Grandmother Willow's Tree: April 3, 2014

Woo!  Can't believe I clicked the orange "publish" button yesterday!  I'm going to try to get in the groove of blogging by simply sharing the things I am grateful for each day.  My college roommate, Peggy, and I had this inside joke called "grandmother willow's tree" (my lamp), and I would try to write down what I appreciated about my day next to my sacred lamp and IKEA rats, Moe & Joe.  Our inside jokes are pretty crazy, but I grateful that I got to spend my college days living with someone who understood my nutty humor! 

Grandmother Willow's Tree:  April 3, 2014
  • friends that are supportive and encouraging of this blog 
  • seeing Gary under the desk at work 
  • less painful work day
  • Leon bought me lunch 
  • Watching Gary do the "cocoa puff" dance with Leon
  • hugging & kissing Gary when he's half awake 
  • Project Motivate study hall
  • seeing my mentee & learning about the rock process
  • watching Thuan's fierce dance 
  • hearing people appreciate each other after study hall
  • being surrounded by caring and dedicated Project Motivate mentors who stay back for late meetings
  • hearing about the new amazing plans for common ground 
  • Linh bought us all tacos
  • Yanis Marshall's new youtube dance video - he's my idol and I want to throw my shoe at the screen (it's a good thing!) 
  • Tuyen sent me a cute video of Maggie & Clayton 
  • Jenn can make it to the Day of Mindfulness 
  • seeing sunshine and rain at the same time 
  • everyone important in my life is alive and hopefully well 
  • ability to function to get through the day 
  • good news for friends
The video & choreography is beautiful!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Epsom Salt - Reducing Foot & Ankle Pain

Image
If you suffer from foot or ankle pain, Epsom salt might be your new best friend! I've been experiencing a lot of pain on my right foot & ankle due to my leg length discrepancy.  Because my right leg is shorter than my left leg, my right foot and ankle take on a lot of pressure, which causes swelling.  While I start to slowly relieve the pressure on my right ankle through proper shoes (ballet flats do not count!), shoes inserts, and a heel lift, my ankle still swells up if I walk too much or bear weight on the right foot.  Two weeks ago, my ankle started swelling up half way through yoga class because I was putting weight on my ankle in simple yoga stances such as warrior 1 and warrior 2.  My foot doctor said my right ankle is extremely weak because I had sprained my ankle in the past but did not get properly treated for it and that my leg length discrepancy had made it worse.  My podiatrist has instructed me to wear an ankle brace when I'm not wearing ...
Read more

TMJ Tiff - My Story

Growing up, I had no understanding about issues of health care.  For 19 years of my life I was making visits to the doctor for the typical illnesses...a cold, fever, and the flu for only a $20 co-pay. I never questioned what co-pay meant.  I just thought everything was $20 and medicine would always be around $5-$10.  I thought it was affordable for everyone. Occasionally I would get a blood test and the only medication I really needed was DayQuil and Amoxicillin, but in the fall of 2007 things started to change. I've been battling a chronic pain disorder called TMJ for almost 4 years.  I experience pain in the form of muscle spasms on my scalp, half of my face, mouth, and back.  I always seem to have pressure and swelling in my ear and jaw joint, and my teeth ache.  I would describe my arthritic pain in my jaw as a dull aching pain .  My equilibrium feels off and it has really compromised my ability to focus and have a normal life.  I went from $...
Read more

Healing Is Not A Linear Process - 500 Steps Forward, 1,000 Steps Back?

Image
New Treatments     Towards the end of June, I got braces and a RPE (Rapid Palatal Expander) inserted on the roof of my mouth in hopes to fix my cross bite, correct my bite (class II malocculusion), and relieve pressure on my jaw joints.  Treating TMJ with braces is very controversial, but I took a risk with the procedure because I've maxed out my options and do not want to get surgery due to the high failure rate.  Much of my troubles in July has been attributed to the RPE.  The RPE is an appliance that widens my narrow palate and is cemented at the roof of my mouth.  It widens by breaking the palatal suture in your skull.  I made a rushed decision to get the RPE because around age 23, the sutures in your skull start to fuse, making it impossible to break with an RPE.  Breaking a fused palatal suture would require a painful surgery that could go wrong.  The RPE expands by inserting a key in the appliance and turning it. This is...
Read more