An Andersen Update

     2013 brought with it a new semester for both Troy and I.  We find that we are even busier now than ever before, which is really saying something.  The fact that bothers us most is that a lot of our time is put into reading more than anything else.  Troy has taken on 2 humanities classes, which means all the literature and art in the world are soon to be crammed into the next few months; or so it seems.  He is also in his capstone semester which brings an extra workload of its own.

I've been doing my clinical shifts at both Primary Children's Hospital, and the University of Utah.  This means a lot of trips to Salt Lake, but also that my schedule is shifting every three or four weeks between the two locations.  It's been a lot of work and speaking of - my work schedule also shifts which is hard in this busy time.  

    Late January, Troy got sick and I have to say it was not a fun ordeal.  I sincerely hope he didn't catch anything because of my time at the hospital.  Regardless, he came down with Influenza B, which the NP said was worse than Flu A.  He had a burning fever for a few nights and was started on anti-viral medication.  The poor guy was under basic quarantine in the house and unable to really go anywhere for almost a week.  We were both relieved when he finally recovered.  He was glad just to be out of the house I think.  A few more weeks of crazy schedules passed, and then what do you know - it was my turn.

     the first weekend in February I came home from clinical and went out to dinner with some friends.  I came home feeling exhausted, which was fairly normal following clinical.  I woke up the next morning with an intense sore throat, rested through the weekend and braved as many classes as possible the next Tuesday.  Through the help of an awesome Father-in-Law we figured out that I likely had Bronchitis, but that I was probably not contagious.  I started to feel worse, so I took the time I could to rest and then shamefully, I went to my 12 hour clinical shift taking care of other sick people.  I got home and felt like I might die ( a bit dramatic perhaps - but it gets the point across)  I was shortly started on some antibiotics which seemed to help, and here I am day 11 of feeling quite out of it hopefully not too far from recovery.

pretty good depiction of our lives lately haha

    I have learned through this whole experience however, that I'm often a little too stubborn.  Perhaps it's the perfectionist in me, but thanks to Troy's constant pleas, I have decided to try and.....do less?  That sounds odd.  I work until jobs are done, and just sitting has been difficult, but I promised to do it.  On the plus side - Troy's been letting me watch all the Downton Abbey imaginable, and I have to say I'm totally hooked.  If there's one thing that made me stay off me feet it was watching Downton Abbey.  I love stories like that.  I'm also a huge Jane Austen fan, so this is just my sort of stuff.  I suppose I owe my old roommate Kat as well as my Mother-in-Law for telling me I should watch it. (Good call ladies!)

All in all, I think the house is just about ready to be done with the whole quarantine thing, and of course there's a lot of catching up to do with school and work.  I think this Andersen house has decided to take an "Hakuna Matata" sort of view on that though.  I'm trying to let go of my perfectionist habits so that I don't push myself into this position again.  Being married to Troy has been an amazing blessing.  If he's tried to stress anything to me it has been that grades aren't everything and life should be lived, not just worked through.  I think I'll try out his theory ;)