Hidden Recovery Blog

The Doctor's Office

2009-06-10T18:41:00.003-05:00

Call me crazy but I actually went to the doctor for ME today. As I handed over a fresh 20 to the receptionist, I listen in on 2 pharmaceutical reps pumping each other for information in the waiting room. Irony. I fantasized handing THEM my $20 co-pay instead. Then I scream at them in a Michael Moore fashion how they are ruining our kids. Then walk out. That was a nice 30 seconds.

CT Behavior Therapy Bill Passes the Senate

2009-06-09T23:12:00.004-05:00

Waiting on the governor to sign this bill and the HB 6200 Lyme bill. This is amazing news! Pretty surreal to think that insurance would finally cover it. Maybe the world isn't as insane as I think it is. My two worlds have collided - what an interesting time. On her desk the fate of my past and the fate of our future.

Autism Speaks last night joined Connecticut families and other autism advocacy organizations in applauding the members of the State legislature for passing Senate Bill 301, which requires insurance companies to provide coverage of evidence-based, medically necessary autism therapies. The bill was passed late last night in a vote of 140 to 2 and now heads to Governor M. Jodi Rell’s desk for signature into law.

The Connecticut bill requires insurers to provide coverage for behavioral therapy up to a yearly benefit of $50,000 for a child who is less than nine years of age and $35,000 for a child who is at least nine years of age and less than thirteen years of age. The bill specifically covers Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy, which is recognized as an effective, evidence-based treatment for children with autism. SB 301 was sponsored by State Senate Majority Leader Martin M. Looney (D-11) and Speaker of the House Christopher G. Donovan (D-84).

We specifically want to thank Senator Joe Crisco, Senato r Jonathan Harris, Senator John McKinney, Senator Len Fasano, Representative Lawrence Cafero, Representative Themis Klarides for their herculean efforts on behalf of this bill and all those touched by autism. We ask each of you if you have a moment to thank these members. To learn more about this historic bill passing and how to contact local representatives visit www.autismvotes.org.

End Of School Year...Almost

2009-06-07T17:20:00.004-05:00

It seems forever since I've posted anything. Leo can't wait for school to be over! Things are status quo, really even keel and life is good for my sweet boy. True, nothing is perfect, and for him his parents are pretty taken up by his sister's Lyme disease. But all in all, things are great.

Leo's friendships are even deeper and more meaningful with the same boys he's known for years in elementary school. They talk a lot about nothing, kind of like Seinfeld. It's really cute and so grown up. He had a sleepover recently, and for the first time I could tell he didn't share everything that went on, especially their talks before bed. I see that the world sees my baby boy differently as well. Other Dads will see Leo and say "Hey what's up." The restaraunt hostess won't give him a kids menu.

He's had a great baseball year in AAA. He is known to pitch well and is now a strong batter.The games seem a little bit more exciting than last year. His coaches are amazed how he can keep his composure, even when they've switched pitchers, bringing him in to "close" an inning if the bases are loaded. Must be that linear mind of his.

I still don't have the stomach for sports because I still remember how much harder everything has been for him and how far he has come. I worry when something big changes, or if it rains or if the field changes how Leo will handle it. So far so good. He has turned out to be very confident and upbeat as a player. He is known to rile up his teammates, getting them clapping and cheering when they are in a slump. Emerging leadership qualities (both his teacher and his coaches have said this more than once).

Leo is amazingly even keel throughout a garden variety day. No peaks and valleys as in the past. Ideally, "quiet time" as a break in the afternoon (on weekends) and regular snack breaks would be nice, but we are no longer owned by them. Maybe not as even throughout the day as the next kid, but very close. I am sure my kids still go to bed earlier than most (8:30pm??) because they'd certainly fall apart if we regularly kept them up after that. He can go without a break all day and stay up late and even eat late with no consequence.

We continue to be strict with food at home (GF, organic, whole foods) and with lunches, but when we are at parties, sleepovers, field trips, or at friends houses I let him partake and make his own choices. He is very compliant with his supplements so I honor his good care of himself with this. And his body can handle it which continues to amaze me. The only difference I insist upon is having a snack during a field trip - going from 8am to 1 or 1:30 with no food is just idiotic.

We determined finally through testing that another bacteria, Mycoplasma Fermentans is a causative factor to Leo's minor tics that wax and wane along with the Strep we've been addressing. This knowledge has made a big difference since we are able to target this bacteria through Rifing. I am sure Lyme is in there somewhere, but for now it as a manageable level. Perhaps we caught it early enough through Rifing. I continue to use blended homeopathy and nutrition support for detox and die-off from Rifing. A night and day difference from the winter where they got so bad.

Leo has also been a trouper when it comes to all the attention Sydney has required this past year. It hasn't been easy for him. He has an almost adult-like understanding of the big picture of chronic illness and has empathy for us and for Sydney. He could easily be the kid that you could ignore and he'd plug along doing the "right thing", his chores, his homework, etc. I appreciate his steady character and maturity in handling his irritable, emotional, and sensitive younger sister. So, I try to make an effort to spend special time with him, which doesn't always work out as the pill-pusher chief medical officer of Sydney. One day I'll make it up for him.

Globally Sydney is better but has a long way back to recovery. I can only hope that she can get there. Applying what I've learned from the Autism battlefield has helped exponentially that's for sure.

My DH is still out of work. We are hopeful that he will find employment back on the west coast away from endemic Lyme areas. I welcome bad air, bad water, and a higher cost of living with open arms. I say bring it! (Sure that may be dated slang but I just love it).

As for me, I am all about Lyme. Lyme Lyme Lyme. So many kids are not diagnosed and undertreated. Yet another category of illness that makes up the now typical fabric of the American classroom.

For "fun", a fellow Lyme mom and I took out the class directory and counted how many "regular" kids there were in 4th grade. Between the 2 of us, we knew every kid. I have a boy and she has a girl in this grade, so we really had it covered. There are about 108 kids - an average of 5 per class of 22 had no health or learning issue. I mean asthma, allergies, learning disability, ADD, ASD, OCD, diabetes, obesity, Lyme Disease, P.A.N.D.A.S. like disorder, Psychiatric disorder, Behavioral disorder, or some other IEP related issue.

Just 5. FIVE KIDS on average that had no problems. The next day I stared at this very group during the Spring Recital. There they all were, all lined up on stage singing. I started to tear up but not for the reasons most people would think. A picture of health? No, a scary, devastating picture of the future.

Swine Flu

2009-04-29T14:49:00.003-05:00

Here is some good info about this bird/pig/human combo from the leaders in the homeopathy world. One of the links goes to a great flu remedy page from HPathy.com.

Jim Carrey's Response to Campbell Brown

2009-04-24T18:25:00.005-05:00

Here's the Huffington Post's article. I just love this guy! I recall going insane when I innocently watched Campbell's opinion live. For a smart chick, boy is her take idiotic. Must be hormones. Here I was trying to relax after a long day and woah did it do the opposite!

Recovery Video Piece from NBC

2009-04-24T18:22:00.003-05:00

Leo is 10 1/2. So cool to see another little guy(well, big guy now) ahead of us in living color.Jake is now 13 and continues to inspire so many of us. Thanks for sacrificing your privacy and becoming a celebrity for all of us. Thanks to NBC for all that you continue to do.

From Another Mom Like Me

2009-04-11T12:27:00.003-05:00

In response to my post the other day about being a special mom...This mom says...

"Hi. I just read your blog. I get it....I want to be regular too.

I want to eat a hamburger made in a plant with downed cows, eat a chicken that has been pumped up with hormones and left in a warehouse for 4 months to smell it's own urine and drink milk that is pumped up with HGH. I want to let my son roll down a bright green grass hill full of pesticides and not worry about it. I want to let him run his hands along the playground equipment that is full of pollen and then touch his face and not worry about the welts that will take over his body. I want to eat hot dogs that have nitrates and eat candy loaded with chemicals...but I can't go back now."

Cheerios

2009-04-08T09:20:00.004-05:00

I am not-so-secretly bitter that the silly food companies have finally figured out how to make a fake Cheerio. Rice, corn, sugar, and salt. Here's my official shout out to Nature's Path Organic Whole O's. I speculate one can really use these as a replacement with no one the wiser, no social ramifications. Sure we've seen the crappy weird looking Glutino version and a few others that have come and gone. I even saw a protein version the other day, Better Balance Gluten Free Honey Almond Protein Cereal.

As cool and exciting as it may be, too little too late for us. Our stroller-car seat-keep them occupied days are over where Cheerios is gold. Barter and bribery to soothe hurt feelings over not being able to have the lovely Cheerios is a dim memory.

I envy those moms with young kids that can waltz in to a store and buy fake Cheerios, fake donuts, various breads to choose from, frozen pizza, and chicken tenders. Sadly, it's probably a sign there is enough of a market to make money on them. I am still grateful for the pretzel STICKS. My kids had pined for those for years. Still haven't seen the fake Goldfish. That'll still be relevant if it happens in my mommy-time.

More power to moms with little ones - I know they deserve the convenience but I am so envious!

Re-Introduction, Still A Sp. Ed. Mom

2009-04-07T10:41:00.012-05:00

Hi, my name is Ashley Morgan. I am a 43 year old mom of two perfect children. I have been married to my DH for 12 years. He is a great man and father. I have struggled on and off with depression, including post partum, and food is my vice along with really bad television. I realize I have come very far in life, a lot of childhood dysfunction to get over. After a lot of hard work and hard lessons I feel that today I am pretty healthy inside. Having a child with an ASD also contributed greatly to me getting real, cleaning house, and knowing what is important.

Currently, my challenges revolve around acceptance of what my life has become, specific to disability #2 that prevails in our house. I am an active student of buddhism, and practice meditation and yoga. These things have helped me with coping skills and perspective. I am happy to have found them, as I realize my skill are lousy, even on a good day.

My son is 10 1/2 and is has recovered from an Autism Spectrum Disorder (PDD-NOS to be exact) about 5 years ago. For those 5 years he's been going to school like a regular kid, no longer disabled by his label. Although Yale diagnosed him at 2 and also took away his diagnosis, I still consider him as a child on the spectrum as there is no cure. There are no real signs of ASD, standardized testing and teacher feedback is age appropriate or higher, his biomedical testing doesn't indicate any typical Autism signs like glutathione deficiency or metal toxicity. He lives stigma-free as we kept his diagnosis from his teachers and peers upon entering kindergarten. He may not hold my hand in parking lots anymore and prefers to talk to his friends on the phone rather than me, but he is still my big boy. He is really into baseball and basketball, and loves practicing his yo-yo skills and acoustic guitar.

My perfect sweet boy has P.A.N.D.A.S., a sensitivity to Strep, and also has Lyme but on a very small/suppressed level. Today Leo's symptoms are facial tics that come and go in severity based on what is bacterial/viral load is. Homeopathy, Rifing, and of course out-of-control Nutrition are my key tools.

On Leo's 10th birthday I had a minor breakdown. Turning 40 didn't bother me, being still overweight didn't bother me, but hey realizing that I've BEEN A MOM for a decade really got to me. I am not in the mood to caveat and talk about all the good things about motherhood. Of course I adore and love my children,. It's that my life's sole purpose has been major disabilities and disease.
Learning.
Fighting
Grieving
Trying to sleep
And repeat
You know the drill!

My daughter Sydney was diagnosed with Lyme Disease and 2 other Lyme related diseases (Bartonella and Babesiosis) this past fall when Leo turned 10. That was hard. Again? That initial craziness, the ramp up. Different disability, but very much the same when it comes to all the categories we Autism moms can relate to. My daughter Sydney is going to be 8 in a few weeks. She asked me if she still will have Lyme disease on her birthday and I can now say YES.

Sydney is amazing. A friendly, open, empathetic soul. Loves animals and nature and can't get enough of her family and friends. She is very academic and is a very school oriented person. She is addicted to Cam Jansen and Junie B. Reads them over and over as her favorite past time. She loves dance and performing, her favorite thing in the world. She also has P.A.N.D.A.S. symptoms on top of her Lyme Diseases.

I'm back to attending health related workshops and here I see my new disability merge with the old. New Lyme friends and my very best of friends (Autism moms) in the same room.

I find myself again struggling with acceptance. I wish I could let go of my desire to be a regular mom with a regular job. I don't want to be a specialist in autism or Lyme or anything else in the health category. I have no choice, this is what it is. Why is it hard for me to accept? I am no longer angry that my daughter lives with chronic 24/7 all-over body pain and has missed half of 2nd grade. The angry phase was no fun. Phew.

I worry about my kids' futures constantly. Leo asks, "Mom will I always have tics?" I say "No" although who knows.

I look around and compare myself to other moms, why do I struggle so much? I am my own worst enemy as it seems most people have figured out how to cope with their own challenges in life.

I want to never read a label again, go back to advertising, and start smoking.

Flavor Lab Video

2009-03-23T14:07:00.002-05:00

This video takes you inside a flavor lab. Chips, candy, everything processed contains these chemicals. Disturbing but cool. Gotta love the people at Discovery.

Measles May Protect Kids Against Allergies

2009-03-05T12:22:00.002-05:00

Measles may protect kids against allergies

Wed Mar 4, 3:36 pm ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Children who've been infected with measles are less likely to develop allergies, a large study in Europe has demonstrated.
The occurrence of allergic disorders has increased during past decades, coinciding with reduced rates of many childhood infections and increasing use of vaccinations, Helen Rosenlund, at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and colleagues note in the medical journal Pediatrics.
However, previous studies looking for any link between allergies, measles infection, and measles vaccination have produced positive, negative and neutral results.
In the PARSIFAL study, researchers focused on children brought up in a farming and "anthroposophic" lifestyle. They explain that an anthroposophic lifestyle typically makes less use of antibiotics, medication to treat fevers, and vaccinations; it also involves high consumption of "biodynamic" foods.
The study included 12,540 children 5 to 13 years of age. According to the investigators, questionnaire responses indicated that 73 percent of children were vaccinated against measles, 20 percent had been infected with measles (including 11 percent of vaccinated children), and 14 percent had been neither vaccinated nor naturally infected.
Among the children who never had measles infection, those who had been vaccinated were more likely to have nasal allergies, Rosenlund's group observed.
Further analysis showed that allergies were less likely in children who had had a bout of measles, but not in those who had been vaccinated against measles.
SOURCE: Pediatrics, March 2009.

Well there you go. Amazing they didn't bury this.

EPA Spends $76 Mill in 12 Years With Nothing To Show For It

2009-02-18T17:34:00.004-05:00

Is One Very Tough Rat a Very Big Risk to Human Health?

01.22.2009
The rodents charged with testing environmental chemicals may be too tough for their jobs.
Discovery Magazine

by Marilyn Berlin Snell

The success of one of the most ambitious and contested federal science programs in years may rest on the delicate shoulders of a one-pound albino breed of rat known as Sprague Dawley. In a hotly debated move, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has selected this unassuming rodent as the primary test animal for a vastly complex and comprehensive new chemical-evaluation program. The effort is designed to investigate many of the most vexing public-health questions of the day: Are you putting yourself, your children, or even your children’s children at risk when you microwave food in plastic containers? What is contributing to hormone-related killers like breast, uterine, and testicular cancer? And are common garden sprays—like the one you use to keep the aphids off your hybrid tea rose—affecting your unborn baby’s developing brain?

The EPA initiative, called the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program, is set to begin testing some of the 87,000 chemicals identified by a federal advisory panel for their potential to interfere with the body’s endocrine, or hormone, system. As the body’s chemical messengers, hormones play a critical role in regulating biological processes including metabolism, reproduction, and brain development. The female ovaries, male testes, and pituitary, thyroid, and adrenal glands are all part of this complex system. Endocrine disruptors may mimic natural hormones or block their normal action, cause the body to produce too much or too little of a hormone, or scramble a hormone’s message so that the body thinks it should abort a fetus, for example, or produce extra insulin. If any of the thousands of chemicals in common use today adversely affect the human hormone system, the EPA’s testing program should catch them—but only if Sprague Dawley catches them
first. And therein lies the controversy.

Since World War II, this white-furred rodent with beady red eyes has been among industry’s most often used lab rats for testing drugs and chemicals before they hit the market. The animal’s utility is undisputed; it has helped researchers study not just pharmacology and toxicology but everything from cancer and AIDS to obesity and aging. In this case, though, it may be the wrong rat for the job. Critics say that Sprague Dawley is a kind of superrodent whose hearty constitution may not react in ways an average human’s would. If so, the animal could give a clean bill of health to chemicals that actually pose a real threat to human well-being.

Last spring the EPA convened a scientific advisory panel to make final adjustments to the proposed testing program. One panelist was David Furlow, a University of California at Davis endocrinologist with extensive experience in rat-strain variations and how they can affect outcomes in the lab. He tried repeatedly to raise a red flag about Sprague Dawley. “I’ve known about these differences since I was an undergraduate in the 1980s,” Furlow says, citing scientific literature that suggests it is more resistant to endocrine-disrupting chemicals than other rat strains. His concerns, he says, were downplayed.

Sprague Dawley’s unique characteristics have been evident for decades. In 1946 physical chemist Robert Dawley’s company sent a letter to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) detailing how, through selective breeding, Dawley had developed a rat (Sprague was his first wife’s maiden name) with good temperament, vigor, and high rates of lactation. But Sprague Dawley’s good genes—not to mention its fecundity—could have bad consequences for humans: A prolific breeder may not be the best test subject for chemicals that may cause infertility and other reproductive problems. The letter to the NIH also stated that the rat strain had been bred for “high resistance to arsenic trioxide,” a toxic substance used in insecticides and herbicides and known today to be an endocrine disruptor.

“It’s a significant problem,” says Jef French, acting chief of the Host Susceptibility Branch of the National Toxicology Program at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. (French emphasized that he was speaking for himself and not the government.) “Because of Sprague Dawley’s [genetic] selection, chemicals that might be harmful to humans might be judged to be nonharmful to the rat,” he says.

The results of the EPA’s tests could guide federal regulation of numerous chemicals for many years to come, so the stakes for both the public and the chemical industry are enormous.

+++
The far-reaching Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program dates to 1996, when Congress ordered the EPA to begin testing chemicals for their potential to interfere with the human endocrine system. By some accounts the legislation was prompted by the publication earlier that year of a book titled Our Stolen Future. Called “an environmental thriller” by The Washington Post, the book, by two zoologists and an environmental journalist, called attention to a longtime concern of environmentalists: failing wildlife populations and strange deformities in the offspring of those that survived. For instance, there was a massive die-off of alligators after a 1980 pesticide spill in Florida’s Lake Apopka. Studies later found deformed sex organs in the offspring of the remaining gator population, even after tests showed the water in the lake to be apparently clean. Mink ranchers in the Great Lakes region who fed their animals local fish began noticing that the females weren’t producing pups, a problem later linked to PCB contamination. In California researchers found what came to be known in the press as “gay gulls”: same-sex seagull couples shacking up together in the nest, protecting eggs with abnormally thin shells that often harbored dead chicks. DDT was the suspected culprit.

Because of genetic selection, chemicals that might be harmful to humans might be judged nonharmful to the rat. Confronted with these findings, scientists began to wonder whether small quantities of synthetic chemical compounds found in our food and water—and in everyday products like makeup, plastics, and bug spray—could be sabotaging human fertility, undermining our immune systems, or affecting prenatal development. When the public got wind of the possible threat and started demanding answers, the EPA’s Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program was born.

Twelve years and $76 million later, not a single chemical has been screened by the EPA for its potential to scramble male, female, and thyroid hormones. Before screening could begin in earnest, the agency had to make sure that the protocols used in the screens would be reliable and reproducible. In this validation phase, studies were conducted at several labs using the same protocol, with the results then compared to ensure that the screens are replicable across labs. In this preliminary phase, several rat strains were used, including ones known as Long-Evans Hooded and Wistar, but Sprague Dawley was always the top pick.

During the validation studies, Sprague Dawley and other strains were housed in polycarbonate cages with wire lids. In some tests their life spans were brief—around six to eight weeks. Juvenile males were dosed with chemicals, then decapitated and examined. Pubescent males and females were injected with atrazine and myriad other chemicals, then had ovaries removed and studied, tiny testicles weighed, and kidney and thyroid glands checked for toxic effects.

A 2003 white paper commissioned by the EPA notes that because companies have for decades conducted these kinds of tests on Sprague Dawley, there is a large database of information on them that is lacking for other strains. But a “reviewer’s appendix” to the white paper—in which an independent scientist is asked to critique the report—argues that Sprague Dawley may be a poor choice for endocrine disruptor screening because the animal was bred to be resistant to known environmental toxicants. Written by research geneticist Jimmy Spearow, then at U.C. Davis, the appendix presented evidence that other rat strains, including Fischer 344, were more sensitive to more chemicals than was Sprague Dawley. “Compared with several other strains that have been studied, the strain that is least sensitive to the most endocrine-disrupting chemicals has been identified, and the EPA is planning to use it in the screening assays,” says Spearow, now a staff
toxicologist for the California EPA; he emphasizes that this is his personal opinion, based on previous work conducted at Davis. In 2007 the EPA finally acknowledged there was reason to believe that Sprague Dawley might be less sensitive to certain endocrine tests, which made critics like Spearow wonder what other toxic effects the rat had failed to catch all those years.

Which rat to use in the EPA study isn’t the only thing being fought over. There has been a pitched battle between the chemical industry and its many critics regarding the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program itself, with some industry representatives questioning the very premise that endocrine disruption is a human health risk. At a recent industry-sponsored workshop on the endocrine disruptor program that included representatives from Procter & Gamble, Monsanto, the American Chemistry Council, and Dow, one speaker repeatedly prefaced the phrase “endocrine disruptor” with “quote unquote.”

“There will always be different interpretations of science,” says Angelina Duggan, an original member of the EPA advisory panel and today a managing scientist at Exponent, a chemical industry consulting firm. “Whether this issue is more emotion or science remains to be seen.”

+++
To Marion Moses, a physician who runs the Pesticide Education Center in San Francisco, there is no need for such equivocation. “It’s become a fight over process and whether one can extrapolate animal studies to humans,” she says. “It’s a charade, and it has been going on for 12 years.” Trying to nail down unassailable proof of endocrine disruption in humans is essentially a fool’s errand, in her view. Moses, who has treated farmworkers for acute poisoning, rashes, and asthma that seem to be related to the spraying season, feels that the wildlife data alone should be enough to outlaw certain pesticides. “I spent a lot of time trying to get these awful chemicals off the market,” she says while walking in a San Francisco garden-supply store. The snail bait, lawn weed-and-feed products, fungicides, and insect repellents she pulls off the shelf all contain chemicals slated for testing.

The 2003 white paper that drew such strong criticism from Spearow, who called it “disturbing” and “misleading,” was coauthored by Rochelle Tyl, another member of the EPA advisory panel. Tyl, who runs a lab in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park where many of the screens and tests will eventually be done, acknowledges that Sprague Dawley isn’t the perfect choice. Still, she defends the report, calling Fischer 344, for instance, a “lousy” test animal because the males have reproductive problems. Asked about rats bred to be super reproducers, she waves her arm impatiently. “I know that’s the criticism, that Sprague Dawleys are good breeders. But if you don’t have an animal that gives decent litters, how do you run a study?”

Gary Timm, a senior environmental scientist with the EPA, has been working on the endocrine disruptor program since its very first days and likewise recognizes the complexity of the process. “I’ve been totally surprised at how long it’s taken,” he says. The agency felt a constant tug between “keep it simple” and “be comprehensive.”

“Compromises have been struck,” Timm continues. He, too, cites the problem of Sprague Dawley’s virility. “People say, ‘Look, these rats suffer a 50 percent decrease in sperm and they still reproduce.’ They say, ‘If you had a guy who had a 50 percent decrease in sperm, he’d be infertile!’” Asked how he responds to such criticism, he answers, “Those are just some of the things we have to allow for.”

Representative Henry Waxman and others on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform are not so sure. In 2007 the committee sent a letter to the administrator of the EPA voicing concern that public health was being put at risk by the selection of Sprague Dawley. The agency responded, “While the EPA recognizes there are reasons to believe that this strain might be less sensitive, the data currently available appear to show that it is no worse (or better) than other strains for screening for endocrine activity.”

In some ways the EPA is correct, Spearow says. No one rat strain is most sensitive to all endocrine-disrupting chemicals. “However, available data show that the Sprague Dawley rat strain is least sensitive to the most endocrine-disrupting chemicals relative to other strains that have been studied,” he says. “I’m not saying it is inappropriate for all testing, but to use it as the only test animal in this program means that we could really underestimate the effects of certain kinds of chemicals. Do we make sure they’re safe for King Kong? Or do we make sure they’re safe for you and me and Bambi?”

Congress, fed up with the EPA’s delay of more than a decade, wrote into the 2008 appropriations bill that the screening of possible endocrine-disrupting compounds was to begin last summer. Testing of the first chemicals, including the herbicides 2,4-D and atrazine and the insecticide malathion, was scheduled to follow, but the EPA pushed back its deadlines yet again, to early 2009.

Endocrine disruption, with its diffuse causes and effects that may not show up for a generation, is a hydra-headed 21st-century health challenge. Thousands of chemicals will be tested and many millions of dollars will be spent. Still, opponents of using Sprague Dawley say one nagging question remains: If the whiskered workhorse in the laboratory isn’t up to the task, who will be the real lab rats?

How disturbing and frustrating is this? So much waste. TheEndocrine Disruptor Screening Program sounded like such a good idea, a great response after the book came out. And still fighting over the rat. Well, not the rat actually, but how much money this will cost certain large companies. Where are people's ethics? Don't these scientists and government heads want their children to grow normally? What is inside their kitchens? Don't they live on this planet?

Haven't we hit rock bottom? Maybe it IS like the movie "The Day The Earth Stood Still" remake says, we won't change until we are on the brink of destruction. I think destruction is here.

Response to Vaccine Ruling

2009-02-15T09:38:00.005-05:00

What we really need to do is take a step back and look at the big picture. Why are we having babies with GI and immune deficiencies? Why does the American Academy of Pediatrics report that 1 out of every 6 babies born will have either a developmental delay or major disorder like Autism, PDD, ADHD, Allergies, Asthma, or other immune/autoimmune disorders? Why are we still in denial as a country?

With that, like a broken record I say our children these days cannot handle the environmental load. Whether it's vaccines, toxins in our water, food, toys, in the air we breathe, it's just too much for anyone to handle let alone a growing child. Why wouldn't mercury, the vaccine load by itself, or any other major shock to the system trigger Autism or any of the above things? What causes Autism? No one has a fast answer, so it can't be ruled out. Especially by judges that don't understand Autism. The medical community doesn't, why would they?

I read that there are 5500 cases in the courts on this topic. THese are the first 3. 3 out of 5500? On my shit list? That CNN pregnant bitch Campbell Brown reporting that the dispute is over after that. That she's "tired" of the issue. I bet I can think of hundreds of thousands more people that are more tired of it than she is. Opinions are one thing, but irresponsible reporting is another.

Here are the best links that speak my feelings on this issue.

Autism Speaks
Autism Society of America
Medical News Today
Age of Autism

Huffington Post - Jim Carrey

All for now. I need to take care of my other immune compromised child that lives in chronic pain as a result AGAIN of the ignorant medical community that is ruled by insurance companies.

Happy Presidents Day.

Plastic chemical may stay in body longer: study

2009-01-28T08:07:00.002-05:00

By Will Dunham
Wed Jan 28, 12:21 am ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A controversial chemical used in many plastic products may remain in the body longer than previously thought, and people may be ingesting it from sources other than food, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December said it planned more research into the safety of bisphenol A, or BPA, but the agency indicated no immediate plans to curb the chemical, found in baby bottles and other products.
Dr. Richard Stahlhut of the University of Rochester and colleagues looked at levels of the chemical in the urine of 1,469 U.S. adults who took part in a government health survey.
While the belief had been BPA was quickly and completely eliminated from the body through urine, this study found people who had fasted for even a whole day still had significant levels of the chemical.
Stahlhut said this suggested BPA may hang around in the body longer than previously known or that it may get into the body through sources other than just food, perhaps including tap water or house dust. Stahlhut added that BPA may get into fat tissue, from where it might be released more slowly.
"If it leaves the body quickly, then it reduces the amount of time when it can cause problems. If it does cause problems, obviously if it stays around much longer, then that changes the game," Stahlhut, whose study appears in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal, said in a telephone interview.
BPA is used in many food and beverage containers, the coating of food cans and some medical devices. It mimics the hormone estrogen in the body. People consume it when it leaches from plastic into baby formula, water or food in a container.
The researchers tracked how urine levels of BPA declined based on the length of time a person had fasted. But they found that people who fasted for 8.5 hours, for example, had about the same BPA levels as those who fasted 24 hours.
Steven Hentges of the American Chemistry Council industry group said the conclusions of the new study "are speculative at best," and reiterated the industry view that BPA is safe at current levels of exposure.
U.S. government toxicologists at the National Institutes of Health last year expressed concern that BPA may have harmful effects on the development of the prostate and brain and induce behavioral changes in fetuses, infants and children.
A 2008 study by British researchers showed that high levels of BPA in the body were linked to heart disease, diabetes and liver-enzyme abnormalities.
(Editing by Maggie Fox and Todd Eastham)
Copyright © 2009 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters

DUH. Oh right, most doctors believe all people are alike. We all respond to the environment the same way. We all have the same genetic components. Oh, and we all live the same lifestyles and detox the same, very efficiently. Will there ever come a day when they see we are all unique??

Chickenpox vaccine not tied to strokes in kids

2009-01-28T08:02:00.002-05:00

Tue Jan 27, 5:47 pm ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Unlike chickenpox itself, the vaccine against chickenpox does not increase the risk of stroke or brain inflammation in children, according to a large US study reported in the journal Pediatrics.
Stroke is a known complication of chickenpox, a viral disease also called varicella, the study team points out. Although there have been case reports of stroke after varicella vaccination, "the existence and magnitude of any vaccine-associated risk has not been determined."
To shed light on this subject, Dr. James G. Donahue of the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation, Wisconsin and colleagues analyzed data for the period 1991 through 2004 from the Vaccine Safety DataLink on 3.2 million children, 35.3 percent of whom received the varicella vaccine.
They identified a total of 203 new stroke cases, including 8 that occurred within 12 months of varicella vaccination. However, the timing of each case did not suggest that vaccination caused the strokes.
Stroke was strongly associated with known risk factors such as sickle cell disease and heart disease, they found.
Donahue and colleagues also identified 243 cases of brain inflammation or encephalitis. None of these cases occurred during the first 30 days after vaccination and there was no association between encephalitis and varicella vaccination at any time in the 12 months after vaccination.
"Complementing two recent reviews that found serious adverse events to be rare after varicella vaccination, this study offers reassurance that the rare complication of stroke seen after varicella infection" is simply a coincidence, not a cause and effect relationship, the team concludes.
SOURCE: Pediatrics, February 2009.
Copyright © 2009 Reuters Limited.

I don't believe it. If there is a known correlation between stroke and chicken pox, then it has to be the same with a vaccine. The body often can't tell the difference and doesn't care about the delivery method of the virus. Wild strain or vaccine strain, if that's how the body can respond then there IS a relationship. I wonder how much money went into this study compared to the potential law suit money people may have gotten.

Serious infections rising in U.S. children: study

2009-01-20T11:25:00.001-05:00

Mon Jan 19, 4:52 pm ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Children in the United States increasingly are developing serious head and neck infections with a drug-resistant type of "superbug" bacteria called MRSA, U.S. researchers said on Monday. They said rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, are rising in children, and called on doctors to be more judicious in prescribing antibiotics.
"There is a nationwide increase in the prevalence of MRSA in children with head and neck infections that is alarming," said Dr. Steven Sobol of Emory University, whose study appears in the Archives of Otalaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

MRSA previously had been a major concern only in hospitals, attacking patients who are already weakened by disease. But recent outbreaks in the community in otherwise healthy children have raised new concerns. Sobol noted that other studies have shown increases in community-acquired infections of the skin and soft tissue, but some institutions have observed MRSA infections among children with head and neck infections, such as those involving the ear, nose, throat or sinuses. To get a sense of the scope of the outbreak, the researchers studied 21,009 children ages 1 to 18 with head and neck infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus from 300 hospitals across the nation between 2001 and 2006.

While only 12 percent of the staph infections in 2001 showed signs of antibiotic resistance, that number more than doubled to 28 percent in just five years. Nearly 60 percent of all MRSA infections of the head and neck among children in the study were acquired outside hospitals. Most were in children's ears. The researchers suggest that doctors conduct careful testing of head and neck infections, and prescribe antibiotics only when they will do some good. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 94,000 Americans get serious, invasive MRSA infections each year and 19,000 die.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen, editing by Will Dunham and David Wiessler)
Copyright © 2009 Reuters Limited.

Japan Says Cloned Animals are Safe For Food

2009-01-20T08:57:00.003-05:00

Tue Jan 20, 3:20 am ET
TOKYO (Reuters) – A study group for Japan's top safety watchdog said cloned animals are safe for food, the first step in a series of decisions needed before the watchdog makes recommendations to the government.

With several meetings pending by a higher-level committee of experts, it will take months before the Food Safety Commission reports its assessment on the safety of food in production using the controversial reproductive technology. The United States in January last year opened the door to bringing meat and milk from cloned cattle, hogs and goats and their offspring into the food supply. "The working group focused on the assessment of the health of cloned cattle and hogs. The assumption of their discussion was that if such animals are healthy, food made from them would be safe," said Kazuo Funasaka, a spokesman at the commission, said on Tuesday. "Their conclusion is that based on the scientific knowledge and information available at present, such food is as safe as cattle and hogs bred conventionally," he said.

Cloning animals is considered a key technology to improve efficiency in livestock production. Japan's health ministry asked the commission in April 2008 for its assessment on safety of such food. Japan's government has had to face fierce criticism from consumers over its handling of tainted imported rice, and a series of food scandals last year have made consumers even more cautious about food from cloned animals.

But Japan was among the first countries to produce cloned animals. It bred cloned cattle in 1998 and the cumulative total of such cattle now totals more than 550. It also breeds cloned hogs and goats, all for research purposes.

(Reporting by Risa Maeda; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
Copyright © 2009 Reuters Limited.

"The assumption of their discussion was that if such animals are healthy, food made from them would be safe." My favorite quote from this article. So empirical isn't it? I am "totally" convinced that these animals are safe. Way to go Japan. ,"

What Sucks More, Lyme or Autism?

2009-01-10T16:56:00.000-05:00

An uber mom asked me that question recently. Not that it really matters because both problems are things I can't change unless we go back in time and fix the medical community much like Sarah Connor tries to do in my coveted show "The Sarah Connor Chronicles". Wow that was a nice run-on.

The answer is different depending on the day. I am more equipped as a seasoned advocate. I understand the medical community and how things like ASD and Lyme are recognized biomedically by a minority of brave, open, and bright physicians. My learning curve is much better. But today Lyme wins because my daughter is feeling worse and there's nothing I can do to take that pain away.

Pain
There is so much physical PAIN with Lyme. A second doesn't go by where Sydney isn't in chronic all over body pain. On average, 20 pain areas: Headache, stomach ache, rib pain, back pain, arms and leg pain, heels, ankles, wrists, fingers. Everything. Then she must endure flares, a time where a symptom gets much worse, a sudden attack of acute pain.

I look back and Leo wasn't really in PAIN. Leo had emotional pain perhaps? Fear, anxiety, stress just existing. But, there were things that could help those things. Yes, the obstacles were ASSHOLE doctors, then ASSHOLE school district people, but all-in-all I knew there was an answer, a solution. Sometimes attainable, and sometimes not. And mostly, a lot of waiting.

Doctors Don't Understand It
The medical community is divided over Lyme, what it is, how to treat it, and yes, it comes down to economics, egos, self interest like these things always do. My obstacles were the same, ASSHOLE doctors that would rather be *right* and dutifully follow dated guidelines when deep inside they know the truth. Good little soldiers not fulfilling their Hippocratic oath of healing. With Autism, it's DAN doctors and parents versus the rest of the medical community as obstacles toward healing and saving money. With Lyme, the same thing, no one believing people that have been in chronic pain, pain that can be life-threatening and unbearable for most. The "quacks" in the Autism world and the Lyme world share the same enemy.

They are Invisible
Both Autism and Lyme can be an invisible. Syd runs around at recess with her friends, laughing. To an observer, she doesn't appear sick. They don't see her pain that she now thinks is "normal". She doesn't remember life without this pain. With Autism, same thing, the amount of brain power, concentration, dedication, and effort it takes for some kids to just get through a day of school. Processing the world differently requires so much for an ASD child. The pain for a Lyme patient goes on unnoticed throughout the day as well. Just keeping her head up all day on top of a burning throbbing neck is a feat in itself. Using scissors and glue is an olympic event on some days, as is staying awake and present while battling fatigue. Ignoring the pain sensation of "knives coming out of my stomach" while eating a PB&J in the cafeteria.

Stigma
Surprisingly, there is a stigma with chronic Lyme. People don't understand it since the acute form (when you catch it early with the accepted symptoms) is treatable with antibiotics. You can be completely well after one month. Because of this, people don't take chronic Lyme seriously. It makes others uncomfortable since they don't understand this disease. Sound familiar? The same thing for Autism.

Advocacy
The same thing with Autism, no one cares about Lyme unless it's in their house, and in the chronic virulent form. I have the same barriers to wellness - insurance companies, the majority of doctors, dated guidelines, misinformation, politics, and special interest groups within government agencies.

I will fight like I always do, and I pray that my daughter will live a pain-free life again. It really sucks.

Salmonella Outbreak Linked to Institution Sized Peanut Butter

2009-01-10T09:58:00.002-05:00

Salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter

By Maggie Fox
Fri Jan 9, 9:52 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Minnesota health officials issued a product alert for peanut butter on Friday after finding a jar that was contaminated with a strain of salmonella linked to an outbreak across the United States.
While the bacteria in the peanut butter match the outbreak strain genetically, the health officials said it was not clear yet that the peanut butter could be linked to any cases.
The outbreak of salmonella food poisoning has sickened at least 399 people and put 70 or more into hospital since September.
Officials from Minnesota's departments of agriculture and health said they were issuing a product advisory for King Nut brand creamy peanut butter after finding the Salmonella typhimurium bacteria in a big institutional-size jar.
"The Minnesota cases have the same genetic fingerprint as the cases in a national outbreak that has sickened almost 400 people in 42 states," the health department said in a statement.
It said the product was distributed in Minnesota to places such as long-term care facilities, hospitals, schools, universities, restaurants, cafeterias and bakeries.
"At this time, the product is not known to be distributed for retail sale in grocery stores," it said. "State officials are urging establishments who may have the product on hand to avoid serving it, pending further instructions as the investigation progresses."
Earlier on Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed the numbers of cases in each of the 42 affected states. California was hardest hit with 55 cases, while Ohio had 53 and Minnesota had 30.
An outbreak of salmonella was linked to Peter Pan brand peanut butter in 2007. ConAgra Foods Inc closed a Georgia plant after more than 300 people became ill in that outbreak.
The CDC is trying to trace the source of the outbreak, which began in September. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, state health officials and the Food and Drug Administration are also involved.
Tracking the source of such an outbreak can be tricky. The CDC said poultry, cheese and eggs are the most common source of Salmonella typhimurium strains.
Every year, about 40,000 people are reported ill with salmonella in the United States, the CDC says, but many more cases are never reported.
There have been several high-profile outbreaks of foodborne illness in the United States, including a strain of salmonella carried by peppers from Mexico that sickened 1,400 people from April to August 2007 and an E. coli epidemic in 2006, traced to California spinach, that killed three people.
(Editing by John O'Callaghan)
Copyright © 2009 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Inc.

Just nasty. Another example of the risks we are taking with an industrial food supply. And of those 300 plus people got sick? Possibly kids from lunches, our special needs people in day facilities? I have only my imagination.

GMO Shopping Guide

2009-01-05T10:22:00.006-05:00

I recently came across this brochure about GMO (genetically modified organisms) food. It contains a list of brands that use these ingredients and brands that don't. Handy. Naturally the big food companies are on the list for most of the food categories - like cereals (General Mills, Kellogg, Post, and Quaker). The big four at-risk ingredients are:

Corn
Soy
Canola
Cotton

Surprisingly wheat is not on the list. I can't figure that one out as I know they have modified it over time to include 12% more gluten among other thing that make the plant hardier on top of cutting the crop earlier and earlier while it's still green.

Jett Travolta

2009-01-04T20:32:00.003-05:00

My heart goes out to the Travolta family. I used to have such disdain over their Scientology beliefs - not recognizing Autism in their son, letting him "just be", not maximizing his potential, giving him as many choices as possible. But hey, I'm not his parent. Every family is different and who knows what his individual deficits were. I had always fantasized that they'd be another powerhouse Autism family, Hollywood style.

But today I feel guilty about that judgement I made and my fantasy. No doubt Jett had a happy full life. I am so sad for their loss. One of our people on top of a child. I find myself always thinking about them now. I can't imagine what they must be going through.

Jett got to be with his family at Christmas, and swim in the ocean in the Bahamas. I'm sure it was a nice life. Not everyone has to be a poster child. Look at me, I'd be a hypocrite for not recognizing our anonimity. Our son has a good life too, who's to say that Jett's life was less full? I hope they can manage living after their loss, and do what they can to stay together as a couple and provide love and a life for the rest of their kids.

Out of Control Drug Companies: NY Times article

2008-12-21T16:28:00.003-05:00

December 20, 2008
Medical Publisher to Review Claim About Article’s Writer

By DUFF WILSON
Elsevier, a medical publisher, said Friday that it would investigate a senator’s recent allegation that one of its journals published an article on hormone replacement therapy that was improperly ghostwritten by a drug company promoting the product.

Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, had raised questions about the May 2003 “Editors’ Choice” article in Elsevier’s American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The article, signed by Dr. John Eden, an Australia academic, was among articles Mr. Grassley has cited that were favorable to drugs made by the pharmaceutical company Wyeth.

Mr. Grassley, a member of the Senate Finance Committee who is investigating drug company influence on doctors, contends that Wyeth commissioned the articles and had them ghostwritten by a medical writing firm. Only after the articles were conceived and under way did the firm line up doctors to put their names on them, Mr. Grassley contends.

“The charges made by Senator Grassley’s office with regard to the article published in 2003 by Dr. Eden are a significant concern to The Journal and Elsevier,” Glen P. Campbell, the senior vice president for Elsevier’s US Health Sciences Journals unit, said in a statement. “As with any charge of misconduct or inappropriate publishing acts, The Journal has launched its own investigation into the claims of ghostwriting and undisclosed financial support.”

The journal article, published more than a year after a landmark federal study linked Wyeth’s Prempro hormone product to breast cancer in women, said there was “no definitive evidence” the hormones caused breast cancer.

Mr. Eden’s article did not mention any involvement by Wyeth or DesignWrite, the medical writing company hired by Wyeth. He acknowledged the contributions of two people for “editorial assistance” but did not disclose they worked for DesignWrite. The standard industry guidelines for medical journals require the authors to identify all significant contributors.

In an e-mail message to The New York Times last week, Mr. Eden said he stood by the article’s contents but declined to elaborate. “I cannot comment as these matters are before the Senate,” he said in the message. “I am also aware of ongoing lawsuits around these matters.” Mr. Eden is an associate professor at the University of New South Wales.

In a statement Friday, Wyeth said the academic authors were not paid by Wyeth and had “substantive editorial control” of the articles. Mr. Grassley said in a statement that he appreciated the publishing company’s response and would continue his own investigation.

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Out of control. You think it's bad when you read about the FDA and the CDC. I was quickly reminded that it's pervasive across all areas in the medical community.

Strep and Rife Machines

2008-11-24T16:42:00.005-05:00

I finally have some positive news to share. I found a technology that dramatically reduces Leo's facial tics. Both my kids, especially my 10 year old son Leo, has an autoimmune response when exposed to strep. No high fever, angry sore throat here. His class could have 4 kids infected and home and he'll respond with eye blinks, strabismus, neck turns, and a furrowed brow. And again when I tested him on the EAV machine, strep came up as the winner.

His facial tics have been the worst EVER this fall. What does this mean? Did I wait too long to find something that works? Is he just getting more immune compromised? I just don't know and I'm certainly not going to waste my time by asking a medical doctor.

The strep nosode (a homeopathic remedy) helped for a while, but eventually the tics came back and the repeat dosing and other remedies stopped working. I'm sure this is a failure on my part (the mom practitioner), not with homeopathy. When you get it right, it works permanently.

I researched and purchased a Rife machine for my daughter Sydney's chronic Lyme disease. Yes, we are still in Lyme Hell after 6 weeks on antibiotics with no end in sight. The Rife machine, another way to kill the Lyme bacteria, is part 2 of my master plan. We will use this to wipe out any remaining/hiding Lyme so she will not relapse and go back to Lyme Hell (and neither will the rest of us in the family).

The machine, the EMX, costs around 1300 with shipping. I purchased mine at www.rifelabs.com. People that are electricians can build them by themselves with an old stereo system and other stuff you buy at Home Depot. Well meaning people have posted all this info for free, including the frequencies for the various Lyme life cycles. I couldn't find much about strep and rifing, hard enough with Lyme, but the movement is growing rapidly.

Here is another website with Rife info: http://www.lymebook.com.

So here I am, in my world of bacteria. Lyme and Strep. My new world. Somewhat new anyway. Perhaps a new possibility to end chronic health issues. Dare I type it.

FDA sets up offices in China to ensure food safety

2008-11-20T16:28:00.003-05:00

So this is now what our tax dollars are going towards? Lame government employees overseas to somehow ensure the food that's shipped is safe. They say they are reacting to the melanine incident. But what about the food we have here in this country? OUR food supply is what needs improving, babysitting, monitoring, what have you. Is it really more cost effective going to China rather than fixing our food supply woes here? Even if I didn't have a degree in economics (which I do, a minor anyway), this doesn't jive.

In over my head with Lyme, but I couldn't let this little nugget of info go by without comment. IDIOTS

Ashley

Friendship Perspective Taking

2008-11-18T10:18:00.004-05:00

I went to dinner with a group of women friends recently. A very New England group - wealthy, fit and pretty, and live very homogenius lives for the most part. Tennis, PTA, coffees, husbands socialize, jewelry parties, you get the drift. Karen grew up in the area, has her family local, and has a wide array of friends from work, school, and the community. I have always been envious of her comfort and how easy her life seems to me. How nice is it that she has so many people to call for sitters, to go for coffee, a real solid base. I've told her she has an amazing life. She's offered to help me with the kids, which I've taken her up on before. She really gets it and is thankful.

I am somehow accepted into this group although I don't feel I fit in exactly. Good enough, they can be fun, our kids go to school together, a night out is always a plus. Anyway, one of the women, let's call her Karen, starts talking about another mom that's not there, Jennifer. Karen sets up her story first by saying the right things, "I shouldn't be talking bad about her, she's really nice, it's nothing really." We all lean in, eagerly awaiting any juicy story.

I felt conflicted because I recently met Jennifer and thought she was really nice, and better yet, was a UNIQUE person that had passion and good energy. I recently talked to her at an event, we didn't even talk about kids, a breath of fresh air. I thought I should "say something" but decided against it. I thought it may ruin the fun for everyone, knowing this is dinner party conversation, no need to be so serious. So I sat back and just listened.

She starts to say how Jennifer is very quirky, she learned how to knit, and then a month later went into the knitting store and bought yarn for 5 sweaters (for her family) and became totally obsessed. They all laughed about it, and I sat there thinking how I liked that about her, her passion and drive. She goes on to say that Jennifer's husband tells people that Karen's husband is "one of his best friends". And also tells people the same about her, that they are "good friends". They all laugh about it, saying how crazy that is, that they aren't even "friends", they carpool together and do PTA stuff, but that's it. Karen's husband states they aren't friends either, they went to school together, and in fact they all made fun of him because he was so nerdy and strange.

Funny, I had plans later that week with Jennifer, and that night I met her husband. Definitely an Aspie! I really liked him a lot. He didn't "get" that we were talking girl talk at one point, and continued to stand there. He even joined us with a glass of wine. It was a little threesome, certainly not what I expected, but still fun. I would've rather chatted with just Jen, but that's what was going on. At one point, he mentioned Karen and said her husband was one of his best friends!

I thought about the two different versions of friendships over the next day. I realized that neither person was "wrong". Jennifer's husband hardly socializes and doesn't have a large stable of friends like Karen's husband does. According to Jen's husband, his perspective is that YES, they are very close. According to Karen's, they are not, because he has a wide array of friends, and doesn't even consider him in the category of friend, just a classmate. Neither husband are aware of each others perspective.

I am very aware of the friendship disparity with my own situation. As a west coast transplant and Autism refugee, I try not to take it personally when I'm not at the top of the list with some of my friends. My "close" friends and BFF live peppered all over the country, none are local. I have many "good" friends locally, especially Autism friends. Even Karen is a good friend, we've known each other a long time. I am not sure if it's worth pointing all this out to Karen or not. Either way, I know it's not malicious, just ignorant, and maybe insensitive.

Seems that perspective taking doesn't happen as often as it could.