Hi, Mark!  Awhile ago you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:   
      
        [re hair styles, voluntary or involuntary]   
   AH>  What's currently fashionable in Suburbia &/or on Snob Hill   
   AH>  takes awhile to trickle down to the common masses in Vancouver.   
   AH>  I found it rather amusing, however, when our daughter achieved   
   AH>  the same results as a side effect.... ;-)   
      
   MH>  Same here.  His hair looks really trendy with some areas spiking   
   MH>  up, etc.   
      
      
               I can well imagine because our daughter has a cowlick like that...   
   [chuckle].  Spiky hair does seem to be "in" these days for boys & young men at   
   least.  Dallas & I also know men ranging in age from thirty to eighty-plus who   
   shave their heads because they hope they'll look younger if their male pattern   
   baldness isn't as obvious as it might otherwise be.  Either way, people accept   
   more readily than they once did that another person may have an unconventional   
   hairdo or no hair at all... and I see the same phenomenon with women too.  :-)   
      
      
      
   MH>  Even though things have no been easy by any stretch,   
      
      
               Ah... a masterpiece in British understatement here, from a USAian!   
   IMHO that is one of your strengths.  Both of us have walked through the valley   
   of the shadow of death & come out the other side.  While you may not find many   
   others who have a clue what you managed to pull off I do & I'm listening.  :-)   
      
      
      
   MH>  I'm very pleased with how things are going.   
      
      
               Glad to hear it.  Hang in there....  :-)   
      
      
      
   MH>  The latest thing we found out yesterday, is he developed C.   
   MH>  Diff (from an antibiotic treatment for a sinus infection).   
      
      
               Don't know that one...   
      
      
      
   MH>  We just started on the Flagyl yesterday evening.   
      
      
               ... but I remember the name "Flagyl", because I used it many years   
   ago.  As I understand your son's situation we all have a gazillion bacteria in   
   or on our bodies at at any given time no matter what we do.  Some are friendly   
   ... some aren't.  As long as the population is balanced we don't get sick.  If   
   we tinker with the balance of nature by trying to kill certain bacteria and/or   
   by trying to get rid of white blood cells which keep multiplying without doing   
   anything useful, things do get out of balance sometimes.  On one such occasion   
   our daughter was hospitalized because the culprit was Staphylococcus epidermis   
   ... which we all have on our skin & mucous membranes.  Because it doesn't make   
   other people sick, the doctor can't just write a prescription & send you home.   
   The only remedy available at the time had to be administered by IV.  I see why   
   there may not be a lot of demand for it.  It worked like a charm, though.  :-)   
      
      
      
   MH>  Can't wait until we don't have to give him any medicines.  He is   
   MH>  so used to taking them, he doesn't remember not taking anything.   
      
      
               I can relate.  Initially I felt as if I was up the creek without a   
   paddle... but I soon got over it, and our daughter is still alive & well.  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)