Ugggh--the sinus crud attacks!

It's official--I've missed an entire week of work due to the sinus crud. And sadly, for much of it, I couldn't get my favorite sub...so who knows what happened while I was out...

It's been quite awhile since I've been this sick--I don't think I've been knocked out this bad since my first year here in Portland. Cedar brought home some awful thing from daycare that I thought was just another "congregate situation" cold--but it took him a week to recover from it, which I thought was rather odd (he usually bounces back after a couple of days, but not this time). Then after staying home with him for about a week, and being coughed on enough, I caught it too.

It turns out that what he had was really the flu. Poor thing--no wonder he was so miserable. I haven't been knocked flat like that in quite awhile. I had a raging fever, the aches, migraines, super-sore throat--the whole nine yards. I even lost hearing in my left ear, which is now just doing a dull tinnitus ring. Then the sinus crud set in...I finally broke down and went to the doctor last night. I would have probably gone earlier but I've been stuck at home with no car and no phone. Now I have a bunch of exciting drugs to throw at the raging torrent of yellow-green snot that JUST WON'T QUIT.

I'm sad that I've totally missed out on the last full week with the seniors. If I go back, I'll only get a day or two before they're off doing whatever it is that they do when they're not at school with us. Our little classroom is gonna be real lonely after we lose 60% of our students...and since *Bob is also a senior, he's gonna pass out of my life pretty soon. I'm kind of sad about that because he's a pretty likable guy and I've grown rather fond of working with him over the course of the year.

The end of the year is a time for educators to get nostalgic anyway, but especially so when you're teaching seniors. It's kind of bittersweet though when you work in Special Ed because graduation is often "the end-of-the-line" in a very real sense. On one hand, you are very proud of your students for how far they've come and how much progress they've made, but on the other hand, it also means for many that life is about to change profoundly--and not always for the best.

Thankfully it looks like most of our seniors are going to be participating in the adult transition program, so they'll get a few more years of predictable routines, structured environments, community outings, vocational training, and structured non-threatening social opportunities...things that people with autism tend to really like in their world.

After that, though, who knows. The world of adult services can be rather grim because the entitlement factor is gone (if you want it, you gotta be willing to pay), the options are pretty limited, and there's a great mismatch between demand and supply...

here we go

Apparently my ability to withstand the beginning of the cold and flu system is as bad as ever. After holding out a couple of weeks, I succumbed to the inevitable just like everyone else. I went to work a bit tired, but as the morning progressed into the afternoon, I started feeling worse and worse. By the end of the day, I was pretty tired and out of it. (Incidentally, my student was looking a bit "off" too, today, and I wouldn't be surprised if he was coming down with something as well.) Naturally, this would all happen before I get my sub plan put together...

So I had to take my first day off. I didn't want to take any time off this early in the year, but there you have it. Life intervenes.

uggh!

Being sick is NOT fun...it's especially frustrating now that I keep getting called for some really lucrative and desirably sub jobs. sigh. Hopefully I'll be back on top of my game next week in time for a solid week of pre-arranged sub jobs. We'll see...

In the meantime, I'll be napping and reading, and coughing. oh joy!

sick again...

After looking like I was gonna be able to hold out and survive through Christmas without getting sick, I lost the battle and got sick this week. Probably the blame can be laid at the feet of the kid who coughed on me when I was walking in the hallway. Now I'm reluctantly joining the ranks of my nose-blowing students. The imminent feeling of unease that always comes before a cold hit home on Wednesday when I was grading papers after the inservice, so I left as soon as I could. On Thursday, I was irritated by almost everything. Today I tried to go to school, but as soon as I got there, I realized it was a mistake.

Now I'm sitting here in my chair sniffling, and I saw this article. It reminded me of an observation I had made last time I was sick...

Oh Phenylephrine, I have a love/hate relationship with thee. I have been disgruntled ever since meth-addicts ensured the disappearance of widely available OTC Sudafed. Then all of the sudden, I noticed that everything was reformulated with Phenylephrine, which unfortunately appears to be a lot more expensive than its forbidden counterpart.

Many people claim that "over-the-counter cold medicines made with phenylephrine appear effective for relieving nasal congestion in adults...," but for me, the jury's still out. Some researchers seem to think that Phenylephrine doesn't work, but the FDA claims that the "...available data was "supportive" of the effectiveness of phenylephrine at 10 milligrams, the dose sold over the counter". I'm not so convinced of its effectiveness; based on my own experiences, I'd say the results have been mixed bag. Phenylephrine does appear to work, at least somewhat, but is nowhere near as effective as good ol' Sudafed. Strictly from an aesthetic stance, I find the new stuff to be overly bulky (at least in pill form, those suckers are huge), a bit harder on the wallet, and frankly it doesn't seem to work as well for me. Worse still, it makes me feel sick to my stomach if I take the full recommended dose (10mg), yet won't work if I take a half dose (5mg). I don't recall ever having this problem with Sudafed.

The FDA is considering recommending only adult use of phenylephrine. I found this amusing after seeing a news article that claimed that "a variety of over-the-counter cough and cold medicines should not be given to children under 6 because evidence of a benefit is lacking". It looks like grandma was right-we should probably just stick with the brandy and tea after all.

US panel says data support cold medicines
Reuters
Friday December 14 2007

life in haiku

Night, and the moon!
My neighbor, playing on his flute -
out of tune!

Friday night: the streetlight was shining in the window and Beefcake the oversized goldfish roots around in the gravel of his fishtank keeping me awake.
Saturday morning: the sound of a truck lumbering up the street, the sound of a diesel engine idling for half an hour, the familiar sounds of someone moving. Much to my surprise, my neighbor with the cute dogs is moving out at 7:30 AM on a Saturday morning. As tired and sick as I am, I roll over and go back to sleep. I'm that tired.

Fallen sick on a journey,
In dreams I run wildly
Over a withered moor

I've been sick since last Wednesday so life's been pretty low-key around here. I haven't been doing anything beyond what's absolutely necessary. Occasionally there's a break in the clouds; I should be out in the street watching the leaves turn red and yellow and orange. Yet, all I feel like doing is laying around and sleeping as much as possible. My dreams are wild and feverish, no doubt enhanced by all the cold medications I'm on. Cough syrup is yummy. I haven't had caffeine in forever.

The winds that blows -
ask them, which leaf on the tree
will be next to go

While I've been too busy to notice, all the trees in town have quietly gone about their business behind my back turning a variety of beautiful fiery shades. I regret deeply that I've been too busy to notice them. By the time I get a free moment and pull my head up out of the books for air, no doubt they'll be long gone, wherever it is that leaves go to die quietly.

Clouds appear
and bring to men a chance to rest
from looking at the moon

It's been raining. Raining alot. Lots of rain. Yep. I'm kind of okay with it, since I'm laying low anyway, it gives me a chance to rest, without feeling guilty in any way. The only thing I'm probably missing is the opportunity to be cold and wet. I'll have plenty more chances for that--this is Portland, after all.

Night; and once again,
the while I wait for you, cold wind
turns into rain

Going to school, darkness. Coming home, darkness. It's that time again, we're well on the way to winter and the familiar routine of waiting for rides or the bus out in the elements. Waiting for the bus in the cold and rain is even less fun than it sounds, trust me.

Poems from Haiku for People

you can't be serious

I don't believe it, but I'm sick again. I think I've got whatever Maria has, because I sound just like her, sniffling and hacking around. This is pretty pathetic...I was pretty sick last week too with the stomach/headache/eye thing. Now I have the coughing/sniffing thing. I'm not staying home though, I'll just try to limp through the last couple of days this week and do some recovering at home.

PSU is a regular lil' ol' germ factory right now. I should stay away for my own health, because I always come home feeling pretty icky and dead tired. But then again, it's probably largely based on the fact that I'm there from 9am until 6:30 pm. I really don't like spending that much time at school under florescent lights. It's not kind to the eyes. But I digress, student teaching is hard enough when you're healthy, much less when you're sick. I think I'm going to try to get the kids to do as much of the "talking" as possible. They might be able to handle it now.

I'm glad that it's a fairly short day. I really need it. Combining 4 graduate level classes with student teaching sure takes a lot out of you.

feeling better

I've been feeling a lot better today. Maybe it's the doings of this vile smelling potion (that fortunately tastes quite a bit better than it smells...). Maybe it's the bottle of lemon ginger echinacea that I drank...or maybe it's just totally random. Either way, I'm fine with that.

the first plague of the year

I knew it wouldn't take very long to succumb to some sort of malady, but I wasn't expecting it to strike on the second week of school. On Wednesday, I noticed that I was coughing quite a bit more than normal. The sky was kind of heavy and oppressive and I had blamed it on that, but it hung on throughout the day, and I came down with that feeling that you get when you just know something ain't quite right. Urrgh. Thursday came along and my stamina tanked, and about halfway through the day, I felt like curling up on a couch was about all the more I felt up to. I didn't...but maybe I should have. By 7th period I was feeling downright dizzy and couldn't hardly remember anyone's names.

Everyone's been telling me their horror stories of their first year of teaching and being sick all the time. I decided to take the hint to stay home, sleep until my body felt like joining the waking world, and getting some work done on my looming work sample. I also made a point of going over to New Seasons and getting some potions and tea to keep me alive during this intense phase of graduate school. I need to take better care of myself...

I was feelin' fine, then blam...

Don't know where this shit came from. All I can figure out is that some virus musta blew up my nose with all the dust and shit that's swirling around in the east winds.
I was having a good day--here I was not working anywhere, hanging out at Tiny's in the afternoon trying to masterthe finer points of Phonology (which I admit I still suck at), but I noticed that I kept sneezing. By evening I was flat on my ass with a raging sinus inferno of snot. Uggh. Nice way to end the weekend...

Incidentally the people downstairs sure were nice and loud. Videogames at 3am, yum. A lot of sirens too. What the fuck can you do at 3 in the morning 'sides cause some trouble? I would rather have been sound asleep myself, but it wasn't on the menu that night.

slow train cough circus

i've got some crappy cold cuttin' in on all of my conversations,
coughs are stealing all my best lines,
sniffs are cuttin' in on all my dances,
and hacking wheezes are partying all night keeping me up.

i can't remember the last time i had a good sleep. i need some nyquil yo...curse the kid who gave me this cold.