Armchair General

Nach, in my experience the only practical solution is for you to pack up your life in this country and sally forth into a kibbutz in northern Israel. This has worked for me on several occassions and I'm doing alright.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20187897

Holy shit that's awful. What could she do to make her Dad happy? Where is he coming from? What would he have her do to make her better in his eyes? What a sad situation. EDIT: There are also plenty of assholes like that in every culture unfortunately.

Cryptic Kroms. What's up thumbrade?

Plugging my wife's shit here : http://www.kateandalexphotography.co.uk/ Disclaimer: This has nothing to do with video games, I am just proud of her work.

I have a (probably really dumb) question - on games like that one above (stepmania video), I guess guitar hero would be another, where someone has to put in hours and hours and hours of game time to get anywhere near being able to complete the crazy batshit fast ending - I was wondering how game developers know that it's even possible to complete the crazy batshit fast ending when they make the game. I know there are such things as game testers, but I thought they were there to iron out bugs and stuff, not put in the dedication needed to get super ace at these kind of games, or am I wrong? HOW DOOZ IT WORKS?

Hello, I've come here for an argument..

Don't worry Rodi, not everyone can have full command of a foreign language, I am just lucky that I am zwaar de gekste and enjoy gouda. My friends from the Netherlands, such as PiratePoo (although there are many, many more) are constantly surprised at how I manage to be so proficient at picking up a language, purely via Video games interaction online. P.S I was initially incandescent with rage at your asshole-ish flippancy regarding cake and eating it (I still have a funny taste in my mouth about it now) but then I remembered that you are Dutch and are probably quite zwaar de gekste/gouda and I forgave you (I know I know, my Dutch vocabulary is simply the best cheese).

I generally know less about the English language than you guys despite being a bonafide native, but I'm with brkl on this one. People would look at you funny if you said 'eat your cake and have it' and I don't like people looking at me funny, it brings me out in hives. I see where you are coming from Rodi, but your literal interpretation is just too exact for us loose-with-language English types. Anyway back to my lunch, where I have my cake (in front of me) and I am about to eat it.

Sorry to be 'that guy' again, but I wouldn't hold out much hope for your thyroid being the problem if your tests have already been normal. Thyroid function tests would be an almost standard test for somebody presenting with your symptoms, therefore I am pretty much certain that your GP would have explored this already. Out of interest, what's your weight/BMI? Re-reading your posts, it seems you don't eat very much?

Hmmm, this is still a thing. Your symptoms could all be due to anxiety (often people can't pin it on something) but that's hard to be sure without meeting you face to face, I'd be reluctant to stake it all on B12 deficiency but you never say never in medicine. Your symptoms are too complicated for internet diagnosis as I said before. Have you been keeping a diary of events and your weight etc? The pains in your left arm and your heart beating fast are the most concerning features you've mentioned so far I think. Have you had an ECG at any point? and has your GP listened to your heart sounds do you know? You should count your pulse during an episode (just at one or two points within it - when it's at it's worst perhaps) and see if it really is beating fast or whether that is just a sensation you're having. Also, tapping your pulse out like a drumbeat on a table, will help with the timing if there is an irregular pulse and then you can replicate the beat to your GP if need be. I'm trying to help but am anxious not to make things worst with 'it could be this, it could be that' - ultimately you should listen to the doctor who has seen and talked to you in the flesh, who also knows your medical history. Alternatively, you can do none of the above, play some Video games and try to forget all about it, this may be the best option - either your symptoms will get worse and the pathology will declare itself, or it will disappear and in time we might see something with the retrospectoscope.

Sorry, I've been at work for like a hundred years straight - how are things now? Any further with your GP?

Toblix and his bandit country: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19288749

Subbes has a cervical rib: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cervical_rib.

Another way to look at this is that so far, nothing serious has been discovered and that this makes the possibility of this being perhaps anxiety related, a stronger likelihood. Although anxiety can be very distressing, it doesn't kill you and can be mastered in time. So although your GP hasn't got any answers for you as such, they have ruled out some serious pathology which is a good thing.

Sweet Scrobbs! I would definitely have a hive if I had the room. Bees are on the decline too, so you're saving a species to boot.

Nobody would be able to say for sure. Wait until you see your GP, it may still be something unrelated that your blood tests have thrown up. The plot thickens!

Haha! Thankyou Pirate and thanks for dreaming about me again Toblix. Yufster, I think facial swelling and stress are not related and I would certainly go hunting for another cause if that were the story given to me. However, I will post on a doctor forum I frequent and get the hive mind opinion. Good luck at the allergy clinic, think about keeping a diary etc as I said, it can be very helpful to doctor and patient alike in pinning down vague and intermittent symptoms. Also, please let me know what they tell you at the allergy clinic, just for my own curiosity (no obligation of course). Dr Andy

I only have time to read most of your first post and skim read the replies. My first thought was that stress does not cause lips to swell, unless it was subjectively swollen. If others commented on it, or you took a picture of it and it looks swollen to someone else then stress is not the answer. Allergy is certainly on the differential, new pets, washing powder, washing up liquid, carpet? Your symptoms are too complicated for internet diagnosis, you absolutely need to see your GP (as you have done). My advice would be to keep a dated food diary and document whether you have symptoms with certain food types, also this would help with working out the temporal relationship with time of year. I would also record your weight on a monthly basis for the next few months. This may take a long time to come to a diagnosis and in fact, we may never make one in this case, be prepared for that. As a long shot, in retrospect, have you suffered with intermittent swelling of the face, arms, trunk, legs, feet since childhood? Or anyone in your family had similar experiences as you? maybe hospitalised with anaphylactic type reactions? Armchair (A bonafide doctor of medicine your honour)

I see what you are saying but I think you're blind to just how much religion interferes with people's lives whether they like it or not. Religion as a whole is 'pushy' because of the individuals within it, the two aren't seperable, one exists because of the other. Also, I found your previous post (Tim-E) to be incredibly patronising. Edit: Twig posted while I was typing, my reply was to Tim-E.

I didn't really mean to be condescending and rude, I genuinely just don't get how you can think that that's real, and in essence, that is what religious people believe. I can already see that we will have to agree to disagree because to me, religion is so obviously wrong that if I have to point it out to someone, the horse has already bolted.

The trouble is, religion is not benign. It's all jolly good to let people believe in whatever they want - fine. What is not fine is that the religious heirarchy foist their beliefs on everybody else which they can do because there are lots of people who are tacit semi believers. if there is some sort of ethical angle to a news story, they wheel out some church leader to speak on it, you don't need religion to be a moral agent yet the implication is that it is so. It is very difficult to escape religious indoctrination when they are run all the schools in your area. These are a couple of examples religion intruding in my life where I do not want it to and it has no right to do that. Quoting Einstein is neither here nor there, we are not party to the pressures that famous people may be under to say the things they do so that doesn't hold any water in my opinion. I just cannot get my head around why people still believe in religion. I mean really? Sure, science doesn't know everything, but heaven, hell, man in the sky with a beard, really?

Surely we don't need to close the thread, we can have a heated discussion and still be friends, I mean we are grown ups. I'm enjoying reading you clever peeps take on things, nobody spoil it or I'll put you to sleep for a long time.

Yuck. I'm not really an animal lover but I saw a cat get run over a while back and it was awful (and I hate cats). Before I stopped to think what I was doing, I had parked my car across the road, blocking the traffic (as I would do in the ambulance when called to an accident) and gently moved the cat off the road. When I became aware that the people were waiting and watching me, it dawned on me that this wasn't a person. It felt strange not being able to do anything, knowing it was going to die and just...watching it happen, poor thing. I'm still a bit weirded out by it and I see death and dying everyday. I think it was the helpless feeling that keeps bringing it back.

I'm stunned...you actually gave a $1000 away Subbes?!? I am in the WRONG job man.