Cherish Your Health

It was a chilly Autumn morning today and whilst teaching some sort of interesting vocabulary tidbit to my French 1 class, I felt a very sharp pain in my chest.  It didn't hurt me enough to stop teaching but the pressure remained throughout that class and the next two Spanish classes.  Since we thankfully have a school nurse on duty, I decided to go talk to her during my lunch and she pretty much told me I had to call my husband and go to the ER right away.  I guess chest pain is not to be taken lightly.  Geez, all I expected was to get a couple of aspirin and be on my way.  

Well, my husband arrived about 30 minutes later, picked me up, and took me to the emergency room.  A team of efficient medical professionals swarmed in, placed sticky things all over me and took my blood pressure, pulse, and several vials of blood. Luckily, my EKG came back normal as did my blood work with regard to heart problems.  However, I do have high glucose, which I need to fix. The doctor thinks the pain is acid reflux but I tend to think it's a pulled muscle.  Of course, he went through years and years of medical school so who am I to argue?

Lesson learned today?  I need to get off my derrière, exercise, and eat healthier foods.  You know, like we should all do every day.  That and I need to appreciate my good health much more than I do.  I want to be around for my family for as long as I possibly can.  I want to see these two wonderful youngsters become the people they are destined to be!   ¡Salud!

Hug the ones you love a little tighter

My love of languages has led me to become a language teacher.  I am in my first year at a new school, the high school where the middle schoolers I taught for nine years have attended high school. I also get to do lunch duty this year. I encounter perhaps 150-200 young people every day.  I love what I do for the most part, although grading is not exactly a picnic.

But what happened today makes that little inconvenience seem completely meaningless. Today, an otherwise healthy 17-year-old student at my school passed away. He had suffered a stroke during his football game last night, underwent surgery this morning, and never recovered.

I did not have Andre in class, but I saw how this tragedy affected the kids in the lunchroom and classroom today. My school community has a close-knit, family atmosphere and it is wonderful to witness firsthand. Those kids lean on each other in their time of need, as they should. Unfortunately, this school has had more than its fair share of tragedy in the last few years.

I cannot imagine what his family has been going through for the past 24 hours.  My heart is with Andre's family, teammates, classmates, friends, and indeed the entire SMW community. Rest in peace, Andre Maloney.

KC Star article about Andre