what day is it?

Just kidding, I know what day of the week it is, but many days I have to look at my calendar to see what the date is, they are all blurring in lumps of the month! Last week I had my first telemedicine appointment with my Neurologist. I don’t have a lot of changes since my last appointment so it was more of a maintenance appointment, but it was interesting to see how it differs from an in person appointment. As with other online meetups there is a less of a connection and conversation is always a little stilted because you can’t pick up the natural cues from each other. But overall, it’s another good option to have and one of the positive things from this pandemic is that the telemedicine field is fast forwarding at a much quicker pace than it would have otherwise, and hopefully that translates into more medical access for more people.

Ever since I read the book Breath, I’ve been doing a few different breathing exercises which I’m really enjoying. I do a fast paced set in the morning before my workout or a slow set in the evening to help me relax. I’m also trying a little self experiment on my sense of smell. I read that loss of smell can happen after getting a virus or other illness but in most cases it will return naturally or could be trained to return. Although I’ve read nothing saying that the training could help PwP who have a diminished sense of smell, I thought why not give it a try. I found this site that shows you how to take a blind smell test. Then for the next 3-4 months practice smelling different scents, and then take the test again at the end of the 4 months.

I did the initial test with vanilla, coffee, lemon, rosemary, shoe polish, toothpaste, & mustard. I got 5 out of 7 correct but what I noticed was that it was difficult. All of these items have very distinct smells so I thought it would be easy. And on many of them I had to think about it and sort of pick apart the different notes, in order to get it correct. I thought the rosemary was the shoe polish! Let’s see how I do in a few months.

If you like reading and traveling, you might enjoy a podcast and website called Strong Sense of Place. Each episode features a place and share some fun facts about what makes it interesting and then recommend five books. It’s a little virtual vacation.

I have a couple of book recommendations this week. Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson is a good one if you like the classic old school mystery genre. The main character owns a book store, and wrote a blog post about the eight books he thinks have the perfect murder set up. Years later, he is visited by an FBI agent saying that there are some things happening that are related to his blog post. That’s all I’ll say so I don’t give away too much but part of the enjoyment of this book is that you’ll want to look up the eight books on his list.

The other book is Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb. I’m still reading it and really enjoying it. It’s a memoir about a therapist, who needs a therapist, and honestly describes our shared human challenges with great humor. It’s a top non fiction book for 2019 on many book lists for a reason, it’s terrific.

Lastly, I know this is my millionth berry recipe but I can’t help it. This Summer Berry Crisp (picture source) recipe from 101 Cookbooks is delicious. It’s got a little twist on ingredients and is super easy.

 Let me know what’s going on with you. I hope you have a good week. xo