It just struck me that perhaps part of what is confusing people is a
different take on what can be shared.
 
If something is shared in a very public forum I figure it can be shared.
If something is shared in a semi-public forum it is judgment call
depending on the forum, the nature of what is disclosed, and what I
know of the person.  If something is told to me privately but without a
request for secrecy (or without a standing request because some people
just are frank about being very private people and then whatever they say
deserves extra privacy as a form of respect for that aspect of themselves
no matter how they strike me otherwise) I assume that only the most
general details can be shared IF needed.  This is how I responded in the
current situation.  I was not asked to provide privacy, but the details
are NOT mine to give, so since further details wouldn't help and giving
further ones may hurt I drew the line.  Curiosity, even of those I like
doesn't outweigh privacy and when there is nothing to gain by saying more
it especially doesn't.
 
Now, I suspect there are those whose take is the opposite of mine, who
figure that if there is not a specific request for privacy that they can
share whatever.  We have a neighbor I dearly love who is like that.
It's just a way we differ and we each have a long understanding of the
difference and have no trouble with it.
 
Anyway, I wasn't asked to give secrecy, but I do naturally give a lot of
privacy when the person has not blatantly said I can share.  I figure
that if they want to share they will do so on their own, and since
further details beyond general aspects are their's to share rather than
mine that it is better that they make that choice.  Does that clarify?
If not then let's just drop it because it is getting to be a royal waste
of everyone's time and probably giving most readers the yawns.  if so,
then I'm glad I finally got across what i am saying.  I know others will
disagree with my approach, but everyone disagrees with someone on some
things so if it is a respectful disagreement then we just understand that
we just disagree, whereas if it is not a respectful disagreement then
most of the FML readers will probably thank us if we spare them from yet
one more over-blown, nasty tempest in a teapot on-line.
 
Anyway...
 
The irony, of course, is that seeing the way some folks (not Lisa who
was the soul of tact) spoke to me may cause people who might have come
forward to clam up.  I hope not, but I sure have noticed that people got
awfully quiet on their experiences in either direction.  I hope that they
do feel free to speak frankly no matter what their experiences, though,
honestly I think that the nuances of the Lupron differences in ferret
endocrinology are so beyond what is currently understood anywhere that it
would serve simply to emphasize that there are different experiences with
different ferrets to the non-depot version on Lupron, and that doesn't
seem to me to be hard to accept at all.
 
Again, my point was just that since there are a range of responses it is
especially important that people be able to clearly know exactly what
they are purchasing because what may be right for one ferret may be wrong
for another -- but without the people knowing they are giving the wrong
thing in time to give the right med in a timely fashion -- if the seller
is not clear in communications with the purchaser about what is being
sold.  I am not about to engage in the pointless exercise of who prefers
which hypothesis because they are only hypotheses -- which is why i
encourage people to read and think about both but know they are
hypotheses.  That doesn't change the fact that the purchaser and the
treating vet deserve to clearly know what they are getting from the
seller, nor that even the best intentioned people need to alter the way
things are said in their selling if there is a persistent way that
confusion occurs over an extended time and clean up the wording that
keeps causing that same confusion over and over.
 
And now it is almost 4 a.m. so I am rather blotto (and I am sure it
shows) and before writing this I got another 45 mls of soup into a
very sick little critter, so I'd better go do some more critter work and
then take myself to bed finally because Steve's critter shift starts
officially at 5 a.m.  and I have a big day of PT for my feet and ankles
tomorrow (but it looks like this third one month set of sessions may be
the last PT I need for this and I even tried a longer and steeper hill
yesterday, with some difficulty and a lot of well-earned sweating, and
more than a bit of happy pride in actually doing it again).  Got big
enough fish to fry that the teapot of tempest fame is kind of lost on
the sideboard...
[Posted in FML issue 4559]