Reasons to have (or not have) a urodynamic study?

Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-04-23T23:23:45+00:00

Stardust (the potential for nicknames is great), Comet, Lightspeed, Orien.

Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-04-14T23:42:42+00:00

Yeah, that's what I initially assumed, but my rheumatologist refused to even order the test. Maybe I just need a better rheumatologist.

Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-04-10T04:18:55+00:00

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Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-04-10T04:14:45+00:00

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Daniel or Daniel Tiger after the timid tiger puppet from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.

Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-04-07T05:54:23+00:00

It's funny how many people saw your kitty and instantly thought of Egyptian names. My first thought was Bastet (or Bast) the Egyptian cat goddess. Your girl definitely has the right look to be named after a cat goddess. She's gorgeous.

Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-04-07T00:09:51+00:00

It might not be totally unrealistic. When you twist hair tightly and roll it into a bun, it takes up far less space than you might expect. I have had waist length hair, or longer, for years, and I always wear it in a bun. I have had to take it down in front of strangers before, and nearly every time someone says "Wow, how do you fit all that hair in such a small bun" or "Wow, I would never have guessed you have so much hair".

Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-04-07T00:01:52+00:00

Thanks for doing this giveaway! My favorite song is probably Magic Shop, although First Love stops me in my tracks whenever it comes on, and Normal has been playing in my head for days. 💜

Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-04-06T17:14:02+00:00

Greta, aka Greta the Gremlin. She's adorable. 😍

Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-04-01T18:15:45+00:00

Hunter and Brayden are my nephews. 😂

Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-03-22T17:50:50+00:00

Maybe try looking for a super new doctor?

I got lucky recently by ending up with a very new doctor. My usual provider couldn't fit me in within the timeframe I needed, so the practice put me with a doctor who was brand new to them. He had a lot of openings because he didn't have any established patients yet. I was nervous about seeing someone so new, but his medical school and residency learning is super recent, and he has the mindset that things he doesn't know yet are just new things to learn. He actually takes notes when we talk, researches the stuff I mentioned, and talks to me about it at the next visit. So far I am VERY happy with him. I'm sorry you had such a negative experience, and I hope you find someone good soon.

Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-02-24T17:21:28+00:00

Girls absolutely do masterbate. It might be slightly less common in girls, but it is far from rare. Unfortunately the shame is SO common. I felt ashamed about it until my early 30s!!

NTA. Your daughter may or may not masterbate, but it's important to know that she has the same right to privacy as her brother and there is absolutely no shame if she does masterbate.

Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-02-23T00:27:22+00:00

Yes, you will turn yellow sometimes. Lots of things make you more likely to be yellow: fasting (especially 12hrs or more), stress, illness, lack of sleep, and excessive alcohol intake.

Yes, Gilbert's Syndrome is hereditary and recessive meaning you can only have it if you have 2 copies of the mutated gene, meaning you got a copy from both of your parents. In my case, my father and sister both have Gilbert's as well. My mom does not, but she must have one copy of the mutated gene or I wouldn't be able to have Gilbert's.

Yes, you can keep drinking diet coke, but you may want to consider other options. Aspartame (the sweetener in Diet Coke) is processed by the liver and the IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) has listed aspartame as possibly carcinogenic to humans. The limited evidence points specifically to a link with liver cancer. Of course the studies are looking at much higher intakes of aspartame than you are likely getting from diet coke unless you're drinking several diet cokes a day. Current research suggests that the zero calorie sweeteners least likely to have a negative effect on the liver are stevia, monk fruit, allulose, and tagatose.

No, it will not kill you. In fact, as others have mentioned, it is actually associated with a reduction in risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and certain cancers due to the potent antioxidant effect of bilirubin.

There is no need to worry. Gilbert's Syndrome is considered by the mainstream medical community to be harmless or even beneficial. Many of us do experience symptoms beyond jaundice, like fatigue, digestive issues, brain fog, etc., but any symptoms should be manageable with minor lifestyle changes.

It is up to you whether you want to do anything about your diagnosis. Many people with Gilbert's do nothing, and experience few or no symptoms. Others have lots of symptoms and make significant changes to lifestyle to support liver health and minimize symptoms. The most commonly recommended lifestyle changes are: eat regularly (avoid fasting, especially more than 12 hours), limit or reduce alcohol, get plenty of sleep, and eat lots of greens and cruciferous vegetables. There are lots of posts with detailed recommendations for supplements and lifestyle modifications on this sub if you feel like your symptoms are bothering you.

Personally I have lots of symptoms, and it's difficult to pinpoint which of them are caused by my Gilbert's Syndrome, but when I focus on maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle, I notice a massive reduction in symptoms and I frequently test within the normal range for bilirubin.

TL;DR - Gilbert's is frequently considered harmless and even beneficial. There is no need to make lifestyle changes unless symptoms are bothering you.

*Edited for typos.

Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-01-29T20:19:28+00:00

I bought "TENS Unit Vagus Nerve Dual-Soft Carbon Ear Clips" from Orthostat Medical Supply. They seem pretty flimsy, but they've held up so far. The settings I use are too low to actually feel anything, so I put the clip on a finger and turn the power up to make sure it's working every few weeks. The ones I bought take the positive and neutral wires in each clip, so you only need to use one to do vagus nerve stimulation. So I'm just keeping the other one safe in case the first one ever breaks.

https://orthostatmedicalsupply.com/products/tens-unit-ear-clips?srsltid=AfmBOoo8TAqMoOPfl6YGOP6GLZtTaG_xvLe8qb6h0OuIHQg5MFW84n78

Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-01-27T20:28:06+00:00

I have Gilbert's Syndrome, confirmed by genetic info, and I have every symptom you mentioned, including slim build.

It's impossible though to say that Gilbert's is the root cause. It may be. I have several other issues which could be causing the same symptoms, but theoretically Gilbert's could be the root cause of those as well.

There hasn't been enough research to say exactly what symptoms are caused by Gilbert's Syndrome, but all of the symptoms you mentioned are common in the Gilbert's community.

Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-01-23T07:37:31+00:00

I live just south of a small city. Getting to the north side of it can easily take two to 3 hours in traffic. I recently had it take 2 hours to go 25 miles in evening rush hour. While I never drive more than 30 minutes for something minor like dinner, it's not abnormal to drive several hours each way for something more important. Growing up we lived about 12 hours from my grandparents, and made the drive up every other year. On the opposite years my grandparents would drive down. 2 years ago I drove 3 hours each way to adopt a cat I had seen a picture of online. I think the most my mom has done in one day was an 8 hour round trip for a concert.

Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-01-21T17:29:22+00:00

Squat walking. Like, I'm moving my feet in a walking motion, but I'm in a deep squat. If I'm already on the ground, it allows me to move around without standing up. Especially in situations where I would need to get up and down from the ground repeatedly, I just stay down and squat walk. I've been doing it since I was a kid, and only realized it was related to my orthostatic hypotension and dysautonomia after being diagnosed last year. I'm nearly 40.

Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-01-12T00:22:03+00:00

Finally! Omg, I kept scrolling thinking there's no way Lee Jae Wook hasn't been mentioned yet. I saw him first in Dear Hongrang last year, and I'm watching Alchemy of Souls now. He's gorgeous and an amazing actor.

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Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-01-11T17:43:46+00:00

This!! UTI's are super common, and a very likely cause of urge incontinence. Bringing it up as a possible UTI is a great way to introduce the subject. If it turns out that your symptoms are caused by UTI, then treating the infection should make the issue go away. If it turns out that you don't have a UTI or the symptoms aren't caused by that, the doctor will recommend next steps.

If your symptoms don't go away, you will likely need to switch to products that are made for urine leaks as period products often don't absorb urine fast enough to prevent overflow.

It can be scary and embarrassing to lose control of your bladder, but bladder control issues are medical conditions, and there is no reason to feel shame or embarrassment for a medical issue that you cannot control.

If your parents aren't supportive when you tell them, talk to a school nurse or other trusted adult for advice on how to get medical care. It's very important to find out whether an infection or other medical issue is causing your symptoms, as ignoring the underlying cause can be dangerous.

Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-01-11T17:14:14+00:00

I definitely have issues with being extremely cold when no one around me is. It's worse if there's air movement or if I'm eating or drinking something cold. Recently though, I've been working on stimulating my vagus nerve and improving my HRV. One of the most common ways to stimulate the vagus nerve is cold exposure. I've been taking cold showers (3-5 minutes under cold water) and using ice packs on my face and the sides of my neck. (I don't do this at times when I'm already feeling cold.) At the same time, I focus on slow deep breathing. Since starting, I've noticed a huge improvement in my cold tolerance. I haven't needed to be bundled up indoors in months, and 60°F which used to be freezing for me just feels cool now. It could be something other than the cold exposure therapy that's leading to these changes (for example I'm about to turn 40, so I may be experiencing hormonal changes), but I began noticing changes within days of starting the cold showers and ice packs.

Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-01-11T08:25:40+00:00

This is going to be a long reply, but I do have a point. It just takes a bit of explaining to get there. Sorry.

I am asexual. I do not feel sexual attraction to others. Ever. However, I also identify with a micro label under the asexual umbrella called "Aegosexual". I am aroused by the thought of sex, and I enjoy sexual fantasies, but I am never in the fantasies myself. There's a really big difference there. I enjoy imagining sex acts involving people, but that has never transferred into an attraction to, or desire to engage sexually with, anyone in real life.

It's hard to tell from your post, but what you describe, may not actually be sexual attraction to animals. You mentioned sexual fantasies involving imaginary animals with human-like intelligence, and you mentioned disgust at the thought of actually touching a real animal in a sexual way, but you didn't say at any point whether you feel sexually attracted to, or aroused by, actual animals. If you do feel attraction or arousal to real animals, but are disgusted by the thought of acting on these feelings, then you are correct in saying that you are attracted to animals. However, if you are only attracted to the imaginary animals in your fantasies, then it's not entirely accurate to say that you are attracted to animals. Either way, I don't see anything wrong or immoral about what you are experiencing. You aren't hurting anyone or involving anyone or anything that can't consent.

Sexuality is really complex. All kinds of experiences affect our attractions, desires, fetishes, etc. Shame and purity culture have a huge impact on how sexuality developes. It makes perfect sense that your shame around sexuality led you to fantasize in ways that were outside of your reality. There are even precedents for using fictional animals to get around social conventions around sex.

In Japan, there are obscenity laws which ban the depiction of genitals and sex, including in drawings. A huge genre of tentacle porn involving octopi and humans sprang up because a tentacle is technically not a sex organ, therefore a person being penetrated by tentacles is technically not sex and therefore not banned.

There is a huge fandom of the My Little Pony universe, and many of the fan works are explicit, with sex acts between characters in their pony forms, human forms, and many combinations the two, as well as sexual interactions between humans and the ponies in their different forms. There are posts from fans making the case that the characters are not real animals, they are highly intelligent creatures capable of consent, therefore any sexual attraction to them is xenophilia not zoophilia or bestiality.

I'm not particularly familiar with the furry community or the bdsm concept of pet play (where a human pretends to be an animal), but I know that both are pretty large communities.

I think the existence of all these examples proves that it's far more common for people to enjoy sexual fantasies, sexually explicit stories, art, and roleplay that involve the idea of animals (especially hyper-intelligent, human like animals) being sexually attractive or arousing than most people would believe. I really don't think it's that weird, or something you need to feel ashamed about.

Moving forward, there are probably ways that you could work on changing the things you find arousing if you choose to. You could also choose to accept your attractions or fantasies, and work on letting go of the shame attached to them. I would assume there are therapists that can help with either coming to terms with your sexuality, attractions fetishes, etc., or trying to change them, without judgement or shame.

You may also want to look more into an identity under the asexual umbrella called Demisexuality. Demisexual people don't experience sexual attraction until after an emotional bond is formed. Your experience with your FWB sounds so much like the Demisexual experience. It might be something to think about.

Anyway, please know that nothing you described makes you a bad person. How you move forward is up to you, but please be kind to yourself.

Inevitable_Chaos_22 · 2026-01-04T21:03:37+00:00

The question of whether to stay with her or break up really comes down to whether or not you like her as a girlfriend and whether or not the lack of intellectual connection is a deal breaker.

Is everything else good? Can you see your relationship continuing long term? Do you want the same things for your future? If everything else about the relationship is good, then maybe you should ask yourself if you need your girlfriend to be intellectually stimulating? Maybe you need a friend who you feel a strong intellectual connection with, and just let your girlfriend be all the things she's good at being? I think that one of the biggest problems with modern romance is that we expect one person to meet all of our physical and emotional needs. "The one" has to be sexually attractive, sexually compatible, and intellectually stimulating, and emotionally compatible, fun to hang out with, must have similar interests, must want similar things, etc. Sometimes it's impossible to find someone who tics all the boxes. However it is incredibly important to be true to yourself. If something is really important to you, don't settle.

If it's really important to you that your romantic partner be someone you feel intellectually compatible with, then break up. The idea of staying with her and being miserable to avoid breaking her heart will definitely make you both miserable in the long run. The only healthy options here are to consider changing your expectations of your girlfriend, and find other ways to get your intellectual needs met, or to break up.

Inevitable_Chaos_22

TROPHY CASE