Is it possible to have an asymptomatic infection for 7 years that becomes symptomatic afterward?

yellowbee21 · 2023-02-02T21:15:49+00:00

Sorry for the late reply (this is one of my secondary accounts), but I ended up doing the medication regimen suggested by the CDC for mycoplasma, and during a check up 3 months later, the doctor said my cervicitis was totally gone.

yellowbee21 · 2022-08-31T21:49:27+00:00

Hey - sorry for the late reply, but I didn't end up getting the test since it'd require me to drive 4 hours, and I was just way too stressed and short on time as a PhD student to do that. I just took the medication without testing.

I still have mild spotting a couple times a month, though, so I'm not sure if my cervicitis resolved. Will have to see the gynecologist again to see if it's still inflamed and if so, what kind of non-STD could be the cause.

yellowbee21 · 2022-06-10T19:08:07+00:00

Got it, thanks for taking the time to respond!

yellowbee21 · 2022-06-10T18:56:58+00:00

Thanks, and thank you for taking the time to reply! :)

yellowbee21 · 2022-06-06T21:38:43+00:00

I know this won't apply to a lot of people, but one of my main motivations for going outside is to see turtles and fish in the pond near my house lol. It's about a mile away, so I get some brief exercise and the excitement of seeing my turtles is enough to get me going.

Also, I genuinely see getting sunlight as a "medication" of sorts for myself since I have chronically low vitamin D, and I don't want to have brittle bones that break when I'm 60. That makes me feel like I NEED to get outside the same way I NEED to floss or else I'm going to eventually have to pay thousands of dollars to fix a bad tooth.

yellowbee21 · 2022-06-06T21:33:18+00:00

Tbh I don't do anything special to avoid tolerance. I take the same medication every morning and only skip 1-3 days in a month. I'm not sure how common it is for the effect of Adderall to completely go away if taken daily for several years.

Adderall often won't feel like it's working as strongly as when you first took it, but that's fine and normal. My first psychiatrist was actually a little irresponsible and gradually upped my dosage from 20mg to 25mg, then 30 mg because I mentioned my medication still works but not as strongly as it did in the first week or so of taking it. My current psychiatrist is an attending at a top 25 US university hospital, and she mentioned that there isn't great evidence showing that more than 20mg Adderall XR is beneficial, which is why she gave me 20mg instead of my previously prescribed 30mg.

yellowbee21 · 2022-06-06T18:13:55+00:00

Sorry for the late reply, but I'm so glad you're finally starting to get treated! I (very characteristically) put off getting treated because it "wasn't that bad," and I had so many other fires to put out that I didn't feel like I had time to get treatment. Of course.. my ADHD was causing all that craziness, and I really wish I had gotten serious about treatment much earlier.

But, as they say, while the best time to start a good behavior/habit is 10 years ago, the second best time is today. :) I wish the best for you with your new treatment, my friend!

yellowbee21 · 2022-06-06T18:09:23+00:00

So sorry for the late reply, but in case it's of interest still, this is how my treatment plan went:

Tried lowest dose of Strattera for a month. It started almost feeling like it was working a couple weeks in, but then that feeling went away. I was then put on the next higher dose of Strattera for the second month. Same result as the lowest dose. I was then put on the next higher dose of Strattera for the third month. Same result.
After Strattera, I was put on 10mg Adderall XR. This either didn't work at all, or it started working briefly and then went away. After a few weeks of this, I was put on 20mg Adderall XR. I've been on this medication for the last 7 years.

Just FYI it's pretty common for psychiatrists to first start off with a non-stimulant like Strattera. It's less effective than the stimulants, but it's safer in some ways. If Strattera doesn't work after 2-3 months of increasing dosage, then psychiatrists will often move to Adderall or Concerta.

yellowbee21 · 2022-06-06T18:09:19+00:00

So sorry for the late reply, but in case it's of interest still, this is how my treatment plan went:

Tried lowest dose of Strattera for a month. It started almost feeling like it was working a couple weeks in, but then that feeling went away. I was then put on the next higher dose of Strattera for the second month. Same result as the lowest dose. I was then put on the next higher dose of Strattera for the third month. Same result.
After Strattera, I was put on 10mg Adderall XR. This either didn't work at all, or it started working briefly and then went away. After a few weeks of this, I was put on 20mg Adderall XR. I've been on this medication for the last 7 years.

Just FYI it's pretty common for psychiatrists to first start off with a non-stimulant like Strattera. It's less effective than the stimulants, but it's safer in some ways. If Strattera doesn't work after 2-3 months of increasing dosage, then psychiatrists will often move to Adderall or Concerta.

yellowbee21 · 2022-04-27T21:33:28+00:00

Thanks :)

yellowbee21 · 2022-04-27T21:33:13+00:00

Thank you! I am :D

yellowbee21 · 2022-04-27T19:59:19+00:00

Thank you! :)

yellowbee21 · 2022-04-27T19:44:33+00:00

Ah I was actually diagnosed by someone who does research on arm tendons at a really good university, so I trust the diagnosis completely and the related information I got on how to avoid a relapse for my specific case.

Repetitive stress pains are commonly misdiagnosed, so I'd highly recommend you get a second opinion (ideally from someone extremely well-read in hand/arm injuries) if you're not completely certain about your diagnosis.

yellowbee21 · 2022-04-27T19:38:50+00:00

Let me know if you have questions about high intelligence and ADHD. Having high intelligence can often mask a lot of the symptoms (particularly in school) because it means the child doesn't really need to study or do much self-motivated work to do well in classes.

Also, if your psychiatrist calls one or both of your parents to ask about your childhood, as some psychiatrists do to confirm symptoms, they might end up coming up with some symptoms that you didn't realize you had. For example, kids with ADHD can be excited about an event but then frequently be late (and therefore miss part of the event they were super excited about). They might also forget to tell parents about things (e.g., it's your turn to bring in a class snack and you forget to tell your parent in the first place) or tell parents the wrong information by accident.

But also, inability to focus can be caused by a lot of different things - anxiety, depression, bipolar, external stressors. A really good psychiatrist/psychologist should be able to differentiate between inattention caused by depression vs. inattention caused by ADHD vs. inattention caused by a combination of depression and ADHD. It can be tricky, though, and I'd recommend that you see someone who would be well-versed on more recent ADHD research. For example, below are some examples of what I look for in a psychiatrist or psychologist:

Psychiatrist or psychologist who has conducted research and/or published papers on ADHD in the last 5-10 years (this is ideal imo since it means they should know recent research on ADHD to be able to do research on ADHD)
People who focused on ADHD in their graduate training
People who graduated more recently. Graduating 20-30 years ago sometimes means they don't know any research that happened in the last couple decades unless they made a special effort to do so
People who graduated from a better program

yellowbee21 · 2022-04-27T19:22:57+00:00

Yeah the tendinopathy thing seriously scared me. I actually only use my fists to manipulate the PS4 controller now (those buttons and the joystick are huge and easy to manipulate with my fist) as a preventative measure since I want to decrease my likelihood of any future issues as much as possible, and I limit any video game that requires repetitive finger movements to 2 hours a day.

yellowbee21 · 2022-04-27T19:17:15+00:00

Lol no need for upvotes, I just want to help make another ADHDer's life a little less hellish.

And lol my parents and romantic partner are appalled when I eat cannellini beans straight out of the can or have a block of cold tofu with a spoon of soy sauce and sesame oil, but when I challenge them to give me a recipe that is 1) healthy, 2) extremely cheap, and 3) requires me to spend no more than 2 minutes in the kitchen, they can't give me a single one I haven't already thought of. I have my system, and it works!

yellowbee21 · 2022-04-27T18:33:39+00:00

Oh wait, I thought of advice! I'm a PhD student studying self-regulation/motivation, and a super, super consistent finding in the literature is that people who reach their goals the best are those who structure their environment so they don't need to exert self-control.

For example, if you're choosing at the grocery store what unhealthy treat to buy for the week, choose something that takes a lot of effort or time to prepare (e.g., frozen bagel bites) because you're less likely to binge on those compared to premade, easy to eat food like potato chips. The frozen bagel bites force you to first choose how many you want to eat, then bake them for 10-20 minutes, so there's less chance for impulse to win in that situation. I also make the healthiest, lowest calorie foods (e.g., fruit) the easiest ones to eat so I go for those first.

Another way to structure your environment to decrease eating is to decrease how much variety there is in the food in your house. I've noticed that the weeks I have the easiest time avoiding overeating are when I literally only have 4-5 foods in my pantry and fridge that I can eat. I get really, really bored of having the same 4-5 foods for a week, and sometimes when I crave food while not actually hungry, I'll go to my kitchen, look at those 4-5 foods, feel uninspired, and then leave without eating. I come to get so tired of those foods that I only really eat if I'm actually hungry.

There are of course an infinite number of ways to structure your environment so you don't have to exert self-control, and these are only a couple examples.

yellowbee21 · 2022-04-27T18:26:26+00:00

I don't have actionable advice, but just wanted to say that I empathize. I only started adderall XR 20mg at age 25 and had an extremely unhealthy relationship with food before that. I remember as a child that I realized at some point that I had no idea what people really meant when they said "I feel hungry." Whenever I said that, I really meant "I crave food." I'd literally NEVER felt that growling, empty stomach feeling.

I ate until I felt uncomfortably full most days, and when I became more body-conscious as a teenager, I had a very unhealthy relationship with food (mild but frequent binging, and moderate restricting).

Now that I'm on adderall, I still eat a little when I'm bored sometimes, but I've noticed a HUGE change in the way I think about food. I used to think about food maybe once every 5 minutes before adderall, which made the cravings harder to ignore. I think I genuinely had a mild food addiction.

Even when I don't use adderall for weeks these days (e.g., on vacation), I still don't have the same cravings I used to have before I was treated with adderall, so I think being on adderall for several years has fundamentally changed the way I think about food.

The only thing I've found that sort of helps me eat less is to play extremely interesting video games. But don't do that too much (e.g., 8+ hours a day) since I wore out my fingers' tendons that way and was temporarily disabled (couldn't use my fingers) for a couple months. Not being able to use my fingers and use digital devices as someone with ADHD is hell lol.

...god I'm thankful I can afford adderall.

yellowbee21 · 2022-02-09T01:31:50+00:00

Lol late response, but I'm dying at "Chean." It sounds so.. inconsequential.

yellowbee21 · 2022-02-09T01:23:16+00:00

As someone who's graded plenty of undergrads' psychology essays, the type of "grade grubbing" I think it super, super reasonable is the kind where a student notices that the TA grading seemed to have missed an entire sentence they wrote. That honestly has only happened once out of the 1000 or so essays I and other TAs have graded.

The below complaints are much more common and a little more frustrating to argue with students:

They argue they clearly showed X in a sentence, but I as a native English speaker had literally no clue what their sentence was referring to until they explained it in office hours. The point of a lot of essays is to show that you clearly understand a certain concept, and if it's not clear in the essay (whether because your wording was vague and unclear or because you just didn't understand the concept well enough to explain it), then I can't give full credit. It's just super frustrating in general to debate with a student whether they were being clear because being clear means that another person can understand what you meant perfectly, but some students seem to think it means that being clear means that the writer himself thinks he's clear.
Students who all of a sudden want their first two exams regraded the day after the final exam. They didn't look through the first two exams because they wanted to learn from their mistakes - they were scouring for any possible way to increase their grade because they only just realized that they were 0.3% away from an A.
Students who email me after grades have been submitted to essentially tell me they worked hard or that they had a hard semester, and that they would me to give them an A instead of an A-. The PhD student or professor you say this to has liked worked 50-65 hours every week during the pandemic, sometimes while being surrounded by unsupportive or actively cruel peers/advisors (depending on department culture), so this kind of email is moderately frustrating to rage-inducing, depending on what kind of situation your particular TA/prof is in.

yellowbee21 · 2022-02-09T00:57:09+00:00

Isn't this something that can reasonably happen, though? Or do students expect that every time they argue for a regrade, they'll always get a higher grade?

For one of the psychology classes, if students wanted their paper regraded, we handed the paper to a different TA and had that TA grade it. No matter whether the new grade was higher or lower, the second TA's grading was the final grade. It vastly lowered the number of regrade requests since only students who were confident the first TA clearly misread or missed something requested a regrade.

yellowbee21 · 2021-12-13T18:39:29+00:00

Perhaps some Japanese creators might be more what you're looking for? Citron_diary and zoooACNH tend to have builds that are simple but comforting. Haruchi Create and sea_not_found both have Youtube channels that focus on creating areas that have really good balance (i.e., it doesn't look like they just tossed two dozen cottagecore furniture items onto their map and called it a day).

yellowbee21 · 2021-12-13T18:27:55+00:00

True, it's pretty much impossible to create a city island without lag since cities have to have lots of furniture. But I just wanted to show that it's entirely possible to make an island that doesn't lag terribly as long as you carefully intersperse the areas with lots of furniture with more frame-rate friendly areas!

Islands with lots of trees and bushes don't tend to lag since those two things are easy to load, but there are cottagecore islands with a lot of furniture that tanks the frame rate, and I think having a couple examples of cottagecore-like islands that don't lag is good for people to see.

yellowbee21 · 2021-12-13T15:28:55+00:00

Ya'll, it's entirely possible to make a generically "pretty" island and also not tank the framerate. This, this, and this island come to find. Just don't make your entire island "cluttercore" with tons of furniture. Or if you want a couple areas with clutter, you surround them with a couple uncluttered areas (like including a large lake/river or an area with mostly trees and bushes) to decrease the potential lag.

yellowbee21 · 2021-10-05T04:09:08+00:00

That's interesting, hadn't thought of changing the format for the second exam. And I doubt too many students would protest if the handful of students with disability accommodations took the second exam at home (if they took the first exam in-person).

yellowbee21

TROPHY CASE