Three Weeks of Our Extended School Year

There are three more weeks of our first summer session before the next break. Does this sound like I am complaining? I'm not - at least, not really. I have never had an entire summer off, and I bet I will not have summers off after I retire from my current job. I am going to take a couple of months off next summer right after I leave my current facility and before I start working again, but I bet I will not have the type of job where I can take summers off. Who knows, though. Maybe I will get that type of job.

ANYWAY...

Three weeks from today, I will preparing for surgery. I have to have a part of my large intestine removed due to a large polyp/tumor. I have been through this surgery before, but that doesn't really make it any less anxiety-producing for me. I am not very good with medical things and having to go into the hospital is full of complicated situations. My mother is coming out to drive me to and from. She didn't want to come visit this summer, but now has to be here twice in a month. I thought this would all be over a week and a half ago, but here we are - preparing for yet another trip, surgery prep, and recovery.

Before I get to that situation, though, I have three weeks of music therapy to lead and provide to my clients. This has to happen while I am navigating intake interviews, medical histories, my own fears and anxieties about having to be part of any sort of procedure. I also need to combine my storage from two rooms to one. (My boss still hasn't told me that I will be sharing my space!) I got everything moved into my large storage room, but nothing is where it needs to be. I will not be able to move things much after the surgery, so I need to move it in the next 21 days. That's not a problem.

While I am waiting to get this stuff going, I still have work responsibilities. We are going to learn about our country of the month this week. We are going to play games the next week - music games, of course, and we will do something on the last week - I haven't figured that out yet. After that, my recovery time will depend on my ability to move around. I will have some lifting restrictions and some light duty expectations for several weeks. These restrictions will change some of my therapy interactions, but not many. I will have students to help move instruments around, and I have had to adapt and adjust my sessions to my needs before. Most of my clients don't notice when I am playing my ukulele instead of my guitar for a couple of weeks - then the questions start. I shouldn't have to do that this time - my lifting prohibition starts at 20 pounds or stopping when it hurts to lift stuff. So, not only do I need to look at what I am going to be doing for the next three weeks, I need to do some planning for the three weeks that will be going on after my surgery.

I think I will take a week off at the beginning of the next summer session. That will give me a chance to get my mother to the airport when it is time as well as time to do post-surgery appointments. My sick time resets on July 1, so I will have time to use without losing salary. So, I need to make some sub plans that can be run by teachers and our behavioral health technicians (BHTs) without me. After that time, I will probably be back at work for the last two weeks of the summer session - just moving a bit more gingerly around the session area.

So, tomorrow I return to work for three weeks before having some more time off. Then I have two weeks of work before getting another week and a half off before the 2025-2026 regular school year starts up. It is time to get back into a working frame of mind.

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