Scare

There wasn't much going on since my last post until Thursday.

Thursday morning I had to drive Drew to work. He had to be at the office at 7. I have to be in Payson between 8:15 and 8:30. As I was going south from Lehi, I noticed if I went home I would only be there for about 5 minutes before I would have to leave, so I thought there was no point in getting off and kept driving. I got to school at 7:45ish and nobody was there. Since my parents house is 8 minutes away and my mother has to make breakfast every morning for my uncle who was staying there, I decided to go up there and mooch some food. My mom came down the stairs and told me that they took my Papa to the hospital in the middle of the night. (He's been fighting cancer for several years, and he has been in Carson City the last few weeks going through treatments). After she told me what had happened I had to leave for school, but she had said that everything was fine, so I didn't think about it again.

Some time between 1 and 2 the secretary at the school came down to my room and said I had a phone call from my mom and it was a family emergency, I needed to call her back immediately. I was a little confused at first, then remembered my Papa being in the hospital. I called my mother and she said that my Papa was sick and my family was leaving as soon as my uncle Micah got to her house. My uncle lives in Ogden, so I knew I had about 2 hours before they left if I decided I could go.

I walked back to the classroom and my teacher stopped her lesson for a minute to ask me what was going on. I told her that my Papa had gone into the hospital last night and they didn't think he would live through the weekend. I had told her that my family was leaving in about 2 hours to go to Carson City and if it was okay that I was gone Friday. She (of course) said yes and I took off.

I had about 2 hours to get to Orem, pack, then get back to my parents house. By the time I got home I realized that my uncle would be passing through Orem. I called him and he said he would meet me at the park 'n' ride. I had 10 minutes to pack and I forgot stuff.

When we got to my parent's house, my grandma had called back and said my Papa was doing better and would be better, but he was depressed. He believed we were going there, cause my uncle Randy hadn't had his birthday and he wanted it. (oh, if you didn't know, my uncle has down syndrome)

My Papa had fallen out of bed and was on pain killers. He was nascious and throwing up from the pain, so my grandma had given him a second dose of pain meds (doctors ok'd). Later that night he was in such bad shape and scaring my grandma she called for an ambulance. When he got to the hospital, they noticed he had cancer and thought he was in pain from that.

The doctors there had told my grandma that he needed to be comfortable in his last days. They asked her how close family lived and if they could get there by the weekend, cause he was in pain and they should euthanize him sooner than later so he wouldn't be in pain. They pumped him full of morphine (which slows down your heart and eventually kills you if you keep it in your system constantly like they were doing to him and at the high doses they were pumping into him).

That's when we got the call to come out. A few hours later, my grandma calls us saying she called my Papa's doctor to tell him what was going on and ask him about it. (My Papa was driving 10 hours to Carson City 2 weeks ago and now he's dying in pain from his cancer?) His doctor said "STOP the pain meds! it can't be the cancer in his bones that's causing him pain. It wouldn't come on that quickly. We need to pin point where the pain is so we can treat it and not sit and wait for him to die, which is what's happening now if they continue to do what they are doing."

My grandma stopped the morphine and the doctors and nurses were mad, thinking my grandma was being mean, making her husband be in pain in his last days. When the drugs finally wore off, my Papa was able to tell my grandma where he was in pain, and when it hurt. It only hurt if you touched his shoulder or hip, or if he moved them. If it were the cancer in his bones (like the hospital thought) then he would be in pain continuously, not just when he did certain things. Then my grandma remembered that he fell on them about a week ago. She ordered x-rays and explained to the hospital what had happened. They finally believed her (a little) and let off on the euthanization.

By the time we showed up he was doing 100% better. The thing that was really wrong with him was . . . he was dehydrated and had no potassium in his system. That's it! The people at the hospital wanted to kill him because they assumed it was the cancer, but he is completely fine in the cancer department. Once they got him re-hydrated and filled with potassium he was back to his normal self.

One thing I learned from this experience is to do your homework before agreeing to anything at the hospital. The doctors there do not know their patients and don't know the WHOLE story and assume the worst. The nurses there just want to make their patients feel comfortable. Example: the nurse came in and asked my Papa how was his pain level on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most pain, 1 being no pain at all. My Papa said a 2. We were all thinking "A two? Awesome!" The nurse then said, lets get you some pain medication. My grandma jumped up and said "NO WAY! GET OUT!" They are crazy there!

Oh my Papa's x-rays came out great, no fractures or broken bones, just very, very badly bruised. So the nurses all know this, yet they still yank him around and twist his hips, which causes more pain than ever for him and he throws up. When he throws up, they don't want to release him, because they think he will get dehydrated again.

He was suppose to be released today, but the mean, fat, bitchy nurse threw him onto his bad and just grabbed his feet and twisted him around. Then he threw up. She's not on at all today or tomorrow, so hopefully he will be going home tomorrow. The doctor already gave him the ok this evening, they just have to wait till a hospital bed gets delivered into his house. That happens tomorrow morning.

Anyways, I know it was a long post and most of you won't read it, but I thought I'd write about the scary excitement we had this weekend.

Stuff

So my student teaching is going great. I've started taking over everything except Math and Science (which is fine by me). I have four spelling groups, they use Words Their Way. Which I am really liking now that I know a little more about it. (Peterson sucked!) I have 5 reading groups, which are reading some great, but sad books. The books we are reading now are The Captive, Old Yeller, Ralph S. Mouse, Mouse and the Motorcycle, and Shiloh.

I have taken over writing, which is my favorite subject, but these kids hate it! My teacher has hardly done anything with writing all year long because she knows they don't do it or like it. I'm having a hard time teaching writing since we didn't get that great of instruction on it. Next week we are working on persuasive writing. I'm thinking of making them persuade me into not making them hand write their assignments. I'm not sure though. I need some ideas on what to make them write about. It's hard for me becuse I love writing I don't know how to get someone to like doing it.

I'm not looking forward to taking over Math. They are working on fractions and I hate fractions. When I take over I'll be teaching adding, subtracting, and multiplying them. YUCK! It's going to be soooo hard teaching some of these students the concepts involved with fractions. Some of my students don't even know how to multiply and divide simple numbers. How do you teach tougher concepts if they don't comprehend the easier ones?

For Social Studies we just finished up our Wax Museum reports. They did so well on them! I LOVE the Wax Museum. Now we are working on Bio-Cubes on the Presidents. So far every student has picked a President, read about them, and filled out a blank Bio-Cube. This way on Tuesday when we go into the computer lab, the students can just go online and quickly type their info in. THey are excited about sharing their President, but don't want to write out the things about them. It's frustrating!

Other than student teaching I'm not up to much.