Highest Rated Comments


ChunkMcHorkle113 karma

the one thing that isn't on this list that has been constantly changing the magnetic labels for our whiteboards that is customized for each individual child.

For the changing magnetic labels, have you considered giving a roll of dry erase magnetic tape instead? They can literally just make their own as needed, and if they do it with a sharpie or some other permanent marker it won't be eraseable.

There's also regular magnetic tape that's somewhat cheaper; to make magnetic labels out of it you print out what you want on a home printer, trim it, and stick it to the tape.

There are a bunch more out there, these are just two. Either one seems like less hassle than the back and forth needed to customize a set of labels for each parent, but if that's what they need and you can do it for them, I'm sure they appreciate it.

ChunkMcHorkle30 karma

...it was not uncommon for headstones to be knocked over and some dirt thrown on them. ... It's just something that happened...

That is horrible, on so many levels. Their lives had value, they deserved better, and so did their families. Thanks for looking into this.

ChunkMcHorkle19 karma

I get what you're saying and I upvoted you for that reason, but I'm also assuming you personally are probably young and have no kids. Don't be insulted, if you're young and not a parent you probably wouldn't know this:

It's one thing to pull the plug on an adult, even a child, and to recognize that the relationship you had with them is at an end. It's never easy, but it can be done.

It's quite another to pull the plug on an infant that you just brought into this world, with whom you have had no relationship, one that you've looked forward to and dreamed about and imagined and rearranged your life around for the last nine months. There's a desperation, an inexorable pull there to grab every minute possible with that baby, even if all you get is five minutes. (As an aside, it's why parents of stillborn babies have that baby's picture taken anyway: you can't just walk away from that human you brought into the world. It's loss is inexplicably deep.)

I'm with you, I would want to spare that child its suffering, but I don't know that I would have it in me as a parent to do so: not just from the "is this murder" angle, but from the overwhelming visceral, even reptilian desire to protect and shield that child from all danger, and that desperate desire to wrest every possible second of their life from the death that waits to claim them anyway, knowing that when that baby dies a large part of you will die with it.

It's a killer instinct, and while not all parents have it, many do. Women seem to have more of it, after having carried that life within their own body for the better part of a year, but men can have it as well.

It's something that makes you value that kid's life literally over your own life, and it's not generally something that can be overcome, even if the child in question has a terminal illness and is suffering.

Look at OP: they had their baby for five months, and that five months was SO life changing for them that they've now devoted themselves to helping other parents in similar situations.

We had a long, fulfilling, but stressful and exhausting 5 months with Lily. After she died my husband and I felt purposeless, so we started Lily's List.

In their own words, they had a "long and fulfilling" relationship with a baby who couldn't even speak for only five months. Think about it. There's a lot more there than can be seen with the naked eye or the logical mind.

Hope this helps explain it a bit better.

ChunkMcHorkle5 karma

He gave the info you're looking for just down the thread. Listen to what he's saying about insulin, because a lot of doctors have not kept up with what the studies are showing us about what insulin does in addition to clearing glucose, and it does a great deal more than that. If you're on glucophage then you're already dealing with an insulin problem, so this may well be exactly what you're looking for.

Also, the author he recommends, Dr. Jason Fung, is 100% legit, so definitely check him out. He has a webpage and Youtube videos if you want to look into his stuff further before investing in a book.

And from personal experience, I can tell you that if you do IF, and make zero other changes but do IF religiously, weight will start to drop off you very slowly regardless, just because IF works. Add to that some exercise and thought to what you're eating, and it will drop off even faster. My own experience with insulin imbalance is that if you have it bad (I do) you can be doing everything right and still not lose weight, because traditional calorie-in-calorie-out diet plans do not take insulin's other actions into account. When you do, and start planning your efforts to maximize insulin, everything changes. It's STILL not easy and never will be, but at least it's not impossible. Good luck to you!

ChunkMcHorkle2 karma

Laminar, I'd like to ask your opinion on something that you touched on, which is mens rea. Do you personally think, given the nature of all the ill-advised presidential tweets and other public statements, that if Mueller had prevailed in getting Trump in a live deposition he would have gotten evidence of mens rea?

This is now all purely hypothetical, of course. But it has always struck me that of all the things Trump fought so hard all along, resisting any situation where he could make an uncontrolled, off the cuff statement to Mueller is something he fought the hardest. Now I'm kind of thinking I might understand why: it would pose the greatest legal risk, because it would complete the necessary set of elements for prosecuting obstruction/conspiracy. What are your thoughts on this?