tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post7487232574802670598..comments2024-03-26T04:19:38.862-07:00Comments on kitchen table math, the sequel: "The Joy of X"Catherine Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03347093496361370174noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-62092691788623490552010-03-05T11:30:53.554-08:002010-03-05T11:30:53.554-08:00Boy, I wouldn't go with Rosetta -- it's pu...Boy, I wouldn't go with Rosetta -- it's pure immersion & the one friend I have who tried it with her kids sent it back.<br /><br />I don't know what to say about Fluenz. I like it myself, but I did take Spanish for years.<br /><br />I tend to **think** a 7th grader could use it....but I don't have a lot to base that on.<br /><br />It **is** direct instruction (small letters). So that's a big help.Catherine Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03347093496361370174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-60726509254724039652010-03-05T11:29:08.296-08:002010-03-05T11:29:08.296-08:00My mom has a DNR & it has worried all 4 of us,...My mom has a DNR & it has worried all 4 of us, mainly because the reason she has it seems to be 'legal' instead of medical or emotional. (My mom says we four would have to go to court to take her of a respirator & she wants to spare us that.)<br /><br />However, after one of the terrific intensivists at Evanston walked us through the whole thing, we felt better. He explained that, basically, patients in ICU don't just suddenly "crash," out of the blue.<br /><br />Instead, it happens in slow motion. Things start to go wrong --- and the nurses & docs can ***see*** that things are going wrong. That triggers a 'rapid response' situation where they're drawing blood like crazy, getting 15-minute turnaround (or less?) from the lab, throwing everything they've got at the patient (pressor drugs, etc.)<br /><br />By the time you get to the point where resuscitation would be done, the team has been trying to save the patient's life for perhaps 24 hours and nothing has worked. With an 80-year old (maybe with a patient of any age), it's unlikely the crash cart is going to do what all the other interventions did not.<br /><br />Apparently DNRs were invented for young or young-ish people whose hearts have stopped due to shock - drowning, car crash - that kind of thing. <br /><br />We saw what he was talking about in the hospital. My mom had a couple of days where she was clearly heading towards a crisis, or was in fact in a crisis (I didn't necessarily know this, btw.) <br /><br />Of course, that doesn't change your point about whether the DNR order in and of itself makes people think they **also** don't need to come in with the fast testing & the pressor drugs, etc.<br /><br />Where we were, in Evanston Hospital, there was **no** assumption that there should be slacking off 'cause of my mom's age. (She turned 80 in the hospital!) <br /><br />Same thing at Highland Hospital. (The two calls I got in that case were from PCPs who hadn't even seen my mom --- it was so strange.)<br /><br />Overall, it was a reassuring experience in terms of how old people are treated by doctors & hospitals, etc. Very reassuring: basically, a case of, "We're doctors & nurses. We save lives. End of story." <br /><br />BUT it's not something I want to put my own kids through.Catherine Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03347093496361370174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-84168845790752528852010-03-04T09:43:29.599-08:002010-03-04T09:43:29.599-08:00Catherine,
I know that Fluenz was designed with a...Catherine,<br /><br />I know that Fluenz was designed with adults in mind, but I'm wondering how well you think it would work with a 10-12 year old?<br /><br />We may not be able to start my child in Spanish in the 7th grade due to "Resource" eating one of the two electives and a strong desire on the part of this child to participate in band as the other elective.<br /><br />This means that Spanish I would be delayed until 9th grade. Meanwhile, I'm thinking we could use a self-study Spanish course afterschool. I've only begun to research this and I'm not sure whether Fluenz, Rosetta Stone or MangoLanguages (available through the public library) or some other program would be best.<br /><br />It needs to be something the kid can do alone, because neither parent speaks Spanish. <br /><br />We may opt for a private Spanish tutor eventually, but I'd like to see how the kid can manage with software or an online learning system first.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-69980825102660195152010-03-03T23:43:54.372-08:002010-03-03T23:43:54.372-08:00I've found a kind of contempt for the elderly ...I've found a kind of contempt for the elderly in hospitals--let 'em die 'cuz they're going to anyway. Well, so is everyone else! They haven't had their life because the doctors think they're plenty old and should shuffle off to make room for someone else or whatever.<br /><br />I'm never going to let my parents sign a DNR. NEVER. It's like signing a "yeah, he's life's over, we don't really care" certificate. I've seen it in person. Blech.<br /><br />I hope my parents die in their wing of my house, in their sleep, at a ripe old age!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-14908308917552826182010-03-03T15:34:36.722-08:002010-03-03T15:34:36.722-08:00Evanston Hospital has what seems to me a terrific ...Evanston Hospital has what seems to me a terrific 'team approach' to taking care of ER patients (maybe all patients).<br /><br />Now that was great. The team would debate back and forth about what to do and what the most critical problem was: was it her pelvis? was it her heart? was it her kidney? etc. She was absolutely on the brink of death for weeks, and they were constantly trying to figure out what to do NOW - and how to keep what they were doing NOW from killing her off via the side effects of what they were doing NOW.<br /><br />Treating any one of my mom's gazillion critical issues tended to get in the way of treating the others & nobody could **really** figure out what the number one priority was.<br /><br />So...it was a case of doctors not exactly disagreeing but simply not knowing & hashing it out.<br /><br />With all the hospice and tiny-lung talk, it was a case of individual doctors actively pushing us to persuade my mom to die. I'm not kidding about that. At one point I finally said to one of the PCPs, "but my mother doesn't want to go to hospice." Which was true. I assume that's why he was talking to me instead of to her. (I don't have durable power of attorney, either, fyi. My brother does.)<br /><br />The hospice talk, by the way, did not come from cardiologists and nephrologists.<br /><br />Another interesting aspect of the whole thing: the specialists didn't believe my mom had a broken pelvis. We went back and forth and back and forth on that. One day: broken pelvis. The next day: she doesn't have a broken pelvis. Next day: broken pelvis. It got to be a running gag. (Seriously.)<br /><br />Finally my mom's PCP ordered a horrible test that, in retrospect, I wouldn't have allowed anyone to do; it was grueling. But it DID establish the fact that her primary care physician was right: she had a broken pelvis.<br /><br />Afterwards, he said, "Sometimes the PCP is right."Catherine Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03347093496361370174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-78040386985431808052010-03-03T15:23:16.554-08:002010-03-03T15:23:16.554-08:00Is it common for physicians not to know they are d...Is it common for physicians not to know they are disagreeing? That's what happened here.<br /><br />I've never heard of a situation in which PCPs are actively lobbying family members to **persuade** a fully conscious, with-it sick person to refuse rescue care (ER care) and die on purpose - while a hospital cardiologist is saying things like, "Her heart function is good."<br /><br />That seems awfully extreme to me.<br /><br />(By the time we got to the point where a hospital cardiologist was saying 'heart function is strong' we were backing away - far away - from all the hospice lobbying. But by then the damage had been done....we were operating under the assumption that our mother was supposed to die ANY DAY. That affects decision making.)Catherine Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03347093496361370174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-31453383471809412162010-03-03T13:23:39.758-08:002010-03-03T13:23:39.758-08:00Catherine, your experience with your Mom and her (...Catherine, your experience with your Mom and her (disagreeing) physicians is not unusual. And you can easily find cases that turned out the other way (i.e. the family tended to believe the optimists among the specialists, then the patient died anyway). If we want high tech medicine, it's going to work out that way a fair amount of the time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-52339194623940385122010-03-03T13:06:27.550-08:002010-03-03T13:06:27.550-08:00Mark - I LOVE IT!!!!!!!
Love it, love it, love it...Mark - I LOVE IT!!!!!!!<br /><br />Love it, love it, love it.Catherine Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03347093496361370174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-29861890951570609492010-03-03T12:44:55.757-08:002010-03-03T12:44:55.757-08:00I did ALEKS Algebra I and Geometry. For some reas...I did ALEKS Algebra I and Geometry. For some reason, the geometry took half the time of the Algebra I. It didn't seem to test as often.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-26167632724298486372010-03-03T11:14:47.096-08:002010-03-03T11:14:47.096-08:00"My life goal: vegan my way to a healthy old ...<i>"My life goal: vegan my way to a healthy old age and die in my sleep."</i><br /><br />There is an old joke about this. It goes something like, "When I die, I want to die like Grandpa -- peacefully in my sleep. Not screaming in terror like the other people in the car."<br /><br />-Mark RouloAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com