A Moment of Silence

There were a few things that I wanted to catch you all up on but I need to put that off for a moment. Some of you may have heard about the NC beach house blaze that took place early Sunday morning. Thirteen SC students were staying at the house. Six escaped while seven lost their lives. Of the seven, six were at USC. And one was a current student of mine, Justin Anderson:



He was in my TTH 2p class. I did not know anything about the accident until I got to class today. In fact, the authorities only just confirmed the identities of the dead even though the university knew for sure from other sources. He was a nice guy and his classmates are all in shock. One poor girl knew him and two others because she is in the same sorority as the girls who were there. You can imagine the faces I saw today. I thought that they were just unusually quiet. And no, we didn't have class for long. Some of my other students know either other victims or survivors. You can bet they have free reign this week.

It saddens me greatly. . .to think that they died so terribly. It's going to be odd not seeing him in class but I haven't had time to get to know many of my students well this semester. Well enough to feel the extra pain of their loss because I know them but not so much that I can't truly stop my life for mourning. And that may be the most painful thing of all for me.

My heart does go out to their parents, friends, and families. Especially those who survived the fire because they have a long road ahead of them. I am proud of USC for responding so quickly to the situation and for aiding everyone. They truly do care and I've seen it many times that they aren't all about the money. So, please join us in a moment of silence and wish everyone left behind well. Because they are the ones who need it most now as those, like my student, who have left are beyond care for this earthly world.

Never Ending

So, life has been rather hectic of late. The store seems to be in a never ending state of catching up because we are getting increasingly large shipments (another hundred boxes on the 28th, 123 last week, and 156 expected tomorrow). On top of that, we have a massive returns list to do which was wrong the first time so we had to wait an extra week to get the update. We have so much product that we are having to shelve and scan at the same time. Sheesh But the good thing is that we are getting it together and everyone seems happy with work. The kiosk looks great and our liaison is happy with that.

I had been told that I wasn't going to the manager's meeting next week. Mainly I think it's because I am not the official manager. I felt that I should go simply because no matter what they decide, someone from the store should know what's being planned this year. But no. Well, at least until last Friday when I got a call asking if it was too late for me to make arrangements to go. Turns out the new DM wants to meet me and do an interview. Be careful what you wish for. So, I'll be flying up to Pittsburgh on Monday. I find it hilarious that this city was chosen since that's where I was "transferred" over the summer.

Classes have been doing well so that's good.

The major glitch in all of this is that I have been having major female probs again. I was in so much pain this past week that I came home and drugged out almost every night. I already had another doctor appointment set up for this morning. Well, Julie doesn't know what to do for me so she passed me on to a new doctor. Basically, he confirmed things I've known for a long time: I have PCOS and I don't ovulate. Duh The former I was told at age 20 and the latter I assumed since I'm not "normal" without the Pill (even though I had a doctor say otherwise). I can't be given an estrogen based pill because a major study last year gave strong evidence that increased levels of the hormone can cause stroke. So, anyone with migraines who get additives (like my aura visions at the end of last year/beginning of this one) cannot be prescribed the stuff. So, I am stuck with progesterone only meds which are obviously not working since that is what I have been on since May. My health has been slowly deteriorating with that stuff. So I am off it.

What are my options?

1) Try one more time with a different kind of natural progesterone pill.
(I doubt this will work since the last didn't.)

2) Go in and have a endometrial ablation. This is where they cauterize the uterus so that there is no more bleeding.
(This basically sterilizes me too.)

3) Have a hysterectomy to remove the uterus.
(Hell no unless I have a choice.)

No matter what I choose, I need to have a endometrial biopsy to see if I have endometriosis or worse.

Mike and I have discussed it and I am going for option #2. It's the lest of where I will eventually end up so I might as well get it over with. I'm not happy with this option. I mean, I know we say we don't want children but a part of me would really like to meet the person we could create together. I've known for years that this might not be possible. But at least there was hope should I want it. Now, no hope. (sigh) We don't have the time or lifestyle for a child right now and by the time we may have. . .well, I might be too old for natural anyway.

Not sure when this will happen. The procedure only puts me out of commission for about 3-4 days. So, I am going to shoot for the beginning of November after Val's wedding. It's the best I can do. I'll keep you posted.