An Update

Hello all. First off, sorry I haven't been on in awhile. Life has been crazy, to say the least. Monday my dad and I trekked up to Mayo. They put me on the Flector patch, and off the heavier meds I was on. At this point I haven't noticed that the Flector has any effect at all, but I'm trying to be patient and give it a few days!

After talking with the Mayo guys, my PT, my family, my boyfriend and my professors, I've decided to take this semester off of school. I still fly out there on the 23rd to pick up my stuff, and we're not quite sure how I'm actually going to get back home again, as I'm not up for a three day drive! I'm pretty disappointed, and part of me is still really tempted to just bully through and do it anyway, but then I remember how awful the end of last semester was. If you recall, I had a pretty negative reaction from my parents when I first brought up this idea. My mom is still not sold on it, but I think my dad has a little better understanding. After seeing me curl up in a little ball and cry after trying to catch a falling carton of oatmeal, I think he has a better idea of what is going on. I talked with my program director today, and we'll do a reading course from home, and they are going to give me a fellowship to cover the cost. It sounds like they're going to do everything in their power to make sure I graduate on time. I'm pretty blown away by how cooperative they've been. In other good news, I called my landlord today and explained the situation to him. I live in a house with two other girls, and the original agreement on the house was that a certain amount had to come to him each month, no matter how many people were in the house (we were supposed to have 4 originally). I was really worried that if I left he would charge them for my share, and was worried about affording the pretty hefty rent with no financial aid or income. Well, first thing he suggested was releasing me from the rent without penalty to me or my roommates. I was pretty blown away, to say the least!

I hope everyone is doing well!!

Jenna

Jenna, I'm glad to hear that you've made a decision on which direction you want to take. I know it was giving you alot of stress & anxiety. Let your body get some much needed rest then hopefully you can get back at it in the Spring.

Can't really give you much incite as far as the flector patch goes but I have had pain relief from tramadol in the past. They also make an extended release of this called Ultram ER. There is no generic for it though and can be costly.

Take care and try to rest!

     Hello Jenna! Sounds like things are going to be ok for you...and with your parents..that can have aneffect on your mental state. I'm glad to see that your father is supporting you on this...and I suspect your mother will finally come around on it too. Keep your chin up...and take care of yourself first. Let us all know what happens in the comming days in your life. I'm really struggling here myself...even to post something...but I'm pushing on as best as I can.

   Michael

Thank you, all of you, for the wonderful notes and support. Its been a rough couple of days physically and emotionally, but your words have helped. I am still not seeing any relief from the Flector patch, so I'm going to call my family practice doctor later today to see if she can help at all. I also get to call all of the people holding my student loans to see if they will allow me to deffer them again for medical leave, since I have every intention of going back to school this fall and can't work right now to make money to pay them off! That's probably one of the biggest stresses right now. I'm also worrying about this summer. One of the requirements of my grad program is a summer internship. One of the reasons I went straight into graduate school after college was that my dream internship is for graduate students. Its with the United Nations World Heritage program. I have no idea if I'd actually get it, but it has been a dream of mine for years. My mom called me yesterday to tell me that she doesn't think I'll be well enough by this summer to do an internship full-time, much less one that would take me outside of the US. So at this point its looking like a decision between A) graduating on time, with my classmates and getting to get married when Nate and I had actually planned, or B) do my dream internship and spend an extra semester at school, so I can do the internship the summer in between. Who knows!

Thanks again, everyone. It means a lot to see your comments!

HUG!
Jenna