Me, Worry?!?!?!

For somebody that never worries, it was certainly a shock to find out that I have a small ulcer...not sure if worry causes this but I have always heard that it does...my blood pressure, cholesterol, heart rate are all fine but according to an endoscopy, I have a small ulcer and need to take a little medicine...no mention of watching what I eat or taking it easy...they also took a biopsy of a couple of things and are testing for that h-pylori/bacteria???...it seems most people have it or maybe they just put everybody on antibiotics just to be safe....The actual procedure was easy...much less crazy than the eye surgeries and a lot quicker to boot... a girl from high school was the nurse and she was also a nurse when my 2nd child was born...now I am just waiting for a colonoscopy since my doctor said I was a little late on getting this done...not sure about this ulcer stuff...just hope the meds make me feel a little better...

Me and Brooke Shields

My eye check up for June was re-scheduled for August 11th...the first weekend after the kids came back to school...thought this would be a good day to get some paperwork done while I waited to see the doctor...each time i have been to see dr. meyers, it takes 5-6 hours to actually see him.   I have been using bromday drops (steroid) for about a year and just didn't think that was a good thing to be doing...On saturday I expected him to stop the bromday drops, brag on my delicate retina, and send me on my way...a free woman... Little did I know that the first test they did indicated a higher pressure in my bad eye than usual...I have never had that problem so i was a little taken aback...the nurse didn't mention it and by the time the doc comes in and says that I need to use some new drops to decrease the pressure he was gone...no mention of glaucoma, eye disease or anything else...just a slight elevation in the pressure...after searching on the internet i found a few causes of this pressure change...drops, trauma, glaucoma...since i have two of the three i will just go with the drops and trauma being the culprits...my new drops, lumigan,  are applied at night...just one drop to the bad eye...the only thing is that if they burn or make my eye red i will need to get a milder type of drop.  my eye is slightly pink and i can feel the drop for just a few seconds after it hits the eyeball..not really burning but just a slight irritant... i will give them a few more days and if my eyes don't itch i will continue with them until my next appt. in november...and if you see someone that is looking like brooke shields,,, it could be me..except i will only have long lashes on my bad eye...that is another side effect of the lumigan....

Old dog learning new tricks...

I have always taught regular education classes but really enjoyed teaching the kids that just weren't  on the level they should have been on... you can see more growth in them and can see it in their eyes when they have learned something new...the draw back to this is that you have to always have paperwork before, during and after the learning...the paperwork is killing most teachers...anyway that wasn't the entire reason for a job change...sometimes you just need to step out of your comfort zone to make you appreciate what you had or to see how much better things can really be...not sure which one is true for me...i had a great school, principal, friends, and once inside the school i didn't have to go outside to get to anything but recess...
The new school has several buildings, steps, gates and locked doors...the parking is also a little inconvenient...I do have some very sweet and caring cohorts  in the challenge program at my school...they are about my age and are being great mentors...i now have a number for the copier, know where the drink machine is, have been in the cafeteria, have experienced morning and afternoon duty, have been to a staff meeting and grade level meeting, and put things in the courier box...everything is beginning to come together...There has been a big adjustment in the fact that I don't have kids the moment i get to school, I don't have to take attendance or do a lunch count, or worry about how my students are getting home...it really gives me a little time to plan, prepare, pray and get ready for the kids...the class size is smaller and it seems more like a family than a class...i get to do the same lesson for 5 days before i have to change things...in the regular classroom things changed daily...So you can tell by the post that this old dog is learning some new tricks...just hope the rain isn't bad today and my room floods...i guess the sandbags will be up when I get to school today...

technology, scammers, accents and frustrations

I am once again sitting on the couch using my laptop...this probably seems like a normal thing for most people but for the past 2-3 weeks i have had nothing but  TROUBLE with technology...one of my least favorite things (besides exercise and eating right ) would be talking to ATT or Belkin...i hate computerized phone calls...and i especially hate speaking to people with accents...that means anyone that doesn't speak red neck or southern...Speaking "technology" is so hard to do on the phone...especially when it concerns technology, problems and accents...and that leads to another topic on technology which would be how these scammers are calling us on both cell phones and our home phones about an account/debit card at Bancorp South that we don't even possess.  Oh well, you would think someone could stop those scammers since they are very persistent with their calls.  Back to the Belkin Router business...I think the router wouldn't work properly because ATT needed to update our modem but just failed to notify us...today after dealing with S-L-O-W service for 2-3 days I defragmented, cleaned out temporary files, cleaned out the trash and cleaned out anything else that Microsoft and I deemed unimportant...probably got rid of stuff I needed but during the purging of the computer I didn't seem to care...just wanted the internet connected  and wanted it to connect sometime during my waking hours.    Now that I have complained about ATT, Belkin, and BancorpSouth scammers, i guess i can now mention Direct TV...Our HD receiever only comes on when it wants to...at least 3 days a week we cut on the tv and have no video service...they tell us to unplug, count to a certain number, and reset the box...that sounds pretty simple but by the time that is done we have missed the beginning of the news or a show...again it is so hard to call them, talk to a human and understand their accent...I was on the verge of disconnecting all services today...getting back to basics...talking to people in person, reading the paper, and just enjoying being outside in the sunshine...but just in the nick of time an update notice appeared when I reset the modem and this  put the computer, modem and router all back on track...the tv will be another problem for another day...

The Not so Lazy Days of Summer...

On Tuesday I accepted a new teaching position...4th grade challenge at Rankin elementary...makes me a little nervous since most people comment"whoa they may be smarter than you"...Could be a fact but I can still baffle them with a lot of senseless trivia that only comes from years and years of listening and thinking...I have a lot of experience in the listening and thinking areas...I can always beat the pants off of those kids that are on the children's jeopardy show...and can even beat some of those harvard/yale types...hehehe...anyway my peaceful summer had not even started when i was back at Thomas St. with boxes and tubs trying to get my stuff out before summer school begins on monday.  My garage/workshop that is normally neat as a pin is stacked high once again with 16 years of teaching stuff...not sure what those little smarties will need but didn't have time to organize or sort through the stuff...I hate leaving a job where I was comfortable , had lots of old friends , had made lots of new friends there and knew what the curriculum was and just exactly what 2nd graders needed...oh well, just another new beginning...and that will bring another post of my moving into rankin later this summer...the room already has a lot of stuff in it so i guess i will spend some time there sorting and looking and thinking...

Cataract Capsulation

This is the information about the latest procedure that is scheduled for my bum eye...and by the way...one of the side effects from this procedure is a DETACHED RETINA!!! I feel like I am a character in a Laura Numeroff story...A circle story that you just can't get out of....Anyway...this info comes straight from google....

"One of the most common cataract surgery complications is a posterior capsule opacity (also called posterior capsule opacification or PCO). During cataract
surgery, your surgeon will remove the cloudy natural lens of your eye (cataract) and replace it
with an intraocular lens (IOL). When the cataract is removed, your surgeon makes every attempt to maintain the integrity of the lens capsule, and normally your vision after cataract surgery should be very clear. (Should be is the key word)
However, in about 20 percent of patients, which would be ME… the posterior portion of the capsule becomes hazy some time during cataract surgery recovery or even months later,
causing PCO. Posterior capsule opacification occurs because lens epithelial cells remaining after cataract surgery have grown on the capsule. In some cases, if the condition progresses
significantly, your vision may be worse than it was before cataract surgery.

Fortunately, a YAG laser can treat posterior capsule opacity
safely, effectively and painlessly. This procedure, known as YAG laser
capsulotomy, often can be performed in your doctor's office.
The procedure takes only a few minutes and is entirely painless; nor does
discomfort occur post-operatively. You must remain still during the procedure, however. Very
uncooperative patients, such as children and mentally disabled people, may
require sedation.
Although a YAG laser capsulotomy poses slight
additional risk, overall the procedure is extremely safe. The most important
risk is that the retina can become detached from the inner back of
the eye.

"Eye" thought it was over....

today i went to mothershed's office to talk about corrective lenses for my bum eye...20/50...not so shabby for an eye that has been lasered, siliconed, gassed, and fitted with a new lens due to a cataract from all the above...not to mention the hundreds (or thousands) of stinking drops...after a few eye tests with bright lights and lots of small letters on charts it still appears that i have about 20-50 in that eye...things seemed to be okay and i was a little nervous about the style of glasses i would choose...would i go with a sarah palin look or a more sassy look that the young chicks are sporting...maybe some contacts...disposable, flexible, colored...the choices were going to be endless...just the thought of all the choices was making me a little nervous...i hate making decisions like that...wellllll ...when the dr. finished his exam, read the records and letters from dr. meyers he announced that i wouldn't be getting any corrective lenses today...since it had only been a few months since the cataract surgery(Nov. 17) there was still some film on the lens that would need to be cleaned off and that would have to be done and see if my vision improves any more... i didn't remember/understand all of "words that were coming out of his mouth"....capsulation, laser, cataract, insurance, simple procedure were about all that i heard...none of which sounded like really good news...I have since googled cataract capsulation and learned a little more about it...."eye" still don't like the sound of this....