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Yesterday, while at a water park I misjudged a landing off of a slide, and ended up belly flopping from a height of about 10 feet. It knocked the air out of me and my gut hurt for a while, but I carried on and was fine. I didn't really have any pain until about eight hours ago and it's been getting much worse all day. Ice helps, but OTC pain killer isn't helping. Hurts to breathe, hurts to laugh, hurts to move, etc. Sneezing was the most unpleasant thing that's ever happened to me before. I was hit by a car last year and I'd rather experience that again than sneeze again. The area's quite bruised and extremely tender.

I really don't think it's a busted rib because it took so long for the pain to start.

Opinions on what's going on? Thanks in advance.

For about a month now I've had some really intense muscle tension in my muscles. Everything I've tried has failed miserably to fix my jaw problems. The only thing that's helped is a few days I've spent at my parents and a week spent at my grandparent's. It seemed to clear up fairly well during that time. Every time I've gone back to my own house the tension would get worse.

So today, as I was cleaning my room, I pulled my bed out and found crazy bad mold all around the baseboards under my bed.

So here's my question: Can indoor allergies cause muscle tension?

I do suffer from hay fever. And just as a weird side note: When I was about 14 I had jaw muscle tension and when we found mold in my closet and cleaned it out, it seemed to resolve itself....Which is the reason for my question.

Okay, thanks in advance for any answers!

My brother and I are trying to talk my mom into getting a dog. Trouble is, the last time anyone in my family owned a pet was 35 years ago when my grandpa was still alive, so we don't know the best kind to get. She's a single woman in a tiny community. We live quite far away, and go to see her as often as we can, but it can be several weeks at a time before one of us can get to see her, so we are looking for a dog that would be a good companion-like dog for her.

Her yard is huge, the yard itself is over an acre in size, and her nearest neighbor lives almost a mile away.

Just as a note: little yappy dogs are a no. She can't stand little lap dogs, they drive her crazy.

What kind of dogs should we look into getting?

Alright, this is going to sound kind of strange, but I have a serious irrational fear of doctors. Which makes sense for a five year old. Yeah, I'm so not five. Add twenty years to that. Even when I'm really sick and there's something clearly wrong I won't go to a doctor because I am so terrified of them. And it's every kind of doctor: doctors, dentists, dermatologists, you name it. When my grandma broke her hip last fall every time a doctor walked into her hospital room I had to leave I was so uncomfortable. I found out two of my ecclesiastical leaders were doctors. When I found that out, I started avoiding them at all costs. I turned down a job once because it required a physical. Haven't been to one since I was a minor and didn't have a choice.

Any tips on surviving an appointment with a doctor/dentist/other kind of doctor?

Once upon a time, there was a girl, and she was me.

About a week ago I noticed there was a growing tension in my jaw. It's gotten progressively worse over the past three days and I can't figure it out.

The tension is focused underneath my chin, but on occasion extends up to almost my ear. There is no pain. It doesn't actually hurt, it's just so uncomfortable, I can't focus on anything else.

I feel better when I can lay down on my side and rest my jaw on a pillow, and I'm fine for about an hour after I wake up in the morning.

Google says it's because I'm stressed. But I'm not stressed. I'm a school teacher, it's summer break, I'm done with my summer professional development for several weeks. I'm the farthest thing from stressed out right now.

What on earth is wrong with me? Any ideas and/or advice is more than welcome.

The past week I've been getting these weird bouts with nausea.

I'll be fine, then suddenly and out of nowhere I get horribly nauseous to the point where I can't concentrate on anything but the nausea and accompanying pain. Within 5-10 minutes it's gone, just as suddenly and randomly as it came on. For the past 5 days I've been getting them anywhere from 10-15 times per day.

Is this some sort of normal stomach bug? I am taking 6 credit hours of masters level courses in two weeks, so there's a fair amount of stress and sleep deprivation going on with that? Could that be the cause?

So, let's play diagnose the stranger over the inter-webs!

Long story short. I accidentally took 2400 mg of Ibuprofen.

It's a legitimate mistake, and I'm not suicidal nor crazy, but I don't want to bore you with the details of what happened to lead to this mistake, but I promise it was legit.

Am I going to be okay? Because I do know that was way too much to take...I unfortunately didn't realize what I had done until it was way too late.

So I would love to go outside and enjoy the first clear partially warm night my city has had in months. The trouble is is that every time I have opened the door to my house I have been greeted by an overly large spider. Most bugs don't bother me, except for spiders, I'm a true, honest to goodness, spray the baseboards and window seals once per week arachnaphobe. I don't want them crawling on me.

I came up with the best solution! Spray raid around where I'm planning on laying. Then I thought, "Self, what if you killed the grass and made the landlord really angry?"

Would I kill the grass in that area if I did spray raid on it?

I was seven when my parents divorced, but for me it was no different. He was never around and when he was he only spoke to my brothers, never to me. In my 25 years of life I've exchanged maybe three paragraphs with him.

After my parents divorced he only came for visits for about 2 years, and when he did he would take my brothers on trips alone, but the only times he took me was when he took all of the kids. As I got older, I just shrugged it off thinking he was just sexist, since I'm a girl.

Anyway, he fell off the map for about 15 years, until he found me on Facebook. And for the past few years he's been trying every once in a while to start a conversation with me, and he attempted to actually be act like a father to me at a recent family reunion. None of which I've reciprocated, not because I hate him, but because I don't know him. This man's supposed to be my dad, but I don't know what to say to him because we've never had any sort of relationship.

Recently, my brother, who still talks to him on occasion told me that he's pretty sure that our dad won't live for another year, he's got far too many health problems.

Should I try to start a relationship with him? He is my father, but I've never known him, and I'm doing just fine in my life thus far. So I'm torn between my options. Advice please!

I've never had trouble dealing with stress. I zoomed through high school, college and the first few years of my career wondering why everyone was always freaking out about things. I always coped with things very well.

The past month things have changed. All of a sudden, I'm actually feeling the stress starting to come down on me. There have been a few things change in my life, but I've had things that were more major happen to me. I mean, it's bad. I think I scared my brother last night because when I was talking to him, and I think I had a nervous breakdown, I started blubbering like an idiot and unloaded every little detail that is less than 100% positive in my life onto him, and since he's never seen that coming from me, I'm not sure he knew what to do with me. Today I've vomited four times because of this stress, and right now I can barely type because my stomach hurts so bad from worrying about what's coming in the next weeks and months.

So my question here is, what happened? Is it normal to suddenly have a more difficult time dealing with stress? I have a better support network than I ever have had, but I'm so stressed out right now.

Also, since I've never had a hard time dealing with stress I don't have any stress coping techniques. What can I do, personally, to deal with things I have no control over?

They claim to be tolerant, and if you disagree with them, watch out because they're going to go on a rampage on why you're wrong and they're right. Seriously, I've never met a liberal who can rationally disagree with a conservative.

My mom's birth parents were Jewish. My mom was given up for adoption at birth, adopted by a Christian couple and has been a practicing Christian her whole life. She married another Christian, and raised their family Christian.

So what does this make me and my brothers? Are we ethnic Jews? I don't identify myself as a Jew, though I look like I am one so much so that in high school people actually called me "Jew." And one of my brothers had a friend from Palestine and she always called him, "Jew Boy." I identify myself as a Christian, but technically, are we ethnically Jewish?

** As a side note, this topic came up in a debate a friend and I are having on the topic of ethnic groups and we can't decide what I am, ethnically speaking.

I'm on the tail end of a bout with both influenza and pneumonia (yeah, that was a fun four weeks). Two nights ago, I wasn't bad enough to take any medicines to be able to breathe, but I did slather my face in vapo-rub.

So the morning after I woke up with slightly chapped lips, no biggie, I get them all the time. By the end of my workday my face was starting to get this weird red rash on it. By the next morning my skin was so dry it was physically painful. When I put makeup on it felt like my face was being attacked by wasps. I got some good moisturizing lotion, but it isn't helping, it's just making me cry from the pain when I put it on. My skin is so dry right now it's bright red and may actually be making me suicidal it's so painful.

What the flip is going on? Is this a weird side effect from being so sick? Is it the vapo-rub, even though I've used it since I was a kidlet with no negative effects? Something else? Any ideas?

My roommates caught me off guard to go do something earlier this evening, and I left my bedroom light on. And by do something I mean watch the Walking Dead in our living room. Anyway, so after the show I went back to my bedroom and the light was turned off. No big deal right? Who really pays attention to stuff like that, right? But the light wouldn't turn on, so I tried a few other devices in the room, nothing would turn on. To the fuse box I went next, nothing was blown. Back to my room. Stuff was on now, not the light though.

So I was going to change the bulb, took the cover off, and lo and behold the real reason why my light was off. The light bulb was out of the base.

Huh?

What happened? All of the roommies were in the living room, so it wasn't a prank or anything. I certainly didn't do it.

I'm seriously troubled by this. Because as far as I know light bulbs can't unscrew themselves.....

What the flip happened?

I had a bottle of fingernail polish in my car, which apparently was opened. Thankfully it didn't get on the screen of my iPod when I put it near the open bottle of polish, but it has made the back of my iPod a beautiful color of dark purple.

It didn't damage the iPod, thankfully, but it's a little annoying. I'm a little hesitant to use fingernail polish remover, would the remover damage the iPod? Is there any other way to get it safely off the back?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/bennyjohnson/things-democr...

I'm 25. When I was a kidlet I was extremely physically in shape. Around my 16th birthday it went downhill. I've struggled with my weight ever since. Eat eat extremely healthily and average between 900-1200 calories per day. It's rarity when I don't spend between 1 hour- 1 1/2 hours per day at the gym, in addition to the fact that at my job I'm always on my feet and moving around and walking. I've been doing this for five years. And yet, no matter what I do I cannot lose weight. I cannot drop below a 29 BMI. Anyone else have a problem like this? If so what can I do to drop the weight?

I've had a cold that's gone on for three weeks. The best part of this cold is that every time my butt hits a chair I have to struggle to stay awake. And it's getting worse. Right now, I'm sitting in the corner of my office, cuddled in two coats, trying to stay warm.

I don't have a fever (but that's not news, I've got some sort of bizarre-o birth defect, my body doesn't ever fever), but I am freezing, and it's getting really hard to breathe if I'm not standing up.

I hate doctors, but I'm starting to concede the point that I may have to go to one....

Should I? Or should I not?

And if I should? Let's play diagnose the person over the internet! What do you think I have because I'm pretty sure it's not just a simple cold.

An honest question, I'm not trying to troll. I really need a Obamacare supporter to try to explain this to me.

How is it that someone's reproductive rights are 100% not my business and yet 100% my financial responsibility at the same time? You know, since contraceptives and the morning after pill are both free under the act. How is it that I can be told, "Stay out of my business" and yet my tax dollars are funding it?

Ever since I was a child I always wanted to have a particular career. I grew up, went to college for it, got my dream job. All was well.

I've been in the field for several years now. Half of the year May - November, I'm fine, I don't love my job, but it doesn't control me. But December- April it's hell. Literally, hell on earth. I have a tendency to blame my depression on my job and my job hating. I lose all motivation to do anything, go to work, go to church (please don't turn this into a religion bashing session. I believe what I believe and I need you to respect that right now), do other responsibilities that I have. It's a miserable five months. Last year I was in such a bad way that my brother and religious leader were convinced I was going to try to kill myself. Anyway, tonight, particularly, I feel those feelings of misery and wanting to just end it and be over with it, because death seems like a better proposition than going to work tomorrow, which is probably why it's the middle of the night and I'm playing on the internet rather than sleeping.

I use sun lamps but they don't help. I don't want to get professional help, either medication or therapy for a few months every year. I just don't know what to do with myself.

What should I do?

Help please :(