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.