So Weeks 3 and 4 of Neuromodulation Programme.
now for the 18 week wait.

Session 3:
Despite or perhaps encouraged by the delivery of case loads of beer. After all, our sessions are in a social space attached to a gym, a bar in fact.

We were encouraged to think about unpeeling the onion skin layers of our thinking. Why did we react to that situation like that? What are our independent strategies?

The ABC Activation Consequence ….Behaviour. Set up the court room drama in our heads. What is the evidence FOR our thinking? What is the evidence AGAINST our thinking?Consider our belief systems.

USELESS: Use – is a function UseLess is pyschologically and emotionally unhelpful.

Use relaxation to reboot, turn the neuron volume down. Use a flare up checklist and share it with our family and friends.Visualise our island Hold a pebble. get there we really did.

From L: Perhaps pacing is like that cold glass of water full at the beginning of the day. Use it sparingly over the day at the beach. Don’t drink it all at once!
Session4:
We gathered once more in the basement. Started in a function room with a piano. Hence the link with the concert pianist and the idea came in a flash…thank you Frank Sinatra …I’ve got you under my skin is a song we want to sing. Please could we have an implant…under our skin? No wonder we were moved swiftly back to the bar area. Projector gave up but we hardly noticed. Powerpoints not our best thing really.

Whatever did did we do for 20 hours?

Pain Mechanisms: Well Acute Pain signals danger eg trapping fingers in swing doors ( me week 2)!

Chronic Pain signals from neuron brain to spinal cord.
Pacing that oft repeated phrase ! Well we can’t all look like a pretzel in the yoga class … week 1!
Building blocks … Think about our goals our values … How can we get there? Realism begins to creep in. The Neuromodulation is no cure no magic but alongside our goals we can move forward. This is a bit like a concert pianist. see week 3.
physical emotional cognitive training…

Meet two more previous patients. Again, one doing better than the other. Again, they stress importance of practicing all we have learnt to support the future improvements we seek. Talk to our GP who will get letter from MDT within two weeks. What is interesting is that we six are all keen to have an implant. Have we influenced each other? In different circumstances would anyone have decided not to go ahead. That may still happen.

So four weeks later the six of us are bonded in a way we might never have imagined. Our background stories are rarely discussed. What is important is our common aim. The reminders stressed by wonderful psychotherapist included: to remember her story of standing anxiously at the bus stop late for work. Some things we can control. Others we cannot. We are in a way ‘wedded’ to the hospital team. We are in it for life…uh oh…

What we hope is that we six are in the same ward on the same day of surgery. We will sing all night, giggle all night and imagine ourselves on our island in the sun Oh my days…