Friday, June 25, 2021

 Friday, June 25, 2021

             My foot feels better due to the treatment. I made it to the bathroom during the night without pain, but it became inflamed with extended walking. I came home from my morning walk, soaked my foot in ice, treated it with the infrared lamp and then the meridian energy acupuncture pen Yvette lent me. This treatment made walking doable. 

            As I walked this morning, I realized that Judy thinks I have no face-to-face contact with people. I do. I run into some people on my morning walk. Some the exchanges are no more than, “Morning, Herman.” “Morning, Betty. Good morning, Elsa.”  With some, it is a one or two-sentence conversation while we continue walking. With some, it varies between the two already mentioned and longer conversations as we stand for a minute in the middle of the road or walk together as the conversation becomes more involved. Here’s my contact list

:           Vince and Julie

            Ann Marie with her Dog Tulip

            Kelly or Colin with their dog Bailey

            Shawn with his dog, Coco, and his wife, Valerie.

            Mary Ann with her dogs Chloe and Razor

            Mike with his dog Sweet Pea

            Steve and his wife, Shannon

            Tom

            David

            Jill       

            Marsha

            Herman

            Beverly

            Darby

            Naomi, her husband. Aaron and her daughter, Juniper

            Adam, Jazzy, Leon (two infants)

            Mei, her husband, Peter, and her children, David and Anna

            Terry and her husband, Bob   

            Olga and her daughter  Alexandra

            Penny and her dog Zoe.

            Lutz

            Mary

            Gordana

            Andrew and  his wife, Jenny

            Carol and her husband, Phil. They are out of town now until August.

            John and his wife, Julie

            Tammy

            

            I had my 8:30 morning appointment with K’s kids. I started with A. She still cannot remember the name for the letter n. I tried various tricks for memorizing. Nothing worked. While she can name all the letters in her name if she does it in sequence, from the first letter to the last. Today I asked her to say whatever came up when she tried to remember the name. The answer was, “Nothing.”   I decided to try BrainManagmentSkills.

            I asked her if she felt movement in her head. She said yes. Many people experience uncomfortable movement in their heads. I drew the six spin patterns: a counter-clockwise spiral moving from the out edge toward the center, a clockwise spiral moving from the center out, and then both spirals, both in and out, moving in the opposite directions, a horizontal zig-zag line and a vertical one. I always say at the end, “Or is it a different pattern?” leaving it open for something unexpected. The kids with this problem generally know what it is and can give the exact location and direction of the spin. A. could give me this information today. The spiral moves from the back of her head to the front on the left side of her head. It is moving from the center out and increases in speed. Some move from the outer ring into the center and decrease in speed. I was going to teach her the spin release but decided to wait. It will be the first time I have a child do it over Zoom. I wanted to talk to her mother first. I didn’t want her mom to freak out when she heard her daughter had this problem.

            The mind is always active, churning away like a motor. There are our brains in idle and our brains in more active states. If they have been hijacked by too rapid or too slow of a spin, that interferes with mental processing. Students are aware of these patterns and try to fight them. I asked A. if she tried to slow the spinning down. She said yes. 

            The instructions with the spin that increases in speed is to allow the spin to get as fast as it wants to. Since the child views this movement as something they don’t like, it can be uncomfortable; it can be disconcerting to just let it do its thing. I tell children not to do it if they feel very uncomfortable. On a rate from 1-10, their discomfort index shouldn’t be higher than a three. I have never had anything bad happen due to doing the spin release. However, I don’t think it will work if someone is scared. They’re not going to allow it to happen. Worse yet, if they get too scared, they won’t ever try it again. They should find the experience “interesting.”  They should be wondering, “How fast is it going to get, and where is it going to go?”  The goal is to let it spin off like a tornado returning to the sky.

            What causes these disruptive spins? Oh, so many things. Yes, it could result from significant trauma, beating, rape, loss of a parent, divorce, etc. However, it can also be from something we might consider minor, just being uncomfortably confused. What causes confusion? Any time we know we don’t know something, particularly when others around us do. Good students, when faced with the state of knowing they don’t know, feel curiosity. That is the best mental state for a student. If they respond to this situation with curiosity can keep their minds open and focused. They’re wondering, ‘What am I going to learn now? Something new. Yay!” 

            I had loaded two boxes into the car for the Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans to take to the post office. Fortunately, two young men were standing by a car nearby. I asked, “Can I borrow your strength?” I haven’t had someone say no to that request yet. I also mailed the eyelid tape to Jean, who has problems as I do with her eyes. While I kept one roll of tape, I wasn’t thrilled with its effect and haven’t used it again. Maybe I should. When I check in the mirror, the brow lift provided by the Botox injections seems to be helping, but the lid droops down. It may be that my eyes are so small, it doesn’t take much to block my vision.

            On my way home, I stopped at Habitat to deliver the ten remaining LPs. This is the last of the records. Now, I have to get rid of the 1,000 CDs.

            Costco was a surprise. There was no special line outside, no one spraying the shopping carts. Actually, there were no shopping carts available at that moment. As I walked around the parking lot to get one, someone chased me down and asked me if I wanted theirs. Would the products I wanted be available? Blueberries and the Sweet Kale salad were in now, but I couldn’t find any lemons. I had a moment of panic. I must have my nightly lemonade. I found an employee bringing in more produce. I asked him about the lemons. He said, “There should be,” and he told me where they were. I wouldn’t have looked as carefully as I had to if he hadn’t been so sure. I found about ten bags hidden behind some boxes. I grabbed two bags. When I loaded the car, I saw a young man nearby. Again, I asked him if I could borrow his strength. I had hauled a case of almond milk from the stack into my cart but getting it out of the cart into my car was another matter. The guy generously helped me load my whole card. 

            As I was unloading the car, Judy called to tell me that Paulette and her friend, Carol, were working on a jigsaw puzzle outside. Did I want to join them? Judy is working on getting me out of my isolation into social contact. She said she would call me whenever they were working on it. Sounds great. Having been out, I had enough stimulation for today.