Poor Überhund had his teeth cleaned yesterday and in the process it was found out that he had an infection in one of his top incisors. A a matter of fact, the vet showed me where there was puss coming out of his gums, so he must have been suffering with this for a while. So the option was to cut away the gum there or to pull the tooth and I told him to go ahead and pull the tooth. That seemed to me the most straight forward thing to do.
I stayed with the Überhund while we waited for the anesthetic to start working and he literally was standing up one moment and was toppled over the next. He was very floppy after that and the vet could do anything with him at all.
When I came to pick him up in the evening with my sister and the car, he was still very drowsy and almost incapable of walking. At home he sort of tottered to wherever I was sitting, so I tried not to move too many times and ended up taking a nap on the sofa. When I woke up at 10 PM, he was standing there, looking at me quite expectantly, as if to say, “I have to go out now, are you going to take me?” After that, he ate a whole bowl of food and maybe that bad tooth was the reason why he had not been eating so well lately.
All’s well that ends well.
I had ergo therapy in the morning and we had to sit around a very large sheet of paper and keep moving up one place and with each of us, in a different color paint, had to take turns being the manipulator or the manipulated. We could not talk and everything took place in great silence. After two turns, the sheet of paper was changed to a new one until we al had a turn with each person in the group. There was a discussion afterwards about how we interpret what manipulation is and how we do it and if it is always a bad thing.
It turns out that, when I am on my guard, I am a good manipulator and I am not easily manipulated. The person who is the best manipulator in the group, had the hardest time with me, because, while I was manipulating her, she was trying to manipulate me and it didn’t work.
You see how these exercises can be so very educational to a person and really give you a lot of insight into your own psyche.
Social Services is asking me to send in forms, in a rather mildly threatening manner, that I have sent them twice already and that I will now be sending them for the third time. Am I happy about this? I think not. That’s all I’ll say about it for now.
I did, what I hope was, a week’s worth of grocery shopping yesterday. My bike was so loaded with groceries that it is amazing that I made it home in one piece. I did almost get run over by a bus, but he was going slowly, so major injuries were avoided. I just made a little detour to the sidewalk. Actually, I don’t think they’re going to all last for a whole week, but I hope they’ll last past the weekend.
It seemed as though I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off yesterday, but it was all very carefully orchestrated pandemonium. None of the housework got done, but numerous other things did, I just seem to have no recall of most of them. I was running here and there and forgetting to do this and that and then remembering things at the last minute. My shopping list was very good, I know that. I only forgot the sliced sausage for the Überhund.
When you’re gone all morning until almost 1 PM, there is a lot of catching up to do, so I know I would hate to have a fultime job, or I would have to get organized much better and cut out the navel staring times. The umbelical contemplation. Woe is me.
I waste time, though. I know I do. I could become much more efficient and move around the apartment at a much quicker speed and get more done, more quickly. That is just not my style, though. I am not a race horse, I am more like a Belgian draught horse. I am slower but steady. If I go too fast, I become inefficient.
Well, that’s all I have to say, really. It’s not much, but I’m not very inspired. It’s too early in the morning for it. I need numerous cups of coffee still and my medicines and a good walk with the Überhund.
Ciao…
Glad the Uberhund got his infected tooth removed. You are very good to him.
Wish the Government would get their act together & not ask for things they already have been sent. it is the same here. One department doesn’t seem to know what the other department is doing. We have a saying for that…… the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing.
The Ergo therapy was fun & at the same time you found out that you were the most manipulative person in the group? (Is that right?) I wonder where I would have been placed!
Today and tomorrow , there is no school (non people training day) and I am having the girls for the day. They will be here any minute & I’m not even dressed yet!
What can you do with 2 energetic children on a not so nice day? One loves walking, the other whinges and complains that she cannot walk far! I think we will be going to the park with some nuts for the squirrels and maybe the Museum.
Have a good day today, Irene. X
Oh, poor Überhund! Glad it’s sorted now. Sounds like that infected tooth really was the reason for him not eating so well lately.
And I’m glad you survived your encounter with the bus! I remember doing my grocery shopping on the bicycle in the North of Germany, when I had no car. I went everywhere by bicycle, no matter what weather, because the bus service wasn’t great. And I also remember a couple of near misses between myself and my totally overloaded bike and a car. Glad those times are over! I couldn’t do that on a bicycle here. People would run me over because hardly anyone uses bicycles here (it’s VERY hilly), only tourists do.
In “summer” we see a lot of tourists cycling around. The poor souls probably think cycling around Ireland is the holiday of a lifetime what with everything being so green! What they don’t know is that a) the weather is bad, b) everyone uses the car and c) some people here are very bad drivers. Doesn’t sound like the holiday of a lifetime to me!
Beautifully written, as always.
Interesting about navel gazing. I have always been happiest when I have been busy and don’t have too much time to think. Something about releasing inner tensions through physical activity.
Also I am a very good manipulator on occasions, which is not something to be proud of, I think. Maybe this results from being clever but powerless sometime early on in your life, so you can’t use direct confrontation. Or maybe maybe this is all just cod pyschology I am coming out with.LOL
Once I did a dissertation on servants in the nineteenth century partly based on old Punch cartoons which have a lot about servants because Punch was a upper class magazine in which the servant-keeping classes could vent their spleen and would enjoy pocking fun at the servants in the cartoons. Often the servants behaviour in these cartoons and generally in the books I read for the dissertation was quite manipulative, because, again they were clever but powerless.
All interesting about manipulation LOL
irene, I think I may have asked you once before about your ergo classes. They surely cannot be named after “Therefore”, but I know about ergonomics and work efficiency? Give me a clue, would you, pet? x
poor doggie. but it sounds like he bounced back very quickly.
i remember Toby used to get very goofy when he had to be put under. once, when he had an ear infection, the doctors had to put him under to clean it. and when i picked him up that night, he tried to run away. very slowly, and very woozily. (he didn’t get far.)
Bill, in this case ergo means using the tools of art to work out things that happen in the psyche. So, by indirect ‘manipulation’ reaching a goal, you could say.
I’m glad the vet discovered the tooth. That sort of infection can make it’s way through the whole body and cause so many problems. The Uberhound must be feeling so much better. And of course – the infection would have made him smell – his breath especially – so your sister will be happy now that it has been taken care of. I suppose he is on medication as well?
As for social services. Did you know that someone got so fed up with AISH – (assisted income for the severely handicapped) that they sued them? I was involved in the class action lawsuit and got money back from them. They were overcharging and underpaying! So much for government social services!
Oh wow! So good to hear you are tackling the issue of manipulativeness.
I agree with Bev, sometimes childhood trauma or helplessness does bring that out as a coping mechanism, as with passive aggression, and it is sometimes in the nature of the illness.
It is a way for it to keep ahold of the sick person.
When we manipulate others and our situations – sometimes even ourselves – that may enable us to remain sick and justify our not getting well.
It may be one of the hardest things to face, from my experience. I think we have to understand the long term downside of it balanced against short term gains and victories we feel when we manipulate successfully. It is a hard thing to learn to take responsibility for ourselves and give up blaming our circumstances and other people for all our problems, or to say we are so hopeless and useless we can’t do anything about ourselves. A lesson I hope to learn fully myself, so kudos to you for facing it and talking openly about it. hugs
Ah, gotcha! I think. A bit like some of my posts. Start off with no particular goal in mind and wander about a bit, having a look at that and a try at this until suddenly, you have got to a point you had never even thought of, and Fini. I like it, but can it really be taught?