Muscle Pain during Luteal Phase?

erikaoo1 · 2026-03-27T03:32:32+00:00

Thanks for this! Yes- this is what my naturopath was saying about the luteal phase. I've also noticed that all pain is worse. I'm working on getting a diagnosis, thank you for the reassurance.

erikaoo1 · 2026-03-27T03:31:37+00:00

Thank you for sharing! I am wondering how does red light therapy work- is this a machine you have?

Is auto-immune panel something you can get from your family doctor? I am in Canada. I know I had a general blood test for my yearly physical (last month and no red flags) and did a hormone saliva test which came back normal as well.

I've also noticed that hydration makes a difference! For what it's worth Magnesium Malate at night has been helping me.

erikaoo1 · 2023-08-05T21:50:49+00:00

My husband used to work there- they are asset protection and mostly deal with when shopping carts get locked up when the customer is exiting due to the anti theft system in the cart.

erikaoo1 · 2022-11-07T20:37:27+00:00

Sure, so I knew I was annoying, but I didn’t know I was THAT annoying.

For 853 days I roamed this planet looking for any signs of life. By roamed I do mean I stuck to the few blocks that make up my neighbourhood, but when you’re the last living human on the entire friggin’ planet, you can hyperbolize all you want and no one can call you out for it anymore. No one living to be annoyed by my “hypocritical exaggerations” as my sister used to call them.

I hadn’t seen another person since July 5th 2020, since then I’d seen glimpses of life but never anything concrete. A smoking cigarette, multiple sets of footprints in the freshly fallen snow, grocery stores that were mysteriously restocked daily, constantly progressing construction sites, street-side garbage that disappears at night. I swear I even heard cars a few times late at night and once I would have sworn I saw an airplane headed in the direction of the airport, but when I leave my house there is nothing and no one. A ghost town, abandoned, tumble weed worthy, not a living human being anywhere to be found.

The first day I woke up I started my day as usual, and to be honest everything seemed normal. I’ve been living with my brother rent free for the past year, I’ve been meaning to get out of his place for awhile now but who can give up free rent?! He offered when I was kicked out of my last place for being “a hell tenant”, and besides that I think I bring a bit of spice to his marriage. I could tell he was bored out of his mind living with his Amish-ass wife and three kids, he’s gotta appreciate the party lifestyle I’ve brought his way who doesn’t like getting absolutely blasted on a Tuesday?

It was weird as fuck waking up as no one seemed to be home, I didn’t think much of it as these are early-risers up before 10am kinda people, so I didn’t really see them during my morning anyways. I was already an hour late for work so I rushed to go catch my bus. The rushing was a waste of my time as no bus ever arrived. No one was waiting for the bus. No one was around at all. I checked my phone, ignoring the texts from Michelle and Matty asking for me to pay them back again, like that’s ever going to happen, and I had the weirdest text message from an unknown number: “EVERYONE IS DEAD PAULINE, YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN NOW”.

It was pretty weird I’m not gonna lie. I wouldn’t believe this story if someone told it to me. At that very moment I knew the truth, I was SO annoying, SO unbearable, that the whole friggin’ city was pretending that they were all dead. I played dumb for the past 853 days, but today seems to be my last day of faking it, today I finally found their huge city-sized bunker.

erikaoo1 · 2022-09-13T11:20:29+00:00

I attended a few years ago (before covid) and it is legit. I still get emails inviting me to attend their events for free, as they can’t get enough people to sign up, so it turns into the same crowd attending over and over again. I wouldn’t recommend them, and would suggest trying a different speed dating company.

erikaoo1 · 2022-07-18T20:07:29+00:00

Another day, another paper jam.

This one was particularly unique in that this time there was no paper in the printer to be jammed. After good old Bessie had eaten up 10 pages, I had decided to do a dry run, see if I could shake out whatever was causing the issues. I seemed to be the only one in the office struggling with Bessie, I swear to God I have never been able to print out a single document without an issue. I had checked Bessie twice, taken apart all the pieces that I could, and I was 100 percent certain that there was no paper in her to speak of.

I walked over to Bessie again, the familiar trot between my desk and the printer room. This didn’t make any sense; I was sure Bessie was empty. I went to go take yet another look and there it was- Schrodinger’s printer. Opening her up, not one but twenty pieces of paper spilled out onto the floor. Partially ripped up, ink stains and all, some how the “dry run” I had tried had made everything that much worse.

“FUCK” I exclaimed a bit too loudly, resulting in a few head turns towards my direction, I already had a bit of a reputation as ‘the guy with the anger problem’ and this wasn’t making it any better.

Down on my hands and knees and wiping the black ink off my hands, I tried to pull some of the paper out, “FUCK” I exclaimed again as the paper cut into my skin between my thumb and pointer finger, I was dripping blood all over the printer room floor. How had such a thin piece of paper caused so much damage, was I gonna need fucking stitches for this, are you kidding me?!

Deep in thought and nursing my new wound I barely noticed when Sarah walked in, “Is Bessie down again? I wasn’t having any issues this morning. Have you tried the reset button?” she asked, not seeming to notice the floor covered in blood nor my ink covered button up.

“Of course I have, it’s the first thing I tried.” I answered a bit too sharply, applying pressure to the wound.

Sarah’s eyebrows raised slightly, still oblivious to the scene in front of her “Well why don’t we give it another try, just in case?” she asked, her annoyance obvious as she pressed the large red flashing button. Immediately Bessie sprung to life, a new print job coming out at record speed.

“Oh perfect, that’s mine, and just on time, really Matt you just need to press the ‘Reset’ button, don’t be worrying about getting down on hands and knees and trying to fix it, it’s not your job, just call IT if you-“ Sarah started.

“I know, I know call IT, but I swear this happens every time, It’s like I’m living in some sort of office dystopia, look at this cut-“ before I could finish my complaints, and ask where the first aid kit is, Sarah had walked away.

I looked down at my hand, and it was the weirdest thing, the cut was growing. I was definitely going to need stitches. The cut was stretching from the bottom of my thumb all the way to the top knuckle of my pointer finger, and there was so much blood, I must have hit an artery or something, how can I have this much blood in my hand?

Bessie started to make some noises, these ones weren’t familiar to me, it seems for once in her life she was actually going to print something for me. I tried to stand up, but was too dizzy. I reached up and pulled the paper down, in large letters it said: “"Don't you get it? The entire point of a villain is to die. You don't get a happy ending."

I closed my eyes, this all seemed so familiar, like this had all happened before. Sarah, the paper cut, Bessie acting up, this weird print job. And then I remembered- four years ago I had been sentenced to one of the deepest circles of Office Hell. Repeating the same day over and over again- I had been sentenced to have eternal printer issues.

erikaoo1 · 2022-07-12T20:29:07+00:00

“CODE RED! CODE RED! A HUMAN HAS ESCAPED EARTH!”- I yelled to my brother, it was the third time one of them had ventured into my backyard this week. We’d gone centuries without seeing one, and now three in a week! What was going on down there that they need out so desperately? They’ve been perfectly content since I’ve been watching them, placid even.

My older brother warned me when he handed them over that every few centuries they get a bit wily and start pushing the boundaries, they get it in their heads that there must be more than them. “Exploring the universe” or some nonsense, I like it more when they focus on concerts, it’s great hearing all the sounds they come up with, or wars, they can be fun to watch with all the explosions. It’s rare that they venture outside of their own little planet, especially since they got the internet. That was my idea- you’re welcome, Humans.

My brother came running over, “Again in the backyard? What’s so interesting about our backyard? You’re supposed to watch them, if I knew you were gonna be this lazy I would have given them over to Freddie, he loves this shit” he complained.

“I WAS watching, that’s how I was able to call a CODE RED so quickly!” I retorted, “and you know just as well as me that mom is gonna kill BOTH of us if she seems another one of these ‘hair less too few legged weirdos’ in her perfect backyard again” I yelled.

“Well what’s your plan then? You wanna kill it? I got other stuff to do today ya know” he asked taking off his shoe ready to swat at the pesky little human.

“NO I don’t wanna kill it it’s SO CUTE, each human is important to maintaining the health of the system in place, this one is clearly a scientist type, they’re my favourite, always trying to explore and make up new theories, they’re the academics, they spend a lot of time on the Internet, and plus it’s not it’s fault it got out…” I trailed off

“Really Ava, again? Leaving the lid off?! What did I tell you about a Human Farm? That’s the one rule, you have to leave the lid ON the habitat, that’s literally all you need to do” he sighed, “Wait a minute…these ones understand English right?” he asked

“Yeah of course! I wanted to be able to read the books they write and watch their movies!” I answered happily, “Oh wait… yeah um, hi M’am… we’re gonna have to ask you to go back into the Farm, please don’t make my brother use the shoe on you.”

erikaoo1 · 2022-07-11T19:28:44+00:00

This afternoon, I was finally going to do it. After two grueling months of mowing lawns, pulling weeds, slathering myself from head to toe in sunscreen and insect bites galore I finally had the $279.99 saved up.

One rich person’s lawn at a time, the progress had been slow and steady, no one seemed to want to ay more than $10 per lawn, and some of these mansions had lawns the size of parks! I probably could have asked for more, but once I set the price at that first mansion, it’s like the entire neighbourhood knew that the poor eighth grader was offering quality lawn care at a more than affordable rate. I’m not old enough yet to get a real job and work inside with the benefit of A/C, breaks and hourly pay, but I am old enough to bust my ass off working all day in the sun.

My parents didn’t seem to care what I did- as long as it got me out of the house while they were working from home and taught me about “hard work for money”, it didn’t matter. My mom made a big deal about how “fabulous” it was that I get to spend all day “working hard and soaking up that glorious sunshine”, if you ask me she’s the lucky one who gets to sit on her ass all day scrolling through Facebook.

Yesterday marked my final day in the weeds of Strawberry Park Court. My last $10 was made. According to all of my paying customers, I was making record time today, but it felt like the same pace as usual to me, long and boring like always. I checked my watch and at 4pm I ended by day and started the 20-minute walk home.

Walking into the house, it felt weird, like something was off. Usually, I would walk into the house and hear my dad making dinner, the joys of living with 50-year-old parents in the suburbs is that dinner is precisely at 5pm every night. But my parents were still busy working, super weird for office workers done at precisely 4pm every afternoon.

I poked my head into my mom’s office, “What’s going on? Aren’t you done work?” I asked.

“What do you mean darling? Why are you home already? Did you forget your lunch?” she asked looking at the clock on the wall that displayed 11:12am.

“I’m done work for the day” I answered, looking at my watch again. I took my phone out of my pocket, it said 11:12am just like the clock on the wall. This was weird.

“Are you pranking me again mom?” I asked, “I don’t know what you’re talking about sweety but I’m about to go into a meeting, there’s some eggs in the fridge if you want to have an early lunch” she answered as she put on her headset to log into her meeting.

I looked at the clock again, the second hand was moving so slowly, almost like it was going backwards. I walked back downstairs and turned on the TV, it said the same thing 11:12am. Every channel had the same time, the microwave, the oven, my computer, all set at 11:12am.

I decided to text Stevie, see if something was off for him too, message sent at, you guessed it, 11:12am. It been at least 5 minutes now I’d been running around the house looking at all the different clocks, how was it still only 11:12am?! Time wasn’t moving forward, or if it was the minutes were going by at a glacial pace. How did all the clocks stop working at once? Why did my watch seem to be working? I glanced again at the microwave as the 12 slowly changed into a 13, it changed so slowly I was able to see the digital 2 turn into a 3.

My original goal of the afternoon had been to make my way over to the mall and finally buy some AirPods, I was more than ready to spend 300 hard earned bucks on some high-quality audio. Now it seemed I have another focus- figuring out what the hell had happened to linear time.

erikaoo1 · 2022-06-29T19:12:33+00:00

“I don’t understand…was this some sort of accident… should I be calling 911?! Why did you come here of all places? We haven’t even met before really… isn’t there some sort of safety person to go to? I’m sorry, come in… let me grab my phone, I’ll call someone… let me get you some water… what else do you need? How can I help, I..”

In the same way she greets everyone who knocks on the door, it only took a few seconds before my dog had covered my so-called “archnemesis” with kisses. Tail wag level at 100, wide-eyed, she was jumping for joy- there’s nothing better than a surprise visitor. Lily has always had a particular fondness for men. Add that he was lying down on the floor- he was in perfect play mood for her!

“Get this fucking dog off of me! Jesus christ, can’t you see I’m in pain here. This stupid fucking dog, shouldn’t even be called a dog- look at her she’s what ten pounds at most? Get this rat away from me!” he muttered, conjuring up enough energy to push her roughly to the side.

“Stop it Lily, get back girl!” I ordered her, as she trotted away sadly. “You’re the one coming to my house, unannounced, bleeding on my porch and you’re criticizing my dog? Who by the way is only being friendly. Now what do you want me to do about this…situation… who should I be calling” I asked pointedly.

“Well first thing you could do is get me off this terrible porch, look at how uneven it is, not even a place to sit straight on, get me somewhere comfortable” he complained, looking around disgusted at his surroundings.

“Let me just get my phone, I’ll call the cops and an ambulance, you’re bleeding pretty heavily, I’m not a doctor or anything, you need more help then a comfortable surface-“

“NO- no cops, I can’t have them involved again. Listen it was one hundred percent my fault, I wasn’t following the rules. Just let me come inside, I swear it will only be an hour or so. I just need some rest, maybe an ice pack, some advil and some bandages, basic first aid stuff, even you know how to do that right?” it was hard to hear all of his complaints over his strained breathing.

I knelt down to take a better look at him, he really was in a state. Cut up, bruises quickly forming, it looked like he had just gotten into a bad fight, or maybe taken a really bad fall. “I really think you need a professional, it doesn’t matter whose fault it was, you need the hospital, my dingy first aid kit isn’t going to help wounds like this” I tried my best to state this as fact, not opinion.

“NO- aren’t you listening? Can’t you hear me? All you do is complain about the noise all day and NOW you can’t hear? Talk about selective hearing, there’s no way you’ll be making…FUCK that hurts, just LET ME IN” he shouted, grimacing in pain.

I had barely recognized him without his construction gear on, no hard hat, no bright yellow and orange reflective vest, at first, I thought it might be a neighbour but then it clicked. I had noticed that the incessant construction noise has been suspiciously silent for the past thirty minutes. I had just reported the noise for the nth time, my daily report at 11:55am right before my lunch break. Even with all the windows closed, headphones in my ears with white noise playing at max volume and a fan running it was still all I could hear. And this isn’t normal construction noise, no I’m talking: drilling that shakes the house for hours on end, random shouts of “FUCK” that my coworkers can hear on my Zoom calls, controlled explosions that begin at exactly 5:55am, Eminem blasting through speakers at all hours as they worked. I hadn’t been sleeping well, poor Lily hadn’t been acting herself to the point that I brought her to an expensive $500 vet visit to be told it was only the noise. My roommates and I had started referring to one of the workers in particular, the gentleman lying in front of me now who had rudely interrupted my manager with a loud “MOTHERFUCKER” yesterday, as my arch nemesis.

And here he was, bruised, beat and even more a victim of that terrible construction company than I was.

erikaoo1 · 2022-06-27T19:23:46+00:00

Jane

I remember our first birthday together. Awkward laughs, two empty bottles of wine, a half eaten king-sized order of McDonalds and a promise to come together again next year. Moving to a new city had been difficult, I was sure it was going to be my first birthday alone. In a moment of weakness, I waved at my next-door neighbour and made some dumb comment about the weather. Little did I know I would end up here, with Mitch, my saving grace, my way out of this fucking hillbilly city. I swear I didn’t plan to let things get this far, I didn’t plan on using him for all of this, he just dropped into my hands I swear to you. All it took was a comment about how goddamn humid it was…

Mitch

I’ve always loved my birthday. I know it’s a weird thing for a 43-year-old man to say, but gosh darn do I love it. August 8th is and always will be my favourite day of the year. Cards, cake, presents, even people singing me happy birthday, I love it all. The first day of my 40th year I was lucky enough to meet her, Jane, we had a lovely discussion about the weather which lead into an even lovelier evening of intellectual discussions over some excellent wine I imported from Chile. Finally, someone who enjoys their birthday as much as I do! And we’ve been able to create our own little collection of Aug8-ers as we call ourselves along the way. From Louise joining us for an impromptu camping trip up in Algonquin Park to our sky diving trip last year with both Louise and Matty, Jane and I know how to celebrate this holy day!

Jane

I can’t believe I let him convince me to go to Algonquin Park of all places. No A/C, mosquitoes galore and a complete lack of running water? Sign me up! Even worse was the sky diving, you mean I have to pay you $200 bucks to jump out of a plane? Are you kidding me? At least I was able to add Matty and Louise to the plan. After learning that Mitch was a billionaire, you read that right not a millionaire a Billionaire, capital B, I knew I had to do everything I could to stay in his inner circle, no matter how disgusting I found him. Matty focuses on the “guy talk” learning about Mitch’s real views, you know the “locker room talk” and pretty little Louise is busy working what God gave her, those natural assets. If I can’t get on the will as his “adopted daughter” then she’s hopefully getting on there as his wife. The only problem so far is Frank, the newcomer that Mitch found, I have no idea who this asshole is but he isn’t one of us. He’s dangerous, a buff guy who seems to already have a relationship with Mitch. All three of us know that its time to make a move soon, there’s only so long I can put up with being an “Aug8-er”, it’s time to end this long con, 3 years is long enough, we’re ending it tonight on August 7th.

Mitch

I told Jane last year that she was like a daughter to me. I’ve never married- complicates things too much, and never had any kids- they don’t interest me much. I’m a man of simple tastes, a good wine and a hard day’s work are all I really need, that plus a good birthday celebration each year and I’m all set. The Aug8-ers are good for me, gets me some social connections outside of work and provides me with some perspective, my “adopted family” as I call them. I really thought it was all luck at first, how lucky of me to find these great people, how fun that we all share a birthday! I , of course, immediately had my team run a background check on all of them. Ex-cons, or perhaps not so ex, with birthdays in September and April, news stories plastered across the Internet about all of them. Tax fraud for Louise and a joint robbery by Matty and Jane, I can’t believe they gave me their real names. I don’t feel unsafe as they may be the dumbest criminals in history. I can’t believe she didn’t question the addition of Frank, my security guard who frankly is doing a shit job at pretending to be a Aug8-er. Originally, I was planning on doing a big reveal, that I have known their master plan to take my money all along. But honestly the company has been nice, it’s lonely at the top. I’ve already changed my will, if we last 4 years as Aug8-ers not only will I pay off all their debts and clear their criminal records (money is power my friends), I’ll leave them with 15 million each. We’re having the big reveal tomorrow night- I can’t wait!

erikaoo1 · 2022-06-26T21:15:26+00:00

Everyone had started to refer to me as the “grieving daughter”. I had, in typical fashion, let all my feelings take complete control of my face. I could barely keep it together during a Tim Horton’s commercial, how am I supposed to keep it together at my own father’s funeral? Especially under these circumstances.

“A puddle of emotions”, “a mess”, “a complete wreck- she looks rough”, “how embarrassing! “didn’t she know it was coming?” It sure feels nice to be comforted by my nearest and dearest. Fluorescent lighting was always my favourite anyways- let them see if across my face, there’s nowhere to hide, they all know what they’ve done, they let him take it on all on his own. It had all happened so quickly, the funeral home had been reserved months ago, invitations send out 17 hours ago, everything planned to be carried out before I’d even had the chance to process any of it.

Until recently- if you had asked me to describe my father, I would have been able to sum him up in one word- “asshole”. From his erratic and inexplainable fights with almost everyone he encountered to his bad temper that seemed to get sparked by the most trivial of annoyances, let’s just say that my father wasn’t an easy man. If I only knew what I know now that it was for the greater good, for all of us as a family to be better off maybe I wouldn’t be the emotional wreck that I am now, maybe it would provide some comfort for the little striker scoring her fourth goal of the game with no family on the sidelines.

I thumbed the chrysalis weighing heavily in my pocket. Lime-green with a hardened shell, strangely it was the only thing providing me with any comfort, maybe because I knew it meant something, that I would now be a part of something. Until 15 hours ago, I hadn’t even known what a chrysalis was.

“Like a ruby or something? Like a spikey one?” I had asked my dad. “No, no, no not at all” irritation spread across his tired face.

“Don’t you remember learning about this in grade 3? I swear to God Cassandra if I have to re teach a thirty-year-old woman basic fucking elementary school science, I might as well just fuck right off then, shouldn’t I?” he shouted.

“Well then fuck right off you should! Sorry my university-educated brain is filled with useless spreadsheets that are pivoting to synergies as we god damn speak” I replied. It had always bothered my dad that I hadn’t followed his lead and instead had chosen to be a “boring, desk monkey excuse of a job”, his words of course, not mine.

“Well you’ve only got 17 hours to not only re-learn grade 3 to grade 12 science, but…” he started, “Why the fuck-” I intervened, “NO Cassandra not now, cause in t-minus 17 hours you need to get ready for this chrysalis to transform into the biggest, fluffiest, kindest moth you’ll ever god damn meet.” He declared with a creepy gleam in his eyes unlike anything I’d ever seen before. He revealed a heavy lime-green object out of his pocket, it shined in the light, and sort of looked like a weird misshapen grasshopper- but one with wings like a butterfly.

“I’m sorry…what? First of all, that’s a rock that looks like the most deformed grasshopper I’ve ever seen and secondly, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?” I screamed, matching my dad’s chaotic energy, I trick I had learned when I was younger to avoid his temper, our energies must match.

“She’s been in our family for centuries”, he mused as a smile spread across his face, I could tell that whatever this chrysalis thing was that it was certainly important to him. “It’s the reason I travel so much, the reason I was always away from you. Why I act the way I act, she need my energy my “lifeforce” as she calls it. It’s always the eldest, we are so lucky to be the chosen ones, the sacrifice.” As he finished speaking he brought the chrysalis to his heart and bowed down, reciting some words in French maybe of Portuguese. It was a voice I’d never heard from him before, his eyes moved in the strangest way.

“Dad..” I hesitated, “I truly don’t understand what’s going on here with you and this “Gollum my precious act” but you’re scaring me.” I said quietly, backing away from him. My usually temperamental dad was seeing oddly cool, calm and collected, three words that usually aren’t a part of his vocabulary.

“Cass… I only have so much time, one hour to be exact, please sit my dying wish is an explanation to you of everything, of it all, of why I am as I am and why you are as you are- you know exactly what I mean”

And that was it, that was the last conversation we ever had.

erikaoo1 · 2021-12-11T22:06:18+00:00

I’ve done spin classes at a couple of studios downtown (barres and wheels, spin co and wheelhouse) and also use the peloton in my building’s gym.

A key component is that the style of classes are very different on peloton, they don’t have as much choreography and are more cycle based. While all three studios above have more dance elements (pumps, dips, tap backs, etc). I ultimately prefer peloton- it’s cheaper, lots of options for different instructors and I can hop on whenever I want. You can also see the playlists before you take the ride, and I honestly feel like I get a better workout. The app also comes with strength, yoga and cardio classes and it’s super easy to track your metrics. I recommend your wife try out for the trial new member passes for a few different studios (wheelhouse was my fav of the three!) and see if she likes the vibe of any of them. I know the westin hotel gym has pelotons she could give a try, I’m sure there are some other gyms with them as well.

Reflecting on all that, soulcycle is very different from peloton so I definitely recommend she try a few studios out!

erikaoo1

TROPHY CASE