What a long week that has flown by! Sunday, I decided to make a meal for my parents and since Dad is now on a low salt diet due to Congestive Heart Failure, I made Cozy Beef Stew from the American Heart Association website. Yuck. I followed the recipe but it had too much pepper. Mom said that once you ate a few bites, you got used to it. (Bless her; my Mom is always trying to be positive!). Dad said, "It isn't that bad; it just needs salt. Well, I guess that is the whole point though." Spoken from a true salt-o-holic. Oh well, on to the next recipe. Meanwhile, I'm reminding myself of this quote:
Tuesday's therapy session was very stressful. I had to visualize going over a bridge that I can no longer drive over. Actually it is what they call a "flyover". My nemesis is the flyover that takes you from Interstate 77 to I-485. I used to drive on this flyover every day when I worked in downtown Charlotte. Now, I can't drive over it at all.
Debbie, my therapist, walked me through the exercise and I wish I had a video of it for you as it was very comical. As I closed my eyes and she guided me across the imagined bridge and I started visualizing the oncoming ramp in front of me, I felt the adrenaline start flooding my arms and legs. My heart started to beat faster and I was breathing faster. She asked me how fast I wanted to drive over the bridge and I replied "Five MPH". Actually, I wanted to get out of the car and crawl over the bridge. Immediately I had a flash back to when I was in kindergarten. Our class took a field trip over the historic pedestrian bridge in Waxhaw to visit the Fire Station across the street. Immediately I was five years old again and everyone in my class was happily crossing the bridge. Everyone except for me that is. I was in the very back of the class with a classmate friend and our teacher assistant, Mrs. Hemby. I CRAWLED across the bridge. I was scared of bridges even then!!!! For some reason I always remember the bridge with snow on it. There are 2 problems with that. #1 is that it RARELY snows where I live. #2 is that if it did snow where I live, they would have never let us walk across that bridge. #3 (OK, there are 3 reasons) if there were even one flake of snow on the ground where I live, school would be cancelled.
Snow or no snow, I lived. I felt both relieved and ashamed. None of the other kids had to crawl across the bridge.
Yesterday, we took Dad to see his cardiologist. Here we are in the exam room waiting on the doctor to come in. Dad is pretending to fix his hair.
Thankfully Dad received a good report from the cardiologist and doesn't have to go back for three months.
Bring on the weekend!!!
Bring on the weekend!!!
Cozy Beef Stew. Tasty! Not. Personally I don't think pepper is the way to go. Can your Dad use a salt substitute?
ReplyDeleteThe flyover doesn't look all that bad but OMG, that wooden bridge would have had me crawling, too. Is it just bridges that make you anxious, or is it heights in general?
You know Lorraine, I didn't really make the connection until recently but I believe it is heights in general. And on the bridge, I feel claustrophobic b/c I can't get off. I feel like I can't breathe and I am trying not to pass out until I can get to the other side. That's why I hate the 485 flyover. It goes over the interstate and also another bridge over the interstate. It is very high. It is also long and everyone drives so fast. I just want to get across without passing out. Even though I've never passed out, I feel like I'm going to! Hmmm...you know, now that you mentioned it again....I know the height makes it so much worse.
ReplyDeleteI had trouble riding over bridges when I was a child. It was a combination of height and seeing water below. That fear went away after I started driving and had to keep my eyes on the road. Look ahead, look in the mirror, but don't look down. That mantra works pretty well for me.
DeleteI don't remember any fear of heights until my Dad took me up inside the Statue of Liberty. I must have been 6. The first few floors were enclosed so I didn't notice anything. After that, it was a one-person-wide spiral staircase with a column on one side and a railing on the other. I screamed and carried on all the way up, was fine inside the crown because it was enclosed, then screamed and carried on all the way down. I feel the same way to this day, although I manage not to scream and carry on. Elevators bother me, too, because I know there's a tall shaft of nothing below me.
It's not claustrophobia with me. I feel the pull of gravity and am afraid I'll jump.