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.

All I know about my reading is that I was apparently reading the newspaper at age seven, but that does not appear to be a mean feat in these parts.

My parents taught me to read when they got tired of reading me the same book over and over. Education as self defense is more common than I'd originally imagined.

I went from not reading to reading almost instantly .1st grade? the bad thing, I never figured out phonics. Therefore, I can't spell.

Or that is this week's excuse