It’s been a while. Bladder and brain still not in unison. Where do I start?

Everyone should travel with one of these…

Well, Dad had horrible throat injury after a fall. 14 stitches 2 hospitals and 6 days later I made it to Scotland. And …. So did he! Awesome.

So did E …determined to live with cancer and M who was equally determined to get

there despite horrendous rheumatic pain. Thanks to the fabulous DG who woke my neighbour, stole into my house, found the necessary stuff, blagged thru customs and got precious bladder instillation kit to me in Scotland. Carefully packaged in beautiful choc box. Another jetsetter
replied: ‘Brilliant
> Everyone should travel with one of those boxes!
> You could market them in a special stall alongside Thomas pink shirts and Bvlgari handbags or whatever they sell in there in airport lounges‘.

Jerome too, sent scripts hither and thither. That kept me upright.

The wedding? St Andrews Scotland. Utterly, incredibly, emotionally and resoundingly HAPPY.

This the wedding of young D,  our eldest. He came to us age 7. Orphaned. Angry. Lost. He has married wonderful fabulous N. They are both:Calm. Brilliant. Practical.  HAPPY. I am so proud so bloody proud. Worth all those spreadsheets, the queries, the lists the worry…the cheques! Worth every bloomin bit.  The 8 cousins a tight band of tall beautiful young people. The next generation secure. The boys in morning suits or kilts. Our girls in beautiful dresses. So happy. Such fun. Such a team. Whoop.  The speeches hilarious reminders of the crazy things we used to ( still do?) do! Honeymoon? They went back to the first place we ever took all six of us to, all those years ago.

A few days in hospital thanks to Jerome to restore bladder to brain. Then final week of term. MathsRocks with Year 7 continued unabated. Parent-teacher consultations were booked for me in my (hospital) absence. I’m thinking doctors surgeries might be similar. So after full day of teaching, at work by 7.00 am. Though school nurse sent me home at 12.00. BP and massive headache soared after dealing with fallout of sad angry boys. I went home. Shower. Pee. Cath. Instil gent.Clean clothes. Returned.  

My ‘surgery’ slots: 10 minutes per child, starting at 3:00 finishing at 7:00.  Well in theory.
The maths just doesn’t work. 45 children. I kept going somehow. No breaks. No tea. No pee. Bladder unhappy. Sipping my own bottle of Tesco H2O. I managed somehow. Cutting time. Talking faster. Combining children. Laptop open for: the Data, Googleclass site for homework ( they loved that). One member of staff tried to pull rank and beat my queue. Tsk. Last parent was with her son, one I needed to spend time with. Good kid he’s muddled kid though. Top-tip book the last appointment. Be prepared to wait. Staggered home. Could not move. Asleep in seconds. Fully clothed. Battery charger attached:

A few days later we found ourselves in Portugal. Guests of A and K. They know us better than we know ourselves. We were so well looked after. We slept. Swam. Sipped. Slept. Supped. Slept again. Walked the beach. Chattering – all day! Slept again. We were so well looked after. We are tough, rarely admit defeat. I for one had had it. Popping antibiotics refusing painkillers and keeping going taking its toll.
After that? family time. G rang me. Suspected meningitis. Went to check him out in Chamonix. He’s fine now. Met his fabulous young groovy geeky colleagues.  They are doing jobs that hadn’t been invented when we were 24. They are fabulous. Even managed a tiny ski. G- no- knee J- bionic- wired up- old lady, we did it. Just a tiny bit. There’s something unbelievably restorative about sitting on top of a mountain. Sipping coffee and writing a blog. I just stayed there. Checking emails. Marking 6th form work online. G and I watched House of Cards every single episode. Fabulous!

Heard from Jerome. He’s writing guidelines. Phew. Glad, personally, that it’s him doing the guidelines. Tricky job. We lazy teachers are supposed to be following guidelines written by anonymous civil servants with clearly no idea what it’s like standing in front of 44 different characters. Like doctors patients, our students not necessarily English first language. Home circumstances often shit. Teaching, counselling, nurturing, building trust, comes before stupid exams. One size does not fit all. I see DfE has already withdrawn their latest guideline. Why? Because the teachers explained its impracticality. How much did that cost in mandarin time? Frrrr.  Instincts must overrule but, evidence base helps build up understanding and wider knowledge to generalise then individualise. I’m thinking doctors faced with the same. But if we get it wrong no one dies. Well, not usually!

I’ve not got any appointments with Dipstick. He cancelled the last one at the last minute. I’ll summon my bestest calm and ring again & again need SNS  rep. That was all arranged,but cancelled. Blimey if I cancelled parent teacher meetings, because I’d forgotten I was at a conference, in America, I’d be sacked. Or the parents would tear me limb from limb.  I need to make big decision about work. It’s bloody struggle to keep going. But I love it. Mostly.  Maybe ultimately worth stopping altogether. Taking total break.

I want to ask someone somewhere to go through the long list of bloody drugs I take. What am I doing to myself? What are the interactions? (Evidence Base?) Maybe if I take nothing at all for anything  at all….but my own anecdotal Evidence Base says that’s not sensible nor workable.  I’m speaking as a patient at a conference in Berlin. April 18th. EekThere’s a thought… there was an idea of using Germany contacts for help?
Better get up now. I’ll take some antibiotics else I’ll not even get up today …

Downloading buzzing brain distraction from bloody bladder spasms hitting.

J