Hello, I'm a 16 year old who lives in North Central Oklahoma. I drink a lot of Red Diamond sweet tea. I buy it every morning at school. I first noticed something was wrong about 3 weeks ago when I realized the tea tasted different. There was a bitterness within the sweetness. I just ignored it and kept drinking it, thinking maybe they just added something new or it was just a bad bottle. After school that day I felt really lightheaded and dizzy. Everything seemed really funny and I couldn't stop laughing. After a few minutes it got to the point to where I couldn't breathe because I was laughing so hard. Finally my friends started slapping me on the back to try to get me to breathe. After it was over, I went to dinner and just ignored what happened. The next week in my 2nd period class, right after I finished half my bottle, I got a weird feeling in my stomach. Like a tickling feeling. The dizzyness came back, and I'd laugh over nothing every few minutes or so. During my 3rd period class the feeling kept strengthening and it moved out of my stomach and into what felt like my lower intestines or something. During this whole time I kept drinking more and more tea (not realizing it was the tea causing it). It just kept getting worse. After about an hour of feeling completely abnormal and laughing hysterically, my nipples became extremely sensitive. When that happened, I got up and ran to the bathroom. My breathing kept speeding up, my heart starting racing. After a minute or two a teacher came in to check on me. He asked if I was alright, but I could barely speak. My speech was slurred. So he walked me downstairs to the office to have the nurse look at me. I kept stumbling and falling because I was feeling really dizzy. I couldn't take 3 steps without falling. When I got down to the office it had gotten to the point to where I was hyperventilating. I was still laughing like a madman and my hands and cheeks had gone numb. I called my parents to come pick me up. The nurse gave me a paper bag to breathe into. I still couldn't stop laughing, and it kept switching back and forth from crying to laughing. I couldn't control myself. Eventually my Dad showed up to take me to the ER. They had to wheel me out of the school on a wheelchair. At the ER, they didn't know what was going on. So they assumed I was on drugs, and so did my parents. And for the record, I've NEVER been on drugs. I won't even drink alcohol. The drug tests came back clean, so they just labeled it as an anxiety attack and told me to go home. I was completely freaked out the rest of the day. And it turned out that a lot of kids at school saw the whole thing, so it was hard to show my face at school the rest of the week. For the next week and a half I noticed that everyday I bought the little bottles of Red Diamond Sweet Tea, the feeling came back. It would stop after about an hour once I stopped drinking the tea. Luckily, I never finished a bottle so the strength of the attack wouldn't get very high. Other people at my school have been getting sick after drinking the tea (but nothing like what I went through. They just complained of feeling sick to their stomach), and everyone has noticed that it smells weird now. The big gallons I have at home don't do this to me, it's just the small bottles. Has anyone else noticed any of these things? Any information would be much appreciated.

Doesn't seem like anyone knows anything about these...

I'm looking forward to getting this one this spring too! Buford's link is a good one and should help you with the correct information to grow beautiful roses! After you've read it don't hesitate to come back and ask any questions you might have.

I planted 4 spiraea, 3 Loropetalum, and 1 abelia. Is there anything special that you can tell me about these plants? I intend to put down landscape fabric and mulch for the pathway between these plants and my rose beds. I thought I did not like landscape fabric, but when I see how well it keeps out weeds, I will use it --- but never in the flower beds. I'd appreciate any comments if you have experience using anything I have suggested. I will put in isolated stones on the pathway -- trying to avoid the look of a walkway, but making it easy for me to walk in the rain and mud. Sammy