September in January

September in January:

Well…..I did it!  I made it through my first week of school.  No lie, every day was exhausting.  I was glad that it was a short week.  I would have never made it through the first day without the great colleagues that I work with. The flowers, the welcome back cards, the presents all helped me feel like I never left.  My fellow social studies teacher Ken really helped me get all situated and get back into the flow of things.  He probably doesn’t realize how much he really helped me those first few days.  I got a card that plays the theme song to Friends!  Love it!  Ruthie picked out flowers that were delivered to school on my first day.  Love it!  Adele was there every afternoon to help me get the kids back into their car seats in the van.  JoJo and Bill were great with helping me get Shua into the house in the mornings.  Shua already says “JoJo” which is awesome.  Shua also has some new friends that he loves to play with.  I really have to thank the Adams’ for helping me getting Shua in the house and distracted so I could sneak out.  It really was a team effort by everyone to make the first week go smoothly.

Part of my exhaustion was from my radiation simulation that happened on Tuesday.  I had to leave early on my second day.  The radiation department has been great with giving me late appointments; however the simulation needed to be done earlier in the day when all the doctors and scientists were all there.  This was by far one of the hardest things to do post-surgery.  I had to lie on this table (propped up a little bit) with my head turned to my right. I had to have my left hand over my head.  They had to tape my arm to the table and my hand to my head. I could not physically keep my arm where it needed to be.  I had to stay in this position for 15 minutes without moving.  I was lying on this bag filled with goop.  The goop hardened and made a mold of my body.  I will lie in this mold each day for my radiation treatment.  The bag changing was actually really cool.  The position I was lying in was not.  I then got to get up and walk around the room for a few minutes. I then returned to the mold in the same position.  My arm was taped down once again.  I had to stay there for at least 30 minutes.  During this stage I was marked.  The front of my body looked like I gave Shua a black sharpie and let him draw on me and then I let him attempt to clean it with an alcohol wipe.  Needless to say, I looked like a mess.  I was so sore afterwards and in so much pain that I took advantage of the free massage.  Yes, I let some strange person massage me which tells you the level of pain and discomfort I was in.  After the appointment the real fun was just beginning.  Adele brought Elisheva and Shua to the hospital and we headed home to get Ruthie off the bus.

After a short but exhausting week I came home on Friday to see the playroom totally cleaned up and vacuumed.  It was unbelievable.  See below.  

 Of course it lasted all of .....three minutes.....see below:

All in all the week went well and I am so glad to be back to work. The students were pleasant and welcoming.  They really learned a lot while I was out.  This next week will be a tougher week. I have five days of work with radiation on four of those days.