alexist

Today's NYT community profile was Lake Success (village near Great Neck). It mentioned that the tuition for the new North Shore Hebrew Academy high school is $22,000 a year. I nearly fainted, especially as that's the type of school I'd consider for our kids. Now, that's exceptionally high; I'd only ever heard of Ramaz being over $20K, and that's on the Upper East Side. But it shows how ridiculous school tuition has become. I want my kids to have a Jewish education. But how the hell are ordinary people supposed to afford it? Modern schools charge the most, too, which has its own social effects. Yeah, there's some aid available, but not enough.

I've seen plenty of hand-wringing about the "tuition crisis", but no solutions. The two same tired things come up: move to Israel (impractical for many people, and what's more, this type of school doesn't come cheap there either, relative to income) or push for government help. This second is a nonstarter. First, the numbers don't work; a voucher would never come close to tuition costs at any but the cheapest schools, and in any case, would only cover secular studies. Second, the government is never going to hand out money without strings. They're going to want some control over curriculum, teacher quality, et cetera. In the UK, Jewish schools can receive state funding, but have to teach the full National Curriculum. This means less time available for religious studies (hardly any state funded schools manage the 50% time allocation of US modern Orthodox schools, and the few that do are primary schools). This will never fly in more right wing circles. Third, and most importantly, we can't rely on government to solve our problems. WE have to. We're not a poor community and we should be able to make Jewish education available to every child who wants it. But we need to sit down, apply ourselves, and above all, cooperate!

Thanks to a link someone posted on another forum, I read the NICE guidance on familial breast cancer. According to this, only "high risk" women should be referred to the genetics unit. Less than 1% of women are at high risk.

I was referred to the North West London Regional Genetics Centre and offered testing. So, I'm officially high risk (I guessed I was already, as I have 2 risk factors). OTOH, it may not have been the mathematical chance of me developing cancer so much as the fact that based on my family history there's a very strong chance of it being genetic (father and paternal grandmother both had it). But the counsellor DID ask if I'd considered a prophylactic bilateral mastectomy (!) I said I thought it would be a bit premature. Oh, and I wanted to breastfeed, ha ha ha. (Hey, there's always next time....)

The good news is that MRI scans are now officially approved as a screening tool for high risk women, since mammograms don't work as well in younger women. I wasn't SO worried about this, since both times before it hit after 40; still, it will be good to have MRIs from 35.

Well, the supplements haven't worked, and neither has the domperidone. No improvement at all. So, 5 and a bit weeks, I reckon enough is enough. If I were getting something it would be worth it, but I'm lucky to pump a teaspoon. I think something went wrong hormone wise--heck, I never even had to buy new bras during pregnancy. (I'm still wearing the ones I had before I got pregnant!)

Only plus side is I can go back on metformin. I'm starting to suspect that being off it for 6 months may play some part in my current sugar addiction...

Meanwhile, Aliza is now staying up for much longer periods--shame she's being very fussy! She wants to be held all the time...