Pain when coughing in chest

In October 2023, I got Strep Group A. It was definitely the worst bout for me symptom-wise. I couldn’t swallow anything without immense pain, and I was very nauseous. After my antibiotic treatment (Penicillin), my main symptoms all went away except I continued to have the chills. I went in for another test once the chills became unbearable at night and a mildly sore throat, a month after I started my 10 day antibiotic course. The rapid test came back negative.
On Thanksgiving, I had an incredibly sore throat much like last time but was less feverish. I got tested, my rapid test came back negative but my throat culture tested positive for Group B. I went through a 10 day course of Amoxicillin, and I never really felt better weeks after.
Both of the previous labs were administered by my university’s student health center. The semester had ended, so I went to MedStar’s walk in to get another throat culture as I still had the same symptoms with the new addition of chest pain. To quote the NP I saw at MedStar
“Your symptoms do not meet the scorecard. You’re 23, you have the body of a BMW and you will be fine.”
… I get younger people are naturally healthier but, what a dismissively crass thing to say. Also, I’m not built like that I’m in skinny fat with a pronounced muffin top lmao.
With that being said, she refused to administer a throat culture to make sure I still don’t have Group B despite pleading with her that my symptoms have not changed, along with the addition of chest pains. I continued to have the same symptoms for months, but the chest pains went away by the new year.
I’ve felt somewhat better since, but the occasional sore throat and chills weren’t uncommon. Actually, I’ve gotten chills pretty much everyday but seemingly only when I lay down in bed at night.
Fast forward to the end of April, my tongue was in splitting pain with a sore throat and I decided to get tested. I came back to my home town where I saw an NP in the walk in… she believed it was post nasal drip but she administered a throat culture upon my request and it turned out I had strep again, Group G this time. So thankful they agreed to give me a throat culture.
They prescribed a 5 day Azithromycin antibiotic course, which I finished on May 1st and mostly everything went away except the chills. Last weekend on the 13th, my sore throat and fever came back so I went back to the walk in, just got my results today that I still have Strep, but they can’t identify which group other than it or being Group A. I have been prescribed a 10 day course of amoxicillin.
My mind is spinning… what in the actual hell is going on?
I can’t see an ENT for months because of the healthcare system, and I’m rightfully getting worried. Having strep for at least a month, and god knows for how long if Group B never went away, is making me concerned about rheumatic fever. I’m really uneasy and anxious about all of this.
Important to note, when I was taking my antibiotic courses the previous 3 times, I really screwed up and was drinking heavily while on them. I had developed alcoholism the same month when I first contracted Strep. I was not considerate or knowledgeable of how alcohol would interact with the antibiotics, and I will not be drinking on this course and I’m really hoping this will help my chances of ridding strep out of my system.
I am also a vaper, which could seemingly line up with my frequency to strep over the last few months. I’m treating my vape like my toothbrush head, getting rid of them.
Am I tweaking for being worried rheumatic fever? And is it strange that I’m prone to multiple groups of strep, or is this reasonable for someone with a weakened immune system? Am I tweaking for being dismissively compared to a BMW because of my age when in fact I’m built more like a 2010’s Mitsubishi?

I was on machine for over 2 years now. Completly stopped at the moment. Does anyone has a chest and back pain coming from the lungs after a night sleep the next day? I realised when I was taking breaks without machine everything stops. I have really bad asthma. Basically on double steroids every day. Just did test for mould in my lungs but result will be around 2 weeks. Let me know what do you think. Thanks

About 2 weeks ago I (Male 20) was walking in my home when I lost my breath and couldn't breathe for a few seconds until I coughed and managed to catch my breath again. Around the same time, I started experiencing chest pain that would come and go frequently. The pain relaxed for a few days but today the pain in my chest is returning for longer periods. Ive also been experiencing pain in my left shoulder, back, and upper stomach as of today. I am concerned that I am experiencing the warning signs of a heart attack. Especially because I had a healthy brother pass away from a heart attack while doing physical exercise at school at only 9 years old. I'm not sure as to whether or not I should seek Medical attention since I dont have insurance. Is there any way I can rule out that this is a pending heart attack from home? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
Ps: I think I should mention that last time I had a physical appointment my doctor told me that I had high cholesterol. In addition, Im also overweight (6" 250lbs"). I should also mention that I chugged a 200mg energy drink 1 day prior to experiencing these symtoms and felt strong chest pain right after finishing the drink as well. Drinking around 225mg of caffine daily was a routine for me prior to experiencing these symptoms.

Hi, I’m new here. Clots run in my family. My uncle died from a dvt and my aunt had to go to the Er for multiple PE. First of all I’m very in tune with my body. I know when something is off and I’m very caution particularly with this because of my family history. About a week ago I started feeling pain in my leg, it wasn’t too bad or anything ( I also have a high pain tolerance) it was more intuitive but I went to the doctor bc I thought it may be a clot. He told me he would run labs and that “ even if I had a clot I would have to wait to see a hematologist “ I gt the results of my d dimer test it was 6000 . So I took it soon myself to go to the er, guess what? They could see no clothing my leg but I had multiple in both lungs. Scattered, . Right there admitted to the hospital. them the chest pain came and shortness of breath again though tolerable. A week there, on heparin . I just got out and now I’m on Eliquis. 5mg. I was tested and I do have the protein s deficiency mutation , so my appointment with the hematologist is in June. I have been home a few days but I feel worse. My pain in my chest is worse and the shortness of breath is worse I’m debating going back but I’m almost certain they will not make it as big of a deal since I’m on the blood thinner..
This is all new and scary and I feel like I’ll be paranoid for life now, if not about a clot about me hurting myself accidentally while in the blood thinner.. & praying this mutation doesn’t get passed on to my child..

“Oh! Well isn’t that just swell.”
Gaito sighs, tossing an orange pill bottle into the trash before turning to cough into his arm. He suppresses the fit that wants to take him, returning to his bed just as a migraine settles in his skull. He groans, doubling over and burying his face in the sheets, hoping the coolness of them will help. It doesn’t.
“God, why now…” he mutters, rubbing his temples. As much as he loves pain, he doesn’t like it nearly as much when it isn’t being purposely inflicted on him.
He crawls back under the covers, burying his face into the pillow as he fails to fight a second coughing fit. He hacks and trembles for a solid few minutes before he settles, throat sore and mind muddled. He’d need to make more medicine in the coming days…
For now, all he really wanted to do was melt into his bedsheets, but that wasn’t much of an option, huh?
[Open RP for Bratva and associates.]

Im nearing 1 month into toxic mold exposure. Cleaned up some throw up with a towel and forgot it in the hamper (i know). When doing laundry mold powder (?) got in air the whilst unsticking the towel from my other clothes.
For the first two weeks i was sleeping in the same room with no air purifier. I started to develop worse symptoms, such as tight chest, delusion, issues remembering words, body twitches, abdomen aches, and so on. In the thick of it I had horrible insomnia.
Last week, I made the mistake of washing a contaminated pillow with the rest of my bedspread, being uneducated on how to "clean mold." That completely ruined me. Horrible body aches, tight chest, and most of the things in that room cause my symptoms to flare up as well. Im not yet able to move out, but I have since moved to a different room in the same house, albeit on a different floor. I didn't take anything from the room with me except a desk that ive wiped down.
Although, since the contamination of my pillows and bedspread, I've been experiencing what seems to be an all day, never ending headache. Often times this is my only noticeable symptom. Even when I leave the house, the back of my head still pulses with pain. I am only able to find relief when I wash my hair with cold water and shampoo, even if for a few minutes. Some days it goes away, then returning when I come into contact with contaminated clothing. I have dreadlocks, which are highly porous, hence why I fear that I have mycotoxins secured in the kinks of my hair. I notice that when i dry my hair, the fingers I'm using get stiff and hurt a bit. Hair touching my body also tends to cause a burning sensation.
Headaches, above all are my biggest concern with mold toxicity because of the inflammation in the brain it may cause. Am I correct to think that I have mycotoxins lodged in my hair, and how would I go about resolving this?
I already take magnesium and daily vitamins with my morning Adderall. I plan on acquiring activated charcoal, omega 3, as well as dosing 3mg melatonin every other night as I heal from this. I have a weeklong vacation next week that I hope will provide me some, at the very least, temporary relief. Any suggestions for longterm are greatly appreciated.

So it's me again, back for another rant! Life is tough, and I don't have anyone I can talk to. I'm just so tired of the way things are!
Last night me and my bestie decided to have a few drinks and just unwind, it was actually a lot of fun. We had some drinks and sang along to some music, it was overall just great. Unfortunately if everything went good, it wouldn't be much of a rant would it. The night was going fine, I had 3 cans of Mike's Hard Black cherry (super yummy and definitely recommend it) and I had 2 glasses of rum & coke, so nothing all that crazy for me compared to how much I have drank in the past. Around 3am I got hit with some mild chest pain...
The chest pain turned into a really intense pressure through my chest that ended up radiating through my back, it was nothing like what I've felt before, I get stress chest pains and honestly this experience made them seem somehow diminished in comparison. As the pain got worse I noticed I was having trouble breathing, it got so bad that I started getting nervous. Within 20 minutes of the chest pains starting I got genuinely scared and asked my bestie to take me to the hospital, anyone who knows me knows that I will avoid it at all cost so she knew that it had to be serious enough. She went into panic mode and in spite of everything I managed to stay calm and take control of the situation. As we pulled into the hospital parking lot I started feeling an almost primal fear, the type of fear you get when you think you're truly about to die.
I got to the front desk and was immediately told to come in and take vitals, they couldn't get a BP despite having the cuff on my arm for about 10 minutes, she finally gave up and asked me the usual questions about pain and stuff. Weirdly enough my arms decided to shift between pain and numbness and I suddenly started slurring while trying to explain myself, that was when all "care" was off limits to me. Our hospital has a bad habit of sweeping people under the rug if they even remotely suspect alcohol use, but the thing is I was fine moments before going in... I was perfectly coherent and I actually felt completely sober thanks probably to adrenaline or fear. I was sent back to the waiting area and told to just wait my turn, and things went from bad to worse quickly.
I didn't know that I had passed out, my bestie filled in the blanks for me. Apparently while we sat there waiting I kept coughing roughly, my eyes rolled to the back of my head, and apparently I kept making weird movements with my tongue sticking out. She said the best way of describing it is "I was behaving like I'd been severely drugged and suddenly seemed to spiral quickly". When I came too I was still in the waiting room, freezing, in severe pain (I don't do well in cold environments and the hospital is always freezing), and feeling just beyond exhausted. When I asked her about if we were even checked on she confirmed my thoughts... we were left there, away from other patients, out of sight of anyone who could help if things got deadly.
After managing to stand up I looked at my bestie and said that I didn't want to be there anymore because no one cared about me, she agreed with me on the terms that if anything else happened we'd go back immediately. When I went back to triage to tell them I was leaving the nurse gave me a smug look and asked if I was feeling better or do I just want to leave, so I answered with "better isn't the word I'd use but dying at home seems like a better option". She ripped the IV plug out of my arm (which I frankly don't remember having one inserted), and told me to have a good day. I felt so angry! The experience triggered my PTSD from the last time I went to the hospital (long story short, I was kept isolated in a room soaking wet and freezing until the department I needed decided to take me in).
I could have died, and no one would've cared because they suspected I was drunk!!! What if no one came to check on me at all?! What if they only found out I died because my bestie couldn't wake me?! Would they have maybe cared than? Or would they have just said "oh well she drank"? It's infuriating to be treated like nothing just because there was a little bit of alcohol involved, like I said I wasn't drunk and actually felt sober! My condition deteriorated rapidly over the course of a 5 minute car ride. I spent the whole day just feeling rough!
After we left the hospital my body just doesn't feel right. My chest feels fuzzy/bubbly, I don't know how to better describe the feeling as well as feeling tight. My breathing still feels really labored like it's taking a lot of effort to just keep going, and small things are leaving me feeling winded. All day I couldn't shake this weird chronic fatigue, I'm just drained of all energy. And I've been noticing my arms go completely numb if I lean on them, which is super alarming. As long as nothing else happens in between I'm planning on following up with my doctor because at least she's taking me seriously, if something else does happen though were gonna take the 3+ hour drive to the next nearest hospital. The scary thing is, that weird primal fear still hasn't gone away and I'm nervous about that!

First / Previous
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Suzanne thought it was absolutely brilliant of me to put books on a flash drive for Sun. She explained that Sun wasn’t as sophant (her word, not mine) as she might seem, more of a repository of information, but she was fairly intelligent. It was how she was able to connect Andrew being in pain to the fact that I was friends with Andrew, and that I would want to know that he was in trouble. Apparently some of Sun’s species had given some ‘wisdom’ to others in the past and it had made its way into mythology.
The key fact was that she was not smart enough to protect herself and her kind from the clever, organized poachers. With that information in mind, it was fascinating for me to think of how Sun took in and organized what she learned. It was almost as if she was a walking, talking library.
On the topic of tours, my first one went wonderfully, and I’m almost hoping Suzanne lets me do more of them. I know not all the tourists are going to be as awesome as these people were, but Suzanne gave me a lot of slack when it comes to dealing with them. She actually said that being a smartass is not grounds for dismissal, and that if I’m sarcastic or facetious to guests who are being ‘daft’ and they complain, she really doesn’t care. Is this the perfect job for me or what?
There were four guests in this party, two adults who were sisters and two children of one of the women, brothers aged thirteen and seventeen. The tour was a birthday gift for the older of the boys from his aunt, since apparently he was passionate about animal protection and conservation.
When they arrived at the front gate, I was sitting at Andrew’s desk, going over the booklet of information one last time. When the visitors pressed the button that sounded the alert buzzer, I tucked away in a drawer and let them in. I did have a cheat sheet with information about the animals on my phone just in case, a brief notation of each of them and which enclosure they were in, but I really didn’t need to use it.
Exiting through the front door, I saw them walk up the path toward me. “Hi, I’m Ripley,” I said, holding out a hand toward the woman closest to me.
She shook it firmly. “I’m Denise. This is my sister Carla and my nephews, Wesley and Jason,” she said, motioning to each of them in turn.
“I heard it’s your birthday,” I said to Wesley, giving him a smile. “You’re interested in animal conversation?”
“Back where we live, yeah,” he said, nodding. “The animals that you’ve got here are incredible. I can’t wait to see them.”
“Well, I can’t wait to show them to you,” I said. “Right this way.”
I led them on the path around the building, toward enclosure one. Despite the horrific memories of the animal killing Stanley’s friends, I knew it was just an animal, and I had to push past my feelings on what had happened. Keeping a small smile on my face, I motioned to the enclosure. “Fiercely territorial and amazing hunters, despite their large size, they’re arboreal and known to dart from tree to tree with barely a sound. This is one of only about two thousand left in existence.”
“Two thousand, three hundred and fifty six at last count,” spoke Wesley, his eyes on the trees.
I blinked, surprised and impressed. “Well that was fantastic. Do you plan on stealing my job when you graduate?”
Wesley looked at me with a grin. “Nah, everyone knows Suzanne only offers humans this gig. And I want to help animals like this one get off the endangered species list. The zoos are great for awareness and fundraising, but then the money has to go somewhere. I want to be doing the real work.”
“That’s really great,” I told him. “I wish you all the best in that career path.” At that, we saw the animal climb down from the tree, wandering a few yards from the tree line. This was because 90% of the time, when humans were at their enclosure and making noise, whether it was speaking to each other or calling out to the animal, it was someone bringing them prey to eat. Or, in my case, enrichment toys to play with.
“Whoa,” Wesley whispered.
“How close can we get?” spoke up Jason.
“The warding starts at the fence,” I told him with a small gesture. “So, just there.”
Both boys wandered closer and I glanced at their parents. It seemed that Suzanne’s zoo had a serious reputation for high quality invisible walls, because they didn’t look worried in the slightest about the boys being hurt or killed.
“They prefer dense forest as their home and have been known to make their nests in trees up to twenty meter in the air,” I continued. “And when hunting, they’ve been seen dropping eight meters straight down. They have incredibly dense yet flexible musculature, which allows them to tackle their prey without injuring themselves.”
There was more information about the animal that I continued to rattle off, though Wesley chimed in at certain points with the info I was about to convey. That was highly entertaining and very cool. When I’d been in school, I’d never met anyone who had my level of passion about endangered animals. I wondered if things were better where these folks came from, but realized that considering there were so few of these animals left, I guessed not.
The animal paced a little bit, seemingly waiting to see if we were the kind of humans that came bearing food, before deciding we weren’t and climbing back up into the trees as easily as I would climb some stairs.
As we moved onto enclosure two, Jason spoke up. “Are there any animals here we can touch or feed or something?”
I sighed inwardly before slowing to a stop. “Well, can you show me your hands?” Jason looked bemused, holding out his hands. “I mean…they both look like they’re in great shape. You can stand to lose one.”
The two women chuckled and Wesley smirked as Jason shoved his hands into his pockets. “Very funny.”
Grinning, I started walking again. “The animals here are all carnivores and all predators. You get to see them, but that’s it.”
“Alright.”
When we reached enclosure two, I started on my next spiel. “We’ve got three reanimated dead in this enclosure,” I spoke. They were just coming out from the trees as we arrived, presumably having heard our approach. “Marissa, Connor, and Bradley. They were donated by families who knew where they would be exhibited. Their next of kin, whoever they are, can’t stand the idea of putting them down. But we need to make sure they don’t have access to corpses, because one of them plus one corpse equals two of them.”
“They eat flesh though, don’t they?” Wesley asked.
I nodded. “Oh, yeah, but it’s from bodies that have already been dismembered. There’s no chance of them being affected by the transformation because it’s all parts.”
“Oh, got it.”
The creatures with blueish-white skin had superhuman strength, which is why they qualified for the security of Suzanne’s zoo. They also were likely the source of any Earth tales of people being brought back to life as zombies, specifically draugr, according to my research. They smelled like rotting flesh, so even as I kept talking about them and giving a background to the people they used to be, we were quick to move on once Wesley had gotten a good, long look at them.
“Enclosure four’s animal is a vampiric spirit. He’s a small, hairy humanoid creature with pointed ears. He wears a hat, and if he somehow loses it, he freaks out,” I said.
“They eat horses,” Wesley noted. “Also anything that gives them the chance to sit on it, usually catching them by surprise while they’re sleeping.”
The creature came out from the brush, giving us a suspicious look. He wasn’t in his humanoid form though; for some reason, he’d chosen to shapeshift to a dog.
I nodded. “Yep, indeed. Once the prey is dead, then he’ll eat it, and he has a voracious appetite. We have two wolves and two bears in the forest, which is one of the reasons I’ve got some self-defense items,” I said, patting my belt where my pepper spray (rated for bear) and my taser. “But the wards keep them out of this area of the zoo, so it’s really not much of a worry. It’s also a known shapeshifter, preferring the form of a dog, as you can see, as well as a cat, a snake, or even white butterflies, though the last one is rare.”
“The white butterflies are supposed to be a sign of good luck,” Wesley said, glancing to me. “Too bad we got the dog.”
“Yeah, otherwise you might be able to talk your mom into getting scratch-offs on your way home, huh?”
Wesley smirked at me.
The next enclosure was Spike, and he was waiting for us, dripping wet from having just emerged from the lake. I gave the introductory information about him, which included his propensity for eating animal eyes, nails, and teeth. “Recently, I’ve given him some enrichment activities, and I learned he likes artichokes, pecans, and hazelnuts,” I said, taking a bag out from my cargo shorts. “Wesley, do you want to toss this bag into the enclosure?”
The boy’s eyes widened and he nodded excitedly. He took a look into the paper bag before wrapping down the top to make sure nothing would fly out. Then he chucked it underhand past the fence. It landed a few yards from Spike, who waddled over to it quickly and tearing the bag open, spilling out the prizes inside. As the animal ate the pecans and hazelnuts, Wesley asked, “How’d you figure out he likes those?”
“It’s not all about taste,” I told him. “It’s mainly the difficulty of getting them out of the shells. He’s used to having to work for the parts of his prey he likes the most, so this mimics that activity, and he enjoys the process. I tried a bunch of different foods to find a few he liked.”
“Cool,” Wesley murmured, staring at him.
We watched Spike eat until he’d finished and then he went back into the woods, leaving us to move onto enclosure five. Japanese camellia were plentiful here, a type of pink flower, and that was because they grew anywhere near one of his species made their den. “This girl spends most of her time in the lake also,” I said, as the creature made its way toward the fence separating us from it. “But as you can see, she’s just as curious as the rest about what we’re doing here and whether we have food for her. She eats fish mostly, but she also regularly gets live prey.”
This creature was a spider-like monster, having six legs with long claws on each, and the head of an ox with two sharp horns. She was capable of shapeshifting to look like a human, but I guessed that she wasn’t fond of it, since I hadn’t yet seen her in that form.
“She prefers the easy way of catching prey, so to speak, by hiding in the lake and pouncing when something comes for a drink of water,” I explained. “Apparently humans are some of her favorite prey. She has an advantage of being able to spit poison, which often hits her prey in the eyes. But it’s usually used in defense rather than offense, since it secretes a limited amount.”
“What kind of animal would even go after something like this?” Jason asked, staring at her.
“Never discount one of its own species when you’re thinking about what might attack an animal,” I replied. “There are places that are breeding all of the animals here, but competition for mates is common. That means an advantage in a fight, like poison or venom, can make or break who the winner is.”
“Ah, gotcha.”
“It can’t spit past the warding, right?” Carla suddenly asked.
“Oh, no,” I assured her. “We’re fine. The wards wouldn’t let anything cross over.” She nodded, appeased.
The animal in enclosure six was the ginormous seal-hippo, Fiona, and she was looking at us as if she was imagining sprinkling us with herbs and spices and stuffing us in an oven. “This girl is one animal I’m going to work on enrichment activities for next,” I told them. “She prefers to feed on crayfish, though she’s happy to eat any humans that wander into her territory. She’ll even make a sound like a baby crying to reel us in. I’ve heard it a bunch of times.”
“Can you get her to make the sound?” Jason asked, perking up.
I grinned. “Not on command, sorry.”
“What enrichment are you thinking of trying?” Wesley asked.
“Possibly food placed in puzzle feeders,” I told him, “since she has claws that are pretty dexterous. Maybe a piñata made out of newspaper with flour inside, or a scarecrow that mimics a human.”
“Awesome,” he muttered.
After a little more educational tidbits, we moved onto Yui’s enclosure. “What is that?” Wesley asked, smiling.
“I got Yui the closest thing I could to a ping-pong ball,” I replied. “She quite likes it.”
“That’s so funny,” he said as she came out of the trees in her spider form. “I mean, the idea of her being a bloodthirsty hunter who seduces men to their deaths and eats them alive, but then on the other hand, she likes playing with something like this.”
“It is a little funny,” I agreed. “But when it comes down to it, all the animals here enjoy activities besides hunting.”
“She can shapeshift to look human, right?” asked Jason, trying to be casual about knowing something factual like his nerdy brother.
I nodded. “She looks like a woman from a region of Earth called Japan. And she’ll use strategies like holding out a hand to shake to get you closer. She tried that on me when I first got here but, as you can see,” I said, holding up my hands and waving them, “I didn’t fall for it.”
The boys both laughed as they got closer to the fence, watching her slowly pace near the trees.
Next was Sun, but she didn’t make an appearance as I spoke about her species. “Well…unfortunately we can’t guarantee that every animal comes out to say hi,” I sighed. “But…oh wait, here she is.”
The green lion with several horns and many eyes along her flank came out from the forest. “Hello,” she spoke.
“Hi, Sun,” I replied. “We have visitors.”
“What’s that?” Wesley asked suddenly, pointing at the small plastic bag that was still where I’d left it.
“Oh! That is Sun’s enrichment,” I said with a smile. “I put dozens of books on a flash drive and found that she can read them just like she’d read a shelf of books.”
Wesley’s eyes widened. “Wow. I don’t think I’ve read about anyone trying that before. That’s really cool.”
“The books are new and interesting,” Sun spoke, drawing our attention. “I’m grateful for them.”
I nodded to her. “You’re quite welcome.”
The next animal, unfortunately, wasn’t there, and we waited around for ten minutes as we discussed him. He was large and reptile-like with red eyes, with its hind legs and tail making him look vaguely like a kangaroo. Then, enclosure ten was a terrifyingly disturbing creature, the not-a-centaur with no skin, that I’d only seen a few times while walking my route. It gave a good demonstration of its ferocity, showing its sharp teeth and snapping at us a few times.
“I’m thinking of trying salt licks and other horse enrichment like a big bouncy ball,” I told Wesley, whose eyebrows went up at that. “Maybe give him more things to forage like scattered grains or a box filled with pinecones and seeds. Foraging is a huge part of a horse’s life in the wild, and humans have to do a lot of activities like that to keep pet horses busy. Of course, he also loves the little salt-water lake that was built for him.”
We spent some time looking at the animal before moving past our last stop, the empty enclosure of the animal was stolen. Carla glanced at me with a sad smile, knowing what had happened, it seemed. I gave her a nod as we continued on our way, walking into the office. “So, I hope everyone enjoyed themselves!” I said with a smile.
“That was the coolest birthday present I’ve ever gotten,” Wesley said, looking to Denise. “Thanks so much, seriously.”
“It was my pleasure,” she said with a nod. “I’d never been here before, and knew I’d find it fascinating. Thank you for the educational aspect,” Denise said, glancing at me. “I learned quite a lot.”
“Happy to hear it,” I said, returning the nod.
As I escorted the guests out of the zoo and locked the door behind them, I reflected on how much I’d changed. The first time I’d seen Yui’s tarantula form, I’d nearly passed out from fear. Now here I was, walking tourists around like it was no big deal. Humans really can adapt to anything, it seems.
That afternoon, Suzanne had texted me that she was coming by after my shift, and I met her in Andrew’s office, shutting the door to the security room behind me. “How’s Andrew?” I asked first thing.
“He’s doing well,” she said with a wide smile. “Back on non-hospital food. He’s allowed to order food on his phone, and to hear it from him, that’s the best news he’d received in a long time.”
I chuckled. “I guess some clichés are true for a reason.”
“Indeed.” She took a breath. “All right. Ripley…I would like to discuss something with you.”
My face went slack at the serious tone in her voice. “I’m not… Am I being fired?”
“What? No!” she exclaimed. Then she chuckled softly. “No, it’s nothing like that. Just, here, let’s have a seat.” Suzanne walked over to the couch and sat at one end, and I took the other. “There’s something I need to tell you. Something I’ve kept from you, that I wanted to keep from you until you found your sea legs here.”
“Well…I have,” I said with a nod. “So, what is it?”
Suzanne took a breath. “I knew your mother.”
The words hung in the air for a moment before making their way to my ears. It was a perfectly logical sentence, and yet it didn’t make any sense. “What?” I finally managed.
“When you graduated college, I decided to move the zoo from Italy to within driving distance of your home,” she said softly. “Near enough to your town that you’d see the advert. We ignored any other applicants and I hoped you’d apply. Actually, I expected you’d apply. Not just for the money, but considering the field you wanted to go into. As soon as I’d found out your major, I knew.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” I said, holding up a hand. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “How do you know Patricia?”
“She owned the zoo before I did,” Susan explained. “Fourteen years ago…she was working to track an injured animal that we could bring into the zoo and she was killed by poachers.”
My heart calcified in my chest and a lump lodged in my throat. As my breaths became shaky, I stared at her in shock. “She…she’s really dead?”
“You suspected?” she asked softly.
“It…” I swallowed hard. “We had her declared legally dead after…I don’t know, seven years I think. My dad wanted to go after her for child support, but the police said…they said they couldn’t find…” Tears came to my eyes and I blinked them back before I met Suzanne’s gaze. “She owned the zoo?”
Suzanne nodded. “It was her baby, you’d say. When Patricia passed, I inherited it, which we’d discussed beforehand, a legal just-in-case that I never expected her to need. I’m under the impression that you were told she went to Africa for her photography career, but she was in fact going to remote areas back in my home world almost every time.”
“But I-I saw the photos,” I said, my eyes narrowing. “You’re telling me she put on a show of getting pictures that someone else took for us to see every time she visited? Did my dad even know?”
“I suppose that’s an accurate way to put it, putting on a show. And no, your father was never told. It’s not the way of things to tell humans unless it’s necessary. I won’t bore you with the details, but us and humans, we’re distant relatives, so we can still have children. But it wasn’t planned. Your mother fell in love with your father despite herself; she hadn’t meant to find love. Then she became pregnant with you and…well, the rest is history.”
“I think she had a different definition of love than the one I have,” I said tightly. “You’d think she’d have put her survival as more of a priority. Put being with the man she ‘loved’ as a priority. Her kids needed her. I needed her. She signed up when she became a mom. She could’ve screwed up all the time but she couldn’t even manage that one job: be there. When I was in the hospital, I kept thinking, ‘Where is she?’ and now you’re telling me that she put these animals above being there for her kids, and this whole time she’s been dead.”
“The hospital?” she asked, furrowing her brows.
“Never mind,” I said tersely, averting my gaze.
Suzanne hesitated before she nodded slowly. “I’m sorry for your loss, and not just for her death, Ripley,” she told me. “Patricia was…well, a ‘free spirit’ would be putting it gently. She always assumed the world would be there for her whenever she needed it.”
Staring at her for a long moment, I shook my head. “Why? Why come here and hire me?”
“I thought that would be obvious,” she said, smiling. “Your mother was so passionate about this place and once I found out your college major, I figured you would be as well.”
“Did you know that I hate her?” At that, Suzanne’s expression froze on the edge of shock. “She…she left us,” I whispered. “Didn’t tell us who she was or what she really did for a living and gave us no closure. And even when she was here, it was just visiting. Her real home was her work. She could give me all the presents she wanted, but even when she was here, half the time she was still on her computer doing work. It’s not like that stereotype of never making it to my tennis practice or something; it’s that it always felt like she was only partially here, even when I was sitting next to her. I don’t even know if I appreciate her turning me into a wildlife fanatic because it…it…makes me feel like I’m close to her in a way that’s just infuriating. She loved the animals more than she loved us.”
“Oh, Ripley-”
“Don’t,” I said, shoving myself to my feet. “Don’t try to convince me otherwise.”
“I wasn’t going to,” she said quietly. I pursed my lips. “I was going to say that I’m sorry that was the case. Your mother was…flawed, just like any other person. She had two loves in this world: her family and her work. And often, her work overcame her, her zeal for environmentalism getting in the way of being a good mum. She left your father trying to fill the role of two parents, holding your family together. You and your brother and your father, you all deserved better than that.”
My lower lip quivered but I bit down on it hard. It would’ve been a lot easier for me if she’d been speaking from a place of clueless reassurance about all this. But everything she said was making sense and that meant I didn’t have someone in front of me to be angry with.
“Why didn’t you tell me when Andrew hired me?” I sighed, sitting back down on the couch.
“Well, like I said, I wanted you to find your sea legs,” she said with a small smile. “I didn’t want the truth affecting whether or not you wanted to work here, whether you wanted to stay here after finding out about what the animals are. It would’ve complicated things, the emotions you’ll have to work through now that you know the truth. Whether or not you decide to give another tour, you also know what they’re like. That’s the benchmark I wanted you to reach before you found out about who you are.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Who I-” My face went slack. “Wait.”
Suzanne nodded slowly. “You’re only half human. Your brother too.”
The room seemed to tilt on an axis for a moment. “That means I’m also half…what?”
“We call ourselves Eldritch, these days,” she replied.
My eyes bugged out. “What?” I exclaimed. “So you’re all, like, gods or something?”
Suzanne burst out laughing. “Oh no, goodness, no,” she chuckled. “It’s just a word. We live in a very different world from this one, and a few generations ago we discovered the word and it made its way into our lexicon. But it does mean you can see all the animals. Indeed you did, on the tour you gave.”
“Wait, no, I had the glasses that…” I stopped. “Did those glasses do anything?”
She gave a sly smile and shook her head. “Not a thing. You made incredibly quick progress, and then when it came time for the tour, all you needed was to expect to see the animals, and you did.”
Genetics. That’s what Andrew had said during our interview, that part of how many animals you could see was determined by genetics. I guess having a mother who was originally from the other dimension gave me all the genes I needed to see everything here. “Could I…visit your world?” I asked tentatively. “You said that my mom took photos of the animals there. Could I…” My voice trailed off, not even sure if or how I wanted to finish that sentence.
“Those who are half human, especially those who are raised on Earth, don’t come visit,” she said gently. “I could show you some photos of other animals, and I could loan you as many books as you’d like, but it’s simply not a place where you’d be safe.”
“Oh,” I said, leaning into the couch cushion as I pictured the animals in the zoo. “Yeah, actually that…makes sense.” I paused. “So, what now?”
“It’s up to you,” she said. “I wanted to wait until I was sure you were comfortable with your position here, and then put the ball in your court. And so it is. What do you want to do now?”
What did I want to do? It wasn’t that difficult a question, just a deep, serious one.
I wanted to thrive, as the animals did. This is my enrichment now, working at an incredible, wonderful, terrifying zoo. The experience so far hasn’t been perfect, and I know there are risks, but life isn’t about staying safe. It’s about learning new things and making a difference in the world. And, if you’re lucky, having a job that’s something really special.
​
THE END
​
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I’m 4 days post op (DI with FNG) and still quite hunched over when i stand, in pain and just generally not able to move all too much. I’ve started getting random twinges in my chest, specially where my nipples are which i’m worried about as they have both bled at points (would you guys say that’s normal, I don’t have an appt with my surgeon until next friday otherwise I’d ask). When were you guys able to stand normally and not really be in pain when you move? I’m just not very good at sitting still and I’m worried that’s why my nipples bled and that I might do more damage without realising (I didn’t see until later bc my post op compression wrap covers it). Thanks!

THIS IS A CONTINUATION STORY. CLICK MY PROFILE TO FIND PART 1.
Once I got into my house, I wasn't sure what to feel. I was nervous and shy at the same time. My mom always keeps bottles of liquor in the house so I picked up a random whiskey and started drinking it. About 20 mins later, I felt a lot more confidence and slutty. I put on some panties and stood in front of the full body mirror to snap diff angles or my ass. I sent him the pics and sent a msg saying "I actually dont need to sleep on it... can I come over now for that🍆." He msged back with a pic of his semi hard cock and told me to come thru. I put on some baggy sweats and sweater and walked over to his house. It was about 7 mins away by walk so I said why not. I finally got there and he gave me a tight hug, mainly focusing on my ass as he gripped it. I smiled while my face was buried in his chest and I walked in. I told him if he wanted to smoke some weed and brought out some of my own. He told me to keep my weed and pulled out this weed that was in a crazy looking alien space typa of bag. As he was breaking down the weed and rolling up. I decided in my mind and said fuck it and stood up to drop my baggy sweats to reveal my bubble butt in the pink thongs. He sropped rolling for a second and looked up at my ass while moaning "mmm." He smacked it up and continued to roll up. After he rolled it up he started to light it. I nervously moved up onto his lap and sat on it adjusting my position so that his cock really feels my ass.
"Its so soft and round." He said while coughing and passing the blunt to me. I grabbed it and started smoking. He put his hands around my waist and started to grind up all on his dick. We passed the blunt back and forth as I kept it up. He eventually got hard. He told me he was like 80 percent hard and I smiled and told him "I'll take care of the other 80 percent" I pulled his briefs off to reveal a massive cut white cock. I was holding the bottom of his cock while waving it around slowly. I was amazed at how big and tasty it looked.
"Put it in ur mouth already." My friend said as he pushed the back of my head towards it. I gave the head of his huge cock a lick or two, before I slowly and sensationally sucked his cock. It was so thick that getting the head into my mouth was difficult. He let out a deep moan as I kept sucking on the head for now. I used both of my small hands to jerk him off while I sucked it. I kept eye contact with him while sucking until he started to face fuck me. I coughed and gagged hella times and tears and spit were all over my face.
"Aw look at the little cry baby" he said while teasing me. I smiled and told him stfu and then continued to go even deeper with my mouth. He pulled his cock out my mouth and started slapping me in the face with it. I stuck my tongue out and smiled like a slut.
"Ur doing good my lil slut, better then the last 10 females tbh." He said while looking down on me. I felt proud of myself after he complimented me.
"I guess I was meant to suck ur dick right?" I said smiling before getting on the sofa and sticking my ass in the air for him to pound.
"Shit I'm down to try but wtf makes u think u can take this dick in ur ass and not run away wen u only got half my dick wet with ur mouth?" He said while slapping his cock on my ass cheeks and rubbing it on my hole. I was getting hornier feeling the skin of his cock on my ass hole.
"Mmm I'm so horny, please just put it in already daddy." I felt like I was able to take all of his dick, until he attempted to put it in. I screamed out of pain and squirmed away like he said I would. He started laughing seeing me struggle to take it.
"Hehe, u got skills with ur mouth but u got ways to go until ur taking this dick in ur butt with no problem." He said while stroking his cock. I turned around and started to suck his dick again and try to make him cum. I wasn't able to but I got him close. He took his dick out my mouth and told me to say "ahh" I opened wide and he bussed a fat load all over my face.
"If only u could see this masterpiece, this is what I call true art" he said while chuckling. I walked over to the mirror to see how he painted my face. I smiled like the little slut I and licked up as much as I could off my face. We washed up in the shower together where I sucked him for less the a minute, made out with him for a couple of minutes, then we washed each other and finished showering. We dried up and applied lotion to each other. Once we were all lotioned and washed up. I was ready to head out.
"Next time ur here, make sure that ass come prepared for training... most ppl are able to take it the first time, be proud of urself." He said while patting me on the head. I smiled and said I'll try my best to make sure I ready. He grabbed my shoulder to pull me closer to him and showed me an adult store to go to, so I can purchase a dildo. I said cool and gave him a hug as well as let him touch my ass before I walked out the door.
I finally got home and didn't know what to think. We still are meeting up tmrw in the morning like we usually do, but I guess from here on out, ima be his blowjob machine while driving... or even more. I ended the night with me just thinking of our link up and I was able to get had instantly and buss a nut not too long afterwards. It was hard to sleep with me being excited to meet tmrw but I some how did it.
Next part will be in a week... I gotta train myself first and foremost. Might make a story to that as well.....

(I posted this a few days ago but I'm looking for some more opinions in light of things I left out of my last post)
Let me give some quick background.
So I've been seriously lifting for about two years and I've made a lot of progress. 5'7, went from around 115 to 160 lbs at the beginning of the day. I'm on my second bulk so far, but, despite eating all my macros and a calorie surplus, I've been seeing declining performance for weeks now. I don't feel much stronger than when I started bulking, and I've had to cut my 75-90 minute workouts (6 days a week) short quite often in recent times before my muscles will tire, forcing me to quit before I'm satisfied with the work I've done.
I decided to take a week off last week, but coming into this week, not only have I been able to do even less work and have had to cut the workouts even shorter, but both today's and yesterday's workouts have caused aches and pains in my chest and shoulder respectively (Monday is chest and tricepts, Tuesday is biceps and back). My pecs are super sensitive to any movement and feel sore, and my shoulder feels like it's having growing pains (aching pain).
I've also been taking muscle relaxants (magnesium citrate) for about 2 months for the sake of my digestion. Could this sustained ingestion of muscle relaxants harm my performance?
What's the cause of this pain, and more broadly the workout problems I've been having? Overtraining? Plateauing? What's the solution.

wanted to share my experience as a 28 year old, F, on the very thin side, anxious, and autistic.
had to have colonoscopy due to positive fit test and anaemia diagnosis, and 6 months of heavily bloody multi-daily bathroom trips. I was starting to get very concerned about cancer.
I opted for no sedation because I'm extremely anxious about feeling 'out of it' or not in control of my body/brain or feeling dizzy.
The thought of waking up and not knowing what my body went through was also making me squeamish.
I did a lot of research, I watched full, unseated colonoscopy videos on YouTube, this post from this subreddit was also incredible and explains it all better than I could. but here's my detailed experience of each step.
Prep: The prep was not bad at all, I had Citrafleet.
I prepared the mixture and took it at 6pm (the leaflet said 5pm, appointment at 11am) It had a nice lemon taste and was pleasant. after I drunk it, my medication anxiety/dread kicked in, I was like, oh god, what did I just do to my body. (i've never experienced laxatives before) I was expecting it to be like a movie and to immediately poop lol. I did not have a bowel movement for 3-4 hours. then it was just on and off bathroom trips. Funnily enough the only time it bothered me was I had to leave a competitive computer-game mid-match because I suddenly had to go so bad LOL.other than that, didn't feel too different to my normal symptoms honestly.
then I slept at 3-4am, at 3am I started to suddenly feel queasy and shaky and awful, stayed up too late I think, but it passed and I drunk water and went to sleep.
I woke up at 7am for the second packet of prep, it acted faster this time and then I stopped my 2-hours-before water drinking, was totally empty and went to the hospital.
Hospital: I got lucky, I got a very nice NHS hospital. I had a lovely nurse. They started talking about sedation and I said "I've decided to do no sedation" She said "Ah, gas and air. alright" I said nono, no sedation at all. She was a bit like "ermmm, we'll see about that" haha.
but ultimately everyone was very very respectful of my wishes! they just didn't think I would actually manage.
My heart rate was really high for ages in the waiting/prep room when they took my pulse and honestly I was so stressed they wouldn't do the procedure because my heart rate was high, so I had no time to be worried about what lay ahead because I was so fixated on trying to slow my heart rate. So my advice would be just keep your mind occupied before going in.
I got given huge green shorts, a cozy disposable gown, an iv/canula thing (they assured me it was routine, but I wouldn't get sedation). I had to pee a bunch before and then in the surgery room and had a little blanket put over me.
I had a pillow that was super comfortable and was instructed into the relevant position.
Procedure: The nurses were ALL surprised I wasn't having sedation, they asked if I was really sure I didn't want the gas and air because it can be painful and stopping halfway would be very detrimental.
They said "I know you want to do it without gas and air, some people say say they will and then can't handle it. The nurses also said it's rare someone asks to do it no sedation.
I was mentally preparing myself for the pain of the gas(for inflating the colon). I will say imagining it and feeling it are two very different experiences.
once the camera was in and they inflated with gas. It kept feeling like it was never going to stop inflating. I felt at my bodily physical limit of gas, but it kept inflating, awful awful awful. I can't deny. about 8/10 discomfort, maybe 6-7/10 pain. I had the worst urge to fart that I've ever had in my life. like "If I don't fart I'm going to explode from the inside" levels of bad, which was a slightly panic inducing feeling. The nurses said to pass gas if I needed to, but I couldn't fart. Either because of the position I was in (on side, knees up to chest), the obstruction from the camera, the fear, or because I felt like if I tensed, I'd pop like a balloon.
so "if i dont fart i'll explode & die, if i tense to fart i'll explode & die" was basically my experience with the gas.
Next they said "You might feel a period cramp" and I did. BOY DID I.
I said: "Oh yeah, just like a bad period cramp" And she said "Yeah we can't really help the boys by telling them that" and I somehow managed a "haha"
I think they said "We're going to do some water" but I didn't feel that.
It just felt like just trying to survive and get through it, I was just breathing, I knew I could survive it once I knew the pain I was dealing with. It just stayed consistently awful and painful and terrible. with occasional very bad cramps and awful sensations in 40-50 second bouts in various places in the middle section of my body.
There was so much different noise too from the machine.
The sensations ranged from: Intense gas cramps, horribly inflated feeling, a sucking on my intestines feeling, stomach caving in feeling, terrible period pain, terrible stomach pain, and rippling sensations.
I could barely look at the camera screen because I was just so focused on getting through it. frankly I didn't care LOL. I think I glanced once I just couldn't handle looking on top of what was happening to me. side note: I'm now put off giving birth if its anything like this hahaha.
I fluctuated between tensing from the discomfort and trying to relax. sometimes the discomfort was so freaky and bad my body tensed just to deal with it. If you've ever had a dream where a zombie was eating your stomach guts alive, it was reminiscent of that.
side note: I'm like a cat when I'm in pain, I don't like to show it, and I didn't want the sedation. So I was so badly trying to play it cool.
The literal best way I can describe all of this, it was like the worst food poisoning of your life, the worst trapped wind of your life, and the worst period cramp of your life, all at once, x2 or x3.
A few times my stomach rippled really unpleasantly and I keep remembering that sensation and cringing today
I can also liken some of the feelings to someone sticking a henry hoover into my ovaries.
It wasn't anything I haven't 'naturally' felt in my body before, if that makes sense, they were "familiar" sensations, just not to that degree. I didn't expect it to be such a worse variation of familiar pains.
I also didn't expect to feel all of this SO HIGH UP IN MY BODY?! like the majority of it was felt above and around my belly button.
I don't understand how people say they knew what part of the colon they were in, I couldn't. but they did point when we were about halfway and I was relieved.
For the last part, turn or bend, I think it took 3 attempts, the nurse had to push onto my tummy to flatten something out, honestly, that made me feel so much better, the pressure was really relieving. and I swear to you, it poked my rib when it went through! it felt like it anyway.
There was no pain after that. I knew it wouldn't hurt going out, so my relief was immeasurable, I knew I'd done it.
the only feeling then was just "aughuhguhguh my insides" feeling, and slight gas bloating still. I just focused on my breathing.
They said "We're going to take the biopsies now." I didn't feel that (thank goodness) but I was mega-cringing at the idea. for some reason I felt hot and slight burning in my insides mostly towards the entrance. I'm not sure how they took the biopsies but I heard a tiny drill type sound, and it freaked me out lol. i imagined them frying it off with a tiny saw.
they took, either 6 or 12 biopsies, I'm not sure. it was a strip biopsy, on my report card it has 6 things and says "x2" for each one, so idk.
When the camera went out I asked "is it over?" I didn't really feel the camera go out and was in disbelief because it was quicker than I anticipated and I couldn't believe that I had done it and was feeling proud of myself, and they were all hyping me up so much, telling me I should be crowned as queen and that the nurse could never do what I did. I felt so on top of the world. I couldn't stop smiling with relief.
The nurse called me brave and I said I was only brave because I was so scared of the sedation. Everyone is brave in different ways! You're not any less brave than me if you opt for sedation or Entonox. :)
Genuinely the entire thing felt 10 minutes long, it was like they did a speed-run of my guts, and it FELT like that too lol. just absolutely crashing around the entire mario kart racetrack that was my bowel. I'm just kidding, the doctor was great, it's a baffling procedure and I admire any doctor that does it.
I'd be so curious how long it actually was.. I was mentally prepared for 44 minutes, but idk. I don't want to get your hopes up that it will be short. maybe the shorter, the more painful?
I walked to the bus stop with my mum, I was kind of in disbelief that I did that.
Post-non-sedated-colonoscopy-thoughts
I would do it again if I had to, un-sedated. It was worth it for me to avoid three types of sensations that make me panic (dizziness, sluggish or forgetful)
I'm also really happy that I was able to be there and experience what was happening to my body, personally, I feel like if I was sedated I would always be wondering what my body went through without me being present.
I liked being able to breathe, and follow any instructions.
I've spent the entirety of the following day cringing in reflection of what happened, feeling achy, and being embarrassed for doing it un-sedated (for some reason I feel like everyone thinks i'm crazy).
I hope this helps... someone.
My options of sedation were Entonox or Midazolam and Fentanyl through IV. Lots of people said those things made them so relaxed and the best relaxation they've ever felt. It made me remember the Lavender Liquid dispensed from SCP-294q-01, where they drank the perfect drink and afterwards said "I'm sorry, but at this point everything is just one big let-down"
My brain is immensely neurotic and always in 'go' mode, I was worried if I felt relaxation like that, I'd probably start chasing different drugs to recreate it lol.

I truly wouldn’t wish this on my own worst enemy and I don’t even have any enemies. My child is going to graduate HS next month and I can’t even bear to go, because I know my oder is going to be a distraction.(and that’s not including the immense anxiety I developed with this) I just know I’m breaking his heart and it’s breaking mines in return. I had to quit my job, because I literally had to hype myself up to get on public transportation. Then wasted money on cabs home. I’m in debt and on the verge of eviction, because I can’t get a wfh job to save my life even though I’m qualified. I’ve tried sports betting and I’m embarrassed to say how much money I’ve lost doing that.
My BB story is different than others on here. My situation did not start until about six years ago.I started getting extreme heartburn, and would vomit everyday after every meal no matter what I ate. I was in and out of different doctor’s offices everyday. After about four months I was diagnosed with H pylori and gerd, around this time I also found out I had an immuneefficiency disorder(which made sense because I’m always sick, even as a child) I was prescribed AMX, MET, multivitamins and iron to help with the immunity. The meds honestly did not feel like they were working. About two months after that I lost my mother(who had no life insurance, plz y’all get life insurance) abruptly and had to take on the responsibility of raising my little sister on top of being a single father to my own child. All of that put me in a downward spiral of anxiety and depression, so I turned to weed to help numb some of my pain. I then lost my job four months before the pandemic started. Thank goodness I had some money saved and unemployment was approved. A year later I found a job and stopped smoking, but I started to hear whispers around the office about me having bb 5 months in, I assumed it was because I still was experiencing GERD. At this point chewing a piece of gum every few hours was saving me. Three months after that I contracted three bacterial infections(from tacobell) and was on three different antibiotics to help cure that. I lost that job because I literally could not move out of bathroom. A few months later I was able to get another job at the start of the following year, but was already extremely paranoid about my bb. After nine months there I was finally told my breath does in fact smell from here to there, but not all the time. I took a short leave of absence to try and resolve the issue. I completely changed my diet to vegan and started taking apple cider gummies, also come to find out I’m allergic to something in the multivitamins. After my month was up I completely lost confidence in myself, because I knew I still had bb. I truly tried my best to work through it because I had mouths to feed. On New Year’s day 2023 I became sick with Covid for the first time. That’s when everything changed. My bb became room filling to the point where I could hear ppl coughing and sneezing, and see them covering their noses, because of this horrid smell emitting from my body. I was able to take another loa, because my boss over heard me tell my sister I was going to kms. I went to a IG and had an upper endoscopy done. “Everything was fine” and he could not smell anything. I want to a dentist(Dr. Fox) that claimed he specialized in bad breath disorders and could cure me after paying $3500 it failed. So here we are now a year later trying hundreds of different probiotics, anti fungal, toothpaste, mouthwashes, tongue scrapers. Just scraping by, broke, jobless and almost homeless. What a life!

TL:DR: 3 days past due date, been very stressed for the past month. Birth doula suggested my stress hormones may be the reason, blocking labour from starting. Looking for stories where by re having a day of relaxing potentially brought on your on labour?
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I am 40+2 with my second baby. I also have a toddler and needless to say, life is busy. My first w as a week late and I had to be induced as my body did nothing on its own to go into labour. This time around, I’ve been 1 cm dilated with a soft but high cervix since 39 weeks. It seems like history is bound to repeat itself and I desperately want to avoid being induced (I developed high BP at 40+3 with my first and my induction took three days but I did ultimately deliver naturally and everyone was healthy.)
This pregnancy has been more stressful than my first. Just taking the last month as an example, baby was breech and I tried ALL the things to flip her. I spent almost a thousand dollars (and a lot of time and energy) on various massage, physiotherapy, chiro and acupuncture treatments (thank god for my husbands amazing work benefits I got it all back), and between 34-37 weeks I basically was entirely focused on flipping her. I am especially motivated for a vaginal birth because due to health issues, I am not allowed to get a spinal or epidural so if I need a c-section it will need to be done under general anesthesia and that would mean both me and my husband would miss my daughter being born which breaks my heart. So, for over a month I was stressing constantly about her position. Somewhere in there I started my maternity leave a bit early too because with my husband and I both working full time, I had done barely anything to prepare for having this baby around the house, so between everything, I was working my butt off at home to prep for baby. Basically the plan was for an ECV at 37 weeks exactly if nothing else worked (spoiler: nothing worked). Just before the ECV, my toddler brought home a nasty daycare virus which I caught and the ECV was postponed until 37+5 when I was feeling (temporarily) better. Fortunately baby flipped easily however in the process she must have landed in a bad spot for my pelvis, because as I was walking out of the hospital with my newly flipped baby, my left SI joint went “out” and I could hardly walk. Cue me needing to use a cane and limping around the next 3+ weeks (I can still just barely weight-bear on that side and I’m just generally in constant pain, sleeping in a bed is torture). Then I woke up the day after my ECV to find that my cold had turned into a bad sinus infection and bronchitis, but because I only swabbed positive for rhinovirus in L&D, no one would give me an antibiotic despite me having a history of sinus infections. I could barely breathe, wheezed constantly, could not lay flat without massive coughing fits (so was sleeping maybe 2-3 hours a night sitting up) and strained all my abdominal muscles. This went on for 5 days until finally my GP agreed to give me an antibiotic and puffer. It took a full week on that for my symptoms to completely resolve. Over those 5 days before I got the antibiotic I also made 4 more trips to L&D, one for high BP which came down on its own, one for thinking my water broke (turns out I just peed from coughing) and two for reduced fetal movement related to dehydration (they gave me fluids and baby’s HR came back down to normal). Overlying that has been the constant worry that baby will somehow flip back to being breech or transverse (fortunately she has stayed head down). The past two weeks I’ve primarily spent cleaning/nesting and going to various appointments to try and fix my pelvic pain to no avail. Then on my due date this past Thursday, my toddler comes home yet again with green runny nose and I am just terrified now of getting sick yet again.
SO. Needless to say, I have been under a lot of stress. I completely online birthing classes and decided to reach out to the instructor to ask for suggestions on how to get my labour going to hopefully avoid an induction. After hearing just a fraction of what I’ve been through, she suggested that. I will not be able to walk myself into labour (despite my hip pain I have remained active for the sake of keeping baby head down and getting labour going). She said that potentially it is a mental block preventing my labour from progressing, noting that stress hormones work against labour hormones. Honestly, it makes sense to me since I still feel stressed and exhausted, I keep thinking “ok baby don’t come tonight, just let me get one good nights sleep first”…only for me to sleep like shit yet again.
So I’m going to focus on trying to relax tomorrow (Sunday). I would love to read some stories from people who think that relaxing was the key to getting their labour going. I feel like I see all the stories about how walking or nesting induced labour but nothing about how just chilling might have been what was needed.

As the title states, she was so much more than a pet to me. She was my soul cat and her death has absolutely wrecked me. She was diagnosed with CHF last October and we’ve spent the last 6 months fighting it. Shes had a couple scares, namely a pretty severe sudden pleural effusion episode that left her hospitalized after a vet visit that freaked her out. But when she’s at home, you wouldn’t know she was sick. I know cats hide illness very well, but from my eyes, she was doing very well on her meds.
She was scheduled for a routine recheck with an echocardiogram, and she was given sedatives since her last experience went south. She took them well and seemed very relaxed and out of it in the car ride there. The vet tech took her upstairs while I spoke to another tech about how she’s been since her last visit. Then within minutes, the first tech comes sprinting back down the stairs telling me she’s being rushed to the emergency department next door. I follow her in a fog and get briefed rather quickly that she suffered a severe plural effusion almost as soon as she was taken from the carrier. I went back and forth with her specialist for 20 minutes before I was called back by the emergency cardiologist, telling me that she wasn’t looking good.
What I saw is hard to put into words. My baby was lying in an oxygen chamber, completely unable to lift her head, chest heaving with breath she couldn’t catch, eyes wide and utterly terrified. Without getting into too many details, it was decided that the most humane thing to do was to put her down right there in the bright emergency room after I was only able to hold her for a few seconds (I didn’t want her to suffer without the oxygen). She died in fear and pain, and I cannot forgive myself for that.
She deserved so much better than that. I’d planned for so much better than that. What I’m struggling with is my own naivety. I was told she would likely only get 6 months, but she seemed to be doing well so I went into complete denial. I also have a young toddler so distraction is at an all time high. I thought she would be the one to beat the odds. Looking back I can see how thin she’d gotten despite eating well, how I should have been checking her breath count more often, especially before I handed her off to the vet. If I had, maybe she could have passed peacefully in my arms, instead of gasping and drowning in her own fluid. Maybe I would have seen that she was stressed and not just loopy from the sedative as I thought. Maybe I should have demanded they let me take her to a private room with an oxygen tank in tow so she could have at least passed with me holding her instead of lying in a bright and scary place with me over her. Just so many what if’s that I fear will never leave me.
Her life was beautiful, she lived a happy 13 years, but the ending was so terrible that I can’t help but imagine what she must have thought in her final moments. The betrayal she must have felt for me being the one to bring her there.
I don’t know what to do with these thoughts and this pain. I want out of my own mind.

I’ve been chronically ill for 10 months now (it was a mystery that no one could figure out) and recently found out its been my Homocysteine and its high at 14.5. For almost a year I’ve experienced dizziness, extreme fatigue, muscle stiffness/cramping, migraines, EXTREME brain fog and emotional disturbances.
My neurologist told me to take methylfolate 5mg, for the first time I felt my energy come back and I was less dizzy, but I had to stop because it caused me severe chest pain and a deep dry painful COUGH. I tried a lower dose same thing, except the anxiety was better - but either way the chest pain was too much.
Today I tried TMG 200mg and I’ve been sleeping all day and anxiety was high. I was extremely happy though it helped my mood and productivity once I woke up. I also take a regular b12 1000mg.
I talk to my doctor Tuesday and I know there’s other options like a methyl b12 and more. I’m just scared all of these are going to give me side effects but I need to get back to work in a month and this has ruined my life! Any advice?

Hey guys, I recently got a hiv rna test and I am terrified of receiving the results. I had an encounter on may 6th. Basically what happened was he put on a condom and started to insert his you know what in my ass. Once I felt it in me for about 10 to 20 seconds I immediately got off the bed and said I don’t want to do this. However a few days later I developed a cough that didn’t go away for a week and kept me up. When I tried to talk the congestion in my throat and chest caused me to cough more. I am scared about my results even though we used a condom. Do you guys think I should be ok?

A week or so ago my cat started hiding in her little house all the time. This isn't the first time she started acting strange. A few months ago she went upstairs and stayed for a month. A vet visit for that led to the vet believing she might be developing arthritis in her back legs (she's 11 and a tripod, he said sometimes they'll develop mild arthritis once they hit 10 or so).
So I thought maybe she's just not feeling great. Then I noticed she was going two or three days between litter box visits, and having difficulty passing stool. Normally she goes at minimum once a day. Another vet trip last Friday. They couldn't find anything physically wrong, blood work was fine. I asked about a bowel obstruction but they said because she was eating her normal amount and not throwing up it was probably just constipation and older cats often have trouble with it. I came home with some medicine for both arthritis and constipation.
She's still hiding in her house, but now she's sneezing a whole lot. This started last night. Runny nose but no coughing and no eye gunk. I wonder if she picked up something from the vet, or if the stress of two vet visits coupled with joint pain is causing her to hide in her little house and sneeze. She's an only cat and 100% indoors. She doesn't go outside for any amount of time.
She's still not using the litter box as often as before. Everything coming out of her body is normal. No blood, no mucus, and stools are no longer dry. She still has a good appetite, but this morning she threw up everything she ate after scarfing her food down. She hasn't thrown up again, and has been slowly eating her food all day. I made her catnip tea last night and wonder if that has anything to do with her throwing up this morning.
She normally follows us around and screams for attention until someone picks her up to carry her like a baby, or sleeps on top of the couch or her cat tower. She's been in her little house for over two weeks, except to eat and do a slow lap around the house.
When I call the vet Monday, what should I say? Should I take her, or do you think I can get what I need stopping by the office? I'm so afraid of putting more stress on her. She only leaves the house to go to the vet, and her little body shakes so hard with fear. I can get her some antibiotics without having to take her, but should I push for x-rays? Or is the vet right and it's stress from aging?

I've been in the current place almost a year, and it is rank. It's an old farmhouse that you struggle to keep warm in winter / cool in summer because it has no insulation and there's gaps under all of the doors and the windows that let the aircon / heat escape. It's 30 minutes from Woolies and work, an hour from Bunnings and a decent gym, and nearly 2h from anything more. You live off bottled water because the mains supply tastes like arse, it backs onto a railway so you can't open the bedroom windows at night if you like to sleep, mowing / whipper snippering is a nightmare with barbed wire fences that lean inwards and catch your clothes when mowing the boundary, the inside corners of the walls are that old and rotten they're literally being held together by that paint that you can poke a hole through... The list goes on. The kind of place the owners need to spend $50-100k on simple things, to bring it up to even the most basic standard for a rental.
It's the worst place I've ever lived in and I never would've considered it under normal circumstances, but it's all I could find in the 4 weeks of temp accommodation my job offered when moving here. I feel the rent they're charging is already too much when considering the location and the state of the place, but the price is being upped another $50 a week when the lease renews, to which I internally told them to eat a bag of rocks. With the lease is up in late-July, and I've started applying to just about everything else at a reasonable price within an hour's drive of work.
The problem I'm having though, is that I can't decide whether it's even worth the effort, considering I only intend on being in my job another 12 months or so, and then I plan to relocate again. As we all know, moving houses is a painful and expensive process, especially if you're not going to be staying longterm. So between the bond cleaning, relocation and lease break... I haven't rented enough to know whether the effort and cost is worth it.
My three main options at this stage are:

1. Stay put for another 6-12 months in this house - absolutely no chance of this happening
2. Find a new rental closer to town and cough up the costs of a bond clean / relocation for 12 months
3. Use the next 6 weeks to find a new job somewhere I actually want to live longterm, hand the 4 weeks notice in a month before my lease is up and leave then

This post has been more of an overdue whinge, but realistically, which option would you be going for?