classes and chronic illnesses are a tough combo.... these are some of the things that made the first semester of my senior year in college doable!
To say that my first last semester in college was rough is an understatement. I spent most of my classes in bed, laying down with my AirPods on and my video camera off. Once again the amazing Disability Center aided me with hiring notetakers and speaking to my professors about my situation. BUT! I always always always made it a point to set an on-camera or face-to-face conversation about the surgeries that led to my most recent and troublesome surgery recovery. Since most people assume "one has surgery to get better" I had to advocate for my ongoing illness, not just an injury. Luckily, I had had most of the professors in my past years and had made great connections that I didn't need to spill my entire medical record to them. Plus, I didn't really know why I wasn't recovering quicker. So I didn't want to answer any hard questions I myself was still searching the answers for.
The hardest adjustment for professors, in general, that semester was to trust that their students were actively engaged and listening to lectures, despite them being virtual rather than in person. Hence the rule that spread across all courses, your video camera must be on at all times. I will admit it was hard to stay interested while laying in bed with my camera off, so some adjustments had to be made. So, rather than lay there, I decided to be physically active while listening.
This small change in my routine made all the difference in the world. Yes, I missed feeling comfortable in bed during those 9 am classes, but I was actually grasping information A LOT BETTER. I also noticed that the 3-hour long morning body aches and stiffness began to wear off a lot quicker. Even though I really didn't want to get moving on most mornings, I would remember the positive effects. Who knew that making a scramble and bomb coffee would change my whole mindset?
In past years, I didn't fully identify with the label of being functionally disabled. It was just my arm that kept me limited. But, this semester of school, I definitely felt "functionally" disabled. Not being able to sit for more than 30 minutes, not being able to look down for more than 10 minutes, and only being able to type for 30 minutes. Sitting became enemy #1. I felt as though pop rocks were going off on the right side of my rib cage. My right leg would get a shooting pain going up and down all the way to the top of my thoracic spine. (driving down to school was ROUGH. my mom followed behind me the whole way and took as many breaks as needed. I really needed my car in Redlands and we needed the truck to haul all my crap from the bay to so cal) All these things made me feel useless and lazy. And forget about working out, even physical therapy was beginning to severely flare up my pain. (More on this Later) I had to choose what activity to exasperate my body on. So in order to give myself a hand, I went fully digital. All my notes came in through the disability center and all essays or assignments were done using the speech-to-text Dragon software or google docs. (I still use these today!) I tossed out the notion of sitting at my desk for the first semester. I embraced the online school lifestyle. It was my one stroke of good luck, COVID. Odd, I know. But, for those with chronic illnesses, online courses added a layer of flexibility that didn't exist before. If I didn't feel well at all one morning say, all classes were recorded, so missing one or two due to pain management, wouldn't set me back like usual. What about class participation grades? Well, I had an in-depth conversation with my professors about how we could change their grading for my assignments/seminars. So, if I was present during an online session, but was having a terrible pain day, I didn't need to have my camera or microphone on. My professors and I came up with a great alternative. All I had to do was one of the following; type a one-page summary of my thoughts on the class discussion or assignment or record a voice memo of me adding my input. And with that, Voila! Participation was secured at my own pace.
This first semester was going to be a much lighter load than my second-semester course plan. You see, it was senior year. So that meant one thing HAD to be done before graduation, senior capstone. Some schools call it the senior thesis or dissertation. Well, at the U of R, the usual rule was if you had two majors, you had to do two capstones. Great. I had to file an appeal to allow me to do one combined capstone that would hit the requirements for both my English and Public Policy major. Luckily, I started thinking about a potential cross-department capstone late in my junior year and have already gotten the approval needed. So, before surgery, I read some classic literature and tried to find a potential to intertwine policy. I didn't necessarily need to start stressing about this, but it was for sure in the back of my mind. All I had to do was focus on getting through these first months back to school post surgery... Seems simple enough huh? not.
Tools I used:
- microphone headphones to capture my speech-to-text accurately
- dragon software OR google docs ( both worked well but google docs was more convenient for school purposes, plus it was FREE)
- wedge pillows to support me while laying in bed
- neck pillow! (I know sounds silly but it hurt to look down and hold my head up for long periods of time. I needed cervical spine support)
-heating pad stretched across the right side of my back specifically below my shoulder blade where it felt like someone was stabbing me continuously and another heating pad around my lower sciatic area
-massage pad (it was not deep tissue massage. it had different tempos of vibration (like stem therapy) this became my best friend. the spinal nerve pain the shooting stabbing pains that went up and down, made me go insane. I had felt this nerve pain in my arm and neck but to have it all over my spine and my bra line... I felt squeezed out of breath 24/7
-used sergio (small surgery pillow i had since first operation) for lumbar support
- FOAM ROLLER, used every morning and honestly every 30 minutes to an hour. always felt like I had to readjust my whole spine/ back/rib area?? and neck, especially after sitting down
- posture brace, my abdomen hurt but didn't want to make my shoulder and back pain any worse, contracting those muscles on their own?? lol
-massage gun, to beat down those knots and trigger points in my scapula (s) and lower back. I would even massage out my butt since it felt like those muscles were overworked every day
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