u/Constantia789

Background: I am a USC and husband is Italian. We have been married for 7 years and have two kids together ages 9 and 5. Both kids born in Italy. We never filed before because we thought we would be abroad forever and still had time. I worked for the UN and he was remote with another UN agency. Im a total dummy because I should have just filed and then he could have gone straight to citizenship since I was posted abroad with an international agency recognized by the UN. Anyways hindsight is 20/20. I had to leave my job for various reasons last year (less funding and they were forcing me to a non-family duty station so I took a buy-out). Our long term plan is to be back in the states but I need a job there first. In the interim we have settled in Rome while we wait which is not too bad and I have picked up some consulting work.

I filed in July 2025 (no updates) and submitted our kids Italian and American (CRBA) birth certificates, our marriage certificate and Apostille, my Will & Testament leaving everything to him of course, my Italian equivalent of a “green card” and that’s pretty much it besides identity documents. We had a courthouse wedding right before covid hit so no big wedding photos or anything. I was advised to proceed this way because we have kids so it’s straightforward but I am still nervous that I did not submit “enough” - any thoughts? Thanks to you all.

Hi all - my dad has had such a rough go with pain following a spinal fusion. He is not on reddit so posting this on his behalf. He is almost 76 and in otherwise incredible health and great shape. Find his story below:

I had a spinal fusion in 2013, and about six months later I started getting severe burning pain in my upper abdomen (mid-epigastric area) that has never gone away since — 13 years now. It’s not related to meals, doesn’t respond to diet changes, and reflux/GI causes have all been ruled out by GI doctors. The weirdest part is it reliably wakes me up around 3am, often 6-10/10 pain. I’ve been through the wringer at top Boston hospitals — full GI workups, pain clinic, acupuncture, TAP blocks, trigger point injections, splanchnic and intercostal nerve blocks — nothing helped except a bilateral T7-T8 paravertebral block, which gave me over 50% relief for about a week before it wore off. I’ve tried gabapentin (up to 1500mg), Lyrica, desipramine, and tramadol with limited or unsustainable results. Tramadol helps but can only be taken as a last-resort. Has anyone else developed nerve-type abdominal pain after a fusion, especially anything that responded to a paravertebral or nerve root block at that level? Trying to figure out if this is a known post-fusion nerve issue before I go back to my pain team.

Hi everyone I received the scary threatening email the other day (I always read in my head in the voice of the orange nazi). When I logged on there was a notice at the top saying that to comply with a court order they will update our payment count towards forgiveness. I had about 100k in debt between private and federal and it’s down to 34k all federal. Ive made sooooo many payments. When will they update this and is it worth calling them (my servicer is Mohela) or is just going to irritate me even more? Im so bummed because under the Biden plan I was set to get 20k forgiven because I received Pell grants. Thanks in advance fam.

Hi where my menstrual migraines ladies at? I was having absolutely hellacious menstrual migraines so went on continuous no break bc (Drovelis) and poof - three months no migraines. Now I started to have breakthrough awful migraines and need a triptan. Anyone else experiencing this? Why? What to do?