We began this day with coffee in the car, headed to Alameda at 10:30 a.m. This was to be our first nail salon appointment in many months! We drove around a lot before we could find a suitable parking place. I put Emily in the black soft carrier and left one opening a little unzipped…
Category: Tai Chi
Microsoft Teams, Take 2
Session 2 of the Pain Group with Microsoft Teams. I’m able to unmute my microphone (which was not possible in WebEx), but I still don’t know if anyone can hear me speaking (because I’ve never had opportunity to (want to) speak for any reason. Today the video with Francis was freezing a lot so it…
Microsoft Teams
So today, after the nine months I’ve spent with the Tuesday afternoon Kaiser Pain Group, it was our first experience using Microsoft Teams (instead of WebEx). Amazingly, there was a very large group in attendance—22 attendees! I’ve never seen the group with more than 10 or 12. Teams seemed very intuitive.
Kaiser Pain Management Group Online, Session 2
“Calm Mind Calm Body” apparently is the name of the Tuesday drop-in group. Today Julie White (Pain Psychologist) facilitated the first half hour, starting with 10 minutes of guided meditation and it was very reminiscent of the original Pain Management Program, back in the “old days” when we met in person 3 days a week…
Kaiser Pain Management Group Online
If the pandemic had not hit, I would have had my routine appointment with Francis, my Pain Physical Therapist, on April 24. But, in the throes of the pandemic, that day came and passed and I thought about emailing Francis and asking him…well, I didn’t know exactly what I would ask in an email. So…
Pain Clinic Drop-in Group
April 24, 2018 This appointment seemed so familiar (from all the weeks of the Pain Management Program), yet a little strange. I checked in and the girl at the desk took my Kaiser card and ran it through the card reader. She couldn’t seem to find anything for a drop-in Pain Clinic group. She had…
Level 3 Pain Group Follow up
April 11, 2018 It felt like six weeks passed pretty quickly. The commute was easy and uncomplicated. Checking in and sitting in the waiting room felt very familiar although a bit strange since there was only one person I saw from our original group. After we had assembled in our group meeting room, there were…
Day 15 Pain Management
February 23, 2018 Today is the last day of the Level 3 Chronic Pain Management program! The first thing they did was have us fill out questionnaires, which I knew was coming. Yeah, by this time, I really do know my Kaiser Medical # by memory! After the meditation session, Francis led us in the…
Day 14 Pain Management
February 21, 2018 There was no Pain Management on Monday, February 19, which was Presidents Day. Today Francis did the meditation session with affirmations. He then divided us up into two groups to go through the Tai Chi routine with no coaching. I asked about acupressure and he said he would talk about it on…
Day 13 Pain Management
February 16, 2018 I have more pain today, I think after working so hard yesterday afternoon with no break. I opened a new can of “magic” espresso beans and took one. Dr. Whitehead began with the meditation, this one focusing on body sensations of heaviness and warmth. Great distractions. Francis came in for the exercises,…