Steph-- What kind of pain did you have that was tendon related (so I have an idea of what to look out for).

I sort of lost my taste for cranberry juice and I'm trying to get it back. I grew up only drinking cranberry juice because of the UTIs and citrus being bad.

Just as I got older I did what I wanted damned what I was supposed to do.

So I'm on day one of no caffeine- no sodas. I'm trying to figure out if drinking iced herbal tea would be a good beverage choice. I think I asked the doctor but I don't remember, I do remember that at one point when he came to check on me he was drinking a diet Dr. Pepper.

Chiming in late to say it's perfectly normal. I was an early reader, so I had no real clue what was the normal curve until I researched it.

At Lillian's age, I had books with chapters and no pictures about which I was really excited. I guess I figured that at 4, most kids were reading picture books, but not yet novels. Which is not the case.

Lillian's right where she should be. She can spell a few words, and sound a few out, and has what feels like dozens of books memorized, but she's not reading yet, and I have to look at reality to stop my freak outs.

Owen's reading level is freakish. I'm proud of it but it is also hard to keep him interested in what the rest of the class is doing. And his social development is way behind.

I almost failed out of kindergarten because of the above! But I turned out mostly okay. And while I wouldn't say my social development ever caught up, or will ever be normal, I learned to cope and deal with *way* less official support and structure than the O man, so he's gonna turn out AWESOME.

Joining Plei in the lateness to say that I didn't start reading much until I was about 6, and then one day it just clicked.

My brother taught me to read when I was 4 or 5 (sometime before kindergarten). No one knows how (including he or I). He was tired of me asking him to read to me, so he taught me how to read so that I would leave him alone.

I'm glad they diagnosed the problem, askye. Good luck with the drink changes. Diet Dr. Pepper has caffeine, I believe, so it looks like you're being treated by Dr. Do as I Say, Not What I Do. But as long as he makes the infection/pain go away, whatevs.

I distinctly remember mastering "sound it out" in second grade, and being squarely middle-of-the-pack in my split 2nd-3rd grade class. In kindergarten, I had letters and numbers (although I also distinctly remember my dad taking pains over teaching me to recognize the difference between lower-case d and b) and could recognize short simple words such as the, and, is, etc.

Askye, I'm so glad they've figured it out, and I hope the meds treat you OK! I have also gotten in the habit of taking cranberry pills, after a few UTIs last year, and haven't had an infection since.

I would think iced herbal tea would be fine, probably? As long as there's no caffeine or carbonation. I also had to give up caffeine for a while last year, but never had any problems with herbal tea.

My brother taught me to read when I was 4 or 5 (sometime before kindergarten). No one knows how (including he or I). He was tired of me asking him to read to me, so he taught me how to read so that I would leave him alone.

Heh. I taught myself how to read at 4 because I was bored (my sister was gravely ill, my parents were understandably distracted). Which led to me getting "The Secret Garden" as a gift that Christmas from one grandmother, and the other grandmother (who hadn't spent much time with me) freaking out about how I was too young to have a non-picture book, and then being flabbergasted at me reading the first chapter to her.

Steph-- What kind of pain did you have that was tendon related (so I have an idea of what to look out for).

Not to be coy, but you'll know it if you have it. My achilles tendons had a constant, dull, moderately severe ache for about 3 weeks. My jaw ached constantly like it does after going to the dentist and having to hold your mouth open for hours. Any area that has tendons is fair game, and if you start having any kind of pain in or around your tendons that wasn't there before, stop the antibiotic and call your doctor. It can fuck you up big time, and there are lots of other antibiotics that won't rupture your tendons.

FYI: Cipro and Avelox are in the same class and can do the same thing, so switching to either one of those won't help.

Those drugs are powerful and fairly broad-spectrum, and it sounds like that's exactly what your infection needs, since it's been going on for so long. Just keep an eye out for any new pain.

My brother taught me to read when I was 4 or 5 (sometime before kindergarten). No one knows how (including he or I). He was tired of me asking him to read to me, so he taught me how to read so that I would leave him alone.

My exact experience.