Summer of Crazy

I feel like the Cathy cartoon, AAAAAAAAACK! The school year is nearing and new principal is going to be way different. He wants all graffiti cleaned off the walls right after it happens (not at the end of the day because that takes too long) and the paint can will be in my office. "If you don't have control in your restrooms, you don't have control anywhere else". Direct quote from said new principal. I am a little weary about how this year is going to go. It's going to be, well, interesting. Every year with a new principal is always interesting. They all come in with their own agenda and try to force it upon everyone else. I think this is the fifth principal in my going on six years now. Outside of one other person, I have been on this campus the longest and know this building and the things that need to happen. On top of that we are going to be more ghetto than ever. Now, new principal wants to place a fence (chain link no doubt) around the dismissal area for, "the safety of the children". The kids thought it felt like a prison here before, now they are going to really feel like they are in a prison. In talking with new guy I felt that my concerns were not heard or really cared for, but we will see what happens in the next few months. Crazy, crazy.

What else in the past few weeks? I finally went to a real doctor. I know shocking, me going to a doctor for something other than an emergency? I can say that I have a real doctor that I can see for all the little things, but know I will only go for periodic blood testing and a yearly physical. This physical was an experience. I went in to ask a few questions in get all my levels tested to see how well I am. The doc noticed some strange things with my results. My red blood cell count is really high meaning my body is making too many red blood cells. This is a sign for sleep apnea, yay. I still have to do a sleep study for that one. He also noticed my bilirubin levels were high too meaning there is something wrong with my liver. After going through an ultrasound of the abdomen, it was found that my liver is fine but I do have what is known as Gilbert's (pronounced jill bears) Syndrome. Basically, my liver is a little sluggish in flushing out the toxins. No biggie though. He also noticed that my calcium levels were really elevated and much higher than they should be. Knowing that my mom has parathyroid issues he saw that as a red flag and ordered another blood test to check out my pth (parathyroid hormone) levels. The big news, I have hyperparathyroidism. After seeing those levels I went in for another ultrasound and they found three nodules in the parathyroid region. Tomorrow I go to the ENT to find out more. Basically, the parathyroid controls calcium levels in the blood. If the para is messed up it will sense that there is not enough calcium in the body and it will take it from the bones causing elevated levels of calcium in the blood. Many people do not see that as a big problem, but it has huge ramifications. Many people, like my mom, don't find out they have this problem until after they have kidney stones or something else happens. You can have this for years and never know. I don't know how long I have had this, but as I look back on the past year and half I can tell when I started feeling different and noticing something wasn't clicking. I just thought I was having a difficult time with some changes in my life, but now it looks as though that's when my para could have been starting to act up. The only way to cure this is through surgery. No meds or alternative therapies can fix the problem. If there is a nodule, I will have to have surgery. Once the surgery is done, the problem is over. Hopefully I can get things taken care of quickly. I do worry about things like this, but I just have to roll with the punches. And right now life is handing a lot of them to me. I know some of the things that are happening are out of my control. Okay, almost everything is out of my control and I am trying to deal with that and understand that, but it's so hard to do. A lot of faith and a lot of prayer.

On the plus side, Leland, the luckiest man in the world, had some luck fall upon him. So it's not the funding he is looking for to finish his dissertation, but it is something to get him away from some stress. He won tickets to the Texas Rangers baseball game tomorrow night! Incredible! Since I had previously made plans with a friend, he will be taking his dad along for an incredible trip. He wins everything, concert tickets, sporting event tickets, iPads. Man, I got one lucky guy =0)

I have successfully caught you up on my dealings. Oh, yeah, we finally moved to a new place! A cute 2 bed 2 bath apartment. Now all we need is a little doggie and life will be complete, for now ;) Have a wonderful week!