Weekly Update: 10/7 - 10/13
headed down the slide at a pumpkin patch this week
reflection
My main takeaway this week has been to slow down and listen to my body (which feels like it’s been my life main lesson since Ellie was born). I’ve been feeling a little “off” lately, experiencing things like shortness of breath and a racing pulse. I happened to have a doctor’s appointment scheduled for my back and was considering whether I should ask them to give my heart an extra listen… turns out I didn’t have to ask. When they took my vitals my pulse was around 160 (it’s normally around 70 or 80 beats per minute). It went down to ~115ish with a carotid massage and all my other vitals seemed okay so they sent me off to my PCP after we talked about my back. At my PCPs office my pulse was still high (around 110), but I otherwise appeared fine. I left with instructions to go to the ER if things got worse and a referral to schedule further testing. Needless to say, this has been at the forefront of my mind all week. I felt slightly guilty about not getting all the things done I’d wanted to on Tuesday (when I went to the doctors), and had to remind myself of one of my main takeaways from years 1 and 2… remember that it’s a job and it’s not worth sacrificing your health/mental health in order to succeed. I had some mindless tasks that I worked on to keep myself occupied (thank you systematic review) and then moved the rest to later in the week. For all its faults, I’m glad that this position (for the most part) allows me the flexibility to shift things around when I need to. Overall, it’s been a strange week. Anyway, I’m happy to report that despite the weird heart stuff, my appointment about my back went really well. The doctor is really into lifting (especially Olympic lifting) and is confident I can get back into it with some additional PT, so that’s exciting!
Here are my goals for the past week…
research
Paper 2: Goal(s): finalize tables; review intro, methods, and results with co-author; start to incorporate feedback from our meeting into the draft. Goal(s) met? Yup. It’s exciting to get some momentum going with this paper after lots of months of stagnation.
Poster presentation: Goal(s): Finish up some logistical/admin stuff related to getting this printed and shipped. Goal(s) met? Yes.
Systematic review: Goal(s): Pull abstracts for a review session the following week. Goal(s) met? Yes, got about half way through the list of ~300 references (not all of them needed to have references pulled). This was an awesome mindless activity to occupy my brain when I was in between doctors appointments on Tuesday.
Funding application: Goal(s): Get clearer on what this project is actually about and look up potential funding calls. Goal(s) met? Half. Got some clarity on what we want to do and did a brief look at announcements, but didn’t actually decide on a call. I also started to look at some literature to help frame the project.
Article review: Goal(s): Do an initial read through of an article review and write down my initial thoughts. Goal(s) met? Yes.
teaching
Online research methods course prep: Goal(s): Create course intro video along with some other logistical/admin updates to the course shell. Goal(s) met? Yes.
service + admin
Planning: Goal(s): Plan for the week. Goal(s) met? Yup.
meetings, appointments, + events
✓funding meeting
✓instructor check in
✗equity committee meeting - date got changed and I had a schedule conflict, plus this ended up happening on my day of doctors appointments so I wouldn’t have made it anyway
✓OER meeting
✓collaborator check in
✓faculty meeting
✓drs appt x2
✓b-day dinner for a friend
✓basketball game
✓pumpkin patch
personal
Toddler on the Tenure Track: Goal(s): write and post weekly update, double check budget post is up. Goal(s) met? Yes.
plan(it)*: Goal(s): Update/create scripts for 5 videos. Goal(s) met? Yes.
Meditation: Goal(s): 10 minutes of meditation every day. Goal(s) met? Yes!
Budget: Goal(s): Update budget for the week, pay credit card bill, pay nelnet bill. Goal(s) met? Yup.