My dr is prescribing nuvigil for weight loss

Hey guys, got diagnosed with ADHD a month ago. 2 weeks ago I got Ritalin LA 20mg (my weight is 85kg, Male)
The effect was pretty nice, I got many things fixed, more focus, all of the good stuff. So experience was 90% just awesome.
But I had 2 problems: First I had problems with eating, so I ate less, but I was not able to eat much more than maybe 1000-1500 calories, most of the time only a third of my plate, then I felt sick. Also after 4-5 days i started to experience severe nausea, especially after sport, so that I had to stop working out at day 6, cause I knew I’m gonna puke if I do one more rep. On day 7 I threw up twice. After that I stopped cause I became sick with bronchitis and my doctor said that the antibiotics already put much strain on my body. Is this normal? My psychiatrist just shrugged it off and told me I’m gonna get used to it, but it felt a little bit insensitive?
Second problem is that when I take it at 8 am, I’m crashing hard at around 4/5pm and feel pretty bad. I heard there are other options like concerta or elvanse? Are these maybe better?should I suggest to switch?
Also he just prescribed it to me for 7 days a week, a friend who also has adhd said that it’s not normal for him, cause his psychiatrist was very adamant about tolerance breaks once a week or just using it Monday to Friday?

Hey everyone,
About 6 months ago I caught an upper respiratory infection that required medication, specifically augmentin antibiotics. I was prescribed a heavy dose and recovered without incident... EXCEPT for my skin! I'm prone to eczema on my hands and legs and developed a pretty bad flareup after but was able to sort it out with my usual colloidal oatmeal cream.
HOWEVER, I've now developed what I would call "sticky dandruff" scalp flakes. I've tried Head and Shoulders and Neutrogena T Sal, both of which seem to make my scalp more dry and the flakes more crusty. The dandruff itself isn't what you would call typical dandruff. It's sort of the dandruff is stuck to my actual hair follicle. There is no flakes on my clothes or anything. The dandruff appears crusty and I'm prone to picking at it... I've picked it and it looks yellowish and produces liquid. I know part of the problem is my picking my scalp and I've got to get a hold on that, but, I'm mainly concerned about getting this problem taken care of.
I have a few questions.

1. Should I be washing more often or does that just dry out my scalp even more?
   
2. If I resist the urge to pick out the flakes, will that cause my hair to fall out? I guess what I mean is, if I don't remove the dead skin will that clog up my scalp and cause my hair to fall out? (I have not experienced any hair loss as of yet)
   
3. How do I "heal" the sores I've caused from picking? Should I apply vaseline or antibotics (neospirin)?
   

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Do not worry, if this doesn't clear up soon, I plan to make an appointment with my derm.
Other skin facts: I have very sensitive/reactive skin. I also have rosacea.

Hello, I am just looking some other opinions.
My TSH is low, T4 free direct is low, and my T3 Free is on the higher side but still in normal range. Both my Thyroid Peroxidase Ab is negative and so is my Thyroglobulin Ab. I just had a Thyroid Uptake and Scan done today so I am waiting on those results. My provider is saying “subclincial hyperthyroidism” but I’m also concerned for “pituitary hypothyroidism”. I have had excessive weight gain this past year along with heart palpitations, excessive fatigue (I can sleep 15 hours straight), muscle aches, hair loss, can’t manage to control my food intake, etc. I would like to know some other people’s thoughts. Thank you!!

Hello, I am just looking some other opinions.
My TSH is low, T4 free direct is low, and my T3 Free is on the higher side but still in normal range. Both my Thyroid Peroxidase Ab is negative and so is my Thyroglobulin Ab. I just had a Thyroid Uptake and Scan done today so I am waiting on those results. My provider is saying “subclincial hyperthyroidism” but I’m also concerned for “pituitary hypothyroidism”. I have had excessive weight gain this past year along with heart palpitations, excessive fatigue (I can sleep 15 hours straight), muscle aches, hair loss, can’t manage to control my food intake, etc. I would like to know some other people’s thoughts. Thank you!!

I found out I have it during other imaging in a hospital years ago, and I don't recall any doctor doing anything about it or saying anything about it so I've just kind of shrugged it off. With all my health problems and how often I've switched doctors I usually forget to mention it to my doctors. I just thought it was a mostly-benign part of being fat. I've improved my eating to a much healthier diet, improved my overall health and lost a little but of weight. I've been doing intermittent fasting a year and a half and just got on ozempic for my diabetes and to help boost me back into weight loss fasting schedules.
But my liver enzymes were a little elevated for the first time a few months ago, the doctor says he doesn't worry about them unless they're more elevated. But I asked him to do imaging of my liver to check on it, so we did an ultrasound and they found a "neoplasm." Due to my fatty liver it was hard to make out what it is, he said it's about 1 cm. He's now ordered an MRI with and without contrast to try to figure out what it is, but there was an insurance issue and I'm having trouble reaching the woman in charge of the insurance issue. I'm losing my Medicaid at the end of the month and nervous I won't be able to afford the MRI. I guess I'm just nervous. I'm not finding much on Google on what it might be, the doctor said it might be a cyst but I also read it could be cancer. I'm just a little scared I guess. I think tomorrow I am going to call the doctor's office a third time and leave a message for this woman, and include in the message that I am losing my health insurance at the end of the month. Has anyone had cysts/growths etc in their liver, or know about them?

Hey y'all,
Long time lurker here, but I wanted to make a post of my experience because I found a lot of reassurance from many folks here before I got my surgery.
I'm exactly seven weeks post-op today; I had a total laparoscopic hysto, including ovaries. For some background, I'm 34, 5'3 and 134lbs; been on T for 9 years now.
Surgery day: Nervous as hell, but medical team was amazing. Surgery took about 2.5 hours and I was able to go home the same day. I had a bit of trouble fully coming to afterwards, but after a nap, I was good to get up on my own and make my way to the washroom for the highly anticipated pee (can't leave without peeing). It did take me a long time to pee, but I managed a little something. There will be blood immediately after surgery, so it certainly can be startling if you've been without a period for years. Didn't eat much that day, as anaesthetic kinda ruined my appetite. Pain was tolerable, but getting up from the couch/bed was tough - you'll kinda have to roll out. I peed A LOT that evening (it did subside a bit the next day). Nurses said nothing over 5lb (I 100% did not abide by this because 5lbs is very light to me and I felt it silly) and no sex for 6 weeks.
First week: Pain was very manageable, just similar to sore abs. I continued my prescribed painkillers for a couple days and made the switch to Tylenol, which I took for another couple days and then I didn't feel like I needed anything. Bleeding was pretty mild throughout the first week. I think after about 4-5 days post-op, I was walking quite a bit (couple 10-15 min walks a day and general tidying around the house). I did get a little tired, but nothing bad. Drove my car around 4 days in. Was also drinking a dissolvable stool softener - you're really gonna want this. I never took it with top surgery, but hystos are so connected to your bowels, its just a must-have.
Second week: Went back to work after 12 days - I work in service and was on my feet 6-8 hours a day. I felt fine and didn't really overdo it. I didn't lift much over 10-15lbs, but was able to hustle. Bleeding continued to be quite light. I was pretty much cleaning my house as normal at this point, as well as walking my dog (though he is super young and a puller, so I was very cautious during our walks). Continued drinking the stool softener because I still felt a little discomfort when trying to go to the bathroom.
Third and Fourth weeks: Third week I just increased my walking, working and started to ease back into my routine. I will say my gas pains/bowel discomfort got pretty bad around this point - I've never experienced anything like it. It was obvious it was related to my intestines and bowels settling into a new place inside me, but it was so uncomfortable. I continued the softener every other day until the fourth week. Once I reached week four, I went back to the gym to do some stretching and isolation work on machines (leg extentions and curls, shoulder presses, rows, light curls and tricep work). I only went two days, that week, but it felt amazing to get back in there and move my body. I had no more bleeding at all after that week and had no adverse effects from going to the gym.
Fifth and Sixth weeks: Pretty much a full return to normal for me. Fifth week, I started increasing the weights (half my usual) at the gym and hit the exercise bike as well. Sixth week, I started my compound body work like squats, bench presses, light deadlifts, etc. Again, had no adverse effects. I'm now at week seven and I'm back fully to normal, in my opinion. My doctor has cleared me for all regular activities and I'm feeling great. This will be my first full week back in the gym and though things are feeling heavy as hell after all this time, it will come back in no time.
Some other things that I was worried about before my surgery: Muscle loss/Weightlifting - If you're in good shape beforehand and are a seasoned lifter, you're gonna be just fine. I was so freaked out about losing my muscle and physique, but it wasn't so bad. Just don't eat like shit and stay as active as you can. Things are gonna feel really heavy when you get back, but just go slow and focus on form.
Sex/Masturbation - I got myself off probably 2 weeks after and had some light bleeding, but nothing else. I waited again for another few days and it was fine after that. I continued to get off regularly after this with no adverse effects. Myself and my partner obviously didn't have penetrative sex during these 6 weeks, but we did manage to get by with some hands-on fun. I've yet to have the more "aggressive" penetrative sex I'm used to, but light penetration this past week has not bothered me - just go slow and make sure it feels ok.
Scarring - SO TINY. Seriously, just don't pick at them and keep them moisturized and they will heal great.
That's mostly all I can recall right now, but I'm happy to answer any questions. Sorry if this was long-winded, but I figured maybe it would help someone out!

Hi All, I do mostly 20 to 24hr fasts between meals. During fasting after 20hrs my mouth has bad odour. This is only during fasting time, i drink sufficient water also. So my job requires meeting people sometimes that comes in my fasting window. Any suggestion , i do brush twice a day. Thought of using mouth spray or freshner but that does contain sugar and breaks my fast. Doing fasting mainly for weight loss..

Months and years trying to figure out what's wrong with me. I have a great psychiatrist; I've tried many, many medications for depression, anxiety, ADHD, and OCD. I believe I'm on the right meds bc when they work, they work well! The problem is that every month I cycle through ups and downs, and let me tell ya...the downs are lowwwwww. I barely function. I'm a mom and a yoga teacher, a student, and we're getting ready to move across several states. I struggle to make it up the stairs and sometimes just lie on my yoga mat, face down, and cry until I fall asleep. Reading these threads and doing my own research made me hopeful that my appt with gyno would go well today. I hadn't seen this doc and she's the head of the practice, so I thought I was seeing the most experienced and knowledgeable practitioner. WOW! She was terrible. Wouldn't even let me finish a sentence; wouldn't let me consider PMDD or PME (I think because she doesn't know what they are). She's a "hormone specialist" but didn't consider testing my hormones again since they were done in November. She didn't know what SSRI's were and had to ask the PA-in-training.
In the end she gave me a pamphlet for medical weight loss. I broke down and cried, which was embarrassing for me bc of shame stuff--to which she showed NO empathy, so I felt even more dumb. I told her my sudden weight gain was a symptom of something bigger and she would not listen to a word of it. She calls herself an OBGYN and hormone specialist, but I came to discover that she's mostly a medspa MD that occasionally delivers a baby or two. Still feeling hopeless and dreadng tomorrow as I know I'll wake up and hit my daily "wall" by 9am; after which I will barely be able to keep my eyes open. Can anyone speak to something similar? Any success stories showing me there is hope???

I saw a post in a weight loss community in Reddit about a person who posted her lunch, it was a healthy lunch, low on calories. The comments were tearing apart the op, saying stuff like what a sad lunch or how they could never eat something like that.
I’m like ok whatever and keep scrolling, then I saw another post about a girl posting her meal, and a comment saying basically that they look at her account and was accusing her of an Ed and saying she should stop posting because she does omad.
So I’m like nope, I gotta get the fuck a outta here, if someone posts a pint of Ben & Jerry’s on that specific weight loss sub they are gonna praise op. I’ve seen it. (Nothing wrong with eating ice cream of course) I’m trying to make my point on this fucking shit biased community ffs.
I’m not in favor of promoting any eating disorders , but why the need to shame on somebody because they eat less than you? I’ve seen this for a while but today it was too much, maybe it wouldn’t bother me if I hadn’t an ED, but I just thing it’s a shitty thing to say so either way.
Like I understand eating disorders are fucking horrible, the person is already struggling and suffering why you gotta be a cunt about it?
And it happened to me a dude messaged me about my Ed and that I should take a break. Why people are like this?
Fuck these people.
Rant over..

Maytag MDB4949SHZ 1
Hello, I have been in a battle with my dishwasher, I feel like I’m going insane. Let me lay out the steps of what I’ve done so far.

1. The dishwasher kept cancelling itself mid-cycle, water was coming, would clean dishes, but would just “cancel” partway through. Worst part was, it wasn’t repeatable, it seemed random. It would even sometimes finish cycles like maybe 5% of the time.
   
2. Repair guy comes out, charges $105 to “diagnose”, he runs the diagnostic lights and it says it’s a float issue. He told me was the float solenoid is bad, it’s making a multimeter beep but that the button is too sensitive and that may cause it to trigger, I ordered a new one anyway cause it was cheap and easy. Looking back, the button was too easy to push down, so that should, if anything, make it HARDER to cancel as more weight would need to come off the switch to un-press the button.
   
3. I change the float solenoid. Once I do, the dishwasher will not take in water. Whole new problem. It sounds likes it running, there is a hum, it is going through the cycle, but you can hear there’s no water spraying and dishes aren’t getting wet. I read up and learn that water inlet valves go bad. My multimeter won’t beep when I test it, though it reads numbers. I order one, change it, still same problem, and the new ones are similar, they don’t beep but they read numbers. It probably wasn’t bad in the first place.
   
4. Since the dishwasher has now done 2 things wrong that seem unrelated (canceling randomly and now no water) I order a new control board. I change it out, I run it, same exact issue. No water coming in. Run diagnostics, same float switch error code. I know the float switch is pressed down like it should. It’s sending a signal.
   

So now I’m thinking it’s the water pump. I should mention that I can pour water into the bottom of it and when I run a cycle it pumps it out fine. Drain line is totally clear. The water pump is hard to reach, $260, and wouldn’t explain the canceling mid cycle or why it’s calling for a float switch error code. Does anyone have any advice to fix it? Or is it a “cut your losses dummy, just buy a dishwasher.”
Thanks in advance.

i recently got a formal ocd and bulima diagnosis, and have been prescribed sertraline to help with both (apparently there is common overlap between the two disorders). i have heard of people gaining so much weight and having their metabolisms fucked up on this medication and i am PETRIFIED that it will happen to me. my doctor reassured me that the weight gain is only a possible side effect, and that it’s not very common, but i think i would genuinely kill myself if i gained weight and it was out of my control.
i want to get better, both disorders but especially ocd are quite debilitating, but not at the risk of me gaining like 10kg.
has anyone got any experiences with weight gain/loss on these meds? is it really worth it to take them? and if you did gain weight, how did you deal with it?

Hello, over the weekend my specialist Dr advised me that I have a hiatal hernia after I had a CTPE scan of my chest/abdomen for other unrelated health issues. So this was picked up randomly as I had not been experiencing any symptoms so it is not serious at the moment.
He told me I can't lift over 20kg anymore without making the hernia worse, which is a huge bummer because I was a regular weight lifter up until I started experiencing health issues a few months ago. I was keen to get back into the gym once I started feeling better.
I had not had the typical symptoms that the Dr mentioned like reflux, but over the last 4-5 months I have been noticing that it was really difficult to swallow pills? I would swallow a pill (eg, paracetamol or a vitamin), and it felt like it was getting caught at the bottom of my esophagus. I would have to down two glasses of water and take huge gulps to feel the pill shift down into my stomach. Is that something one would experience with this condition? The first time it happened, I thought it was in my head, but then it kept happening every time.
I also have a lot of digestive issues/bloating but I have no idea if that can be caused by this condition.
Anyway, is my life over? Lol just kidding, but kind of not. Keen to hear your thoughts.

I got pregnant while on semaglutide, which is great husband and I are super excited. However I still have 3 months worth of the meds in my fridge. They will expire before I give birth. Can I still use them? I hate for it to go to waste given the price tag. Also, it would be a good way to kickstart the baby weight loss. Thoughts..??

Hey all,
First I want to state how much this Sub has been helping me over the last few days as I took my first dose saturday afternoon. Im surprised with how well it quells the hunger, and when/if Ive eaten something I cant finish and get queasy. (Ive come to the conclusion that most of the eating was from habit of "Oh its X O'clock I should have dinner..." not actual hunger)
So on to a few of my request for suggestions:

1. Ive gone all day without being hungry, what do you do in that instance? Do you try to have a little bit of calories, or do you just not eat that day?
2. What Weight loss trackers are your favorites? Ive seen a few posted that seem pretty neat, but I didnt get names to them
3. Does anyone take things like Pepto for the queasiness? Or do you just deal with it because it helps with potential hunger?
4. Ive seen where people say to try and stay on the lowest dose that is still working for you? My provider ordered 2 months worth of the .25 but I saw that you're suppose to titrate up after the first month.... thoughts?

Thanks all and good luck on your journeys!!

Age: 36 Weight: 204lbs Height: 5'10"
--NOW as of 03/2024-- Total Cholesterol: 202 LDL: 141 HDL: 51 VLDL: 23 Cholesterol/HDL Ratio: 4.1 Triglycerides: 114
--WAS on 02/2023-- Total Cholesterol: 274 LDL: 179 HDL: 47 VLDL: 46 Cholesterol/HDL Ratio: 6.5 Triglycerides: 230
As you can see above, last year I was significantly worse than I am now. Since then I have started exercising 3-4 times a week, started taking krill oil, and made some diet changes (I have a lot of room for improvement in this area still).
How bad are my stats? Should I tighten up diet a bit more (I really do need to, honestly) and continue naturally? Should I ask for statins?
Note: In 2020 when I was 32 a doctor did prescribe me 10mg Lipitor per day but I never got prescription filled bc I was younger and dumb and figured "I'm too young and can get it under control naturally". Needless to say I didn't do anything to improve it until this past 13mnths.
Any input is truly appreciated.

Blachowicz here.
Kept yah’ waiting, huh? Heh, sorry about that one, but I can explain. As we all know… we lost a few good men the last few months.
That’s the brutal part of a hybrid war like ours: We’re fighting a foe unconventional, with half our arsenal tied down because those who grant us authorization are either in disbelief of the true facts, or scared… or already assimilated. That being said our momentum recently was a change not seen in years, and because of that… despite the losses we have garnered, we were close through a breakthrough. One last night Krol pulls myself and other two must trusted squad leads into the back of our COP. There is one of our equipment cages, surrounded by m-bitter radios, tripods, and several hundred thousand dollars of equipment he brought us around a simple worn table. Before us he laid a map of eastern poland… red markings indicating cells that seemed to dot the countryside like a pestilence, or used to… as deep gashes of advance from raids had trisected their lines, even if ones did pop up in the interior.
It was a back and forth; an outside virus infecting Polska at it’s heart, and we were the antibodies sent to drive them out. To which… Major Krol points to one of the largest symbol on the map: a dark red diamond, the NATO symbol for an enemy unit, deep inside of an untouched wooded area, adjacent to a mountain ridge. Several jagged lines indicated entrenchment, with red horizontal lines indicating possible enemy control… or our contested control, for over 20kms surrounding it. Letting us all look, the Major lit himself a cigarette.
“Sir, you sure it’s wise to smoke in here with the dive tanks just behind us” 1st Squad’s lead quipped. “Fuck off” Krol dryly said.
“Alright… this is it… this is the one we’ve been searching for for years, this is the nucleus my predecessor commander died trying to find” he says, pointing to it. Not far from Zamosc, it was almost touching the border with Belarus, the contested area indicating the Strigoi did operate over it… indicating one of the largest spill through points. “-It’s an old soviet bunker, made during their 1960s initiative it was designed to hold the munitions and manpower of several units in the event of a NATO first strike” Krol explained. “It’s gotta be massive then…” I said gazing at the map; “Didn’t the army demolish all of the old soviet hulks near Belarus to prevent any infiltrations?” 3rd Squad’s lead asked. “National Police took the effort over… and by extension, the Strigoi. It was halfway demo’ed before they burrowed into it and have been using it as a bridgehead ever since. This is it…” Krol said. He looked around at all of us, a sense of certainty I had never seen before as he blew smoke from his nostrils; “We’ve been fucking around in the dark for so long, it’s hard to believe we’ve made any progress, but this is it. With this gone, this will set them back over a decade and the momentum will finally shift into our favor… into Poland’s… -Europe’s”.
I swear there was almost a flash of joy, of pride in his eyes and a phantom of a smirk before reality set back in “That being said… we can’t leave this to chance, especially not something as important as this. We’re going to have to go there ourselves… clear through every inch of that place, and tear it all down, piece by piece. I will be straight with you all… when we go, there will be some of us that aren’t coming back. -but we are going… a whole generation is counting on us, and unborn billions rely on us to succeed”. We all nodded, a silent agreement washing over us as we took this upon ourselves. Echo-1 spoke up: “So… They’re authorizing a raid? How big?”. “We’re rolling in as a hard target, armor, explosives, and air support” Krol answered, taking a drag off his cigarette. “Aviation? How the hell did we get that approved, we’ve gotten attempts shot down four times due to those leeches” I said in disbelief. “There’s too much evidence here pointing to the human trafficking tied to their actions… We’ve finally got too much weight pinning them down, to keep the hammer from slamming into their necks” Krol chuckled. He looked around “Any questions?”. “When?” Echo-3 asked. “Three hours. We’re hitting them in the dead of night, only time we could get the birds authorized. Get your boys ready. We’re rolling out” Krol said, dying the cigarette bud out on the table. I can’t begin to tell you the euphoria we felt leaving that cage, as our men started arriving, they did so a lot quicker, and with their heads a lot higher than they had in weeks. As Second Squad’s lead we were going to be one of the main arms of attack into the bunker, thus I made sure we had a breacher loaded with enough thermite, charges, and tools to cut through anything. Our shield bearer we ready to go, as was our assaulters, grenadiers, and machine gunner. I double checked each and everyone of their weapons; ensuring the feeder paws of our squad’s belt fed were intact, making sure every breach charge we had was properly set and packed. There was going to be no mistakes, no slip ups. The margin of error needed to be the smallest it had ever been for us tonight if we were going to make the gore spilt worth it.
Finally… there on the outside of the building, the bright LED lights kept the darkness of the ensuing night at bay as the roar of our MRAPs could be heard. It was said once that war is 99% peace, and 1% chaos, they were right. The slow periods where the blood slowed and the doubt creeped in was the worst… yet we all kept it at bay. We needed to, there was going to be no backing down tonight. All three squads were up, all of us ready to go… we circled up… short stares and shaky nods telling us one things: We were in this together, till the end… the finish line so many before us had been searching for, we were being granted tonight.
A single set of footsteps could be heard as we turned, Major Krol stepping into the center. He took the last drag of a cigarette, throwing it down to the ground and stamping it out onto the damp concrete. He looked around… his chin strap blowing in the weak air as he met everyone of our gazes… then mine… then looked around. “I want you to remember every detail of tonight, as you have every other night… when you are situationally aware, scanning for the enemy, liberating the subjugated, I want you to remember the sting of anxiety, the shake of adrenaline, the chill of the bunker, the heat of your weapon as it cuts them down… because tonight we are going to write every fine detail of our victory, their defeat, in history…” Krol’s words echoed deep into our souls. He paused for a moment, staring around he looked down… a small pause before he said “When you are ruthless in combat, remember to be patient, and reserved in victory. This conflict is for our existence… a lot of innocents have bled due to the mistakes of those who failed to listen, a lot of our brothers are now laid under because we had to bridge the gap of uncertainty with their lives. We remember them now… but in an hour? We forget them… when we raise our barrels, when we cut into those foes, and we liberate Polska!! This does not end tonight, but history puts everything in it’s place, and patience is the companion of the victor… All of our hard work will be cemented, no matter the obstacles we face in that darkness… no matter the demons, the blood, no matter what incomprehensible horrors, we will make them comprehend that to invade our land, to bleed our people, the justice will be paid in full… Load up. It’s time*”*.
The purpose in our steps was heavy as we climbed the back ramps of the MRAPS; Four of the heavily armored vehicles, one for each squad with an additional for attached personnel including our JTAC, the term means Joint Terminal Attack Controllers. With air support requisitioned to us for this operations, there needs to be a definite liaison on the ground who can directly communicate to the birds, and coordinate their fire and progress. I’d worked with many of them in the past, resourceful guys, quick thinking though I guess that comes with the position they hold of needing to quickly figure out what bombs to drop, on which target, at what precise points, whilst taking contact. He loaded in the lead vehicle with Major Krol… and soon, our convoy kicked off.
The drive was several hours as myself and my squad sat in the back of that forty ton goliath, the rumbling of the engine keeping us awake as the crap heater fought to keep the cold from the outside frost from setting in. I looked around to each of them, some were catching some sleep because even with the circumstances… better to get all the energy you can, than to stay awake for nothing. Others were checking their weapons… My gunner locked eyes with me, the same one from the village extraction… many of these men I had trained with for a while now, fought with for months.
We may have met on unconventional circumstances but those in JW Grom thrive on austere chance and create opportunity from scratch. I was pulled from my thought by the sound of a transmission, my peltors were set up for dual comms so I could both receive information from the Major and other leads, whilst communicating with my team.
Krol himself sent out: [“Approximately 10 minutes from enemy AO…”]. As the rest of the squads acknowledged, I quickly sent out [“Echo-2 Copies”], before kicking the boots of any of them sleeping: “Look alive, we’re here”. Through the exterior net armor of the MRAPS, and the bars protecting the small reinforced windows, we could barely see jack shit. I reached up, turning off the overhead light as we all looked through our nods to scan the outside. A dark wall of dense trees was shown before us, making it difficult to see… in addition to night vision capabilities we had also requisitioned ourselves some thermals… when mounted onto rifles they were bulky, made it a pain to aim down quickly, but considering the supernatural capabilities of spotting our foes we needed every advantage necessary.
I flipped out one of my tubes… scanning the outside with my scope. I looked over to one of my assaulters who had been assigned to man the turret of the MRAP, seated near the view screen as he controlled the 50. Cal. Each of the vehicle turrets had been assigned a direction to cover… we took the 9 o’clock, the left flank. “See anything?” I asked. He shook his head; “Negative… wait… I’ve got two cold signatures, front left heading to our rear”.
I quickly scanned the far tree line, at approximately 60 meters off our left were two cold signatures… followed by a third heading to our front… then another. They were surrounding us, moving at speeds so fast I could barely keep my reticle on them. Is this what the National Police saw? What they faced at that lodge without the benefit of a foot of heavy armor protecting them on all sides. Then… suddenly. Something slammed into the side of our MRAP so hard, it caused it to shake. From over the leader comms, Echo-3 quickly shouted [“Contact right!! 4 hostiles!!”].
One of the Strigoi… so bold, had charged and slammed into the side of our MRAP. I quickly looked to see the figure, a dark blue mass of cold energy through my thermal, back away without so much as a stagger… as they tried to flee into the woods, the white hot justice of Echo-3’s gun fired at them, cutting them down. “Blachowicz I’ve got a few breaking for our vic” my man on the turret called out, I spun around, spotting out the window.
Just then, Major Krol announced [“weapons free, watch and shoot for targets of opportunity…”]. I turned to him… “take those fuckers out-”. Without hesitation my vic’s turret began to quickly target them, and through the darkness I saw a stream of outgoing fire bisect one of them, the ISR of the black blood freaking out the optic so badly it didn’t know what temperature to register it as… but it did register it. As another was cut down, one broke through the tree line and latched onto the side of our MRAP. The thing tore at one of the outer net armor panels, usually made to stop RPGs. It grabbed at the bars near the windows, tearing one off… I lowered my rifle as we locked eyes through the reinforced window.
The thing… the Strigoi looked at me, skin cracked as putrefied muscle fibers seemed to leak through dead flesh. It’s teeth were corroded and worn down to sharp fragments, alongside newly mutated fangs that messily protrude from the jaws. Even through the thick walls of the MRAP I could hear it’s roar, as it then tried to punch it’s way through… it cracked the outer coating of the vehicle… but it wasn’t getting anywhere near. My machine gunner, seated next to me, seemed to chuckle at the sight, quippily saying “Yeah… fuck you too”. It’s then our vehicle lurched upwards, as we began to climb the small incline of the bunker. I knew the layout, mapped it in our head, the main entrance was built into the rocky side of an old cliff meaning we could easily set up a defensive perimeter around it, a horseshoe. Krol’s vehicle was first, taking to the right as Echo-3’s MRAP followed. My vehicle, third, left the incline and took a left and… that’s where things got complicated.
We’re still trying to work out what happened but… from what Joakim says his drone captured. Right when the MRAP turned, several of the monsters quickly slammed into the side of the vehicle, as another more bulkier one, pushed at it’s undercarriage. The result.. Was the 40 ton armored vehicle tipped over. It wasn’t uncommon, hell in some cases a well placed IED, a good shot with a recoilless rifle, have been known to tip over Oshkoshs and Maxpros all the time. But this beast? Needless to say we barely had a second to comprehend it as it leaned to the left; “Grab on to something-” is all I had time to shout. A mess of gear and men spilled onto one side of the vehicle as it slammed into the old gravel and dirt.
Several of my assaulters, my grenadier planted right ontop of myself and the others as we came to a stop. Someone’s knee slammed directly into the side of my skull, causing me to dazily bob in and out of consciousness as my face was smushed against the glass of one of the windows.
Through my peltors, the other squads were erratic;
[“Echo-2’s vehicle is down!!”].
[“Echo-3 to Echo-2… Echo-3 to Echo-2…”].
Krol’s voice came through the comms;
[“Echo-Lead to Echo-2… Fuc-... Echo-1 secure Echo 2’s flank, Echo-3”].
[“Echo-3 to other units, they’re spilling through, I’ve got several enemy combatants converging on Echo-2’s vehicle”].
I pushed the legs of my grenadier off my head as I fought to my hands and knees, unfucking my nods as I looked around… “Fuck it… we’re going lights on, shield your eyes” I muttered as I reached for the overhead lights and flipped them on. The bright LEDs bathed the inside of the vehicle as we all gained our bearings, a mess of multicam, gear, and weapons as we quickly pushed each other off. My gunner caught as he fought to realign his promask, from what I gathered one of the assaulters had landed directly into his gun, pushing it directly into his jugular, as pulled back at the rubber and coughed, freeing up his esophagus. We didn’t have time to think however… the sound of bending metal caught our attention… as the back ramp door of the MRAP was ripped clean off. I could barely believe it but as the white light of the MRAP’s interior poured to the outside, a hulking mass leaned in, the dead flesh on it’s face nearly fallen off as the hideous Strigoi leaned inside.
Without hesitation I aimed took aim, yelling “Keep to the deck!!” to any of those inbetween myself and the invader as I opened fire. A burst of full auto fire tore through it’s collar and neck, my men quickly clung to either sides of the fallen MRAP as a few more fired out. As the thing backed up, a blast of .50 cal fire quickly tore it to shreds, along with several others as I realized they were fuckin swarming over the outside of our vehicle. Echo-3’s vehicle continued to carefully fire on the Strigoi on the outside, the sounds of .50 cal ricocheting off the outside of our armor was enough to make the pucker factor set in.
[“Echo-3 to Echo-2”].
[“This is Echo-2, we’re green on ammo, equipment, men”].
[“Roger, we’re shifting fire, exit the vehicle”].
“Hurry up let’s go!!” I barked to my men, leading the way as I staggered out. I turned on my peq, taking aim at silhouettes in the brush as I began to fire. The sounds of machine guns lighting up the brush, as a sea of growls, howls, and incomprehensible roars fired back at us was the ambient noise of the night. My men quickly exited, my gunner being the last as he and I pulled back to the rest of the defensive perimeter. I set in my men to take up the frontal security, as 3rd squad took the right flank, 1st squad to the left. Major Krol and the JTAC were bickering with each other; “How far out are the birds”. “They’re entering airspace now…” Joakim said, already scanning his smart book.
I asked “What’ve we got?”. He then flipped through… to the NATO combined arms segment, quippily saying; “Apaches…”. This caused me to pause as Echo-3 turned their head whilst directing their squad’s fire “The hell… where did we get apaches from?”. “The Americans… they volunteered” Krol said dismissively as he took aim at the darkness, firing off a controlled trio. “Volunteered? They’re aware of what’s going on?” I asked.
Krol seemed to stop, glancing back at me before returning his focus “There’s a lot more going on than you realize, Blachowicz… Prep the breach, you and 1st are going on”.
I quickly pulled my breacher off the line, securing some thermite as the reinforced bunker door wasn’t going to go as easily as a conventional door breach would. 1st Squad pulled back, stacking up and preparing themselves to be the first in. All the while… Joakim gave his firing solution; “Alpha Hotel Two Five Nine, This is Bravo-4…… Type 2….”.
I snapped to my right, watching as a Strigoi managed to dark across the clear gravel field, only to be cut down by my gunner, the peq’s laser marking the burst as it tore through the beasts’ hips, as it hit the ground and still continued to claw, another GROM operator took aim and fired into it’s skull. Joakim popped up to his feet…. “Marking laser, high power…”. He then pulled out a target marking laser… if you’ve watched night operations, you’ve probably seen them.
The green laser than as it says on the label, marks targets. The pattern of which can vary… if it’s a point target, it’ll usually lasso an area, or remain on target until the target is removed with extreme prejudice. If its close air support, then it’ll be a line of the general area… and Joakim damn near marked the entire perimeter around us. He quickly pocketed the tool, turning back to Krol; “Don’t go past 20 meters unless you want to be liquidated”.
With that… 2nd and 1st stacked up at the door as 3rd squad took up the perimeter security. As Major Krol went over to Echo-1… I saw them. A single blinking IR strobe from the beasts as they moved on the far off horizon, converging from several angles… and fired. The sound of the Apache’s main gun, the M230, truly sounds like the hammer of god… the 30mm cannon shot through the dark sky, lighting it up as we saw three incoming streams tear up the woods. Only then as the sound broke did we start to hear their rotors as they broke and began to circle, firing again… then… Joakim dipped his head and looked to Krol; [“Foxtrot Mike, hang onto your teeth…”]. One of the Apaches fired off a AGM-114… a Hellfire. I barely saw it out of the corner of my eye as the Apache from our right flank fired off at a target approximately 200 meters off. A fireball lit up the forest as the horrendous roar echoed throughout… then went silent.
Echo-3 scanned the horizon carefully;
[“Echo-3 to Echo-Lead, enemy contact is starting to die down”].
[“Maintain perimeter, Close Air is to maintain fire mission until we are boots up, Break…”].
[“Echo-Lead to Echo-1, condition white has been met. Proceeds”]. I saw Echo-1 and his men quickly stack up close to the wall and gesture to me; Breaching. I quickly pulled my stack back against the wall as his and mine breacher quickly hit their actuators. Now under normal circumstances, it doesn’t take much for thermite to melt the locks off of a metal surface, in fact it’s a more precise took as alternative means get real medieval like saws, pry bars… we weren’t in the mood for precision, we need to breach their little lair, and drag them out. The sound of several pounds of hellfire burning through the metal could be heard around the corner as a sea of white and red sparks flew out… after several seconds, two of our men tossed a fragmentation grenade and a nine-bang through the opening… a series of concussive blasts and a large explosion rang out.
Echo-1 and his men maneuvered. 1st Squad quickly converged as we followed them in.
Stepping through the black wall of smoke, the dark abyss of the interior was illuminated in a white light as entered barrels raised. Shots rang out as several of the beasts near the entrance were cut down, though not immediately, rounds disconnected the shoulder of one of them, leading to their arm hanging limply by a single tendon as they roared… another series of rounds putting them down. What greeted us was a messy concrete hell of rust and debris, fecal matter, trash, and all kinds of obstacles laid in our way, our boots sticking to the floor. I thank every god we had promasks that night. I called my shield bearer up, 2nd squad leapfrogging ahead to take the next corridor as 1st squad checked their weapons.
One of my men mule kicked the metal door ahead, twice, finally the latch gave away as we tossed in a grenade. A horrifying roar was cut off as an M67 shook the walls of the ancient soviet mausoleum, frag and spall kicked off the walls as I moved in right behind my shield man. The cramped russian design meant there was barely enough space for three people, and that’s three normal people, not in 50kgs of kit, moving slowly and maneuvering against creatures of the dark. Still… we moved forward, my shield bearer and I pushing the pace as two stacked of either squad formed on either wall.
As we passed doorways they flowed in… “Door Left!!”, “Door Right!!”. “Move!!”.
Two men entered each side, no gunshots, we moved up, a roar came.
“Door left!!-”. A series of gunshots came out as we continued to push forward.
“Two down!!”. “Confirm them” Krol commanded, as a series of gunshots run out in response. From one of the doorways, a Strigoi emerged… a female… clumps of hair had been ripped from her decaying skull, as her blooded eyes locked on myself and my shieldman. The skin on her hands had been tore down to the point where barely her bones and tendons remain… looking like huge talons as she roared and lunged at us. He fired off his pistol, though the rounds did little to stop her as she pushed against our stack.
“Fuck!!” he muttered, somehow her strength caused him to stagnate, holding up the advance… fuck that. I shoved the muzzle of my MK18 into her ribcage, flipping the weapon to auto as I fired of round after round. The 5.56 salvo disconnecting her spinal column, causing her to fall as I continued to fire, along with a man to our right and left as the stacks reformed as we pushed to the end of the hall. I fell back, dropping the magazine and loading a fresh one, like clockwork a GROM Operator from 1st squad took my place. Krol was beside me as we approached the end of the hall.
[“-Prep an entry”] I radioed to my breacher, a comrade handed him one of the charges from his back panel as he took to the door, quickly securing it. We all moved as far back as we could, look away, exhale. The blast knocked metal and wood in all directions, scrapping against our uniforms and kit as we made our way in and what laid before us was… it used to be the center atrium of one of these bunkers. Soviet’s loved their grandiose designs, the complex was supposed to be a circular room around a central planning table… instead. It had been turned into some sort of church. Runes and old eastern Romuva pagan symbols written in black ink and blood across the walls, old rotten filing cabinets, long receipt terminals. In the center… several of the Strigoi were kneeling before the table where someone had been tied down, flayed, and… shared amongst the group. They rose to their feet, we aimed our barrels…
The ladder amongst turned to us… his skin wasn’t cracked, or flayed, it was smooth… it still looked dead as the body on the table but it seemed more… accustomed to it. I don’t know… evolved? Under the surface however I could see it’s darkened veins pumping whatever cursed blood ran through them as it locked two blood red eyes onto each of us. It’s nose had long since been turn off, exposing boney nostrils to the open air as it seemed to smirk. All across it’s body were the same symbols on the walls, in every cell… markings of death, of rebirth, of assimilation… From behind this seemingly Alpha emerges another figure I had never seemed before… dressed in a white cloak with a deer head.
"So they've followed the trail... they're too late" the Deer headed individual spoke, definitely not from here, a dialect similar to an Americans but... aristocratic? Each word was drawn out, assurance as if they had everything mapped down to our actions. They didn’t sound like they were from Poland or the east.
“Doesn’t matter…” the Alpha growled… and then, it lunged at us. Quickly breaking from their ground it slammed into my shield man knocking both him and myself at the ground as it displayed an intense feat of strength. Around us I could see several of the Strigoi leap at our comrades… though to no fruitful endeavor as I could see one GROM operator cut two down, as another got into a hand to hand confrontation… my breacher, crafty as they were, reached back and slammed one of the prybars of his kit into the skull of the beast.
The Alpha however was not content as it threw away the 90lb shield, sending it flying across the room as it grabbed my comrade by the skull. I quickly kicked up at it, firing my MK18 into it’s body as the rounds pierced it’s gray and rune covered flesh. The thing simply seemed to chuckle… that was until Major Krol blasted away at the side of it’s head, the alpha turned… and it’s smirk turned to a scowl when face to face with the major. A knowing pause almost like they had done this dance before…
The creature lunged, locking up with Major Krol as it swung and slammed railing. Krol didn’t back down however as he pushed against the creature, hiptossing it to the ground even as it tore at his armor and gear. But the beast pulled, both of them rolled and the Major was on his back as the thing reached for his neck. I fought to a kneel, firing into the creature messily with my MK18, trying not to hit my commander… then…
Click. A sound sends a chill up the spine of every warfighter during a firefight.
My gun ran dry. I dropped the magazine, looking to load another, but the thing came up and with one of it’s claws, sliced deep into my cheek, through the pro mask. I could feel my own blood go flying through the air as I landed hard on my back plate, spitting out red iron as I quickly tried to adjust my mask. Through my fogged up, blood covered lense… I saw my shield man raise his pistol, firing into the skull of the thing staggering it with a roar. Krol came from behind, drawing his knife he sunk it deep into the neck of it…. I reached for my rifle, forcing a new magazine in and damn near punching the bold release. ““Sir, down!!” I shouted, Krol rolled away, back to his own rifle as I fired. So did my comrade as he continued to fire his pistol… so did the Major as he fired his rifle. All of us chewing through that apex predator of darkness, that beast… the leader that had been preying on our people for so long. Layer by layer, muscle group by bone… eventually… the alpha landed on whatever was left of his back.
The silence of the fight died down as all of us checked our surroundings, GROM Operators putting controlled pairs in the heads and nerve stems of any Strigoi laying around… I flicked my weapon onto safe, letting it hang as I pulled off my mask. I dared not touch the wound on my face… the pain nearly crippling me if it wasn’t sheer will pushing me through, and adrenaline doing all it could to subdue it. The sound of the apaches continuing to lay hate drew us from our moment of contemplation as the Major went back to work; [“Confiscate any info, burn the rest…”]. He turned back to me as I shoved my damaged M50 mask back into it’s bag, chuckling as he looked at the sight; “You need a medevac, Blachowicz?” he quipped.
I shook my head, barely able to speak as I muttered; “Negative sir…”. The two of us scanned the room as my shield bearer went to collect his defense implement turned 90lb projectile, we scanned the center of the room, checking and confirming bodies, until we got to the last one alive. His white gown was soaked in red crimson and black ooze, as his dear head was mangled from bullet fire and impact from falling on it. I swear… the way his blood poured out of it though made me wonder if it was a mask. I gave it no second thoughts as he looked to Krol; “You… you can’t stop this, they’ve already-”.
The Major was in no mood for communication as his rifle snapped up and fired off three rounds to the body, four the head. The violent yet quick salvo ending the cultists life, I looked down at it, then to him as he remarked; “Have your squad drag him out to the front, burn the rest”. I stood alongside him, looking down as the sight of it’s deer head was both captivating and horrifying… the curiosity in me wanting to look closer at it fighting the primal instinct I had to burn the thing to ash. “-Haven’t seen one of those before…” I muttered, thinking the Major had an answer.
He didn’t. Krol saying “Neither have I…” shortly before he walked away, was what truly shook my soul about that entire night. Victory stood firm in our hearts that night as we stood outside of the bunker. The night sky burning with fire and white phosphorus as we watched the ruin burn from the inside from the other side of the lot. In the distance, the Apaches continued to scan and circle the forests, no longer firing…. Which meant they had driven any or turned to glass any enemy combatants within a four miles, probably both, more than likely the latter. Echo-1 patted me on the shoulder as we stood there, soaking it all in, though Krol looked none to pleased. “In the time it took us to take this one down, they’ll be trying to set up three more cells… that being established…” he said, looking to either of us, then to Echo-3. “-Hell of a thing we did tonight, been waiting for this one for a decade, cleanly, maybe more… but no time to rest on our laurels… we’ll have another task for us as soon as we’re boots down back home” he said, to which his eyes followed mine, the body of whatever cultist that was zipped up in a black body bag beside the wheel of one of the MRAPs. The fire from the bunker casting an orange hue over it’s shiny jet black outside, something didn’t sit right with me… “That wasn’t a Strigoi…” I said to Krol.
“That’s very clear…” the Major said, shoving his mask under his arm and lighting a cigarette. “So… someone’s helping them?” I asked. The meer notion of it shook me to my core, sickened me. This parasite was already badly infecting Europa, Polska… if it was spread like this throughout the world. Krol settled my nerves: “We’ll be ready… It’s not just us anymore”. As he said that, I realized what he meant… my eyes looking to the Apaches as they started to form up, leaving the areas as their thunderous propellers melted into the night’s calm, unnerving ambience.
It’s been a couple of weeks since then, Echo Detachment has been busy. We’ve gained good ground against the enemy and honestly I think in a few years, we might see a much larger change. For now… we must keep going, that being said the Strigoi aren’t the only ones we’ve been combating. Recently we’ve made contact with of some sort of extermination coalition, they’ve known about the Strigoi, and others plaguing the world, the level of corruption and corrosion on society goes deep. Regardless a lot of the units we’ve been working with are apart of NATO, such as this “4th Special Forces Group” of the American Military. I don’t know where the road from here leads, but we’ve gotten momentum on our side, finally. Just remember… these things are out there, in every town, every city, every nation… preying and waiting for you to be alone, vulnerable, so they can take you and replace you.
Watch your back, and stay safe.
For now, Blachowicz signing out. Until next time

I'm really grateful that i found this subreddit. I feel for the first time i can relate to people who go through the same what I'm going through.
I had an accident and fractured my skull when i was 8 i'm 36 now, i was paralyzed and was out for 3 weeks.
Having a tbi at that age i don't remember how i was before and for my family in their eyes i just got a bit quieter but nothing was alarming. the Dr said i was fine based on scans.
I've been struggling and suffering fitting it as i never thought it has anything to do with tbi and having it at that age i just grew with it and became my reality.. I had troubles with friendships even up until now i don't hang out with friends that often and when i do i keep it short because i have extreme light sensitivity and sensory overload and the more i hang out the more my brain shuts down.. looking back at times where i hung out in bright indoors places and my brain was shut, i couldn't talk, think or walk the i beat my self up when someone see me in that state.. i beat my self up everyday and asking what the fuck is wrong with me ..I kept pushing till i got my bachelors degree in engineering 2.4 gpa but no complaints lol. Then tried to work with my degree but anywhere i worked it would be bright factories and i just froze, i gave it a year then i got fired.. Didn't have the gut to tell my mom at that point as she was pushing me to work as my father just passed away, i couldn't take it i needed a fresh start i came to the USA 10 years ago. I got MBA then married then opend a buisness then had a daughter. I knew no one would hire me and i worked day and night not to let the opportunity go away as it was all what i got. Business grew buti couldn't scale it as i should as i struggled to communicate with employees and it never went past me and my wife.
During high school till 2020 i'f take bunch of different things, when i was young i took a lot of weed and alcohol which did help but later in my 20's my body couldn't take it as i became borderline alcoholic and got terrible hang over from both weed and alcohol. Took ton of caffeine, aspirin, advil and Tylenol till got ulcer then my body couldn't take it anymore.
2020 i finally started to come around that i have to go to to see a neurologist. immediately i was told i was diagnosed disabled. . got prescribed 4 medicines in the course of a year and left me like a crack head. till at the end gave me botox and i found mushroom micro dose to get me off the medicine and both helped a lot. i still take Botox 4 times a year up until now.
2022 had my first mushroom trip and i finally got out of this delusional denial self hate pattern and finally with conviction admitted that have something wrong me me and i'm not normal compared to others, i cried for couple of hours during the trip.
Took 4 trips in the course of last 2 years, i really helped me to adapt with my condition and find way to better my life for me and my family but still wasn't sure if it was the tbi 100% up until i found this group and i started relating. While the trip was so insightful i still having a hard times after all of those years to accept myself, still beat my self up over a hang out where people see me acting different from them. I'm going through therapy but i feel they don't get it and was hoping for tips from you guys.
Thank you for you time and sorry for the long post:)

Hey everyone, I’m mainly doing this for myself as a journal but whoever wants to join along is more than welcome to me. I’m hoping this becomes a success story and for my quality of life to stop being haunted. YOU DONT HAVE TO READ ALL OF THIS
I’m a 22 year old female in the US. I currently don’t have a job as I have been let go yesterday due to my unsuspecting symptoms and lack of communication. I can’t keep up with the regular 9-5 jobs and it’s turning into a pattern of me burning myself out. I don’t have anybody to rely on other than myself and I can’t get afford health insurance at the moment.
Current Symptoms: - Extreme Fatigue/Exhaustion - SouCurdling/Spicy tummy feeling? - Nausea/Contractions (especially after physical activity and eating or drinking) - Bloating/Gas/Gurgling -Rancid Smelling Poop - Acne - Regurgitating oil/grease - Recurrent yeast - Brain Fog/Confusion - Urinary Incontinence - Body Rashes/Allergic Reactions -Sugar Cravings - Migraines - Cotten Mouth/Dehydration - Malabsorption/Continual Hunger - Thinning Hair - Weight Loss - Weak Pelvic Floor? Tight/Tense Muscles? - Food in Stools (Not often) - Drunkness Feeling After Carbs? - Acid Reflux - Depression/Anxiety - Weak Immune System
Food Sensitivities that have developed: - Dairy -Gluten - Soy - Gastric foods/spices/drinks (including onion and garlic) - Processed Foods - Broths - Sugar (Fruit and All) - Starch - Acid (Fruits/Vinegars) - Medications (NSAIDS/Anti-Acids)
Tried treatments that I can remember: -Xifaxin (2 weeks) - Ortho Molecular Ortho Spore (2-3 months worked wonders but relapsed) -Dietitian: Low Fodmap Diet (3 months didn’t help) - Reuteri - B12, VitD, other vitamin supplements - Physical Therapy - Fluconazole - Boric Acid -Laxatives (basically all) - Collagen Peptides - Plant Based Protein Powder - Yoga
Most of Background: So I have been dealing with different illnesses that is a repeated pattern since I was possibly 12 years old. I would frequently have nasty migraines, stomach bugs, food poisoning, and respiratory infections out of the blue. It gotten to the point of my family always saying “there’s always something wrong with you”, “you’re just exaggerating”.
When it came to 2017, I started gaining rashes as allergic reactions. It couldn’t be classified as hives even though it looked the part because it would sting like a bitch instead of itching. It would run through out my body whenever I ate every so often and that was only on of the reactions as I had a second of my skin swelling as if it was a mosquito bite but worse and when the swelling went down, it would leave scars behind.
I went to an allergist and nothing popped up on the regular tests, but something popped up on the chemical patch test. The name of the chemical was called Balsam of Peru, it’s mainly a preservative that is in your common foods/beverages, cleaning products, and aerosols. I continued to have random allergic reactions here and there as it wasn’t feasible to follow a diet that strict in a household like mine.
Then came the end of 2019, I was having trouble with my stomach and would randomly gag from November til Jan 2020. I would literally start throwing up even if I had nothing in my stomach. I went to doctors but they kept thinking I was pregnant and would say my vitals were fine therefore there’s nothing wrong. One day mid Jan, I had throw up for the last time but there was something different..I couldn’t get up. I lost all strength in my legs and half of my strength in my arms. I went to the hospital and they did X-rays and scans just to say there was nothing wrong and it might be a virus that hit my nervous system. The next day they boot me out with nothing. I had to learn how to walk all over again like a baby until I gained my strength with only the help of my family which took about a month. Throughout that time I was still feeling sick and gagging/throwing up.
This is the point when my mom decides to get a referral to a GI and they look through my records from the hospital to find out I was backed up with waste up to my ribs. They did a horrifying flush on me and prescribed me linzess. It was getting me to poop more frequently but I still was feeling pretty sick often, it was manageable though.
I get to college, it was a shit show, I start to get more symptoms, like brain fog and fatigue. I thought it was all in my head at this point and tried my best in school but had low performance when I was used to easy A’s. I began to have yeast infections every so often. I start getting into vaping, smoking weed, and the occasional drinking. The vaping became chronic and whenever I would drink I would have alcohol poisoning like symptoms that were uncontrollable to the point where a couple of times I ended up in the hospital to get my stomach to stop contracting. I stopped all drinking and started becoming a religious smoker to deal with my symptoms, school, work, and every other stress in my life. All it did was make my health plummet even faster.
I finally got diagnosed with SIBO at the end of 2021 and thought “finally something!”, the GI thought to cure it was to give more laxatives to get my bowels to move more frequently. Instead it would turn me into a balloon that was about to burst but could not push anything out. The GI gave up anf I decided to move on. At this point I had to take a break from school because I was so tired whenever I woke up in the morning that I either slept completely through my alarms or I couldn’t physically get up out of bed. I constantly was having stomach issues. My yeast infections started coming at least 2x a month. I had so bad urinary incontinence that I had to wear diapers. I was dealing with so much stress with family, working, trying to make ends meet, trying different doctors that never helped and telling me different things. I was dealing with a psychologically abusive bf. Nobody believed how bad I felt everyday. How hard it was for me to eat, think, overall function like a human being. My bf seen it everyday but refused to acknowledge that when he says he understood that his actions would always say otherwise. It all mentally broke me and I crashed hard.
This brings me to practically the present. I cut contact with the EX bf and parents. I’m low contact with the rest of my family. I quit vaping for good, but the damage is already done. I am now on Wellbutrin and trying to pick up the pieces that are shattered. It’s been 6 months but my symptoms are worsening instead of getting better. I can’t hold down a 9-5 job, my stomach can’t and won’t tolerate anything. I starve myself most days, drink water and electrolyte drinks whenever my stomach take it.
Everyday I feel weak, exhausted, brain fog so bad that I can’t count to 5, stomach hurt. The last thing that made me question my entire existence, Saturday night I was starving so I made rice thinking it was the safest thing. The next morning I felt so drunk that I couldn’t function, I was so dehydrated and in so much pain I went to urgent care. The doctor looked at me as if I was on drugs, refused iv, and told me my symptoms were caused by trauma, it’s all in my head. She refused a work note as well. I felt a tad bit better after some electrolytes from home and went to sleep for work. I slept through my alarms and woke up 2.5 hrs late (total 14 hrs). I couldn’t move my body, text manager. She called after the shift explaining that she isn’t letting me go because of my illness, bc I failed to tell her about the day prior so she could plan accordingly. She wants me to focus on my health, it would’ve been kind if I wasn’t already drowning in debt and couldn’t even afford rent.
The reason why I wrote everything I could is because 1. I believe a lot of this is relevant to each other regarding SIBO and Candida in some way 2. It will help me for my future
If you made it this far CONGRATS 🎉🎊 🥳 And thank you for the support!

Maytag MDB4949SHZ 1
Hello, I have been in a battle with my dishwasher, I feel like I’m going insane. Let me lay out the steps of what I’ve done so far.

1. The dishwasher kept cancelling itself mid-cycle, water was coming, would clean dishes, but would just “cancel” partway through. Worst part was, it wasn’t repeatable, it seemed random. It would even sometimes finish cycles like maybe 5% of the time.
   
2. Repair guy comes out, charges $105 to “diagnose”, he runs the diagnostic lights and it says it’s a float issue. He told me was the float solenoid is bad, it’s making a multimeter beep but that the button is too sensitive and that may cause it to trigger, I ordered a new one anyway cause it was cheap and easy. Looking back, the button was too easy to push down, so that should, if anything, make it HARDER to cancel as more weight would need to come off the switch to un-press the button.
   
3. I change the float solenoid. Once I do, the dishwasher will not take in water. Whole new problem. It sounds likes it running, there is a hum, it is going through the cycle, but you can hear there’s no water spraying and dishes aren’t getting wet. I read up and learn that water inlet valves go bad. My multimeter won’t beep when I test it, though it reads numbers. I order one, change it, still same problem, and the new ones are similar, they don’t beep but they read numbers. It probably wasn’t bad in the first place.
   
4. Since the dishwasher has now done 2 things wrong that seem unrelated (canceling randomly and now no water) I order a new control board. I change it out, I run it, same exact issue. No water coming in. Run diagnostics, same float switch error code. I know the float switch is pressed down like it should. It’s sending a signal.
   

So now I’m thinking it’s the water pump. The water pump is hard to reach, $260, and wouldn’t explain the canceling mid cycle or why it’s calling for a float switch error code. Does anyone have any advice to fix it? Or is it a “cut your losses dummy, just buy a dishwasher.”
Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone, I’m mainly doing this for myself as a journal but whoever wants to join along is more than welcome to me. I’m hoping this becomes a success story and for my quality of life to stop being haunted. YOU DONT HAVE TO READ ALL OF THIS
I’m a 22 year old female in the US. I currently don’t have a job as I have been let go yesterday due to my unsuspecting symptoms and lack of communication. I can’t keep up with the regular 9-5 jobs and it’s turning into a pattern of me burning myself out. I don’t have anybody to rely on other than myself and I can’t get afford health insurance at the moment.
Current Symptoms: - Extreme Fatigue/Exhaustion - SouCurdling/Spicy tummy feeling? - Nausea/Contractions (especially after physical activity and eating or drinking) - Bloating/Gas/Gurgling -Rancid Smelling Poop - Acne - Regurgitating oil/grease - Recurrent yeast - Brain Fog/Confusion - Urinary Incontinence - Body Rashes/Allergic Reactions -Sugar Cravings - Migraines - Cotten Mouth/Dehydration - Malabsorption/Continual Hunger - Thinning Hair - Weight Loss - Weak Pelvic Floor? Tight/Tense Muscles? - Food in Stools (Not often) - Drunkness Feeling After Carbs? - Acid Reflux - Depression/Anxiety - Weak Immune System
Food Sensitivities that have developed: - Dairy -Gluten - Soy - Gastric foods/spices/drinks (including onion and garlic) - Processed Foods - Broths - Sugar (Fruit and All) - Starch - Acid (Fruits/Vinegars) - Medications (NSAIDS/Anti-Acids)
Tried treatments that I can remember: -Xifaxin (2 weeks) - Ortho Molecular Ortho Spore (2-3 months worked wonders but relapsed) -Dietitian: Low Fodmap Diet (3 months didn’t help) - Reuteri - B12, VitD, other vitamin supplements - Physical Therapy - Fluconazole - Boric Acid -Laxatives (basically all) - Collagen Peptides - Plant Based Protein Powder - Yoga
Most of Background: So I have been dealing with different illnesses that is a repeated pattern since I was possibly 12 years old. I would frequently have nasty migraines, stomach bugs, food poisoning, and respiratory infections out of the blue. It gotten to the point of my family always saying “there’s always something wrong with you”, “you’re just exaggerating”.
When it came to 2017, I started gaining rashes as allergic reactions. It couldn’t be classified as hives even though it looked the part because it would sting like a bitch instead of itching. It would run through out my body whenever I ate every so often and that was only on of the reactions as I had a second of my skin swelling as if it was a mosquito bite but worse and when the swelling went down, it would leave scars behind.
I went to an allergist and nothing popped up on the regular tests, but something popped up on the chemical patch test. The name of the chemical was called Balsam of Peru, it’s mainly a preservative that is in your common foods/beverages, cleaning products, and aerosols. I continued to have random allergic reactions here and there as it wasn’t feasible to follow a diet that strict in a household like mine.
Then came the end of 2019, I was having trouble with my stomach and would randomly gag from November til Jan 2020. I would literally start throwing up even if I had nothing in my stomach. I went to doctors but they kept thinking I was pregnant and would say my vitals were fine therefore there’s nothing wrong. One day mid Jan, I had throw up for the last time but there was something different..I couldn’t get up. I lost all strength in my legs and half of my strength in my arms. I went to the hospital and they did X-rays and scans just to say there was nothing wrong and it might be a virus that hit my nervous system. The next day they boot me out with nothing. I had to learn how to walk all over again like a baby until I gained my strength with only the help of my family which took about a month. Throughout that time I was still feeling sick and gagging/throwing up.
This is the point when my mom decides to get a referral to a GI and they look through my records from the hospital to find out I was backed up with waste up to my ribs. They did a horrifying flush on me and prescribed me linzess. It was getting me to poop more frequently but I still was feeling pretty sick often, it was manageable though.
I get to college, it was a shit show, I start to get more symptoms, like brain fog and fatigue. I thought it was all in my head at this point and tried my best in school but had low performance when I was used to easy A’s. I began to have yeast infections every so often. I start getting into vaping, smoking weed, and the occasional drinking. The vaping became chronic and whenever I would drink I would have alcohol poisoning like symptoms that were uncontrollable to the point where a couple of times I ended up in the hospital to get my stomach to stop contracting. I stopped all drinking and started becoming a religious smoker to deal with my symptoms, school, work, and every other stress in my life. All it did was make my health plummet even faster.
I finally got diagnosed with SIBO at the end of 2021 and thought “finally something!”, the GI thought to cure it was to give more laxatives to get my bowels to move more frequently. Instead it would turn me into a balloon that was about to burst but could not push anything out. The GI gave up anf I decided to move on. At this point I had to take a break from school because I was so tired whenever I woke up in the morning that I either slept completely through my alarms or I couldn’t physically get up out of bed. I constantly was having stomach issues. My yeast infections started coming at least 2x a month. I had so bad urinary incontinence that I had to wear diapers. I was dealing with so much stress with family, working, trying to make ends meet, trying different doctors that never helped and telling me different things. I was dealing with a psychologically abusive bf. Nobody believed how bad I felt everyday. How hard it was for me to eat, think, overall function like a human being. My bf seen it everyday but refused to acknowledge that when he says he understood that his actions would always say otherwise. It all mentally broke me and I crashed hard.
This brings me to practically the present. I cut contact with the EX bf and parents. I’m low contact with the rest of my family. I quit vaping for good, but the damage is already done. I am now on Wellbutrin and trying to pick up the pieces that are shattered. It’s been 6 months but my symptoms are worsening instead of getting better. I can’t hold down a 9-5 job, my stomach can’t and won’t tolerate anything. I starve myself most days, drink water and electrolyte drinks whenever my stomach take it.
Everyday I feel weak, exhausted, brain fog so bad that I can’t count to 5, stomach hurt. The last thing that made me question my entire existence, Saturday night I was starving so I made rice thinking it was the safest thing. The next morning I felt so drunk that I couldn’t function, I was so dehydrated and in so much pain I went to urgent care. The doctor looked at me as if I was on drugs, refused iv, and told me my symptoms were caused by trauma, it’s all in my head. She refused a work note as well. I felt a tad bit better after some electrolytes from home and went to sleep for work. I slept through my alarms and woke up 2.5 hrs late (total 14 hrs). I couldn’t move my body, text manager. She called after the shift explaining that she isn’t letting me go because of my illness, bc I failed to tell her about the day prior so she could plan accordingly. She wants me to focus on my health, it would’ve been kind if I wasn’t already drowning in debt and couldn’t even afford rent.
The reason why I wrote everything I could is because 1. I believe a lot of this is relevant to each other regarding SIBO and Candida in some way 2. It will help me for my future
If you made it this far CONGRATS 🎉🎊 🥳 And thank you for the support!