A friend from a fluoroquinolone "survivors" group I belong to on Facebook posted this today. Relatively easy to follow scientific info (from 4 years ago) regarding what these drugs actually do to the human body in terms of literally altering your DNA at the cellular level. Altering cellular DNA in a way that makes it impossible for your cells to then repair themselves even after the drug is out of your system. That's what these drugs are designed to do TO BACTERIA. Unfortunately, they also do this to the rest of your cells. The YouTube video with the Dr. from Johns Hopkins going on and on about how such a minute portion of the population is affected adversely by these drugs, etc. ad nauseum perfectly illustrates the medical community's response to this day on the topic - they view it as a non-issue. And why does this matter? Because today another parent of a child found our FQ support group online looking for help and resources for her 11 year old who's been struggling since he was 6 years old after being prescribed Cipro eardrops. Like so many others, it took them years to put it together b/c the topic is so vehemently eschewed by the medical community. I cannot imagine watching a helpless, innocent child go through the hell these drugs turn your life into. It makes my physically ill. I myself found out through pharmacy records that I put fluoroquinolone eyedrops in Devlyn's eyes when he was 2 weeks old. I didn't sleep for a month. It was all I thought about for 6 more. Is that why he has crazy fucked up allergies? Is that that's why his elbow popped out of joint for no reason that one time? Is he going to have some horrible neurological problem when he's older? Probably not but "probably" has held a whole new meaning for me over the past year and a half. These drugs are prescribed to children every single day with no doctors ever batting an eyelash. We have new inconsolable parents join our FQ support group about once every three months looking for answers and horrified at what they find. Spread the word to your friends with children and don't EVER give your kids anything prescribed by a doctor without thoroughly checking it out. No one has your back on this - it's up to you.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Grateful
So I'm a little bloggy lately....2 posts in one day. Usually this happens when I'm not all that busy and have some time for mental breathing - that is not the case here! I DO want to take time out though to celebrate and be thankful for us (collectively, as a family) emerging from what can best be described as a "dry spell". I am grateful for the following and not necessarily in this order:
1) Spending my day working from home with this view - our "new" sunroom is amazing and I'm SO happy and grateful to have it.
2) Charles just called from the parking lot at Costco where he went to have his hearing aid repaired. One of them has been "out" for at least 2 months and b/c the 2 year warranty they came with recently expired, we've been reluctant to take it in to get fixed. Most of you probably have not dealt with hearing aids much but they are expensive and they break ALL THE TIME. Seriously, we've had these both replaced or rebuilt probably 4-5x since we got them 3 years ago. ANYWAY, Costco informed Charles today that b/c we bought them on our Costco AMEX card, they come with an additional 1 year warranty - so they were sent off to be repaired AGAIN for free! Woo hoo!!!!
3) Charles' "new" job - he'll have to respond for himself but I think he's having a blast and all of his work has been well received. I think every account at the agency has requested that he be put on it since he started. I don't know if that bodes well for his stress level but it sure makes him look good! P.s. - for those of you that don't know - a new city magazine is launching here in Raleigh in September and Charles has been tapped to write 2 columns for it. His work there has also been very well received and best of all it means he'll be recently published soon which will get him some great visibility here in town for more writing gigs (paid). Yay!
4) Recently, we noticed that the Saturn seemed to be dropping really hard into gear sometimes while driving. We took it to a local GM dealer we've been to before. Last time we went there for the power steering - they fixed it for free and were really nice - we figured what the heck. At first they drove it and couldn't detect what we were talking about - they mentioned this was about the time the transmission fluid needed to be changed so they gave us a quote of $200ish and went to work. Then we got the call that it was actually 2 pistons and some other pretty major sounding stuff. Well that must have been under warranty too b/c when Charles went to pick it up the bill was.......NOTHING. He got me pretty good with a call saying, "Um, I went to get the car and the bill was a little different than I thought....(insert pregnant pause and me freaking out here) it wasn't $200, it was FREE!" Yes ma'am - that really happened!
5) The owners of the beach house we rented for Labor Day weekend had a scheduling snafu that resulted in us losing the rental for that weekend. They apologized profusely and offered us a free night next time we stay with them. Later that day we got a call that Labor Day had opened up again and now it's half price b/c they wanted to continue to extend the free night offer. Thanks, we'll take it!
6) The last wonderful thing is that I was able to turn a fairly ugly situation at my office into a glorious sunshine opportunity. We're talking serious silver lining on a seemingly ominous "rain cloud"! Yay again!
So thanks to the forces of the universe for shining down on us lately! We're loving it and I for one am very conscious of paying it forward!
1) Spending my day working from home with this view - our "new" sunroom is amazing and I'm SO happy and grateful to have it.
2) Charles just called from the parking lot at Costco where he went to have his hearing aid repaired. One of them has been "out" for at least 2 months and b/c the 2 year warranty they came with recently expired, we've been reluctant to take it in to get fixed. Most of you probably have not dealt with hearing aids much but they are expensive and they break ALL THE TIME. Seriously, we've had these both replaced or rebuilt probably 4-5x since we got them 3 years ago. ANYWAY, Costco informed Charles today that b/c we bought them on our Costco AMEX card, they come with an additional 1 year warranty - so they were sent off to be repaired AGAIN for free! Woo hoo!!!!
3) Charles' "new" job - he'll have to respond for himself but I think he's having a blast and all of his work has been well received. I think every account at the agency has requested that he be put on it since he started. I don't know if that bodes well for his stress level but it sure makes him look good! P.s. - for those of you that don't know - a new city magazine is launching here in Raleigh in September and Charles has been tapped to write 2 columns for it. His work there has also been very well received and best of all it means he'll be recently published soon which will get him some great visibility here in town for more writing gigs (paid). Yay!
4) Recently, we noticed that the Saturn seemed to be dropping really hard into gear sometimes while driving. We took it to a local GM dealer we've been to before. Last time we went there for the power steering - they fixed it for free and were really nice - we figured what the heck. At first they drove it and couldn't detect what we were talking about - they mentioned this was about the time the transmission fluid needed to be changed so they gave us a quote of $200ish and went to work. Then we got the call that it was actually 2 pistons and some other pretty major sounding stuff. Well that must have been under warranty too b/c when Charles went to pick it up the bill was.......NOTHING. He got me pretty good with a call saying, "Um, I went to get the car and the bill was a little different than I thought....(insert pregnant pause and me freaking out here) it wasn't $200, it was FREE!" Yes ma'am - that really happened!
5) The owners of the beach house we rented for Labor Day weekend had a scheduling snafu that resulted in us losing the rental for that weekend. They apologized profusely and offered us a free night next time we stay with them. Later that day we got a call that Labor Day had opened up again and now it's half price b/c they wanted to continue to extend the free night offer. Thanks, we'll take it!
6) The last wonderful thing is that I was able to turn a fairly ugly situation at my office into a glorious sunshine opportunity. We're talking serious silver lining on a seemingly ominous "rain cloud"! Yay again!
So thanks to the forces of the universe for shining down on us lately! We're loving it and I for one am very conscious of paying it forward!
Dress up day at YMCA Camp
The college kids who run the Y camps are so cool. When I dropped B off this morning one of his counselors was decked out in a full on airplane pilots outfit - he looked like the real deal. This weeks theme is planes trains and automobiles : ). Blake is a race car driver (in case u were wondering!)
Friday, July 6, 2012
After 7 years....
We're starting to get the kind of screened porch we wanted : ) Big deal in our house! Really enjoying this lately with the fan on of course!
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Summer 2012 Pics
Farmer's market
Another turtle in our yard
The garden
Fishin' (pics taken by Weebsie Upchurch)
Barry, Andrea and Noah Thomas' visit
4th of July Beach Trip - Wrightsville Beach
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
