Mark and I went house shopping this past weekend. We are looking for a new-to-us home. We were looking for a 3 bedroom condo with an attached garage, so we can have everything on one floor. I’m willing to have the extra bedroom on another floor (up or down) as long as I never have […]
Overconstraining the Problem Read More »
I’ve been battling a 10-20% forward lean with my vertigo. I’m standing much straighter these days, and it’s all because of my hip flexors. I’ve been straightening them. Your hip flexors are small muscles on the front of your hips. If you sit too much, they contract, and you don’t stand up straight. If you,
Standing Straight with Oosh and Ah Read More »
In the past four weeks, I have clogged a toilet, broken my car’s windshield washers, broken a mammogram machine, and broken the fancy goggles that the vestibular therapist in Canada uses to look at my nystagmus. And last week, my computer went into constant kernel panics. A lesser person might say I was jinxed. I
Before I started the vertigo meds, I often got angry, depressed, scared, and upset. I still get depressed, feel overwhelmed, and cry. I do this less often now, because the meeds give me so much more control over my every day life. Even with the meds, my limitations sometimes scare me, or make me angry
How to Have a Pity Party Read More »
As I work through the training for my vertigo, I keep remembering what my vestibular therapist said last week. Her words were, “This requires mental toughness. It’s like running a marathon 20 minutes, twice a day.” When I use the BrainPort to retrain my brain (using techniques of neuroplasticity) to change how my brain adapts
You need to have faith that you can make it through whatever is going on in your life. But you can’t afford to be blindly optimistic. (My original title for this post was “Blind optimism kills” and I thought that might be a little extreme.) Admiral Stockdale actually said this the best about his survival
Faith Tempered With Reality, Not Optimism Read More »
Mark leaves the house before I do in the morning. That’s because my commute is downstairs, to my home office in the basement. He wakes up earlier, he works out earlier, he showers earlier, he eats breakfast earlier, he leaves earlier. And, he leaves his detritus—banana peels, cereal remains, fruit pits, whatever—in the disposal for
I fly a lot. So, I walk through a lot of airports. I have trouble walking in a straight line. But, I can see where I am going. I can anticipate running into people. I can see when we are on a collision course. And, there are a number of people who think it is
What Is So Important On Your Phone? Read More »
Mark and I take ballroom dancing lessons. As with many couples who’ve been taking lessons for years, we are working on different problems in our dancing. We have different strengths, different weaknesses. While we both have great frames, he has a much better frame in promenade than I do. I have much better leg action
Singles-Sided Deafness Makes Dancing Work Read More »
I promised a few posts ago I would answer the question, “Why did it take you so long” when Daniel asked me about using a cane. You see the same behavior in other situations: Widows who can’t clean out their husband’s clothes after 20 years, the woman who’d been laid off for several years who
“Why Did It Take You So Long?” Read More »