Field Day/Sick Day

Thursday morning I woke up with a sore throat and just decided to ignore it. The teacher in me was convinced it would just blow over. I thought to myself, it's spring and everyone is getting sick...I'll just pop some Airborne and be fine. And I was, until I woke up on Friday and knew it wasn't any normal sore throat. Unfortunately, it was Field Day and I just could not bring myself to call in sick. My kids were so excited and to be honest, I was too! We made our own shirts this year, we had been practicing the games, the weather was going to be perfect, and I just wanted to go! Mentally I was pumped. Physically, I only lasted a couple hours! The theme for this year was "Passport to America" and each station had something to do with one of the fifty states.

By the time we got through the Pacific Northwest I thought I was going to die. I knew I was running a fever and everyone who saw me said I wasn't looking too good. Thankfully I had two special ed teachers helping me for the day (I have 3 BD students and another with one zero impulse control) so I left them to take my kids to lunch and headed to the clinic. She confirmed that I had a high fever and some white spots in my throat. I went and told my principal and headed to the doctor leaving my kids in the very capable hands of my friend Jenna. I was so sad to leave them but I was falling apart and could not make it a few more hours! Don't worry...she Lysol-ed the heck out my classroom after I left (twice!)!

I drove to the Minute Clinic and waited two hours to see the nurse. She confirmed I had strep, sent me home with some Penicillin, and told me to sleep it off. That is exactly what I did! I even took Monday off to recuperate and ended up sleeping in until 2:00! Clearly my body needed some serious rest! I still feel awful- the strep turned into a nasty cough/runny nose but it's too hard to take that many days off work without planning ahead! The bad news is that including me, 7 people in my class have had strep throat within the last two weeks!! My principal sent home a note about hand washing, blah blah blah, but it's an epidemic! I only hope we can stay healthy for the next 2.5 weeks and I can make it to summer break without another outbreak!