Author: Terry, Carmen

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Carmen

Registered Dietician Rose Trevouledes will be running a weight loss class for LCIC/NTIC members from Wednesday October 6th-November 24th from 4:15-5:15pm at BLaST IU 17, 2400 Reach Rd, Williamsport. To sign up for this class please attend the information session on Wednesday, September 29th at 4:15pm. Payment will be due at that time. Please click on flyer below for more information. If you have questions, please reach out to Carmen Terry at cterry@iu17.org

Embrace Your Path wellness starts on August 1, 2021 and runs until July 31, 2022. We have a couple new features this year for points, so make sure you click on the tab 21-22 Embrace Your Path for all program details. I would also like to welcome back all our faculty, staff and administrators and I know this year will be great. I always feel like my new year starts in August and not in January, I think because I have always been involved in some sort of education from my own schooling, to my career as an athletic trainer, my career as a health and wellness coordinator and most certainly because my kids are still in school. So this new beginning can be filled with wonder, excitement and challenges, but we only grow from challenging ourselves. So welcome back and I am so excited to see you soon!

On Friday afternoon, I had an appointment to receive my second dose of the Covid19 vaccine and it went as smoothly as the first. I signed in, got my card filled out and received the vaccine. After receiving the vaccine, I went to another room to wait out my 15 minutes. I didn’t really expect any reactions as I didn’t have any on the first dose and I was right. After my 15 minutes were up, I went home. Within a couple hours my arm was sore again, completely expected as that happened with the first dose.

On Saturday morning I got up, felt fine except for my arm being super sore and went to work out. I figured the more I can move my arm the better off I will be. I went about my normal business on Saturday, going to the market after workout and coming home to clean. I was pretty excited at about 21 hours post vaccine that I was feeling good. I have heard many people running fevers and generally feeling bad for about 24 hours after the vaccine.

Around 26 hours post vaccine (5pm), I had a slight headache and took my temperature which registered 99.9. I am not much of a medicine taker at all, so I didn’t take anything for it. I knew this was my body’s way of boosting my immune system so I am a firm believer in letting my body do it’s job. I was able to eat normal and truly didn’t feel sick, just a headache. (I did keep taking my temperature every 90 minutes just to be sure it didn’t go higher.) By the time I went to bed around 10pm, my body temperature was back to 98.6 and although my headache was still slight, I felt fine.

On Sunday, I woke up with no elevated temperature and no headache. And I felt fine the entire day. I am happy I was able to receive the vaccine when I could and happy to do my part in helping to stop this dreadful illness. I also felt it was easy decision to make after having Covid19. So if you have any questions about the illness or the vaccine, I am happy to discuss it with you! Stay Safe and Stay Well!

Carmen

I am not an expert in vaccinations, nor am I am expert in medicine. But I know many of you look to me for answers regarding your health and wellness. This is my own personal story and I wanted to share why I chose to take the Covid19 vaccination and received my first dose on Friday, January 8th. I did a lot of research before choosing to be vaccinated. As a science person, I went to sources like UPMC, scientific journals, the CDC and spoke with my medical expert friends. What I found out was that the technology behind the mRNA vaccine has been out for 30+ years. Yes, that’s right, more than 3 decades. The difference being it hasn’t been used on a large scale operation like Covid19. (We haven’t had a pandemic in my lifetime until now thank goodness.) Vaccines are created to get your own body to respond when it encounters an antigen. Did you know that measels and mumps are also highly contagious viruses and we developed technology (vaccines) to nearly eradicate them? So if you get a vaccine, (which are never 100% effective) , it creates an immune response in your body. Did you know that the MMR vaccine is only 97% effective and look what it has done to those diseases. This immune response helps to recognize, fight and get rid of any antigen that doesn’t belong in your body. The faster your immune system can respond, the less likely you are to become ill from the antigen. This information about the Covid19 vaccine is directly from the cdc.gov website: “mRNA vaccines contain material from the virus that causes COVID-19 that gives our cells instructions for how to make a harmless protein that is unique to the virus. After our cells make copies of the protein, they destroy the genetic material from the vaccine. Our bodies recognize that the protein should not be there and build T-lymphocytes and B-lymphocytes that will remember how to fight the virus that causes COVID-19 if we are infected in the future.”

It is truly fascinating to me that we have the technology to do these things. And the coolest thing that I find incredible is that the whole world has been working on this problem. Scientists and doctors from all over the globe have been working non-stop to create these vaccines. This is why the vaccine was faster than most because we have a collective group of people working on the exact same problem. Vaccine technology has been around for many years, so scientists can use that already existing information to help with new diseases like Covid19.

I chose to be vaccinated because I believe in science. I have seen it work over and over again in my lifetime, for example the vaccinations we receive as children giving us in some cases lifetime immunity against diseases that would otherwise be devastating. I chose to be vaccinated to protect other people that may not be able to get the vaccine. I chose to be vaccinated for my family and friends, so that I can help to protect them now and hopefully in the future. Again, I am not an expert, but I am happy to discuss with anyone the reasons why I chose to be vaccinated.

As most of us head into a much needed break, I wanted to say a heartfelt “Thank You” for all that you do for our students, their families, our schools and coworkers. As I stated in my newsletter in early December we need to remember what we are grateful for every day. Find the small things over break that make you happy. One of my favorite things in the morning is that first sip of hot coffee. I savor the taste and the warmth of the coffee. It’s small, it’s something I could take for granted, but I don’t. Last Wednesday when I left work to drive home and it was snowing I was happy. I love the snow. As I sat working in my living room that afternoon in front of a crackling fire and the snow was coming down, I lived in that moment. It was peaceful and quiet. When I woke up on Thursday it was just beautiful and then later that afternoon watching my 17 year old go out with her friends to build a snowman was incredible. One of her teachers gave them some extra credit to go out and play in the snow and build snowman. (Of course they had to take a picture see below) I thought what an ingenious way to get the kids out and acting like children again. They didn’t just build a snowman and be done. The threw snow at each other, they jumped in snowbanks and laughed. What an incredible thing to watch. (And they weren’t on electronics! Now that was the miracle.)

So your assignment over break is to express gratitude for the little things, laugh and enjoy moments with your families and most of all take time for yourself.

I know I say this a lot because I mean it. When I took this job almost 9 years ago, I wasn’t sure what was in store for me creating a new program and getting to know all of you, but I love doing it. When you find your true purpose in life it’s easy to love what you do and you all make that so.

No matter what you celebrate this holiday season, I wish you all well and look for better and brighter things to come in 2021.

Sincerely,

Carmen

Please click on the links in the document to sign up for Saturday Health screenings.

https://health.iu17.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Saturday-Health-Screenings.pdf

Well if any of you read my posts when this quarantine started, you know that we have had some wild adventures in the Terry household. Things calmed down quite a bit over the summer while the kids could get outside and I could go back to my office. The summer was fun and interesting. We have a huge deck on the back of our house and decided to make it the summer fun deck with a 8’x10′ blow up Walmart pool (cost $25), we bought lounge chairs from Wayfair as part of our anniversary gift from our parents and to ourselves ($$$) and we bought a propane glass fireplace ($$) which we have only lit once due to the 90+ weather we have had all summer. We have spent a lot of time on our deck enjoying our little space as a family (Priceless). And being Italian, I decided to buy some tomato plants to grow in pots. At first (not a very green thumb here) I put 4 plants in each huge pot. (I know, insert uncontrollable laughter here) Needless to say I had to transplant the tomatoes into more pots since I unknowingly had too many in one pot. To my defense they were so little when I got them!!! So now I have two in each pot and I have 4 pots and many, many tomatoes. I made homemade pasta fagioli soup with organic turkey sausage over the weekend and I will be making homemade salsa tonite. So I am enjoying my literal fruits of my labor now. Even if it started a little messy. Next year I will know!

I am happy to be back in the office full time and gearing up for this year. My son will be going to college virtually since that is what Loyola University decided to do for the first semester. I am sad for my son, but know that he will be fine doing online school and it will go faster than he thinks! My daughter will be going back 5 days a week starting September 10th and hopefully the school district can continue that way throughout the fall.

I have meant with many clients and talked with a lot of people this summer, some of whom have struggled a lot. So my advice is this: 1. start every day off with a positive thought, what are you going to accomplish, what is good in your life right now, what are you thankful for. Anything that gets your mindset on the right track. 2. What can you control? This is always a loaded question, but it’s so important. I can control my attitude, my lifestyle-such as eating nutritious foods, walking or exercising. I can control what I wear and how I act. I can control if I am kind and respectful. When you focus on the things you CAN control and not on the things you CANNOT, you will be happier and focused! So be flexible!

BE LIKE A TREE

Stay grounded. Connect with your roots. Turn over a new leaf. Bend before you break. Enjoy your unique natural beauty. Keep growing. -Joanne Raptis