Deadline Met: Rough Draft of Paper Turned In!
Last edited Tue Nov 18, 2014, 02:21 PM - Edit history (1)
Turned in the Rough Draft of the Preemie Growth Project Final Report to respected researcher (cc'd a couple of others, including NIH, and a couple of med school folks) with my theory about the cause and prevention of common forms of cerebral palsy and other neuromuscular issues, and how the inexpensive intervention given to identified high risk populations should lower infant mortality and morbidity rates by 60%. Fun final stats: of the 271 children I recruited for the project (from six countries/35 states) only 134 provided enough data to analyze; of those 111 reported improvement in 4 or more of the eight categories we tracked (bowels, appetite, weight/height, tone/strength, cognitive, communication, energy and sensory) for a reported 83% improved rate; 70% of my participants were know preemies or low birth weight babies, and they saw 90% improvement, with 44 out of 47 micro preemies (93%) reporting positive improvements. I brought up the "absent seizure" issue as a concern, but could never identify why those kids had it/not enough knowledge. 80 Fricking Pages and it is a Draft. Tired, but deadline met. Thank you everyone for the support. Please God, let it do some good.
And Lounge Folk, thank you for the support the last few weeks - this has been difficult and I really appreciated being able to vent here.
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I feel good, even though I know I am going to be spending the Thanksgiving holiday doing "second draft" stuff, while Christmas holiday will be devoted to "Final Version."
Saturday's meltdown was the worst part (except for talking with the mom who lost her 6-year old on Friday, the one year anniversary of his death - that was very tough).
I will probably have to do some substantial editing - in the "how did we recruit" I got a little blunt (from memory): "My complete lack of socially acceptable boundaries enabled me to recruit while in the swimming at a hotel while on family vacation, the cable guy knew a family a with a special needs child, and various waiting rooms, hallways and grocery stores."
Yeah, that section will probably need a re-write! 
Now you can:
8 hours of work daily, with 1.5 hrs of commute time, plus kid activities (ballet, karate, gymnastics, pony therapy) plus household duties (that yes, I have *really* neglected the last several weeks).
But I am *very* lucky: my kids are healthy and wonderful and smart, my husband did not divorce me even though I negatively impacted the family budget with unpaid time off work, and I have a warm place to live. 