frellnik | Entries tagged with sick

So, Graham is moving too...he is definitely NOT happy about it. He'll also be changing from Elementary to Junior High School. He posted a nasty post on facebook that dissapeared about 30 minutes later. I'm not sure where he'll be moving to.

I'm not against moving...I'm moving much closer to the plant and will now be in a town with a beach...about a 10 minute walk from the beach. I was told that the tsunami had come right up to the building but didn't cause any damage. So that means that any time there is a largish earthquake I will have to check the tsunami warnings. It also means that while teaching in....crap I can't think of the name of the town now...I'll have to watch the radiation level. I'm not sure if the kids Hisanohama! (that's it!) have been given radiation meters or not..I know a lot of kids closer to the plant have. I have also heard that one of the schools in Hisanohama has been moved to another town for that very reason.... I will have to check on that!

Anyway, the main reason I'm dissapointed about moving is that since I won't be teaching elementary school anymore I will not longer be the T1 (primary English Teacher) which has been my role since last August. I will now be the T2 (assistant teacher) which sometimes ends up being a human voice recorder. I hope I will be able to be more invovled with the kids in the classroom. I've gotten used to being in control. I decide what to teach and how to teach it and if I'm going to skip over stuff or repeat stuff. But I won't have that control at the new schools. There will be a Japanese teacher whose job is to teach English, and I will be her helper. It's kind of like getting demoted, even though I know that's not the case here.

I'm hoping that I am worrying over nothing and I will love my new placement! But right now I can't help but worry. Now I also have to pack everything up and find boxes for things that don't have boxes (like my DVD player that never had a box) and my printer, etc. I will have to basically start all over from scratch! Meet 3 or 4 new sets of teachers, make a brand new Self Intro (as Justin, the guy I'm replacing, is also from Ottawa) and gear it to older students, basically everything I did last year for my little guys now has to be redone with older students in mind.

I also have one hell of a cold and my poor ear is killing me!! and that's making me cranky and grumpy which isn't helping! lol I can't hear out of my right ear. I hope this passes really soon! It's already been 4 days! jeez.

Ok, well enought complaining for now.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Iwaki, Fukushima

I had almost no fever this morning when I woke up...and my stomach wasn't hurting much, compared to last night, so I went to school today. That was not the smartest move on my part. lol

I had 5 classes today and before they even started my stomach was starting to hurt again. By lunch time I was really tired. Not sleeping much last night probably wasn't helping...and I just realized that I left my energy drink in the teacher's fridge...without my name on it. haha, we'll see if it's still there when I go on Thursday. So, anyway, at lunch time I had a few teachers worrying about me and asking me questions and it was decided that Ajima Sensei would take me to the doctor after 5th period (we both had classes to teach 5th period).

I ended up spending the last 30 minutes of lunch in the nurses room. My fever was back, although not too bad, and I was cold and not too happy. So the nurse suggested I lay down on one of the beds and she covered me up with some blankets and I dozed until it was time to teach.

All my classes went smoothly today...and the dreaded 5-5 class wasn't too bad. My Vice Prinicipal called the BOE to tell them that I was sick and Kodama Sensei said she would come and take me to the doctor, which I was really happy about but at the same time a little embarrassed that she had to come from work to take me. I would have gone by myself, but I really can't understand much of what the doctor says to me =(

So I left school at about 3:15 and went to the doctor with Kodama Sensei...and I was told I have a virus in my stomach/bowels. I believe the technical term is gastroenteritis. Inflamation in the stomach and bowels. Not fun! I was given 3 kinds of meds to take for the next four days. No raw foods (fruits, veggies, ect.) no oils (fried foods, peanut butter =( ) and no milk products. That leaves soup and toast and rice, and potatos...and well cooked meats. So not too bad, I guess.

The kicker is that I bought Lettuce and Tomatos and Cheese that have to get eaten in the next few days. I was planning on making Taccos. Ooops. I just hope the lettuce doesn't go bad before I get a chance to use it. It wasn't cheap. so hopefully this won't last long, especially with the meds. I think I'll take tomorrow off and eat potatos all day. One of the meds is the kind i HATE with a passion. It's a powder and it's terrible. Why they couldn't just put the powder in a capsule of some kind is beyond me. I mixed it into my hot soup today to see if that would work and it clumped together. =( so the best way to take it is take a large mouthful of some flavoured drink and then dump the stuff in your mouth and swallow it all at once. And try not to make a mess or choke. lol It sucks!!!

Tomorrow is the monthly meeting at the BOE and I won't be able to go. I like those meetings.. I look forward to them because all I have to do it sit and listen and relax and then I get to see all the ALTs that I don't normally get to see on a day to day basis. it's a nice break from the every day school stuff and now I will miss out. Stupid stomach virus.

I'm also bored. My eyes are burning and my stomach hurts, but I'm not sleepy and there is nothing on tv... yeah, bored.

So to save you all from my ramblings, i'm going to end this here.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Location: Iwaki, Fukushima

The BOE came to watch me teach today. Both Takahama Sensei and Kodama came. They were all dressed up in suits and had their clip boards and took notes on what I was doing. I taught grade 3's today and we did "What's this? and What's that?" We played What's this? Bingo and What's That Shouting game. The kids had a good time and used the target sentences quite a bit. Kodama Sensei told me later that I did very well and that she was impressed with how I taught the class. So that makes me very happy!!

I came to school sick this morning because I knew that the BOE was coming to watch today. Kondo sensei told me before school started that I could go home after the BOE came. He reminded me twice that it was ok to go home. lol Then at lunch time he said I looked terrible and should go home. But I still had two classes to teach and I didn't want to go home without teaching them because then I would be behind with 2 classes. That would suck for lesson planning. So I asked if I could combine the last two classes and teach them both 5th periode. He checked and told me that was fine.

So after teaching the last class, which ended at 2:15, I filled out the paper work to go home sick. I got home just before 3 today. I hope things go better.

So today I'm going to take it easy. I have company coming tonight in about 3 hours and I need to straighten up my living room a bit, but otherwise I'm not doing anything today. I'm also going to be in bed by 9 tonight. I'm tired :(

The other thing that sucks about being sick is that in Japan when you are sick you have to wear a mask in order to keep your germs to yourself. So...I wore a mask all day to cover my mouth (not my nose or I coudln't see 'cause my glasses would fog up) and I coughed a lot and had to blow my nose a lot...and those little masks get wet...and ewwwww.

I really hope I won't need on tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm teaching 6th grade. We will be doing daily routines. Get up, eat breakfast, brush my teeth, go to school, do homework, play with friends, eat dinner, go to bed.... Should be interesting.

Current Mood: sick
Current Location: Iwaki, Fukushima

Good day all!

On Friday the lady that gave me the Japanese Census (Michiko) the other week stopped by again with her American husband (John) and we talked in my doorway for about 30 minutes. He's an author and had written a book that has just recently been translated into Japanese. He does all his own illustrations too. So I got their phone number and was invited to go to some free concerts with them in 2 weeks. I'm looking forward to it.

So Saturday I went to Taira to do my groceries. Before going to Taira I bought my Weekend Ticket to go to Tokyo. It cost me $79 for a return trip but it also included free fare in Tokyo on the JR lines. So I got to go all throughout Tokyo on the train for free. A one way ticket to Tokyo costs about 6000 yen ($60) so it's a great deal! I checked the movie theatre to see if there was anything good...there wasn't. or rather there was but I wasn't willing to wait for the movie to start. I did went to Ito Yokado and had a banana custard chocolate crepe and ran into 2 Americans. I asked if they were visiting or if the lived here in Iwaki. They apparently have lived here off and on for about 15 years and consider Iwaki home. They are missionaries. I almost laughed because I honestly didn't think peopl used that word any more. I was invited to Church on Sundays, which I probably won't attend. We talked for about 20 minutes or so and exchanged phone numbers and such. It was nice to talk to them.

On the way home I ran into John on the train. He came on and sat right beside and didn't really notice I was there until I said hello. So we talked the entire way back to Izumi and we split up down the road from the station. he lives about a 5 minute walk from me :)

I cooked dinner and went to bed early and I woke up yesterday morning with a sore throat. I decided to take medicine right away. Then I washed my hair and while I had the hot water turned on I poured myself a glass of very warm water and added salt to gargle. Then I gagged and choked and coughed and bashed my face on the faucet and gave myself a black eye! Wonderful. Then I had breakfast and headed out the door at 5:50 to catch the train. It was raining. And while trying to open the umbrella I pinched myself good and gave myself an umbrella hicky! Painful!! All before 6am!!

I got the train with no problems. I made it to my host mom's house by 10:15am...so just over 4 hours. Then we spend the morning catching up with each others lives and then went to lunch with the entire family at Bikkuri Donki. After lunch we watched the DVD of Yuko's wedding. She got married last year in Hawaii! So the ceremony was half English, half Japanese with a Hawaiian prayer thrown into the mix. It was neat. Yuko looked soo happy and Haruhisa looked really nervous. lol

At 4pm I met up with Aya at the train station and we went shopping until 6. I found shoes!!! I got New Balance running shoes. Size 27.5 (9 1/2 men) 4E width (i'm a 2E in Canada). $62!!!! I paied $150 for my New Balance running shoes in Ottawa!!! So I'm really happy!!! Then we took the train to Aya's place and her dog remembered me and gave me kisses. I haven't seen him in 2 years. We had Curry for dinner and Aya insisted on checking me for fever. I had a very slight one. not enough to worry about. After dinner (curry, rice, veggies and banana muffin) we watched some tv and I called Harada Sensei and talked with him for about 20 minutes. He updated me on various teachers who have been in the hospital recently and on current school events. Then he gave me Motegi Sensei's number and Iwasaki Sensei (the principal)'s phone number and told me to call them! lol So I got Aya's mom to call the principal and tell her I was there because I didn't know if she'd remember me or not. So I talked with her for about 10 minutes and she told me to come visit the school the next chance I get. lol

At bed time we had a small argument over bedding. I didn't want any because it was too hot and they wanted me to use this thick blanket! I kept telling them that it was too hot for that. It was 23 degrese which is a nice summer day in Ottawa and Aya was showing me the duve she was using on top of her blanket and telling me that this was cool weather and I should cover up. lol.. I got them to settle on a cotton towel. lol It was long enough and not stifling. I did end up using the blanket around 3am...but I was fine with just the towel up to then. lol wow.

This morning I had salad and home made pizza on toast for breakfast and then Aya and I went to the movies in Tachikawa so I could see The Legend of Guardians: the Owls of Gahoole. ガフールの伝説！ It was awesome!!! I enjoyed it very much and am really happy that I got to see it. I was upset because it isn't playing in Iwaki at all! I've been waiting since June to see this movie and it looked like I wasn't going to get to see it. So I had asked Aya if we could go and she checked the times and we caught the 10am movie. Then we had lunch at this pasta place I like.

I caught the 1:00 train to Kanda and then switched to the Yamanote line to Ueno and then took the express train back to Izumi. It took 4 hours to get to Tokyo but only 3 hours to get home! I love it when connections work well! I made it home just after 4pm today.

I now have quite the fever so I took meds and have a cold stip on my forhead...I have to go to work tomorrow because the BOE (Board of Education), probably Kodama Sensei or Takahama Sensei are coming to watch me teach and this will go towards deciding if I come back next year! Crap! So I'm teaching grade 3 tomorrow and the lesson is simple... "what's this?" that's it! So I'm going to have them play bingo and maybe a shouting game. I just hope I last the day! at least my throat doesn't hurt tonight. I'm just coughing lots and my nose is either stuffed or running...and yeah, fever...35C is normal here and I'm up at 38C. fun.

So I'm going to bed early tonight...I'm going to eat soup for dinner...even though I'm not hungry. I haven't eaten in about 7 hours so I should eat.
I hope everyone is doing well!

I'm off to go reheat some soup!

Current Mood: drained
Current Location: Iwaki, Fukushima
Current Music: Legend of Gahoole Soundtrack

I`ve been sick since Wednesday. I went to school on Wednesday even though I had a bit of a sore throat and I taught all day. lol By the end of the day my voice was pretty much gone (well what did I expect after teaching 4 classes and talking loud for all of them). Wednesday classes ended at 2:30 and I was invited to the game club...I think I mentioned that before. Then there was the birthday party for Lenny at The Hungry Bear. I skipped out on Kareoke knowing I couldn`t sing with no voice.

Thursday was a holiday and I skipped out on going to Hawaiians with Chelsea and Sam and they had a great time and I`m a little jealous lol. I stayed home and talked with Dom for pretty much the whole day! Sayaka Okawa came over in the evening around 6:15. She`s a member of the SGI group here in Izumi. She`s only 2 years older than me and we hit it off brilliantly. She stayed until 9pm and we talked about anything and everything. SHe asked if I was ok because my voice was almost non-existant at that point, but I assured her that`s all it was...I was starting to think Laryngitis because I had no other symptoms...just the sore throat and no voice. So she made me promise to call and let her know if it wasn`t better by Sunday and she would help me find a doctor in Izumi.

Friday my voice started to come back and things were looking up! I called in sick and stayed home and slept on and off all day. I chatted with Dom and watched a movie. It was nice.

Saturday my voice was pretty much back and I was feeling pretty good. My throat still hurt a bit and I was coughing. I was glad that the coughing waited until my throat didn`t hurt too bad. I took a 2 hour nap in the middle of the day and then felt good again. In the evening I felt kind of hot but I didn`t think anything of it because I didn`t feel sick at all. I felt pretty good and I was happy to be getting better.

Sunday my voice came back, not 100% but good enough. but I had pressure behind my eyes and whenever I lied down I couldn`t stop coughing, I woke up at 7:30am with major heartburn so I took some meds and called Janet. The girls were out and James was at a hockey game but Larey was home so I talked with him for 15 minutes or so and he bluntly told me I sounded terrible and should go back to bed! LOL ok. By that time that meds had kicked in and the heartburn was gone, so I went back to bed and slept until 10:30.

I read all day and I baked brownies...that turned out more like a cake...and they are crustyécrispy on top but moist and chewey on the inside. They are pretty good. I had some for breakfast today. healthy, i know. Last night Sayaka was supposed to come over with a friend who is also in our SGI group and it was almost time for her tome come over and i was feeling hot and my eyes felt big. So I checked my temp and sure enough I had a fever. Not a super high one, but enough to make me slightly uncomfortable. In Japan my normal temperature is 35.3C which is much lower than the usual 37C in Canada. I think it has to do with sea level? Anyways, for reasons I can't quite understand, when I'm in Japan my healty body temp is 35.3 and last night and this morning I was/am sitting at 37.6C. So not severe but uncomfortable. So I called Sayaka and told her and she said she was almost at my place so she would see me soon. It turns out her friend, Kiyoko (Kiyo-chan) is a nurse and she asked me a few questions and we decided that I should go to the doctor tomorrow. They offered to take me to emerge if I wanted but I said I would be fine until morning. Sayaka gave me a Japanese Pear (Nashi) and told me to take care and call if I need anything. Kiyoko said the same.

I went upstairs and called Mrs. Kodama from the Board of Education (BOE) and explained the situtation and asked her to help me find a doctore. She said she would come and pick me up in the morning and take me to the doctor. She told me to call my base school in the morning and tell my VP that I would be taking sick leave and then wait for her at my apartment.

This morning when I woke up I still had the fever but my throat barely hurts at all. Instead my eyes hurt a bit and my right ear is so plugged that I can hardly hear out of it and there is a sharp pain in my ear when I tilt my head back. Ouch. I'm not happy right now!

So this morning Mrs. Kodama came and picked me up and took me to the nearest doctor, which turns out to be walking distance from my house. Probably less than 10 minute walk. I'm glad she was with me because even though I can understand Japanese I had no idea what the doctor was saying. He mumbled. LOL

The visit to the doctor cost me 1010 yen...about $10.10 and then we went right next door to the drug store where I got 3 different kinds of medicine. I have to take one of them with breakfast and dinner and the other two I take one with every meal. I take these for the next four days. This is when I started worrying if I would have enough money. I only brought 5000 yen ($50) and I spent 1000 at the doctor. So I was vey happy and surprised to learn that all that medication only cost me 800 yen ($8). 8 bucks! I don't know about the US. but in Canada the visit to the doctor is free but the meds are usually pretty expensive. Here seems to be the opposite! So I'm pretty happy with that. One of the meds is supposed to make me sleepy...and I have to take it three times a day. So I'm a bit worried about how that will affect me at work.

I hope these meds work. I can take tomorrow off if I need it but after that I will need a doctor's note so I'll be going to school on Wednseday for sure. I'm hoping to be able to go to school tomorrow though. I've been off sick since Thursday and I'm getting bored. All I can say is thank god for Dom always being online for me to talk to or I'd be pretty lonely by now. I love ya Dom!!!

So I just had breakfast and took my meds (one of them is a powder...so I put it in a drink...wasn't sure how else to take it since it wasn't explained to me,,,or maybe it was and I didn't get it lol.) so now I have nothing to do but rest. I guess I'll watch a movie. Maybe Avatar...it's long. I can watch it in French! lol yay.

I hope everyone else is doing well!

Current Mood: sick
Current Location: Iwaki, Fukushima

So I definitely caught a cold or something. My throat hurts and I lost my voice today. I sound pretty bad apparently. I was supposed to go to Hawaiians Water Park (complete with hot springs!) tomorrow...but I'm not going now. :(

So today I woke up with a sore throat but it wasn't too bad so I went to school. Then after giving my self-intro to 4 grade 2 classes and playing the Touch the Colour game...my throat was quite sore...and my voice decided it had had enough and went on vacation...and has yet to come back.

3rd period was spent in the school gym watching the 4th graders perfom. There was a choir perfomance and a music performance. I think this was practice for an upcoming performance or competition or something. It was pretty good. Those kids can play...the instruments played included accordians, recorders, xylophones, pianos, keyboars and these weird little keyboards that you have to blow into a mouth piece on them while you push the keys to get sound...oh and drums. lol It was fun to watch!

School finished at 2:30 today and what should have been 6th period was used for Club activities. One of the teachers asked me if I knew the game Shougi and if I had played before. I told her I had no idea what it was and she said it's similar to Chess. She asked if I would like to come and learn with the club and, of course, I went. It was pretty fun!! I learned the basics about the game and played for about 20 minutes. One of the teachers that were teaching the kids sat with me and my partner and went through each piece for me. She was really nice and went through different scenarios for me to think through how I should move my pieces. I've decided that when I am at that school on Wednesdays I'm going to keep going to that club and learn how to play the game! That same teacher also invited me to her house Wednesday nights because her daughter (I think) teaches Koto!! So I think I get to learn to play the koto as well!!! And she's walking distance from the school so I can just go home, change and then walk to her place. I'm really excited about this!

After school today I caught the train to Taira to meet a bunch of the Iwaki ALTs for Lenny's birthday. We met in LATOV so I went to the drug store and told the guy at the counter that my throat is sore and asked for medicine. lol He asked me if I had a cold. I said...probably. lol
So he showed me some medicine that is Ibuprophene based and that I take only 3 times a day with my meals and it's good for sore throats and other symptoms too. So I bought that. I also got a thermometor because I didn't have on. There were three and each one was different so he explained them all to me and I picked the middle one....the cheap one would take 5 mintues to give me a reading. THe middle one would take 90 seconds and the really expensive on only takes about 30 seconds...so I went with the 90 second one. Then he gave me throat candies and a "present" lol and a whole tone of coupns!! I think he was impressed with my Japanese or something...or maybe just the fact that I'm a foreigner..but he gave me a whole tone of free stuff. lol

Then I met up with everyone on the first floor of LATOV and we were waiting for everyone to get there. I went over to talk to Matt and there were some Japanese girls there (one in particular who we weren't sure at first if she was drunk or not...she wasn't) talking with some of the ALTs. One of the girls actually fed me ice cream!! It was good ice cream...but I didn't even know her name and she more or less shoved ice cream in my mouth! lol I did warn her I have a cold. She didn't seem to mind. lol Turns out she lives near me and actually went to the school I teach at (however many years ago). So maybe I'll see her around. She was one of the sane ones of the group too. lol Yasuko was just plain nuts..she wants to Home stay with Mathew at Aquamarine Aquarium....yeah...ok. lol

That was fun...and interesting to say the least.

Then we got everyone together and we went to the Hungry Bear. It's an all you can eat and drink (including alcoholic beverages) for about $36 a person. There is a 2 hour limit. It's mostly meats with some veggies. It's a buffet style. You go and pick the foods you want then you bring them back to your table and cook them on the grill in the centre of the table. There was sea food (shrimp, fish, squid, octopus ect) and chicken, beef, liver, little sausages, weiners, veggies (green peppers, potatos, stuffed peppers, garlic, hot peppers, ontions etc.) there were even mini eggs and mochi and more. So we ate a lot...we filled up almost the entire restaurant. I left at 8:40 to come home on the 8:40 train.

I got a phone call from one of the ladies in my Buddhist group and we talked for a few minutes and decided to meet tomorrow. So Okawa-san is coming to my house tomorrow afternoon...that means I need to tidy up a bit and buy some snacks or something to offer her...definitely something to drink...water and juice I guess. I'm not buying tea since I can't drink it and they will only have large bottles.

Hopefully I'll have a voice tomorrow to greet her with. I'm really looking forward to meeting her. I hung up on her the other night by mistake...I had no idea who she was and couldn't understand her so I told her she had the wrong number and hung up lol. Then I got an e-mail from Sato-san asking if I had hearf from so and so with such a number...and that was the number of the person I hung up on LOL. ooops. So I explained what happened and asked her to tell Okawa-san to please talk slowly for me lol. So today when I talked to her I had no problems! lol

So now I'm off to bed...tomorrow I'm staying home to relax...and if my voice isn't back on Friday then I'm calling in sick. That will give me a 4 day weekend to sleep this off. I will be fine by monday!!! I think I'll call home tomorrow morning...I wonder if mom will be home on a Wednesday night. lol

Here's hoping!

Current Mood: sick
Current Location: Iwaki, Fukushima

I've caught a cold or something. I didn' t feel great yesterday (Monday) - even took a nap after waking up around lunch and felt cold without the blanket at 25C. Managed to eat dinner and went to bed around 8:30 but didn't get to sleep until 10ish. I woke up at 1:20 with a sore throat. So I popped a fishermen's friend in my mouth and tried to go back to sleep. Sleep wasn't happening so I turned on some music and listened to that until 3ish. Then I slept until 5:45 and got up for school.
I was tired.

I had a stomach ache by the time I finished breakfast but thankfully it didn't last long. Tooke some advil and a contac Cold and Flu and went to school.

Went to the 7/11 on the way to school and bought the little candies that have Vitimin C in them... of course they only had lemon flavoured. LOL I hate lemon! But these aren't too bad. It's not a strong taste. Also they have 3000 mg of VC in eat little candy! talk about an overdose!

I got to school and was told that I would be teaching 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th periods. So I arrived at 7:30 and didn't have to teach until 10:30! Wow, I could have stayed in bed...or not. they would have called me to see where I was. but still. That's over 2 hours with nothing to do but read. So I finally remembered to ask the VP what to do when I'm sick. He said to call him. So I asked for the number. lol. Now I'm glad I asked.

I filled out my travel forms so that I can to to Tokyo for Christmas. They wanted contact #s in case of emergency. They want to know when I'm leaving Iwaki, when I'm arriving at my destination, where I'll be staying, when I will get back to Iwaki City, etc. I had to fill out 2 different forms: 1 for permission to go and one for all the details. I was only going for 2 or 3 days it wouldn't be necessary to fill out all the forms, but since I'll be gone for about a week....yeah.

I downloaded the new(ish) album from 30 Seconds to Mars (This is War) and I love it!!! IT's a freat album! On a related note, I really want to see that owl movie...The Legendary Guardians of Gould? or something like that. I t looks awesome. I hope it comes out in Japan or someone will have to buy it and mail it to me!

On a sad note...there is no video rental store in Izumi...I have to go to Ueda or Taira by train to rent a movie. Ueda is closer.

Current Mood: sick
Current Location: Iwaki, Fukushima

I figured it was time for an update.

Mom is back at work now and she's off all medications. She does have to keep her foot elevated but other than that she is doing a whole tone better now! Such a relief. I've been sleeping a lot better and a lot more than I have been for the past 2 and a half weeks. So nice.

I've been sick since Thursday. Got the scratchy throat and sore ears Wednesday night and woke up Thursday feeling stuffy and achy. Stayed home Thursday from school but went out to lunch with a friend and ended up just talking for about 4 hours and then went back to her place and got a tour of her house and made plans to hang out again next week. Mom had gone to back to the doctors because her foot was flaring up again and was told that she had to stay home from work for the rest of the week and keep her foot up. She had been at work both Monday and Tuesday and hadn't kept her foot up enough so the infection started to come back. So mom got another extended weekend that she wasn't happy about (she was getting really bored with sitting on the couch watching tv and keeping her foot up),

Friday I went to breakfast with Mark and then went back to bed and slept most of the day away.

Saturday morning Mom had gone back to the doctors for a check up and was told she was doing alright and she bought me some medicine for my cold. I was feeling so bad by Saturday which really made me want to cry because I was suppose to go to the Great Big Sea Concert that night. Tricia called me and basically told me I was going, so I decided to suck it up and go anyway. I am really glad that I did because the concert was absolutely amazing! Spirit of the West opened and played for about 45 minutes, they told some great little anecdotes and pulled a little girl (about 6 years old) on stage to dance with them.

Great Big Sea came on at about 9:15pm and played until just after 11pm. They played all my favourite songs and a couple that I didn't know. Spirit of the West joined them on stage for the final two songs of the encore. What an amazing night. I dosed myself with cold meds and fishermen's friends and had a great time.

Sunday morning I thought I was dying! lol yeah, that will teach me! or not. lol Went out to breakfast with mom and then went home to do some homework...I was not successful with the homework...actually I still haven't managed to get any of it done. I'm going to have to do it tomorrow. well that sucks. LOL

Yesterday I experienced what I am calling Kamikaze sneezes! I must have sneezed about 30 times yesterday! And every time I sneezed by back muscles and chest muscles would seize, my shoulders and around my collar bone would hurt like crazy, my arms would feel heavy and my hands would tingle. Every time! It hurt so much! Thank god I haven't sneezed once today! I don't think I could take much more of that!

This morning I had a headache from hell so I got up at 7 and took a bunch of medicine (2 Tylenol 1s with codine, two advil and a sudafed) and went back to bed to sleep. Slept for another 3 hours and felt a bit better.

Haven't done much today. Watched a french comedy show and laughed my head off! There was this one comedian, he was African and wow he had a weird accent. Definitely not from Québec. Anyway, he got to a part of his act where he talked about meeting this little girl and her mom. The translation isn't perfect but basically he said that he went to a bar/restaurant to eat and sitting beside him was this lady and her little daughter who was about 5 years old. And he could tell that the little girl wanted to talk to him (this guy is black with short spiky dreadlocks. Looked really cool). Her mother was all "no you can't talk to him, stay over here, it's dangerous etc." the guy was all like, yeah right. So he goes over to the mother, sticks out his hand and says "Hi! My name is (insert name) and you don't have to worry about your 5 year old daughter, I'm a vegetarian!" So the little girl turns to him and asks him if he had been covered in chocolate? Her mother freaks out and tells her that she can't say things like that to people and that it's rude. Meanwhile, he's smiling and looks at the little girl and tells her "as a matter of fact, yes I was" then he licks his palm and turns both hands palm out towards her and says "see? it's coming off!" (palms are lighter than the backs of his hands).

I nearly died laughing! This guy was on for about 20 minutes and he was hilarious!

So that's been my few days. Still sick, but doing better today then I was yesterday. going to stay home tomorrow morning, but I'm planning on going to my evening class. Back to school as usual on Wednesday! YAY! 2 more weeks of classes!

Current Mood: blah
Current Location: home
Current Music: I'm yours

Mom and I went to the clinic first thing this morning. I went with mom because she wanted a second set of ears for whatever the doc had to say. It turns out it was a good thing I went because mom didn't remember all that much about what happened last evening. I guess she was too scared and panicked at the time. So I had to tell the doctor what mom had described to me on the phone last night. Mom is still having residual side affects from the antibiotics and endured a few of them while the doctor was looking at her. So Doc gave her new antibiotics that she only has to take once a day instead of every 8 hours so that is better for her. Now she doesn't have to keep track of time and remember to take meds at all hours of the day and night like before.

After we finished at the doctor's office we went for breakfast with Janet and her daughter. Mom didn't eat as much as she normally does but she didn't have any trouble keeping the food down and we had a pleasant 2 hour visit. Then we went shopping at Costco and mom had to run to the bathroom twice...but all things considered that's not too bad. It's now been 24 hours since mom last took those anitbiotics and it seems to have cleared her system.

We will have to wait and see how these new meds go. I'm really hoping that they work for her and that she'll be off them completely in the next five days. It still looks like she'll be able to go back to work on Monday as long as she keeps her foot up as much as possible and since she has a desk job, that shouldn't be a problem.

So YAY to things getting better. I'm sticking around home tonight and Eric will be home tomorrow while I'm out. I really don't want to risk a repeat of yesterday.

Thanks for the words of comfort guys. They made a difference.

I'm gonna go take a nap :)

Current Mood: relieved
Current Location: home
Current Music: Trance around the world!

NO ONE who knows my mom is allowed to tell her I wrote this here...she told me not to post about this on facebook and I really agree that it's not a good idea...but this is not facebook. And I need to get this off my chest. I am so Frustrated! and a whole bunch a feelings that I don't know how to describe, and right now there's no one available for me to chat with cause they are either sleeping or at work or whatever.

My mom is sick.

she's getting better, but this has been a week from hell!

It started last Tuesday night when she came to pick me up from school at 9pm and could barely stay awake long enough to drive us home. We had to get off the highway because the cars passing us kept startling her. That isn't all that unusual because she's often tired. Wednesday morning she wakes up and has what looks like a bug bite of some sort on her left leg just above her ankle. It's all red and puffy and hot and sore to touch. But it's just a bug bite, so she goes to work. By the time she gets home that night it's spread all the way around her leg and is touching on both sides. So Eric and I convince her to go to the clinic. Definitely not a bug bite! Doc doesn't like it and marks the edges in pen and tells her to come back if it speads outside the lines. Doc gives mom meds and tells her to stay home and keep her feet up.

Next morning (Thursday) mom can hardly walk at first cause her leg is so sore and stiff. Pink has spread quite a bit, but it's not red or puffy so she waits for Janet (my adopted mom) to get back from her appointment to take her to the doctors. By this time it's spread half way to her knee and it's red. So Doc takes one look at her and sends her to Emerge (hospital). I get a phone call around 4pm from Janet's daughter telling me Janet took my mom to the hospital. They get back after 8pm and it turns out mom has a subcutaneous skin infection called Cellulitis which can be deadly if not treated.

Mom had to go to the hospital for IV antibiotics every 8 hours from Thursday through Saturday and then she was given a fanny pack and a portable IV tape that would give her a dose every 8 hours. So instead of going to the hospital 3 times a day, she only has to go once a day. But this means that I had to help her get changed, do her nightly routine and morning routine and anything else that requires two hands, also she had very strict orders to keep her foot elevated and not move around too much so that left cooking and what have you to me too....on top of school and everything else. No one slept much at all this past week. Janet took mom to the hospital for all her appointments and my brother drove her the few times Janet couldn't (when he wasn't working). Mom cried every time the IV turned on.

Mom was taken off the IV yesterday afternoon so I thought things were a lot better. So I went to school today and Eric went to work and then after school I went to have dinner with Tricia cause I haven't seen her since New Years. Half way through dinner I get the most disturbing phone call of my life. I went into full panic mode, and I think I freaked out Tricia too. My mom called me and she sounded so scared. She must be allergic to the meds or something because what happened tonight really shouldn't have happened and it's a bit too personal for me to write about here. It was bad. And she was home alone and I feel so guilty for not being home with her. I was in South Keys which is over an hour from home by bus... at least 30 minutes by taxi. She asked me to come home and help her and I couldn't get there, not in time to help her at all.

After things calmed down a bit and mom went to get cleaned up, I called Janet and told her to call mom after 10 minutes if mom hadn't called her yet. I told her what happened and she said she'd wait 20 minutes then call mom. Mom called her first and things were ok. Janet let me know what was going on and I was able to stop worrying.

God, I have never felt so scared and helpless in my life! ok that's not true, I felt that way when my dad died and I really don't need to go there!

SO, tomorrow we are going back to the clinic to get rid of those damn meds and get some other type of meds because she NEEDS antibiotics to get over this. It's been over a week of me seeing her in pain and watching her cry and having to help her with everything! I just want this to end! I am so tired. I don't mean to sound selfish, frell. I want her to be better and for this to go away. and I really need to stop shaking and calm down so I can go to sleep too. Mom's fine for now, she's in bed and she's asleep...I should do the same.

Current Mood: distressed
Current Location: home
Current Music: DJ Irish

So the past week has been one of those weeks full of mostly down moments. I've been sick sense Saturday (and it's now Friday night and I'm still sick - although much better now than I was). I wrote my Child Language Acquisition Exam on Saturday while going through an entire pack of HALLS. I messed up the Essay Question, which was worth 15 marks, to the point that I don't think I even earned one mark for that question. The only good thing about that Frell up is that I had 58/60 going into that exam, so I will still get a good mark in the class if I do bad on the exam.

I spent most of the week in bed until noon everyday (which may sound like a good/nice thing, but it really isn't that great) and then studying or working on my Japanese Phonology paper for a few hows every day. I have also been watching Stargate Atlantis. I am now on Season 1 episode 10 (I think). I've been reading fan fiction a lot this week too.

The crappy part of being sick is not sleeping well at night. (I mean worse than normal, cause I'm an insomniac at the best of times lol). So I've been going to bed around 1am and getting up around 6 or 7am... and then going back to bed around 8 or 9 and sleeping until noon.. or today I got up at 1pm.

On Tuesday I found out that a friend of mine had nearly been raped by her (almost) ex-husband. (she's in the process of getting a divorce). I also found out that she had had a miscarriage a few days before that (with her current boyfriend), and that she was still having problems because she never talked to anyone after her sister had killed herself a few months ago. HOLY FUCKING HELL! Things are now being taken care of and help is being given. I have never felt so helpless and angry in all my life!!!

Yesterday my cousin had a miscarriage and I feel so bad that I can't be there to see her and hug her and DO something. Again with the feeling helpless. I really hate feeling helpless. At least her husband is home now. He got home today, so at least she's not alone now.

Last night I went out for an hour long walk with Donna and Mark around the neighbourhood. Stopped by Mac's Milk on the way home and picked up some milk and some pancake mix. It's the first time I've been outside all week. It was 23 degrees yesterday and there is still snow on the ground! LOL! It looks pretty silly with everyone wearing shorts and T-shirts playing in the snow. It's going to be in the 20's all weekend.. by Monday there won't be any snow left at all! (I hope!)

Today I took pity on myself and made pancakes and chocolate chip cookies. I slept until 1pm (well I got up at 7:30 and went back to bed at 10ish). I cleaned my mom's kitchen (which she only noticed after I mentioned it. She's actually told me to tell her when I clean up so she will notice) and did some more work on my paper, and had a nice relaxing day.

Tomorrow I have an orientation meeting for volunteering at the Japanese Pavilion at the Ottawa Tulip Festival that will be held next month!
I can't wait! I'm also supposed to meet a bunch of friends for lunch.

I'm feeling much better today, now all I need is for my voice to come back.

Current Mood: drained
Current Location: living room