My spring break plans

What are you doing for spring break? Ask that around here and you hear various answers. Some people are responsible and doing things like catching up on research, repainting a room in their house, or catching up on that project they've been meaning to get to. More people are doing fun things -whether it is something crafty around the house, taking a vacation, or just vegging in front of the TV for a week straight. Not me. For MY spring break this year, I'm getting surgery. Woo hoo!! Party time!!!

I went back to the podiatrist in KC on Tuesday to determine what next steps we should take with my foot. Those of you who have been around lately know that the meds aren't really effective for anything other than making me even goofier than usual, and an occasional dizzy spell. We've now reached the six month mark of my foot pain (yes, you read that correctly, it's been the whole school year), which generally indicates that conservative treatments aren't going to work if they haven't already. The doctor gave me the option of trying cortisone shots (which I had a reaction to last time) or going ahead and scheduling surgery.

After much consideration, I decided to go ahead with the surgery. Cortisone shots generally don't seem to be a permanent solution in many cases, and surgery would have to be put off until the summer if I went that route in order for me to have enough sick time to cover it. For an exact description of what all that entails go here: http://kcfoot.com/document_disorders.cfm?id=154

Surgery will be March 17 at the Johnson County Surgery Center. Hopefully they will give me a green surgical gown! It's kind of weird, but I am looking forward to it... or at least looking forward to the pain-free foot I should have after it's completely healed. Mom's also planning to come up to help out for a few days so Jeremy doesn't have to take the whole burden, so I'm looking forward to her visit too. I know the surgery itself and immediate recovery won't be fun, but I'm trying not to think about that too much until it gets closer.

If you think of questions I should ask my doc or have any general good advice about having surgery, feel free to post a comment.

Maybe by summer I'll be back in matching shoes again!!!

Big news in the world of autism

In my job, I often work with students who have autism and their families. Most of you probably know someone who is affected by autism, as it now occurs in 1 of every 150 kids. At the very least, you can't escape the news coverage and publicity.

One thing that is very frustrating is the lack of knowledge about the causes of this disease. No one really knows why it happens, and no one knows what's responsible. It is difficult to treat a condition when you don't know the origin - and the lack of evidence allows people to draw their own conclusions based on personal experiences that may not apply to everyone.

A hot issue in the field of autism has been whether autism is caused by the MMR vaccine, and specifically the thimerosal that had been included in this vaccine in the past. (Side note: thimerosal is no longer in the vaccines required for childhood immunizations). These past couple of weeks have had a couple of major stories on this particular issue.

First of all, this argument originated with one particular study in 1998. You may remember from your science classes that one study isn't sufficient for proof, but multiple studies replicating the same finding are required before something is accepted as scientific fact. This study had not been replicated, however, many people in the "anti-vaccine" camp believed that this was due to government cover-ups or flawed methodology. However, recently it was revealed that the data in the original study had been falsified. See the article here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5683671.ece

The other big news this week was that the U.S. Court of Claims made a decision this week stating that the evidence for the vaccine-autism link is not there. See the news article here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29160138/ This is really big news, because these were the first claims to the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

I feel for these families, and I know they are seeking for something that could have disabled their children so severely. However, the more time and money that we spend investigating claims that have little scientific merit and scaring parents of otherwise healthy children is that much less time and money that we can spend on research to find the true root causes of autism. Is it something environmental? Something genetic? Something else? I don't know. I do know that I'd rather trust the research being done right now than the word of Jenny McCarthy on whether or not to vaccinate my children. I hope that the community will be able to focus less on doctor vs. parent and vaccinate vs. not vaccinate, and focus more on working together towards researching to find a cure.

For more information on autism, visit http://www.autismspeaks.org/ or http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer or http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer.

Congratulations, Jeremy!!

Jeremy took his master's exams today. Basically, as I understand it, he spent two hours in a room with his advisor and two other professors, and they asked him questions intended to find out the limits of his knowledge. Sounds fun, right? :) Jeremy did well and says he wasn't nervous, and he passed!! He has completed all the requirements for the master's degree which will be officially conferred in May.

It's nice to see him recognized for all the hard work that he's put in so far. Of course, there will be much more hard work in the next several years as he completes the Ph.D. The next big step is to complete his coursework, and then to put together a portfolio and a prospectus for his dissertation.

I am really proud of him, and I know you all will be too!

Yay, Jeremy!! (or should we call you "Master P"??)