Been There, Done That!

I have a friend, Dee, who is an art teacher, but hasn't been able to get a full time teaching job in this area for a long time. It's so frustrating to see my friends who are teachers not able to get a job around here, especially when they are talented and definitely deserve it!! Anyway, she finally decided to take a daycare teaching position in the late summer/early fall (I can't exactly remember) last year. Since then, she has gotten sinus infections/colds at least 5 times. She's been on zpacks like crazy, which is so bad because that is such a strong antibiotic!! Well she got sick AGAIN over 2 weeks ago, and this time she had no voice, and was even worse than the other times she was sick. Her doctor gave her steroids, a nebulizer, another med, and told her to take Mucinex for the congestion. He told her not to work one week, and she decided to also take last week off. I talked to her over the weekend, and she still didn't sound 100%. But she had called her boss to find out her schedule for this week. I honestly can't believe she even considered going back to work, but she did say that she was going to give her 2 weeks notice today. THANK GOODNESS!! She had told me, also, that she has an appt with her doctor tomorrow, a follow-up. I told her she needs to ask her doctor if she should even be going back for two weeks, considering she's still pretty weak, and not totally herself, and there's a huge possibility she could catch something again! She did say she would ask him about that. So I am wondering how she did today!!

All of this reminds me of when I was so sick the last year I was teaching at Headstart. I had double pneumonia, bronchitis the second time, and was on my third major respiratory illness when my doctor gave me no choice BUT to quit my job. I still believe that if I hadn't been forced to quit, I might not be here today! It was awful! And it took me months to even get back on my feet after that year of sickness. So when Dee kept getting sick, and especially this last time, I was reliving my experience those many years ago! I honestly hope her doctor tells her not to go back to that job at all. I also hope she will take some more time to recooperate. She wants to get right back into subbing in some of the school districts, but I really think she needs more time to get her energy back. I understand there is a money issue, but I can tell anyone firsthand that you have NOTHING if you don't have your health!!