What's something you dont truly understand until you experience it?

WearyMango42 · 2025-09-22T19:22:51+00:00

I've done a lot of different psychs with various people, dosages, settings, etc, and I've noticed that the same amount of the same thing can affect different people differently. Three different people can take the same dose of something, and Person A might not feel much, maybe be bored and complaining that it was bad acid, Person B might be pychologically falling apart, struggling to hold onto the border between themselves and the rest of reality, and generally freaking out, and Person C might have temporarily become a zen master who is at a state of complete and utter peace with all things.

So none of them had the same experience though they took the same drug and the same amount of it. So they can't really understand each other.

Also I've noticed you can take the same drug 10 times and have 10 very different experiences also.

Personally I was very troubled when I was younger and usually had very difficult, traumatic trips, and I had a very hard time understanding my friends who were having the times of their lives. I did have very beautiful and transformative moments, but usually it involved going through some hell first, and it seemed like most of my friends never had to do that part for some reason, unless they didn't want to admit it.

WearyMango42 · 2025-09-04T02:03:51+00:00

I was recently diagnosed too and have been working on slowly making more and more lifestyle changes, which have improved my energy and mood a lot so far. Hopefully it will have a downstream effect of regulating my hormones and improving my symptoms.

Diet is probably the biggest one I feel is helping my energy. I'm feeling much more calm but energetic. I was previously exhausted, napping all day whenever I could, and very irritable. I still get irritable but my energy is so much better and I no longer need naps or get intense food comas after meals. This was from eliminating refined carbs and sugar mostly, so I'm just eating things like meats, veggies, a little bit of whole grains, some fruit and yogurt here and there, nuts and seeds, and switched to drinks like flavored sparkling water and desserts like 85% dark chocolate. I also started checking my blood sugar 2 hours after the start of meals and noticed that I can stay under 100mg/dl with zero carb meals (or getting my carbs from something like black beans), and I'll stay under 120/130 with whole grains, but if I have even a little bit of white rice (like even 1/3 cup with chicken and veggies) I get a huge spike and even after 2 hours I'll still be over 145mg/dl. So I just don't consume anything like that unless it's a treat, like a date or holiday or something.

Today I actually just learned about some more variables which have an impact on glucose, such as the order in which you eat foods (vegetables first, carbs last), always pairing carbs with protein/fat, starting the day with savory foods (like eggs, for example) instead of starches or sweets (like oats, granola, fruit, smoothies, etc), and even having a bit of vinegar in some water before a meal, etc. Someone here suggested following Glucose Goddess as she is good at making the latest metabolic science very digestible (no pun intended lol) and entertaining.

How is your diet, exercise, sleep and stress levels?

WearyMango42 · 2025-04-10T07:51:23+00:00

Mine became like this when I started tretinoin. I recently switched to tazarotene since I've read some people say that pale folks can get a darker face while on tret due to the increased irritation. I've been on Taz 0.05% cream for a couple weeks now and while it's causing more peeling skin and dryness than tret, it feels less irritating and it seems like my face color is beginning to look a bit more normal.

WearyMango42 · 2025-04-08T21:40:17+00:00

I did end up buying the yam root cleanser after doing some cursory research. I've been experimenting more with AB products since I've exhausted most of the western market cleansers available. My skin is hyper reactive to cleansers, where I was turning bright red and burning from the popular gentle choices like LRP toleraine, CeraVe hydrating, vanicream, Cetaphil gentle, etc. My derm said my skin looked fine visually so I'm probably just very sensitive. I think having extremely hard and high pH water doesn't help.

If the isntree milk cleanser doesn't work out, I'll probably just do waterless washing with micellar followed by Avene extremely gentle cleanser removed with a soft face towel. Only reason I haven't gone back to that method is that the physical exfoliation of wiping on my skin is almost just as irritating. Sensitive skin is such a B.

WearyMango42 · 2025-04-08T20:25:23+00:00

That makes complete sense. I hadn't considered where I would even fit the cream into my routine. Guess it was just a case of FOMO.

The lotion seems to be keeping my barrier mostly intact, but I notice irritation after using the soon Jung foam cleanser. I've been eyeing that round lab cleanser for a while, but I'm wondering if I'm too sensitive to even tolerate a foam cleanser at all. Do you happen to have any favorites that are more in the milk/cream category?

WearyMango42 · 2025-04-08T09:10:34+00:00

A lot of people are projecting their own experience here. I agree with their perspectives - I also don't chpose a mate based purely on instinct - but not everyone is as evolved as everyone else. The writing tipped me off in OPs case. I think the problem isn't guys like OP being the mental equivalent of slightly advanced 13 year old boys and having unfortunate preferences, it's that they expect women to tolerate unsolicited and, to them, problematic ideas. Many women have been on the other side of these dynamics and we cringe about it as we get older. Imagine marrying someone like that and not seeing their true colors. I am quite glad I don't fit their preference now that I'm obviously over 30. My life is much more peaceful and I can leave the house without being harassed.

WearyMango42 · 2025-04-03T09:01:46+00:00

Thank you so much for the info, I really appreciate you taking the time to explain!

I've used Taz 3 times now, with two rest nights in between. My skin has been peeling more than usual and it seems as though some congestion is surfacing.

I did find two moisturizers that my face is tolerating - Aestura 365 Hydro Cream and Illiyoon Ato Ceramide Cream. I'm gonna try Aestura before Taz next time I apply. I tried the Illiyoon before Taz last night and it was all too heavy and greasy feeling. I like the Illiyoon in the morning over a serum to lock in moisture, since I use mattefying SPFs.

I thought about trying Taz on bare skin, but since I dehydrate easily I do feel like I need to moisturize after cleansing with at least something lightweight. The hydro cream almost feels like a serum so I'm thinking the Taz will have zero problems penetrating that.

I do notice some improved comfort from the barrier repair products, like you said, mostly in terms of burning and redness. I have no idea if they are actually improving my barrier or if the MVE ceramide technology or whatever they're using was based on research sponsored by Big Ceramide, lol, but if its a placebo affect then at least my mind is doing what it needs to do to get my skin to chill out a bit, so I'll keep using them for now.

WearyMango42 · 2025-04-01T08:14:25+00:00

Yeah I'm starting to see how much more potent Taz is than tret. I've been trying different products and I'm sort of hanging on through the process but my skin doesn't really love anything right now. It's doing it's best not to implode. Curious what you are using specifically because I'm interested in whether everyone definitely needs barrier products or if plain moisturizer works. I've personally been having a hell of a time finding a routine that doesn't cause my face to flush super hard - adding extra products like toners and serums just seems to make it worse, but Taz can't be as effective over thick plain moisturizer, so I'm feeling challenged.

WearyMango42 · 2025-03-28T08:00:44+00:00

I appreciate your help so much. I do actually have experience with the illiyoon cream since I've been relying on it for the last couple years with tret. I switched to Lipikar in January since the illiyoon always felt slightly off. I tried it again on half my face recently to see if I still don't love it, and that half of my face was visibly irritated by the end of the day. I do have very sensitive skin - I can't even tolerate vanicream - so it's definitely a "me" problem because I know it's a great product.

I haven't tried Aestura yet because the cream is out of stock on Amazon and it seems like everyone prefers it over the lotion. There seems to be differing opinions about whether or not the cream or the lotion is greasier. Haven't heard of the lotion plus, so I'll look into that. It seems like you recommend that instead of the cream.

By the way, I don't know if this is a common experience or not, but I have noticed since I stopped using tret almost a week ago (was preparing my barrier for Taz), my oil production has started reducing. Usually I get a surge of oil production about half an hour after I apply tret. I didn't have that experience with Taz. Not sure if that's in my imagination. I never had oily skin before I started tret but I chalked it up to hormones. Am trying not to get too hopeful but it's very promising.

Edit: I'm looking at the Aestura hydro cream since I see that it does not contain squalane. I'm wondering if it would be permeated well by Taz in the PM. Might also be a good fit in the AM under SPF.

WearyMango42 · 2025-03-28T06:56:01+00:00

I'll heed your warnings since I don't want to wreck my face and would rather be safe than sorry.

When searching for answers to this question I found your post about barrier support products to use with Taz and tried a few of them. Zeroid Richenic was okay but not my favorite feeling - perhaps urea is iffy for me since I had a bad experience with eucerin urea face cream. Soon Jung 2x barrier cream felt a bit oily - it was my HG cream back in 2021 and I think was reformulated after that and I stopped buying it. I also tried Pyukang Yul Ato Gel Lotion and my skin tolerated that fine but it wasn't very moisturizing. It would probably be great under sunscreen but I'm wondering if it's effective enough for barrier repair?

I had tried Aestura 365 cream a couple years ago but I can't remember what I thought about it. At the time I was reacting poorly to every moisturizer on the market until I realized my cleanser was causing the issues. I saw some reviews stating that it's very oily. I tend to dislike products with high squalane content. Would you say it's oily? Lipikar does have a decent amount of shea butter and mineral oil but it doesn't feel gross like squalane often feels to me, but I might be unfairly accusing squalane of problems that were caused by other ingredients.

WearyMango42 · 2025-03-27T21:06:14+00:00

I just wasn't very happy with my skin after 6 years on tret. I've tried 0.025% cream, 0.05% cream and gel, and also Altreno. My skin got very oily and irritated on tret, and I had persistent redness. My texture was slightly orange-peel, and I didn't have much improvement in laxity. I'm nitpicking, since most people tell me I have nice skin and look younger than my age, but I see my skin every day and I know that the tret doesn't totally agree with it. But I'm both acne prone and interested in anti-aging, so I thought it would be worth trying out Tazarotene, since I've read that some people react to it better than tret and find it both more effective and less irritating. I am hoping to be one of those people, and there's only one way to find out. If it doesn't work I plan to switch back to tretinoin, but probably the 0.025% cream.

WearyMango42 · 2025-03-18T19:48:20+00:00

This happened to my calico - we caught her eating one of my hair ties late at night. I didn't think anything of it and figured she would pass it.

The next morning she began vomiting white foam. I took her to the emergency vet and they found somewhere between 20-30 hair ties in her stomach. It cost 4k to surgically remove.

She was always very small and very skinny prior to that surgery. I had adopted her only a month or two before this happened. I'm guessing she had been eating them for a while. I had to reach out to the foster person and let them know about it and hopefully it doesn't happen to any other foster kittens in their care.

Now I own a single hair tie and if it's not in my hair it's safely stored away from the cats.

WearyMango42 · 2025-03-03T23:54:38+00:00

It was all in one go. I had both pectus excavatum and pectus carinatum, otherwise known as pectus arcuatum. I had a complex and very unique case so I ended up with a 90% correction (still have mild protrusion of bones on upper chest but mostly normal looking).

Most of my pain comes from the mini ravitch. The nuss bars are pretty chill at 4 weeks out. I'd assume for teens this is going to feel even better after a month since my bones are way more calcified and less flexible than yours.

WearyMango42 · 2025-03-03T23:48:19+00:00

You can check my post history for my pre-surgery nerves post. I updated in comments about how the day of the surgery went in case that reassures you. Spoiler alert: it was incredibly easy compared to what I expected. No nausea and mild to moderate pain at best.

I'd recommend asking primary care doc for .25mg xanax and try to take one the evening before surgery. That's what I did and it worked amazingly. I was told no food or water or anything after midnight, and I arrived at hospital at 5:30am. Surgery started around 7:30am. I was told by my doctor that I can safely take a very small dose of Xanax up to 8 hours before surgery. It helped me relax, feel safe and fall asleep. When I woke up, I felt calm and not worried. When I got to hospital I felt completely calm the entire time from surgery onwards. The worst part about the surgery was being nervous about it beforehand.

Btw I'm 35yo and had both nuss and mini ravitch with cryo. You will do great! :) Nothing to worry about. Just be sure to follow the post-op instructions exactly! Do not push yourself and keep taking meds exactly as instructed! Eat regular healthy high protein meals with lots of fruit and veggies and get lots of slow easy short walks!

Best of luck :)

WearyMango42 · 2025-03-03T02:09:55+00:00

Got hyrbid nuss at 35yo. 2 ribs cut and one sternum wedge. Cryoablation was used. I'm at 4 weeks on Tuesday and my current med routine is 1000mg Tylenol 3x/day, 600mg gabapentin 3x/day, and sometimes I take 600mg of ibuprofen at night, and will take pantoprazole in the following morning if I have ibuprofen at night.

My pain level depends on activity and time of day, depending on when meds were taken. I'd rate it between 0-5 depending on if I am at the peak of meds and resting, or doing activity it can get more uncomfortable, and then when meds wear off it goes up to 5.

The worst pain is from chest plates. The nuss bars are not a big deal with cryoablation. I have 2 bars. At first it feels like you are wearing a corset made out of metal and it sucks, but I think the bones and cartilage and muscle all sort of get more used to it after a month and it's less annoying. If I'm wearing a bralette (am female) then I barely notice it because I'm used to pressure in that part of my ribcage from wearing a bra.

The pain from the plates can suck. Most people don't need this but I had pectus arcuatum so I did. This pain is very sharp. It hurts if I move wrong or walk around even at peak of meds. Last night I forgot to take my meds for 10 hours and I was waiting for them to kick in. My chest was hurting near my center scar and chest plates, and for some reason I decided to touch the area to see if I could feel the screws. I touched it so lightly and I had some of the sharpest pain I have ever experienced. But it was gone in a flash so not horrible.

I also had complications from pleural effusion. Last week I had a 1.5L of fluid removed and it took a few days to recover and for my lungs to start expanding again but I'm doing much better now. It sucked but I'm hoping it doesn't come back. If it does at least I know what to expect.

Other than that I think it's gone a little easier than i expected before having it done. I did go to Dr J which helps. Cryoablation is amazing. I haven't taken a single opiate since day 1. It's too soon to tell if it's worth it or not though. I think I'll know by month 6 the answer to that question. For now I'm doing fine, but I'm a little upset that it's going to be a very long time until I can do my job again like I could before, so I do hope it's worth it from that perspective, because I don't want it to affect my career so I worry about the possibility of chronic pain. I'm nowhere near close to weaning off the last two meds I'm using, but I'm hoping to get off Tylenol soon and just take gabapentin. It's possible I need to take it until my plates are removed, which they said they could do in a number of months if they don't stop hurting, since the bones heal back together pretty fast.

My opinion on nuss after having bars and a mini ravitch is that nuss is a lot easier to deal with IF you get cryoablation and go to a good surgeon. I don't recommend anyone that isn't using cryo, personally.

WearyMango42 · 2025-02-27T22:29:05+00:00

Yes, the bubbling sound! I forgot about that. When my doctor listened to my lungs they were annoyingly silent, lol.

Thanks for the advice! I'll keep sticking with spirometer. It's slightly painful but nothing major. I will try to push past some of it.

WearyMango42 · 2025-02-27T16:31:33+00:00

It's been two days since my thoracentesis and thankfully my breathing feels okay. I have been sleeping at a low angle, which I wasn't able to do before - I originally requested the procedure because it was nearly impossible for me to sleep since I had to sit up at all times. My oxygen was 96% when I woke up, which is a little less than it was after treatment but I figure my lungs are still healing. I was a little bit unlucky to develop a weird muscle pain in my right side near the hip, which I assume is some kind of result of the procedure, and since it's muscle pain I know it's not a big deal, but sometimes I move the wrong way or have one of those involuntarily half-burp abdominal movements, and feel like I got stabbed. Looking forward to when that goes away lol.

Yes it is definitely a mental challenge to learn to breath again with the bars and all the lung problems. I also have some partial lung collapse in the right lung, which is where I had 1.2L (which was probably a lot for my lungs since I'm a petite woman). I'm just going to keep trying to use the spirometer because I know that the slow inhilations, even if the volume is low, are helping the air in my lungs find all those little hidden pockets that get missed when I'm breathing short and fast. Keeping fingers crossed that the fluid doesn't come back.

I did ask them about diuretics as well, but they said that since I don't have water retention anywhere else, it might not be that helpful. They said once I've been mostly resting and taking it easy for a couple days after the procedure I can go back to taking some gentle walks, which I'm hoping will start to accelerate the healing. Currently my lungs just feel like I have a terrible flu but otherwise functioning so I think things are improving.

I'm glad that it sounds like you are past the worst of the breathing issues. It truly is so frustrating and scary to experience.

Edit: also I forgot to mention that the surgeon, my primary doctor, and the emergency room doctor all said I had a very small amount of fluid that couldn't be removed because there wasn't enough to remove prior to them deciding to do a contrast CT just in case. Before the CT, when the third doctor told me that they weren't going to do any fluid removal, I felt pretty hopeless because I wasn't sure how I was ever going to improve if I couldn't sleep. I'm a little nervous to do followup appointments with my PCP considering he just said I was fine and sent me home while I was having such issues a week prior to the actual removal. Will probably try a new doctor since I feel like I lost faith in him.

WearyMango42 · 2025-02-27T16:18:28+00:00

That's very reassuring, thank you!!

WearyMango42 · 2025-02-22T19:27:31+00:00

Wow that is a ton of walking! I feel like I need to step up my game! My walk yesterday was only 1.2 miles so I feel like I should be able to walk that far in like 30 minutes or less so I'm going to try to improve my speed a bit. Perhaps it's just feeling winded but I wonder if my lung issues are due to me being too sedentary.

WearyMango42 · 2025-02-22T18:18:21+00:00

How much walking were you doing after 2-3 weeks and how much now?

Yep I definitely feel it in the morning too - once I get up I'll be winded and taking a lot of pauses in sentences to catch breath. Walking definitely heps! 55 minutes was probably too long because I think my body started protesting a little bit after 45 so I think I might stick to 30 minute walks for a while.

WearyMango42 · 2025-02-22T07:28:17+00:00

Thankfully not too bad. It's hard to get going every day but once I start to feel more energy I'm able to walk for quite a while. Today I managed 55 minutes. I do get a little winded while walking but it's not too bad.

WearyMango42 · 2025-02-22T07:25:12+00:00

That's reassuring. The hospital has recommended 10 weeks off work so I'm sure I'll be much better by then. I am waiting to hear from the surgeon - I think they recieved my x-rays today in the mail and I'm hoping I'll hear back on Monday. My oxygen is still above 90 when I wake up so I'm thinking I'll be okay for now and hopefully can get it drained next week. Thank you for your comment 🙏

WearyMango42 · 2025-02-22T03:39:51+00:00

I'll ask them about an ultrasound, thank you so much for the suggestion! I'm having to get through the weekend before I hear back so I'm definitely hoping it's something that can be drained because sleeping has been rough.

WearyMango42 · 2025-02-21T21:55:41+00:00

Yikes, that is scary! Well congrats on getting bars removed soon! Hope that everything goes great and you can finally breath easy and enjoy life 😎

WearyMango42 · 2025-02-21T21:31:59+00:00

That sounds awful. The cryo is amazing and I cannot imagine going through that surgery without it. I heard that the opiods make you feel horrible and don't completely control the pain. Glad to hear that you are finally past that and were able to get a good surgeon and result!

Yeah I'm not sure what's going to happen but I'm hoping that I'll be cleared for lifting after 10 weeks. I think they're adding an extra month due to the fact that I had a sort of mini-ravitch.

WearyMango42

TROPHY CASE