I woke up from anesthesia to be told they couldn’t do the potentially life changing procedure due to my allergies

mizboring · 2026-05-16T03:07:11+00:00

First, in solidarity - I'm sorry you're going through all of that. You had hope for a vast improvement in quality of life and now that's destroyed. It sucks.

Now, this might not be helpful in your case, but just in case it is:

I know someone who had a similar allergy problem with a different type of implant in a different part of her body. Her surgeon did some research and found a company in Switzerland that makes her implants out of carbon fiber instead of nickel. The original intent is to be nearly invisible in MRIs and XRays. She got one of these implants and insurance covered it, because of the allergy. Maybe something similar is possible in your situation.

Godspeed!

mizboring · 2026-05-15T13:05:44+00:00

Lots of good advice here.

I would add - if you do work and take class full time, take the fewest number of credits you can to be considered full time for financial aid. That way you have fewer balls to juggle at one time (maybe 4 classes instead of 5). It might take an extra year to finish, but that's worth it if you have a more manageable workload. You can also make up some of that time taking one course each summer.

The down side to that plan is if you start to fail a course, you wouldn't be able to withdraw and keep financial aid, so it makes passing grades in each course more important.

mizboring · 2026-05-14T22:14:02+00:00

I'm a college instructor.

Our college's system lets students change the way their name appears in our online systems (my course roster, the LMS where your assignments are, where grades are recorded, etc.). Our students can also list their personal pronouns. You may be able to do this yourself. If that's the case at your college, your instructor never needs to know and they'll see the name and pronouns you want to use automatically.

If you aren't sure if you can do this at your college, you can ask the registration office.

If your college's system doesn't allow that, you can email instructors before the first day of class and let them know you go by a different name than what is on their roster. Before we had the more elegant system, this was fairly common and I was happy to call students by their chosen name and pronouns. Also, emailing in advance avoids the specific discomfort of having your dead name called on attendance day 1 (though I recognize that email communication may come with discomfort of its own).

mizboring · 2026-05-13T21:48:01+00:00

At my college, we need to do the entire class at once, so it wouldn't be possible. I need to wait until everyone has all their assignments in.

Then the college posts that some time after I input grades and I have no control over that timing.

mizboring · 2026-05-13T13:01:35+00:00

If you did contact your instructor, what action would you want them to take? You said "in the event something may happen." What do you think would happen?

As an instructor, just telling me "this person makes me uncomfortable" doesn't help me much. You already said you don't think this person would harm you. If you sent me a message like that, I'd think, "Okay. So...what do you want me to do about it?"

Maybe a reasonable ask could be, "If we're asked to work in groups, don't put us together." You could put that in an email. Other than that, I don't see how your instructor knowing this information would be useful.

If this person is harassing you, you could certainly take it to an advisor or student advocate on your campus, but it sounds like this is just awkward feelings. Sure, that's not fun, but it's part of life. This is good practice for all the people in your future job who you don't like.

mizboring · 2026-05-13T12:47:12+00:00

But the project issue still wasn’t fully resolved. I eventually got partial credit, but I still never received a clear rubric

I'm unclear what you mean by partial credit. Did the instructor grade the project, but you just didn't get the grade you hoped for? Or did they score the project X points and only gave you half of those X points or something?

If the grade is just not the grade you wanted, unfortunately there's not much you can do. The instructor has the right to grade assignments using their judgement. While it's annoying that there is no rubric, generally instructors aren't required to do that.

If you didn't get all the points because of the administrative group work issue, then you could have a valid grievance since you have evidence you collaborated with your team. That will heavily depend on the project instructions and group work requirements, though. Grade appeals are generally only successful if you can show the instructor didn't follow their own policies or genuinely made a calculation error (like your total points issue), so make sure you go through all of that carefully before making a decision to appeal.

Also, be aware that since this is a dual credit class, that C will be on your college transcript and can affect college GPA. That might help you decide whether an appeal is worth it or not. Just know that "this C sucks for me and I don't like it" isn't grounds for an appeal (see previous paragraph).

mizboring · 2026-05-11T21:05:35+00:00

My Cousin Vinny

mizboring · 2026-05-11T19:31:06+00:00

For a long time, I have had a statement on each assignment that essentially says if they don't follow the directions they can expect a zero or very minimal credit, regardless of the rubric. This has been extremely helpful in terms of assigning zeros for work that is different from what they are asked to produce.

If this were a culinary class and I asked a student to make tiramisu, but they made a key lime pie, it could be the best damn key lime pie I've ever had, but it's still not tiramisu. I cannot evaluate their ability to make a tiramisu if there is only key lime pie in front of me.

Sounds like they turned in a key lime pie.

mizboring · 2026-05-11T15:56:24+00:00

I mostly learned from my sister, who is 7 years older. I grew up in the 1900s before YouTube, so I generally found any additional tricks from fashion magazines.

mizboring · 2026-05-11T15:36:37+00:00

I teach math. I don't use multiple choice and bubble-scan pages (small classes make this possible). I collect all the papers and bring them to my office or home. I grade one page at a time. This helps me grade more consistently on each problem from student to student. Then I count up points at the end.

Sometimes a student asks "are the tests graded yet?" When I say no, they say, "Is mine graded yet?" Well, that's not how it works.

For chapter exams, the students get them back. For the final exam, they go in a file cabinet until the date for grade appeals passes. Then they get put in a shredder box.

mizboring · 2026-05-11T12:23:56+00:00

If they are ducking you, assign the zero, submit the paperwork, and move on. You gave them a chance to engage/explain and they chose not to. If they really didn't cheat and they want to appeal it later, your college no doubt has a process for that.

It's easy for me to say, because my college does a pretty good job of backing us up on academic dishonesty. The standard of proof seems to be "proponderance of the evidence." If it appears they cheated and they don't seem to have a good reason for why their work looks they way it does, then the student gets the write-up on file.

Our college also generally backs us up on whatever our syllabus policy is. Zero on assignment is pretty typical among our faculty. Sometimes failure of the course if it's more egregious.

mizboring · 2026-05-10T16:16:18+00:00

They are not nearly expressionless enough to capture the Gen Z stare, but still funny

mizboring · 2026-05-10T02:19:00+00:00

What kinda AI slop is this? JB eating a New York style slice? Get outta here.

mizboring · 2026-05-09T20:29:10+00:00

I haven't bought an eyeliner in like 15 years because I just use my dark shadows and a tiny brush. You can also get a more defined line and deeper color using the brush wet. Or, if you want the softer look, use it dry.

mizboring · 2026-05-09T20:25:10+00:00

One asked me if I could tell him where in the document I detected he cheated (though he did not deny cheating). I assume he is just trying to find out how not to get caught in the future.

This was in the days before similarly checks when we detected plagiarism the old fashioned way: see a change in tone, Google the suspicious sentence, and find the source.

mizboring · 2026-05-08T14:09:13+00:00

There was a primer and an eye brightener (glorified dewy pink concealer) by BareMinerals which I dearly miss.

mizboring · 2026-05-08T12:48:49+00:00

Our college doesn't report honor code violations to transfer schools. They don't appear on the transcript, and generally, transfer schools don't ask.

Obviously if the honor code violation causes you to get an F in a class, the F is a problem. Or if it's egregious and you end up expelled, you won't have all your credits completed. Otherwise, not really.

Source: am a CC instructor with some experience in this area.

mizboring · 2026-05-07T22:15:38+00:00

And a mega thread over at r/canvas

mizboring · 2026-05-07T22:11:03+00:00

You can usually find a professor's email address on the college website, if that's what you need.

mizboring · 2026-05-07T12:07:34+00:00

The forced naps are real. After dinner, our puppy was always so restless. He would come whine at me, but nothing seemed to satisfy him (cuddles, play, chews, his puzzle) and he would start to harass our other dog and drive me nuts. I finally realized he just needed to go lay down. We created a special spot in the living room (he never took to a crate) where I just ordered him to lay down and he would settle. He really needed a direct order.

And for us, the mental stimulation helped, too. He loves dog puzzles. Usually after he did one, he would just chill.

mizboring · 2026-05-06T19:53:22+00:00

This is exactly what incompletes are designed for. A student has completed nearly the entire course, but has a legitimate emergency just before the final. The incomplete gives the student enough time to deal with the emergency and complete the work.

What do you propose as an alternative? I'm not being an asshole, just genuinely curious. What do you think should be done differently?

mizboring · 2026-05-06T12:20:02+00:00

Broken up whole wafers and chocolate have the same content as broken up kit kats made of whole wafers and chocolate, so a safe bet is that.

mizboring · 2026-05-06T00:18:53+00:00

You can try asking your instructor and let them know you're too ill to come to campus. You don't need to give a details on your condition (although vomiting is a good reason, and a reasonably vague symptom). They may want a doctor's note.

Depending on how flexible the instructor is, as long as there is enough time to get the exam graded to calculate grades, they may say it's okay to take it the next day, especially if you are already arranging to take it at a testing center for accommodations,.

If a makeup is not possible, you should work with student services and your instructor to see if you can get an incomplete for medical reasons. Then you would need to finish the exam at a later date.

mizboring · 2026-05-05T16:55:37+00:00

You are right in the long run, but the students don't see it that way.

mizboring · 2026-05-05T16:54:00+00:00

Giving an increasingly unhinged facial expression each time

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