January 31, 2018
Francis was back and was the first presenter, beginning promptly at 10:00 a.m. with a half-hour of meditation. He played an audio file which he said was accessible in the members’ area of the Kaiser website. I could understand about 50% of what the female speaker said.
After that, he took a few minutes to talk about his “medical mission” trip to the Philippines. He said it was special for him because it was his first visit there, even though both his parents had been born in the Philippines. He asked if anyone else had ever been to the Philippines, and M. (the one male in our group of 10 patients) said he had and that his wife was from the Philippines. So I found out those two things today.
Francis then focused on 6 core exercises and assigned 4 for “homework”:
- Spine twist (on the floor or bed)
- Knees from side to side
- Knees to one side, turn head (at neck) to the other side
- Knees, head, look at hand, rotate hands
- Squat
- In and out of chair
- Slide against wall
- Standing balance (hold on to back of chair at first)
- Lunge (both sides)
After the break, Dr. Whitehead came in for topics of the day, which included:
- Pacing and Prioritizing
- Sleep/insomnia
- Homework: develop a sleep routine
Photo below shows the view that Linda and Emily have while waiting for me at Kaiser.
At home, a Facebook friend posted this video to my Timeline with the tagline, “We need to address the opioid crisis—but not at the expense of chronic pain patients.”
https://www.facebook.com/ChronicIllnessOnThemighty/videos/1641691609185914/
After viewing it, I realized that the Pain Management program at Kaiser—and probably anywhere, for that matter—is a “Pain Acceptance” program! It’s definitely NOT about pain relief.
