Tuesday, June 21, 2011

june

Its been a busy week, moving preparations, papers, tests.   Last week  I had a paper to write on "Research a pathology an how it relates to massage therapy.   Wasn't sure where to start so I googled "what's your favorite pathology/" " I got a med-student survey.  Hematological pathologies turned up number one, but not as interesting to a massage therapy student as neurological pathologies, which turned up number two.

Neurological pathologies seemed like a good choice to me. I don't remember why I ever became interested in massage therapy.  About twenty years ago when I was in college it just occurred to me that it might be some way that I could be helpful to people.  My hands have a slight tremor, which kind of drives me crazy at times. Massaging other people seemed to sooth my hands as well. So before too long I had a small core of volunteer clientele, including some athletes.  I looked around for a massage therapy school, but at that time the only campus was in Salt Lake City and I didn't think I had time to travel back and forth.  Enough about that for now.

So I wrote a short paper on Parkinson's disease.  It was interesting to learn that Parkinson's disease patients muscles, because of the constant tremor, experience the same intensity of muscle contractions as many athletes, so of course massage therapy can be beneficial, both in soothing the central nervous system and in lengthening and relaxing the muscles.  It would also be interesting to research whether or not massage can affect the dopamine production at all.

So aside from school, the younger kids are adjusting to summer camp at the daycare center. Even Sophie goes now. She is very social with the other babies. The teacher said she tries to take their toys away.  I'm not surprised.  William adjusted too and is shy in the morning but acting like the big man on campus in the evenings.  The girls keep busy with their friends swimming and playing dance games on the x-box.  They are asking me about playing soccer in the fall.

Here's a night the kids made dinner for us.  Sam made some amazing bread sticks and bbroccoli soup. Bethany and Ben helped with that too.

Sam spent the week on the stake Pioneer Trek in Wyoming.  I was grateful to see him get off the bus with a huge smile on his face.  It turns out he loved pulling a handcart. The youth leaders were calling him "the Clydesdale."

And here's a picture of  Sunday evening two weeks ago . Ben and William and bowls of ice cream.


2 comments:

Z. Marie said...

Is that a park across the street from your house? Awesome.
Where are you moving?

Alix Bryant said...

Hi Megan, just wanted to introduce myself. I've just come across your blog and have enjoyed reading about your family. We are new to the FS and currently posted in DC, but I'm bringing the kids to SLC for 8 weeks this summer.
--Alix
www.thebryantblogger.blogspot.com