Good morning,
Species: Canine Age: ~3.5 Neutered male Listed as a “Lab Mix” ~70 lbs
Approximately 3 months ago our dog began limping after a vigorous play session with the neighbors dog. We brought him to our regular vet, tried an NSAID and rest for a couple weeks and it didn’t help. Our vet then recommended bringing him to a surgery center. There he was formally diagnosed with a partially torn CCL. We have the appointment set up for tomorrow morning and reviewing the paperwork again I have 2 questions.
It lists stem cell treatment $450 and nocita block $250 as optional. Do you think these are worth it? If it is really worth it we’ll spend the money but if we can save $700 on an already expensive procedure I certainly wouldn’t mind.
Thanks for any advice.

Hello ladies. I'm 24 weeks pregnant and have barely put on any weight. I do my best to eat healthy (protein, fat, fiber, almost no sugar etc) drink water and take short walks almost daily. My pre pregnancy weight was 110 lbs, then I lost a couple pounds in the first trimester and put them back on. I'm currently 112 lbs and am worried if that's ok for the baby... Has this happened to anyone else and should I be concerned? Thanks!

My previous employer tried to kill me with semi-truck while paying off people to mistreat my issues. I had been left with blood and mucus that leaks every so often out the back of my skull, unable to lift anything over 3 lbs, and have difficulty walking. The only diagnosis I received was a headache. My previous medical history was illegally disposed of and now I have no medical history when trying to collect my files. My insurance agent was a Jan 6 insurrectionist and falsified my statement of the accident. I had later found my previous employer is the head of the Kingdom Identity church and the Arayn Nation. I am going to get my thing together and end it. I finally get that as a minority, I don't matter and my words have no merit.

Sorry I’m advance for the long post. I’m a first time player and not a super creative one at that, but my friends invited me to a session, so I made a character. I’m stuck on some parts and I’d appreciate any and all suggestions to finish him. Some details I already have: His name is Daniel Kahne, a human Paladin. He stands at 5’11” and 200 lbs, with short, black hair and a full stubble. He came from an upper class family as a prodigy and natural leader where he was ready to be handed the keys to the kingdom, (so to speak). He was kidnapped by some alchemists at age 18 and experimented on to enhance his physical abilities (a la Captain America). He was put in command of an elite unit of fighters for the royal family, but his power gave him a sense of arrogance that caused him to overestimate himself. He decided to face the oncoming enemy alone and got his ass royally handed to him. Incapacitated, he had to watch as his comrades died in gruesome ways as he was helpless. He’s since taken on a crusade to avenge his fellows from his mistakes.
It’s rough, but I don’t know how to put that into the world of DnD, since I don’t know locations and all that. I also can’t decide what his Oath will be, his abilities and archetypes, or weapon preferences and proficiencies. I’ll gladly accept any ideas! (PS, if anybody has any Commission Artist recommendations, that would be great too)

Lotta stuff has happened since I worked in a warehouse. Job change obviously. Separation from a cheating spouse. Hell of a lot of depression and few suicide attempts. Still not in a good place but I wanna get back to being a better weight. Problem is how I lost it the first time and not know how extreme I’d need to go to get back.
I work 12s at a hospital now. To make ends meet I’m working at least 48-72 hrs a week and I have a 2 hr drive round trip every day too. So I’m having trouble getting energy to do anything in my free time besides; cook, clean , take care of my kids (4 of them), and rest.
When I was working in warehouses I worked as a lumper with a lot of physical labor , I loved it. A lot of people thought I wouldn’t make it due to my size ( I was roughly 340 when I walked in ) but after 3 months I’d dropped to almost 270. My typical day at work was lifting and stacking pallets. Weight wise 20-50,000 pounds a day. The walking in and out of trailers and staging it also gave me roughly 10 miles a day or more according to my Apple Watch at the time. I’d go back to doing this job if it were something I could afford to do but as a single parent right now the bills my ex left me with and my own I just can’t afford to do it.
So I was lifting roughly 100,000-250,000 lbs a week and palletizing goods. And walking 50 miles a week. Drinking nothing but water and I swear I was sweating away at times in the heat of those trailers. And this would be roughly 30hrs a week too.
So how realistic of a routine could I do with maybe not the same results but ….some? Like do I need to lift 100,000 lbs worth of weights a day and do 10 plus miles of cardio somehow a day to compensate every day ?
And trying to unpack and process this makes me feel detested already in myself.
TLDR : used to do heavy workout with a job. No longer have job. Added back all my weight plus some. Need like a set goal/number to aim for workout wise to seek results or guidance anything.
Sorry. Please comment if this post is not appropriate for the sub and I’ll gladly remove it.

hi everyone
22f here, 5’2 and 115 lbs.
i’ve noticed this dull pain that occurs on the left side of my head toward the back (kind of diagonal from my ear) that happens whenever i laugh or cough and occasionally i just feel it constantly when i’m not laughing or coughing
anyone know what this is? should i be worried or go to the doctor?
i did have strep about a month ago and my cough ended 3 weeks ago so not sure if that’s a factor but i wanted to include it

If you’re in a rush: skip to the bottom 2 paragraphs for my question :)
Hiya, I’m 18 years old and female. I weigh 46kg/101 lbs. My height is 146cm/ 4ft 9in.
I’ve been wanting to gain weight for 2 years now and nothing is working. I eat a lot of food daily, and no matter how much McDonald’s or protein/fats I eat, I still weigh the same.
I have tried to start lifting weights to gain muscle but I didn’t commit to it because I’ve had a lot of college work to focus on. However I might get back into weights during the summer.
I understand I have a very fast metabolism, but I’ve felt very insecure about my body, and if I gained weight I would feel more confident about myself.
Ideally, I’d like to gain weight before university in September, which is 2 months away.
If anyone could give me advice on how to quickly gain weight, if there’s any foods or meals I could try. Or if I should begin lifting weights and eating protein instead? -if that’s faster.
Btw - I’ve begun having porridge/oats most mornings but I’m still not gaining weight.

I just hit 4 months PO and I’m a little nervous that I’m stretching out my sleeve and getting back into bad eating habits. I find myself eating to the point my stomach hurts and have been eating out a lot, but modified versions of the foods. Burgers on lettuce buns, taco bowls, chicken nuggets, etc. I’m starting to notice these bad habits coming back and I am just needing advice on other things to snack/ eat on that are delicious (especially for lunches at work).
I started off at 289 lbs and I am stalled between 221-219 lbs for the past two weeks. I am going to the gym tomorrrow and really focusing on what I eat this week. Thanks in advance.

Unsure of a flair for this as I don't see any employment related flairs.
Florida, USA.
Growing delivery company (I hope thats vague enough to adhere to the rules).
So, I had a supervisor threated my job and be disrespectful when I voice serious safety concerns about how heavy a load I had that day. (1600 lbs, with one order that was half the truck).
So I defused the situation, took a step back, and went to the head honcho upstairs. This person often does not hear about anything in his own department.
When I mentioned the heavy load, he easily made me feel better about doing it. Then when I brought up the disrespectful comments from the person downstairs, he said he would take care of it. And he did.
Now I am being retaliated against. We have drive cameras in our trucks, mine hasnt gone off for an event in 3 months.
But I got called into the office for a coaching. When I pointed out that I did exactly what they wanted me to do in that situation, they confirmed I did, but still got a coaching.
I'm a damn good driver and have been in the transportation industry for almost a decade with no accidents or issues.
Aside from this, they have been firing people left and right for the dumbest shit (pardon my french). These were damn good employees too.
Currently in the process of accumulating names and numbers from employees and past employees who were legitimately great employees.
Im testing the waters for a class action lawsuit, and have more information that I will post in the comments when appropriate.
Should I make my intentions known and recommend my supervisor stop the retaliation? Or should I let them bury themselves?
What do you think?
Thank you in advance. This is my first post, so please go easy on me as I don't want to jump the gun. I want to do this right.
What was mentioned is only a small percentage of whats been going on.
This particular location already has 8 active lawsuits against it.

Hello, I normally do Pilates Reformer private lessons on Wednesdays which I’ve been doing for about 6 months, then I resistance train on usually Mondays and Fridays or Saturdays. Sometimes i will do another mat Pilates on Friday. I do cardio most days but not Sundays usually. Now my instructor is offering small group Reformer classes. I did one yesterday, so today would be my resistance training day.
Back when I used to do mat Pilates on a regular basis years ago, I would do that and then do my resistance training afterwards. I was younger and fitter then. Can work on the fitter but can’t go back to younger, LOL. But I generally want to give my body some rest which is usually 48 hours between muscle groups. But I also want to progress in my workouts. Maybe I am overthinking this, but if someone can describe how they integrate the two I would most appreciate it.
I just turned 60 and have no orthopedic problems. Overweight but lost about 15 lbs recently and lost a little bit of body fat and gained some lean body mass (BodPod assessment).

Hi! I am currently 12 kgs / 26 lbs over my goal weight and we can hopefully help each other stay disciplined and motivated. Typically, my mode of action is pretty simple, calorie counting, sufficient water intake and a 30 m workout but I rarely ever follow it consistently :3 Since I am still studying, exam season keeps popping up making it hard to stay on track but I am hoping this arrangement will help :) We can discuss our goals, plan of action, progress, how our day went etc. on a regular basis to keep each other in check. I'm open to any adjustments too, no worries. Feel free to ask any questions please, thank you x Have a nice day!

I avoid it as much as possible. I've gained 60 lbs over the last few years because of an injury and chronic pain that I'll have for the rest of my life. My partner still acts like I'm the hottest woman he's ever seen (give that man an Oscar and make him a saint). I've had BDD to varying degrees for as long as I can remember.
I try not to avoid being photographed because I feel like it draws more attention when I don't take pics with friends/my bf but I never look at them. It's just too much of a shock to me to see myself at 180-190 lbs vs the 120-130 I've been most of my adulthood. It doesn't help that I had a large bust to begin with, and now they've grown more so I look absolutely ridiculous.
I also have found myself disabling my security cameras outside my house right before I get within range of them so I don't catch a glimpse of myself.
I'm starting to think that avoiding looking at myself is causing more problems than not. However I also worry that don't the opposite will cause me to become more obsessive.
At the moment I feel like my BDD is under control because I just avoid looking at myself. But then when I do catch a glimpse on a tagged photo or security camera, I start to spiral. And I can't avoid that forever.

Hey everyone! I have heard incredible things about Ozempic for people with PCOS. So I have a couple questions for those of you with experience on the drug.

1. Does it help with other things besides just less hunger? I have been really good at managing my hunger and bi no ing for a long time now so if that’s the only thing it does it won’t be helpful.
   
2. You have to be on it forever right? I’ve heard the weight will come back if you stop taking it. I used to hate the idea of medication but honestly if it helps I’m down for anything. Being on any medication forever scares me cause what if there’s a shortage or you can’t get it?
   
3. I am backpacking around the world full time. I don’t have a home base or anything. I am currently in SE Asia and will be for several more months before I move on (Likely to Central/South America) anybody have any ideas on how I can get it here and on the road?
   

Any other thoughts you have would be great! I really need to loose a significant amount of weight. Much more than anyone I’ve seen on social media talking about weight loss with PCOS. I am roughly 300 lbs now and would LOVE to get to 170/180 (I won’t ever weigh myself for my mental health but it helps give you a general idea)

6/5/23 Update (Part II of my Amazing Chiari Recovery Tale): "The Cerebellum Ain't Just About Balance, Baby"
So I want to make something very clear. From here on out, I wouldn't consider this a typical Chiari recovery tale at all anymore. As far as I know, it is not usual to have this level of emotion regulation benefit from a Chiari Surgery. But... that doesn't mean it /can't/ happen. Because clearly it's happened for me.
If you watch Dr. Stieg's "This Is Your Brain Podcast: Chiari in Adults" (the same one that convinced me to drive to NYC for consultation with him:
https://www.youtube.com/live/KyGGoA3Y2ko?feature=share
.... you'll see he takes questions at the end. And one of the questions he answers is about whether there are any big cognitive and emotional effects from Chiari. And he essentially says no -- unless there's hydrocephalus, water on the brain, being caused too, why whould there be? The cerebellum isn't really involved with higher cognitive and emotional stuff. It's more about the balance and all that. Of course, the stress and misery and anxiety of living with any chronic pain condition affects people's mental health. So certainly resolving the Chiari may still sort of indirectly help with their mental health in all sorts of very significant ways.
Ok. Fair enough. But here's where, if I were having an argument with him about this here and now (which I guess I am! Because that's apparently just how I am -- sorry, Dr. Stieg, intending no disrespect to your knowledge and authority -- you're the best!)... I would turn the same phrase he used with me in discussing my physical symptom resolution right back at him: "The proof is in the pudding." What he meant when he used that phrase was that, although of course we are going to do a follow-up MRI in a few months, and see how things stand, the imaging is not really important. The evidence is clear. I had the surgery, and all my physical problems (the crippling head aches and neck aches, the trouble choking on liquids and drooling, the numb/weak hands, episodes of dizziness, etc.) almost instantly resolved. We already know the surgery worked. I would say the proof is in the pudding about the drastic mental health/emotional changes I have experienced since the Chiari decompression as well.
So first, I guess I'm gonna have to get real with ya about the the psychiatric struggles. (Oh well. I never was that private of a person to start. I'll talk to just about anyone about just about anything. Always been that way.) So my struggles in this area, summarized:
I had my first bad episode of depression when I was about 13. There were definite stressors, and I would define it as the worst year of my life. Among the stressors, in brief: I was in 7th grade, first year of junior high. I was HORRIBLY bullied, harassed, and teased by the other kids. Mostly girls. They'd wait for me at my locker in mean girl gaggles, taunt and laugh at me throughout the halls, etc. It was *BAD*. Very bad. I can only speculate as to the reasons I got it so bad. I had gender-non-conforming interests. I hated wearing dresses and didn't like the stupid girl stuff I was supposed to care about. I liked Dungeons & Dragons and fighting video games and would rather hang out with my brother and his friends than any of the boring girls I knew. I kind of felt like I /was/ a boy, actually. No different from my brother. But needless to say, no one else really saw it that way. What they DID see... was that I was different, and not following the rules of what I was supposed to like and how I was supposed to act. And boy. The shit I got for it. Like I said... it was bad. They called me "The Thing" when they passed me in the halls ("Look at that THING! What is it? A boy or a girl? We don't know -- we'll just have to call it THING. Ha ha!"). They harassed and teased me about my breasts, because I was one of the first to develop ("There goes the goddess of puberty -- ha ha, goddess of puberty!") And, of course, I was smart - a nerd - always raising my hand to answer the questions in class - so that probably didn't help my popularity any either.
Anyway. No one ever stuck up for me. There were the kids who actively harassed me, and the ones who desperately avoided me to avoid being associated with me. I had no friends in the 7th grade. I had a few, back in the 6th. But lost them all when the 3 elementary schools got merged into the big junior high or whatever. Absolutely NO ONE thought it would be a good idea to associate with me. And so they didn't. It was SO bad, SO miserable, I thought about doing all kinds of crazy things to escape having to go back to school. Maybe... if I did something REALLY crazy, like stab my brother or something (who, by the way, I adored, but that was how desperate I was - like, you know, just a LITTLE stab wound, just for show) -- they'd just put me in a psych hospital or something and I'd never have to go back to school again? I obviously spent a lot of time thinking about killing myself. My mother ultimately ended up having to move me to an entirely different school because of the level of bullying. And it did help somewhat. (Also, the next year, I met my first boyfriend - which meant that I finally also had a friend - and it's no exaggeration to say that probably saved my life. We were inseparable for the next 3 years. He didn't care that I was a girl who kicked ass at Streetfighter. We spent our time playing Streetfighter together.)
13 was also the year my parents divorced. So like I said. A bad, bad year. And... I know that is about the time when I started to come emotionally off the rails and things changed for me. So I always sort of just assumed... that my brokenness was all the result of this social trauma I'd been through or what not. I mean, we all try to make sense of ourselves and our experiences somehow, through some sort of story, explanation. And that became my self-narrative.
Specifically, the sort of mental health struggles I ended up with were major emotion regulation issues. Like way exaggerated reactions to small things. High level of emotional reactivity, particularly rejection sensitivity, and high level of obsessive-compulsive level rumination and depression. Struggled with these things basically for life since, and always just assumed, well, that's how I am. Guess my experiences broke me, or maybe I was broken for birth. The way I tend to characterize myself in short-hand is as a "mini-borderline." (I'm a genuine licensed psychologist, so I can throw terms like that around if I want to!) And you can look up symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder if you're interested in learning more about that. But here is how I would qualitatively describe my problems:
A high level of emotional immaturity. It is like a 4-year-old child is running the show emotionally. And I can SEE it happening at the time (I have no problem with my higher cognitive functions!) -- I can no I am being ridiculous, over-reacting, being childish, whatever, but I unfortunately can't CONTROL that reaction. My stunted capacity for emotional regulation lost me a lot of friends. A lot of relationships. I was "too much" for a lot of people to deal with in that way. When I was sad, I was *TOO* intensely sad, boyfriends told me. SCARY sad. I was clingy. I was needy. I couldn't self-soothe. I hated being alone more than anything. My 4-year-old emotional self was always quivering in fear and always looking for somebody to save them. But there was never anybody around when they desperately needed that comfort and reassurance.
No problem with higher cognitive capacities. And was always of course embarrassed, ashamed, and so on for knowing there was something wrong with me and I wasn't able to function like other people in a "mature" emotional way. But I couldn't change it. Not after more than 10 years of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy or Dialective Behavioral Therapy or insight-oriented therapy or trauma-based therapy. Not after trying a dozen different anti-depressants and mood stabilizers. I guessed it was just who I was. I guessed I was just too broken by my trauma history or whatever to ever really fix.
And that was the story I told myself. To make sense of who I was and why.
Only... what IF. It had never really been true. What if... there had been a pretty significant organic component the whole entire time? What if it had a little something to do with my brain sliding into my spinal canal and blocking CSF flow? Well... let's talk about the what-if.
In doing my week of deep-dive research into Chiari (since being diagnosed on 5/5/23, and meeting with Dr. Stieg for MRI review and consultation on 5/18), I learned a thing or two about Chiari
For example, I learned from Dr. Judy Hwang at Johns Hopkins
https://youtu.be/xQjToJy4LO8
... that although Chiari is congenital, there is OFTEN a particular moment that people can remember that triggered their symptoms. That these are often things like head blows and whiplash. (Which, of course, makes total sense. The force of the incident made the herniation worse, or as she mentions, due to the Chiari the person probably doesn't have the natural reserve of CSF that they should bathing and protecting the brain either.
And I learned this. That there's a good amount of evidence to show the cerebellum ain't just about balance, baby:
https://www.imrpress.com/journal/JIN/17/4/10.31083/j.jin.2018.04.0414/htm
"Recently, different studies have provided evidence that the presence of cerebellar degeneration or stroke may involve cognitive deficits beyond motor impairment, including the ability to form concepts and other language disorders [1, 2], impairment in executive functions [3], and visuospatial deficits [4], accompanied in many cases by a regressive personality, and emotional lability or dramatic mood swings."
[...] "cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome described by Schmahmann and Sherman [5] as characterized by the following: (a) Disturbances of executive function, including deficient planning, set-shifting, abstract reasoning, working memory, and decreased verbal fluency, (b) Impaired spatial cognition, including visuospatial disorganization and impaired visuospatial memory, (c) Linguistic difficulties, including dysprosodia, agrammatism, and mild anomia, and (d) Personality change, characterized by flattening or blunting of affect, and disinhibited or inappropriate behavior. [...] Personality changes include flattening or blunting of affect, disinhibited behaviors, such as over-familiarity, flamboyance, impulsive actions, humorous but inappropriate and flippant comments, regressive, childlike behaviors, and obsessive-compulsive traits."
Now, far be it from me to gain-say personal hero and actual expert in the field Dr. Philip Stieg (those who know me are probably laughing -- I am the sort of person who will argue with anyone about anything. KIND of a favorite personal hobby, and at times a bit annoying, as I'm sure my family and friends would attest). I know he said in that lecture that Chiari wouldn't be expected to have significant cognitive or emotional effects unless hydrocephalus was also at play.
And maybe this is all just simple, 100% placebo effect. And the seemingly miraculous benefits will all fade away soon. I'm just sayng... since waking up from my Chiari surgery, my mood has been wonderful. Calm, happy. No more depression, anxious rumination, weird obsessive-compulsive fixations... I kept assuming, of course, that this was just a temporary effect of pain medications, or muscle relaxant medications, or steroids, or SOMETHING. Maybe the steroids had triggered a hypomanic high, as the body's hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis was working on straightening itself back out. Maybe it was just the VAST, VAST relief of pretty much all the physical pain and problems that had been torturing me for the past 7 years suddenly being gone. I mean, obviously a mood this great wasn't actually going to LAST. Right? But nice to enjoy it while it does, anyway. I literallly called my first week after surgery "magical." My magical week. Emotionally calm and happy in a way I literally could not remember EVER having experienced. Sure, my neck and skull had been split open and hurt a little. But I honestly didn't care. I just felt so overall good. And DIFFERENT, emotionally. And it manifested in all kinds of little ways
I told you about my 4-year-old child emotional part. Always needy and scared. It's practically like I have no sense of object-permanence - like within a few days of a friend being out of sight, I can't even be sure that they exist anymore. And so that causes a lot of issues for me with this one particularly close friend of ours. He's not really a caller or a texter or a stay in touch type. Which has caused me all kinds of misery and struggles, because of my own emotional deficits and neediness. But.... from the moment I woke up from surgery. I didn't /have/ that constant quivering 4-year-old fear anymore. I knew this friend was my friend and cared about me. I knew I'd seem him again soon, even if not right then. It was completely, competely different. Another example -- weird obsessive-compulsive stuff around eating. I would often be petrified with fear, due to this overpowering conviction that if I got too fat, no one would love me anymore. I'd do weird highly unhealthy restricted eating and over-exercising things when I got into that mode because I was just so fixated on it and terrified about it. Another 5 lbs, and maybe no one would be capable of loving me anymore.
I noticed immediately after the Chiari surgery I had no concerns about it. I was able to eat when I was hungry without any worry at all. I knew people would love me whether I was fat or not. It had nothing to do with whether my friends (or my husband) loved me. I could just like... eat like a normal person without worrying about it at all. As much as I wanted. Whenever I was hungry. So nice, right???
So even though I warned myself not to get ahead of myself, and that these were probably just temporary effects of feeling a whole hell of a lot of instant pain relief... as the days passed... and passed... and I remained content and happy and basically didn't have ANY of my former mental health struggles at all... I began to wonder if something else had really been going on here all along. And thinking back, and back, on when my real mood regulation difficulties first began. Age 13. And what Dr. Judy Hwang had said about trauma. About a lot of people being able to recall a particular trauma -- head blow, whiplash -- around the time their symptoms began. And then I remembered something that I'd never even told Dr. Stieg about my history -- because it hadn't fit the personal narrative I'd created, right, of my own emotional struggles, and I'd kind of forgotten about it.
I *did* have my first traumatic brain injury at age 13. My family was frolicking at a winter party and we foolishly decided it would be a good idea to try to navigate this metal canoe down this steep icy hill as a sled. We hit a tree. I hit my head and was have thrown out. I was unconcious and seizing on the ground. I had a bit of a headache and concussion afterward, but doc said I could count down by 7s, and was probably fine.
What if I had Chiari to start, and it was worse herniated by the TBI, and *that* is why all the real emotional struggles began for me at that time? And what if it had been this cognitive-affective cerebellar syndrome thing *ALL* the goddamned time, my whole entire life since? I've had MORE trauma since, whiplash from car accident in recent years, so that could again explain a worsening of herniation and rapid escalation of symptoms in recent years.
Another thing I wonder about is my severe visual-spacial deficits. I am one of those people who can drive a route every day, a thousand times, and still need a GPS to get there. I have a true disability in that regard. I wonder if that has anything to do with the Chiari. I wonder if that should have been a clue all along to the organic nature of the problem
So I am still thinking, and processing, and exploring, and figuring out.
But the excting upshot is, it really DOES appear so far that the Chiari surgery solved not only all my PHYSICAL problems... but emotional problems I'd been struggling with since the age of 13 as well.
Here's another thing in favor of a cerebellar cognitive-affective syndrome being a significant cotributing cause toward my emotional regulation issues. Let's look at what happened with my mood the first week post-surgery:
Day 1 (5/24): (immediately after waking up from surgery)
A little lability. That night at dinner, I cried because I couldn't get the food cart slid over enough over the hospital bed to eat without dropping two pieces of saucy pasta on my night shirt, and couldn't move my neck more forward to eat because of the surgery. (My husband solved the problem by holding the plate close to my mouth while I ate. Thanks, dear. After food I felt better.
Day 2 (5/25): Wonderful mood
Day 3 (5/26): Wonderful mood
Day 4 (5/27): Wonderful mood
Day 5 (5/28): Wonderful mood
Day 6 (5/29): Wonderful mood
Day 7 (5/30): Wonderful mood
Day 8 (5/31): Wonderful mood.
So 8 days of consecutive great mood and none of my typica emotional issues or struggles.
BUT then... we have Day 9. 6/1. When I started to feel really terrible. In all the ways I /usually/ feel terrible again. Here's an excerpt I was writing to my friend about it: "Well, first major downturn in mood last night at about 10:30 pm. I guess I am still me. And Chiari surgery didn’t fix EVERYTHING. I was feeling *SO* good for a few days I guess I must have left my hopes get a little unrealistically high." Back to pacing, crying, agitated, depressive rumination, feeling that nobody loved me. Like I'd always felt before. Assumed that was going to be the end of my "magical" post-surgery week.
Except that... it WASN'T the end of my happy mood bubble. I continued feeling pretty good every day since then. But you know what WAS different that night? The one night I felt so terrible? I'd apparently developed a strep infection. So that gets you thinking, doesn't it? An infection, causing maybe some swelling... and triggering a return to symptoms like I had always had before. Strep was treated with antibiotics and my mood has continued to be wonderful since, with no returns to the old emotional troubles since. No depresssion, my extreme mood reactivity, no anxious panicky feelings of friends "disappearing" when they are out of my side. Just a seemingly full and complete ability to emotionally process as an adult rather than a 4-year-old.
So. Could all those emotion regulation problems REALLY just have been the result of cerebellar cognitive-affective syndrome? What story do I tell myself now? About why I have always been the way I have... and how that has suddenly so drastically changed?
And kind of drastic it is. Let me give you an example of my typical emotional functioning before Chiari surgery was like.
Strep/swollen brain night (old brain): "Boo hoo, I have no friends, my friend's aren't talking to me, nobody loves me, I have no friends, no cards." Followed by rantic pacing and crying. I then proceeded to send one of my dearest friends an e-mail accusing him of wishing I had died or clearly not caring at all if I had. (Clingy, terrified 4-year-old clearly driving the emotional truck. It is embarrassing, the way that 4-year-old acts. But I could never control it.
And then here, for point of comparison, is my emotional functioning AFTER Chiari surgery: (once I got the strep infection sorted) New Chiari-fixed brain: "Wow. I should probably let all my friends know what's going on." Proceeds to email 15 friends and tell them what is going on, receiving lots of instant emails and concern and support from everyone and one particularly impressive get well bouquet.
It seems like it iso much easier for me to function like a reasonable, emotionally mature adult and process emotional information appropriately. Now that brain is no longer falling down my spine. And I guess that's really maybe not so suprising, right??
So overall, I continue to be amazed and delighted by the results of my surgery. But there is really a LOT to process here. I feel like a whole brand new person, a Version 2.0. I hope my friends like the new me! It is definitely going to take some time to get to know this new me myself. But don't get me wrong -- I totally can't wait to get started!!

Because of chronic malnutrition, GERD, and bad dental habits and bad dental genetics, I'm at the stage now where I have infected pulp on multiple teeth. They want to extract all of my teeth, but they could go with just taking out the infected teeth first.
The problem is I'm 25 lbs underweight with almost nothing I tolerate eating without developing anaphylactic symptoms and malnourished with multiple micronutrient deficiencies.
I also haven't had dental work since my MCAS first developed so I don't even know what parts of the procedures I will tolerate. I did develop the mast cell symptoms BEFORE my teeth got bad to be clear.
I just have no clue how to get through this situation safely. What do I do? It seems like it would be safest if I found a way to tolerate more food and gained 10-20 pounds and found several liquid/non-solid foods I tolerate but I do not know of any that I do!!!
Has anyone else gone through this? How do you survive? How did you get through it?

22F 140 lbs. yesterday my boyfriend (1.5 yrs) and I were having sex and right afterwards I started to not feel well (stomach hurt head feeling woozy) so I rolled onto my side on the bed and he went to go get me some water. Next thing I know he’s standing over me terrified and there’s vomit all over me and the bed.
According to him he came in and my eyes were open, i was vomiting, my teeth were clenched about a half an inch open and my tongue was pressed up against my teeth. According to him I wasn’t breathing. He tried to pry his fingers into my mouth to open it (we’ve since discussed not to do that) but had no luck. I just eventually snapped back to very confused asking him “what happened?”
He’s now like. Understandably traumatized and I’m scared he’ll never be able to look at me the same way. He’s always known I was epileptic but had never seen one before and if how he’s describing it is accurate, it’s probably one of the worst I’ve ever had.
Anyways, how have y’all supported your loved ones after they see you in this state? Are the resources for people who love people with epilepsy? I want to support him and let him know that it’s ok if he’s not on but I don’t want to be pushy.
TLDR; boyfriend saw me seize and he’s freaked out. Looking for support resources.

I started losing friends due to my drinking when I was in high school. Specifically, approaching Father’s Day in 2001, which would be my first Father’s Day without my father. Cancer was an unfair and unrelenting adversary, and I was reminded every day. I drank my first six pack, and found myself being asked to leave my best friend’s house at 2am. I had shown up without warning. What was I thinking…
A few years later, I was at another friend’s house 2 hours from home. I barely remember why I was asked to leave, but I took the rest of my 12-pack with me when I left. I drank them on the drive home. I didn’t make it home, but I did a great job of parking my sedan solidly at the base of a tree. I was lucky not to go to jail that night.
Then there was the night I started a fight with all my guests. I drank too fast, and I wanted them all to leave. I barely remember the events, but the next day I had the marks to show, and my friends weren’t around.
They would tow my vehicle out of some ditch.
They would take my dripping wet self home from my midnight river swim.
They would nurse my hangover.
Then they would stop responding, because enough was enough.
All my friends are drinkers now. They don’t mind so much when someone has too many. I’ve been using their choice to drink to excuse my choice, but Saturday night that changed. I drank too much, and they ended the party early. I don’t remember what I was saying to one of them, but I remember him telling me I needed to let my girlfriend drive. I dismissed him and kept talking. In the end, I did ask her to drive home, even though I thought I was fine. I was NOT fine.
I’ve had two streaks of sobriety since I was 16. One lasted 4 months in 2017 because I went on a health kick. After that 4th month, I had a few drinks to celebrate 50 lbs lost. That ended my health kick. The other was 36 days in 2022 when I made a sobriety pact with my girlfriend. I don’t remember my excuse for ending the pact.
I’ve lost countless friends to alcohol. I’ve lost family members. I’ve lost girlfriends and wives. I’ve lost jobs. I’ve lost so much money.
I’m tired of being the drunk friend. I’m tired of not being invited. I’m tired of being left on read. I’m tired of wondering how people think of me. Enough is enough. I’m done.
I will not drink with you today.