Location: St. Augustine, FL
About Me: A high school Biology teacher's coping with rosacea while living in the interesting and sometimes insane world of public education.
February 21, 2005
What a long, strange trip it's been
Sorry it's been while since I've posted. It's been a bit crazy around here.
In Anatomy we began the cat dissection, studying muscles. I am always so sad seeing those beautiful animals that have been killed because people did not want them. Though we at least get some redeeming benefit from their sacrifice, I will be most thankful when I retire that I won't have to see those pitiful little faces. In honor of their lives, my wife and I went to a pet store last weekend to adopt from a no-kill shelter that is there on Saturdays. We found a little grey cat with golden eyes named Freddie who was a special needs cat. He is semi-feral and was found in someone's greenhouse. No one had ever worked with him so he was pretty terrified. When we saw him we knew that this was our new cat number 6. To make a long story short, we worked with Freddie at home for a several days with him crying all night and not eating. We finally had to take him to the vet. He was put on an appetite stimulant which also calmed him down. By this past weekend Freddie had improved enough that he was eating with the other cats and without medication. He is still pretty wary of us, but he is wandering the house as I write this and has had a lot of fun playing with cat toys in the living room. Things are looking good for Freddie and I will post a picture when he is less afraid of us.
I had one real scare this week. When we were working on the cats te first day, one of my female students suddenly fainted and hit the floor. Whew! She came to quickly and I calmed her while the nurse was summoned. This student came back at the end of class and was ok the next day. I did make sure that she sat on a stool while working.
The principal came in for my formal evaluation, staying for around 20 minutes. The kids were all really focused on the lab, so it should have gone well. At this point in my career I don't place a high priority on evaluations anymore. The only thing is that evaluations can be used to make your life miserable if you have done something to bring down the wrath of the administrators on you. So far as I know I am ok with them this year.
The rosacea has been better this week, but I've been battling a tooth abcess. It was drained this weekend and I go for a root canal next Saturday. It's a funny thing about rosacea, but I and other people with rosacea have noticed that when we are ill with something else, the rosacea usually lessens. I don't understand why this would be true, but it does happen.
Posted by Ken Albin on February 21, 2005 05:36 PM