March 13, 2014

Last night I woke up a little before two o'clock, maybe 1:45AM, because my throat was bothering me so much. And I ended up staying up past three o'clock drinking water and sucking on cough drops. Thanks to my throat it was a fairly restless night.

Today was regular day at work. I was exhausted but my kidney didn't hurt so that was nice. My goal for the day was to finish organizing test tickets. I ended up being at work an extra twenty minutes but I got the job done. The tickets are printed off by grade so after cutting them out I had to divide them into classes. Next I pulled out all the kids with accommodations that will be tested outside the lab. Then I organized each class in seating chart order so I can just walk along and put the tickets on the computers without having to fumble with them. I had to do this I think eight times for each class because of the different sections for each test. It took forever. Then I paper-clipped each organized section, the in-lab group and the accommodation group, and them paper-clipped both of those together because more often then not the accommodation kids take their tests at the same time as the in-lab kids. All of this is a very tedious process but it makes testing go a lot smoother when it is done in advance. It also helped me catch five or six kids who for one reason or another didn't have tickets printed for them. We had one kid like that last year that we didn't catch and it was a pain in the but trying to get her a ticket every time her class had a test.

The only thing I have left to do is finish putting the testing software on the laptop carts for fourth, fifth, and sixth grade. Pretty much everyone will be testing in the lab and I already put the software on two laptop carts, so there are more than enough computers, but better safe than sorry I guess. Now we just need to figure out the test. Some schools in the district have already tried taking the test because the window is open, but so far we have a 0% completion rate. Most kids can't log-in, others have had crashes, if a test is stopped it can't be restarted, and on and on. I think we still have another week after Spring Break before we start so hopefully everything will be fixed by then. And hopefully they can get the practice and formatives working over Spring Break so classes can actually experience the new test before they have to take it. Right now the formatives are a good simulator for the real test, in that they are broken.

On my way home I bought some Gatorade and Powerball tickets. When I got home I ate a banana and mixed the Magnesium Citrate with some lemon-lime Gatorade. I don't really like that flavor of Gatorade but I figured it made sense with the lemon flavored Magnesium Citrate. I guess it worked but the MC was so overwhelmingly tart. It's like someone dissolved Warheads and every other sour and sweet candy they could think of into carbonated water. I managed to down it fairly quickly but yuck. I washed it down with some deliciously plain water and then had a few crackers to cover it up. It took about two or three hours to kick in but it did eventually. I was reading about how it works and that is fascinating, but experiencing it is annoying.

Right now I want to go to sleep, and have wanted to since around the time I woke up this morning, but I am waiting to see if the anesthesiologist will call me back. I missed the call earlier and immediately called back and left my number on a beeper (which I guess is a thing still) but haven't heard back. I was a little surprised to even get a call because the last time I scheduled a kidney stone surgery, the more invasive one, I didn't get a single call the night before. And so far I've gotten three or four. I am feeling way more comfortable about this one. The only thing that I'm a little worried about is my sore throat. I called the doctor today at school and talked to the nurse. Apparently as long as I don't have a fever, chills, or upset stomach, then I should be fine. So I should be good if nothing drastic happens overnight. We'll see how I feel in the morning.

March 12, 2014

This morning I had my appointment with my new urologist. My first impression is that I like him. My last one was a nice guy but I was never fully comfortable with him. And his suggestions were a change in diet and exercise, which I did and just made more kidney stones. So I have moved onto a second opinion. To deal with the current kidney stone I am having a lithotripsy on Friday, and I have to be at the hospital at 5:30AM which sucks. Lithotripsy is when they identify where the stone is and then blast it with a shock wave to break it up. I will have to be knocked out for this and according to what I've read, this is to prevent any discomfort and because it takes awhile and they don't want me moving around. My throat is still a little sore and I've been a bit coughy tonight so I am hoping that doesn't become an actual sickness by Friday because I would prefer not to push this back anymore. I want to get it over with and move onto figuring out why my body is way too good at making stones in the first place.

I was still feeling fairly good after my appointment so I ended up going to work. All day I felt tired and hungry and somewhat uncomfortable, but it never evolved into actual pain. Which allowed me to have a fairly productive day. I cut out the test tickets for state assessments, organized them into classes and specific tests, and got a start on organizing them further based on the seating chart for each class. Not a bad start. I also had second grade reading groups and a few classes in the lab.

After school I went and got the stuff I have to to drink tomorrow to clean me out before surgery. It says it is lemon flavored but I think I am going to buy some Gatorade or something to mix it with. Had I been thinking I would have bought that today when I was getting my Powerball tickets but I can do it tomorrow when I am buying my tickets for Saturday. Normally I would do that on Friday but that obviously won't work out this week.

Because my diet will be restricted tomorrow, and possibly the next day, and because I was feeling relatively alright today, I finally had the second half of my Chipotle burrito for dinner tonight. It was nice having real food for once.

After dinner I had the yearbook meeting. Which ended up being a pointless waste of thirty minutes. It ended up only being me and the mom I have been working with. The two people who didn't need the meeting since we already know what we're doing. We needed the other parents who expressed interest in helping to actually be there but not even one of them showed up. So we talked about a few things and then called it quits.

I am hoping I am still feeling decent tomorrow so I can get some more work done before Spring Break. Normally I wouldn't necessarily be looking forward to a week off but this kidney stone has been kicking my butt and I could really use a little vacation. Preferably one free from pain. I'll feel better about it though if I can tie up some loose state assessment ends at work beforehand though.

March 11, 2014

Today, work wasn't going to happen. I was up throughout the night and not too long after six o'clock this morning I threw up again. Not the best way to start a day. I ended up spending the majority of my day laying on my heating pad on my bed. I watched YouTube videos, took a bunch of naps, and started reading a new book because I only have four or five others going at the moment.

Around eleven o'clock I was starving and ended up slowly eating a bunch of toast. At 11:30AM, with the toast safely in my stomach, I took another pain pill. On the instructions it said that taking it with food might help with the nausea and I was hoping the toast was enough. Another tip was to lay down for an hour or two after taking the pill, trying to not move your head. So I laid back perfectly still and and closed my eyes for the next two hours. I did move on occasion and it was enough to feel a bit of the nausea to return so I would quickly return to playing dead.

Around 5:45PM I felt game enough to have a pudding cup and a jello cup. Butterscotch pudding and strawberry jello have never tasted so good. A couple hours later I was feeling pretty good and thought I might be up to finally eating the second half of my Chipotle burrito from last week. Then my mom told me to think about it coming back up. That instantly made me lose my appetite for a burrito. Instead I went with a banana, more pudding and jello, a cheese stick, crackers, and living on the edge, a few buffalo cheddar chips.

I spent the rest of the night watching a few shows I had DVRed. At the moment, I am still feeling pretty good. I am still a bit achy but I haven't had any significant pain for several hours. Fingers crossed that holds for awhile. I was hoping to have an appointment with a urologist today but I wasn't able to get in until tomorrow morning. Which means I'll be missing more work. And that sucks because there is still a lot to do before state assessments start. But maybe my kidney will hold out and I will be able to get in another day of work before Spring Break.

March 10, 2014

It is embarrassing how long it took me to find my doctor's number in the phone book this morning. I started looking up the name of the office in the normal white pages because that is where it used to be. But apparently it has moved. Then I tried several other variations of everything I could think of, both in the white pages and the yellow pages, and got nothing. Almost ten minutes of that and I was already late to work. Then, as I was about to head to the door I had the brilliant idea to look up 'physician' in the yellow pages. Success. The office didn't open until 8:30AM so a little while after getting to work I called and made an appointment for after work.

My only real bit of productivity today coming up with and committing to an idea for putting teacher portraits on their class page. Because I can't move portraits on a page to where I want, just shift them to the right, I shifted the whole first row down to the second. Then I added the teacher portrait, which came out way too big so I had to do a lot of work to make it the same size as the kids, onto that line with their name in a big font next to it. I might makes changes to it later but at the moment I think it looks decent.

Around lunch my kidney started hurting and it only got progressively worse throughout the day. But I made it all the way to the end, mostly because the last class in the lab was planning on breaking the ice and trying a formative test for the state assessment. I'm glad I stayed but it didn't go well. On the Language Arts test they could answer all the questions but when the kids got to the end and clicked Review, an error popped up and kicked them back to the test menu, not saving the results. On the Math test, the kids couldn't even answer the questions. They could start on any question they wanted but as soon as they answered it and attempted to move on, they would get an error and booted back to the test menu. Kind of frustrating. Hopefully that can get sorted out before testing starts.

Right after school I went to my appointment. From my x-ray I learned two things. The first is that I'm not a malingerer, I have a kidney stone, and it is possibly around 6mm big. That is a new record for me. It is generally believed that stones over 4mm cannot be passed on their own. This made sense when I saw that after almost a month of dealing with it, the stone had barely left my kidney. That was disheartening. It was after five o'clock by the end of the appointment but in the morning they are going to call and schedule an appointment for me with a new urologist. I told my doctor that I had tried my current urologist's advice and just made more stones so I was interested in another opinion. This guy is apparently fairly new out of residency so hopefully he will have some more updated views on kidney stones.

I also mentioned to my doctor that Hydrocodone and Oxycodone don't seem to have much effect on me so he wrote me a prescription for Percocet. On one of my trips to the ER they had to combine that with other stuff before I could feel any relief but my doctor gave me a really high dosage. I took the first one and kind of felt it but not really so two hours later I took another one. And two and a half hours later, shortly after finally managing to eat a little bread and butter for dinner, the Percocet hit me like a ton of bricks. In fact, I am picking this up again after just running to the bathroom to throw up. Nothing like copious amount of bread and water shooting out of your mouth and nose. And now my sore throat hurts even more. I hadn't shut my bedroom door when I ran to the bathroom so when I got back I had to bribe Tanner with a cracker to get him off my bed and out of my room. And then had to give a cracker to Alfie and Beau to keep everything fair.

I had a few bouts of decent pain throughout my evening, which I spent most of lying on my heating pad and watching YouTube videos. My goal is to go to work tomorrow but if tonight was any indication I don't know that I'll make it. And I don't know how soon or late I can get in to see the urologist. Right now it is late and I am tired so I am going to eat a few crackers and then go to bed. And hopefully not be disturbed by pain throughout the night.

March 9, 2014

Much like yesterday, today kind of sucked. The only bright side was that I wasn't at work today. Around five o'clock this morning it felt like maybe the stone moved a little bit and unblocked my kidney so I got a little bit of relief. But all day my kidney hurt. It never really peaked out but it is definitely a sharp ache. The only time I feel kind of okay is when I'm laying kind of on my side with my heating pad. This, along with a big lack of sleep last night, lead to a lot of napping today. A lot. So I didn't do much of anything today because when I wasn't incredibly uncomfortable, I was sleeping. I am really hoping that I will feel completely fine in the morning. I am doubting it though. Regardless of how I feel, I will be calling my doctor in the morning and scheduling an appointment. Either after school if I am feeling good enough for work, or as soon as possible if I am still feeling like crap and can't make it to work.

Now my throat hurts. I had a couple spicy chips for dinner and I think they are too blame. Cough drops aren't doing a thing. My life is great right now. I want to sleep, even with all the napping, but I think I'm going to bounce around for awhile and see if I can get lucky and find some relief.

March 8, 2014

Today kind of sucked. My kidney started to hurt shortly after I woke up and never really went away. I went to work, despite the discomfort and thankfully made it through my shift. I spent a lot of my time with my eyes closed, trying to pretend my kidney didn't really hurt. The rest of my time was spent reading, both a book and the newspaper.

My current kidney theory is that my stone almost completely blocked my left ureter. My basis for this is that I didn't seem to be going to the bathroom as much as I should have been considering the amount of water I was drinking. And, shortly after drinking a good amount of water, my kidney would start hurting and my left side would become sensitive to touch.

I had a few crackers for dinner but spent most of the night feeling nauseous. I also did a lot of jumping up and down, with some time spent curled up in a ball on my heating pad. Needless to say, it was a long night. My goal was to put up with it through the night and then go to the ER on Sunday if things hadn't improved. It is now close to 4:00AM but I think I can finally go to bed. Not because my kidney is all good now, it still hurts, but combined with my heating pad and just the right position (and being completely exhausted), I think I can get some sleep.

March 7, 2014

After sending an email out about the popcorn this morning, I emailed one of the resource teachers and one of the second grade teachers to see if they needed any work done because I couldn't take another day of downloading fonts. Neither teacher failed me. For the second grade teacher, I entered grades, made copies, printed off information about a couple famous people, and returned books to the library.

The resource teacher had me make an idiom game for her. I made the cards where I picked an idiom from a list and then used it in a sentence. Some of them were pretty tricky but was eventually able to come up with twenty-four sentences. The second part of the project, after printing the cards and cutting them out, was to laminate them. The only problem was that the laminator was broken. Before I knew this I mentioned to one of the ladies in the office that the laminator needed more plastic. The broken part was that the plastic kept wrapping around the rollers and jamming. It appeared to be due to static. After quite a bit of work we eventually got it working. Or so we thought. After it heated up I started running cards through and the plastic ended up wrapping around the back set of rollers, which I hadn't even seen before. So I cut out the wrapped up plastic and slowly ran it through until it was for sure coming out the back and not getting hung up on rollers. By the time all of that got figured out I only had time to cut out half of the cards before the end of the day. But I felt pretty accomplished about it all.

The representative from the yearbook company stopped by today. He's kind of an awkward old man. And it was an awkward conversation. He asked me how things were going and if I had any problems. I mentioned the problem of portraits from last year coming out bigger than the new ones and the fact that I could get the teachers' portraits to stay at the beginning of their class on the individual pages. But it turns out he really didn't want to know about any problems because he just suggested I try calling the support number. Not very helpful but whatever.

After work I stopped by my sister's house because she had more of the chocolate dipped peanut butter cookies for me. Then I stopped and got Powerball tickets and a newspaper because the headline said Crimea had voted to annex itself and join Russia. This ended up being a very misleading headline because what they actually did was vote to move up the vote to annex itself. Close but not really.

The talent show was interesting. There were some good parts but for most of it I couldn't really see or hear what was going on. The stage is too low and the sound system sucks. There were also thirty-four acts. That's asking a lot and our talent pool at the school isn't that deep. There were also four different versions of Let It Go from Frozen. It all ended up taking two hours but it felt a lot longer. But I'm glad I went because there were a lot of worthwhile acts, at least of the ones I could see and/or hear.

When I got home I had dinner and watched some TV. At the moment my kidney is feeling kind of weird but I am going to try and go to bed because I am really tired and I have to work in the morning. I just want to sleep.