Illness challenges
I've been told that since this is my first year teaching, I'm going to be the sickest I have ever been... great pep talk, huh?
Thinking I survived 3 other schools and their germy kids with only getting sick at the last school (and from my teacher, no less) I would be ok. Well, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I started feeling a little congested and achy. I just thought I was tired and really needing a break. So I went to the Cities and then flew to Milwaukee on Wednesday. By the time I got to Milwaukee, I was starting to cough and getting a dry/sore throat. I slept a good chunk of the day after my flight... and some Chinese food. :) Thanksgiving day was a little more congested so we got some cough medicine. By Friday, I was coughing and in pain with my throat that I thought I had bronchitis and strep throat. After waiting in the lobby for over 3 hours, I saw a doctor who seemed to talk more about the education system and it's problems more than about how I was feeling. (he's not the first person to start rambling on about education policies and districts to be after finding out I'm a teacher... funny thing is I have nothing to do with public ed!) He said Upper Respiratory Infection and sent me home telling me to let it run it's course. By Saturday, I had only a squeaky voice, still coughing to the point I couldn't lay down at night and had to keep turning the shower on hot to get steam to breathe. Then the fun begins...
Monday, I had no voice... none... zip... nada.... I could whisper, but that was about it. I'm sure you're thinking I had to write everything down for my kids... I thought of that then remembered... mine can't read most things! My first graders are learning easy words and working on decoding words, but not enough to read directions. I haven't been that nervous for school since the first day. So I texted a friend and got a website to learn American Sign Language. I looked up the basic commands they would need to know like clean up, line up, snack/lunch/food, water, milk, etc. They responded pretty well to them, until a few days later when they realized that their teacher couldn't yell at them and get them into trouble. I then discovered my referee whistle and they didn't like it that much so they started listening again. Also, since we're practicing our musical, that was a chunk of the day where I didn't have to figure out what to do. The other teachers helped out quite a bit so it wasn't as bad as I thought.
Tuesday, I'm still coughing, still stuffed up, still can't talk, still can't lay down, and now, my throat is swelling. At first I thought it was just my vocal cords, but then I started noticing myself laboring to breathe. At 11:30pm, I couldn't sleep and figured my luck my throat would close in overnight and then I'd be in trouble. So I typed out what was wrong as well as a brief medical history, got directions to the nearest ER, and drove out to Park Rapids to get help. I was diagnosed with Pharyngitis which is an infection of the throat and given Augmentin (good stuff!!) as well as a refill of my inhaler. I got back home around 2:30am, took a dose of medicine, and was asleep within 30 minutes. Went to school the next day (ER bracelet and all - forgot to take it off) and was scolded for not taking anyone with me to the ER by a total of 5 people. Gotta love people who care!! :) Wednesday afternoon I started feeling better and day by day, I felt better and better. By Friday, I had a real hoarse rasp of a voice, but a voice again!
It's been 2 weeks since I went to the ER and I'm almost recovered. I still get a dry throat at when I wake up, but that's just cause it's dry up here. My speaking voice is almost completely back to normal, but my singing voice is still in rough shape. I just hope the damage I had to it already didn't get worse. (something similar happened in 2001 and I was told I now have nodules on my cords so hopefully those didn't get worse!)
But God really doesn't give us more than we can handle. There could have been no musical practice and I'd be with my kids the whole time, my new student could have come a week early and then I would have tried to acclimate him to the class with no voice, I could have had kids who really took advantage of me, and I could have been with a staff that thought my kids were my problem and they wouldn't help. And I got my voice back in time to help with the fine-tunings of the musical and lead devotions when it was my week. All in all, it was a good experience to go through, to learn from, and it forced me to use other resources with my kids like books on tape and computers, something new so now I have more tools to use in the classroom. And it made them want to learn to read because then they would know more of what I wanted. Plus we learned ASL out of the deal! :)
Thinking I survived 3 other schools and their germy kids with only getting sick at the last school (and from my teacher, no less) I would be ok. Well, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I started feeling a little congested and achy. I just thought I was tired and really needing a break. So I went to the Cities and then flew to Milwaukee on Wednesday. By the time I got to Milwaukee, I was starting to cough and getting a dry/sore throat. I slept a good chunk of the day after my flight... and some Chinese food. :) Thanksgiving day was a little more congested so we got some cough medicine. By Friday, I was coughing and in pain with my throat that I thought I had bronchitis and strep throat. After waiting in the lobby for over 3 hours, I saw a doctor who seemed to talk more about the education system and it's problems more than about how I was feeling. (he's not the first person to start rambling on about education policies and districts to be after finding out I'm a teacher... funny thing is I have nothing to do with public ed!) He said Upper Respiratory Infection and sent me home telling me to let it run it's course. By Saturday, I had only a squeaky voice, still coughing to the point I couldn't lay down at night and had to keep turning the shower on hot to get steam to breathe. Then the fun begins...
Monday, I had no voice... none... zip... nada.... I could whisper, but that was about it. I'm sure you're thinking I had to write everything down for my kids... I thought of that then remembered... mine can't read most things! My first graders are learning easy words and working on decoding words, but not enough to read directions. I haven't been that nervous for school since the first day. So I texted a friend and got a website to learn American Sign Language. I looked up the basic commands they would need to know like clean up, line up, snack/lunch/food, water, milk, etc. They responded pretty well to them, until a few days later when they realized that their teacher couldn't yell at them and get them into trouble. I then discovered my referee whistle and they didn't like it that much so they started listening again. Also, since we're practicing our musical, that was a chunk of the day where I didn't have to figure out what to do. The other teachers helped out quite a bit so it wasn't as bad as I thought.
Tuesday, I'm still coughing, still stuffed up, still can't talk, still can't lay down, and now, my throat is swelling. At first I thought it was just my vocal cords, but then I started noticing myself laboring to breathe. At 11:30pm, I couldn't sleep and figured my luck my throat would close in overnight and then I'd be in trouble. So I typed out what was wrong as well as a brief medical history, got directions to the nearest ER, and drove out to Park Rapids to get help. I was diagnosed with Pharyngitis which is an infection of the throat and given Augmentin (good stuff!!) as well as a refill of my inhaler. I got back home around 2:30am, took a dose of medicine, and was asleep within 30 minutes. Went to school the next day (ER bracelet and all - forgot to take it off) and was scolded for not taking anyone with me to the ER by a total of 5 people. Gotta love people who care!! :) Wednesday afternoon I started feeling better and day by day, I felt better and better. By Friday, I had a real hoarse rasp of a voice, but a voice again!
It's been 2 weeks since I went to the ER and I'm almost recovered. I still get a dry throat at when I wake up, but that's just cause it's dry up here. My speaking voice is almost completely back to normal, but my singing voice is still in rough shape. I just hope the damage I had to it already didn't get worse. (something similar happened in 2001 and I was told I now have nodules on my cords so hopefully those didn't get worse!)
But God really doesn't give us more than we can handle. There could have been no musical practice and I'd be with my kids the whole time, my new student could have come a week early and then I would have tried to acclimate him to the class with no voice, I could have had kids who really took advantage of me, and I could have been with a staff that thought my kids were my problem and they wouldn't help. And I got my voice back in time to help with the fine-tunings of the musical and lead devotions when it was my week. All in all, it was a good experience to go through, to learn from, and it forced me to use other resources with my kids like books on tape and computers, something new so now I have more tools to use in the classroom. And it made them want to learn to read because then they would know more of what I wanted. Plus we learned ASL out of the deal! :)
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