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Alice

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Posts posted by Alice

  1. Only one strain causes cancer? That certainly takes a bite out of my 8% doesn't it?

     

    No, it is more than one strain. Gardisil protects against the two strains that cause 70% of the cancer (strains #16 and 18). It also protects against two strains of HPV that cause most of the genital warts. There are other strains of HPV that cause cancer but I'm not sure how many, as they are less common.

  2. I agree with you about the push to make it mandatory. I, personally, can't think of *any* medical procedure/medication that should be mandatory. I believe the decision should be left up to the individual (or his representative). But I hope individuals make informed decisions rather than emotional ones.

     

    On another note, and because you probably deal with this a lot, what do you think about the meningococcal vaccine for college students? My son will be going to OU in the fall and they are recommending this vaccine for all college students. Apparently the incidence of outbreak is increasing...any ideas why?

     

    I sent you a PM, so I don't hijack the thread. :001_smile:

  3. You are right, Alice. But the statistic doesn't come from the company. It comes from a group of researchers at the University of Chicago.

     

     

     

     

    I apologize, Cynthia. I realize I made it sound like you got your stats from the Gardisil company. What I was actually thinking about is the times I've talked to the Gardisil reps. (I'm a pediatrician and talk to them when they visit our office.) They always bring up this stat about rate of infection and include it in their literature but don't always include the info on the rate of clearance. I don't know where the reps get their statistics, and the stats of infection rate do agree with what I've seen on other sources so I'm not questioning if they are correct. But it just bugs me that the reps usually don't give the whole picture. I'm about as pro-vaccination as they come but I do believe that patients should be given all the info and not mis-leading info (not saying you are doing that...again just thinking of the reps I know).

     

    Again, I do believe in vaccines but Gardisil has troubled me because of the push to make it mandatory which I don't agree with and because I feel like if we want people to vaccinate we need to be completely honest with them. If we (speaking of myself and the rest of the medical community) are misleading about one vaccine...who is going to believe us about the others? (Really really not saying you are trying to mislead people. :D The info you posted is helpful and obviously coming from a place of wanting to inform people.)

     

    KidsHappen...aw, thanks! :blush:

     

    Beansprouts...here is some info on numbers of cases of cancer from the CDC. I don't know how many people are in the US so can't convert this to rate of infection..but it might be helpful. One thing to know in reading it is they mention that 1% of people have genital warts. The strains of HPV that cause warts are not the same as the strains that cause cancer. However, warts are usually viewed as a "red flag" as if you have been infected with one strain it is thought that you may also be infected with others.

     

    I should also add as a final disclaimer since I mentioned that I'm a pediatrician...cervical cancer is obviously not my area of expertise at all. Thankfully. :D

     

    HPV infection. Approximately 20 million Americans are currently infected with HPV, and another 6.2 million people become newly infected each year. At least 50% of sexually active men and women acquire genital HPV infection at some point in their lives.

     

    Genital warts. About 1% of sexually active adults in the U.S. have genital warts at any one time.

     

    Cervical cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2008, 11,070 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer in the U.S.

     

    Other HPV-related cancers are much less common than cervical cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2008, there will be:

     

    3,460 women diagnosed with vulvar cancer;

    2,210 women diagnosed with vaginal and other female genital cancers;

    1,250 men diagnosed with penile and other male genital cancers; and

    3,050 women and 2,020 men diagnosed with anal cancer.

    Certain populations may be at higher risk for HPV-related cancers, such as gay and bisexual men, and individuals with weak immune systems (including those who have HIV/AIDS).

  4. The risk is that over 80% of women will be infected by the age of 50.

     

    First off...Cynthia I'm not attacking you at all. I thought your replies were well said. But I've heard this statistic before and it bugs me. I know you didn't make it up though, so I'm not blaming you. :)

     

    The thing that bugs me about this statistic that is often quoted is that although it is true (or at least it is true that a high percentage of adults are infected with HPV, I've seen different numbers quoted)...90% of the time the virus is cleared within 2 years of becoming infected. Saying 80% of women have it sounds like 80% are at risk of cancer...which is not exactly true.

     

    The rate of clearance of the virus is true of high-risk strains and low-risk strains. Also, I believe the 80% infection statistic is of all strains of HPV not just the high risk ones so it is a little mis-leading when thinking about risk of cancer.

     

    I'm not against the vaccine, but this statistic quoted by the company that makes Gardisil always bugs me. The flip-side is that we can't predict which 90% of women will clear the virus and which won't and be at risk for cervical cancer. Also, the vaccine is thought to prevent 70% of the viruses that do cause cervical cancer.

     

    Just a few thoughts for those considering whether or not to give the vaccine to their dds.

     

    This is a good site for info on HPV and the vaccine. http://www.cdc.gov/STD/HPV/STDFact-HPV.htm#preventrelated

  5. We have a 2006 Kia Sedona. It was so much less expensive than the Honda Odyssey or the Toyota Sienna. We liked getting a newer vehicle with less mileage. Dh is crazy when it comes to car researching. He researched for about 6-9 months before buying and had spreadsheets comparing all sorts of items...and the Kia was the winner.

     

    We have had it for a year and really like it.

     

    The only downside is that it doesn't have a name that holds value. The car itself is great but for resale most people want Hondas or Toyotas. For us this is fine, because we tend to drive our cars for a long time until they are basically not resellable. We're not expecting to get much for it, but probably wouldn't get much for anything we had so this was not an issue for us. I could see if you plan on reselling in the next few years where this might be a bigger issue.

  6. I don't really have experience with this myself but wanted to say that I'm sorry for your loss. I think recoginizing that this is a hard time and allowing yourself to grieve is ok and healthy.

     

    A close friend of mine whose father died two years ago has marked the anniversary by planting a special plant for him every year. She has an area of her garden that has some of his favorite plants and other things that had meaning to him. She also goes out with close friends to an Irish pub and toasts his memory.

  7. I haven't read all the replies. From what I've read, I probably agree with many that it's really more about the people involved than saying "all men" or "all women". My dh is completely hospital-phobic and I'm a doctor. So for us I sent him out of the room during any interventions/exams just because I knew it would be tough for him. He would have stayed if I asked. He wanted to be there but "to be near the top" :) He freaks out at any blood (like a scraped knee) so I knew it would be hard for him to watch the actual birth, but he did want to be there with me. We just told the doctor in advance not to ask him to watch or to cut the cord. In the end, I ended up having a C-section. He was with me but we had a great anesthesiologist who put up the curtain really high so he didn't see anything. He stayed right by me and I was so glad to be together when we first saw our son. That was a magical experience that I wouldn't have wanted to miss sharing. But I was also glad for him that he was able to be shielded from seeing anything too scary. :) Our second time was a planned C-section so we knew what to expect and it was pretty much exactly the same as the first time.

  8. My kids are little so I don't have much of a school schedule at this point. We roughly do things at the same time each day, but the day-to-day might vary. For example, I work two afternoons and evenings so on those days I have to do everything in the morning. Other days I might do some school in the am and some in the afternoon.

     

    What I do is type up a schedule each week of everything we are doing, along with dinners and cleaning tasks.

     

    It would look like this:

    Monday:

    Library Storytime ( I would put here anything out of the house for that day. Dentist or doctor appointments, classes, meetings, etc.)

    Clean: Downstairs Bathroom (I've divided my cleaning into Mon: Downstairs Bathroom, Tues: Kitchen, Fri: Upstairs Bathroom, Dust, Vacuum, Sheets/Towels...it's heavy on Fridays but we're usually free and I like having a clean house for the weekend)

    Dinner: Whatever we are having

    School: Phonics x 15 minutes

    HWT x 5 minutes

    Math x 15 mintues

    FIAR: Read book, discuss geography.

     

    Then I also have a to-do list on the side for things I want to get done in the week. This might be church tasks, e-mails, appointments to make, extra household cleaning, etc. I try to think of one "extra" task a week. Any more and it just doesn't get done. So this week it is sort through toys to give away. Or it might be clean windows, clean van, etc.

     

    I started doing this after my second son was born and I just felt like I couldn't keep up with everything I had to do. For me, having a schedule is very freeing. For example, instead of just thinking "oh, the bathroom needs cleaning" I just know that I do it on Mondays. So I don't worry about it on Saturday. It will get done. If I don't do a task on the "assigned" day because I'm not feeling like it or life happens...it's not that hard to just do it another day. I typically don't plan much on the days I work and I leave Saturdays completely free of household stuff. Often we end up doing some stuff on Saturdays but I use that as a catch-up day and I know if I get everything done on Friday...I have the whole weekend free. (We try not to shop, do errands or cleaning on Sundays.)

     

    This has worked for me. I am a pretty perfectionist control-freak kind of person. I think a schedule with times would end up making me feel crazy because I would never be "on-time" and I'd just feel frazzled. Although, I can imagine as my kids are older having more of a daily schedule to make sure we are doing what is needed with school. As we're juggling multiple subjects I think that would be helpful.

     

    Also, I should add that although the typed schedule may seem incredibly compulsive (and probably is :)) it doesn't take much time. Many of the things stay the same week to week so once it's typed once I just go in once a week and add what is specific for the week and print it out.

  9. Don't feel bad! I hated being read aloud to as a kid. I think for me it was two things..I was a fast reader and knew I could read it faster myself (maybe similar to your son's efficiency explanation). And also I'm very much a visual learner. If I read something (or write it) myself I know it. If I hear something, not so much. Even in college I had a very hard time focusing on lectures. I was good at taking notes and would get a lot more out of reading my notes on the lecture or reading a book than on listening to the lecture itself. Is your ds more visual than auditory?

     

    I do love reading aloud to my own kids. My guys love it right now (but are young and can't read themselves) but we'll see as they get older what they like.

     

    I think talking with your son about what he is reading is a great alternative to reading aloud. You could even have sort of a "book club" where you read the same thing and then discuss it. The point of reading aloud seems to me to be the time together...so if you can get that in another way it seems ok to me.

  10. I didn't like it, but not really because of content. (Although sometimes I did feel like he was trying to be over the top for the sake of shock-value rather than for the story.) I just thought it wasn't all that well-written. It was way too long and after awhile I got bored. I didn't really care about any of the characters. It's really rare for me to not finish a book and I did finish this one, but I kind of felt like I had wasted my time.

  11. I work two days from 1pm-8pm as a pediatrician. I also go every morning to the hospital to see patients, but I do this very early (am back by 8am). My situation is a little different in that my dh stays home when I work, so it's easier I think to balance everything. We are also very blessed to both have super-flexible work environments that allow us to do this and to be flexbile in other ways. And...we live very close to family that is willing and anxious to babysit. My SIL has for the past few months voluntarily been coming over one of the days I work to babysit as she wants to spend more times with the kids (this gives dh extra time at work). And my parents live only about 2 hours away and are often available to come up and babysit if we have something come up. All that is just to say that I'm very aware that I am incredibly blessed and that there is no way I could work, parent, and homeschool without a lot of help.

     

    In general, I'm a very naturally organized person. I find that with juggling work and parenting, for me I have to stay very structured or I start to feel out of control. I type up a schedule every week of the things I want to do daily as well as meals and appointments we have. I give myself the flexibility not to do it, but it helps me to know that I'm going to do this task on this day instead of just feeling like there is so much to do. And it definitely makes it easier that dh is home. I'm kind of the manager of the house but a lot of days as I leave I'm asking him to finish some tasks I started (like laundry).

     

    Like you, I only have a young child now. As far as homeschooling goes, we can easily do it all in the mornings before I go to work. Our plan right now is that once the boys get older and it can't be all done in the morning dh will help more with school...we're thinking he may take over one or two subjects that can be done only a few times a week.

  12. Yeah, I've been thinking about this. My dd is currently in "6th grade" though she does things at different levels. Both she and our middle son (ds14) rushed through their K and 1st stuff so fast that they were done before the one year was up. So we just kept them going...the next year they were considered 2nd grade instead of 1st, etc.

     

    DD's Bday is in March, so when she is a senior, she would turn 17 in March, and graduate in May or June. I'm wondering if we should just keep her in 6th grade next year instead of moving her to 7th? It's just a number right now, so I'm not sure that she'd care particularly. Most of her friends are in 5th this year....

     

    My son....his B-day is in September, just past the cut-off dates. So he's either a year older or a year younger. He's in 9th grade this year, and will start 10th grade then turn 15. He could use some maturing, so I'm wondering this same thing for him!

     

    Any thoughts on this, or should I start a new thread? I don't want to take away from the OP's original post!

     

    Well, my kids are 4 and 18 months so I'm reading this thread more out of curiousity than anything else. I was 17 when I went to college (turned 18 in Feb of my freshman year). It never bothered me and I was definitely ready.

     

    Both my boys have fall birthdays...right now my thought for them is to have them be a year "ahead" of where they would be in the ps system (we're doing kindergarten next year, although my son would miss the cut-off) so they would both graduate at 17. Then I'd like to give them both an intentional "gap" year after high school. I would have loved the opportunity to take a year off and do something special (travel, volunteer, pursue an interest, etc) and I want to provide them with that.

     

    I know my guys are young and this plan could easily get derailed at many points along the way...but it's where I would love to see us end up.

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