As readers know, I suddenly developed blood clots in my legs a week ago and was hospitalized.
This was not the first time this happened; that was in 1998, when I not only had blood clots (deep vein thrombosis (DVT), but pulmonary embolism (PE), which is potentially fatal, as it means the clots detached and flood your lungs).
This time, thank goodness, I recognized the DVT before it turned into a PE and went right to the emergency room of the nearest hospital (not the one that treated me in 1998, which has fallen under the budget axe).
When I got home after two days of treatment, I began a battery of tests at Mount Sinai Hospital, which is one of the best in the nation. The vascular surgeon did a scan and found I had clots in both legs, not just one. When I took an echo-cardiogram, the cardiologist told me that I had a leaky heart valve and might require heart surgery. That really scared me. At that point, I canceled all my travel for the rest of December. I had really overdone it.
Today, I had a meeting with a hematologist (blood expert) and had a CT scan of my entire vascular system. The doctors conferred and decided that I do not need heart surgery. That I should rest up for a few weeks. That I should not pretend I am half my age. But that after mid-January, I could return to normal activities, but not so frenetic as in the past.
So, I will be in Chicago on January 11 to speak to the Modern Language Association at its annual convention on the subject of the Common Core. Originally, I was scheduled to debate David Coleman, the architect of the Common Core, but he said he had to attend a board meeting in California and withdrew.
So, thank you for your many good wishes and prayers and even chicken soup (truly!). Your support meant a lot to me and kept my morale high.
I am not going away. I am in it with you. For the kids. For our society. For a better education for all.
Great news!
Brava. Continue to rest. This blog is part of my daily routine. I appreciate you. Keep strong and well.
The power of prayer! Take it easy for a while, rest up and enjoy the holiday season.
In the meantime, sit back and enjoy the view. It was a hoot to watch people who obviously read your book, argue point by point with John King last night. You have provided the ammunition and our army is using it.
Wonderful news, and thanks for everything.
Good news! I’m happy for you and your family.
FANTASTIC!!!! Do what you need to do to take good care of yourself! You are appreciated!!!!
The forces of darkness are quaking in their boots again.
Well said, Michael!
What Michael said!
happy for this news
FABULOUS!
So glad to hear good news for you. Will continue to keep you in my prayers.
Thank G-d
And btw, is this convention something that anyone can attend? General public? Invitation only? Members only?
Never mind! Found the info I was looking for!
Yay!
Diane,
Most welcome news for you, for all of us.
But heed the warning!
Let’s try to bring lots of others on board, so you won’t have to do it all! Mary K.
So glad to hear your good news! It’s hard when our minds are younger than our bodies!
Thank goodness! Stay well!
“You don’t need surgery,” is always such a nice thing to hear.
Sending good karma your way every day from Seattle, Diane! Your endorsement of Sue Peters was a big help in her victory and all of us thank you.
I’m so happy to hear you’re doing much better and will not require surgery. I’m glad to know you’re still our guide through education darkness.
Very good news. Thankfully this was all caught when you were still at home and not on the road. Slow down and take care of yourself first and foremost.
I am so happy!! Please rest and take good care of yourself, Diane.
Thank you for sharing this good news. If it is apropos, I wish you a very speedy thrombolysis.
I’m pleased for you.
Your leadership and advocacy has meant so much to so many, but we don’t need you to sacrifice your health. Enjoy your break. Thank you for reporting the good news. The “mommies” worry.
This is very good news, indeed, Diane. Your ideas are powerful enough to get about of their own accord without being accompanied, in person, by you. There are foot soldiers enough in this movement you have created, and their ranks grow daily. I am very pleased to hear that you plan to be judicious about commitment of your personal physical resources. If you would like some assistance with learning how to make video from the comfort of your home, let me know. I would be happy to assist. With love, gratitude, and boundless admiration. –Bob Shepherd
Wonderful to hear this. Take care. That’s kind of funny about David Coleman. Running the other way.
Diane,
I would first like to wish you good health along with good spirits going forward. As a new “warrior” in the fight to combat the Common Core Curriculum, I congratulate your efforts through your change in course of beliefs and action.
I moved from Suffolk County on Long Island to the High Country of Western North Carolina in August, 2012, lacking an active Conservative action committee in the immediate area, I searched for cause that could use my energy and skills. I quickly reactivated my attention to both Agenda 21 and as a grandmother and great-grandmother, the Common Core Curriculum. The long stranger in these parts became the Lone Ranger……..and my decision to “Double Back” on my prior research lead me to you.
I have since effectively channeled my efforts since that October 19th John Birch Society Seminar that I was pressured into attending. I reluctantly went just to prove a point to myself. Did I really want to join a group of “stuffy old men” from the 50’s who have had their share of criticism in the past. What the Heck…go for it, Margaret
I have attempted to “attach a copy of the e-mail that was formulated two days later and hit the “e-waves” of my short lists that same evening. It wouldn’t let me attach it. I have a plan going forward to take my project one major step forward. I’m throwing caution to the wind here but at my age ….I have nothing to lose. I won’t reveal my plan without approval from the JBS’ers but I did want to let you know that you are an inspiration and the second on my list to….Go for it!
Sincerely submitted,
Margaret Buck Blowing Rock, NC
mabuck19@gmail.com Land line: 1-828-414-9183
That’s the best news! Wonderful!
Most welcome news!
😎
Glad to hear it Diane! I had a DVT and a PE in 2009 at the age of 25. It is so scary. I really wish we didn’t have that in common.
LOL abt David Coleman.
Dana, we are survivors, and we know what to watch for.
Wonderful news that you will be up and going again.
What a relief for us, too, Diane! So glad to hear this!!
Now, if only the powers that be honored the experience and wisdom of elders as much as they revere the inexperience and lack of knowledge of neophytes! Until then, aging is going to continue to be as hard on the soul as it is on the body. (Thank God our minds are still intact!)
Take care!
Thanks for the update! Great News! If you are interested in herbal support, Bilberry is restorative & strengthening for the veins and very safe to use. You can take it in capsule form. I’m not peddling any just wanted to share what I know. OXO
Thanks, I will look for it in my local health store!
Wonderful news for you and your family. Your blog continues to inspire, inform, and activate me. Thank you for ALL you do for so, so many people, big and small.
Excellent news! Please do follow doctor’s orders to get rest and take good care of yourself. Eat your vegetables and all that. We need you.
So glad to hear you won’t be needing surgery. Thanks for keeping us in the loop. Now rest up!
Very happy to hear that. Congratulations.
Wonderful news!! Please continue to stay as rested as you can knowing your deep comittment to challenge “them” in every possible way. We so admire your incredible strength and conviction.
No surgery; that’s a wonderful thing. Are you trying out new ways to be relaxed and active as your convalescence progresses? It’s an essential decision not not to trap your circulatory system in an airplane, or for too long at a time in front of a computer, either. You could set up a gentle cardio/strength/flexibility circuit in your apartment, for instance.
Thank you for that incredible burst of strength this fall. We hope you’ll put your incandescent drive to work this winter, taking care of one of our greatest single assets. And this spring, we’ll all come out into our own communities and join the “populist surge” to turn the corporate attack around.
Please don’t rush. Great news. WOW and Coleman couldn’t reschedule? Maybe he hasn’t recovered from the takedown by the 13 yr, old on miseducation nation. For a self-appointed “expert” he doesn’t appear to be life ready.
I also picked up on the line “I was scheduled to debate David Coleman, the architect of the Common Core, but he said he had to attend a board meeting in California and withdrew”.
Here’s my thoughts on that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSkN9m7kh9A
“Chicken is as chicken does!’ FG
Great news to start our beautiful Friday!
So glad to see you are doing so well..
Stay Healthy!
We have been drawing on your strength, now it is your turn to draw on ours. Take a breather and put your feet up.
As are thousands and thousands across this nation, I am delighted and heartened to read this. Bless you, Diane for all you do for us.
And one advantage of age, (I’m hoping) is wisdom trumps the need to pretend to “act half my age.” You are so full of wisdom, compacted intelligence, that your messages don’t always need your actual feet to be delivered. They are like my Ju/’hoan friends’ poisoned arrows: they find their mark, and like David Coleman, have your opponents slinking off into the shadows of some board meeting or other. Whether he shows up or not, your arrow, wrapped with its truth and passion for children and our future, has found its mark without you having walked a step. Keep up the chicken soup! And keep our strengthening thoughts of you close. How do we change this deform movement? One mind at a time. One more thought: Many of us at the OCCUPY DOE last year noticed, that unlike Michelle Rhee, you carry your own baggage. Maybe time to enlist some youngish eager followers to help with the heavy lifting?
If Karen Lewis hasn’t told you, when she mentioned that you would not be with us in Chicago Wednesday night (November 13) but that your health was improving, all 200 of us cheered and would probably have signed one of those big cards like the kids use saying “Get Well…” and lots of other stuff. Karen was speaking during the lunch break of a Chicago Teachers Union training session for union delegates, as we continue the struggles in Chicago.
I want to personally thank you for the details. Those of us who have moved on in age have to remind one another — and everyone else — that if we are blessed enough to get to the age where Social Security and Medicare are available, we are probably not as agile as we once were (at least physically).
When you noted blood clots, I winced. Those of us who work sitting down for hours (or who fly for hours) need to know that the hourly standing and stretching is necessary, not some New Age thing. A little over a year ago, I suddenly developed a lump on the back of my leg, and other problems very quickly. I went to my “PCP” (Primary Care Physician) under our “HMO” (my wife is insured as a CPS teacher, thanks to our union) and she immediately talked about the same danger from blood clots, and shot me up with something called Lovenox and said “Go to the Emergency Room.” I was not ready to spend another half day in an ER, which has been the average experience in Chicago, but the PCP insisted on the ER, and after all we need the HMO payment, so you follow orders.
But I wasn’t about to drive, so my wife drove with me. We both had books to read. As usual, the ER was overcrowded and understaffed, so by the time they finally looked me over and declared that the clot wouldn’t prove fatal, we had been there for 12 hours. Sharon finished the book she had brought, and me mine. We had also spoken to all of the nurses and doctors as the hours wound on, and all agreed that they needs twice as much space and twice the staff (both professionals and non-professional staff) to really do the job adequately. But this is corporate medicine in corporate America in the 21st Century…
I currently do Substance, lost of research for the Chicago Teachers Union (as a consultant), and represent retirees. Of the more than 800 elected members of the CTU House of Delegates, the oldest delegate in the CTU is more then 90 years old; the youngest younger than 20. We are a wonderful profession to have that vast exchange of information and hopefully wisdom across the generations.
But just as our younger colleagues need to define and document all the nonsense they are facing — from VAM mandates to “Common Core” to the latest privatization trickery. Here in Chicago, that latest privatization nonsense has been the privatization of substitute teacher services through some crazy computerized call center than virtually guarantees that most schools don’t get substitute teachers for most absences on most days…
Back in the day when we were agile enough to climb mountains in the morning, celebrate in the afternoon, and party in the evening, we didn’t realize that some years a blessing can be as what you’ve reported. I used to joke about not boring people with “old people medical stories” until I realized that unless we documented these realities our younger colleagues might miss some things. So without boring my brothers and sisters, I’ve been sharing our stories more, just as we encourage them to share theirs.
I don’t know if you will be getting that garage door sized Get Well card from Chicago, or even some of those balloons that fill our classrooms when some child is blessed with a really cool birthday.
But consider this a “Get Well” and thanks from the hundreds of Chicago teachers I help represent, all of whom missed you here Wednesday night. As to resuming your labors on the tour. Don’t rush it. We have groups here in Chicago reading and discussing “Reign of Error,” including one I’ll be helping lead next Tuesday night. Karen also recommended that those who don’t get regularly to your blog here.
Now I’m going to stand and stretch before Sharon and our two sons get up to begin their days at work, school, and getting well (our middle guy, now in seventh grade, had to go to the doctor yesterday…).
Please get well. And thanks…
I am so thankful…we need you, Diane! Happy Thanksgiving! REST!
Great news. Do continue to give us the wisdom of your age… all that knowledge and life experience you have acquired and we will give you the leg work by spreading the word about what is going on in public education! As for David Coleman… he is a coward! And Rhee is too as she is too scared to go one on one with you!
I would happily attend a public lecture or panel where they set up a monitor in an auditorium and you “Skype in” from your living room. So glad that you are on the mend!
Wonderful news, Diane! Your voice so anointed with wisdom is desperately needed across our land and especially here in Indiana. Rest wholesomely. You are the difference maker even when on a needed “pause.” R. E. S. T.
Diane — I am so thankful!!!! I was so depressed thinking that you would to call your speaking engagements to a screeching halt. My nephew is a cardiologist . His practice is in Cortland. He lives in Skaneateles, and his two oldest children attend the fine public elementary schools. He is a Hurricane Katrina survivor and we are deeply saddened by what is happening to the schools in Louisiana. We need you to help all of us across the USA . I pray that you continue to heal.
Sincerely,
Marge
You are my inspiration! I eagerly look every day for your postings. You are the heart of this movement against the deformers! May you be well!!!!! Rest!!!
Wha hoo! Thanksgiving takes on a new meaning this morning.
Great news! But please follow your doctor’s advice and get more rest.
Glad you got a better report from the doctors. Keep up the good fight against all the negatives directed against toward teachers!!!!!
Thank God you’re clear. I’m glad to hear that you’ll be around to continue your work, which is so important. Your words, research, clarity are a rare thing in this world, where it seems only The Testing Regime matters. Your words have often kept me here, teaching. While everything around me tells me that, because I’m an educator, I’m a failure (or worse) I know I can look forward to reading your blog, written by an articulate person with intelligence and academic credentials. You’re saying things that hopefully someone at the top has taken notice of. I wonder if you ever feel your task is somehow like that of Sisyphus, but together, we’ll get that rock over the top.
With gratitude and admiration,
Marc Hamlin
Exeter-West Greenwich High School, RI
So glad to see this news–get better! jf
That is such great news! Take the time off to enjoy the holidays and rest! You so deserve it.
AWESOME NEWS!!!! So glad you are on the way to a full recovery! We need you – so listen to your doctors!!!
YEAH!!! Please take care! Thank you for this good news, Diane.
The best news in the news this morning!
A little gift of words that I savor: ( Don’t know the author but I love living this philosophy)
“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, totally worn out and proclaiming, “Yahoo, what a ride.”
Diane, I admire you for so much for living with purpose and being the change you want to see in this world. Rest, recharge, and continue to heal. Thank you, for inspiring me, and so many others, how to live more fully and courageously.
Glad to hear that you’re doing well Diane. We need you to keep exposing the truth. You’re one of very few respected educators who knows what the truth is.
Happy Happy day!!
Continue to take care of yourself. You have empowered all of us to work our patooties off for public schools!!
Great news! Do take care of yourself! We need you to be the voice of reason in the field of education.
Please, please, please take care of yourself. We value your leadership and inspiration, but we value you well-being even more.
Like the thousands of other BATs, I am so happy to hear that you are on the mend and do not need surgery. We are all so thankful for you, your ideas, your work, your passion for us, our students and our schools. Continue to heal and know you are in all our thoughts and prayers. Best wishes! ^0^
Diane, That’s great news. I think I will start working on a piece for you about the teacher-centered instruction and capacity building improvement strategy that California is pursuing which differs markedly from the Duncan approach. Bill
teacher-centered instruction
now there’s an idea!
Continuous improvement flows from the bottom up. You know what flows from top down. We need empowered teachers with the time and resources to submit their own practice to continuous critique and revision. A good place to start it with doing away with the top-down mandates (the CCSS, the high-stakes tests, VAM) and instituting Japanese-style Lesson Study.
Like everyone else, I am ecstatic that you are recovering well. Please do rest and take care of yourself. I’m happy you recognized you needed to go to the emergency room. Not everyone does. You continue to be an inspiration to me.
This is such great news. You have come into our lives through this blog and opened a world to all. Please get well quick and enjoy the holiday season. I am noting Bill Honig’s comment and sincerely hope that you both get together. It would be great if you could find Jack O’Connell who warned parents about too much time on iPads and Smartphones until leaving office in CA. He was a great Superintendent of Ed in CA. Take Care!
Great news!! So happy to hear you are on the mend!! You are an amazing leader and I thank you from the bottom of my heart!!! Be well!!
Take care of yourself. Godspeed.
Very glad to hear you’re on the mend, Diane.
Thanks goodness! Please take care of yourself. We need you, value you, and look forward to your voice now and in the future. Rick
Hallelujah!!!! Superlative news.
Yes, do get some rest. We can wait but we desperately need your leadership.
THANKS for ALL that you do and have done.
I am overjoyed to hear this. Love and light to you always, Diane.
From the heart, it’s wonderful news. Many hugs and kisses to you. Thank you for everything!
I am so happy that you are doing well. You are in my prayers.
Great news! Thank you for all you do for all of us and public education. ❤
Glad to hear some good news! I’d love to hear your talk about Common Core! If there had been a debate between you and David Coleman, it should have been on national TV; maybe then everyone could see (or in this case, hear) Common Core for what it really is! Hang in there and keep getting well!
Best wishes, feel better. My husband went through a similar situation a year ago and is doing fine. I love your column and appreciate it as I am a public school teacher feeling immense stress and distress.
Good luck with all this. I “reclotted” over summer vacation and understand what you are enduring.
Oh my, you are an amazing woman! We appreciate all you do for us. Take care.
So glad to hear you are on the mend – you are one of the few voices of reason that the media listen to and we depend on you so please take care of yourself.
Thank you for your thoughtful update which relieves us all. We love you and want you to take VERY good care of yourself. You are in my prayers for complete recovery and a sensible schedule after that. Skype is SO much easier than air travel.
So glad to hear you are feeling and doing better.
Please continue to rest and take care of yourself. Say “yes” to things like chicken soup, walks with your dog, good books, naps, time with loved ones, art exhibits, poetry, music, comedies, and — most importantly — time with those you love. Yes, we all need your leadership and inspiration. But, we need you to be healthy. That comes first. Thank you for keeping all of us updated. Your good news is so appreciated by all of us who care about you!
What wonderful news!!!! You’ve been in my prayers.
Good news indeed. Stay well.
I am delighted to learn that your health is improving. Kindest regards from a TC alumnus who does remember when you were “half your age,” way back when Dr. Cremin was president of TC and I believe you shared an office space with Maxine Greene.
Sending good thoughts for continued and rapid recovery. Before all else…take care of yourself and treasure your health.
Thanks for all you do.
Sincerely, Kathleen Smith
This is wonderful news. Please know that we are all here to support you in any way you need.
Congratulations. Take care of yourself.
What GREAT news, Diane, from your Atlanta friends!!!! Steve and I are so happy for you! Continue to take good care of yourself as we know you will!!!!