It was a wretched day at school. I was sabotaged by our (incompetent) ISP, who did not come out to repair our wifi equipment until around 2PM, by which time all my classes were over. So instead of my students being able to share and peer edit their documents online, I had to fight the constantly-dropping connect to get their papers printed out so they would have something to do. Then, of course, they didn't really do anything but socialize, since they couldn't actually edit their papers.
That'll teach me not to have a backup lesson plan in case of technology failure! But today was especially bad since the students are now off on a 4-day weekend. It's our miniature "fall break" and I never assign homework over breaks like this if I can help it. We were at the end of a unit in both grades and there was no way I was starting another one. I'm still turning it over in the back of my head, what we should have done, and I'm still thinking that the hardcopy work-around was the best option, even if it was far from great.
The hassles were compounded by the fact that just last weekend, DH moved us all over to a new cellphone provider, and I couldn't get a mobile hotspot to help me print the papers out more easily. It took approximately 2 hours when it should have taken about 20 minutes, because the connection kept dropping. And of course I couldn't supervise the students while I was fighting to get their papers printed! It was just a very frustrating day, but still: lesson learned.
The other thing I learned? Hives can be caused by 1) viruses or 2) thyroid problems. I feel like I've been fighting off a cold for three weeks now, which is implausible to say the least. More likely this is another side-effect of my new dosage. For a while I had been thinking I was getting bitten by random mosquitoes (we do have some around school), but there aren't any mosquitoes or fleas at home and I'll just be sitting here and all of a sudden I've got itchy red welts on my hands or feet, or occasionally my neck. The pattern of localization tipped me off that something weird was going on, then a colleague mentioned to me this week that her daughter, a student in my home room, was dealing with hives as she was coming down with a cold. This absolutely blew my mind, because I've also had that coming-down-with-a-cold feeling for a while and hives, not bug bites! But in researching it just now, thyroid issues popped up as a common cause of chronic hives. I'm at about week 4 I'd say, so 2 more weeks and they classify as chronic. Let me add this to the list of complaints to mention to my doctor once I get my bloodwork done...
About that: I had an appointment for Wednesday at lunch which I had to cancel because I read the order and it said the draw had to be between 7 and 8AM. Ha! Let's see if I can manage to get that done in the next month.
Between the frustrations at work, the general fatigue and body aches, and the now-ever-present itchyness of hives, I'm about ready to just say forget it and put myself back on my old dose. I don't because I know Dr. A has my long-term health in mind and she is concerned that my old dose was stressing my heart and weakening my bones. That said, I'd rather live a shorter, less painful life than a longer one if I'm going to be feeling like this all the time.
That's probably just the (chronic) irritation talking. If I could just get more than 6 hours of sleep, catch up on all my grading, and not be itchy for a day, I think I'd feel a lot better. At least tomorrow is a non-contact day, but the trade-off is getting up early to drive to Xavier College Prep downtown for in-service. I am very much regretting not taking the day off! (Didn't I say that last year? Hmmm.)
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