Tennis Ball Hunt

Today I brought Jacob & Joanna to my beginners tennis class.  They were a little bored in the beginning, so I let them play w/ 1 tennis ball (to share).   Then they decided they needed another one, and another one, excitedly shouting for every ball they received.  Soon, they started cheering whenever one of the beginners would hit a ball out of the cage, as they scrambled to find it.  Then they realized that they didn't need to wait for us to hit the ball out of the cage, they could go on a tennis ball treasure hunt.  By the end of the night, they had 20 tennis balls all lined up.  It kept them busy, and I was able to have a very nice lesson.

Ugly growths on my skin

So another medical blog . . . 

Today, since my awesome Blue Cross Power Health fund insurance will run out at the end of the year, I decided to go to the dermatologist to remove some ugly growths I get on my skin.  I've gotten them since I was in my junior/ senior year.  The first time I got it on my right fore-arm, I picked at it, and it would get bigger and bigger.  I finally got liquid nitrogen put on it in college, and it left a scar the size of a dime.  But it's flat, and it's gone.

Anyway , I have two of these lovely things growing on my face.  I found out it's called seborrheic keratosis, and to my surprise, it's an OLD PERSON condition!  The doctor was surprised I've had them since I was in my late teens!   I don't look forward to what my skin will look like when I become an OLD PERSON.   Although as I was venting out loud, Joanna reminded me that I already am an old person.

So the doctor anesthetized the two spots and scraped them off w/ a blade.  Sounds pretty gross.  Glad I didn't have to do it myself.  Didn't hurt a bit except for the pinch where the anesthesia was being injected.  

So today I am walking around w/ two lovely band-aids on my face.  There's something about band-aids on your face that makes you feel plain silly.   Well, I'll just wear a silly visor on my face, the kind that looks like a welder's mask, to look like I am intentionally being silly.

Slammed a door on my finger

Last Friday, I experienced the third most painful experience in my life.  As I was walking out of Joanna's Chinese school classroom, I remembered that the heavy door slams very loudly.  Not wanting to disturb her classroom, I reached my hand in at the last minute to try to stop the door from slamming.  My timing was late, and my right middle finger was the casualty.  I experienced a pain as sharp as when I was having a contraction.   Most likely a 10 on those doctors scales.  I looked at my fingernail and it was gushing blue in front of my eyes.  Normally, pain subsides eventually , and this happened at 7:30 at night.  Well, at 12:30 that night, my finger was still throbbing in pain.   There was no way I could fall asleep.  Feeling a little irrational and desperate, I decided to to try to compress my finger.  Instead the pain shaprened.  Then I decided to compress the base of my finger.  I later found out that was a really bad idea, because it caused my finger to swell even more.  However, I was starting to become a little delusional and couldn't correlate that mistake to my pain increasing.  I then decided to stare at my finger and I realized that the source of my pain was my fingernail.  I asked my husband to help me cut off my entire fingernail, but he refused.

So I decided to go to the ER at 1:00 AM.   I know it looked silly to go in for one finger, but that small spot on my hand was causing so much pain!  Following me at the ER was a couple to be married the next day.  For some reason, the groom-to-be had a black eye from a rehearsal gone wild and needed stitches .  So I didn't feel as silly being in the ER.  Anyway, I discovered that night that the standard procedure for what I was experiencing was to poke a little hole through the nail.  So after I had my standard 3 x-rays, the doctor just used a little needle and poked my nail.  Immediately, blood game gushing out and I felt a wonderful sense of relief.  Who would have known such a simple trick could help me feel so much better.  Incidentally, I discovered that night that this is a very common first-aid technique, and all the nurses seemed to tell me what to do when it happened.  But they encouraged me to stay to watch the doctor do it so I can learn.  

The next day, my finger was still oozing all the way till dinner time.  It still oozed occassionally the next few days.  But it's amazing that my once purple finger nail looks almost normal now. 

Long time no write . . .

Boy, this blogging thing takes a lot to get used to...  I think I enjoy telling stories to my friends, but when it comes time to sit in front of the computer, it's a lot of work.

Well, we are back at Sutter!  We were at Millikin for a total of exactly 3 weeks, and we ended back in the class Jacob started off in on his first day at Sutter.  It's been almost a month that we've been home, though it seems like we've been there forever.  Everything seems so familiar - the faces, the activities, the campus.  There are only 16 kids in his class.  One of his classmates, who has always landed in his class since Kindergarten, has a vision impairment so he's only in the classroom half the time, bringing the class size to 15.  The class really feels like family.  I don't regret one bit sending him back to Sutter.  And now, he has resumed producing wonderful works of writing and art, and he continues to impress me with the detail in his writing and his illustrations when he puts his heart in it.  His teacher is fabulous!  Full of energy and lots of fun.   Extremely organized.  Although she isn't as affectionate w/ the kids, and Jacob doesn't have a crush on her.  He still has a crush on his first grade teacher, although he now talks about her once a week as opposed to every day!

I volunteer 1 - 2 hours a week, and it's a great opportunity for me to work with students and spy on Jacob in class.  As usual, I love listening to the teachers teach and the kids answer.  I love watching Jacob answer questions in class, and give me hugs when he sees me.  I love watching the way he interacts with his friends, and getting to know the other kids in class.

This is another thing I love about Sutter which isn't available at Millikin  - the enormous amount of time you can spend in class with the teacher.

Some funny things I heard in class today:

(kids are busy cutting their faces out of photo, carrying on a random conversation)

Kid A:  My mom is 38!

Kid B:  My mom is almost 40! But my dad is 50 something

Kid C:  Well, my grandpa is almost 100.  He's 72

Kid B:  Well, my mom is 39!

Jacob was on that table and he was conveniently quiet.  But apparently, he's shared w/ his 1st grade teacher a lot of things, including James & my child planning differences .  Perhaps it was because I gave him a watchful eye, or because he couldn't brag since I'm only 35. ;)

Kid A reads from book:  " I am not!", Chloe snapped. " .. . . "

Me:   What does the word "snapped" mean?

Kid B & Kid C snap their fingers.

Me:  That's one meaning of snap.  But how about in this story? 

Kid A:  Oh, I know.  It's when you talk mad at someone.  Like the way my mom talks to me when she's mad at me.

Ahh.... The joy of spending time w/ kids when you can leave any time!