It's Puzzling

One of the ways I keep track of how I am improving is by doing puzzles.  I keep an old-fashion jigsaw puzzle in my office for clients to work on while they wait.   Sometimes I'll spend my own down time fitting the pieces and making connections - literally and figuratively.

Shortly after the accident, even a short time working on a puzzle gave me a major head fog.  Now I can do about 1/2 an hour before my head begins to hurt.

Most interesting is the location of the pain.  When I do computer work, I experience throbbing in my right temple and behind my right eye.  It grows into a true fog if I don't quit at the first signs it is increasing.  With jigsaw puzzles, the pain is located more to the back of my skull a few inches behind my ear and above my occiput. 

Not to self -- Ask Dr. Larson about this?????

Overdone

As I've started to feel more and more like myself, I've also slipped into old patterns.  Perhaps the most problematic is trying to do too much. (Whatever that means??)  In my case, it means not taking a day off, pushing myself to finish tasks rather than resting.   I did it for years.  Not anymore. 

Down time is no longer an option, it's essential.  Last weekend I worked on Saturday and then got my daughter.  We had a busy schedule with scheduled therapies.  Monday, I volunteered at her day program's fund raiser and left early to get to Miss A's acupuncture appointment.  Doesn't sound like that much but it didn't give me a chance for quiet time.

A raging migraine was the result.  It took a few days but I'm finally back to the "new normal" of a pulsing throb in my temple and behind my right eye. 

Eat well, sleep well, gentle exercise, down time...  the healing essentials.

Felden-Magic

Thank you, Ellen.

I had a Feldenkrais lesson yesterday with practitioner extraordinaire, Ellen Soloway.  What a gift.

Working through my feet, Ellen connected my bones until I could feel the lowest depths of the whiplash.  There it was, nestled between my shoulder blades, wrestling my spine into a subtle but uncomfortable torque each time I tried to sit, stand, turn.   As she worked her magic, I felt the tension ease and the shape of my back begin to change.

At the end of the lesson I sat, shoulder blades relaxed and back, spine erect, the way nature intended.  I had found my way home.

Will it last?  I don't know.  For today, the comfort is still there.  It may require a few more lessons to sustain.   That's an investment I'm willing to make.

Sensory Misperceptions

Flashing lights are not my friends!!

I joined a friend at a local art gallery for a peak at the new shows.  Alas, one of the exhibits featured a rapid-fire sequence of Andy Warhol's works that left me dizzy and off kilter after the briefest of glances.  Less than 10 seconds of viewing was all it took to shift my brain into overwhelm.

10 seconds, the time it took for the car accident more than a year ago.  10 seconds to recognize that this was not the exhibit for me.  10 seconds to bring on a pounding warning in my head.  10 seconds....  It took a lot longer for the effects to wear off.

I found a quiet room with a less visually stimulating work and spent several minutes looking at a calm piece.  The brain zaps settled but it took much longer to recover my equilibrium.  I wasn't dizzy in the sense that I felt the world spinning but in the sense that I was unable to visually differentiate the world.  Several times I found myself dangerously close to walking into a glass wall - not quite sure if the transparency was illusion or reality. 

Perhaps this is what it means to live within another dimension.  If I, like Alice, went through the looking glass, would I ever find my way back?