What did you do over the summer?

This is usually followed by I went to this country or we went camping or not much but we went to this event. However, what if your summer did not go as planned and you really want to forget it and move on with school life?  This can be true for students with physical and mental health conditions.  

This is not a blog to elicit sympathy or to suggest that summer holidays should not be discussed in school. It's a reminder that summer experiences vary for everyone, and not every student will return to school with the same level of energy and readiness. It's a call for empathy and understanding for those who may have had a different summer than most. 

As a kid, I remember this time around any holiday where I would end up in the hospital and maybe would not even be ready to go home in time for the start of school. This does not even end as a student, as I write this, I have just been home a few days after being in the hospital for two weeks for a chest infection, but before that, I was ill at home with shingles. I know I will go to the training day in September and see people shocked as I say I had shingles and a chest infection, which does not affect me at this age, but as a student it can be seen very differently. 

First, there is the physical effect of being ill. Getting better has two phases: one is getting better, which is done in a hospital or guided by a medical professional, and then there is recovery, which is typically done as an outpatient or at home. Recovery has a large scale. On the lower end, people feel almost back to normal, just a bit of adjustment, and getting back into their routine. On the other end, someone can be better but far from their normal state. They're tired, so they must build up energy and exert themselves to tolerate it, and it will take a while to get back to their normal routine. As much as getting back to school and being present on day one might be important, it is also about getting back into their life outside of the hospital.

With a chronic condition, you know that the stint of bad health you just went through is not your last. A small part of you is always on the lookout for signs that you might be getting sick again. This makes the fresh start of a new school year not shine as brightly as it does for others. The feeling that no matter what plans or goals you make, they could all go out the window with your health. Especially when you start an important year and teachers say lines like "what you put into this year is what you get out" or "it's up to you how this year goes for you", I remember hearing lines like this and thinking, well I am screwed because I know that I put in so much effort I was always behind in classes. Sometimes I would zone out when a teacher would talk like this, thinking it wasn't meant for me. As much as no one can thoroughly plan for every health situation,  a better message a student can have is that we (students and the school) will work together to get a student with health conditions to where they want to be, not that the grade I get is only down to a student's hard work.

As much as starting a new school year can feel refreshing, students with health complications might not begin with the energy level that you might expect. Sometimes, this can be mistaken for indifference or a lack of interest, and teachers may confuse improvement with recovery. They would assume that because a student was discharged from hospital a week or two ago they should be a 100% and that means the student is using it as an excuse when you might not know is that they are on new treatment at home that they are still adjusting to or they had a very tramatic time in hospital and therefore building up form a lower energy level then they usually do.  

Depending on how close to the start of school the time of discharge is, some students may not have sufficient time to prepare and may be missing parts of their uniform or equipment.  Sometimes, in the name of discipline, and not every teacher being aware of a student's health conditions, they end up being punished in front of others or in detention. This is for the benefit of the class, but it is a setback for the student who is now in trouble. This is where communication within the school is essential. I understand that teachers have a lot of information and work at the start of the year (and throughout the whole year, really). Still, the knowledge of how a student with a physical and mental health condition might have had less time to prepare for the new school year and this could reduce an embarrassing situation for a student already running to catch up.

With all this talk of the physical effects of returning to school, there is also the emotional aspect to consider. It might sound petty, but returning to school with no good stories of travel or events can be difficult and make socialising tricky. Especially in the first week, when it feels like everyone is talking about what they did, and it can feel like everyone has a long list. Then, in class, you might be asked to write what I did in the summer. Let me use my summer as an example. On the first day of my holiday, I didn't feel very well, so I slept for most of the day. By that night, my arm was in so much pain, and a rash had spread across my body. The pain grew worse each day, and I stopped eating. Now imagine that I am a pupil in your class, and I must write down all the horrible effects I had, and then there's a chance I might have to read it out to everyone - fantastic.  

You might be reading this after the first week back to school following the summer holiday, and it's too late to consider this now, but this can be applied to any school holiday time. As I mentioned earlier, this is not about making holiday plans a dirty word, but rather to be aware that being refreshed and ready is not a guarantee for every holiday.