It's January 25, 2013. Yes, I have reasons for not having written in my blog in so long (October, 2012) and yes, you're going to hear them!
I have been sick....very, very sick! That's one excuse. In fact, I'm still in Michigan at this point. More on this later.
I have been busy....very, very busy....and that's the truth!!!
So...first the busy part. I reread my post from October. I am teaching (or had been...and will be again soon) third graders in the "big school" as opposed to the ECE job I had last year. Now don't get me wrong, teaching little preschoolers keeps you hopping, too. In fact, at the end of last year, my knee was in serious pain because of all the activity in ECE. During the summer back home (Michigan), it looked like it may be a torn meniscus but there was no time to do anything about it other than physical therapy sessions before returning to Shishmaref. I'm happy to say that the switch to a classroom of older kids has eased the stress on my knee. It did, however, open up a new level of stress....learning a brand new curriculum and a way of teaching that I have not had to do in my over thirty years of teaching. It has been a whole new learning experience for me. In addition, I have a student teacher (intern) in my classroom this year which brought on lots of paperwork, etc. My student teacher is a sweetheart though.
Truly, I have been so busy that finding time to add to my blog was not easy. Also, for some reason, I couldn't access my blog when I tried and I didn't have the patience to figure out what was wrong. That's a whole different story and as you can see, I am able to access it right now.
Let me tell you about my illness....an interesting story for sure!!! But it's also a serious story. I'm half-tempted to post it by itself with a title of "WARNING! C-DIFF!" If you are a follower of my blog, please share this info with your family and friends.
The illness started rearing (appropriate word choice being that it had a lot to do with my rear) its ugly head on December 19 in Shishmaref with a grumbling gut and bouts of diarrhea on the last day of school before Christmas break. Fortunately, it was a half day and we were having an easy, fun morning planned. It was fortunate, too, in that I have some great people working in my room and they were able to basically run the show as I continued to go downhill fast.
That afternoon, I made it back to my house to pack for my Christmas vacation back home in Michigan. Believe me, it was a struggle. I knew I was getting sick but I thought it was the "run-of-the-mill" stuff that goes back and forth in Shishmaref all the time. I made it to Nome that evening and to the hotel which was the plan as I had had trouble getting connecting flights out since most of the bush teachers try to get out for Christmas all at the same time.
A little side note here....I originally planned to stay in Shishmaref over Christmas break because of the awesome experience I had last year with the festivities in the village. But in October, I had received a message from a dear friend back home informing me that her cancer had returned for the second time. Done deal...I was going home to spend some time with her! Keep this information in the back of your head!
So, I am in Nome for the night where I can get FOOD from restaurants (no offense, Dennis....I still love Snack Shack). I walk down the road a bit to Subway for a chicken teriyaki sub and chips and pop. Gosh, it still sounded good even though my stomach was flip-flopping. Being away from food like that will do that to you....not the flip-flopping....the strong desire to partake.
Oh, wait! Let me tell you about what happened on the plane out of Shishmaref first....it's always an adventure. The Assistant Principal at school was in Anchorage because she was about to deliver her baby. When locals are "with child", they are required to fly out of the village a month or so before delivery to wait in a hospital or nearby. Arrangements were made to fly her dog out to some people in Nome to take care of it while she was in Anchorage. The dog was boarded on the plane in a kennel right behind my seat. These planes are small...7 to 8 passengers. Before leaving, I had a conversation with one of the dog's family members (human). He told me the dog's name was Sprinter. So Sprinter is in the kennel right behind my seat....and he's not happy! He struggled in the kennel for awhile and then all of a sudden, I feel something brush my leg....and there was Sprinter starting down the aisle of the plane. "Oh, no, you don't, Sprinter!" I grabbed his collar and put my leg across the aisle to the empty chair and held onto him for the rest of the flight into Nome. He was a nice dog, thank goodness! He didn't seem too mad that I wouldn't let him go sit with the pilot!!! I'm glad I knew his name because I just kept saying, "You're ok, Sprinter, you're ok!"
Back to Nome and Subway....I got my sandwich to the hotel room and ate half of it and the chips. Soon after, I was in the bathroom for the first of many trips that night. Now I'm still thinking it's just the simple crud and I also ate lettuce which I'm not used to and that's all it was.....ha! We tend to deny reality, don't we? That night, I spiked a high fever....no thermometer....but fever blisters broke out on my mouth and I was up every hour on the hour running to the bathroom in agony. The crazy part about it is that I was actually very comfortable climbing back into that bed each time because it was so incredibly warm and comfy....from my high temps. I probably was delirious!!!
I'm looking back on this and wondering how the heck did I make it!!!
I ran a couple errands before heading out the next morning to the Nome airport to catch the next portion of my flights out. I even had bought some antidiarrheal medicine thinking I might need it. But things seemed to be letting up so I packed them in my checked bag which I wouldn't see again until Detroit the next night. You guessed it...I got worse...and didn't have the medication. Oh, well...at that point, I'm not giving a friggin' fig leaf!
The next part of my flight took me to Unalakleet. Normally, people fly from Nome to Anchorage but again, when I booked my flights, I had a heck of a time getting connections. Flying from Nome to Unalakleet (which is also the home of the Bering Strait School District offices) to Anchorage meant a couple of other short stops before finally reaching the big city. I am happy to say that the pilot announced that we were going directly to Unalakleet first because of our delay in leaving Nome and some of us had a connecting flight to catch. In Unalakleet, I met up with several teachers from around the BSSD flying out. I sort of sat back quietly in the crowd because I really wasn't feeling too great at that point. Here's an interesting side note....behind the counter was Ferno Tweto of "Flying Wild Alaska" fame. She was busy marking luggage and hauling it out to the holding area. Upon boarding the plane, I was told that the pilot was Jim Tweto. Their daughter, Ariel, has been an interesting person to watch in the series. She's also often been on Craig Ferguson's Late Late Show.
I made it to Anchorage where I stripped off my cold weather duds we are required to wear when leaving bush villages. I packed it all in my suitcase and headed out to check in and to find a bathroom as soon as possible! Boy, I'm still amazed, looking back, how I made it back to Michigan. I ran into another migrating teacher and we walked awhile looking for a particular store my daughter wanted me to find for a print of a raven she had seen back in August. If it hadn't been for my friend, I wouldn't have found the store...but we had a successful walk! We parted ways and I went to find a McDonald's because at this point, I was still trying to eat even though it wasn't settling well. I knew I had a long night ahead of me. I didn't even finish my fries....that should have alerted me that something was way not right!!! I was able to find a row of unoccupied seats and sprawled out.
From Anchorage, I made it to Seattle. In the wee hours of the morning, I finally found a wooden bench in a small bathroom and camped out until my next flight. I have to tell you that even though I felt incredibly bad at this point, as I was finishing up in yet another bathroom, who should appear but my good buddy, Amy, from White Mountain. We have the craziest ways of meeting up with each other throughout our Alaskan travels. She introduced me to her fiancé and their little boy. Oh, that was so nice! But I quickly excused myself because I needed the bathroom....again.
From Seattle, I landed in Chicago where I had been hearing horror stories of the bad weather and cancelled flights. It was weird but there really was very little snow on the ground as we landed. There were issues in the airport though with people trying to work their way through rescheduled flights. My flight was delayed while waiting for the plane to arrive from who knows where.
So....I FINALLY got to Detroit on Friday night....about 48 hours after leaving Shishmaref. My daughter and her honey and my "grand puppy" picked me up. You know, if there's a saving grace in all this....the vomiting didn't start until I got to my daughter's house in Tecumseh. The next day, we started out for East Jordan...a four to five hour drive north. I know we had to stop a few times along the way but by now, my memory is fuzzy as to how we made it home. I was in agony. It was now December 22.
I continued the "both end events" until December 26. At that point, I'm still thinking I "just had" some sort of crazy flu from Shishmaref and also not realizing that I could have seen the doctor prior to this despite it being Christmas in there. But...GOOD NEWS...I was able to go to the doctor (in sheer agony at this point), eagerly leaving a stool specimen and being called that very night with the verdict. You see, back in Shishmaref, remember that EVERYTHING has to be flown out and in. Yup, the specimen would have had to be flown to Nome and the meds would have had to be flown back....all weather-permitting. Here in Michigan, I was on meds that very night and I now knew what I had....Clostridium difficile....C-diff for short. There will be some of you out there that when you read that, you will know from experience what that is and say, "Oh, my gosh! How did she make it from Shishmaref to Detroit to East Jordan (over 3,100 miles) and live to tell about it?" For those of you not familiar with it, please, please, please check out the following link because people need to have some awareness of this horrendous malady: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/c-difficile/DS00736.
Thus, the first round of meds began....10 days of Flagyl. What caused this? I say this with caution because I am NOT laying any blame. It could have happened anywhere. It was NOT because I was in Shishmaref. In November, I had some dental problems and was prescribed Clindamycin. Again, consult the link on C-diff because as it turns out, Clindamycin is only one of several meds that can do what happened to me...but Clindamycin is high on the list. It killed off the good bacteria in my intestinal tract allowing the bad stuff (C-diff) to take control. Some people are natural carriers of C-diff and I have no idea if I may be one of those people. In any event, C-diff became a part of my life. As I said, by Dec. 19, I was already getting sick. On Dec. 26, I was diagnosed and put on meds. The first round ended on Jan. 5....the day I was supposed to be returning to Alaska. Of course, at that point, I was already grounded by the doctor and plans were being worked out back in Shishmaref for a sub to take over in my room. I must mention that the Assistant Principal who was then in Anchorage waiting to download her baby....was making those arrangements while walking the aisles of a store trying to speed up her labor pains! What a woman!! She later delivered a healthy beautiful baby girl!
So, the first round ended on Jan. 5 and on Jan. 9, I was in the endodontist's chair having the original problem dental work taken care of. I was becoming uncomfortably aware at that point that I wasn't out of the woods with this C-diff business. The first round of meds did not do the trick and it was returning with a vengeance while I was 30 miles from home. I wasted no time in driving myself directly back to the doctor's office in tears where I was immediately put on another 21 days of Flagyl. I made it home and collapsed on the couch...again.
Where do I stand at this point on January 25th? I am most of the way through the second round of meds. I am now on a probiotic that I had two other people scouring the northern and southern parts of Michigan for enough boxes of it to take back with me to Shishmaref. I also had to pick up a heavy-duty medication that I have to take back with me and catch this....honest to God and thank goodness for prescription insurance....the 58 pills that I have for the "just in case" scenario (which we won't know until I'm done with this second round of pills) cost me $36. Without insurance....those 58 pills would have cost $1705.99! There's no way in heck people can afford that....come on!
I am scheduled to leave Detroit on Jan. 31 and arrive back in Shishmaref the following evening. That's the quickest I've ever been able to schedule connecting flights so I am pleased. Plus, what I had to pay back in October for this Christmas adventure was rather steep and my rescheduled flights are about half that. I will have money on my "account" for my spring flight out.
Oh, I also want to go back to the original reason I was coming home at Christmas...to see my dear friend with the cancer. As it turned out, I could not see her...first because of my own illness that kept me somewhat in isolation and then because her second round of chemo began on Jan. 8 and she can no longer be around people. We have emailed and talked on the phone though. I have thanked her because, if it had not been for her, I would not have been down here in Michigan where I have gotten quick medical care for this situation. Ironic, isn't it? Please keep my friend in your prayers.
One more added bit of "humor" to this otherwise discouraging illness....if I'm not cured...and this is a very hard thing to kill....there is treatment whereby healthy family members can donate their feces to be injected into my intestinal tract to build up the good bacteria. Hmmm....I've had one family member ask if his "donation" is tax-deductible!
How about if I post this and start working on another entry about the three polar bears recently caught in the village and the lack of snow in Shishmaref that has everyone wondering and the Eskimo dance that my students presented at the Christmas program...and...and....and...!!!
I'll be baaaack!
