Of Paper and Pills

I managed to write this on Thursday but didn't finish it until tonight:
********************************************************************
Ducking in this morning because Himself has done something nasty to his knee/leg and has asked me to take him to the doctors (It MUST be bad!). So I've had to bunk off work for a few lessons which has given me an opportunity to look st some blogs and to tell you quickly about my Year 10 lesson the other day.

I have given up on my Year 10s
(Exam Question: Here is some data on the number of fish eaten by Selma the Seal each day over a 60 day period. Is this data discrete or continuous?
Answer: continuous. Cos she just keeps eating.)

After 50% of them failed their mid year exam outright,
("let's look at this positively," said a colleague,"50% of them passed."
"No," I replied,"...48% passed and the other 2 % were borderline!")
I have decided to run a Stage 1 SACE Numeracy unit for this semester. It is a very practical series of tasks based on real life situations such as renting a house, running a car and paying off a loan.

The first task involves creating a spreadsheet to model the repaying of a loan. Once the formulae are entered you can change the interest rate, size and number of repayments in order to see what effect it has on the overall cost of the loan. The class have actually been pretty engaged in the task. I have no idea how much they have learned but they have been industriously entering numbers into the speadsheet so......fingers crossed!

Anyway, on Wednesday we reached the end of the lesson and I decided I would like to see the results of their efforts. With 5 minutes to go I said,
"OK everyone, put your name onto the spreadsheet and print it out for me."

There are 23 people in the class. There were 4 pages to each spreadsheet. There was one printer.

I cannot begin to describe the chaos which ensued.

I don't think I really understood the magnitude of my mistake until one of the girls came to me with three sheets of paper.
"Mrs A, this is all I can find of my assignment."
"But what happened to the other sheet? Can you not find it?
"Mrs A have you SEEN the mess over there?"

Note to self: create a system drop folder for electronic collection of future assignments;
pay for a tree to be planted to replace the ream of paper we wasted in multiple print outs of random pages of unidentifiable spreadsheets.

Live and learn.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Update: Himself has a torn cartilage in his knee. I suspect this was sustained during the climb to take these photos, although the symptoms did not set in for a few days.

In the usual way of men he has been dealing poorly with pain. He has been instructed to take 50mg of Voltarin (anti-inflammatory) every 8 hours as well as 500mg of paracetamol, a task which he is somehow finding difficult to manage. On Friday night he came to bed at his usual time of 2am and very quickly began to thrash about, moaning.

Me: What's the matter?
Him: Auurgh. The pain! It's really full tilt. I can't lie any way that's comfortable.
Me: How long since you took your last painkillers?
Him: Ummmmmmmmmm (sheepishly)......I had one at 2pm this afternoon.......
Me: WHAT? You should have had one hours ago!
Him: I know, but it wasn't hurting before.
Me: I don't suppose you thought to bring the tablets to bed with you?
Him: Ummmmmmmmmm
Me: (flings herself out of bed into the 2 degree air temperature, gets dressing gown and stomps off down the relatively long hallway to find the tablets, snorting impatiently.)

We had a discussion the next morning about the timing of his tablets. It was agreed that he needed to take them well before he came to bed in order to give them time to 'kick in' and enable him to rest comfortably.

Last night circa 2am:
Him: Moan, aarrrgh, moan, can't get comfortable etc etc
Me: You took your tablets didn't you?
Him: Yes, I took them 15 minutes ago.
Me: FIFTEEN MINUTES???? I thought we agreed you would take them 8 hourly and give them time to take effect before you came to bed???
Him: Well it wasn't hurting and I wanted to leave it as long as possible so I could get some sleep.
Me: fumes silently
Him: Moan, aarrrgh, moan, can't get comfortable etc etc Moan, aarrrgh, moan, can't get comfortable etc etc Moan, aarrrgh, moan, can't get comfortable etc etc
Him: (after another 5 minutes of this) I think I might need another tablet.
Me: What? How many did you take?
Him: Er, well, one.
Me: WHAT???????? The doctor TOLD you to take two!
Him: Well, yes but I am trying not to take too many and.....
Me: Please tell me that you brought the tablets to the bedroom, just in case.
Him: Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Me:ARGH!(flings herself out of bed into the -2 degree air temperature, gets dressing gown etcetcetc)

Honestly. Exactly what had changed about his condition which would have lead him to believe he required less medication?? The knee is swollen for pete's sake! There are now pills stashed in the bedside drawers >:-(

I swear if men had babies, epidurals would be a sacrament.

image credit

Ankle Update

Well, due to the insistence of her father and the good advice from Prof J (an old netballer and ankle injurer from way back), we have been to the physio, got exercises and a compression bandage and been told to get gradually back onto the court starting next week!!! This is a big improvement on the GP's '6 weeks' out!!!!! The BA is delighted.

In FrogNews: it has been a bumpy ride of late but things have settled a bit and this weekend we are off to Kangaroo Island! (oh boy oh boy....my first trip since my sister was here 18 months ago!)
We have had to trade off our departure date against a party on Friday night but at least we have a less than sulky teenager to deal with . Now to pray for good weather. I don't mind cold, just no rain please!!

In Which I Lose My Usual Good Humour and Become A Protective and Pissed Off Mother.

A few weeks ago the Baby Angel took a fall in her netball match. This is not unusual; she plays hard and sometimes bounces off the bitumen, but this time it was different. The rain was coming down and her line of sight wasn't good. She slipped, tripped over her opponent's leg and 'rolled' her ankle. I knew it was bad when she asked to come off. She never comes off.

We iced it and she sat out the last 10 minutes of the game. By the time we were ready to go she could weight bear and was able to hobble along. She missed training and rested during the week and by the following weekend she felt ready to play again. She did her normal two matches with a strapped ankle (just in case) and all was well.

The following week was a bye.

This week she had mentioned that occasionally, if she twisted the wrong way, or sat on her foot, her ankle still hurt so we strapped her up again for Saturday's game.

When we got to the courts I was appalled to see the amount of water lying on the surface. Some matches had already started and it appeared that no-one was making any effort to clear the courts. A large 'squeegee' on wheels stood unattended in the far corner.


Now this may not look like much water to you but have a look at this closer shot. Do you see the reddish sheen through the puddle? That's algae. The water had obviously been lying there long enough for a growth to develop.
Sensing the possibility of disaster, I fetched the squeegee and started to try and sweep some of the thick of the water off the playing area on the BA's court. When I attacked the deeper, reddish puddle, I nearly ended up on my butt. The stuff was like oil on the court!!!!!

I alerted the umpires, who were standing around itching to start the game. Their response was to call out to the players " Look out for this slippery spot here on the court!"

I was stunned. Surely they were not going to let the match start with the court in that condition?

Well, you can hear this coming can't you. Around 3 minutes into the first quarter, The BA went down like a ton of bricks.
She has now got to spend 6 weeks resting the ankle, which basically wipes out her season. She is devastated and I am one pissed off mama. I continued my court sweeping as she watched her team and noticed that once the water had been swept away, the algae very quickly turned to a powdery, non-slip dust. grrrrrr

I intend to pen a strongly warded letter to the PE staff.

Guest Blogger: Baby Angel on Peer preasure:)

Howdy there bloggee mate's of the mother. It is I...Baby Angel. Now today I will be talking about how you should never try something just because every one else says you can. You can end up in a lot of trouble. Or in my case a rather large scab on my lip, nose and face. Yes that is me on the right. Not one of my best looks I admit...

It started when we had friends over yesterday. The mother who we shall call B, the 1st daughter (one of my friends) who we shall call A and the younger daughter who we shall call S. Now when B, S and A came over it was a boiling hot day so we couldn't resist going for a nice little swim in the pool. We had been in there for a while when A started showing me how to do back flips off the edge of the step in the pool. The step is slightly halfway into the shallow end but can cause a rather nasty injury when not used properly. Now I can do back flips, front flips, somersaults handstands all in the pool but am not so good when performing skills out of the pool. Now A is about the same hight as me but is as skinny as a twig and she was doing really good back flips off the step. She said that I should have a go. The first 2 times I did it I almost broke my back and came very close hitting my head on the floor. By the 3rd time I did it I wasn't feeling very confident but everyone was telling me to have a go. So... according to on lookers I did the back flip , then there was a lot of squirming about on the bottom on the pool, and then I came up with blood on my face. Now my version... I just managed the back flip (almost breaking my back), opened my eyes and was greeted by a solid wall smashing my 2 front teeth, nose, shoulder, lip and a bit under my nose. OWWWW!! Pain went searing through my face and I came up trying not to cry. I immediately looked at mum with my hands covering my face, worrying if I still had all my teeth. She came over and saw it was bleeding and being the super mother she is went straight for the ice pack. I sat out on a chair for the rest of the time they were in the pool clutching an ice pack and crying. After that it hurt to smile, eat, drink on the wrong side. After the ice pack there was Savlon and aloe vera which stung like craaaaaaazy!!



Believe me it doesn't look all that bad but it's like I have my face plastered with some incredibly tight bandage pulling my skin back off of my lip...i.e not good!!

The moral of the story is do not think that just because your friend can do back flips does not mean you can.. and you definitely will not be able to master it within 5 minutes. =D

PS. I wrote this by myself with no help from mother... just in case you thought other wise

PPS. sorry for the view up my nose in the pic..... :)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Mother's note:

She took her own pics too with her own camera. My poor little baby!!!! It's amazing how grown up they are but when they hurt themselves it is as if they are tiny kids again......the pain in your heart is just as strong....