Hi everyone,
I hope you and your families are all well.
However, this has been a tough month in a few ways for us through distance and illness. My sister got married in a private ceremony to Joe at Ocean City in Maryland, and, because my Father is not well, neither my Mother nor my Father were able to attend. I was teaching, so couldn't go either. However, they are both planning a public ceremony at a Renaissance Fair in a couple of years, which everyone is invited to. Hopefully that will line up with teaching, but even if it doesn't I will be there.
My Father had rheumatic fever at 15 which has now turned into congestive heart failure with a whole load of other complications. While he has been frail for some time, he's been fairly stable until this year. Since my last update he has deteriorated, and he isn't great.
The month ended with Justine's Mum dying in the Mary Potter hospice in Wellington. Justine came back to NZ and spent the last fortnight with her, but neither she nor Peter were expecting Betty to go so quickly. It is very, very sad.
And then on top of that, my workload has been pretty crushing. I am teaching four papers, and doing my PhD, which is pretty full on. I had expected 30 year 3 students in the capstone research project that I supervise, which in itself is a huge workload, to then turn up on the first day and find 55 students in my classroom. It took two weeks for NMIT to find three other supervisors, and in the meantime I had worked some pretty crazy hours to get these students up to speed and underway on their primary research projects (I had just spent four days grappling with admin, marking and pulling long hours. I didn’t eat properly. I wasn't sleeping well. My to do list was getting longer every day)... and I wigged out.
I completely lost the plot, having a “transient global amnesia” episode (TGA). My day went as usual until I had my 11.30 student appointment, then I appeared to lose what I was supposed to be doing next, what year it was, and my place in time. I was physically OK, but personally gone to la-la land.
One of my colleagues called my doctor, cancelled my classes, took me to my doctor's, called Jan, who came down from the hospital to see me at my Doctor's surgery.
They then took me to the emergency department, where I was for a few hours before being admitted overnight. They asked me lots of questions in the ED… apparently I was quite blissed out. The ED department people were fascinated, because they had never seen anything like this before. I had very high blood pressure but was cheerful as all get out. I think I had put myself in a happy place, outside time, and therefore outside any additional pressure.
Apparently, my mother had a bout of TGA when my father broke 7 ribs and punctured a lung in 1980. I had completely forgotten that this had occurred for her... and this is apparently a condition which is more likely to happen for migraine sufferers (which she is too). Though nobody has any idea whether there will be any lasting effects, or whether it will happen again. But stress is known to be a trigger.
This was due to overload, I think: I was full to over-capacity. Because I'd lost my place in time, there was no pressure for anything. I'd created some "me" space. I spent a “long dark teatime of the soul” overnight in hospital examining my workload. I decided I would drop both my year 2 leadership papers. I was very clear in my own mind that I wanted to keep supervising the capstone research paper, but that I needed to free myself up for doing my Ph.D. study, which is really important to me.
However, my bout of TGA meant that we could not be at Brigitte's 75th Birthday celebration in Wellington. Which of course was two days after I went into hospital. It sounds like it was a great party.
I had a very frank conversation with my NMIT manager following all this. They seem quite willing for me to cut my hours and continue with a reduced
workload, anyway. The whole thing has probably given them a bit of a fright. And it is a health and safety issue.
Now I am managing a team of four supervisors – they are great, all being supervisors on our postgraduate diploma in business enterprise – and have 16 students of my own to supervise. And by 16, I mean eight single semester students, and eight full year students (who are effectively a .5 each): so 12 full-time equivalents. Much easier than 55. Feels like a holiday!
Jan is still going to Men's yoga with Jan Cools: in fact, they are both pretty consistent in turning up. He is working on his pre-hab plan to prepare for his surgery, including work in the pool.
Later in the month my Father was able to get out and about a bit more again. My folks came out today to visit us, along with friends of theirs, Graham and Julie. They stayed chatting for two hours, then we all went down to the Riverside community for lunch and had a delicious lunch together.
Boo is settling in well, and Bonnie is enjoying the company - though Bonnie is spending quite a bit of time at John's little house in Waimea West, with Aniko, between bike tours.
We have had a bit of early morning mist, which has made for some interesting photos in the mornings:
Jan had an NSO concert at Old St John's which went really well, called Transformations, and conducted by John Rimmer. This will be Jan's last concert for a while, as his hip surgery will knock him out of the next two concerts, and a musical that Nayland College is doing:
We visited Sue L in her little house in the Brook - which is lovely. Thanks very much to Tina who connected us when Sue transferred to Nelson.
And Tina has got engaged to Brad. We haven't heard anything about a wedding date, but hopefully they will make each other very happy. Jeremy is now considering work as a marriage celebrant, which is great.
More next month!
Sam (& Jan)
