I lost my older one a year ago at 15...most wonderful dog ever!! The puppy will be 10 in October (yes, not a puppy anymore...she's finally slowing down.) I say Go For It! Pros Most wonderful dogs ever! Smart and easily trainable. If a 4 month old is in a home situation, it's likely already house-trained. You can teach them so much and they pick up so much English just from family conversations. They don't shed and are kind to allergic individuals. They don't tend to overeat, so you don't usually have to struggle to keep their weight down like other dogs. They are people dogs and become a true part of the family. They don't tend to be runners if they get out. Mine come to a door and bark to get back in. Most wonderful dogs ever!!! Cons Because they are so smart, they might be training you as much as you are training them. Ds described our dog as "The pinnacle of a 10,000 year evolution of human trainers." Their non-shedding fur is like velcro. It's soft, but grass clippings, mulch, sawdust, dead leaves, etc. stick to it. The first thing they do when they come in the back door is shake and you think "They might as well shed!" Their non-shedding fur must be groomed or they can't see, or eat, or poop. It's either expensive or lots of work for the family member that learns the task. Dh didn't care if ds learned to cut the grass, but he definitely took over poodle grooming when he was old enough. Some people are allergic to the lanolin on their skin (like sheep.) Sometimes it is hard to get them to eat...they can be finicky like cats. They are people dogs and need to be inside dogs with family around them. They are smart enough to cause all kinds of interesting trouble if left alone or isolated. Standards aren't really crate dogs, unless they just need a safe place away from small children.

I know you feel like crap, I did too! I don't want to share too much, but sometimes a facility is the right place. A couple or three shifts of reasonably well-rested caregivers without emotional baggage can really be better than one over-exhausted relative working 24/7! I know that your relationship isn't perfect, but it does give you a chance to just be a daughter. I wish I'd had more of that in the last months with my mom (home hospice here)....and I'm now getting back to that with dad (dementia, not terminal) after recovering from the non-stop care. Me becoming a shell of a human really wasn't helping anyone.

Good luck! Take care of your family. I've been out of the volcano for 2 years (after 4 years in), and I'm just starting to recover mentally, emotionally, and physically (my marriage OTOH, may never recover.)

And this goes both ways...The Body Keeps the Score by van der Kolk is an excellent book on how trauma can cause disease. I imagine continued stress causing a change in gut flora is a part of this.

It keeps loading the splash page for me too. I think they are overwhelmed with traffic

Two houses in our neighborhood have sold with agents in 4 and 11 days. Someone decided to go FSBO yesterday. She put it on the Fb group, Zillow, and put signs out. I’ll let you know how quickly it goes compared to the others!

I hope they come back with an offer, I’m looking, too, and it is a struggle at our age. If you really are thinking about going back to school, check into benefits as a student. Some colleges offer lower priced health insurance to full time students.

They are reporting that two boys are out, using pairs of divers to rescue them one by one!

Not necessarily, I always get copies, but when they are sent to another doctor, sometimes they write a letter or note. I would have never known this if I hadn’t seen copies from first docs, when I requested copies from second docs.

That's wonderful...My mom passed July 2, 2012...the anniversary is so hard, I'm practically dysfunctional! Big Hugs to you...I truly know what you are going through

Murphy, Can I join the club? I'm not employed full-time yet but I am trying very hard. I've been interviewing since October, and so far have one volunteer job and one commission-type job, so I'm working really hard and not making much of anything. I could definitely use support!

I agree, particularly because in my experience, students end up moving in with their boyfriend/girlfriend to avoid the bad roommate situation. (And I'm not against that as a well-thought out decision in general, but when it is because of a bad roommate, I think it is often premature and ends badly.)

((((Hugs)))) Sometimes when you stop having to be strong for the kids, the real feelings pour out even more dramatically. I'm so sorry both of you are going through this.

Blessings today to all those on the board who celebrate Ramadan! Hope you and your families have a great day!

So he got incredibly ill at the stress test, blacked out and barfing, but his heart came through it fine. X-rays were fine. It's benign early repolarization and mild percarditis (probably from a virus and will pass). He wants some additional blood work at his next physical (next month) and to follow up in six weeks, but it seems all will be fine. Thanks for all the advice and well wishes!

We’ve done all this. It’s great advice. When he turned 18, we told him he needed POAs and directives. It was a bit sombering for him, but it’s good to have that peace of mind.

He had an echo and is having a stress test now. The doc had to run over to the hospital, so he will interpret when he gets back. First thought was early repolarization, but he wants to see everything.

Don't quote, I might be oversharing here! The appointment is in a couple of hours but I want to be armed with any information I can gather and any questions I should ask. He's had some chest pains which I thought were musculoskeletal, but I took him to the doc anyway. The doc agreed, but then ran an EKG, and it showed anomolies. He said it might be a normal variant and asked for an old one to look at, but I don't have one. His last was at the pediatric cardiologist when he was 6. He was followed for a heart murmur...all I have are reports. He gave ds a long list of symptoms to watch out for, but dh and I aren't comfortable with that so he is seeing my cardiologist in a couple of hours. I'm hoping someone here has some insight...It showed Sinus Arrhythmia. It also showed ST Elevation in II, aVF, V4, V5, and V6 (well, its everywhere, but those were where it was significant.)

This is probably the crux of it. We could think of it another way...a medical professional knows the benefits of vaccinations and the risks of going without. They know the value of herd immunity. I'm sure she loves anyone who might be a visitor to her baby, so maybe subconsciously she is doing her tiny little part to increase vaccination and safety among her loved ones. Really some of it is practical, too. I know most babies survive pertussis. But raising a little one is tough and should be a joyful time, spending three months of that with the disease and the lingering cough is miserable...why not try to protect yourself and your little one. (Of course, I've never been one to feel like others had a "right" to see my child, they can take it or leave it.)

I just read this from the NYT (hoping they didn't put it behind the firewall!) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/07/health/depression-suicide-helping.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur As someone who has struggled with PTSD, I think it has merit. From the recipient, the only one that concerns me is the last. When your spouse has had enough, says they can't deal anymore, and puts you in a not-right-now box, it can send you into a tail-spin. Sometimes I wonder if strict boundaries are what send some people over the edge. Of course, everyone needs boundaries to protect themselves, so I don't really know what the solution to that is..."Compassion Fatigue" is real and I feel like that's what Kate Spade's husband ran into.

So true! Some depressions are intractable. We just have no way to know which medicine has the best chance to work, which one to try first. And to make it worse some treatments increase the risk of suicide in some people and weaning off an ineffective med can increase the risk too, so they may be doing the right thing, but... :-(. I hear people say they should have gotten help, but the people I knew were trying to get help...it just wasn’t helping yet. I so hope that some day soon we will find better ways (maybe blood or gene testing) to quickly find the right meds for each person, so that no one has to suffer like this.

This completely deserves saying again! When we let people know, it's to let people know. We in no way expect people to turn their lives upside down to cater to us. I'm so happy when people don't fret and just say, "This is what we are having, if that doesn't sound safe, feel free to bring your own food." Maybe they have other celiacs coming and know one or two things will be safe. Maybe they know their chicken salad is safe, but ask me to bring my own crackers. Maybe they set my bowl aside so it doesn't get contaminated. Yes, it's great for people to be interested and learn all of the details of what is and isn't OK, but not doing that and letting me know their food is unsafe is great, too! What really sucks is realizing how suspicious people are of me...it's going to events and just pretending that I'm not hungry, rather than taking food (because I don't want to offend or be judged). Honesty, openness, and treating it as no big deal is best. Just like with any disability. If it helps, think of people with food problems like people in wheelchairs: it's just their life. I can't imagine every time I see someone in a wheelchair wondering if they really need it, wondering if it is a placebo, wondering if it is all in their head. It just doesn't even come into my mind. We all have our challenges, but really we are all just people doing the best we can.

Gifted camps are a really good idea, but I’d have to get someone who is better with children to help me out! Advanced statistics, calculus, physics, chemistry, yes! Beings that need discipline, not so much. I would say the same for my colleagues. Our DE is free, so there’s significant competition there. My market would probably be people who don’t want their whole schedule tied up by a college. A several week stats boot camp or classes that you could miss and catch up online might fit better. I hadn’t thought of PA, that gives me a good price basis for comparison.

Definitely, the boot camp covers several languages. The other classes drill down into details of one language or field. R is my specialty, thus my first assignment. I moved there from SAS and SPSS when I needed open source (before Python was a contender.) Python just surpassed R in usage last fall, but there are still plenty of shops that are just R and SAS so it’s worthwhile to know to increase options. If I teach the statistics, I would probably go with R (and the AP test requires use of the stupid TI calculator; I really hate teaching that archaic technology!)

I meant to post this on the High School Board...I just went ahead and cross-posted. Moderators, let me know if that isn't allowed and delete this one! I spend more time here, so would love to have input from those that don't frequent the high school board.