Sliding Into Thursday

I was the recipient of a cough in the face yesterday.

This happens when you work with humans, and especially when you work with kids, so it is not unusual, but I felt this one brush the hair on my arms and move up my body into my mouth. I tried to blow the germs away (very effective, I know), but I am not sure that I was able to fend off the germs wafting all around me.

I have already had the flu once this season, and I would REALLY like to avoid the experience a second time!

Two of my students (in two different sessions) looked sick yesterday. They were flushed and juicy, and I am just waiting for the note from nursing stating that they should not be around others.

The thing is, working in a residential facility means that any germs will go through the entire community - clients, staff, teachers, therapists, and back again. It is not a pretty picture. Next year, at this time, I will be elsewhere, dealing with the germ culture someplace at that location - wherever it may be.

Germs are everywhere, and after working at my facility for almost 30 years, my germs are a part of the culture. There are times when new germs come into the facility, but I am somewhat immune to some of the stuff that comes around - like strep. I don't get strep. (Now watch, the cough share will be strep, and I'll get it like no one has had strep before because that's what my body does - it takes things and morphs it up bad!) 

Today will be a day where things seem shorter than usual. I have four groups on Thursdays, and that's all. It is amazing how much more time I seem to have when I am doing one less group in a day. I have a whole bunch of binder pages and file folder activities to create for classrooms to help keep me busy. I also need to take things home. I only have five more months - the job opening is posted now - so I need to ramp up the transfer of stuff from my office and clinic to home. I have so much to bring home that it is mind boggling. I have to figure out where I am going to put things here at home. Once I have figured out the where, I want to figure out what I will do with the stuff I no longer need. The times I have offered materials to my local university program, I was completely ignored. COMPLETELY! It was free stuff for students, and I am not sure that anyone even knew that I was offering.

So, the plan for today is my standard country of the month presentation for the first group and then dragon parades for the others. We will see how things go during sessions today. We will also see how many people look sick today. I will avoid as many open-faced cough germ sharing episodes as possible, but I think it may be too late.

And, of course it is - OCMT is this weekend!

See you later, alligator!

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