Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

 

  My mom would have been one hundred twenty today. She lived until two weeks before her 98th birthday. She was an incredible woman. She faced challenges that would have flattened someone else, me included. She had a survivor’s spirit and took on life as it came. She did very well in crises.

  I periodically experience a weird sensation; It feels like every cell in my body vibrates. I don’t know what caused it. Is it anxiety or something else? As odd as the feeling is, it is equally weird that it disappears.

  I assumed it was anxiety. That’s what it felt like. Mike and I were both seen as people who suffered torture. I can think of another person I know who also projects that image. I know we’re all scared. Is this trembling something we all feel when we pay attention? Is this feeling only readily available to those of us who were tortured?

 Yvette started up driveway yoga again. So far, it is only Casey and me. Hopefully, others will join us. Masha, Yvette’s latest addition to her dog children, joined us for the first time today. She was fine; all three dogs, Masha, Little, and Elsa, got along just fine. Then Masha stood over me, sniffing my face as I lay on my back. Well! Elsa took offense and charged her. Yvette separated them easily. Did Elsa see me as vulnerable and protect me, or was she jealous? I was her person.

  My occupational therapist is a hand specialist with an amazing store of information. Each time, she recommends another exercise. I finally understand that the exercises can help with nerve dysfunction. I thought my hand problem would resolve when the pressure on the ulna nerve lessened. My hand wasn’t damaged in the fall. The problems were all with the shoulder and the elbow. I had substantial scarring from the elbow reconstruction. I assumed the pressure on the ulna nerve would lift when the swelling went down, and my hand would be fine. I learned if I waited more than six months, the damage to the nerve could be permanent. I had to exercise my hand, encouraging the nerve to extend and grow to support the activity of the hand or lose the full range of movement in the hand forever.

  I learned something surprising about the hand. There are no muscles in the fingers, just tendons. The hand operates with a muscle-tendon system. There are small muscles in the palm, just below the finger stem. They contract and pull on the tendon, forcing the finger to bend. This understanding has implications when teaching handwriting. This has implications for handwriting. I’m not sure how yet.

  Darby is a manual weeder; she stoops to conquer. She can comfortably rest in a deep squat while she pulls weeds. I told her the problem I had getting out some weeds by the roots. She recommended something that looks like a forked screwdriver. I picked it up at Home Depot. Darby is a great mentor for my gardening activities.

  I’ve been maintaining my gardening schedule; a different section is assigned. The front of the house is weed-free. I needn’t put in much time to maintain it. Getting it down to a weed-free state from my neglected look took many electric kettles full of boiling water over many days. The maintenance takes a few kettles of water in one day.

    I had an acupuncture appointment today. She put needles directly into the scar tissue from the shoulder operation. I saw an immediate difference in the scar and my range of movement.