How to fix diarrhea

I had two TBIs in 2014, exactly one month apart, both concussions from blunt force to the head, and I lost consciousness the second time. I don't know if it caused any brain injury for me, but, I also had Anorexia nervosa, restricting type, extreme last year and have heard it causes brain injury.
After the first two TBIs, I was diagnosed with POTS via tilt table test. I was treated with physical therapy and electrolytes, and did really well- I was a little limited, but could do most things, and only had mild to moderate symptoms of dysautonomia.
Now, in 2024, it has been two years of hell and almost 6 months of it being even worse. I can't do it anymore and nobody can help me. Every day, for two years, I am so nauseous. I have diarrhea every day. On the rare occasions I do not have diarrhea, it's because I'm constipated for 5 days, then it goes right back. I have a tremor constantly. My limbs are weak and give out beneath me. I am so confused and feel drunk all the time. My heart races, then slows, and skips beats. It is in the 40s when I lay down, but is 90+ when I sit up, and even higher when I stand. I cannot empty my bladder fully. I'm so tired. I fall asleep at random times. I sleep 14-20 hours a day. I'm so dizzy I fall over and can't walk straight. Every time I eat, all the symptoms multiply tenfold. I cannot gain to a healthy weight. I also have mental illnesses I did not have before the TBIs.
Is this from my TBI? How do I fix it? Nothing helps that is treatment for the dysautonomia caused by the TBI (midodrine and fludrocortisone, physical therapy, electrolytes, dietary changes). It keeps getting worse. Is it my TBIs? I can't live like this I wish I never ever got hit in the head.

To preface this happened about 12-13 years ago but sometimes it randomly pops into my head.
I had bought a very old and used red Ford Taurus station wagon. I called it the shaggin wagon even though no shagging ever occurred within or on the vehicle. Anyways, said wagon had decided it wasn’t always going to start when I wanted it to. I was working full time at a Tim Hortons and told one of the regulars about it, he said he could take a look and see what’s up, sure why not. These regulars always stayed until closing as I worked 2nd shift so when I closed up and walked outside the regular told me it was my starter and handed me a 2x4. He instructed me where to position the board and told me to tap the starter while he turned the key in the ignition. It worked! He did warn me this was a temporary fix but I was making $9/hr at Timmies and couldn’t afford to bring it to a mechanic yet.
Fast forward a couple of weeks I’m at a gas station getting gas and I knew the cashier inside. My car decides it doesn’t want to start so I grab the cashier to help with the board trick. We get the car started and this fucking boomer at the next pump over just yells “THATS NOT GOING TO WORK FOREVER!!” I looked at him, he looked at me, he got in his car and left. Like what the fuck? No helpful suggestions, no amusing stories of how he used to do the same thing. Just mouth diarrhea directly into my ear canals.
To this day I don’t know what he thought he did but sometimes it randomly pops in my head. I hope y’all have a boomer free day.

(19M, 5'9 155 lbs.) Hi, this is gonna be a bit long, but let me explain the entire situation so far:
Going back about a year or so, I started noticing an elevated heart rate above what I usually would have. I have an apple watch that allows me to check my heart rate, and around this time I started to get notifications that my heart rate was above average (in the 120s to 130s range while resting as opposed to my normal 60-80 range). This happened a few times along with some very minor chest pain / tightness, however after laying down for a few hours / going to bed it would usually return to normal. Around the same time I got diagnosed with anxiety and ADHD and placed on an SSRI to help my anxiety after trying ADHD meds and not liking them. I never really had any incidents with high heart rate after that, so I had assumed it was just anxiety causing it (and that may still be the case). A few months went by and I ended up starting college and got myself a girlfriend. As I ended up finding out, SSRIs, while great, have the unfortunate side effect of erectile dysfunction, so I weaned off my meds so I could prioritize my love life. There were a few incidents after this where my heart rate was above average, but again I just chalked this up to anxiety, as it would usually go away on its own. At one point I went into my on campus doctor's office just to verify my heart was okay after an elevated heart rate the night before, and they gave me an EKG which came up clear. Months go by, and things are fine, besides a slight uptick in anxiety. Unfortunately however, my relationship began to crumble and my anxiety skyrocketed, and we eventually broke up, which led me to talking to my doctor and getting placed back on anxiety medication. However, I really didn't like how SSRI's impacted my libido, so after trying a few more SSRI's I was placed on Buspirone. I love Buspirone, and it's made a noticeable difference on my confidence / reducing anxiety. When I take my full dose at once (30 mg), I tend to get a bit dizzy / nauseous, however when split up into 10 mg taken at breakfast lunch and dinner I have no noticeable side effects. I will say (and I don't know if this is in any way important but I'm just naming everything possible), I have noticed that since stopping the SSRIs and starting Buspirone I tend to ejaculate VERY fast which is abnormal for me, and although I would like to fix that it is not my main concern. Moving on though, after about a month or two after being placed on Buspirone, we get to where my heart problems start. As someone who had never used any substances my entire life, leaving home and going to college gave me the freedom to try new things, and although I know it's not great, on weekends me and my friends will get together and drink or occasionally smoke weed / take an edible. I was worried at first about interactions with my medication, but after some research all anything online could tell me was that I may get drunk faster / more nauseous and dizzy, which wasn't too big of a deal for me. I had tried weed earlier in college and didn't like the way it made me feel, however after being placed on Buspirone I decided to try it again and actually enjoyed the feeling, so I started doing it more on the weekends as opposed to just drinking, which leads us to the incident. Me and some friends had just sat down to watch a movie, and all taken an edible. Time passed, and I started to notice that my heart rate was extremely elevated, way more than I was usually used to. I checked my heart rate, and found that my watch was displaying an average of 160 bpm. At first I thought I was just having a bad high and tried to calm myself. I laid on the floor and put some ice on my forehead, but nothing was helping. I checked my heart rate again and saw that my watch was displaying 190, which really freaked me out as that was way higher than I had ever seen before. I had my sober friend call Public Safety for me, and they came to my dorm room and did a basic check up on me. They said that I had a fever, and when they took my heart rate they got something in the 160s range. Their explanation was that my anxiety, when combined with being high and likely being sick made my heart rate elevated, which made sense at the time. I went into my college's health services to follow up the next day since my heart rate was still elevated (in the 120s-130s range), however they again told me it was probably just anxiety. A few days went by and my heart rate was STILL above average, so I decided to double check with my real doctor off campus. About a day before this I had also stopped taking my medication to see if it could be the cause for my elevated heart rate. The doctors took my vitals and immediately noticed that had very high blood pressure and an elevated heart rate, to the point where they sent in a second doctor to recheck my vitals and make sure it was correct. After talking to me and having me give a run down of my symptoms, they had me schedule an appointment with a cardiologist and told me that if I ever experience chest pain and a heart rate above 100 bpm that wouldn't go down to go to the hospital. I had also told them about how I stopped taking my medication and they told me that that was fine and to tell the cardiologist about it. About a week passes, and I have my cardiologist appointment in a few days. I had been up the night before working on my final exams, so I hadn't gotten much sleep, and besides a breakfast sandwich that I had for lunch I hadn't eaten much either. I had been experiencing chest pain all day, but I assumed it was being caused by my lack of sleep, so after classes I went and took a nap. After a few hours I woke up, and immediately noticed that I still had chest pain. I checked my apple watch, and my heart rate was displaying roughly 90-110 bpm while laying down, which on top of the chest pain made me worried since my doctor had told me that that was cause to go to the hospital. I called my parents to tell them about it, and they drove to the school and had me sit in the car and eat some food they had made to see if it would help at all. However, even after this, my heart rate was still above 100 bpm and I still had chest pain, so my mom made the call to bring me to the hospital. While on the way to the hospital, out of nowhere my heart rate increased to about 170-180 bpm, which freaked me out. We arrived at the hospital, and they immediately gave me an EKG to make sure I wasn't going to drop dead. During this time, I also was shaking a lot and couldn't make myself stop. Eventually they took me into a room and decided to run some tests on me. The tests they did are as follows: BASIC METABOLIC PANEL, CBC WITH DIFF, TROPONIN NH, D DIMER DEEP VEIN THROMB LEVEL, TSH REFLEX, X-RAY CHEST PA AND LATERAL, and ECG-12 LEAD. While I'm not a doctor, from what they told me and from what I can see, everything turned up pretty normal. My potassium was a smidge low, as well as my MCV and MPV, and my Monocyte (absolute) was a tad high, but generally nothing to worry about. The website where I'm viewing my test results display my ECG as abnormal and an attached document says I have left atrial enlargement as well as sinus tachycardia, but they only mentioned sinus tachycardia in the hospital so I assume that it was just the machine reading my test results and giving its own diagnosis. Long story short though, I left the hospital a few hours later, and although I still had a slightly elevated heart rate they said I was fine to go about life normally and to follow up with my cardiologist. Cut to the present, and I just met with my cardiologist a couple days ago. I gave him the general rundown of the above story (but didn't mention the edible as a precursor to the 190 bpm heartrate as my mom was in the next room over and the door was wide open), and after checking my vitals he told me that although I did have an elevated heart rate and high blood pressure, my chest pain probably wasn't a huge concern and that he wasn't too worried it was anything life threatening. He told me I could resume taking my meds (which I had temporarily replaced with ashwagandha supplements while I waited for the appointment and have since stopped taking), and had me wear a little device that monitored my heart rate for 24 hours, which I'm set to return in a couple days. He also told me that when I returned it he would check my results and give me an echocardiogram and go from there. So, with any luck, he should be able to figure things out then. However, I wanted to post this to see if anyone could help me get any ideas on what it could be that I could run by him to help speed things up. Oh and one last thing, if you can't think of anything in regards to what could be causing my elevated heart rate, I actually would like to know why I'm ejaculating so fast so I can fix it because its gotten to the point where I can't even enjoy masturbating because of how fast I cum.
In case I missed anything, here's a list of my symptoms (although I have no idea if they're all correlated):
- High heart rate (anywhere from 90-190 bpm)
- High blood pressure
- Chest pain / tightness on my left side and does not hurt more when I breath in / out (every now and then pain extends to my neck and shoulder)
- Frequently tired
- Insomnia (could be correlated with the above symptom lol)
- Get out of breath faster than usual
- Anxiety (already had this though)
- Mild depression (probably from my breakup)
- Lack of motivation (probably from my ADHD)
- Very rare and random spasms in my neck
- About 10 pounds weight loss in the past few months
- Headaches (could be from the meds)
- Sexual Dysfunction
- Minor rash under my eyes that’s been coming / going
- Eczema / rash flare ups past few months above my eyes, on my inner elbows, on my hands, and on my neck that I’ve been able to get rid of with a steroid cream
- Wrists, elbows, knees and ankles (although many joints in general) tend to bother me / crack a lot
- Glands under my neck are frequently swollen
- Rashes on the tops of my feet and toes
- Multiple gray / white hairs appearing in the last few months
- Probably something minor that I'm forgetting but if I can't think of it it probably isn't important (will update this list if new symptoms arise)
Brief family history:
- Grandma (moms side) has rheumatoid arthritis - Grandma (dads side) had multiple sclerosis - Great Grandma (moms side) had Alzheimer's - Aunt (moms side) has an undiagnosed heart problem - Aunt (moms side) has rheumatoid arthritis and Reynaud's, inconclusive testing for lupus - Aunt (dads side) has something? something to do with swelling of feet and ankles? not too sure - Mom had anemia
​
My personal theories (I'm not a doctor though so obviously not too sure): Autoimmune Disease + Dysautonomia: - From a list of symptoms, I have experienced all of the following at some point over the last month: Lightheaded when standing up, nausea, brain fog, fast heart rate, high blood pressure, changes in bowel movements over the course of the past few months (both constipation and diarrhea), fatigue, sexual dysfunction, chest pain and discomfort, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, sleeping problems, dizziness, sweating a lot, watery eyes, frequent headaches, changes in body temperature, drooling (when I sleep), mood swings, anxiety, and sensitivity to light. Based on this a potential theory could be an autoimmune disorder on top of a heart condition? Also explains the elevated monocyte (absolute) levels. Serotonin Syndrome: - I was doing research and discovered that Buspirone, when taken with other medication that increases serotonin, can cause serotonin syndrome. After another google search, I found out that weed can increase serotonin levels. The only hole in this theory is that I stopped taking Buspirone after the initial spike in heart rate / blood pressure but had no noticeable changes.
TLDR: I have a high heart rate and blood pressure and can't figure out why

Hello. Ten days ago I lost my sweet cat Luigi. He was almost 6 years old. We adopted him from a rescue 3 years ago. Before he was surrendered to the rescue and adopted, he was hit by a car. He was left with a deformed paw, and a pelvic injury that made it difficult for him to defecate. Due to his pelvic injury, we took him to the vet often. He needed several enemas and a deobstipation surgery. He did well for a year, but then developed severe diarrhea. We tried everything - changing food multiple times, medications, an arthritis shot to hopefully make it easier for him to use the litter box, etc. We took him to the vet several times the last 6 months. At the last appointment we talked to the vet and asked if this could be constipation instead of diarrhea, which the vet stated no. Fast forward a few weeks and Luigi gets very sick. We take him back to the emergency vet (which is also his regular vet). They stabilize him, take X-rays, and tell us the constipation has returned. They schedule him for a deobstipation surgery. Once they start the surgery, they realize the constipation is much worse than they thought, and given his pelvic injury they were unable to remove it. The feces was hard as a rock, and his pelvic opening was too small to pull it through.
The vet contacted us while he was still under anathesia from the deobstipation they attempted. We rushed to the vet, hysterical. We are relatively new cat parents. We adopted our first cat 5 years ago. We have never experienced an emergency like this. When we arrived the vet told us the options were to put him through surgery to remove the fecal matter (but he stated it would be hard on Luigi, it would be a tough recovery, and by this point he had been in the hospital 3 days due to a bladder obstruction caused by the constipation), or we could euthanize him. The vet stated he would not put his cat through the surgery, and he felt it was not in Luigi's best interest. Per the vet the surgery is not a guarantee to fix Luigi's issues. If we were going to put him down, it would be best to do it while he was under anesthesia.
We asked tons of questions and cried. But, we were very much pressured to make a quick decision due to the anathesia. I was in shock. I wanted to give him a chance, but my fiance felt it was best to let Luigi go in peace as he has a history of multiple surgeries due to being hit by the car, and the concern of him being weak from the bladder obstruction, and the vet's report that the surgery would be hard on Luigi and he would not recommend it. We decided to let him go peacefully while under anathesia.
I have so many questions and am really feeling a lot of guilt. I think most of the guilt stems from having to make the decision so quickly that we could not research or get a second opinion.
We have an appointment on 5/21 to speak to the vet and the medical director of the facility. I want to know how the constipation had gotten so bad without the vet knowing, or telling us. I want to know why we were pressured to make such a quick decision about euthanasia. This is so difficult because we trusted the vet, and I will now live with the guilt of not taking Luigi to a specialist. I don't know why he was not referred to a specialist if the vet could not help him.
My questions for you all are: 1. Do you think we did the right thing? I cannot tell you how much guilt I have that the vet who missed the constipation is the one who recommended euthanasia.

1. Should we have awakened him from the anesthesia, waited for him to get out of the ER, take him to a specialist for a second opinion? Is it common practice for vet's to recommend euthanasia while the cat is under anesthesia - even if that rushes everything?

Thank you

Found 3 1 or 2 day old kittens in my backyard on Friday the 17th. They were accidentally transported with an air compressors from an hour away and when we found them we drove an hour back to the companyin attempt to find the mom but that didnt work. My dad found them at 7 am and woke me to help get them. They've had a bath and I've been feeding them KMR every 2-3.5 hrs and they'll usually eat about 4 or 5ml each. I took them to the vet this morning and they said the kittens look just fine and are very active for how old they are but didnt do any tests. However, after we left the vet the kittens started having diarrhea and are only eating anout 2 or 3ml of formula each. I know diarrhea can be dangerous in kittens but my parents are not allowing me to take them back to the vet (which I don't agree with) I'm trying to get as much help as I can because I don't want them to unfortunately pass. Could the diarrhea be from their formula? Am I over feeding them? What can I do to fix the problem?

Hello everyone! I am a 25 y/o male.
Background
4 weeks ago i had a frottage session with a male masseuse (M2M) at a dodgy place. I ejaculated, he did not. 1 week after exposure i noticed my tongue is white. Because i have health anxiety. I was a nervous wreck. At 2 weeks, i did a full std panel and a dna qualitative per for HIV. The results were negative for all. The doctor said my result was conclusive. I am waiting for the 6th week mark to retest.
A week after that i started to feel like there was a lump in my throat. I went to the doctor, he said that my throat and nose are a little inflamed and i have a slightly swollen glands on my neck. Not visible with naked eyes tho. He gave me antibiotics. The sore throat and stuffy nose went away. But till this day i still have some phelgm built up in my throat. Sometimes it comes out green/yellow but mostly it comes out clear.
The white tongue still persist to this day. I can't scrape the whiteness off. Haven't gone to the doctor since it doesn't hurt and does not affect my taste. Since i was thinking this could be thrush, i bought some dequalinium cloride candy since this does not need prescription and from what i read it helps with bacterial and fungal infections. This did not help at all and just make my tongue blue from the coloring. I've been drinking a lot of water too but this does not improve my condition much
Ps: Last year i also had an HIV scare, and my tongue was also white. But i forgot whether this time is a different kind of white or not.
Below i present some pictures and some context to help:
Before: an hour after eating rice with chicken and vegetables.
After: after i gargled salt water, brush my teeth and tongue, and using listerine.
I've been drinking a lot of coconut water too. I am lactose intolerant and have a sensitive stomach since i was a child. Had a reccuring loose stool and sometimes diarrhea.
Pictures : https://www.reddit.comDramatic-vampire1234/s/M2DkF6lAO3
Any idea what this is and how i can fix this issue? Thank you in advance

Hi everyone! I'm new here, 40F, live in the mid-west (US). I was recently diagnosed for anal cancer.
TLDR: Story of my pain, how my PCP listened and cared, and where I am at with my diagnosis.
In my profile, you can see I have 2 posts in hemorrhoid because I seriously thought I had internal hemorrhoids and it was becoming painful. There's more details than what I posted but moving on.
The middle of April, I finally pulled the trigger to get myself a PCP to 1) impaction/ constipation. Major diarrhea before then 2) the pain in my butt that I thought was a hemorrhoid. "Hemorrhoid" pain started last year August-September.
Literally doing the preventative care check-ups to see if anything else was going on since it's been forever. GI-PA consultation for combined colonoscopy & endoscopy for major changes in BM. I agreed. They put it through my insurance and got approved right away. I waited ~ 2 weeks for scheduling and nothing. Pain: 6-8 almost every two days. Especially after a BM. It would drop to 3-4. On days with the most pain: night sweats, chills, couldn't go to work, and bad anxiety of the pain coming back and never healing.
Breaking point: Last week I went in for a pap. They gave me a sheet to fill out about mental health. I cried silently as I filled it out and gave it back to the nurse. I broke down sobbing and told her everything. I couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, couldn't work, and all because I was in so much pain, I didn't want to wake up if I ever fell asleep again. Nurse rushed to tell my PCP. PCP comes in, told her that I was approved but haven't heard back from my GI-PA for scheduling and I needed to know what is causing all this pain.
The HARD PUSH: PCP pushed for the combined colonoscopy/endoscopy and I got in that Friday. Came out of the procedure and talked to the GS, he told me I had a lesion from my rectum to my anal canal. He said, it could be anal/rectal cancer and the medicines right now can help heal that. Then he said, it could be a hemorrhoid, but we won't know until the biopsies come in. He looked like he knew what it was and didn't want to say anything. As someone who also works in the science field, I knew he knew something because he does this all the time. Just like I would, working in a plant laboratory. I was also told I have a peptic ulcer. PCP contacted me about my pap. I am positive for HPV.
This past Tuesday, I had an appt for a colposcopy. I couldn't go through with it. Speculum was pressing on my pain. 8-9/10. I hyperventilated and almost had a panic attack. Cried when gynecologist and nurse left the room. Took me hurting and limping out of the building with tears in my eyes.
Two days later, yesterday: followup with my GS and told me I have anal cancer. Told me about my options and that I won't know what stage I'm in until I get all my scans. He then told me he had two gentlemen come in with the same symptoms, worst tumors than mine, and pulled through.
Literally, so compassionate and understanding while explaining the process; not to forget to mention, also being strict about fixing the ulcer before other major procedures happen; ulcer meds with antibotics for H. Pylori infection. Depending on the extent: chemo, then radiation, and last resort surgery. My team and I are now waiting on my insurance's approval for more scans. Colpscopy will have to wait until further notice.
My care team has been exceptionally efficient, compassionate, and caring. They have continued to ACTUALLY LISTEN to me and advise me when I have questions. I could not have been more blessed for my team.
My hope: I hope to meet a new community that can also understand what I am going through, will go through, and give advise about how to pull through and any set backs that happen. Stay safe and as healthy as can be.

Hi, 22M sufferer from Mexico here. Long context here (I mix tenses because, yeah haha) :
Height: 172 cm, Weight: 54 kg (I've always been skinny, you know, that kind of person who can eat a lot and don't gain weight, well, I also think that's because besides my genetics, I had always been an active person)

• July 2021 *

I was going to the grocery store before lunch and suddenly started feeling like I couldn't breathe and a huge pressure on my chest. I managed to get to the store and came back home. I started eating and immediately started burping and feeling kinda trapped gas in my esophagus and I could feel how it was burning and swallowing caused the most terrible pain I've experienced. I tried Alka Seltzer and sodium bicarbonate and didn't feel relief, so my parents took me to a GP and I was diagnosed with GERD and gastritis and was prescribed omeprazole, carafate and Riopan (don't know the name in other places). This was really weird because I had never experienced GERD nor digestive issues, just a bacterial infection when I was 17, but that's it. After a week I started feeling better and I could eat normally again, I was burping less.

• August 2021 * After a month only an increased burping (for what's normal) remained, so I went to a gastroenterologist. He told me to take Dexilant instead of omeprazole, since it was the best med for GERD and gastritis. I started taking it and felt an improvement on my burping. He also ordered some testing, barium swallow and a endoscopy. They found a small hiatal hernia (2 cm), a lax LES, mild esophagitis and mild gastritis.

He told me that since I was young, going under surgery (Nissen fundoplication) would be a good option for me to get rid of symptoms and be off PPIs. My dad and I agreed, but since I didn't have insurance before, I'd have to wait 2 years until the surgery was covered. So we decided to wait.

• January 2022 * After vacation where I ate as if I was healthy, I started feeling a weird sensation of hunger (like gas travelling in my stomach and intestines), but not in a normal way as hunger usually feels, terrible nausea, so awful that I was bedridden, what now I know is brain fog, decreased energy and increased burping again. I was also dealing with was apparently an UTI, so I was prescribed an antibiotic for it. I discovered, after years of having intermittent symptoms of UTI, that it was never an UTI because tests showed nothing and it always resolved on their own. Obviously those antibiotics made me feel worse, but as they thought it was just a bacterial GI infection, they gave me more antibiotics. I learned then how terrible antibiotics were because for the first time in my life they made me feel awful. At that time I was studying uni online because of * fkn pandemic *. I was eating only chicken and rice and feeling hungry but full all the time (in a gastritis way, I'd say)
  
• February 2022 * A friend of mine told me that her sister was a nutrionist (not a functional nor a SIBO knowledgeable though), so I went with her and she gave me a menu and told me to try probiotics. I bought a commercial ones (Bacillus clausii I think, only 2 billion CFU) and at the end of the 5 days that they lasted, I started feeling better. Suddenly I was optimistic, the nausea was gone, the weird gas feeling was gone and my energy was back. Brain fog was still there, but at a minimum. At that time my uni decided to go back to physical classes, so I enjoyed my recovered health.
  
• March 2022 * I had a throat infection and took antibiotics (terrible decision). Since the first dose all my symptoms came back. I became suicidal at that point because I struggled so much on pandemic with depression and anxiety due to lockdown and when I was finally able to go back to a normal life, now I was terribly sick. My parents wanted to fix the GERD issue so they paid the two tests (manometry and 24 pH test) needed to determine what kind of fundoplication the surgeon could do. After those tests it came back that I was candidate for Nissen, but the surgeon didn't want to perform it because he wanted to wait for insurance to cover it. My parents and I were mad, but I was again trying probiotics to see if I felt better. I did, not as good as before, but better. At that time I also met a girl who became my girlfriend, so that helped me too. Didn't know how, but suddenly I could eat anything, except spicy food, only with more burping, but I didn't have issues. But, a weird feeling of being off has been with me since this all started (brain fog? It's like feeling that you're living a life that's not yours and everything feels alien to you). From there on every time I had a throat infection I requested injectable antibiotics (I can say that it really helps to not mess up with my microbiome)
  

I dropped out from school because I couldn't keep going. I was kinda okay, but going out and doing stuff made me feel nauseous and tired, for the first time I couldn't take a bus because I felt dizzy and about to throw up. So I usually stayed home and only went out to the store or to my gf house or sometimes to somewhere else, but not frequently. During this year I switched careers and got back to what I've always loved, programming, so I worked as a freelancer and made some money that way.

• March 2023 * My gastritis gets worse (more burping and feeling full fast) and I go on a bland diet. After two weeks it gets better and I try to eat pizza. No problems. A week after that I wake up feeling as if I was hit by a truck. I was insanely tired and with flu symptoms. I thought it was just another flu. After some days I was still feeling that way, so I go to the doctor and he says it's a bacterial infection and prescribes what they usually do, of course, with an injectable antibiotic. Flu goes away after a few days, but fatigue remains. To cope with fatigue I decide to eat some chips and all those weird symptoms come back. It feels as if I wasn't digesting a thing, with all that gas travelling inside my gut, but not in a way of trapped gas, I didn't feel bloated at that time.
  
• April 2023 * After a few days, I don't know what to do, I get a blood work done and it shows no deficiencies in minerals (they don't test for vitamines, it's a separate test which costs much more). An ultrasound also don't show anything abnormal on my GI tract. I was eating eggs, chicken, rice and avocado. My gf gets sick of me being sick and leaves me after tough months due to my illness (don't want to dig on it, but, cheated on me, basically). I'm heavily depressed, but convinced to get my health back and I use that as motivation. I start my research and discover SIBO and so much more that I'd like to know before. I don't know where to begin due to the GERD and lax LES thing, but I drop gluten (I was dairy free already) and experiment with several diets, keto, low-carb, low FODMAPs, low acid, but as time goes by, my symptoms only get worse and now I deal with bloating and occasional constipation. Magnesium helps with constipation at its worse.
  
• May 2023 * I discover functional medicine, do my research and find an institute where I live. An appointment is expensive, but I think it's worth it. I go there, explain all my symptoms, and the doctor talks to me about leaky gut. It seems interesting. She suggests a food sensitivity test and I see that I'm sensitive to gluten, any dairy related food, and eggs. The only thing I was still eating was eggs. That test also covered candida and it showed a little overgrowth. I tried fluconazole and grapefruit seed extract, but didn't feel anything different nor better at the end of the course. After that, she just sent me a generic treatment, which made me feel gaslighted and stopped going with her.
  

She also prescribed me digestive enzymes, which for some reason also contain ox bile here in Mexico and I've been taking them since then. I can tell they have actually helped, but can't tell when I'm doing the same and feeling like s*it.

• June 2023 * My dad, desperate, calls the surgeon to see if the surgery would help me, and he says that he doesn't recommend the surgery for me due to my other issues (he's right, I was already having trapped gas, it'd be worse). We also got mad at that time because he said other bad things about the surgery that he didn't say before, so he also seemed like a person we couldn't trust, but at least he told the truth about the surgery not being ideal for me.
  
• August 2023 * I'm following an unnamed diet, just avoiding processed stuff, and while it doesn't make me feel amazing, it makes me feel stable. I also get a job as software engineer from home (an informal job, without benefits, but it's a good opportunity to make some money and be able to buy more things that could help me).
  

I buy zinc-carnosine and Thorne's GI Relief to see if they help with GERD and gastritis. They seem to help, but can't tell really. I finish the bottles and don't refill. Don't feel noticeable changes.

• January 2024 * After eating some processed foods every now and then, it seems that I shouldn't have done that and I switch from occasional constipation with well-formed stool to loose stool, cramps and a weird mix of feeling like I want to poop all the time, but it's trapped gas, but sometimes it's poop, but it's loose, but I have to push it and sometimes it just comes out (sorry for being so descriptive haha). I stop eating raw salads and fruits and stick to chicken, avocado, rice cakes, walnuts and almonds. It helps and I can occasionally eat processed food with a little discomfort.
  
• Present * After sticking to those foods for months, I start feeling worse and now the weird pooping situation gets more uncomfortable and I feel like I need to poop all day, but when I go, sometimes it's just gas and sometimes it comes out a lot and sometimes a little. Dexilant made my stool darker, but since taking digestive enzymes it became lighter and it's more yellow than brown to say it somehow. There's no mucus as far as I can tell (it has been, but not recently, the same goes for blood). I also experience abdominal pain on a daily basis, sometimes it feels on the stomach and sometimes it feels on my intestines (seems like a mix of gastritis + whatever is going on on my gut).
  

I also tried ginger and artichoke for weeks, but I felt more cramping and gas. I've also tried Iberogast to no avail
Here's a list of my symtopms, I didn't mention some on the story

• Bloating (my abdomen doesn't look like a balloon, but man, I can feel the gas pushing my insides)
• Abdominal pain (fullness in stomach or in intestines)
• Fatigue
• Farting when gas decides to come out
• Cramps
• Brain fog
• Migraines
• Excessive burping
• That weird mix between constipation and diarrhea
• Sometimes trapped gas on my esophagus
• Sometimes spasms/twitches all over my body (if that's the expression)
• Bad breath
• Intermittently, a sharp pain under my right rib (it feels as if something was going to explode, but only lasts a few seconds and it can happen after eating or while eating, but this isn't common, and I think it's gas on my large intestine because when my bloating gets worse, I get this pain, besides, eating high fat foods don't always trigger it, so I doubt it's my gallbladder or liver)
• Hunger all the time, which leads me to eat more, but then I feel worse, but I can eat a lot, feel terribly full and after a few hours feel hungry again as if I hadn't eat a thing in years. I feel kinda hypoglicemic and that's when I have intense headaches. That's why I think keto is not for me, when I tried it I lost 6 kilos in only 2 weeks. As I said, I've always been skinny but needed to eat a lot, the difference now is that I feel sick. But, to clarify, I do feel hunger and my stomach growls, which I know is good, but not so good when it seems that there's no way of getting enough nutrients without discomfort

I also want to say that between August and December I managed to gain my weight back from 43 kg to 54 kg (don't know how, I guess I was absorbing more, which make sense since I didn't have this weird diarrhea situation)
I really don't know what to do because my parents have no money for tests nor treatment and I don't have either (I don't earn much, besides I have to buy my own food and meds). I can't stop Dexilant because I've tried and my esophagus just doesn't handle it well (cold turkey, wean off, I've tried it and it's the same in the long-term). Here where I live nobody knows about SIBO and aren't tests available, so I can't say if I have it. The public system health in Mexico is terrible also, I tried it for my GERD at first and I received the worst treatment and I obviously wasn't rude by any means :(. I haven't tried more extreme approaches such as ED or carnivore since I don't know what's the best for me because as I said, I just suppose that my glucose levels go down easily. I can eat high-protein and high-fat and low-carb and still feel weak. Is it the PPI? Is it leaky gut? Is it stress? I don't know.
I've thought about getting a better job where they give me a nice private health insurance, but besides it isn't that easy to get a nice job, I get discouraged by these symtopms and not being able to focus properly and have to fight all day with these symptoms. I know stress is a huge factor for me, but how not feel that way when I don't know a s*it about life and since this age I have to deal with a lot.
I've felt suicidal a lot of times. You should understand, it isn't like I want to die, I just don't know how to get better and stop suffering while trying to do every single thing you're supposed to. I just want to be able to hang out with my friends, have fun and live a life as the young person I am :(.
Thank you for reading :)

So two weeks ago, I found a kitten on the street, he was scared, and came to me when he saw me. He was so cute but so dirty and had poop everywhere, looked like he had diarrhea. I picked him up and took him straight to the vet. The vet told me that this is definitely a house cat that must’ve ran away or been abandoned, he’s only like between a month and a half to two months. They kept him there for 3 days to monitor him and see how he’s doing. A few hours after dropping him off, I got a call from the vet telling me that one of the staff loved him and if I minded that she’d take him. I told her I’ll let her know. I called my mom (I live with my parents, it’s a cultural thing) and she said let’s wait on that and see him before we give him away. I also have a jealous dog that hates cats and other dogs so it’s tricky anyway.
Anyway 3 days later I picked him up, and I was in hell for 5 days trying to decide whether I want to keep him or give him up. He is sooo cute literally everyone who sees him falls in love and he’s so funny too. But I am an over thinker and I stress too much. And i can’t make a decision at all. The decision was literally all I thought about constantly it was draining. And then last Friday, my mom and I slowly transitioned to the acceptance of like yeah let’s keep him. And he’s mostly in my room, I bought him a big playpen for sleeping and for when I want to expose him to the dog, every day for a bit in hopes they get used to each other. But he’s still scared and my dog still barks. I’ve had him for 12 days now. And I am having major doubts.
So I’m an animal lover, I love all animals. But I’ve never thought about having a cat. And I don’t know if I can handle the fact that they jump everywhere. I am anxious all the time, on edge, and I feel burdened. I also don’t allow him to get on my bed because I also have a little OCD and can’t stop thinking about contamination. Especially that he often steps in his poop in the litter box even though I do try to clean him as much as possible after he does that but I just can’t. My hands have dried out completely from how much I wash them and use rubbing alcohol to the point where they’re bleeding. He has really triggered my ocd and spiked up my anxiety. I also have trouble maintaining my own routines as sometimes it feels mentally too much. And all this on top is even more overwhelming. The past 3 days I’ve been crying every day. Because I don’t know how life is gonna be permanently in the future. It feels like so much anxiety for me. My sister also doesn’t want him entering the kitchen because he’ll jump on counters so I always have to make sure the kitchen door is closed when eventually hopefully he gets along with the dog and can roam freely in the house.
My mom loves him and my grandma keeps calling him a good luck charm because he’s a white cat that came to me. Whenever I express doubts to my mom, she says okay give him to me, but she’s just saying that, I know it’s obviously not a solution that makes sense because she can’t handle this at the moment. And she also keeps telling me her doubts about the person we’ll give him to, telling me what if he runs away or they don’t spoil him like we do or if her existing cats hit him or something. And she keeps telling me that I’m just overthinking too much and to be more easy going. But I think she’s not thinking enough, especially about the future and suggesting temporary fixes that are taxing rather than any solid permanent solutions.
He is in my room and my responsibility, and I feel so trapped and especially thinking about a 20 year commitment, it all gives me anxiety. I love my alone time and love to just think and do my thing, but now it seems like I can’t have a moment of peace in my only place that felt like my sanctuary - my room. Now he’s everywhere, getting into everything, and his playpen and toys and scratchers take up half my room. My mom says he’s not gonna stay in my room forever, that when he gets a little bigger and able to handle himself with the dog he’ll be outside in the house, but that thought also gives me a lot of anxiety as well.
I just don’t feel free anymore. I feel constantly on edge, constantly burdened, can’t sleep whenever I want, can’t wake up whenever I want, I’m just not used to this. But I do love him . But I think there are people out there who would love to take care of him rather than feel burdened by taking caring of him. And somewhere where he can roam in the house freely and get on beds and do what a cat does you know?
But I know I’m gonna be so sad if I give him up. And will go there crying and leave crying and don’t know how I’ll even go to hand him to the other person. And I also don’t want to upset my mom as she loves him too. And what if he is some kind of spiritual sign or whatever? Or a good luck charm? I know I will miss him anyway. But I am crying every day now as well and thinking about my days before. I miss being free of this responsibility. But it feels like I can’t win here. I want what’s best for him. I don’t know what to do.
I fear regretting keeping him or regretting giving him away.

We have been caring for a community cat at my grandma's for over a year (he’s over a year old). We brought him indoors almost 2 months ago, but he cries and whines NON STOP for HOURS every single night, affecting our mental health.
We brought him in due to a bleeding neck injury, which turned out to be a bite abscess. He tested positive for giardia with ongoing diarrhea. As we have other indoor cats, we've been isolating him to prevent cross-contamination.
He doesn't know how to use the litter box yet, so he's using training pads. He rolls in the litter, so it’s not a good idea for him to use it at this time, given his situation with his diarrhea. Isolation has worsened due to his unresolved diarrhea.
Gabapentin 100mg from the vet doesn't help, and he wakes up at 3/4 am daily. Feliway has been ineffective for three weeks.
The vet said strays are nocturnal, and there's no further sleep medication available, advising us to basically deal with it.
We want to resolve the worms/diarrhea. We have no other space for him. Letting him out stops the crying, but he's hyperactive, irritating the other cats, requiring constant supervision.
We're considering putting him back outside but worry about his safety. So, we're thinking about surrendering him, but fear he may be abandoned or end up back on the streets due to his challenging behavior. Our 3-year-old kitties weren't this difficult when young.
For those that may ask several questions:
-change in our schedule? No, other than him ruining our sleep schedule ..
-what methods have you tried?: fed 3x a day, last meal is before bedtime, given catnip, cat toys, treats, play with him before bedtime, let him play with the other cats, feliway, scratch post, vinegar and water sprayed on the door to prevent scratching, etc. NOTHING WORKS.
-keep the door ajar? No, we can’t. He will get out and attempt to use their litter box if possible. We cannot have him cross contaminating
-have you tried squiring water at him? Yes, it’s ineffective. He stops for a few minutes and then continues.
-have you tried startling him with loud noise (without causing any harm or distress)? Yes, he continues to cry and whine
-does he have toys in the room with him? Yes, several. I dip some of them into catnip or I spray it with catnip.
-have you tried ignoring him? Yes for several hours and he WONT STOP!!
-is he being treated for the worms? Yes, and has been for 3+ weeks now. He kept spitting out the liquid metronidazole for almost a week straight, so we had to get it converted to pills. He was also on a 5-day supply of a powdered medication that started with a “P”, can’t remember the name. He’s now taking the metronidazole in pill form and is also taking a powdered probiotic.
-have you followed up with the vet with the diarrhea? Yes, vet wants another stool sample to send off to a lab for further testing. We just submitted another sample and are awaiting results
-is he fixed? Yes. Vaccinated as well.
Some of us have to get up early for work and he’s crying between 3am-7am. Some of us sleep during the day and when we let him out during the day, he’s too rough the others and causes issues, or he’s still crying. He gets fed 3x a day and is given attention.

Hi. Tomorrow is my 30th birthday.
I want to die.
I hear this sentence almost every day since more than a decade now. I've been in institutions dozens of times. I've been through several treatments, and my body has been ruined by SSRIs. I don't know if I'm still suffering from depression. I stopped hurting myself physically a few years ago. I don't know if things are better now. I feel like I have less suffering, but enjoy life less and less. I'm feel like I'm becoming bitter and disappointed in everything, in me, in others,but especially in me. I'm completely dysfunctional, I'm not getting the healthcare I need, I'm unable to go to appointments, I'm unable to think and be productive about anything, even though I have lots of projects. Everything I do feels like a way to procrastinate my suicide, and I generally never finish anything. The only way I manage to clear my head of all this is by sleep deprivation, which I do a lot. After 45 hours without sleep, I just stop thinking, and especially I stop feeling anything, and then I can be a bit more functional. But I do that so often that it's affecting my health. I get very very frequent "brain zaps", almost daily, where it's like I get an electric shock through my brain. A few days ago, after 60 hours of sleep deprivation, I stopped seeing colors for a few minutes. Everything was in shades of grey and a bit of purple. Sometimes it's also like all sounds get muted for a few seconds. It feels like someone else is playing with my senses, or what's left of them. I don't feel anything anymore, to a point where I frequently piss (or shit) myself because I don't even feel that it is happening. After 80/90 hours, I usually end up collapsing and sleeping, and when I wake up it's so horrible.
I feel numb, old and ruined. I've had diarrhea for more than a year now, and I don't really know why. I feel like my body is completely unable to feel any kind of pleasure, especially sexual pleasure, and I feel sleepy all the time, except when I stop sleeping for days. It's a powerful drug, but the comedown is hard.
I'm starting to have eczema, and it's growing on my body. At first it was a small zone in my back, and it's getting bigger and bigger. My genitals are literally atrophying from the combination of the absolute lack of sexual sensations and HRT (I'm a trans woman). I should be having regular stimulation to prevent that, but I'm complete unable to. My teeth are in ruins, from lack of brushing, from the stress that made me grind them out for years. I hate my face, I'm completely failing my transition, I hate how I look, and I hate how completely disconnected and isolated from everyone I feel.
I'm getting more and more isolated from my friends. I don't know if they are my friends anymore. They see hi if they see me, but nobody calls. Tomorrow I'll probably spend my 30th birthday alone, if I'm still alive by then.
This is not a new situation, and nothing particularly bad has happened to me recently. But the thoughts have been intense lately. I see myself dead, every bus, every car I see makes me see my dead and cold corpse lying on the pavement, every tree, every hook, every plastic bag, every knife makes me think of how I could use it to die. I'm scared of pain, and I suppose it protects me a bit, but I also love pain, I dream of it, I would want so bad for someone to punch me, to break me, to cut me, to kick me until I die. Usually when I get assaulted it's not even that bad, they grope me, slap me, it hurts for a few days, and the moment is stressful, but it's not intense enough to make me forget about how much I want to die. I was able to reach that kind of intensity years ago, when I was hitting myself and cutting me with the shards of glass embedded in my fists, but unfortunately, or fortunately, I stopped doing that.
I also don't want to hurt anyone. There are already 5 people in my family that committed suicide, I've lost my cousins, my aunts, my uncle, and as a trans girl I hear about sisters dying regularly. My boyfriend is already a widower, his previous girlfriend died a year before we met, losing me would be devastating for him. It scares me.
I said I want to die but I'm not sure it's true. Deep inside me I think I do want to live. There are things I want to do, things I want to feel, moments I want to live. But they all seem so far inaccessible, so far away, I feel tired, and I'm becoming really scared that an impulse is going to end it all.
I don't really know that to do. I don't trust doctors. I'm more scared of my life continuing as it is right now than of accidentally dying because of a suicidal impulse. SSRIs hurt me a lot, I stopped taking them since three years, and now it's becoming clear to me that I suffer from PSSD. Or it's the depression that is continuing ? I don't even know. I just know that I don't trust them, and that I don't want to see more months/years of my life wasted in a psychiatric institution, and more of my body ruined by their medications and everchanging treatments and diagnosis.
I'm scared because all of this has been going on for a while now. I don't know how to fix, or if I know, well I'm unable to. I know my peers won't be that surprised if I end up killing myself. They'll be sad for sure, but not really surprised.
I hope this won't be my last post. I don't know what to do. I wish I could say I was terrified, but not so much.

Some of you may have read my post a few weeks ago about a shelter I'd been volunteering at since last July and how confused and frustrated I was because they don't post most of their cats on their website or Facebook for 2 months (sometimes longer). I deleted the post because i was so scared someone would recognize it and retaliate, but they terminated me as a volunteer for "asking too many questions," so now I don't care.
Some background: There was zero reason for this--I'm not talking about cats who were feral or cats who came in with significant injuries or illnesses. And it didn't take them 2 months to get their cats fixed either so that wasn't the reason (which I don't know why they wouldn't at least post them before being fixed anyway). They'd also not be moved up to adoptable areas and would be stuck in these two small rooms in the very back of the shelter right next to the super loud dog kennels--just a nightmare space to put any cats in, let alone all the newer ones who are terrified to begin with. And no, it wasn't due to stray hold (which is only 5 days there) because they'd do the same thing with owner surrendered cats too, who have no hold at this shelter.
Well, I finally brought up my concerns to them--and I did so in the nicest way humanly possible and was not judgmental, rude or anything like that, just offered to help them write bios or take photos or do website updates, if they needed help. I reached out to a board member first, who ignored me. Then I spoke to their feline program manager directly and she didn't answer any of my questions about their process, but she let me write ONE bio for a cat I was super close to and whose adoption fee I had sponsored--a super sweet, healthy 16-year-old named Max whose owner had died and who they left stuck in the back rooms for over 6 weeks for no reason whatsoever. Then they finally moved him up and he still wasn't on their website for 2 more weeks. Guess what? Literally a day after I wrote my bio and they posted him, he was adopted (they said they saw him online and fell in love). That's what happens when you actually let the public know your cats exist.
And then, a week later, I decided to kindly ask one more time if I could assist with anything to help get cats posted sooner (and this time I CCd the shelter director on the email just in case she wasn't even aware this was happening--and by her response, she seemed clueless but also didn't seem to care). I got an incredibly rude and belittling response back from the cat manager because apparently the board member I had reached out to weeks prior who had ignored me forwarded my questions/concerns to her and the director, and she was livid and berated me for contacting a board member. I'm sorry but at other shelters I've volunteered at we were allowed to speak to board members.
They then "terminated" me as a volunteer two weeks ago for "asking too many questions over the past week," telling me "we THOUGHT we had someone here helping cats, but we didn't." They didn't even give me the courtesy of calling or emailing me to tell me this. Instead, they still made me drive 40 minutes to my early morning regular Saturday shift, then immediately pulled me into a room and told me this. They were completely rude and unprofessional about all of it, never thanked me for the countless hours I spent there, my donations nearly every week (I even bought my own gloves because they didn't provide them and cat toys and catnip every week because half their cats wouldn't even have a single toy in their cage!), etc.
Anyway, since some of you seemed to be making excuses for them or trying to think of logical reasons last time, I will let you know the reasons they gave me for some of the cats:

1. They don't move neutered cats up "until the testosterone leaks out of their urine and it isn't stinky anymore" (however, even after they move them up, they STILL wouldn't post them online for at least an entire week later, oftentimes 2 or 3 weeks or never!). This one is way, way out there.
2. A cat who has been there since December and has had intermittent diarrhea is still not posted. A staff member even told me their vet thinks it's from shelter stress. Well, their reason for not posting him? "It wouldn't be fair to Valvoline or to his new family. We want to get his diarrhea under control first."
3. "Me and my staff need time to get to know the cats. We can't adopt them out if we know nothing about them." Not only is this insane, but even after they were there for 2 months, the staff would know very little about them. I would know which cats liked to play, what their favorite toys were, which ones were crazy about catnip, which ones liked to be brushed, where their favorite spots to be pet were, if they liked treats or not--but they hardly ever knew any of that when I'd mention something. Because I actually paid attention to them and spent time with them.

There were a few other nonsensical excuses both the cat manager and their director gave me, but not a single good reason was provided. They are incompetent, toxic, and I will not miss never seeing them again but I do feel bad for the cats stuck there. And for anyone who wants to blame this on me, their own volunteer coordinator quit last year because she told me she was so disrespected and the place was toxic, and others have had similar experiences. I was never anything other than friendly and respectful to them and spent a ton of time there and did a really good job with both cleaning and just connecting with the cats. I could go on and on about how awful the place is in many different ways, but this is already way too long.

Please note: I've mentioned some products and brands here just because I use them regularly in my work. Nothing has been received for their references in this article.

This is a simplified step-by-step guide to help dog owners understand the steps towards allergy diagnosis and management. Unless the logic behind the steps are communicated properly by the vet, I understand that the process may appear slow, frustrating and not always clear. It is important to keep a good dialogue with the vet throughout the process and not to expect a quick-fix after the first consultation.
Also note that each case is handled differently based on many factors such as the owner's financial limitations, country-specific norms and the veterinarians habits and experiences. Please note that this is just an example on how I myself approach allergic dogs. Other veterinarians may have completely different routines that works for them.
Common presentation:
Allergies typically begin to develop in dogs between the ages of 1 and 3 years old and usually present with one or more of the following symptoms:

• Itching and/or skin redness.
• Licking of legs and paws.
• Recurrent ear issues.
• Anal gland issues/butt scooping.
• Gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea and gas.

There are plenty of differential diagnoses for each of these symptoms. For the sake of simplicity we must assume other conditions have already been ruled out, otherwise I would probably have to write a small book.
1: Anti-Parasitic treatment
Even if I strongly suspect allergies, I usually always start out an allergy consultations by ruling out parasitic infestations. A skin scraping can be performed and investigated under the microscope, but a negative skin scrape does not rule out parasites; it only rules out parasites at that small patch of skin where the sample was taken. It's a simple and cheap treatment, so if the issue happens to be parasitic it will save the owner a lot of time and money. If the symptoms are severe, I provide anti-itching drugs for a few days while the trial anti-parasitic treatment has time to work.
(Hypothyroidism can also cause allergy-like symptoms and should be ruled out (blood test) before initiating a full allergy investigation.)
2: Hypoallergenic diet trial:
If the symptoms are still present after anti-parasitic treatment course, I start the dog on a prescription Allergy diet for 8 weeks. We use Royal Canin Anallergenic since it's the most extensively hydrolyzed diet available. Hydrolyzed diets contain proteins that have been chemically 'chopped' into tiny subunits, so small that the pet's immune system cannot recognize them as allergens. Since they are not recognized by the immune system they will elicit no allergic reactions. During the food trial it is important that the dog ONLY eats the prescribed diet and avoids everything else, including treats and human foods. If the dog is severely affected I will provide anti-itching medicines for a few weeks at the start of the food trial, but it is important that the medicines do not mask the effect of the food change for us to know what actually worked.
If the symptoms disappear after the 8 week allergy trial diet, then great, we may conclude that food is the cause of the pet's allergies. I will then usually do elimination diets to figure out what types of food the dog actually tolerates. Some dogs may have to remain on prescription allergy diets for the rest of their lives. Some vets perform a food challenge test (Back to the diet they reacted on previously) after symptoms have cleared to check for recurrence as a way to confirm their diagnosis.
FOOD ALLERGY BLOOD TEST: These tests are somewhat controversial as they are NOT tools for diagnosis or identifying specific food allergens. However, they can be useful during a food trial in determining what protein sources the dog is less likely to have an allergic reaction to.
3. Environmental allergy screening + trial treatment.
If the allergy symptoms are still present after 8 weeks of prescription allergy diet, the cause of the allergy is more likely to be environmental (or both). At this point I usually recommend doing a blood test screening or panel against specific environmental allergens, such as pollen or mites. I always offer to do the blood test during step 2, but many clients prefer to go stepwise.
While waiting for the blood results I usually initiate treatment with Cytopoint injections. Depending on the severity I might add Apoquel short term for relief as it is very quick-acting and effective drug. For very severe cases corticosteroids might be required. I prefer Cytopoint for long term use over Apoquel and (especially) glucocorticoids due to having a more specific mechanism of action, while the alternatives are more broad-acting immuno-suppressive drugs. However, each patient responds differently - Finding the ideal treatment is usually a case of trial and error and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Sometimes a combination is required.
NOTE: Neither Cytopoint or Apoquel cure allergies. They provide relief to the pet by blocking some of the symptom's pathways. However they are still very important medicines for improving the quality of lives for thousands of pets with allergies.
\ Cytopoint: Injections lasting 4-8 weeks.*
\ Apoquel: Daily tablet or chewable.*
4. Immunotherapy:
Immunotherapy is the closest we currently get to 'curing' environmental allergies. Please note that immunotherapy has nothing to do with food allergies which can only be managed nutrionally.
The results from the blood panel previously mentioned can be used to create a custom solution containing the most important allergens specific to the dog. The solution is injected or given orally in gradually increasing concentrations. This procedure desensitizes the immune system to said allergens, alleviating the symptoms over time.
It is worth noting that approximately 50% of patients will respond excellent to immunotherapy treatment, 25% will have good response, and 25% will not respond at all. Immunotherapy is no immediate relief and it may take months before any effect is observed. Concurrent treatment is usually necessary for symptom relief. Glucocorticoids should not be administered during immunotherapy as it will considerably decrease the success rate.
Additional (environmental) allergy management tips:

• Regular baths: For pets with environmental allergies, regular washing will remove allergens from the fur and may alleviate symptoms. Bedding, blankets etc in daily use should also be cleaned regularly.
• Allergen-neutralizing spray (such as Allergone): These products bind to proteins inactivating their effectiveness as allergens, preventing them from becoming airborne indoors and making them easier to clean. Allergone can be sprayed anywhere (beds, couches, blankets, carpets etc.) and is long lasting.
• Symptom Tracking: For seasonal allergies, symptom tracking can be very valuable. If you learn what months of the year the allergy starts, treatment can be initiated beforehand as a preventive measure. Preventing seasonal flair-ups will potentially save you veterinary expenses and your pet a lot of suffering.

Hello all! I have not used reddit since lockdown so please excuse any wonky formatting.
Female SW: 203 CW: 199 GW: 145 Height: 5'3"
I have seen a few posts asking about the efficacy of oral tablets so I figured I would give a review of what the first week has been like for me. I am using the dissolving tablets starting at .5mg and the instructions are to let dissolve then no food or drink for 30 minutes.

day	Nausea	Heartburn	appetite change	Felt normal by dinner	other
1	yes, meclizine helped	no	maybe?	no	exercise bike 45 mins
2	yes, meclizine fixed it	no	no	no	exercise bike 30 mins
3	very mild	yes	i think so	yes
4	no	no	yes	no	yoga 15 mins
5	no	no	yes definitely	yes	treadmill 37 mins
6	no	no	yes	yes	diarrhea
7	no	no	yes	no

This is how I tracked it in my notebook.
Food noise is absolutely reduced. Even by day 1 I could feel a difference after taking it. I take my tablet around 7 am and then drive my teenager to school, so I cannot access food for an hour. Every day so far the hunger I feel in the morning is gone by the time I get home. I have not wanted to stop and grab a fast food/ coffee shop breakfast even once. I do still eat breakfast but it is no longer a driving force of the day.
Cravings: I have never had so few! My sugar cravings were getting out of control prior to this so I was trying to cut down and see if it helped. Since day 1 I have been able to scroll pinterest/ instagram without seeing snacks and immediately thinking "i need that right now or something like it".
I will say something I was not expecting: the tablets turn your teeth and tongue blue. Like BLUE blue.
"Normal by Dinner" refers to the fact that I had a fairly regular appetite back by dinner time.
Appetite suppressant is not quite as strong as when I started Wellbutrin 300 hcl last year for seasonal depression
I have noticed a significant increase in energy and I am not sure if it is these meds or that I am off birth control for the first time in 12 years (sterilized).
Other things I did: about two days before I started taking the meds I started shifting my recipes and meals to a mediterranean/ anti-inflammatory style. I'm not following this to the letter but I was listening to the Daily Dollop Podcats to help myself learn how to make better meals for my family. I cook 5 nights a week, all lunches, and breakfast for the kids and I (husband takes a yogurt to go).
Days 4 and 5 I built one of those big cedarwood swing sets on my own in the backyard, despite this I still ate a much smaller lunch than normal
Day 6 I had one instance of urgency but I think it was from all the physical effort the prior two days. I am prone to that problem if I have a really good workout so I am unsure if it was the medications or that.
All in all I realize I am only one week in but I wanted to share what it has been like so far. The NP did tell me the tablets are only 80-85% as effective as the injection but a box with "refrigerate" on it would absolutely be stolen if I ordered it. As of right now I am not as concerned with lower efficacy because the freedom from food noise is remarkable.

Hello. Ten days ago I lost my sweet cat Luigi. He was almost 6 years old. We adopted him from a rescue 3 years ago. The 3 years we had him were absolutely amazing! He was the sweetest and most affectionate cat I have ever met. Before he was surrendered to the rescue and adopted, he was hit by a car. He was left with a deformed paw, and a pelvic injury that made it difficult for him to defecate. Due to his pelvic injury, we took him to the vet often. He needed several enemas and a deobstipation surgery. He did well for a year, but then developed severe diarrhea. We tried everything - changing food multiple times, medications, an arthritis shot to hopefully make it easier for him to use the litter box, etc. We took him to the vet several times the last 6 months. At the last appointment we talked to the vet and asked if this could be constipation instead of diarrhea, which the vet stated no. Fast forward a few weeks and Luigi gets very sick. We take him back to the emergency vet (which is also his regular vet). They stabilize him, take X-rays, and tell us the constipation has returned. They schedule him for a deobstipation surgery. Once they start the surgery, they realize the constipation is much worse than they thought, and given his pelvic injury they were unable to remove it. The feces was hard as a rock, and his pelvic opening was too small to pull it through.
The vet contacted us while he was still under anathesia from the deobstipation they attempted. We rushed to the vet, hysterical. We are relatively new cat parents. We adopted our first cat 5 years ago. We have never experienced an emergency like this. When we arrived the vet told us the options were to put him through surgery to remove the fecal matter (but he stated it would be hard on Luigi, it would be a tough recovery, and by this point he had been in the hospital 3 days due to a bladder obstruction caused by the constipation), or we could euthanize him. The vet stated he would not put his cat through the surgery, and he felt it was not in Luigi's best interest. Per the vet the surgery is not a guarantee to fix Luigi's issues. If we were going to put him down, it would be best to do it while he was under anesthesia.
We asked tons of questions and cried. But, we were very much pressured to make a quick decision due to the anathesia. I was in shock. I wanted to give him a chance, but my fiance felt it was best to let Luigi go in peace as he has a history of multiple surgeries due to being hit by the car, and the concern of him being weak from the bladder obstruction, and the vet's report that the surgery would be hard on Luigi and he would not recommend it. We decided to let him go peacefully while under anathesia.
I have so many questions and am really feeling a lot of guilt. I think most of the guilt stems from having to make the decision so quickly that we could not research or get a second opinion.
We have an appointment on 5/21 to speak to the vet and the medical director of the facility. I want to know how the constipation had gotten so bad without the vet knowing, or telling us. I want to know why we were pressured to make such a quick decision about euthanasia. This is so difficult because we trusted the vet, and I will now live with the guilt of not taking Luigi to a specialist. I don't know why he was not referred to a specialist if the vet could not help him.
My questions for you all are: 1. Do you think we did the right thing? I cannot tell you how much guilt I have that the vet who missed the constipation is the one who recommended euthanasia.

1. Should we have awakened him from the anesthesia, waited for him to get out of the ER, take him to a specialist for a second opinion?

Thank you

Hello. Ten days ago I lost my sweet cat Luigi. He was almost 6 years old. We adopted him from a rescue 3 years ago. The 3 years we had him were absolutely amazing! He was the sweetest and most affectionate cat I have ever met. Before he was surrendered to the rescue and adopted, he was hit by a car. He was left with a deformed paw, and a pelvic injury that made it difficult for him to defecate. Due to his pelvic injury, we took him to the vet often. He needed several enemas and a deobstipation surgery. He did well for a year, but then developed severe diarrhea. We tried everything - changing food multiple times, medications, an arthritis shot to hopefully make it easier for him to use the litter box, etc. We took him to the vet several times the last 6 months. At the last appointment we talked to the vet and asked if this could be constipation instead of diarrhea, which the vet stated no. Fast forward a few weeks and Luigi gets very sick. We take him back to the emergency vet (which is also his regular vet). They stabilize him, take X-rays, and tell us the constipation has returned. They schedule him for a deobstipation surgery. Once they start the surgery, they realize the constipation is much worse than they thought, and given his pelvic injury they were unable to remove it. The feces was hard as a rock, and his pelvic opening was too small to pull it through.
The vet contacted us while he was still under anathesia from the deobstipation they attempted. We rushed to the vet, hysterical. We are relatively new cat parents. We adopted our first cat 5 years ago. We have never experienced an emergency like this. When we arrived the vet told us the options were to put him through surgery to remove the fecal matter (but he stated it would be hard on Luigi, it would be a tough recovery, and by this point he had been in the hospital 3 days due to a bladder obstruction caused by the constipation), or we could euthanize him. The vet stated he would not put his cat through the surgery, and he felt it was not in Luigi's best interest. Per the vet the surgery is not a guarantee to fix Luigi's issues. If we were going to put him down, it would be best to do it while he was under anesthesia.
We asked tons of questions and cried. But, we were very much pressured to make a quick decision due to the anathesia. I was in shock. I wanted to give him a chance, but my fiance felt it was best to let Luigi go in peace as he has a history of multiple surgeries due to being hit by the car, and the concern of him being weak from the bladder obstruction, and the vet's report that the surgery would be hard on Luigi and he would not recommend it. We decided to let him go peacefully while under anathesia.
I have so many questions and am really feeling a lot of guilt. I think most of the guilt stems from having to make the decision so quickly that we could not research or get a second opinion.
We have an appointment on 5/21 to speak to the vet and the medical director of the facility. I want to know how the constipation had gotten so bad without the vet knowing, or telling us. I want to know why we were pressured to make such a quick decision about euthanasia. This is so difficult because we trusted the vet, and I will now live with the guilt of not taking Luigi to a specialist. I don't know why he was not referred to a specialist if the vet could not help him.
My questions for you all are: 1. Do you think we did the right thing? I cannot tell you how much guilt I have that the vet who missed the constipation is the one who recommended euthanasia.

1. Should we have awakened him from the anesthesia, waited for him to get out of the ER, take him to a specialist for a second opinion? Is it common practice for vet's to recommend euthanasia while the cat is under anesthesia - even if that rushes everything?
   
2. I feel this vet is responsible for my cats death due to missing the constipation. What would you recommend in that case? We have scheduled the meeting to discuss our concerns. We are working on finding another vet. Any other suggestions?
   

Thank you

So sorry in advance for the long post. I just need to get this out.
TW for talk of suicide and depression
If you’re my partner and you see this - please don’t read this. I promise you are a wonderful support but I know my venting hurts you because you want to fix things and you can’t.
Edit to add some probably important context: I was misdiagnosed with BPD when I was 19 after a traumatic experience. And while every mental health professional I saw after told me it was wrong and was actually PTSD and CPTSD, it was not actually “officially” diagnosed on record until the hospitalization, at the start of my ADHD assessment. But, the psychiatrist that ordered the assessment is the first doctor to ever bring up ADHD or neurodivergence. Just to demonstrate how many people missed these things over the years, how many “second opinions” I’ve had to get. Not in any way dissimilar to my experience seeking diagnosis for my physical health issues.
I feel such immense grief and rage. I don’t even know where to begin, so I guess I’ll start at the start of this “health journey”. When I was 16, I became incredibly ill. I was vomiting all the time, exhausted to the point of sleeping 14 hours a day from the time I got home from school til just before I had to leave for the bus. I don’t remember much from this time period because of the brain fog and genuinely don’t know how I passed my classes. I was gaining a lot of weight, too, and hadn’t had a menstrual cycle in 6 months, and was so so depressed. My mom ignored the health issues because she thought I was just being dramatic (there is much deeper context with the issues there but it comes down to I am now NC as an adult), but when I said I needed to see a doctor for my depression she did. My then-family doctor was wonderful and listened, and to be safe decided to run some blood tests though I hadn’t described to her my physical symptoms aside from the oversleeping I attributed to depression. I was diagnosed with autoimmune thyroid disease, or Hashimoto’s. I started medication and my symptoms improved though some things, like the weight gain, never reversed.
I ended up going into remission for a time and no longer needed the HRT. But when I was around 20/21, I started having health problems again. I started experiencing numbness and tingling in both my hands and wrists, which I thought was from repetitive movement working as a cashier, though the symptoms only appeared about 6 months into that job and in hindsight it probably isn’t normal to develop that quickly that way. But I ignored it because I didn’t think it was serious as it was “just” carpal tunnel, and began wearing wrist splints regularly. I did not ask my doctor, as during this time I was having difficulties hearing at work and the hearing test I requested came back normal and I was dismissed and I didn’t want to reinforce the belief I have unreasonable worries about non-issues - later, I learned this was actually an auditory processing issue, which was never brought up by any medical professional I saw as a possible cause.
In 2020, when I was 24, I began experiencing the same autoimmune symptoms I had when I was first sick at the age of 16. I fell asleep at work which had never happened before and it worried me. I went to the ER on recommendation of Telehealth, where the doctor didn’t believe my symptoms and ordered just an EKG that came back normal. He told me I didn’t fall asleep/pass out while actively working, and simply “took a nap” and it’s normal. Follow-up with my GP after was unsuccessful, until I pushed for thyroid testing. I was found to no longer be in remission and put back on HRT, and once again my symptoms improved but did not resolve.
At the same time, and for the year or so that followed, I experienced extreme digestive health issues. I had visible yellowing of the skin, very dark under eye circles, issues with itchy and red patches of skin, and was passing undigested food and eventually became obviously malnourished as a result. I had what seemed to be a kidney stone that passed before I could get in for the ultrasound so it couldn’t be confirmed. I alternated between constipation and diarrhea, and always felt pain. My GP told me it was “probably just IBS” and had me do an elimination diet (twice) that did not work. He dismissed my concerns telling me I’m fine, until I sent a novel of my symptoms and saying I know he thinks I’m a hypochondriac but I am unwell and need to be looked at. The liver tests I pushed for came back normal. He offered to test me for Celiac but advised against it due to the cost of the blood test, so I didn’t. He did, however, refer me for a colonoscopy but the pandemic made this severely delayed. During the wait, I found some relief of my symptoms by cutting out gluten and dairy from my diet, and the yellowing of my skin and dark circles went away as did, eventually, the skin patches my doctor insisted was “just eczema”. I was off of gluten for a full year when I had my colonoscopy in fall 2022, the results came back normal and that doctor reiterated that it is “probably just IBS”. I learned later that I should have been consuming gluten for at least 3 months prior in order for it to be an effective test for Celiac, and my doctor failed to tell me this.
In early 2022, the joint pain had become frequent enough and painful enough in the knuckles where my hands meet my fingers, and in my wrists with definite carpal tunnel in both wrists as well, that I went to my GP. However, he is busy, and it’s often easier to book an appt with his assistant who is able to assess many conditions. At this time I also believed he would be more likely to listen and take me seriously. I went to the appt, described the nerve and joint pain issues. I had an exam where he confirmed bilateral carpal tunnel and arthritis in my hands. He said no testing was needed. I pushed back, stating that I am only 25 and there is no normal reason for the inflammation, and I have Hashimoto’s which has very high comorbidity with RA and I was concerned due to the fact the inflammation was symmetrical. I was dismissed, told the only test that could be done is an x-ray which was pointless as all it would do is confirm the presence of arthritis which he already confirmed with the exam. He told me to keep wearing wrist splints, keep taking ibuprofen and acetaminophen for the inflammation and pain, told me taking them was risk-free, and told me to come back when the redness and swelling of my joints got worse. I didn’t feel comfortable going to my GP for fear of being marked further as a problem patient, and assumed he would tell me the same information his assistant had based on my experiences with him and the fact his assistant is his staff that sees many of his patients.
My depression worsened during these years, coming to a head in early 2023 when I attempted. I did not succeed due to a mistake I made, fortunately. I was hospitalized for a time, where I was finally officially diagnosed with PTSD and CPTSD. And for the first time, a doctor asked if I suspected I’m neurodivergent. I was assessed and diagnosed with ADHD, which explained a significant amount of non-health related issues, though it also explained some like my KP and teenage cystic acne as they are common comorbidities. It’s important to note that I have a younger sibling that was diagnosed with ADHD as a child, and I was viewed as the “normal” child and any issues were dismissed as my sibling had higher support needs and was the priority and I was always viewed as simply being overdramatic and wanting attention. I was told the cause of my depression was trauma, including childhood trauma, as well as 26 years of undiagnosed and unmanaged ADHD I had been forced to deal with on my own. I was told I had done the best I could but they were not surprised it reached the point it did, as sadly the mental health system in Ontario is not what it should be and often people do not receive help until they’re long past the point of needing it. And for many, it’s too late. I am fortunate that it wasn’t too late for me, I’m fortunate I survived.
Prior to my stay at the hospital, I had gotten to the point of needing to take ibuprofen daily for the inflammation. When disclosing my medical history and medications, I was asked if I had received a formal diagnosis for my arthritis and what tests had been performed. I told them I had been assessed for and diagnosed with arthritis, but that no tests were performed. It was clear they did not believe me, and I wasn’t provided ibuprofen during my stay. They did not follow-up with my GP regarding the arthritis either, though to be fair I was in the psych ward and non urgent physical ailments were not their concern.
Now we get to 2024. It’s a jump, but I don’t feel anything between is significant. I do not go a day without pain, and havent for 3 months. The pain has now reached every joint in my body, I feel fatigued and foggy, I feel horrible all the time and have had 3 UTIs since February. The last one reached my kidneys rapidly, and coincided with the worst full-body arthritis flare of my life - this was 2 weeks ago. I woke up every 2 hours sobbing in agony because my body and knees in particular were so warm and painful and stiff. For a full day I was unable to get out of bed and ran a low grade fever with chills I assumed were due to the infection but now I’m not so sure. Since then, I have been in constant pain though not as severe as then. My knee and hip pain keep me up at night, and/or wake me up often due to the pain and stiffness. Regardless of my larger joints, my hands and wrists always hurt now. I feel ill in the way I did with my Hashimoto’s. Ibuprofen and acetaminophen aren’t doing anything anymore, and I rely on cannabis for relief which isn’t always suitable. My partner got me a topical ointment that has been incredibly but isn’t affordable enough to be sustainable with how much of it I need in one go, and I need to use it sparingly when I absolutely need it. Despite not feeling that my joints are red and swollen enough to go back (because I see them every day and they look normal because they always look like that), I stuck with my plan to see my GP. I first tried to book in February, but only saw him this week.
I described all the physical symptoms asking about my lower leg/ankle swelling and to have my thyroid levels checked for potential med increase need, and I described my joint issues. He assessed my hands, and told me my knuckles are red and swollen. I’ve realized after in research and really looking at my hands that the top knuckle on one of my fingers has a lump on it, albeit a very small one. He immediately said he is testing me for RA with blood work, and in my research I’ve confirmed the req form is thorough, and also includes urinalysis and an EKG. However he told me for the inflammation marker test to go for it when it’s at its worst, and with my work schedule I can’t, and I’ve waited so long for this I refuse. I’m going for it as soon as I can. I’ve waited so long to be listened to and believed. And as many as half of people with RA test negative on the blood tests so I’ll end up needing imaging tests anyway either way and I want this process to be as fast as possible. Even if it’s not RA, I need them to figure out what’s wrong with me and give me the appropriate treatment. He was alarmed and visibly displeased to hear that I had seen his assistant 2 years ago for an assessment - though I forgot to mention to him that that appointment was also for bilateral carpal tunnel (which I now know is an early sign of RA due to compression of nerves). It wasn’t explicitly stated but it was clear that I should have been tested 2 years ago. And wasn’t.
I’m tired of being in pain. I’m tired of being sick. I’m just plain tired. I feel so failed by the system that’s supposed to care for us. I’m so frustrated with people insisting that doctors are all-knowing and infallible and if they tell you you’re fine, you are. I’ve been fighting for years to be heard and have only been left to feel like I’m losing my mind and imagining these problems and am just overdramatic after all. I feel vindicated that I was right all along, but it’s too little too late. RA is a progressive disease, and the earlier it’s diagnosed and aggressively treated the better. I’ve had at minimum 2 years of progression that cannot be undone. The damage can’t be reversed. I am angry and devastated. The grief is so f*king immense.
I’m 27. I don’t know what my future looks like anymore and that scares me. I’m worried about the damage this disease has done to my internal organs. I worry having kids is no longer an option for me, due to my health. I worry that my physical capabilities will continue to deteriorate. I am so angry that I’ve been written off as an anxious hypochondriac when I knew something was wrong.
Diagnosis of an autoimmune disease or any illness really, apparently doesn’t negate medical misogyny and ageism. Advocating for yourself doesn’t go anywhere when you’ve been labelled crazy and a problem patient. The most it’s gotten me is my doctor “offering” to send my files if I wanted to switch to a different GP, which I can’t with the GP shortage. I have to live with the lifelong consequences of doctors failing me. And it f*king sucks.

I’m always in some amount of pain with this fistula. I sit on a heating pad to drain the pus when the abscess gets hard and painful. I take ibuprofen. I was prescribed a topical cream that does nothing. I was on antibiotics for a week too. Some days the pain is excruciating, others it’s tolerable but distracting. My consultation is in June. I have to do two Fleet enemas the morning of my consultation and I’ve never done one before, so I’m a little anxious about it.
It starts to get to you after awhile, always being in pain. It affects your attitude and your self esteem, especially when you can’t just tell someone what the problem is because you’re embarrassed to admit to having an anal abscess and fistula. It’s gross and there’s no delicate way to explain to someone at work that you have to sit for a bit (on the heating pad) because “your butt hurts”. The night sweats leave you exhausted because you woke up drenched and sticky, but there’s no time to take a shower before work. You look haggard and pale. You have to wear a pad or gauze in your pants (like a diaper) because of the drainage so you hate walking around. You can’t take an LOA from work because those are unpaid. You’re exhausted from waking up sweating or struggling to sleep because of random stabbing pain. You’re becoming more and more depressed, emotionally volatile because of it all. You don’t even want to eat because food means digestion, digestion means going to the bathroom, and going to the bathroom can hurt so so bad.
I’ve been dealing with this for years due to being misdiagnosed over and over until my current GP saw it. Of course, it wasn’t an extra hole until recently. It was just agony and blood, like I was sitting on a knife, for a long time. It would come and go, always hurting but not always agonizing. I dreaded long car rides. I had to tell people I preferred to stand when I actually really needed to sit. That was before I knew what it was, so I thought standing was the best thing I could do. Now I just need to sit on a heating pad, but I work a job where I am often needed to walk around a huge warehouse. I can feel the abscess rubbing when it flares up during those times. I have to pause and take a breath. I usually tell people I have a bruised tailbone from a fall to explain why I am sitting on a heating pad and walk funny.
I was almost late for work today because of the bathroom. Blood and pus. Pain. I don’t know what else can be done for me until the consultation and I’m not sure how to broach the subject with my GP when I have an appointment coming up. It feels so far away.
As painful as large hard stools are, I prefer them to the soft mushy ones. The soft ones seem to make it worse. It’s almost like the soft ones push into whatever channel is open down there and fester. So the hard ones may make me bleed but I’m less likely to have an abscess grow from them. I don’t even know what I can eat. Diarrhea makes it so much worse, like the diarrhea is getting into the channel. And while it can be mostly pus, with some blood, sometimes it’s just this clear viscous liquid.
I’m not a religious person but I admit to praying for this to be fixed soon. I am so depressed. So tired. This pain may be mild at points but it’s all day every day.
Did anyone else suffer a lot and then feel way better after it was treated?

I’ve recently been diagnosed with hypothyroidism, which isn’t a big surprise for me. I dealt with thyroid issues when I was a teenager, had to get the eyelid surgery as my eye was bulging — but I wasn’t ever put on meds because my levels weren’t bad enough to constitute it I guess? I was 16 and am now 36 (this year).
I started having really bad symptoms that started about 2-3 months ago, I knew it had to be my thyroid, I went to the NHS to have it checked, they did blood tests, but didn’t test my thyroid even though I asked and therefore said I was “all clear and healthy”—so I went thorugh BUPA and managed to get my blood tests done again, and low-and-behold my thyroid antibodies were off the fucking charts. Like norm level is 0-34 and mine was 373. My TSH and other levels weren’t out of the norm range, but I was suffering so severely from the symptoms.
I told my endo all of this, he said because of the severeity of my symptoms he was going to start me on the levothyroxine immediately; of course at 25mcg then told me I would need to have my bloods done again in 8 weeks. Fine. However they only gave me 28 pills and expected me to pay for another prescription in order to get the next month’s. Ridiculous.
I managed to get the letter sent to my regular GP office and they have prescribed the meds for me so they are now free with my NHS card.
After a month being on 25mcg, my symptoms have gotten SO MUCH worse. I have noticed absolutely no change by taking the meds, I’m just getting worse.
This weekend was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me because I have dealt with the exhaustion and the brain fog, but I was so stressed out this weekend because I hadn’t had a BM in days and although I wasn’t hungry, I knew I had to eat something, anything that would help so just small fibrous bits to try and shit rolling — nothing was helping. The laxatives I took weren’t even doing anything, and typically if I resort to laxatives I just get really bad diarrhea so them to have no effect was really startling. I was in so much pain and I was concerned I may be impacted which increased my anxiety level.
I said fuck it and I upped the dosage of the levothyroxine myself because I know that there is no coming off of it at this point, and I was losing my mind. I know it’s not going to fix my symptoms immediately, but I still have to work full time, I cannot be ill, I cannot be off, and I cannot afford sick leave at the minute. Plus my job is…they aren’t great with people having health issues and instead of trying to help they will immediately try to find a loophole to fire you which I’ve seen happen to two other members of staff.
When I told a coworker—who also has hypothyroidism—that I had gone up on the medication myself, she basically chewed me out saying how dangerous it is and how I could die, etc, etc. She also doesn’t help in terms of me dealing with this diagnosis as all she says is “it never gets better, it just gets worse, and ten years down the line I struggle each and every day.” Although I know many people, especially in my family, who have hypothyroidism and with the meds it doesn’t effect their day-to-day the way it did before the medicine.
I’ve managed to get a face-to-face appt with my regular GP on Friday, and I’ll tell them what I did. If they tell me off, so be it, but at least they are a doctor.
I just cannot deal with this and work at the same time and while what I did may seem extreme or stupid or whatever, I am so tired of being treated like this is either life or death or something I can get over if I just work harder.
Has anyone else done this?
I don’t feel like I’ve taken some drastic step as most people start off on 50mcg. I haven’t had any bad side effects, but I’ve only taken this dosage for two days now.

People in the halls and in class constantly point out I smell bad. I hardly ever smell any scent at all and it really messes up my self esteem because I hate even getting up, moving around, or walking. Every once and a while I might smell like a weird smell but its very light and i dont think too noticeable. I shower everyday most times more. My showers are at least always 15 minutes. I use a dove bar soap as a base and I wash EVERYTHING always. I go in with a Lume soap and I only use that in spots I think could cause more odor since that soap claims to stop odor. Then I use my third cleanse with a Method Man or Native which is wash my whole body with to just 'smell good' and there is still a smell. I do have issues with IBS and constant constipation/diarrhea and I am hoping to seek more medical attention on that soon but thats a whole different can of worms too and I dont know if that even relates to odor. I dont change my bed sheets as often as I should and I plan to change that too but it doesnt help when people say I stink as that is relative. There are times when I wake up and I smell but thats why I shower every morning too. It might be out of my control completely and it might just be a natural hormone scent. I just really need help, what to do, how to stop from smelling, is this just a thing teens go through, how to fix this issue.

I (40F, non-smoker, medicated for ADHD & GERD) have been diagnosed with severe apnea+hypopnea. I just started with a CPAP machine and I have adapted quickly to the new routine. Since starting three days ago I have been experiencing some extreme side effects which I believe to be aerophagia (according to Dr google). I am burping excessively and they taste and smell awful. Like it is coming from the bottom of my stomach. I am also experiencing the worst case of diarrhea I have ever had. Has this happened to anyone and does it get better? I can’t leave the house out of fear I won’t be near a bathroom. How can I fix this? Tell me it gets better?
Edited to add update. After a horrible night,(tmi- I had to make urgent bathroom visits) I called the clinic as soon as they opened. The clinician was able to look at my data and she said nothing looked amiss. She said this can happen but they usually see it with higher pressures? She said she couldn’t lower the bottom level which is 4 but she said I didn’t go above 9 so she will lower it? This is all foreign to me and I don’t know what it means but she assured me it should resolve in 24 hours. I go in person on Tuesday for a follow up. Thank you to everyone who kindly offered advice. I genuinely appreciate it.
2nd update. After my RT lowered my pressure I felt better. I no longer had those terrible burps and my diarrhea subsided. I went in for my one week appointment to go over the stats and everything was perfect. The only thing that I found odd was she said in her entire practice she has never heard of anyone having the bowel issues I was having. That the chance of the air making it down that far is unlikely. When I say it was unlike anything I have ever experienced is an understatement. I did not feel ill and the only change was my CPAP. I will follow up with my Dr. Also I have started to experience a lingering wet cough. In the morning my lungs feel heavy and wet and I cough all day. We played around with settings and will see how it changes.