u/CirceRhianon

32F, 165cm, 62kgs, taking Nurtec every other day and fluoxetine every day. History of vertebral artery dissection September 2025, chronic migraines, TMJ ostheoartritis, hypermobile (root of all my issues).

Last tuesday I had TMJ PT due to an arthrocentesis. PT gave me a neck massage on the platisma and other parts of neck.

Last wednesday I had my usual botox migraine protocol injected (every 6 months).

Yesterday I started having intense pain just under the ear and down the “platisma”, or somewhere there. It was very intense, and I felt Ill. I’ve had headaches but since I take Nurtec i have them under control. Though lately I’ve been having tons of migraines, that’s why I needed my botox session.

Now it’s 4am here (Chile) and I woke up with intense pain in that same area, in the right side of my neck, and it’s palpably swollen. I’m afraid of could be dissection, not vertebral artery of course, but maybe carotid? Not sure if i would feel pain in that spot.

I’m only familiar with VAD pain, and it was kinda like this in the way that it seemsd muscular, but not quite, and put heat on it thinking it would make it better but didn’t. Last VAD was also due to PT massage (crazy) so that’s why i’m scared. Is this a possibility or what could this be? Should I need to go to the ER?

I had a vertebral artery dissection (32F) last year in September. How dangerous is that I get pregnant? Would I need any extra care? (Or is it a bad idea?)

Hey!! First time in this community.

So I need to talk about this cuz otherwise I'll go crazy, or maybe I already lost my mind lol.

But okay, the thing is, I (32F) am not *actively* TTC, but I am not really preventing it. Meaning, me and my partner want kids, we're financially stable and very happy, and we decided that maybe from here to like a year we'll really TTC (ovulations tests, everything.) For now, even though we haven't explicitly said it, we're kind of relaxed about it. We don't use protection, we know sometimes I'm in my fertile window, and we're okay with it cuz if it comes, it comes and we're ready for it (is this a thing? I hope so.)

Well, last month, for the first time ever, we had unprotected sex at the beggining of my fertile window (according just to my CM and to my App, but both are usually pretty accurate at least in terms of predicting my period) and I was F*CKING SURE I got pregnant. Like, I could feel it. I had this crazy intuition, plus I felt like my luteal phase symptoms were extreme. So I kind of convinced myself like: yeah, this time I got pregnant. This is how I found out about this subreddit and some others related to this topic. I was CONSTANTLY, several times a day and everyday, looking for DPO symptoms, experiences, etc. And above everything else, I was just sure my instinct was correct. Of course I wasn't 100% sure, but I just had this feeling, you know?

Well, yesterday I got my period, and tbh—and yes, I know it sounds crazy—I felt really sad about it. I’m not depressed or anything; I know getting pregnant isn't THAT easy. But this whole experience just made me doubt myself so much. Like... is this how DELUSIONAL I can get? Do I literally have ZERO instinct?!

I’m guessing a lot of women on the TTC journey can relate. Or at least, I'm hoping to find people who have felt this way. It’s hard enough to constantly doubt yourself as a woman (whether we’re competent, confident, or have enough self-love) without now doubting my own body’s intuition and feeling like I let myself get OBSESSED with an illusion that wasn't even there.

What shocked me even more was that my period came 3 days EARLIER than expected. Based on my calculations—correct me if I’m wrong—that means we probably had sex right around my ovulation day, or maybe a bit earlier. That scared me too. Again, I know it’s not that simple and I’m not actively TTC yet, but it sent me down a bit of a spiral.

On the bright side, it made one thing crystal clear: I am so ready to be a mom. That’s my biggest takeaway from all of this. But I still hate feeling like my internal compass is so completely off. Agh.

Just a bit of a rant, but also a way to connect with anyone else who might be feeling this way. Thank you guys—you have an amazing community here that I hope to officially be a part of soon!

Hey guys!
I JUST found out this subreddit exists and I am SO glad it does! So thank you so much to whoever created it, it is so great to know I can read your experiences and ask you guys things.

I’m 32 (F), chilean. I just started my journey (2 sessions). Actually, they still have not practiced EMDR, just standard conversation, but they diagnosed me PTSD and talking a bit about this experience has been so intense that for moments I feel like I can’t handle it. Like, in the second session she really digged in the subject, I ended up very anxious (I told her, of course) and then all the way home and even after getting home I cried non-stop. It felt like I couldn’t control it, it was very weird for me. Then at the middle of the night, after several nightmares that I would be woken up by my partner because I was crying, I got insomnia and started crying again.

So, okay, it’s been tough. The thing is, I suspect this is so hard for me to recall that my mind tries to forget about it inmediately, and I feel like it’s happening for my therapy sessions too. Like, she’s said some very insightful things that I wanna reflect about but can’t cuz I keep forgetting (is this normal btw?!)

Would it be weird to ask her if I can take notes too? (Since she does take notes lol). I’m a writer so also I am very, very used to go around with a notebook and write down anything I feel like it’s important.

Thank you!! And sorry if my English isn’t the best (I’m native Spanish)

I am not sure if this subreddit accept this kind of content and I apologize if not.

But I have this VERY recurring dream in which I suddenly am “conscious” on my dream and realize I am still dating my ex (my “first love”, a very toxic relationship I had that lasted 8 years.)

This is always a nightmare for me. The context always changes, but the scenarios are always from my childhood/teenage years (the suburbs where I grew up) and my whole dream becomes about how to break up with this person. I realize in my dream I’ve been with this guy for so long without having any feelings for him, though I still have a boyfriend-girlfriend behavior, and usually I feel guilty for waiting for so long, anxious for breaking up but I keep putting off the breakup because I don't want to hurt his feelings, and I'm always waiting for the perfect moment to do it.

Lately, this dream has evolved. In the dream, I'm now aware that I have a partner in my real life—my current partner—and the nightmare becomes even worse because I realize I've somehow been with two people at the same time all along, and that I'm going to hurt my current partner terribly because of it.
In one of the earlier versions of this dream, I spend the whole time searching for my ex so I can finally break up with him. When I eventually find him, he's already become friends with my current partner, so he knows everything—that I've been "playing both sides" this entire time. I end up crying and feeling absolutely awful. I was so distressed by that dream that I woke up sobbing.
The last time I had this dream, which was quite recently, my ex actually referred back to that previous dream and told me I was a bad person for cheating on my current boyfriend.
It's all very strange, and honestly quite distressing, because these dreams are extremely recurrent and they are always very heavy for me, even conciousy.
I’ve been having these dreams for about 5 years now

I am not sure if this subreddit accept this kind of content and I apologize if not.

But I have this VERY recurring dream in which I suddenly am “conscious” on my dream and realize I am still dating my ex (my “first love”, a very toxic relationship I had that lasted 8 years.)

This is always a nightmare for me. The context always changes, but the scenarios are always from my childhood/teenage years (the suburbs where I grew up) and my whole dream becomes about how to break up with this person. I realize in my dream I’ve been with this guy for so long without having any feelings for him, though I still have a boyfriend-girlfriend behavior, and usually I feel guilty for waiting for so long, anxious for breaking up but I keep putting off the breakup because I don't want to hurt his feelings, and I'm always waiting for the perfect moment to do it.

Lately, this dream has evolved. In the dream, I'm now aware that I have a partner in my real life—my current partner—and the nightmare becomes even worse because I realize I've somehow been with two people at the same time all along, and that I'm going to hurt my current partner terribly because of it.
In one of the earlier versions of this dream, I spend the whole time searching for my ex so I can finally break up with him. When I eventually find him, he's already become friends with my current partner, so he knows everything—that I've been "playing both sides" this entire time. I end up crying and feeling absolutely awful. I was so distressed by that dream that I woke up sobbing.
The last time I had this dream, which was quite recently, my ex actually referred back to that previous dream and told me I was a bad person for cheating on my current boyfriend.
It's all very strange, and honestly quite distressing, because these dreams are extremely recurrent and they are always very heavy for me, even conciousy.
I’ve been having these dreams for about 5 years now.

I really know nothing about this, I’m clueless, though SO eager to start a journey. Where do I start, and how? What does it really mean, to be awakened?

I'm curious about how profitable self-publishing is in languages other than English. The English market is extremely competitive, but it's also huge. Spanish is spoken in many countries, but the reading population seems proportionally smaller. Are there self-published authors here making a full-time income in Spanish, or is the market too limited compared to English?

I’ve been looking everywhere. A Nobel prize without her first work published in English or Spanish? I refuse to believe it 😭. Have any of you read E.E by Tokarczuk in either of these languages?

Hello everyone!
New here, but I already went through the wiki.
I’m actually very excited about this journey! It seems hard and tricky, but also fun.
I was wondering, though, how do you guys build an audience with a pen name. I have some followers on my personal IG, nothing big, but I want to publish with a pen name and hopefully without showing my face.
How do you guys built an audience from scratch? It seems SO hard. It was already hard for me in my personal account.
Any advice or personal experience with it is much appreciated!!! Thanks :)

Hey guys!

I am a literary editor (working for like 9 years in traditional Spanish publishing houses) and a literary writer (I won a prize for a short story, I also am a literary critic in a traditional Spanish newspaper) and I randomly came across a publication in this subreddit about treating selfpublication as a business. I was actually surprised on how prolific some authors are and how lucrative that business can be.

I actually love writing in popular genres like sci-fi, romantic, fantasy, etc. and I wanted to know how to start this journey. I understand you guys usually publish through Amazon, right?

Do you need to have a skill to be able to build eBooks?
How do you promote your work?
Would you recommend doing this if you love to write and know how to?
Should I write in English or does Spanish also have its public? (That’s my first language)

I really am so lost. Even in that post you talked about some terms I knew nothing about lol.

I would appreciate advice + some tips!
I might lose a stable job that I have because they’re closing the project and I really need to think of ways of getting an income. This might be a long journey, but at least it would be something I love to do.

Thanks! :)