note to drive them the same way going forward, we both can be hyper aggressive and see where that leads. We have a few more cars to build in the driveway if need be.
After my two hours are up, I bring the car in and explain about the terrible fogging and vision issue. Manny goes out after the quiet hour and slides off the track for black flag number two. It's just very nasty out there and cars are going off all the time. We fix up a ice scraper with a rag tied to it to give the driver a method of clearing the fog. It's primative but way better than nothing. The drivers report they used it quite a bit the rest of the day. It's just gloomy and the race is going on, but cars are hydroplaning if they get into the water which is starting to pool on parts of the track. The rest of us are watching from inside Manny's car with the heat on, it's gotten that cold and wet.
We are so far behind now we aren't bothering to suit up and go to pit lane. Rather we bring the car up to the pumps, get the driver out and fuel and put the next driver in. It's still raining and not having to get anymore wet than necessary is a plus. Racerguy gets flagged in after he's run about half his stint and he has no idea why. Apparently the cameras show what they thought was contact in the corner, he says he got real close and braked hard to avoid it. The car shows no new signs of contact. The judge tells us one more flag and he's parking us for the rest of the day. Over contact that someone thought they saw on camera that apparently never happened. (I went to look this up on our go pro footage but the chip glitched and we had no footage)
Racerguy goes out and finishes. He reports the same as Manny, the track is getting increasingly treacherous. Very few cars are getting around good, if you have a front wheel drive with skinny tires, today was your day. I saw a escort wagon running laps as fast as us and later the Dodge Caravan passed us.
Youngest goes out and after about 15 minutes I notice the lap counter is not updating. I look outside the trailer and he is in the car, sitting there. We go out and he announces he cannot drive the car anymore, it's sideways all the time. I ask if he wants to load the car and he said yes. I don't object. We race for the fun of it, and at that point none of us were having fun. We loaded in the rain and left before the race was over. Many other teams had already done the same. Some were gone before the day ever started. We have raced in the rain before but this was the worst conditions I have ever seen on the track. Barber is a top notch facility, it was just such a lingering rain and the temps being below 40 made it miserable. The vision and grip levels seemingly got worse as the day went on and the water built up and the temps dropped. We saw a lot of big problems and overcame many. Probably if we were not so exhausted from fixing the car and were in the hunt for anything we might have stayed until the end. As it were, we dropped from 65th to 67th or so. Time to rebuild and get dried out and ready for the next race.

Hey, 34F, 5'9 1/2, 172 pounds, Caucasian, take Synthroid (100mcg mon-sat, 88mcg sun) figured I'd put this out there and see if someone has any idea what the possible issue could be, they have exp the same thing etc. To be clear, I understand this is not 100% professional advice. I had whole thyroid removed when I was younger due to thyroid cancer. Considered pretty healthy, don't drink, smoke weed, do drugs or smoke. Had hypothyroidism that progressively got worse from my 20s till now b/c my last dr. was a gaslighting a-hole. Apparently my thyroid levels are good now and where they should be, even though I have some shitty symptoms on and off, but guess that comes with having no thyroid and I'm stuck with that, is what it is. Anyway, I found a new family dr. and have had some MRI's, CT scans, EKG and am going to have a stress test and bed side echo just to rule out heart problems. My EKG results showed my heart beat slightly drags out a little bit/lags. I forget the medical term but he said it's not necessarily abnormal, it's common in people. The cardiologist also told me if he finds anything odd, he'd send me to the hospital to get their more detailed echo.
Moving on, ever since I was a teen if I yelled, most of the time my chest felt tight and I had to catch my breath and then in early 20s sometimes my chest felt like if you go outside in the winter and breathe in the cold air and your chest feels tight and hurts. Asthma was ruled out by last dr. I failed 2 breath tests, chest x-rays came back fine. Over the yrs, edema began. I used to be 125, 130 pounds toned, fit and at the perfect weight for my body, now I'm 172 water weight. I eat well and used to do light exercise. My ankles/feet swell on n off worse in the heat, my face is a little swollen/puffy, the front of my neck where my thyroid used to be swells/gets puffy on and off, my upper arms have a lot of water retention near the top around the arm and under especially, thighs as well, but my stomach is the worst it looks like I'm pregnant (*deff not pregnant). My fingers swell on and off, hands puffy on palms, wrists, all over my body basically.
My MRI and CT scan showed a few tiny benign nodules in 1 lung and a small benign nodule in my liver. My current dr. was rude and didn't explain what it meant to me. As the typical standard, I'm having another MRI and CT to make sure I'm okay since my last tests and I'm going to ask the dr.'s there what my results really mean. But this edema is getting worse and so far, seems there's no explanation for it. Also, sometimes if I breathe in it sounds like a rubber chicken toy in my chest and I get clear phlegm sometimes, sounds wheezy. And the other weird, scary symptom- if I take ANY medications EXCEPT FOR my Synthroid pill, my breathing is affected. For example, I can take vitamins, an allergy pill even, cold meds, w/e my breathing becomes labored, I'm air hungry and struggle getting full deep breaths, chest feels heavy. The severity varies from mild to maybe I have to go to the hospital. And the duration of this symptom is random- it can last a few hours then my breathing improves, it can NOT affect me right away but the next day it affects my breathing, it can last a week just from taking 2 vitamins etc.
I asked to see a lung dr. (not sure of their correct title) but my dr. hasn't done anything about that, I asked for my hormone levels to be checked (estrogen and that) and was told no need, asked to be tested for pcos, fibroids, womanly issues like that to rule out the weight gain told no need- even though I have some symptoms and they run in my family. IT'S MY BODY but w/e right. My dr. clearly wrote me off, ignored the fact I was diagnosed with pitting edema (not severe- and my circulation could be better but it's not severe issue). Anyway, my dr. called me fat cause that's easier than helping someone with an odd medical problem. I eat healthy, still go for walks, some days barely eat anything cause I'm not hungry or I'm stressed and am not a stress/depressed eater, thankfully. The only other thing is, I know the body keeps score and I've been through a lot in my life and endured trauma and ab***. I've read/heard that people who are survivors have had weird, mystery illnesses. Some cleared up when they were free of the trauma, some not. Also if you're stressed all the time, high levels of cortisol isn't good for you. Thank you for reading, any suggestions on what could be the issue? Any advice?

I really was a let down of a husband/father today in my opinion, and I have taken time to reflect and see that I really didn’t put any effort into today, and I need to know IF I can fix this mistake.
Little background; my wife and I struggled trying to have a baby via IVF since 2018. Why IVF you ask? Sadly, I’m sterile as I am an pediatric/adolescent cancer survivor who had some harsh cancer treatment, fortunately was old enough to store my frozen specimen prior to treatment for the future. Anyway, we had spent the better part of 5 years going through IVF without success, just burning through patience, hope, and especially Money on trying to finally get pregnant. Alas, we finally succeed last December 2022, with her becoming pregnant, and we were over the moon that In 2023 we would have a child on the way at the end of summer. Last year, I really tried to make Mother’s Day special in every way I could after all she had been through, and I wanted her to feel special. Thoughtful Gifts, flowers, dinner, clean house, etc. Basically everything to make her continue riding that high of a baby entering our lives. She loved it!
Flash forward to today. What naively didn’t occur to me until a few hours ago, after a baddd chewing out by her after a dumb comment by me 😣. It didn’t occur that now our baby boy is here, and him being here means that the here/now/TODAY is really the days to go all out. Today was the day to celebrate all her strength and determination to get our sweet boy here, not pat myself on the back for how good I did last year. I can’t believe how my stupid self looked over this so casually and that I didn’t catch how much it all meant to her. I mean all she got greeted with this morning was me making pancakes and sausage while taking care of baby, two Mother’s Day Cards (1 from baby 1 from me), and an “I’m sorry your gift will get here Tuesday” explanation.
She was so excited this morning coming downstairs to see us, but looking back, after breakfast it all changed when she asked what I had planned. I freaked out and just said what we usually have done on Mother’s Day over the almost 9 years we’ve been married: “What do I have planned? Uhh well I thought we’d go to your folks house, wish your mom and grandma happy Mother’s Day, visit, have lunch, then come back have dinner and you just relax.”
A lazy selfish plan if I ever saw one... I should have read the signs better after seeing how quiet and short she was with me at her parents. I mean, I had all the time in the world to plan and make this a special day and I failed miserably in having nothing planned nor anything special to give. My gift coming, it’s literally matching shirts for her and the boy for Mother’s Day cause I saw it on Etsy and thought she’d like having a picture with our baby and her matching. I honestly don’t know, this is just my last ditch effort to ask other dads how or if I can recover from this and If I can fix my stupid mistake to show her how special she is to me and that miracle we are blessed to call our son. Appreciate you all, Thanks.