UPDATE: Well they discharged him, as there was no more indication of swelling, and seemed to be improving. He's armed with steroids, Benadryl and the Epi. They want him to stay in Chicago until this evening and then he can catch a flight home if there's no problems. I'm hoping this is enough time? Could the swelling come back or does he need to be careful for a while? I hate the thought if him on a plane for a few hours and not able to get help if he needs to. I spent a very sleepless night and am just thankful he went to Urgent Care when he did. He doesn't hardly ever go to the Dr. And tends to brush things off. They said if he hasn't have come in when he did it could have been very bad. Thank you for all the help, and support!

He's not on any Meds. Healthy, but just been under a lot of stress. They are admitting him to the ER, as the swellings not going down like they'd like and they're afraid it could swell up again once the steroids wear off... Silly question... But I don't know anything about allergies and I'm terrified right now. Is there a possibility that if it swells up again and they administer the Meds that they just won't/don't always work? I'm so worried that the worse will happen. Does the epi pen/steroids really do what they're supposed to?

Dana, I'm glad you son was ok! That sounds scary. They did give the epi-pen along with steroids, and they said they didn't know what caused it, but to carry an epi-pen for the rest of his life, so will definitely have him see an allergist ASAP. The nurse did come in and say its not going down as much as they expected, he sent me pics, and his lips literally look like they're 4 times their normal size!! I've never heard of a biphasic reaction- now I'm more worried. They want him to stay near the Urgent care for at least 24 hrs and not fly, but they said it will probably take 3 days to go down. I m SO worried about him leaving and being on his own in a hotel room. If he gets worse he won't know it of he's asleep right?

Ok, so they have the epi pen (is that the name)- Shot in the arm, 2 shots of Benadryl and a huge shot in his butt. They told him its a serious reaction and they want to stop it before it gets potentially worse. I'm so glad they are taking it seriously. Should he stay away from fish now???

Thank you for all the help, they are injecting a steroid and watching him for an hour. Does this seem like a reasonable time to keep him? I can't help but worry about him being alone in a hotel room, 😟and something happening, but I'm a worry wort that way. I'm just glad he didn't get on his plane. I too was thinking stress induced but he thinks its the food. Thanks for the support ladies!

He's been sitting at urgent care for the last 30 minutes waiting to get called back. He tends to play things down, and never ever goes to the dr. For him to drive himself there says something to me. I'm very worried about him!

Sorry for the multiple typos. Typing on my phone.

My husband is Chicago and was supposed to be on a flight to come home right now, and he texted me saying that in the middle of an important meeting he started having swelling in his lip and trouble talking. He excused himself and had to leave, and ended up missing his flight and driving to urgent care. Does this sound like food allergies to him? He was very, very stressed about this meeting as it was with the VP of the corporation hes been working with. He said he had fish and chips in the cafeteria and that it tasted cheap, but he's never had a reaction before to fish. His symptoms now include some dizziness, lips feel tight, and tingly, puffy face, but NO trouble breathing. Does this sound like a food allergy or stress induced? I'm worried about him being alone tonight, and since he missed his flight hell need to stay there overnight in a hotel. What do they typically do for this?

We have done this for the past two years. We studied american history and I wanted something largely independent, so I purchased Queens a Living History of Our World as a spine. Every week she read a chapter on her own, and I made a book list from Sonlight, ambleside, and put it in chronological order. When she was done with one book, she moved onto the next. She liked it a lot! We were playing catch up this year as well due to several years if chronic illness. I had her orally narrate at times, and she read a lot of books she liked. For science we did several of then living books on Ambleside, along with various nature readers, I required her to read a couple chapters each week, as well as spending 30-45 min. A couple times a week on something of her choosing. Grammar- we started analytical grammar, and so far she's really liking it and its written to the child, and shorter lessons but seems very thorough. We are also doing language lessons by Queens which is written to the child. We plan on doing teaching textbooks, and she also read poetry, and a written narration a week. She's also 12 and will be doing 6th grade work mostly, and I'm trying to make it simple on her and me, and she enjoys the independent work.

Oops! Sorry for the typos. On my phone and stupid autocorrect likes to mess with me! :)

I'm so confused... I know virtually nothing about taxes as my hubby handles this. So does this mean that say the taxes are 30 percent in Frnace and 30 in the US that potentially we could be paying 60 percent taxes??? Annie,thank you for all the personal experience. what part of France will you be in and where did you live before? Did you homeschool there? Any other tips in general I should know about life there? Would it be better to look for something on the outskirts? Also, we are having a hard time knowing what to ask salary wise, because cost of living is so much higher, and we don't really know what everything costs, and what we would need there etc. we are afraid that he might ask for too little and because of the cost of living, euro conversion, tax rate, etc. it won't be enough. I'm trying to do look up some suggestions and its not helping. Any advice on this? What does a typical family spend on groceries. We eat all whole foods, but all organic, and what about housing? Is it easy to shop? And are fridges usually half size so people shope several times a week or what? What should we bring with us if moving?

Thanks for all the replies... That's kind of what I was thinking about the tax issues :/ Hmmm that's why I was trying to gather more information on what a good salary is. Would it change if we were long term residents of a country as far as them double taxing? We plan on a few years, but honestly I don't know if we'd back. We love Europe and probably would stay. So basically the first $97,000 is not double taxes and after that, any amount is? Does anyone know what French tax laws are like? What do the French think of ASD? I'm curious because I couldn't pull anything up. Thank you for the book suggestion, I will look into it! I also got Culture Shock! Paris, and have been reading that. Any more advice?

Ugh... Stupid auto correct. That is, we would read the scriptures, until we naturally memorized them.

We are also Witnesses :) My daughters 12 now, and we don't do as much, but still try to do certain subjects. When she was younger, we did poetry, including working on memorizing some, we used the poetry linked, its a great one. Scripture memory, we would pick out 15-20 scriptures andd read them until she memorized them naturally. It didnt take too long with this method, and once she memorized them we would cycle through and do about 5 a day. Text, some kingdom songs, and other songs, sometimes a nature show and tell, Brain gym to help integrate the brain, math facts with bean bags, or a math deck, or some other math game, and then reading from a read aloud sometimes, and switching off with nature books, from ambleside, or Queen ir the christian libertu nature readers, or other read alouds, and picture study. This all took about 45 minutes. And then we'd take a walk for 20 minutes after. It was ways the favorite part of our day as I'm sad she doesn't want to do it as much.

Also, a couple more questions. My daughter has some medical issues and is currently getting diagnosed for Asbergers. What is the healthcare like in France and how do they approach ASD? This might not be an issue if she is homeschooled, but I couldn't find any info online about Autism and France, so is it something they don't see much of?

We may have the opportunity to move to Paris for the next several years. We've only been there one time and loved it, but really don't know much of anything about life there, homeschooling community and laws, etc. We also don't know what a expat salary is there, since the cost of living is so much higher, and tax info is different than the states. Trying to pull up info in that has not pulled up much. Has anyone ever lived there and homeschooled? How strict are the laws and are there many homeschoolers there? i tried looking up info and it didnt pull up much. We have a 12 year old, always homeschooled, don't speak French! And if we did move we would probably do the bare minimum and visit museums and different places around Erurope while hubby's working. We probably would want to live in the city.... Or 20 minutes on the outskirts if it has more green spaces, etc. What is shopping like there? We eat all organic- is this possible? We will know know more next week if hubby's got the job for sure, but right now it looks likely. If we did move.... What should we bring? Thank you for any feedback and help. We loved Paris as visitors, and have always wanted to live in Europe. We have no ties to where we are currently at, and really would like a change, so when this came up we were floored.

I forgot to say- I noticed a difference almost right away. I'm super sensitive to what goes on or in my body. But it took years for it to really start healing me, because I had it so bad, to where I was in bed. Now, I can tolerate some abuse- If we go on vacation and I eat out for a few days I start to feel badly, but I can usually handle a meal or two out. One more things that has really helped with both fatigue and pain is taking a spoonful of apple cider vinegar and honey each, in a glass if water. If I'm having a painful flare up or super tired I take this and feel so much better within 20 minutes or so. I've also had really good success with essential oils.

Well, when you want to eat organic it is more expensive so we rarely buy any treats. I make everything from scratch, and yes it does feel like all of a sudden you are spending huge amounts of time in the kitchen, and I hate cooking so its not something I enjoy! Because of this, I do simple meals as much as possible. I take advantage of my crockpot whenever I can, and might throw some meat in there and have a salad with it, some fermented veggies, and call it good. Back in the day I had to make beans, rice, tacos, the whole shebang but I've leaned that's just too hard. So I try to make enough to have leftovers for the next day, also I spend Sunday afternoons preparing and prepping a lot of food items for the week. I always like to have on hand saiteedcooked chicken or a while chicken, to use for sandwiches, and I will also make meals out of that. Sometimes a pot of beans in the crockpot, with some cheese and fermented veggies feeds us for a couple days, I make double batches of grain free coconut or almond flour muffins, and freeze them to have on hand. Cheese sticks are good, fresh fruits and veggies, etc... I typically do one big shopping trip a month- I buy in bulk as much as I can, stock up on organic chicken, beef etc when they are on sale, enought to last a few months. I do the same with the bulk foods, when bulk oatmeal goes in sale I get enough to last. We also do a cow share once a year or so of grass fed beef. The pricing is very good, and its excellent quality. Vitacost by far has the cheapest stuff like coconut oil, and all the extra health food stuff I get. WaaaaY cheaper than the grocery stores. I make my own toothpaste, deodorant (it REALLY works!) mouthwash, detergent, etc. For hand soap we use Dr. Bronners, and dilute it 1/10. A big bottle lasts about 7 months. Cleaning we use vinegar, water, and essential oils. For heavy duty cleaning I use vodka 100 proof as its more pure than grain alcohol. When I had super bad Fibro one of the biggest triggers was chemicals. So no more smelly candles, soaps, fragrances and I used to be addicted to bath and body works! I use natural candles, we use essential oils both on our body and around our home to diffuse, so it smells wonderful!! Natural soaps- I like the mud soaps, and goats milk soaps, like Zum. They are expensive but last a long time. Have you tried rebounding and dry brushing? Both those have helped me. Rebounding is basically jumping on a mini tramp- look up some videos on that and dry brushing. Both if those really get your lymphatic system working, and it feels amazing when you do it! I take Epsom salt baths a couple times a week, this helps detox and def helps with inflammation.

Certain foods are almost always GMO. One of them is sugar beets, most corn, and corn products are in almost everything... So 99 percent of the time if you're buying processed food it has corn by products in it and is therefore GMOs... Sad but true and why we make it a priority to buy organic because if its got the label they aren't allowed to contain GMOs.

I have dealt with fibro and CF for about 10 years now. For the first several years it was debilitating, I could barely take care of my daughter, i just felt so awful. I also got repeated pleurisy in my lungs, I was super sensitive to almost everything and I think a lot of of problems were diet related. We never ate super bad, but it was a typical american diet, and about 7 years ago I started a health journey, and slowly swapping out all my stuff for organic and then no processed food of any kind. What helped me was reading the book nourishing traditions, and learning about traditional foods, and even the oils that we use all have an effect. I started noticing the biggest difference when we switched to all organic. Yes, it's expensive, but all the pesticides have a cumulative effect on the body and my system was so overwhelmed I just couldn't function. I don't buy just organic food, we eat only whole foods. It's still junk food and bad for you even its organic, so no chips, cookies, etc. I personally don't think it's just the organic but the amount of preservatives, food dyes, chemicals etc. We try to have everything from scratch- This has really helped me tremendously. I still eat out, and I noticed my body can tolerate a little abuse but not much or I wil be in constant pain all over. My fibros still there but in no way compared to how it used to be. I don't get the pleurisy any longer, or the debilitating fatigue. I definitely think organic is worth it. It means we have less money for other stuff, and it hurts to spend money on fruits and veggies that can be bought a lot cheaper conventionally, but we make the sacrifice because its important. Hope this helps, hope you're feeling better!

I think it sounds great. I wouldn't do all 3 writing (language lessons, copy work, and spelling) In one day though.: The language lessons alone have copy work practice on some days, and the whole idea of copy work is to have them practice a line or two, but to do it beautifully, even if its not a full sentence. You also might want to just do either nature study, or the nature explorers focus and not both. I would also add in plenty of unstructured outdoor time at this age, and handiwork. Things like knitting, form drawing, all help integrate the brain.

Thank you for the replies and encouragement. This is only our second time seeing him, and he seems very good, so hopefully this will help. He did mention using incentives and rewards to work towards as well, and he talked about making a log of everything, is that what you mean by data? What all should I be recording? As far as the running commentary, can you give me some examples of how this should be done correctly? He remonstrated in his office, but my brain needs to see things to process correctly and I'm afraid I don't quite remember all that he said! How do I start each sentence? I see that.... I notice that... ? Do I acknowledge how hard it was for her to do something? How do I end the sentence? It feels awkward and like my sentences are left hanging. I'm wondering if anyone knows of a good website or book that has more concrete examples of how this is done. Already I am see her responding to us talking like this. It's hard to ignore the negative behavior. So when she gets aggressive and hits me, do I chide her at all, or just ignore it? What about when she apologizes afterwards? Do I just let her know I'm glad she was able to calm herself down? Thank you! As you can see this is hard for me. Everything we have tried has not worked prior to this, so I'm hoping this will help, and I'd like to do understand it more so we can be effective and intentional in our speech.

My daughter just started seeing a ABA therapist to help with her behavioral issues, tantrums, meltdowns, agression, etc. He stated to ignore the bad behavior and basically give a running commentary in a neutral tone on the good stuff that she does- all day! So not praising with blanket statements, but giving specific comments stating what she's doing in a factual way rather than praising her. So if she's upset and has a meltdown and doesn't want to cooperate, but eventually is able to, praising her efforts in a neutral tone by stating the facts. So not just "good job you cleaned your room, I'm so proud of you" but more like " i see you were able to calm yourself down and focus picking up your room." This is really hard for me to do- I'm not really used to this, and even kind of unsure how to proceed with this. It feels akward, and im honestly not sure what i should be saying/not saying. Can someone familiar with this method explain to me exactly the 'right' way? i dont even know if ininderstand this correctly, It seems to take more energy, because I'm having to keep my tone neutral, and I honestly just don't even know what to say! Normal parenting doesn't work with this kid. She's 12, and I should be able to tell her simple stuff without all of this, but alas it's not so. Has anyone used this method, and does it work? Thank you!

Sorry for the typos. We put a 'sock' over her head.

We have a cat like that, and we put a sick over her head when were trying to do something she hates. They can't see anything so she's not able to struggle as much. You could have one person hold her while another removes the tick?