Health and Stress

[BG45]

Hi Pham,

If you all don't mind praying for me, I certainly don't mind being prayed for.  It's been a rough ten months; I got a job and moved to a good university system.  Right after signing my contract, our GOP overlords in the state cut the higher ed budget by $250 million.  I spent the first few months working unpaid.  And since then I've been on so many committees and teaching so much, it's caused a lot of stress in my life.  I've been working an average of 70-90 hours a week, a minimum of 6 days per week, usually 7, with my only real "Break" being Mass.  My Chair and I aren't each other's biggest fans, and I'll probably be job searching next year...even at the local conference in my field, former people from here told me that no one lasts longer than two years working under her before they seek employment elsewhere.

I've gained serious weight due to all of this, not helped by stress eating.  This weight, in turn, has aggravated my sleep apnea, which in combination with the stress, has had me barely sleeping.  I wake up (and this is only times I can remember) at least once per hour each night, and on Mondays tend to go in almost sleepless due to this for a day that goes from 7am to 9pm, when my last class lets out.  This weight has also led to my going from pre-Diabetic to being diagnosed with Diabetes (something reversible with weight loss).  I also have a constant headache, that if it's not gone by the end of next week, will require a CT scan.

Thanks for letting me get all that out,

BG