Waiting...For A Spazzing Liver

So...yesterday was fun.

Saturday night, while Jay and I were at my parents' house doing free laundry (and watching Hercules, the Disney version, because we're cool kids), all of a sudden he started feeling sharp pains in his lower right abdomen. He would wince and hold his side while sucking in a quick breath. We called several people (my mom, his family and one of our HR ladies from work [if you know her, you know what I mean when I say she's like having another mom]). After describing the symptoms we were convinced it was his appendix.

Sleeping Saturday night was next to impossible for the both of us. He couldn't sleep in the bed for fear of keeping me up all night, but the couch was less-than-comfortable for him, so he went from one to the other a few times.

Sunday morning his pain was more constant but less intense. So we decided to go to the closest prompt care...and wait. And wait...and then he went in! And then came back out to wait some more...dad came by after breakfast with friends in town and then mom came out to look after us while we endeavored to get him better.

Prompt care sent us out to the hospital to get him an ultrasound (the entire reason we went to that prompt care was because I thought they had an ultrasound. And there was a prompt care at the hospital that we clearly should have gone to first and you'll see why in a minute). The ultrasound tech was on call...so we waited an hour for her to show up. One ultrasound later, the tech could see his appendix, which is unusual and "suspicious," so she ordered a CT scan.

Jay drank "irradiated banana," and we waited for over another hour for the barium to get into his system. He was scanned and came back to the waiting room. The nurse said we needed to go back to prompt care to wait for the results.

Okay.

Another car-ride later, we were waiting in the same place we came into 6 hours previously that morning. After waiting one last time, Jay went in to hear the results. Turns out he has a viral infection in his liver which was causing it to swell which was pushing his appendix out, which was why it was visible in an ultrasound. He's on anti-nausea medication and I guess there's no medication to treat the liver itself. I suppose he just has to ride it out. It's a bummer that we had to go through a sonogram, a CT scan and 6 hours of sitting in order to find this out, but them's the brakes. Luckily the hospital offers an application for charity for the uninsured towards the bill which we filled out promptly and I have to return to them.

We're both tired and he's nauseous and in pain. I worked 6-10 this morning and went to my clinical observation site from 12-3. Now I'm...well...I'm blogging, let's be honest. But I do have homework to do before tomorrow and I'm a little backed up after yesterday.

This is all part of being married or even just committing yourself to someone in general. I was tired, I didn't want to be there, I had other things to do and I had to put my personal life on hold for his liver and his well-being, but I was not bothered by it. I find myself wanting to fore-go everything else and stay home making sure he's alright. There isn't much I can do for him save for make him comfortable. But dammit I'll be the best pillow-fluffer and blanket-bringer that I can be!

((Cross-Posted at Holy Matrimony!))

Panopticon

We all feel the panopticon from time to time (this awareness that our every move is being watched by someone or something. It's a type of shared paranoia that tends to alter our actions).

If this sort of thing were REAL, I imagine that whoever was stationed outside of my apartment building would be very confused at my exits and entrances, especially today (provided they didn't follow me when I left):

5:50 a.m. - Leave with hair still wet and frizzing as it drys wearing khaki pants and a red shirt with shoulder bag

10:10 a.m. - Return

10:45 a.m. - Leave in heels, grey pants, floaty top and a silver statement necklace with hair straightened with backpack

3:45 p.m. - Return

5:15 p.m. - Leave wearing jeans, moccasins, hoodie and backpack

8:10 p.m. - Return

My comings and goings make sense if you're me.

I did my first few hours of clinical work today and it was a BLAST. I've never had such a good time. My coordinating teacher is fantastic and I can't wait to learn from him. At the end of the last hour the class got done very early with their plan for the hour and they sat with me, giving me advice on what to do and what not to do as a student teacher. I'm telling you, every pre-service teacher should get a chance to do this before they teach, and maybe even a few times after. My CT made an off-hand remark that he was also taking notes as we had the discussion.

At one point, 6th hour, the entire school was apparently going across the street to the community center to watch scenes from "Old Macbeth Had A Farm," a parody of the original, KFC-style. So I got on a bus today and took a mini-field trip not thinking that I would be doing so. "Big part about being a teacher, being flexible, right?" my CT mused as he locked his classroom door. No kidding, bro. No kidding.

Stuff I Am Working On

1) [Teaching of Writing] Inquiry Project - What kind of effect does using writing as punishment have on students?; Requires heavy research

2) [Teaching of Writing] Unit Plan - Ray Bradbury short stories used to teach students to produce a short story of their own

3) [Teaching of Writing] Teaching Topic Presentation - Reluctant Writers; Requires research (anyone want to put in their two cents as reluctant writers in certain areas or fluent writers in others?)

4) [Teaching of Writing] Teaching Demonstration - Sentence Emphasis

5) [Teaching of Literature] Individual Lesson Plan - Ray Bradbury's "The Pedestrian"

6) [Senior Seminar] Read pp 1-111 in "Never Let Me Go" / Read Chapter 5 in "On Longing"

7) [Senior Seminar] Research for global revision paper - Human Fascination with Zombies

8) [18th Century Drama] Figure out what to write for my 5-10 page close reading essay

They say you're not supposed to take Teaching of Writing and Teaching of Literature at the same time. Now I know why. On top of assignments I also have to perform 10 hours of clinical observation (at a high school 45 minutes away from the apartment) for each class. That's 20 hours in case you lost count.

I didn't include due dates because that would make me panic to see them up there in my list. The sheer fact that I need to do them...like...now...is enough to get me going in earnest.

But hey...have a good Tuesday. You deserve it ^_^

I'm Trapped Inside...

Well...mostly. There was quite a winter storm last night, in case you haven't heard. I could get my car out of the parking lot if I absolutely had to. This category contains (in order from most to least likely to persuade me):
1) Justin Bieber horde
2) Zombie horde
3) Fire
4) Insect infestation

While those things aren't happening for the time being, I figured I could best waste my time by explaining a bit about my situation.

I am 21 years old, living in an apartment a short distance away from my college campus. I am a senior English education major. I live with my fiance, Jay and our roommate, Garret. My fiance and I both work at Target for the time being. Jay is one semester away from getting his degree and teaching certificate in Art and Garret is a graduate student in information technology.

My immediate family lives 25 minutes to the north in a small town, and Jay's family lives an hour away in a similar town. We like to visit both on occasion...we also like to do laundry there because it doesn't cost $2.50 to do so.

Zombie literature and culture is probably my most favorite thing in the world. For my senior seminar paper, I will be doing a global revision of a paper I wrote a year ago on the different manifestations of the apocalypse stemming from an Old English poem that I had to translate for the assignment (oh yeah...I can do that shit). You wanna talk zombies? I can talk zombies.

Chances are that I'll forget half the things I just said to save myself time in later posts and post them again and again. But if you read this one, you get to skip over those bits. Aren't you lucky?

Shameless Attention-Seeker

I come here to get my fix. I tell people that I'm not a "huge fan" of writing. That's not entirely true, but it's not entirely false. The more accurate way of putting that is: I love being read. When I was in high school, and even the first few years of college, I would always force my parents to read my papers, craving a stroke for my ego. They knew I was smart. I knew I was smart. Sometimes I just needed someone to tell me, or even challenge me (although I never really accepted challenges until later in college when I learned not to take it so personally).

In short: Read my blog. Comment upon my blog. Engage me in a discussion about my blog. You'll be doing yourself a favor, trust me.