We were always told to stay on the phone. Not because of false accusations, but because every little piece of information can help the EMTs and hospital be better prepared. The 911 operator can relay information. In attack circumstances, the perpetrator may return and the operator needs to know what's going on to inform police. I think it's a good idea to tell kids to call 911 even if they just suspect something, before they walk over to investigate, just in case they may be in danger too. The person laying on the grass may not be drunk, but may have been shot. If it's nothing, the operators are fine with a "never mind" as long as there is an explanation. Calling 911 first is also important because it is easy to get caught up giving aid and delay the call. There's a chance you can't be much help, so that ambulance needs to be on the way while you are trying. All you have to do is dial three digits, put on the speaker and toss the phone on the ground next to you.

Can you call your ND and add back a small dose of the levo for a week? Vacations don't come around very often, and it sucks to be miserable during that time. You'll have plenty of time after vacation to adjust to the new regiment.

Thanks, there is obviously a lot of latitude there. And thanks to the OP for this thread!

English is the primary language for programming, even in programming languages developed in other countries. There is a Wiki-pedia article on some non-English ones, but they aren't really significant, some are just hobby languages. I would guess maybe 1% are non-English. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-English-based_programming_languages ETA: The keyboard issue. I'm not positive, but the programmers that I've met from China, Japan, and India are all lightning fast on the QWERTY keyboard, so I've never suspected that they learned on anything else. My dh works with a couple of native Russians, I'll have him ask.

Katie, can I ask how much DHEA? I had the testing but am not seeing any difference at the 10mg the doc suggested. Wondering if it's just not the right answer here or if asking for a higher dose might help?

My credit union offered a service like this and it was great!

Is that a routine test? I know it is for driving offenses, but for other crimes (robbery, mugging, rape, etc.) is a routine breath or blood test normal? It seems like it would be very expensive to test blood alcohol for every crime, but I've never really thought about it.

We had no problem buying them at the station when visited. Most everything was walkable, but we the the T to the science museum. I can't rightly remember if it was really too far, or I was just feeling lazy that day.

I wondered at the 6 hours of lab a week. Some of the honors science classes at the colleges ds looked at included a research or special topics component. Even the freshmen spend 3-6 hours in a research lab each week to begin learning lab skills in a real lab. I can't really imagine how that would tie in with a mechanics course though. The only other thing I would think about for load *is* the number of lab hours. With CS and physics, that would be at least 9 hours a week in lab versus the 3 hours a week in a classroom for equivalent credits. (So instead of 17 hrs/wk in class, it is 26 hrs/wk). I think the idea was always that the lab reports are done in lab, so there is no outside work for lab hours. I've not always found that to be true. Some labs require extensive time outside class to write up lab reports, particularly honors classes.

Interesting. I wonder if the aluminum compound in the Crystal rock might only work as a deodorant. It in no way stops sweating ( at least in me); it just cuts down the odor (and only does that so-so). It does only say deodorant on the label. I don't use it because I thought it was aluminum free. I use it because I developed allergies to pretty much everything else. I'm guessing it's because it doesn't have as many ingredients as other options. (I'm hoping that I'm not jinxing myself to develop an allergy to it, too.)

Two additional thoughts: I wear print shirts when I'm going to be drenched in sweat. Sweat shows because the fabric turns darker when it is wet. If you have a pattern with lots of light and dark areas (random is good), it's hard to see what is sweat and what is just pattern. It makes it SO much less noticeable (and no one is looking that hard to begin with.) I stopped using anti-persp a long time ago and just use the crystal stuff for deod. On important occasions, I use dh's stronger stuff and I have a warning. Somehow anti-persp stop the sweat from coming out, but the "waste" still builds up. So if I use it for a couple of days and then switch back to just light deod, I stink something awful for the next few days. I don't have any evidence, but I swear the stuff ferments in the pores until it can get out. So if you stink for a couple of days after the switch, it will go away.

You are right, Katie. Though I said nothing about promiscuity, I was referencing the sex-when-drunk thread title and direction the conversation had gone in my post about my advice to kids (which I believe should be the same for both genders.) I've deleted, as it belongs elsewhere, not in a thread that was supposed to be about this particular victim.

nm

Ds is 18 and I'm thinking about trying to get a 30 year term for him. I developed auto-immunes that made me pretty much uninsurable. Fortunately, I did get one 20-year policy for myself (quite expensive) when I only had one condition. Dh added on a higher value for himself 10 years later, but I couldn't. I think my kid has his dad's health genes, but I would hate if he couldn't get insurance to protect his kids later.

Having lost a baby and worked with grief support groups, I think this is important to consider. Some people can pop right up and go back to work, but others of us can't. Dh ended up taking a month (some vacation, some holidays, some just kindness from employer), and if I had been working, I would have likely needed three. In addition to your own grief, you might have other children at home that need more parent time to work through their grief. In general, with kids, people don't take a couple of days, have a funeral and then just go right back to work. We have a substantial emergency fund, but when dh's job has had the super cheap insurance for dependents, I've signed up for it. And we do have insurance on both of us through Allstate.

Just as a counter-point, keep in mind that he is going downhill very quickly *right now*. If you move him, he might pass soon, but the same outcome is likely in his current situation. His passing won't be *because* you moved him, it will be because he is very ill in hospice care, and it is inevitable. All you and dh can do is find the best, safest way for him to spend these last days...that is a trade-off of best medical and best emotional. He is past the point of being able to make good decisions, so you guys have to make the best one you can...and, as someone told me, they all suck! As stressful as it is, it is kind to let him try one last time. Maybe he'll make it work with local help, but if not, and you have to move him, keep in mind that though he is losing his contacts there, he will be gaining every day with his grandchildren, you, and your dh, all of whom he loves very much. ETA: :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

Aimee, I am so, so sorry. I know it will be so hard to leave him knowing this is likely temporary. I really hate people that know just the right thing to be done when *they* aren't the one doing it. I don't know the age or tech level of the people you are talking about, but maybe you can do an e-mail loop or a facebook page, where every time someone visits FIL, they post with his mood and conditions. A network of younger former students may be your eyes on the ground, in addition to the medical people. You may already be on your way home, but can I make a suggestion for the junk? Bug bombing would be more effective with less stuff. Could you convince him to put a large bulk in storage "temporarily" so that things can be cleaned up? It might make it easier for him to get around and for help to keep the place clean, if there is less clutter. If someone local had the key, they could grab something for him if he really needs it.

Evergreen State's Geoduck http://evergreen.edu/geoduck/home.htm (Spoiler Alert: It's not a duck; it's a clam.)

Usually it's the spoken word for me. It doesn't happen very often, but it did today, so I came back to post: ETA: Um, I just put a link...is it OK that the picture showed up on its own?

I want to second this strongly. Yes, you can get someone else to watch after your children, but after a few years you realize how much of your child's life you missed doing elder care. This is particularly true with older kids. They learn to be self-sufficient, and the elder needs more and more each day, so the squeaky wheel... I don't think it's bad for children to see you care for the elderly, but it is so easy to slip into almost nothing but elder care. Get help from the start that FIL can get used to (maid, mom's helper, etc.) Rather you think it will happen or not, things will get a little harder each day and you will adapt. It will take a little more time away from the kids, and you will adapt. It happens gradually, and you think I can handle this one more thing. You will think that it's not so bad, and you don't need help yet. One day you wake up and your kid is graduating and somehow you've made sure they've schooled the past four years, but you have missed so much. So go ahead and hire services for everything you do at home NOW. If somehow you find yourself bored with too much time on your hands (LOL), you can let them go after a few months. With that kind of anxiety, I would say that it would almost be cruel to have him make that road trip without something like ativan. His doctor should give you enough to make the trip and then you can see if he still needs something when he sees his new doctor. If it helps with selling it to FIL, ativan (or its relatives) are great for car sickness. (ETA: Even something like Benadryl or Dramamine, if the doctor approves, can help with the anxiety in a car ride, if you don't want to go the Rx route.) ETA: Didn't mean to sound so intense in my answer. You are doing the right thing to find a safe solution for your FIL. Coming from personal experience, I just wanted to make sure that you care for you and your family in the process.

This is generally true, but for Psychology, one of ds's short list universities gave credit for Psy 101 for the CLEP, but only gave elective credit for the AP. So the AP wouldn't have given him the basic pre-req credit for higher level classes. He didn't choose that school, but we were looking at having him take the CLEP (even after a 5 on the AP), so that he didn't have to repeat the intro course. Really, when (ahem!) students wait 'til the last minute to choose a college, all you can do is go with the averages and make your best bet. In general, scouring requirements, I found that DE was better than AP (unless the DE is at a 2 year college) and AP was better than CLEP. But I felt like I was studying English spelling where my exception-to-the-rule list was pretty long.

There really is glucose in sweat: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22376082 Doesn't seem like a huge contributor for energy calculations, but would be an awesome alternative to pricking the finger for diabetics once the bugs are worked out.

Certainly not a very clear explanation. Right up there with the evolution/2nd law argument leaving out the sun. I do think the system is more complex than calories in - calories out = fat stored because you are ignoring lots of uses and waste of energy by the body. The first figure here: http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y5022e/y5022e04.htm is better at showing the complex distribution of the calories out. Looking through the factors: The very first thing listed is Faecal Energy. Every calorie you eat isn't even absorbed into the body from the digestive system. The limit of this we've all experienced with the GI bugs that run all food right through us. It is why Olestra worked as a diet aid for some. Some people are super efficient and absorb every calorie, some not so much. That's one of the factors that would be accounted for when measuring an individual's basal metabolism rate (BMR), the amount of calories required for bodily functions. I had to laugh at Combustible Gas. It's probably not an area people are looking to for weight loss, wouldn't be worth the trade-off. For those two, keep in mind that dung and methane burn, so they do contain calories that aren't used in the body. Apparently there is a little energy lost in urine (obviously more if there is protein in your urine), but the energy required to make urine is included in an individual's BMR. And some lost in sweat, maybe? (That's new to me.) I would guess (but haven't done the research) that individual differences in Heat of Microbial Fermentation are caused by different gut flora. This would likely be complex, because it is burning calories, but it is warming up the digestive track. Some of that heat would reduce the energy expenditure required later to maintain body temperature (in BMR). It is not likely a simple subtraction. Dietary Thermogenesis is huge. No machine is completely efficient and there is waste in converting food to fuel. Some foods require more work to extract energy (more likely whole foods), others like juice require little. Again some of this waste is heat that goes to keeping our body temperature up. Heat lost from the effects of cold, hormones, certain drugs, bioactive compounds, and stimulants are also on the list. These vary so widely with people's environment, health conditions, medications, and dietary choices. One of the last is the BMR - how many calories it takes to keep you alive. This varies by person. They give us an estimate based on age, height, weight and gender, but it is actually different for each person as it depends on your efficiency and some of the above factors. It can be measured by isolating you, seeing how much heat you put off and measuring the energy in your poop, pee, gas, and apparently, sweat, though you will only see that in a research lab. All of this is not to say that controlling the diet and exercise won't make a difference. Those are large factors in the overall equation, and they are the things that an individual can control. But when frustrated dieters say it is not as simple as CICO, I think they are right. (I know many people don't believe that metabolism can make that much of a difference. I've had Grave's disease and saw it in person. It is a hyperthyroid condition that ramps the metabolism in every way. Before I was diagnosed, I was eating everything in sight. Giant ham sandwiches at 2 in the morning and still losing half a pound a day. On medication, I ate half as much and started putting the weight back on.)

However you do it, Just Do It! -The woman with a new homeschool graduate and crates of stuff to go through

Since this is the time of year and it's being discussed, I'm curious on experiences with the Hepatitis A vaccine before ds goes to the doctor for the pre-college exam and meningitis vaccine. It's not on the normal list but there is a possibility (maybe slight) that ds might get a chance to visit India in the next year. Hep A is on the routine vaccine list there and is endemic in some areas. Since the schedule is two shots six months apart, I'm tempted to suggest that he get the first just in case, but then I'm concerned about multiple shots at the same time and, of course, don't really want to suggest he get unnecessary ones. So, have you or your kids had this vaccination? And would you go ahead, or wait until travel plans are confirmed? (Ds is 18, so I'm just looking at advice for him in discussion with the doctor. It's not my decision to make.)