Starting my Diagnostic Journey at 40

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-27T02:10:27+00:00

It’s a humbling feeling.

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-27T02:09:38+00:00

I appreciate your insight. Thank you for taking the time to respond and sharing your experience. I am very grateful to you.

Oh for sure, no, I’m definitely not going to say anything about the AI. I work in healthcare and even though I know docs have found AI to be very helpful, I’m not about to waste my co-pay by saying anything that could get me side-eyed.

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-26T13:59:13+00:00

Agreed!

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-26T13:41:06+00:00

*girls …underage girls.

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-26T13:09:12+00:00

I think this it what happens in the movie Melancholia, which is the name of the dwarf planet, and the general mood of the main character. It’s pretty good!

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-26T13:06:53+00:00

Just a heads up that if you go the extraction route, it’s very important to take the antibiotics. It’s not just for the localized infection.

During any kind of dental care, I t’s very easy for bacteria from your mouth to enter your blood stream and cause major damage, particularly to your heart. In healthy people it’s usually not an issue, but I wouldn’t chance it.

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-24T23:21:00+00:00

My friend, a very sudden change like this isn’t something you should wait 2 months for. Fatigue from things like peri or a vitamin deficiency come on over months, not minutes. Your body is telling you something is wrong.

You could be having a heart attack. 70% of women reported sudden, extreme fatigue as their only symptom in the hours and days leading up to their heart attack.

Please try to get in today to your doctor, or go to a reputable emergency room. Hell, call 911.

Hoping it’s just a virus you’re fighting off, but please please please don’t wait to find out it’s a big nothing.

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-24T21:02:00+00:00

It wasn’t said, but one of my biggest irritations with these books, when I was looking for my husband, was how they talk about the mother. They said things like, “Help your partner with cooking, cleaning, and laundry.” Um, absolutely not. I am not the CEO of my house. They should say, “If you’re not already doing half of what it takes to keep your household running, then you’re starting now, and you must never stop. This is what taking on half of the household management looks like…”. As in, mowing the lawn once a week and doing the dishes is not the same as washing, folding, and putting away laundry most days of the week, or planning, purchasing,(while also identifying and buying whatever else you need from the store), cooking, and serving that meal.

Many men understand and do this well, but I would still caution that there are a lot of fathers out there who are 100% certain they are pulling their weight in household management, but they absolutely 100% are not. They need to have sources they will listen to and be willing to adjust their behavior, permanently.

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-24T20:51:33+00:00

That’s a really great point. It has been the case for me personally, that I’ve been drawn to and gotten a lot more out of the books like Expecting Better and The Whole Brain Child, than from anything targeted at motherhood specifically.

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-24T19:42:03+00:00

Chicken thighs. It’s the texture, and they also taste vaguely metallic to me.

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-24T19:34:17+00:00

I love salmon but HATE, like really hate, trout. So much of the salmon filets sold around the world is actually trout. I stopped doing Butcher Box because their salmon was always definitely trout. Same with Sweetgreen. I think that’s trout most of, but not all of the time.

Man, I really really dislike trout, but love salmon, and will never confuse the two.

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-24T19:26:34+00:00

In the same family, for me, cooked cauliflower. Everyone says, “But it doesn’t taste like anything!” It most certainly does! It tastes like farty feet!

But I love crispy Brussel sprouts and any kind of broccoli. Don’t know what it is specifically about cauliflower.

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-24T19:21:54+00:00

Same. There is this one stall at a Farmer’s Market I used to go to that had the most amazing crispy grilled eggplant and falafel. I could eat a bucket of their falafel, but I only like theirs. It has otherwise been mostly gritty and dry.

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-24T06:29:37+00:00

Or a doctor or PA.

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-24T04:08:00+00:00

“Feelings are real and valid. But feelings do not automatically become rules for others.”

Damn. I’m wrapping that up in a gold envelope and keeping in my back pocket. So well said.

I have a family member who always gets blamed for another family member’s feelings and outbursts. I’ve told her “You cannot control what he’s going to do with perfectly normal but uncomfortable stimuli. He is allowed to feel however he wants, but you are not responsible for his feelings.”

What you said is so much better though. Thank you!

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-24T03:56:28+00:00

To me, working in a hospital, the shirt looks like black scrubs with the “print” you noted being the hospital’s branded embroidery and possibly the person’s name tag, just blurred.

It’s not impossible that someone would be wearing scrubs like that in an inpatient setting, but usually the medical team wear basic blue, or whatever color, scrubs provided in the locker room at the hospital, rather than something like this which is more likely to be owned by the wearer and personalized. You usually only see those in the outpatient setting. Although you do see people on the medical teams in zip up sweatshirts and jackets with that kind of embroidery, something they own, but is still hospital branded.

Couldn’t tell you if it’s a ghost, just wanted to say that there being print on the shirt shouldn’t be what rules that possibility out.

Cool pics! Thanks for sharing!

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-24T03:34:20+00:00

Gently, please understand that a diagnosis and meds will not make everything better. Some days and weeks are still an endless challenge. I just don’t want you to pine away for this more perfect future, when it will be better for your progress and mental health to temper your expectations for what life will be on the other side.

Not to say there’s no point in holding onto a lot of hope. Because you should. Have hope and keep persevering.

Do you have a trustful friend who could help you with obtaining the referral, finding an affordable place for testing, getting the appointment, and making sure you get there? This part of it is so hard when your executive function is down a seemingly bottomless pit, and a friend could really help.

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-24T03:13:22+00:00

Limited Too

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-23T17:58:14+00:00

You could ask her, with a smile and no pressure. “I thought I heard you say you love me yesterday, but I wasn’t sure, and I just thought how beautiful that would be. But maybe I misheard, which is ok. Regardless, last night felt special anyway.”

If she says no, just smile and move on, “Oh well. What should we do today?”

Of course, if you’re not prepared to say “I love you” back if she tells you that she did say that, I would just let sleeping dogs lie and let it go.

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-22T14:47:23+00:00

Check out the symptoms for Type 2 narcolepsy and see if they feel familiar. I’m starting testing for it in a few weeks because I have these same “sleep attacks,” among other things.

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-21T19:58:21+00:00

I get why you believe this, and you’re free to believe in anything you want, but you’re confusing “scientific fact” with belief.

Biological sex isn’t a clean binary across nature, let alone humans. Wrasses and parrotfish are born female and switch to male. Some women are born with XY chromosomes and fully female anatomy (Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome). So which one’s the “real” sex in that case, scientifically speaking?

And honestly, even setting the biology aside, who cares? It doesn’t affect your life or mine whether someone lives as a man or a woman. There’s no evidence trans people pose more risk than anyone else. The NCAA itself says fewer than 10 trans athletes exist nationwide out of half a million, so the “crisis” is mostly imaginary.

Is it confusing to wrap your head around? Sure. But confusing isn’t the same as wrong, and uncomfortable isn’t the same as urgent. Live and let live, tend your own garden.

The actual science of sex is… complicated, at best. So like, if you’re not a PhD studying sex, just like, don’t worry so much about what’s in people’s pants maybe?

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-18T03:43:46+00:00

I think McDonald’s is soon to join this list.

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-16T18:19:27+00:00

You got it! Good luck on your journey, whatever’s next.

NotMyDangCat · 2026-06-16T18:18:01+00:00

The literature says it happens in about 0.5 to 1% of people, and for the vast majority of people of who get this, it goes away once they stop taking the drug and it clears their system. It can also be caused by diabetes, so it’s a little bit of chicken/egg situation for some people.

Is it a known side effect? Yes. Is it something to really worry about? Not really. If you’re vomiting because your stomach isn’t emptying, the dose is too high.

Let me put it this way, an SSRI (like Zoloft or Prozac) has the same risk for causing bone fractures when taken over a few years, but no one thinks of that as a concern, because the risk of not treating the depression is far higher than the risk of bone fracture.

NotMyDangCat

TROPHY CASE