Tiredness, weakness in extremities, aches, soreness recurring

Hey guys, I don’t post on Reddit much, but am super scared for my doctor’s appointment tomorrow. I (F14) have (what seems to be) some form of hypothyroidism. Though my TSH is just slightly above the normal range (4.84), when I got an antibodies test done my T3 and T4 came back normal, but my antibodies were pretty wack. My “Thyroid Peroxidase Ab” was 76, and my “Thyroglobulin Ab” was 394. I don’t know much about what all the blood levels mean exactly, but I was told that I am (most likely) in the early stages of hypothyroidism and have Hashimoto’s Disease. I was then referred to a pediatric endocrinologist, who managed to squeeze me in for an appointment tomorrow. My mom and grandma both have hypothyroidism, so I was bound to get it at some point… I just didn’t realize that it would come so soon! Another important thing to mention is that I’m an elite level age group competitive swimmer, who swims for over 15 hours a week and is ranked in the top 100 (in multiple events, might I add) every year. For the last 18 months, I have been experiencing MAJOR fatigue in both races and in practice. I’ve always been the type of person who is super strong (I’m over 6 feet tall, haha) and can thug it out whenever workouts get hard, especially at the parts in them where others fail— that has NOT been the case, and has honestly gotten wayyyyy worse over time. Though I didn’t realize what these symptoms were at the time, I am now strongly believing that they are associated with hypothyroidism, or my Hashimoto’s Disease. Here are some of my symptoms that follow:

• EXTREME FATIGUE… like I’m talking extreme! I’ve never been this tired before, not just out of the water but in it as well. I am totally dying in all of my sets, and in my races.
  
• Muscle Weakness. My muscles just give out on me after what feels like a 50.
  
• Muscle Soreness. My muscles are sore— they’ve never been sore before!! Additionally, when I look back on videos of me swimming in a race, I look like I’m taking it easy. It doesn’t feel that way at all— rather, I feel like I’m pushing it harder than I ever have before.
  
• Dry Skin. My skin is constantly peeling, dry, and prone to break outs. I live in a very humid place as well, where most of my friends have extremely oily skin.
  
• Hair Loss/Thinning Hair. My hair has always been super thick and curly, but it has started falling out a lot!!
  
• Puffy Face. My face has also gotten a lot fatter, if I’m being honest. I’ve always been the type of person with a long, skinny face, but over the last year my face has turned incredibly round and makes me look like I weigh a lot more than I actually do.
  
• Weight Gain. I’ve always had a fast metabolism, but my weight gain has progressed a lot more exponentially within the past month. One week, I went from 153 pounds to 160… I hadn’t been eating any differently than I was before, and was working out at the same intensity.
  
• Cold Sensitivity. I sleep in an 80 degree room every night, and still wake up due to being too cold. Well we’re on the topic of sleep, I sleep well over 10 hours a night (I’ve never needed more than 8) and still wake up feeling exhausted.
  
• Depression. Since January of 2023, I’ve been feeling depressed, and it has only gotten worse since then. I’ve found Jesus, focused on the positives, gone to a therapist, and I am still feeling pretty depressed. Though it’s only minor (I never think about killing myself or anything), I’ve read a lot about how hypothyroidism can trigger this sort of thing, which makes a lot of sense, as that’s when all of my other symptoms began to form as well.
  
• I have more symptoms as well, which I could mention in the comments, if necessary.
  

My coaches and mother all thought that I was burned out. I kept on saying “I’m not! I feel motivated, and I absolutely can’t live without this sport!” (I LOVE swimming with all of my heart, and have never doubted that I wouldn’t be wanting to do it anymore.) Well, once the lab results came back… I was finally believed! I’ve changed my workouts to be shorter and all at race-pace (USRPT, if you swim), which has helped a little bit, with me taking a rest after I feel myself get to that same level of fatigued.
Where I’m going with this, is that my mother and older sister don’t believe I’m going to be medicated for this, as my mother wasn’t put on medication until her TSH was well over 10. I can’t express through words how much I believe that being medicated would help me, especially in swimming. My energy levels are impacted everything I do, and I’m sure that if I wasn’t an athlete, it wouldn’t be as big of a deal. The problem is that swimming is my bloodline, and also incredibly difficult— even if you don’t have a thyroid issue! The surplus makes it almost impossible for me to achieve my full potential and go much faster than I am right now.
I’d be surprised if anyone were to have read this through the whole way, but these are my questions: - Will I (more than likely) be medicated after my appointment tomorrow? - If I’m not, should I go to another endocrinologist to see if they will? - Are there any other (serious) athletes on this sub who have gone through hypothyroidism, and would they have any sort of tips for dealing with this issue well?
Thanks again if any of you read this far!!

Hi. Tbh I'm mostly venting here but if anyone had any advice or had anything similar to this please tell me :) In sep 2023 I got a blood test on my right (dominant) hand and did not have pain during it (that I recall), no sharp pains. After maybe a few hours I started to feel numb in my hand and arm and the next day it was extremely bad. It's been like this since. I have seen many doctors, four laughed at me saying it's nothing, a few tried to help but unfortunately all they could do is rule out what I had and refer me to other doctors. My symptoms consist of: numbness in hands, especially the three fingers (pinkie to middle) but recently all fingers go numb), sharp shooting pains, dull aching pains, constant pains, migraines, extreme weakness in the hands, cramping in the arm, inflammation, burning sensation and more. A lot of these have become less but I gain new different symptoms and pains which confused my hand PT specialist. I have done and MRI and it shows tendinopathy and I have been diagnosed by many doctors ulnar nerve damage but am still waiting for a nerve conduction test and emg till June... I do not know what to do at this point. I have done hand exercises, rest, everything possible and I'm still in pain. I have tried naproxen which was effective but the side effects and especially cause I'm young hit really bad. ( I also take ibuprofen like every day or two days) I could not write at all let alone pick up a pencil for the first maybe 4 months. This made me hit rock bottom as I am in my last year of school and have my final exams that is really important for me and for my college. I dropped so low in my grades as I used a computer and now I have to do it with a scribe. I'm sick of people not believing me just because they can't see any "abnormalities". I have had teachers not believe me etc. I have to write rn through the pain and have been and people start thinking I'm fine. My hand is getting progressively worse I think because I am pushing myself to write for studying and maths etc but I have to do it and then I'll stop completely. I'm in so much pain daily and the flares are unbelievable and I just want to cry so bad. I genuinely hate that some people think I'm fine even tho I put a face to not cry.

And also the symptoms. For example at first I didn't realise I was getting fevers as I just felt deathly tired. Then one day I had fever symptoms and got a thermometer and checked and sure enough my temperature was up. Over the years the fever symptoms got more and more extreme but still usually mainly include very extreme tiredness. Sore joints is also another main symptom. If you don't think you get them but suffer from tiredness I strongly suggest you start taking your temperature to check just in case. I managed to figure out my symptoms were at their worst when my temperature was up. Over time it became obvious they were fevers and I didn't need the thermometer but I don't know why the actual symptoms were subtle at first.
I am not taking about basal body temperature but I've considered tracking that again given that my daytime temperature changes so much. The temperature can also go down very low just before it jumps up, which is another sign of a fever. When I tracked my BBT, my temperature not long after puberty started did not change much, only what it is supposed to (about 0.4 at most, it then slowly kept creeping higher and got a degree higher every month although I forgot at what point). It would be considered a low grade fever though. It also depends what your normal temperature is, and how much it actually rises. It may be worth checking this. I'm not sure when it started but i'm pretty sure it didn't always happen, but who knows as I never used a thermometer except for this brief period.
Other symptoms include face flushing (suddenly red and hot then goes away when you stop) when angry or laughing (which doesn't happen normally and didn't happen before), sore joints, headache, cold hands and or feet either by itself or with very warm skin. Warm/hot skin. Hot urine. Too hot in bed. Unable to sleep (realised I had a fever later which was keeping me awake), and rosy red cheeks. Extreme fatigue and inability to move. (These are just my fever related symptoms, I have many many more!)
I honestly feel like there may be something to this as far as figuring out what PMDD actually is, the cause of the cure.

TL;DR: Can you help me with what I should be getting tested for to help figure out a high anion gap?
Hello, I am turning here after having about 5 years of worsening health issues. There is a lot in my history that I might have a hard time remembering right now because I am not feeling too well. But essentially, I wanted to ask for help in doing more bloodwork on my own to look into a "pure anion gap acidosis" of between 10-20 mEq/L over the past few years in this chart of 5 past blood test dates. I also want to share basic problems I have been having in case this can help. This has happened between the ages of 15 and 20.
Starting with five years ago, I had an extreme episode of stomach pain which got worse after having Ibuprofen (15). It would leave me somewhat bedridden. Later that year, I had a paralysis on the left side of the throat which made it so I couldn't eat for about a month before getting better (they put me on antibiotics). Later that year, I had hyperthyroidism and they put me on a medication, and eventually this went away too (16). Around this time, I also noticed constant sore eyes which made focusing on the computer and books more difficult. I also noticed around this time or in the following months that my eyes didn't look quite right, kinda bulgy. By the next year, I wasn't able to play video games for more than an hour due to the eye pain (18).
Over the next several years, my recurring eye soreness has turned into constant pain where I was learning Braille. It's worst when I am driving or listening to speaker and watching their body language, and I have problems focusing my eyes on the road for more than 30-60 minutes which is highly dangerous (19). I was diagnosed with BVD (Strabismus) a year ago and got prism lenses which seemed to help a lot. Originally, I noticed that I was having major issues with watching my surroundings, bumping into stuff, focusing, and needing to sleep a lot. I was having "warped vision" where my phone or other stuff didn't look right as I wasn't processing depth correctly. I wasn't able to look at the Speedometer before prism lenses because looking back at stuff that was too close was really difficult. It was weird in that it seemed like an "attack" where things got so much worse for a month, but equalized out eventually.
The really annoying thing is being told I don't have any clear health issues, which has made me feel like a crab that is slowly being boiled in a pot by now. In these past months, I am having fatigue issues, the gut pain has been constant but a bit worse. I got tested for allergies again; I originally had none, but at 15 developed 6 new ones when going out of network with an allergist, and we did the same thing ago a month ago and I have 24 new allergies and the original 6 are gone. I have begun a diet eating only stuff I tested negatively for, as a food log seems useless when I am depending largely on items with a +2 rating for allergies and unable to tell what is hurting me, and my eyes seem to feel better and look better, although I am still having major issues with fatigue, now mixed in with huge issues with memory, taking care of myself, mental confusion, studying (when before I was an A+ student no problem), etc.
I am seeing a Neuro-Ophthamologist in a couple weeks, but I am scared that because I tested negatively for Graves disease (which I heavily suspected I had due to these past history) they'll not be able to help me. I linked my blood results, which have a couple elevated things, but the main thing I wanted to focus on was figuring out the high anion gap, which I think may have something to do with it. If there is other stuff I should mention, I can answer questions, I am sort of here as a last resort. I am going to ask them about Orbital Myositis, because even if I don’t have that, it and TED are good references for the symptoms of the eye problems I am having. But once again, in the absence of easy answers, I want to check the anion gap because other abnormalities in the chart I linked can be related to IBS/IBD. Thank you for your time and consideration.
I am 20M, five foot eight, 150 pounds, mixed European/Latino.
Isaiah's Lab Results History Type of LabRange6/20/20198/19/201910/8/201911/21/20196/9/233/22/213/6/244/29/245/14/2024 Glucose85-99 mg/dL 921029652 91 Hemoglobin A1c4.8%-5.6% 5.3 5.4 Uric Acid(F) 3.2-5.5 mg/dL (M) 3.7-6.0 mg/dL 6.6 BUN13-18 mg/dL 13121314 13 Creatine(F) 0.65-0.9 mg/dL (M) 0.85-1.1 mg/dL 0.790.890.990.99 1.02 (if non-African American)eGFR .59 mL/min/1.73 113 108 (if African American)eGFR .59 mL/min/1.73 BUN/Creatine Ratio10-20 1613 14 13 Sodium135-140 mmol/L 139143138139 139 Potassium4.0-4.5 mmol/L 4.34.64.34.8 4.0 Chloride100-106 mmol/L 100103102101 102 Carbon Dioxide22-27 mmol/L 24212625 21 Anion Gap7-12 mmol/L 15/19~19/24~10/14~13~18 16/20~ Calcium9.2-10.1 mg/dL 9.49.69.79.7 9.7 Phosphorus3.5-4.0 mg/dL 3.4 Magnesium2.0-2.5 mg/dL Total Protein6.9-7.4 g/dL 7.17.37.97.3 7.3 Albumin4.0-5.0 g/dL 4.95.154.8 4.9 Globulin2.4-2.8 g/dL 2.22.22.92.5 2.4 A/G Ratio1.5-2.0 2.22.31.71.9 2.0 Bilirubin (direct)0.0-0.4 mg/dL Total Bilirubin0.1-1.2 mg/dL 0.70.60.70.8 1.0 Alkaline Phosphatase44-90 IU/L 15216074126 90 LDH140-180 IU/L 167 SGOT (AST)10-26 IU/L 22241720 20 SGPT (ALT)10-26 IU/L 15161718 19 GGTP(F) 10-60 IU/L (M) 10-65 IU/L 21 TIBC250-350 ug/dL 319 UIBC150-375 ug/dL 209 Serum Iron80-130 ug/dL 110 Iron Saturation15%-55% 34 Ferritin(premenopause)10-122 ng/mL (postmenopause)10-263 ng/mL (male)33-236 ng/mL 85 Transferrin200-370 mg/dL Cholesterol150-199 mg/dL 181 167 Triglycerides75-100 mg/dL 165 61 HDL55-100 mg/dL 50 49 VLDLAbove Lab Range 12 LDL<99 mg/dL 103 106 Cholesterol/HDL Ratio<3.1 3.6 3.4 CRP (high sensitivity)0-3 mg/L 0.88 Homocysteine<7 umol/L 10.7 TSH1.8-3.0 ulU/mL 0.981.371.641.120.950.831.261.44 T46-12 ug/dL 6.57.9 9.7 T3 Uptake28%-38% 31 FTI1.2-4.9 mg/dL 3.0 T3100-180 ng/dL 123110 95 116 Free T32.0-4.0 pg/mL 43.5 3.3 Reverse T39.2-24.1 ng/dL 29.9 Free T41.0-1.5 ng/dL 1.281.481.43 1.501.401.511.81 Thyroid Peroxidase (TPO), Ab0-34 IU/mL 1210 <9 <9 Thyroglobulin, Ab0.0-0.9 IU/mL <1.0<1.0 <1.0 TBG18-27 ug/mL Thyroid Stim Immunoglobulin <0.10 Calcitriol(1,25 di-OJH Vit D)24.8-81.5 pg/mL 89.4 25-OH Vitamin D332-100 ng/mL 28.1 26.2 1,25-Dihydroxy Vitamin D10-75 pg/mL Fibrinogen Activity193-507 mg/dL 336 WBC5-88.1 6.46.76.84.35.9 5.6 RBC(F) 3.9-4.5 (M) 4.4-4.94.63 4.794.564.995.14.96 4.86 HGB(F) 13.5-14.5 (M) 14-15 g/dL14.2 14.91415.816.215.1 15.1 HCT(F) 37%-44% (M) 39%-55%41.9 44.341.345.147.844.1 45.8 MCV85-92 fL91 939190.49488.9 94 MCH27.7-32 pg30.7 31.130.731.731.831.3 31.1 MCHC32-36 g/dL33.9 33.633.93533.935.1 33.0 RDW11.7%-15%13.3 12.61312.111.912.2 12.6 Platelets155K-379K326 284293302256301 316 Neutrophils40%-60%68 5446 4755.1 50 Lymphocytes25%-40%20 3336 3730.5 34 Monocytes4%-7%12 912 1211.6 12 Eosinophils0%-3%0 35 32 3 Basophils0%-3%0 11 10.8 1 Magnesium, RBC6.5.-6.8 mg/dL 4.5 Immature Granulocytes 0 Immature Grans (Abs) 0.0 Specific Gravity 1.0008 pH 7.0 Urine Color Yellow Appearance Clear WBC Esterase Negative Protein Negative Glucose Negative Ketones Negative Occult Blood Negative Bilirubin Negative Urobilinogen,Semi-Qn0.2-1 mg/dL 0.2 Nitrite, Urine Negative AChR Binding Abs, Serum0.00-0.24 nmol/L0.04 AChR Blocking Abs, Serum0%-25%15 ANA Direct Negative Tryptaseug/L 3.8 Sedimentation Rate-Westergrenmm/hr 52 Endomysial Antibody IgA Negative t-Trasglutaminase (tTG) IgAu/mL <2 Immunoglobulin A, Qn, Serummg/dL 137 Ambig Abbrev CMP14 Default results? Calprotectin, Fecalug/g 30 WBC, Stool None H. Pylori Stool, Ag, EIA Negative

I've been suffering with some pretty major pain/spasm-ing/soreness near my front upper hip from long distance hiking with a heavy pack (~50 miles/45 lbs). (I know that these are extreme numbers) I've narrowed this down to tight/weak TFL/Gluteus Medius, and could categorize this as a form of IT Band syndrome, though my knees feel for the most part super good.
I'm always on the look out for additional therapies to work on, as I get closer to my big goals of the year in September. Does anyone have any suggestions? Currently, I do:

• side laying leg raises, with an emphasis on bringing my leg in back of my butt to hit the TFL,
• side laying clams
• the entire Myrtl routine (less scorpion whips)
• Horse stance
• Whatever this is called

Maybe some ruckers can chime in on things that worked for them after a big challenge, where they've faced similar pain?

female, 20yo, 113lbs, 5’4 diagnosed PCOS, POTS, MCAS, EOE, autonomic nervous system dysfunction taking microgestin, zofran, klonopin
i woke up 2 days ago with a minor sore throat but had many white patches in my throat. i didn’t think anything of it until i really started feeling weird to throughout the day, like i was going to die.

• my heart rate is staying in 110-170 range and has frequently skipped beats and chest is hurting.
  
• complete lack of appetite cannot eat without gagging and throwing up
  
• a normal/low temp 97.0-98.5
  
• this INSANE uncomfortable restless aching feeling in my entire body and limbs
  
• aching pain in my neck and behind my ears and behind my eyes
  
• lightheartedness, weakness of all limbs
  
• BP shooting up up 150/100 at rest but then drops
  
• stomach upset (gurgling, diarrhea a few times, etc.)
  
• cold sweats, chills, clammy
  
• this overwhelming feeling that i am dying and i have this intuition that i am in serious trouble
  

my parents don’t believe me and think im being dramatic (i live at home with them due to my chronic illnesses) and refuse to take me to the ER. i spoke to my GP and she says it sounds like i’m fighting a bad infection but that i shouldn’t be feeling like i’m literally going to die. she is concerned about my stats. included pick of remaining white patches (they aren’t tonsil stones).
negative for COVID, strep, and waiting on flu test but they said they think it’s negative. my orthostatics are very bad, with my pulse jumping from 63 to 136 when standing with presyncope. i’ve had mono and that’s the only other time i’ve been nearly this ill. everything in my whole body is telling me i need to go to the ER right now but my parents said i can’t call an ambulance and they won’t take me and if i go i have to pay for the whole thing (without insurance).
what do i do? what does this sound like? i dont want to die please help me

I got diagnosed half a year ago (m/33). Before that I went for a check up because I had lots of digestion problems and even after finding out I am lactose intolerant I still continued to have trouble, even though it got better. So I went for an other check up and they checked the Immunglobulin-G and also the Immunglobulin-A in my blood but they were fine. But because my mother, my grandmother and my aunt all have celiac disease the doctor thought it would still be worth to investigate further and so they did a gastroscopy.
Turns out my intestinal villi (hope the translation is correct) were slightly shortend. So I took a strict gluten free diet and after some time my bowel problems disappeared. At times I can even eat diary products again but then I still have minor problems.
Last month I was very tired and ate a few spoons of my daugthers nudle soup until I realised it's containing gluten. The first days I had even constipation but nothing else. But after 4-5 days and doing sports, in the evening I felt really sore in my body and very tired. I went to bed and felt cold even though I was wrapped in a thick blanket. I couldn't really eat for days had bad nausea and body aches. After a few days I recovered.
Now just last week again I accidently ate some potato chips with 17% wheet. Again because I was extremely tired but at least I realised my mistake after eating some. I calculated how much I did eat and it was around 3.5g of wheetflour. This time I had no stomach problems or whatsoever. But on day 5 again on the late evening I felt sick after doing sports and having a beer. Again nausea, body aches and really bad brain fog this time on the next day and also I couldnt eat the hole next day which is today.
Sometimes I wonder if I really have this disease because of my negative blood tests and only minor shortage of intestinal villi, but then I remember how much bowel problems I had before. But now again I feel strange about it, because I don't have an instant reaction to it like the people in the posts I did read here, and the first time my hole family had some infection with stomach problems and the second time I had already a cold at the time so it could be coincidence?

34 M.
April 2021: First covid shot in left arm. Racing heart, night sweats. Intense pain in left shoulder blade wouldn’t go away and radiated down my arm. Had sensitive skin like a sunburn on inner elbow. Pain in back of knees and hips. Went to primary care doctor. He said that some people hurt more after their shot than others and told me to get second shot.
May 2021:. Pain from first shot did not subside. Second shot in left arm. Had tingling in lower legs and feet as well as all over body aches. Two days later I tried to lift a garbage can with my right arm in a shrugging motion. I felt pain and weakness in my shoulder blade, shoulder, and collar bone. Then it started to pop and click.
I visited an orthopedic doctor. He x-rayed both shoulders. He told me nothing was wrong with them and that popping and clicking didn't mean anything. I told him my neck also hurt and he said he doesn't treat necks since he's not a neck doctor. He said I just had bilateral shoulder and neck pain and referred me to PT. The next day after the appointment, I sit in my desk chair and try to adjust myself by leaning on the left armrest, with my forearm bearing all my body weight. My shoulder shrugs up hard and immediately my arm goes weak, flimsy, and pops and clicks exactly like my right arm. I called the orthopedic office to tell them what happened. The PA calls me back and says the doctor won’t see me again for “leaning in a chair”. She also says he won’t see me again until I go to PT and if I have weakness I should see a neurologist. I also experienced my left knee buckling, where my knee would just give out when I walked. I went to my GP a second time to get a physical and told him what happened. He didn’t seem to be concerned. Blood work was normal.
Summer 2021: I go to PT who tells me I strained my traps and rhomboids. She dismissed my buckled knee even though I'm hobbling. During the evaluation she pressed on my spine for some reason, which left me with horrific pain the next day and for the following week. I told her this during the next session and she dismissed it. She made me go on a table facedown with my head to the side, which aggravated my neck. The next sessions involved me doing painful exercises/stretches and not feeling any better or gaining my strength or stability back. It felt like the arm bike and weight machine were going to rip my arms off. I asked her repeatedly if it could be a tear, nerve issue, etc and she said no. She refused to listen to anything I was telling her. The 10th session I told her this wasn't working and I wasn't coming back.
March 2022: I had to go to a podiatrist for an unrelated issue. Podiatrist was very concerned by my physical state so I told her what happened. She said I should see a neurologist as soon as possible. I had upper arm twitching at this time as well.
April 2022: Went to a neurologist. I couldn’t use my arms to lift myself onto the exam table so I needed a step stool. He said he didn’t think it’s neurological and told me to go back to another orthopedist. (He didn’t say what type). I asked about an EMG or other testing and he said he wouldn’t order it.
Current day: I became so discouraged that I just gave up going to doctors since 2022. I want to try again because it's getting worse.
Symptoms: Pain and weakness in shoulder blades, neck, upper back, trapezius muscles, shoulders and arms. Weakness sometimes extends down to my wrists and hands. Left thumb acts jiggly/unstable compared to right thumb. Shoulders and arms feel unstable and flimsy as if muscles aren't firing or activating. Shoulder blades feel like they don't move with my arms, feel out of position and ache. The natural "tension/pump" in the muscles in my upper back, neck, shoulder blades, shoulders and down my arms to my hands is gone. My upper body feels "hollow". I can't shrug my shoulders. When I lift an object my biceps feel like they are going to pop and my triceps feel like they’re dead. I can’t lift my arms straight up or around my back. Very light objects are now extremely heavy. Can not push or pull with any power. My hands/forearms will shake when extending them and also with activities like drinking from a cup or using utensils. I cannot put on t-shirts, can’t put on button-up shirts and jackets without assistance, can’t push/pull/hold open doors and drawers, can’t put on a seatbelt by myself, can’t drive, have to bend whole body over in order to wash hair because I can't reach back of my head, etc… Recently I noticed my left deltoid in particular looks atrophied.
I'm afraid that its too late now and I might have permanent damage. How do I get doctors to take this seriously? I don't even know who to see at this point.

I ran cross country in highschool and I pronate pretty bad/not great arches. I always had these super thick shoes for arch support but I always thought that was a stupid solution and want to address the core issue. In college I don’t do any sports but have gotten much more into holistic/hybrid training. I lift weights, do yoga, calisthenics, and run. I used to get shin/knee pain with my old arch support shoes after a longer than normal run or after coming back to running after a break, but recently I got a pair of primus lite 3s and after my first long run I had no knee pain whatsoever, but the next day my Achilles tendon was extremely sore. At first I was excited because I thought that this indicated that the shoes were working by taking the load off my joints and putting it on more of the lower leg musculature. I’ve been running strictly with these shoes now for about a month and I love the feel, but I still get sore Achilles when I up the mileage. I really want to stay as far away from any injury/tendinitis as I can so I make sure the pain is gone before running again. It’s definitely getting better the more I run in them. My only concern is that maybe the load going on the Achilles is a bad sign. My calves, hips and glutes are barely ever sore while my Achilles soreness is pretty intense. Is this a good thing and should I keep doing what I’m doing, or should I stop and address form/weaknesses before I continue running with the shoes? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

tldr left arm might as well be useless, severe pain and tightness in left side of neck, left underarm and forearm, very annoying weakness and tightness behind left knee. right side unaffected. cannot catch my breath but pulse and BP are totally normal. pain started after 13 days of lamotrigine but has been exacerbated extremely by generic seroquel
i have been searching online obsessively to try and find answers but I have found none, i am seeing my GP and psych tomorrow but this is driving me fucking insane
was prescribed 25mg quetiapine 5/22, taken at night for a sleep aid. last dose was 5/24, and i am still having muscle spasms and pretty intense weakness ONLY on my left side. neck, left arm, and left knee are all stupidly weak. i can balance on my left leg for about a second before i get wobbly. left arm is basically useless, i can use it if i absolutely must but i can't lift a shirt comfortably. my phone feels like a 50 lb brick and feeding myself is a fucking chore. i will be sitting reclined and with my eyes closed doing nothing and i'm huffing and puffing to try and feel like I'm getting enough air. i am not overweight and i have never in my life been this out of breath if I'm not doing something physically strenuous. as I sit to write this post my pulse is 100+. this is not normal for me, my pulse is usually in the 60-80 range resting
heat does not help. ice does not help. had the thinnest sliver of relief from an Epsom salt bath but it's extremely difficult to just get your armpit soaking. all topical pain relief is just irritating my skin. extremely slight relief with max dose Aleve but it only lasts maybe 20 mins and I can't just pop two every hour
anyone else have this happen? i only ever see people talking about mild to moderate soreness that either stops as they continue the dose or stops after they are off the medication. i know it was the quetiapine causing the worsening cramps and weakness because i could feel the wave go through my body about 30 minutes after swallowing the pill. the first two days i just assumed it was still the lamotrigine leaving my system, but the third pill was when i felt the tension and cramping roll through my entire body
i went to urgent care 5/19 because the cramping from lamotrigine was causing knots that i thought were my lymph nodes swelling, but the doctor said it was just muscle tension and prescribed me prednisone, my choice over cyclobenzaprine because cyclo has no effect on me whatsoever.
i see my gp tomorrow so yes im going to a doctor not just asking strangers on the Internet but if anyone else has had this or knows someone who has when the fuck does it end? why only one side of my body? i'm going insane only being able to sit or lie down all day and I'm already depressed enough

I have recurrent biological depression. Relapsed after successful ect 6 months ago. Sertraline 200 clearly dusnt work at all anymore . Failed a lot of ssri,s and venlafaxine in the past , I think I have bipolar disorder as ect has caused hypomania this time round after only 5 sessions , has anyone found any success using an maoi , seems my best option or a tricyclic when ssris are like sugar pills . Amitryptline was tried long time ago but don't think it helped . My depression caused extreme fatigue, muscle aches weakness, feeling slowed down , lack of interest in food or anything , just feel like a zombie , any idea what maoi might be worth trying . Thanks

I received my 1st dose 9/22. Almost immediate (within 20 minutes after receiving shot) normal effects such as nasal drip, metallic taste, felt a little high and grumpy. A few days later started the arm and leg muscle weakness. Started upper chest soreness. Which I can only describe as "feeling bruised".
When I received my 1st dose I was 1 yr almost exactly to the date post covid. Had blood clot in RL lung & double pneumonia. Three weeks prior to received 1st dose I tested + for antibodies. On 9/28 while relaxing in bed without notice I suddenly started feeling like I was going to passed out. I sat at the end of my bed where it continued as my body kept feeling like I was passing out. There was no blackout or dizziness I went straight into passing out.
It wouldn't stop. I had to call ambulance. ER ruled out heart attack. Since 11/2 I have had 3 similar episodes and now as of yesterday I had a small episode. When this happens my body feels like it's draining circulation, I get warm circles all over body, lower back, arm pits, legs, groin area. After this happens my body gets extremely tired and weak. My arms get shaky. I have had extensive testing done. Seen just about every doctor including ENT. Not one has an explanation of what is happening. According to my doctors I was in perfect health at my physical in May of 2021. I'm just sharing my story in hopes that I can get answers and hopefully help someone who is struggling after getting pzfier vaccine.

Hello everyone,
I have really been feeling like I am the crazy one for this situation and I could honestly use a lot of help. My sister (32) and I (25) female had another fight yesterday about the same topic. Her mentioning that she might ask my ex to be her best men. So backstory: This ex and I met when I was 18 and he was 23 in a seaside town where we were both working summer jobs. I was working with my sister and we met him together on a night out because he lived with my sisters then fling. I was fresh out of highschool and I had just moved from my small town to the seaside to live and work with my sister in a hotel. I just wanted to earn some money before university and have some fun with my sister who I had just started building a real relationship with. She is 7 years older then me so it was hard for us to be close when I was younger and when I was around 17-18 we finally started becoming more like sisters and less like “mother and daughter” Our relationship has always been a bit strained because our parents worked a lot and she took care of me when I was younger which kind of made us more mother and daughter and less sisters. Our relationship was also strained because I feel like she always preferred and put her friends ahead of me. She always had more loyalty to them which made me both jelous and hurt and I have pointed that out to her multiple times but she always get amnesia and says she does not remember a certain situation. So we finally start building a relationship and we are going out and having fun and then meet THE EX. Mind you I did not notice him at first at all because I thought his roommate was kind of cute but the roommate was a bit of a player and I have never liked that. I have always dated the good guys who are a bit nerdy and loved sports and a healthy lifestyle. Nerdy athletes basically and I still consider that to be my type. So we start all hanging out as a group (my sister, our girlfriend, my sisters fling, the ex, and two more of their roommates). After maybe two weeks of hanging out with them my sister mentions that the ex might be the guy for me. I remember it vividly but she has amnesia about it. We were in our room and she was talking on the phone with our mom and she says that she thinks she has found the guy for me and I was sitting there dumbfounded because I had no idea who she meant and the she says she meant him and after that i started noticing him more and he was really sweet towards me. He basically courted me by buying me a rose every other night and on other nights he would bring me mu favorite chocolates and after a while I fell for him and we got together. Even tho we both knew that I was moving to a different country for university but it was no big deal because the city I was moving to was an 1.5 hour drive from the city he lived in (he was from said country) Side-note he is called the ex because he was my first serious relationship and my first well everything. So in the beginning everything was really good but he was into big gestures (i will sound like a bitch now but after two weeks of dating he got a tattoo of my lips and he moved cities for me after a month of us dating ) which deep down scared the shit out of me and he moved really fast but everyone told me how lucky I am and that I should be grateful so I complied. And I also felt really guilty because he worked really hard as a waiter in the new city and I just started university. He was really supportive of me and I felt so grateful. But before he moved I told him that university was truly my number one priority and I needed to know if he was okey with coming second. And he was fine with that. I did not notice things at first like him saying I should not wear makeup when I am coming over to his place because I did not need to waste my time on that (even tho putting on makeup had basically been my morning ritual for the past 4 years) and I agreed with him. Then it was that I should take the earliest bus in the morning so I could come to his apartment before he wakes up and make him coffee and we could have morning coffee together and i did not see anything wrong with that in the beginning. But every morning he would find an excuse to lecture me on something I was doing wrong and then he would say ‘Sorry I am just not a morning person’ and I just accepted that because I was supposed to be grateful for what he had done for me (the move) and how hard that was for him (i got reminded quite often. The next thing he got angry that I put on makeup when I went out to meet up with a girlfriend from university. The he told me he was jealous if I spent time with anyone but him. His sentence was ‘even if you were walking a dog I would b jelous because he is spending time with you and I am not’ Then he asked that I take the latest bus home which was around midnight so we could spend time after his shift. Mind you I was already getting up before 7 am to fulfill his previous request and I was juggling classes and studying and I had moved to a different country and a big city. And I just did not want to fight with him so I kept giving in to everything. Mind you I am usually not a pushover and I am quite argumentative actually, it is why I was studying law Next situation I dyed my hair dark (i have naturally brown hair) but I wanted darker and he had called me names and humiliated me until i started crying and could not listen anymore. Then he would console me and I would accept that. I have no idea what the fuck I was thinking. That is when I started noticing that there was a lot of situations of me giving and giving and him just fucking taking and behaving entitled. He would make a scene if I was freaking offline during classes. His previous girlfriend had cheated on him and he caught her and he beat the shit out of her and humiliated her in public whenever they ran into each other. And he told me this story around the middle of our relationship when I was starting to notice that he was not a stable person. I think he saw that I was noticing his behaviors and used this as like a scare tactic and to like get sympathy because he was playing it like it was not his fault that he as this way. And he didi that all the time. It was basically everybody else’s fault that he was being shit towards me. The first time I tried to break up was after that and he made it seem like he would do something to himself and he even used his little nephews to guilt me into staying (he said things like that they would never see him again) I was really young and before him I had only dated sweet teenage boys and he had so much experience in life and he had to grow up really early in life because of his unstable family. He was 24 by this time but he could be compared d to a 30 something men when it came to life experience and knowledge. So I stayed. It was the same old same old after that. Studying and him. Studying and him. Being emotionally abused and telling mu family everything was a okey. I was doing really well in o school and to them that was like the proof that backed up my words. End of spring came and he decided that he would go to the seaside again to live with my sister and earn more money. The pay there was a lot better. I was not able to go because my university had exams in both July and at the end of August and in September. The school system was just set up like that. So ‘we’ decided that I would just visit after the exams in July and that I would study there for my next exams. This is where he fucked up mine and my sisters relationship. Every day he would find something to be angry about some new or old thing that I was doing wrong and I felt like the worst person and the worst girlfriend ever. My self-esteem was crumbled by this point. I have no idea how i could let that happen because before him I did have insecurities like any other teenager but I always made sure appear confident and unfazed (something I learned from my sister because she was old school tough love type of person where showing emotions is showing weakness and you could not allow yourself that) For a month I let him belittle me almost every day over the phone and it was hard and painful and I cried more times that I care to admit but I am also very grateful for that period of time bcause it helped me clear my mind and se him for what he truly was which was an overall shit person. I finally starts to realize that the way he treated me and what he did was not okey. He lied so many times, manipulated me and made me seem and feel like a crazy person. One part of the story comes full circle now because the same tactics he used on me to gain my sympathy he reused on my sister. He honestly had all the ammunition here from all the knowledge i had given him because i trusted him completely with all my insecurities and all my problems that i opened up to him about my relationship with her and our problems. He used all of that knowledge to basically make my sister believe that i was the asshole and i spent a lot of time going over ever single detail of that relationship and questioning if maybe i was this shit girlfriend. Basic example There was this situation where he told her that i just randomly sent him screenshots of every name in my dms and she got really angry with me saying shit like i was provoking him or trying to make him jealous. She just went of his words and attacked me but when I sent her a screenshot of my chat with him where he is demanding i sent him those names she just brushed me off and blamed me still. She got amnesia of that event as well. I tried to break up a few more times in the next month but it wasn’t sticking because either his sister would get involved or his mother or my sister and every time I would budge and give him another chance. It got really bad for me in that period because I was so unwell mentally i even fucked up my exams for the first time ever which alerted my family that something was wrong with me. After talking to a family member who lost her friend because a crazy jealous boyfriend I really decided that i could not do it any longer. I was exhausted. On the night I told him we were really done for good my sister was out with some friends and he was alone in their apartment. The following happened: he told me he took pills and then he told me that he was drinking after that. Alone in the apartment. When I finally got a hold of him on video call I was fucking traumatized because he was barely speaking, couldn’t hold his head up, drugged up with alcohol set up in-front of him and this time he told me that he wanted to hurt himself which really scared me and I immediately called my sister and asked her to go back to the apartment and help him. I was in a different country and I was scared and my sister was behaving like I was lying, being dramatic and overly emotional and i was just messing up her night with her girlfriends and being an overall burden but eventually she got that i was really scared and went to him. By this time he had hung up on me and i could not reach him. When she finally did get to him and i did get a hold of him he was behaving differently. Previously he behaved like he was a step away from overdosing on something and passing away. But with my sister he behaved like he was better just really drunk but from what he told me he had a lot of pills and not a lot of alcohol. To her he said that he took like maybe two pain killers at work hour ago and forgot so when he had a beer after work he got really sick. To me he said he wanted to end it to her he basically went oopsies and made me seem like mental case. And with her track record of always putting her friends before me and always believing them/siding with them (which he knew about because I freaking told him that that was the problem in hers and mine relationship) you can all guess who she believed. The overly emotional 19 yearold or her bff. After witnessing him telling me one thing and then making my sister believe i was a liar and crazy I was completely done with him. He disgusted me. There were instances of him trying to get back into my life there were presents being sent to my address and flowers and chocolates like when he was ‘wooing’ me. He even showed up in the city but i would not see him then he moved back to the city i fucking hated going anywhere round the city for the longest time because i just did not want to run into him. I blocked him on every number and every account. Even his mother harassed me and told me how it was all my fault that her baby boy was not okey.that hurt a lot because i really loved his family especially his mother and older sister. I have left out other moments of abuse because i just did not want to go into those details and memories again. I have been trying not to paint myself as a victim nor have i been saying that i am perfect because i truly am not but i really did give my all to that relationship and truly did my best. He remained one of my sisters closest friends and he became a really sore subject for her and I. Overtime I moved on she even invite him over to our home multiple times and I behaved normally and have never made him feel unwelcome even tho he made me feel uncomfortable and had inappropriate comments about my body when other could not hear him. Just gross shit about how he could remember this and that and I was looking good and reminded him of stuff. He was in a another relationship at that time and he even followed me on insta from a different profile and asked me out while his girlfriend was out of down i turned him down. My sister behaved like that was no big deal. She hung out with him and his new girlfriend and went out with them and mentioned them to me even tho i did not ask nor didi i care to know because i was busy with school and my friends which I finally made. The only thing that hurt me was my sister behaving like I had done him wrong and he deserved happiness and all things good and I was the bad guy. It really hurt that someone she knew for a few years had that level of her loyalty and devotion and I did not. So now it is years later and honestly I do not care about his existence the only reason I know he married that girl and had a kid is because my sister went to his wedding and I even did her makeup, took pictures of her and I honestly felt nothing about the whole thing. I did not care if she mentioned him and went to the city where he now lives to visit him. Now my sister is finally in a happy relationship with a guy I really adore and look up to as a brother. They have moved in together and will be getting married next year. Which I am extremely excited for because her and my relationship is so much better now that my ex is far far away. We workout together and we even worked together and it is mostly really good. We have small disagreements like all sister but it is all in the realm of normal sister behavior. But we never resolved out conflict about my ex and probably will never resolve it. She knows I do not care if they are friends and I have proven that by my actions and behavior. I do have a problem with her asking him to be her best men because where we are from the best men is very important he basically becomes the equivalent of a close blood relative. Family. She has mentioned it in passing a few times that he is on the short list for that title and we have had disagreements about it. She believes that I have not moved on and am holding onto the past and holding a grudge. But I disagree because I believe that you can and should move on but you should not just forgive and forget. I believe that i have moved on but i will not just forget that someone was a bad person towards me. And my biggest problem here is that I was completely fine with him coming to the wedding but i am not okey with my sister making him family. They don’t event talk often from what I understand nor do they seen each other more then once maybe once or twice a year. She has friends that have been in her life for more then 15 years and still are more involved then him. I know this is her special day believe me, but I also know that I have always adored my sister and looked up to her and been loyal to her. I believe it is okey for me to ask her not to turn my ex into family. Am I the asshole?

Good morning ma'am/sir. I just want to share my situation about suspected cat scratch or possibly infected with saliva (I don't know) and ask a question about it. I'm M 23 from the Philippines btw. The suspected cat is alive.
History of vaccination: - Year 2017 (fully) post-exposure - Year 2019 (booster) post-exposure - Year 2021 (fully) post-exposure - Year 2023 (booster) not sure if I got vaccinated (I totally forgot) - Year 2024, May 4 and May 11 (booster) because I got fully vaccinated in the year 2021
Dates of exposure:

• March 11 or 12, 2024 (midnight)
• March 15 or 16, 2024 (midnight)

Dates of symptoms appeared:
*March 24 (first appearance) - Headaches come and goes and there are times uncomfortable. Overall it did not stay for a long time. (Possible cause maybe due to heat temperature since it is summer)
*April 10 (onwards) - Headache became progressive. Sometimes mild, there are times that it became severe. - headaches did not go away since this day.
*April 16 (onwards) - unforgettable headache because of the severity. It came and went but still it stayed the following days.
*April 28 - Headache occured in the afternoon during on the way to school (mild) and while taking exams (severe)
*April 30 - weakness while on duty (morning) it lessen on the afternoon. Decided to laydown on bed. Headaches did not occur frequently
*May 01 - weakness and feeling chills. Headaches did not occur frequently. (Few times only and it goes away)
*May 02 - frequent spitting (feeling like excessive salivation)
*May 04 (onwards) - no more headaches. Just mild uncomfortability anymore. - frequent spitting no more - overall feeling well and I feel that I regained my strength and back to normal - a little bit curious about changes in my eyesight (light bulbs from far away like astigmatism condition)
*May 16 onwards - feeling like having a sore throat - frequent spitting (feeling like excessive salivation) - Cold chest (quick) not more than 5 minutes (May 16 only)
*May 20 - prickling, numbness and itchy feeling of hands and arms (there's no exposure on those parts) - trembling feeling of head everytime I woke up - overall feeling well compared last month - feeling back to normal
*May 27 - Just normal feeling. Nothing aches. - all of the said symptoms from the beginning is gone - less worries and thinking of rabies. - feeling refreshed and back to normal and the way I used to be.
Explanation:
Since I felt mild to severe headache. I thought it was caused by the weather because it is summer and extremely hot. But it did not go away and stayed for a long time. Suddenly rabies crossed my mind and quickly searched about the symptoms and the headaches symptoms matched. While discovering the symptoms. The symptoms such as weakness, excessive salivation (because I frequently spit which is new to me except when I'm sick), feels like a different view when seeing a light bulb (from far away astigmatism condition feels), sore throat. These said symptoms occurred not simultaneously.
During the experience of having a progressive headaches (back of my head). The thought of being infected by rabies stays on my mind. I'm the only one who knew about it. When I told it to my friends about the situation, my progressive headaches goes away. After that I felt weakness and chills and having cold sweats. I told my relatives about it. When we seek a ophthalmologist to check my eyesight. My eyes are clear and healthy. I got vaccinated the following day. I feel relieved when I got vaccinated. But whenever I felt one of the possible symptoms such as spitting frequently because I felt excessive salivation, prickling and numbness of my hands and arms, and trembling feeling of my head and feeling that my nerves are damaged. It feels like I'm infected by the said virus.
Is it possible that I'm infected by the virus?
I'm a graduating college student that's why I'm worried. Thank you in advance for response.

Some of you may remember me posting before. Apologies for length. I’ve a neurologist appointment this week after a 4-month break and I’m sort of afraid he’s just going to shrug and say nothing else to be done or reiterate it might be central neurological disorder (or fnd) or fibromyalgia. Looking for your experiences - does below sound like fnd to you with it all taken into account?
In Feb or March 2023, I noticed my legs starting to ache occasionally, especially when standing for longer periods and worsening balance. This got slowly worse with lots of new symptoms really taking off around August 2023 onwards as outlined below (should be said the right side of my lower body was the starting place of all this, and remains the worst. My left upper body tends to be similar or slightly worse than right side):
-Muscle pain - Moving about, my legs and often arms are always a 2-4 on pain scale, with near daily pain surges to 8 or 9 for 10 or 15 seconds (if it does, will usually be 2 or 3 times that day).
-Spasms/cramps - often randomly in my limbs, and for several months very concentrated in my right glute/thigh, then buttocks area, but more recently seem to be concentrated in my groin area (this is usually followed by the intense pain mentioned above).
-Increasing tightness in muscles that comes and goes, but comes more often of late. This literally feels like someone is squeezing me from inside my muscles (arms and legs).
-Perceived muscle loss in various areas, particularly in glutes and quadriceps, to a lesser extent in my biceps/shoulder areas. I say perceived as my neurologist disagreed the last time.
-Random throbbing/twitches all over body, usually will be for 10 or 15 seconds. They come and go, most days the last few months This has mysteriously died down the last few days, having been very active for months from perhaps November onwards.
-Sense of less sensation and/or clumsiness that comes and goes in some fingers and feet. Some tingling at times but was more prominent earlier in my symptoms. F or six weeks in September, I had weird mouth sensations (like I couldn't swallow even though I wasn't eating anything, some face tingling) and then a sore tongue that would twitch. These mouth/tongue symptoms have not returned thankfully since October.
-Body increasingly stiff and joints constantly cracking and sore. Like I'm losing all my flexibility.
-Daily tinnitus that was initially sharply painful each time it would happen for months, but now just ear ringing and no pain for months.
-Less common symptoms have included pin pricks and dizziness. Newest symptom in the last week has been increasing itching and literally a brand new symptom as I type - like heat dripping through my right thigh.
-I’ve had a ton of eye symptoms - extreme dry eye, meibomian gland dysfunction, feel like colors not as vivid, vision not as sharp, tons of floaters - eyes were fine before this bar myopia.
I've seen a neurologist and neuro-muscular specialist, as well as a rheumatologist and ophthalmologist. Despite many, many consults (where I pass all the reflex tests etc) and blood tests (covering stuff like muscle breakdown markers, heavy metal bloods, full autoimmune workup etc. including tests for Sjögren's), mris and emg/ncs, nobody has essentially found anything wrong, bar meibomian gland dysfunction in my eyes, and a lucky incidental finding of a high-risk dural arteriovenous fistula (successfully cured and not the cause of the symptoms I’m told). I’ve had two sets of full brain and spine mris 6 months apart, so I’m pretty certain it is not MS. The neurologists (at least to 4 months ago) were adamant it is not ALS. This is of course my number one concern, though I guess it’s unlikely given the negative EMG/NCS, the very random symptoms, many of which are widespread, come and go, and are pain-related, but I remain concerned.
I’ve been diagnosed at various times with fibromyalgia, central functional neurological disorder, and even relapsing polychondritis (my ear would go red randomly, but every test they have done for it has been negative). The neuro-muscular specialist did agree that I had muscle loss in one area I pointed out (my right glute), but suggested I get a personal trainer. This was in December and I said I’d been doing my best at gym for months (3-4 times a week, eating excess protein and calories) to no avail. Despite the pain and dysfunction, I’ve continued at the gym since then. Weirdly, it can often make symptoms temporarily improve (e.g. pain will be less or my function might improve slightly).
Outside of all these tests, I’ve done my own workups as my health provider can move slow/won’t agree to certain stuff. I got my own thyroid bloods and full vitamin and many mineral workup - all fine. I repeated multiple times stuff like CK, Aldolase, Ana etc in hopes of catching something when I’m feeling really bad. Nada. I asked for a muscle biopsy, but they say no so far. My own doctor was curious if I had a family history of myotonic dystrophy (I don’t). She wanted to test for it anyway, but the genetics part of my HMO said no on the basis that neurology hadn’t found anything.
Lyme tests were negative in-house, but I did do an external tick borne disease panel. It was positive for Anaplasmosis and Tick Borne Relapsing Fever. My own doctor sent this to their infectious disease unit for opinion, and they said such outside tests were bs (company was Igenex) and wouldn’t test for them. I convinced my doctor to give me a few weeks of Doxycyclene anyway. While I did feel it making some difference initially, I feel it was a hopeful placebo effect at this point as everything has gotten worse again. Don’t know how much stock to put in Igenex. The only difference, possibly unrelated, since going on antibiotics was that it seems I’ve been able to gain some muscle again more easily, just not in the areas I’ve been targeting (e.g. my biceps in general have gotten bigger but not the dents or fat where there should be muscle that appeared, nor can I got my right glute to be less hollow), nor my calf muscles less soft.
I’ve tried every supplement under the sun, even a week of prednisone (which made me feel worse). It’s all very frustrating and I appreciate it may seem fantastical I have no negative tests bar the tick stuff, yet here I am. I did have Covid, likely twice, definitely once, but was very mild.
Currently on Cymbalta (40mg) and LDN (4.5mg) - combined they reduce pain 10-15%. Gabapentin did nothing and did try a high dose for months (1500mg). I cut out all alcohol, gluten, dairy etc for many months and made no difference.
Thanks for reading - basically just concerned as to what to do next and what it all means for my future.

38yr old male here in USA struggling with all manner of neurological and muscular symptoms for months (undiagnosed), including twitching. I’ve a neurologist appointment this week after a 4-month break and I’m sort of afraid he’s just going to shrug and say nothing else to be done. I’d deeply appreciate any perspectives on what to ask fodo next - your experiences, not medical advice. I know this is long, but it's been a desperate saga.
In Feb or March 2023, I noticed my legs starting to ache occasionally, especially when standing for longer periods and worsening balance. This got slowly worse with lots of new symptoms really taking off around August 2023 onwards as outlined below (should be said the right side of my lower body was the starting place of all this, and remains the worst. My left upper body tends to be similar or slightly worse than right side):
-Muscle pain - Moving about, my legs and often arms are always a 2-4 on pain scale, with near daily pain surges to 8 or 9 for 10 or 15 seconds (if it does, will usually be 2 or 3 times that day).
-Spasms/cramps - often randomly in my limbs, and for several months very concentrated in my right glute/thigh, then buttocks area, but more recently seem to be concentrated in my groin area (this is usually followed by the intense pain mentioned above).
-Increasing tightness in muscles that comes and goes, but comes more often of late. This literally feels like someone is squeezing me from inside my muscles (arms and legs).
-Perceived muscle loss in various areas, particularly in glutes and quadriceps, to a lesser extent in my biceps/shoulder areas. I say perceived as my neurologist disagreed the last time.
-Random throbbing/twitches all over body, usually will be for 10 or 15 seconds. They come and go, most days the last few months. This has mysteriously died down the last few days, having been very active for months from perhaps November onwards.
-Sense of less sensation and/or clumsiness that comes and goes in some fingers and feet. Some tingling at times but was more prominent earlier in my symptoms. F or six weeks in September, I had weird mouth sensations (like I couldn't swallow even though I wasn't eating anything, some face tingling) and then a sore tongue that would twitch. These mouth/tongue symptoms have not returned thankfully since October.
-Body increasingly stiff and joints constantly cracking and sore. Like I'm losing all my flexibility.
-Daily tinnitus that was initially sharply painful each time it would happen for months, but now just ear ringing and no pain for months.
-Less common symptoms have included pin pricks and dizziness. Newest symptom in the last week has been increasing itching and literally a brand new symptom as I type - like heat dripping through my right thigh.
-I’ve had a ton of eye symptoms - extreme dry eye, meibomian gland dysfunction, feel like colors not as vivid, vision not as sharp, tons of floaters - eyes were fine before this bar myopia.
I've seen a neurologist and neuro-muscular specialist, as well as a rheumatologist and ophthalmologist. Despite many, many consults (where I pass all the reflex tests etc) and blood tests (covering stuff like muscle breakdown markers, heavy metal bloods, full autoimmune workup etc. including tests for Sjögren's), mris and emg/ncs, nobody has essentially found anything wrong, bar meibomian gland dysfunction in my eyes, and a lucky incidental finding of a high-risk dural arteriovenous fistula (successfully cured and not the cause of the symptoms I’m told). I’ve had two sets of full brain and spine mris 6 months apart, so I’m pretty certain it is not MS. The neurologists (at least to 4 months ago) were adamant it is not ALS. This is of course my number one concern, though I guess it’s unlikely given the negative EMG/NCS, the very random symptoms, many of which are widespread, come and go, and are pain-related, but I remain concerned.
I’ve been diagnosed at various times with fibromyalgia, central functional neurological disorder, and even relapsing polychondritis (my ear would go red randomly, but every test they have done for it has been negative). The neuro-muscular specialist did agree that I had muscle loss in one area I pointed out (my right glute), but suggested I get a personal trainer. This was in December and I said I’d been doing my best at gym for months (3-4 times a week, eating excess protein and calories) to no avail. Despite the pain and dysfunction, I’ve continued at the gym since then. Weirdly, it can often make symptoms temporarily improve (e.g. pain will be less or my function might improve slightly).
Outside of all these tests, I’ve done my own workups as my health provider can move slow/won’t agree to certain stuff. I got my own thyroid bloods and full vitamin and many mineral workup - all fine. I repeated multiple times stuff like CK, Aldolase, Ana etc in hopes of catching something when I’m feeling really bad. Nada. I asked for a muscle biopsy, but they say no so far. My own doctor was curious if I had a family history of myotonic dystrophy (I don’t). She wanted to test for it anyway, but the genetics part of my HMO said no on the basis that neurology hadn’t found anything.
Lyme tests were negative in-house, but I did do an external tick borne disease panel. It was positive for Anaplasmosis and Tick Borne Relapsing Fever. My own doctor sent this to their infectious disease unit for opinion, and they said such outside tests were bs (company was Igenex) and wouldn’t test for them. I convinced my doctor to give me a few weeks of Doxycyclene anyway. While I did feel it making some difference initially, I feel it was a hopeful placebo effect at this point as everything has gotten worse again. Don’t know how much stock to put in Igenex. The only difference, possibly unrelated, since going on antibiotics was that it seems I’ve been able to gain some muscle again more easily, just not in the areas I’ve been targeting (e.g. my biceps in general have gotten bigger but not the dents or fat where there should be muscle that appeared, nor can I got my right glute to be less hollow), nor my calf muscles less soft.
I’ve tried every supplement under the sun, even a week of prednisone (which made me feel worse). It’s all very frustrating and I appreciate it may seem fantastical I have no negative tests bar the tick stuff, yet here I am. I did have Covid, likely twice, definitely once, but was very mild.
Currently on Cymbalta (40mg) and LDN (4.5mg) - combined they reduce pain 10-15%. Gabapentin did nothing and did try a high dose for months (1500mg). I cut out all alcohol, gluten, dairy etc for many months and made no difference.
Thanks for reading - basically just concerned as to what to do next and what it all means for my future.

Some of you may remember me posting before. Apologies for length. I’ve a neurologist appointment this week after a 4-month break and I’m sort of afraid he’s just going to shrug and say nothing else to be done or yup, it's still fibro (though a rheum diagnosed me with that technically). Rather than fight it, I thought I'd sum it all up and ask if you think below could just be a weird case of fibro?
In Feb or March 2023, I noticed my legs starting to ache occasionally, especially when standing for longer periods and worsening balance. This got slowly worse with lots of new symptoms really taking off around August 2023 onwards as outlined below (should be said the right side of my lower body was the starting place of all this, and remains the worst. My left upper body tends to be similar or slightly worse than right side):
-Muscle pain - Moving about, my legs and often arms are always a 2-4 on pain scale, with near daily pain surges to 8 or 9 for 10 or 15 seconds (if it does, will usually be 2 or 3 times that day).
-Spasms/cramps - often randomly in my limbs, and for several months very concentrated in my right glute/thigh, then buttocks area, but more recently seem to be concentrated in my groin area (this is usually followed by the intense pain mentioned above).
-Increasing tightness in muscles that comes and goes, but comes more often of late. This literally feels like someone is squeezing me from inside my muscles (arms and legs).
-Perceived muscle loss in various areas, particularly in glutes and quadriceps, to a lesser extent in my biceps/shoulder areas. I say perceived as my neurologist disagreed the last time.
-Random throbbing/twitches all over body, usually will be for 10 or 15 seconds. They come and go, most days the last few months This has mysteriously died down the last few days, having been very active for months from perhaps November onwards.
-Sense of less sensation and/or clumsiness that comes and goes in some fingers and feet. Some tingling at times but was more prominent earlier in my symptoms. F or six weeks in September, I had weird mouth sensations (like I couldn't swallow even though I wasn't eating anything, some face tingling) and then a sore tongue that would twitch. These mouth/tongue symptoms have not returned thankfully since October.
-Body increasingly stiff and joints constantly cracking and sore. Like I'm losing all my flexibility.
-Daily tinnitus that was initially sharply painful each time it would happen for months, but now just ear ringing and no pain for months.
-Less common symptoms have included pin pricks and dizziness. Newest symptom in the last week has been increasing itching and literally a brand new symptom as I type - like heat dripping through my right thigh.
-I’ve had a ton of eye symptoms - extreme dry eye, meibomian gland dysfunction, feel like colors not as vivid, vision not as sharp, tons of floaters - eyes were fine before this bar myopia.
I've seen a neurologist and neuro-muscular specialist, as well as a rheumatologist and ophthalmologist. Despite many, many consults (where I pass all the reflex tests etc) and blood tests (covering stuff like muscle breakdown markers, heavy metal bloods, full autoimmune workup etc. including tests for Sjögren's), mris and emg/ncs, nobody has essentially found anything wrong, bar meibomian gland dysfunction in my eyes, and a lucky incidental finding of a high-risk dural arteriovenous fistula (successfully cured and not the cause of the symptoms I’m told). I’ve had two sets of full brain and spine mris 6 months apart, so I’m pretty certain it is not MS. The neurologists (at least to 4 months ago) were adamant it is not ALS. This is of course my number one concern, though I guess it’s unlikely given the negative EMG/NCS, the very random symptoms, many of which are widespread, come and go, and are pain-related, but I remain concerned.
I’ve been diagnosed at various times with fibromyalgia, central functional neurological disorder, and even relapsing polychondritis (my ear would go red randomly, but every test they have done for it has been negative). The neuro-muscular specialist did agree that I had muscle loss in one area I pointed out (my right glute), but suggested I get a personal trainer. This was in December and I said I’d been doing my best at gym for months (3-4 times a week, eating excess protein and calories) to no avail. Despite the pain and dysfunction, I’ve continued at the gym since then. Weirdly, it can often make symptoms temporarily improve (e.g. pain will be less or my function might improve slightly).
Outside of all these tests, I’ve done my own workups as my health provider can move slow/won’t agree to certain stuff. I got my own thyroid bloods and full vitamin and many mineral workup - all fine. I repeated multiple times stuff like CK, Aldolase, Ana etc in hopes of catching something when I’m feeling really bad. Nada. I asked for a muscle biopsy, but they say no so far. My own doctor was curious if I had a family history of myotonic dystrophy (I don’t). She wanted to test for it anyway, but the genetics part of my HMO said no on the basis that neurology hadn’t found anything.
Lyme tests were negative in-house, but I did do an external tick borne disease panel. It was positive for Anaplasmosis and Tick Borne Relapsing Fever. My own doctor sent this to their infectious disease unit for opinion, and they said such outside tests were bs (company was Igenex) and wouldn’t test for them. I convinced my doctor to give me a few weeks of Doxycyclene anyway. While I did feel it making some difference initially, I feel it was a hopeful placebo effect at this point as everything has gotten worse again. Don’t know how much stock to put in Igenex. The only difference, possibly unrelated, since going on antibiotics was that it seems I’ve been able to gain some muscle again more easily, just not in the areas I’ve been targeting (e.g. my biceps in general have gotten bigger but not the dents or fat where there should be muscle that appeared, nor can I got my right glute to be less hollow), nor my calf muscles less soft.
I’ve tried every supplement under the sun, even a week of prednisone (which made me feel worse). It’s all very frustrating and I appreciate it may seem fantastical I have no negative tests bar the tick stuff, yet here I am. I did have Covid, likely twice, definitely once, but was very mild.
Currently on Cymbalta (40mg) and LDN (4.5mg) - combined they reduce pain 10-15%. Gabapentin did nothing and did try a high dose for months (1500mg). I cut out all alcohol, gluten, dairy etc for many months and made no difference.
Thanks for reading - basically just concerned as to what to do next and what it all means for my future.

38 white male here in USA struggling with all manner of neurological and muscular symptoms for months (undiagnosed). I’ve a neurologist appointment this week after a 4-month break and I’m sort of afraid he’s just going to shrug and say nothing else to be done. I’d deeply appreciate any perspectives on what to ask fodo next. I know this is long, but it's been a desperate saga.
In Feb or March 2023, I noticed my legs starting to ache occasionally, especially when standing for longer periods and worsening balance. This got slowly worse with lots of new symptoms really taking off around August 2023 onwards as outlined below (should be said the right side of my lower body was the starting place of all this, and remains the worst. My left upper body tends to be similar or slightly worse than right side):
-Muscle pain - Moving about, my legs and often arms are always a 2-4 on pain scale, with near daily pain surges to 8 or 9 for 10 or 15 seconds (if it does, will usually be 2 or 3 times that day).
-Spasms/cramps - often randomly in my limbs, and for several months very concentrated in my right glute/thigh, then buttocks area, but more recently seem to be concentrated in my groin area (this is usually followed by the intense pain mentioned above).
-Increasing tightness in muscles that comes and goes, but comes more often of late. This literally feels like someone is squeezing me from inside my muscles (arms and legs).
-Perceived muscle loss in various areas, particularly in glutes and quadriceps, to a lesser extent in my biceps/shoulder areas. I say perceived as my neurologist disagreed the last time.
-Random throbbing/twitches all over body, usually will be for 10 or 15 seconds. They come and go, most days the last few months This has mysteriously died down the last few days, having been very active for months from perhaps November onwards.
-Sense of less sensation and/or clumsiness that comes and goes in some fingers and feet. Some tingling at times but was more prominent earlier in my symptoms. F or six weeks in September, I had weird mouth sensations (like I couldn't swallow even though I wasn't eating anything, some face tingling) and then a sore tongue that would twitch. These mouth/tongue symptoms have not returned thankfully since October.
-Body increasingly stiff and joints constantly cracking and sore. Like I'm losing all my flexibility.
-Daily tinnitus that was initially sharply painful each time it would happen for months, but now just ear ringing and no pain for months.
-Less common symptoms have included pin pricks and dizziness. Newest symptom in the last week has been increasing itching and literally a brand new symptom as I type - like heat dripping through my right thigh.
-I’ve had a ton of eye symptoms - extreme dry eye, meibomian gland dysfunction, feel like colors not as vivid, vision not as sharp, tons of floaters - eyes were fine before this bar myopia.
I've seen a neurologist and neuro-muscular specialist, as well as a rheumatologist and ophthalmologist. Despite many, many consults (where I pass all the reflex tests etc) and blood tests (covering stuff like muscle breakdown markers, heavy metal bloods, full autoimmune workup etc. including tests for Sjögren's), mris and emg/ncs, nobody has essentially found anything wrong, bar meibomian gland dysfunction in my eyes, and a lucky incidental finding of a high-risk dural arteriovenous fistula (successfully cured and not the cause of the symptoms I’m told). I’ve had two sets of full brain and spine mris 6 months apart, so I’m pretty certain it is not MS. The neurologists (at least to 4 months ago) were adamant it is not ALS. This is of course my number one concern, though I guess it’s unlikely given the negative EMG/NCS, the very random symptoms, many of which are widespread, come and go, and are pain-related, but I remain concerned.
I’ve been diagnosed at various times with fibromyalgia, central functional neurological disorder, and even relapsing polychondritis (my ear would go red randomly, but every test they have done for it has been negative). The neuro-muscular specialist did agree that I had muscle loss in one area I pointed out (my right glute), but suggested I get a personal trainer. This was in December and I said I’d been doing my best at gym for months (3-4 times a week, eating excess protein and calories) to no avail. Despite the pain and dysfunction, I’ve continued at the gym since then. Weirdly, it can often make symptoms temporarily improve (e.g. pain will be less or my function might improve slightly).
Outside of all these tests, I’ve done my own workups as my health provider can move slow/won’t agree to certain stuff. I got my own thyroid bloods and full vitamin and many mineral workup - all fine. I repeated multiple times stuff like CK, Aldolase, Ana etc in hopes of catching something when I’m feeling really bad. Nada. I asked for a muscle biopsy, but they say no so far. My own doctor was curious if I had a family history of myotonic dystrophy (I don’t). She wanted to test for it anyway, but the genetics part of my HMO said no on the basis that neurology hadn’t found anything.
Lyme tests were negative in-house, but I did do an external tick borne disease panel. It was positive for Anaplasmosis and Tick Borne Relapsing Fever. My own doctor sent this to their infectious disease unit for opinion, and they said such outside tests were bs (company was Igenex) and wouldn’t test for them. I convinced my doctor to give me a few weeks of Doxycyclene anyway. While I did feel it making some difference initially, I feel it was a hopeful placebo effect at this point as everything has gotten worse again. Don’t know how much stock to put in Igenex. The only difference, possibly unrelated, since going on antibiotics was that it seems I’ve been able to gain some muscle again more easily, just not in the areas I’ve been targeting (e.g. my biceps in general have gotten bigger but not the dents or fat where there should be muscle that appeared, nor can I got my right glute to be less hollow), nor my calf muscles less soft.
I’ve tried every supplement under the sun, even a week of prednisone (which made me feel worse). It’s all very frustrating and I appreciate it may seem fantastical I have no negative tests bar the tick stuff, yet here I am. I did have Covid, likely twice, definitely once, but was very mild.
Currently on Cymbalta (40mg) and LDN (4.5mg) - combined they reduce pain 10-15%. Gabapentin did nothing and did try a high dose for months (1500mg). I cut out all alcohol, gluten, dairy etc for many months and made no difference.
Thanks for reading - basically just concerned as to what to do next and what it all means for my future.

I suspect that all of my symptoms are connected, but they span lots of different specialties and it's impossible to get all my doctors together to go over things. So I'd like to know what you think and in particular answers to any of these questions:

• Why does my skin turn purple? What is this rash?
• What is this weird IBS "aura"? Is it a kind of migraine? Why doesn't it happen with normal attacks?
• Can I do anything about the IBS distention?
• Why is so much wrong on the right side of my body? And why mostly on my face and head? Did I have a stroke?
• Is my objective tinnitus "twitching" and Eustachian tube dysfunction related to migraines?
• Why do I have difficulty breathing out of the right nostril even with no obstructions and a clear CT scan with no inflammation? There's clearly less throughput through the right nostril.
• Why do I randomly have extreme fatigue?
• What the hell is going on with the weird symptoms?
• What other treatments or tests should I try, given that my Drs have tried all the obvious ones, since I was a kid?

I have a hard science background, a graduate degree in physics, and some undergrad chemistry and biology, so I'm interested in more detail than I'm getting from my doctors here. I'm hopeful that understanding can lead to some better treatments, but I am also just interested academically.
Everything listed here I have had since I was an early teenager, all starting around that time. None have had any particular identifiable trigger.
Sorry this is a bit long, I'm trying to be comprehensive.
39M, 160 lbs, 5'11", white, in okay shape. Don't drink, smoke, or do drugs. I eat fine, don't eat out, and drink plenty of water. Drink a few cups of green tea per day, occasionally a coffee in the morning. Rarely drink soda. Generally take care of myself.
IBS
It's about 50/50 constipation/diarrhea. I have symptoms from it every day. I'd say about 1/3 of the time its not that bad, 1/3 moderately bad, and 1/3 severe.
I have significant pain and bloating when it's acting up. Pencil-thin stools. Sometimes diarrhea and constipation at the same time, like I have to strain to get very liquidy diarrhea out.
There is also very significant distention. When it's not bothering me, my stomach looks flat, and when it is I can look fairly overweight, like a beer belly. I've never found anything that helps with this.
I've tried every elimination diet known to man, and nothing has helped. I haven't found any food triggers or other specific triggers. But just eating or drinking can trigger it. Sometimes I'll feel fine and take a sip of water, and a minute later I feel awful.
The IBS symptoms feel significantly different than "normal" GI problems, I can't describe how, but it feels more "wrong" than regular constipation, bloating, diarrhea, etc.
Medications:
50mg of CBD 2x/day, and it's the only thing that's ever helped with the IBS pain.
Pepcid 1x/day from acid reflux, presumably from the IBS.
Imodium, few times a week.
In the past I've tried tricyclic antidepressants, Bentyl, and some other stuff I don't remember, which weren't helpful.
IBS aura
Sometimes in the morning I will have a strange dream-like experience. It's not a dream per se, but I'm asleep, and it feels like one, but with no imagery or anything. There's an intense feeling of unreality and dissociation that comes along with it. I'd describe it as kind of similar to the strange feeling that comes with a migraine aura, but much more intense and much much weirder.
When I wake up, I feel extremely sleepy and confused for a few moments, but physically completely fine. Then after about a minute, I'm overwhelmed with sudden, immediate, incapacitating IBS pain. The pain will last all day, and is by far the worse IBS pain I get. It happens once or twice a year. And always exactly like this (e.g., never when I'm awake, or after a nap.)
I don't get anything like that "aura" preceding normal IBS symptoms.
Migraine with aura
The aura is a dark spot starting on the lower-right of my field of vision which increases to fill about 1/3 of the lower right-hand side. Random smaller dark spots appear across my field of vision, and sometimes small point-like scintillating spots.
Pain is also localized on the right-hand side just behind my eye, extending backwards for a bit, and I'd typically describe as throbbing.
The migraines come and go. I might have them every day for weeks, then none for months or years. But typically it's several a month.
I also have frequent regular headaches, several a week.
Neurological workup is fine otherwise.
Medications:
Cymbalta 60mg 1/day, as a preventative. It works okay.
Sumatriptan, when needed. Also works okay, both together make a migraine tolerable but still bothersome.
Eustachian tube dysfunction / objective tinnitus
In both ears, but primarily the right ear, I have Eustachian tube dysfunction. The tubes are closed most of the time, like I have a cold. I do the Valsalva maneuver several times a day to help. There's no fluid buildup though.
Often I hear a rumbling sound in my ears that is nearly identical to what you hear when you yawn. When this happens, by placing my finger just in front of my ear I can clearly feel something twitching, there's significant movement. Pressing with moderate force typically stops it.
It's extremely irritating and distracting, but doesn't seem to hurt my hearing. AFAIK nothing triggers the rumbling, and the only thing that stops it is pressure. It's mostly bothersome at night. I've been tested for allergies, and didn't find any serious ones.
Very occasionally, my ears ring for a few seconds or minutes. Sometimes the background "tone" changes, like when a bad movie cuts from one person's dialogue to someone else's and it feels like it doesn't match.
Deviated septum
A year ago I had a septoplasty and inferior turbinate reduction to correct a deviated septum I'd had since I was a kid, making it increasingly hard to breathe out of my right nostril. Covering the left nostril and breathing out of the right would make me feel like I was suffocating. AFAIK there was no trauma that caused this.
CT scans didn't show any sinusitis or inflammation and septal deviation was "moderate."
Surgery went great and it's much better, but the right-hand side still feels like there's less throughput. I can feel this clearly if I block one nostril and exhale out the other. The ENT says that there're no obstructions or other reasons he can see for this and doesn't know why it's happening. I'd say the right nostril has like 75% of the throughput of the left one.
ADHD/Anxiety/Depression
I've also been diagnosed with ADHD, the inattentive type.
Also anxiety and depression. As a teenager they were more severe, now they're more manageable. Saw psychologists for years but don't anymore.
I've tried several SSRI/SNRIs, and none of them have helped at all. But they have had sexual side effects of significantly decreased libido and difficulty maintaining erections. I still get erections in the mornings fine. Without the drugs I've never had these problems. They also made me pretty anhedonic in the long-run.
Medications:
I take Vyvanse 40 mg, a few times a week for the ADHD symptoms. I'd take it more frequently, but it causes the same sexual side-effects as the SSRI/SNRIs. For some reason the Vyvanse almost completely eliminates my anxiety within about an hour of taking it.
Cialis 5mg, for sexual side-effects, but it's only a little helpful.
Weird symptoms
I haven't had a diagnosis associated with any of these. I've had these all since I was a kid/teenager.

• The skin on my hands, arms, feet, and legs occasionally gets this strange mottled look, with red/purple/white splotches, about .5 cm across. It looks alarming, but is not painful and no other symptoms are associated with it. No particular trigger for it.
• Sometimes, after exercise or moderate physical activity (e.g., a causal walk) my body feels numb and clumsy, and my fingers looks significantly puffy and swollen (not just the joints, the whole finger). Other joints feel stiff and swollen, but don't look like it as much.
• Face has a slightly red, rash-like area, like a butterfly rash except it extends into the crease along my nose, and is mostly on the cheekbone area. It's red like a mild sunburn, or when someone's face gets red when they drink. I get acne in this same area frequently too.
• The right side of my face feels "weird", I don't know how to describe it. There's no difference in sensation on my skin though, it's just an internal feeling. It's also slightly harder to move the right side of my face, for example my smile is asymmetric.
• I have a lot of extreme fatigue for no reason. Some days it's hard to do anything. Other days are totally fine. Brain fog semi-frequently. The fatigue feels significantly different than "regular" fatigue. Most days I feel roughly like I have a low-level flu.
• I get lots of strange aches and pains. A lot of joint soreness and stiffness, particularly hips, knees, elbows, and fingers. Sometimes finger joints are obviously swollen when they're achy, but not usually, and cracking my knuckles usually helps. Sometimes areas of my skin will feel sore or have a burning feeling (most commonly my forearms and the top of my head). Sometimes stabbing pain in a random tooth that lasts for less than a second. I took pregabalin for a while and it was moderately helpful, but I had to stop because it made me forget words.
• Sometimes have difficulty peeing, I've been told that's probably related to the IBS.
• I am sensitive to a lot of drugs, and typically need smaller-than-normal doses. Side-effects are also worse. Opioid pain killers make me extremely nauseous and vomit and so does general anesthesia. The anti-nausea drugs drs give me when I complain help with the anesthesia but not the opioids.
• Some drugs don't seem to have much of an affect on me at all, e.g., over-the-counter pain killers do almost nothing for any pain I have, even regular cuts-and-bruises.

Minor weird things
Probably not related to anything, but for completeness. I've also had all of these since I was a kid/teenager.

• My fingernails have vertical ridges in them and are brittle. Toenails don't have this and aren't brittle.
• Fingernails are also smaller than normal, like maybe half the height? Toenails are normal size, except for the little toe which has a ridiculously tiny nail.
• Flat feet, and sometimes when walking I feel a sharp, painful "tearing" feeling running down the center of the foot from just below the toes to just before the heel. Oddly, if this happens, running feels totally fine. The "tearing" happens on the right foot 90% of the time.
• Joints all hyperextend.
• Generally high pain threshold, except on areas of my body that are sore/achy, where I'm very sensitive, or when IBS pain is acting up, where I'm sensitive all over.
• Occasionally I wake up at night extremely thirsty. Like I'm dying of thirst. I have to guzzle water.
• Lots of cavities, and gums have slightly receded in places.
• Random muscle twitches in the thighs, sometimes upper chest or upper arms.
• Lots of stretchmarks on my sides and stomach from when I was a young teenager. Was never overweight and didn't have a sudden growth spurt or anything when they appeared, but was taking Accutane for severe acne at the time.
• Multiple hairs grow next to each other, spaced a hair's width or so apart, like there's a cluster of hair follicles instead of just one. Hairy chest, back, and butt.
• Natural sleep cycle is very late, going to bed ~4am. (Sleeping on this schedule doesn't improve anything.)
• Penis slightly curved. Not enough to cause any problems but noticeable.
• Right-handed, but am left-eye dominant.
• Nearsighted.

Family history

• Maternal grandfather -- Lupus
• Maternal aunt -- Rheumatoid arthritis, migraines
• Maternal uncle -- Chron's
• Half-sister from mother -- Psoriatic arthritis
• Father -- Hypertension, heart attack
• Paternal grandmother -- Fibromyalgia

Tests
I've had so many tests I can't think of them all. They always come back normal, with the exception of low vitamin D (19).
I had lots of tests for IBS as a teenager, including uppelower GIs, and a bunch other I don't remember.
Recently had comprehensive metabolic panel, thyroid tests, testosterone test, estradiol test, and a bunch of STD tests. All normal, but Glucose is in the high 90s (but it's always been < 99) and cholesterol is a little high.
Blood pressure is on the high end of normal, resting heart rate is in the 80s.
My Apple watch says my EEG is fine, SpO2 is fine, and sleep is fine with no interruptions and no drops in SpO2 or respiration rate.
Other daily medications
Fexofenadine, multivitamin

I recently just discovered what vasovagal syncope is after googling some symptoms I was experiencing and have experienced a few times. I noticed it was happening more frequently so I googled even though googling symptoms just gives me more anxiety. I have been diagnosed with anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder in 2020, but since then have noticed a turnaround in myself , I feel like 2023/2024 i’ve been at my peak with happiness, life in general and my job has really helped with my depression & mental health, also cutting out certain people in my life has helped with my anxiety and depression and some symptoms with bipolar disorder. Very recently I have been experiencing symptoms where I feel like i’m about to faint . The first time i had this experience was 9 months ago , I recall sitting on my chair in my room standing up walking over to my bed to go drink some water and I felt completely normal at first , then all of the sudden my body heats up extremely especially the back of my neck/ shoulders and face gets really hot , and since it was the first time this happened I wasn’t sure what was wrong so it scared me, suddenly my body was hot, I felt heavy like I was sinking into the ground, I felt weak like I couldn’t barely move my arms or legs and my vision got blurry and like tunnel vision but I managed to walk to the bathroom and I remember trying to turn on the light to my bathroom but when I flipped the switch on it was still pitch black in my bathroom so I had a quick thought of “maybe the lightbulb went out” then suddenly I fell to the ground and fainted for the first time , it was scary I thought I was actually going to die. once I came to I realized my vision had went completely black because the light was on in my bathroom. It was an extreme experience and it was my first experience, Doctors say I have low iron, so I thought it could be a mix of that with slight dehydration. The second time I had another experience like this was the 21st of this month where I was standing in my bathroom and all of the sudden my body did the thing where it heats up again in my neck/shoulder and head/face area and I feel weak , this time was different because I felt extremely nauseous to the point where I tried to throw up during this but nothing happened , i began sweating from my forehead out of no where and I also felt and could hear my heart beating super fast so I laid down on my bathroom floor trying to calm myself down, close my eyes and breathe in and out and that did help. I laid there for about 3 minutes and felt back to normal again and was able to stand up. this one was very sudden and I didn’t really think it would be caused by dehydration because I had been drinking plenty of water for weeks . The third time I had an experience like this was last night but this one was different , I exited my room , walked to my living room to watch TV on the couch, but before I could get to my living room I went to the kitchen because I realized I hadn’t eaten that day, I made myself some yogurt and granola and ate it , I was fine, then I went to eat more so I grabbed some cucumbers soaked in rice wine vinegar and ate a couple of those standing up , after eating like 2 slices of cucumber my stomach started to not feel good and was grumbling , so I put my fork down cuz I knew I shouldn’t have anymore and then out of nowhere the hot feeling starts up again and I already knew what was about to happen, so I try to make my way to my couch feeling extremely weak and having blurred & tunnel vision, I sat down to try to calm myself down and my heart was literally beating so fast , I drank some water and tried to lay down on my couch taking a deep breath in and out to try and control my heart beat after a few minutes of that I felt better and not like I was going to pass out anymore , but while I was laying down I got a sudden wave of tiredness and almost felt like I was dreaming but I knew I was awake, I began hearing these wooshing noises in my right ear only , it sounded like when you hold a seashell up to your ear but more woosh-like , I don’t know if what I was hearing was real but I kept hearing distant banging noises coming from throughout my house as well as people saying words but it sounded like it was right next to me or even around me . my eyes were open and I don’t even think I was blinking , I felt stuck like I couldn’t move and my eyes were open looking at the ceiling while hearing the banging and the voices , my ceiling started to look like it had this glowing white/fuzzy line in the crease where your wall meets your ceiling , out of the corner of my eye I could just see outlines of the objects beside my couch which are plants outlined in like this glowing red lining, and then it would outline the whole plant and turn into literal TV static but the plant was outlined and the whole inside of it looked like TV static . During seeing that I was still stuck on staring at the ceiling so I only saw that out of the corner of my eye and while looking at the ceiling (this sounds ridiculous) but I saw this trippy/psychedelic mandala begin to grow from the middle outwards. this lasted for about 10 minutes and the whole time it was happening I didn’t understand why this was happening and I still don’t , I just find it weird that this happened all after experiencing the feeling of almost fainting episodes that i’ve had , only this time seeing all that/hearing that was different and never happened to me before . i’m just wondering what all of this is caused by and if anyone has had some similar experiences happen to them ? Please share your thoughts and stories! Thank you!!

Lonely Castle in the Mirror, by Mizuki Tsujimura
"Lonely Castle in the Mirror" is a genre-savvy portal fantasy about junior high students who get drawn into a mysterious castle when they're supposed to be in school. Kokoro had a terrible experience early in the school year that's made her terrified of facing her classmates, and develops some kind of (psychosomatic?) illness that prevents her from attending either the normal school or a special alternative school for students who need more support. Shortly after this, her bedroom mirror turns into a portal to the castle with six other students who are also not in school during the normal hours. The "Wolf Queen" in charge--an elementary school girl who enjoys allusions to "Little Red Riding Hood"--tells them all that there's a secret key in the castle that can grant one wish, and they have a year to find it and, potentially, use it. Also, if anyone is caught in the castle outside of the 9-5 school day timeframe, they'll all be eaten by a wolf.
So, these painfully shy students have the opportunity to make friends and have a non-terrifying experience with kids their own age, and they all enjoy bonding and playing video games and drinking tea together, and for the most part nobody cares about finding the key, because that would make the castle close and prematurely end their new friendship. For most of the book, the contrived quest stuff doesn't play into it. And then when it does, it kind of lampshades "oh yeah I have to do this on speedrun mode."
There are a lot of takes pointing out that books where "the magic goes away"/"everyone loses their memories"/"we just have to move on with our lives and pretend like the portal fantasy never happened" can be pretty messed up. In this book, however, I couldn't find myself relating to the characters because it felt like a perverse incentives situation. Yes, middle school is an emotionally volatile, turbulent, unpleasant environment full of many immature people. This is a pretty common experience, actually. Kokoro just can't handle it, and as a response, the infinitely patient teacher at the alternative school reassures her mother that she's battling really hard and it's not her fault, she just can't go to school, and then she gets to go through a portal into fantasy world with people who play video games and eat snacks all day...? I understand there's more to it than that, but something has to change about this situation because otherwise this really isn't the message you want to send. (Once we learn about the backgrounds and life situations of some of the other students, I can imagine how it was easier for people like Subaru and Aki to fall through the cracks, but it feels like, eg, Masamune and Ureshino's junior high situation should have had some kind of guidance counselor or adult in the room. The readers' guide in the back of the book describes Kokoro as a "futoko," and I understand this is more pervasive in Japan than elsewhere, but I have a hard time accepting that seventh graders staying home for months on end with no apparent homeschooling or tutoring gets such a shrug.)
The prose didn't really grab me, sometimes it felt awkward ("That day, Fuka apparently enjoyed the chocolates back home, for she faithfully reported to Kokoro that 'they were delicious.'") and there were a several parts with very. short. one. line. paragraphs.

Kokoro tried to convince herself that she hadn't been at home that day. Miori and the others had simply pounded on the door of an empty house, trampled over the patio, gone round and round over outside of the house. But nothing actually happened. Nothing at all. She never was about to be killed. And yet the next day, she said, "I have a stomachache." And she really did. It was no lie. And her mother chimed in: "You do look pale. Are you OK?" And that's when Kokoro stopped going to school.

A few paragraphs later:

Would she be able to protect herself?
The only place she could now go to freely from her bedroom was the castle.
If I'm in the castle, she started to think, then I'll be safe.
Only the castle beyond the mirror could offer her complete protection.

Girl, I know your mental health isn't the greatest, but we're talking about the place where people threatened you with being eaten alive by a wolf. ??? Sorry, my suspension of belief does not extend this far.
There's also a random red herring with a neighbor student whose father has an interest in researching fairy tales, and like, maybe that "real world" location/characters are related in some way to the portal world? No, it's just a fortuitous coincidence that helps Kokoro have access to more Western fairy tale info.
The good news is, about halfway through the characters start developing some genre-savviness and realizing what they have in common, and towards the end, things pick up significantly in terms of how and why some of the arbitrary fairy-tale logic came about. So it definitely sticks the landing in that way.
Bingo: Prologue/Epilogue, Author of Color, Book Club
Promise of the Flame, by Sylvia Louise Engdahl
At the end of "Stewards of the Flame," to which this book is a sequel, our heroes Jesse, Carla, and Peter had hijacked a spaceship and jumped to an uninhabited planet to set up a colony where humans could develop psionic powers free from the medical bureaucracy of Undine. Jesse's hyperspace jump was rushed and not perfectly calculated, so in order to ensure their oxygen supply makes it all the way to planet Maclairn (named after their late founder), the Group had to confront their deepest fear and brave the stasis boxes that had been Chekhov-gunned several times in the last section. As the existence of the sequel implies, the protagonists and most of their comrades survive stasis. But while, in "Stewards," the hyperspace navigation "error"/imperfection sets up the Group's ultimate test, here it casts a long shadow as Jesse keeps wondering, "could we have picked a better landing site if I hadn't screwed it up?"
The early days on Maclairn are a struggle. The first part of the book is a recurring cycle of "should we do things this way or that way? Well, we came here to set up a society fully founded on mind powers, we pretty much have to commit to the bit or else what's the point." Repeat ad infinitum. Later, this broadens somewhat to "we have to have psi powers coexist with modern technology to fulfill Ian [Maclairn]'s dream, otherwise what's the point." There are clear parallels to (Engdahl's older trilogy) "Children of the Star"; that society represents the endpoint if they go down a path of giving up on modern technology--and the burdens of agrarian, high-population-growth societies fall disproportionately on women. If "Stewards" had motifs of baptism, this is more of an Exodus story, with the characters sulking about "why did you bring us out of Undine just to starve in the wilderness, at least there we had enough to eat." "My God, came Carla’s thought, we’re homesick! Homesick for Undine! I never admitted that to myself, it was so foolish, I’d wanted so much to leave . . . I guess I just pushed it down inside, into a place I didn’t dare go. . . ."
The consequences of the hyperspace jump being off are a minor tonal retcon/change in perspective on the events of the first book. A more significant one, to me, involves love triangle dynamics. In "Stewards," we learn that Carla and Peter both previously had spouses who died under the authoritarian Undine government. Fortunately, Jesse shows up just when Carla is ready to love again, and their relationship brings him into the Group and thus enables their escape from Undine. "Promise" adds that Peter has been silently pining for Carla all along, but needed Jesse's starship skills too much to say anything. We're told the Group's adult recruits skew slightly female, but that isn't represented among the main characters, and you're telling me that none of them are Peter's type? All three of them sigh and angst about "oh, we're such great friends, we can't let this love triangle come between us," and at times it feels like it's setting up for a polygamy plotline (they're all highly powerful telepaths, they can't keep secrets from each other!) And then it just...goes nowhere. As in the first book, I can accept that sex is probably great among telepaths; I can't buy that every single person has to have sex in order to fully level up their telepathic sensitivity!
The best parts of "Promise" involve the culture clashes between Jesse, who grew up on Earth; the rest of the adult Group members, from Undine; and the Maclairn-born generation. Undine's environment is so tightly regulated, they don't even have insects or lizards, so the planet's "collective unconsciousness" doesn't have a fear of creepy-crawlies; Jesse's initial revulsion risks "contaminating" the psyche until everyone faces their fear.

“Horror vids involving animal life aren’t permitted on colony worlds,” Peter told him. “Haven’t you ever wondered why starship libraries don’t contain any? Earth has always banned their export as a measure to protect extraterrestrial lifeforms. It’s one of the few government trade regulations I think is wise.” Of course, Jesse realized. The average Earth citizen’s reaction would have been to kill the crawlies—if possible, to exterminate them. That hadn’t occurred to anyone yesterday. And horror vids often portrayed even intelligent aliens as repulsive; what kind of precedent would that set if similar ones were ever encountered?
Traditionally, said the knowledgebase, small farmers had chopped chickens’ heads off with a hatchet. Wringing their necks was said to be more humane, but nobody wanted to experiment on live, squawking chickens despite the specific instructions provided. These warned that the hardest part, in the physical sense, would be catching a grown chicken in the first place—a fact soon borne out by experience, as chickens are not devoid of telepathic sensitivity and the pursuers were unconsciously broadcasting their intent to kill.
Kel, like many of the Group’s other children, had been slow in learning to talk. It had taken awhile before it dawned on the adults that this was because the kids’ telepathic bonds with their parents had been so strongly encouraged that they felt no need to communicate vocally. Speech could not be allowed to die out in a psi-based culture; it was essential not only to reading but to the framing and communication of complex ideas. Now, everyone realized that like the skills for volitional control of the body, telepathic conveyance of concepts, as distinguished from emotions, must wait until the kids were older.

On the other hand, the scope of "this is dangerous, but we must, to commit to the psionic bit" and "well, we've come through a lot of tough situations before, but this time really is the end...jk never mind we got out of it" got repetitive. There was one scene towards the end where it's like "okay, we're almost done, I can see how telepathy might be used to enable a permanent self-sacrifice...nope, we're still going, huh," and even though some of the resolutions were nice callbacks/tying up foreshadowing, it was still a lot.
Like in James P. Hogan's "Voyage to Yesteryear," the kids who were raised outside of Earth and Undine's prejudices are, overall, a great step forward for humankind, but there can be some values dissonance. In both cases, the desire for lots of population growth leads to a much lower age of consent than Earthlings are used to. Justified somewhat more in Maclairn's case; telepathy means almost everyone wouldn't fathom hurting each other and of course sex is consensual, as well as amazing. On the other hand, in both cases, there's no prison infrastructure; if someone is determined to be evil and is posing a grave threat to others, you just have to kill them. "Promise" gets a little more philosophical about the problem of evil--if it's not nature and it's not nurture, what causes it? Free will? Sure, but it seems as if some people are also evil from day one even if their DNA is just fine.
There are a couple shoutouts to Lord of the Rings and Star Trek that fit in nicely. I found "it's just like using the Force, you know, like in that old vid, Star Wars" to be more of a distraction. Similarly, Engdahl's commitment to showing her work ("in the twentieth century on Earth, you know, people experimented with remote viewing!") got to be a distraction. But the exploration of "okay, let's try a rain dance, even if it fails we're learning something and pushing knowledge forward" was a great use of the "sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" trope, which is what I come to Engdahl for anyway.
Some people, like Peter, tend to believe in an afterlife; others, like Jesse, are more skeptical. Earth religions don't transfer well to other planets because the interstellar gap is too big for the collective unconsciousness to bridge. Despite this, characters use the word "God" (like in a telepathic context of "Carla . . . oh, God, Carla, answer me!") approximately 144 times. Do you have no one else's name to take in vain???
Criticisms aside, I do think that this is less heavy-handed than "Stewards" and at least as good a starting point!
Bingo: Dreams, Prologues/Epilogues, Self-Published, Survival. One prominent character acquires a physical disability midway through the story. Jesse and Peter's Criminal record on Undine is not very important (since the entire book is set on or around Maclairn), but it becomes more prominent in the last section.
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, by Shannon Chakraborty
Once upon a time (1100s Indian Ocean) there was a notorious nakhudha (pirate captain) named Amina al-Sirafi. Ten years ago, she retired, and now she's a single mom with a bad knee and a leaky roof. However, a wealthy noblewoman who believes her granddaughter has been kidnapped by a Western European would-be sorcerer insists on having Amina rescue her, never mind Amina's own family responsibilities. So Amina has to put the band back together, staying one step ahead of the authorities while getting to the bottom of the mystery.
Amina and her crew are likable rogues. I found this easier to get into than Chakraborty's "City of Brass". That book focused more on a long-term conflict between two factions, neither of whom consistently seem like the "good guys"; maybe that's supposed to be sending a message about RL actually works, but I found it confusing at times. In contrast, the early sections of "Amina" are about tracking down individual allies, from a gay smuggler stuck in a prison in Aden, to a navigator and family man in Mogadishu, while researching the notorious Falco Palamenestra and speculating what he might be up to.
At first, Amina's Muslim identity comes through more in the ways characters talk, and some level of monster-fighting exorcism (like Catholicism in some horror movies), than actual practice. But gradually, we see more of how she's struggled to be a parent in her post-pirate life:

If the criminal past didn’t alert you, I have not always been a very good Muslim. Drinking and missing prayer were among my lesser sins, and if I tried to straighten myself up every year when Ramadan rolled around—a new life of piety easy to imagine while dazed with thirst and caught up in the communal joy of taraweeh—I typically lapsed into my usual behavior by the time the month of Shawwal had ended.
But then Marjana was born. And Asif was . . . lost. And if one of these events made me feel as though I had no right to ever call upon God again, the other filled with me a driving need I could not deny. So I keep my daily prayers, even if I feel unworthy the entire time.

To me, this rang true as a depiction of a complicated, realistic, person of faith.
This is a time and place that I knew very little about. For instance, one plotline involves the island of Socotra, an island off the coast of Somalia which is today part of Yemen. There are caves there with graffiti from sailors going back thousands of years, in Indian and Greek and Ethiopic scripts. This is a real place! I would not have been able to tell you anything about it before reading this book! So Chakraborty's vivid descriptions of places this, and of the diverse cultures and religious backgrounds of pirates who live and work alongside each other, is compelling. There's a danger in this as a reader, though, in that getting too caught up in the "worldbuilding" of the actual world can make it feel like its "foreignness" is what makes it speculative and fantastical, which is obviously inaccurate and beside the point. That's one reason why jumping in at the deep end with an honest-to-goodness sea monster in chapter one might have been a good choice, to remind us that there really are otherworldly things happening.
The themes of "rich people love to jerk poor people around" and "the male gaze sucks" are clear, but there's lots of quippy banter mixed in.

“That was you, was it not? The woman who poisoned the soldiers at the wali’s office, freed a crew of homicidal pirates, set a score of ships on fire, and fled the harbor in the middle of the night?” “I would never confirm such a thing and put you at risk of consorting with criminals. But it was two ships, not a score. I wouldn’t wish to encourage exaggeration.”
Sailing past its ancient breakwater—the stones said to have been set there by giants—you might feel as though you have entered a mythical port of magic from a sailor’s yarn. You would be sorely mistaken. Aden is where magic goes to be crushed by the muhtasib’s weights, and if wonder could be calculated, this city would require an ordinance taxing it.
“She knows you are a pirate?” “I am not a pirate,” Majed huffed. “I am a cartographer with a checkered past.” “Yes. A checkered past of piracy.”

The book contains a few chapters that are "in-universe documentation" or chronicles of the places and people in the main narrative. This is a trope I really enjoy at times. However, in this case, I didn't feel it added much, beyond underscoring the themes that "men feel threatened by powerful women, oh no."
The biggest issue for me was how all the diverse, sympathetic characters just kind of went along with developments that felt more reminiscent of 2020s Tumblr idiolect than 1100s Indian Ocean. How fortuitously convenient! (At least it got a Hugo nom.)
Smaller quibbles: the timeframe with Amina in her forties is appeSaling to the extent that it's a story about a working mother trying to follow her own dreams while also desperately missing her kid. But in order to make that work, the narrative sometimes withholds a lot of important information about the tragedies in Amina's past/her relationship with her child's father until it can be brought forward for dramatic effect, and it made me wonder what a story from the younger Amina's POV would look like without the artificial suspense problem.
More broadly, I felt like the second half's pace wasn't as crisp as the first--there's a dramatic near-death experience, then a bunch of fantastical creatures are introduced in quick succession as if to make up for the "worldbuilding via the actual world" stuff earlier, then we get a very contrived in-universe sequel hook, then we double back to a setting that had already been introduced. Whereas the first part was "we need to go to A to do B and then that gives us a clue that leads us to C."
Who wore it better?

“It is invalid!” I burst out. “Our nikah. It is not permissible for me to marry a non-Muslim.” Raksh frowned. “Is that why the man had me say all those words about God and prophets?” He returned to studying the contract. “Trust me, dear wife, I can be a vast number of things.” “But—but you are not a believer.” “Of course I am. Best to know the competition, yes?”

Compare "Alif the Unseen" (which is one of my favorites and I suspect I probably was harsh on "City of Brass" by comparison):

"But I told him I couldn't marry him even if I wanted to, because I can't marry an unbeliever. And he laughed and said he'd been a believer, 'for a the better part of a thousand years,' I believe were the exact words." "What?" said Alif. "Vikram? Vikram the madman who bites people?" "He might be those things," said the convert hastily, "but did you ever know him to do or say anything really blasphemous?" "I guess not."

Bingo: Alliterative Title, Criminals, Dreams, Reference Materials, Readalong! It's planned to be First in a Series but the sequels aren't out yet. (Statistics from last year just came out and this was the most popular book across all 2023 bingo cards, with ~200 reads!)
Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik
When I read "Uprooted" and griped about the implausible romance and/or reactive plot, people's reactions were "try Spinning Silver, it's an improvement in some of those ways." And yeah, it is! I was aware that Spinning Silver was set in the same world as Uprooted, ~1700s Eastern Europe but with some fantasy elements, and that it was based on Rumplestiltskin.
But it's a lot more than a simple retelling. "Spinning Silver" teases out the individual trope elements of Rumplestiltskin--a mercenary father trying to get his daughter to marry up, the dead mother looming over the plot, a woman given the impossible task of making gold out of other elements, terrible bargains, aloof and unknowable beings from the fae world, the power of knowing someone's true name, the horror of a mother trading her child to inhuman creatures--and blows them all up, turning them inside-out, and creating something original.
It also does a lot with POV. For the first chunk, we have two young women from a small town who go back and forth telling the stories of their business dealings. But as the book goes on, we start jumping into more and more people's heads, and everyone's voice is very different. Sometimes this can be used for dramatic irony; we hear what character A thinks of their interaction with B, then we jump back and tell the same scene from B's POV and what was going through their head is very different than what A assumes. Once in a while, this makes the plot drag--there's a couple of scenes towards the end where we can't have any suspense about "oh no, will they find what they're looking for" because we've just seen the corresponding scene from another POV, and it would have been more effective to rearrange them--but overall, things are propelled forward much more intriguingly than "Uprooted."
Our POV characters are:

• Miryem, the daughter of the village moneylender. Miryem's family is Jewish, which means her father is one of the few people socially permitted to work as a moneylender--but he's more interested in currying favor with the neighbors than getting his debts repaid, so his family goes hungry. Miryem steps up, grows "cold" and "wintry," and takes on his job, to her parents' horror. But an offhand remark about "look, I can turn silver into gold" (metaphorically, because of, you know, capitalism) inadvertently catches the ear of the "Staryk," monstrous elven raiders who live in a parallel realm.
• Wanda, the daughter of an abusive alcoholic. Miryem is like "he can't pay off his debt because he's drunk everything away, I'll have them repay me by hiring Wanda to assist me with our work, I know this is cold and ruthless but I have to." Then when we see it from Wanda's POV she's like "you're giving me money to be out of the house and away from my father? And you'll even feed me? What an undeserved kindness!" Her reaction to "learning to manipulate numbers and do arithmetic is an amazing kind of magic!" felt cheesy and over-the-top, but the contrast between the literal phrasing of a royal decree and the way she "translates" it was more convincing.
• Irina, the daughter of the duke of Vysnia (Vilnius, Lithuania). Like Wanda, her mother is dead and her father is trying to arrange the most profitable marriage for her, never mind what she wants. When Miryem is compelled to turn magical Staryk silver into gold, she does so by having an acquaintance forge silver jewelry which the duke purchases--so when the gold takes on magical powers in the Staryk world, so does the silver with Irina, and brings her to the attention of a tsar. Despite her cold relationship with her father, she learns a lot from him and is a true politician, adept as anyone at cutting deals to keep her realm safe.
• Stepon, Wanda's younger brother. His narration is very simple and childlike (amazing cold open with "I like goats because I know what they will do.") It's possible he has some kind of sensory/mental health issues, or it's possible he's just eleven and overstimulated by unfamiliar crowds.
• Magreta, Irina's nurse/caretaker. She can be kind and supportive, but her casual antisemitism provides a contrast to how Miryem is treated by the villagers.
• Mirnatius, the tsar. For a while we mostly see him through Irina's POV ("this guy is so full of himself he requires a new outfit every day, that's no way to manage the economy"), but again, his narration provides a very different perspective on what's going on.

So I said the romance was better than "Uprooted," in that we didn't have the implausible "elderly magician berates young woman all the time but also they can't keep their hands off each other." In "Spinning Silver," both {Miryem and the Staryk king} and {Irina and Mirnatius} are paired off without much say-so on anybody's part, it's being manipulated by magic/higher-ups. So the timeframe of the book is mostly them all learning how to tolerate each other, and the romance is kind of left to your imagination in the future era.
The Staryk magic is kind of like...you can see their roads briefly if they make incursions in the human world, but as soon as they've disappeared, you start forgetting them and it really takes effort to remember. This means that if someone, like Miryem, disappears into the Staryk world, she's forgotten almost immediately except for little irregularities that don't seem right. These depictions were well-done. (Except that I was trying to remember if the Staryk were the same as the [jerk, mundane human] aristocrats in "Uprooted." They're not. I think I was half-remembering "Marek," the creepy prince, instead of "Staryk," the winter elves.)
There's a cool liminal space that sets up back-and-forth "communication" between the human and Staryk realms, and again, the multiple POVs are a good framework for this. On the other hand, there are some things, like, why do the Staryk want human gold, that are kind of chalked up to "magic idk" and not completely spelled out; for some of the confrontations at the end, again, it's better not to worry too much about hard magic systems and just go with the vibes. There's also an earlier plot that definitely plays the trope of "the less the audience knows about the plan, the more likely it is to succeed" trope straight.
Especially early on, it can be a very bleak "everyone sucks here" setting. Wanda and Stepon's father is horrific. Irina's father is mercenary and sets her up with Mirnatius, a dandy who abuses animals for fun. Nobody in the village respects Miryem's family, and when she tries to reclaim what she's due, her parents are horrified. The Staryk raid the village and carry off women and demand impossible tasks. There's a lot of "I have my wife to murder and Guilder to frame for it" coming from all sides. Even though the plot is moving forward, it's hard to feel like there's anything to root for.
But cracks of light shine through. Miryem's mother, and her mother, defy the "dead moms" trope, and are able to be loving parental figures to Wanda, Stepon, and their brother Sergey. Miryem's grandfather is wise and conscientious, warning her of the risks that some of her choices pose not only to their family but to the Vysnia Jewish community as a whole, but still recognizing she's mature enough to make her own choices. They even make use of a real-world Jewish blessing for the first blossoming of trees in the spring. Even when people are trying to be cold, sometimes they're just too human!
Bingo: Alliterative Title, Under the Surface (not for most of the plot, but there is a secret tunnel that gets use), Multi-POV (and how!)
The Infinite Arena (edited by Terry Carr)
Anthology of SF short stories about sports, stumbled upon while browsing a used bookstore. I like sports and the first one was based on "Casey at the Bat," so okay, sold.
It's from 1977, and the stories were originally published in the 40s-70s timeframe. The sex ratio among writers appears to be nine men, zero women, which is pretty "impressive" considering there are only seven stories. Three of them are installments from series that feature the same recurring character(s), so maybe that explains some of the...paucity? I don't want to say they're "flat" or "shallow" or anything, most of the contemporary "deep" stuff isn't to my taste either, but it feels like there's "no 'there' there" for several of these. In some cases, it's like, "we have to raise the stakes by involving gambling/someone's fate being on the line"; in others, it's looking for parallels between sports and other aspects of life (warfare? weird alien insects?) that provide the impetus for two plots to intertwine.
-Joy in Mudville (Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson)--very impressionable and earnest teddy-bear-like alien species imprints on humans, and immediately become obsessed with baseball. One of the aliens names himself Mighty Casey, but unfortunately, opponents can rattle him by reminding him of how "Casey at the Bat" turned out. Fortunately, what poetry can break, poetry can also fix...

"You untentacled mammal! raged Ush Karuza. "You sslimeless conformation of bored flesh!" Alex had long ago discovered that mankind rarely reacts to insults couched in nonhuman terms. It did not offend him at all to be told that he was slimeless.

-Bullard Reflects (Malcolm Jameson)--Dazzle Dart is a sport played by bouncing light rays around with reflective gear and aiming for a goal at the opponents' end. Like American football, one team is designated on offense at a time, and the other is on defense, but you can "intercept" and score from on defense. In Dazzle Dart, this is worth bonus points. Except instead of normal goals and "turnover" goals being worth one and two points respectively, it's twenty-five and fifty. And you thought Quidditch was silly. (This is from 1941.)
-The Body Builders (Keith Laumer)--the best of the stories, in my opinion, in that it predicts both technological advancement and the social changes that will ensue in a clever way.

So it's a little artificial maybe--but what about the Orggies, riding around in custom-built cars that are nothing but substitute personalities, wearing padded shoulders, contact lenses, hearing aids, false teeth, cosmetics, elevator shoes, rugs to cover their bald domes? If you're going to wear false eyelashes, why not false eyes? Instead of a nose bob, why not bob the whole face? At least a fellow wearing a Servo is honest about it, which is more than you can say for an Orggie doll in a foam-rubber bra--not that Julie needed any help in that department.

-The Great Kladnar Race (Robert Silverberg and Randall Garrett)--bored humans on an alien planet try introducing something like horse races that they can bet on. However, the aliens' concepts of sports and competition and betting don't necessarily align with the humans'.
-Mr. Meek Plays Polo (Clifford D. Simak)--guy who has only seen one space polo game in his life somehow accidentally stumbles into being the "expert" space polo coach, oops. Also there are weird alien bugs that are great at computation (a little like "The Circle").
-Sunjammer (Arthur C. Clarke, whose name is spelled wrong on the front cover)--a solar flare interrupts a solar sailboat race. Felt timely given the storm of a few days ago! (I did not get to see the aurora, alas.)
-Run to Starlight (George R. R. Martin)--short and slow but extremely muscular aliens enter an American football league and crush everyone, metaphorically and literally. However, the aliens' concepts of sports and competition don't necessarily align with the humans'. Too bad he never wrote anything else ;)
Bingo: 5+ short stories.

Hi dentists! Going to give some context. I have horrible dentist anxiety. I can’t sit in that chair without panicking. I got a root canal done about 5 years ago and never went back for the crown. This year the tooth chipped and i decided to finally get the crown. I had some pain with the tooth but nothing too severe and the pain would come and go over long periods of time (like 2 weeks of no pain 1 day of pain). Dentist took X-rays and saw no signs of infection and placed the crown. It was pretty sore for the 1st 4 days but after that it felt fine and i had been slowly starting to chew on both sides. Yesterday i treated it completely normal and chewed on that side pretty much all day. This morning I went to do the same thing and suddenly it’s extremely sensitive. Almost feels like it’s bruised or something. It isn’t aching on its own either. Only when eating. Barely touching it makes it hurt. Dentist is closed today so i figured I’d ask on here if this is normal. It’s been 1 week since I’ve had it placed.
Thanks!