My husband (35M) and his ex wife (40F) were together for 5y and married for 1y. They have a daughter (7F) together, but she has been married before, has a teenage daughter with her first husband. My husband left her because it was a toxic relationship and he's a recovering alcoholic.
Me (32F) and my husband have been together for 4y, married for 2. We have no children together, but we raise his daughter half of the time - the custody is 50-50.
His ex wife and I don't get along - she's moved in on me in the past, she tried to split and has insulted me a few times. She's a textbook selfish narcissist and she's ruined any prospect of a relationship between us. I want absolutely nothing with her because she has 0 respect towards me, but basic decency and being civil towards her isn't enough for her. Apparently she's not happy that I'm not out there licking her arse like everyone else. In her latest outburst, she said I had to make an effort with her because things would get worse between us otherwise (??). She's very awkward with me in public, pretends she doesn't see me and literally hides from me, never says hello. She has yet to acknowledge that her ex husband remarried and that I am his wife. She treats me like I'm just this silly little side affair and that one day the spell will wear off and he'll see sense and get back with her.
She's always been a tease and flirty - nothing she ever does is coincidental and she's very calculating. I remember seeing a photo of her at her ex husband's house for his wife's birthday party and she was wearing a lace bodysuit with leather pants, whilst everyone else was dressed normally. Just teasing her ex husband. She always comes around my house to drop her daughter off with her t*ts out, skin tight clothes etc. She also messages nonstop about trivial things regarding their daughter and when she has her, she reports everything they do and what she's done in the day, sends photos and videos.
In December, she was diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes so she has lost some weight. Ever since, she's been grafting like mad to get my husband's attention. A few days ago, she asked us to drop my SD off at a birthday party, some friend of hers. Husband and SD get out of the car to look for the entrance and at the same time, she drove in. She saw me looking out the window in our car and drove forward to block me from her view and kept my husband chatting. She then parked up and got out of the car, she was in a crop top and cheeky denim shorts - she had everything on display. Kept my husband for as long as she could by making conversation and then she turned round to her car and got on all 4s to reach for the present that was on the passenger side.
Yesterday, my husband took SD to karate lessons which she arranged once a week near her house. She rang him up beforehand to ask if he was leaving SD there or waiting for her. He said he'd just wait in the car and that was the end of the conversation. She then went out for a run at the same time SD was meant to be in karate in the exact same place my husband was meant to be sat waiting for SD to sort of "bump into him".
I know there's nothing I can do about this, I have already spoken to my husband and told him how much it bothers me and that I feel disrespected, but I also don't expect him to control her behaviour because he can't. I know that my husband is married to me for a reason and not her etc etc.. but how do I detach from this? She makes my blood boil and it's so hard to just ignore the situation.. I don't know how to cope with this, it's so draining.
Tldr: my husband's ex wife flirts and teases him, and is always trying to get his attention through messages and skimpy outfits. It infuriates me and I don't know how to detach from the situation.

I've had 2 pretty bad burnouts in the past 10 years. Chronic fatigue has massively effected my life, and I've been left with lingering chronic migraines which don't seem to want to quit.
I have, however, mostly got out of the fatigue part of the trap. Other than therapy and changing my life in a few ways (work, relationship, location - basically reducing stress), nutrition was for me, absolutely key in coming back from the brink.
Yesterday I shared the 30 supplements I'd tried over these years, and tried to order them in terms of efficacy. It was awesome to hear about other people succeeding partly due to nutrition, and you all seemed to get some use out of the list, so I thought I'd write another post sharing how I benefited from hiring a nutritionist.
First up, I was reluctant to spend the money on a nutritionist to begin with - I was wiped out and as a solopreneur had cut back my working week to 3 days writing code and doing entrepreneur stuff - at that point money was tight. I thought I knew what I should be eating and amidst CFS everything felt overwhelming and difficult.
But eventually I gave in to those around me and signed up for a consultation with a nutritionist which my sister suggested.
She wasn't super expensive. She was super experienced. My nutritionist had worked for 8 years at a burnout clinic in a big city. She knew her stuff.
Over the years I had 3 'Consultations', each with a follow up or two. They always looked similar, like this:

• Sends over a prior health questionnaire.
• Sends over a questionaire, where you have to enter your typical diet for a hypothetical 5 day week.
• Decent hour-long holistic chat about all the key points in your health journey (potential origins, gut health state indicators, medications etc.), and my aims (which were obviously, get out of the CFS hole).
• Suggests taking bicarb (baking soda) stomach acid test.
• Suggests a number of supplements for you to get.
• You go away and try to inject some of the wisdom and supplements into your daily life.
• Follow up comes around way too fast, you kick it back a few weeks to more fully try the changes.
• Follow up call holds you accountable, discusses what's worked, what hasn't.
• A new plan is made, and so on.

This probably seems like a lot of work if you're currently in CFS. I feel you. But broken into little steps, it is digestable; and for me at least, it was crucial to recovery.
I learned all the ways I wasn't helping myself. I had thought that I was quite savvy with food, but I had my macro's (fat/protein/veg etc. %) all wrong. My blood sugar was out of whack, my cortisol graph was a rollercoaster.
Before enlisting the nutritionist I took supplements, but I did so haphazardly. Same with diets. Keto, vegan, etc.
With the nutritionists guidance I:

• Corrected my macros (still not perfect)
• Thoroughly gave up caffiene
• Mostly gave up alcohol
• Let go of the processed foods and sweet 'treats'
• Ate lots more (organic) vegetables
• Found the supplements which genuinely helped my body not feel abysmal
• Took some tests and promptly saw data I could use (not in 2 years like the NHS here in the UK would have me)
• Learned more about the science of CFS, metabolism, allergens etc.

Pitfalls of the experience:

• Their help is only as good as your commitment to change
• Some food choices are socially reinforced, and hard to change
• I fell over a few times, needed a few extra calls to correct course

For me the real benefits were:

• Actual trained knowledge (not instagram influencer 20s clips)
• Made me look at what I was putting in my body more clearly
• Support & Care (when in CFS we just need help, sometimes)
• Accountability (knowing there's a follow up made me endeavour to try the dietary changes seriously)

... and most importantly, it was part of what worked for me. I am no longer stuck in bed. I'm fitter than I was at the start of this forsaken part of my journey. I'm way more holistic, and I know my body far better.
As I read back through this I'm trying to find my point; and I think fundamentally it's this: When you're in Burnout it can feel like you'll never get free. It can feel like nobody can help you. It can feel fatal and exhausting. I can say, for me at least, after years of feeling that way, (dreadful), there is hope. Take small steps. Work on your mental health, your sleep, your gut, and your physhical health. Getting help from qualified, kind practitioners where you can; it's worth it.
... and finally I realise that I am privileged in being able to get this support, and that it's not available everywhere and to everyone. I hope you find the support you need to start stepping out of your abyss - either way, don't overlook your nutrition.

Little backstory:

• live in Australia, where most healthcare is covered for free (through Medicare it’s paid through taxes)
• diagnosed with UC in December ‘23
• had just been coping with symptoms for years until it got really bad, so have been living with symptoms for a while.
• since getting diagnosed I’m on mezavant (4.8G/day) and have been on prednisone twice (still on 2nd round of it due to symptoms not going away)
• just had my first Entyvio infusion a few days ago

My Dilemma:
I am in the process of getting my Green Card and moving to America (my wife is American), and we had started this process before I was diagnosed with UC (before it got the point that I was pooping blood 10 times a day). If all goes to plan I would likely be moving in 6-12 months.
I know the US healthcare system isn’t great, and I’ve seen a lot of mixed reviews online about UC in USA.
With only just starting Entyvio, I know it can take some time for it to take effect / to even know if this is what’s right for me, so I guess my concern is about moving to USA with a pre-existing condition, are my insurance premiums going to be super high? Am I going to be able to afford the right treatment? What happens if I need to try a different treatment if Entyvio doesn’t work?
Any advice from anyone that’s been in a similar situation or lives in the US would be greatly appreciated!
TIA

I've had 2 pretty bad burnouts in the past 10 years. Chronic fatigue has massively effected my life, and I've been left with lingering chronic migraines which don't seem to want to quit.
I have, however, mostly got out of the fatigue part of the trap. Other than therapy and changing my life in a few ways (work, relationship, location - basically reducing stress), nutrition was for me, absolutely key in coming back from the brink.
Yesterday I shared the 30 supplements I'd tried over these years, and tried to order them in terms of efficacy. It was awesome to hear about other people succeeding partly due to nutrition, and you all seemed to get some use out of the list, so I thought I'd write another post sharing how I benefited from hiring a nutritionist.
First up, I was reluctant to spend the money on a nutritionist to begin with - I was wiped out and as a solopreneur had cut back my working week to 3 days writing code and doing entrepreneur stuff - at that point money was tight. I thought I knew what I should be eating and amidst CFS everything felt overwhelming and difficult.
But eventually I gave in to those around me and signed up for a consultation with a nutritionist which my sister suggested.
She wasn't super expensive. She was super experienced. My nutritionist had worked for 8 years at a burnout clinic in a big city. She knew her stuff.
Over the years I had 3 'Consultations', each with a follow up or two. They always looked similar, like this:

• Sends over a prior health questionnaire.
• Sends over a questionaire, where you have to enter your typical diet for a hypothetical 5 day week.
• Decent hour-long holistic chat about all the key points in your health journey (potential origins, gut health state indicators, medications etc.), and my aims (which were obviously, get out of the CFS hole).
• Suggests taking bicarb (baking soda) stomach acid test.
• Suggests a number of supplements for you to get.
• You go away and try to inject some of the wisdom and supplements into your daily life.
• Follow up comes around way too fast, you kick it back a few weeks to more fully try the changes.
• Follow up call holds you accountable, discusses what's worked, what hasn't.
• A new plan is made, and so on.

This probably seems like a lot of work if you're currently in CFS. I feel you. But broken into little steps, it is digestable; and for me at least, it was crucial to recovery.
I learned all the ways I wasn't helping myself. I had thought that I was quite savvy with food, but I had my macro's (fat/protein/veg etc. %) all wrong. My blood sugar was out of whack, my cortisol graph was a rollercoaster.
Before enlisting the nutritionist I took supplements, but I did so haphazardly. Same with diets. Keto, vegan, etc.
With the nutritionists guidance I:

• Corrected my macros (still not perfect)
• Thoroughly gave up caffiene
• Mostly gave up alcohol
• Let go of the processed foods and sweet 'treats'
• Ate lots more (organic) vegetables
• Found the supplements which genuinely helped my body not feel abysmal
• Took some tests and promptly saw data I could use (not in 2 years like the NHS here in the UK would have me)
• Learned more about the science of CFS, metabolism, allergens etc.

Pitfalls of the experience:

• Their help is only as good as your commitment to change
• Some food choices are socially reinforced, and hard to change
• I fell over a few times, needed a few extra calls to correct course

For me the real benefits were:

• Actual trained knowledge (not instagram influencer 20s clips)
• Made me look at what I was putting in my body more clearly
• Support & Care (when in CFS we just need help, sometimes)
• Accountability (knowing there's a follow up made me endeavour to try the dietary changes seriously)

... and most importantly, it was part of what worked for me. I am no longer stuck in bed. I'm fitter than I was at the start of this forsaken part of my journey. I'm way more holistic, and I know my body far better.
As I read back through this I'm trying to find my point; and I think fundamentally it's this: When you're in Burnout it can feel like you'll never get free. It can feel like nobody can help you. It can feel fatal and exhausting. I can say, for me at least, after years of feeling that way, (dreadful), there is hope. Take small steps. Work on your mental health, your sleep, your gut, and your physhical health. Getting help from qualified, kind practitioners where you can; it's worth it.
... and finally I realise that I am privileged in being able to get this support, and that it's not available everywhere and to everyone. I hope you find the support you need to start stepping out of your abyss - either way, don't overlook your nutrition.

[TW]: insects, SH
I woke up two days ago with two itchy bites on my ankle, and it's all been a whirlwind from there. I've pretty much convinced myself that I have bedbugs living in my bed, based on the following:

1. The two bites I've described, plus some other skin irregularities/itchy patches (the latter may be imagined) I've noticed on my body.
2. A blood patch I found on my bedsheets.
3. Something I found on the floor, which I took to be a molted bed bug shell.

Now, from a rational perspective I know I'm overreacting completely. And here's why:

1. After discovering the bites, I found a mosquito in my room. Though the bites don't look like other mosquito bites I get and were somewhere that I assumed was covered by bedding while I slept. But it's still probably the mosquito, and if not, I did sit the night before in my friend's car, who recently got a dog. It's possible they could be flea bites.
2. The blood patch looked fairly old, and by Googling it seems bed bug blood patches would be smaller and darker. It's also possible either my girlfriend or I had a spot/pimple that bled in our sleep - we both have some on our back.
3. That "shell" I found was the same colour as a bed bug, but apparently their molted shells are translucent, and this one lacked any "bug parts" (antennae, legs) and had a different texture than I would expect. Could just as easily have been a seed from a bread loaf.

Nevertheless here I am tearing up my mind about bedbugs, scrutinising my mattress constantly, and washing my clothes and sheets at 60° even though I usually do 40° because it's gentler. The bedbugs subreddit does not help because everyone over there seems as anxious as me, and every "is this a bed bug/shell/egg" post gets a few yes responses despite a real diversity in the pictures posted. The thing with bed bugs is they're practically unfalsifiable: they're good at hiding, so you don't see them, their bites vary from person to person, and they can go for long periods without feeding.
Like I said, I likely don't have bedbugs. The fear stems from a budget hotel my friend booked us in to two weeks ago, which wasn't the cleanest. But I did check the mattresses there, and they seemed to pass the test. My friend actually moved on to a second hotel after I went home that did have bed bugs, and he said it was immediately noticeable. I visited India last year, and when my friend jokingly talked about bringing bedbugs home on the return flight (we didn't encounter any) the thought played on my mind for a couple weeks, but this time is more intense.
The only reprieve I get from worrying about them is when I'm distracted, like at work. I did a pretty intense yoga session yesterday and didn't think about it once, but as soon as we brought the session to a close with a meditation, they were back all over my mind.
I also know that, worse case scenario, if I did have them, I'd have to call an exterminator and be out €2000, which would be utterly shit but wouldn't kill me. It's not like the bugs can kill me or even hurt me either. I thought about calling an inspector, but I don't want to spend all that money (and probably anger my landlord) just for reassurance.
I've always been an overthinker and have struggled with anxiety throughout my life. In the past year or two, though, I've noticed some more intrusive thoughts:

1. My ex and I had a place last year and she had a cat. One day when I was leaving for work I didn't pull the door all the way closed. My ex noticed and chewed me out (another story) because it was an indoor cat. But for months afterwards this led me to coming back to the house after leaving for work (sometimes already after walking 10 minutes), coming home early, or staying home completely. At this time I also had a depressive period and my work suffered for a few months as a result.
2. After my breakup when I moved into my new place, I put a hanging plant attachment into the roof and couldn't shake the feeling I'd hit a gas line, even after my Dad (a tradesman) told me they were unlikely to be in that part of the ceiling. I left on a work trip abroad the same day and for the first day away all I thought about was returning to a blown-up apartment. I had a similar feeling when my fridge gas pipe ruptured - I thought I was gonna die in my sleep and ventilated my flat for days.
3. I'm terrified of fire, always have been, but lately I've been unplugging things every time I leave my office because I'm afraid I'll burn the whole place down. I recently quit smoking with the help of an e-cigarette, but for the first week or two I had it I was often terrified it would explode in my pocket.
4. I had an unexplainable pain in my nether regions for a few months that took A LONG TIME to diagnose (turned out to be a muscle problem). But I was constantly anxious about testicular torsion and I wondered why doctors/urologists didn't care. At one point I remember telling myself "I think you want testicular torsion just so you know you're right."
5. When I leave my house I check my balcony door is locked and that the stove is turned off, usually only once, maybe twice. Regarding unplugging things in work, I've once sent my colleague to check something in my office after I left, under false pretenses, in the hope that if something bad had happened (a fire) they would notice and catch it in time.
6. I have - very, very rarely, probably less than 5 times in my life - been consumed momentarily by thoughts of self-harm. Mostly it's fleeting like the intrusive thought I guess everyone gets occasionally, just pushing your brain to consider the worst. However, twice - once after trying SSRIs for my depressive episode and again at random more recently - I had thoughts of slitting my wrists that scared the fuck out of me and sat with me for a good few hours.

I've been in therapy before for anxiety but stopped for a while because my therapist's son got really sick and stopped all sessions. When I look at all this, written out, I'm honestly starting to convince myself that the more likely thing going on here is that I have undiagnosed mild OCD.
However, these thoughts don't normally take over my whole day - I can usually get away from them if I'm distracted, and most of the time they don't bother me unrelentingly, just mildly. Also, besides the unplugging of electronics and checking of locks - which I do not do universally - I don't really think I have any compulsions. These are things I would expect if I had diagnosable OCD, though I don't know much about the condition or the spectrum it exists within.
What are your thoughts? Does it sound like anxiety or OCD experience? I'm planning to go back to therapy next month if I can (it's hard to get appointments where I live, especially in my native language), but do you have any tips for dealing with such thoughts by myself too?
Many thanks for taking the time to read.

Don't take contracts. You CAN make a profit but there's a better way.
Use a stock Vulture to start. The only upgrade you need is to replace the tractor beam with another Abrade tip. Feel free to sell the 2 Cinches if you want. This isn't essential but it makes it quicker and eassier while still getting you a lot of cash.
Go to ANY Lagrange point. Those are the HUR-L1, CRU-L1, ARC-L1, MIC-L1 locations on the map. They don't have to be the L1 specifically, they can be ANY of the L-whatever.
Hit "tab" and look for just a bunch of asteroids. Truly just pick a direction and fly. I just boost till I'm out and then stop.
Scan for panels. Pres "V" to engage scanning mode. It will have 2 crescent bars to the left and right of your center reticle. Hit tab to "ping". You will see "unknown" clusters of dots pop up randomly. While stationary just look around in all direction and center your reticle on each one. To the right and slightly above the crescents around your center reticle it will have a little readout with numbers. You want ANY number divisible by 2000. So you are looking for numbers like 6000, 8000, 12000 and anything else that matches that. Then fly at it hammering that tab button like it owes you money!
If you want to get fancy "mouse wheel up" to increase your scanning power when looking at the cloud of dots that's divisible by 2000. You don't NEED to, but feel fancy and like a techie and do it. You will see some tag looking upside down teardrops appear. Those show the exact locations of panels.
Fly directly at the panels (you won't explode... normally). The panels will vanish in SC 10/10 fashion when you are like 4-5k out from them. When you get to this point lazily hit the "N" key to engage your magical space brake/landing gear and "slow boat" it towards the last known location of those upside down tear drops.
WATCH YOUR HUD. In the middle it will say "collision" in red, if you see that... stop. A panel will appear and as you move around the others panels you saw before will reappear magically. Skin those with your double Abrade tips. Make sure you go down below when you max out the buffer and jankily stack your boxes using a multi-tool tractor beam attachment. If you are a cool kid you can stack about 22-25 boxes in an extremely dangerous and typical SC way. Just stack like 12-13 your first time so you don't blow up.
Then go sell your boxes of shittily stacked RMC at any PLANETS (not moon or station) TDD.
You will make good money. Not fantastic, not the best money/hr. However you will be an industrial, blue collar scumbag like me and doing only this you can casually make a mil in a day. It's kinda slow... kinda boring... but I'm old... so it works.
Pro tip. Salvage a shit load and load it into your cargo hold all janky like. Then keep salvaging and fill your buffer back to the 13. Go sell your shit stack and then call your ship back, fly out of armistice range, pull the remaining 13 out and stack them slightly less shittily and go back to the port to sell the rest. You will make like 3-4 hundred k per run doing this. Or more, I can't be asked to do the math but is decent. Also you are in a small shitty ship so anyone who pirates you is a small time piece of shit and I hope their kids never learn to read.
Money.
Edit: I saw too many shitty tutorials on YouTube and it annoyed me. So while pounding whiskey and double dogs I decided to subject you poor fucks to this. Enjoy

Would like to start a journal on my progress since I am some what anxious to mess with my hormones. Had been on 1600 calorie diet, high on protein and enough fats, 200g/65g so this might play a bit into why I started so low but I am not too sure. Was on this diet about 3 weeks before checking testosterone and about 5 before checking the other levels. Los about 15-18 lbs and about 7-10% body fat. Lifting 5 times a week. 2hours bike cardio while playing video games and watching JJK. I am also doing 20mg daily clomid to keep my nuts working.
So 200mg test weekly with 20mg enclomid a day starting dosages.
Started enclomid at 12.5mg 4 days before testosterone injection and increased it to 20 day of first injection.
Plan on doing injections 1-2 month and then continue enclomid for 6month while titration it down to see if I can get to settle on a better level.
Test blood work taken about 3 weeks before 1st dose. Lh and FSH 1week before 1st dose.
5/14/2024 Age:32 Starting T: 252ng/Dl Starting LH: 3.8 mIU/ml [R 1.4 -18.1] Starting FSH: 2.1 mIU/ml [R 1.5 - 9.3] Starting Estradiol: 19.5 pg/mL Starting Weight: 195lbs, body fat 18-22%?
Abs Starting to show, shoulder and bicep veins. Shoulder and triceps visible and separate heads visible when flexing. Forarm veins Starting to pop out.
As an idiot I did do a cycle about 14 years ago when I was 19 I believe I used 300mg a week for 2 or 3 months? and clomid for pct for 6months? but I can't really recall exactly tbh.
Have had gyno since I was 13 but no lumps anymore mostly puffy might extra fat stored there forever. Never really gotten under 15% body fat. Would like to see if the enclomid has any effects on this. Also curious to see how my estradiol, fsh and lh levels handle both enclomid and testosterone at the same time. Planing to get levels check again in about 10-15 days to see how the markers are moving.
Hope this helps someone in or around the same position as me.
I had very bad depression and 0 motivation. I had to listed to alot of david goggins and jjk to get me through the first weeks of working out. Checked my levels out of curiosity. I also had a ankle injury sprain that did not heal for over a year and it's still bothering me from time to time so I want to see if this helps. Also have had herniated disc for about 6 years and would like to strengthen my core and muscle around vertebrae to help me keep a good posture and reduce strain on the disc. Plan on using bpc 157 as well in the future. I plan on getting off of hrt both enclomid and test becasue I might be able to settle on better levels once I am not on a caloric deficit anymore.

This story was written and emailed to me by an anonymous source. And it’s one of the craziest most bizarre stories I’ve ever read. Ever! 😆 Enjoy the read. It’s long and ridiculously wild. ☘️ Also, in advance, no one can use this story. These stories are written and emailed to me for me to turn into a Video Narrative for my YouTube & TikTok channels. But I would like to share their tales as reading material as well. Thank you for understanding.
I hope you enjoy. 🫶
Story by - “Alex” & “Shane”
Okay so…
I went on vacation to Ireland with my brother last year. And had the most wildest experience of my life there.
Or should I say, we both had the most…wildest experience.
But More so me. And to Tell you the truth, I don’t think I’ll ever go back again after what happened.
As a matter of fact, no, I won’t go back.
So, it’s a Sunday night and it was pretty much our last day of vacationing.
My older brother Shane, wanted to go out… And I’m quoting him - “let’s get fuckin wasted tonight!”
So… We’re on vacation right? Why not? We had rented an Airbnb for the week, we had a rental car - we had a great week so far and we were having…
A proper vacation.
He was already dressed up and ready to go. I wanted to take a quick shower and shave so I told him to head out and I’d call him when I was ready for him to pick me up.
He says cool. He leaves, and I jump in the shower. He’s the one that knows the hot spots in Ireland better than I do. I mean, this was my first time ever coming here. So…
I take a shower, shave, and I get dressed. As I’m about to call my brother, the front door to our Airbnb opens up.
And Its my brother with two bad ass Irish women! They both jump on the couch and they’re laughing their asses off and my brother is just standing there looking at me with a sly grin on his face.
He looks over at the ladies and says - “Give me a minute please” walks over to me, puts his arm over my shoulder and walks me to the bathroom. He then whips out a bag of mushrooms and smiles. Ya know… The psychedelic kind.
I look down at the bag and I shake my head.
He says to me - “come on bro. We got two hotties out there who are trippin and they want to party. Don’t be a flake. This is our last night. Let’s make it special.”
I don’t like disappointing my brother but I was kind of hesitant.
I opened the bathroom door and take a look at these gorgeous women who were both sitting upright now and both looking at me as I opened the door. Both smiling. I smiled back. Closed the door… I looked at my brother and said - “Alright dood fuck it! Let’s do it!”
He gives me a huge hug, kisses me on the forehead, pours me a handful of shrooms and does the same for himself.
We both looked at each other to see who would go first. He counted to three and down the hatch they went. But they were the most unpleasant tasting mushrooms I’ve ever eaten in my life. They were disgusting.
I ran to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of juice because I was having a hard time chewing these nasty things.
But my brother Shane? No, he’s a pro. You give that guy a barrel of hay and he’ll eat it faster than a horse. The guy can eat anything.
40 minutes go by and I’m still straight as a pin. However, my brother on the other hand? He’s already trippin.
I think he had already taken some beforehand.
But in the next 10 minutes… These shrooms hit me like a ton of bricks! It was like this intense wave of cool and hot went completely through my body.
And I’ve taken mushrooms quite a few times but have never felt anything like this before. It was so sudden!
And I feel fantastic!
The next hour went by so fast because we were having so much fun! And these Irish girls? Man… I had the sexiest one! A beautiful Redhead by the name of Katrina.
She was kind of short though. About 5’1” maybe? But good things come in small packages, right? Well, not really. And you’ll know why soon enough.
I don’t recall anything else that happened for the rest of the night after my brother left with the other girl. And before I continue with the rest of the story. My brother’s name is really not Shane. And the redhead girl I was with is not named Katrina.
You see I had to make up these names to protect me and my brother. Because what happened during the rest of the night? I don’t remember. But also, I’ll never forget either.
Okay so, let's get back to the story…
I do remember my brother leaving with… Let's just call her Gloria, Katrina’s friend? And me and Katrina, the redhead, stood behind. I do remember us making out in the bathroom together, but…Everything else after that? There’s nothing there. Nothing. I don’t recall anything from that point forward no matter how badly I try to remember.
This is what my brother told me he witnessed as he arrived back at the Airbnb five hours later with Gloria.
And until this day, I still don’t want to believe this happened. But according to my brother…
It truly did happen.
My brother is going to write this part of the story because he’s the one that has this locked in his memory for life. And for the sake of the story, my name will be Alex.
Here is my brother Shane’s point of view - his perspective on what he witnessed that crazy night. Wow man… This is so fucking nuts. So buckle up and be prepared. I understand you don’t know who I am, but I swear, I’m not a bad person. Okay.

• “Shane’s” story on what he witnessed.

Yeah so, I guess I’m Shane now. Unreal…
Okay. Here we go. Meat and potatoes.
We arrive back at the Airbnb and I see Alex outside in the front of the house wearing only socks and he’s running around on top of the grass like an animal yanking out handfuls of grass from underneath him.
I look at Gloria and we’re both baffled at what we just saw.
First thing I said was - “Oh yeah! This dood is off his rocker right about now - as I parked the car.
We both hop out of the car and walk up to the front door. I slide the key into the door, it unlocks, but there’s a chair behind the door and it’s tipped over blocking the entry way and only leaving enough space for a crack. We both awkwardly look at one another and as I’m about to call out for my brother, I hear someone sprinting towards the door and bang!
The fuckin idiot shuts the door on us.
I then knock on the door softly because It’s almost 1 in the morning as I don’t want to make too much noise. God only knows what this kid has been doing since me and Gloria left.
After I knock on the door a few times, I hear the chair getting pushed to the side and my brother slightly opens the door. I take a peek inside, and his nose is broken, lips are bubbled up and his left eye is completely shut, black and blue and swollen.
He then drops to his knees, and begins crying but no sound is coming out of him! You know… Like when you get smacked by your parents when you’re a kid and it shocks the soul of you? Yeah, that kind of cry.
I don’t react to what he’s doing to not scare the shit out of Gloria, because she’s right beside me. So I push the door open and tell Gloria to hang on a second and shut the door and lock it.
I pick his busted ass up and sit him on the couch. I look around the house and it’s in complete shambles. Our clothes are everywhere, there’s food all over the fuckin walls. It was chaotic. And my brother is now sitting up breathing frantically.
I ask him - “what in the fuck happened?”
He looks at me. Face looking like he got into a boxing match with Rocky Marciano and whispers to me.
“Dood… There’s a leprechaun in the bathroom.”
“A fuckin what now?” - I said with the most bewildered look on my face. I mean I must have… I wish I would have taken a picture of my face at that very moment. I should have taken pictures of everything so this idiot could see the havoc he wreaked on that night.
My imbecile brother continues - “I’m telling you. There’s a fuckin leprechaun in the fuckin bathroom and this little lucky charms motherfucker won’t tell me where he hid the gold!”
“A leprechaun in the bathroom. What the fuck happened to you?” I said as I felt my blood beginning to boil.
The Imbecile then says - “Don’t worry. Don’t worry! I hogtied that little bitch and stuffed my underwear in its mouth. It’s in the bathtub. But don’t go in there. Don’t go in there. This thing fucked me up!”
And now I can hear someone fumbling in the bathroom moaning very softly. I looked at my brother and said - “What in the fuck did you do Alex?”
He replies - “I’m telling you. It’s a fucking leprechaun.”
“Okay. Okay.” - I said. “Stay right here and just, don’t move. Don’t do anything. Just keep still.
His eyes were so huge and dilated. He was so fuckin high. He had heartbeat pulses pumping from the top of his head.
I rushed back over to the front door and told Gloria that my brother got into a fight with a couple of guys at a pub while me and her were out and that her friend Katrina left because she got scared. She told me that was the first time she met that girl tonight so she really didn’t care and shrugged it off. Which was a huge relief to me. I told her thank you for a wonderful night. She understood. W said our goodbyes. I shut the door. And now… What the fuck is in the bathroom? Or better yet, who, is in the bathroom? Because let’s face it. This motherfucker did not find and fight with a leprechaun tonight. No way. There’s just no fuckin way.
I rush over to the bathroom and my brother leaps at my legs, and he’s holding onto me for dear life, begging me!
He says - “Please don’t untie it! It’s got magical powers! PLEASE!!!
Now, at this very moment? I am sort of hesitant about opening the bathroom door. But I snap out of it and open it. What the fuck. A leprechaun? No, I don’t think so.
I open the door…
“Holy shit.” - I said while covering my hands with my mouth. The floor was smeared in blood as if someone was dragged, leading to the huge cast iron tub. Smeared bloody handprints were all over the tub. And now I hear the faint moan coming from the tub. My legs are shaking and feel like they’re ready to give out on me. I was scared shitless.
“What did my brother do? Who is in that bathtub? I pray to God Katrina isn’t in there right now.” - I said to myself completely freaked out.
I slowly walk up to the bathtub…
And sure enough, there is a hogtied person lying in it with my brother's underwear stuffed in their mouth with a ripped t-shirt tied around their head and mouth, but… It’s not Katrina.
It’s a little person. You know, a dwarf? And… He’s literally dressed up in a leprechaun costume…
And how, on God's green earth did he end up here?
He has no idea I’m standing above him. I reach down to begin untying him but he begins squirming and screaming. I told him to relax and that I was here to help him.
And then My imbecile brother Alex, rushes into the bathroom and tackles me down. Stands up and begins shouting at this poor bastard hogtied in the tub - “Tell me where it is you greedy little fuck! Tell me!!!
I jumped to my feet and slapped my brother back to his childhood. Grabbed him by the throat, tripped him and threw him to the ground and said - “are you fuckin crazy? Do you want to go to prison for kidnapping? What in the fuck is the matter with you? You dumb fuck!!”
He then looks up at me with this pessimistic look on his face and says - “It’s a fucking leprechaun dood. A leprechaun.”
I was absolutely dumbfounded and furious at this point. I have this stranger in my Airbnb rental, hogtied and gagged and squirming and screaming and my brother thinks that he’s a leprechaun…
I can’t make this shit up.
He was so fucking high on those mushrooms. He was absolutely convinced that this man was a leprechaun. So… I had to play the game.
It was the only way to help this poor son of a bitch that my brother had kidnapped and hogtied in our Airbnb rental.
I calmly whispered and told him to please leave the bathroom so I could interrogate the leprechaun and find out where he was hiding the pot of gold.
My brother slowly stood up to his feet, face busted up, his cock and balls all shriveled and tight, looked at the man dressed up as a leprechaun, smiled at him with an evil grin and just, walked away…
And as he walked away, I told him to go and please put some clothes on, lay down in bed, and that I would handle the leprechaun. That I, would find out where the gold was hidden…
And that’s all I’m saying. I’m giving the computer back to my dumbass of a brother to finish off whatever else he wants to write.

• Back to “Alex”

Pretty outlandish right? I know. I know. You must think that I’m bat shit crazy huh? Okay so, to make the rest of this long story short, my brother Shane never told me what he did with the poor guy I hogtied and, well… i don’t remember how this guy came to be in my possession. I really don’t.
The only thing my brother Shane told me was that he ungagged him, untied him, and that he was extremely pissed off. And that he had compensated him for his troubles.
Man, I felt so horrible. I felt so horrible…
What I do remember though is waking up that following afternoon with my face all fucked up. Dehydrated with a tremendous splitting headache. I had no clue as to why I looked and felt the way I did. It was terrifying.
All of our luggage was packed and my brother was just sitting there, legs crossed and his arms folded.
Hey man… Take it from me. Don’t do fuckin drugs.
Regards, “Alex” & “Shane”
Disclaimer- This story may not be used for anything other than reading, sharing your thoughts and enjoying it. It is now protected by the United States Library of Congress/Copyright Office. Thank you. ☘️

I (F19) had one friend pretty much all of my life (11 years to be exact) and I always payed for pretty much everything, and I didn’t really mind it. Even when she got her boyfriend 2 or 3 years ago, I payed for him too when we would go out to eat. They’ve always made significantly more than me, but I did notice they were a bit stingy with money at times when we were out so I’d end up paying for ever everything that we were doing just because I genuinely adored both of them. Fast forward a bit, the two form a band and I had a very big falling out with all of them due to how two of the male members were treating me and me realizing how poorly my best friend was treating me. Also, forgot to mention that the times they would buy me things (never more than like $10) I’d have to Venmo back what they payed, example would be the girl buying me an energy drink at the store because the store didn’t take Apple Pay and me sending her the exact $2.50 or whatever it was (it was veryyy low)
I became friends with a girl pretty quick at college, but it turns out that she only becomes friends so that people can buy her things, I didn’t know she had that reputation since I didn’t talk to anyone, she only took $22 from me but I got it back pretty quick, she still owes someone about $800 despite her getting an allowance of $1,000 a week from her dad in cash. Only was friends with her for 4 days.
I genuinely had no friends for a couple of months before I got intergraded into a friend group at college (I dropped out of high school my sophomore year due to severe bullying from my ex best friends group, nothing she did in particular she just wanted to stay neutral with them). I would offer to pay for little things and notice how uncomfortable some of them got with it, I never meant it in a flirty way or anything, I just assumed that that’s what friends do. There was a plan to get sushi one day and one of the guys couldn’t go because he had no money, I offered to pay for him and he declined. I didn’t push any further with that. Another example would be a different guy from that group not having anything to eat at all that day and being very hungry, I told him in private DMs that I can buy him food and it would really be no problem, he just said he wasn’t comfortable with it. Im a pretty sociable person, I can talk to people easily but this was the first group of people I had been friends with in my entire life.
Now im friends with a big group of people that like a band that I’m into (Fidlar) and I met my boyfriend at one of their concerts, I’m noticing that everyone is paying for themselves and my boyfriend made a comment (not in a mean way) about me buying everyone water bottled after a pretty intense set at a show.
Basically, I’ve never really had friends before and im trying to navigate what’s okay and what’s not okay when it comes to buying people things. I am aware that my love language is definitely gift giving. Have I just been around the two extremes? I don’t want to come off as overbearing, I just get really uncomfortable too if I feel like someone is being left out.

Discovered this reddit few days ago and has been tremendously helpful - so thanks for everyone contributing. This is my story with the pouches, and why i firmly believe they are insane to be legal.
Been a nicotine addict for 10 years - first smoking cigs, then started doing 10mg VELO pouches (similar to Zyn) while in office to distract myself from not having smoke breaks. Then decided to quit smoking altogether and go full-on the VELO wagon. This was 14 months ago i quit smoking and picked up VELOs (roughly 15-20 pouches a day of 10mg) and since then, my health has SIGNIFICANTLY deteriorated. The irony is amazing, right?
8-10 months ago while at work i came very close to fainting all of a sudden. Huge shock but im a big guy, so went to bathroom, splashed some cold water in my face and went about my day, not thinking more about it. Weeks later this happened again, and I started feeling heart palpations, dizziness, difficulty breathing, difficulty sleeping, restlessness... Went to doctor who checked EKG, bloodwork, all looked superb. Was very dissatisfied as I was sure my symptoms were real, I was literally terrified, and so I demanded a long-term heart monitoring (Holter monitor, wearable EKG that detects artifacts). Turns out heart was as healthy as ever; no issues at all. Doc came to conclusion that i was suffering anxiety or similar mental illness, as all my physicals were on point. I have absolutely never experienced any mental conditions what so ever, so I was very surprised with this - but also eager to tackle it and find a solution. Months go by and I try meditation, breathwork, cold plunges, better exercise, lowering caffeeine intake, better diet. God i tried it all, but with very limited / no direct effect. I still experienced insane heart palpations; sometimes feeling very sure I would drop dead. It could happen multiple times a day, then vanish for a month, then return, and it seemed all random; it could not tie it to workload, alchohol, diet or similar. But truth be told; i was extremely scared, and my girlfriend got scared as hell as I was a complete mental mess at times. I even started leaving my apartment door unlocked to make sure I could get help if my heart failed during sleep. It was really that bad..
Then, on a flight home from a business trip 4 days ago I started getting crazy palpations, becoming dizzy. It was scary as shit as we were nowhere near an airport or any help. For some reason, it occured to me that it might be the fucking pouches; all this shit started as soon as i ditched the cigs and went full-on nicotine pouches. After landing at home i decided to ditch the pouches. This is now ~60 hours ago, and to be very honest, I cannot believe how incredible this is.
60 hours only, and my heart palpations are COMPLETELY gone. I feel I can breathe 2x the volume of air as I could before. Yesterday I had the best sleep of my entire life; not having to spend 1½-2 hours twisting and turning and being afraid my heart is gonna stop. BP back at 120 / 75, resting heart rate stabile at ~50 BPM. Overall my body feels amazing. Sure, the nicotene withdrawal is very real and that part suck massively, but it is NOTHING compared to that terrifying feeling of your heart exploding or stopping at any minute.
To anyone considering quitting, this will very likely be the single best decision you ever make for your health - both mentally and physicaly. I have been a fucking mess for the past 10 months, honestly believing I could drop dead any second; and it is only now clear to me that I'm good - its the pouches wrecking my system like mad. If I can do it after 10 years of nic addition, ~200 mg per day for the past 14 months, so can you!!

Hello,
38M, non smoker, no medication. 68kg, 172 cm, work out 6 days a week. Not drunk alcohol for 8 months.
I just had some bloodwork done a few days ago and by total bilirubin was 1.3 (direct was 0.2).
Last September I had bloodwork done about 36 hours into a fast and my bilirubin was 2.6. It was my first ever proper blood test so I freaked out, I stopped fasting and retested 10 days later (no exercise in the meantime) and got bilirubin of 0.8 (0.1 direct) so I put it down to fasting.
Fast forward 8 months later, Ive been working out 5-6 days a week for the past 5-6 months, including marathon + half marathon training and after that resistance training, barely any running but yoga + pilates on the days I don't do resistance training.
The other day my bilirubin was 1.3, so I think it might be down to exercising. I did take 2 full days off though, so maybe I needed to take more days off. I have read that bilirubin can be higher in 'athletes' or people who work out. Before this test I only fasted for 12-13 hours.
Other lab values worth mentioning are AST 13, Triglycerides 38, Uric acid 5.8, hbA1c 5.2, GGT 12, ALP 58, total protein 68.
I assume this is just a transient rise and nothing to be worried about?
Thanks

Hello!
I hope we're all doing well!
We did relatively okay last time, with our secondary parlay landing clean! Everything else kinda fell apart, but I did a bit better than I feared i would have done.
Another rough fight night to predict here! Should be a fun event though.
Onwards to the predictions!
(c) - Champ
D/DWCS - Debut/Dana Whites' Contender Series
FLS - Fight Lose Streak
FWS - Fight Win Streak
NS - No Streak
(#x) - Rank in Division
x/3 - Confidence Levels
lets go!
Prelims
Women’s Strawweight
Emily Ducote (-275) (13-8-0, NS) v Vanessa Demopoulos (+220) (10-5-0, NS) - Oh look, a fight that’s probably going to go to the scorecards. Ducote is coming off a relatively strong win against Yoder, she was very capable of stuffing all of those takedown attempts coming her way and matching the tenacity of Yoder on the feet. Now, I am always a bit iffy when it comes to someone with a record like Ducotes’, but I do believe they (The UFC) didn’t quite build her up properly, giving her opponents like Godinez and Hill very early on in her UFC career. Ducote is a fairly well rounded fighter who does well on her feet, but most importantly, her grappling is relatively good, having been capable of defending the takedowns of Godinez, which isn’t a small feat since Godinez is well known for her wrestling capabilities. That ability to defend takedowns is massively important when dealing with someone like Demopoulos, whose main threat in most of her fights are her takedowns and grappling attacks. Ducote has fairly standard striking attacks for a well rounded MMA fighter, she is very quick on the feet and throws a lot of volume when she attacks, which could prove challenging to Demopoulos as she tries to enter range and initiate a takedown. Now, whilst Ducote has a lot of volume and speed to her strikes, she lacks in the “finishing” area, she doesn’t quite have the tenacity to finish her opponents, there’s no hurry. With that said though, she does have a bit of a familiar pattern of touching up her opponents until that right hand finds its mark, then she adds emphasis on that right-side punch. She has, however, one weird tendency to just stand there, staring, whilst in the pocket, with a rather square stance, and whilst that might help her with the offensive output, she is still standing there with minimal defences. That’s something that has contributed to her losses in the past and something that Demopoulos could possibly use as a way to find an entry for a takedown. Demopoulos is coming off a win against Murata, but it was a fairly unimpressive performance with Demopoulos getting taken down a lot, and although she looked fairly good on the feet with powerful single attacks, I don’t quite know how effective she is going to be against a volume-heavy fighter like Ducote. Demopoulos has a few tendencies as a fighter that are great, she is fairly active in the guard off her back, throwing up submissions very quickly, but the problem with that is nowadays if you can’t lock in a submission, then you are losing the fight, and I think if Demopoulos does pull guard, Ducote should have the ability to control her on the ground and avoid submissions. This is a very, very 50/50 fight in my opinion. Ducote has a slight advantage on the feet due to her speed and volume, but on the ground it’s looking like Demopoulos has the advantages there, as she does have great instinct on when to lock in a submission or shift the hips. The safest bet here is either o2.5 rounds or the fight going the distance, this isn’t a ML bet fight by any means in my opinion. As for my prediction, I am very split but i’m leaning towards Ducote to win this one, but it’s the slightest lean one can imagine.
Ducote via UD - (1/3)
Bantamweight
Alatengheili (+150) (16-9-2, NS) v Kleydson Rodrigues (-185) (8-3-0, NS) - This is a fascinating one. Alatengheili was scheduled to fight a month ago but it was cancelled due to an illness, so I fully expect him to fight again this week. The kinda good news about that is he doesn’t really need to have a big camp since he already had the conditioning and cardio from that other camp preparing for Victor Hugo. Alatengheili is a very aggressive and powerful fighter, everything he throws has so much speed and power behind it, and whilst there might not be a lot of volume behind those punches, he shouldn’t be underestimated on the feet because of his explosiveness. Alatengheili also uses that explosive power to wrestle, and he is fairly good on the ground, able to maintain a strong position at all times and just land heavy ground and pound. Alatengheili is powerful but he doesn’t display that power with reckless abandon, he tends to be a bit of a counter puncher, his hands are often low or loose, which lures his opponent in to strike, in which he then propels himself forward with a quick flurry of dangerous punches, then there’s a reset and he waits to lure his opponent in again. That’s his typical gameplan and it works a lot of the time, but I do think he might get exposed by one thing that Rodrigues could do, and that’s chop at the legs to remove or mitigate that explosiveness that Alatengheili relies on. Rodrigues on the other hand has not had as much experience nor octagon time that Alatengheili has had, but his style seems to be a bit of a challenge for Alatengheili, at least from what I can see. Rodrigues is very well rounded, he is very quick on the feet, but most of all, he doesn’t do anything too crazy to be lured into a potential counter-flurry by Alatengheili. Rodrigues loves to kick at range, he is so dynamic and can switch up the angles of the attacks so quickly that he could possibly just keep kicking Alatengheili until the fight is over, as long as he keeps a safe distance from a retaliatory attack. He is very quick at throwing out those kicks and I do think if he attacks the legs early enough he is going to be effective, as Gutierrez was when he fought Alatengheili. Alatengheili is going to have to mix it up in this fight to get ahead, he is going to have to rely heavily on his wrestling in order to get a win here, because we have seen that Rodrigues is mostly a kickboxestriker, and if Alatengheili can push a nasty pace and pressure (something he only does if he is successful with his counters or see’s his opponent is hurt), that completely removes Rodrigues’ ability to kick. However, the biggest danger with any sort of aggressive forward movement from Alatengheili is the ridiculous hand speed of Rodrigues, his boxing speed is ferocious and he doesn’t necessarily overthrow, everything is clean and tight, and given how open the defences are with Alatengheili, I do think a check left hook or an uppercut is going to be a highly effective tool that Rodrigues is going to utilise, especially if Alatengheili is going to look for takedowns. The focus and timing of Rodrigues is something that I really like also, he is so calm but intense in the cage, he sees a lot of his opponents attacks coming, and since Alatengheili’s actions are huge and relatively easy to read (as there is quite a wind up for it) Rodrigues should be able to avoid it or counter effectively. One major thing I want to point out here that makes me lean on Rodrigues even moreso is the striking inaccuracy of Alatengheili, he is a powerful fighter, i cannot state this enough, but it is thanks to that power and his willingness to throw down heavy punches that he often misses. I’m gonna list some stats, so bear with me… These are his striking accuracy stats from a handful of his recent fights, starting from the most recent to ones earlier in his career. Gutierrez with 28% Accuracy, Anheliger with 37%, Lopez with 30% and Kenney with 26%. This is why I emphasized before how important Alatengheili’s wrestling is going to be in this fight, because if you’re going to go up against a very tricky and accurate striker like Rodrigues, you cannot play that accuracy game and risk winging punches against him. With that said though, don’t count of Alatengheili here, his power and explosiveness are always going to be a problem and it should generally be a good idea to sprinkle a little bit of money on him, even moreso that he’s an underdog. My prediction for this fight is a long, drawn out Rodrigues win, but it’s a tough one because we haven’t quite seen that much greatness from Rodrigues.
Rodrigues via UD - (1/3)
Women’s Strawweight
Piera Rodriguez (-175) (9-1-0, NS) v Ariane Carnelossi (+145) (14-3-0, NS) - Normally, a lot of fights interest me, even the ones that don’t interest the vast majority of others… but this one? I have no feelings one way or the other about this one, it seems like a filler fight lol. Rodriguez is a relatively well rounded fighter coming off a tough loss against Gillian Robertson, and I mean, that kind of loss tends to come with the territory of wrestling a well known submission specialist, so I don’t exactly fault Rodriguez for losing in that way. There is very little doubt that Rodriguez is going to have a major advantage in the wrestling department, a lot of her fights involve her taking down her opponent, it's what she does exceptionally well and considering how dreadful Carnelossi’s takedown defence is, it is going to be Piera’s imperative to take down Carnelossi. The problem with Rodriguez is that she's a little bit one dimensional, she doesn’t do too well on the feet and Carnelossi does have very strong strikes, I mean, look at her, she’s absolutely a power puncher. Rodriguez is highly diverse with her striking, both in terms of range and variability of attack, she has excellent fundamentals with the boxing, landing combinations in the pocket and moving away, and one main thing she does extremely well is that jab, its a really long, lunging jab, and the reason why I point that out is because it somewhat masks the takedown, she uses that jab over and over, and because that motion to jab is almost similar to a level change, she doesn’t necessarily feint the jab to get to the level change/takedown position, but her opponents just think another jab is coming. This is going to be a great set up against Carnelossi, attack her with long, prodding jabs, and after a few of those, go for a level change, because its that long lunge that looks like a level change. To put it bluntly, anything to get a level change and a takedown will be highly effective against Carnelossi. Carnelossi is an interesting one to talk about because she had a fun start to her career with an extremely entertaining fight against Liang Na, but if you look closely, she is just a fun fighter, not a great one. Her punching power is probably her biggest asset, because everywhere else she absolutely is not worth talking about, and it’s that punching power that will be evident when she inevitably clips Rodriguez. Carnelossi is one dimensional, but boy is she scrappy and I don’t think Rodriguez can afford to get crazy with her on the feet, because Rodriguez will be hurt by something in the pocket, the smartest thing Rodriguez can ideally do is level change and absolutely remove the power from Carnelossi, and considering that Carnelossi’s power is generated from a very still-standing stance, it wouldn’t take much to take her off her feet. I got Rodriguez winning this one, it should hopefully be a fun fight.
Rodriguez via UD - (1/3)
Middleweight
Abus Magomedov (-250) (25-6-1, 2 FLS) v Warlley Alves (+205) (14-7-0, 3 FLS) - It kind of seems like they are setting Magomedov up for success here. Magomedov may have had a tough last two bouts, but considering the fact that he faced Strickland and Borralho, that’s ridiculous levels of competition for a newcomer. Magomedov had one major issue exposed when he fought Strickland and that was his cardio, everything else he looked absolutely incredible at, he has a lot of power in his hands, he’s long and dynamic with his attacks and he has great wrestling, but it was his cardio that made him fall apart. During his Borralho fight, despite losing that bout, those cardio issues didn’t seem as present, he has seemingly learnt to pace himself and he honestly looks to be a decent up and comer now that he’s facing slightly more adjusted competition instead of straight up killers. Magomedov has a massive, massive reach advantage over Alves, and that’s going to be prevalent when Magomedov lands those beautiful strikes at range. He does use his kicks alot, and alongside said kicks are a lot of knee feints, it's a bit odd to look at, it could just be him getting ready to check leg kicks or to feint a kick, but it's just one of those things that I can’t quite figure out. Anyway, Magomedov’s cardio is going to be in question again today, and whilst I did say that he seems to be mostly fine, or at least a bit better than when he fought Strickland, he still tends to overthrow a lot, there is no pitter patter of punches that you somewhat see, they’re all still big actions and those big actions cost him his cardio early on. The best way to kind of describe Magomedov, at least cardio wise, is a slightly more talented and skillful McKinney. My main concern is how exposed his face is to getting hit, all it would take is for Alves to rush in like a bull and throw some heavy overhand punches, make it very gritty in there and make Magomedov tired. That’s the only way I can kind of see Magomedov struggle a lot. Alves is an exceptionally quick starter, he is an absolute firecracker and if he can catch Magomedov early, that’s going to be absolutely massive given the size difference. Everything Alves throws comes with silly amounts of power, and he isn’t necessarily a headhunter, he chops at the legs and body occasionally, he’s quite diverse and I think those leg kicks are going to be problematic for Magomedov, considering Magomedov needs to push forward in order to get his combinations off. Alves is a tough, tough fighter, and whilst he is coming off a savage knockout by Aliskerov, I do think that Alves is still one dangerous fighter to take on, maybe not as technical as Borralho (to compare to Magomedov’s last opponent), but he is an absolute monster when it comes to aggression and that alone could exhaust Magomedov. However, the reach and movement of Magomedov is going to be a major challenge here. I am not completely counting out Alves here, I think he is being a bit underestimated here, but I just think Magomedov has a lot more tools in his arsenal that is going to be boosted by that reach advantage, and it does seem that Alves is fairly susceptible to down the pipe shots, something that Magomedov does well. Range and distance are going to be the main gameplan for Magomedov and his time I think. I got Magomedov winning this one, but i am not very confident in this one due to the volatility of Alves’ actions. He is a wild and fast starter so I expect that first round to be the most sketchiest.
Magomedov via KO R2 - (1/3)
Women’s Bantamweight
Tamires Vidal (+300) (7-2-0, NS) v Melissa Gatto (-410) (8-2-2, 2 FLS) - This is certainly an interesting one. Vidal is coming off a tough loss against Rendon, and it was a bit of a boring fight in all honesty, with Vidal being somewhat effective on the feet with big and powerful attacks, but ultimately succumbing to the wrestling of Rendon. I don’t see that much changing this time around since Gatto is a great wrestler and Vidal has clearly shown major defensive issues in the wrestling department, so to put it bluntly, it just seems like Vidal has a puncher's chance, and if she does land those punches, I do think the tides can change a little in her favour, but it would only take one takedown for Gatto to be in full control for the rest of that round. Outside of her loss to Rendon, Vidal looked fun against Pascual, then again, a lot of fighters of a reasonably low calibre can look good against Pascual, so I think that was one of those “set up for success” fights. Still, the aggression and threat of a knockdown/out from Vidal will be fairly prevalent during this fight. But that’s about it, shes a powerful striker and quite dynamic, but her takedown defence is going to be a problem. Gatto was scheduled to fight Dudakova a few weeks ago, however that fight fell off, which is probably good for Gatto coz she’s ready for a fight regardless, shes still somewhat fresh off camp and was going to probably employ the same strategy against Vidal that she would have against Dudakova, and that was to wrestle. Gatto’s wrestling has always been a bit of a highlight for her, she’s physically strong and is able to do well in advantageous positions, holding her opponents down and either landing ground and pound or just grinding them out, exhausting them for a large chunk of the round. Gatto is also very dangerous on the feet, she has deceptively quick and powerful punches which she uses to both damage her opponents but also as an opportunity to raise their guard so the level change is more easily accessible. No matter what way you cut this slice of cake, I think Gatto’s wrestling is going to be a major problem for Vidal, and Vidal’s only way to win this fight is to keep it standing and just brawl, make it look gritty in there and potentially freeze up Gatto’s ability to wrestle cleanly. I am leaning on Gatto to win this one, but that unpredictability of Vidal’s aggression is going to be a big factor here. No major bet advice here, it seems like there is a possibility of it going over 2.5 rounds, but that’s about it.
Gatto via UD - (1/3)
Light Heavyweight
Oumar Sy (D) (9-0-0, 9 FWS) v Tuco Tokkos (D) (10-3-0, 3 FWS) - ITS DOUBLE DEBUT TIME!!! These are getting rarer and rarer the more we see fighters from DWCS make their way to the UFC, so this is a fun little occasion. Sy is coming into this fight a little bit more prepared, at least physically and cardio wise, than his replacement opponent in Tokkos. Sy is coming off a string of beautiful fights on various promotions, but most importantly he’s been relatively tested on KSW, which is one of the better promotions to come out of the European world of MMA. Sy is a long and rangey fighter who has dangerous head kicks and dangerous wrestling skills that he uses really well, and whilst he has a massive reach advantage over his opponent, he doesn’t exactly strike in any traditional way, you don’t see him throw a lot of jabs, he mostly uses his reach to lock in takedowns (since it’s easier to lock in takedowns with longer arms), and the moment the fight goes to the ground, expect him to find a position to where he can reign down heavy ground and pound. I would love to see him strike a bit more, but most of his fights are him taking his opponents down and landing ground and pound, and if he does that against a replacement fighter in Tokkos, I expect him to dominate and completely shut down Tokkos since it would take preparation to get out of funky positions that Sy puts his opponents in, and I don’t know if Tokkos has that wrestling background to handle the larger and longer opponent in Sy properly on the ground. Tokkos seemingly came out of nowhere this last week, and that one thing that blasted me in the face was the record of his second most recent opponent, Brian Jackson. Dudes got a 1-7 record and Tokkos torched him (expectedly), that doesn’t bring a lot of confidence to me that a guy like Tokkos, coming from a relatively decent gym in Kill Cliff FC, takes on and fights someone like that. Tokkos is overall a decent fighter with some strong wins under his belt, but the main thing going against him here is preparation time, and whilst he does have a fair bit of experience under his belt, I just don’t think he’s ready for someone like Sy on short notice. Tokkos is a relatively well rounded fighter with great wrestling and decent striking, but i just think all of that is going to be possibly negated by the substantial reach advantage of Sy. This is a double debut though, and whilst I normally steer clear from calling someone new to the UFC a lock, I think the fact that Sy has had a full camp for… three fights (Bellato, Trocolli (both cancelled) and now Tokkos), I think he’s ready for this fight and ready for the UFC. He will be an optional lock, but still a 2/3 confidence pick, if that makes sense.
Sy via KO R1 (2/3)
Lightweight
Tom Nolan (-450) (6-1-0, NS) v Victor Martinez (+340) (13-5-0, NS) - Both fighters made their debut and lost in the same way, in the same round, so let’s call this a second attempt at a debut lol. Nolan made his debut against knockout artist Nikolas Motta, and honestly that is a dangerous fight for anyone to take, but it probably made sense to the matchmakers since both fighters are prolific knockout artists. Nolan does finish his opponents very quickly a lot of the time, and I do think he has a massive advantage on the feet against Martinez since Martinez isn’t exactly a big threat on the feet, and his inactivity over the past few years (or lack of solid activity at least) leaves some questions hanging in the air. Nolan has a reach and height advantage here, but the most prominent advantage will be with his reach where he can string together gorgeous straight combinations to decent effect, and that’s what he’s really known for, he’s got awesome boxing and he is very confident in his punching power. He is also relatively defensively sound for someone with his size because I have pointed out before that a lot of taller and longer fighters don’t shell up a lot or have a lot of defensive layers to their style, but Nolan is overall a fairly solid boxer both on the offence and defence, it’s just a shame he got fed to the wolf when he fought Motta. Nolan made the simple mistake when he fought Motta of being in the pocket without care, and i think those kinds of mistakes are easy enough to fix, and considering Martinez is not the same kind of threat on the feet compared to Motta, I do think that gives Nolan a bit more freedom to string together combinations and overall look great on the feet, as he was meant to be, since his whole career up until that loss to Motta has been him having gorgeous striking. Martinez is coming off a KO loss also, but it was by Jordan Leavitt, and that’s just a painful look on anyone's record to get knocked out by someone who is not known for his striking. Martinez is overall a good striker, he has very fast hands, but I have noticed one thing about him that I can see Nolan landing cleanly. Martinez has the tendency to leave his right hand far from a block position, its more of a parry position, in front of him instead of beside him, and he tends to lower that hand when taking a back step, and I cannot help but see the Southpaw striker in Nolan land that left hand to the chin of Martinez. Now, any sort of exchange between either fighter here is going to be a dangerous one for both parties, but that is where reach comes in, Nolan has a diverse boxing skillset and his long attacks allow him to carry power as much as anyone elses short hooks would. One major thing Martinez is going to have to be careful of is a knee up the middle by Nolan as Nolan’s height is going to allow that knee to come up to target without a major loss to momentum, and I mean, if Martinez got dropped by Rosales on DWCS, then by Leavitt, I just don’t know if he has the chin to withstand the battering that comes from Nolan. I got Nolan winning this one, but this is going to be a fantastic fight which isn’t likely to go the distance.
Nolan via KO R1 - (2/3)
Main Card
Women’s Strawweight
Angela Hill (#12) (-160) (16-13-0, NS) v Luana Pinheiro (#13) (+130) (11-2-0, NS) - This is a great fight. Hill is coming off a very strong win over Denise Gomes, and it was honestly such a brilliant performance by someone who a lot of people tend to ignore. Hill is an incredibly diverse fighter, she is tenacious on the feet, highly capable of stringing together strong combinations from all ranges, and as she closes the distance, she’s good at tying up her opponent in a clinch and landing awesome knees and elbows. This is all Hill and her cumulative experience in the Octagon against a wide range of different fighters and styles, and it’s clear to me that her preparation for a lot of her fights involve solid planning and back up plans, because whilst her record reflects a rough run through her career, her level of competition is insane. Hill isn’t a finisher though, but she is someone who can keep a ridiculous pace for three rounds, so I do think that she has the capabilities to overwhelm Pinheiro on the feet, especially since we just saw Ribas do the same thing a little over 5 months ago. Hill will have a striking advantage in this fight, she throws a lot of volume at high speed towards her opponent and they do land effectively, and with a slight edge in reach I do see her having a bit more success on the feet here especially since Pinheiro does not have a lot of head movement or striking defence. Pinheiro is a danger to Hill in the grappling department though, especially in those transitions from standing to ground, she utilises hip throws relatively well and could make this fight ugly on the ground, but I don’t think there is a major submission threat here, I think her style is predominantly control and ground and pound, both things that Hill has experience in dealing with, although she still will lose the round if Pinheiro executes her gameplan well. Pinheiro has power in her hands, she could potentially make Hill a little bit frozen and hesitant on the feet once Pinheiro lands that overhand right that Pinheiro loves to throw early, but she doesn’t throw it often enough to lead to a significant finish, she’s a very low volume, high impact striker and that could play in the favour of Hill if Hill’s volume walks Pinheiro back into the cage. Pinheiro could make this fight dangerous for Hill on the ground, but we have seen a few times now that Hill is very good at the basics of takedown defence, underhooks, whizzers (if i spelt that correctly) and quickly getting back to a standing position, she is not complacent on the ground or in that transition to the ground, and I think any sort of failed takedown attempt from Pinheiro is going to fuel Hill a lot more, since Pinheiro only has a few kinds of takedowns. This is a hard on to pick in all seriousness, I might get the prediction wrong, but I have a strong feeling that we are going to see this fight go over 2.5 rounds, or even hit the scorecards. As for the prediction, looking at this fight, I am kind of leaning on Hill here, because Pinheiro’s wins aren’t as significant as Hill’s wins, and i do think Pinheiro fades a little bit as the fight goes on.
Hill via UD - (1/3)
Bantamweight
Adrian Yanez (-350) (16-5-0, 2 FLS) v Vinicius Salvador (+275) (14-6-0, 2 FLS) - I love this fight. Yanez is coming off two painful back to back KO losses, whenever a young fighter comes into the UFC, tears through the division, then hits a losing skid, it’s always a concern to any fan or pundit. However, I do think that leg kick KO is anomalous to the UFC, it rarely happens and I don’t think Salvador is much of a leg kicker anyway so the threat isn’t there. However, I do want to add that the psychological factor of maybe getting leg kicked to oblivion is going to weigh heavy on Yanez’ mind, and I do wonder if Yanez has drilled checking leg kicks before. Now, Yanez is still a dangerous opponent for anyone to take, he still has incredibly technical MMA boxing, and that’s going to be on full display this weekend. Yanez is so fluid and yet tricky on the feet, he’s very good at gauging range and firing away from different angles, as well as timing his shots off his opponents striking attempts, everything involving striking exchanges will most likely be in the favour of Yanez, he thrives in that space and I do believe his experience and his wins prior to those two devastating losses are going to shine this weekend. My only concern about Yanez is his ability to not get carried away and show his chin too much, because whilst Salvador is yet to get a win in the UFC, he still has had some mild striking success against fighters like Altamirano and Vergara, and it wouldn’t take a lot for Salvador to find the chin of Yanez. Salvador is a very funky and unorthodox fighter, and whilst that always brings positive attention to him, I also think that has been a product of failure for him also since the more cleaner fighters outbox him, are generally a lot faster and just find their mark a bit quicker, if that makes sense? I mean, Salvador’s stance is fairly loose, his chin is in the air and his shell is rather loose, and that’s not good news, especially if he’s facing a vicious fighter like Yanez. Salvador thrives in chaotic fights though, he is awesome and making it dangerous and risky for his opponents to fight in the pocket, but his style emanates a lack of self preservation. He is a kill or be killed kind of fighter in my opinion, and I firmly believe that when he got dropped numerous times in that first round against Victor Altamirano, it only showed us, and any future opponent (via tape watch in prep) that he is very hittable, his head is right there and the only reason it wasn’t there for Vergara was due to the significant difference in height and reach. Salvador moving up to 135 could make him a lot more interesting in terms of being able to explode more often and having more power behind his punches, but I also think it means he is dealing with more harder hitting fighters, and with the accuracy and boxing skill set of Yanez, I just think Salvador is going to get outdone here. I got Yanez winning this one, but I am interested to see if Salvador has what it takes to win and upset a lot of parlays out there.
Yanez via KO R2 - (1/3)
Welterweight
Ramiz Brahimaj (+170) (10-4-0, NS) v Themba Gorimbo (-205) (12-4-0, 2 FWS) - Brahimaj is coming back after two tough years away, and the reason why it’s tough is because he has been dealing with a spinal injury, and boy do i empathise with that. Now, his injury is mostly C-Spine and shoulder area nerve damage, this is terrible for a fighter because it effectively eliminates your ability to comfortably strike, sprawl, wrestle, underhook/overhook stuff, everything that you see in a fighter typically comes from shoulder rotation and all that stuff, so for Brahimaj to be out for two years, dealing with all of that, does not give me a lot of confidence in him being 100% coming into this fight against Gorimbo. Brahimaj is a dangerous grappler who thrives on the ground, he is honestly only dangerous on the ground, but the problem is that Gorimbo is very good on the ground himself, at least good enough to know what is being set up, and it’s on the ground where Brahimaj has his only chance to win. Unfortunately for Brahimaj, it’s going to take some work to get the fight to the ground and Gorimbo is more than willing to keep the fight standing, so honestly, I just don’t think Brahimaj is going to be as well rounded or as effective as he needs to be in order to get a win here. Gorimbo is riding some momentum coming into this fight, as he is coming off a lightning quick KO over Pete Rodriguez, and I mean, Rodriguez sucks, he’s one of the worst fighters in the UFC and that KO means nothing in the grand scheme of things, it’s just an additional win on a record with barely any weight to it. Gorimbo is going to be a lot more confident in his boxing though since that win, that feeling of getting knockouts is an addictive one and I think he’s going to be using his incredible reach advantage to look to get another KO this weekend over the possibly rusty Brahimaj. Gorimbo is a very well rounded fighter who honestly has a lot of potential to be a star, he has excellent boxing, and honestly very good wrestling and grappling, and I do think if the fight does go to the ground, Gorimbo has the fight IQ to notice set ups coming, neutralize them and remain on top in control, landing ground and pound or just advancing to his own submission positions. The most likely scenario though is Gorimbo keeps this fight standing and overwhelms Brahimaj on the feet, because he probably wants to chase another KO since that feeling is notoriously addictive. I got Gorimbo winning this one, I can’t wait to see how far this man goes in his career.
Gorimbo via KO R1 - (2/3)
Co-Main Event
Welterweight
Khaos Williams (-125) (14-3-0, NS) v Carlston Harris (+105) (19-5-0, 2 FWS) - This feels like a classic Striker versus Grappler fight. Williams is a strong, powerful striker who is such a threat on the feet, especially early on when he wants to push a nasty pace and land those devastating punches. He is known for being a bully, crashing forward with crazy power and aggression. There is no clean technique coming from Williams, it is mostly wild, wild punches and he is confident in his ability to knock out his opponent, that’s what makes him a dangerous threat to his opponents, that confidence. The right hand is Williams best weapon, his right overhand or hook is going to be the one that knocks out Harris if it lands, but that’s all he is, a powerful right side puncher, and if Harris times a takedown well, all of that threat is gone. On the flip side, Harris is primarily a grappler with a solid grappling base, and whilst he has faced his fair share of dangerous strikers, I believe Williams’ power is something different. Now, Harris has the potential to take this fight to the ground, I know that according to UFC stats that Harris has an 80% takedown defence, but there has not been enough wrestling in his fights, by his opponents, to fully prove that his takedown defence is that great, it’s only been used sparingly against him since most of his fights are absolute wild exchanges and beautiful displays of violence on the feet. Williams' propensity to head hunt could lead to an opening for a level change by Harris, but it’s a risky thing to do because any punch that lands on Harris is going to hurt him, and considering the age factor here, its possible his chin isn’t going to hold up well against the power of Williams. Now, Harris was getting ragdolls and outwrestled by Wells when they fought, and whilst that isn’t a great look for Harris, I don’t think Williams has the wrestling capabilities that Wells has, so I think the main submission threat from Harris in this fight is going to come from the clinch, so guillotines and front head choke variants are going to be on the menu for Harris this weekend, it’s just a matter of if he gets into that position or if he gets his head blasted over and over by powerful punches from Williams. This is a dangerous fight to bet on if you’re thinking of Moneyline betting, it can easily go either way since both excel in their respective styles, the safest and smartest bet here in my opinion is that this fight doesn’t hit the judges scorecards. As for my prediction, I don’t think i’ll be getting this right due to the volatile nature of this match up, but…
Harris via Sub R2 - (1/3)
Main Event
Featherweight
Edson Barboza (#14) (+125) (24-11-0, 2 FWS) v Lerone Murphy (-150) (13-0-1, 5 FWS FWS) - Man this is a funky main event. Barboza is a legend of the sport, but most importantly, and perhaps most relevant to this write up, he is an old dog who can still hang with the toughest. His last two wins have been against Yusuff and Quarantillo, two very difficult fighters to take on at 145 and it’s his win over Yusuff that I want to highlight… Yusuff exploded in the first round, looked for that finish and Barboza survived and thrived throughout the rest of the fight, it was a beautiful display of heart, toughness, and adaptability, because that was not the first firefight that Barboza has been in, and considering his current opponent, it sure as shit won’t be his last. Barboza is well known for his outstanding kicks, but he’s also just overall a ridiculously dangerous striker. An understated aspect of his whole game though is his wrestling and grappling, he might not be looking for a lot of takedowns when he fights, but he is well versed on the ground, having taken down Yusuff 3 of 4 times in the final round of a high pace main event is testament to his cardio and conditioning, despite the concern surrounding his age. Barboza is going to be a true test on the feet for Murphy, and I think it’s going to be the toughest fight of his career. Murphy is coming off a string of strong victories in the UFC, with his most recent one being against Culibao, and I gotta say, Murphy is one of those dangerous prospects that we all should keep an eye on. Murphy is a rapidly improving fighter who adds weapons to his arsenal every single time he comes out. He was originally a boxer with outstanding punching power and speed, he was ridiculously slick on the feet, but after each fight he adds more kicks, more movement and wrestling, he has slowly become a very well rounded fighter, and this makes his upcoming bout against a very tested veteran who is still here to stay in Barboza incredibly fascinating. There is a slight catch to all of those additional things added into his arsenal though, and that’s each time something has been added, the next opponent has something else to prepare for. I firmly believe that Murphy’s rise to this position and to this fight is not from his outstanding skill level, but from his incredible repertoire of techniques he has acquired and learnt over his UFC career. Unpredictability is king when it comes to new fighters, we have seen new fighters add things to their game that have completely changed and accelerated their growth, and that’s exactly what we have seen for Murphy. Murphy has a wide variety of strong strikes he uses effortlessly, from standard boxing combinations to a very snappy high kick, to strong grappling and control on the ground, he hasn’t mastered any of these things, but since they are added along each and every time he fights, his opponents are rarely prepared. This is not going to be the case for Barboza, Barboza is very, very well rounded and well versed in almost every aspect of MMA. Ill keep this short. I got Barboza winning this one, but I am still going to be a fan of Murphy, regardless of result.
Barboza via UD - (1/3)
Primary Parlay: Ducote/Demopoulos o2.5 or GTD + (optional Gatto/Vidal o2.5 or GTD) + Nolan/Martinez ITD + Hill/Pinheiro o2.5 or GTD + Barboza/Murphy R3 Starts
Locks of the week: Optional Sy + Nolan + Gorimbo
Alt Bets: Alves KO R1, Pinheiro Sub R2 or 3, Williams KO R1, Murphy KO R1 2 or 3 (combo rounds)
And that's it!!!!
Prediction accuracy as of 2024: 64.6%
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Lets have a fun and friendly discussion down below about this weekends card!
I hope you all have an amazing day, look after yourselves, and enjoy this awesome event!

Hello,
38M, non smoker, no medication. 68kg, 172 cm, work out 6 days a week. Not drunk alcohol for 8 months.
I just had some bloodwork done and my serum calcium was 10.3. The normal values go up to 10.6, however in my last bloodwork 8 months ago I was at 10.6 and that labs ranges went up to 10.0.
Firstly I am pleased my number has dropped from 10.6 to 10.3 (the 10.6 could have been due to dehydration). Other lab values worth mentioning are AST 13, Triglycerides 38, Uric acid 5.8, hbA1c 5.2, GGT 12, ALP 58, total protein 68.
I have read that the calcium level for someone my age should not be more than 10. I have also seen comments from doctors here talking about a corrected calcium number, using albumin to get the 'real' calcium number. When I do that my number is well in range.
Elevated calcium is associated with hyperparathydoid, however in my last blood panel 8 months ago my TSH WAS 1.06 µUl/mL (reference range goes up to 4.2) and my T4 was 1.62 ng/dl (reference goes up to 1.8). I have never had any symptoms of hyperparathyroidism. I am extremely active and run half marathons, marathons and weight train. I eat lots of veg, fruit and lean meats and get lots of fibre and drink up to 3 litres of water a day.
I guess my question is could my 10.3 as of this week be my 'normal' and is it a good sign that it dropped from 10.6 8 months ago? Im still withim my labs reference range but I know that takes into account the entire population range but I'm getting anxious about reading that anything over 10 means I am ill. My doctor never even mentioned it.
Thanks

Hello,
38M, non smoker, no medication. 68kg, 172 cm, work out 6 days a week. Not drunk alcohol for 8 months.
I just had some bloodwork done and my serum calcium was 10.3. The normal values go up to 10.6, however in my last bloodwork 8 months ago I was at 10.6 and that labs ranges went up to 10.0.
Firstly I am pleased my number has dropped from 10.6 to 10.3 (the 10.6 could have been due to dehydration). Other lab values worth mentioning are AST 13, Triglycerides 38, Uric acid 5.8, hbA1c 5.2, GGT 12, ALP 58, total protein 68.
I have read that the calcium level for someone my age should not be more than 10. I have also seen comments from doctors here talking about a corrected calcium number, using albumin to get the 'real' calcium number. When I do that my number is well in range.
Elevated calcium is associated with hyperparathydoid, however in my last blood panel 8 months ago my TSH WAS 1.06 µUl/mL (reference range goes up to 4.2) and my T4 was 1.62 ng/dl (reference goes up to 1.8). I have never had any symptoms of hyperparathyroidism. I am extremely active and run half marathons, marathons and weight train. I eat lots of veg, fruit and lean meats and get lots of fibre and drink up to 3 litres of water a day.
I guess my question is could my 10.3 as of this week be my 'normal' and is it a good sign that it dropped from 10.6 8 months ago? Im still withim my labs reference range but I know that takes into account the entire population range but I'm getting anxious about reading that anything over 10 means I am ill. My doctor never even mentioned it.
Thanks

So after 5 years of fighting to figure out what was going on with me and being told a mixture of: anxiety, depression, migraines and/or allergies. I finally got a doctor to listen to me (an optamologist of all things) and her finding my optic nerves being swollen and that I possibly have this disease caused me to fight for an MRI/MRV. That showed I had:

1. A partially empty sella
2. A 13 cm cyst on my pituary gland
3. Mild narrowing along the lateral aspect of bilateral transverse venous sinuses

All of that combined with my symptoms had me finding a new doctor to go to because my neurologist saw all of that and still said "it's just depression" so I did research and asked my pcp to refer me to a neuro-optamologist. He said everything sounds like IIH and scheduled me a LP. That came out at 35, got my official dx and diamox ordered.
I've been scared to start diamox from all the horror stories but, I've kept doing research and feel a bit better about starting it knowing that upping my wateelectrolytes and potassium can help tremendously with side effects. However, I was hoping for a few things to be answered by you lovely people.

1. I'd absolutely LOVE to hear positive stories. I desperately need it for both people getting their lives back having IIH and people on diamox. I've felt like I haven't lived in years due to so many different illnesses (pcos, anxiety, depression, adhd, chronic pain, migraines and now IIH.) I felt like I could still live my life until about 5 years ago when I started getting insane head pressure but, anytime I went to the ER or a doctor - they were like "oh that must be a headache or migraine". No one would listen when I said "no, it doesn't hurt..I can have a migraine with it but this is different, I feel like my head is full and needs drained". Anyways, since that started 5 years ago my head pressure episodes have gotten worse and I'm usually bed ridden that entire time cause I just cannot function. I miss living my life and I just want hope.
2. I know I need to bring this back up with my doctor but, when they went over my MRI/V notes no one mentioned the "Mild narrowing along the lateral aspect of bilateral transverse venous sinuses". Is this what people get stents for? Is that stenosis? Should I be asking them to look more into that?
3. I had my LP done on Fri (the 10th) and I've been naesous almost constantly since. Is that a normal thing? I've had a headache and migraine as well, migraine was on day 3 and then day 4/yesterday was a mild headache. From my understanding a spinal headache from an LP is undeniable and you'll know it's from that, correct? This has felt like a typical migraine/headache. Nothing I'm not used to and it doesn't seem to make a difference if I'm standing/sitting/laying. I will also note after 10+ years of migraines and very little helping them, Emgality has been the thing that has made my almost daily migraines go down to 1 or 2 a month and I'm 3 days out from my next injection which typically is when my head gets irritated so I think that's why my head is irritated and that it's not LP related but, I just wanted to make sure.
4. Last question (for now lol), I've seen people recommend getting blood work frequently once on diamox. How do you go about this? My neuro-opt never called me once we got results - he just saw my OP was at 35 and sent in the medicine and I'm hoping to talk to him tomorrow to go over it a bit more but, do I need to advocate for regular blood work? If so, how often? What should I ask them to keep an eye on? I've seen too many people say their doctors didn't tell them about needing to drink more, get more potassium or electrolytes etc. so I want to make sure I'm prepared to fight for myself to try negating any possible side effects from taking diamox before I start.

Also whoever wrote the IIH packet on here - you're a Godsend. Thank you! Having all those notes is super helpful. 🫶

Hi! So I opened my CSP on 5/15/23. I know that the general advice is to wait for the annual fee to hit your statement before requesting a PC. But based on recent experience with another one of my AF Chase cards, I’m guessing my CSP annual fee won’t appear until mid June at the earliest.
Currently, I have two 10% back hotel offers expiring in a week that I want to take advantage of, and I would like to stack this with the Q2 5% back on hotels for the Freedom cards. Can I call in a couple days from now to ask for the PC to OG Freedom, or would Chase not be happy about that?
Thanks in advance for any input!

TW: brief mentions of depression, suicidal ideation, and attempted suicide
When I (28F) was growing up, I was the golden child of the family. I didn't know it back then. Up until I was in high school I had a younger sister and an older half sister I only saw a few times a year. It wasn't like I never got in trouble or got yelled at, in fact I have a very vivid and hurtful memory where I was called a liar by my parents when I was being 100% truthful (they just didn't want to hear it and wanted someone to be mad at I guess), and then I was told to just "suck it up and get over it". But compared to my younger sister, who was compared to me in every way, I always had the perfect grades, perfect attitude, perfect behavior, etc. Our parents, especially our mother, who was the main parent taking care of us during the week, pretty much pitted us against each other constantly. My little sister was being told she needed to be more like me, and I was told my sister was a bad kid. I would try to help her stay out of trouble as a kid and would get mad when she didn't listen to me because i didnt understand she was just being herself and didn't need to be exactly like me. Up until college, I didn't understand that my sister didn't need to change, she needed her parents to love her as she was and help her instead of trying to mold her into some ideal of perfection. We were picked apart constantly about every little thing we did, and I was expected to always somehow know everything even if I'd never learned it before. My house was full of constant yelling due to the extremely high expectations and my mother's terrible temper, and it became a very stressful place to be starting when i was around 10. We went through a lot of financial hardships as well since I was very young, so I dont want to dismiss how hard things were for my parents and how much they went through. But I have always been hyper aware of how much it costs for me to exist as my mom stressed so many times over the years that she couldn't afford to buy even a new shirt because she had to buy stuff for us, as if that was at all our fault.
When i was in high school, my baby brother was born. He pretty much instantly became the new golden child, not only because he was the youngest and the only boy, but because it became clear at a very young age how intelligent he is. I was a straight A honors kid and he was blowing me out of the water since he learned to read. I didn't mind at all because 1) I was going to be going to college in a couple years, and 2) with our age difference, he was as much my son as my brother, and I took on a very loving parental role with him of my own volition. I also saw the promise in him and I wanted him to live a happy life. My little sister and him are very close to this day, at least to my knowledge. During this time they were still coming down really hard on my little sister, treating her as well as they always had - meaning they still yelled at her constantly and were overly critical of her and everything she even thought about doing. They talked about sending her to military school more than once, and pretty much resigned themselves to the idea my sister would never be able to live on her own before she even got to high school, let alone graduated.
Flash forward to when I was in college, I started coming home and noticing things about how my parents treated my sister, and for the first time I saw it for how terrible it was for her. The distance and time I spent away from the house helped my little sister and I completely change our relationship by my second or third year. What really solidified it was a series of events that happened my junior and senior years of college.
My sister moved to our town with her husband with their 2 very young boys, and we soon found out she was pregnant with twins. That is kind of where it all began to fall apart. Time showed not only that her husband is a massive pos, but also potentially abusive, although we never got concrete proof. As my sister's pregnancy progressed and they struggled to get on their feet, my parents started watching my nephews for hours at a time, sometimes the whole day. And if my parents had to babysit out of nowhere and put their lives on hold, me and my younger siblings were expected to do the same. No toys, no books, no games - nothing. Essentially, the entire house was expected to babysit in a way that i have been told wasn't normal. Even my little brother was expected to take on this role in caring for kids who were only a couple years younger than him. I spent my entire childhood taking care of my little sister and then my baby brother, and I hated seeing how they were doing the same to him when me and my little sister were at the age where it shouldve been left up to us. I started really butting heads with my parents as the situation progressed because they started yelling at my baby brother when the boys would even bump their heads even though it wasnt his fault. He never mistreated them, hit them, pushed them , or anything, so my parents justified it by saying he wasn't being a "good uncle" by "letting them" bump their heads on the tv stand, for example. He was expected to let them play with all of his toys, and my mom tried letting the boys use things that were very important to my brother, which would've ended up with the boys taking those things home. Saying it that way makes it sound a lot more mild that it was, but I'm trying to save time and not give out too many personal details. I guess you could say in short, my parents began expecting my elementary school age brother to give up his time, his space, his toys, his gifts - anything that meant anything to him, to help care for children when he was still a child not much older than them. I ended up giving my baby brother my room to not only keep his stuff in, but to sleep in.
In the end, my sister had the twins and then moved back to her home state about 6 months later. We think her no good husband lied to her about us and she cut contact with all of us, and we haven't heard from her since. In our house, the damage was done. I had long conversations with my little sister when our parents weren't around about how she needed to get out because of how they were treating her, and how I would eventually graduate and move to a city where I could find a job. But neither of us wanted to leave our little brother in that house because we were worried how they would treat him when we both left. Our parents had already proven they would throw any of us to the side at any second, even their golden child baby boy, and blame even him for anything that went wrong. Our parents have a history of spilling all our business at any holiday meal and badmouthing any little mistake. They would talk shit about us in front of us and shame us in front of family our entire lives, and if my sister and i weren't there to take the brunt of it, how long until they turned on my baby brother. Would they even wait until he wasn't "perfect" anymore?
Throughout all of this, I was struggling a lot in college, and starting around junior year i became very depressed and suicidal, which resulted in a major attempt in my 5th year of college, which to this day i don't like talking about. Before that, however, I went to my mom about feeling depressed and told her i thought i needed to talk to someone. She brushed me off. I was dumb enough to think that maybe she thought i was exaggerating, so i tried a second time to ask her for help about a year later, and she brushed me off again. Part of me blames her almost entirely for my attempts, because i came to her before any of them because i knew thats where it was headed if i didnt get help. All she had to do was make a couple phone calls to find me someone to talk to and she couldn't even do that for me. I was a scared girl who needed her mom's help because i didnt know who to turn to, and she turned her back on me. After my final attempt, I pulled myself up and got help, but my financial aid ran out and I was unable to return to school and finish my degree, so I went back to my parents house and was absolutely miserable for the next 6 months. I felt like a failure, like I wasn't "perfect" like i was supposed to be. I felt suffocated every single day and like the only ones who wanted me there were my siblings. One day I tried a little experiment and sat in the living room with my mom for the entire day and she didn't say one single word to me, didnt even acknowledge my existence. Ever since the stuff with my nephews happened, I had doubled my efforts to protect my siblings and take the brunt of my mom's anger, so I pushed back a lot when they tried to get onto my siblings for ridiculous things. I ended up ghosting my friends for 3 months because I was so depressed, and it really scared them. It was then I knew i had to get out of that house or it would kill me, so I moved into my grandparents' house a town over.
Things at my grandparents' house started okay, and i was even able to confide in them what had been going on at my parents' house, which in the end turned out to be a big mistake. I got a job working overnight at a retail store and met the guy who is now my boyfriend of 3 years. Unfortunately, the longer i spent at my grandparents' house the more i saw where my mom got it from, and they ended up treating me just as bad as what was going on at my parents' house. The only difference was that my sister wasn't there so i was taking the brunt of all of it. When things started getting tough for them after my grandpa retired, instead of sitting down with me like an adult and asking if it would contribute financially, my grandpa cornered me in the car when he was driving me back from work and guilted money out of me with a sob story. And guilted me at the dinner table the second time when they needed more money. One time i walked in the house after work and before i had even taken my shoes off or put my purse down to get my wallet out, he blocked the door to my room with his hand out like a loan shark to give him the money. I payed for all my own expenses, took short showers and kept as many lights off as i could, and told them not to buy me anything, even food. And in the end, even though they guilted me for money, then more money, and promised they wouldnt kick me out, they sold the house out from under me when they knew i was still trying to save for an apartment with what little money i had left a month. I ended up having to live with my best friend and her husband or i wouldve been homeless. I still helped them move even when they f-ed me over. And even after all that, I still went to holidays and visited my parents from time to time.
The last time i saw my grandparents they ran into me and my best friend in a store. My grandpa saw me first (he and my grandma were in different parts of the store), and starting yelling at me for pretty much cutting them off since i hadn't been to see them for months, and then when he started realizing he looked like the bad guy tried to make the reason i stopped talking to them about politics (i live in a conservative area) as if that would justify it. When my friend and i were trying to grab one last thing before we left because i was humiliated and trying not to cry, my grandma cornered me at the deli counter, had me pinned between the counter and a cart so i couldn't leave, and started yelling at me too. I was so broken back then, but i tried to tell both of them i would talk to them but not in the store. They just wanted to scream so we left. I haven't spoken to them since and have no plans to.
Eventually i moved 2 hours away back to the city i had went to college in. During that time, my grandparents drove the 3 hours to try to find where i lived, and then called trying to get me to come downstairs. I was asleep for work at the time but it made me feel so uncomfortable that they would do that. And after living there a year and my bf and i commuting to visit each other every other week, it came to the point where if i wanted our relationship to continue i had to move back. This is not something he ever brought up to me, this was a decision I came to on my own. So two years ago I moved back to the area I grew up in. We live an hour away from my hometown and 30 minutes away from the town i met my boyfriend in. And although he has family in both areas that we visit, I haven't seen or really talked to my parents or siblings since i initially moved out of the area.
A year ago, after a year of silence from me and from my parents, I dropped a box off at my parents' house when they weren't home with souvenirs i got them on vacation when i first moved back, short letters to each of them about the gifts, and a long video letter on a flash drive explaining everything I felt because i knew i couldn't go on without being honest and i knew if i tried to have a conversation in person, they wouldn't listen to me. I told them i wanted to keep them in my life but i couldn't ignore everything that had happened and the ways they treated me and my younger siblings. I told them i had no interest in continuing a relationship with my grandparents and that anything they have told them probably wasnt true. I sent them scans of my diaries as "proof" that i wasn't lying because that's the kind of house i grew up in - if you couldnt prove it, it didnt happen. I laid myself completely bare so that i could heal, knowing the whole time they may never want to speak to me again. I gave them pictures of me and my boyfriend and my new phone number anyway. The only thing i didn't give them was my address because we live on his family's land and his family, knowing a bit about my family and also about my grandparents essentially stalking me, don't want anyone from my family nosing around on the property. I don't want that either so i agreed not to give it out. The people in my life who knew about the box and the letter turned video letter were supportive of the idea given all i had been through, and I thought dropping it off would be the end of things.
Since then, I have healed from everything that has happened. I'm still angry and sad and i feel like I'm grieving every day, but I'm not the spineless, scared girl i used to be. My boyfriend has helped me become a better person in so many ways. But i still miss my family, especially my dad. I feel like he didnt deserve what i've done for reasons i cant go into, because the reality is he depends a lot on what my mom tells him because he works, and he trusts her deeply. I feel like in some regards he depended too much on her word, although he isnt completely innocent. There's obviously a lot more to my story that what I have here or else I'd be writing an autobiography, but just know if this all sounds like it isn't a big deal, I have so many stories and so much more detail that isn't safe to give out here.
The reality is my parents and i pushed each other away until we all became strangers long before everything blew up. I felt like a stranger from the time i left for college. I was made to feel like if i wasn't at home, i was a second thought, and a lot of very serious issues happened while i was away that i didnt find out about until i came home. My last year of college i was physically starving and could only afford to eat one meal a day if that. When i had left for school at the beginning of that school year my mother made it clear i had to figure it all out myself because they had no money to give me, but then i came home for Christmas and everyone but me had all new electronics. I cried asking for money to buy my uniform to start my campus job but they bought all new computers and tablets. And that stung.
Last Christmas, my parents and siblings messaged me. It was the first time I had heard from them since before i dropped off the box. It was just a Merry Christmas, but it absolutely shocked me. And then they all messaged again on my birthday. Same thing, just little pleasantries, but it makes me feel like maybe that door isn't closed. However, I have absolutely no idea if we can move forward, if they want to, or even if its a good idea to try. I have struggled a lot since college about whether or not all of this and everything I wasn't able to share here is or is not a big deal. I've had people close to me listen to my whole story and call it emotional neglect and abuse, but I just don't know. I feel crazy most of the time, and I'm afraid I'm exaggerating or making it up for attention or something, which also doesn't make sense. I struggle a lot in my day to day. I am ruled by the emotions of those around me and i cower like a kicked puppy when people around me are upset, even if its not my fault. I get ashamed when i make a mistake or i'm not "perfect", and if my feelings are valid I have no idea if it would be a good idea to get back in touch. But i think about if/when my boyfriend and i get married, and how i have no family to sit on my side. It sometimes feels like it's my fault because i wasn't strong enough to just shut up and deal with it anymore. At this point I dont know what is the right answer, what's going to finally give me peace. For now, I just keep moving forward trying to build a better life with my boyfriend and hope all the pieces will fall into place later.

I(20F) went on a camping trip with 14 of my friends(19-20 M and F). On our first day, we all decided to go swimming in the lake, a 10 min walk from our camp. The guys were ready before me and the other girls, so they went ahead.
After 10min, one of the guys came sprinting back screaming saying that everyone was hurt, blood everywhere, etc and to grab the first aid kit. I grab the first aid kit and sprint back with him in my flip flops, loosing both along the way. By the time I get to the lake, I’m completely out of breath and my feet are cut up from running barefoot on gravel. They explain that they went running into the water and almost all of them got cuts on their feet from sharp rocks.
The cuts were about a couple cm long and barely surface level so there was only a little blood. I was a little annoyed that they made it sound like someone was dying but I helped clean and bandage their feet anyway. Everyone was pretty calm except one guy got a couple baby leaches on his feet and was absolutely loosing his mind over infections, naming all these deadly diseases that they all could have now (ignoring the fact that all those diseases aren’t in our country, let alone in our continent). When I saw the size of the leaches I couldn’t help but laugh a little. I tried explaining to him that it was fine, we got them off super fast and sanitized everything throughly, plus they were only a mm or two big.
He wouldn’t listen and convinced some of the others to go with him to the park supervisor to get medical attention. The park rangers obviously didn’t do anything but for some reason told them about a doctor camping on the other side of the park. So my crazy friends decided to bother this poor family on vacation, to look at the one guy’s feet. Exactly like I had said, the doctor told him he’ll be fine and that it would completely heal like any other scratch.
I didn’t know they went on this little side quest until they came back with leach guy complaining that the rangers and the doctor were so rude to not take his injuries seriously. I laughingly told them “Well what did you expect? The rangers are there to handle bears and shit and that family you bothered? They just had some half naked stranger shove his feet in their faces.” I wasn’t saying any of this to be mean I was just joking around about the shear absurdity of it all. Like come on, I understand that some people are germaphobes but if you’re that concerned, don’t blindly sprint into unknown water.
In the end, everyone was fine. I thought the issue was over until a day after we get back from the trip, I get told over text by a bunch of them, led by the leach guy, that this incident showed them that I’m a toxic person. They said I was insensitive and belittled them for their reaction to a high stress, and potentially health threatening situation. I think that this was blown out of proportion and honestly insane but maybe I am just blind to my toxic behaviour. I am no longer in contact with these people but I have to know, am I the asshole?

Me 31M and my girl 33F We love each other a lot It's been 10 months. We've had our ups and downs.
She's elder. Earns more. Is the sole bread winner of her house. Takes care of her mum and overall is an amazing person.
The whole thing about our relationship is lack of respect and trust.
I doubt she sees me as the man she'd have liked to end up with because I've always sensed that she underestimates me and doesn't see me as an equal.
In the early days of the relationship I used to walk away thinking this is to good to be true. And in the recent months, she's been willing to walk away as my belief in making this work has grown stronger.
I'll address a few problems here - she has her DMs open and constantly gets approached by men. Some she cuts of. Some she allows (for professional reasons apparently). Some of those conversations seem more than friendly and she actively engages with some men that are obviously hitting on her. - she's compared me to multiple people in the past (including calling me a 2.0 of an ex-fuckbuddy she was madly in love with) - Once, after one breakup that I initiated. She came to my terrace to make up. We did. I took her home cause I had to wear pants before I dropped her home. My cousin was there and she didn't hesitate to make it obvious she was being overly friendly with him. "Accidently" flashed her panites his way. - she's slapped me in public during a heated fight. Just to come back home and try having sex like nothing happened. - she fights with me about her way of dressing . As a boyfriend, I just highlight that revealing clothes attract the wrong attention, which I don't like if it's my girlfriend. Never stopped her from wearing anything, anywhere, anytime. She still seems to think I want her behind a curtain. - most recently, at a party together she called a male friend of mine 'baby' (accidently) right in front me. Just to justify it in front of him by saying she calls other men baby too. Post this party, there wass an outburst in front of my mother where we both misbehaved.
She has a tendency to at times bring up being a 'crazy' 'badass' chick and also at times says her misbehaviour is due to her 'daddy issues'.
Currently due to our last fight, she's going to stay mad at me for the next few days cause I responded to a statement she mad in a very wrong way I want to trust her blindly, and be with her confidently, but situations arise and make it difficult. Speaking to her about it usually makes it worse for me.
I'm reaching out to the reddit community to get an opinion on whether, from an outsiders perspective, I'm being played or, just misunderstanding her. There's ofcourse two sides of the story, but.. I need you guys to give me perspective. Tell me how much of a pathetic simp I'm being? I used to be okay with letting go of this love stuff. I'm suddenly finding it hard in this situation.
I love her and want this to work, but maybe I/we are not seeing something. What should I do here?

Hello, i want to sell my bundeled TI5 Cache sets.

My Steam Profile: https://steamcommunity.com/id/InYourSpaghettiFace/
My Steam Rep: https://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198011477544
RULES:

• Selling for Keys/Arcanas or Paypal
• The buyer will go first. Roughly 10 % deposit.
• After the deposit we have to be friends for 30 days, after that the trade will be completed
• Please write me a message on Steam when adding

Items:

Set	Hero	Paypal [USD$]	Keys	Arcanas	Status
Apostle of Decay: Top, Front, Back	Necrophos	200,-	97	11	LAST ONE AVAILABLE, 4 Sold
Armor of the Unyielding Mask: Top, Front, Side, Back	Juggernaut	82,-	40	5	4 Available
Brawler of the Glacier Sea: Top, Front, Back	Tusk	50,-	24	3	1 Available, 2 Sold
Flowing Entropy: Top, Front, Side, Back	Spectre	52,-	25	3	2 Available
Beacon of Cerulean Light: Top, Front (Style 1, Style 2) Back (Style 1, Style 2),	Skywrath Mage	42,-	20	3	3 Available, 1 Sold
Garb of the Cunning Augur: Top, Front, Back	Rubick	39,-	19	2	ALL Sold
Serpent of the Emerald Sea: Top, Front, Back (Smooth, Fin)	Medusa	57,-	28	3	ALL Sold
Flowersong Tempest: Top (Style 1, Style 2), Front (Style 1, Style 2), Back (Style 1, Style 2)	Windranger	81,-	39	5	1 Available, 2 Sold
Fires of Vashundol: Top, Back	Doom	156,-	75	8	2 Available, 2 Sold
Echoes of the Eyrie: Top, Front, Back	Vengeful Spirit	40,-	19	3	3 Available
Knight of the Burning Scale: Front, Back, Elder Dragon Form 1, Elder Dragon Form 2, Elder Dragon Form 3, Elder Dragon Form Aghanim	Dragon Knight	200,-	97	11	ALL Sold

Rep
All negotiable
I am looking forward trading with you :)