OMG Sandy, Just read this post and you talked about thrush. That is a nasty, nasty word in my book. I supposedly have asthma and am on the inhaler Advair. After too many, too many bouts with thrush I went cold turkey off of Advair. I got thrush back in February. It got so bad it went to my throat and tonsils. Even my gums were bleeding. I couldn't even drink tea I was in so much agony. I lost 5# because I couldn't eat. I still had thrush in May after a month of being on Diflucam to take it away. I could eat but it still hurt, and forget about taste. I lived on applesauce, jello and pudding. On Father's Day this year I thought I had a small stoke. It felt like someone had stabbed me in the left side of my head with a sharp pencil, then my whole left side went numb, even my tongue. The MRI showed I had a slight brain aneurysm that had healed itself. That was it. I decided the Lord gave me a second chance at life and I wasn't going to abuse it. I am now on a strict low-sodium diet. I have lost 30#. It seems like the pounds are just melting away. If it ain't natural it ain't going in my body. I gave up diet pop, and anything with splenda, neutrasweet or aspartame in it. I have been told I have had asthma and allergies my whole life, and I can't believe the difference. I haven't used an inhaler since February and don't have a problem breathing. I haven't had an asthma attack (thank God) and this is the first year I haven't sneezed my head off during allergy season. I am up to 1.60 miles on the manual treadmill and can bench press 50# on the Bowflex. I don't care what my allergist tells me, I refuse to put anymore steroids into my body. That's what caused the thrush in my mouth and throat, steroids in the Advair inhaler. I feel like I have been reborn. Jenny

I prefer to collect Monarchs as either eggs or very small instars. Haven't had very good luck with larger cats, they just don't seem to thrive inside. Figure that if a 4th or 5th instar has made it that far in the "field", they probably have a good chance to make it to chrysalis. After finding an egg, I cut off a good sized piece or pick off the whole leaf that contains the egg, and lay them out on a damp paper towel with the egg side up. This helps to keep the leaf fresh. I usually spritz the towel every morning. Just be cautious that it's not too wet - the leaf can mold. The leaf may wilt a bit, but it doesn't dry up to a crisp. It's easy to tell when the egg is going to hatch - they turn greyish/brown beforehand. When the little guy hatches, I also try to carefully transfer them to a sprig of milkweed. For the small ones, I always cut a tender growth tip and use that for food. At that stage, one will occasionally disappear and they're easy to lose, drop, or smush, but most of them do fine, and they usually stay on their sprig of milkweed eating tiny little sections of leaf.

When my dh was on Atenenol for a fast heartbeat it exhausted him and he was ready for bed at 8 every night! My sister said that this is the cheapest drug and the one they always start out with, so maybe you can call and ask if there is another beta-blocker that doesn't have this side effect to such an extent.

>patser-I worked for 30 years in the investment industry up until this past April. For the last 5 of those years I worked overseeing the riskiness of my bank's securities trading groups, specifically the bond trading groups (which includes mortgage backed securities trading). We oversaw trading in the far East, Europe, and North America. In the early part of my career, I worked in the treasury group of a major US bank which had financial problems and was ultimately absorbed into/bought by another major US bank. My group was the area that was in daily, direct contact with the US regulators and I was involved in way too many conversations about a bank that was going down. I ultimately lost that job due to a later and different merger 10 years after the original financial problems. I consider myself to be a well informed pretty recent ex-banker. "Involved in way too many conversations about a bank that was going down?" What is that supposed to mean? Now that you are no longer working there, would you care to share what these specific problems were? "I consider myself to be a well informed pretty recent ex-banker." Did you know Fannie and Freddie were going to be taken over by the government over the weekend? Does it matter that their shares have plummeted over 90% in value over the past year? Do you have stock with either of these companies and did you buy or sell any shares within the past 6 months? Do you think the Fannie and Freddie CEOs that were pushed out by the government this weekend should be rewarded with fat pay packages, go on to live in massive homes and become high-paid consultants? Or do you think a jail sentence is in order? >I would have absolutely no hesitancy about putting up to $100,000 into an FDIC insured account at Bank of America or Wachovia. Quite honestly, I think the original post in this chain is very similar to chicken little saying "the sky is falling, the sky is falling". While some financial entities clearly have been negatively affected over the last 18 months, to imply a widespread panic is around the corner is malicious fear mongering - in my opinion. I find it both interesting as well as amusing that you would accuse tricia, a fellow member of the industry, of being a fear monger. She posted information about the FDIC that SHOULD be freely available to the public yet you think this is 'too much' information for the average taxpayer to be able to absorb without 'overreacting' in a way that might protect their life savings. Sharing information with the public about damaging accounting scandals, questionable management, inadequate capital reserves and a crashing residential real estate market, is NOT fear mongering. I think most of the readers at the GardenWeb forums are mature enough to be able to tell the difference. As for 'implying a widespread panic". What is your opinion about the many high-ranking government officials in the 1970s who swore the S&Ls were safe, even as thousands of thrifts were failing all around them? How about those FDIC and Federal Reserve officials in the 1980s who vehemently denied the threat to commercial banks, even as the bank failure rate surged to the highest since the Great Depression? Or the state insurance regulators in the 1990s who swore to the safety of annuities and life insurance policies, even as six million policyholders were being trapped in failed companies? Last but not least, lets not forget the auditing firms like Arthur Andersen, KPMG, and Deloitte and Touche that facilitated or even encouraged accounting distortions and cover-ups and those major Wall Street firms of the early 2000s that consistently affirmed "hold" and "buy" ratings for the shares of hundreds of companies that were going bankrupt. What has changed to correct this? Nothing. The lies continue, no one gets punished and fat cat CEO's continue to prosper at the TAXPAYERS expense. Is it any wonder why investors don't want to play this 'casino game' anymore, or why depositors don't trust their banks to tell them the truth? I think it shows utter contempt for the American people to assume we are too stupid to be able to be told the same things that insiders already know about our crippled economy. I don't know when the reality of this will dawn on the "denialists." But when it does, I'm sure they will be remembered along with some of the 'experts' (below) who thought everything would be just fine 80 years ago. September 1929 "There is no cause to worry. The high tide of prosperity will continue." â" Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury. October 14, 1929 "Secretary Lamont and officials of the Commerce Department today denied rumors that a severe depression in business and industrial activity was impending, which had been based on a mistaken interpretation of a review of industrial and credit conditions issued earlier in the day by the Federal Reserve Board." â" New York Times December 5, 1929 "The Government's business is in sound condition." â" Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury December 28, 1929 "Maintenance of a general high level of business in the United States during December was reviewed today by Robert P. Lamont, Secretary of Commerce, as an indication that American industry had reached a point where a break in New York stock prices does not necessarily mean a national depression." â" Associated Press dispatch. January 13, 1930 "Reports to the Department of Commerce indicate that business is in a satisfactory condition, Secretary Lamont said today." - News item. January 21, 1930 "Definite signs that business and industry have turned the corner from the temporary period of emergency that followed deflation of the speculative market were seen today by President Hoover. The President said the reports to the Cabinet showed the tide of employment had changed in the right direction." - News dispatch from Washington. January 24, 1930 "Trade recovery now complete President told. Business survey conference reports industry has progressed by own power. No Stimulants Needed! Progress in all lines by the early spring forecast." - New York Herald Tribune. March 8, 1930 "President Hoover predicted today that the worst effect of the crash upon unemployment will have been passed during the next sixty days." - Washington Dispatch. May 1, 1930 "While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed the worst and with continued unity of effort we shall rapidly recover. There is one certainty of the future of a people of the resources, intelligence and character of the people of the United States - that is, prosperity." - President Hoover June 29, 1930 "The worst is over without a doubt." - James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor. August 29, 1930 "American labor may now look to the future with confidence." - James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor. September 12, 1930 "We have hit bottom and are on the upswing." - James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor. October 16, 1930 "Looking to the future I see in the further acceleration of science continuous jobs for our workers. Science will cure unemployment." - Charles M. Schwab. October 20, 1930 "President Hoover today designated Robert W. Lamont, Secretary of Commerce, as chairman of the President's special committee on unemployment." - Washington dispatch. October 21, 1930 "President Hoover has summoned Colonel Arthur Woods to help place 2,500,000 persons back to work this winter." - Washington Dispatch November 1930 "I see no reason why 1931 should not be an extremely good year." - Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., General Motors Co. January 20, 1931 "The country is not in good condition." - Calvin Coolidge. June 9, 1931 "The depression has ended." - Dr. Julius Klein, Assistant Secretary of Commerce.