I went to campus today after my rheumatologist appointment. The only way to describe my gait is that I trudged in slowly. I have never been so glad to see my office in my life because I could sit down. I had an appointment with a student and helped Melissa with admissions. There really wasn't much else to do. All of the projects I am working on are on my computer at home. I visited a while with Colleen from PTA. She offered me her scooter to use this fall since I am not going to have much chance to develop endurance with the two surgeries scheduled. I am going to take her up on it, particularly if I still have the external fixator on my foot. It is a big campus. I had planned to stop somewhere for lunch but as I trudged even more slowly out to my car I decided leftover tuna casserole would just have to do.
Right now I feel like I am mostly in a waitng mode. Waiting to get stronger, to have more endurance, for my foot surgery, to be less bored, to have something more meaningful to do. I am trying to do a little more each day to build up my strength and endurance before I have the foot surgery. I feel well enough that I am going to start using my arm bike to strengthen my arms. While I'm non-weightbearing for those two weeks maybe I can use a walker without killing myself. My balance is so poor that I am not sure what makes me more dangerous poor balance or lack of strength.
Hey Kate,
ReplyDeleteAnother friend passed this on to me -- and I thought about you -- so here's to friendship (and you seem to have a LOT!)
They Teach it at Stanford
For all my girlfriends who keep me healthy!
In an evening class at Stanford the last lecture was on the mind-body connection - the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker (head of psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, that one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends. At first everyone laughed, but he was serious.
Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences. Physically this quality “girlfriend time" helps us to create more serotonin - a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling of well being. Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around activities. They rarely sit down with a buddy and talk about how they feel about certain things or how their personal lives are going.
Jobs? Yes. Sports? Yes. Cars? Yes. Fishing, hunting, golf? Yes. But their feelings? Rarely.
Women do it all of the time. We share from our souls with our sisters/mothers/girlfriends, and evidently that is very good for our health. He said that spending time with a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym. There's a tendency to think that when we are "exercising" we are doing something good for our bodies, but when we are hanging out with friends, we are wasting our time and should be more productively engaged—not true. In fact, he said that failure to create and maintain quality personal relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking!
So every time you hang out to schmooze with a gal pal, just pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing something good for your health! We are indeed very, very lucky. Sooooo let's toast to our friendship with our girlfriends. Evidently it's very good for our health.
Sonya
Thanks, Sonya. It's nice to know that our playdates are good for our healtk.
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