Most striking teachers thought that they would be walking back into their schools by Monday. But instead they wound up walking the picket line for another day. Despite the possibility of an end now in sight, for some teachers the strike went on much longer than they anticipated.

It's begun to take its toll

Patti Waggoner spent Martin Luther King Day in her favorite park in North Hollywood. But instead of appreciating the meaning of the holiday, she spent it checking for updates on the strike negotiations on her phone.

As UTLA members entered the second week of the strike, she says the entire process took its toll on her.

"I’ve stayed a teacher because I love what I'm doing. And the strike is breaking me, it's really breaking me. And I feel bad because I want the momentum to keep going," she said.

Waggoner never thought the strike was going to last this long and be this difficult. She spent 14-hour days, outside in the rain, running from school to rallys and back again.

She's a two-time cancer survivor and her immune system was compromised last week from the weather and the stresss. So she had to give up her role as strike captain at Van Nuys High School after picketing in the rain led to a fever and then being bedridden this entire past weekend.

"I had to give up my Strike Captain position because it was taking too much of a toll on my body, my mind and my spirit. And I knew that somebody else needed to step in," she said. "I kept hearing well, tomorrow's plans and tomorrow's plans and tomorrow's plans, and it just, it melted me emotionally, spiritually, physically."

Still, she was determined to push through the anxiety of all the unknown.

"I lost my ability to comprehend when the entire world is on our side. Why this didn't end but the toll that it's taking on me on so many levels that I’m just done," she said.

Petting dogs in the park is not what she wanted to be doing today.

"I want to be with my kids. I want to be back in the classroom. I work so hard for this job, but striking is making teaching look like a cakewalk," she said.