Monday, August 15, 2022

 Monday, August 15, 2022

 

  Before I went to bed, I became concerned about the pressure I felt on the left side of my face. Was this a sign of a tooth infection? I have severe problems with two teeth now. I needed a root canal with one of my back teeth; with another, I lost a cap. The dentist glued it back on temporarily until I could have work done. Then, the tooth sheared off at the gum line. Now, I needed a second extraction. I had thoughts of all my teeth going. Scary. I had visions of my teeth being the cause of my death; I would develop an infection and not have the money to deal with it, develop sepsis, and die. What a way to go!  

  I was dizzy when I got up in the middle of the night. It is the third time this has happened. The first time, I couldn’t stand up. In the second incident, I felt too dizzy to walk Elsa. I was afraid she would pull me over. I walked her this time, but not as long as usual. I did take it easy for the rest of the day. 

  I had my Reading and Writing office hour for the Step-Up Tutoring program today. No one had signed up by last night. I checked this morning on a whim. Someone had signed up. The tutor hadn’t met with her student yet- hadn’t even had a student assigned to her yet. She was nervous because she had never tutored before. I felt well enough to be fully engaged. I felt somewhat better with the interaction. That was a good sign that I was not ill. If I am sick, the interaction does not make me feel better.

   I had a session with adolescent D today. Boy, this kid is frustrating. I continued by giving examples for the six syllable types and then identifying the types of syllables in a story. He remembered that V stood for Vowel today easily and quickly named the vowel letters. He struggled with the rest of the activities: giving examples for each pattern V- a, e, i, o or u, VC- ap, et, im, ob, uc, etc. That was a struggle. The last activity was identifying the pattern in each syllable in a reading selection, even if the word wasn’t phonically regular. All this was a struggle. At the end of the session, he said, “How long do we have to do this? This is easy.” What!!! He had trouble doing it; what did he mean it was easy? He desperately needed this exercise. He never did anything to practice reading. It either happened or it didn’t; therefore, I have to drill him. I have no choice with him. I wouldn’t dare have done this when we started. He was so ego-defended.

   While I didn’t get my 8,500 steps in today, I did get several loads of laundry done. I hung them up on the line. I was a little wobbly, but I didn’t keel over.  

   I tried a full-body MELT treatment to deal with my headache, assuming my spine was out because of changes I had made in my movement. I shifted the flesh of my right heel over to the inside of the heel and did a slight side bend to the right as I walked. The MELT treatment didn’t do any immediate good. Before I did the exercise, I asked Yvette to be ready for a call, asking her to help me get up from the floor. I didn’t need her. 

  I took a Covid test this evening on Yvette’s insistence. She was concerned my headache might be a symptom. When Scott didn’t feel well, he insisted he didn’t have Covid. Yvette insisted he take the test. He had Covid. My result was negative.