What a week!
It is so much easier to wake up in the morning when I don't have to go to school. Fascinating huh?
Test week is finally over. I didn't do so well on my biopharmaceutics exam from last week, but I think I rocked my tests from this week and mostly I'm just glad it is over. I was starting to feel like I don't do anything but study.
Today I took Caleb to daycare so that I could come home and do some much-needed things around the house- like clean, do taxes and filing, laundry, etc. (which is why I'm sitting in front of the computer) It has been so busy for both Andy and I it's been all we can do to keep our head's above water.
Andy has been home late two days this week. Once for a new-teacher meeting and once for the open-house for middle-schools. He is putting so much of his energy into school, I hope he gets results. It can be frustrating to put a lot of energy into things at school and then have the politics change and see it all go to waste.
Caleb is doing well. He likes to walk outside in his shoes. He is finally steady enough on his feet that he can wear shoes pretty well. I don't know whether it is a great idea or not. I know his feet are still developing and I don't want to constrain them, but it is cold and wet in Oregon right now, so if he's going to walk outside, he really should have shoes on. My dilemna comes because the daycare seems to think he needs to wear shoes all day inside, so if I take him to daycare with shoes on, they stay on most of the day. When he comes home, of course, I take them off. We'll have to see how it goes. Maybe I'll ask the pediatrician. If he says no shoes it is easier to reason with the daycare. After all, he's still only 11 months old!
It's fascinating to read things in the news about drugs now that I know a little more. Roche(Genentech) just requested a "priority review" of Herceptin from the FDA. Herceptin is a drug (monoclonal antibody specifically) used to treat breast cancer. It was previously used to treat breast cancer late in treatment, but Roche has found it to be useful early in breast cancer. They want to market the drug to be used early in breast cancer. "Genentech requested a priority review of the drug, which if granted, requires the FDA to take action within six months." This sentence makes it sound like people need to wait six months or more before they can get the benefit of using Herceptin early in breast cancer. This is not true. Now that the research has been done, doctors and hospitals can decide if it is appropriate therapy to use Herceptin early and if they so decide, they can use Herceptin early in breast cancer, now- today. All the FDA review would do is allow Genentech to ADVERTISE the drug as an early breast cancer drug. True, it is important for Genentech, because it will increase their revenue, but it will not suddenly allow the doctors to do something they couldn't do before. It is amazing how many "off-label" uses of drugs are used routinely.
Test week is finally over. I didn't do so well on my biopharmaceutics exam from last week, but I think I rocked my tests from this week and mostly I'm just glad it is over. I was starting to feel like I don't do anything but study.
Today I took Caleb to daycare so that I could come home and do some much-needed things around the house- like clean, do taxes and filing, laundry, etc. (which is why I'm sitting in front of the computer) It has been so busy for both Andy and I it's been all we can do to keep our head's above water.
Andy has been home late two days this week. Once for a new-teacher meeting and once for the open-house for middle-schools. He is putting so much of his energy into school, I hope he gets results. It can be frustrating to put a lot of energy into things at school and then have the politics change and see it all go to waste.
Caleb is doing well. He likes to walk outside in his shoes. He is finally steady enough on his feet that he can wear shoes pretty well. I don't know whether it is a great idea or not. I know his feet are still developing and I don't want to constrain them, but it is cold and wet in Oregon right now, so if he's going to walk outside, he really should have shoes on. My dilemna comes because the daycare seems to think he needs to wear shoes all day inside, so if I take him to daycare with shoes on, they stay on most of the day. When he comes home, of course, I take them off. We'll have to see how it goes. Maybe I'll ask the pediatrician. If he says no shoes it is easier to reason with the daycare. After all, he's still only 11 months old!
It's fascinating to read things in the news about drugs now that I know a little more. Roche(Genentech) just requested a "priority review" of Herceptin from the FDA. Herceptin is a drug (monoclonal antibody specifically) used to treat breast cancer. It was previously used to treat breast cancer late in treatment, but Roche has found it to be useful early in breast cancer. They want to market the drug to be used early in breast cancer. "Genentech requested a priority review of the drug, which if granted, requires the FDA to take action within six months." This sentence makes it sound like people need to wait six months or more before they can get the benefit of using Herceptin early in breast cancer. This is not true. Now that the research has been done, doctors and hospitals can decide if it is appropriate therapy to use Herceptin early and if they so decide, they can use Herceptin early in breast cancer, now- today. All the FDA review would do is allow Genentech to ADVERTISE the drug as an early breast cancer drug. True, it is important for Genentech, because it will increase their revenue, but it will not suddenly allow the doctors to do something they couldn't do before. It is amazing how many "off-label" uses of drugs are used routinely.