Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am petitioning to request an extension of INcomplete grade for PHIL332 (Winter, 2023).
Since the end of March, I have been having periods twice a month, each lasting a week and a half, each accompanied by severe menstrual cramps, tinnitus, and headaches. My life started to become unmanageable. In May, I returned to my home country to seek medical treatment. I actively sought TCM treatment, but my period did not improve significantly.
Two weeks after I was back, my grandmother (who is the spiritual pillar with whom I have the strongest emotional link in the entire family) became bedridden with illness and refused to eat. Then she was unable to take care of herself. I began to bring food to her home every day to take care of her and feed her. She fell out of bed several times. As Grandma’s condition worsened, I had to go to the doctor who previously operated on her to communicate her condition. I then had to stop my further tests and treatments to take care of my grandmother. She had intermittent fever, difficulty breathing, and very unstable blood pressure and oxygen. She became very weak with mental aberration.
On July 13th, my grandmother suddenly fainted, and we called an ambulance. During the series of tests, she almost lost her life. The illnesses made her incontinent, mentally disturbed, and unable to distinguish between reality and dreams. She suddenly cried and laughed, and every midnight she suddenly sat up and said something about passing away. Grandma was hospitalized. The doctor told us that there was little hope for treatment. Since then, I have been so depressed that I cried every day.
In August, a relative passed away. The shock of facing the loss of a loved one at any moment left me with no way to focus on anything I was doing. Everyone in the family was in a terrible state of mind. I had to mediate the arguments between family members. I never thought there could be such a serious fight between family members. My mother also broke out into two fights with me, hitting me and calling me trash, during which I had a panic attack and suddenly choked and could not breathe.
I am only taking three courses this semester to maintain the minimum full-time student requirement. However, this semester I am still suffering from headaches and vomiting with my period twice a month, and I have been experiencing severe hand tremors since the beginning of September. My grandmother was still in terrible shape, my parents called me while I was in class. I could not focus on lectures during this semester. It also took me three times as long or more to read and write than it had before. My mom told me she was hitting my grandma at night as my grandma could not understand what she was saying. I thought I was so useless that incapable of providing better medical care to the people I love the most and spending my family’s hard-earned money chasing after so-called dreams. I started thinking about suicide.
I managed to get an appointment with a doctor by the end of October and found that over six months of double periods caused anemia and I had to take birth control pills to control my periods. The side effects of this medication made me dizzy and nauseous every day, and I stayed up overnight because of the vomiting. I had somatization of symptoms at times, where I was in bed and felt like someone was squeezing my head extremely hard, I could not move, choked with tears falling. The sudden conditions made me feel like everything was out of my control. I tried to force myself to join the crowd, but my brain was as numb as my emotions. Since October, I began to frequently try to walk into traffic engaged in self-harming behaviors and began planning my suicide. I was in the emergency room twice due to severe headaches and heartache, vomiting, multiple fevers, and difficulty breathing. Until today, I still have my period twice a month, with severe headaches, heartache, tinnitus, and frequently awaken from nightmares. I feel hopeless to be on painkillers every day.
I have tried many times to reopen previously written drafts to continue thinking about my assignments. The topic of the philosophy paper for this class was about how we exist in the world and how we can relate to it and realize our values, all of which made me think back to the various moments with my grandmother and what she taught me about how to relate to people.
I hope I can have a chance to submit the rest of my assignments in January. Your understanding is highly appreciated.