Category: Current Status

  • Protonix Victory!

    Just checked Medco again. They are shipping the 90 pills they owe me from the last prescription (and probably charging me full copay, but oh well, and shipping me the 180 pills for the next time I can refill at the end of April.

    Man it was an uphill battle.

    Of course, now it will get lost in the mail.

  • Gasoline prices

    it’s sad when paying 2.43 a gallon feels like a victory.

    — added later

    And it was 2.59 at the station closest to the house (not that I will buy there).

  • Protonix Victory!

    Medco is shipping 180 tabs of Protonix next month. YEAH!!!!!!!

  • Pump Failure!

    At 5:40, my pump issued a “Call Service” alarm.

    It was weird, because I woke up about that time dreaming that my pump had failed. It kept vibrating, but it didn’t register to me that it was anything different than a check glucose alarm until I got out of bed and looked at the pump and saw the message.

    It said to disconnect the battery to silence the alarm but I put it back in and downloaded everything, because a) I wanted the data, b) wanted to see the error message in print, and c) because I’m anal about downloading everything and had not in a few days.

    The good news is that my blood sugar is 107 and it was a set change day anyway, and that was one reason I hadn’t downloaded data.

    Well, Animas just called, a nice lady named Frances and she said we had to do a full reboot, and call if I get more than 3 of those messages in a 30 day period and they will replace the pump.

    She thought it was a hoot that I’d dreamed the pump had failed.

  • Life is getting better

    As I told my husband, this week is the week that I realized just how much I missed teaching computer science. I think it’s because it’s the first time since it’s happened that I’ve had time to just enjoy those students.

    My 1st period Algebra Repeaters are doing good. I never have to yell at them, and their passing rate is higher. My 7th period is still VERY VERY tough. They constantly play music on the computers and while I have headphones I don’t trust them with them. Heck, I won’t leave the room for a second with them.

    Here’s how bad it is. I have a young man who has an 8 average. He also has over 10 absenses THIS six weeks. He wanted me to take the time to pull out the make up work for him. Well, I’ve spent hours creating a web page that has exactly what he needs to do on it, and I have all the handouts in a pile. Everytime I spent a moment dealing with him, the other kids were off doing things they shouldn’t, mostly playing music. I could deal with it if were in the room by ourselves, but we only have a divider seperating my class from the rest of the room.

    Thankfully I have my AP kids right before them. They are SO cool. Best group of AP kids I’ve ever had as they ALL want to work they all want to pass the class and pass the test and THEY ask me for help. I feel like it’s all student driven. I really think they were the only group that the old teacher taught, but these kids were special before him. I had 5 of them before, three I really don’t know.

    The other fun thing is that each week I seem to get something “back”. The week before spring break I got my AP contract. Today I found my little file cabinet. I am still looking for my desk and my rolling chair. I think the teacher in the other half has it. I wish I could get my closet back…

    So it’s better.

  • Protonix

    Well, it’s being processed and it looks like I’m getting 90 pills again. Oh well….

    And I wish I knew how to prevent bad attacks. My blood sugar was too low at 9:30, so I ate 15 club crackers and some cheese to slow it down — don’t know exactly how much but was sharing it with the dogs.

    Woke up at 4:00 am freezing as I had not turn on my CPAP heated humidifer and then immediately had the worst reflux attack in a while. Was able to go back to sleep, but woke up coughing and been coughing and refluxing all day.

    I’m not as cranky as I expected, at least.

  • Getting the big head

    Yeah, today people have been trying to make me get the “big head.”.

    One of the most annoying thing about my parents is that they rarely praised me because they thought I might quite trying….

    Anyway, I just have to tell these two stories ….

    One of my coworkers interrupted another teacher and I trying to solve a problem … but oh well, here’s what the other teacher had to say:

    “Do you remember x? I’m teaching her now (she home schools our students who can’t attend school). She says that you are an awesome teacher” (Note: I am quoting here.

    Yes, I did remember her. The other teacher told me that she said that she had been passing my class and was actually getting Algebra until they transferred her to another teacher (they did that with almost all the kids that I got to pass Algebra last semester, long story, I’m not telling it again today). Ever since then she wasn’t getting it and wasn’t passing.

    Well, it makes you both happy and sad. Happy that your work is being recognized, happy that you could turn a kid around, but very sad you couldn’t make it continue past you.

    ===

    But it gets better. I have been having a weird network problem in my lab. Couldn’t figure it out, so I had asked a guy that wrote some of the network software I use if he could shed any light. I’m only SO good at networking. He volunteered to troubleshoot the network and did today and pinpointed our problem.

    While I had him on the phone I told him the story I haven’t told here, and when I finished, I heard dumbfounded on the line (yeah, you can hear it if you listen hard). His response? I’ve been in lots of computer classrooms over the yeras and you are one the 10 best computer science teachers I’ve ever seen.

    So yeah, I’m getting the big head.

    Hey, it’s my blog, I can post what I want.

  • As a veteran teacher…

    My response to this study is “duh!”

    CNN.com – Study: Treating mom can prevent kids’ depression – Mar 21, 2006

    Researchers say they’ve shown for the first time that treating a mother’s depression can help prevent depression and anxiety disorders in her child, a provocative finding with potentially big public health implications.

    By the way, man that is scary but at 14 years, I’m a veteran teacher.

  • A lousy 15 minutes

    I have to blog about this, as it irritates the heck out of me, but part of the school schedule change has involved lunch times.

    My schedule at the beginning of the year — first through third periods straight, then A Lunch, then off fifth period (about two hours after lunch), and then two classes periods at the end of the day, was just about perfect for controlling blood sugar.

    The schedule I have now is more difficult. I have third period off, then C lunch, and then work through the rest of the day. The smart thing to do is to eat something small during my planning period. However, I’m not always smart.

    Today is one of those day’s that it doesn’t work. This is a kink in the works called prime time. It pushes our lunch period back by 15 minutes. No big deal right? Well, at our normal lunch time, my blood sugar was at 80. Yeah, 80. So I ate some sugar. I hate eating sugar when I’m low. Bolused too because if I don’t I’m going to be too high during AP Computer Science. Trust me, you don’t want to have brain sludge with AP CS students. You and they will be crazy.

    Right now I’m waiting for the sugar to kick in. My hands shake, and I’m a bit on the bitchy side. By the way, being on the bitchy side doesn’t work with teenagers.

  • Exercise Accomplishment

    I’ve been fighting a knee injury since about the 1st week of January. Went through PT and the whole bit.

    Well, made a major milestone for me — the first time since the injury, I’ve managed to do a 30 minute walking workout in one session!

    I’ve been working up from 2.5 minute sessions to 10, and tonight just bit the bullet, went slow, but did the full 30 minutes in one session without a break.