Monday, December 30, 2024

 Monday, December 30, 2024 

  A second day of horrible sleep. I was awake by 1:30. I got up around 2:30 to check my blood pressure. For the second day in a row, it was 160 over 100.  I immediately popped another Losartan.  I rechecked my blood pressure when I got up.  It was 140 over 100. Egad! I have to be pretty upset to reach those heights.  I called the Kaiser advice line. I wanted to know if I could keep popping the blood pressure pills until I got my blood pressure down. The advise nurse asked all kinds of questions. My answers all indicated I didn't have a serious problem. Yes, I could walk; no, I wasn't dizzy; neither, I didn't have a headache or chest pain. The only question was the color of my stool. But I had eaten asparagus. All bets are off. Wait! She didn't answer my question about the danger of taking too many blood pressure pills. She said she couldn't answer. I had to ask the doctor.

   The advice nurse didn't suggest I go to the nearest emergency room, but she did want me to make an appointment with my doctor.  I got one with my favorite, Dr. Reed, at 10:40.  

   I had the Twins this morning.   I opened the wrong file for Twin A, showing her the text for Twin E. She recited the first sentence of the correct passage, remembering it from the day before. This is a child who couldn't remember most of the letters in the alphabet at the end of first grade. 

    Today, I used the correct text for Twin A. I love this process because it reveals the students' problems like no other tool I've ever worked with.       Twin A spelled anything as anysthing.  It took me a moment to hear why she thought so. I told her her mistake made a lot of sense. Did she want to hear why?  No. But you, dear reader, will be treated to the explanation. 

    /Th/ in thing is a sibilant, sounding a bit like an /s/.   You hear the /s/ in anything but not in nothingbecause the long /e/ sound at the end of any requires the tongue to be close to the roof of the mouth. As the tongue moves forward to contact with the teeth to form the /th/, it touches the roof of the mouth, forming the /s/. It's barely perceptible, but it's there.  When the tongue moves between the schwa in /nu/  as in nothing, the tongue moves from the bottom of the oral cavity to the position that forms the /th/.  The tongue can make the journey without contacting the roof of the mouth. Therefore, no /s/ sound.

        She made several mistakes in the following sentence.  She spelled stick as sick, open as opein, and mouth as moth.  In the case of stick, I repeated stick and sick and asked her to hear the difference.  In the case of open, I had her spell ten, den, hen, Ben, etc. It still took her a while to see what I was driving at.  Neither girl thinks in terms of patterns. That's why they appear cognitively dense. I've gotten them to the point where they hear the phonemes and have improved visual recall. They don't think of patterns yet, although they will implicitly use them in their spelling.  Twin A spelled near as nere, a phonetically correct representation of the word that showed pattern reliance. I  haven't discussed this explicitly yet.  It doesn't feel right. I just show them examples of patterns.  When she spelled mouths as moths, I did the same thing. I thought of examples of words with the /ou/ sound and spelling: out, about, and shout. She got it when I gave her the examples. She doesn't generate them herself.

     Twin E finished the passage I had mistakenly given twin A.  She spelled their as there.   That problem goes on forever. I still find myself correcting my spelling. Both girls have problems including the suffixes for plural and past.  Twin E spelled father as farther. That's the way I say it.  She left out the word and  in the sentence, "Put a sticknear them, and they will open their mouths and beg."  I find their errors fascinating.  Twin E spelled dropping as groping.  I asked her if she could hear the difference between gropping and dropping. That was hard for her. At first, she thought the problem was in the middle of the word. I responded by breaking down the consonant cluster by phonemes. I said /g-r-op/ and /d-r-op/. Could she hear a difference between the two?  She got it then. Students often confuse the /d/ and /j/ sounds, but this is the first time I've heard someone confuse the /d/ and /g/sounds, although they are both voiced stops. 

  The advice nurse had me make an appointment with a doctor.  I saw the wonderful Dr. Reed at 10:40.  I made it just in time. Dr. Reed didn't disappoint.  When she heard my symptoms and observed my behavior, she asked if I suffered from mania.  Yes. All my life. I get overly excited. It feels good in the beginning and then gets out of control. I avoid situations that trigger it. I would rather be rejected than have that aspect of myself encouraged.  Dr. Reed told me there's a medication for it. 

   Hypomania is different than bipolar disorder. Hypermania comes with the mor serious disorder and requires higher doses of medication. Dr. Reed knew I wasn't suffering from hypermania.  If I had full mania, I  wouldn't be in her office. I would believe the delusion.  I did share a bit about the success of my work.  Sadly, her demeanor changed just a little, but enough to tell me she was suspicious that my appraisal of my work was unrealistic.  That's why I can't promote it. It triggers that reaction. I hate it, and it naturally makes listeners question the validity of what I say. 

     I don't think the other doctors at Kaiser would have asked that vital question about mania. They would have treated the high blood pressure and let it go at that. I can take the medication as needed or take one pill before bedtime. She prescribed the lowest dose available, 25 mg versus 300mg, and made a follow-up appointment.  

   I took a pill before I got home. I wanted this hyperstate to end. I stopped at Costco to pick up more sweet kale salad, my mainstay, a box of the small Salon Pas pads, a box of blueberries, and a serving size of prepared sushi. Then I went home to sleep and prayed I would return to normal when I woke up. 

    English Mike called shortly after I woke, asking if this would be a good time to come over. He was wonderful. He showed me how to insert the connectors for the irrigation hose, the drippers, the little water vents. I will have to buy a few more connectors to compensate for my errors in hose length.

   Mike also checked the irrigation I paid someone to install. The installer did a lousy job for a lot of money, which was disappointing, given that he was a pillar of the church community. My best rationalization is that he needed the money for his family. He has since moved to the mainland. 

   My friend Jean found more bedbugs in her house. The first discovery was in their bedroom, but now they see them in every room. These critters are maddening. 

  I went for a short evening walk and then went back to sleep. I slept for another three hours.