Today was my first day back to school after being off for over a month. I actually welcomed the routine again! The only drawback was that my body does not appreciate early mornings and I required a 2-hour 'nap' once I got home...

Good day overall, this is my first semester officially being a part-time student, so I'm going to have to adjust to the reduced workload. Not to mention that there is a possibility of the college teachers going on strike for three weeks, so that will force me to get creative with my time.

Tonight I had to do CPT for the first time in months. This is when my Mom "claps" my chest to help loosen secretions. Usually I just use the PEP or Active Cycle of Breathing, but I needed to add a little extra today because I have been hearing and feeling little cracks and pops in my lungs. This concerns me when it is deeper in my lungs because it means I have phlegm stuck--which is an open invitation to infection. So time to step it up and add an extra physio until that is officially cleared!

Today at 4:30 (on the dot, I might add) I dropped my 24-page thesis proposal into the submission box and (quite literally) skipped out of the doors of Guelph-Humber with the first hint of relief I have felt in a week.

I hope I pass, I'm not sure I did the best I could--I put tons of hours into it--but admittedly my heart was not always in it, so we'll see what translates on paper! Most of my time was spent trying to figure out what exactly a thesis proposal was and how to write a literature review. For some bazaar reason four years of University still did not prepare me for the shock of an Undergraduate thesis. 

To sum up my week, here is how it played out: I was chained to my dining room table, staring down my laptop and surrounded by a stack of academic journals and library books (the latter of which ended up just being for decoration... while I thought the books were interesting, I didn't really have enough time to read them). I spent a majority of the week feeling suddenly enlightened and then severely confused. At one momentous breaking point, I told my Mom how much I hated school and felt like dropping out--it was a drama queen moment that was resolved with a nap and caffeine booster.

In other news, I think I may have to whiten my teeth after this week due to the massive amount of tea I consumed (I've never been a coffee drinker, though it is debatable which one is worse).

Also, it seems like--two weeks later--my cold has finally cleared! Part of the reason for this thesis proposal taking so long--besides my procrastination skills--is that my energy has been so low the past two weeks. Usually, I sleep 7 hours a night and feel just dandy--but I was requiring 10-12 hours of sleep PLUS naps, which is far too time consuming in my opinion. I know you are supposed to rest when you are sick, but feeling tired all the time is a drag when you know you have some much to do or so much you want to do.

Aside from a short stint with a swollen ear—which I quickly self-diagnosed on WebMB as a blocked Eustachian tube, like any other reasonable person would do--I think I beat this cold pretty well! My mom and sister ended up picking up a new brand of cold over the Thanksgiving weekend, but thankfully didn't share it with me (though, I am jealous that their cold was superior to mine since it only seemed to cause a 4-day sore throat, pah!)

One thing I have had return though is that weird 'infectiony' smell I get. I claim to be able to 'smell' infection...really, that’s the only way I can describe this. Mind you, I don't really have a sharp sense of smell (with the addition of this cold I was sadly unable to smell Turkey dinner last weekend, but the smell was described to me by numerous salivating people). Anyway, this weird infectiony smell stumps me (and the doctors at St. Mikes). Usually out of paranoia I go on antibiotics. Especially since, for whatever reason, I don't get normal signs of a chest infection anymore. When I have a chest infection instead of coughing up more, which is a trademark sign, I actually cough up less or nothing... so, as you can guess this makes things a little tricky.

Because my energy and appetite is returning, I've decided it is no big deal so far. I've actually been inhaling the vapours of tea tree oil, which I read somewhere a long time ago could help ward off infections. Who knows if there are any scientific facts to back it up, but I am always up for trying anything and I think it actually has been helping.

I’m certain a nice weekend of R&R (and normal homework catch-up) will have me fully recovered by Monday.

This week has been much better than last week, in a sense that I made a conscious decision not to let stress get to me. Yes, I will get stressed with a heavy workload--and naturally everyone has a little bit of stress in his or her lives--but I will not let it allow me to lose sleep or any of the like.

However, my body enjoys taking the opportunity at moments like this to see what it can get away with. I had my third Twinrix shot yesterday and felt just fine--nothing but a little bit of soreness at the site. Woke up this morning with a eye ache (my term for a headache behind your eyes) and put it down to spending copious amounts of time on the computer (I was making a magazine cover on Indesign and Photoshop yesterday--so those of you who have had to do the same can sympathize with the staring contest you have with your comp.) Anyway, I was prepping for my presentation I had to do today when, quite quickly, my simple 'eye ache' progressed into eye ache accompanied by all over body chills.

I jumped in the shower and literally huddled under the hot water for a good 30 minutes (sorry David Suzuki)--I was too chicken to step out into the coldness again. Then it dawned on me, I have felt this way many times before... I had a fever. I don't even bother to store the thermometer out of reach anymore, I always have it close by because my body seems to have a sickening love affair with fevers. It loves to hook up with the fever at the most inappropriate times (not that I'm suggesting there IS an appropriate time) and it usually loves to hang onto them for days, if not weeks, on end--laughing in the face of Tylenol’s futile attempts to break up the sinful union. Thankfully, I just had a low-grade fever of 101 F. But it was enough to make me feel shitty and climb into bed. I e-mailed my professor and told him there was no way I could do a presentation today and he was very understanding (even excited when I sent him my slideshow as a preview/proof that I wasn't skipping class because I was unprepared).

I left clinic a message (which still hasn't been returned...hmm) and crawled into bed for the remainder of the afternoon, hibernating under many layers of blankets. However, I'm assuming--because you know, I'm a qualified doctor with my WebMD searching skills--that this is a mere reaction to the Twinrix shot I got yesterday. And hopefully not the flu or a chest infection because frankly 1- I don't have time to get sick and 2- I really just want to finish school, I'm so close I can taste it.

UPDATE: Rachael, my nurse, called and said you can be feverish for up to two days... eww. So I guess time will tell if this is the Hep. shot or something else. 

Today was my first day back to University in half a year. Back in December I started IV’s literally a couple days after my last exam of the first semester. I was pretty confident I would be off them and able to return by the start of our second semester in January. However, that was not the case and what started as “holiday IVs” turned into “I’ll be back soon IVs” and finally “extended leave IVs”. Even when I was in the hospital with daily fevers, hooked up to 24/7 oxygen and unable to eat, I was still pretty confident I could go back... that really sounds delusional now, doesn’t it?

As the weeks wore on in club med, I got the message my body was clearly trying to tell me: Time to take a break Lindsay!

I dropped the majority of my courses, but was still able to complete half of one via e-mail (the instructor is allowing me to continue the other half of the course this semester... it was pretty impossible to report on Guelph-Humber news from my bedside) and I was able to complete Statistics for Media.

GH Comeback
Now I am officially “back” with some minor adjustments. I decided to drop to part-time studies since I now have to wait an extra year to graduate anyway. This will allow me more time to do things I should be doing like working out. I will say though, this has been difficult for me as I feel quite capable of taking on a full load. But as is usually the case, what you want and what you need are different things.

Although it hasn’t even been a full year since I took my partial leave from school, it felt a little surreal to return. I received the mighty reality pinch when I was reminded that even though your world comes to a stop when you are cuffed to an IV machine, the rest of the world doesn’t lose its forward momentum. Unfortunately I have been mulling over this fact for a while now, usually things don’t bother me too much and I am able to take things in stride. But the fact that I was able to keep up in school all these years and suddenly not be able to is a little crushing. There is a buzz among the fourth year students who are excited to be finishing up and starting their lives (or moving on to the next phase of continuing education) and I have fallen behind the pack. I am used to being a front runner and I don’t really enjoy the rear view--okay, unless we're talking about James Franco.

I’m also a little worried that the finish line is getting pushed further and further back--so I hope it doesn’t fall out of site. I’m not trying to win a race, I just want to finish it! So let’s cross our fingers and hope that a silly little cold or chest exacerbation doesn’t trip me over the next year and a half. The final stretch is where all the sweat, tears and glory emerge.

Finding your Pace
Furthermore, I am contemplating--and seriously considering--applying for our professor’s (Mark Lipton) internship. I’m not sure if this is completely defeating the purpose of dropping down to part-time studies, but it is an opportunity and I rarely walk away from opportunities.

Admittedly, I have a tendency to dive into things, especially after sitting on the sidelines for such a long period of time. When you’ve been sick and made to feel useless, the second you feel better you want to break into a sprint before the pseudomonas (a bacteria I grow in my lungs) police can catch up. I guess the problem here is I need to learn to pace myself, but it is just so hard!

Especially when you are young with so many opportunities and more awareness than the average person (or so I assume) that time is not limitless.

So should I go for it all or be conservative and hold back? The jury is still out (the jury being the voices in my head). My mind is saying yes, but who knows what my lungs will think about this!

My favourite part about going back to school is stocking up on necessary (and unnecessary) supplies. What can I say? White out, pens, file folders, notepads, sticky notes and binders all lead to my uncontrollable excitement. Maybe this is why I always end up with office jobs—the post-its get me every time.

So today I went to Dollarama with the intention of purchasing a few birthday cards and—as is usually the case with Dollarama—ended up walking out with much more than I had planned, including some lovely additions to my school supply collection. I only purchased a few file folders because I don’t really need much this year, but I realized that my list of back to school supplies has extended to include some rather unusual items.

Additional back to school necessities for Sept. 2009:

One of the most important weapons for avoiding colds, the flu and nasty bacteria—either of which could easily be a one-way ticket to months of IVs, lengthy hospital stays or transplant status. I wash my hands like crazy, but because I don’t travel with a kitchen sink and soap (my purse is not big enough) antibacterial is the only way. I am glad to see more places are setting up purell pump stations and more people are actually using it. It makes my job—of staying healthy as long as possible—a lot easier.

• Clorox Wipes

For the times people don’t wash their hands properly (we’ve all seen them in the bathrooms and been grossed out—you know who you are!!) and the times people sneeze and cough all over shared computers, equipment, etc. Clorox wipes are essential for any computer lab, which I consider a boardroom for bacteria plotting to take over the world.

• Cold FX

When Clorox and antibacterial fails you, there is Cold FX, which is plan C. Apparently the extra strength works wonders when you have the first signs of a cold or flu (e.g. sore throat). I think this September I will take the milder everyday version for preventative reasons, my faith has yet to be restored in my immune system.

• Vitamin C

Yet another immune system booster that is no big deal to add to my pill regime. I’m not big on drinking OJ unless I have a ridiculous sugar crash (I’m not diabetic, but my body likes to surprise me with sugar lows for the heck of it) sooo I prefer the pill form.

• Flu Shot and H1N1 Shot

I did not get my flu shot last year because I kept getting sick… so I've got to get on that this year. Also, because of the Mex—er, swine pigs (sorry, I’m a terrible person) I must weasel my way into getting the H1N1 shot. I was told that people with respiratory problems are always high priority anyway, so I will most likely be getting it (and it might be two shots). The media is already hyping up the back to school pandemic, so I’m not feeling so hot about adding that concern to my agenda. I really don’t think H1N1 will fit into my schedule this semester—sorry swine flu!

Fun fact, if someone is “high-risk” for flu complications in your household/someone you are close with, you should also get your flu shot because you can be a “carrier” (have no symptoms, but pass it on). That is probably a housewarming gift you should skip.

Other possible additions to my back to school shopping list: oil of oregano, tea tree oil and other immune-system boosting valuables.