So I just got back from the clinic. Some expected news, and some amazing news!
Left foot - the temporary cast is gone. I'm now just in a tensor bandage + sandal. Starting even today, I can start putting a little bit of weight on it. The bone is chipped, as I guessed. The doctor likened it to a rope attached to an anchor on the wall. If you pull it enough to detach the anchor, sometimes paint flecks come off the wall with it. So for me, the tendon straining pulled away a bit of bone.
Right foot - the boot is here to stay for 6 weeks. Towards the end of this week, I can start putting a bit of weight on it as well. I go back in 6 weeks for more x-rays on this one. This doctor showed me my x-rays - you can definitely see the piece and how it has moved. The bone can apparently build a bridge to where the piece is.
So this means that towards the end of this week, I can start using crutches, if I'm careful. I'll be on crutches for a couple of weeks, gradually putting more weight on both feet. After that, I won't need them at all, and can just walk. Carefully.
The doctor said that I shouldn't go back to camp for at least another week, and it would be better if it's more like two. So I will miss the end of spring, and staff camp, but should be there in time for the start of summer. Even though I shouldn't technically need crutches at that point, I'll still bring them, because walking at camp could be difficult.
So all in all, this news is pretty much the best scenario I could have imagined. For having both sides busted, that is.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
25
Well here we are. It is June 20, 2009. I am on my couch (surprise surprise). It's been quite a year...
-24 and so much more bday song from the Milnes
-hating camp, loving camp
-U of W, education, our cohort, profs, Genesis, "The Bench"
-Holy Cross community, the girls, early mornings with Anne, "whatcha gonna name that baby?," being a teacher-face
-Chris' cancer
-baby Sam Lion, baby Kira Lion, and "I don't want her to put me to bed"
-public transit
-Christmas in Toronto
-President of Paddle Manitoba
And the moral of the story is: When your parents' health insurance program kicks you out on your 25th birthday, don't break both ankles 6 days before it. Just sayin'.
-24 and so much more bday song from the Milnes
-hating camp, loving camp
-U of W, education, our cohort, profs, Genesis, "The Bench"
-Holy Cross community, the girls, early mornings with Anne, "whatcha gonna name that baby?," being a teacher-face
-Chris' cancer
-baby Sam Lion, baby Kira Lion, and "I don't want her to put me to bed"
-public transit
-Christmas in Toronto
-President of Paddle Manitoba
And the moral of the story is: When your parents' health insurance program kicks you out on your 25th birthday, don't break both ankles 6 days before it. Just sayin'.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
thing 1 and thing 2
To all and sundry:
So something exciting happened to me on Sunday. And by exciting, I mean super sucky!
I was in Winnipeg, at FortWhyte Alive for PaddleFest, which is a day-long event celebrating kayaking and canoeing in Manitoba. Families come, we run clinics, there are displays, chances to try out different boats, etc etc. In the morning, before it started, we were setting up, which involved moving canoes and kayaks. Jeremiah and I had canoes on the trailer that we'd driven over from another part of the site, and we were unloading them, carrying them down from the parking lot to the water.
Now these canoes. They are called Mad Rivers. They weigh about 90 lbs. I got one up from the trailer to portage it down to the water. All went well, smooth, rolled it down properly, etc etc. So I go back for a second boat. This time, walking down the grassy slope, I must have stepped on something or slipped, since next thing I knew, I was falling down with the boat on top of me. Both ankles started to swell up right away, but the right way more so than the left.
To make a long story short, I am now hung up on my couch with not one, but two busted limbs. I broke a metatarsal (foot bone) in my right foot, and it's slightly displaced. I am in a walking cast on that side for the summer, but I'm not allowed to walk on it yet. On the left side, they think I might have chipped my tibia, but because of the swelling, they couldn't tell yet. I have a temporary cast, and I go back one week from today to get more xrays. If it is chipped, I will be in a typical plaster cast for the summer as well, and I won't be able to put weight on it at all. The clinic sent me home without any pain meds, but thankfully our neighbour is a doctor. My parents and Martha are being so patient in bringing me things I need, since the only way I can get around all that effectively is by crawling.
So what does all this mean? Well, I'm stuck at home from camp for now. I'm hoping that as the right heals, I will be able to switch from wheelchair to crutches and go back out to the island. Even if all I can do is sit on a stool in the kitchen and chop veggies, at least I would be doing something besides sitting on the couch watching re-runs of CSI. It's been really hard to think about being separate from the community, especially after this season had been going SO well for me. So I'm really hoping and praying that I will be able to make it back out to camp soon.
If you're in Winnipeg, visits are more than welcome if you call ahead. I've been so thankful for the visits, phone calls, emails, facebook messages, etc etc, of the last couple of days.
Check back for updates!
So something exciting happened to me on Sunday. And by exciting, I mean super sucky!
I was in Winnipeg, at FortWhyte Alive for PaddleFest, which is a day-long event celebrating kayaking and canoeing in Manitoba. Families come, we run clinics, there are displays, chances to try out different boats, etc etc. In the morning, before it started, we were setting up, which involved moving canoes and kayaks. Jeremiah and I had canoes on the trailer that we'd driven over from another part of the site, and we were unloading them, carrying them down from the parking lot to the water.
Now these canoes. They are called Mad Rivers. They weigh about 90 lbs. I got one up from the trailer to portage it down to the water. All went well, smooth, rolled it down properly, etc etc. So I go back for a second boat. This time, walking down the grassy slope, I must have stepped on something or slipped, since next thing I knew, I was falling down with the boat on top of me. Both ankles started to swell up right away, but the right way more so than the left.
To make a long story short, I am now hung up on my couch with not one, but two busted limbs. I broke a metatarsal (foot bone) in my right foot, and it's slightly displaced. I am in a walking cast on that side for the summer, but I'm not allowed to walk on it yet. On the left side, they think I might have chipped my tibia, but because of the swelling, they couldn't tell yet. I have a temporary cast, and I go back one week from today to get more xrays. If it is chipped, I will be in a typical plaster cast for the summer as well, and I won't be able to put weight on it at all. The clinic sent me home without any pain meds, but thankfully our neighbour is a doctor. My parents and Martha are being so patient in bringing me things I need, since the only way I can get around all that effectively is by crawling.
So what does all this mean? Well, I'm stuck at home from camp for now. I'm hoping that as the right heals, I will be able to switch from wheelchair to crutches and go back out to the island. Even if all I can do is sit on a stool in the kitchen and chop veggies, at least I would be doing something besides sitting on the couch watching re-runs of CSI. It's been really hard to think about being separate from the community, especially after this season had been going SO well for me. So I'm really hoping and praying that I will be able to make it back out to camp soon.
If you're in Winnipeg, visits are more than welcome if you call ahead. I've been so thankful for the visits, phone calls, emails, facebook messages, etc etc, of the last couple of days.
Check back for updates!
Friday, May 1, 2009
done!
It's a sort of overwhelming feeling, to think of being finished this year. I'm not sure how best to blog about it. Practicum has been so significant, so challenging, so everything, that the idea of moving on is weird! HC has been a challenging, supportive, warm place that I have been so blessed to be a part of. It's so much a part of me.
The best part of my day? The most real hug from my favourite before-you-were-born seven-year-old. Happy birthday, kid.
The best part of my day? The most real hug from my favourite before-you-were-born seven-year-old. Happy birthday, kid.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
countdown
I have a bittersweet countdown on at the moment. 8 days of school left until the end of my practicum block.
Sweet: Summer, camp, freedom, lack of alarm clock, paddling, time, relaxing, reading.
Also sweet: Done with cheating in gym games, done with loud children (oh, wait.. done with these ones, anyway), done with tattling, with chasing after kids to hand in their work, with attitude (until September), with lesson planning, etc.
Bitter: Done at Holy Cross. Everything that goes with that. Toni. Kelly, Anne, Holly, Myra, etc. The mini-Klusies. Being silly in gym classes, love and hugs, little children in uniforms. Not seeing them next year, how they grow, etc.
Also bitter: What am I getting myself in to with camp, with last year how it was?
I couldn't have imagined a better practicum experience, so it's going to be really hard to say goodbye!
Camp folk head out on Monday, walking across the ice. By the time I'm done school, it should have started to break up, which means that I will likely be in a holding pattern for a week or more because I won't be able to get across to the island. I'll be impatient to get out there and get going, but it'll be nice to have some down time instead of a 48-hour turn-around from school.
Sweet: Summer, camp, freedom, lack of alarm clock, paddling, time, relaxing, reading.
Also sweet: Done with cheating in gym games, done with loud children (oh, wait.. done with these ones, anyway), done with tattling, with chasing after kids to hand in their work, with attitude (until September), with lesson planning, etc.
Bitter: Done at Holy Cross. Everything that goes with that. Toni. Kelly, Anne, Holly, Myra, etc. The mini-Klusies. Being silly in gym classes, love and hugs, little children in uniforms. Not seeing them next year, how they grow, etc.
Also bitter: What am I getting myself in to with camp, with last year how it was?
I couldn't have imagined a better practicum experience, so it's going to be really hard to say goodbye!
Camp folk head out on Monday, walking across the ice. By the time I'm done school, it should have started to break up, which means that I will likely be in a holding pattern for a week or more because I won't be able to get across to the island. I'll be impatient to get out there and get going, but it'll be nice to have some down time instead of a 48-hour turn-around from school.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
In the same day last week, I made two very different observations about kids and how they behave in public. Last Tuesday morning, I ran in to a bunch of my HC grade 8s at Tim Horton's. Now for the most part, they seemed vaguely embarrassed to see a teacher outside of school, but they still said hello and were polite. One of them even asked me a question, initiating actual conversation. Even in a pack, they weren't loud or disruptive in the store, they waited for their orders patiently, etc. I was proud of my kids!
On the way home on the bus that afternoon, I saw a couple of other kids. They looked to be in about grade 9. One of them had his cell phone going as an MP3 player, just playing in the bus (no headphones). The music wasn't the most pleasant I'd ever heard. An adult asked the kid to please turn it down. The kid looked up, didn't even look at the man, then looked down again, not even acknowledging what was said to him. And the music just kept going.
When at HC, I'm often unimpressed by the grade 8s, but I have to say that from seeing different kids and how they all behave out in public, they are a pretty good group.
On the way home on the bus that afternoon, I saw a couple of other kids. They looked to be in about grade 9. One of them had his cell phone going as an MP3 player, just playing in the bus (no headphones). The music wasn't the most pleasant I'd ever heard. An adult asked the kid to please turn it down. The kid looked up, didn't even look at the man, then looked down again, not even acknowledging what was said to him. And the music just kept going.
When at HC, I'm often unimpressed by the grade 8s, but I have to say that from seeing different kids and how they all behave out in public, they are a pretty good group.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
if I had a boat
Latest news on the non-school front:
Effective in just over a week, I am the president of Paddle Manitoba.
School today was really good, despite it being Thursday. The first class I have is one where the subject material can be dense and less tangible, but twice today, the whole class was laughing so hard that people were crying. We were doing mini-presentations about different types of teaching (direct, indirect, transmissive, transactional, etc). The group doing indirect was doing a mini-lesson plan on gravity and Aristotle's hypothesis that heavier objects fall faster than light ones. One group dropped an empty nalgene and a full nalgene as their two objects, and the full one must have hit at a point key to the structure of the thing because it shattered! To understand the other funny thing, you'd have to know the prof involved, but we were dying laughing. It made the day good.
Effective in just over a week, I am the president of Paddle Manitoba.
School today was really good, despite it being Thursday. The first class I have is one where the subject material can be dense and less tangible, but twice today, the whole class was laughing so hard that people were crying. We were doing mini-presentations about different types of teaching (direct, indirect, transmissive, transactional, etc). The group doing indirect was doing a mini-lesson plan on gravity and Aristotle's hypothesis that heavier objects fall faster than light ones. One group dropped an empty nalgene and a full nalgene as their two objects, and the full one must have hit at a point key to the structure of the thing because it shattered! To understand the other funny thing, you'd have to know the prof involved, but we were dying laughing. It made the day good.
Friday, January 23, 2009
busy!
If we weren't passed the initial calm of starting off the term, we are now.
I just realized that I have 8 things due for school in the next 3 weeks. That does not take in to account normal readings and little things that come up in classes. The 4th week is Reading Week, during which I have one thing due. Then the week we come back, there are 4. Oi? Where did this come from? And I'm only taking 4 classes right now!
I just realized that I have 8 things due for school in the next 3 weeks. That does not take in to account normal readings and little things that come up in classes. The 4th week is Reading Week, during which I have one thing due. Then the week we come back, there are 4. Oi? Where did this come from? And I'm only taking 4 classes right now!
Monday, January 19, 2009
Going back to university classes after student teaching is laaammmmmme.
Four classes this semester. Two are very practical and the prof (same for both) is great. One is a drier subject material, but I'm starting to really appreciate the prof. The fourth makes me want to poke my eyes out. It's completely useless.
Four classes this semester. Two are very practical and the prof (same for both) is great. One is a drier subject material, but I'm starting to really appreciate the prof. The fourth makes me want to poke my eyes out. It's completely useless.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
