26M 92kg 6’6. Just started TRT. Normal pressure around 120/70, currently at 130/70.
Blood pressure cuff pain followed by arm weakness and tingling
I took my blood pressure about a week ago. And the cuff got so tight it hurt I felt my pulse in my bicep very strong and I had to take it off. Since then I’ve got pins and needles and numbness in the arm when I sleep at night and I’ve lost a fair bit of strength (30%) in that arm when doing bicep curls at the gym. What have I done? And will it heal? TIA

Hi, I am trying to prepare myself for a MA in KY. I have ordered the pills online from abuzz and I’m waiting for those to come in. I was hoping someone could answer a few questions I’m just trying to get more concrete answers on. My head is swimming and I’m a mom to a 1 year old so I think I’m just all over the place right now: 1. I am in KY where abortion is illegal. I understand that if I do take the pills a medical provider won’t know the difference between the MA and a miscarriage unless I were the take the pills vaginally and there was residue. If I did decide to take the pills vaginally, which sounds like that may be a good route for me, and a doctor finds out I took these pills, could I be arrested? I feel like that’s not the case in KY but I’m just panicking I suppose. (I know the best way to alleviate this fear is to take the pills orally.) 2. Did anyone make an appointment with their doctor after their MA to ensure everything was okay? I thought about doing that under the guise of “I think I had a miscarriage” or something. I am scared that either the pills won’t work or I’ll have leftover fetal remains and go septic. 3. If I don’t go to a doctor, how would I know the abortion “took” if pregnancy tests can stay positive for a few weeks? I’m scared of being one of those people who find out at at 20 weeks that the pill didn’t work.
Apologies if these questions are stupid. I’m having to hide this from my husband so I’m feeling a bit alone and I’m so tired so maybe I’m not as sharp as usual. Thanks

29M, 5'9, 160lbs
No medications except vitamin d supplement daily, rarely drink alcohol.
I will preface this post with admitting that I do have a history of health anxiety.
For the past few weeks (perhaps longer, but I've only tuned into it the last few weeks) I have been observing scattered petechiae along the tops of my feet and sometimes ankles. I made the mistake of googling what petechiae is and seeing scary things. I've noticed that this seems to only occur after my daily walks and shower. I suspect the heat and activity from walking and a hot shower is causing my capillaries to burst? The dots come in about a dozen at a time, and are gone by the next morning, only to be replaced by new ones whenever I go for my daily walk.
No other symptoms to report. The petechiae are so small and short-lived I'm inclined to brush it off as a nothing, but I'm posting here to see if anyone else experiences this to put my anxiety at ease.
https://ibb.co/wWKv9x9
Due to my olive skin it's difficult to see them on camera. They are needle-point sized and about a dozen in number.
Thanks in advance for any words.

Here is what's happening, my fiance found a leak in our hot water, he found the leak by our heating element going out on our hot water heater. Well we called maintenance. We made them aware of the problem along with a few others such as, mold on the roof, and the tile around the shower needing a seal and molding. It was never sealed properly upon moving in. Also we wanted him to take a look at the roof because we had also noticed water in the wall one day after a hard rain. While checking the roof he stated the roof has absoulty no screw screwed down so basically we had tin just sitting on our roof for God only knows how long. So the work he did all together was 1.fix heating element (left a mess) 2. Corrected the bathroom wall to ceiling with caulk and some pieces of molding. 3. Put screws in our roof. He replaced the extremely outdated panel in the home as well. We have been at this address for 4 years and we barely ever call and bother them unless it's an emergency. If it's an easy fix my fiance will do it properly. Sidenote: this company never checked on our property after hutricane Sally. We have told them about a leak in the past they came to check and blew it off saying it was the condensation from our dryer, we have texts to prove. Also the hot water heater is outdated and I know is as old as four years for sure don't know how long it was there before us. They never check on the property and we have made the property value go up for sure with clearing of land and also landscape work and now a few weeks after they finally fix repairs, they sent us a letter stating because of the severity of the issues THEY ARE CHARGING US OVER 900 DOLLARS!? CAN THEY DO THAT? Please give me any advice. I won't be able to find another spot at what I pay here for what I get but this doesn't seem right or legal but I don't have money to take them to court I just want things to be fair and it doesn't feel like that's what's happening.

I was told by my husband's lawyer after he was approved for Social Security disability after having a stroke last year, that our youngest daughter was eligible from the stipend and that I might be as well considering she is only seven.
When I called last week to make an appointment for her, they didn't say anything about me. They just told me I had an appointment for her in July but she will get backpay.
Is spousal only for regular retirement and not for disability? Nobody seems to be able to give me a straight straight answer, not even the website.

Hey everyone, I received an acceptance into the mri program for September 2024 intake and wondered if anyone who’s in the program or has taken it can answer some questions:) I have a bachelor of health science and wondered how challenging people without a medical radiation background find the program? How many days a week were you in class vs online and what placement is like? Also how it is finding a job? Thank very much in advance for any info!

In desperate need of advice please read!
for some context: Me and my bf are medium distance, we see each other once a week on the weekends, this is tough but we get through it and we’ve been together for a year and 8 months. Me and him are both going through exams rn so we’ve been seeing each other less and i feel like as a whole our relationship is a little on the rocks. I’m his first girlfriend and he’s my first boyfriend, i feel like this is a big reason why i’m having the struggles i am.
the current situation is i feel like he doesn’t validate my emotions all the time. some of the time he does but today for instance, i told him in a respectful way that i felt sad that he kept going on about exam questions and answers since it was making me feel worse about how i did. he proceeded to tell me that no one was making me feel bad and that im being a baby. i called him and said i can’t be spoken to like that and that i would leave him if he can’t at least validate my emotions. in hindsight i probably shouldn’t have said that since i don’t want to create divides between us and i want us to be a team. however he responded saying he doesn’t care and that i should just do it. i know this sounds really bad and it is, however this is all on text which can be misunderstood and i know him and i promise you i know that he loves me so much and i know he plans on being with me long term and he wants me to be his wife since he is religious and doesn’t go from girlfriend to girlfriend. i’m wondering if he is just stressed from exam season and also doesn’t feel connected to me since we haven’t seen each other in weeks now, and is taking all that out on me, in that case i would stay with him. i know it’s wrong the way he treated me but i don’t think it’s worthy to break up in this scenario. or maybe i should just believe his actions and his words and just break up with him and that it’s maybe the best. i just really don’t know what the right thing to do is. i love him and he’s perfect towards me except these blips that he occasionally has like the situation i described, however i will listen to any advice with open ears and am not closed off to being told things i maybe don’t want to hear. Thank you if you read this far, i appreciate any advice given to me.

I recently had to stop taking semaglutide due to cost and running out of $ on my HSA. I lost 35lbs which I’m happy about but I started to plateau and could not break it. 35lbs was also not my goal weight and I would still like to loose 10-15lbs. I know a lot of the study’s say most people put weight back on but I read that some people continue to loose weight after stopping. Since I’ve stopped (about 2 weeks ago) I have felt more hungry but am still not eating much. I’m extremely paranoid now when checking the scale and when eating anything and It really sucks! I want to know if anyone has experienced continued weight loss after they stopped taking semaglutide and if so, can tell me how you lost the weight and what your experiences were with that? Thank you!

My husband and I have been married for almost 6 years..we I'm about to have our third child. I never had high libido but once we had our first kid 4 years ago, it's been even loweless desire. We are Christian and had to work through his past porn addiction right before my son was born and I think this also has affected me mentally. I am in love with him and he's a fantastic husband, attractive/fit, kind, etc...but I have zero desire for him sexually.. we do have some form of sex about 2 or 3 times a week but it's pretty much always out of obligation and sometimes makes me feel sort of sick (especially when I feel pressured to do anal stuff which is his #1 favorite thing). He knows I have low libido and tries everything to make my comfortable, but I don't think he knows the extent of how much I hate it sometimes. I really dont know what to do. I'm a SAHM and love my life he's provided and how much he takes care of me/us, it's just this one thing I can't seem to handle. Other than his porn addiction in our early marriage, I don't have any sexual ptsd that I can recall. I just wish I liked sex more and could have fun without feeling dirty/gross by it 😭 M29, F29 .What can I do?

I'm sure there's nothing I can do at this point...but to make a short story long, here we go... Last July and for 18 years leading up to that, I had been an avid iTunes user, starting with gen 1 iPod. At some point mid-july 2023, I got logged out of my account. No big deal, I thought, because this happened periodically and I figured it was some glitch Apple had. I tried to log back in and it didn't let me. I tried to reset the password, wouldn't let me. I kept getting the message saying my apple ID was inactive. I waited a few weeks because I thought maybe I locked myself out or something, and then I called support. They put a request to reactive my account. I received an email later the next day saying I was ineligible for reactivation.
I called support and spoke with a lady who couldn't give me any information as to why I wasn't eligible, she just said I must have broken the TOS and to go read them and figure it out. So I read through that, (first time ever reading a whole TOS btw) and there was nothing I couldn't tell that I had done. I've never even shared my password.
Anyways, I'm super bummed, I tried again unsuccessfully in Oct, and another time today (5/16/24) to no avail. She told me I can't just be asking for reactivation over and over. And said I'm welcome to make a new ID. I asked her if apple thinks I committed fraud and closed down my account, why are they ok with me making a new account? Sounds sketch like they're just trying to boast new subscriber numbers to shareholders. She couldn't answer, and said she didn't know but it made sense that they shouldn't be ok with it if they really did think I was a fraud.
I guess my question is, is there anything else I can do to get my account back? I had that account so long and had so much purchased music on it, it's like theft because I can't get the music off my account. I'm lucky I store my pictures elsewhere or I'd be out those pictures too. I'm sure I'm SOL, but if there are any suggestions, please share.
Thanks

Welcome back to the Popheads Jukebox! Here are last week’s results:

• Kendrick Lamar - Not Like Us: 9.16
• salute & Rina Sawayama - saving flowers: 8.00
• St. Vincent - Flea: 6.35
• Normani - 1:59 (feat. Gunna): 4.70
• Anitta - Grip: 4.67

• Bruce Springsteen - Dancing in the Dark: 9.67

Some highs for the week as Kendrick takes his disses to the next level and cracks into the 9 point range for his efforts. Though the averages for the week were weighed down on the other end with Normani and Anitta falling far behind the rest of the pack and even failing to crack a 5 average.

Rules Refresher

1. Rate the songs a score from 1 to 10. Please keep it to one decimal place at the most (so 7.5 is fine but 7.58 is not). Also don’t get too hung up on the final scores. This is a fun exercise and not a competition so don’t worry about oveunder rating things. Just give what you think the song is to you.
   
2. For your review, reply to the comment that will be posted by one of us for each song. Avoid posting your reviews as a top level comment cause we probably won’t notice them if you do. Non-reviews such as questions or general commentary as upper level comments are fine.
   
3. Must have some sort of justification. Try to be a bit more concise than “It’s a bop!” or “I don’t like it”. Explain why! It doesn’t have to be long, two or three sentences can be plenty (though more is definitely allowed). We reserve the right not to include a review in the final total if proper justification is not given.
   
4. You don’t have to review each song to participate! You can do all of them or only the ones you’re familiar with.
   
5. The thread will be open for 6 days and close the following Wednesday at 11PM EST. The scores will be calculated and a new post will come up the next day (Thursday) at 5PM EST(ish) with the next week’s tracks.
   

This Week’s Tracks

• IVE - HEYA
• Julia Fox - Down the Drain
• Kevin Abstract - Tennessee (feat. Lil Nas X)
• Porter Robinson - KNOCK YOURSELF OUT XD
• WILLOW - symptom of life

Throwback:

• Cobra Starship - Good Girls Go Bad

—

Next Week

• A.G. Cook - Soulbreaker
• aespa - Supernova
• Camila Cabello - HE KNOWS (feat. Lil Nas X)
• Charli XCX - 360
• Megan Thee Stallion - BOA

Throwback:

• Avril Lavigne - Hello Kitty

Spotify playlist, updated weekly with new tracks that are being rated

Jukebox wiki, where you can find all results

Reminder Discord Server, where you can join to get bi-weekly ping reminders for when new posts go up and when they’re about to close.

Healthcare Careers: Occupational Therapist (OTL) to Nursing
I am an occupational therapist, about 2.5 years post grad. I have my BS, MSOT and still a considerable amount of debt.
My first full time job in a subacute rehab facility wasn’t paying enough, and I wanted to get my foot in the door at places that would qualify me for PSLF, as well as a shot at a full time position at a hospital/pediatric based. I am now part-time at my original job, with two per diems at other subacute rehabs, one of which has a peds unit & is within a hospital system I’ve always wanted to work for. It took a while to get used to, but the pay is much better & I feel like I’ve gained a lot of experience I wouldn’t have otherwise. I am getting a little sick of working 50+ hours a week a lot of the time, as well as the inconsistency & changing schedule.
I am considering having my part time pay for me to go to nursing school, as long as the contract doesn’t seem too bad. One PTA & OTA recently completed nursing through that company. At my other jobs, other OTAs & PTAs are also getting a nursing degree…. But I haven’t heard of any OTRs or DPTs doing so. I feel stuck, and like there aren’t many options with my current degree to “move up the ladder”.
Advice from a seasoned DPT & a retiring OTL encourages me to do it, as long as it is all paid for by our company. The DPT worked in the insurance world for a while, and said the pay was better than in patient care but nurses got paid more for the same position, and now many of those positions aren’t offered to therapists anymore.
Is this a good idea? I don’t want to do this as a lateral move, I’m hoping getting either just my LPN, or my BSN, will help me advance my career. I am not sure I want to be a practicing OT until I retire.

What got done today:
Content Creation:

• I posted my first reel on Insta/Facebook! - It was quite the rollercoaster of emotions and anxiety. Although it was a success, it was far from smooth.
  • First, I realized that I cannot use my YouTube video because reels come in a different size and it looked very choppy. So I scrambled and changed the formatting in Canva. It. Was. Not. Fun.
  • When I finally got it ready and figured out how to post the reel, I posted it to FB and Insta only to realize I forgot to add the hashtags. I was able to update the caption in one platform, but for the other I had to delete the video and repost.

Overall there was good reception to my brand launch and I saw family and friends repost the video. * I worked on my reel for tomorrow, which is a short reel (about 15 secs). I went back and forth about creating a longer and comprehensive video, but sided to maintain my plan to alternate between long, short, long, short…
Website

• FB Link: Still no update on the broken Facebook link on the website. I followed up on Fiverr.
• Email Campaign: the good news is that MailChimp offers free emails under the free version. The bad news is that there is no automation. I looked into other providers but they seem to have a pay wall as well. I figured that I’ll use MailChimp for now until my email list gets bigger. I'll send out a weekly email.
  • I started working on a template. I will include a feature of the week, a survey, and perhaps one of our social media posts. What else should I include?

Insights:

• On a podcast about growing one’s business, the presenter suggested that I reach out to “micro-bloggers” for two purposes: 1) product review that could be shared in their channel or 2) a formal business partnership.
  • It got me thinking about the review route. If I reach out to 100 micro-bloggers/influencers to introduce them to MYNDER and if on average these folks spread awareness to just 10 people, then I’ll reach 10% of my goal. I will be thinking more about this plan tomorrow.
• I saw a post on Reddit about Product Hunt. The post questioned the usefulness of Product Hunt, which has me rethinking this platform. I had created a campaign there but didn’t formally “Submit”. I need to do research on the ROI on this. Does anyone have experience with PH?

Tomorrow To-Do

• Share promo video on insta
• Play around with MailChimp for email campaign
• Review keyword list received from Fiverr gig.

​

Subscribers: 

Email: 30
YouTube: 2 (but 26 views 😊)
Instagram: 14

I ordered a G10 sheet about a week ago after watching Makers Muse as I am planning on buying and printing PETG. The gods were obviously looking down, as two days ago my Creality glass bed (2 years old) exploded as I picked it up with my thumb and finger out of the freezer. Interestingly the print was still attached to the glass, it just shattered all around it. It was fun trying to get the print off.
Anyway...... For those who have bough G10 and are struggling with printing PLA.
When mine arrive it has a plastic sheet on both sides that needs to be removed. I gave both sides a clean with hot soapy water (Fairy/Dawn) and a green sponge/scourer. Did a couple of prints and then it was not sticking. Change bed temp up 5 - 10 degree C. Still no joy, tried glue stick etc.
Solution: Was to give the bed a really good scrub using the hot water, Fairy/Dawn and the scrubby side of the sponge (new one). Really scrub, use those arm muscles.
I suspect that the plastic sheet (sticky tack that holds it) on the bed from new, was not completely removed and a good scrub helped. It may be that the sheet needs a very fine "sand" which the scrubby bit on the sponge supplies. I don't know, but it has worked for me.
Some people have said use fine grit sand paper (I did not do this).
I just need to get some PETG and some sample of TPU and other filaments to test out the bed.
Does anybody know if you can get cheap but good samples of different filaments. I just want, say 5 meters of each to do some tests.
​

This might be long but..
Two weeks ago my boyfriend was in a pretty bag accident, totaled his car, pretty bad whiplash and was out of work for 7 days.
He was at a 4 way stop except east-west did not have a stop sign. He was going straight and stopped, he saw no one coming either way and drove ahead. When looking to the right there is a ton of trees as well as the road is curved and supposed to be 30 mph. When he went straight, a huge Escalade came crashing into him. Car spun out and airbags deployed, anti freeze leaking everywhere. The witness behind him told him he saw him stop and he was good it was the other person.
He's in the ambulance and now the cop is writing him a citation on site, for violation of a stop sign, without speaking to him and only talking to the other people who hit him and the witness, apparently the witness told him something separate.
Couple days go by, insurance quoted his car, he's tried to get an attorney but they won't let him because the officer says it's his fault. He's very direct on the part that he yielded and stopped, and there was not anyone there.The other family now has gotten an attorney and coming for him and his insurance. At this point, he's fed up, he feels like he shouldn't be getting a citation since he did stop, the witness there is NO info on this said person. The cop even gave him the wrong case number when giving him the info because the same situation happened about an hour prior. The cop stated this is a really bad intersection and this situation wreck happens all the time, the department has complained as well as the people who live near it.
We are looking for anyway he can fight this. I'm aware and he is too that he could be partially at fault but he still wants to fight this as he knows there was no one there and the way the road is he had NO way of knowing.
All attorneys are saying they can't help because he's "at fault". what can we do? who do we call? I need actual advice please.

Basically the title. I am from Texas and have always struggled in math. I am pursuing a degree in writing but I unfortunately have to take at least 1 Math college class to be complete, but I cannot do that without passing the TSI, which I have tried and failed multiple times (It feels as if you miss even 1 question of the first 20 question part you are forced to proceed to the 50 question part). I have learnt almost nothing from my Algebra classes since my teacher did not do much this last year (the algebra that I did know from the previous year I easily forgot by the summer of that year). The tutoring that they offer in the school is just bad because the teachers almost don't explain anything and just give you the answers, resulting in not learning anything. I want to pass this TSI before the school year ends (in a couple of weeks) and want to pass so I can take a math course during the summer. I have asked other people for advice and they have recommended Khan Academy, however they had already been using it for at least a month. I just don't have that much time. Is it possible to learn everything I need for the Math TSI within a week or two?
I apologize if this is a rather long post, I did not mean to ramble Iol.
Edit: grammar

Hey. I'm guessing there was a huge inflow of people to this sub because of X-Men 97 and the end of Krakoa in the comics.
But something must be done about flood/mindless posting - We have 10+ post a day about "Where do I start with the comics?" - This week we were flooded with "What do you think will happen on Season 2?" - Past weeks there were tons of posts about "Is gambit really dead? Please tell me it isn't so" (these are just a few examples)
I don't know how exactly the moderation works but we need pinned posts directioning to the "useful links" and the "Season 1 discussion" and "Weekly comics discussion" threads. Maybe even a moderation aproval of posts.
If nothing is done, this sub will become unhealthy.

First of all, Hello there. I have been absent for well over 3 weeks at this point.
But that's not the point.
Today I wanna talk abt a specific Hypercharge for a brawler that isn't necessarily horrible but has major flaws.
In short, El Primo's Hypercharge sucks.
"Gravity Leap" pulls enemies towards the Epicenter of El Primo's super. While this def helps El Primo getting kills more consistently, there are a couple of things that should be discussed:
1) El Primo's enemies get shot way higher compared to his normal super, making El Primo no longer able to hit enemies while they're in the aiknocked back or whatever
2) The Hypercharge Multiplier of El Primo's Hypercharge is 30%. The Hypercharge Multiplier is a percentage that indicates how many supers it takes a brawler to charge a Hypercharge.
For El Primo's, what u need to do is divide 100 by 30 and the result is 3.33, which means that El Primo needs 3.33 supers to charge 1 Hypercharge.
That means that for a Hypercharge that does barely anything, u need to charge more than 3 supers.
3) "Gravity Leap" doesn't make El Primo's super bigger.
In the previous Brawl Talk (I think), The Brawl Stars Community Managers were, well, talking abt the next update and at one point they showed the set of Hypercharges.
These were: Bibi, El Primo, Cord, Belle, Buzz and Sprout.
While most of them are either pretty strong or just average, there's El Primo's which is just bad (yes, ik that Sprout's is also completly useless, but this post isn't abt Sprout)
In this brawl talk, the said that El Primo's Hypercharge should not only pull enemies closer towards El Primo, but also make EL PRIMO'S SUPER LARGER. They literally said it and if u don't believe and go and check it out at minute 2:45.
This whole thing makes me pretty sad. They ruined a Hypercharge that sounded balanced, even with the super being larger. Instead, just nerfing it at the last minute before sneak peeks.
Like I think that even with the larger super, El Primo's Hypercharge could have been fair and balanced, while not being such an underwhelming Hypercharge.
So, what should be done? I have been thinking abt this and I found a couple of solutions:
1) Make his super bigger while Hypercharged, like they said in the video. Not by much, like 20% bigger or smth like that
2) Just rework it. Now this is easier said then done.
Finding the perfect rework is impossible without receiving backlash by making the ability/mechanic itself weaker or busted.
Now this is my idea for a rework:
"Gravity Leap" keeps enemies inside of El Primo's Super Epicenter kinda of like a black hole, keeping them stuck for 1.5 seconds.
Basically El Primo's super stuns enemies for 1.5 seconds while keeping the ability to sucks enemies towards the super's Epicenter.
If this ends up being busted, just nerf the suction duration
If this ends up being not enough, then just make his Hypercharge Multiplier 40% instead of 30% of smth among those lines.
Now this is my idea for fixing and to just talk abt El Primo's Hypercharge which is just not the best. Is it one of the worst. Personally, yes. Feel free to insult me and disagree. U can roast me if u want to, tho if u do it I will also roast u.
But yea, this is it and I'll see you soon! Have a good night.

So I just got booted from all offices associated with UNC women’s health group offices.
It went from me leaving the office in a fury at the absolute bum foolery of a one Dr. Gregory Simolke; and yes I’m publicly shaming him, To me being dismissed from all campuses. It started with the nurse telling me to undress for a pelvic exam. I said, “what pelvic exam? I’m here to discuss PMDD treatment since all other forms have failed.” She laughed and said ok. Weird.
He comes in and explains to me all my labs are normal, uterus and ovaries are perfectly healthy, so what do I want? I tell him I would like to discuss a trial chemical menopause to see how my body would take actual menopause, and if I did well, I am requesting a total hysterectomy with total oophorectomy.
He looked puzzled and said “what’s that? Even if you did well with this “supposed” chemical menopause, it doesn’t mean you would handle menopause well at all. And you’re too young (33). I wouldn’t do it.”
I said “why not? Every other form of treatment has failed, im done having children, and frankly it’s my body and I’m tired of living in this prison of PMDD.”
He said, “well ssris will treat the mood part.” No it won’t. I’ve tried at least ten different ones.
Ok at this point I’m heated. I start to cry because the seasonique that was once my savior is no longer effective. In fact I had bled for almost an entire pack. I told him I had gotten a taste of what it was like to have a normal life, and I wasn’t giving it up. I will be greedy, for once in my life, to keep what I found. Oophorectomy. I know in my bones the ovaries are the problem. He brings up that since I had asked for a hysterectomy that could be done, but not the ovaries. I said what? I never asked for a hysterectomy only.
Anywho; I’m crying, my body is shaking, I tell him I need to leave and he says “well don’t you want to see your chart? I’ll show you where it says you asked for a hysterectomy.”
I took the bait. I was quite curious where that came from. Apparently I had said that at another visit with a different doctor. A lady I had saw two weeks prior for labs. She also said “discussed with patient the negative effects of excessive bmi on menstrual cycles.”
We never talked about that. Nice way of calling me fat; thanks.
Well; at this point I stand up; declare I am done with UNC health; and walk out the door. As I left I said “oh yeah, why DID you want to do a pelvic exam on me? I never asked for one and it wasn’t necessary. “ he said “well once you said you didn’t want one I didn’t press the matter, did I?”
I tried calling my surgeon (I didn’t go to him first bc he was impossible to get an appointment with and his receptionists would never answer the phone) a few hours later. The lady said I was dismissed from all premises and not welcome back. I said why not? She said apparently there was an incident with Dr. Simolke today, based on your behavior you aren’t welcome here.” I flipped my shit.
I demanded to speak with her supervisor and she said ok, one moment…..
Guess who is on the other end of the line? None other than our esteemed Dr. Simolke.
He laughed. And said “Hello? Are you there “ha ha ha.”
I epically flipped my shit.
I called him every name in the book.
I demanded he undo whatever he did to get me dismissed.
He said “ oh but it was you who decided you were done with us. You have no one to blame but yourself. I can try to speak with your surgeon to see if he wants to see you.”
I said “don’t you dare speak to him on my behalf. You have no right and I’m sure you’ll paint me in negative light.” He said well that’s your choice. I finally conceded defeat and asked him to speak with him. He said he would see what he could do and he hoped I got the help I needed.
I just tried to call my surgeon to give him my side of the story, and the receptionist said I was no longer a patient based on my terrible behavior and not welcome to call them or ever speak to my surgeon again. And she hung up.
Felling pretty upset rn, chat.

I don’t feel anything for my boyfriend anymore.
We have been together for about two years. We are both young 20s. Up until the last month or two I have been head over heels in love. I thought he was it for me. Since we moved in together last August, he lost his job and did not make much of an effort to find a new job. After arguing with him he got a minimum wage job saying it was all he could find. There are so many opportunities in our town. He just finished school and this entire time has not been contributing to bills or cleaning the house unless I get upset with him before I go to work. Without giving too many details, he’s going through something right now with his family and he is gone for a couple weeks. The deal was for him to be applying to companies close to us now that he doesn’t have school to worry about. I don’t think he has made any progress in that. I feel like I have loved him so much and I never feel cared about by him. I think if we didn’t live together I could easily move on from him. But I know how he acted before I met him and I don’t want him to go back to that either. I don’t want to regret changing everything. I had a lengthy talk with him one night before he left and the next day he acted like how I told him I need him to and then it was back to nothing. I don’t think he has ever planned a single date. I want him to love me the way I loved him and now I feel like it’s time to give up. Any advice is appreciated. TLDR I’m not getting what I need from my boyfriend, but I am afraid to leave.

Hi Breasties,
I posted in here before about my teenage son having a tough time handling my diagnosis and how he went into a depression, stopped doing schoolwork, etc.
Fast forward to now: he’s doing much better with lots of counseling.
My issue is one of his teachers. I asked to meet with her a handful of times this year, which I’m happy she did because often his other teachers just ignored my emails. In one of those meetings, she told me how her sister had breast cancer and lived and how it’s essentially not a big deal (not those exact words) as treatment has come a long way and how my son should be able to do his work and not worry about me/be depressed. Internally I was livid, but I didn’t say anything. I knew I’d go off and start crying because my emotions were all over the place at that time (the day before my mastectomy) and I didn’t want my son to witness that.
At this point, she’s the only teacher that hasn’t cut my son any slack. He will fail her class, which I don’t blame her entirely, but some understanding would’ve been nice. I want to write her an email explaining how her words were hurtful and her lack of compassion made it so that my son didn’t even feel comfortable going to her with questions or problems he was having. I’m horrible at writing emotional letters, but I was hoping to get some guidance from you lovely ladies and gents.
These are also pertinent pieces that don’t need to be added necessarily, but just to show the added struggle here: my son’s father passed when he was 5. So I’ve been a single parent for 10 years. We moved away from my home state a few years ago and so we had zero in-person family support while going through this. My mom was diagnosed and passed away from pancreatic cancer within 3 weeks of my diagnosis. My son has a dx of ADHD and the school refused to provide any assistance for that the entire year, until I went to a lawyer and requested a mandatory (by law) review and they found he needed an IEP a few weeks ago. We are now moving back to our home state and I’ll have to sign him up for summer school there and continue my treatment.
I know this group will feel the impact of this. Thanks to anyone that can give me some ideas.

It took me three attempts to pass the bar exam and here is what I did differently that seemed to help.

July 2022

The first time I coasted through Barbri videos while planning my wedding, then I was shocked to receive a 257 (insert eyeroll at overly confident and naive past self). I only did 700 Multiple Choice and I didn't understand some concepts, but I hoped I could skirt through like some of my peers. What killed me though was my anxiety. I didn't sleep for two days before the exam and I had two panic attacks during the writing day so I left two essays only half finished and one of my MPT's sucked. Also, because I was so tired, I missed HUGE issues. What I'm saying is that, in hindsight, I absolutely deserved that 257. I hadn't done enough hard work and I hadn't worked on the parts of myself that were self-destructive (procrastination, multi-tasking, anxious-avoidant habits).

Feb 2023

The second time I was so embarrassed and depressed about failing the first time, I self-sabotaged again. I had to work full time so I had to start studying immediately and aggressively, but I didn't take rest days or do anything to take care of my mental health. Instead, I drank too much and watched a lot of Sisterwives while building a massive color-coated outline. The outline was great, but I didn't ACTIVELY study enough. I did about 900 multiple-choice questions and reviewed the Barbri videos on the topics I didn't understand. Some of the lecturers would go on tangents that were not helpful, which made me panic about wasted time, then angrily pour myself a tequila soda. so stupid. (Sidenote: this was also my first Alaska Winter and I was unprepared for the Alaska version of seasonal depression)
Again, I couldn't sleep the nights before the exam because I didn't think I was ready, even though I had done about 10 practice MPTS, 50 practice Essays, and built an impressive collection of study guides, outlines, and flashcards. I did not have a panic attack during the exam this time, but I did make a rookie mistake and waste a bunch of time formatting an MPT answer (self-sabotaging unintentionally?) I received a 255. I drank, cried, puked, ate dumplings, moped around, took a week off work, then picked myself up and got my shit together.

July 2023

Now I was really in my head. I couldn't stop thinking about that stat that suggests the more times you take the bar the less likely you are to pass. I started to think I was an idiot that my law school had bamboozled me into giving them federal loan money even though they knew I was too stupid to pass. I started to do a lot of introspection here. I knew the material after the second attempt, but I couldn't get the points. I had blown off friends, family, my husband, my life for over a year and I was struggling to stay positive with the looming debt and continued failures.
I started going to therapy in March. I read The Mountain is You and Fck The Bar. I listened to podcasts about the science of learning and memory retention. I saw more sunshine. I drank much less. In May, I built a realistic but aggressive study schedule that coordinated with my work schedule. My boss agreed to give me a month off before the bar exam. I had weekly meetings with the Bar Instructor from my University. I started the first month with ten multiple-choice questions per day and 1-2 Essays. I kept a log of the questions that I got wrong and WHY I got them wrong. I was anxious, but things were going well and I was determined.
But then, shit really hit the fan. One of my best friends died out of fucking nowhere. I took a week off to fly home for his funeral, which I ended up organizing because his family was barely keeping it together. I came back to work and told my boss I couldn't do it but he pushed me to keep going. Thank the lord.
I got it together. I focused on staying positive, which somehow I was only able to do with an odd grief-stricken nihilism. This is a test. This is just a stupid test and we could die at any moment. It finally clicked for me: I still am valuable if I can't pass this exam and I can't waste my time being alive beating myself up for my failures. Maybe some of you already learned this in your childhood, but I didn't learn it until this summer.
I bought the John Grossman videos and adaptibar. I drilled multiple-choice questions, totaling 1,300. I reviewed my progress tracking document with all the questions I missed each night. I didn't drink during the week. (I'll share the schedule if it's of interest) I had two accountability buddies who asked me what I learned each day. I went to bed early, ate well, went running - I took care of myself because if you spiral, the money-hungry study programs and examiners win. The day before the exam, I stopped studying at two pm, though I was told not to study at all. I drank tea, played video games, and embarrassingly I had a little weepy grief moment at my professor's kitchen counter where I was staying. But I went to bed saying, "This is just a fucking test and it doesn't define me. I could die any moment and I don't deserve to punish myself. Whatever happens will happen." I had no panic attacks. I finished all of my essays. I was a grizzled veteran in a room full of first-time takers.
And I passed: 272. I cried and jumped for joy, which terrified my dog.
So here's the point: It's just a test. You've taken so many tests to get here. You can pass this one. I promise. Build a good study schedule, get the John Grossman videos, be honest with yourself about why you haven't passed so far, drill multiple choice, make a running document of the questions that you miss and review it each night, get lots of sleep, go to therapy to make sure your mental health isn't the reason you're not passing, and most importantly, remember that you could die at any moment so don't make yourself suffer. If you need to take time off to fix something emotional or internal, there is no shame in that, but knowledge builds and success here requires vigilant wellness and consistent practice.
You can do this. I promise.
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