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Complete
Last Friday I submitted my final university assignment. I have completed my course, after only six years for what amounts to three semesters of full time study! I must admit I was feeling pretty unsure as to whether I would finish, having taken a leave of absence on two separate occasions. This round of studying was a lot different than my undergraduate experience when I was still young.
I think the obvious difference is that most of us really don’t have nearly as many distractions and commitments when we are younger. And I don’t think we appreciate the freedom that we have for study either. I have discovered that I am or have become far more easily distracted as I’ve grown older too.
Which leads me to the second difference. I know for a fact my brain is functioning at far lower levels than when I was a young adult. Sometimes I find it difficult to form a coherent sentence. So it’s a wonder that I can form a collection of coherent sentences to write an assignment. The second assignment this semester was a really difficult one. I suffered panic and found it hard to write anything at all. When I finally did, I wrote something up as quickly as possible. I realised towards the end that I had overlooked a crucial part of the assignment where I needed to narrow my topic to a particular area. I survived that assignment but tried very hard to plan ahead for the last one.
Which leads me to the third problem. I must have a procrastination gene. I think this because my mother confessed to me earlier this year that she has a hard time completing anything. I have always put off getting started on my assignments from as far back as I can remember. This never caused me particular problems when I was young. I remember actually completing a writing assignment early as an undergraduate and feeling really pleased with that accomplishment. Unfortunately, that assignment ended up with a poorer grade than any of the others and I think that has stuck in my brain because I’ve never finished any assignment early from that time. It doesn’t work so efficiently, though, when you go back to that first difference. Too many distractions make it a lot more difficult to whip up an assignment because you just never know how everyday life is going to take your attention to something else. Then it’s a matter of getting back on track. To get back to the topic at hand, I did start work on my last assignment much earlier. But the writing of it still came down to the last couple of days.
A very significant change in my study this time around is that it’s been done completely by distance eduation. While it’s very practical and very flexible, it has some pitfalls. Some of the units I’ve studied have been very involving throughout, encouraging interaction online. But others, like the one I’ve just finished, have only a few students and the tutor/lecturer only pops in occasionally and makes a few comments then leaves. There is little to no motivation to interact or take part because there simply is no discussion. Then there was the internet studies unit I did last year where the online students were fairly interactive but the lecturer seemed to drop out after the first few weeks and take almost no part in the online discussions. Those students attending classes and tutorials had the benefit of his presence and involvement every week. But those of us online hardly heard from him at all.Â
But now my official studies are completed and it’s just a matter of waiting for my diploma to be processed and sent to me. I completed and posted the intention to graduate form this afternoon and everything should be official by the middle of next month although I’m not too sure when I will receive my diploma.
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Bits and pieces
As is obvious from my last post, I’ve finally made some progress on writing about our holiday. I wrote most of that a few weeks ago but it was only tonight that I finally edited it in preparation for posting. I fear I will forget much of what I wanted to write as time goes on but there is nothing to be done about it.Â
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I’ve been in a much better state of both physical and mental health over the past couple of weeks. While I don’t exactly feel energetic, I don’t feel like I need to sleep all the time. It seems the thyroxine must have been doing something after all. My tonsillitis episode did mostly resolve after about a week and a half.
This week I had my annual appointment at the immunology clinic in our local teaching hospital. Last year I had a disastrously incompetent doctor, and despite the other doctors being good to great, I was worried about a repeat. Fortunately, it was all fine, although it took longer than I expected. She was rather abrupt and gruff when we first got started but improved as we talked further. She later mentioned that she’d only been in immunology for a week so I assume she’s still settling in and that might have been the reason for the less than friendly start to our discussion. We covered my low thyroid issues caused by being off my medication and also discussed some abdominal pain episodes which had occurred while I was away and for a while after I returned. She examined my hands and found them quite cold, then asked if my feet were the same (which they were). Later she checked my blood pressure and found it was quite low (95/55) and was worried that I might be light-headed (which I wasn’t). She checked my abdomen thoroughly for anything unusual and presumably found nothing amiss. She asked about a couple of spots/rashes on my stomach but I wasn’t able to provide any useful information except that one has been there for a couple of years and the second, smaller one appeared recently. I’ve presumed they were due to some sort of skin condition but the only notable thing about them is the larger one sometimes seems to change color slightly. She had a thorough look at my mouth and throat and noted my tonsils are swollen.  After we covered pretty much everything, she went off in search of the consultant (head doctor) for the department to confer before we finished.
 The doctor was on a phone call for quite some time before she was able to reach him. Eventually he came to the consulting room and they discussed my case right there, which was kind of unusual. I’d seen this doctor at two previous appointments and he’d concluded that my autoimmune condition is Sjögren’s syndrome based on my symptoms and my ANA. I have antinuclear antibodies of at least two types. One type is called anti-coilin and seems to be fairly unusual but mostly is seen in people with primary biliary cirrhosis and Sjögren’s syndrome. The other type is common and also non-specific but also seen in Sjögren’s. This doctor had previously given me lectures on careful attention to dental care and keeping extremities warm (as I have early symptoms of Raynaud’s syndrome). He repeated the dental lecture again even though I’d confirmed I’d had it before. It may have been as much for the registrar’s benefit as mine. Discussion was had over which blood tests I needed to have done and it was decided I’d be reviewed again in a year. Appointment concluded.
In addition to the usual auto antibody tests, I also had tests specific for autoimmune liver disorders along with immunoglobins added in. I found the pathology department at the hosptital was too busy for me to wait so had them done today at a local pathology center. I think I’ve reached a record with seven tubes of blood this time. Apparently I will be contacted by the clinic if any results need any follow up.
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The semester started last week at my university so I’ve started my last class for my degree. It’s an external unit and it seems to be a small class as there has been almost no discussion online so far. Also, the unit outline hasn’t been updated for this semester. I pointed this out to the teacher but have had no response after several days. It would be good to have some interaction with others in this class. It’s already isolating to study by distance education but it’s worse when you feel like you’re the only one out there.
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My favorite band, Crowded House, are coming to Perth in Novemeber and I have purchased tickets for the event. We are fortunate to have them playing at a nearby winery so it will just be a fifteen minute drive instead of 30-60 minutes to reach Perth or Fremantle. The Scientist and I will, however, be trekking down to Freo for a concert with Megan Washington and support act Dan Kelly at the end of the month. Tickets were quite inexpensive as these are up and coming artists…so it should be good value for money. We’ve seen both as support acts for other performers and both were excellent.
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Continuing education
I took a leave of absence from study last year, mostly because I was burned out. I had been finding it more difficult with each semester to keep to a decent standard of work. I’ll be back to study again this semester, which starts late next month. I have two units of study to complete my course but neither is in my department of information studies which encompasses records management and library studies.
This semester I’m taking a unit called Virtual Communities inthe Internet Studies department. I’m really looking forward to this unit although I have to admit I am a bit nervous about venturing outside my department. From what I’ve been able to learn so far, it’s a mostly interactive unit and includes considerable online discussion.
Second semester I will be taking a Heritage Studies unit called Local Studies which covers local history study. This is an area of public librarianship that interests me greatly and I’m hoping to get a lot out of this class. When I did my library prac two and a half years ago I spent some time with the local history librarian and really liked it.
I’m feeling so much more motivated now that I’ve taken a break. Studying at this point in my life seems far more taxing than it did when I was an undergraduate over twenty years ago so it has taken more time but I am determined to finally complete my course of study and hopefully seek some part-time employment next year.