u/Other-Apricot-3413

I’ve been a Thred Up customer for years now and have had a good experience. However, my latest order highlighted how expensive it actually can be to shop here. I’m a tall, larger person who is very sensitive to the way fabrics feel on my skin, so I try to only shop brands I know. This time, however, I was really looking to add new and interesting pieces to my wardrobe so I went out of my comfort zone.

I ordered 12 items and unfortunately had to return 6 of them. This meant $12 in return shipping and $24 in restocking fees. I guess it was still worth it, because I got some nice, brand name things.

But now I’m kind of regretting doing a “haul” and will be very hesitant to try new styles through thred up in the future.

Any tips on shopping smarter? Should I just stick to brands I’m very comfortable with?

I had been using nitroglycerine with great success for about 5 weeks. I even had one week that was almost completely pain free. I still stuck to my fiber rich diet and took MiraLAX daily.

One day last week I suddenly started feeling pain again. Then the next day I tore again without having a hard bowel movement or even straining. Since then the cream doesn’t seem to be helping at all and I’m getting worse by the day.

Botox is scheduled for later in the week, so maybe this won’t matter soon, but I’m curious to know if anyone else had this happen?

I never missed a dose. Didn’t have particularly bad BMs. I did have one night when I drank a little too much wine, so maybe that contributed?

I’m so frustrated.

I was successful on the weight watchers program years ago. Has anyone used it recently? What are the pros/cons of the program?

Right now I’m mainly struggling with making the right food choices in the afternoon. I get hungry around 3pm and my attitude around food choices changes from “I’m doing great today” to “F it, I’ll do better tomorrow.”

I’m also consistently going over my limit by 100-300 calories, which of course is significantly slowing my loss.

Is there any reason to think the structure of WW might help me through my challenges?

Sometimes I feel like my brain houses two completely different people. In the morning I’m motivated to stay on track and I feel a sense of power. Then lunch comes around and a new person takes over. She tells me I’ll never be able to lose weight, that I’m going too slow, that the weight I have lost is so minuscule that I might as well not have even started and that I should just give up. This often leads me to overeat at lunch. What have others done to combat this mean person in their heads?

Not sure if it matters but I’m 47F, 5’9”, started at 215, and have gotten down to 200 since January (like I said, very slow). I’ve literally been on and off dieting since I was 9 or 10 so these voices are very ingrained in my brain. I am in therapy, but still struggle daily.

Was at a high school athletic event last night and one of the most successful women was named Ayre’On. I think it is supposed to be Airy-ON but the announcer kept saying Aryan. It made me so uncomfortable and I felt bad for the athlete. Did her parents really never think about this possible mispronunciation? Am I being too sensitive in thinking it was super cringe?

My son runs the 1600, 800 and 400. We try to be generous with buying track gear because it’s a relatively cheap sport compared to others. However, the shoe situation this season has been frustrating and I’m hoping someone might have suggestions for new options he could try.

Spikes: He bought Nike dragonfly 2 elites at the beginning of the season. They lasted 7 meets. By meet 8 the entire foam cushion was worn away and one of the carbon fiber plates cracked. We did buy him new ones because it’s championship season and we knew it wouldn’t be a good idea to switch up shoe styles so late in the year. But these shoes are expensive and it seems like they should have lasted at least through the season.

Super shoes: He has also been through two pairs of Nike streak fly 2s since the fall. The first pair tore down the center of the sole and the second pair ripped along the seam on the inside arch. He only wears them for specific workouts, so assumes they had 30-40 miles in them before becoming unwearable.

Is this just the cost of being a high school track kid? Or could we be making other choices for higher quality spikes/supershoes?

For reference- he is 6’2”, 165lb, runs about 40m/week

TLDR: ChatGPT has helped me manage my symptoms by analyzing my diet, daily BM pattern, pain scale and medication.

I wanted to share my experience over the past couple of weeks. I’ve been using chatGPT to help me track my food, symptoms, medications and pain levels. It actually has been TREMENDOUSLY helpful.

My biggest issue with trying to heal this fissure has been regulating my digestion. One day I’d have one BM that’s the “correct” type, then suddenly the next day I’d have to rush to the bathroom 4 or 5 times. I’d back off on the MiraLAX and boom- constipation. My whole digestive system was a mess. As all of you know, there is a ton of information out there about what we should and shouldn’t be eating. I felt like I was throwing darts and could never land on what was really impacting my system.

I started by keeping a daily log of my MiraLAX dose, time and consistency of BMs, and time, intensity and duration of my pain. I also started getting very detailed in my food diary. I’d been tracking my food in the LoseIt app since January because I’ve been trying to lose weight. I started being very specific- like logging ounces of coffee, sugar free drinks, specific vegetables that were in my dinner, etc. (when I only cared about calories I often left these things off the log.)

I loaded my pain diary and food log into chat, then asked it to help me figure out how to regulate my digestion so I can consistently have one ideal BM a day.

Almost right away it found some patterns that were game changers. For example, I discovered that when I have my second cup of coffee immediately after lunch, it triggers a gastro colic reflex, causing me to race to the bathroom. I discovered that prunes, onions and peppers are very problematic for me. I also found that right now it’s better for me to eat gentle, somewhat refined carbs like white rice and saltine crackers than their higher fiber counterparts. Chat was able to make a few menus for me that allow me to treat my digestive tract gently. It also helped me figure out my correct dose of MiraLAX. Turns out I was taking far too much!

This got longer than I intended but I wanted to share my experience because it may help others who are also struggling to figure out what to eat. The general advice of “eat clean and add fiber” did not work for me, so I suspect it’s been rough for others as well! LLMs are not perfect, of course, but since most of us don’t have a dietician to look at our daily food intake it is a good alternative!

I’d like to switch prescription creams. I’ve been using diltiazem for 5 weeks with little to no improvement. I’m going to give it one more week, then I have another appointment with my primary care doctor. I still have to wait until June to get into gastro.

Should I ask for nifedipine or nitroglycerin next? I know nitro has a lot of side effects, but at this point I’d be willing to endure a lot to heal this fissure. What have people found is more effective?