Friday 27 November 2015

I got the blues!

I am very sick with a cold virus. It was getting worse.  I coughed every two hours the night before. Last night hubby took me into our ER. I had an X-ray, and I don't have pneumonia! Thankfully, I was two hours in the ER, including the X-ray, it wasn't too busy at all. They put me on a ventolin mask for a half hour. What relief! 

Hubby has been amazing! I'm not really hungry. Drowning in phlegm, it takes a lot of coughing to clear out my lungs in the morning. There are worries about antibiotic resistant bacteria, and physicians are being really careful about prescribing unnecessary antibiotics. Our young ER physician, seriously, looked old enough to drive, but not old enough to vote. He is a caring, educated doctor, though. I told him, with my raspy voice (laryngitis, too), that I think I picked up this terrible virus from my hospice client! He said, 'That's ironic!' Yeppers.

We've had 45 visits to healthcare for his cancer appointments. It's been give and take. He is a good nurse!
2014

Even more ironic that my client battled it more easily than I did.
I got all sorts of bugs from my students. In 25 years teaching there wasn't a bug I didn't come across! It always lands in my lungs. I often had laryngitis, I know many teachers do, too! Not to moan and roil in self-pity, I'm so grateful I don't have to worry about calling in sick! I am lounging on the couch with chick flicks hubby has brought home. He's a peach!

Memories

I remember being home sick at one point in 2000. I had a gr. 8 class. We had several projects in the works, including a video we were making about Blues in the Schools. There was a timeline. I emailed Red, one of my favourite students, and told her she was in charge. She was up to it. When you write in your day book, 'video', there is no way to tell an occasional teacher what to do. Thankfully, we had a good one, and the video was made. Red had a blast being in charge. This was the year we participated in Blues in the Schools! The ultimate event was a July performance on the Bluesfest stage.

I saw Red a couple of years later. She was volunteering at an Ottawa festival. You get comfort knowing you helped a young lady find her footing.
learning the drums
Happy memories!
They called themselves the Spice Girls!
I taught some kids to use the camera and the school videocamera. 

"Ya sing the blues,
so ya don't got the blues no more!" –T.J. Wheeler
Not only playing music, we integrated the arts and created murals for Bluesfest. The roots of blues music are the slave songs and sorrow songs African slaves would sing in the fields. They were forced to leave behind their beautiful musical instruments, but created a diddley bo in the 30's (Hey, Bo Diddley!) and the blues had a baby, they called it rock and roll!
Derek Debeer and Trevor Findlay,
Ottawa-based musicians

10 comments:

eileeninmd said...

Hello Jen, I hope you feel better soon! Take care!

Olga said...

Sorry you are sick--speedy recovery.
Loved the bit about your blues project. It's good to remember the good times and positives from a teaching career.

EG CameraGirl said...

Hope you are on the mend!

Nancy J said...

Rest up well, and get all the TLC and more you so deserve. Being a carer, there isn't time to be unwell, is this your own body saying you need a rest? Lately I have been so tired, so much going on, too much driving, and I get a short nap almost every afternoon. Hugs from down here. XXX

Red said...

I wish you a speedy recovery and hope it doesn't hang on on on like when we were teaching. What a cool teacher ...a unit on the blues. clever. Not only that I like listening to the blues.

Powell River Books said...

Hope you feel better soon. I had a nasty cold last June. It was so bad I had to stay in prison (a hotel room) while our friend visited. He can't be exposed to nasty bugs like the one I had. But that's not the funny story. When I was teaching, the grade 6 teacher was out sick. She had laryngitis. When the sub told the class one boy thought she said that the teacher was out with Larry Gitis (on a date). Probably that "urban legend" is told in many schools, but it really happened in mine. - Margy

Christine said...

I hope you fell better soon glad it wasn't pneumonia.

Ohmydearests said...

Hope you feel better soon! My mother was alos a teacher + often got laryngitis. I really enjoyed reading this! Have a beautiful day!

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari om
Dreadful lurgy...my sis has been fighting it for a month now...but she doesn't rest!!! Meanwhile, in the great down underparts, am being kept very very busy...sorry have missed several posts due to no internet either!!! Be well dear Jenn. YAM xx

William Kendall said...

It's no fun being sick!