I can't believe I'm actually typing this out, but honestly, life's been such a weird, slow-motion train wreck lately that I feel like I need to vent just to make sure I'm still awake. It’s one of those stretches where everything feels slightly off-kilter, you know? Like you're walking through a dream where the physics are just a little too heavy. I was sitting at this little coffee shop over in Seattle the other day—just one of those quiet, dimly lit spots where you can hide behind a laptop and pretend to be productive—and I started thinking about how much has shifted since last year. Everything moves so fast, yet somehow, it feels like we're all just treading water. I caught myself staring out the window at the rain for twenty minutes, wondering if anyone else felt that same weird, hollow sense of "is this it?" while everyone around them was frantically checking their phones or rushing to some meeting they probably didn't want to go to anyway. Anyway, I've been seeing some chatter online, and it's kind of making me wonder if I'm just being overly cynical or if there's actually something going on with the way we're all processing things right now. Velvetmoose9 was mentioning something similar the other day, and I think Melloworca6 might have had a point about the whole social burnout thing, too. It’s like we’re all collectively exhausted, but nobody wants to be the first one to admit it because we're too busy trying to look like we've got it all figured out. It's fine, though. Really. I'm just rambling. Just one of those moods where the thoughts flow a bit too easily and I end up writing a novel when I should probably be doing my laundry or something equally soul-crushing. Just wanted to put that out there. kaže: I noticed this thread's been gathering a bit of dust lately, but I figured I’d throw my hat in the ring anyway and see if anyone's still around. So, about three days ago, I got bit by something. It felt pretty much like a mosquito bite, but I’m not exactly buying that theory—I mean, where would mosquitoes even be hanging out in the middle of winter? I did a full sweep of my room and didn't see a single bug anywhere. It started with one spot on my hip, then popped up on my ankle, my stomach, around my chest, and even some on my arms under my armpits. To top it off, there are a couple of bites clustered together in one specific spot. Man, I’ve got this itch I just can't scratch. So, I just brought home a new cat a few days ago, and I’m starting to get a nagging suspicion that there might be fleas in the mix. It’s honestly tripping me out because I’ve had cats my entire life and I’ve never once been bitten by a flea myself—it’s like they usually just ignore me entirely.
So, I woke up this morning with these bites that are like half a centimeter wide, and honestly, the itching is exactly like when a mosquito gets you. It’s driving me nuts, and I am completely stumped as to what’s actually going on. I’ve already done the whole deep-clean routine—I checked under the bed, stripped everything, put on fresh linens, even vacuumed the floor and the mattress itself—but I still woke up with brand-new welts today. It feels like I'm losing my mind a little bit. 🤷 Anyone got any bright ideas?🙄
It’s been pretty warm out these last few weeks, which has basically given the flea population a free pass to go wild. I’ve been seeing more and more people reaching out about their pets coming home with these clusters of bites all over their bodies—it’s almost always classic flea territory. It could be that, obviously, but you also have to consider other stuff creeping in now that it's heating up; certain spiders can get aggressive, and while bedbugs aren't exactly a common thing around here, they definitely pop up when you least expect them. Honestly, if you've got pets, you really ought to be looking into professional pest control or at least making sure they're on a solid preventative treatment if they aren't already, just to stay ahead of the curve. You definitely need to make sure there's enough room to breathe. Once they start running away with those cats, they’re just gonna head straight for the nearest warm-blooded idiot. 😍 ).
Rebecca Carter5 said:And honestly, it’s pretty much like any other situation where you really ought to go talk to your doctor first before making moves... I actually thought maybe someone here had dealt with this exact thing before, since there are so many people dealing with asthma in these groups, and there's probably a few moms in the mix too who might know... But whatever, I guess I'll just keep Googling and searching for actual personal stories...
I don't doubt for a second that whatever doctor prescribed the medication was already fully aware of the situation regarding the kid and weighed the benefits against any potential risks accordingly. Besides, most inhaled meds—including Advair Diskus—are designed to work topically, meaning they hit the target organ directly so the effect is maximized while systemic absorption, and therefore those nasty side effects, stays kept to an absolute minimum.
Based on what you're describing, it sounds like you've probably just picked up some kind of virus, or maybe even the actual flu. If it is the flu, you’d typically see a bunch of other people around you dealing with the exact same symptoms too, especially among those who haven't grabbed their seasonal shot. Taking some Advil should be perfectly fine to help manage everything you're feeling. As for that CRP reading—and I really do feel for you with how crappy you're feeling 😉—it isn't actually that high; it can get way, way higher with all sorts of other issues. Just take it easy, eat plenty of food, keep the fluids coming (water, tea, whatever works), and get some sleep. Give it about ten days before you try to jump back into your normal routine. Of course, if things start looking worse, you know the drill—go ahead and check in with your doctor
Joshua Collins55 said:On Wednesday, I got absolutely leveled by a 101 fever, along with some nasty muscle aches and a killer headache. When I swung by the ER at Mount Sinai, they told me it’s just the flu or some kind of virus and insisted I didn't need antibiotics. I actually went two days without a fever, but now it's back—it's a bit lower, around 99.5, but I've felt incredibly weak this whole time. I'm wondering how long these things usually drag on, because honestly, I've never had a bug last longer than three days before.
Given everything you're feeling, it really makes sense to check in with your primary doctor. They'll probably want to run some basic blood work or maybe even more specific diagnostic tests based on how you're presenting, just so they can decide on the best next steps. For now, just take it easy, eat plenty of good food, stay hydrated, and get some sleep. If things get significantly worse, remember that emergency services are still available 24/7 at the local hospital. 😉 By the way, a 99.5 fever is pretty borderline; it doesn't necessarily mean something major is going wrong. You didn't mention if you've been taking any Advil or anything else to bring the temperature down or help with the pain, or what doses you used and how much relief they actually gave you...
Look, if you’d actually ruptured your latissimus, you wouldn't be having this conversation right now—you'd be too busy screaming in agony just trying to breathe, sit, or lie down... Since you've got all that myeloise going on in your back (or maybe even some fibrosis??), it honestly makes a lot of sense to start applying gels locally as soon as you can, followed by some proper medical massage once things settle down a bit. Seriously though, just ask your doctor to clear up whether there's underlying myeloise present and what kind of therapy would actually work best for your specific situation 😉 If you don't mind me asking, what EXACT movement or action triggered that pain you described?
Honestly, how on earth did you manage to actually tear your latissimus dorsi? That’s a hell of a feat. If I’m reading you right, you haven't actually gotten official confirmation yet regarding whether it's a full-on rupture or not, right? I can't speak for your specific situation, but in my experience, it happens pretty frequently during certain workouts where people feel like their lat just "snaps." It results in this sudden, sharp localized pain—usually accompanied by some swelling—but without an actual tear. Usually, those things clear up in a couple of weeks if you just take it easy and use some local pain relief, like Luboreta, Voltaren Spray, Diclofenac Gel, Motrin Gel, or Voltaren gel. The thing is, if you’ve actually torn the muscle, those topical stuff like gels and sprays usually won't touch the pain, and you're looking at dealing with it for months...
Honestly, there’s a whole laundry list of things working against a smooth recovery in this particular situation. First off, we’re dealing with an older patient—and let's be real, the body just doesn't bounce back quite as fast as it used to when you're getting up there in years; tissue regeneration just isn't what it was in our twenties. Then you’ve got poorly managed diabetes, which I'm guessing has been part of the picture for a while now, and that's a massive hurdle because it absolutely wreaks havoc on microcirculation. That slows down wound healing to a crawl, and unfortunately, that kind of tissue becomes a perfect little playground for bacteria to move in and set up camp. Because of all that, surgical options are pretty limited right now. At the end of the day, the absolute priority has to be getting that blood sugar under control and clearing out any infection first; only then can a surgeon actually step in and do something meaningful that won't just be wasted. Plus, we're flying blind here since we don't have the full story on things like smoking, alcohol use, BMI, or their previous medical history, all of which play a huge role in how well a wound heals.
Edward Murphy4 said:This has been happening to me on and off for the last 10 years.🤣 Doctors haven't found anything specific, except for the fact that it only hits when I'm stressed out. And yesterday... yeah, yesterday was one of those days.
As for the first aid part—sadly, I have way too much experience with that.😬
Alright, so you've probably already gone through all those tests, maybe even a tilt-table test, and I'm guessing everything came back looking totally normal... What did they actually list as your diagnosis in your medical records?
Edward Murphy4 said:So, I got up from bed tonight and after maybe a minute, everything just went black—vision totally cut out—and I could feel my pulse dropping... I hit the floor immediately because, honestly, I know from experience that if I hadn't, I would've passed out cold. I’ve had similar episodes before caused by hypoglycemia, but this time none of the usual stuff showed up—no shakes, no sweating, no racing heart, no nausea or weakness—so I’m thinking it was just a massive blood pressure drop.🤷 But this slowing heart rate thing has me worried... is that actually a normal precursor to fainting? Everything seemed to level out once I was lying down.
You should definitely sit down with your primary care doctor first and get some basic diagnostics out of the way—think standard blood work, an EKG, and maybe even an ultrasound of the heart if they think it's necessary, or possibly a transesophageal one. Depending on what they find, you might need to go for more targeted testing like a Holter monitor or an EEG before deciding if you actually need to see a specialist, like a cardiologist or a neurologist. Looking at the symptoms described, vasovagal syncope is definitely on the table, but we really need to rule out a whole bunch of other stuff first. Does anyone else in your family deal with similar issues? Anyway, major props to you for handling that first aid like a pro right there at home. 😉
Honestly, I’d probably just head over to my primary care doctor and grab a referral for a routine checkup at the infectious disease clinic, but if things take a turn for the worse and you have another flare-up, just hit up the ER—you don't need a referral for that, and they're open 24/7 regardless of what time it is... Though, I gotta say again, there are just way too many different things that could be causing what you're going through... We shouldn't be guessing 😉
So, you're dealing with a fever after all? Look, if you start feeling one of those descriptive attacks coming on, don't just sit there—get moving immediately. Grab an Uber or a Lyft and head straight to the ER (honestly, it's a good thing she pointed you toward them). It’d be really smart to get your bloodwork done while the attack is actually happening; it makes things so much easier for the doctors when they can see what's going on in real-time. Usually, the staff at places like Mayo Clinic are top-tier, so you might finally get some actual attention—at least the bare minimum, though they'll go much deeper if they see a clear indication. Definitely bring along any old medical records you have; that always helps speed things up. Are you taking any meds on a regular basis, or just every now and then?
Look, I’m telling you, if you're dealing with those symptoms along with a fever or the shakes, things could get pretty heavy, pretty fast. Especially if you notice your urine turning dark after one of those "attacks"... especially if you were actually hanging out in some tropical area where malaria is a thing. Honestly, there are way too many possibilities on the table right now to start guessing blindly. There's no point overthinking it—it's definitely not the kind of night you want to be rolling into an ER—but then again, like melloworca6 said, people head to the emergency room at 5 PM for stuff that isn't even remotely urgent. Let's just hope that after they run all the tests, they send you straight back home and tell you it was just stress from your classes, eating nothing but campus cafeteria food, and hitting the cheap tequila a little too hard, causing your liver to basically quit on you alongside a gallbladder stone... plus whatever other snarky comments the crew over at 😉 might throw your way.
Dr. House would probably give you that classic look and ask why on earth you didn't take your malaria prophylaxis... But seriously, as soon as possible,get over to your primary care physician for some baseline testing—think blood work, X-rays, maybe an ultrasound, and then they can point you toward a specialist if anything looks funky on the results. If you’re sitting there with a fever or starting to get the shakes, don't play games; just head straight to the ER...
I’m a little lost here. How many right leaves are we talking about versus left ones? Maybe you just have more on the left side, so they look bigger simply because there are more of them?! That deformity you mentioned—assuming it’s natural, though it could be something you picked up along the way—might actually be why your calf muscles look uneven. You could even have asymmetries further up the leg, but you didn't mention anything about that. Was this difference already there before you had surgery? It’s totally possible the procedure itself caused the asymmetry, but I can't really tell without knowing the timeline 🤷. As for whether you should get it corrected or how much work it would take, you'll need to run that by your doctor (usually an orthopedic surgeon), a physiatrist, or a solid physical therapist. They can figure out if corrective exercises are even worth it, or if some other kind of therapy makes more sense. You haven't really given me the full picture, though—how old are you, when was your first surgery, when was the second, and how long did you spend in PT? I’m assuming you did rehab both before and after the operations, but I don't know what specific exercises you were doing or if they actually helped your feet or legs function any better. What kind of exercises are you doing at home now to try and improve your mobility? Are you sticking to targeted exercises—which I assume you learned during your pre- and post-op rehab—on a regular basis now that the surgery is over?
Richard Cook2 said:nah, look, the more work you put in on the muscle side, the faster you actually drop weight once you start leaning out. plus, if you're just grinding away at cardio trying to burn off fat, you're putting your hard-earned muscle at serious risk of catabolism so you really gotta "protect" it with some heavy strength training!
Catabolism, or did you mean anabolism? Pretty sure that was a slip of the tongue...
slydriver52;41721049[B I can't even begin to describe how much I hate being told what to do by some random guy on the internet, especially when he thinks he's an expert on everything under the sun. It’s like, okay, thanks for the input, but maybe sit this one out? Honestly, it's just exhausting dealing with that kind of attitude all the time. ]Honestly, you can find four-component blends everywhere these days if you look hard enough. I really don't get why everyone gets so hung up on that specific detail like it's some holy grail or something.[/BLook, I didn't bring this up, and honestly, I’m not really interested in playing Q&A with you. Arguing about supplement quality feels like a total waste of breath when you already know that even over in Germany, they’re sourcing their raw materials from outside the European Union—supposedly straight out of China. At the end of the day, the price tags on stuff from Weider or Inkospor are just plain ridiculous, and if you ask any German, they'll tell you the exact same thing. I'm done wasting my energy on this...
Look, I feel like I need to give you a little refresher on how this whole thing actually kicked off. To set the scene, one of our regular forum members, Ashley Baker34, originally hopped on here with a question about... Protein80PlusLook, I laid out my whole take on that supplement, and then you just swoop in to complain about how overpriced it is. You keep harping on the price tag without ever actually suggesting a comparable four-component alternative that won't break the bank. To me, this forum has always been about people sharing knowledge and real-world experiences in good faith—that’s at least how I see it. But honestly, the way you talk to people (and yeah, it's not just me) doesn't exactly scream "good intentions." I’m not really feeling like you’re frustrated because I’m challenging your points—I don't even view our back-and-forth as an argument—but you basically just jumped into Ashley Baker34's thread specifically to tell her the stuff was too expensive. And then you just stopped there. That's it.
slydriver52 said:You still haven't mentioned what you actually do for a living to justify being so "brilliant." I honestly don't think there's any point in even addressing what was said above because I really have zero interest in getting into an argument with you. I'm not sure why you're even bothering to jump on my comments when they have nothing to do with you personally. My point about Weider being pricey is pretty straightforward—if you look at the cost per gram for those 500g tubs, you can easily see how expensive it gets if you were to buy, say, 5 lbs of Weider protein. And yeah, Inkospor is overkill on the price tag too. We could go back and forth for days debating which one is better and we won't get anywhere, mostly because neither of us actually knows where these specific manufacturers source their raw ingredients or the exact specifics of how they process them. The whole "fast vs. slow" thing is pretty subjective. Back when I first started hitting the gym, the go-to supplements were almost exclusively egg white protein as the main amino acid source post-workout, but eventually, manufacturers probably pivoted to whey just because it’s way cheaper to produce at scale.
I'm just some random guy hanging out on a forum, nothing more. 😁 Just like everyone else here, really. 😁 I'm still waiting on those suggestions from you for a four-component whey blend that’s actually cheaper than Weider. Also, what's your beef with Inkospor and Weider specifically? Is it just competition, or something else? Did you Google whose Weider is? And honestly, where did I ever claim or compare one specific product against another brand-for-brand? Come on, put a little effort into it. 😁 You could definitely do better than that. 😍 I get that you don't know where certain brands source their materials, but what exactly are you basing your logic on if you also don't know how they process them? It's not like we were hanging out in Germany together or anything! I agree that using terms like "fast" or "slow" is a simplification, but it's just how you make products accessible to the general public. Realistically, it isn't that simple; it's highly individual and depends on a ton of different factors. The cost difference between whey and egg protein is just one part of the puzzle, among many others... By the way, have you ever tried KIF?
slydriver52 said:Eggs aren't some slow-burning protein source... A four-component blend could just be different types of whey rather than a mix of totally different sources. And honestly, saying Germans make the highest quality stuff is a massive stretch—that's definitely up for debate. Besides, PowerBar is an American company under a Nestlé license, and they were making their stuff for Europe over in Germany. You’re busy trashing American products, yet those exact same American brands are what dominate the German market. I really have to wonder how that works if their oversight system is supposedly so much better, or if there's something else going on.
So, which one actually hits the bloodstream faster: whey or eggs? (If you read my previous post closely, you'd see exactly which two sources I was comparing—I could have thrown casein into the mix too, for all the good it would do). Earlier, I asked you quite politely and civilly to clarify something regarding a different, third type of four-component protein powder so I could give Ashley Baker34 a proper answer, but you dodged it. Now you're circling back to this "four-component" thing again, claiming it's from whey, but which specific supplement are we even talking about? What are these four components derived from whey? Can you actually point out where, word for word, I was trashing American products? It’s getting pretty hard to play the "this belongs to this nation" game these days, but fine—tell me then, by your own logic of national pride, whose is Weider's ProteinPlus80? The reality is it gets manufactured and packaged in Germany and follows their standards. And guess what? That's exactly what I'm recommending. You're being a bit contradictory here. Explaining the difference between an "American" product made in the US versus that same "American" product made in Germany is easy enough for anyone who understands the difference between US quality control and the systems used in Germany/the EU. Feel free to enlighten us all on why Germans don't produce the best stuff (and seriously, quote me where I ever claimed Germany makes the highest quality products), and tell us who *does* make the best. I'm sure the community will be thrilled to hear your expert opinion.
slydriver52 said:I don't quite follow you there. Why exactly does it need to be a four-component blend, and why on earth does it have to come from Germany?
Look, I’m just answering the question asked here—it really comes down to having a wider spectrum of amino acids sourced from different types of food, without getting all philosophical about it. You know, that whole "you need a varied diet" cliché. It’s actually about the timing component, specifically having access to those "fast" aminos (mostly from whey) alongside the "slow" ones (mainly from eggs), plus a solid supply of BCAAs and glutamine. The human body is basically this finely tuned machine, and when you feed it a broader variety of high-quality components, it usually ends up picking exactly what it needs to function best. Now, don't get me wrong, there’s definitely a specific group of recreational lifters or serious athletes out there for whom sticking to a single-component source—like pure whey, egg protein, milk isolate, or casein—might be a better move during certain phases or specific training cycles. But my response was directed at Ashley Baker34, and I was just laying out why a four-component blend like Protein80Plus is a perfectly solid choice for what they're looking for. I haven't seen any posts from you yet! You just dropped a "nju" in the thread—did you mean to type something else, or are you just lurking? If you've got a question about supplements or want to vent about your training split, feel free to lay it out. I'm around. 😁Germany still maintains a pretty decent system for regulating dietary supplements—though, if I remember correctly, they aren't quite as strict as they were a few years back. It feels like things have loosened up just a little bit since then. Inkospor I’ve always felt like their stuff was top-tier, especially since it undergoes such rigorous testing at the German Sport University Cologne—though, to be fair, I don't know exactly what their specific protocols look like or what kind of benchmarks they're hitting. I'm fully aware that we have our own oversight systems here in the States, but if you ask me, most of them feel a bit more lax compared to the standards they maintain over in Germany. At the end of the day, though, it really just comes down to personal preference and what you decide to put in your body.
slydriver52 said:The price tag is just way too steep for me.
Got any ideas for a cheaper alternative? I'm looking for a 4-component setup, ideally something manufactured over in Germany. Honestly, I haven't been keeping up with the scene on a regular basis lately...