Here I am, in Jerusalem

I’m concluding my first full day in Jerusalem. It did not contain a lot of activity. I tried to stay low-key and conserve energy/recover from jet-lag. I took a walk up the main street of my neighborhood–the German colony. I got some coffee at the famed Coffee Mill, where there are New Yorker covers on the wall. I needed the coffee! I woke up this morning at 4:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep. What else did I do? I visited Pardes with my roommate and did a little grocery shopping. Thus far I like the Jerusalem stone that the buildings in this neighborhood are constructed with and watching people walk by while sitting on the mirpeset (porch or balcony). I’m fascinated by the diversity of religious observance as it appears through dress.

I had a mostly-wonderful 24 hours before my flight: hanging out with an old Chicago friend, veggie chinese food in Lakeview, Redmoon Theater at Theater on the Lake (amazing!), and then on Saturday yard sale browing in Logan Square,  really yummy brunch in Ukranian Village, and then fun and sun at the Montrose dog beach. I went to the airport a little sandy, but it was all worth it.

Here are 2 pics to start things off:

A tiny Mizrachi synagogue that is across the street from my new apartment

what I see from the balcony

School begins tomorrow (Tuesday)!

Diagnosis: Grave’s Disease or make sure you get those blood tests at your yearly!

In May, when I went to the U of C Student Care Center for my yearly appt. (which was about 6 months late), the physician’s assistant was shocked that I asked for a lipids screening, a ths (thyroid level) test, and a urinalysis. I was shocked because she told me I had short little legs. About a week and a half ago, as I mentioned during my moving tales story, I received a phone call from this PA telling me that my thryoid levels were wacky. During that phone call, she insisted that I get this taken care of before my trip to Israel (I leave on Saturday).

I asked if it could wait until August, and was told no. I spent Friday finding a doctor within my PPO network who would be willing to see me, even if that dr. wasn’t my primary care doctor. Thankfully, the receptionist and the nurses were lovely and tracked someone down.

Last Wednesday, I went to the doctor. She said that I had hyperthyroidism.  I could have this condition from a couple different other conditions, including cancer. I had a blood test, an EKG, and was immediately put on Beta blockers. My heart rate has been really fast for several years, but no physician has seemed worried. (a year and a half ago, my thyroid levels were normal). I was very nervous about having possible tumors in my thryoid, and was dreading the scan. However, on Tuesday, when I had the scan (after swallowing a radioactive iodine gel-cap!) my thryoid looked perfect–as in no tumors. Whew. However when they did the test to see how much iodine was in my body, it was over the “normal” amount, so I had to go back and get another “uptake” today.

The doctor’s office called today and confirmed: I have Grave’s Disease. I will be taking medicine for the rest of my life. When I get back from Israel, I will probably take a treatment of radioactive iodine, which will deactivate my thyroid. Then, I’ll be on synthetic thyroid treatment. This is a hereditary disease. My maternal relatives have thyroid problems and one has the disease as well. People, like me, with food and pollen allergies have a tendency to get the disease. AND the sulfa antibiotics I was on this winter probably hastened its onset.

As my friends and family know, this has been an incredibly rough year. I was sick for most of it. And I’ve never felt 100%. Now, I know why. I may have acted unlike myself–because Grave’s Disease causes anxiety, depression, and distractibility. All of which I’ve had more severely than ever before. And of course, those of you that have been close to me know that I’ve been tired all of the time. My schoolwork has also suffered–I thought I was just no longer smart! But, this disease causes brain disorganization, memory problems, etc. People can even be falsely mis-diagnosed with dislexia with this disease! So, if I’ve been acting like a freak, I apologize.

I’m really looking forward to remembering what it feels like to feel “normal.” I look forward to having energy and focus again. Although this whole experience has been frightening and annoying, I’m glad that it was caught now, instead of through a heart issue or other severe consequences. So, just a reminder, especially to women: when you get your physical  get a full bloodwork too!

Moving Tales Part II

My parents arrived on Saturday to help me pack up the rest of my apartment. Which did happen, after 6PM.  It got packed, even though I was incredibly overwhelmed by the whole process (and really packing boxes in a studio is not a fun experience). We were finished by about 11, and they went to a hotel for the night.

Sunday morning brought perfect moving weather (unlike the torrential downpours of Saturday) and coffee from my parents. The person I hired to help move me arrived on time. And we loaded up the truck and my parents’ car and drove over to the storage place. I chose the closest storage place, which has a very sketchy freight elevator. After we loaded our first trip unto the elevator I braced for the trip up. We went up a few feet (it’s a manual elevator). And something started clanging. I was told to figure out what was ticking out the back of the cage, and discovered some sort of metal instrument and moved it. The person running the elevator tried to start it back up. It went up a little bit and stopped. He couldn’t get it to start again. This worried him far more than it worried my parents and moving helper (and me). We just sat there and hung out, but the guy wanted to get out. He called another employee on his cell and asked him to check out the basement: turning the power on and off, checking the water level in the basement, moving things around. Nothing worked. The guy got more and more anxious and started mumbling about calling the fire department. I was just worried about the time. I wanted to get moving (literally) but didn’t mind the break, and the elevator was big enough that it was pretty airy. Finally, he was able to open the 2nd floor doors the slightest bit and then all the way. Luckily a step ladder was in the elevator. We then climbed out onto the second floor and took the stairs down. I’ve never climbed out of an elevator before…just seen it done on TV.

By the time we loaded up the second (and last) bunch-of-stuff, the elevator was working again. whew! However, the employee decided (and was correct) that I had more stuff than space. So, I had to go find a new storage unit and move the other carts of my possessions down to a different floor.

Thankfully, even with all the stress and angst of moving AGAIN, it went pretty smoothly. Thanks to my parents and the awesome moving helper I hired.

I’ll be moving back into Hyde Park (somewhere) in the fall.  I cannot wait to live somewhere for longer than a year.

Moving Tales Part I

As has been mentioned previously, I was kicked out of my apartment, owned by U of C housing, because they wanted to ADA renovations in my tower and 1 or 2 others in the building. Across their buildings, there will be 40 more ADA accessible apartments overall. My friends speculate that U of C was found out regarding their lack of accomodations, because renovations have been occurring campus-wide. This move-out date was last Sunday, which was incredibly inconvenient. I still am not done with papers and had to suspend the process to move. It was incredibly stressful. When I moved nto my apartment initially, I had planned on staying for 2 years. It was perfect for me. I loved it. Below is a narration of the highlights of my moving experience.

Part I

I arranged for my friend Sarah, who works as a night nurse, to come over on Friday to help pack my kitchen. I planned on taking a break from writing/paper prep. Sarah arrived without trouble, and we walked over to the Nile for lunch. On our way over, we encountered a postal carrier. She greeted us with a hearty good morning (it was afternoon) and we responded in kind. And then she began asking us how we were. We responded affirmatively. Then, she asked if we would mind pushing her mail cart down to the next alley, the one with the bushes. An odd request, but I couldn’t refuse. I pushed the mail cart, with some mail still in it, to the alley and we went on our merry way. I do realize that this was illegal, but we didn’t ask for the, ahem, experience.

While at the Nile, where we ran into our friend E (hi E!) and her family (including her graduating from undergrad brother), I received a phone call. The caller was the nurse practioner I has seen for my yearly check-up 3ish weeks before. She asked if it was a good time, I decided it was ok because I had packing to do. And so, I discovered during that phone call that my thyroid levels were irregular. She wanted me to see someone ASAP. I asked if it could wait until after my trip to Israel, but she said no and sent my labs to Madison. I was not concerned, however while Sarah (thank you!) put together boxes and helped me pack my kitchen up I also spent a good deal of time on the phone trying to find a doctor within my PPO that would see me, even if I wasn’t there regular patient. Luckily it turned out alright, and the kind receptionist and nurses at a particular clinic in Madison were able to find me an opentime slot.

To be continued, please see Part II

First Year of Grad School Redux

I’m in the throes of Week 11: finals week. One paper is turned in, another in the works. I will still be working on a paper when I go home. That’s just the way it is, even if I pride myself on getting things done. Some things just take longer to be done than others–and it’s usually professor-sanctioned.

This post is a sort of evaluation of this year. I will also write a post about what I’ve learned this year. But that will come later.

This experience has been one of the most difficult of my life. One of the hardest parts of the experience is always feeling not-smart, and definitely lesser than classmates (especially the phd students). I haven’t felt the pure, unadulterated joy of success yet.  Instead, it’s this grinding process of “working hard” in order to get to the next step successfully. I’m not saying that this has been the most negative year of my life, but it’s been the year when I’ve constantly been working hard without a breath, or so it feels. To make things easy to understand. Here are 2 lists:

Negative aspects of the past school year:

• doing progressively worse in Bib. Hebrew and having to find additional support in order to succeed
• being sick for 7 of the 9 months of the school year with a sinus infection or related yuckiness
• being friend dumped
• discovering that even though my lease is supposed to go through Aug. 31, that I would be kicked out on June 14 for ADA renovations

Positive aspects of past school year:

• initially making/enjoying really amazing friendships
• meeting really fun, interesting people that I’m happy to count as both friends and really cool acquaintances
• taking interesting and challenging courses, even if sometimes it made me feel like drowning
• living in Chicago again, with all its neighborhoods, parks, etc.
• teaching an awesome religious school class with a wonderful boss

Obviously, the good outweighs the bad. And I had wonderful experiences even when there was negative things happening in my life. Also, these negative experiences help me to grow and become an even better person (cheesy? yes.) I mean, the sick part was just annoying because it affected my energy level which, in turn, affected my school-work time.  The friend stuff was the worst, and what I will not talk about on this blog–at least for several years. But, I learned important lessons from this experience about human nature.

The positive things were all so great. I have loved the spontaneous conversation with my classmates at the Div school that happen at the coffeeshop, the lounge, the study room and in the halls. Even though there is a tough competitive edge (which I complain about) here, cool people do exist! And being back in the city has been great. I love going to different neighborhoods for food, coffee, and people-watching. Hyde Park, itself, is a nice place to live. It is quiet and green–qualities I appreciate. One added benefit of returning to Chicago is the existence of my Smith friends, who brough a degree of normalcy and that lovely feeling of “old friends” to a new life chapter.

I think that, for me, the transition from the “working” world back to academia was tough. Hopefully, next year will be easier. I had to relearn how to study, how to write papers, how to read.  Being out of school, though, for 4 years was beneficial. Life experience makes me a better and more motivated student.

I’m glad that I’m here and proud of the progress I’ve made. And I can’t wait to have some time off to rest before saddling up again at the end of September!

A little reprieve

I went home to Madison on Thursday afternoon. It was planned. My parents are out of town and my sister has the dog and house to herself. So I went to join her. It was just relaxing to leave Hyde Park and my apartment with all its inherent tensions (piles of books, the boxes waiting to be packed, the papers that need to be written) behind and drive the 3 hours.

I was joyously welcomed home by the house pooch. And we took ourselves and the puppy to Wingra Park for dinner. We picnicked facing the lake and the trees. So so nice. Afterwards we took the puppy on a stroll on Monroe street (not the business district part) for his walk.

Friday, after my sister went to work, I read for paper-preparation. But, we didn’t read in the library, the apartment, a coffee-shop, or the div school reading room. I read on the screened porch in the perfect sunny weather.  I was also able to take a short break (love the lack of traffic in Madison! and the closeness of things) to buy some moving supplies and walk the dog. After work, we put together a quick picnic and headed to the union to sit by the lake and listen to Jazz Fest until the sunset.

And now, I’m back in Hyde Park with all its inherent tensions and expectations. One week to go. I move out a week from Sunday and then this year will finally be over.

Two strange things I’ve seen lately

1. This last Saturday was another Andersonville today. So nice. We hung out in Kopi Cafe (again, but I was hanging out with a different person). The couple that sat down near us were typical, old school hippies in tie-dye. They were in their 50s probably. The strangest sight though, was that they had a teddy bear with them. First the woman had it sitting on her lap, and it switched and sat in the man’s for a while.

2. I took an evening walk around the block tonight. I heard some hip hop flying by, which is strange because there wasn’t a car. I looked up. There was a chicago cop on a bike (doing bike patrol) with speakers on his bike, singing along to the song.