chaos

It is that time of the year when students who have made nothing but C's all semester come to my office asking what they need to do to make an A for the class (uh, score 137% on your final?). It is a time for begging, wheedling, threatening ("I'm going to lose my scholarship if you don't give me an A!"), for tearful entreaties ("I've been unable to afford the books-- that's why I've read nothing this whole semester"), for various other unpleasantries. Outside of work, we had to take my mother-in-law to the emergency room for heart attack symptoms/blood pressure of 195/116. I spent almost 24 hours straight in the hospital and came out of it feeling shaken but incredibly grateful to have my own health.

The week was consumed with thinking about death-- at school where we did a blood/bone marrow drive in memory of Sandy, and at the hospital where I saw everything that is wrong with the American medical system through several hours spent in the Emergency Room. The only light moment came from the ER receptionist who, when calling out patient names, occasionally threw in a fake patient to see if anyone would laugh. ("Manuel Noriega? Manuel?") When we finally got a room, we were in the cardio-pulmonary ward, where some patients appeared to be doing quite poorly. At one point the woman sharing our room got a call from the hospital administration reminding her that she owed $26,000 in hospital bills (from a four night stay) and asking how she planned to pay for it. Apparently this was a mistake, and administrators came to her room to apologize for the phone call, but still. My mother-in-law is now fine but needs to be on blood pressure medication and may be in the early stages of diabetes. The hospital was probably a thousand times more frightening for her, as she's visiting from overseas and speaks no English. Now I think she wants to go home.

Still running, but not feeling much like blogging about it these days. Did a long run of 8 miles this weekend and last-- last weekend with no IT pain, this weekend with some. Hopefully blogging (and reading your blogs!) will improve after school calms down (last week of classes!) and after I run a little 5K this upcoming weekend where the prize is a baby tree. (Everyone entering gets a prize.) I'm going to try not to run too fast. My competitive instinct always kicks in, but this time, maybe I mean it. Too many issues with this nagging IT band-- and if I'm smart, I'll slow down or it'll never get better. Sigh.