My boys had RSV when they were 3 and 3 months. It's very scary. The 3 y/o was much worse, he got it first, was misdiagnosed and so worsed for several days before it was diagnosed right. So we were on the lookout for the symptoms in the baby, and caught it right away. But the 3 y/o was horrible. About as scared as I've ever been. He would not move, he didn't even cry anymore, he just laid there with quiet tears seeping from his eyes. Getting him to be still was not a problem, which is scary for a child. He just could not breathe. We got a nebulizer and had to do breathing treatments at home every couple hours. He had chest x-rays, but was not hospitalized, but it was close. He required constant care for a few days at home by me, and doctor visits every other day for a couple weeks. Even after he got over it, his lungs were weakened. Every little cold went straight to his chest with a cough that would last for weeks after other symptoms were gone. In fact, the doctor wrote us a prescription for the breathing treatment meds (name won't come to me right now) good for a year at a time. For a couple years after that bout, we continued to use the nebulizer with most colds. It was almost like asthma, his lungs were so weakened by that illness. So I'm sending good thoughts for your boys. And for you. Ya know, honestly, some of your posts lately have been... off. Your "voice" doesn't sound like you. But this one sounds better. Please take care of yourself, Stacie. Your kids need you healthy, so it's not selfish to put your well-being before dishes and laundry and other chores. I think the package from me should be there now. Hope they like it! My DD helped me fill the package, she enjoyed that even though she has no idea who we were sending it to! LOL!

About three generations ago, when our economy was largely agricultural, chidren, once they were half-grown, were an asset, as they helped get all of that hard work done. Now, kids are not a help, but a liability ... have you noticed how many families choose to have only a couple/few (or none)? Many modern children don't even have chores to do around the home and yard. That said ... I don't feel that it should be the task of older children, apart from the death of their parents, to become substitute parents to their small siblings. A few centuries ago the population of the world was a billion ... then, not too long ago, two billion. During the past couple of centuries, maybe slightly more, that population has grown to from between 6 and 7 billion. How do we propose to feed them all? When folks keep covering the arable farmland with cities, factories, roads, etc. ... and many suburbanites feel that they have a right to a couple of acres of grass between their home and the road/street. Even the dead are (long-term) taking up land that could be used to raise food (and if they're choosing cremation, many of them still take up a smaller bit of land). Plus ... we've swept the seas, much of which earlier teemed with fish, clear of a large proportion of those fish. How ... do ... we ... propose ... to ... feed ... the ... world ... in ... future??? ole joyful

One of the projects my wife researched as a professor was a team communication study of surgical teams. To minimize the confounding factors the study only attended laparoscopic gallbladder removal surgeries. They documented the communication between team members with a goal of reducing risks and improving overall outcomes. One unpublished statistic that the study uncovered was that the most important factor in the likelihood of complications was the skill of the surgeon performing the surgery (as measured by the total number that surgeon had performed). Doctors as a general rule wouldn't say "Don't use surgeon X, he (or she) is not very good." but they may give useful information if you asked them who they would want if they were to have that particular surgery.

Alisande, I'm glad your surgery is over and everything went well. I, too, rejected the pain med in favor of Tylenol and did just fine. I have bad reactions to medicines as well, and have to be my own advocate for what I can take and what I can't bear the side effects of. We know our own bodies and what works for us, or doesn't. I had my gallbladder surgery in 2002, and except for the anesthesia making me sleep a lot for a few days, the main aftereffect was tiredness/lack of energy. It took weeks for me to get back to normal. I hope you feel better soon and get your energy back much faster than I did.