I want to apologize to all my loyal readers, both of you, for me notbeing right here last week. But I felt like I had been hit by a Mac truck, tumbled underneath and spit out the back end.
I had the results from tests my heart doctor had done and that I needed to check into the hospital for surgery. How’d he put it? Oh yea. “We’d like to check you in tomorrow or tomorrow,†he said “but no
later than tomorrow.†Now all that needed to be taken care of was that long list of things that would never be completed in less than 24 hours.
I had three major worries that quickly came to mind: What type of heart valve to get, choose the pig, will I come out of this alive…OK THINK POSITIVELY HERE, and will I still be able to graduate with my class in June? I’ve been at this on and off for 40 years! Luckily I had taken care of the third on the list before I ound out that the surgery was so immanent. I had gone to my adviser, Professor Dennis Dunleavy and explained the situation and wanted to know what I could do. He told me to hold off until I knew for certain and that he would take care of everything then. He informed me that Southern Oregon University had a system in place to make accommodations for students with these types of problems. “You don’t sorry about a thing,†he said.
“I’ll take care of everything, and you just worry about getting well.â€
With my major concern taken care of, I only had to take care of the other two…I can do this. Well I came through with flying colors and I will still graduate in June. My grades may suffer a bit from the loss of class time…hope not…damn overachievers.
I did learn three things from this: SOU is definitely a family. I received cards, emails and well wishes from people I hardly know and my wife, Angela, received much need support.
I learned that no matter what problem you are having on campus they have some support group,
some student union affiliated club that can help and faculty and staff that truly care about helping the students at SOU when something unexpected occurs.
I want to publicly thank all you that have been there for me in this time of need. What…I said three? Oh yeah. Don’t believe everything you read…DUCT TAPE CAN’T FIX EVERYTHING!
