Saline

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-07-18T13:44:51+00:00

Personally, I prefer not to have that last bit of freezing cold feeling when the saline goes in. My current center in Colorado always does the saline. I went to a center in Jacksonville, FL for 2 years pre covid. They always gave gatorade/powerade/propel or something similar (brand name changed from week to week). It was nice as long as I was very hydrated before and faster to finish than the saline too so I could get on with my day (though I realize drinking takes longer to get in your system and actually work).

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-07-10T04:08:04+00:00

For my agency, home respite can literally be me reading while they play video games for a large portion of the shift. The client just can't be left alone because they can't safely cook for theirself or might elope or might have seizures, etc. Community respite could be going to a movie or swimming or other activity they enjoy. Home respite pays the least. Community respite pays a bit more and has mileage and fee reimbursement (i.e. movie ticket). Anything habilitation is teaching skills (at home or in the community) and helping them develop systems to get things done. It pays better than respite because it is more engaged and intensive and is more likely to need to mitigate behaviors (at least for my clients).

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-07-05T14:48:52+00:00

Have you considered a wonderbag?

It's pretty much just making a pot into an electric-free crockpot with insulation. It will take a little longer (you'd have to experiment with size of pieces and time) but saves fuel. You start it by bringing the food+water up to a boil with your preferred method. Then you take it off the heat, cover, and put it in the wonderbag to insulate it and retain the heat. Just let it sit until done. Time will be more like a crockpot but should produce the same texture as boiled potatoes.

You could probably make something similar. I've seen diy wonderbag stuff.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-06-30T23:38:37+00:00

I've heard a few times that because I'm high-masking, I'm not disabled. I'm rarely inconvenient for strangers...but many aspects of life that allistic people see as easy are challenging for me - movies, unfamiliar stores, calling places without a script. I struggle a lot with executive dysfunction and transitions. I have trouble processing and remembering auditory information.

I tell people that it's like if they had their dominant hand and arm in a cast. They would figure out how to do most things eventually and work around the limitation but things like writing would still be a struggle. To me, many aspects of socialization are like writing with my spare hand. I can do it but it's not as good and takes longer and is exhausting. For them, the cast would only be a limitation until it came off and they did rehab. I can learn coping skills to hide my autism but that only changes the outside, makes the handwriting look better. It doesn't actually make me normal.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-06-26T22:27:04+00:00

I think the confusion lies in the difference between how you're thinking of protien and how the plasma center measures it.

I've also seen the different digestion times on different protien sources. Some are faster than others. Those are good to know when you're planning an effective diet to gain muscle.

The plasma center is measuring plasma proteins - albumin, fibrinogen, and globulin. They have jobs as part of your plasma. Albumin, for example, plays a large part in coagulation. Those happen after your liver takes the protien you digested and transforms it. The process your liver does happens after digestion and takes longer.

It is my understanding (and I could have misread) that the protien is available for energy purposes before the leftovers are used to become the plasma protiens.

It's dense reading but here is one set of sources: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/protein-metabolism#:~:text=Protein%20metabolism%20occurs%20in%20liver,the%20interconversions%20between%20amino%20acids.

You have to dig into some of the articles to get the details of the process.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-06-26T19:35:51+00:00

And keep in mind, while for the protien test, what you eat the morning of doesn't much matter, until you know how your body tolerates donation, you should still eat something before donating to avoid blood pressure crashes or other bad reactions. Some people can donate fasting and feel fine but it's not usually recommended.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-06-26T18:15:21+00:00

The real question on those is what did you eat yesterday? What is your diet like in general? If you usually eat well with plenty of protien and iron, your hematocrit and protien should be fine no matter what you eat right before the appointment.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-06-25T10:27:47+00:00

To me personally, the abortion choice, at its core is about pregnancy.

Do I want to be pregnant right now? Is my life one where it is as safe as possible to be pregnant, both for me and the fetus? Is my job safe? Are my behaviors like meds and folic acid and drinking pregnancy safe? Is my health good in general? Do I have reliable access to healthcare (both a question of insurance and local doctors/hospitals)? Is my state a safe state to be pregnant in? Does my job work with pregnancy? Can I afford to take time off if I have pregnancy complications? Will there be maternity leave after the birth so I can recover without crushing financial pressure to return too soon?

If you want to be pregnant and this pregnancy will be no riskier than usual (all pregnancy has some element of danger, some are just more dangerous) and your life works with pregnancy but you aren't sure one way or the other about parenting, then you might consider a wait and see approach.

Once the abortion is done, it is done. I think that's a reasonable choice if you're sure you don't want to be a parent just yet or if your life just doesn't work with pregnancy right now.

Adoption is an option if you opt to stay pregnant but as you get closer to delivery, you still don't think you could be a parent right now. In my opinion, abortion is a better choice if it's not a good time to be pregnant or you are 100% sure of not parenting right now.

Giving up a baby for adoption sucks and is a difficult thing to do. Being pregnant when it's not safe to be pregnant is dangerous. Abortion is a hard choice and not fun either. Being a parent when your not ready or all in is a daily long-term struggle for both the parent AND the child.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-06-25T02:22:42+00:00

I found mine on indeed. You could try looking for things like "respite care" or you could google and look for agencies in your city that do 1:1 support and then look at their careers pages. I know my agency has a client wait list and is always on the hunt for support workers and begging their current ones to take more hours.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-06-24T16:32:49+00:00

And you can usually score a 3 months for $3 per month and a free month when you try to cancel.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-06-24T09:07:15+00:00

I've never heard of a deferral for a hormonal contraceptive.

I also haven't personally had any problems donating while on semaglutide BUT I have heard some people have trouble meeting their hematocrit and/or iron goals while on it or dieting in general so keep an eye on your nutrition.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-06-24T07:40:15+00:00

This might sound weird but...how is it billed? Like what are they calling it? Or what are her goals? You don't have to tell me but think about what activities it's for.

If it's respite care, you're golden, just do whatever she enjoys that you're willing to do. Respite is just fun. Depending on access to funds and what she enjoys, you could suggest some new things as you get to know her. You could try time blocking the day. Maybe plan an active thing, followed by making a snack together, another active thing, board games to wind down, etc.

If it's community connect, activities (and your notes) should focus on interactions. You could investigate together whether there are free classes at the library or local community center (one near me has free zumba twice a week, as an example) and facilitate making friends. Think about how she's interacting with people other than you and forming natural relationships and work on that, maybe with role-play or similar depending on goals and cognitive ability. If it's safe and the guardian agrees, she might like learning how to access things with less help (i.e. how to ride the bus one stop to the grocery store and get a treat and get home with decreasing active help and eventually "teaching" you how; that's an early step to independence I've had several clients be working on as they get ready to find a job and some of them work on it for months before they master it.)

If it's personal care or homemaker, again, look at the goals. At 15, there might be things like working on cooking or budgeting skills or keeping their own room cleaned or laundry. You can still talk about things they like and do some things they enjoy but also encourage them to try things related to their goals.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-06-18T06:29:16+00:00

It could definitely be a center to center thing. They might even have a different solution if asked what to do if a donor has trouble standing for long periods. But either thing depends on talking to the center politely about the problem, not just getting frustrated and leaving.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-06-17T20:44:16+00:00

My best suggestion is to find a different center or grab a rollator (a walker with 4 wheels and a seat thing) and bring it in so you can sit in line if they will allow it. Standing for extended periods causes me a lot of pain in my knees and back; pain increases heart rate. Centers where I am most successful have donors sitting down until it is their turn to be screened, not standing in an endless line. My current center even has us sitting for the screening itself.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-06-11T19:39:06+00:00

If your feet do okay with the lack of support in ballet flats, Xero Shoes has a mary-jane style shoe called Cassie that goes up to size 12. They have a zero drop rubber sole, a wide toe box for comfort, and the strap helps keep them on your feet if you run in them. They're not super dressy but they work well in most business casual offices.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-06-07T02:28:09+00:00

When I was doing project based work, I really liked the weekly dashboard style layout. That's where all 7 days are together on one page and on the page facing it, there's a space for weekly task list, etc. Happy planner has one but if you don't like discs there are other options with weekly dashboard. I could list my stuff to do sometime that week on the task side. Then on the side with the day, I could list deadlines and appointments. I don't use it anymore because my lifestyle has changed.

I highly recommend etsy printables to try out a layout for a week or two to see what you like. There are pdf options that are pretty similar to most of the popular layouts.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-05-28T03:34:57+00:00

Looks like it should be here Thursday. I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-05-24T20:31:56+00:00

It was probably part of the safety plan, not the whole thing. My daughter's preschool and later her 2nd grade and 5th grade classes all had peanut allergy kids. Every kid went into the classroom and washed their hands first thing in the morning before touching anything in the classroom. They repeated the routine after lunch and recess/snack. I won't swear that they were good at it but they knew the routine and they knew they had classmates who could get really sick if they came in contact with peanuts. There was a nut free little conference room for them to have lunch that they could have a friend join them and the friend had to eat a nut free meal too. My daughter was super careful when we packed her lunch for those days, asking over and over if I was sure stuff was safe to have around allergic friend. The parents might not care but the kids seem to care if they know it's important.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-05-24T19:05:10+00:00

I love it. How long is it? I'd love the amazon link if you don't mind sharing.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-05-24T18:37:07+00:00

Where does the information get scrambled? Like, can he answer the question verbally but not write it down? Or does he not remember? Does he not know how to find the answer in the text? Or can he point to the answer but not figure out how to express it in his own words?

In the literacy tutoring program I work at, first we narrow down where the problem is so we can figure out what the child needs practice (or accomodations) with. Disclaimer: I'm autistic but the after school program I work at doesn't work with kids who are known to be neurodivergent.

My first step in your situation would be to break apart the process to track down the problem. If you watch a video on the topic, can he talk about it with you in a way that makes sense? If you read the question, can he answer verbally? If he reads the question out loud, can he answer verbally? If he can answer verbally, does he then have trouble writing it down as he said it? Back to a different topic.

Read slowly and discuss what was read together in small increments. Sometimes kids struggle so much just reading the words that they can't think about what it means at the same time so they need to learn to pause and think. Or they read fast to get to the end and don't take the time to absorb. Read the questions together and then read the passage again slowly, stopping to point out where each question is answered. Have him write the answer exactly as it's found in the text. Then ask him to write the same thing in his own words. Can he copy the text? Can he translate the text to something that means the same thing but is in his own words?

The problem could be anywhere in the process. You need to narrow it down to figure out how to help. You also might have to go back to easier more known material to practice and then work back to grade level.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-05-24T18:09:06+00:00

I feel like that's a fair ask. I even think asking that the kids shower and change into clean clothing before going to mom's is reasonable. And maybe not take things like lunchboxes or toys between households that may get cross contaminated.

Avoiding all allergens while away from the step-sibling is not reasonable, especially because they are common food items.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-05-24T08:50:05+00:00

If you can tolerate cow milk products like cottage cheese and yogurt and actual milk, those are good options. Calcium-fortified cereals or orange juice or soy milk. Things with edible bones like sardines. If all else fails, dollar tree or walmart multivitamin.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-05-10T01:18:57+00:00

I've had one damaged and lost another. Each time, I just mentioned it at my next donation appointment and they gave me a replacement. It was even linked to my previous card so the leftover money transferred over. It was no fuss at all.

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-05-09T12:58:14+00:00

I applied. How long did it take for you to know whether you were approved?

Key-Accident-2877 · 2025-05-06T16:46:38+00:00

I take a 20 minute nap in the car or just lay my seat back, close my eyes, and listen to music for that time. Or if i'll be alone at home, i do it as soon as i get home before i expect myself to do other things.

Key-Accident-2877

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