u/sunshinenrainbows2

I have suffered with chronic sinusitis off and on since 2016. In 2017 and 2018, I had 2 surgeries. This was life changing and gave me 6 nearly symptom free years. Unfortunately in Nov 2024 it started to creep back up. I got back to back bacterial infections despite doing the nasal rinses. I got a CT scan and the allergist said it did not look good, especially in the sphenoid part.

Got referred to an ENT again and they prescribed me 2 different nasal sprays. As well as an anti fungal (he found a fungal infection) and steroid for my rinse. I was doing those twice a day. But usually every 2 months it would just return. He found polyps, and we discussed Dupixent. But then my next follow up visit he said the polyps were gone, and that I may not be a good candidate for Dupixent. Since then, he’s sort of given up on me it feels like. He also said he’s worried another surgery wouldn’t be effective. I reached a breaking point when I got another bacterial infection a month ago and I kept constantly smelling a rotting flesh smell. The mucus and smell went away after a week of 2x a day rinses. But the headaches persisted.

I was put on bactrim without him doing a culture, and got a full body rash and hives (which was odd since I’ve taken if before). Had to immediately stop and he prescribed doxycycline. Now 3 days in I’m getting even more headaches on top of my already existing ones, and I think it may be the doxycycline, as this happens maybe 30 min after taking easy dose. At this point I’m hesitant to reach out to him again, but I don’t want to finish the course if it’s making my headaches this bad (I’m on day 4 of 10 days).

I have a new patient allergist appointment this Thursday. The ENT had suggested he thinks seasonal allergies may be the underlying cause (yay central Texas). I have never gotten allergy tested before, but I’m willing to eat the cost at this point. I just don’t know what an allergist can do to solve this in the immediate future. I leave for Mexico City this Saturday and I’m terrified of my trip now. While it seems like such a wonderful city, the pollution there is bad and the elevation is high. I need to bring a neti rinse with me and i’m sure I can find distilled water there. But these headaches are just still so bad that I can’t go if I’m feeling like this. Does anyone have any tips for travel? And has anyone been through the wringer where your providers just aren’t getting to the bottom of things? I just need some sort of immediate solution to buy me time while I can hopefully get to the bottom of this.

I(F34) have a close friend (F36) I have known for almost 20 years. We’ve never had any conflict until she got a divorce from her high school sweetheart in 2024. Since the divorce, she sort of regressed to someone in their early-mid 20s. I was supportive and waited it out. Figured because she hadn’t dated since she was 16, she was learning to navigate the dating world.

Things sort of came to a head when she was scammed 50k in a dating crypto scam last October. I (and some mutual friends) had nearly begged her to stop talking to this person because it was so sketchy. She didn’t listen and got scammed. I was once again supportive and felt really terrible for her, so I set aside my frustrations. A month later she went on to almost get scammed a second time (I’m betting it’s the same “scam factory”). I got super frustrated this time and told her that she needs to listen to her intuition. She pushed back of course but thankfully cut ties before she could be scammed again (he gave her access to his “bank account” which was the final straw). We got in a pretty big fight over it all, as she was also neglecting her dog and just being super self destructive in general. It began to negatively impact my mental health.

I told her I needed space. We work together and those two weeks we didn’t talk were so uncomfortable. A couple co workers picked up on it and asked if everything was ok, and I just told them yes and it’s private stuff. We also share a mutual friend circle which didn’t help. We made up and things got a lot better the last 6 months. Until she joined some body positivity dating app. A lot of the men on there had some sort of fetish for larger women. She met a guy and called me after the first date with him. Told me he’s the most intense person she’s met and he’s bombarding her with texts (essentially love bombing). She compared him to her ex with a personality disorder. She told me she wouldn’t be seeing him again and I told her that’s a good call. Well she continued to see him and said she talked to him and he apologized and asked for a second chance. I just took a step back and let it play out.

This past Friday they get in a texting tift over her not wanting to introduce him to her friends (she’s worried we won’t like him lol…). He called her a liar and got super immature. I told her it doesn’t feel right that only 1 month in and he’s already pulling this stuff. She told me she’s going to call it since she wants to stop making poor dating choices and focus on herself and her healing. I told her I was proud of her for acknowledging these things.

Yesterday she tells me he came over for breakfast on Saturday and he once again apologized and said he was having a mental health episode. She’s staying with him. I gave her the most deadpan look and just said “ok.” I haven’t talked to her since and I really don’t know what to do at this point. I am losing respect for her and am reaching a breaking point. Because we work together and have mutual friends, it just complicates things. The other friends are more patient than I am and are kind of shrugging it off. That she needs to make her own mistakes (which I agree). They aren’t as close to her as I am, so I think it doesn’t affect them as much as they’re more removed from it. I just don’t know how to proceed without ending the friendship. I really value our friendship outside of this, but I can’t get wrapped up in this dating drama. And I also really don’t want to meet this guy as my impression has already been tainted. Has anyone been in a similar experience? How did you handle it?

TLDR; my(F34) close friend(F36) has been making terrible dating choices the last 2 years and ended up getting scammed $50,000 in a dating crypto scam after not listening to me and other mutual friends begging her to stop talking to that person. She didn’t really learn her lesson after this and is now dating someone super shady. I’ve been nothing but supportive and now I’m reaching a breaking point. Has anyone been through something like this? How would you handle this?

I have very fine strands of hair, but I have a LOT of hair. Everyone always tells me how thick it is, but really it’s just the amount since the strands themselves are fine. I’ve always struggled with taming the frizz, and have finally found a shampoo/conditioner that works for me. But I am wanting a good hair oil that works on fine hair without making it look too greasy.

The closest thing I have found is this hair oil brand “Joon.” I like it, but it seems like my hair soaks it up too quickly and I need more than I’d like to use (it’s pretty expensive). If anyone can drop hair oil recs that have really helped you manage your hair it would be much appreciated!