Saturday, November 13, 2021

  Saturday, November 13, 2021

 

     I was still emotionally off my pins.  I preferred to be alone than with someone; other people irritated me. It was concerning because I feel impatient with my students. This started before Damie canceled for Christmas. Damie canceling made it worse; I think that's just a trigger.  I believe the death of the partner of one of the main characters on Offspring (I don't want to give it away) also triggered me.  I identified with the main female character. Not with her good characteristics, just her neurosis. 

    Darby called to tell me everything was going well.  They had arrived in time. They operated on Patrick that afternoon, removing a cookie-sized piece of skin from his back.  He was not in pain at that time; painkillers were doing their job. They are staying at a free facility provided by the American Cancer Society. She said the place was amazing.  If the surgical work could have been done on the Big Island, they would have gone home. Going back and forth didn't make sense because they have to see the doctor every two days and then have plastic surgery on Patrick's back next week.  Going from where we live to Oahu isn't a short drive; it's a plane ride. There's no other way of getting there. It would have been both more expensive and more stressful to go back and forth.

   Darby told me that once they had checked in at the Hawaiian Airlines Terminal and checked their carrying on luggage, they had to walk back to the other terminal to go through the TSA check.   They may have consolidated the TSA to one terminal because they don't have enough employees.

   I had the W and M sisters.  W had an early morning online interview with a private school she is applying to. Mom and M were holed up in the girls' bedroom.  I did fifteen minutes using the phonics Discovery System method to the second-grade work.  Then we switched to writing another story.  M is not very imaginative yet. She wanted to retell a story from a book she was reading. 

   I went through several paragraphs at the 6th grade level with W. She reads okay and answers the comprehension question with ease, but she feels so heavy while doing the work.  When I asked her how she felt about it from a rate of 1 to 10, she said a two. Wow! that is low.  Again, I felt exhausted. I thought this was the grief weighing me down, but I don't feel that way working with adolescent D at this point. That's a joy. He has come so far.  Once he starts doing this work on his own, I know I can stop worrying about him.  He will learn how to read with me or without me.

   In my session with him today, I saw him grasping the 'word family' units spontaneously.   His nonconscious processing is happening. He still has problems remembering rules consciously.

  He had an interesting insight. He said his reading was better because he was paying attention.  Some of his inattention is D's tendency to remove himself from difficult situations. However, I would argue that teaching students what to pay attention to is precisely what all phonics training is about, particularly The Phonics Discovery System.

   I took a quick nap after I was finished with D. Then I went off for an ozone injection, a follow-up treatment for the stem cell transplant I had last January.   Driving there, my eyes crossed so badly I had trouble seeing the road. I had been noticing that my vision was getting worse.  I thought the problem was with the lens in each eye. I now suspect it is a problem with the lazy eye blurring my vision. 

       All treatments with the stem cell doctor require injecting a large needle into my hip joints; the needle isn't so bad, actually. What hurts is the injected material putting pressure on surrounding tissue. This time it hurt differently.  (This was my second or third ozone injection.) It affected the muscles around the hips.  Is this a good sign, or did he just miss the correct spot for the injection?

   I was fine after the treatment and drove up the street to Costco to get my tires inflated.  The warning light had been on for a while. I hadn't had a chance to stop off.  I love Costco's service. I pull up in front of the bays and wait for someone to come out and fill my tires. It's lovely.

  Then I drove to town to go to Long's to pick up the subscription for a combination pain killer and antibiotic the dentist had prescribed.  I also wanted to pick up some other items. The pharmacy had nothing for me and no record of anything called in.  On my way home, I called the dentist's office and told them.  I asked them to send the prescription to Kaiser; it was closer to my house.  

   I tried to review Mike's files from his laptop. Tommy had put all the files on an external drive. He wanted me to check the files to make sure nothing had been missed before he cleaned the internal hard drive.  I couldn't open the file. I texted Tommy, telling him my problem. He gave me directions; forget it. He will have to give me explicit directions. Once that is done, I have to figure out how to get the computer over to Mama K on the Hilo side.

  I did manage to wash Elsa today.  I skipped last week. I wondered what would happen. I found out; she had a lesion on her belly this morning. If this bath doesn't clear it up, I'll have to give her a second one this week.

    I asked Judy if we could include Isaac in her Thanksgiving celebration.  It wasn't going to be just family.  So far, she had twelve adults and three kids, one who would not be sharing in the main meal.  She said fine. Next, I made the offer to Isaac. Once I learned he was living here alone, I was concerned about him.  I told him if he got an offer from someone in his church to think nothing of joining that family.  The poor kid is twenty-one, and this is the first time he is on his own.  He thought he should be fine with this; I let him know this was a difficult transition. He is one of four kids, a twin no less. He went from school to college, and now this. He said he assumed he would meet people his own age to hang out with. I'm it.  However, he did just spend an afternoon with a family with two kids in his age range. So far, no follow-up.  

    When I extended the invitation to him, there was some residency.  He had a friend who was flying in on Thanksgiving Day.  I had to check with Judy if another adult was doable at her table.  When I called her, she wasn't so sure it would work.  She was going to think about it. I was no longer as concerned.   Isaac wouldn't be alone.