u/Throw6345789away

EDIT: It is a French middle school exam for collège, not English university. Apologies, the accent wasn’t clear enough!

The family said ‘honourable mention’ in English (Frenglish?). So, we can’t google the original French.

They were so excited that it would have been rude to do anything but congratulate the kid—even though we have no idea what we’re congratulating her for.

We later tried to ask them, but they just said, in English, ‘she won honourable mention’. We found nothing on Google. We’re happy for the kid but have no idea what we were celebrating.

Our sweet, purring cat is part of the family and we love her. We adopted her from a rescue as a young kitten. She had occasional issues with inappropriate urination all her life, especially in response to stress or change. But she wees on hard surfaces (sinks, chairs, floors), soft surfaces (rugs, sofas, blankets), all over the place.

But the cost of things she has ruined is enormous and reaching a tipping point that we can’t afford. We are feeling trapped because we can’t change patterns (like go on a trip for an overnight), have guests, or trust her at home.

We’ve exhausted all of our options for professional advice. We can’t take her to a shelter—no one would adopt a pissy geriatric cat, so how could that help her have a better life. We’re at a loss. I’m casting the net wide to ask here if anyone had been in a similar situation.

Physical health: she is in perfect health. She recently had £1000s of tests at a pet hospital (thank goodness was for instance) to check for every possible cause, just in case the vet was missing something. All clear.

Mental health: She is extremely medication averse. We’ve tried mental health/anti-anxiety medications, but the result has always been a cat who hides from us because she is so medication averse. Maybe a calmer cat, but it’s awful for all of us. We’ve sought advice from vets and a behaviourist, but none of the tricks make giving her medication less traumatic.

Behaviour: We have worked with behaviourist, recommended by the vet and hospital. We’ve followed all advice to the letter. No improvement.

She has never been extremely cuddly, but she still approaches us for cuddles and loves several times a week.

Per the warning I keep getting: THIS IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE. Her health is excellent.

Is linseed oil the easiest to protect the woodblock from ink stains?

Woman Born Deaf and Blind Gets Her Medical Degree, Relies on ‘Naturally Heightened’ Sense of Touch

‘her disabilities or her health struggles, which include the immune disorder Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), requiring her to use oxygen’

How does MCAS require oxygen?

‘A narrative makes illness seem rational – and it gives the sufferer a measure of control – or at any rate the illusion of it. This is particularly true of the sort of chronic illness in the face of which poor doctors are often at a loss. There is no obvious course of treatment for fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, long Covid and all the myriad forms of chronic illness. There is no drug to take that will restore you to who you once were. There is only narrative.

I know very well how grateful you feel to the doctor or therapist who provides a narrative to explain what has happened. And how upset and angry you feel when a different, perfectly well-meaning, doctor says something else or offers a theory that seems to threaten that narrative.’

Last week, I went to a concert at the Southbank Centre. Someone has been stuck in the lifts earlier that day, so the usual wheelchair routes were unusable and staff were confused, sending us to one door and then another across the site. That wasn’t their fault. There was confusion.

When it was clear what path I could take, a staff member escorted me and cleared out crowds in front so I could roll through easily. He took care of my ticket and then went to look for the person who was attending with me. He was then waiting for me after the show ended.

It isn’t usual to have such a positive experience with wheelchair support like that, especially during that kind of confusion. So I wanted to share the positive experience.

Has anyone had excruciating pain from an EMG?

The wrist and shoulder tests were so painful I couldn’t stay still. I actually cried out several times, though I was trying so hard to breathe through it. My heart rate spiked from the pain (dysautonomia) to the point that I was breathless and had vertigo. They had to abort both of those tests.

Then, once I was able to lay down for the forehead test, the needle felt like a pinprick, fine, but the current was excruciating. I was near the point of tears for the duration. My whole body was trembling from the pain of the current. The pain was so intense that it took nearly half an hour after the test ended for my heat rate to fall to a safe rate for me to walk with stability and without tremors (I get them from breathlessness and extreme heart rate spikes). I’ve had that happen once before, after an invasive medical procedure without adequate anaesthesia. The pain was unreal. I don’t know how I tolerated it, even with the breaks.

It was torture. Ans then I had an intense, migraine-like headache for hours afterwards, on the same side as the nerve test.

It also didn’t trigger that specific heavy feeling I get when one side of my face droops, so maybe it was all for nothing? It was short notice, after a week of rest, so I didn’t have time to trigger the droop with fatigue.

So: Has anyone had serious pain from this test? Or had it fail to trigger the droop?

The festivals, piano series, concerts in cultural and historical sites, dances, contemporary, all such high quality, all free. It is baffling that the new interface makes it impossible to find this flagship programming. So frustrating.

I’m a dual US national and UK tax resident, enrolled in my employer pension scheme. I’ve received conflicting advice about USS’s position on PFICs. Their website states that USS invests in PFICs, members don’t have to report this PFIC activity unless they contribute more than the employer, unless they actually do have to report this PFIC activity.

I want to be confident that USS’s investment in PFICs on my (and all members’) behalf doesn’t actually trigger any PFIC mess for me, and I want to pay more into my pension if I can do so without triggering this mess.

All guidance I’ve received boils down to ‘it depends, and we can’t tell you if you can pay extra into your pension without financial penalties because the rules are so unclear’. Surely this can’t be the case. Where do I go for actual advice?

From the FAQs:

Does Universities Superannuation Scheme invest in PFICs?

Yes, Universities Superannuation Scheme sometimes invests in entities which would be considered PFICs.

Can a US member be considered to own shares in PFICs via the scheme?

Yes, in the unusual case when a member has made aggregate contributions to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (including the DC element) that exceed in amount the contributions made by the employer. Even in that case, however, there is potentially a position that can be taken under the Convention that the member should not need to report income from the PFIC on his/her US tax return (prior to distribution), or file IRS Form 8621 "Information Return by a Shareholder of a Passive Foreign Investment Company or Qualified Electing Fund" with such return.