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45 minutes ago, Spudater said:

Planning threads sprouting up everywhere. 🌱 Ijust posted in the 9th grader one if anyone is curious. 

I thought about posting there, but my rising ninth grader is...a complicated kid. 

Basically I have no clue how I am going to get him through high school.

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34 minutes ago, Paradox5 said:

The trophy is for John’s stories, not your eye. You ok now?

Yes, but migraine.

18 minutes ago, Junie said:

(((Slache)))

Did you call your OB about the seizure?  It sounds scary. 😞

No. I get them every pregnancy. They're harmless.

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2 hours ago, Slache said:

I ate 4 tacos and a pie. I still don't have my vision back in my right eye. John told baby stories all through dinner like how Alex recognized his voice from inside my tummy and how he would sing at night when he couldn't sleep.

Of course, out of all of this, all I want to know is: what kind of pie?

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4 hours ago, maize said:

I thought about posting there, but my rising ninth grader is...a complicated kid. 

Basically I have no clue how I am going to get him through high school.

Ahh, try posting on the HS board anyway.  Many of us there have raised complicated kids and may be able to offer some suggestions.  

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6 hours ago, Slache said:

It's not going to be long before I can drive. Our car has a ton of features that would help me and it's the bottom of the line. I really wonder what will be out in 10 years.

This is my hope for dh as well. He does drive, his difficulty is a combination of visual acuity and limited peripheral vision, he currently is nearing the boundaries of what is legal for driving so will likely eventually load then--unless cars can make up the difference.

A truly self-driving car would be a life change for his blind sister.

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Good morning!  I like y'all!

High school kids have tutorial today.  Dd13 has a checkup at the orthodontist this morning because the dental hygenist said she saw something coming off her braces.  Road trip to cello lesson this afternoon, and I have my first orchestra rehearsal of the year tonight.

Coffee!

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38 minutes ago, Slache said:

I am in such a bad mood and received an email advertisement saying "beauty to match your personality". I have that currently. Have for weeks. I need more beauty than this. I'm frightening children in stores.

(((Slachey))) I have seen you after a 17-hour car ride.  It is not possible that you are not beautiful!  I'm sorry about the bad mood.  I'd blame hormones.  Seriously.

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7 hours ago, klmama said:

Ahh, try posting on the HS board anyway.  Many of us there have raised complicated kids and may be able to offer some suggestions.  

Maybe I will; at this point I'm not even sure what to post.

I'll put my morning musings here:

What do anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, tic disorders, hearing acuity problems, and scoliosis have in common?

Potentially, a gene called TPH2. 

This child is homozygous for a TPH2 polymorphism that impacts the expression of that gene.

TPH2 codes for an enzyme that converts the amino acid tryptophan to 5HTP. 5HTP is then converted to serotonin, a major transmitter, and serotonin itself is eventually converted to melatonin (among other things) which is of course critical for regulations sleep.

TPH2 mutations have been potentially implicated in all of the symptoms I listed above--well, I haven't found a study linking TPH2 specifically with problems with hearing acuity but there is a recent study associating low serotonin levels with lower hearing acuity. The link with scoliosis was a surprise to me but it turns out that TPH2 and serotonin are major regulators of bone deposition.

What does this have to do with planning high school? Well, physical and mental health are pretty darn fundamental to our ability to learn. No sense in stressing over curriculum plans when brains are not functioning well.

So I know my kid--who has all the symptoms above--also happens to have double copies of the not-so-functional TPH2 allele. Which suggests a potential path forward: if the TPH2 enzyme isn't functioning well, the body has trouble making 5HTP, which therefore limits production of serotonin and melatonin. 5HTP happens to be available as a supplement. It's one I have been hesitant to use in the past because supplementing with 5HTP can mess with the regulation of other neurotransmiters---my understanding is that there are some shared pathways and too much 5HTP means that other molecules don't have enough access. Of particular concern, supplementing with 5HTP can result in less dopamine being produced in the brain.

BUT it turns out that my child is homozygous for another gene allele, one that up-regulates the production of dopamine. High dopamine levels are associated with anxiety.

If a person is producing excess dopamine, introducing a supplement that has a side effect of reducing dopamine production is maybe not a bad thing--in fact potentially beneficial on two fronts.

So, for now, that is my plan.

The science part is not really cut and dried, our current understanding of human biology at the molecular, genetic, and epigenetic levels is actually far from complete. Human brains in particular are exceedingly complex. And of course I am neither a doctor, a molecular biologist, nor a geneticist.

But at least I have a direction to pursue with some evidential backing.

 

Edited by maize
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26 minutes ago, Spudater said:

You’re 9 weeks pregnant. You’re sick.  It’s ok to notlooklike a Stepford wife. At that stage I look like the creature from the Black Lagoon. 

That's about right.

25 minutes ago, KrissiK said:

Good Morning!!!

COFFEE!!!!~D

Friday Eve!!!

I don’t want to do any of it!!

((Maize))

Hmmm.

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33 minutes ago, Spudater said:

I probably don’t understand this because I don’t know what up-regulates means, but I always thought dopamine was associated with pleasure.  Too much is associated with anxiety?

OK up-regulate isn't the right term in this case, it means increase expression of a gene (i.e. produce more of whatever protein that gene codes for) but I was going off of memory of research I did awhile ago and all I was really remembering was "too much dopamine".

So I went back to check; the gender in question codes for COMT, which is actually involved in the breakdown of dopamine agree it has been released into the brain synapses. One variation on that gene is less effective than the other in breaking down dopamine. If you get two copies of the less effective variation, dopamine builds up in the synapses; if I am understanding correctly, the problem with this is that with too much dopamine hanging around the brain is unable to respond to new releases of dopamine the way it should.

Maybe?

It's all super complex. I actually own a thick medical school textbook all about dopamine; haven't got far in it yet though. Dopamine is involved a lot of stuff.

Edited by maize
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I'm going to art today! And that's good, because waiting to hear back from agents, magazines, and my last Beta reader is not something I do well unless I have things to do. Now, if I'm busy, no problem at all. 

I have four different pieces to work on: a book exercise, a smack of jellyfish that I'm going to splurge on and treat myself to a whole sheet of watercolor paper, a full-figure character art piece, and a bookmark. 

ETA: It's an artsy-busy Booyah!

Edited by Critterfixer
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12 minutes ago, whitehawk said:

   Except for the tree company cutting down trees and shredding them thirty feet from my house. 

 

I hope they're done soon.

We never get anything done when the tree people are around. I just call it part of school. Like....horticultural studies. Or something.

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On 1/29/2020 at 7:27 AM, Spudater said:

I would like more snow.  I know I’m a weirdo. Iwould happily move farther North to the mountains. 

 

❤️

On 1/29/2020 at 7:37 AM, Renai said:

You can come out west and get snow. We get plenty in northern NM.

 

That's not what she means.

On 1/29/2020 at 8:04 AM, Spudater said:

I can see the rockies from my window. 

 

But they're better when you go north.

 

Just ignore them, Spuds. I knew what you meant.

(You're gonna be such a GREAT neighbor!!!😀)

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I don't usually do the planning threads.   I'm usually really light and not as certain as most people on there.    So much of what we do is also - continue with this, continue with that, since we don't actually finish things up to align with a normal school year.  We go year round and just keep trudging along until things are done, then we move on to the next thing.

 

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2 minutes ago, maize said:

I loaded the dishwasher.

Who's gonna give me my trophy?

I'm fresh out.  Just gave my last one to DS, who read 2 chapters of Lord of the Flies instead of just the one assigned because he was enjoying it too much to stop. 🥰

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2 minutes ago, Where's Toto? said:

I don't usually do the planning threads.   I'm usually really light and not as certain as most people on there.    So much of what we do is also - continue with this, continue with that, since we don't actually finish things up to align with a normal school year.  We go year round and just keep trudging along until things are done, then we move on to the next thing.

 

This is kind of how we do school, too.

I have a(nother) ninth grader next year.  She will probably do most of the same things that the first three did.  I will tweak a few things to better suit her specifically, but I am not planning to reinvent the wheel for her.

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I haven't been in any planning threads, because it's not very exciting to post "outsourcing nearly everything" for highschoolers and using a CM co-op for nearly everything for my middle schooler.  Plus, until I see the schedule for our high school academic center for next year, it's all speculation anyway.  

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Holy cow, people. I can understand those who don't know me taking my post to mean something about planning, but the rest of you? Sheesh. It's JANUARY. Why on earth would you ever think that I intended to discuss actual educational planning? Pleez.

 

No, I just realized that all I have to plan for is a solitary and empty life and I haz the sadz.

image.png.705ee5a8bd83e0b396930922bbef12d6.png

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6 minutes ago, JoJosMom said:

Holy cow, people. I can understand those who don't know me taking my post to mean something about planning, but the rest of you? Sheesh. It's JANUARY. Why on earth would you ever think that I intended to discuss actual educational planning? Pleez.

 

No, I just realized that all I have to plan for is a solitary and empty life and I haz the sadz.

image.png.705ee5a8bd83e0b396930922bbef12d6.png

Any update on where she's going?

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15 minutes ago, Slache said:

Any update on where she's going?

 

Still pending; it's going to depend on the money. NM finalists won't be announced until the second week of February, and that will make a big difference in the scholarship levels at the schools we've targeted.

 

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