Thursday, January 27, 2022

 Thursday, January 27, 2022

     I did my spinal curvature exercise recommended by Terry while lying in bed in the morning. It involves contracting my right lower abdominal muscles to push my weight to the left side. I contract the muscles, hold for the count of 20, and repeat. This morning, I could feel the lower abdominal muscles on the left side kick in. Terry pointed out that my 'limp' showed as a quick step on my right leg, my stronger one. Why would that be? As far as I can figure out, it's because I don't shift my weight to the left. When I do, I spend more time on my right leg. 

   While I might be able to conquer the problems with my spinal curvature, arthritic left hip, and swollen ankle, I am not as optimistic about the hammer toe on my right foot. Stretching exercises help. I used my left toes to push the second toe on my right foot so it wasn't climbing over the first.   It held up while I walked over 1,000 steps this morning. 

  I have a luncheon appointment with Zola this morning. We were supposed to meet at a small restaurant with mostly indoor seating. It has one table in front, in the parking lot, but it is unshaded. I wanted to meet somewhere we can eat outside that's shaded. I was concerned because they announced this morning that Hawaii has the highest infection rate in the nation.   I texted her asking for a venue change. She called me to tell me she was slightly nauseous. "Maybe I'm pregnant." Love it. She's older than I am. and the only woman I know who would have said something like that besides me. Like Zola, I am rarely nauseous. When I was, I'd always make some crack about my being pregnant long after there was any chance of that.

   My phone regularly offers me themed photos. Today pictures of Mike's final stay in the hospital. I had a picture on my phone of two words he wrote during his first stint in the ICU, "BE GENTE." A nurse had told him to stop thinking in an annoyed tone.   She said you can tell he's the type of person who thinks, again, said in a judgmental tone. I told her she was cruel. Had I been inclined to violence, I would have reached across the bed and ripped her throat out. I still feel I should have reported her. Here's this man desperately ill, intubated, and she's riding his ass. Mike, in response to my snapping at her, wrote those words. My sweet, sweet man. 

   Zola called before I left for my Cryo appointment to tell me her nausea was worse. We rescheduled for next week. The full-body Cryo treatment felt colder today. I have no idea if this treatment is doing anything for my wracked body. I had my first Cryo facial immediately afterward. The long-term benefits are increased collagen and something else. The short-term benefits are reduced swelling and spider veins. I'm not vain enough to make this a regular occurrence. Besides, I didn't enjoy the process. It was twelve minutes of her running the nitrogen over the top of my skull, face, and chest. Every time she moved the gas over my face, I had to hold my breath. Breathing in the gas would not have been good. Besides developing a funny taste in my mouth, the breathing didn't go so well. I can hold my breath forever. That wasn't the problem. When I lie on my back, I experience apnea. The stop-and-go didn't go so well. Also, it felt like it was burning at the very top of my head. It felt just cold on the right side. I didn't even feel chilled on the left side of my head. It suggests inflammation. The whole left side of my body is a mess.

    When I got home, I heard the men working on my neighbor's rock wall. I grabbed the bottle of salsa I bought yesterday that I couldn't open and headed out. The man was working with one of those loud rat-a-tat machines, breaking up rock. I hate to think what it must do to their bodies. I asked him if he could open the jar when he looked up. It was so easy for him that I wondered if I could have done it.

   At 3:30, I tried to connect with Mama K's crew. I thought we had arranged it-maybe not. I couldn't get hold of her either. 

   I listened to more of Fresh Air with Dave Davies. How depressing! They talked about the influence Clarence Thomas's wife had on the court. Every other spouse has changed profession to avoid putting their partner in a conflict of interest. She apparently did the exact opposite. She uses her marriage to get favors for people she supports. From what they said today, even Trump thought she was a whacko. The guest on the show was quoting someone else. I don't know if it's true, but it is a remarkable image.

    Isaac sent me a text on the impact of the PDS work he is doing with his students. He must have written it last night before he went to bed. Isaac's volunteering in a local church-sponsored school for a year before he returns to finish his final year of college. I'd been encouraging him to watch my videos for a while. He 'couldn't find the time.' I was concerned he'd return to his normal life and then watch them, discover he could have used them to help the kids he was working with, and be angry with himself. It was always possible he'd watch them and feel this approach wasn't for him. He finally did start watching. Below is the text he sent me after his first day using the approach:

 

 "I used the method today! Still a few students with severe enough impairments that even attempting the method is tricky. They are anxious to even attempt to discover. But the majority caught on! Especially those who were already ahead of the game! I had one student who struggles with discouragement gain confidence and move from "giving up" attitude to investigation, relying on his own discoveries. He gained confidence and was in a much happier mood than what I had seen before after reading."

    

I would love to see this method widely disseminated before I die. Someone with no teaching experience can learn it after watching an hour-long video and see results in one session. While nothing works with everyone, its impact is clear. It's easy to learn to use, easy to apply and helps anyone at any level improve their reading skills. Not even I can use the method in its simplest form with all students. Many students have serious problems that require adaptations and other methods. This helps everyone read better. It can be used once a week for a few minutes with some students and make a difference. It teaches how to learn phonics independently. The better the student, the more quickly they grasp and run with the idea.

  On that note, I had a session with adolescent D today. Boy does he struggle. I'm using Phase III with him: he has to read the text, recall the words in the text and the spelling and then spell the words back to me. Today, while he read the text well, he struggled with spelling. One word we worked on was people. He has made progress in developing his visual imaging skills using working memory. He can see an image of the printed word in his mind where he couldn't before. However, he doesn't use it automatically; he has to be reminded. When he does, the letters will shift around on him. He spelled people, people.   When I told him it was wrong, he argued with me until I showed him the written word again. He said, "Damn!" this is better than his shutting down, which he has done in the past. At the end of the session, he read the final sentence. The words rolled off his tongue correctly. Whatever his difficulty with the spelling exercise, his reading is improving. I believe there is a relationship.

     I finally found a section of Brainscapes, Schartzlose's book on brain maps, that had meaning for me. She writes that many scientists say they do no mental imagining; they never 'see' what isn't right before their eyes. They have no visual imaging or imagination.   She discusses why people don't 'see' visual images. She talks about it in terms of brain damage. Then why are these perfectly competent academics unable to visualize images of things not perceived by their eyes. The author didn't say anything about these people being viewed in fMRIs or any other imaging machine to determine the validity of their self-perception. In a lecture I heard at a Princeton University Colloquium years ago, I remembered someone saying they put such people in imaging machines. It showed that their primary visual cortexes light up when they imagine. For most people, the lit area is much larger; the brain map is larger.  

   That raises another question. Why is an image generated by memory or imagination processed in the primary visual cortex (V1) when that area is directly connected to the eyes? What is its connection when imaging without seeing?

   I can only imagine spelling English words correctly or problem-solving a scientific puzzle with imaging. However, there are other things I haven't been able to imagine just because they were not the way I did it, and they wound up being true. 

   I know that adolescent D claimed he could not see printed words in his mind, and he now can. His misspelling confirms my suspicion rather than refutes it. He saw the word. Now we have to figure out how to get him to hold the image without it shifting on him.

   I repeat Mike's words to D," It's a problem to be solved." Why does he have this problem? I don't know. I doubt anyone will ever know for sure. I suspect his mind didn't give him accurate information about written materials, and from what his mom said, maybe space in general. He naturally withdrew from activities he couldn't do at all, no less well. Again, why did this happen? He had the problem and no one to tell him how to deal with it. I hope to solve it with him so he can be reasonably functional.