The Christianville Spirit: Include, Not Exclude Rerun

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Sparkles

August 26, 2015-TCS # 463

So, My Readers, To Continue The Celebration of The Christianville Spirit’s 10th Year, I thought that I would re-run a Newsletter about Needing to be Included in Activities, To be treated like Everyone Else. The Following Newsletter was Written back on June 26th of 2013 (Newsletter Number 357, for Reference). At That Time in My Life, I was 26 Years Old and It was The Beginning of Summer! It was a Time when One Of Our Neighbors, Dina (Who lived Opposite of Our Neighbor, Woody) was still around, so In a Way, I am dedicating This Newsletter in Her Memory. In Memory of Dina, Our Very Friendly Neighbor who brought us Bagels! Enjoy!

So, This Past Sunday, My Mom and I went to a really cool party, It was for one of our former neighbor’s Birthday. You See, when we first moved in to the house we live in Now, 16 Years Ago, we had this neighbor that would always say hello to us and Every Monday, at least, she would bring us a Box of Bagels for all of us to eat. We would hear the doorbell ring and it would be her, giving My Mom the box of bagels along with her sweet saying, “To Feed The Children”(She still takes Bagels to work with her and tell them the same thing) or Just to come over and say Hello and see how we were doing. Anyway, It was her 70th Birthday at her daughter, Michelle’s House. We thought that Michelle still lived down the street from our house, but she had moved to a new house that she built in The Country. She did have a nice house though and a big yard. When we came over, I saw that they were throwing a big party, complete with a Pool, Basketball Court (if you wanted to play), and A Huge Adult Size Water Slide. So, We had a small reunion with Our Neighbor and Michelle, and then, I was off to the Water Slide with all the kids. I had forgotten until the night after the party, that the last time I hung out with them, one of children that had been invited as well called me “The R-Word”, but that didn’t cross my mind at The Party. Because The Kids welcomed me, much to my surprise. I had to make sure to take it slow going on Runs down the water slide because I start getting overwhelmed, My Heart beats really fast, and My Vision starts getting blurry. By The Way, The Slide was an Inflatable one and the hardest part (and, most tiring) is climbing up to the top of the slide, to Slide Down. But, I did have a lot of fun playing with kids, one of them, later on liked the way I jumped and then, slid down and I would go all the way to the end if I was on My Belly. Whenever I was done with the slide and ready for the pool, I would hang out with whoever was in the pool. Now, Don’t Get Me Wrong, I am a Social Butterfly, but sometimes because I don’t know a lot of people and I’m not sure how the kids will accept me or not, it feels a little lonely. One Wish I had was that My PTLS “Brother” and Friend, Tyler (who is in town) was there to hang out with, talk to, and he could join us playing on the Water Slide. Even though, I was having fun, I still felt like I didn’t Belong. Many of the kids were asking me if I still go to School and I said that, “I graduated” and then, they follow with, “Do You go to College?”. You Know, when it comes to talking with Kids, The Topics of Driving and College come up and they have this impression that You have to go to College or else you are considered Stupid. I don’t mind this question when it comes to Parents or Adults because they are truly interested or they understand. I am aware that I cannot live in My Own Little PTLS Crew or “Bubble.” But, If I could, I would feel accepted and have plenty of topics in common to discuss that we like. Don’t Get Me Wrong, I love Meeting People and Socializing, but there are times when I wish I had PTLS Friends around My Age to Hang Out with more often. And, We don’t have to do things that are “Age Appropriate” which we often act either less than Our Age and Sometimes, Because we are Smart, over our age. All in all, It was a fun party with a few moments of loneliness.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Include People, Don’t Exclude People. 

The Christianville Spirit: A Day at The Doctors

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Sparkles

August 19, 2015-TCS # 462

Well, My Readers, I have had an Interesting Day. I had to get up This Morning to go to go to off all places, The Doctor. Don’t Worry though, I only went for a Physical or a Yearly Check-Up. That is One Thing about PTLS that I have not really hit too much on, Not necessarily The Doctor themselves, but The Anxiety that comes with Even The Simple Thought of Going to The Doctor (or Hospital for that matter). Now, I understand that They help you and help make sure that You are Healthy. In Other Words, They are there when You need them. When I had My Kidney Stones last year, Boy did I need them! Now, Okay, Don’t get me Wrong, Most People are anxious about The Doctors, I, of course was Extra Anxious because of One Thing, A Blood Drawing. The Mere Thought of it, makes My Heart start beating faster. You See, Having PTLS, which I Love having but, It also has it’s Struggles; Means that You have to go to The Doctor to make sure that Several Important Things are checked, like Your Cholesterol (My Good and Bad Cholesterol like to “Swing”) and PTLS Doctors tell me that I do not have to worry about It! For The Most Part, You Don’t. But, Anyway, Gotta Check The Heart Condition, make sure it is running fine (They are concerns with that!) and Of Course, Bone Density (which should be Checked Every 3 Years!). As Far as I know, I checked out Fine, Blood results will come soon. So, How does My Anxiety work with Doctor’s Appointments? Well, I am going to give you a Glimpse into Going to The Doctor when You have PTLS for a Physical/Check-Up (I should clarify here, This Only Happens once a Year! Not that it happens all The Time! Just so You know) From The Minute that I find out that I have one, I start getting anxious. For Example, This Appointment I had Today, I knew about 2 Weeks Ago. The Day before The Appointment, I am anxious about it (What are They going to Do?! The Unpredictability!). Of Course, I keep thinking about it over and over again, Thanks to PTLS OCD. That Night, It is harder to Sleep because You know that Doctors have to Draw Your Blood in The Morning. The Morning of The Appointment, I do things as slowly as Possible and Dragging My Feet all the way from Bed, Shower, Get a Bit Ready, Get in The Car, and Head to The Doctor’s Office. I think in My Head, “I’m going to get My Blood Drawn Today!” Once There, Anxiety goes up a bit, just sitting there in The Lobby waiting for The Medical Assistant (MA for Short) to come open the Door and Call My Name. “I Guess, It’s Go Time. Let’s get this over with!”. This is The Time, I would really love a Life Remote like The Movie, Click. Then, I can click “Fast Forward” to after The Appointment. Some Day, I Guess! They check My Blood Pressure, Squeezing My Arm! Weight, hmm, Not Bad. and, Heart Rate, High because of Nerves, I guess! Walk me to The Room and I sit with My Mom (Thank God The Today Show on TV in The Room) while The MA gets The Needle. My Anxiety is Pretty High Now! Again, The Waiting for It! That is always The Part that kills me! MA walks in, Luckily My Mom has me at The Sink warming up My Arm because It is REALLY Cold in Here! Doctor gets The Needle ready and It is NOT a Butterfly Needle! Now, I prefer a Butterfly Needle for Two Reasons, Growing Up that was The Best Way to Draw Blood and Secondly, The Needle is much Smaller than The Other One. That and I can see it flowing so I know that it is coming out. If it is not, then They will poke more. Anyway, so I sit back down and My Mom being a Nurse and MA check for My Veins, Squeeze The Ball, Drink Water, and Don’t Eat Anything. I don’t understand why, well actually I do. But, I would have it differently. My Veins are pretty sneaky, They see a Needle Coming and They like to Play Hide and Seek. Add to that, My Veins run differently, They run on a curve from The Middle of My Arm. Now, I do Thank God for This Doctor that I had now because They do the following Process really quick, You don’t see it coming! The Quicker, The Better, I say! First, They put on the Tourniquet (which is basically a Glove wrapped around The Top of Your Arm) which slaps you in The Arm, it convinces you that The Needle is in and It really is Not. Next, This is The Point that The Waiting and Anxiety is at The Highest. Some Doctors, Not This One. Take a Pause in between The Disinfecting The Spot and The Needle going in. I seriously hate that! Let Me know when You are Ready and We will Count to 3 and In goes The Needle. Once The Blood starts going through I am Okay because I know it is working. “What was The Big Deal about that?!” My Mind tells me. and, finally about a Minute later, The Needle comes out, Apply Pressure on Said Spot and put a Bandaid on, We are Good to Go, Blood Drawing is Over! You Know, If You have to arrange the Checks on The List, Blood Drawing (which is The Worse Part, compared to Every Thing Else is No Big Deal) should come first because That is The Hardest Part and Most Nerve-racking. Now, Of Course, I do apologize to those, that are a bit squeamish about that kind of stuff and Making You Picture all that, But It helps You understand My Mind and PTLS better. Anyway, After The Blood Drawing, gotta check The Heart and hook up The Electrodes and Make Sure Nerve-Endings in My Heart are Good. Again, with PTLS and a Bit of Weak Muscle Tone, that is a bit of a Concern. Check The Eyes, Good. Bright Light! Check The Throat, All Good, don’t make me open too wide unless You want me to start gagging. (This Usually happens, if This Step comes BEFORE The Blood Drawing). and, Finally, Check The Ears. Now, having PTLS means that The Ear Wax grows Very Fast, just like The Hair and The Nails. My Ears, of course, are clogged with Wax. Let’s Clean them Shall We?! Inject Peroxide and Water into My Ear (I have been told that This is The Best Way to Clean Your Ears). I go deaf for a Short Time. It feels very strange and I now, Know what it feels like to be Partially Deaf, The Sounds and Voices are Muffled. Inject more stuff into My Ears and Flush it out! This is VERY Uncomfortable but, I will be Thankful in The End. My Left Ear was a bit more welcoming than My Right Ear. The Ear Holes are Different Sizes, must be a PTLS Thing! My Right Ear, The Wax was stuck up there and it was like a Scab being pulled off. The Left Ear, We had cleaned once at Home and It came out flowing much better. You should have seen how big some of That Wax was, It looked like a Bug! Okay, Guys! Sorry, Too Much Information here! Anyway, after all that, My Appointment is Over and It is Time to reward Myself with a Milkshake. Nothing cures The Doctor’s Anxiety like a Good Old Milkshake! After that, You should reward yourself with something, right? I have always done that, gotten Myself a Milkshake after a Blood Drawing, even when I was Younger after Crying much. Of Course, It does help a bit to Hug the Person that Poked me as well as Hugging My Mom. All in all, that was My Day. All I can say, is that I am blessed that for the Most Part, I am pretty Healthy and I have been. I would hate to have My Blood Drawn more than Once a Year. Thank God for That! I am hoping that This Newsletter helps you Understand a bit more about PTLS. As Always, I am open to Questions that You may have about PTLS.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Hug the One who Draws Your Blood, It will make their Day!     

The Christianville Spirit: My Birthday "Feelies"

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Sparkles

August 12, 2015-TCS # 461

Happy New Age to Me, My Readers! Yes, that is right I am a New Age older. I am now 28 Years Old! Whew! Can You Believe that?! It is seemed like it was Yesterday I was 27. I have been told that The 28th Year is a Big Year in terms of Life Events and I mean, The Life-Changing Ones like Settling Down, Having a Solid Career, and Of Course, Finding the Person who You want to spend the Rest of Your Life with, be it, Your Soulmate, “The One”, or The Love of Your Life. At Least in Texas, The Average Marriage Age for Men is 28 while Women is 26.9. Now a Days Men are Marrying later in Life, I would say it is because the Life Expectancy is Higher now and Men want to get their Ducks in a Row (Mainly in Their Career) before They get Married. Anyway, This Year’s Birthday was a Good One, but also a Bit Tough because My Brother is up in Colorado and He is not here. But, I did get to FaceTime (My PTLS “Sister”, Danielle calls it “Camming”) with Him and He showed me his House, which is Pretty Cool. Down Here, My Mom and I have been celebrating the whole week! You can’t just celebrate just the Day, You got to Celebrate The Month and The Week of Your Birthday. My Uncle Craig does that, in fact He refers to it as “Craig Week”. Anyway, We went Shopping for Some Clothes, going to need it for an Upcoming Trip. We went over to Chick-fil- A to get a Frosted Lemonade (Thanks to PTLS Member, Erin for Suggesting It) *A Side Note Here (Shout Out!): Check Out an Invention She did (Well, actually with Her Best Friend!) called “HUSH Hat”, It is THE Best Invention for Babies I have seen! Anyway, I have been told that the Frosted Lemonade is equivalent to a “Lemonade Dream-sickle” that You had from an Ice Cream Truck when We were Kids. It was Really Good! Anyway, The Next Day, Monday, We drove out to Denton to have dinner with My Friend, Spencer. While We were walking to The Restaurant, He was nice enough to help fix someone’s tire (In 105 Degree F Heat, by the Way!). It was Good hanging out with Him, a bit weird though without My Brother, but He was there in Spirit I am sure. On Sunday, by the way, My Mom cooked me Real Macaroni and Cheese and Crab Cakes! As well as a Cake, that has Multiple Different Types of Cake. On The Day of My Birthday, My Brother called me saying, ‘Hey, Want to FaceTime?!” I thought Okay, Sure! So, We did and It was Really Great to See Him and Yes, He wished Me a Happy Birthday along with His Roommate, Cameron. That Evening, My Mom and I went to go to The Movies, to go see a Movie that We have been meaning to see, Inside Out. Without Giving too much away (but, SPOILER ALERT! just in Case). It is Pretty Much about that Age-Old Question, “What is That Person Thinking?!” and It shows Little Characters that play Your Emotions, Joy, Anger, Disgust, Fear, and Sadness. Each One would be watching an IMAX type of Screen with What is seen through Our Eyes, and Each Emotion Character would press a Button on The Control Panel (Get it, Push Your Buttons!) when They see something that They react to. The Whole Movie has references to understand Your Brain and How it works. Come to think of It, Maybe that Movie should be as a Teaching Tool in School, for Regular Class and Even Health Class. It shows Your Train of Thought (an Actually Train), Burning Out, Everything Crashing Down, Sub-conscientious, Personality, Long-Term and Short-Term Memories, to name a Few. I highly recommend it to Adults to see, even though it is a Disney/Pixar Movie, Adults can Understand all The References. A Bit of Warning though, It might just make you Emotional in parts if You relate it to Your Own Life. I have to say to It made me Emotional because it made me think of My Brother and All My Friends growing up. All in all, We had Good Food, Good Company, Good Movie, and Lots of Love shown from My Readers and My PTLS Family! That makes for a “Core Memory” kind of Birthday.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Even though Joy should be The Number One Emotion in Your Life, It is Okay to let The Other Ones push a Button every Now and then. You might just find More Joy! 

The Christianville Spirit: Stress and No Routine

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Sparkles

August 5, 2015-TCS # 460

Hello, My Readers! Boy, I tell you, This past Weekend was Very Tough with My Brother moving to Spread His Wings. Update though, He is doing Okay, working on the Job front, and settling into His New (but, Kinda Small) House. So, On to This Week’s Newsletter! So, I have mentioned quite a Few Times about PTLSers need for Routine. It is Very Important that They have a Routine, Predictability, and Most of All, Rules. So, Here is a Question that I am sure All PTLS Members are curious about that I have not answered. So, What Happens if They are NOT in a Routine or Can They Easily swing out of Routine Temporarily. That is Actually a Good Question. So, It is Preferable that They do have a Routine. But, If They do not, then They can get a bit Overwhelmed, They can’t concentrate as well (like I did, If I did not have it), Increase in Stimming (like Rocking Back and Forth or Pacing), They can have Meltdowns (for being Overstimulated and Overwhelmed), They get Anxious about it, and They end up Very Tired. So, To Calm Your Mind, Yes, They do have a bit of wiggle-room with Their Routine, as long as it is returned soon. Myself, for example, I have been able to Adjust My Routine to Where I am. When I was Younger, I would pace a lot, so much so that There was a Trail I created in My Backyard. My Mom found that if I was Off of My Routine, like when I would come home from My Dad’s House, I would Pace More with Intensity and I would have Trouble Concentrating in School, The Teachers usually knew when I would come Home. and, Usually it took about a Week for Me to recover and get back into My Routine. Now that I am older though, My Mom can tell when I am out of My Routine. I was not in My Routine when We went to The Beach or when We went to The PTLS Conference. I guess, it depends what Type of Recovery from Lack of Routine are We talking about. Lack of Routine at, let’s say The Beach, was a bit Easy, I just had to take Longer Naps. With The PTLS Conference, I had to Calm Myself down (Conferences, although I have been to 3 of Them, does get Overwhelming!), Take Naps, and Get back into Routine. I know that This Weekend was Tough to recover from because of Helping My Brother moving, in The Texas Summer Heat mind You, and Add on The Inside Emotions (“The Feelies!”) of all of it happening. Proud, Happy, Sad, a Bit Angry (His Destiny does not match mine and His Ex-Girlfriend), The Whole Bit. This is a Shocker, but on Sunday I got up at 7 AM, to finish helping him and seeing him off. I am still a bit tired from all that. I remember when I got home from The Cruise I went on once, Disney World, or Great Wolf Lodge, I was a Mess! It was because of being Out of Routine and Being Overwhelmed at the same time. I mean, those Places are Fun, Don’t Get Me Wrong, but They are also Full of Activity and Very Overwhelming. Not Places I would recommend for us PTLSers. Now, If You tell me what is going to happen during The Day, I can start planning, and I won’t be so Anxious. All in all, We PTLSers would prefer things to be more Calm and Organized. I know that Doctors wanted to put me on Medication but, It makes My Head feel like it is Buzzing. and, that makes me even more Anxious.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit.  Understand Us, Don’t Medicate Us!