January 21, 2021
I had another brain training appointment yesterday, January 20. Yet another brain cap was pulled out of the cabinet. It is crazy how many there are! I had Sachi again, and she explained there are eight different caps used for neurofeedback. And, I will be well acquainted with each one of them in due time. This one is kinda star trek-y.
In addition, there was a small ear bud placed in my left ear, attached to a hand held monitor. Sachi turned it on and explained how it works.
There is a dial in the centre that I didn’t need to use this time. At the bottom corners you can see up and down arrows. The screen shows the time left, and the intensity. My instructions were to press the up button twice, in intervals of 30–60 seconds, until I heard or felt something. I should listen for some kind of crackle, or notice a new sensation I haven’t felt before. Okie-dokie. Not entirely sure of what I was supposed to hear or feel, I waited, clicked the up arrow twice, waited, and repeated until I noticed something new.
I did, in fact, notice something new. I didn’t hear anything, but I did feel something. A strange little pressure, pulsing from the inside out, just in the soft spot you find if you plug your ear and then slide your fingertip up just a bit. Kind of where the top curve of your ear meets the scalp. Very rhythmic, not painful, just super weird. I had clicked up to level 22.
“Perfect,” Sachi said. “Leave it right there and forget about it. But if it starts to feel unpleasant in any way, click back down a couple times.”
She set up the breathing graph again. You’ll remember the pictures from pt 5. I looked at the screen and matched my breathing to the bar. Every few minutes Sachi asked me how I was feeling. Did I feel any different than the last time she asked? Was I experiencing anything different from last time? She does this regularly so she can adjust the neurofeedback settings in real time. This greatly enhances the effectiveness of the brain training. The breathing lasted about 8 minutes. Then she put on a Brene Brown TED Talk on YouTube. It was the one about shame. Fascinating! You should watch it.
A few minutes into the session I noticed a small piercing pain in my left temple, just above the pulsing. I clicked the arrow down to 20 and it went away.
I also noticed that I was feeling sleepy. I was struggling to keep my eyes open. My sister-in-law shared that she had this reaction too sometimes. In fact, she had to be woken up at the end of the session. Sachi said that was a normal response. I was alert enough to drive home, so no problem.
Maybe my brain is catching on to this stuff, or maybe it was doing two protocols at once, but the headache started by the time I got into my vehicle.
I drove straight home, went to bed, and rested the remainder of the day.
I ended up taking a couple of Aleve. (I know the commercial says only one lasts for 12 hours, but they haven’t met me.) My headache settled down and I was able to go to sleep. It was gone when I woke up this morning. I still felt a bit of fatigue throughout the morning, so I started my day pretty slowly. By lunchtime I felt ready to walk the dogs, go to the store for a couple things, and catch up on my blogging. Good thing I made enough Butter Chicken last night so there were leftovers to heat up tonight, because I’m feeling a bit fatigued again.
My next appointment is tomorrow morning. Steve sweetly offered to order dinner in tomorrow night from our favourite neighbourhood pub, so I don’t have to cook. Also, he knows that I don’t like leftovers more than once. Unless its Butter Chicken. Or Jambalaya. Or Paella. Or mostly anything Shrimp.
Yes, I am aware that I capitalized these dishes. I’m a great cook, and those dishes absolutely deserve to be capitalized!
I might be getting a little hangry. Apparently it’s time to heat up some Butter Chicken.
Eat good food — this is very good for your brain. And support your local restaurants. You’re gonna want them to still be around once we can go out to eat again.
