Monday, January 11, 2021

Monday, January 11, 2021

            Boy, what a busy, busy day. I didn't have a break. After I walked, I did an hour's healing with someone. I love doing this work. I have great confidence in my work because it empowers the person I am working with. That's the safety net. 

            Next, I spent a fair amount of time figuring out Google Classroom versus Google Meet. I watched YouTube videos on the subject. Okay, Google Classroom is not what I thought it was. You can't meet with your class there. The site is just for paperwork and chats. 

            I went off to explore Google Meet. In Google Classroom, they asked for my school email and password. I didn't see that in Google Meet. I know I can't connect with a child in the Hawaiian school system if I can't identify myself as part of the Hawaiian DOE. When I got into Google Meet, I couldn't figure out how to get Jam board up. Oh, I found the Jam board icon; I clicked on the Jam board icon, but what came up was static. 

            Judy came over around 12:30. The plan was for me to help her get on to Zoom to do some tutoring. Oh, we hit so many problems. First was the Internet connection. My eero is not working. My Internet seeks another Internet server, any other one. It pulled it over to Yvette's modem. Judy needed their password to connect. Yvette gave us the password. Either Yvette forgot to say they used a space, or I didn't hear it. Judy had no success. I finally called back, and we got it straightened out.

            In the middle of this, I got a call back from Ben at the Stem Cell Institute of Hawaii to tell me about their service. This was amazing. The first place I called offered stem cells from adipose. That means my fat. They extract fat from you, prepare it in some way. You come back two to three hours later, and they inject the mix into you, in my case, into my left hip joint. It would cost me less than $10,000. I knew it would be about that much, so I wasn't shocked. Fortunately, I have the money now. I want to get done whatever I think needs to get done before the end of the world as I know it happens.  

            The first place I called said they were open the longest of any of the clinics offering stem cell transplants in Hawaii. He also told me about problems that can occur with fetal stem cells. He mentioned something about infection. I didn't have a hallelujah response to his offer.

            Once I got the X-rays done and the doctor's written report they requested, I was ready to fill out the paperwork for the stem cell doctor. I decided to call the other names on the list on a whim. First, I discovered that the first doctor I had called was listed with two different telephone numbers under two different clinic names. Now, that wasn't reassuring. 

            Of the three others I called for information, the only clinic I got a call back from was the Stem Cell Institute of Hawaii. First, they only do perinatal transplants. What's perinatal? That means the cells are taken from the placentas of full-term, healthy babies, not from fetal cells. The perinatal cells are supposed to be safer than the fetal cells. The fetal cells are less developed, less differentiated. That means they can attach to anything, including cancer cells. It sounds like they go wandering around your body looking for a good home without enough experience to know what a good looks like.

            Ben from the Stem Cell Institute then told me this would cost me $5700. Wow! That sounded good. He also said that I would have follow-up treatments with placenta blood and oxygen infusions, or something like that, once every- sorry, I don't remember the time units -once a month, once every six weeks. I heard, "That's where the money comes in." He said no, the follow-up appointments are part of the initial fee. Wow! Again. I made some crack about paying for flights to Oahu for these appointments. He said no, "Where do you live?" Big Island. "Oh, we have a clinic in Kona." Oh, boy!!! I'm in. This is it. I was so excited. 

    While I was on the phone with the stem cell people, Judy got into the Internet. Then we tried to get her onto Zoom. It asked her to sign in. She already had a zoom user id and password that she used on her phone to meet with a group of dedicated Catholics. I can't remember how she finally got in. Yikes! Once I got in, our voices were weird; they echoed. I think in retrospect the problem occurred because our computers were so close together. 

            I tried to show Judy how to do a screen share. Her options were displayed differently from mine. It could be that the tablet, which works well enough for her husband's purposes, meant Judy had to work with an old, old version of Zoom. She would contact a friend who deals with computers and see if he could help. 

            Judy brought over dinner, chicken, and spaghetti with a tomato sauce. She didn't mention the veggies. I packed her off with a jar of spaghetti sauce. I am longing for some good Italian food—all that delicious garlic. I had a jar, but it was too large for my limited use. I also pulled out an old piece of pork. Judy asked how long it had been in there. Mike had purchased it. I didn't know how long it was in there before he died. She said the other piece of pork I gave her from my freezer hadn't been good. She said they could use it to feed the wild turkeys on their property. I put it in a plastic bag and hung it on the screen door handle, so we remembered to have her take it as she left—compensations for old age memory loss.

            I needed a lie down for half an hour before my 2:15 appointment with H. I asked if he wanted to continue talking about his pets.' He said no, he wanted to do some real work. He had a book with phonics in it. He set up a hangman kind of game, but he told me the blank spaces were for words instead of letters. I had some trouble getting him to respond to my needs to understand. He wasn't providing enough clues. I actually said he had to think about how my mind understood what he had to say. The autistic are described as lacking a theory of mind, meaning they don't understand that others perceive things differently than they do.  

            When he said he wanted to work on phonics, I asked him if I could show him my way of working on phonics. He said no, but then he allowed me to do some of it. Then he blocked me. I threw a 'hissy fit,' if not an outright temper tantrum, to get him to respond to my need. He did.  

            At one point, I asked him to do something. He ignored me and proposed something else. I asked him if he got scared if he didn't know what to do. He said yes. I told him I thought I could help him with his fear. But then our time was up. He proposed we write a story, and another activity I recognized as something I suggested. His parents were concerned that he wouldn't stay on with me for half an hour; we have to opposite problem. Getting him to say goodbye is tough. 

            I have to write to his mom about how he tried to manipulate me to stay in the session by offering to do things he heard me suggest. As I said, the autistic are supposed to lack a theory of mind and not consider another person's point of view. He did that today when he offered to do the work I had suggested to keep me in the session.   Amazing! 

            I had J next right after H. He wanted to work on comprehension. He selected a piece that gave a lot of background information about the Spanish explorers' behavior with the Indian tribes of Mexico and America. He didn't know that Spaniards came from Spain. He didn't know what the Old World was versus the New World. What he didn't know was legion. I was exhausted after an hour. This wasn't something I could have him infer. He didn't know that there were Indian tribes in Central and South America. This child is Guatemalan. He probably has Indian blood, yet he knows nothing about his own ancestry. There's no reason, of course, that he should. Why should someone know all that? He lives in a closed community where everything just is, which works fine and dandy.

            I finished Ten Theories of Human Nature and started A Very Short Introduction to Democracy. The Very Short Introduction Series from Oxford University is Reader's Digest for intellectuals-love it. His open lines are worth sharing. Am I ever looking forward to reading this book!

            “Many meanings attach to the word democracy. If there is one true meaning, then it is, indeed, as Plato          might have said, stored up in heaven; but unhappily has not yet been communicated to us." 

It goes on in this sardonic vein. I can't wait to read it. The only problem, it will come to an end.