So tired!!!

[futuremum]

Hi!

I have just finished my first week back at work, thought I would never make it. The building is very hot, there is still no air circulation in the corridors so the heat gets stuck and accumulates itself and it is very uncomfortable, it is like being on a tropical island. Having a new head of department I cannot do what my GP told me to do: Sit down with feet up. Being a teacher, I have been standing on my feet all day and when I come back from work, my legs are all swollen and quite painful, I had to put a quilt underneath the mattress in order to have circulation back into the legs. As soon as i get up, the swelling starts again. tonight, my shoes were cutting my feet they were so swollen!!!

I find it difficult to get up already, I get up around 3-4 times a night just for the toilets and there is always something going on to wake me up, like my cat having a fight just under my window

Anyway, I managed to get through but I thought I was going to cry many times of tiredness. I am going on maternity leave in 11 weeks so am far from the end!!! hopefully, it will get better

 

[ToriElla]

I know how you feel! The heat makes it so much worse too. I hate that feeling of tiredness where your whole body feels like it is aching.

I'm finishing work in december (not going back after the holidays in Jan) so i can have plenty of time to rest and organise things before the baby comes.

11 weeks will go fairly quickly and in the meantime you need to speak to the head of dept about your health and the fact that you need to sit more often as it is causing you problems standing too much.

Hope it gets easier!
Vicky x

 

[Rosebay]

You poor thing, I had some ankle swelling a few weeks ago and it's a horrible feeling isn't it? I suppose it's difficult with you teaching but I think that legally your employer should make your working environment safe for you which includes not standing up too much. Is this new HoD approachable? My ankle went like a ballooon when I'd been sitting for too long funnily enough- a variety of standing, lying and walking seem to be best (although I have my suspicions that a floatation tank or anti-gravity chamber is the thing to have!!!). I put my feet high up at lunchtime now even though it looks strange and as I have what is now a 50 min walk to and from work I'm lying on my left side for about half an hour when I get in to try and stop the fluid from building up in my legs. It's a horrid bloaty feeling though isn't it My blood pressure is actually really low so although my mother in law flapped about pre-eclampsia when I told her I'm not too worried that this is a sign and neither is my midwife.

Everyone here advised me to drink more water which I did and that does help I think. Also I walk around barefoot as much as possible in the evenings and flex my ankles and legs a lot. The Body Shop do a cooling leg gel and a spray which I have in my bag when it's hot and these are nice as is standing in a bucket of cool water when you get in! People have also suggested support tights to keep the circulation going- might be worth a go although not good in this heat... I keep looking at those ladies of a certain age you see hobbling around with swollen legs and feeling vast amounts of sympathy for them- at least this will pass for us in a few weeks. Some days I feel like I'm an old lady I ache so much and am constantly aware of what my body can't do easily any more. It has made me determined to lose the weight I've put on quickly after all of this and continue living a healthy lifestyle. It's my Nan's 92nd birthday today and I'm going up to my parents to see her. She still does 3 or 4 hours gardening a day and spent her life scrubbing and cleaning and gardening and doing physical jobs like working in old people's homes lifting them in and out of bed etc and she's always been obsessed with good diet and fresh food etc and it has all worked in her favour!

Anyway, roll on Maternity Leave and cooler weather that's what I say!!

Hope it gets easier for you soon
+++

 

[Juzza]

I do feel for you babe. I too am a teacher in a secondary school and i know how hard it is sitting down! People seem to think that we just set work and put our feet up but it isn't like that. As it's a new year and many of my classes are new i've tried to get them into the routine of working quietly whilst i sit down, i couldn't do this previously as my classes had always known me to be a 'standing' teacher. Sure it's gotta be fun and games at the start and end of lessons but there's no reason why you can't change your system a bit so the kids are used to a different method of teaching - and nows the time to start it!

Also as you're quite far along you could be considered to need to be on 'light' duties, something which has nothing to do with your head of dept but with your deputy head or whoever is in charge of teacher welfare. Why not ask for a new chair (quite high) so you can survey the class that way. I know you don't need the added stress but if you have to get stricter for a while because the kids won't cooperate then surely its worth it. Also get a little footstool from ikea or somewhere and pop it under your desk, no-one will ever know!

Good luck with everything. I too am finding it exhausting and i'm a good 10wks behind you. Just try to find ways to make the rest of your time as stress free and work light as possible, i'm sure other members of staff will be able to help even if you HOD can't.

Take care of you both

 

[futuremum]

Hi everybody!!!


Thanks a lot for your replies. Well my new head of department is young and never had any babies so she does not seem to understand really. I always had a full time table and for once, the deputy head gave me 3 lessons in isolation instead of lesson, which i thought was nice from her But my new head thinks my time table is too light and wants to take off one my free periods to give it to another teacher who already had 10 frees in 2 weeks ( we have a 2 week timetable)while i have 5 frees in 2 weeks, just because he has 3 frees on monday and hardly any during the week and he is a year head. I told her i would not mind having an isolation taken off but not a free but she answered isolation was like a free so she would take off one my frees. So I am not a happy bunny!!! I think she does not realise how hard it can be when you are pregnant. I carried all my set of textbooks around the corridor last week, set of ex books and i found it very difficult. One of the girls made a comment about how hard it is to be pregnant, i nearly told her she had to take a full month off last year because she could not cope, she was too tired!!!

My headteacher though was very nice, telling me to take time off when needed, which did surprise me!!!

We'll see how this second week is, apparently it gets easier

 

[Rosieroo]

Just as a thought, could you be anaemic? That would also contribute to you feeling really tired (though it seems like your job really isn't helping )