What a day! I started at once in the morning and finally finished at 4:30 pm. After I woke up at 1 am, I didn’t sleep well after that. I finally got up at 6 to get ready for Bikram. As I walked Elsa, I continued concentrating on using my left butt glutes. I noticed the other day that the left glute is about half the size of the right. I am also working on my left glutes in yoga. Of course, as I worked, it bothered the right side of my body. I’m always a work in progress.
After yoga, I was off to physical therapy. I hadn’t seen her since December 19th. I had an appointment on January 3rd, but I overlooked it after the lapsed time; the missed appointment cost me $30.
Katie, the PT, told me again that my joints are hyperflexible. I have never been told that I’m flexible in any way before in my life. What she means is that my elbow and knee joints are bend more than they should. This does not result in good flexibility, but poor flexibility as my muscles compensate for my weak joints. She had me hold on to parallel bars as she guided me to learn the correct amount of bend/straightness for my knees and then had me lock my thigh muscles. I don’t know if I can duplicate this on my own. I couldn’t find the proprioceptive feedback I needed to be able to remember the correct position.
Because I asked her about some lines on the clinic floor, she demonstrated some fancy foot move exercises. I copied her. She was amazed that I had that much mobility. Well, it depends upon the mood my body is in. I call it my bi-polar body: I’m either down for the count or ready to dance. We went back to the private room so she could do some more body manipulation.
She commented that there has been a dramatic change in my posture since we started. She is giving me instructions I can use. She doesn’t just give me exercises; she tells me what the problem is and what I am working to accomplish with an exercise. This allows me to make adaptations in my daily movement, which I find is more effective than doing some exercise once or twice a day. I left the clinic by 10:15 am.
Because I had plans to be at Zola’s house for a farewell party for Jacquie, and I had plans to be at school by 11:30, so I could leave at 12:30, I had thought to stay in town and run a few chores. Because I got out earlier than I expected from PT, I decided to go home. I was worried about Elsa being confined to the house for the whole day. She would need a bathroom break. I called E. and told him I was heading home and would have some time to work with K.
K. was waiting for me in the house, playing with Elsa. I sat down to work with him but heard this terrible howling from Yvette’s house. I wasn’t sure what was going on. I had never heard it before when they weren’t up here, and Izzy complained about them not being with her. I texted Yvette, concerned. She said the dogs were confined because we were expecting the gardener. Yes, just open the door and let the dogs out.
I told K. to read the selections on his own. I could hear his voice clearly from below because he was sitting at the dining room table on the open lanai. He did better work when I wasn’t sitting next to him. When I was next to him, he had been distracted, and I had to push him to read. Once I was gone, he did just fine. He was reading a story he hadn’t read before. His willingness to do this on his own is fantastic news.
When I got to Yvette’s door, there was Izzy. When I opened it, she just stood there, looking confused. I ran back upstairs to do some work with K. I had him read, “Danny and the Dinosaur and the New Puppy.” He did pretty well. However, something interesting happened. He didn’t recognize the word the, the first word in the story. He came up with there, they, and them. As he read on, he came across another the, read it correctly, and recognized that it was the word he missed in the beginning. As I wrote this, it occurred to me that he may have been confused because of the capital T on the the because it was at the beginning of the sentence. I think I will do one session via FaceTime with his mom and him to teach her how to use the material he can’t read on his own.
After K. left, I quickly wrote a check for the gardener and answered some of his questions. Then I went off to school.
I worked with R. in Mrs. D’s class first. I had prepared the story she had dictated to me the other day for a StoryJigSawPuzzle activity. When she first looked at the printed document, she dismissed it. I pointed to her name and asked her if she could read it. Fortunately, recognizing her own name is not a problem. She quickly realized that this was her story and started reading. Once she had read it once, I introduce the jigsaw puzzle activity. She loved it and asked if she could take it home. You bet!
I worked with D. from Mrs. B.’s class next. He is a lovely poised boy, the type you know will be a great adult. There is a depth to him. I asked him if he thought his reading was better. He said yes. I crossed my fingers, hoping he would be right. He selected a story from the middle of the third-grade textbook. Wow! He read more fluently, with greater accuracy. He was able to catch his errors on the one-syllable words. However, he is still struggling with two-syllable words and remembering phonics rules. What sound does the ch make? I don’t know how many times I have gone over the options. I have no idea why he has trouble remembering rules. I am going to have to think about this. Hopefully, I come up with a solution.
I worked with I. last. He hadn’t made much progress, but he hadn’t lost a lot either. While D. worked over the three weeks since we met last, I’m sure that wasn’t the case for me. It does help when the students participate enthusiastically. Surprise! However, he did read the word correctly most of the time. There were two incidents when he didn’t but caught his own error. There was only one incident when he went back to reading it as she. Nothing to jump up and down about, as with D.’s progress, but nothing to sneeze at either.
At 12:30, my alarm went off. I packed up and headed out to Zola’s. Thanks to my iPhone, it wasn’t hard to find. Wow! Do Zola and Jack have a fantastic house! They have a large unscreened lanai with a 1960 view of the ocean. They’re not that high up, maybe 200 to 300 hundred feet. The view at that distance is spectacular.
Suzanne prepared the food. She and her husband used to run a bakery. She made finger sandwiches and sweets. She loves doing this work to this day—lucky us. Jacquie had plans of flying back to the mainland Wednesday at 9 pm.
Again I had set my alarm to leave on time for my doctor’s appointment at the Kaiser Clinic with Dr. Edwards. I had a lump on my back, which the PT had found. I also brought up the lump I found on my upper arm just outside of my left armpit. She felt both of them were benign. The one on my back was a lipoma, or a tight spot called a trigger point. The one under my arm was just a muscle formation. She told me to check the other side in the same area. Yep, there was a similar formation there but not as large.
She reminded me that she asked me to consider taking statins. My LDH has been in the 160 range forever. However, my HDLs are dropping. They once were over 100; now they’re in the mid-seventies. Not bad, but that drop does change my ratio and implies an increased risk of heart problems. I am considering having her prescribe the lowest dose and then cutting it in half, with her knowledge.
When I got home, it was time to lie down. I didn’t make any dinner. I had all those finger sandwiches and sweets for lunch. I was good.
I continued watching “The Good Place.” I am fascinated by the discussion of ethics in the middle of a comedy.
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