diff --git a/general-helpers/chat/ai-service-handling/openAI.cs b/general-helpers/chat/ai-service-handling/openAI.cs
index c57f462..659ff9d 100644
--- a/general-helpers/chat/ai-service-handling/openAI.cs
+++ b/general-helpers/chat/ai-service-handling/openAI.cs
@@ -72,7 +72,13 @@ public static async Task<float[]> GetEmbedding(string content)
                 var response = await client.SendAsync(requestMessage);
 
                 // Ensure the request was successful
-                response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
+                if (!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
+                {
+                    string errorBody = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
+                    Console.WriteLine($"[OpenAI Error] Status: {response.StatusCode}");
+                    Console.WriteLine($"[OpenAI Error] Body: {errorBody}");
+                    response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
+                }
 
                 // Deserialize the response to get the embeddings
                 var responseBody = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
diff --git a/general-helpers/message-caching/messageCaching.cs b/general-helpers/message-caching/messageCaching.cs
index fda87f4..e252cf6 100644
--- a/general-helpers/message-caching/messageCaching.cs
+++ b/general-helpers/message-caching/messageCaching.cs
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 using System;
 using System.Collections.Concurrent;
+using System.Threading;
 using System.Threading.Tasks;
 using Discord;
 using Discord.Net;
@@ -74,9 +75,11 @@ private static async Task<CachedMessageInfo> DownloadAndCacheAsync(
         IMessageChannel channel,
         ulong messageId)
     {
+        using var cts = new CancellationTokenSource(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5));
+
         try
         {
-            if (await channel.GetMessageAsync(messageId) is not IUserMessage msg)
+            if (await channel.GetMessageAsync(messageId, options: new RequestOptions { CancelToken = cts.Token }) is not IUserMessage msg)
                 return null;
 
             if (msg.Flags.HasValue &&