Hey now!

[hitwoman]

Called my doctor's office today. I was told prior to surgery that I'd have to give up Advil, aspirin, Alleve, and basically everything else except for Tylenol and the prescription pain meds I got after surgery. Turns out that Tylenol works like CRAP for cramps, and the prescription pain meds make me...well, I don't even know how to describe it. It'

Comments

[lovinlorne]

"Yay!" on the Advil.

"Boo!" on the job situation.

"Awwww..." on the pumpkin loaves.

You're out for Christmas break after tomorrow, right? Two weeks? Hopefully you'll be able to recharge your batteries and things might not seem so bad.

[hitwoman]

I am SO out for two weeks. YAY for Christmas break!! It won't improve my job sitch--nothing will until my waste-of-space principal moves on, and since no one would EVER hire her except a superintendent looking for an easily manipulated puppet, that won't ever happen--but at least I can get caught up on sleep and let the stress subside a bit. So, YAY!!

[phantom_queen]

I think I'm lost. You're having surgery and had to stop the pain pills because of blood thinning or you had surgery in the past and can no longer take anything buy Tylenol?

[hitwoman]

After reading this post, I can't imagine why on earth you'd be lost. I was a little bit out of it when I posted, I think. ;)

I had weight loss surgery in August, and since I have a much smaller stomach now I was told I'd never be able to take Advil again. Advil has always been my go-to for all kinds of pain, but especially for cramps. Now the nurse says I can have Advil so long as I'm very very careful, basically. So YAY.

[phantom_queen]

Ah, I get it now. Best of luck with the weight loss!

[kaethe]

I totally hear you on the state and admin taking the joy out of teaching.

A lot of people have had success with using either menstrual cups or cloth pads to reduce cramping. Or, more accurately, reduced cramping was a side effect of using menstrual cups or cloth pads. My cramps were never as bad as you're describing, but since using a Diva Cup, they're almost non-existent. It might be worth googling, at least.

[hitwoman]

Isn't it sad? Always in the past, I'd say things like, "I love my job, but I hate the politics/bureaucracy/paperwork/etc". Or I'd talk about how much I love my kids or the actual teaching or whatever. But between the STAAR writing test, the STAAR reading test, and my administrators, it's so very bad that I'm not seeing any redeeming qualities whatsoever. None. Right now there is nothing in my job I love well enough to be able to stomach all that. No joy. :(

I've looked into Diva Cups before, but I think I'm just too squeamish. The whole idea of it kind of grosses me out.

[kaethe]

Do your kids have to write 23483028423 compositions on the 4th grade STAAR, too? (By which I mean 3, which is ridiculous.) The multiple choice doesn't really seem all that different from what we've seen, but 3 one-page compositions is a killer.

The first time I heard about menstrual cups, I was all "you want me to do what with what?" but after using it for one cycle, it was truly no big deal. It's like having a period once a day instead of all day. But if that's not your thing, you might look into cloth pads. I know they're all over etsy, or you could find a pattern to make them yourself if you're good with sewing.

[hitwoman]

Well, we do have to write 2, which is new for us. We'd only ever written one before. And there is a FOUR HOUR TIME LIMIT. I usually have my kids work through 5 stages of prewriting including a rough draft, so that'll be out now. And one of our writings will be nonfiction, which is another reason my hair is falling out and I can't sleep at night.

The multiple choice for us is exponentially more difficult. We went from having to choose the correct verb form or pronoun to having to identify the correct transitional word or phrase. There's a huge difference between knowing if you should use "you" or "I" or "me" versus having to identify if it should be "although" or "because". Did I mention how much I really really hate my job?

I think I'm going to stick with my old stand-by tampons. I know that they make cramps worse, but since I can take advil again I can deal. And I just don't think I could do with anything that can't be thrown or flushed away.