DrDom

some of this has been said however, I'll tell you what the medical literature says: No caffeine 8 hours before bed (12 is better) No alcohol 4 hours before bed (causes a rebound "wake up" when it wears off) Melatonin, despite the instructions, shoudl be taken FOUR hours before bed. It should only be taken for short times otherwise your brain stops producing its own (feedback loop) and you end up with more problems later. No TV, internet, or brightly lit devices 2 hours before bed Have a set schedule, have a set routine, and stick to it meditate one hour before bed thats all I have right now, but I can look up more :) If you need a medication, the mildest is Valerian Root tea. Will help but its not a miracle cure. I use it when I'm cycling sleep for nights and back. You are not the contents of your wallet.

and thank YOU for joining us :) You are not the contents of your wallet.

I'll make a recommendation: see an endocrinologist, do NOT let your primary be the only one running the show. Your PCP may be able to do it, but when is the last time they read up about thyroid disease? Probably medical school, maybe residency. Your endocrinologist is probably much more up to date. The younger the better (sounds crazy, but its true, they are just that much more up to date!) If your numbers normalize and you feel off still, get a second opinion. Small things can make big differences. Get your blood checked often as some people will end up high/low even on the same dose. Good luck, but the good news is thyroid disease is one of the rare medical problems where the treatment is simply replacing that which is missing (compared to poisoning another biological process). You are not the contents of your wallet.

I agree the lack of compassion in some posts leaves something to be desired. I'm sorry to hear about your breaking up. Yes, anyone can point out the "it could be worse" and indicate death, injury, illness, poverty, whatever... but we are all human and loss hurts. I'm sure you invested a lot of time and emotion in your relationship and its hard to let go. But do ask yourself would you have been better of "faking it" and staying in the relationship or moving on to someone who will meet your needs? Change is always hard, but you can overcome it. Remember I'm sure you have had breakups in the past, and someday you'll look back and realize you are better for it. Yes, it hurts now. But you can and will overcome it. Be strong, and good luck :) You are not the contents of your wallet.

wow, those are pretty clever indeed. I was taught pull together and kick... knock on wood have not had to use yet You are not the contents of your wallet.

Sounds like you'll be more of a hazard in the sky if you are NOT wearing tinted lenses in there. Shop around like said, I'm sure someone will be happy to work with you. Can't say I saw my instructors eye-to-eye until level 4... usually just some hand signals (thankfully a lot of thumbs up were mixed in there) Good luck, and don't give up! You are not the contents of your wallet.

Bystander CPR is covered by the Good Samaritan Law. I have dealt with this law through case review and it TRULY covers even doing the wrong thing if you did it for the right reasons. Know CPR (or CRR) but have no card and maybe did CPR on someone who didnt need it? Covered if you did it because to the best of your knowledge they needed it. Doing CPR on an person who has a pulse? We do it all the time. Especially in kids, their HR falls below 60 and they are in shock, we are taught under PALS to push. We do CPR after shocks now. The reality as stated: traumatic arrests (blunt AND penetrating) are not survivable if vitals are lost in the field. It is usually from one of the following: aortic dissection/transection or other major vessel transection (like the vena cava); tension hemo/pneumo/or hemo-pneumo thorax (barring someone who knows how to place a chest tube); massive blood loss (cant replace that), cardiac tamponade (not easy to fix); or massive head injury. Those are simply things that short of being IN a trauma hospital you will not survive. Advice? Try anyhow. Prove me wrong. I would happily buy the beer and tell someone "you were right and I was wrong because _________ is alive". Hell, I'll buy beers for the fact he/she is alive. If i'm there... I'll be trying to save someone even knowing what I know. I've seen some crazy things in medicine, and the worst thing to do is "nothing". You are not the contents of your wallet.

If can pack 25 people in there, and make 20 flights per day, you need 2000 days. That is about 8-10 years. Just to pay the aircraft. To also cover maintenance, fuel and salaries the jumptickets would have to be significantly more expensive. And forget about making group exits of more than 2 people, meaning that lots of people would refuse to use that aircraft. I don't think that could work, but if somebody wants to give it a try I would love to have one single jump out of it. What we need is one of those "stupid rich" people in the world to get into skydiving. That would get us a jet. Maybe even one with a bigger door and the engine more properly placed. Or hit lotto If I hit lotto I'll buy a jet. I'll do jump tickets to cover fuel and maintenance. You are not the contents of your wallet.

This is very sad to hear. I hope she is at peace and had the long list of life experiences she desired in the short time she was with us. Let us hope they skydive in wherever we go next... You are not the contents of your wallet.

I'm still amazed people seem to find it harder to get stable than get over the door fear. I'm stable out the door... I'm unstable walking towards it all weak legged and nauseous. I could also say landing but I'm the king of the PLF ;) You are not the contents of your wallet.

Well, it makes sense that removing control surfaces will stop the acceleration of the spin, but also the pulling in of extremities by the nature of rotational physics says it will increase. I guess you could ball up in hopes that the resistance to rotation slows you but you'll also accelerate toward toward the dirt and end up making a dent in the earth a lot faster. I think it has been postulated that the person's spin was a result of continued input. Again, I did this in the tunnel by accident learning to be on my back. One useful thing "the ball" could do is make someone rest but that would mean Ball -> belly-down --> arch. If the arch were proper then the resistance to turning would be governed by the existing forces we all use every day to maintain stability. I know there are a lot of people unsatisfied with the discussion, but I think we can agree its a discussion that needs to be had since we are talking about an emergency problem: the loss of control in the sky. You are not the contents of your wallet.

There is a bit of maturity and responsibility both ways. I think an "A" license holder should know their limits and discuss anything "new" in a dive. I think that more seniour jumpers also should discuss this with lower level jumpers to ensure they arent encouraging someone to overextend We are "grown up" which means we can do what we want... but I would hope we all want to survive the day and as such we should be considering the decisions we make and who we take with us. In flight schools they do not send you up in a jet once you get your private pilot license for a reason ;) You are not the contents of your wallet.

you've got this right. Many do teach "curl up in a ball" but have never tried it themselves. We recently saw this create some excitement in the wingsuit world too, where the uninformed teach 'curl up in a ball.' Curling up in a ball only works for some body types, and even then, it's a crap shoot because it adds speed. Once coming out of the ball, it's quite possible/likely that whatever induced the instability in the first place, will return. Anyone around you might be surprised at the direction you come out of the ball, and you might collide with someone. The delta/swept arch at the least, provides a head(ing) indication for when you do get stable. So what I'm hearing is curling in a ball does not necessarily help; the delta and proper arch with or without some opposing input will. Is this right? The "Ball" does not make sense to my mind which thinks in physics; the delta does (convert angular momentum and change it to forward movement which is inherently more stable) and arch with control input (convert angular momentum to downward momentum and use opposite input to decrease rotational force). I know from my first time in the tunnel as well as my first time on my back in the tunnel that generating a spin is not hard and there 'balling up" works because you hit the mat and that causes resistance to turn with your full weight on the "mat". When I didn't "go to mat" I found it easier to just go belly down again and restart. For those who teach the "ball"... any help with me understanding it? It makes me admittedly nervous because all my "control surfaces" are inactivated. I like control. A lot. You are not the contents of your wallet.

Yikes. Thinking of my last7 jumps I think I can say I'm actually surprised with how little I noticed. I watched some videos and I see my instructors communicating with me and although I respond I dont really REMEMBER it. Its strange but almost like my brain pushed through the sensory overload (I'm still new, this is still overwhelming) and did "what it needed to" but never generated the memory to go along with it which makes me question: am i truly aware? You are not the contents of your wallet.

Could someone explain how curling up in a ball helps? I dont disbelieve, I'm just interested in understanding. I would think bringing in legs and arms would cause a turn to accelerate (ala figure skating, it decreases your resistance to turning) and being in a ball would destroy stability admittedly, my understanding of physics outside of quantum mechanics are fairly simplistic, and I dont think I can make this a quantum problem at this scale ;) This is a good discussion though, thanks to the OP for it... the more you know, the safer you are You are not the contents of your wallet.

If you're on Radio for the first jumps the BEST thing you can do (and it was hard for me to do with all the excitement) while in the air is note your spots and where they have you turning. You'll get the hang of it soon enough. If you can, get a picture of the DZ (or google maps) and go over at home what your instructors taught you. Ask lots of questions, thats what you have instructors for :) You are not the contents of your wallet.

It is a hardship but admittedly the autumn foliage is beautiful from above. So many reds and yellows all patchwork covering the area. Breathtaking. Most of us who were in the south trying to earn a beret of any colour ended up with some back knees/ankles/hips/backs after a few low-out round jumps. We are really lucky someone sorted out the "square" parachute for us :) You are not the contents of your wallet.

I have found a lot of motivation for weight loss through the sport as well. I'm in NH, if you're in southern Maine I'm always around to help you get some weight loss happening... Just for the record, if you're in Maine you have a lot of cool DZ's but the only one I've spent any time was SkyDive New England which is (IMHO) top notch. Hope to see you in the sky, but drop me a line if I can help get you there! You are not the contents of your wallet.

I'm STILL there... My landings are poor, my packing nonexistant... but I know those are things you can "learn"... the door is the door. Its like a big evil monster with pointy teeth I'm asked to walk into the mouth of... You are not the contents of your wallet.

Yes, I guess as a student the prudent thing to do when losing control if an arch didnt correct would be to pull. You can deal with the line twists after I guess... Every time I watch it i get queasy. You are not the contents of your wallet.

that sounds wicked fun :) Not too worried about learning the advanced stuff, just the things that work well in the sky for my AFF and early diving life You are not the contents of your wallet.

I think it is a good idea to have one. Mandatory might be too much, but highly recommended.... Mandatory cut away helmets vs mandatory AADs... which would save more lives? I think that Cookie makes a cutaway system. Got a friend's old helmet and it has a "cutaway" strap. You are not the contents of your wallet.

This is why when I teach either students or Packers (APF ratings) I insist that any checks be accompanied by a finger touching the item they are checking. I forget which older instructor taught me this but it is very necessary. We see what we expect to see but by touching at the same time it draws our focused attention to things.'' I started using this method when doing gear checks prior to BASE jumps I think it works well I dont know crap about packing but I can say that I like that tip about touching the items. My AFFI always touched each piece of gear she inspected on me. I never thought of it until now, but I think its brilliant... You are not the contents of your wallet.

Thanks :) Awesome advice and I'll take it. I'm a little surprised the place doesnt do more of their own progression programme... You are not the contents of your wallet.

may end up in Lodi, CA in early spring... who knows :) You are not the contents of your wallet.