<p>fogfog - Sending wishes and prayers your way for your son and mother.</p>
<p>fogfog, and everyone dealing with health issues, adding my prayers. My mom is just out of the hospital after a week of testing because of severe anemia, and they found nothing to account for it - except, maybe, that she’s 83. But her attitude is great, and we’re just grateful she’s home. </p>
<p>Also grateful not to be counting down to pi day this year. Perspective can be a wonderful thing.</p>
<p>I’m not a breakfast person, but you’re all welcome to share my Gevalia Chocolate Truffle coffee - it’s a Christmas gift I’m still enjoying.</p>
<p>Quiet day here! I hope all is well with everyone. My parents found their way to NOLA on Friday and spent the weekend with my D. I have not heard from them since noon yesterday. So, I guess they are having fun.</p>
<p>I had coffee today with a woman on the Alpha 1 national board. She lives about 20-30 miles from me. My D and H are both carriers for Alpha 1, it is a genetic lung/liver thing. It was nice to get to know someone in person who sort of understands what D has gone through health wise.</p>
<p>Well, here comes a new week. I hope everyone has a wonderful one.</p>
<p>Hi all</p>
<p>Thank you for your prayers and kind thoughts.
Was a long night–as I am a very light sleeper and who can sleep in a hospital with a sick child!</p>
<p>Specialist consulted today. New meds this evening. CtScan ordered for tom.
Kiddo2 is cranky. We are concerned yet optimistic right now.</p>
<p>Weird because I am used to doing everything–and here the nurses are so kind, so serving…bringing gatorade, ice water etc I sooo appreciate it.
I even got an extra pillow about 6am this morning…which was sweeet because this pallet called a “window seat” is definitely not comfy.</p>
<p>fogfog, very sorry to hear about your kid’s hospitalization. I hope all is improving.</p>
<p>Hopefully you are used to doing everything and not sued for it.</p>
<p>ShawD, ShawWife and I went for the weekend to the Bat Mitzvah ceremony of a niece who reminds me of ShawSon. Analytical, precocious, great at competitive games. At one point, when she was 7, ShawD and a cousin tried to play chess (neither was good) and this then 7 year old would walk to one side of the table, advise ShawD on the best move for her, then walk around to the other side and advise the cousin “If I were you, I’d move the knight over here.” Without being exactly conscious of it, she played the entire game against herself. Interestingly, the Bat Mitvah told friends she wants to be an interior designer. ShawD said, "Not a chance. She’s too smart at the other kind of thinking. And, it isn’t clear she has a particularly good visual or spatial aesthetic. </p>
<p>Glad to hear that nurses were good to you, fogfog. ShawD told family and friends that she’s gone into nursing. She’s very proud of it and is confident about her choice. One relative, a doctor, said, “Why aren’t you going to be a doctor?” She said, “I don’t want to be a doctor. I want to spend time with patients.” When they discussed her program leading to be a nurse practitioner, he said, “Well, I guess that’s better.” She is so pleased with the idea of being a nurse that she really feel the need to deal with his negativity. She’s even pleased despite spending a good part of the day preparing for a test in a course on the history and theories of nursing. It alternates between bad academic pablum (nurses who read some philosophy) or stuff that would be really useful after she’d had some experience as nurse (developing your own philosophy of nursing or what I’d call a “theory of practice” that would guide her in her choices) but is pretty much useless right now.</p>
<p>fogfog, sending good thoughts to your family</p>
<p>Fog fog…I hope you get good news tomorrow…</p>
<p>Fogfog: I hope you get a diagsnosis soon and your son recovers quickly.</p>
<p>More prayers and hugs for fogfog…</p>
<p>fogfog - hugs. Hopefully, they figure out what’s wrong with your kid soon and it’s nothing serious.</p>
<p>Knee problems seem to be really common uh? D had bad issues with her left knee when she was in 7th grade - went through a gamut of testing, MRIs, physical therapy etc. She was diagnosed with patella femural syndrome I believe and the doc’s advice was to stop basketball. Of course, D wouldn’t hear of it - so she was told to take painkillers before each game. I was dead against this - but D found that physical therapy helped and she could manage the games without painkillers. She was a candidate for surgery after she turned 18 - but thus far, it looks to be ok. She does have pain in that knee - but not always and not serious enough to warrant surgery.</p>
<p>S, as I’ve already posted, has rheumatoid arthritis (at age 13!). His right knee is the one affected and again, fills up with fluid and swells to twice its size. And he doesn’t want to give up basketball. He has an appointment in a couple of weeks and we’ll see what the doctor recommends this time (fluid has filled in again, despite draining the knee just before the basketball season)</p>
<p>mamom - good luck with your D. Hopefully, it is not too serious.</p>
<p>fogfog you are all in my thoughts and prayers. </p>
<p>arisamp my neighbor’s daughter has RA and they told them exercise is the best thing for it if they can handle the pain. That stinks to have that-so sorry. My daughter has a pretty bad case of Osgood-Schlatter (both knees) and had to take months off at a time at it’s worst. PT helped a lot. She gave up basketball this year but not because of that-wants to focus on one sport now.</p>
<p>Well, I have not been here for a long time! I’m not going to be my usual OCD self and try to read every page I missed, so just went back a few days!</p>
<p>MM, I hope your daughters are doing better with the allergy and anemia issues and that you are holding up.</p>
<p>fogfog, also hope you are doing okay and am hoping that your son and mother are recovering from the hospital stays.</p>
<p>So many knee problems! D1 is a dancer and has also had that patella femoral pain syndrome thing. I didn’t know it was so common. </p>
<p>So when I was last here, long ago, D1 was feeling sad about not being at first choice school and having troubles with roommate and making friends. But everything is much better this semester. She has finally found a few friends and between them and the friends she already had in town (I’m the one with the kid at college 15 minutes away, in case you forgot!), she has been pretty busy.</p>
<p>She’s been home a lot less this semester. And I miss her, but I’m really glad she’s so busy with school and an actual social life. I did get to see her dance at a Moroccan restaurant last night. </p>
<p>Are everyones’ kids set for what they’re doing this summer? D is applying to be a “quest leader” at a local LARPing camp. I’ve tried to encourage her to have a back-up plan, as the auditions aren’t til the end of March and she may not know the status until it’s too late for other opportunities. But no, of course she doesn’t listen to me!</p>
<p>snoozn, I am glad to hear that your daughter is doing what you hoped – finding her crows and developing a social life. I took my wife for a long weekend to your town in the fall. She loved it. Who knows?</p>
<p>ShawD transferred back to Boston to study nursing and so will be taking courses to make sure she can be in the accelerated BS/MSN program. She’ll be taking Chemistry, Microbiology and not sure what else. Then, she’s trying to organize a trip to Eastern Europe. We have two quasi-family families in our area. The husband and I met as first year professors; he’s now become one of the world’s more famous scientists and his wife and my wife are best friends. The other couple was my wife’s art school roommate and we, along with the first couple, introduced her to her husband. My daughter wants to travel with the son of the second couple. They’re and relate as quasi-cousins. He’s a great kid. We’ll see if they can organize it.</p>
<p>Our older son is a junior. He was applying for summer jobs at hedge funds and consulting firms. He has a steller record at an elite school, so he is always selected for every interview, but the job process is unbelievable. In some cases, a 2 hour preliminary phone interview (logic questions followed by negotiating a hypothetical deal with the partner), then a written exercise, followed by a 4 hour interview that requires significant advance prep. … . While discussing his choices with his advisor, his advisor offered to get him research money to continue their joint research and what is likely to be ShawSon’s honors thesis over the summer. ShawSon thought this was good to be turned down; no more effort with a wild interview process plus a head start on next year, which could lessen the load and leave more time for interviewing then.</p>
<p>fogfog: I am praying for you and your family. I am sorry you have so much to deal with right now.</p>
<p>I haven’t been following the thread for a bit, so I apologize if I am passing over some others’ news.</p>
<p>All is well here. S is looking for summer internships. We are hopeful but know that competition is stiff, and freshman are usually considered last.</p>
<p>Snoozn - Glad to hear your daughter is doing well and still dancing!!</p>
<p>snoozn, meant to say, I am glad to see that your daughter is finding her crowd – though I suppose it is fine if she finds her crows as well.</p>
<p>I had to look up LARPing. I didn’t know that existed as an organized activity.</p>
<p>Idinct, horrified at the typo/autocorrect misspelling! Apologies all around. Airing cupboards are really a great invention though and I thought your son might not recognize one as I dont think they exist in the US . While I try to keep up here, I only rarely post, as we have been in transition/living out of suitcases since mid December. But Saturday we finally moved into our own home in London and got internet connexion. So apologies again sending good thoughts FogFogs way… re summer, weve only just sorted out spring break (S wants to stay at school) so havent got our heads round summer. The plan is for S to split time between here and Shanghai but this summers a big one for London (Diamond Jubilee followed by Olympics) so who knows. Cheers & hope to post more often now.</p>
<p>Hi All</p>
<p>Well…the news is we ALL are home.
!!! Let the belated birthday celebration begin!!!</p>
<p>Kiddo2 is happy to be home–and we are thankful that the attending physician was listening …
He caught something that MANY other very talented MDs missed. In the end, Kiddo2 did not have to have a CTscan and with a simple xray the MD was able to support his suspicions.</p>
<p>Kiddo2 is on the couch (love my kid on the couch) and we will go back to the primary tom for one last test result. Now…IF this MD is wrong, he said that the fever will come back in the next few days etc…and kiddo would be directly admitted back to the hospital and they’d probably do the CTscan and start back on the IV meds etc. Right now it appears all of that is unnecessary…
Since the oath about “do no harm” applies…
We are glad to have gotten a re live “MD HOUSE” who was able to untangle things and find the simple answer.</p>
<p>Kiddo2 will have a bunch of school work and homework to make up…and thats just how it has to be…</p>
<p>I am too happy and sooo thankful that all of the very very scary things that it “might” have been are far far more unlikely. So even several sloppy assignments to catch up are “ok” with me (but dont tell kiddo) :D</p>
<p>On the issue of my mom–I spoke with her this afternoon–the first time since her two falls, and hospitalization. She is pretty confused…and they MRI’d her brain as it is one of the last sites the cancer will spread… It could also be all of the meds she takes…IDK.
She was happy to hear her grandbaby is out of the hospital. So that was good. She is in OT etc and my dad says she will be there a few days.</p>
<p>After several stressful nights pre hospital, then 2 days of sleeping on the window seat, I am happy to have a hot shower, and will have a large gimlet this evening. Looking forward to my own bed this evening.</p>
<p>Hugs all around. Thankyou so very very very much for your warm responses and prayers. It is all so appreciated.</p>
<p>fog - glad kiddo 2 is in recovery mode. And if not this doc seems to know what to do. We had a similar problem when D was almost 3. She was sick for almost all of a month til I finally found my own pulminary doc and told the pediatrician I had no faith in their specialist. The new pulminary doc diagnosed D in 2 days, after getting test results back and she recovered a few more. I wish docs knew when to throw up their hands and say I don’t know. </p>
<p>samuck - I am so jealous. I want to live in London! Cheers.</p>
<p>Shaw - sounds like your older S is getting in good practice for the real thing next year. (Although I hope he gets a job this summer)</p>
<p>mamom/samuck, I’d love to live in London as well. Lived in Oxford when I was younger. But, I go to London about 6-10 times a year and have been doing so for 10+ years so I get enough of a London fix most years. Though I confess to liking where we live quite a bit, but we’re looking to get a house someplace else as well now that the nest is empty.</p>
<p>mamom, my S accepted the job for the summer from his adviser to work on their joint research. The practice is good, in addition to the knowledge of what he’ll need to have time for in his schedule next year. Since he’s hoping to get a fellowship abroad but also will apply to jobs and perhaps to grad schools, it’s going to be a busy year. That’s part of the reason why getting a head start on writing his thesis was so attractive.</p>