PH Day ONE!!!

Guess what?!!! Today was my first day of PH (partial hospitalization), and it was awesome! First of all, I've discovered that my perfect number of "snoozes" is six, which is the equivalent of half an hour of button-pushing. It's enough that the alarm can go off several times before I even have to know "what that noise is", and I also wake up almost completely by the last two. So I successfully made it to the car, and when my husband dropped me off I was even leaning toward feeling positive about him not getting lost on his way back to the main road.

The whole program is in one room, and all the sessions take place there. When I walked into the room, there were two leaders and zero patients. Well, I later found out that there was one leader and one other patient, except the patient was dressed so nicely and had such good insights that I thought she was a leader! Slowly the other patients arrived, and soon the group started.

The day is broken up into several different "groups". The first one is called "Goals", and everyone takes turns sharing a goal they have for the day, how they're feeling, and anything new that's happening in their lives. I went last, so when I cried during my goal, I knew I was the only one who did. My goal was to not have a major panic attack. My tendency to quit and run away when I get scared was screaming inside me, and I felt extremely anxious. However, when I told the group that I was scared I would quit, they said they wouldn't let me! They also pointed out that even though quitting isn't much better than failing (which is what I'm soooo afraid of) the reason we prefer to quit is because it's on our terms and in our control. That made sense.

The next group is called "Coping Skills" but I missed that today because I had to go fill out paperwork. Oh, that reminds me, I have an assignment that I have to return Friday. I hope I don't forget! Next was "Group Therapy" which was led by a very nice woman. When I first saw her I thought, "Wow, what a pretty woman in her twenties!" It turns out, she was forty one! That's not old, but it's a bit beyond twenty eight!

Next was lunch, which I promised I'd tell you about. We each got a voucher that was supposedly worth up to five dollars, but I found out that they don't really care how much you spend as long as it's reasonable. I had a turkey cutlet that looked like a pork tenderloin, some delicious party potatoes, some mixed veggies, a big cookie, and caffeine free diet Pepsi (my fav)!!! In addition to the "home cooked" foods, they have pizza, a grill, and a salad bar. I look forward to eating there many more times. However, hopefully how I eat there will change as I go through treatment.

After lunch we had another group that I can't remember the name of, but I know the leader wasn't my favorite. Unfortunately, I think she's also the Coping Skills leader, so I'll have to get used to her. I was pretty sleepy during this session because it was right after lunch and I didn't talk at all.

The last group of the day was really fun. It was called "Recreation". Apparently sometimes that means a field trip, but today that meant ice cream! We made our own ice cream using just ziploc baggies. I'll put the recipe at the bottom of this post. When we were done with our ice cream we finished the day by talking about planning activities on our own. It's important for us "sick people" to get out to the house! There was also supposed to be a "Community Group" at the end of the day but we didn't have that.

I have a funny story for you. Today someone brought in a stuffed monkey to be the program mascot, and we were trying to name it. Someone said "How about 'Dr. Phil'?" Right then some other people entered the room just as someone else responded, "Yeah, Dr. Phil is cute!" The people that walked in thought we meant that the man Dr. Phil was attractive, and we had to explain it to them. Then I joked, "Yeah, Dr. Phil's a hottie!" and  we all cracked up.

ZipLoc Ice Cream

Place in a pint size freezer bag:
1/2 c half and half or milk
1 T powdered sugar
1 T flavored syrup (strawberry, chocolate, etc)

Place in a quart size freezer bag:
1/2 c rock salt
2 c ice

Squeeze the air out of the pint size bag and seal it carefully. Place the pint bag inside the quart bag. Leaving a little air inside, seal the quart bag with the pint bag inside it. Shake the package for 5-15 minutes or until your ice cream solidifies. Remove the pint bag, and discard the quart bag with the ice and salt. Scoop the contents of the pint bag into a bowl or eat it out of the bag and enjoy!