Thursday, October 20, 2022

 Thursday, October 20, 2022

 

  I had seven scheduled appointments for today. The first was with my therapist/ life coach, who I hadn't seen in five weeks. She traveled with a spiritual group of some sort. I suspected it was a pilgrimage; she confirmed it. I had no idea what the trip entailed, but I planned to ask. I got a text from her saying she had trouble with her return flights and was delayed by two days. She would have to reschedule. That was fine with me. I had too much on my plate for the day as it was. 

  A week ago or so, I would have given my eye teeth for an appointment. I pulled myself out of that slump. Now I was okay. During that period, something shifted. I had grief about several things. Now, I was generally more at peace.

  At 11:45, I had an appointment for a haircut. Randee had on this incredible Halloween orange jumpsuit. With her dark hair and black apron, she looked fantastic. I told her I was shedding worse than my dog. She said she could see it was a bit thinner. I speculated it was because of the stress of the total hip replacement operation. On the twenty-seventh, I would have five teeth extracted. Would I be bald by December? Randee recommended a vitamin supplement, biotin, to help with hair regrowth. I hoped it would work.

  After my haircut, I continued on my way south for my eye appointment with my optometrists, Sandor and Meali'inani. Instead of using my usual route down the Kuakini Highway, I went via Ali'i Drive. I knew a bypass had been built. I had seen the other end of it, where it intersected with Kuakini Highway, but I didn't know anything about it from this angle. It would be an adventure; it certainly was that. It was this beautiful drive on the highspeed Kona bypass with a gorgeous ocean view. I had no idea where I was, but I knew I couldn't get lost. We're on an island, for Heaven's sake. If I follow the ocean, eventually, I would come to something familiar. I came to a traffic light and recognized the intersection with Kuakini. I went straight through the intersection, continuing south to Volcano. It didn't look right. I pulled off the road and checked my GPS. Sure enough, I was supposed to turn left onto Kuakini instead of going straight through. I did a U-turn. I was only minutes away from Sandor's office. 

   He showed me the pictures of my retina a while back and a week ago. He told me there had been an improvement; what I saw knocked my socks off. There was a 75% spontaneous improvement. The macular had reattached. Holy cow! Sandor had told me he had seen it before, but only with medical intervention. He asked his receptionist to scan my retina again to make sure. It came out the same. Great!

  Meali'inani examined my eyes. The image was the same. Sandor recommended I get glasses with a larger frame rather than the golden ones I had for my extra pair. He picked one out for me that I liked. The top of the frame is a light grey, while the bottom has a slight copper tint. It's very subtle. As with many Hawaiian practitioners, every visit is social and business and takes time.  

  I got home in time for my appointment with Adolescent D. We started our daily short sessions, ten to fifteen minutes. D has to blend individually articulate phonemes to identify the word. This is very hard for him. As we started, he had problems with /t/, and /oo/ as in the word to; he heard told. He missed many of the words. It was scary. Was this exercise too difficult for anyone, particularly over Zoom?

  My next appointment was with ninth-grade K. We continued with the comprehension activity of the short, grade-level passage. He reported he understood more of what people said. His mother reported he was speaking more.

  My final appointment for the day was with Jana. While we discussed work, we also discussed our personal lives. I told her about my work to help D with his auditory processing. This is still experimental. I don't see it doing harm; the question is, will it work to resolve his issues?