Couch 233: Nothing’s Ghana Stop Us Now

Ooooohhhhh... yeah that would change things for me too. I guess I assumed she'd already have them for volunteers to borrow. I had no clue they were that expensive!!

.... I just found cardboard ones on walmart.com i'm sure those would work splendidly haha!

Sounds like a way for therapists to do even less than they already do. I would not volunteer even though I want a VR headset

I just watched GoldenEye, a 1995 James Bond / Pierce Brosnan after reading that Alan Cumming was in it. It was fun. I think it was Judi Dench's first time.

The cardboard ones were developped by Google and were one of the first cheap/easy to access VR headsets. Of course they aren't the best, but for trying it out it's good enough. Would totally buy this and sign up for a VR therapy experience!

Could see a lot of potential applications: exposure to phobias (way easier than getting a live snake into an office), talking in a group with social anxiety, groups for people who worry about privacy, changing your environment to a more relaxing atmosphere...

Daughter got her first vaccine dose! She's there with my H, and they'll have to hang around for 30 minutes (instead of usual 15) after because she's been prescribed an epipen in the past (tree nut allergies, though never had anaphylaxis, just hives). Wasn't bothered by the shot itself at all (she generally is fine with those).

Therapy today at noon. I hope it is a good appointment. I never know how these things are going to go. I ended up massively depressed after the last one and I don't want that because it is almost the weekend and I want to have a nice, relaxing, chill weekend for once. It is also second to last appointment with this IOP individual T. I will move to a different one after the last appointment because this T is going on medical leave. I think it is going to be the same T I saw when she was on vacation, which is okay but I kind of hate being bounced back and forth. It's disruptive to the flow of therapy. I have a migraine so I am not feeling it today but you can't miss the appointments. You have to go to them. Plus I don't want to miss since it is the second to last one. But I sort of wish I could vanish or disappear or otherwise not have to talk about the hospital. (That's what got me so depressed after the last session.) I wish I could just cry, but I can't so I am stuck.

Hugs, Kit, I hope your session goes well. Is it possible you could just avoid talking about the hospital this session?

Thanks, LT.
I hope so. I just want to pretend the whole, her sending me to the hospital thing never happened. She brought it up at the end of the appointment on Tuesday, so not enough time to process it really and I didn't know how to get out of talking about it. Then I sent her an email saying it felt like she was waiting for me to say something about the whole hospital thing but I didn't know what it was she wanted. When she sent me her Zoom link for today's session she said we would talk about my emails and whatever else I wanted to bring up in session today. Crap. That sounds like we are going to talk about the hospital again. Maybe we need to so I can purge it from me and it won't keep haunting me but I don't know.

Well, that session covered a lot of different stuff with D. At the end, I said how I felt it was helpful, but also that it was a "to be continued" conversation. Dr. T said he wondered if there was anything in there that would wind up being a therapy grenade. Where it didn't affect me at the time but would later. I said nothing jumped out right now (guess that's the whole point!). And that I'd feel bad if it did and I wanted to email, because I'd just emailed last night. He said that I'd then emailed this morning and said no need to reply, so it doesn't really count.

May write stuff up from it later, not sure. Mostly stuff involving D being on autism spectrum, my feeling like I'm not doing enough (he said that, but it's something I've expressed before), but that there's no magic thing to do. And that acceptance of it is not the same as resignation--it just changes the battle. And how nearly all parents at some point have doubts about how their kids are going to do in life. And that all we can do is help our kids be their best (or something like that--it sounded less cliche the way he phrased it).

So glad she was able to get her first dose! I bet that makes you feel better knowing she'll have some protection now.


H and I got our booster doses about 3.5 hours ago, so far so good. He just left on a semi-long distance job, he'll be gone probably 6 hours. If I remember correctly he felt bad/ran a fever for a short time like 24-36 hours after his 2nd one, so he figures if it happens after this one then it will be along the same time frame.

I did my biometric screening differently this year (we get a $75 'rewards for health' added to hsa card for doing it, so I do it every year) instead of going in to lab, they sent me an at-home kit where you just That must be some technology they have if that's all they need, opposed to the tubes they take at the lab! They got my sample yesterday and the results show processing now. Easy peasy, I hope they continue this at-home thingy after covid ends. Assuming it's going to at some point, of course. Easiest 75 bucks I ever made! haha

We ended up talking about the whole hospital thing. And it was actually helpful. We spent the whole session on it. When the T sent me to the hospital, I got a text from the IOP place from my case manager. I interpreted the text as "I'm getting kicked out of IOP" (I was reinstated after about 21 hours). But that wasn't literally what the text said. It said they were referring me to a higher level of care like PHP or Residential with a focus on DBT. I couldn't take that in though because the pain of the rejection was so bad (plus I was at the hospital for SH and SI thoughts so I wasn't in a good frame of mind to begin with!!!!). So we worked on reframing it so that it was about me getting the care that I needed and not about them punishing me or rejecting me or just cutting me loose. Plus I talked about how horrible being at the hospital was and how like I saw the doctor that sent me IP last time and I was praying that I wouldn't get him because I would have had to walk out of the hospital and go to a different hospital. But luckily I got the woman, Ashley, and not the Dr. Ashley is a PA I think. I've had her before, she's nice. And about all the shame that comes with being at the hospital for mental health reasons (for me, IDK if it is like that for everyone). So yeah. She asked me what I wanted to talk about. I was like, well I don't want to talk about it, but I think we should talk about the hospital and I'm glad we did. She was like, you're a smart woman, how come you couldn't work on reframing this in the past couple of weeks on your own? Okay so that part kind of hurt because obviously if I could do it, I would do it. But mostly it was a good session and I feel lighter now. I pushed through and talked about the heavy stuff and I'm glad I did.

On top of running out of money and my dog's passing, now I get to deal with H being written upat work and possibly being fired soon, L's vacations, and her marriage this month. When it rains it pours...

Hugs, Scarlet, that all sounds really difficult.

I am at a conference, which is something I do not enjoy. I got tricked into attending a session by the title, and the presentation did not live up to the title in any way. They hate it when students do this; why do faculty think it's okay to do it to other faculty? So rude!

The hotel is a 4 star but the bed is hard as a rock. I'm talking Motel 6 quality, here. Well, I cannot feel the individual springs...but it's very hard. I'm glad I brought my muscle relaxants, because otherwise I might not have been able to move today.

I've been to 2 of the 4 restaurants on site and...dry as toast food. Osso bucco served dry, no sauce at all. What the what?

At least I get to go to Disney on Sunday! Although it will have to be spectacular to save this trip....

I hope the couchies are all doing as well as possible.

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Thanks, Artie! It does make me feel better that her immunity is growing. Hope you and H keep feeling OK from your boosters. Both H and I have talked about getting ours. He never had much in the way of side effects from either dose, but my second one knocked me out for about 24 hours, so I want to be prepared for after the booster just in case. Like not have plans or work due that day, etc.

I'm glad the session was mostly helpful and that you feel lighter now. I'd be hurt by the comment about "why couldn't you reframe this on you own" as well. I'd want to say, "Why do you think I'm in therapy?" Hugs if wanted.

Ugh, that doesn't sound like a very fun experience! You should at least get some good food and/or a nice hotel room out of a conference (I've been to a couple). Hope Disney is fun at least!

My third shot was the easiest. Headache for a few hours, and neck pain for two days or so from swollen lymph nodes. But nothing else.

I'm watching old Bewitched episodes. That was a great show

I loved the old Bewitched!

I got lucky with all 3 doses. Just a little bit of a sore arm and that was it.

So far my arm is just a little sore.... didn't zonk out and sleep all afternoon like I did after the 2nd one.

Thanks! So far so good 12 hours later. That's what I did too - planned to get it this morning so I would have all day today and tomorrow to rest just in case before I start my work week on Sunday.