which came first
the chicken or the egg
&
salt or the water?:lol:

This has been ranted on before but it's fresh in my mind.

Decided to test PO4 again tonight (why oh why do I even bother).

The very same sample vial: Readings of 36, 56, 22, 52.

Clean vials, no air bubbles, no spill reagent, no undissolved reagent.

There has just GOT to be a better way to test for this. :neutral: I think the checker is really just a random number generator. :(

Well I would say the true reading is 41.5 .... add the four, divide by four, WALA

Maybe it's just better to stick to the test kit that produces the color scale, might be less stressful for you Tony :lol:

like one of those magic eight balls eh?.......

Yeah I agree they can't be that high lol

I had a friend who got preggo at 19. Her daughter was born at 5/12 months and only lived 24 hours. I didn't know I was pregnant till I was 4 1/2 months, I felt weird, nausiated,couldn't have any alcohol(thank goodness my body wouldn't allow it) and finally figured something wasnt right. No complications but I got a lot of how didn't you know questions too.

Sounds like your baby girl is still pretty young, and a smart little darling to me, sign language, amazing. I can't imagine how challenging your world is and pray each day she grows stronger, and you and your wife find your strength in each other!

Sorry for being insensitive. Saw one episode of that show and wasn't impressed by the "stars" they showcased.

Are you using the new PO4 meters? Are those supposed to be the higher sensitivity ones? I've never used those. I am still using the old skill (original) Hana digital meters and I can't honestly say I've ever had those problems. Tomorrow I am going to bring you my Hana meter so you can use it and let me know if you get a similar magic 8 ball effect.

Ya, she's 2 next month. It's challenging, but you grow into it. The couple of times she died in the living room and needed resuscitation were a bit stressful. We have a nurse in our house every night, also not a great thing, although the job of keeping her alive is a 24 hour job, and we need to sleep every now and then. Trach care every night, we travel with suction machines and emergency equipment, makes flights a bit tough. But we try to give her a normal kid life; we just took her to Costa Rica, where she took her first steps and played on the beach. All the bad aside, she's a great little kid and she's made me a better person.

Sounds like you're giving her a wonderful life full of great experiences.

Ya, we try. You met her when she was confined to her car seat, here's a pic of her first steps while on vacation :)

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/d...DSC_2292-1.jpg

props out to you man .. i know a family with a special needs child and id like to kick the father in the head his child is so special but he would rather ignore him and go out drinking than to help his wife with him and their other child. but he will happily take gov handouts nad spentthe gov money.. peeves me off. i get a loving vibe from you on this. puts a smile on my face. thank youfro sharing that.

smiles don't lie she's a happy kid! Can't imagine how exhausting your situation must be at times Brad but you sound like awesome parents.

Ya, she's mostly happy. She had a rough start, so life for her is pretty good these days. As I said, you pretty much grow into the role, so while a typical parent might find it grueling, for us, it's mostly business as usual. We have to watch a lot of things, and there's always medical issues (did I ever tell you about our emergency stay in a Jamaican hospital??) :)
On a plus side, she doesn't yell at all, and stopped pulling her trach out at inopportune times. Overall a great kid, and we're lucky she's come as far as she has. It was really touch and go for the first 6 months, we pretty much lived at the hospital.

What a great picture Brad, and your daughter is beautiful. :)

Thanks Tony :)

I remember meeting her. Beautiful little girl and lucky to have such devoted parents.

Peace my friend.

Wow Brad,

That is heartbreaking! :cry: She is such a sweetie pie. I can't imagine the struggles you go through every day. My heart goes out to you all. Give her a extra hug from me...as if she does not get enough from you both. :wink:

Leah

Most parents have the luxury of nine months of preperation for the arrival of their children, your wife and yourself never had that. Some parents may have been overwhemed at the thought of raising a child needing special care and given the them up for adoption, you never did that. Some parents would grow distant from their spouse and resentful to life in general, I don't think you have.

I don't think she's made you a better person, your qualities were always there, she is just providing the polish to make them shine. From one parent to another my hat is off and I salute you.

She is adorable Brad :) looks like she's having the time of her life!

Don't get me wrong, but it certainly doesn't feel like a struggle, it's just what we do. You transition into it so slowly that you hardly notice the extras (except boarding the plane :)). Most of the time you don't even think about it. Sure, we get people staring at the mall when we have to break out gear and fire up equipment, but mostly you just shrug that off.
With all the possible problems that we COULD have got, what we ended up with was just a perfect little girl that doesn't talk much :razz:
She may need glasses, or not, but mostly everything appears fine other than the vocal chord thing. She's quick, learns well and is quickly moving up in stats to match kids closer to her age. She's small, and way behind other kids developmentally, but she's catching up. It's tougher on mom, as she knows lots of other parents, and seeing other kids walking at 11 or 12 months, when your 18 month old is still crawling is emotionally tough. But, like I said, she's moving up quickly in the stats, and more closely aligning with the other kids.
This is a condition that can fix itself in time (or not) so we're just waiting and hoping.

I hear what you are saying Brad and sometimes it is through these very special children we can learn something important, as they seem to accept the way things are easier than we adults do or can. Children are so resilient and we need to learn more from them.

All children are a miracle in there own special way and I am sure she has the best possible parents she could have. I hope for brighter times for her and the two of you. Keep on smiling.

Leah

+1

Love the pic of her walking what an amazing moment :biggrin:

Agreed, and well said.
Thanks for sharing, Brad.

+++1000, I knew she was a beauty! How proud you must have been when she took those steps!! Life throws things at you that sometimes others don't or can't understand, but its amazing where you find the courage, strength and resolve to deal with it (speaking from experience, different situation). You may not think you are doing anything extraordinary and maybe you are or not, but striving to raise a happy, healthy child to the best of your abilities is all any of us as parents work towards! She's happy! You made me smile by sharing this! Thank you!

my wife found this on line cracked me up:

Apple was going to make a smaller version of the iPod Touch for kids, until they realized that iTouch Kids wouldn't be an appropriate name.

Hahahahaha. Thanks for posting.

Berghia Nudibranch...does anyone know where I can get some Berghia Nudibranch..There doesn't seem to be any Berghia Nudibranch for sale...I haven't seen any Berghia Nudibranch on the board for quite some time...

Is that a joke?

Um, ya. although I did mention Berghia Nudibranch four times, there were only three threads.

So there doesn't appear to be any for sale, you haven't seen any on the board for some time. But you acknowledge that there are three current threads listing them for sale on the board. Now I'm really confused. :cry:

See " facetious "

Nudis are a waste of good money if you ask me;) get a filefish way cheaper and last longer.o
ce nudis are done they starve then if it comes back you gotta go buy nudes again. ive bred them and its not worth it compared to other methods;)

I had a file fish and all it did was eat my zoas, never touch apitasia at all. I have a CBB in my 165 that is doing a great job but my small frag tank is loaded with apitasia.

I guess it was just a joke. I sometimes have a hard time reading humour and sarcasm on this board. Its often difficult to distinguish between the confused and the crazies.

I just assume that everyone on here is confused and crazy. There is no other logical reason for being in this hobby..

I guess some of us are just a little more confused and crazy than others.

I would lean more to the crazy side then confused :der:


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Or a lot more. just sayin..