My surgeons office just called and told me that my surgery has been moved until July 10th. I suppose it’s neither here nor there except that I start school again on 21 August and I feel like that’s pushing it. Originally I was going to have it done on 27 June and I thought that gave me a better shot of starting school on time but I’m not sure that five weeks after surgery, I am going to feel well enough to be teaching special, education full-time. Any other teachers out there have any comments ?
Hey Abby,
PLEASE, Do Not be setting yourself a hard deadline for recovery, pushing yourself to recover sooner or by a set date can be really soul destroying when that date comes and goes. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great idea to have a goal, just don’t be setting that goal in concrete. We have to be flexible in our recovery to be able to manage what the day throws at us, that flexibility also needs to be added to our own expectations. I may make that sound easy, it is not.
My expectation was the 6-8weeks the medicos had given me to recover, but at 10 weeks I was still very unstable on my feet. I go to stand, get all dizzy, then found the floor with a thud. I couldn’t return to work like that, it wouldn’t be safe for me or my clients. I was so very annoyed with myself for not reaching that 6-8week timeline and I, metaphorically, beat myself up for it. “Others could recover in that time… …why can’t I ???” I got it into my head that I just wasn’t trying hard enough, so I pushed it, pushed it too far too soon and POP, ending up back on the operating table.
Under ‘normal’ circumstances often the mind rules the body. The mind thinks it and the body does it and it can be really foreign when that needs to be turned around but, honestly, you have no choice. I tried to ignore my body’s signs and let the mind rule, but the more I forced the point, the more the body took over. That was until I collapsed, my body had had enough. You need to look after YOU, you do not need to look after the school, you do not need to look after your students. You need to concentrate on YOU!!! When you’re OK, then you can look outside of you. But until then your focus needs to be YOU!!
Merl from the Modsupport Team
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Thank you 
This is extremely well said! As helpers, we rarely focus on our needs, brain repairs make it possible to be a bit self centered and concentrate on what we need, not others. I often told clients that if they don’t fix themselves, they cannot possibly help others. I just never concentrated on my needs much until I had my rupture, then it really was about me😂
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