I don't belong to it, but a Thursday 13

My friend, L, does the Thursday 13. I don't, but today I will do one for her, since she is busy with the practicalities of death. Yes, her MIL passed away yesterday.
So, for those who have never experienced close loss, 13 Things about Loss, Grieving and Bereavement
1) No one 'handles' death. You deal one way or another.
2) Grief takes many forms, and some are not nice or pretty.
3) Your life has changed forever, and will never be the same.
4) The world goes on.
5) Coffins come in way too many styles.
6) Make sure you talk about end of life wishes before the time comes.
7) The funeral isn't the hardest part.
8) The calling hours aren't the hardest part.
9) The day after the funeral, when everyone goes home, is the hardest part.
10) Kids grieve.
11) Hospice has great grief programs, for adults and kids.
12) Knowing the funeral director really helps.
13) There is happiness again eventually.

Love, Family and Agnostics

My dearest friends are waiting for a loved one to die. The rituals of death are in place, and I expect to hear in a matter of hours that death has come. My friend A is heartbroken. His mother has always been the heart of his family, and he doesn't know how that family will change when her heart stops beating. His wife, my friend L is, as always, amazing. She is also in pain, for she and her mother-in-law have loved each other for many years. Yet L is thinking of her husband and inlaws, and of her daughters.

L is an avowed agnostic, of Jewish descent. Her mother in law is a devout Filipino Catholic. Yet L is participating in the rites and prayers. She hasn't changed her beliefs, she is respecting others. That is true tolerance of others' beliefs.
And love.

Surgery and all

I was more than a little nervous. As a recovering alcoholic, I have some oddities with some medications. I have some oddities with other meds and with juices, just being me. As I said in a previous post, I had had a pre-operative interview with a nurse (who was a little ditzy) and with a anesthesiologist (who was not ditzy). The nurse insisted that my allergic responses to citrus/tropical fruits and scents was not an allergy, but a sensitivity, and didn't need to be written down (the anesthesiologist wrote it in BIG letters, and highlighted it in red). The nurse insisted that reglan, an anti-nausea medication could not make me sick to my stomach (the anesthesiologist agreed that it could.) The nurse also told me that since I had never been to rehab and diagnosed as an alcoholic, I wasn't one and CROSSED IT OFF my chart.
So, going to the hospital was making me a little apprehensive.
I shouldn't have worried. The first nurse did offer reglan, but looked at the anesthesiologist's report and said no. Everyone who looked at my chart was told that the fruit allergy was the most important. The doctor did reassure me that he had done dozens of these surgeries. In the 'holding area' I met the OR nurse, whose from the city in which I work, and whose DIL teaches in the same district as I do. I have met the DIL at several conferences. The best part was the fact that the OR nurse had known my mom, who had been the head of medical records at that hospital for years. So even though Mama retired in the 1980s, and died in 2001, this woman was able to tell me how much she had liked Mama. The anesthesiologist (also not from the city where the hospital is located, but from the city in which I work) for the surgery was late. Her 4 year old twins had hidden each other's shoes. She came into the holding area, and we said at the same time "I know you." Her twins, and my Magpie, go to dance class together. She was interested to know that I had been in recovery for 18 years, and was not thrilled that it wasn't on my chart. (I thought she might want to know). The oddest part was that the anesthesiologist gave the pre-op sedation and then she and the OR nurse wheeled me into the OR. Not an orderly. It was a really personal touch that I appreciated. They did note to me that I wasn't as affected by the pre-op as most people.
I was able to go home by 2:30. The nurses were concerned that there was next to nothing they could give me but water. They didn't want to give me the fruit pops they had, since there was no ingredient list on the floor. So, since I wasn't sick, and had used the facilities, I was home by 3:30.
Yesterday I was able to spend most of the day with an icepack and Tylenol, but today I did have to take the pain medication. I know now why I didn't do drugs.

The reasons I love teaching

My friend does the Thursday 13 and listed 13 reasons why she loves her job. I also love my job.
The reasons are below, in no particular order.
1) My team-mates are extraordionary people. They make coming to work both a joy and a privilege. We have professional and personal respect for each other.
2) My team helps each other. In two weeks, our students will take the Social Studies State Assessment. As I did for their high stakes test, the other teachers are all spending 5-10 minutes of their 39 minute class to quiz the students in US History.
3) The students are kind. Don't get me wrong, they are kids, but they have shown empathy toward their multiply handicapped peers many times.
4) The students will try their best for us. They don't always succeed, but when the stakes are high, they try hard.
5) The students have a great sense of humor. I have laryngitis and am under DR's orders to not talk for the next 3 days. The students are having a great time with this, while doing their best to behave.
6) There is something to be said for being able to annoy teenagers with music from different eras. Mama was a singer, and knew songs from the late 1800s to the folk era of the 1960s. She taught me most of them. There is a song to go with almost every lesson.
7) Performing gives me great pleasure. The students, who after having me for 2 years ought to know better, always ask for me to sing the songs that go along with the lesson. And I do.
8) We have the students two years in a row. We get to know them, and they get to know us.
9) I got to pick the color of my classroom. It is a very bright green, but not quite a kelly green.
10) Our team is winning the 'Cup.' Patterned a little after the 'House Cup' in the Potter series, our students earn points for service and attendance. They also lose points for discipline. We are 17000 points ahead, and the competition ends next Tuesday.
11) The subject that I teach is ever changing.
12) It is always a pleasure to see a student at least tolerate if not start to enjoy studying history.
13) Although I have a curriculum I must follow, when I walk in my room, and shut my door, I have my own little fiefdom. A captive audience, wow, what could be better than that!!!

This was a new one

Wow, this was a new one for me.
I am having surgery in a couple of weeks. The gallbladder is full of stones and sludge (wow, isn't that a wonderful medical term) and must come out.
I went to my preoperative interview and intake. I met with a nurse who informed me that I can not possibly have adverse reactions to Reglan. She insisted that it could not have made me more sick to my stomach, since it was an anti-nausea medication. Thus, she wrote out orders for me to have Reglan the morning of my surgery. She also duly noted that I am a recovering alcoholic, since 1989. Later a question asked if I had ever attended rehab. I answered, truthfully, that I had not. She looked incredulous and asked again. I reiterated that I had not gone to rehab. Imagine my surprise when she informed me that I could not possibly be an alcoholic then, since neither a DR nor a rehab had diagnosed me.
Amazing. After 18+ years, I found out that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an alcoholic.
Yeah, the people at the meeting tonight found it to be hysterically funny also.

I am not worried, the surgeon and my internist also know I am in recovery.

Colleague Rant

My colleagues, almost all, if not all, are hard working people. Many of them work harder than I do. Many of them work harder than their students.
I don't work harder. I listened to a speaker a few years ago, and I work smarter, not harder.
My colleagues have somehow gotten it into their heads that our team somehow cheats. We win at the 'house cup' competition because we have more students on the team. We have higher test scores because we have smaller classes. (Yes, for the discriminating reader, there is a contradiction there upon which they have not picked up.)
The latest contention is that we have few students who are in need of resource or academic intervention services. As a matter of record, we have about 69% of our students who have or need those services. Of course, the same percentage or higher of our students pass math because our teacher is tremendously talented.
The disagreement has culminated into screaming matches in the faculty room between a friend and other colleagues.
The best part is...I am not involved in the screaming!!