Mark, from what you say you would definitely be a candidate for Mensa. They accept anyone with an IQ in the top 2% of the population. If you are interested it would a good time to join. They are waiving the $40 prior evidence fee for the month of February if you want to have your prior tests sent in rather than taking their test.

Hopefully things will start to get taken care of a little better soon. After my surgery I will have a new PMR (physical medicine and rehab) physician. They are transferring me to a doctor who works with people who have the baclofen pump. My new doc is a wheelchair bound paraplegic due to a car accident when his was 17 yrs old. The nurses say he is wonderful. My former PMR doc says that he is really good as well. I'm hoping that talking to someone who *knows* what I'm saying will make a difference.

As far as the sign language. Yes there is some use for SEE (most deaf just call it signed English). It really depends on if the person was deaf prelingually (before acquiring speech) or after gaining some knowledge of speech as to their views on it. Some deaf schools or teachers within deaf schools use the signed English method. It's really up to what the person has been exposed to most that affects their preferences. Either way most court settings require you to translate exact words or quotes when asking questions or when quoting back what the client is saying in order for everything to be legal and assure no liberties are taken. If you ask me, it just causes confusion on the part of the client and the bystanders as well because the sentence structure of ASL is not the same as English.

Sorry this is so long. I hope I answered all of your questions.