I was better yesterday, but am ill again through having to get up early today for the plumbers :/ Even though I went straight back to bed when they left, I'm still all wheezy, snotty and achy. Ergh.
I had to cancel a couple of days' teaching because I just wasn't up to it. I would like to rant about one particular student's mother. She is the kind of person who, when given my phone number by the agency, rang me up and demanded to know what my qualifications were. I don't particularly mind people asking because it's a fair question, but there are ways to ask that are polite, and ways that are bloody rude. She fell into the latter category. If it wasn't for the fact that I felt sorry for her son (who is a nice kid), I would have refused the job on principle.
Anyway, so I had to cancel the lesson because it was obvious I wasn't going to be well enough, so I called them (with 24 hours notice, I should add). The mother said, in an accusatory tone, "You don't sound that ill". Um. OK. Let me see: at this time of year I have joint pain on a good day. Not that I want sympathy, it's just how it is. Also, the level of pollution in the air is enough that I have to take more asthma medicine, on a good day. Having a cold adds a lot of extra pain, and makes my asthma & allergies bad enough that just walking past someone with a cigarette can make me collapse wheezing in the street. I might not have sounded ill - but I'd been in bed for two days, was still very stiff and shaky, and certainly wasn't up to walking to the bus stop, waiting for a bus in the cold, walking yet more at the other end, talking for an hour and then doing the same journey in reverse. I felt like saying "well, ok - the cold is not that major, but on top of all my other health problems...". Ye flipping gods.
And while a lot of people can cope with a cold by dosing themselves up, I can't actually do that, because I'm not allowed to take the vast majority of cold remedies. I'm not allowed decongestants, aspirin derivatives could put me in hospital, codeine interacts badly with a prescription drug I'm on, and echinacea turns my digestive system inside out. Even vitamin C gives me pretty bad IBS. I just have to make do with low levels of vitamin C, lots of water, and a bit of paracetamol. Which doesn't actually help that much.
Gah. It's just... does she think because she's a doctor (I don't know what kind of doctor) that she can tell how ill I am from a phone call, without knowing any of my other history? And does she think that I would skive off teaching for no reason - when I'm self-employed and only get paid for what I actually do? Can she give me any credit as a professional person?
OK, I'll shut up now.
