Medical innovations

All three of us have been embarking on medical innovations. At a quarterly visit with one of Vincent’s doctors, the doctor heard more stories about Vincent’s long sleeping and sometimes sleepless nights and laid out a path for Vincent to take a waking-up medication that might require a sleep apnea diagnosis – so off Vincent is to a sleep specialist later this month. Although Vincent’s got less than a month to finish his English class, he’s been periodically energetic, apparently writing down ideas for novels, scripts, or video game storyline ideas. Vincent apparently came back from a counseling session with this idea – ostensibly to do research for Asian-themed story lines – by going back – 2 ½ years after quitting – to St. Matthews Martial Arts, where teachers all seemed to remember him.

As I continue to go to physical therapy to work on my knee, I’ve gone back also for an aspect of the shoulder-neck-back problem that began during a June 2006 visit to Michigan. I had hoped to combine knee and shoulder visits – but I’m having to separate them , for reasons of time – and so I’m going not only for essentially do-it-yourself work on my knee, but also work on my shoulder, for which I need more help. On my first visit my PT found evidence of shoulder problems and gave me a chiropractic-style intervention that I’ve only gotten for this injury (not for the knee injury). We also took about her idea (an epidural) and my idea (acupuncture?). PT for two different injuries for a while.

Stephanie’s forays into sewing classes helped her realize that it’s not easy to find patterns that fit her, and some patterns may produce clothes that need to be altered. That – and a return to Weight Watchers, with its new Points Plus system – got her not only to count points (plus) again but to use our gym membership regularly. After going to the Breckinridge Inn gym/pool twice in one year (for some $600 – that’s $300 per family visit), we’ve gone five times in the past month – including three times in the past week. Now, in turns out that some of the knee weight machines actually bother my knee. But between swimming and weight machines and the stationary bike/”elliptical” machine – both of us have been losing weight.

-- Perry