After a long and tiresome semester, I am more than happy to say...
I DID IT
All in all, this semester rivals my 7th grade year in difficulty, both with health issues rearing their ugly head again (thankfully in a much less severe state than it was in seventh grade, airway wise, at least.) and with schoolwork itself. I unfortunately ended up having with withdraw from my introductory chemistry course in the week before finals, as with my dyscalcula and other learning disabilities/developmental disability, the course was too much for my very exhausted brain to handle. The math component would go in one ear and out the other. On a brighter note, I achieved all B+ grades in the classes that were not graded pass/fail, and received a passing grade in the one that was.
The introductory neuroscience course was in my opinion the most interesting, but also the most drama laden and demanding course. It did not help that the peer mentors assigned to the group were for the most part less than helpful, if not outright condescending. Being on zoom at 9:00 AM EST (and sometimes for early morning peer mentor and professor meetings, 7:00 AM EST!) didn't help either. The college is planning for an in person fall semester after a successful trial of having students on campus this spring semester, there were a few hiccups with parties and such similar college life staples that caused the campus to have to revert to a prior stage and quarantine or isolate students, but overall for the ones who were on campus, it seemed like life was overall a success. I am excited to be back in a classroom after a year and a half of zoom based school from my dining room table. And I am very excited to be social again, as for some odd (likely pandemic driven) reason, many of my close friends seem to have forgotten about me when their schools opened in the fall or the spring of 2020/2021 but I have taken the opportunity to get closer with some of my friends who I was previously close but perhaps not as close with as my original inner circle, silver linings do exist, I guess.
On the horizon I have a few plans, most notably is to figure out the plan for my second vaccine. If you are new to my blog (and hello if you are! I wrote a re-introduction post the other month and would suggest you start there, if you are here for disability fanfic, there are tags divided into TES, Neverwinter, and Dragon Age, happy reading regardless!) you probably are unfamiliar with the fact that I had a reaction to my first Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine back in April, which resulted in an 11 hour Emergency Department trip, lots of urgent follow up appointments, a relapse of my oh so pesky vocal cord problems (more on that later or in another post) and now a referral to the director of the Pediatric Infection Disease and Immunodeficiency program at MGHfC here in Boston. Due to my precarious and compromised airway my team had decided cohesively all to say N.O. to my second vaccine after my reaction to the first one, given that the first dose gives roughly 80% immunity, and the immune response is significantly higher in the second dose, it was decided "yeah...your body and specifically your airway cannot handle that at the current moment, you should get it eventually, since you would almost definitely die if you got COVID-19, but now is not the time. We need protocol first." Currently I am waiting for the referral to go through before I can get an appointment with the clinic. Luckily, my pulmonologist and allergist both work in the same general clinic space as the infectious disease clinic, Pulmonary and Sleep medicine on the left door, Allergy/Immunology and Infectious Disease on the right door.
Other than running to and from appointments, and having follow up neurology appointments regarding the medication we have been trialing for Myoclonus-Dystonia Syndrome (an incredibly rare movement disorder caused by genetic defect that has an incidence of roughly 1 in 500 thousand in Europe, the global and US incidence rates are unknown) that are virtual rather than schlepping to the hospital and back, I have finally had the time to get back into writing, and editing the number of fics I had tabled when the spring semester started. I am currently writing 3 including one commission, editing another 5 and proofreading 2 that should be ready to publish soon. I will likely queue them up here on blogger so I have things ready to go in the coming months while I work on actually writing other things to keep the content flow moving. Additionally, I've had time to work on fixing my xbox360 controller that had a battery leak in December, confirmed it is in fact the battery pack that was the problem the controller itself turns on now, which is a relief, and I'll be spending most of my summer at the JCC being a counselor for the lower camp. Nothing like corralling first graders from 9:00 to 5:00 Monday through Friday from June to late August am I right? Sarcasm aside, I am excited to be able to be around people again, get to work with the kids, and spending time outside in the fresh air. The free summer membership to the JCC isn't so bad either granted they have two pools.
I should find a mathimatics tutor probably as well, or at least do Khan Academy to prepare for classes on campus, but for now I am simply relaxing, going outside (and avoiding pollen and airway irritants don't worry pulm I know the rules) catching up on some gaming and reading, and trying my best to catch up with friends when I can.
May your summer (or winter for friends in the southern hemisphere) be lovely and hopefully temperate! And may COVID-19 get its ugly self away soon. Get vaccinated if you can and remember to stay safe!!
Until next time,
Max
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