Introduction
In order to supply energy for regular bodily processes, glucose is necessary. Blood glucose levels rise in diabetics as a result of a relative or total insulin shortage. One hormone is insulin. A hormone is a substance that our bodies' glands secrete. The pancreas is the name for this gland, which is located in the abdomen. Insulin functions as a gatekeeper, permitting glucose to enter the cell. If the body produces too much insulin or if insulin's function is compromised, too much glucose builds up and damages the cells in different organs. Diabetes is a metabolic disease in which the body cannot utilize glucose to meet its energy needs. Insulin is necessary for the entry of glucose into cells, as we have already mentioned. For this reason, when cells cannot use glucose to the fullest extent, the body attempts to generate extra glucose through a process known as glycogenesis. Here's how blood sugar levels continue to rise in the absence of food. Diabetes occurs mostly in two forms. The initial kind, or insulin-dependent diabetes. Only insulin, the primary medication, is effective in treating it. Younger patient age groups frequently experience this. Type II diabetes is the second kind, which is not insulin-dependent. In India, this is a growing trend. People older than 40 are typically affected by this. Exercise, nutrition, and oral medicines can all be used to manage this group.

If uncontrolled diabetes is not caught early enough, it can have harmful effects on all areas of the body. The illness needs to be properly treated even if a person does not now experience its effects. Neglect and complacency are never safe. Keep in mind that maintaining good control over the disease is essential to living a normal life. One of the main risk factors for developing complications from diabetes later in life is poorly managed diabetes. The chart below illustrates a few of these concerns for complications. This isn't meant to frighten you; rather, it's only meant to highlight how crucial it is to manage diabetes.
Diabetes food pyramid
Two of the most crucial things you can do to improve your health are to eat a healthy diet and get regular exercise. You can accomplish this by using the Food pyramid guide, the Physical Activity Guidelines, and the Healthy Eating Guidelines. Eating a healthy diet entails consuming the right proportions of the vitamins, minerals, fats, proteins, and carbs that your body needs to stay healthy. On each shelf of the Food Pyramid, foods that are similar in terms of nutrients are placed together. This provides you with a variety of food options from which to select a nutritious diet. Getting the correct balance of nutrient-dense foods within your calorie range can be achieved by using the Food Pyramid as a guide.
Research indicates that we consume an excessive amount of calories from foods and beverages on the Top Shelf of the Food Pyramid that are high in fat, sugar, and salt. They barely contain any of the vital vitamins and minerals that your body needs. Restricting them is necessary for a healthy diet. You need different nutrients every day depending on where you are in life. These are determined by your age, gender, level of activity, and gender.
Understanding food pyramid
•Restrict your intake of items from the Food Pyramid's top shelf. Considering that these are heavy in fat, sugar, and salt, this is the most crucial Healthy Eating Guideline.
•Use fresh ingredients when preparing and cooking your meals. Because they are often heavy in fat and salt, ready meals and takeout should not be consumed frequently.
•Consistently read the nutrition label; look for excessive amounts of sugar, fat, and salt.
•Consume at least five different colored fruits and veggies each day. Make regular choices of leafy green vegetables. Smoothies can be included in your daily servings of fruits and vegetables, but try to limit your intake to those that contain fruit or vegetables. Look for fat and sugar on the label.
•The greatest foods to feed your body include whole grain bread, potatoes, whole-wheat pasta, brown rice, and high-fiber cereals, especially porridge. These foods also satiate hunger. They offer a gradual release of energy. Recognize that different varieties may have different amounts of calories.
•Instead of frying food, use healthy cooking techniques including steaming, grilling, baking, roasting, and stir-frying. Limit your consumption of fried items like chips.
•Increase your fish intake; it's high in protein and contains essential vitamins and minerals. Make an effort to consume oily fish, such as salmon, sardines, and mackerel,
at least once a week. They contain a lot of omega-3 lipids. Reduced-fat cheese, low-fat/no-sugar yogurts, and yogurt drinks are the better options.
•While preparing or serving meals, use as little or no salt as feasible. Instead, experiment with different flavorings including lemon juice, herbs, spices, pepper, and garlic. Eat as much fresh food as you can. Check the food labels for the amount of salt.
•An adult needs eight to ten glasses or cups of liquid every day. 200 ml is roughly one cup. If you exercise, you will require more. Teens and children should drink often throughout the day. The ideal fluid is water.
•Make time to sit down at a table and eat three meals a day. Eat mindfully and give your food a good chew. You may overeat if you eat while watching TV or using a computer since it can cause you to become distracted by how much food you are consuming. Alcohol contains calories, so if you drink, do it responsibly within advised limits and ideally with meals.
•Always make time for breakfast, as those who eat it are more likely to maintain a healthy weight.
•You shouldn't need to take food supplements if you consume a healthy, balanced diet unless your doctor tells you to. Nonetheless, it is recommended that all sexually active women of reproductive age take 400µg of folic acid daily, ideally as a supplement. Vitamin D deficiency in the diet can be addressed by discussing supplementation with your physician or pharmacist.
•Eating a healthy diet both before and throughout pregnancy lowers the chance that your unborn child may develop lifestyle disorders like obesity and heart disease. Breastfeeding is highly advised since breast milk provides additional protection.
•Take into account how much food, excluding fruits and vegetables, you eat from each shelf of the Food Pyramid if you are overweight.
Conclusion
A diabetic diet's ingredients differ from person to person. A balanced diet is an excellent way to treat diabetes. Making a nutritious diet is made easier with the guidance of the diabetes food pyramid. Diabetes can be beaten with a balanced diet, appropriate medication, and a healthy lifestyle.

INTRODUCTION
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a heterogeneous metabolic disorder characterized by a common feature of increased levels of blood glucose (or blood sugar), which over time may lead to serious damage to the nerves, blood vessels, heart, and various organ systems of the body.
The most characterized feature of diabetes is insulin resistance by the Beta cells of the pancreas.
GESTATIONAL DIABETES

1. One of the types of Diabetes Mellitus is Gestational Diabetes i.e., Diabetes during pregnancy.
   
2. About 4% of pregnant women develop DM due to metabolic changes during pregnancy. Although they revert to normal glycemia (normal blood glucose) after delivery, these women are prone to develop DM later in their lives.
   

OTHER TYPES OF DIABETES MELLITUS

1. Type 1 D. M:

Type 1 diabetes is a condition that results from an abnormal immune response where certain cells called “T-cells” which are a part of the Beta cells of the pancreas are destroyed. Type 1 diabetes is based on the “gene-environment interaction” model i.e., individuals who are susceptible to certain environmental triggers develop resistance to the activity of Beta cells which in turn results in low or no production of insulin. Type 1 diabetes is strongly influenced by genetic predisposition but it does not follow any particular pattern of inheritance.

1. Type 2 D. M:

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a heterogeneous condition that is characterized by varying degrees of insulin resistance (where insulin rejects synthesis of carbohydrates) and beta-cell dysfunction, Beta cells are those cells that are part of the pancreas that produce insulin. Type 2 diabetes is commonly associated with obesity.
In type 2 diabetes, there are mainly two problems. The pancreas can not produce enough insulin (the hormone that regulates the movement of sugar into the cells). The cells do not respond properly to insulin and synthesize less sugar. Type 2 diabetes used to be known as adult-onset diabetes, but both type 1 and type 2 diabetes can begin during childhood and adulthood. Type 2 is more common in the older generation but due to the increase in the number of children with obesity, more cases of type 2 diabetes are seen in the younger generation.

1. Other specific types:

Only 10% are affected by this type of D. M and this includes Genetic defects, endocrinopathies, etc.
TREATMENT

1. Treatment for Gestational diabetes depends on the signs and symptoms of the individual, the age, and the severity of the condition.
   
2. To maintain blood glucose levels, medication that lowers blood sugar levels may be given in the form of tablets.
   
3. A proper diet has to be followed.
   
4. Exercise as prescribed by the doctor.
   
5. For higher blood sugar levels insulin is required to be administered.
   

SIDE EFFECTS OF INSULIN
Increased insulin leads to increased glucose in a baby’s system which may keep the lungs from growing fully. This can cause breathing problems in babies. This is mostly seen in babies born before 37 weeks of pregnancy.
If insulin is given in higher concentration then it may lead to hypoglycemia (decreased blood sugar level) which may lead to loss of consciousness, coma, severe and irreversible brain injuries, or death.
CONCLUSION
While the right doses of insulin have no ill effects on the human body, higher doses can lead to severe conditions that may even result in death. Therefore all insulin dosages have to be prescribed by a qualified physician.

I woke up this morning, stepped on the scale, and had hit my target weight so thought I'd jot down some thoughts.
None of this is really going to be news to anyone who's been on OMAD for a while.

1. The book Fast. Eat. Repeat. is pretty terrible. Don't bother with it.
2. The fasting part of OMAD is (mostly) not the key. It's just a nice hack to limit calories.
3. All the talk about "it's great not having to cook/meal plan all the time" is kinda true but also a bit meaningless unless you're single. I'm still doing the same amount of cooking and whatnot for my family. But now I just kind of hover awkwardly while they eat pancakes.
4. That said, the fasting does have a couple of nice by-products.
   1. When you only have one meal a day, it really makes you pay attention the quality of it. You can't kid yourself that you're going to eat more vegetables/fibewhatever in another meal that deal.
   2. It forces you to realise that being hungry is just a feeling that passes and not the end of the world. Even after being on OMAD for months I still hungry at non mealtimes sometimes. I just ignore that feeling and eventually it goes away.
   3. Having hard and fast rules about only eating one time a day is a good way to cut down on mindless calories from snacking & drinks.
5. OMAD is lot easier to do and still be social with friends and family. My wife had gestational diabetes so we were essentially on keto for a few months for that. Going out or meeting up with friends could sometimes be a nightmare. OMAD is a lot easier.
6. That said, OMAD doesn't make it perfect. If you do any social drinking, either at home with a spouse after a particularly long & hard day with the kids, or out with friends who want to catch up or vent or celebrate, that's borderline impossible with OMAD. You can only say "no thanks, not tonight" so many times without affecting the relationship.
7. I broke OMAD maybe 5-10% of the time? I didn't keep track exactly. Aforementioned social drinks. My kids had a birthday party and of course I'm not going to be a dick and say no to their cake. In-laws come over unexpectedly for dinner even after I've already eaten lunch. Three days out of town at a beach holiday. Things like that. One nice part about OMAD is it feels easier to take a break like that. Especially compared to something like keto where you're always "OMG it's going to take me 2-4 days to get back into ketosis..."
8. My wife was surprisingly unsupportive the entire time. Never underestimate how weird (some) people can be about any kind of diet that is slightly outside of the mainstream. (Just look at how much shit vegetarians and vegans have gotten over the decades.)
9. I didn't really have a goal to begin with, which in retrospect was a bit of a mistake. Just "need to lose weight because I'm getting way too much of a dad bod". Probably would have been better to think that through at the beginning.
10. I had never weighed myself daily before. It was eye opening and frustrating. Some days you know why things are fluctuating. Some days you're just left going WTF, how could I have possibly gained 0.5kg yesterday? That's like 3,000 calories above TDEE?!?
11. What's next? Figuring out what maintenance looks like. The social limitations of OMAD do chafe a bit. It is nice to have a glass of wine with my wife after the kids are in bed. It is nice to be able to have family breakfast on the weekend and also have family dinner together. It is nice when a friend calls me up last minute in the afternoon and asks if I want to grab dinner and catch up I don't go..."Well, I already ate lunch...." My guess is that I'll probably evolve towards some kind of flexible 20-4 eating window but we will see.

Hello! I don't know what prompts me specifically today to write this, I just felt like it. I think I can share a generally optimistic experience, but a realistic one, and I think reading this would have been nice for me when I was at rock bottom.
Rock bottom for me was in 2019. Bad job, bad mental health, I just didn't have a good grip on life anymore and this caused my disordered eatign to reach intolerable extens. I was looking for professional help, but finding a therapist is not easy here. There's just not enough, the waiting lists are long. Not to mention that going to a therapist and telling them your most shameful problems is just an awful thing. So I didn't find any help.
Then 2020 came, I was jobless and living with my parents, and this kind of forced me into recovery. No funds for binge OR restriction foods, no privacy to restrict or b/p. I was also severy depressed, and I stopped caring about even my eating habits. So I didn't go all in at that point. I was mostly eating normally, with some half-hearted attempts at restriction and some lack luster b/p sessions. The depression made me unable to excercise heavily. And I jsut couldn't muster any care for any of it.
I found a new job at the end of 2020 and moved out again and at that point I started acttually trying. Trying to get my life in order, my eating, and my feelings about eating along with it. That worked about as good as not trying - I still had a fare share of relapses.
This continued all throughout 2021 and 2022, my motivation for recovery waxing and waning, but ultimately I was still depressed and lacking the motivation to go all in, to look for help, but also to commit fully to an eating disorder again.
Not that this was all for nothing. My health improved. That means, obviously, I gained weight. Having to put away clothing that fit me previously, that I had sentimal attachments to, triggered the worst relapses. But at some point all of those clothes were gone. I bouht new ones, I didn't feel great about it. But along with the weight other things improved. I had terrible issues with my blood sugar before, that I'm sure were of my own doing. If I missed a meal on accident, I'd get terribly hypoglycemic (diabetes runs in my family - maybe related?). This just disappeared. Who'd have thought, EDs affect your health in unwanted ways? I was able to hike and cycle and run without carrying embarassing amounts of fructose with me now.
Regarding the mental stuff in this time - I still didn't feel great about myself. But it improved. I sometimes got to look at myself in the mirror and think nice things! Even when just 2 years ago, I would have been horrified by the changes in my body. Along with that, I forgot some calorie counts. I ate new foods that I never looked up the calories for. I started feeling comfortable with previous fear foods. I can drink non-zero sodas now, my previous mortal enemy (although that was the food that took the longest time). I started being able to keep foods around the house (oats, canend beans, pasta) without immediately binging on them. My kitchen cabinets started looking presentable to guests.
Around last years, 2023, I got my depression under control. Or at least I started to. With the help of medication (which I was able to take because I wasn't as deatly afraid of the weight gain anymore), but also just by trying really, really hard. I changed my life situation a lot. I got therapy, although I can't say it helped so much, findign a good therapist is a lot of work. I'm still on some waiting lists.
Now with the depression not gone, but much better, I was able to start caring about things. I wanted to be healthy, not only in body, but in mind. This is when I really took to "all in". I started buying the real bad fear foods. Cookies, chips, sugary sodas. Nutella! And I ate a lot of these. Scary amounts to me, really. But, as I was promised, as I let myself eat all of that, my obsessiveness around these foods decreased. Not that I don't still crave them sometimes. But I can leave a half-eaten chocolate bar in the cabinet! A dream!
Maybe I should still tackle this in therapy at some point. The disordered thoughts are not gone completely. I still think I should be thinner. I still consider whether I "earned" this serving of nutella on my bread. But with the other bad thoughts, the ones stemming from depression and anxiety, I am able to acknowledge them and put them away.
I don't know what the moral of this whole story is. I think for one it's: doing a little even without going all in is still going to let you see progress down the line. But it's also: going all in does work. And, see the whole picture. For me, my ED was not a separate problem from my other mental health issues and my life situation. Both needed to improve for my ED to lessen.
Honestly, posting this is a selfish act. I just wanted to get it all out. But if you related to it in any way, please let me know. And if you find any of this harmful, please also let me know so I can put specific trigger warnings.

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Hi all UPN/Pre-Nursing people! I just wanted to write out some tips on how to look best on your NursingCAS applications for your goal starting semester. This is a pretty detailed guide with some good calculations to determine other scores beyond just the basic impaction score. This also provides some resources for your TEAs that I found most useful. This guide is directed towards those applying to SJSU especially those on the Pre-Nursing Track at SJSU.
Don't flop your first semester: It is true that the first semester of college has a learning curve, but it is still important that you stay focused and maintain a high GPA. For many this is the easiest semester, but don't be fooled English 1A or Chem30A/BIOL65 will bite you in the butt last second.
Aim for a high GPA not solely TEAs: As much as people brag about their TEAs scores a GPA at SJSU is much more important! If you have a 4.0 GPA and score lower on your TEAs you will have a way better shot at getting in. Take this for example: a person got 2 A- in 3 unit courses out of the big 8. This makes their cumulative GPA a 3.94 GPA. If this person applied to nursing against a person with a 4.0 this score is then doubled, for impaction. 8 compared to a 7.88. With 2 A-'s you now need to do better than 3.5% of whatever teas score the kid with a 4.0 got. Also keep in mind that SJSU already requires a 84% to even apply leaving a 16% playing field. If you get a 4.0 and a 84% a person with 3.94 needs to get a 87.5% on their teas!

• BE ADVISED EVERY SINGLE POINT COUNTS!
• Realistically you are okay and should not flip out with a 3.94 GPA to this is just being used as a clear example. Just remember that if you keep a high GPA that you are saving yourself a mental breakdown before taking a TEAs.
  • Be sure to get the extra points as well if you know you don't have perfect stats. This will greatly improve your odds at getting in, especially for Fall applicants.

Don't rely on comparing stats to AllNurses: This is a hot take, but hear me out; 60 kids get into SJSUs nursing program and maybe 10 people post their stats on AllNurses. I am throwing no shade saying this, but these are the people that are for the most part going to get in. Some claim to have 4.0 GPAs, 98 TEAs, 2000hrs of Healthcare experience, and co-reqs done too. Obviously they are going to get in but, that spot is now taken from a person bringing it down to 59 others. It is nice to have a comparison to, but unless more people post on it people are going to have skewed to the right opinions. There are tons of applicants and there are different groups of people apply. The overachievers, the average, and the prayers. Most people are average and do not have the crazy stats these people have. There are some people that do post stats that are more relevant to compare to such as a 4.0 with an 88% or something like that. Again this is highballing and it is important to really dig deep into who got accepted when using this platform. A 92% TEAs is what even the pre-nursing advisors and these guys want you to drop the major. Do realize that if you have a lower GPA you will need a higher TEAs. Doing this calculation [20(4-(current GPA))*3] will tell you what you need in comparison to a 4.0 GPA.

• Here is an example with a 3.8GPA [20(4-3.8)*3] = [20(.2)*3] = 4*3 = 12, this means (excluding extra points), you need to score at least a 96% if a kid with a 4.0 got a 84% on their TEAs.
  • For understanding the 20 comes from the calculation 10 (to make the solution a whole number) multiplied by 2 (because the GPA is multiplied by two in the impaction score calculation) and the 3 comes from the fact each .1 of a GPA equates to 3% of a persons TEAs score (1/30 = .033333*3 = .1). The 20 contains the multiplication factor of 2 already so we don't need to multiply 3 by 2 as well.

The minimum GPA and TEAs: Yes it is true that if you do have a pretty poor GPA (3.3-3.4) and don't have the TEAs to make up for it then it is probably unlikely you will get into the program. But, at this campus the stats are never posted for who gets in and during which semester. Recently SJSU raised their TEAs from a 78% all the way up to a required 84% which to me is crazy high! I assume this is to cut down the amount of applicants and in turn this makes the TEAs pretty irrelevant to the total stats. With only a 16% max gap, now any person who is able to apply to nursing must have at least that score making the GPA that much more important. If you have a 3.9 GPA and a 94 on your teas, a person with a 3.8 will still get outcompeted regardless of TEAs score. This is most likely why the GPA was lowered for nursing and is now a 3.3 instead the previous 3.4 because some kids may have done well in the GPA aspect and messed up their TEAs. Aim for a higher GPA but do realize that a lot of kids do manage to get really good GPAs that correlate with good TEAs scores. Get a good GPA, 3.8 and above is pretty good, a 3.9+ is quality work for both Fall and Spring semesters, and make sure to aim for higher than the TEAs threshold.Nursing advisors deter people from applying but, it is accurate that as of Fall 2024 that you have to be at the top to get in. Keep in mind that there are 500+ applicants and only 60 get in that is only 12% of the applicant pool. You need to aim for the 80th percentile at the minimum to be on the waitlist first round (beating 400 other applicants)
TEAs Test: Now I know I have talked a lot about the importance of the GPA, but regardless you still do want to do well on the TEAs. Your TEAs score, like I talked about above, is directly related to your GPA. If you got a lower GPA you need a high TEAs and if you got a high GPA you can slack on the TEAs score. If you have a low GPA this will make or break the odds of getting in and every 3% on the test you get a .1 point increase. Going against what I think everyone I have ever talked to has said, for me personally I say take the TEAs online, if that is still an option. Not only can you take the test literally whatever day you want, you can also take it at whatever time of that day you selected as long as a proctor is available. Some argue that the they test better when in a school environment and this is valid, but I also test better in those environments and I bombed my first TEAs due to nerves. When I took it online the only stressors were if the test were to crash or the proctor flagged my exam for no reason, but neither of those happened not even close. The low stress of being at home and taking the test when I wanted to allowed for much better results and comfort. You get to finish the sections when you want. If you think you are done and don't want to triple check your answers to save the brainpower for later sections you get that option. Take the test where you think you will test best though and take these words with a grain of salt. I just wanted to say that the TEAs online is the same content as it is in person and at the leisure of your home. Not many people talk about how the TEAs online is positive for some people!
Get the extra points if you can: The extra points are pretty easy to get at SJSU especially as commuters. Of course nobody can make themselves a first generation student, but if you are that is easy free points and congrats. No one has a clue what SJSU gives as a "bump" to an applicants score and it is honestly only there because everyones stats are so similar so they need more tie breakers. Granted, you will most likely want to win the tie breaker and in order to do you have to at least have all the co-reqs done. I want to be straight up and say I think the vast majority of students have these all completed prior to applying for the Fall because you have an extra semester (maybe not Spring idk). So make sure to have these all completed so you are not left behind and waste an attempt in the SJSU applicant pool(unless you have great stats t or have healthcare hrs instead then just apply). You only have 2 attempts at applying to nursing at SJSU so make them count. If you can, there is also the healthcare hours bump. This is a bump isn't achieved by all applicants and could help if you have lower stats. Keep in mind that this usually involves volunteer work once a week for 4hr shifts so you will be wherever you choose to stay for about 6 months (decent time commitment with school). I've heard that the healthcare hrs are pretty lenient about what exactly you did as long as it is part of the healthcare field and you can get it signed. Of course if you already have had a health job within 3 years this is a free point bump too!
Spring semester isn't as easy to get into as it once was: SJSU changed this policy. In 2023 only transfer students can apply for SJSU fall semester cohorts, no longer accepting post-bacs. Whereas spring semester cohorts will accept post-bacs and no longer accept transfer students. This means that Fall semester likely is getting more difficult to get into as all transfer students have to apply for the same cohort. It is believed that the School accepts a bunch of SJSU students and after the initial acceptance everyone on the waitlist is combined meaning more transfers will get in from the waitlist process as they may not have made the original cut with the SJSU students bump. This would also mean there are less opportunities for SJSU students to get in during the spring cohort as they battle against stronger transfer candidates. As for transfers, in Fall there are more opportunities to get in as more are accepted initally and through the waitlist process. For post-bacs the same process is in place but, since the top UPN students (because they were following the exact track) were picked out for Fall stats could be a little lower. Regardless, Fall semester cohorts I would assume have slightly higher impaction scores from all areas that are applying as most students took their time throughout all the courses and UPN program students are all expected to apply for Fall semester. Take this all with a grain of salt since again there are no exact numbers of all that get accepted as transfers and post-bacs and if these numbers have increased because of this change.
Remember your overall GPA prior to applying does matter: Your overall GPA does matter when applying for nursing at SJSU! When it comes to tiebreakers if everything is the same - the gpa, the teas, and the extra points - the school will look at overall GPAs to decide who gets in. So make sure to get good grades in that moral issues class freshman year because it will come back to haunt you if you don't get in because of it.
Don't Break down!: It is easy to read all of this and think that you are screwed, but it is important to remember that many people are in the exact same situation. We are not all getting 4.0s and 92s on our teas like our advisors tell us we need. Expect A-'s and a B+. No stats are published and nobody knows for sure what you need but the advisors say people get "mostly a's". Aim for the highest impaction score that you can get and don't slack on it because literally that is what is determining if you get in or not.

• As a SJSU student you have 2 opportunities to get in, once in Fall (a little more difficult as most SJSU students are on track so there are more of you) and Spring (a little easier just because there are less Pre-Nursing majors applying). So if you don't get in for the Fall and your stats are good, you have a great chance in the Spring
  • PS if you do get declined for the Fall get all the extra bumps you can and if you still have one more TEAs opportunity, TAKE IT AGAIN! If you get waitlisted for Fall there is a really good chance you will get in for Spring as the people you were originally going against are gone.

Waitlist: If you get waitlisted it really is not the end of the world. Most schools send out acceptance letters in two waves one at the beginning/mid of April and at the end of April where people accept of decline their schools. SJSU keeps a long waitlist because a lot of people drop the school for more local schools/bigger name schools so never lose hope. I've heard stories of people being #70 on the waitlist and still getting in. (FYI you have to contact someone to check if you were waitlisted you will not get any notice of what is taking so long for your acceptance. only when you are on the waitlist can you contact staff about your placement. Staff will not tell you where you are if you are not emailed by Nursing that you are on the waitlist.)

• If you are immediately declined from the school, that means that currently they were unable to offer you a seat. However, this does not mean that you are out yet. The school has an original waitlist and if that gets ran though they create another backup waitlist in case more students drop in the summer. This contains around 12 more students and you could be apart of this group.

EXTRA Info:

• Nursing Apps open January 17th for Fall and August 17th for Spring and they both close on the 15th the following month
• If you are a current SJSU student you do not need to apply for SJSU again prior to applying
• However many units a course is will impact your GPA differently (more units means more of your GPA)
• You get about One Week to accept SJSU. SJSU is one of the latest schools to send out acceptance letters so be prepared to wait. 8 Weeks after the deadline is when acceptance letter should begin to roll out.
• Acceptances are sent out around April 10th for Fall and November 10th for Spring.

TEAs Studying TIPs:

• DM me if you want a google doc with TEAs information (it won't let me put it here) it provides, in my opinion, the best ways to study for the TEAs. For me personally I only received a 93.3 but, if I had realized how vital one of the sources before I took the test the next day, I would have performed even better! Please give this a look. If you dont want you I'll put the order of importance here without links
  • 1 Quizlets, #2 the ATI website, #3 Miscellaneous Prep Tests (I provide links in the doc), #4 PocketPrep

Application Assistance:

• Submit all documents separate from each other
• The application pool is Not Rolling meaning you can apply at any time before the deadline and still not be penalized
• Whatever work experience you have will not change the size of the score bump i.e a hospital volunteer will get the same size bump as a person with a CNA.
  • You also do not need any letters of recommendation and don't need to fill out any extra information on the NursingCAS website for SJSU specifically. They will not read any paragraphs that are not relevant to you getting accepted.
• AP credit does not affect the GPA it is solely for credit. If the AP course is not listed on your transcript then you must submit a form proving you passed the exam in the "other" section.
  • Make sure that all your documents that need to be there are there and they will be seen and accounted for. Regardless of where you put the documents the will show up on the application.
• Download you application prior to submitting your application (they will let you do this after you finished all the documents uploading and are preparing to finalize). Look over everything to ensure it's all correct.

I know this whole process is stressful and pretty terrifying, but everyone has a chance. This is just what I have learned throughout the whole process and hopefully it will help others that have 0 clue what is going on. Although some of this may make it seem like you need to have crazy high stats I am just trying to say do your best. If SJSU ever posts the stats for accepted applicants this would a be a different story. This is a CSU so unfortunately this application does follow the "a single number means everything" this means your impaction score is who you are; not necessarily how well rounded you may be. Good luck to all future nursing applicants and congrats.
"Congratulations! This email is to inform you of your provisional acceptance to The Valley Foundation School of Nursing at San José State University" Fall
You can DM if you have any questions.

https://libriincogniti.wordpress.com/2021/02/25/kommunistisches-programm-national-revolution-and-downfall-of-cambodia/

The Events after the Fall of Phnom Penh and the Programme of Khieu Samphan, the Peasantry and the Enablers of Capital
With the end of the Indochina war in 1975, not much remained of Cambodia’s economy either. More than half of the rice fields lay fallow, and the few industrial enterprises, the port facilities in Kampong Som, the railway lines and the bridges had been destroyed by US bombs. Although the figures are not unambiguous, their magnitude alone shows what heavy blood sacrifice imperialism also demanded of this people: In the five years of war, around 800,000 people were killed, more than 40,000 were maimed, almost 200,000 were wounded.
The constant flow of refugees inflated the capital from its original population of around 600,000 to over 3 million, meaning that by the end of the war almost half of the Khmer people were crammed into their metropolis. As is well known, the imperialist world press howled in horror and disgust when it learned of the forced exodus of this human aggregation. The US bombardment drove people from the countryside into the cities – the revolutionary nationalists had to force them back. Both actions were cruel and devastating for those affected, because both times they happened under terrible conditions, the first time under the imperialist hail of bombs and the coercion of its local police, the second time under the pressure of hunger and the state coercion of the newly installed revolutionary patriotic power. But for the imperialist propaganda machine there were no connections here. Of course, it only saw the terror of the Khmer Rouge, so supposedly of Communism. Here again was a wonderful opportunity to play out the bourgeois farce of humanism and love of one’s neighbour to the full. No mention of the mass murders in the imperialist war against the Southeast Asian peoples, no mention of the unspeakable destruction of these only weakly industrialised agrarian societies. These sacrifices were noticed at most when the insane war spending of the USA threatened to drag the entire imperialist West into the vortex of economic problems as a result of the currency crises caused by it. After all, to this day, these gentlemen are consistently proud of their efforts to preserve “freedom”.
Cambodia became the main object of these friends of mankind over the next few years. Here, indeed, all cherished values and conceptions were thrown overboard. A state without money, without postal services, without cars and motorbikes, without public transport, without telephones, television, books and the cities extinct. Only “communists” could have committed this crime; as is well known, they can be trusted with anything inhumane and in Cambodia they truly acted as the incarnation of “darkness” and “evil”. What was perpetrated before in the name of the heroes of “light” and “reason” – not a word about that, of course. It was a central organ of the imperialist offensive on the human intellect – Reader’s Digest – that first announced in 1977 that at least 1.2 million people had been murdered in the two years since the fall of Phnom Penh. Ever new figures were quickly added, which journalists claimed to have learned from the numerous refugees. It is not necessary to assume that all these reports were forgeries, because in fact the Khmer Rouge set an extremely radical course from the beginning, which certainly brought much horror, misery and also deaths. But today’s sated imperialists should perhaps sometimes look at the history books: What misery, what terror, what torment against the population is archived there – and that over centuries. The French Revolution also produced at least 100,000 deaths in the most important four years – and it did so with a machine specially designed for the purpose. It was not by chance that it was the steam engine and the guillotine that inaugurated the industrial age in a revolutionary way. But do the distinguished British gentlemen, who even then scoffed at these butchers in Paris, have fewer lives on their consciences? Those who still don’t know have to have it written on their cheat sheets all the time: The establishment of bourgeois rule has always been brutal and extremely bloody. The destruction of the traditional smallholder form of economy, the annihilation of small-scale trade and crafts always passed over those affected like a merciless steamroller. And under unspeakable tortures, the majority of these people who were expropriated without compensation were pressed into the factories and, if necessary, forced by brutal violence to slave as many hours of their day as possible for the lowest possible wages. All that was not so long ago. But it is always amusing how hastily today’s representatives of capital pretend that these are youthful sins of foreign predecessors. And this process of constant dressing for factory labour, of the destruction of both man and nature, continues both in depth and in breadth. It will only come to an end when this capitalist basis has been revolutionarily annihilated because of the contradictions it constantly produces.
...
However, if one wants to understand the “mysterious” processes in Cambodia, one has to be clear above all about the material and social conditions. A devastated country that was still largely worked by small peasants; a chaotically bloated capital city to which the majority of these same peasants had fled. The terror of the bombs had charged this population, once peaceful and living in the eternal grind of farm labour, with fear, but above all with unbridled rage and blind hatred. Hatred against the city in which they had to take refuge, anger against the American bombers which destroyed their existence, but particularly anger against their own corrupt aristocracy, the military as well as the city dwellers in general who sought to prolong their raison d’être by making a pact with imperialism. Now the old mixture of foreignness, subservient spirit and unease found its general discharge in a primal hatred of the rural population for their oppressors in the cities. A frenzy of revenge arose, which certainly accounted for most of the brutalities in the first year of liberation.
In order to understand this social side of this revolution in Cambodia, which gave it the ferocious expression of blood, revenge and chaos that one encounters in practically every revolution carried out mainly by peasants, one must always bear in mind the social structure already described. The strong urban-rural divide was not between agriculture and industry – the latter was practically non-existent – but it was the extreme contrast between agriculture and all the ominous trades that bourgeois statistics usually classify under the heading of “services”. Here, actually “unproductive” administration and trade – moreover, predominantly created and nourished in the service of imperialism – and “productive” agriculture faced each other. Of the “peace population” in Phnom Penh of about 600,000, this included about 200,000 Vietnamese and over 100,000 Chinese, out of a total of about 800,000. So the Cambodians did not even make up the majority of the population in their capital. Aristocracy and officials on one side, poor peasants on the other, too poor to make a living in the countryside, coming to the city because they hoped for a job, or later bombed into it. Cambodians were almost completely excluded from the trade and merchant sectors. These sectors were mainly in the hands of the Chinese and Vietnamese.
In this approaching whirlwind of social unrest on the part of the peasants, which is growing in strength, another social force tries for its survival. Young intellectuals, most of them educated in Paris, the educational centre of the former colonial ruler, want to break the corrupt tangle of local aristocracy and foreign power by force. Without any reservoir in the own ranks of the urban bourgeoisie, for the latter is practically non-existent and if it is, then hardly to be enthused for nationalist accumulation programmes with a more rigorous cut; without a proper bourgeois class, these petty-bourgeois radicals lead a practically hopeless struggle for change. Forced very soon into the rural underground by Sihanouk’s authoritarian regime, they try to implement their programme of industrialisation based on agriculture with the help of the only social class that counts – namely the rural population, the small peasants and farm workers.
...
One simply has to quote these illuminating passages of the Khmer Rouge’s “chief ideologist” at length, because after all the imperialist wailing, one probably does not think it possible that these “monsters” can think at all. (A Trotskyist group, persistent in its obtuseness, even opined that these “monsters” were the embodiment of… a return to feudalism!) One thing is immediately quite clear: these petty-bourgeois intellectuals, widely referred to as Marxists, communists, etc., are never ever in the tradition of the “German” Karl Marx, but of the German Friedrich List, who, under the slogan “Freedom is the goal, limitation is the necessity”, set his protectionist credo against the imperialist ideology of the free traders in the last century. The Khmer Rouge leaders are thus spiritual sons of the ancestors of today’s imperialists, those imperialists who now see in them the personified devil of communism, although they only wanted to be flesh of their flesh.
These views of Samphan and thus the leaders of the Khmer Rouge were also quoted at length because they are so popular today. In the face of the growing exploitation of the countries of the so-called Third World by Western imperialism, theories are emerging everywhere that vehemently propose the same position of “cutting off” the “underdeveloped” countries from the dominance of the world market ruled by Western capital as a panacea. And it is certainly no coincidence that one of the main representatives of these academic “revolutionaries”, the Egyptian Samir Amin, raves about the radicalism of the Khmer Rouge even after their expulsion and predicts a chain of new “Kampucheas” for the African future. Against the massive reality of the increasing internationalisation of capital and the growing global control of Western and increasingly Eastern imperialism, such “progressive” petty-bourgeois theorists place their faith in autarky, national accumulation and so-called autocentric development. Against the capitalist propaganda of progress and prosperity through freedom of trade and capital investment, which in reality in fact produces nothing but growing pauperisation and exploitation, the Good News on the other side says: Only if one can free oneself from imperialism at least for as long as it takes to be able to develop one’s productive forces independently, only then will one achieve prosperity and security for humanity.
In this respect, both sides represent only two sides of the same coin. Both claim to be able to achieve “the greatest happiness for the greatest number” within the framework of and through capitalism – as the forefather of these bourgeois tendencies, Adam Smith, already formulated this elementary lie of capital.
...
The utopians of capital have to acknowledge time and again that, contrary to their proclamations, the social antagonisms both within the “developed” and “underdeveloped” countries and between these countries are becoming increasingly acute. And while capitalism is pushing the development of the productive forces ever more sharply in order to satisfy its insatiable hunger for surplus value, it is precisely because of this highly productive technology that it is less and less able to transform the pauperised masses into active proletarians, i.e. to force them to the machines or into the office. While the imperialists, in their frenzied mania for surplus value, are at least throwing the whole world into growing unrest and undermining ancestral immobile relations ever more thoroughly, the heralds of an apparently radical autarky are causing nothing but confusion in the ranks of the pauperising masses. They talk of economic independence, stable economic cycles and adapted technology – all concepts that really bring out their illusionist anachronism.
And to see Cambodia of all places as a concrete approach or even an example for the feasibility of such utopias seems almost tragicomic in view of the results that are now available. But it is also a total misreading of the factual development under the Pol Pot government. Demonisation and idealisation of the Khmer Rouge have the same basis. They assume that the measures taken after the conquest of power in Cambodia were deliberate and planned. One side sees only the terror and coercive measures with which the leaders, supported by relatively small armed forces, tried to get a grip on a witch’s cauldron of panic and violence and to escape the total catastrophe of starvation – and the chaos that would ensue in turn. They see this terror and these coercive measures as completely detached from the economic and social emergency. The others confuse the factual state of extreme social backwardness in Cambodia and the emergency measures taken with an economic and social programme.
...
We have outlined the devastating situation in Cambodia shortly before the moment of liberation. However broad and deep the peasant unrest in the countryside may have been at the time, it must be remembered that a large proportion of these peasants stayed in the capital out of necessity during the main phase of the fighting. In any case, the Khmer Rouge, hardly more than 70,000 men anyway, fought for a long time mainly in the sparsely populated outskirts of Cambodia.
When the Khmer Rouge troops approached the capital in 1975 – likely with only about 20,000 men – it soon became clear that it was imperative to deal radically with this hopelessly bloated big head. Estimates vary, but it can be assumed that of the 7-8 million Cambodians, at least 2.5, but probably over 3 million were crammed into the capital (“peace population” as mentioned 600,000). With the severing of the umbilical cord to imperialism, Phnom Penh was up in the air as its former bridgehead. There was no possibility whatsoever to control or even feed this veritable hell of collaborators and starving refugee masses. The general shortage of rice had driven prices to dizzying heights: from 10 riel per kilo in December 1971 to 125 riel in December 1973 and on to 300 riel in early 1975, reaching a record 340 riel in mid-February. The retreat of the imperialists and the advance of the Khmer Rouge must have acted as a double signal: On the one hand, to storm against the hated parasites and the urbanites in general, on the other hand, to return to the countryside in chaos. The Khmer Rouge had to evacuate the city and channel the returning flow to avoid a total catastrophe. The fact that the displaced people left a wide trail of blood behind them on their way out of the city (for the time of the Khmer Rouge government, there is consistent talk of at least 1 million deaths) was unavoidable under the given conditions. It is significant that the majority of the massacres affected the urban population and certain national minorities: precisely intellectuals, military officers of the old Lon Nol regime, Sihanoukists, capitalists, merchants etc., and apart from the Cham (Muslims) almost exclusively the Vietnamese and Chinese minorities, whose social situation we have already pointed out.
Whether it was spontaneous peasant terror or executions organised by the Khmer Rouge, it was partly revolutionary violence against the supporters of the old regime, which as such does not speak against but for the Khmer Rouge, and partly pogroms, which the leaders at most accepted and tried to direct in the interests of the state monopoly on the use of force. But it is not so important whether the Khmer Rouge leaders had to accept or order these massacres. What is decisive is that they were forced by material development to eliminate or to have eliminated precisely those strata on which they wanted to rely. This, together with the evacuation of the cities, deprived them of any social support other than the peasantry. Thus they were at the mercy of this peasantry, which had to be disciplined for the actualisation of their “programme”. The conflict with it was therefore programmed for the time after the famine had been averted.
...
After the worst of the chaos had been overcome, it was attempted to use these structures, which had prevailed in a rather primitive way during the hunger phase, for one’s “industrialisation programme” by maintaining and further intensifying collectivisation. Necessity was to become a capitalist virtue. The complete lack of such “civilisational” achievements as the intercourse of money and commodities was supposed to make for an ideal, indeed classic, “truck system”, i.e. payment in kind alone. The peasants were forced into ever new production battles, because now surpluses were to be produced for export – i.e. for exchange with foreign means of production – which indeed happened and animated the leaders even further. The general command was under the iron slogan: “Work hard and try to achieve maximum results with a minimum of investment”, and the focus was on absolute labour effort.
...
Once a sufficient level of production had been restored, however, the whole construction was bound to collapse completely sooner rather than later. Anyone who has even a pale inkling of the travails of the infamous Stalinist collectivisation in Russia – and the Russian state was on an incomparably higher social level and had quite different means of power at its disposal – can easily imagine how the intellectual would-be enablers of capitalism in Cambodia, then practically hanging in the air, would have to perish in an orgy of violence – unless, with the help of a foreign power, they could get a grip on the chaos and create more stable conditions through a series of concessions to the peasantry. Most likely, however, they would be finished even then, like a man trying to hold on as long as possible to a wildly thrashing bull and then falling to the ground exhausted. In any case, the arena crowd was already eagerly awaiting the outcome of the tragedy.
...
Sovereignty, neutrality, non-alignment – this credo runs through all declarations as a complement to “autarky”. But already in the face of the first offensive by the Vietnamese, it must have slowly become clear to the Khmer Rouge leaders that these fine words could only have one meaning in our unpleasant world, namely to place themselves under the protection of the People’s Republic of China. In Pol Pot’s interview, which we have just quoted, a strange acronym appears: CPK. This means “Communist Party of Kampuchea”. And yet, to the boundless amazement of bourgeois commentators, the Khmer Rouge had never tried to dress up their declarations or their constitution with Marxist or pseudo-Marxist vocabulary – which is certainly very sympathetic to us. On the contrary, they have displayed an obvious and pedantic aversion to these concepts. Neither “vanguard of the proletariat” or “communist party” nor “proletarian internationalism”, neither “classless society” nor “dictatorship of the proletariat”, but also not “new democratic revolution”, “mass line”, “creation of a new man”, “peaceful coexistence” etc. etc. had ever been spoken of. If similar contents had to be expressed, they were paraphrased with other words. But this did not happen because the Pol Pot folks would have been particularly honest and wanted to do us Marxists a favour. This happened because in their dogged nationalism they wanted to distance themselves clearly from their neighbours Vietnam, but also China, who professed to be “socialist”. The national character of all these revolutions and states, the national character of their confrontations and of their whole politics is expressed even in the fact that the weakest link feels compelled by the instinct of self-preservation to dispense with the “Marxist” or “socialist” cloak for the capitalist programme! This is what “socialism in one country” has come to! And the adoption of the “Marxist” “vocabulary” here is a sign of the surrender of the so sacred national sovereignty. If, as already mentioned, no announcement had ever mentioned a party or revolutionary phases (there was always talk of a “revolutionary organisation” and even of “Angkor traditions”), Pol Pot told his astonished people and all those who wanted to know the following story on 27 September 1977: the CPK had already existed in Cambodia since 30 September 1960 and had achieved this miracle of a national-democratic revolution. He told it the day before he left for Beijing, on which, fighting a losing battle against the Vietnamese, he has been completely dependent ever since.
As a “plaything of foreign powers”, the nationalist intellectuals of Cambodia perished. The peasantry, largely decimated under the pressure of the imperialist frenzy and its consequences, as now under the pressure of Vietnam’s national expansion, is an example of the fate that capitalist society reserves for small and weak peoples in its emergence and development. To such peoples the proletariat alone would and will secure the right of self-determination, because unlike the bourgeoisie it does not seek national privileges but wants to abolish them, because unlike the bourgeoisie it can create voluntary union, because unlike the bourgeoisie it liberates itself not by exploiting others but by abolishing all exploitation.

Hello everyone! I’m brand new to this and have been wanting to get on an injection for about a year, after weight loss pills/diet/exercise alone have failed. I’m on a budget, so I’m hoping you all can point me in the right direction for the most cost effective companies to go through where there are not a bunch of hidden fees. My insurance does not cover injections so I will be paying out of pocket. Thanks in advance!

23F, 55kg, no medication/history of illness
I have been having episodes of drenching night sweats, they have been drenching my bed clothes and pyjamas. I do not have any other symptoms and my blood tests/hormone levels were normal. My doctor asked me to keep track of these. In the past 2 weeks they seem to be a bit better, last night I had an episode where I woke up, very warm, there was sweat droplets on me, however my pjs and bed sheets were not affected. Does this still count as a night sweat?
These episodes have been causing me a lot of stress and I’m also scared that I am waking up before the sweat turns into a “drenching” one, and so, preventing it from happening, is this also possible?

Killer agency lowers once again. I'm left wondering what choices are even left that makes killers act differently depending on personality and circumstances nowadays.
I can no longer purposefully let people who bring BPS or cakes go after making sure they get a billion BP, after purposefully avoiding killing them as their teammates try their hardest to get them killed like they do every match I'm not against a SWF, and therefore my day is ruined forever. That's the home rule that brought me the best interactions and fuzzy feelings and now it's just gone. Guess I'll just be ignoring those offerings now unless multiple are brought and none of the survivors are toxic (tall order since multiple of those offerings are usually only ever brought by 4-man squads), in which case I'll just have to let all 4 go (which no, I will not do outside of that specific scenario anymore, I have better to do than getting t-bagged at the exit gates by ungrateful cunts as I've already done for 500 hours during multiple events before I decided it wasn't worth it).
You know which home rule that's not going to affect? Making sure anyone who brings shitty map offerings like Garden of Joy and oaks don't escape. Which just means I now have to slug for the 4k every time that happens since I can't tell who brought it when I used to just kill them and let everyone else who wasn't toxic go. How fun.
I know this is going to get me downvoted because entitlement dictates I should just let everyone go every time I play killer no matter what but I still had to share how annoyed I am that the little tricks I adopted to play nice without being shit on by toxic idiots too much are constantly being made impossible by BHVR. I know for a fact I wasn't the only killer who let BPS and cakes go after farming for them specifically and I want you to know BHVR made this behavior impossible through no fault of my own so that's over. And we still can't see which survivors we've hooked how many times, so there is really no incentive left to not just mindlessly hook whoever you see and be done with it, like a bot. Not that 2-hooking matters since the majority of survs will just kill themselves on hook before the third one these days no matter what the killer does.
Meanwhile, tunnelers don't have to count hooks and will play the same no matter what offering you bring so this doesn't affect them in the slightest.
Thanks for coming to my ted talk, you may now downvote, twist my words, and overall convince me I should actually be harsher than I'm now forced to be while I continue seething with the force of a thousand suns after killing a Nea who brought a cake because I'm literally not allowed to know she did anymore and I guessed it wouldn't be one of the two survivors who enabled anonymous mode so I let the two other ones go instead (since when do neon Neas in anonymous mode bring cakes though?).

Deciding to pursue fertility treatments like in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is a significant step for couples struggling with infertility. While these treatments offer hope for parenthood, it's crucial to be well-informed and prepared before embarking on this journey. This blog post aims to shed light on the essential aspects couples should consider before undergoing IVF or ICSI.
Understanding IVF and ICSI
IVF is a complex series of procedures involving extracting eggs from the female's ovaries, fertilizing them with sperm in a laboratory, and then transferring the resulting embryos into the uterus. ICSI, a specialized form of IVF, involves injecting a single sperm directly into an egg to achieve fertilization. Both IVF and ICSI are assisted reproductive technologies (ART) aimed at addressing various fertility challenges.
Assessing Your Fertility Situation
Before opting for fertility treatments, it's essential to have a thorough evaluation of both male fertility and female fertility. This typically involves a comprehensive medical history review, physical examinations, and diagnostic tests to identify any underlying causes of infertility. Common factors affecting female fertility include ovulation disorders, fallopian tube blockages, endometriosis, and uterine fibroids. Male fertility issues may include low sperm count, poor sperm motility, or abnormal sperm morphology.
Emotional and psychological preparation
Fertility treatments can be emotionally taxing, with a rollercoaster of hope, anxiety, and disappointment. It's crucial for couples to acknowledge and address these emotional challenges together. Consider seeking counseling or joining support groups to connect with others experiencing similar journeys. Open communication and mutual support are key to navigating the emotional aspects of fertility treatment.
Financial Considerations
IVF and ICSI can be expensive, with costs varying depending on the clinic, location, and specific treatment plan. Before starting treatment, research the financial aspects, including medication costs, consultation fees, and laboratory charges. Inquire about potential insurance coverage and explore financing options if needed. Understanding the financial implications upfront helps avoid unexpected expenses and allows for better planning.
Treatment Success Rates and Expectations
IVF and ICSI success rates vary depending on several factors, including age, cause of infertility, and overall health. It's essential to have realistic expectations and understand that multiple treatment cycles may be required to achieve a successful pregnancy. Your fertility specialist can provide personalized information on success rates based on your specific circumstances.
Legal and ethical considerations
Fertility treatment involves complex legal and ethical considerations, especially when using donor sperm, donor eggs, or gestational carriers. Understand the legal implications and ensure you have a clear agreement with all parties involved. Discuss ethical concerns, such as genetic testing of embryos and the potential for multiple pregnancies, with your fertility specialist and make informed decisions based on your values and beliefs.
Lifestyle and health factors
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is crucial during fertility treatment. Follow your doctor's recommendations regarding diet, exercise, and stress management. Avoid smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and recreational drug use, as these can negatively impact fertility and treatment outcomes. Optimize your overall health to enhance your chances of success.
Choosing a Fertility Clinic and Specialist
Selecting the right fertility clinic and specialist is paramount. Research clinics thoroughly, considering their experience, success rates, and patient reviews. Look for a clinic that offers a comprehensive range of services, including diagnostic tests, treatment options, and emotional support. Establish a good rapport with your fertility specialist, ensuring open communication and trust throughout the treatment process.
Alternative options and complementary therapies
While IVF and ICSI are effective treatments for many couples, exploring alternative options and complementary therapies may be beneficial. Acupuncture, yoga, and herbal supplements are some complementary approaches that may support fertility and reduce stress. Discuss these options with your fertility specialist to determine their suitability for your situation.
Conclusion
Embarking on fertility treatment is a significant decision that requires careful consideration and preparation. Understanding the different aspects discussed in this blog post empowers couples to make informed choices and navigate the complexities of IVF or ICSI. Remember, seeking support from fertility specialists, counselors, and support groups can enhance your journey towards parenthood. With knowledge, preparation, and perseverance, many couples can overcome infertility challenges and achieve their dream of having a family.

I’m finding like nothing on OD diet pills, specifically slimquick pure. ODing on diet pills what does it do? At this point if it doesn’t kill me that is fine, but what damage will it do (self harm)?

Hey, everyone.
A little context before I ask for advice. My dog, Yogi Bear, is a 10 year old American Akita. He just retired recently as my service dog, and he has been the most loyal bestie I’ve ever had. I absolutely love him to death. He is definitely my soul dog.
It has been a three year journey of back and forth with vets where I’d say I think he has allergies, they say he doesn’t and I’d spend hundreds, switched vets and get the same thing and then SUDDENLY he did indeed have allergies. So I’m treating that, and I asked them to check his thyroid. They did, and they said it was higher because he was sick from the antibiotics for his skin, but I was told it’s fine. Three months later they tell me he does indeed have a thyroid problem and wanted more tests. At that point, I was like no. He needs a break from all your probing and pills for a while. He was not himself because of the meds.
A month later, I bring him in for his annual and present an issue where his stomach was larger than last time (when they said it was thyroid). I am devastated because the visit went from his annual and vaccines to, “We aren’t doing vaccines. We need to check for tumors or fluid.”
I let them do the X-rays, and the vet pulls me into the back. Keep in mind…I’ve never put a pet down before. I’ve never gone through this, so that’s where I need advice. He has a very large malignant tumor on his spleen, and he has bad arthritis in his right hip. I knew he was old, so we kept his movement low as is, but he never showed any signs of either of these conditions. Because of his tumor his intensities were pushed completely to one side in the X-ray they showed me.
I of course got him a shot immediately for the pain, and he will get one monthly…but the vet told me nothing besides, “We are now concerned more about quality of life than quantity.”
They told me the tumor could bleed and maybe he’d be fine in a day or two or maybe he’d bleed out. I was just standing there in shock…and I left with no advice besides he’s too old for surgery and has too much going on. Which, yes, I agree. Surgery will affect his quality of life during recovery.
So now, here’s where I’m stuck. I want him to live out whatever he has left of his life, since they also gave no time frame, but given the size of the tumor it’s been around a while. But…I also don’t want him to reach the point where he is so sick and miserable because that would break my heart, and I also want him to be happy when he goes. So here’s where I’m stuck. Do I basically…choose a day in a couple months to let him go, and if he goes before then, then that was his time…or am I supposed to wait until the tumor bleeds and he becomes very sick?
I want to do the first option, so it’s not a sudden thing, so we can go and do all of his favorite things and because he’s just been through so much medically already that…that sounds like an awful way to go.
Any advice or stories to help me decide the best thing to do? My family is no help…they want me to focus on his quantity of life and are looking at me like a weirdo for wanting to plan the day I let him go.
Thank you so much for taking your time to read this and reply! 🖤

Please know, I am a regular human, just like you. I am not a specialist, doctor, or a scientist of any kind. I have spent over 2 years in writing this (post has been in my drafts and I worked on it in my free time only.) I have talked about using glycerin and the changes I have seen on my own body many times on here and I always received comments from someone wanting more information on glycerin which is not easily available. (I think it's because of how cheap it is and how its the top ingredient in many products we use, companies don't want us to know lol.) My sources are from medical/universal research libraries that I have access to from my university. Still, research papers are very complicated to understand and takes a long time to get through the whole study so if I made a mistake in comprehending anything, please let me know. Lets begin :)
This product/poly compound does have many names/spellings but I'll be sticking to glycerin. Glycerin is used in vast variety of products like medicine/wound care, food industry, hygiene products including soaps, skincare, hair care and more. Glycerin is stable, nontoxic, non irritating and hypoallergenic with antibacterial effects. Because of these properties it is said that about 20% of all glycerin is used in our territory (makeup, skincare, hygiene) which is a very large portion. Glycerin is also fairly cheap so you can see it in the top 10-15% of the ingredient list (especially in products that promote hydration) or towards the bottom 25% in preventative products.
Glycerin has many benefits. You can look at luxury creams to affordable face wash products and chances are, you will see glycerin in it. Some skincare companies now include a directory on their website to explain what each ingredient does and benefit on the skin but I feel it is very vague and wanted to bring some science to this poly compound. Now the accredited and certified research papers I found available to me are limited on its effect on the skin of humans but are on animals with some following up on humans. I was hoping to include links and incorporate wording however it was too cruel so I will summarize.
The vast amount of information available is on, if glycerin is a safe product, its effects to our (human) tissues, and possible illness/diseases scientists believed it can cause or be linked to. Like I said, I'll keep the animal testing gory out but to wrap it all up, glycerin is safe. It did not have any effect on the reproductive system for males or females and is not carcinogenic to humans. In a different study, a group of 25 human volunteers (22 male 3 female) were tested orally which resulted in no change in weight of humans if under 50 with or without diabetes, unless over 50 with diabetes history it caused some jittery behavior in one human (this experiment was conducted orally and used 3x a day.) Researchers checked the sperm of males and saw no abnormalities comparing it to when they first came in. For the females, ultrasound showed no abnormalities on their reproductive health. It should be noted, the researchers did not compare anything regarding glycerin and its effect on the thyroid but the other organs tested no abnormalities were found. I also found several studies on inhalation and applying glycerin on eyes was normal in sense nothing will happen other than some irritation that subsides, on animals. Same study then compared their findings on a group of humans and only a couple of people from the testing group reported it caused mild or moderate irritation that lasted for little while. To conclude, there are no known side effects or illness caused or linked to by usage of glycerin. Still, after immense testing it is recommended to patch test glycerin even if being allergic to glycerin is considered rare according to researchers.
In skin/hair care, glycerin is a humectant (retaining or preserving moisture) and an emollient (quality of softening or smoothing of the skin). Meaning a moisturizing agent that draws water to the surface of the dermis from the atmosphere or from layers deep in your skin/hair; brighten and soften the dermis and hair at the same time This said, using glycerin in low humidity or dry, hot air can result in drying out your dermis (skin) or hair, including the scalp because it is pulling moisture deep in your dermis or hair. (Personal note: if you wish to use glycerin in locations or seasons where the air is dry, it is best to keep spritzing the area with a mist of just water, preferably distilled, or other hydration mist to prevent the glycerin pulling any to all moisture from your dermis which could result in flaky, dry skin or brassy, frizzy hair strands. I believe after immense research this is the only downside of glycerin).
Glycerin is also considered as a thickener for products and is mildly antibacterial and antiviral. Glycerin was originally found from lipids of animals (animal fat) but now can be extracted from plants (vegan) like shea butter, palm oil, coconut oil and more. As of today, glycerin from oil has a high extraction rate from palm. Glycerin can also be formed synthetically through fermentation, bio-diesel or chemically created with its chemical compound ( C3H8O3; Carbon 3 Hydrogen 8 Oxygen 3) (Personal note: I am including this because when purchasing you glycerin, be sure on where and how it was extracted as you will be applying it on your dermis or hair.) Glycerin is non-comedogenic, meaning it will not clog your pores, but reading the different studies I believe there is a difference between lab, plant, and animal lipid created glycerin. Some prefer the animal glycerin as its more suitable to their skin type but majority of the glycerin in our market is from plants or lab. You can tell the difference of glycerin by how tacky it is. Animal glycerin is most tacky (sticky like tree sap) compared to the plant glycerin followed by lab created which only has a slight slip to it.
The density of glycerin (1.26g/cm^3) is lower than the density of our skin(1.1g/cm^3) which allows glycerin to penetrate deeper than a lot of other products. Whereas hyaluronic acid (varies but avg. density is around 1.8g/cm^3) may look to be better way to go around but both have their benefits! Glycerin is better suitable when you want your skin or scalp to hold moisture on your skin. HA is suitable if you want to lock in the moisture. But what makes them very different is the molecular level. Glycerin has a smaller molecular level than HA, which in return allows the glycerin to saturate deeper in your dermis or hair strands whereas HA sits on the top 2 layers (about). So using HA on your skin can mean it can take longer to see the visual results on your skin. That said with either or, consistency is important to unlock all the benefits either product can offer.
Glycerin is beneficial to all skin types, most hair types, and help aid in various skin or scalp conditions (if you have a medical condition please consult a doctor or dermatologist.) From brightening the dermis by help healing old scars and smoothing out hyperpigmentation, to being a natural prevention of many skin imperfections glycerin is the most underrated, versatile, and affordable product all should have in their cupboards. Glycerin will hold onto the water keeping your face soft and smooth (like a newborn babies bum) for long periods of time. (On study showed if glycerin is not washed from the dermis or hair, glycerin can last upto 6 days on the area applied hydrating the top layer of skin. In this study the researchers had 3 groups, 1 controlled, 1 glycerin applied only(group1), 1 glycerin applied with misting water every 6 hours(group2) for 14 days. From control- the group had natural oil build up, group1 had dry almost chapped skin, group2 felt dry to touch, some shine-no oil, bounce on dermis.) It is not recommended to keep glycerin on for this long as glycerin can attract pollutants from settling into pores-it just sits on surface of skin.
In the process of applying glycerin consistently, it will boost collagen production, even out your skin tone from blemishes to hyperpigmentation, aiding in the prevention of acne bacteria spreading on your dermis (help with clearing back acne), clearing and hydrating pores for the prevention of black or white heads, smooth skin texture and premature aging lines. Glycerin may act as a mild natural sunscreen by protecting the skin from the sun's rays and environmental pollutants, including smog. For acne, glycerin can help prevent the bacteria from spreading and help heal and smooth old acne spots. On large open pores, because of its density, glycerin can settle into pores reducing the visual size of them and help clear out any dirt or imperfections.
Glycerin on your scalp can be a natural/soft treatment for dandruff or other scalp dryness. For your hair strands, mixing it with our ayurvedic hair masks or hair oil, you can condition any damaged hair strands, preventing further breakage (split ends), and adding strength to protect against harmful rays of the sun and hot tools. The benefits of glycerin on our bodies are endless but here are a couple other ways to include glycerin when in a pinch.
Remember we discussed how glycerin is a humectant, emollient, and thickener? Well, this is what many of us expect from a makeup primer. I have used a glycerin primer for when I wanted a quick everyday makeup look or when I misplaced my holy grail benefit POREfessional primer. I used it in 2 ways, One was mixing a drop of glycerin into my moisturizer or my foundation. The other was my standard rose water and glycerin spray bottle. With the rose water I did notice I had to make sure the water and glycerin was well set into my face. I use a damp sponge to press any glycerin sitting on my face deep into my pores before applying foundation to avoid any separation or caking. (If you want an airbrush look; try this method then after dabbing your face with the sponge, apply a thin, even layer of finely milled translucent powder.) Why you may ask do this extra step of dabbing? Well using glycerin in a liquid format like the rose water is also an effective makeup remover! Crazy how it can work both ways.
If you pull out any micellar water you may have, the first 2 ingredients are water and glycerin followed by additives to act as mild surfactants and unwanted possible ingredients alcohol, fragrance, preservatives. Surfactant is a substance that will help the water and glycerin chemical properties mix when dissolved together. Sometimes when you let the micellar water sit you see a layer of liquid settle on top of another layer and you have to mix the two, right? The surfactant is the ingredient that leaves that oily feel on the face and I believe blends the glycerin chemical with the surfactant to create a less tacky formula. It will be different brand to brand based on how they source their glycerin and the ratios. That said, after my full beat, spraying a setting spray and all, I experimented to see how the rose wateglycerin will react with my full face of makeup if I just wanted to rehydrate my face with the same mixture. I spray till my face feels nicely hydrated, let that fully dry with help of a fan or my hands, then with a dry sponge, I lightly tap the glycerin back into my dermis and if needed, powder to set any makeup separation or fading.
The only time I dealt with makeup reacting with the glycerin was when my makeup began pilling from mixing silicone and water based skincare products with foundation.
From my journey: I saw some posts of users using and not having benefactual results so I'd like to inform you how I personally started using glycerin and the changes on my own skin. I remember stumbling on a random Instagram account of Farah Dhukai from Farsali using glycerin back in 2016 and I decided to copy the recipe to lighten dark skin. After following her instructions and started to use her recipes very often, it was not long before I had all family reunions turn into skincare nights. I would make custom masks for my cousins and aunts based on their skin concerns and I would receive endless compliments and discussions on how my skin as a 15 year old teenager looked amazing. It was not long until I connected the dots and started researching extensively into glycerin.
At that time, I didn't even have access to these studies and research papers, many were released after 2016! I found another ayurvedic Instagram account (now deactivated) and found my first recipe for rose water and glycerin and we have been going strong ever since. I started off with about 1 cup of fresh/homemade rose water to 1 tablespoon of glycerin. I originally started using this as a toner. I suffer from acanthosis nigricans (thickedry/dark skin on back of neck, elbows, armpits, knees) I would drench a cotton pad and hold the serum onto my skin for 5 seconds before moving it. I would repeat this then go over the same parts on my skin in circular motions. After about 4-6 months I had reduced the appearance on my elbows and knees to about 90% (only small dryness patch was left) my neck still had the thickness of skin but the darkness had reduced significantly and started blending in with my natural skin. Armpits were about 40% lighter but after a year of consistent use I was very happy with my results. Now it is important to mention, skin care can only carry so much; during this time of using the toner I lost about 23 kgs which helped clear the inflammation causing the dark skin in the first place.
Along with this toner I only used a light moisturizer and face wash; no SPF, facial scrubs, or actives. My skin was very clear, bright, hyperpigmentation free. Then life hit me with a ton of bricks and depression set in. I gave up skincare and my skin was terrible. Pores, pigmentation, fungal acne and stubborn blackheads on forehead and chin, extremely flaky/irritated cheeks. At this point I had been using glycerin for over 3-4 years so I upped the ratio I mix about 1:4 ratio of glycerin to rosewater now and put it in a spray bottle. I would start by double cleanse my face, use vitamin C serum and drench my face with the glycerin water before bedtime daily (about 1-2 hours before) let it settle then use my fingers to give myself a soft facial massage and help the remaining dripping water settle into my skin or slide it down my neck and chest. Then before bedtime, I splash my face with just cool water and remove the glycerin sitting on top of my skin. Gently dry my face and apply my nightly moisturizer with retinol, let that settle then spray 4x of the glycerin water again, finish with some lip mask and go to sleep.
From researching and experimenting, this was best way to clear out my white/black heads. The glycerin made them soft and I did not have to include any active or harsh scrubs or facial tools to pick them out. I found mixing the vitamin C with the glycerin 2 hours before helped tremendously with my hyperpigmentation and left my face glowing and added a beautiful bounce! I now only use a soft facial scrub that was marked to be safe for daily use once a week only. In the mornings, I thoroughly wash your face with some cleanser and apply a light moisturizer and SPF. My skin has gotten significantly brighter and has the glass skin effect without using multiple actives and products. Reason I don't apply it the rosewater glycerin in morning is because we are having dry weather and my schedule is unpredictable to remember to spray a hydrating spray in between wear.
For my scalp psoriasis, I used the same toner product just in different ratios and it helped significantly. Only thing about glycerin and your scalp/hair strands is you do not want to dry it out. I only kept it on for about 30 minutes before I shower. I do have thin/pin-straight hair but my ends just felt so much healthier. One research entry mentioned how glycerin was very benefactural to animals with dense fur. So if you have textured(wavy/curly) or coarse(thick) hair definitely try glycerin out on yourself! Im sure it will help your curls be more defined and healthy! Glycerin helps strengthen the hair follicles and strands to prevent breakage, leading to the illusion of faster-longer growing hair. (I have to trim my hair about 3x a year. Each time I trim about 4 inches off. Sometimes I mix the glycerin and rose water in my hair oil concoctions. I feel this allows the oil to penetrate in even deeper. The oil doesn't sit on the stands but absorbs faster which I always struggled with. It leaves my hair so soft/supple, helps my brittle ends when I'm past due for a trim or from heat damage. In the case I add the glycerin into the oil and I wish to keep the oil on longer, I spray my hair with regular distilled water only to keep the moisture constant for the glycerin so it doesn't suck the water out of the strands.
Here are a couple ratios you can start to experiment with:

• Hair care: 1/4 cup distilled water, 1/2 cup rose water, and 2 tablespoons glycerin in a spray bottle
• Skin toner: 1:3 glycerin to rosewater in a sterilized bottle of your choice
• Skin mist: 1:6 glycerin to rosewater in a sterilized bottle of your choice

NOTES: If you believe glycerin and rosewater is not the combination for you, you can mix glycerin with aloe, powders/herbs, moisturizers, and more. Be sure to research the product you will be mixing with and always patch test to ensure a chemical change will not take negative effect on your skin. Reason why I mix with rosewater is because when mixing with other products, remember glycerin is also a thickener, so it can feel very heavy on the face. Whereas water dilutes it and feels comfortable to wear for all day or night.
NOTES: I know my oily and acne girls are always fighting for their life. If you try this and are struggling, keep adjusting the formula and trust the process. It may feel nothing is happening or too much is happening but if you can, stay consistent for 6 weeks before you call it quits.
NOTES: ( NSFW but IMPORTANT!) Please do not apply glycerin on or near your genitalia! Glycerin is a type of carbohydrate known as a sugar alcohol. The breakdown of glycerin with our natural bacteria will turn it into an irritant creating a risk of a yeast infection!

Hello, I am a 27F who was previously very athletic and into heavy weightlifting. Symptoms started in 2021 and fast forward to now and I can’t weight lift, can barely do my work so relying mainly on my partner, and basically feeling like I’m falling apart.
Family history

• Grandmother has severe RA

Medicines:

• Norethindrone birth control, imitrex/sumatriptan, Allegra, just started taking quercetin, tumeric, vitamin D + K, and magnesium. Was on 40mg of prednisone for about a month and recently finished a fast taper last week.

Prior to 2021

• Always had some form of feeling sick when stressed, grandma with RA said she faced similar symptoms when she was younger
• Dealt with radiating pain in right leg (pinched nerve feeling), low back pain here and there which I thought was due to weak erector spinae and imbalance due to scoliosis because once I started weight training back aching went away

2021

• May: Overworked at job and developed severe debilating joint pain. Couldn’t even lift 10lbs and starting limping because knee was hurting so badly. Saw a primary care who ran blood tests (C reactive, RF, and anti-ccp) all came back normal so the doc brushed it off thinking it was just my body’s response to stress and because I’m young I’m probably fine. Quit my job and 3 months later went back to feeling normal. Took x-rays of knees, hips and shoulders. Sports medicine doc said knees showed some wear and tear, shoulder showed more wear and tear from overuse injury and called it osteoarthritis in the shoulders, hips were slightly uneven but nothing too remarkable
• Nov: got COVID that resulted in lost of smell and taste, hair loss, pretty bad brain fog, etc.

2022

• July: Covid again, but mild and still have memory issues
• August: Joint pain and feeling of overtraining without working out started appearing (would appear in cycles/phases where I would suddenly not be able to workout and then be fine for a month then back to not feeling well for the rest of 2022)
• Sudden major mood swings (which later found out linked to high cortisol levels), migraines becoming more frequent but still manageable, increased heart rate randomly while at rest, frequent dizzy spells (I would need to sit down sometimes) but always felt like in some form of lightheaded or dizzy state and just learned to adjust as my new “normal”
• Nov- Jan (’23) Severe unknown respiratory virus that lead to bell’s palsy (recovered now), found enlarged pituitary on MRI when looking at the bells palsy as well as herniated disc with nerve compression in neck (which now explained the constant pain in shoulders on top of overuse injury)
• Sometime in 2022 I started having some back pain but it was different than what I’d previously experienced. Pain in shoulders started flaring again as well

2023

• Jan-March: Tested high on cortisol multiple times and high ACTH once, looked into Cushing’s diagnosis from here until Feb 2024
• May: Covid pretty bad for a third time. I had a high fever, severe body aches, etc. Saw Endoniologist but was moving so they advised I continued care at my next location
• June/July: started to feel better and hoped it was just my body recovering from the 4 viruses
• September: symptoms appeared again, migraine frequency now increasing to a couple times a month
• Oct: overtraining feeling getting worse, at this point I was not working out as often due to the previous times I wasn’t feeling good I adjusted my training to only a few times a week if that.
• December: Migraine has increased to once a week, did not experience any period of feeling better like I did in 2022 where I had phases of feeling better.
  • Saw a new sports medicine doctor for radiating leg pain. Also noted I was feeling spine pain (not muscle but pain in my spine). X-ray didn’t show much so they ordered an MRI and found “L5-S1 mild degenerative disc diseases with small left suarticular zone/foraminal disc protrusion without nerve root compression” even though it stated no nerve compression the doc believed it was still most likely the cause of my leg pain and did a steroid injection in the SI joint which helped for a month but couldn’t explain some of the spine pain I was having. MRI also found “mild joint arthropathy” in L3-L4, “mild hypertrophic facet joint arthropathy” in L4-L5, “left subarticular zone disc protrusion with left foramina extension superimposed on mild diffuse disc bulge. Mild narrowing of the left lateral recess. Mild facet joint arthropathy” in L5-S1.

2024

• Jan: Migraines increase to 2-3 times a week so started on triptans as doc thought it was the same migraines not fully going away. First triptan didn’t really work so started a second one (sumatriptan) and migraine would still last for 2 days (took one pill first day and would help but next day still lingered so would take a second dose and then it would go away). Working out has now changed to be bare minimum (light weight machines)
• Feb: Tested high cortisol again on blood (42, end limit 19), and one salivary cortisol came back high, low vitamin D and increased A1C from October. Referred to endocrinologist again. Endocrinologist PA said severity of symptoms wouldn’t be cushings. Did a dexamethasone test which came back normal and suggested I see Rheumatologist for possible seronegative RA (I didn’t tell the endocrinologist about my previous RA check so when they mentioned if I had heard of RA and I told them I tried testing and it came back negative they then told me about seronegative RA)
• March: Joint symptoms and feeling of overtraining severely increased. Stopped being able to lift weights including machines. Tried to still play volleyball but can barely play. Joint pain now prominent in fingers, wrist and elbows, on top of knees and shoulder pain. Low spine very noticeably in pain. (Not muscular pain, literally pain on the spine). Morning stiffness has increased, back would sometimes feel “stuck” and fingers would ache pretty bad. Weather was also very cold and snowing while randomly switching to 70s and back to snowing which did not help. Migraines calmed down to 2 times a month.
• April: Saw NP at rheumatology who ordered tests and leaning towards RA or AS, more so AS. Placed on high dose of prednisone. Started with 20mg but didn’t help so increased to 40mg which helped (not completely but did notice a difference). On prednisone for about a month (into May). NP took x-rays of hands, hip and feet and said they looked normal. Ordered blood tests which got delayed a month (just received them will note below)
• May/now: Just finished prednisone (was a fast taper from 40 to 30, 20,10,5,5,5) and feeling the pain in my back come back as well as my fingers, elbows, etc. Migraine also came back a lot worse, had a three day long strong migraine that didn’t respond to sumatriptan and had to go to urgent care for a shot. The shot got rid of the migraine for a few days but feeling another one coming back less than a week later.
  • Got MRI with contrast of the pelvic and found “mild pubic symphyseal arthritis with osteophytic ridging and mild degenerative marrow signal change” and again the L5-S1 spondylosis
  • Due to the messed up labs, I had to get my blood drawn for these test while on 40mg on predinose. These were the notable results: High white blood cell count (11.8 x10 3/UL, reference range 3.8-10.8 x 10 3/UL), Low neutrophils (32%, reference range 42-75%), High lymphocytes (65%, reference range 16-52%), High lympocytes (7.7 x 10 3/UL, reference range 1.2-3.4 x 10 3/UL), Low Carbon Dioxide level (23 nmol/L, reference range 24-33 nmol/L). Rheumatoid factor was normal ( <9 IU/ml, reference range 0-12 IU/ml), C-reactive protein extended range was normal (<0.03 mg/dL, reference range 0-0.5 mg/dL). Erythrocyte sedimentation rate normal (4 mm/Hr, reference range 0-19 mm/Hr). Anti-CCP normal (<16 units, reference range <20 negative). My anti-ccp in 2021 was 3 so while it’s still within normal range it did increase. Hep A antibody abnormal (reactive, however I’m pretty sure I received the Hep A vaccine)
  • I feel like having my tests done while on 40mg of prednisone affected my results in a negative way but I’m not sure if it actually affects them or not

Any insights are greatly appreciated as my symptoms are getting noticeably worse with no answers.

I just got home from an amazing road trip vacation in the US with my dad. This was a trip I had been looking forward to for over a year. Now that it’s over, I have this empty feeling within me as it feels like it just went by in a flash. This trip was the best 7 days of my life, and it sucks that something you looked forward to for so long is just, over.
I’ve always struggled with post-travel blues, but it has never affected me this much. It got to a point where I felt a similar feeling during the trip, where I was counting down the days until I was going home and worrying about leaving. It negatively impacts my trip.
This time I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that it was so nice to spend time with my dad, travelling, driving, exploring, partying, meeting up with relatives etc. I don’t get to spend much time with him as he lives in another city, so this trip felt special. It was his birthday gift to me and I appreciated it so much. Going back to normal days after spending so much time together travelling, will be really hard for me.
Do you guys have any tips on how to deal with this? Many people suggest to plan another trip, which I actually already did and it sure does help, but I still can’t seem to lessen this depressing feeling within me.
If you’ve felt something similar, please do share it with me.

I have a German Shepherd mix .. most likely part malamute…. She will be 10 in a few months. She has spay incontinence and is treated with proin to control that. She has had a recurring skin infection affecting her vulva for about the last 6 years. We have went to 3 different vet clinics and saw multiple vets at each. She has been treated multiple times with antibiotics…. Countless topical medications.. homeopathic treatments.. she has had ultraviolet light therapy .. steroids .. we have had 3 cultures and numerous blood and urine tests. .. probably other treatments as well. …. We put her on a diet to reduce fat around her vulva…. So she is down to about 78 pounds ….. She currently has a fire engine red raw area. Today the vet told me today that there is nothing more they can do. She has developed a strong resistance to antibiotics and they won’t help her. They said there is an injectable that a vet can give every 8 hours but since they don’t know the cause it won’t be useful. I have been told it is the way she is made .. but that surgery is not an option in her case. They said the only thing they can recommend is seeing a dermatologist 3 1/2 hours from my home …. And seeing if they have an idea of a possible root cause. I have spent thousands of dollars on this. I’m not even sure I can afford more treatments especially if it’s not going to help her. Is it worth it to go to a dermatologist? Wouldn’t someone have found the root cause by now ? Is it possible it really is the way she is made ? And ultimately.. does this mean my girl is going to going to be suffer and be miserable ??? Is this like doggie hospice ? They gave her anti inflammatory medicine today and wipes for cleaning. But nothing to stop infection. Will this be the end of her. Please be honest.

So apparently, the quercetin in grapefruit can affect the absorption rates of estradiol. And upon looking it up, it is apparently found in many things such as apples, other citrus fruit, etc. Does this mean I need to stay away from all of those thing? Google only mentions about grapefruit but upon looking up apples specifically I found a thing talking about how apples can help flush estrogen detoxify estrogen in the liver and help flush it out of your system. So now I'm afraid to eat anything, which really sucks cause I'm vegetarian and I eat blueberries a bunch and grapes. On the bright side I get to tell my mom to stop trying to make me eat oranges. I have found something more worrying, my favorite fruit, strawberries, have it as well. Apparently a bit less than half as much as is in apples, but that's still an amount. Update update, onions, the literal basis of indian cooking of which I eat everyday, apparently has quite a lot of quercetin. I am very scared for my diet. Do I just have to subsist off plain rice from now on?

Previous case
We're back to business as usual at Orion. Sort of. I'll get into that in a minute. But first, I just need to put it out there that sometimes the clients drive me nuts. As much as I have an apparently irresistible desire to help everyone, some people really push it. Push it right off of a fucking cliff, that is.
I’m going to stop myself before I go off on an unhinged rant about the woes of dealing with the public. Instead, I’ll let yinz see for yourselves what I've been putting up with.
(If you're not familiar with what Orion Pest Control's services are, it may help to start here.)
We received a call from a client about mosquitoes running amok in her home. Since we had a few others to take care of that day, I informed her that the earliest that one of us could investigate the matter was in the afternoon. But because this woman is clearly so much more important than everyone else, her royal highness threw a hissy fit about having to wait like a common peasant.
I tried to be as nice as possible, “Ma’am, I understand that it’s frustrating, but there are others that called ahead of you, so we have to take care of their problems before we can take care of yours.”
The client huffed, “Okay, you clearly aren’t hearing me. There are mosquitoes in my house!”
“Yes, ma’am, I heard you. However, you are not our only client, so we ask that you please be patient and we will be there as soon as we can.”
I should also mention that this client talked out of the back of her nose, if that helps to paint a picture of how her cadence was equally as grating as her personality. “Okay, but do those people have mosquitoes? Like in their house, biting them and their kid over and over? My son could have Zika virus right now!”
Jesus Fucking Christ. I rubbed my temple with my free hand as I did my damndest to keep my customer service persona in place, “Again, ma’am, I understand that this is frustrating, but we have a wasp infestation and termites to deal with before you and those families want their kids to be safe, just like you. In the meantime, I recommend wearing bug spray or burning a citronella candle until we can get to you. We will be there as soon as we can.”
“You better be! And you really need to work on your customer service, sweetie!”
The client hung up on me.
I had to pace around the office after that one. Sweetie? Shove it up your ass, you entitled, snotty… You know what? Nevermind. I have many words to describe clients like that and none of them are pleasant. I hoped that she’d get mosquito bites in all of the most private areas of her anatomy.
It probably didn't help that I was saddled with some bitterness after the ‘dogging’ incident. I knew that there wasn't anything I could do about the mechanic other than stay out of his way going forward. And boy, did that eat me up.
On that note, I know what the mechanic is, however, even whispering the official title of these Neighbors is enough to draw them to you. I'm not sure if writing it counts and I'm not about to find that out the hard way.
Just know that if you hear wings beating from the west at night, hide and pray that you'll be passed by. Placing a line of salt on all of the doors and windows facing the west keeps them from coming inside. Once they set their sights on you, they'll never stop hunting you. Even death itself fears them. You'll still be running long after your heart stops beating.
But I promise, I’ll elaborate more on that later. I’m getting ahead of myself. Back to the case.
Reyna was at the point in her training where she could be trusted to deal with termites on her own. After I had the wasp nests taken care of, I set out to her royal highness’ home, and earlier than I’d told her, might I add. I will admit that I was tempted to dally a bit just to piss her off, but then I figured that it would be better and more professional to just get it over with.
She looked exactly like how I pictured her to look, complete with a weasley sneer that only the most unlikable of human beings are able to master.
“It’s about time.” She snapped.
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “Where have you noticed the mosquitoes the most?”
“Everywhere.” She said unhelpfully,
Her husband stepped in. “In the kitchen and basement, mostly.”
To make this call even better, the husband decided to take it upon himself to follow me around as I did my inspection, asking me pointless questions and giving me advice that I didn't ask for.
It got to a point where his hot breath wheezed into my ear as I shined my flashlight under their sink.
Stiffly, but politely, I asked, “Sir, can you please keep your distance?”
His wife chipped in, “Will you let her do her job, Curtis? It took her long enough to get here, and if you keep pestering her, it's going to take even longer!”
The husband puffed up and snapped, “Well, it's my house! I need to know that the person working in it knows what they're doing!”
They began screaming at each other. As obnoxious and uncomfortable as it was to have to bear witness to it, at least they weren't focused on me anymore. I shook my head and kept searching for the source of the infestation.
What I was looking for was standing water, which is essential for a mosquito's life cycle; you eliminate the standing water, you eliminate the infestation. The space beneath the sink was completely dry.
With the argument going on, I almost didn't hear it. An odd little sound. The easiest way to describe it was that it sounded like, ‘Kudo! Kudo!’
My head turned to follow it. That's when I noticed that one of the floorboards was slightly raised up from the rest.
I interrupted their marital problems, “You said that your son was sick earlier? Would he happen to have chills and a high fever?”
The client spat, “Yes, because some people-”
Not in the mood for her nonsense anymore, I cut in, “Ma'am, please just answer the question. I am trying to help you, I really am, but I'm going to need some more information in order to do that.”
She looked taken aback, her face bright red. While she balked, her husband answered instead, “Our son said he was feeling under the weather, but he does that whenever he wants to get out of something. You know how kids are.”
Good lord. Parents of the year.
“Have you noticed your salt going missing?”
The wife blinked at me, “How did you know that?”
I told them that I'd be right back and went to retrieve a cage from the truck. This critter is an odd one in that not only is salt not a suitable repellent for it, but it actually loves the stuff. It can consume as much as ten grams of salt per day. So if you find that the salt in your home has gone missing, it could mean that a False Egg has made a nest.
I returned with the cage and advised the couple to either move into another room or wait outside. Would it surprise yinz when I say that they refused? Not in the mood to argue, I just shrugged. Okay. Suit yourselves.
I set the cage up next to the lifted floorboard, took my salt off of my toolbelt, and sprinkled some inside the cage. It would placate the False Egg once I got it inside.
Using my knife, I pried the floorboard up. From behind me, the husband began to protest, but his wife snapped at him to keep still.
Meanwhile, my eyes met the beady gaze of a False Egg from where it hid under their floorboard.
At first glance, it looks like a white chicken's egg. If consumed, it causes the host to lay more False Eggs. That's how it reproduces. The telltale signs that you're looking at a False Egg include two dark spots on the shell near the pointed top of the ovoid. Those are the eyes, which they can leave closed to camouflage themselves. You may also notice two small holes at the bottom of the shell, which is where its legs can retract in and out. Mosquitoes follow False Eggs wherever they nest, though it's unclear why.
Generally, they're more of an annoyance than anything. However, they can cause flu-like symptoms in those that they feel threatened by, so they do pose a slight danger to those with compromised immune systems.
To my surprise, the False Egg leapt out of its nest and into the cage, tucking its legs back into its shell comfortably. Even though it didn't seem to have any intentions of moving, I quickly shut the door of its cage.
For the first time since I arrived, the clients were speechless. The woman had a hand over her open mouth while the man stared at the False Egg in a mixture of horror and disgust.
It wasn't until I stood up with the cage that the man asked, “What the hell is that?”
“The source of the infestation.” I replied. “I’ll take this guy out to the truck. The mosquitoes should follow him, but just to be sure, I'm going to ask that you all leave the house for a few hours so that I can apply a chemical treatment that'll kill off any stragglers. And your son’s condition should improve in a day or two.”
The couple didn't give me any trouble. They quietly collected their sick teenaged son, saying something about getting ice cream, then fucked off to do whatever while I dealt with the rest of the mosquitoes.
Once I was done, I drove off to release the False Egg somewhere where it could complete its life cycle away from humans. It is able to reproduce in any mammal. While forcing other organisms to lay eggs is bizarre and can be alarming for the affected individual, it doesn't appear to hurt the hosts, other than causing some mild abdominal discomfort. Once the False Egg is laid, the host goes back to normal, which is why we generally don't feel the need to kill them.
Unexpectedly, the False Egg talked to me.
It had a small, soft, mousy voice. “Thanks for getting me out of there.”
I glanced at the False Egg. I had its cage on the passenger's seat. Its eyes were visible, along with its little white legs as it sat on the bottom of its cage. It looked up at me as it wiggled its small feet absent-mindedly.
Whenever it spoke, a small crack that resembled a toothy mouth appeared in its shell. That was something to add to our records: not only are False Eggs capable of speech, but their mouths are located below their eye spots.
Stunned, I said, “You're welcome.”
The False Egg continued, “Oh, those humans are vile! I hadn't realized it when I first made my nest. Do you want to know why I made the boy sick?”
“Why?”
So that's how I learned every aspect of this family's lives. I'm sure yinz care even less than I do about some suburbanites’ interfamily drama, so I'll just say that it wasn't bad enough to warrant a call to social services, but enough that I can see why that kid probably couldn't wait to turn 18. Overbearing mother, father trying to use his son to relive his glory days as a high school athlete. The False Egg had done the boy a solid, giving him just enough of a fever to excuse him from lacrosse tryouts.
“Where are we going?” The False Egg asked after telling me all that information that I didn't know what to do with.
“Back to the forest.”
The False Egg kept swinging its little feet, “Can you take me somewhere nice? If it's not any trouble?”
Why not? Maybe some scenery would improve my mood.
So me and my little egg buddy took a little drive to the pond. It was a picturesque area as well as a nice environment for a False Egg. They prefer caves, but as long as they're near water, they'll be fine. When I opened its cage, the False Egg hopped out, its little eyes and shelled body swiveling to take in the peaceful sight.
“Oh, this is wonderful! Thank you!” Before it skipped off, it paused. “I think it would only be right if I told you something that could help, since you brought me here.”
It turned, its shell splitting to form a mouth as it hesitated before speaking, “If you hear whispers in the woods, even if it sounds like someone you care about, don't listen. The louder they are, the safer you are. They get quieter as they get closer to confuse you.”
Hold on. That didn't make any sense. The whispers had gotten louder and more urgent as I approached the mechanic's clearing.
Unless I was wrong and he wasn't the one doing it.
I asked, “Is the whispering thing disguising itself as a mechanic?”
The False Egg tilted to the side thoughtfully, “I'm afraid not. It doesn’t like to pretend to be human.”
So there was something else out there with me when I went looking for Victor. I remembered then that the whispers had stopped once I got close to the mechanic's clearing. When I unintentionally allowed them to lead me astray, they took me in the opposite direction of where he'd been waiting. Interesting.
With the False Egg wandering off to establish a new nest that was far away from humans, I headed back to the office, unsure of how to feel about the information it had given me.
Victor looked annoyed when I came in. The clients had called to complain about my ‘poor customer service.’ Wow. Okay.
“Next time, just leave the False Egg there.” Victor said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “They want to complain about poor customer service? We can show them bad service!”
“It's fine, Vic.” I replied. “Just let them leave their one star Google review and move on.”
“These fucking people…” He grumbled.
Victor's headspace hasn't been much better than mine. He's been pretty much stuck waiting by the phone for those ominous calls that the mechanic mentioned in the woods. They don't happen often, but when they do, he gets grim. Quiet. He hasn't told me in detail what has been requested of him. I don't know if he simply doesn't want to talk about it or if he's sworn to secrecy.
We'd had a long, uncomfortable talk during one of my days off while recovering from getting dogged. Victor stopped by with coffee and a box of donut holes. He drank the coffee, but left the donut holes untouched. We sat in my small kitchen, him staring intently into his black coffee, me quietly adding more sugar to my mocha.
I broke the silence. “What did you want me to see the other day?”
“I couldn't outright tell anyone that I was dead. Not without the mechanic finding out.” He continued after some hesitation. “It feels selfish saying it now, but… I just wanted someone to know what happened to me.”
Victor pulled the bandana aside with a finger, revealing that a jagged, red grin had been carved across his throat. I shuddered, being forcefully reminded once again how thin skin truly is.
He quickly pulled it back into place.
That prompted me to ask, “Is the mechanic the one that…?” I pointed to my neck.
Victor shook his head. I asked him who did.
His expression darkened, “Someone I used to use with. He didn't believe me when I told him that I was still clean and couldn't help him get his next hit. Everything happened so fast after that. Before I knew it, I woke up in his trunk. My chest felt empty. It's strange, you know? You don't notice your own heartbeat until it's not there anymore.”
I shook my head slowly, a knot in my stomach as I whispered, “Jesus, Vic. Where is he now?”
“He can't hurt anyone else. We'll leave it at that.” Victor muttered.
I took in a shaky breath. I couldn't believe that he'd been keeping all of this in. It was a lot to take in at once, so I could only imagine how much worse it was to be the one experiencing it.
Like I said, I don't blame him for what happened. He must've felt so alone.
After I regained my composure, I asked, “So… what does the mechanic have to do with this?”
Victor hesitated again, eventually saying, “He couldn't touch me while I was alive, so he made sure that death couldn’t get to me before he could. That's why I was trying to keep my condition quiet; I was hoping that I could outlast him long enough for the Reaper to catch up. Unfortunately, the fucker is good at what he does and knew that I’d drag someone else into my bullshit eventually.”
I shook my head, “I dragged myself into it. I could've just minded my own business, but I didn't. I chose to go out there, even though I didn't know what I was dealing with. And I chose to say the wrong thing to the mechanic to set him off.”
“You wouldn't have been in that position if I hadn't said anything.”
“So what happens now? You're just… forced to do these calls?”
Victor sighed, “It's either that, or I join the ones in the trees.”
The skulls. Grimly, I wondered if those trapped souls were still aware. If they knew what had happened to them.
I slumped down in my seat. “Is there anything we can do?”
“As of right now, no. We just go to work, keep our heads down, do what we have to do. And from now on, I'll deal with the mechanic, even if it's for something as trivial as changing a tire. He's my problem, no one else's.”
So that's where we're at. Victor's technically not alive or dead, but a secret third, worse thing.
Speaking of worse things, we got an emergency call in the middle of the night.
After we close for the day, Victor routes calls to his phone in case there is something that can't wait until the next day. Thankfully, this is an extremely rare occurrence; up until this incident, it's only happened twice since I've been with Orion. I joined Victor for one of those two emergency calls. Even though it's been two years since that night, I still hear the crunching of bones in my dreams.
Something yinz need to know about the farmers around here is that they know how to take care of themselves. They have more encounters with the atypical than anyone else and for the most part, they know how to live amongst things like the Neighbors in relative peace. They know about leaving cream out to appease them. They know about what measures to take to defend themselves and their animals. They're a tough bunch and they usually prefer to take care of things themselves. It's highly unusual for them to reach out to us.
So when Victor told me over the phone that the emergency call was at one of the farms, I knew it was going to be bad.
When he first described what the farmers were contending with, my stomach dropped. The client's brother was found on the porch with his chest entirely deflated, deliberately placed into a chair that was moved in front of the door where the family could see him.
The farmers were holed up in their home. The woman of the house was pregnant, due within the next few days, which made moving her extremely difficult. They could hear whatever killed the brother giggling and tapping on the windows, mocking them. Victor was already on his way there.
I arrived with my toolbelt along with a shotgun and shells filled with rock salt. This may sound ridiculous, but I also donned a collar that I'd made last summer by hammering long ass carpenter nails into the leather, then coating their pointed tips with silver. I looked a bit like a goth club reject, but when dealing with things that like to go for the throat, you gotta put your pride aside.
Victor's truck was in the driveway, but he was nowhere in sight. Shotgun at the ready, I glanced around as I approached the house. The body was still on the porch, untouched after the poor man had been posed there. It looked far worse than what Victor had described. His chest had caved in, like everything inside of him had been sucked clean out. His face was frozen in surprise rather than horror or pain. He'd been caught off guard and was dead long before he could react.
Wings. I turned, pulling the trigger just in time as the pest tormenting this family dove at me. It tumbled to the ground with an enraged shriek.
It appeared to be a woman. Well… half of one. Her legs were gone, brown entrails dangling sickeningly from her gray torso. Her leathery, hooked wings trembled as she used her bony arms to raise herself up to snarl at me, curling her lips to reveal doglike fangs. I shot at her again. She jolted as the shell took a chunk out of her skull.
That wouldn't kill her. Both her and I knew it. She skittered like a cockroach, an elongated tongue shooting out of her mouth, quick as a whip. I flinched, turning my head so she couldn't reach my face, grateful for the collar as I felt the proboscis slam into its spikes. The impact knocked me off balance, causing me to stumble. I leaned into it, hitting the ground and out of reach of the next swipe of her tongue.
I took aim again, knocking her back a few feet. A dark shape suddenly appeared from the barn, a glint of metal shining in the figure’s hand. Victor.
“I can't find the lower half.” He hissed when I was in earshot.
That meant we were going to have to keep her from rejoining the lower half of her body until sunrise. It was three in the morning.
Because nothing can ever be easy.
Victor had found chains and a padlock in the barn. They should be heavy enough to restrain her. We’d just have to get close. Without her sucking our insides out, preferably.
She was back in the air. I took another shot. I'd have to reload soon. I hoped that I'd have enough shells to last the next two hours. At the rate I was going, I'd burn through them in the next ten minutes.
Unfortunately, I missed as she soared towards the house. I used my last shot and thankfully knocked her out of the air. As I hurriedly reloaded, Victor rushed towards the fallen creature, kneeling on her chest to keep her from taking off again as he fought to get the chain around her.
I heard him make a terrible choking sound, followed by her retching. She'd gotten her proboscis down his throat, but had withdrawn it even quicker than she had gotten it down. I guess undead viscera doesn't taste very good.
As she gagged, Victor pressed his forearm against her throat, pinning her so that she couldn't sink her fangs into him. I raced over, setting the shotgun on the ground next to me so that I could help him restrain her. While he held her, I coiled the chain around her squirming torso.
She began to laugh. When she spoke, it sounded like an old woman and a young girl speaking in unison, “Do you think a chain will be enough to stop me?”
I kept going. She wiggled one wing out from beneath her, jabbing the hook into the hollow of my shoulder. I gasped as it pressed deeper into my skin. Victor roughly pushed her wing back down, the violent withdrawal of the hook making me see stars. Through all of that, I still kept going.
We turned her onto her side so that Victor could pin her wings against her back. She screeched the entire time, the proboscis shooting back to slap him in the cheek.
We almost had her. Then we heard a wail from inside the house. What now?!
The pest abruptly paused in her struggles to leer at us, then she sang, “The baby's coming!”
You've got to be kidding me.
Her fighting resumed with far more force than before. That man that she'd killed had merely been an appetizer for her. The baby was her true prize. Her eyes were wild with excitement, saliva dripping off of her fangs as she watched the front door open.
Shitshitshit!
“Go back inside!” Victor shouted as we both used all that we had to try to keep the pest in place.
The farmer yelled back, distress making his voice higher, “Something's wrong! I have to get her to the hospital!”
I risked a glance. The woman was white as a sheet, holding onto her husband for dear life as he half led half dragged her to his truck. Blood stained the inside of the woman's legs.
At the sight of it, Victor froze. I didn't like the way he looked at the woman then. Oh no. The creature went into a complete frenzy. She managed to get her fangs into Victor's arm, wrenching a cry of agony from him as she ripped a sizable chunk of flesh out. His hold on her loosened just enough that she could wriggle a wing out.
I screamed as I felt her beginning to slip away, frantically reaching for the nearest part of her, which was unfortunately her dangling intestines. It was like trying to hold onto oversized wet noodles, my hands slipping in her chunky blood as I struggled to slow her down.
They just needed to reach the truck. We just had to keep her here just long enough for them to get a head start.
I just hoped that I wouldn't end up having to protect them from my boss, too.
She roared as she turned and slashed me across the brow with one of her clawed fingers. My vision went dark in my right eye. Numbly, I wondered if she ripped my eye out, or if it was just from the pain. By some miracle, I didn't let go.
Fortunately, the bite seemed to snap Victor out of whatever had happened to him when he saw the woman’s blood. At least for the moment. He scrambled across the ground, seizing my shotgun. His first shot missed. The second one hit her left wing. The farmer had the truck's passenger side door open as he helped his wife inside. The pest reached a talon towards them, trying to drag herself closer. Victor was back on his feet and marched over to shoot her in the head. Once. Twice.
The truck's engine roared to life. With it, the pest screeched in rage, the sound warped by the damage done to her mouth after Victor had unloaded on her. She flailed as she watched her prize speed down the road.
But it wasn't over. The gunshot wound in her wing was already closing up. It wouldn't take her long to catch up to them if we lost her.
My cheek was wet. Turns out, I didn't lose an eye. I just had blood in it. Thank God. I crawled over her, trying the chains again as Victor went back to holding her wings against her body.
She called him every foul name in the book, words slurring from her destroyed jaw. One of them touched a nerve: “Bitch of the Wild Hunt.” He wordlessly snatched the salt from my belt and poured it over her face, holding her jaw to shove the container into her mouth. She gurgled and started to convulse as the salt was forced down her throat. That shut her up.
With the chain pinning her arms and wings against her body, Victor dug the padlock out of his pocket, using it to secure the links.
“I’m going to try to get her to the barn.” He yelled over the sound of her agitated howls.
I retrieved the shotgun and followed him as he carried the squirming, shrieking pest towards the barn. I pressed the palm of my hand to the cut on my brow. A flutter of unease went through my gut as it occurred to me that I could be in danger from Victor as well.
It didn't help that the pest had noticed it, too. She was goading him, “That girl smells sweet, doesn't she?”
“You want more salt in your mouth?” He threatened flatly. “We got plenty and we have some time until sunrise.”
She cackled, “You can't tell me that your mouth isn't watering thinking of her soft flesh between your teeth. Her blood warming your tongue. You long to feel warm again, don't you, dead man?”
The borderline pornographic way that she spoke about devouring me made me intensely uncomfortable.
“Keep it up and I'll pack the salt up your nose, too.” Victor retorted.
Once we got to the barn, we found an empty stall, which he tossed her into. I didn't follow him into the stall. My gut was telling me that something was off.
He drew a circle of salt around her. As long as it wasn't broken, it would trap her until sunrise.
I didn't think the boss would ever intentionally hurt me. But the way he looked at that woman…
What if he couldn't control himself?
Victor shut the stall door behind him, leaving the pest to wail and swear at us from her prison.
His eyes went to my forehead, “That looks like it hurts.”
I swallowed back the lump in my throat. There it was again. That look.
“Stay back, Vic.” I said calmly, my unease growing.
He took a deep breath, his eyes closing. I took a small step away from him, towards the exit to the barn.
I kept my voice even, “Vic, be honest with me. Is it safe to be around you right now?”
Victor stayed where he was, still not looking at me. He eventually answered, “Probably not.”
I took another step towards the door. “I'm going to leave.”
He nodded, eyes still shut, “I think that would be best. I'll make sure that she stays in the stall.”
As I backed towards the door, afraid to turn my back on him, I said, “I'll uh… see you at work tomorrow.”
“Yeah. See ya.”
I didn't dare turn my back on him until I'd left the barn. He didn't move a muscle the entire time. As I made my way back to my G6, I kept looking over my shoulder. Victor didn't follow me. I made it back to my car without incident.
I thought back to when I'd found him in the butcher shed. Looking back, I'm pretty sure that he'd been eating it.
Once I was in my apartment, I quickly drew lines of salt in front of all my doors and windows. It made me feel somewhat safer. I inspected the injuries on my forehead and shoulder. After cleaning them both up, I determined that I should probably see a doctor in the morning. In the meantime, I covered them both with gauze.
I painfully settled down onto my bed, my entire body aching. Even though I felt like a dish towel that had been wrung out over and over again, I knew that I wasn't going to be getting much sleep. My mind was racing too much.
Against my better judgment, I ended up texting Victor, ‘Are you a draugr?’
His response was, ‘i think so’
Draugr are known for their grotesque appetites. The joke Reyna and I had been making about him being a ‘high-functioning zombie’ wasn't all that far off, after all.
I reminded myself that Victor wasn't a complete monster. He'd at least had enough control over himself not to hurt me or either of the farmers. But the temptation had clearly been there. That begged the question of what his limits were.
Was it safe to work with him? Injuries aren't exactly uncommon at Orion. Maybe that's why he's been sending Reyna and I together for two person jobs rather than going on calls with us.
I received another message from him, ‘if you want to quit I understand’
I didn't, though. As stressful as working here can be, I do enjoy my job, weirdly enough. I've been treated better here than by any other employer and I like having only two other coworkers to worry about, especially since I get along well with both of them. But the biggest reason why quitting hasn't occurred to me is that I wouldn't be able to just walk away from all that I'd learned about the atypical cases. There was no way I could live a normal life after working at Orion.
I also wanted to keep an eye on Victor. Between whatever the mechanic was forcing him to do and his transformation, there was a lot that I was concerned about. As much as I didn't want to think about having to trap or kill Victor, if it came down to it... I'd do what needed to be done.
I sent back, ‘hazard pay? 👀’
His reply was, ‘😒’
A moment later, I received, ‘we'll discuss it when I don't have a manananggal mf'ing me’
Yinz see why I kept calling her a ‘pest’ rather than trying to type that long name out each time? I guarantee I would have misspelled it several different ways.
When the sun rose, I received another message from Victor, ‘it's over. thanks for your help’
We found out later in the afternoon that the hospital had been able to save the farmers’ baby. She was going to have to stay longer in the hospital, but otherwise, she and their newborn daughter were alright.
What was alarming was that the dead man's body had been desecrated at some point after I left. It was believed that the pest had been the one to take chunks out of his neck, shoulder, and chest. I wasn't going to be the one to tell the family the truth. They'd been through enough already without the news that the one they'd relied on for protection had gotten hungry.
I wondered if being exposed to so much blood had been the trigger. I suppose I should just be glad that Victor had eaten a man who was already dead instead of me or another living person.
Like I said, I'm going to have to keep an eye on him. In the meantime… maybe don't demand to speak to the manager.

Hi everyone. Wondering if any of you have experienced blessing or de-cursing western medications. For annoying reasons I need to take some really strong drugs and I just hate the idea that they affect my mind/emotions.
Currently I put the pill bottles on my altar once a week with the prayer to my spirits “please make this the best medicine for me and remove what does not belong (in my body)”. But I get the feeling there is more I can do.
I’ve also tried working with the spirits of the meds themselves but they are VERY scary to me.
My thanks!

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Capsimax Powder: A blend of capsicum, piperine, caffeine, and niacin, Capsimax Powder increases thermogenesis and fat oxidation.
Chromium Picolinate: This essential mineral helps regulate blood sugar levels and reduces cravings for carbohydrates and sugars.
Caffeine Anhydrous: Known for its stimulating properties, caffeine helps increase alertness and energy levels while promoting fat burning.
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Boosted Energy Levels: Caffeine and L-Carnitine Fumarate provide an energy boost, helping you stay active and motivated.
Improved Mood: PhenQ includes mood-enhancing ingredients to prevent the common emotional side effects of dieting, such as irritability.
Enhanced Metabolism: Ingredients like α-Lacys Reset® boost metabolic rate, enabling the body to burn more calories even at rest.Potential Side EffectsWhile PhenQ is generally safe for most users, there are potential side effects to be aware of:Caffeine Sensitivity: Some individuals may experience jitteriness, anxiety, or insomnia due to the caffeine content.
Digestive Issues: Ingredients like Nopal can cause mild digestive discomfort in some users.
PhenQ is a potent weight loss supplement due to its specific blend of scientifically backed ingredients
Allergic Reactions: As with any supplement, there is a risk of allergic reactions to certain ingredients .It is important to follow the recommended dosage and consult with a healthcare professional if you have any underlying health conditions or are taking other medications.User Experiences and RecommendationsMany users report positive experiences with PhenQ, citing significant weight loss, increased energy, and improved mood. Reviews often highlight the supplement's ability to curb appetite and reduce cravings, making it easier to stick to a calorie-controlled diet.However, individual results can vary based on factors such as diet, exercise, and overall lifestyle. It is important to maintain realistic expectations and combine PhenQ with a balanced diet and regular physical activity for the best results.Conclusion: Is PhenQ Recommended?Based on user reviews and the science behind its ingredients, PhenQ appears to be a promising option for those seeking a comprehensive weight loss solution. Its multi-faceted approach targets various aspects of weight loss, making it more effective than some single-action supplements.However, as with any dietary supplement, it is essential to use PhenQ responsibly and consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new weight loss regimen. If you are looking for a supplement that can help you burn fat, suppress appetite, and boost energy levels, PhenQ might be worth considering.Ready to embark on your weight loss journey with PhenQ? Visit the official PhenQ website for more information and to read user testimonials.