Thread 51 - Covid GCSE Cohort - Summer 24 - End of Uni Yr 2

[Oblomov24]

2024 Summer, end of year 2 for those at Uni.

This is a support thread for our young adults post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting, and their results ( or life updates for those who went into work or have had results earlier). It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, uni vs employment please don't within this thread.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue. We were previously on the secondary board and then further education, now we shall be here in 'Parents of Adult Children' gulp

Our DS/DD may continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed). Experience is that everyone is welcomed wherever, whatever their child is doing we have some in work, gap years , apprenticeships etc too. Lots of contributors with different experiences and always sympathy and advice to be had.

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@mummyinbeds What amazing news to receive! congratulations to your DD. That is a delightful surprise and will boost her ego/morale no end.

Sorry to hear about the stresses with medication @icanbewhatiwant , we might actually be joining you guys on the waiting list as we're kind of our of options with DS2's acne - face, back, arms!! never seen any thing like it. Uni GP said it's folliculitis? not entirely sure what the cure for that is but might get him
t o ask about roccutane (first time I've come across it is here).

Hope everyone's having a lovely gay day? (i wanted to use another word but 'gay' is the perfect word that describes the weather down our end today). The wind is gentle, the sun is not too bright but bright enough to feel 'happy', and for some reason it's been such a quiet day. No drama at home, no cars honking, few people out on the streets when I went for my power walk this morning) everything is just serene.

@Shimy the roaccutane is working quickly. But his face is very dry. I phoned round several clinics. A few where we live and a few in Sussex. The difference in prices varied a lot. One clinic in Norwich wanted £5k but wouldn't prescribe any to take to Australia. Ds needs 6 months worth to be effective. This was 4 months before he was due to fly out. The clinic we chose in Sussex charges £185 per consultation. With 3 altogether. Plus the drugs. They said he'd get a discount on the drugs as he's a student if he collected them from the private hospital. First lot we got from boots. They were £16 for 4 weeks. I was expecting them to cost more. I forgot to ask Ds what the last lot cost from the clinic. The consultant said she'd prescribe 2 months worth for Australia. So he won't have full 6 months, but she prescribed a stronger dose. I'm glad we got it sorted. He looks so much better. However...he must not go in the sun without factor 50 and can't drink alcohol until he's finished the course. The 18 month nhs waiting list would have been a long wait.

It's 5.30pm and the story is still the same in our house. I'm waiting for Ds to get up. He absolutely infuriates me sleeping all day. I have decided to book an airbnb for the night before he goes to Australia. But I want to ok it with him. I've been waiting all day to ok it 😡 he wants me to just drive from home. I feel happier if we stay down there. It gives me a break before driving home too as we would need to leave at 2am. I could just dump him and go, but as he's never been in an airport I thought it would be nice to go in and see him to his gate.

That’s great that roaccutane is working @icanbewhatiwant . Good luck with it @shimy. I’ve probably said before that we’re a houseful of acne sufferers and we all took roaccutane as teens with mixed results. Poor ds had a miserable time on it and then all his spots came back after he stopped taking it. But at the moment he’s cutting, so eating very clean foods and no dairy and his skin is definitely better - but he still has the odd huge spot and his back/chest/shoulders have never properly cleared.

Sounds like your ds is having a great time @craggyrat !

Dd has just got her second speeding fine which means 3 points and she’s not out of the ‘six points and a ban’ period til next Feb. She also needs her car for work so I’m very nervous about her getting banned now 😬

I'm a bit behind with the thread, but well done @mummyinbeds DD!

My DD has her marks back for Year 2, and got a very high 2.1 for the year. She is slightly depressed at the moment by some of the feedback about particular pieces of art which she thought deserved better, but I suspect that's all part of the subject. I think she'll bounce back; she's back down in Cambridge and is certainly keeping herself busy doing things with friends. Yesterday she had her first volunteering session with a museum and she plans to keep that going through Y3, gaining experience of front-of-house, helping with events, and behind-the-scenes conservation work. (Obviously paid work would be nice, but it's all good for the CV.)

DS (Y12) has started talking about deferred entry and a gap year, so there's some extra research to do over the summer alongside finalising his uni shortlist.

Just popping in between marking past papers for maths and Chemistry, my life is so rock and roll.

Well done to your DD @mummyinbeds thats amazing!

@crazycrofter oh no about the points! Fingers crossed it doesn’t result in a ban.

(Waves at everyone else from under a mountain of photocopy paper 👋🏼)

Congrats to your DDs marks @PhotoDad , she should be proud of that mark but I get feeling upset with low marks on something you are proud of.

@Photodad very well done to your dd. I can understand her being upset over some work she's poured her heart into.
The volunteering job sounds really good experience for her.
@crazycrofter oh no. Your poor dd.
@mummyinbeds really good news.

We're a Roaccutane family here too.
It worked well on the two boys but I believe caused low B12 on ds1 & several months of resultant exhaustion.
Dd1 has been on it twice. The first time she was still at school doing exams & she didn't cope well at all. But the second time was a doddle. She's been acne free for a couple of years now but is just starting to get the odd spot again. Apparently if she needs another dose she will be put on a low dose regime with spironolactone. This seems to be the latest regime. But this regime can't be given to boys apparently.

Many congrats to all, especially photodad dd and mummy dd.
I think we've discussed Roaccutane here before because many of us/dc have used it. Ds1 had Roaccutane nhs but only took it for a short time because he didn't like it, But it was very effective and quickly. He did look very healthy when he came back from Camp America last year, he's off again in a week, he's mountain climbing in Scotland currently. I'm home alone (minus ds2 who eats,plays football and x box, so doesn't really count) whilst Dh is away with his football mates in Portugal. Bliss.

I am hoping that the extra sun in Australia might help ds's face too. He had blood tests at the gp surgery a few months ago this was nothing to do with his acne, before we'd decided to go privately for that. Those blood tests showed he was very low in vitamin D. Not surprising with the amount of time he's indoors, asleep, I expect most of us are lacking as we don't get out in the sun enough. He was prescribed extra strong vit d. But he says he doesn't need them and has left them in Sussex. So I've bought more and I've insisted he takes. He is always tired and gets a lot of bone aches, so the vit d might help. It is a bit concerning that roaccutane causes bone aches too. Something he suffers with a lot anyway.

I am always worried about the amount of time he spends asleep. It has been the same story since I first joined this thread. Ds's sleep. Every day he's been home he's asleep all day. He gets up just before 6pm as he knows I'll call him for dinner. When he's at uni he often messages me early, around 7ish as he's up and showered ready for lectures. Then around lunchtime I'll come home from work and try to finish any conversation via text, he will say he's going to bed now, as he was up at 6.30am. Then I hear no more until the following morning. I expect he's up late at night. Once he's in Australia I won't hear much from him at all I guess. I won't be able to worry whether he's sleeping all day as I won't know.

@crazycrofter that's annoying about the speeding. I hope she doesn't get a ban.

This thread moves on so quickly. @icanbewhatiwant thanks for all that information. I can't believe a clinic wanted to charge you £5k for a consultation, my goodness! the £185 sounds far more reasonable for a private appointment. So glad its actually working, i read that it affect the kidneys somewhat. Did you had any concerns/advice about that??

@crazycrofter Has she ever been invited on a speeding course? I've been on it twice. They are actually quite useful and have been what's saved me from getting anymore points since 2016. If she gets a ban, do you know how long its usually for?

I was acne free until age 19. Just woke up one day and had loads, my 20s with acne were full on and carried on into 40s. Luckily I seemed to respond well to Epiduo. For a while it seemed to work for DS as well but now seems to have developed resistance to it. It's caused scarring all over his arms and back. I think i remember the posts about ro occutane but we were battling with ADHD/OCD meds at the time and weren't going to introduce another med. I'm sorry to hear the acne has come back again after your ds stopped using it, what a bummer! DS already eats very healthy so not sure what else we can do Is your ds's new healthy diet helping at all?
I've no idea why some people are just prone to the most horrendous spots and some people just remain fresh faced without a single spot. It's so unfair!

@PhotoDad She must feel so deflated after she has worked so hard on it. I had a tiny foray into world of 'art' with DS1 when he was younger before he decided he didn't want to further it at uni. It's hrs of very long work they put their heart and soul into and artists can be perfectionists in nature so i can see why that was disappointing for her but glad she has bounced back and got a fantastic grade to wrap up the year.

@Shimy I didn't go with Ds so I don't know what he was told. I know he can't drink alcohol, something to do with the liver I think.

I phoned the clinic last week to ask for change of appointment and she read me the last email Ds had. It explained that he's been given a higher dose as he's going to Australia. They obviously dose on height and weight etc. Ds is only about 5'5" and 7.5 stone. I see on here some say the acne returned after a while. Ds will be in Australia the whole year. So I hope he's ok.

I hope the new higher dose works for your DS@icanbewhatiwant and pray he'll be okay in Australia. Sending extra solidarity to your ds who is 5'5", i thought we were the only shorties on MN as DS too is exactly 5'5" .

@Shimy Ds keeps complaining that I've created a manlet. He says he's never met anyone his age, who is his height. I think if i remember though...yours has bulked up at the gym hasn't he? Ds has tried the gym and protein shakes, but doesn't gain anything. But I don't think he's persistent enough, too much time is spent in bed.

@icanbewhatiwant a 'manlet', what on earth is that? you have a very good memory, yes DS has bulked up he was also the skinniest through primary and i think he just had had enough. He complains everywhere he goes everyone's a giant even kids that were in the yr below when he bumps into them now. Tell ds to persevere with the gym, it definitely works, there's something he's not doing consistently. Has he got a healthy appetite? that is infact both DS's problem they've never had a healthy appetite. DS1 although he is 5'7" weights about 60kg and struggles to maintain it.

Smaller DS here too - 5'7". He is bulky ftom rowing. His swimmer's build was far better.

@Shimy I had to google manlet. It means a short statured male who muscles up trying to overcompensate their height. But Ds isn't muscled up. No he doesn't eat anywhere near enough. When he's at uni he cooks a huge portion of pasta with chicken, cheese and salad, he will have weetabix for breakfast. That's what he eats every day. Here he will have pasta in the middle of the night and whatever I cook at dinner time.

When he went off to uni first year, he came back 2 months later to find his 13 year old brother was taller than him. Ds3 is about 5'8" now, as is ds1 I think ds3 will be the tallest. I don't know why ds2 is so short. He blames my genes. I'm 5'2" but that's not silly short really. DH is 5'9"

@EasilyDefined mine have never eaten much ds3 (year 10) for packed lunch he has one of those warburtons thins, a small a sausage roll or home made cheese scone. A banana and something sweet like a Kit Kat. He has breakfast at 7.30 then gets home about 4.15pm. I feel that's not enough for that length of time. He often leaves some of it too. I would struggle on what he eats. That's why I'm fat and they aren't 🫤

The good news for the compact and bijou young men is if they don’t eat loads now they won’t hit a metabolic wall in their 40s and become round (DH is 5’6” and he did).

@icanbewhatiwant height and genetics are a complete mystery. I’m average height and DH short so DD being shorter than me is not a surprise. But my brothe is a full foot taller than me!

Laptop died on me after last post. So many funny posts here. 'muscling up' well here's nothing wrong with that at all, you make the most of what you've got. I think short men get such put downs in a way it wouldn't be acceptable for women, its really awful. @icanbewhatiwant your DS sounds like he is eating decent enough food so he must be extremely active to that weight. As a family, DH is 5'8", I'm 5'1" so very similar to you. @EasilyDefined another one! im quite surprised posters always talk about their 7ft size 12 shoe wearing son. I assumed we were the odd ones out. DH's best mate is 5ft6, his wife is 5'4" and their son is 6ft! I just don't know how genes works in these scenarios. We also have some extremely tall people in the family but we're all very short. Oh well..

DH and I are both short (him shorter than me) - his family are all short but mine is full of tall people. My mum in her 80s is quite a bit taller than me and I am quite a bit taller than DD, I thought most people were taller than their mums but not in my family.

I thought it was just us too! DH 5 foot 9, I'm 5 foot 2 and DS 5 foot 7. DH is tall in his family but I'm short for mine. My DM was 5 foot 6 and my gran was 5 foot 5. Bizarre!

Ds told me a little while ago that girls aren't interested in him as bf material as he's too short. He's not had a gf yet. He shares his house with all girls and in general gets on with them really well, but only as friends. I thought that was quite sad. He's such a great character and would make a good bf. Ds1 and ds3 are hard work compared to him. Ds1's future wife will have her work cut out. He's so bad tempered all the time, he's been travelling for 18 months so far, maybe he's mellowed.

My son is very short too. I think he's about 5ft 5. His current girlfriend is quite a bit taller than him.

He looks incredibly young for his age.

Both my ds's are reasonable heights, I suspect ds2 will be taller than ds1 eventually. Dh isn't tall, and I can beat you all in height twatiness.
I was only just under 5'2 (because I was denied protein for 1.5 years (all the rage in the late 70's apparently - whoever thought that would be a good idea with hindsight eh?)by diabetic doctors which my mum eventually refused and was criticised.
Now having osteoporosis and broken my back 4 times I've shrunk to less than 4'10, almost 4'9, (plus gained 2 stone so now short and also fat) losing nearly 3 inches in about 2 years. So I am now classed as a midget. Both ds's laughed. I've told them if they ever repeat that word to anyone outside the house I'll never forgive them.