Thursday, January 20, 2022

 Thursday, January 20, 2022

     I worked with the acupuncturist yesterday. She worked on the same areas the PTs and the chiropractor had. As she left, she asked if I'd been doing stretching exercises. No, I had not been doing them regularly. I did them in the morning before rising if my ankle was bothering me. I found a way to incorporate the stretch into my walk. I led by putting the edge of my left heel on the ground. That effectively stretched the muscles on the back of my leg.

     I felt overwhelmed by sadness. This living without Mike stinks. Sadness, deep sadness. I miss all the quiet moments sitting together while doing our own things: smiles we gave to one another (Right out of "our song" from The Way We Were), the gentle absent-minded touches, etc., etc. What a gift to have someone you can live with comfortably in your life. 

    I had a Cryo appointment today. While I'm improving in many ways, I wonder if the Cryo is helping. I'm doing many things to help with my physical problems: two physical therapists, one chiropractor, and one acupuncturist. I haven't set up a controlled experiment. In addition, I don't really like the woman who does it. She's cold; conversation is limited to only what's absolutely necessary. Whether she's this way with everyone or only with me is irrelevant. I'm not comfortable with that degree of coolness. I assume she is an introvert. Introverts are also uncomfortable with me. Worse yet, they usually judge me badly. For them, 'I don't like it' equals something wrong with whatever they don't like.

   After the Cryo appointment, I stopped off at Costco. I needed lemons desperately. Walking was a challenge. I only had a little to pick up. Before I got online, a man slid in front of me with a loaded cart. I was fine with the wait. It was an opportunity to read more of the Corfu Trilogy on my Kindle. 

  After adolescent D's mom told D that while D could retell a story, he couldn't say what the story was about. That makes sense. He does an excellent job inferring; he doesn't do as well job summarizing. That latter requires abstract thinking skills. Another deficit illuminated. So many deficits; so little time to address them. In response, I prepared Barnell Loft materials from their "Getting the Main Ideas" series. Let's see how it goes. Do I regret not having done this sooner? No. I have learned there's a time for everything. If I had addressed this problem and his word recognition skills, there's a good chance he would never have come out of hiding.  

   We made some progress with visual processing today. There have been flashes where D spells a word correctly that he had to remember visually. You can't spell English words correctly if you rely on the sounds alone. Visual recall is a must. Today, I had him write a word on his forehead to get it into his visual working memory. He said it doesn't look the same as when he sees it on the page. This is a fantastic statement. He revealed he was really 'seeing' the words in his head. God forbid the mental image of an object we see with our eyes is the same as what we perceive with our imagination. That's schizophrenia. While the distinction between objects perceived through our eyes differs from those we recall, there may also be a difference between those images and objects we conjure up and imagine. We know that imagining, remembering, and problem-solving all occur in working memory. What a crowd! 

   D was more energetic than I had ever seen him before. I suspected that the school tutor was a young woman. An adolescent boy plus a somewhat attractive, gentle, interested fertile female, need I say more? If that helps, I'm all for it. 

   I gave D the 2 D versus 3D lecture I received as part of my Orton-Gillingham training. 3D images don't depend on orientation, while 2 D images do.   If I write the letter u upside down, it is no longer a u; it's an n. However, suppose I look at a photograph or painting of a room filled with jumbled furniture. In that case, a chair is still a chair, regardless of its spatial orientation. It's not 2 D versus 3D; it's symbols versus objects. The object has to exist in the real world. Symbols are always abstract. Written symbols are always 2D, and their spatial orientation determines their meaning. 

    I spoke with Paulette. Periodically, she'll talk about her ongoing sadness about the loss of her husband. Her Mike died several years before mine. He also had kidney disease. He died of it. My Mike's pancreatitis trumped his kidney disease. We talked about how we missed the casual affection. Are we better or worse being among those who need affection and were so lucky to find mates whose need for affection matched our own? Paulette has certain ongoing intimacies, living with Judy and Howard, which I don't have. Every day they ask each other how they are. It could be, "Did you sleep well? How are you doing today?  etc." At least she has that. The only person who asks me how I am regularly is Judy. Others are concerned about my emotional well-being, but I speak to them less frequently.