Sick

I feel terrible and look worse. I have been fighting some sort of respiratory/throat issue for over a week. Each day I think I'm going to start feeling better, but I only seem to feel worse. I finally completely lost my voice yesterday and during the night the infection migrated to my eyes and I woke with a raging case of pinkeye. I went to the medical clinic as soon as it opened at 8 and was told that I was not to teach until after I saw the doctor. I cancelled my first class and went to see the doctor. He confirmed that I had a raging infection in my throat that had migrated to my eyes and that I was highly contagious. Now, unlike at elementary and secondary schools, there are not necessarily rules for not bringing pinkeye into the college classroom. However, spreading germs is definitely frowned on and since my students are all also doing placements in the local schools, he strongly recommended that I not return to my classroom until the infection clears up. He did point out that this infection was most likely a "present" from one of my Dordt students since I'm the only at home who is sick.

So, I am on two antibiotics (one is an antibiotic eye drop). He said it would be three to five days before the pinkeye cleared up and given that I'm "not as young as I used to be," it could be a full week. Obviously, I have no intention of missing that much school, but with the weekend, I could agree to the three days that he considered best case scenario. I brought piles of books home, planning to get lots of work done, and then spent the entire day sleeping, drinking tea, and reading an Agatha Christie that Dwight had gotten me from the library. I guess all that work will have to wait till tomorrow.

In other news, the first case of H1N1 has been reported at Sioux Center Christian School. That is the school Maria and Jon Felipe attend. Also, a parapro has been hired to support Jon Felipe's learning. She starts Monday and I am really praying that she and Jon work well together. He has been really trying hard to please his teacher and she has sent us notes every day this week about how well he is doing. He is SO proud of himself. I have to note, though, that he has a crush on a little girl in his class named Jamaica and I think she may be a bigger motivator toward good behavior than the teacher :-)