Emily

Can anyone give me some advice?

I did something bad to my back the other day at work, the doctors weren't oo helpful but perscribed me some codeine for the pain. I took one last night at around 7, then another two at around 11pm because the first one didn't really help with the pain. It still didn't really help, probably because it's not a muscular problem, but of course I had a pretty good sleep. Since I woke up today though, about 11am, I have felt completely rubbish. It's now 9:40pm, and I still feel rubbish. I had a headache from the moment I woke up, I felt a little sick earlier so I had about an hour long nap. I've eaten a couple of times, drank plenty of water and tea, I've tried resting, I've tried staying off the computer for a while, the only thing I haven't tried is more painkillers since I really don't want to feel like this tomorrow. This headache was bordering on a migraine earlier, and now it's getting worse again. I don't know what to do, but I have two days off work because my driving test is on friday and I'm supposed to be doing other things, making plans for some things and whatnot, washing ect. My back is feeling slightly better but I've never felt this bad a day after taking prescribed painkillers! could anyone give me any suggestions about why? I don't over-use painkillers. I do over-drink caffeine, I work at a coffee shop, but as I haven't been in the last couple of days, I wouldn't have thought this would be a problem today.

Hi, this is a bit odd but I was wondering if anyone could explain this for me.

I have a young male cat (2 1/2) and he is very affectionate, but doesn't often 'knead' things as my female cut does. He was neutered as soon as it was safe.

He also doesn't bite things much, which is good, but my dad has a quilt without a cover. It's falling apart a bit and the outside is coming away. The male cat loves to sleep on it, but before he sleeps on it, he will jump onto it, grab a section with his mouth, hold it and knead the quilt with all four paws! I have never seen another cat so this before, not even my female cat holds blankets or such in her mouth before she kneads them, and I've not heard much about this kind of behaviour before. Can someone give me any explanations? He only ever does it to the quilt, nothing else!

Hi, I know my best bet is to see a doctor but I won't be able to for at least a week, and by that time the likelihood of my symptoms still showing are low.

Basically, there seems to be something wrong with my left wrist. At my work, I have to mop frequently at the end of the day. More often than not, The area down the thumb side of my wrist will then hurt until I sleep, the area with the tendon down it. I've tried having baths, as I also suffer from knee problems and baths tend to soothe this but it doesn't work so I know it isn't a muscle problem. Also, as I am a coffee barista, I use my wrists quite frequently during the day before mopping. I am very small (5 foot 3, UK size 6-8) and fully grown, so I know it isn't growing pains, and I don't have the upper body strength to keep my arms stiff when I mop, so I end up doing a swinging motion, which I don't think helps but there's not a lot I can do about that without changing jobs, and there's not a lot of jobs around right now.

Has anyone experienced anything similar and can give me some hint as to what it might be? I know it's bad to diagnose yourself via the net, but I wouldn't mind finding out if anyone has been through similar and could give me any tips or anything, I'm working more than usual this week and as I said, won't be able to get to the docs for another week or so.

I previously mentioned I have a pond full of tadpoles. I didn't think they were going to make it since the pond is extremely overgrown and there was hardly room for them to move around in, but after pulling out some of the weeds, there is still a huge amount of living tadpoles and they are a lot happier with the extra space. My question is though, what do they eat? I'd love to see them turn into frogs and although there is plenty of weeds and stuff already in the pond (And mosquito larvae, which I've read they eat?) they seem to have a particular fondness to dry, dead grass. Is there any reason for this? If I put a little bit in, after a minute or two there'll be a swarm of tadpoles surrounding it.

Can anyone give me anymore info?

I was wondering if anyone on here has done their research on dreams/nightmares?

I'm less stressed than I was when I asked the other questions, I'm dealing with things now and I don't usually get nightmares, and if I do, they're farfetched and I'm fully aware they're not real.

Last night I had the most intense nightmare I've had in my life. I won't explain it all but it had nothing to do with any real experience I've been through. I was gritting my teeth hard as in the nightmare I was biting someone keeping me and my sister hostage. The person then released us because I was fighting so hard, and I punched him in the nose as a goodbye present. I heard the crack of it breaking, despite never hearing a nose break before, then he laughed and grabbed me again and was holding me down and was about to rape me. While he was holding me down in the nightmare, I gained some kind of consciousness but went through a bit of sleep paralysis I think - because of the nightmare being so realistic, I couldn't move and I genuinely thought there was someone in top of me holding me down in real life. I've never been through anything like this before, it was quite frankly terrifying waking up unable to move and thinking someone was actually holding me down, and I can't see a single reason why this nightmare would happen now. I've been through much more dramatic times in my life..In fact I've been through some rather nasty stuff, but never had a nightmare like this. Why would a nightmare so intense come at such a random time? Is there a phase of sleep where your dreams/nightmares would be more intense?

I fell asleep again, and just before I woke up again, I was having another really intense dream, but this time about my dog who died 10 years ago. He was still alive, we were commenting how healthy he looked for a 24 year old dog but he was in somebody elses ownership and well, there's more to it but it had the same intensity and I woke up half believing he was still alive. I used to believe that all dreams are down to the subconscious, I don't believe in any spirituality but the nightmare has nothing to do with anything as far as I can tell!

Okay so I'm 22 with a part time job, and at first it was going well, but in the last few couple of months it has plummeted. It's been causing me a huge amount of stress to the point where I've started feeling fatigued, sleeping more than usual, being unable to not get snappy - I'm usually exceedingly good at keeping my cool in a work environment - I've even been forgetting to eat.

I wouldn't mind, I get it, it's work, not many people enjoy their jobs and everyone gets stressed, but I've had depression before and it's already caused me to wonder if I've relapsed. I've been avoiding social contact with people I'm not 100% comfortable with because I keep waking up with headaches and feeling rubbish and grumpy.

I want to leave, but I'm about to take time off for an operation, and I need to try and get more shifts so that I can get statutory sick pay, but it seems every time I have enough shifts, someone else is unhappy with theirs and mine get cut again. I'm not even getting enough money for driving lessons anymore, which I could just about do on job seekers. I can't leave and go on job seekers because if you willingly leave a job, you can't go on job seekers for 6 months, by which time I'd hope to have a full time job, and although I've had depression, I refused medication and counselling so I probably don't have a strong enough case to claim for illness or anything.

So, instead of throwing my toys out of the pram, can anyone recommend some good ways of de-stressing? I nearly had an argument with a co-worker the other day, I don't even have enough money to celebrate my sisters 21st with her and it's just really taking the p*ss.

Also, can anyone give me some more information on statutory, such as if there's any rules about me leaving after receiving it? Or anything else really!

I can't keep going with this stress, but I can't leave my job. Every time I think I can deal with it, another situation comes up which will set me off again.

Basically, my family want a dog. My parents had one two years before I was born up until I was 12, when he unfortunately passed away. He was a brilliant dog, well-trained, gentle ect. I'm not 100% sure if it's appropriate right now so if I give reasons and my counter arguments, I could do with some other opinions?

1. Cats - my family now has two cats, one who kind of came and adopted us (We think she's around 11 years old now, we've had her for 9 years), and one we got as a kitten (just over 2 years.) We think with proper introductions, the younger cat will be quite content to play with a pup or young dog, but we don't know about the older cat. She took a while to accept our younger cat and haven't seen her around dogs before! We THINK she'd learn to tolerate a dog if we could teach the dog to give her space, though.

2. Mess - Our house is currently a tip. This is largely, surprisingly, down to my parents. Me and my younger sister sometimes try to tackle it but my parents have no motivation to keep it tidy, we don't have people round, ect. The cats seem to love it as it means they can be evasive if they wish or explore. I think though that if we actually said "Yes, let's get a dog." then it'd give my parents the motivation to get on with it. It was tidy when we had our old dog, they just kinda let slip after he passed.

3. Exercise - this is actually in a dogs favor, BOTH of my parents need more exercise. They've been putting on weight, they have no motivation to go and do any exercise, but we all loved taking my old dog out for walks, I really think it'll help them, and if not, I only have a part time job, my sister is home from uni every 3 months or so and my older sister also spend a fair bit of time at home. Between us there is more than adequate time to give a dog walks twice a day.

On top of that, I have looked after a friends dog before on a two week holiday, and they were impressed that their dog looked healthier when they came back than when they went away. My whole family are animal lovers, we've had loads and we'd all do our best for any animal, but is this good reasoning for getting a dog?

Reading this back, I think I've come across as a young teenager who is desperate to persuade her parents to get a dog - I'm actually 22 and I'm trying to be as logical as possible, I would need my dad's permission to bring a dog home anyway, to ME it seems like a good idea to get a dog, and I know he wants one too but we just keep putting it off.

Okay so I asked a question about how to approach a nervy pony, as I haven't ridden in years but will possibly have the opportunity to do so for free soon, once this pony has more work done.

Today I went to see him as he's up at the same yard as my sister keeps her horse. I called him over with my hands held out and didn't look him in the eye, and this seemed to work - he came over and sniffed at me, decided I wasn't a threat and went back to eating hay. I just stood there for a while, and then got his attention again. He allowed me to stroke him, and then at one point he put his head over my shoulder. I've read about horses doing this very gently, but he wasn't overly gentle - he didn't hurt me at all though, but he seemed to put a bit of weight down on me.

Was this an improvement, a sign of acceptance or trust, or was he trying to see if I had any hidden treats or something?

I've been really stressed out before, the kind of stress that can be diagnosed by a doctor, not just a little stressed. (It's the only time in my life I've suffered from migraines, despite being prone to headaches.)

Right now I'm experiencing very high levels of stress again. I've had another migraine, and I can feel in my head that I'm not right at the moment.

The thing is I've become ridiculously lazy, and it's starting to get to the point where I'm questioning whether or not I've dipped into depression again - but all my life, if I have somewhere to go, I will be up with plenty of time to get ready, and I will use that time to get ready, even when I was stressed out before, even when I was depressed before.

Right now though I will happily re-set my alarm instead of getting ready, I've been so drowsy when I first wake up, and instead of using the time to get ready, I will just procrastinate. I was nearly late to work the other day because of it - my buses only run every two hours, so it's get there on time or get there two hours late. (one of the reasons I usually use my time properly, I'd rather be 5 minutes early to a bus stop every day than have to cancel plans, get in trouble at work ect for being two hours late...)

I don't think I've ever experience this amount of lazyness in my life. Has anyone else been through this? :S

I'm (hopefully) about to pass my driving test. I'm currently insured on my sisters ridiculously old and unreliable Fiat Punto, and I HATE driving it, so want to replace it.

I've also been advised that Fiat 500's are horrible. I've also heard a lot about Ford Fiesta's being unreliable, although I do quite like them (never driven one though.)

I'm not looking for anything that's brand new, but want a car that's going to be fairly cheap to insure, not too costly to run and a make that's known to be reliable.

Even power steering is a step up from my sisters car. Can anyone suggest anything?

I always considered myself fairly open minded. I'm an atheist, but 3 of my grandparents were religious. They were very peaceful people and never tried to impose it on me in any way. I'm not open to the idea of god, but generally will expect that people will believe what they want to believe. It's suddenly struck me though that I cannot understand why anyone would believe in a god.

Why do you believe? What makes you not question the existence of a god, or the purpose of believing in god? Why do you think it betters you as a person?

Basically, when I was younger I used to go riding every weekend, it was a huge part of my life and we had a couple of our own ponies for quite a while, until I stopped when I was around 11/12. I'm 22 now and have forgotten a lot of what I learnt, but have been given the opportunity to learn to ride again for free, as my sister has a horse and there's a sweet little pony at her yard. The problem is he is very nervy at the moment, but that's currently being worked on.

Obviously, I haven't forgotten everything I learnt - I know I'm not just going to jump straight on him and go, and I want to get to know the pony before I ride him so that he trusts me and I can trust him. I also won't be able to ride him until he's had more work, which is fine. I used to be confident enough to ride misbehaved ponies, I've been through all the bucking and stuff but that was when I really knew what I was doing.

Can anybody give me some advice or some links with some decent information on how I can start to build a relationship with this nervy pony? I know not to look him straight in the eye until he trusts me, I know not to make him feel trapped, I know not to flinch around him and to let me sniff me out, but that's about it at the moment.

Has any been through bunion removal surgery?

I'm 22, have always been embarrassed about the shape of my feet, I've not worn sandals for years and never take my socks off apart from in my own home, and since I started working they've been causing me some nasty pain. I tried buying wide-fit work shoes, but it does not help at all, they are still not wide enough. so I've decided to go for this surgery, especially since I suffer from regular knee pain also and both at the same time leaves my legs practically useless.

I don't usually fear things, I've managed a couple of tattoos that took well over 2 hours, but I absolutely hate hospitals and the only time I've had to worry about anything hospital related has been blood tests and once when I hurt my arm badly when I was in primary school.

I've been told I'll need 8 weeks off work and I won't be able to put any pressure on my foot at all in the first few days (I'm having both done at different times), and that there can be complications.

I've also been told that I will be on codeine, and I know this will work because I sometimes have to take co-codamol for the knee pain I get, and even that pretty much knocks me out. I don't wear heels too often, maybe once a month-ish, although obviously I won't be able to wear them while I'm healing.

Can anyone share their experiences with this op with me? Give me any guidelines, anymore information or advice? How long did it take you to recover? Thanks!

I'm in the UK by the way, I'm sure some countries have different procedures ect.

I've already asked a similar question but must have worded it wrong because the answers weren't all that relevant.

Okay, I would quite like to live in Paris or somewhere close for about 3 months. I have done next to no traveling, so I need to know what to research if I were to make this move. Obviously I need to find somewhere to live in that time, what kind of place would be best? Renting a place or going to a hostel/cheapish hotel? I've been told I won't need a visa to move, and unless I happen to come across the perfect job, which is unlikely, I'd assume I wouldn't need a work visa or anything like that?

What about notifying the government about the move? Do I need to? If so, how do I get more information about this?

PLEASE don't just tell me how expensive Paris is or that I should go somewhere else, I am 22, I have plenty of time to explore other places if I wish to do so. I've liked what I've heard about French culture (I have done some reading) and want to experience it. If I hate it, It's not like I can't come back.

Has anyone done anything similar and can give me advice on things I need to research and know about before I do this? If it happens, it won't be until after summer at least, possibly even next year depending on how long it takes me to save up, so I have plenty of time to get all my facts right, I just need to know where to start!

Okay so my life isn't going tip top, I'm bored of my job, none of my closest friends live close to me, I still live in my parents house and although there's nothing wrong as such, it's a huge bore and I find myself wasting time instead of doing useful things.

I've been stuck with how to move my life forward for a while, and then I had this fantastic idea - move abroad. I've got some money saved, I want to pass my driving test and save more money before I go, but me and my sister are doing to go to Paris for a week or so in summer to see if I like it.

I'm from the UK, I've only been out of the country twice - Once to go to Disneyland Paris when I was in primary school, and once 2 years ago to go to Amsterdam on a school trip.

I don't have a single clue what to look into to see what my best options are and what's available to me in terms of places to live, visa's (I don't have a clue what I'm supposed to get a visa for, I know you can get working visa's but will I need one if I only go for say, 3 months and live off savings?) and all the technical stuff. I decided on Paris (if I like it) because it's still not too far away from home if I hate it and decide to leave after a couple of weeks, and my impression of the culture is that it's passionate, a bit more easy going but it's also more intense.

Can anyone give me any advice on moving abroad? Is there anything I'd need to do if I moved permanently instead of just for a few months? What do I need to 'sort out' before I leave? What should I be doing research on? I'm not expecting anyone to give me all the answers, like exactly how visa's and whatnot work ,but just a starting point would be much appreciated! I understand every country has it's own set of rules, but anything to get me start would be great!

Also, I know it's unlikely but if anyone else has moved from the UK to France, is there a big difference in living costs?

Thanks in advance to any answers :)

Okay I already asked this once but it's worrying and I didn't get any useful feedback.

Recently I've been getting very tired, I'll sleep longer than usual and still be tired all day, I've been getting randomly dizzy and I've been completely unable to focus, which is useless because I work in a fast-paced job, and small mistakes slow everything down. Apart from that, I've been forgetting how to spell things despite having an English A-level. I went to the doctors today, he gave me forms for blood tests but said he thinks I'm fine, because I only mentioned the tiredness - I got distracted and forgot to mention the rest! I've also lost a bit of weight despite not eating any less. It's not drastic, my weight usually sits between 7 and 8 stone (I'm one of those people who eats junk all the time and never puts on weight) and I'm just taking a guess from my body shape at the moment that it's sitting just above 7 stone.

I was a bit stressed, but now the stress is gone and even last night I was thinking how wonderful life was, so I don't think it's that. I won't be able to get the blood tests done for a couple of days because I live in the most awkward place in the world, and they'll then take another week to come through, so please if anyone could give me any advice in the meantime, I'd really appreciate it! Is there anything simple I can do to try and feel less drowsy all the time? Is there anything I can look into that might help? Does anyone else (I'm assuming there's someone else) that experiences this? I can't go on being so forgetful and unfocused, or sleeping so much!

Okay so I'm 21, and in the last couple of weeks I've been oversleeping a lot, and not feeling 'with it' afterwards, until I go back to bed. It feels like I could literally sleep through a whole day or two if I didn't set alarms. I'm trying to do my driving lessons but I've been so worried about not being alert enough that I haven't done any recently. In the last couple of days, I've even been getting dizzy for no reason, for example, earlier I was standing at the bus stop in town and suddenly my vision blurred and I felt dizzy. I'd eaten and been drinking water and other things, so it wasn't to do with that. I also keep getting headaches between 5 and 7ish in the evening, and since I have to take ibuprofen fairly regularly for another problem, I try and avoid it when I get headaches as I'm well aware of the problems with taking things like Ibuprofen too regularly. I smoke but I'm trying to cut down. I used to be very active, but in the last 5 years or so I haven't been. I've started trying to do moderate exercise around the house because I realized how unfit I am (High metabolism, never put on weight so there wasn't much of a giveaway.)

When I was younger, I suffered from depression heavily. I used to get headaches all the time from a mixture of things, mostly stress. I seem to have always been fairly prone to headaches, but once I'd sorted out my depression a bit, they subsided a bit. I've never fainted, and (sorry guys!) The only other times I've had dizzy spells is when I've been on my period, and once when I'd just had a big tattoo done and then had to stand in the cold for over an hour.

I am expecting to come on my period soon, but I don't see how that could cause all of the above. My doctors previously thought I was anemic but blood tests showed I wasn't. I don't under-eat, I try and drink lots of water everyday (plus I drink tea quite often). My job has been causing me stress, but I've dealt with far worse before and there's no logical reason it would cause me stress to the point of physical ailments.

I know it's highly unlikely a doctor will answer me, and therefore you won't be able to 'diagnose' me, but the chances of me getting a doctors appointment before Thursday are slim. I'd like to add I am on the pill, because I know this can sometimes have side effects.

Can anyone suggest anything that could be causing this, in particular the sleepyness? I usually happily wake up with between 6-8 hours sleep, and can hardly ever sleep beyond 9 hours. Has anyone experienced similar things? Apologies for spelling mistakes and such, something else I've been having problems with recently, which is horrifying as I have an English A-level.