Broken Hand

On August 23rd, the second day of school, I was watching a young 6th grader who is known for running away. I had hold of his hand at one point, but he pulled his hand away from mine and dashed for the door of the classroom. I chased after him and as I was going out the door I punched the metal door frame. There's only been 1 time in my life when I felt pain worse than that.

     At first I thought I had just jammed my knuckle; that's a little how it felt, just a little bit more intense. However the pain was enough that I was almost in shock. I vaguely remember the teacher following behind me and stopping the student as he was running away. I was just sort of frozen to the spot, cradling my hand to my chest. The teacher had me take my hand and go run it under cold water, then another teacher came by and offered to let me use her ice pack.

     After about 5 to 10 minutes, I realized that my hand was not getting any better. The second teacher that I had spoken with made arrangements with the teacher I work for to get me up to the office so that I could look into going to WorkMed. By then the shock was wearing off and I was starting to cry from the pain. I couldn't stop myself.

     I got a ride to WorkMed from the school officer. I joked around with him about getting a police escort to the doctor.

     At WorkMed, the doctor ordered an x-ray. The technician who took the x-ray told me that it was very definitely broken. He said that normally he wouldn't make that decision himself, but he was amazed at how obvious the break was.

     The doctor splinted my hand and I've been going back every 2 weeks to get x-rays. It has been nearly 2 months now. It took awhile for my hand to heal.

     The anti-inflammatory medication that they put me on caused my hands and feet to swell over the first weekend. When I spoke with the doctor the following Monday he suggested that it was possibly an allergic reaction. Once I went off the medication most of the extremities went back to their normal sizes. However, my left foot has been swelling for the last 2 months. I saw both my normal doctor and my WorkMed doctor about it. Both seemed to think that it was a result of another injury done to the top of my foot when I hurt my hand. X-rays were done and it was revealed that there was no break to the foot. The swelling on my foot is only now going back down. They never did find out for sure what was wrong with it.

     Today I went back to WorkMed for a follow up. As of now, I am able to take the splint off when I am NOT working so that I can begin to stretch out the muscles which have been locked in place for 2 months. However, I still need to use the splint while I am working and am limited with what I am allowed to do. Still, it's a start. I will return next Wednesday to see how my hand is doing and determine whether or not I will need physical therapy.

School's out for summer!

I'm feeling kind of sad right now. The last day of school was on May 31st.  We had a "Graduation" for those who were moving on to the High School. It was so special. I'm so glad that I got to work with them these last few months. I'm also grateful that I get to go back this fall.
In the meantime, I'm going to miss everyone. So, I wanted to show some of the pics from the Graduation. One of our students got an awesome gift from the teacher & I'll leave the narration off here.  I'll let you enjoy the surprise @ the end.

New job = more stress? Maybe.

I started a second job on the 13th of February. I know, I know: as stressful as my life is w/ my other job, you may ask why I'd get another. Well, the simple answer is: for me. I'll explain:

I've wanted to be a Teacher for most of my life. Mom says that as a small child we would play "school" & I was always the teacher. I love teaching! Being able to pass on the knowledge I've collected over the years, help children work toward becoming better people through that knowledge, is so rewarding. One of the best feelings I've ever had has been watching someone understand & learn something new. In my opinion, our lives are more enriched w/ everything we learn, regardless of whether we learn in school or not. Our lives are full of learning & I am proud to be able to help w/that.

Sorry for getting a little side-tracked, but I'll keep it in the blog because it helps explain who I am.

To get back on track: last month I was shopping @ Wal-Mart & ran into my former Supervisor from when I was a teacher aide @ Mt. Logan Middle School many years ago. She asked if I was still working w/the school district & I told her I did last school year, but didn't get hired back this year. She is now the Director for Special Education w/the district & she told me they had @ least 5 openings & if I applied again I could probably get hired on.

Probably wasn't even the right word: she pretty much got me the job. I got a call from the Special Ed teacher @ Mt Logan who told me that Marci had recommended me for the job & she "wasn't exactly going to tell her (she didn't) like her friend." Still, I know Marci & she wouldn't have recommended me if I wasn't qualified.

So, I am now a Teacher's Aide @ Mt. Logan for 3 1/2 hours every weekday! It does add more stress (I'm now working 50-60 hours a week) but it's time doing something I love, I can turn off my work phone & have a break from NES, & the pay is helping to get us caught up financially (Lee's also increasing his hours every 2 weeks @ the D.I.) so it's also helping w/the stress.

Hopefully I've explained what the title means. We'll have to wait & see what it all means in the end, but that's where we are today!

FYI: the pic is of my "battle scars" from one of my students. . . it's a good thing I love my job! :-)