My daughter started it a few months ago. The doctor told her to cut the pills in half and take a half dose for the first week. Then the pharmacist said the same thing. LOL She still said she felt a little bit weird for about a week. But the side effects did go away. I take a different SSRI, and the first week was brutal (I did NOT take a half dose). But life was so much better after I got past the side effects. Hang in there.

Independent agent for sure.

Definitely look for an independent insurance agent. They can shop around for the best plan and price for you. (That's what I do for my day job.) When you go with the big name insurance companies, you're stuck with the one or two plans they offer.

My experience with the ACA and Oregon Healthplan (Oregon's Medicaid) has been horrid. My husband lost his job in April, losing his insurance with it. before mid-June, we applied through Healthcare.gov. But we couldn't sign up for a subsidized plan, because we might qualify for OHP. So they forwarded our info to OHP. Six weeks later, OHP denied us based on our income when we applied for OHP for our kids in February - when my husband was employed. How they screwed that up, I'm not sure. Because of the denial letter, we were able to sign up for a subsidized plan through the ACA, but it didn't go into effect until September. 4 months without insurance means we have to pay a partial fine. But we couldn't sign up for insurance during that time, because those are the rules. You physically are not allowed to sign up for a plan on Healthcare.gov if you are waiting on a Medicaid decision from the state. And as far as I can tell so far, there's no exemption for "waiting for the state to make a Medicaid decision and then dealing with their incompetence when they make the decision based on the wrong income." I need to waste another half a day calling on that. Meanwhile, I've sent in two more income verifications to OHP (on in August, one in November), because I do believe we qualify for OHP. It's December. We applied in June. Every time I call they're "going to make a decision soon." Every time I deal with this I have to take hours off of work. I'm trying to work to earn money so we don't have to be on public assistance anymore. But every time I have to deal with the government bureaucracy, it hinders my ability to earn an income. It's like they want to keep you poor.

Yep. For me the irritation came from not knowing what to expect. I'm a fairly routine kind of person, and DH being home disrupted my routine. Once I figured out what my problem was, we sat down, and I explained to DH that I just needed to know what his plans were every day - when he was getting up (so I didn't plan on washing sheets in the early morning if he was going to sleep late), when he'd be on the computer, when he was going out. Once we got our schedules straight, it wasn't so bad. Now we're both underemployed at the same office, and we get to spend all day at the office together. That's working out much better than when we were both at home. :)

I would absolutely attend, no matter who was elected. How often do you have the chance to be a part of something historic like that? Plus it would be cool to visit DC.

I had to tell a client this week that insurance for he, his wife, and their newborn baby was going to be $1000 a month. He was just over the income limit where you get a subsidy. They are going without insurance instead.

This whole situation is so tragic. My son follows soccer closely, and he is devastated that this happened. Thanks for the updates, Lanny. We know we probably won't get many in the US from here on out.

Me!

DD turned 18 in February and is looking forward to voting in our primary in May. She's registered and ready to go.

My mom was diagnosed with CLL when she was in her 50s, which is pretty young for that kind of leukemia, from what I understand. At first they said living 10 years would be a good outcome. She had to do oral chemo every couple of years at first. Eventually she had to do a round of the drip kind. That was miserable, but apparently it did its job, because it's been several years, and her doctors are now calling her cured. I've heard that's pretty rare. She just celebrated her 70th birthday. While your friend may not need treatment yet, she definitely needs to get insurance. Because when the white blood cell count starts going up, it can go up in a hurry, and she'll get some bothersome physical symptoms then, and she'll probably need some chemo to knock the leukemia down a little. As far as symptoms, it's been a while, but I remember my mom had frequent bloody noses and bloodshot eyes when she was first diagnosed, and those symptoms would usually return right about the time she needed more chemo. I think her WBC was over 100K when she was first diagnosed at a routine doctor's visit.

My insurance is dropping the plan, so I need to shop for a new one. I'll be paying at least $100 more a month than I am now (just for me, not for the whole family). Kids qualify for CHIP. Husband is insured through work (small company), but the insurance company his employer is with is leaving the state. So we're not sure where the company will land with insurance or whether we'll have to kick in any costs. The company covers 100% of his insurance premiums now, but who knows if they will still do that with the rising costs and a new company. We are in limbo. Not happy.

Ugh. We've avoided lice so far, but my 5 year old came home from school with the dreaded "your child may have been exposed to lice" letter today. The tea tree oil went straight into the conditioner bottle and onto her head. And her hair will be in braids tomorrow. So sorry you have to deal with this. Now I'm off to itch my scalp. All this lice talk gives me the heebie jeebies.

No front loader here, but I just purchased (in May) an LG HE top loader, and we've been extremely happy with it. LG seems to be a really good brand.

Plays soccer, goes to soccer practice, watches soccer on TV, watches soccer on youtube... I think he's obsessed. Oh, and every once in a while he jumps in the pool.Schedule