I
have taught for 33 years. I have loved everyone of them. I have taught
kindergarten through twelfth grade. I used to joke when my students asked if I
was ever going to retire and tell them, “No, they’ll walk in one day and find
me at my desk with a pen in my hand, dead.”
Their response was, “Probably” and then they would laugh. In April I
told my principal that this coming school year will be my last. The pain had
gotten so bad I could barely walk with or without my cane. I could not sit,
stand, or walk for long. Based on what I had been told I decided it was time to
take care of me. The reasons below are why I have not read as much as I
normally do. When you can’t sit for long or focus for long then things you love
get left behind. For me that was reading.
It
began last August a week after students returned to school. I was sitting on my
couch reading my student’s first writing assignment. I went to reposition
myself on the couch and my right hip popped. It was loud enough it woke my
husband from his nap. My right hip had literally popped out. I couldn’t lift my
leg more than two inches above the floor. I called my doctor. It took a month
to get an appointment. She said she would schedule x-rays. I heard nothing. I
went to my arthritis doctor for my next appointment and to meet my new doctor.
I could not get up on the table without physically lifting my leg to step up on
the stool. She scheduled and x-ray and an MRI. She gave me some exercises to
try to relax the muscles. I was at school trying to go up the stairs when the
hip popped back in. Needless to say, the student walking next to me was scared
to death. She asked if I was broke. I
laughed. From there things went downhill. The hip had caused a pinched nerve
which caused inflammation. I have two types of arthritis. The arthritis has now
moved down into my lower back and into my hips. When I ride in the car if feels
like I am sitting on a stack of bricks. The pain has cause more inflammation
and the inflammation causes more pain. I have been through physical therapy.
They have tried to pinpoint the nerve(s) causing all the pain. On Tuesday I go
to see what my next steps will be, possibly steroid shots, or surgery.
In
addition to all of this, my husband had an itchy spot on his back and asked me to
look at it. I took a picture and recommended he see a dermatologist because he
had a couple of spots that didn’t look right. They biopsied and it came back
cancer. We see an oncologist on Wednesday. This is scary to me. I am trying not
to worry.
No
matter what, I know that all of this is in God’s hands. However, I have been
able to focus on reading a bit more.
