My (un)eventful week

So this week has been . . . interesting to say the least. It all started last Saturday during the Utah vs. BYU game. My mom wasn't feeling all that well but went to the game. We just played it off as exhaustion and both of us actually were exhausted. She's had a bunch of students out with various ailments and I've had students coming to class with a bunch of ailments (when will parents learn to keep their kids at home when they're sick!)

Anyway, the sunday after the game my mom gives me a call in the morning and says that she's feeling horrible--and sounding horrible--so she wasn't going to come over for dinner in case she had something "catching". Jakob and I both felt okay, so we just let it slide and sent some food home with my brother.

Monday came and it is Valentine's Day. I'm sure that students came just to get the candy from the class parties, but I had a bunch of students sick--and I mean more than usual--and they all wanted to give me hugs and talk to me. And I'm not a fan of that and the students know that if they are sick they shouldn't come near me and try to avoid touching the equipment (and yes, I do use hand sanitizer). Well, during the day I started coughing and just feeling lousy but I made it through most of the day (Jakob even sent me deep purple roses at work with a teddy bear. Nice surprise at the end of the day). But after I went home, the coughing got worse along with the feeling of just plain blah. So when my parents surprised us at home with a Valentine's "celebration" of pizza and desserts from Kneaders, we were happy that we didn't have to go anywhere (especially with the way I was feeling).

Tuesday. Ahh, that morning I woke up with the feeling that a ton of bricks had taken residence inside my chest. I could barely breathe, let alone talk. So I left a message at work saying that I wasn't going to come in. I took it easy at home, but when my mom called, so said that she was going to set up a doctor's appointment for the next day and for me to do the whole steam and hot pack-on-chest stuff. That made it better, but I started going downhill rather quickly Tuesday afternoon.

Wednesday morning and I'm out completely. I'm having a hard time breathing (more than before) and I feel extremely hot. My mom stops by mid-morning and gets me into the car. We arrived for the appointment early and luckily enough there wasn't anyone in the office (yay!) and because I was feeling so rotten they had to pull out the oxygen tanks. After a few minutes they took my oxygen saturation blood levels and they were low, really really low. And my fever had started rising again, it was 103 after taking a fever reducer a half hour before . . . yeah not good. So after a few more tests, including a quick flu test, it came back to be Influenza A (which according to my doctor is one of the worst forms of the Flu) and he wanted to hospitalize me right then, but my mom said that she could handle it for the rest of the day. So my doc put me on antivirals and sent me on the way with a standing order that I report to the hospital if anything changes for the worst.

Thursday things started looking up. At least I hadn't been to the hospital and I started being able to breath again, but I still didn't feel 100%, and that is what scared me. Still no work.

Friday went worse. Downhill again along with the fever coming back and the chest heaviness. My mom started worrying that the flu had turned into something else (which has happened before to me).

Saturday was a bit better, but walking around made the world spin.

And now it's Sunday again. 1 week later and at least it is a bit easier to breathe. I'm still coughing and the world spins if I move too much, but it seems to be getting better.

I'm pretty convinced it was one of my students who gave me the flu. It is annoying to me to see students who shouldn't be at school because they are visibly sick, be at school because their parents won't keep them at home. They infect everyone else and who are the ones that really pay for it? The adults. I believe that the only reason adults get sick are because of kids and the other parents who don't do the right thing.

To be completely honest, I am nervous about going back to work on Tuesday. I'm still weak and I'm sure there are more students who are sick and at the school. I'm going to be taking it easy with the students, but I'm thinking that the older grades are going to take advantage of my situation. I guess we'll see what happens on Tuesday, whether I call in sick one more day or actually go in and face everything.

Another year by, but none the wiser

My birthday has come and gone and I actually enjoyed not having too much attention with everything. My mom stopped by the school and gave me a hug in the morning, which started my day off right considering I have a hard group of 4th graders in the mornings. Then the custodian was "told" that it was my birthday so she made this big sign that she hung on my door so for the rest of the day I kept getting the question "Is it your birthday?" Now, I had to be nice considering it is the elementary aged students, I couldn't pull out any of my "snappy comebacks" so I just let it go and nodded.

Then, I had to go to the DMV after I finished work. Now I normally dread going to the DMV. I've never had a good experience with them, but when I went earlier this week it was actually a good experience. I found out that you can schedule an appointment online to the Orem DMV. I walked in and got into another line (which gave me preference) and I pretty much got to cut in front of all the other people waiting in line (which didn't go over too well with this older guy at the front of the line). And after sitting in the chair for maybe 2 minutes, I got called up and finished up with everything. It helped that I had all the correct documents plus a few more as a just-in-case, and within 15 minutes I was in and out. Plus the guy that was doing all the work was nice and he chatted with me while he made sure everything was correct. One of the things that drives me nuts at the DMV is the crappy mood that most of the workers are in. They don't talk to you. The guy even wished me a happy birthday as I left.

Then that evening Jakob and my mom had planned a surprise dinner for me. Jakob had told me that he was going to take me out for dinner and he had made reservations. Then he got this phone call saying that our reservation had been "bumped" up and if we could go right then; so we did. And when we walked into the restaurant, my family was already sitting at the table. It was a nice surprise and I got an amazing necklace designed by my mother for a present (plus a few shoes!). I normally don't like to let the waiters know that it is a "special occasion" because then they embarrass you, but our waiter knew and didn't do anything other than wish me a happy birthday. Nice. Low key.

I'll post some pictures of the necklace later this week. I'll also be opening up my "shop" soon to see if there is any market for the necklaces and earrings that my mom and I are designing. I'll post more information when it is all set up.