The first week of school has come and gone and I survived! It was so much fun! I love my new class. The kids are so cute, fun, sweet, and funny. I have a couple of siblings of previous students that I keep calling the wrong name. I never thought I would be that teacher, but apparently I am. The best part is I have four students that I taught when they were in 1st grade. I get to be their teacher twice. In all, 1/3 of the parents of my students this year know me and are letting me teach one of their kids again. I was a lot less nervous this year for curriculum night because I already knew most of the parents who came.
I did pretty well health wise too. The first day I got tired about 15 minutes before the bell rang. The second day I was good while the students were there, but was exhausted by the time I got home. Yesterday I was good all day. I even went to the movies last night with Cherish! I napped everyday, but on Thursday I took a 2 hour nap and still slept for 8 hours. Apparently 10 hours of sleep is what I need to get through the day these days.
I need to try to exercise in the mornings when I still have all of my strength, but I'm not sure what kind of exercise I should do. I am trying to build my strength back up to pre-treatment days, but I can't do boot-camp or the elliptical yet. Swimming is my favorite because it gives me a workout, but I can't fall or otherwise hurt myself. I just don't want to have chlorine in my hair everyday. I'm going to have to look into classes at the Y, I guess. I will just do what I can. If I workout at 5 am, I will have to be asleep at 9 pm. That will be a very big change for me. All of these lifestyle changes are kind of hard to handle, but they will make my quality of life so much better.
I finally got to talk to someone with MS. A parent of one of my students has had it for 7 years and she has been talking to me and answering a lot of my questions. I love it because she is able to put into words things I couldn't articulate. This is a quote from an email she sent me. "Like most MS patients, you are an over-achiever. Anyone who's been at Highland long enough knows that you go out on limbs, dream big and spend lots of extra time thinking and planning for your students. We are like that - obsessive, stressful people who can accomplish more than 5 people at once. They don't take "no" for an answer and demand more of themselves than they expect of others. A little type-casting there. Changing your mindset won't be easy. Obstacles for me have always been a challenge, not a roadblock. MS was just another obstacle at first, until I realized, there's no fooling the body, there's no pretending you don't have it, there's no "pushing through" the fatigue. It stops you. That's why one of the mottos of the MS organization is 'Stop MS from Stopping Others.' Another one is 'Keep Moving.'" She's given me advice on how to keep moving.
I am still really emotional at times. It's a part of MS that this parent and my regular doctor have warned me about. Plus, I've read a lot of articles that talk about mental health changes associated with MS. Between me, my doctors, my friends, and my bishop, I'll figure it out. My bishop gave me a much needed blessing on Wednesday. It has done wonders for me and taken off a lot of stress I felt about deciding on treatments and (seemingly) my future. Most of the time I am still very aware of what a lucky girl I am and how fabulous my support system is. I've always been pretty good at change. Most of the time I crave it. I guess I was a little too comfortable with how my life was going, because this is forcing me to make changes. The more I fight it, the harder it will be, so I guess it's time to give in. I will just keep telling myself these changes will lead to a better me.
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