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sbgrace

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Everything posted by sbgrace

  1. I have known more than one person who did Cologuard and then had to follow up with a colonoscopy, at their insurance's normal non-preventative rate, after. The ColoGuard also misses things. I would (and did) just do the preventative colonoscopy. OP, I did the drink a gallon prep. I was ok the night before, but the morning of I was pretty nauseated while drinking the 2nd half. I had to go very slowly to keep it down. My husband did a colonoscopy after me with the ducolax/miralax the night before. It was much easier going down for sure. He said "not too bad" when I asked just now. Either way, the most annoying part is just having to spend an evening (or evening and next morning with my prep) with frequent bathrooming. Both my husband and I slept fine the night before the colonoscopy. I do agree with the advice to pre-protect before it all starts with a cream. The procedure itself is easy..a nap. I, and my husband, felt really glad we did the colonoscopy route. We go back in 10 years. My sister and my husband's brother are on 5 year plans due to polyp removals. Especially with your family history, it may well save your life.
  2. I just put together a resume and can share what I did. I tailored my resume to the specific job I want. 1st: Generally, I'm back in school and my education is relevant to the postion, so my first section is "Educational Qualifications." While I included my degrees that aren't directly relevant to the postion, the first part of this section is the current course work and certifications that are relevant. 2nd: I have a volunteer and unpaid experience section. This includes the skills section. At the beginning of that section I state: Skills utilized within these experiences include: followed by a 2 column bullet list of 10 skills that I used/developed during my homeschool years. I selected qualities I have that specifically apply to the position I hope to be hired for next year. Following that list I have my volunteer activities--date, position, brief description of what I do. At the bottom of that section I have put the care for children part, and the description mentions providing schooling. 3rd: I put professional experience with my old pre-kids teacher postions. In that section I did bullet both what I did that does apply indirectly and skills developed that apply. It is really short, though, because these positions were so long ago and not field I plan to enter.
  3. This is a follow up of a post I made earlier. I saw my primary care physician today. My TSH was 4.79 with a normal T4 total. My sister has Hashimoto's. My doctor said my thyroid doesn't seem enlarged and, given my normal T4, he thinks we should just wait and see what happens with my TSH. He said a fair number of people will see TSH normalize. He would follow up next year. I am definitely not going to wait that long. I'm not anemic, but my iron levels are low/deficient. He suggested supplements 3 days a week to raise my iron stores. I can order labs online and follow up with an integrative medicine doctor. Just after this appointment I placed an order for Free T3, Free T4, reverse T3, the two thyroid antibodies, vitamin D, b12. I am confident in the integrative med doctor's thyroid knowledge. Now, after looking online a bit I wonder: --Should I wait a few months to see if TSH and the fatigue normalizes as I correct my iron, then run TSH again, along with Free T3/T4, Reverse T3 and the antibodies? I wonder because I am reading that often people are told to wait for a period to see if TSH normalizes. I am also concerned the low iron might impact the T3 and TSH numbers. --Alternatively, should I follow up with my planned thyroid labs now? If so, is it ok that I decided to skip TSH this round, given I just had the test a couple of weeks ago? (The thyroid madness site seems to indicate TSH isn't very helpful, and it adds to the cost) --Should I do something else? Like just check the antibodies and wait on the rest?
  4. Congratulations! I started back in CC this fall. I took/am taking 2 courses each 8 weeks for 3 terms this year. If your experience is like mine you may find that your older brain just takes longer but yet you have life experience to make connections so that what you learn sticks better. I definitely spend more time than I would have decades ago, but I think what I've learned is going to stay with me so much better than when I was younger. Everything about being a student started coming back pretty quickly. I bet the same will happen for you. I hope you really enjoy stretching yourself!
  5. My son got his medical records mixed up with someone who shares his birthday, but not name, at a shared (chain/system) medical practice. One system merged the accounts and it followed that person going forward. Based on that experience, I wonder if this person's records could have been merged with yours very recently, perhaps with a shared system or practice, that then moved to this one. Same sleep study place or same pharmacy chain or..whatever. If it just happened, you won't yet see the charges with your insurance.
  6. Well, I really think it's probably just that she wants the doctor to tell me what to do. She said my hemoglobin was low normal (.2 over the bottom range), so I'm not straight up anemic. I thought about continuing to take it, because it seems obvious I'm deficient. Then I thought maybe iron supplements could throw off follow up labs he might want to run, so I stopped taking it until I talk to him.
  7. Thank you everyone who replied. This thread has been so helpful. It changed my plan to handle this. I was really unaware of so much. I am going to use one of the self order labs to order the thyroid (free t3, free t4, and both antibody labs for the Hashimoto's, and maybe reverse t3 and TSH depending on the lab I use). I think, in reading here, I will likely add D3 and B12 labs. I could do ferritin, though I'm pretty sure I'm iron deficient based on the labs I just had. I wish my doctor had run ferritin, but it seems lots including thyroid stuff can throw that number off anyway. I think I need iron. I will call and make an intergrative med appointment with my former doctor.
  8. I really think I need to restart iron, but the doctor's nurse said to wait so I am. I hope it will make a quick difference for me. I'm really dragging right now and start school again in two weeks.
  9. I looked at the thyroid madness page. I think I'm going to use one the "self order" labs, and make an appointment with the integrative med doctor from my previous community. I'll have to travel to see him, but I am nearly certain he does a lot of it and knows what he's doing.
  10. My ferritin was 124 one and 1/2 years ago. I was told to stop iron supplements at that point. Though I'm looking now and my other iron numbers were in middle range at that time. I think I'm probably just deficient. But my doctor's nurse told me to wait until I talk to him to begin iron again.
  11. I'm sorry. I can imagine the stress and upset. We've had a couple rounds of anxiety interfering with sleep. When my son was very young we had a horrible round that was OCD related. I do not remember now how it resolved. It do remember how horrible it was. I feel for you. Later, closer to your son's age, my son had insomnia from an ADHD medication. He then got anxious about falling asleep and, even though we stopped the medication when we became aware of the issue, it turned into chronic insomnia. We worked with pediatric sleep medicine and, in his case, I think the extra attention added to it just ramped up the anxiety about sleep more. What broke him out of that particular cycle was hydroxyzine at night for a while (with his melatonin, which he still takes, and a regular wake time no matter when he fell asleep). He takes an SSRI now. We likely should have started sooner--I was just so nervous about it. I would definitely consider that at your son's age knowing how much suffering anxiety brought my son.
  12. I am tempted to call an intergrative medicine doctor from where I used to live tomorrow. He's pricey and probably booked out, but I am confident he would run those tests. Maybe I should see what my regular doctor orders on his own first. I've found it's awkward to have two doctors on one situation. I'm glad I posted here. I was inclined to just take iron and wait and see if the tsh corrected itself unless my primary doctor suggested more.
  13. So I've been struggling with some frustrating health stuff for a while now, including fatigue. After some testing, I chalked it all up to peri-menopause around a year ago. Do you think any of the following might explain the fatigue? How should I proceed? I have a well check to go over these labs next week. I looked at bloodwork results from some "well check" labs my doctor ordered last night. Iron-- hemoglobin normal by a bit; low iron saturation; high UIBC and TIBC. No ferritin lab. I think it might indicate iron depletion without anemia (makes sense as I have heavy, frequent cycles, and I stopped iron supplements about 1.5 years ago when my ferittin got high). TSH--4.79. Normal T4. No other thyroid labs. I think this would be subclincal? I'm reading it could correct itself. My sister has Hashimoto's, if it matters. Cholestorol--115 LDL, all other numbers in range but also significantly worse than I've ever had. I can't tell how those three might be connected (low iron can raise TSH and/or high TSH could impact iron levels; TSH could affect cholesterol?). I'm dealing with another health situation of yet undetermined resolution; it's discouraging. I'm feeling old.
  14. My best friend had an implosion like this. She ended up working in a position she is (well, was before her gap in education) over-qualified for. It doesn't pay terrific, but it gets her insurance and new friend and professional connections. The hope is it will eventually lead to work in her field as well. In your case I would seriously consider relocating this summer if the rent in the area is at all reasonable. I know it is going to be hard to transition with the family member. It is understandable that you would need to work now, though, given the drastic circumstances change.
  15. My son has added community college courses this year (5 classes) that we hadn't planned when we started this year. Those courses were not on the transcripts sent to colleges when he applied. Starting this spring, he will be doing a full time schedule dual enroll at the community college. But he still has other courses from his transcript to finish. Would it be a red flag or just not done to change the 2nd semester course list on his transcript? For example, I would end with 1 semester of the planned Honors Chemistry rather than a year and add a DE (non-chemistry) science course for the 2nd semester.
  16. Do I list a DE course (8 week, 3 cr, equiv. to a college semester) as a semester course, but assign high school credits equivalent to a year?
  17. The smaller ones look a bit like dyshydrotic exczema. I hope they are warts. DE is a beast.
  18. I'm confused about college financial awards and timelines. My son has 6 schools he is considering, though 2 of those are less likely than the others. He really has things he likes about each of the other 4 schools and no idea which one to select. He planned to wait for financial aid awards and weigh costs to see if that makes things clearer. I'm not sure it will. But the private schools have been quick to offer their financial packages and seem to expect a student to choose. For example, one private school is having an honors student huge event and banquet along with honors student courses registration for next year in mid-March. In at least some of his public school choices, he will still be in scholarship selection processes in mid-March. I don't know what he's expected to do! If he doesn't participate in the honors program in that school he wouldn't want to attend. But he is not ready to select any school just yet, including that one. When do students typically make their choices? How do they make choices? I wish he felt strongly about one school! Side note about transcripts. How do I transcript community college courses. Do list them as semester or quarter year courses, but assign a yearly credit?
  19. I'm very dense. My doctor added ABUS (automated br..t ultrasound) to my yearly mammogram. ABUS is good for screening dense books. I feel good about this change. I have to pay for it as standard care instead of covered preventative, but it was around $125 for my portion. My sister paid a lot more out of pocket for hers. If you decide to add ABUS, I'd shop around for cost differences.
  20. Can you link or elaborate on this supercharging thing? Does timing matter? We had COVID in September. My kids will be going off to college next fall. I've been uncertain about the usefulness of another booster, especially for them, this spring.
  21. I wanted to avoid COVID forever, but my teens really needed to be able to just be teens and this thing is not going away. We are all vaxed with original boosters. We all rapid tested positive, assumed Omicron, in September. It was quite different for all four of us though I would say all were mild to moderate cold-like. That did include mild aches/fatigue for two of us. --Hubby--mild; felt kind of run down (tired/some body aches--for 1.5 days). After that he had mild head/sinus for a couple of days. --Teen 1--almost no symptoms--very mild nasal. He would not have known to test if the family didn't know we had COVID. --Teen 2--moderate cold to very mild flu; tired and achy intially--slept almost all day 1 with high fever, then fatigue/low energy/laid around the house days 2 into 3. His symptoms other than ache and fatigue were just mild head cold like. Into day 3 he started acting relatively normal around the house. He complained some of mild, non life-impacting fatigue for maybe a month or so after that. He has a metabolic condition that may have made it harder to bounce back. On the other hand, he has health related OCD and was anxious about long COVID, so it's hard to judge his perceptions. --My course of illness was weird. I didn't feel bad at all at first--rough/hoarse voice, some nasal congestion. I did lose most of my sense of smell and taste at some point, but it resolved quickly. I would describe the initial parts for me as very mild, though more than teen 1. Then maybe 4 days into COVID I started having periodic coughing fits, especially at night-- kind of scary and miserable. I had some breathlessness with exertion too (going up stairs). My pulse ox was always fine, and I felt pretty good when I wasn't having a coughing fit. I think it may have re-activated a long ago diagnosed cough variant asthma for me but it took me a while to click into that possibility. I started using my son's albuterol inhaler, which kind of helped, though it could have been that I just had to slow down the panic of not being able to catch my breath to do the inhaler or just the passage of time. Other than the cough stuff interfering with sleep, I didn't feel terrible. Whether it was cough variant asthma from COVID or just part of my COVID, my cough was gone within a week.
  22. My son has been invited to apply for honors programs and scholarships at his prospective schools (he has really good SAT scores). The current one he's working on, and I expect similar requirements for others, requests a letter of recommendation "to be completed by a teacher or someone who can speak to your academic performance." The issue is my son hasn't had many teachers other than myself. He took two local coop sicence courses--but his last was just as COVID hit. He took two elective type courses from local coop teachers his junior year that weren't particularly academic. Outside of that, I have been his only teacher. Should I just write teacher letters, explaining that I have been his primary teacher as a homeschooler or encourage him to ask one of the more recent elective teachers if they could write something?
  23. I do think we need expert advice. The plan was for me to start working when they begin school Fall 2023. I will be 50. It's possible delaying until Jan of that year would be wiser. I'm taking accounting courses to be qualified to sit for the CPA exam. I have about $2400-$3200 more to go, depending on how many courses I can get from my local community college this spring. If I decided to take the exam, that would add another $3000 in prep materials and test costs. The sticky or hard part is I have specific job in mind that is hiring now. I have connections there, and they are aware I'm going back to school. I am concerned that if I delay the job won't be there, though I don't know how likely that is (they are chronically understaffed). Age discrimination is real and we're in a rural area, so I don't know how employable I would be outside of that specific work, where I have connections. And that work doesn't actually require the CPA exam, just having the qualifications to take it is enough. You consulted and will consult before your daughter applies? I was thinking it might be most helpful after my kids have their college decisions made and financial aid set? Maybe both? It does feel high stakes and confusing! I will definitely check into this. Thank you!
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