u/booksandwriting

Hi everyone

Poster Age: 30
Country: Midwest, USA
Vet info: Went to 2 vets two weeks ago and just gave a pee sample to our current vet + appointment tomorrow morning
Main Issue: Noodle got crystals (both professionals assumed because of stress) two weeks ago and we gave her an antibiotic injection, bladder spasm medication, and 25 mg of Gabapentin until it seemed like she was feeling better. But today (post 2 weeks) she is peeing blood again. We do not know what she would be anxious about. Nothing major changed. She has a bonded “brother” (4 yrs old, orange male cat, neutered) whom she gets along with. (Could he be stressing her out subtly?). We did an ultrasound and the vet couldn’t find any stones.
Cat Age: 4
Cat Sex + neuter info: Female, sprayed
Financial situation: Yes
Edit: We put her on Hills Science stress + urinary crystals food immediately. She unfortunately is on dry food because she would rather starve than eat wet food. We also going to try the pheromones plug ins although last time we didn’t think it did anything. Last year we had briefly put her on Prozac but it made her stop eating so we stopped it. We play with them often, they both have their own “spots” high up and down, they have a giant window to look out of, 3 litter boxes with World’s Best Cat Litter + Sustainably Yours in it, and they have unlimited access to their own prescription cat food via auto feeders that are programmed to microchips on their collars. (Our boy cat has prescription kidney food for chronic kidney failure). They have bowls of water and a water fountain.

Hi everyone

Poster Age: 30
Country: Midwest, USA
Vet info: Went to 2 vets two weeks ago and just gave a pee sample to our current vet + appointment tomorrow morning
Main Issue: Noodle got crystals (both vets assumed because of stress) two weeks ago and we gave her an antibiotic injection, bladder spasm medication, and 25 mg of Gabapentin until it seemed like she was feeling better. But today (post 2 weeks) she is peeing blood again. We do not know what she would be anxious about. Nothing major changed. She has a bonded “brother” (4 yrs old, orange male cat, neutered) whom she gets along with. (Could he be stressing her out subtly?). We did an ultrasound and the vet couldn’t find any stones.
Cat Age: 4
Cat Sex + neuter info: Female, sprayed
Financial situation: Yes
Edit: We put her on Hills Science stress + urinary crystals food immediately. She unfortunately is on dry food because she would rather starve than eat wet food. We also going to try the pheromones plug ins although last time we didn’t think it did anything. Last year we had briefly put her on Prozac but it made her stop eating so we stopped it. We play with them often, they both have their own “spots” high up and down, they have a giant window to look out of, 3 litter boxes with World’s Best Cat Litter + Sustainably Yours in it, and they have unlimited access to their own prescription cat food via auto feeders that are programmed to microchips on their collars. (Our boy cat has prescription kidney food for chronic kidney failure). They have bowls of water and a water fountain.

For the last several months, during the week leading up to my period, during my period, and sometimes afterwards, I have been getting this burning sensation down there that’s similar to a UTI or yeast infection. It doesn’t happen all the time but only during my period.

I’m on the IUD so I don’t bleed a lot but just enough to put a pantry liner on. I have reusable organic unbleached or undyed cotton liners that I wash every time. At first I thought it was cause I was keeping those on too long, but I wear them sometimes when I’m not on my period and it doesn’t happen then. I also tried free bleeding at home since it’s so little and that didn’t help either.

I am not sure what’s causing it. I’m on my second IUD now for a year and I’ve never had issues with it before.

Edit: when I’m at home, I sometimes change my underwear two-three times a day even when I’m not on my period. And I use 100% cotton underwear. We use fragrance free and dye free laundry detergent and no dryer sheets.

My husband and I went to visit my grandma across the country last year who gave me a whole laundry basket of skin care and make up products she has been saving since at least the pandemic for me. It was very sweet of her and at the time, I was really excited about it because a lot of it is nice skin care products that I have been wanting to try but didn't want to spend the money on.

When we got home, I invited one of my best friends over and let her pick out anything she wanted that I didn't already claim for myself (which was like 1/4 of the haul). She was really excited about it too.

Then a couple months later, we went to a dermatologist and an allergist because ever since we moved into this apartment unit, I have been randomly breaking out in rashes across my upper body. We did several allergy tests and I found out what chemicals I'm allergic to.

Unfortunately, about 90% of the products my grandma gave me and some of my previous products I am allergic to. I asked the doctor about it because I have been using some of these for years without really noticing anything. He said that I can be mildly allergic to these chemicals but I should still stop using them because I could increase in sensitivity the more I expose myself to them.

Alright, makes sense. I'm still having rash outbreaks despite using these products though. So we didn't really get to the bottom of whatever is causing the rashes but we did end up with a laundry basket worth of (mostly free) products I can't use.

I decided to message my friends and invite them over to pick out whatever products they want and then I would donate the rest or sell them for like $2-3 on FB or something. But when I told my husband this, he was so upset about it!

In his mind, it is a total waste to get rid of these unused, full size products. And like, listen, I would love to keep these and use them. BUT I AM ALLERGIC. He is really against me trying to get rid of them. So I was like, "oh are you going to use these instead then?" and he was like "IDK, maybe?"

Reader, he does not use skin care or makeup items.

The most he does is his hair cream, body wash, shampoo/conditioner, and face wash. That's kinda about it. Every lotion I've tried to get him to use, he complains it's too greasy or makes him look too shiny.

So now we have a laundry basket of products that are going to expire if they haven't already and they're just sitting there collecting dust. I've started using some of them even though the doctor said not to because I don't know what else to do!

Any advice?