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Earlier this week I was extremely annoyed by the fact that some people are just not that smart. And I don't necessarily mean that these people have low IQs, just that they have very narrow views of the world, and assume that there is only one way to think or do things. It is seeming to come up more in this relatively insulated Canadian town than it ever did anywhere on the west coast, which is understandable (most of the people who live here have never lived outside the province), but there are certain people and agencies that I expect to do better, and I get irritated when they don't.
I am running up against a ridiculously annoying problem (series of problems, really) related to my application for licensure/registration as a Psychologist in Saskatchewan. I will not bore you with the details, but the issue is basically that there is a set of rules to follow that only really makes sense for a person fresh out of grad school (especially a person who completed grad school in Saskatchewan). There is another set of rules for psychologists who have previously worked in independent practice somewhere else in Canada. In both cases, it is expected that the applicant is currently seeing clients. The response I got when explaining that I do not fall into either of those two categories, and I am not currently seeing clients, was basically "I don't get it-- you should fall into one of the categories, and be practicing, otherwise why would you be applying for registration?" When I insisted that this was not the case, but that nonetheless I am required to register as a psychologist in order to supervise and teach graduate students in clinical psychology, the response was basically "you must be wrong." After a 30 minute conversation I finally convinced this person that I was right, but she was utterly unsure what to do with me regarding a couple of key issues. The conversation ended without any of my questions being answered.
I was so annoyed! But then I talked to one of my colleagues who explained that no one expects me to figure all this out before I send in my application. I am just expected to do my best, leave things blank if I can't make sense of them, send a cover letter explaining my situation, and expect a phone call later on from the person in charge if she has any questions. Basically, just don't worry about it, someone else will figure it out. Apparently that's how things work in this province for a lot of things-- it is small enough that people can take time to look at things on a case-by-case basis. My annoyance immediately turned to a much kinder, better feeling.
In other news, I am training hard for my upcoming 5k walk. The past few weeks I have been doing a variety of different types of walking with my walker-- fast walks, long walks, easy walks-- similar to what I would do in the past if I was training for a long run. It's paying off-- I seem to improve in some way each time. Today I went for a 1 hour and 45 minute long walk through the university buildings (7 consecutive laps around the whole indoor loop) and it wound up also being a fast walk. Faster than I have ever gone, partly related to a suggestion from my PT to make a playlist of songs with a rhythm that matches my walking speed. So I figured out that a perfect cadence for me is music that is 100 beats per minute, and made a playlist of about 60 songs that matched that. I estimate that I went about 5 kilometers, a new record for both distance and speed. That was indoors on a smooth surface, and walking on uneven outdoor surfaces will be considerably harder (the 5k will include roadways, gravel, and grass-- which may also mean mud), but I'm fairly confident I will finish!
Sunday, December 09, 2012
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Adventures in Walking
Our potluck yesterday evening was a success-- lots of good food and good company. Unfortunately I failed to take any photos, so don't have much to post about it. So I'll talk about walking instead.
In my PT sessions, part of what we work on is walking in lots of different ways. Recently, I've been working on walking a bit with no support, using parallel bars to catch myself when I falter, and last week I made some big improvements. This is a video that Jeff took on Thursday:
My physical therapist, Lola, is the other person in the video with me. She has I think something like 30 years experience working in neuro rehab, and pushes me to work hard every session, always taking me just beyond my comfort zone. And it's working, I'm seeing improvement week to week. My journey into outpatient therapy was a bit rocky-- I went a full two months after leaving the hospital without having any therapy, related to moving, getting set up in a new healthcare system, and communication breakdowns within the system. However, after finally getting into therapy, I have been very lucky to have been paired with an excellent physical therapist, and excellent rehab facilities. No disrespect to my inpatient therapists in Seattle (who were great), but I think the rehab services available here in Regina are actually better than rehab services in Seattle. I never would have predicted that before moving, and it has come as a welcome surprise.
Part of my homework for PT is to walk (with Jeff spotting me) with forearm crutches. Here is a picture from today's walk:
This is a walkway connecting two buildings on campus-- all the main university buildings are connected in a big loop, so it's a great place to practice walking on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Note the cactus plants indoors, in contrast with the snow outside. It is currently about -7F (-22C) outside, but inside is warm and cozy. I walked a total of 40 minutes, with a break halfway through, and went probably a total of about a half mile (it's hard to measure distances inside buildings, but I estimated with this). It takes all my concentration to walk with the crutches, and afterward I'm mentally and physically exhausted.
I mentioned before that my stamina keeps improving,and that walking with the 4-wheel walker is getting easier. Well, inspired by a friend's recent blog post about doing a 5k turkey trot (that would be you, Andrew), I decided to sign up to walk a 5k while I'm in Eugene-- the "holiday hustle." I'm not sure I'll be able to finish, and if I do finish, it will take me a very long time. But I checked with the race coordinator, and since there will also be a 10k and a half marathon happening at the same time, the course doesn't close until three and a half hours after the race starts, so if I'm going to finish, it will be within that time. Jeff is going to walk with me, and maybe my mom too. It's exciting to have a new goal to work toward!
In my PT sessions, part of what we work on is walking in lots of different ways. Recently, I've been working on walking a bit with no support, using parallel bars to catch myself when I falter, and last week I made some big improvements. This is a video that Jeff took on Thursday:
My physical therapist, Lola, is the other person in the video with me. She has I think something like 30 years experience working in neuro rehab, and pushes me to work hard every session, always taking me just beyond my comfort zone. And it's working, I'm seeing improvement week to week. My journey into outpatient therapy was a bit rocky-- I went a full two months after leaving the hospital without having any therapy, related to moving, getting set up in a new healthcare system, and communication breakdowns within the system. However, after finally getting into therapy, I have been very lucky to have been paired with an excellent physical therapist, and excellent rehab facilities. No disrespect to my inpatient therapists in Seattle (who were great), but I think the rehab services available here in Regina are actually better than rehab services in Seattle. I never would have predicted that before moving, and it has come as a welcome surprise.
Part of my homework for PT is to walk (with Jeff spotting me) with forearm crutches. Here is a picture from today's walk:
This is a walkway connecting two buildings on campus-- all the main university buildings are connected in a big loop, so it's a great place to practice walking on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Note the cactus plants indoors, in contrast with the snow outside. It is currently about -7F (-22C) outside, but inside is warm and cozy. I walked a total of 40 minutes, with a break halfway through, and went probably a total of about a half mile (it's hard to measure distances inside buildings, but I estimated with this). It takes all my concentration to walk with the crutches, and afterward I'm mentally and physically exhausted.
I mentioned before that my stamina keeps improving,and that walking with the 4-wheel walker is getting easier. Well, inspired by a friend's recent blog post about doing a 5k turkey trot (that would be you, Andrew), I decided to sign up to walk a 5k while I'm in Eugene-- the "holiday hustle." I'm not sure I'll be able to finish, and if I do finish, it will take me a very long time. But I checked with the race coordinator, and since there will also be a 10k and a half marathon happening at the same time, the course doesn't close until three and a half hours after the race starts, so if I'm going to finish, it will be within that time. Jeff is going to walk with me, and maybe my mom too. It's exciting to have a new goal to work toward!
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Loucks family Christmas, American Thanksgiving
Last weekend, Jeff's brother and sister and their respective partners came to visit us to celebrate an early Christmas. For various reasons Jeff's family will be unable to convene in December so we did an early holiday celebration, consisting of food, games, karaoke (at home on a pay-per-view type channel through our cable company), going to see the new James Bond movie, a gift exchange, and having a fun and relaxing weekend. Here is a photo of us at a restaurant, just as everyone was about to head to the airport:
This coming weekend, we are hosting a potluck to celebrate American Thanksgiving, as we did to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving when we lived in the US. We invited our psychology department colleagues, and expect that we'll have 16 guests and lots of good food. Our house is quite small, so we won't have room for everyone to sit, but I don't think they'll mind too much.
It struck me over the weekend at several points that I felt "normal." At least a few times I caught myself having a good time, not thinking about my physical limitations. I didn't realize just how much of a focus this has been for me until suddenly it wasn't a focus. I think that in one way or another, every waking moment since surgery I have been thinking about my physical health, either overtly or in the back of my mind. Until this weekend. There were moments this weekend when that wasn't the case, and it felt good. I can only assume that there is more of this to come.
On a related note, Jeff and I will be in Eugene Dec. 21-30. Send me an e-mail if you will be in town and want to get together! And happy Thanksgiving!
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| Caroline, Jeff, Allison, Bridget, Ray, Shuo |
This coming weekend, we are hosting a potluck to celebrate American Thanksgiving, as we did to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving when we lived in the US. We invited our psychology department colleagues, and expect that we'll have 16 guests and lots of good food. Our house is quite small, so we won't have room for everyone to sit, but I don't think they'll mind too much.
It struck me over the weekend at several points that I felt "normal." At least a few times I caught myself having a good time, not thinking about my physical limitations. I didn't realize just how much of a focus this has been for me until suddenly it wasn't a focus. I think that in one way or another, every waking moment since surgery I have been thinking about my physical health, either overtly or in the back of my mind. Until this weekend. There were moments this weekend when that wasn't the case, and it felt good. I can only assume that there is more of this to come.
On a related note, Jeff and I will be in Eugene Dec. 21-30. Send me an e-mail if you will be in town and want to get together! And happy Thanksgiving!
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Lots of Snow, and Then and Now Part 2
Between Friday morning and this morning we got about a foot of snow. Apparently winter has arrived. Here is Jeff shoveling snow on Friday evening:
And then again this morning:
Note that you can tell how much snow fell in between by how buried the car across the street looks. Jeff ventured out to get groceries, and it took him about 90 minutes to shovel the walk and dig our car out (parked behind the house, not on the street). We are definitely going to make sure our next house has a garage.
Tuesday will mark 5 months since my surgery. As I was gathering photos for my last post, I also looked at photos from the past 5 months, and it really is amazing how much I have recovered in that time. A rundown of my current status:
-Vision is almost completely back to normal. I still see double if I look certain directions, but this is not really causing any problems functionally.
-Sensation in the right half of my body is still quite impaired, head to toe, but is better than it was at first. I am also learning to compensate for lack of sensation, for example by using visual cues (which is much easier now that my vision has improved).
-Proprioception is much, much better than it was before, but still not perfect. For example, I have a really hard time determining whether I'm holding my head straight.
-Balance continues to improve, though is still not at all normal. I can now stand for minutes at a time without hanging on to anything, and can do things like stand and brush my teeth unassisted. However, this requires some concentration.
-Although my discoordination/ataxia is still limiting me quite a bit, it has also measurably improved. I totally ruined that knitting project I tried to work on right after surgery (just made too many mistakes and couldn't fix them, such that the whole thing started to unravel) and I was recently able to completely re-start it, and it is now going fine.
-My strength and stamina are improving quite a bit. I have physical therapy twice a week and go to the gym and/or do PT exercises at home most days. I'm working almost full workdays, and sleeping only 9 hours a night.
-Walking keeps getting better, and I am now using my four-wheel walker for functional daily walking, and working in therapy on trying to walk with less support. The four-wheel walker has some great advantages over other types of assistive devices, including being able to carry things around with me. Here is a picture from last week:
This is our cat Maddy, and Jeff has dubbed my walker basket the "Maddy caddy." It's nice to be able to carry my kitty again :)
And then again this morning:
Note that you can tell how much snow fell in between by how buried the car across the street looks. Jeff ventured out to get groceries, and it took him about 90 minutes to shovel the walk and dig our car out (parked behind the house, not on the street). We are definitely going to make sure our next house has a garage.
Tuesday will mark 5 months since my surgery. As I was gathering photos for my last post, I also looked at photos from the past 5 months, and it really is amazing how much I have recovered in that time. A rundown of my current status:
-Vision is almost completely back to normal. I still see double if I look certain directions, but this is not really causing any problems functionally.
-Sensation in the right half of my body is still quite impaired, head to toe, but is better than it was at first. I am also learning to compensate for lack of sensation, for example by using visual cues (which is much easier now that my vision has improved).
-Proprioception is much, much better than it was before, but still not perfect. For example, I have a really hard time determining whether I'm holding my head straight.
-Balance continues to improve, though is still not at all normal. I can now stand for minutes at a time without hanging on to anything, and can do things like stand and brush my teeth unassisted. However, this requires some concentration.
-Although my discoordination/ataxia is still limiting me quite a bit, it has also measurably improved. I totally ruined that knitting project I tried to work on right after surgery (just made too many mistakes and couldn't fix them, such that the whole thing started to unravel) and I was recently able to completely re-start it, and it is now going fine.
-My strength and stamina are improving quite a bit. I have physical therapy twice a week and go to the gym and/or do PT exercises at home most days. I'm working almost full workdays, and sleeping only 9 hours a night.
-Walking keeps getting better, and I am now using my four-wheel walker for functional daily walking, and working in therapy on trying to walk with less support. The four-wheel walker has some great advantages over other types of assistive devices, including being able to carry things around with me. Here is a picture from last week:
This is our cat Maddy, and Jeff has dubbed my walker basket the "Maddy caddy." It's nice to be able to carry my kitty again :)
Sunday, November 04, 2012
Then and now
This Halloween was the 10-year anniversary of my first date with Jeff.
It's hard to believe it's been that long! We celebrated by going out for
a late dinner at a fancy restaurant, after handing out candy to
trick-or-treaters. We had a lovely evening, and it spurred me to reminisce about
times gone by. So I will share some photos of me and Jeff from the past 10 years:
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| Portland, December 2002 |
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| Halloween 2003 (What are we supposed to be?) |
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| Florence, OR, September 2004 |
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| Halloween, 2005 (Jeff is a software pirate) |
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| Hawaii, August 2006 (our honeymoon) |
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| Christmas in Kingston, ON, 2007 |
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| Germany, September 2008 |
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| San Diego, August 2009 |
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| Seattle, October 2010 |
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| Wallace Falls (near Stevens Pass, WA), August 2011 |
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| Oregon coast, May 2012 |
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