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Never Give Up - a university journey journal

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Bri MT:

--- Quote from: KatherineGale on February 10, 2020, 05:50:57 pm ---Put in my timetable preferences today. Fingers crossed :)

--- End quote ---

How have you tried to plan it?
Least days is a pretty popular set up but I guess might not be a big priority given your accommodation? 

KatherineGale:

--- Quote from: Bri MT on February 11, 2020, 03:51:37 pm ---How have you tried to plan it?
Least days is a pretty popular set up but I guess might not be a big priority given your accommodation?

--- End quote ---

Hey Bri MT,

Yes,  living on campus certainly has made travel a lot less of an issue. When I was looking at my options, I was aiming for three to four days actually going in. I didn't want to condense it down too much because I probably wouldn't fair well, but I also want a weekday free for appointments and the like.

On my preferences, I actually only have two days of classes, and those are at the waterfront campus,  so there will be some travel. But I have decided to go into the library to do most of the online classes I'll have, so that I won't be stuck in my room and it will hopefully keep me motivated to get it done. I made my own little timetable,  given that I get my preferences, and I've scheduled them in as though they're actual classes and plan to attend them (albeit in the library), but I've also got the freedom to change that or do it at my own pace or in parts if I'm heaving a bad day health wise.

So if things turn out well, I'll have two half-days, Monday (Waurn Ponds library) and Tuesday (Waurn Ponds library) and two full days,  Wednesday (waterfront) and Thursday (waterfront).

KatherineGale:
Update Time!

It's been a long week :)

On Monday I moved into the room at Deakin! It was a few hours drive because traffic was bad, and then when I got there, it was incredibly busy - getting a park was a bit of a saga in and of itself haha.

To get to my room, I had to line up and give my name. They then gave me a pack with my keys, some details about moving in etc. Then I lined up again in a different line and waited to get my photo taken. Then I had to go into another line, where I then had to sign the lease, go through some basic info, and then they got one of my residential leaders to take me to my room. So, all in all, a lot of waiting in lines :) The anticipation to move in had kind of worn off after the first hour and a half waiting, but I was still excited.

I didn't stay to look at my room for long because I wanted to start unloading all my stuff, but I was really happy with my room. It was bigger than I was expecting, so I was happy about that. They had a yearly planner poster for me to hang up and also a little pocket that I can stick to the back of my phone for my student id and other cards, which I thought was nice.

And then I had the joy of dragging all my stuff to my room haha. My mum drove, but she has health issues, so I was on my own with lifting everything in. It took far longer than I was hoping and I certainly regretted bringing so much - even though I really didn't pack all that much. But I got it all there in the end. And I also gained a sunburn haha. It was extremely difficult with my health issues and I knew I'd end up paying for it - and I did - but I brought a small trolley which helped a lot; I could just load stuff into the small baskets, push it to my room and then unload. Except the trolley is like those washing basket trolleys (I don't know what you call them?) that don't turn! Haha, I might have dropped a bit along the way when I shuffled it to try and get around corners :)

I went to the shops after that so that I had a little bit of stock for food and stuff.

By the time I got back, it was time to go upstairs for a meeting with the rest of the people in my building. The Residential Leaders were really nice and I met a few people who are in my building. We basically did people bingo and had to go around and find people to check of facts. I didn't do very well though haha.

After that, we headed down to the bus stop. People from the other buildings were also down there, already getting on the busses.  Once we were finally all on board, we headed to an arena and sat through a compulsory session about living in the residences. Then we came back and had pizza on the lawn.

Honestly, by the time I stumbled my way to bed, I was exhausted :)

The following days were full of another couple of compulsory meetings, a lot of free meals, a few voluntary activities - I didn't go off campus or do anything too exciting because my health issues were playing up a bit, which sucked. I sorted out a lot of stuff around campus - I briefly visited the library, I got my student ID, I started to unpack, went to the medical centre to get my files transferred, had a general look around the campus, I had to evaluate my room and then put in maintenance requests for anything that was broken, etc. just boring stuff really.

I still have a bit more to unpack, but I'm looking at just having a couple of more quiet days. I might read a book, put out a few homey things and settle in a bit more over the weekend. I had my first bad flare up since I've been on this medication, which was concerning because my rheumatologist recently upped my dosage, but I figured it was because I was pushing my body too much too soon, so I'm going to take it easy for a few days.

Now that I'm finally here and moved in though, I'm really pumped to get started on my course. Even though I've been so busy physically, I haven't really had any mental stimulation, so I can't wait to get into it all.

That's pretty much it for now. I'll probably give another update next week - I want to get into the routine of updating once a week.

Oh, and just a quick update on my health if anyone wants that:
I saw my rheumatologist a few days before I left and she was concerned because my inflammation markers were up a lot higher than they were when I first saw her. She was a bit worried at how much my disease had progressed just in the time I've been seeing her, particularly given the heavy meds she's had me on. So, she's upped my medication, will up it again in another month and then if my markers haven't come down much, she'll start testing out add-ons to see if that helps. I asked her if there was anything I could do to get myself to a better place, but she said no. That's why when I had that bad flare up, I knew it was time to slow down a bit - I need to learn to listen to my body and know when I've pushed myself too far. So, it's just wait and see for now. Fingers crossed things back off in the next couple of months, but to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if after all the stuff I've done this week my markers have spiked again :/ Oh well, I need to stay positive and just focus on why I'm here, which is again, why I just can't wait to get started!

KatherineGale:
Another update!

Honestly, there's not really anything to update, but I want to get into the habit of posting weekly :)

To be honest, I've had one of those weeks, where everything just goes a little wrong :)

I've dropped things, everything I touch seems to break, I've almost tripped over even more frequently than normal and I've had a couple of large incidences haha.

So, after I had a particularly rough day, I was in my little kitchen cooking. I had finally gotten over my deep fear of setting the fire alarm off, when, guess what happens? My fire alarm starts beeping. I immediately turn off the stove and start wafting a towel near the fire alarm to try and help and it stops and then starts again. Every 10 seconds it starts beeping again and I try wafting again! It's not working! I grab my phone ready to call reception and then it starts like flat out beeping. I have to admit, I panicked! If the firies are sent out, I have to pay for it, so thats $1500 I don't have. I just don't understand. I'm wafting the fire alarm, most of the smoke had dissipated and it was still going and I had made more smoke than that on other nights and it hadn't gone off.

And then I realised...

The fridge door was slightly ajar.

It was never the fire alarm, but the fridge right below it. I laughed at myself so hard that I had to leave my own room :) but seriously, I've never heard a fridge sound like that when left open, with sharp, shrill, quick, loud beeps.

Another incident to mention is that I was attacked by a spider the size of a 20c coin. I nearly set the fire alarm off because I sprayed so much spider spray but the ugly thing disappeared. I was laying on my bed when it sneak attack ran towards me on my covers. Haven't seen it since it dropped down the side of my bed and right now, I'm procrastinating to avoid going to bed so I don't come across it again. I'm genuinely terrified haha :) I have arachnophobia, not just the mild distaste for them that most people do. I still feel like I'm crawling with insects and it's been hours. How does something that big disappear in such a small space? Right in front of me? I don't understand. Now I'm worried it went into my covers in the gap at the end and is creeping around in there. Help me someone please :(

Other than those deeply traumatic experiences, I haven't done much this week. I settled in, unpacked a bit, ordered food online to be delivered and cringed a little at the dent in my bank account (I didn't spend much considering I ordered about three weeks worth of food and stocked up on some items I still hadn't gotten around to buying, but it still hurt to look at haha). I've committed to not just eating 2-minute noodles all year and making myself actual healthy or just delicious meals (like risotto, stir-fry, Pad Thai, etc.), so I spent a lot of this week writing out meal plans for dishes that had a lot of the same ingredients that I could buy in bulk to make each meal a little cheaper, hence why I ended up ordering so many days worth of food. (All around I got it down to about $8.50 a day including breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks and snacks, but I'm not going to eat all that in a day, so it'll probably spread out across even more days. I hope to get the price down even further as I get more used to cooking for one)

I went through a period this week where I just couldn't sleep. As in, I had maybe a combination of 2.5 hours across three nights, broken up into short bursts, mostly between 7:00am and 8:00am. So that was frustrating, but I'm used to getting little sleep, so...

My family is coming to visit tomorrow, which will be great. Really looking forward to seeing them and giving my niece a big hug. She hasn't been well, so not being there to give her a cuddle and make her feel better has been hard. I spent my day niece-proofing my room because if there is anything to get, she will get to it :)

Next week is orientation week, so I'll go to a few events - a couple of tours and some compulsory OT sessions on the Wednesday.

Still have so much to organise haha. Haven't got police check or working with children's check yet. Thats on my to-do list for next week.

Waiting on a call back from my rheumatologist. As I've been essentially home schooled for the last five years or so, coming back into an environment with a lot of other students, whilst on medication that is mucking with my immune system, I've picked up a bit of a cough. I swear, I sneezed a hundred times today. I don't remember ever having a cold and just sneezing constantly - I though that was just an exaggeration seen in movies. I just need to see if I can take cough medicine with the medication I'm on because the pharmacist said he thinks I can but he wasn't sure.

Oh, and did I mention I got sunburnt on the day I moved in? Well, that's finally starting to fade. I'm normally paler than most walls, like glow in the dark white, but the sunburn turned me bright pink for a week (got my scalp too, though it's probably my fault - on this medication I'm meant to limit my time in the sun, wear sunscreen even in winter, and always be covered with a hat and at least a shawl - but it was too hot the day I moved in).

I caught the free shuttle bus between campuses for the first time, which was, well, sadly, the most exciting event of the week. I had to go to the Geelong council to get a sharps box for my needles, so when I got off the shuttle bus I just took a 10 minute stroll.

I had another couple of flare ups, albeit smaller ones, but it's still a bit disconcerting. I figure it's still just because I'm doing too much too soon and need to slow my pace down, but as I said, the most strenuous thing I did this week was go to the waterfront campus and take a short wall, so that sucks, but I've just got to build up to it I guess. In the past, buses and walking 'long' distances have always caused flare ups, so I'm really lucky that they haven't been anywhere near as bad. 6 months ago and I would have been writhing in pain for three days straight.

Oh and I don't know if I've mentioned this or not, but I have also been in contact with the disability community at Deakin. They're lovely and have given me a plan to help me manage the workload.

Just a random mention, but I discovered an instrument that I want to learn how to play. In the past, I've always struggled to find a hobby. Sports was too difficult with my health, the strings of a guitar or piano were too difficult to play with my arthritic hands, which was actually why I ended up getting into reading and writing. But I finally found an instrument that I think I could eventually, with a lot of hard work, play. The Theremin! Haha, it's so interesting to watch people play it and I think practicing it would help stretch out my hands - though I doubt I would ever be able to play it well. I want to focus on work this year and my health, but I also really want something that's more for enjoyment and wellbeing. Don't know if I ever will end up getting to try it though as they cost between $500-$1000 and I could only find one school that teaches it in Victoria, which was a. Out of my budget anyway, and b. About 2.5 hours drive away.

As I said, bit of a boring update this week, but to be honest, I've kind of enjoyed the slower pace. Week 1 was hectic for me and I know it's only going to get busier, so it was great to have that time to settle in.

And as usual, I've managed to ramble on about absolutely nothing for an essay length. Haha, I genuinely don't know how this happens :)

Bri MT:
Hey,

I have never heard a fridge do that either - would definitely panic me a lot too. I can so clearly imagine the relief and bewilderment of realising it was the fridge. (I really like your writing style btw)

Sleepless-ness sucks :( I hope you're able to get more rest soon.

Nice to hear about the sunburn fading & the family visit!  Hope you have a great day together :)

Nothing wrong with catching the shuttle bus being exciting it's new & having that link connecting campus is cool and useful imo.

I hope this week you have less issues with your health & although it can be very frustrating to manage your behaviour around it I'm glad you've had improvement from the past.

Glad to hear that the disability community at Deakin has been great so far!

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