Cabernet and an Allen Wrench

I was enrolled in a Hopkins study for psylocibin for PTSD and I was pretty stoked. I had my fourth screening interview yesterday and got the bad news today-- I am no longer eligible for the trial. I admit-- I'm pretty bummed. I was one of those kids in the seventies who did her share of drugs, but never psychedelics. Too scary. But this would be two sessions in a controlled environment. Maybe it's because EMDR is working quite well for me my PTSD is not stressful enough for this study. So that's a good thing. I found a great therapist who is helping me work through all kinds of crap. And if I had been accepted in the study I would have had to take a break from my therapy sessions, so perhaps this rejection is really for the better. My disappointment is not about having the psylocibin erase my PTSD; it's about not getting to do the drug. Some day, psychedelics may become part of treatment for a host of disorders, and Hopkins is doing a number of studies using the...

After much back and forth, the director of the Towson Y promised me I would be accomodated at their pool, so I decided to see if his facility was as good as his word. It was. I got there early so I could shower and check out the private family changing rooms. While the floor around the swimming pool was not slippery, I wish I could say the same for the locker room. I was very glad I had my walker instead of my cane. Even with the walker, it was difficult. I slowly made my way out of the locker room and onto the far safer swimming pool area, and the teenage lifeguards were happy to help me. I got my shoes and prosthesis off, and they lowered me into the pool. The last time I was in a pool was a few months after I had returned to the states after my amputation, and the feeling was once again so freeing. It is no suprise that it is harder to walk with a prosthesis than with a "real" leg. I don't know if the prosthesis weighs more, but it certainly feels like it with n...