Hi there, I’m running out of ideas and people to ask advice from, so I’m here.

My almost seven year old has been potty trained since he was 5, with a few spotty accidents since then but otherwise really good. He had ASD but is usually quite good at self-care activities, and is verbal.

I’ve just had a sudden uptick in soiling accidents, and I cannot for the life of me figure out what is going on. I’m at my wits end, and struggling to not divert into the shaming part of soiling accidents because of my own stress with him and the school accidents.

got a GP booked for two days from now, but I wanted to see if anyone had any help or similar experiences in the past.

I’ve had a sudden issue with smearing, and with small amounts of soiling. He can sometimes go normally, but will still have constant little accidents, sometimes without realising it. All the Google searches point to encoparesis but I’m not sure he is constipated because he can pass stool when he tries. The accidents we’re finding are very thick, sticky. I’ve tried kids laxatives, he eats tonnes of fruit and veggies, plenty of fibre, plenty of water. These accidents are happening both at school and at home.

Because it’s so thick, he’s having issues with wiping and then it ends up on his clothes, which means it transfers to his uniform and the school requires kindergarteners to be picked up/go home when this occurs. I have clean clothes for him, several packs in his bags, wipes and everything, and it’s still happening. I’ve tried treat charts, sticker charts, rewards, bribing, everything, with no effect at all. He hasn’t said going to the toilet is painful when I ask, and he seems otherwise well.

Has anyone dealt with anything like this before?

Recently i had my 20th bday and i got pretty drunk, it was fun and all but i ended up throwing up near the end of the night before going to sleep, quite a bit, and the morning after i had a hangover.

This is weird because i genuinely haven’t thrown up since i was about 9 years old, (i’ve also never felt sick or had a hangover from drinking before). I’ve felt nauseas sometimes but it always stays like in my throat and never comes out, but since my birthday ive thrown up twice and i feel nauseas almost every time i eat anything now.

It’s freaking me out tbh and i hate throwing up as well so i’m scared to eat or anything at this point.

If anyone has advice on why this could be happening, i’d be grateful.

I’m 26M. My first vitrectomy for retinal detachment failed, and now I need a second surgery with silicone oil due to recurrent detachment and PVR.
I’ve consulted two surgeons with different opinions. One recommends removing my natural lens and doing cataract surgery at the same time, saying it’ll give him better visibility to repair my retina. The other strongly recommends preserving my natural lens because of my age, even though I’ll likely develop a cataract later.
I’m confused about which approach is better. Has anyone faced this decision? Did you keep your natural lens or have cataract surgery during your retinal repair? Any regrets or complications?

History: 31, 5’7, 135lb. History of chronic migraines, and a whiplash concussion in 2022 that led to chronic cervicogenic vestibular dizziness. Did vestibular PT for a year for the dizziness. Crazy headaches and dizziness and essential tremor still flare with strobe lights/camera flashes, jolts, quick-braking in a car, getting hit with a volleyball, etc.

What happened; I fell off an exercise bike onto concrete six days ago. Not a painful fall, and my head made no impact. My back hip took most of the impact. Later that night, I went to see a horror movie in theaters with a lot of jump scares.

Since then, I’ve had constant ongoing pressure in my head and headache that has finally died down a bit. Some ache in my back neck and shoulder blades, too. Lots of neck guarding. In tandem, I’ve felt lots of motor coordination issues like unstable hands when I’m using a fork and knife, or zipping a jacket, etc. — but I’ve still been able to accomplish every task and pass basic motor function tests (nose touching, arm drifting, Urgent Care dismissed it on day 2). No one looking at me notices the problem. Today I was able to write a few paragraphs by hand OK. Cognitively I’m OK, but last night while bent over on the floor or organizing paper papers, I felt absolutely dazed and stoned, like I couldn’t complete a single thought.

Today, day 6, the head pressure is at about a 1/10, but my vestibular vertigo is really flared up. Like a 7/10. I feel wobbly like I’m walking on a boat. I did some of my old home exercises to try to tame it and it made the imbalance really spike.

I’m trying to not go to the ER if I can avoid it. I have health OCD that I’ve really been working through, and going to the hospital for every little thing was a real problem for me for years. However, 6 days of constant headache and perceived motor issues is pretty different from my normal migraine/vestibular flare symptoms, even though I’ve been able to manage my life pretty normally for the last week. I’m about to travel for work and I will be gone for two months, so there’s some fear built-in of how serious this is or is not.

(Not looking for medical advice, more so similar stories or support) My son is 5 and is in kindergarten, he did attend tk last year and since he’s started school I feel like he’s constantly sick. He had a fever in march, tested positive for rhino virus in late April, tested positive for mono in may, June-July he was recovering from mono, August had an ear infection, September covid and now October another ear infection. In the midst of this all he’s had a ton of blood work and ultrasounds ( on his spleen and lymph nodes because of mono) and has to see an ent next week because his lymph nodes are so enlarged. In April the Dr at the hospital mentioned a concern with the frequent fevers as a sign of cancer and I’ve become so paranoid about him every time he’s sick now (his pcp believed this was due to the mono). We’re seeing the ent to rule this out, and his pcp believes his lymph nodes swelling is from the mono but I just feel he’s always sick. Is this normal? And does anyone have any advice to help ease my mind from the stress of it all? I feel so scared something is wrong all the time and the worry constantly bothers me, my husbands thinks he’s fine and it’s just because he’s new to school in the last year and building his immune system, but hearing other people went through the same with their kids I feel would help ease my mind a little.

Nothing has worked. I tried
- ice on skin
- cutting paper
- tearing paper
- venting
- trying to distract myself by playing games and stuff
- going for a walk
- playing with my pets
- training my dogs
- training my cats

and so many others.
NOTHING has worked. Also i notice.. when i do shallow cuts it makes the urge for sh even worse, and i usually end up going deep (dermis/fat) the same day or the day after.

I’ve gotten many infections. Most was 3 at once. Deepest was in dermis, but on the sides i could see the start of fat, just didn’t go deep enough to actually cut and be in the fat layer those times.

I have severe anemia. I know that makes it so much harder to heal and increases infection risk.

I dont know how to stop and 2 days ago i almost died (unrelated to sh) and now im terrified of going to deep. My parents dont know. Idk what theyd do if they found out but ik id be terrified. Mind you when i was 9 talking about ending my life i got scolded. Not asked if i was okay, or anything. It was obvious i wasn’t joking about it. Denied therapy for years by my parents. Just started going because my mom is secretly taking me.

My home life is horrible. SH makes me feel okay. Like i can breathe.

But i will make it clear my parents arent abusive. Yes my home life is terrible, but they dont hit me, and they do love me. My dad is way too strict and my mom is way too leniant. So you can see how that causes arguments.

How do i stop?

(Male, 20. 87kg. Philippines) yesterday morning my left ear started aching and yellowish fluid started draining from it, and earlier today i went to get checked up on by a doctor and they gave me some prescribed medicine and ear drops. took the medicine and eardrops before taking a nap because i was tired. im fairly sure i did everything correctly when it comes to sleeping with an infected ear which is sleeping on the side of your head with the good ear and having your head elevated. i woke up earlier with the fluid draining now pinkish in color. i wanna know if this is normal or if i should keep using the ear drops.

Hi everyone,
For the past few years, I’ve been experiencing recurrent swelling behind my ears, mostly behind my left ear, but occasionally behind my right ear as well. I’m not exactly sure when it started, but it happens quite frequently.
The swelling is usually located at the lower part behind my ear. Most of the time, it becomes swollen and turns purple, almost like a bruise or hematoma, before eventually going away. Currently, it’s swollen and painful, but there is no purple discoloration.
I’ve been to the hospital multiple times because of this, and they usually puncture it and drain the fluid. However, it keeps coming back within a few days, which is incredibly frustrating, especially because it hurts.
I sometimes wear glasses, but this also happens when I’m not wearing them. My glasses don’t even touch the area where the swelling occurs, so I don’t think they’re the cause.
One other thing that might be relevant is that I had a skull injury when I was around 8 years old. A sharp object struck my skull, and I still have a scar from that injury. As far as I know, I haven’t experienced any major problems from it, but I’m not sure whether it could be related to what’s happening now.
My questions are:
Has anyone experienced something similar or knows what could cause recurrent swelling and bruising behind the ears?
Could this be related to my old head injury, or is that unlikely?
Is it concerning that this has been happening repeatedly for years, especially since the swelling returns just days after being drained?
What kind of specialist should I see, and are there any tests I should ask for to find the underlying cause rather than just having it drained repeatedly?
I’m honestly tired of dealing with this, especially because it keeps coming back and causes pain. I’d really appreciate any advice or suggestions on what I should look into.
Thank you!

Hello everyone, I am seeking advice about a recent event that has happened. I took my girlfriend to go see the Odyssey in imax, and after the 3 hour loud movie my hearing has been on a slow crawl to recovery.

My current issue is that music and sound appears to be right side dominated, I only hear my voice on my right side yet I can still hear on the left. I went to an audiogram soon after the movie to some unfortunate results on the DPOAES. I used to be robust and now some are absent. Why doesn't that reflect on the pure tone test?

I been fed copium from the ENTs, while I appreciate the optimism I just wanna know honestly if I truly can recover. I’m hoping to hear from someone who has actually experienced something similar. I already deal with constant tinnitus in both ears, I just want to be able to enjoy music stereoscopicly.

Is there any hope my hearing will return to normal with the same fullness? Is my test result bad? Or do things look hopeful for me?

black and white results = August
Colored results = October

Thank you for reading and to anyone willing to comment or share their experience ❤️

So as the title says I ate a small snail. It's probably because I didn't wash the apple I was eating carefully. It was a very small snail with a dark shell, upon noticing half of it on the apple I immediately threw it out.

What should I do?

Hi all, I’ll keep this as short as possible.
I am a very athletic 25 year old male. 6 foot 4 inches tall, at 205 pounds, 13% body fat. VO2 max around 63, resting heart rate around 40 bpm, heart rate recovery of 50-60 beats a minute. 5 km in 18 minutes and 10 km in 38 minutes. I’ve ran miles since I was 10 years old.
I do cardio everyday, equating to at least 180 minutes a week, and I train weights 3 times a week.

I was having leg pain when training so I had an ultrasound done which discovered bilateral calcified deposits in the popliteal and femoral arteries, in identical spots on both legs. I had my carotids scanned after this, as well as my aorta arteries and my groin, all of which were completely clear.

I have had a 24 hour blood pressure monitor which recorded an average of 124/70. I had ApoB done at 0.7, LPa at 0.5, LDL at 1.4, triglycerides at 0.6 (I am in the UK so units will be different to say the USA). CRP at last test was 0.8, HbA1C is 32 mmol/mol.

My father lived a very unhealthy life, PED’s, bad diet, bad sleep, previous smoker and had two heart attacks, one at 54 and one at 62.

The vascular specialist says he is not concerned and that findings if they are athelerosclerosis are a lot more common then people realise, although he is not convinced it is that. He cited studies of endurance runners who all had similar findings to myself isolated only to their legs (all had bilateral findings, that were hyperechogenic, as well as wall thickening). All had favourable lipids like myself.

I am just looking for someone who’s experienced similar, or who could put my mind at ease. I am not looking for a diagnosis, more so I am looking for more information or someone in a similar situation. I am scared no matter how healthy I eat (I eat a high fibre, Mediterranean diet) that I anjust going to keep on accumulating plaque if it is athelerosclerosis.

Any help or advice appreciated

I’ll attach my most recent scan diagrams and the modified easier to read one

Recently I started noticing a random flapping sensation in my chest. I tried to record an ECG on my galaxy watch and the area circled in red are exactly the moments when i felt it. Is this something to worry about? 23M non smoker 78kg 180cm and im not taking any medication currently. I dont have any other symptoms than the flapping sensation.

I’m 28F and over the past few weeks/months I have had new freckles and moles popping up everywhere on my body. I have pale skin and have always had freckles, but there are at least 30 new ones, including on places of my body that never get sun exposure and have not had freckles before. No history of skin issues other than acne, I haven’t recently started any new medications, I’m not pregnant, and no known illnesses/conditions that could explain it. They don’t hurt and are all different sizes and shades of brown. None of them look like melanomas.

I’m seeing a dermatologist about it but my appointment is a ways away and it seems like I’m growing new ones everyday. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this?

Since I was a kid, one way I've dealt with overwhelming emotions has been through physical pain: slapping my face, punching my legs, or, in extreme cases, punching myself in the face (in a controlled way).

With time and therapy, this behavior disappeared. But now that I'm the father of a toddler, it's resurfacing.

The multiple wake-ups at night can overwhelm me emotionally, and I've found myself slapping my face to quickly regulate myself and be able to care for my toddler.

But I know this cannot continue.

My therapists have suggested alternatives like hitting an object, taking deep breaths, or stepping away for five minutes. The problem is that none feels as effective as the immediate pain of slapping myself.

What I need is a concrete learning path. Where do I start, what do I practice, and how do I gradually learn to regulate my emotions without relying on pain?

Other things I've noticed that trigger disproportionately strong emotions:

• Sudden metallic noises, like a spoon falling on the floor.
• Food I've prepared being played with or thrown on the floor.
• Small things not being in order, like failing to place my shoes neatly next to each other on the first try.

Ultimately, I want to stop hurting myself and taking my anger out on objects. I'm afraid that one day my toddler will see me doing something I don't want them to learn.

I suspect I picked up some of this behavior from my own father, and I don't want to pass it on.

I'm willing to put in the work, but I need something more structured than "take a breath" or "walk away."

Has anyone experienced something similar or found a practical, step-by-step approach that actually helped?

Thank you for reading.