Main » April 2006

April 26, 2006

Rosacea better but surgery wound not healed

Hi all,
It's been a looooong school year. The kids are not working much now. They have basically quit 4 weeks before the end of school. Unfortunately I don't have that luxury and I must trudge on toward the finish line. Today I sent one girl to the office for repeatedly stopping me in the middle of a lecture to ask to go to the restroom. I finally had to stop and ask her if it could wait until I finished. She said yes. It wasn't 15 seconds before she again asked if she could go to the restroom! She basically did this to disrupt the class and gain attention. I gave her the attention she merited by shipping her out. This was the child of a teacher at my school and she is 17 years old, old enough to act in a civil manner in class. That second period class has four malcontents in it who really couldn't care less about being there or learning. They will do anything to stop the class from learning. Little do they know that there is a ton of work awaiting them over the next week, more than enough to keep them occupied. I will instantly get rid of anyone in that class who does not cooperate fully. Sometimes you have to step down hard to gain control when students are antsy to get out for the summer.

The sunburn healed well and I have little trouble with the rosacea (knock on wood!). The surgical scar from the colon surgery still is partially open and leaking each day. I am definitely not going back to the surgeon since he has little interest in my case once his procedure was completed. He would just slap a bandage on it and tell me to wait until it healed. I really don't need that type of treatment at this point so I'm just going to hope that the wound will eventually close up on its own. I was hoping that I would be well by now but I guess it wasn't to be. Perhaps I can rest some at the beginning of summer vacation and give it a chance to close up completely. All the moving around in class that I do seems to really keep the wound from properly healing.

Tomorrow and Friday we have a lab on the brain. That should hold their interest, at least for a little while. One can always hope.

Posted by at 04:52 PM | Comments (3)

April 16, 2006

Recovering from sunburn

Well, I didn't totally cook my face with the sun but I came close. With 3 days rest and lots of chamomile and aloe much of the redness is gone. The forehead and nose are still pretty raw and dry, but I am in good enough shape to return to teaching tomorrow. I will need to take extra care in moisturizing tomorrow morning. The rosacea has made my face much more sensitive to sun these days. I should know better than to go out in the sun without sunscreen but occasionally I forget that I can't treat my face like I did when I was 15.

Posted by at 07:10 PM | Comments (2)

April 13, 2006

Sunburn - Boy, did I do it now!

We took my visiting niece and her husband on a one hour cruise around Matansas Inlet. When I got home I realized I had forgotten to put on any sunscreen. Two hours later and my face is as dark red as a lobster. Part of this is sunburn and part is the associated flareup of the rosacea. It is not painful but it looks horrible now. I put chamomile cream on it and bathed it in chamomile extract. Hopefully it will heal some during the next couple of days, but I probably will have to stay home from the cat adoptions Saturday. I only hope I can get to looking somewhat like a human being by next Monday when I have to go back to school. I'll let you all know how it progresses.

Posted by at 08:18 PM | Comments (2)

April 12, 2006

Chamomile extract for pink, blotchy skin

Though I've been off on Spring break this week I still haven't fully recovered from the school year. My skin has pink blotches on the cheeks and forehead. This has been frustrating to deal with so far. Creams haven't done much to alleviate the redness. I'm going to start applying chamomile extract tonight and see if it helps to calm the skin.

I go back to my general practitioner tomorrow for a check on the cholesterol and general lipid levels. Saturday we have cat adoptions again for Goliath and Bebe's World. I will leave you with a photo of my wife Karen holding a kitten we found a good home for last weekend.

Posted by at 06:03 PM | Comments (4)

April 09, 2006

I fired my intern

The title pretty much says it all. My senior intern, a person who looked to me as a mentor, has been acting increasingly irresponsible and lazy this term. He did not want to do any work in class. The last straw was when he left class without permission to carry a friend's guitar amplifier to her car. If he had been caught without a pass, I would have been the one chewed out. I ran into him wandering around campus after school and asked where he had gone. He told me the story and said that I had told him it was ok. Sure. I hated getting rid of him but I can't have him wandering around campus like that. Also, his lack of motivation was making him a liability when it came to setting up and conducting labs. Occasionally a teacher has to do things they really wish they did not have to do.

Posted by at 09:25 PM | Comments (0)