April 2026 In Review

Posted on by Astrid

Hi everyone. I’m once again joining Natalie’s monthly recap. April was a month of high hopes. I started my new day schedule, which I figured out pretty quickly wasn’t working, in part because my assigned staff had randomly added several unrelated activities to each time slot. What I had hoped for, was a schedule organized around activities that logically follow one another, rather than it being about rigid time slots. I’m still trying to persuade my assigned staff (who is unfortunately still on part-time sick leave), my support coordinator (who will be off for a long while starting next week) and the behavior specialist (who I have only spoken to once) to change this. However, even though I explained why I believe it’d work in several E-mails, I doubt it’ll be implemented, simply because it requires my staff to be more flexible with my one-on-one.

I’ve realized more and more over the past month that no-one really knows my needs. And that includes me. Some people say I’m autistic and need lots of structure and “clarity” (which they confuse with bluntness). Others believe I have attachment issues and need to build trust in my staff, only to be told that I do chatter to some random temp workers so it’s just me being unwilling. Some say that my emotional development is comparable to that of a toddler while others counter that I’m verbally more capable than some of them. Some say I need to process my trauma, but all the while they add extra layers onto it. And that’s not even speaking about my brain injury, my blindness or the fact that I’m “getting older”, which my physician blames for everything.

This month included a few cooking and baking activities, but not as many as my day schedule allows for. I only did crafty activities twice even though it’s now in my day schedule twice a week. Staff often blame me for not “wanting” even though the few times staff actually asked me, I did get something done. Thankfully, I still do enjoy each time I get to do a cooking or baking activity, work with polymer clay or ride the side-by-side bike.

I’m trying to consume fewer animal products. I was inspired both by my wife, who is a vegan, as well as by the new Dutch food pyramid. I cooked a vegan curry for this side of the home at the end of March. In early April, I cooked a chicken pasta for myself, but the other two meals I cooked this past month have been vegan. One was another curry. The image description app I used correctly identified one of the ingredients as sweet potato, which I think is rather cool.

The other was baked potatoes, onion, bell peppers and a veggie schnitzel (which the EU has decided soon can’t be called schnitzel anymore due to it not containing animal, despite no-one knowing where a cow’s schnitzel is located on its body).

Last month, I said the month was hard only to conclude at the end of writing my post that it was better than I had initially thought. I unfortunately can’t say so of April. The last few days have been slightly less horrible than the weeks prior, but I’m not getting my hopes up about this continuing in the right direction. I feel a little guilty about this, because I did do more cooking activities than I used to do. I’m wondering whether I might be depressed or something. Since I’m also experiencing significantly more sensory overload than I used to, something neurological might also be going on. I’m getting bloodwork soon to rule out a vitamin deficiency (possibly B12), because I’ve been on pantoprazole in a high dose for years and have a history of several deficiencies. I’m not sure what I hope the test will show.

14 thoughts on “April 2026 In Review”

    1. Ah yes, I see how that can be annoying. I particularly hate the expression because it portrays aging as a medical diagnosis, which it might be in a sense but not in someone my age.

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  2. I’m so glad you’re experimenting with food. I’ve been in such an uninspired meal rut lately and need to dig my out of it. Maybe I need to pull out the recipe books…?

    I hope you’re able to get some answers about the possible depression and sensory challenges. It’s never fun to not be able to trust your nervous system and/or imbalances happening in your body.

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    1. Thanks for your kind comment. I love experimenting in the kitchen indeed. Re the possible depression etc. and my lack of trust in my own body, that lack of trust in my own body has always been there, but it seems to get a whole lot worse. I honestly hope that something will be found that can help. The reason I said I wasn’t sure what to think of the possible vitamin deficiency, is the fact that if I turn out to be deficient in something, it’s another way of shoving everything onto my plate rather than my staff having to rethink their support approach.

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    1. It is indeed. Unfortunately, it looks like my staff are convinced that I can’t (or worse yet, don’t want to) cook/craft/etc. when I’m in distress.

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  4. Okay, I thought I knew “where” a schnitzel was…

    The middle of the rooster or the vealed lamb’s body.

    Or possibly its thighs.

    Or even when it comes to the teats of the cow.

    Perhaps the EU are right about nobody knowing where schnitzel comes from in and on the body.

    Interestingly – there is an Australian [and now international] restaurant called Schnitz – and it is nicknamed “schnizzy”.

    So more or less officially – since 1845 – schnitzel means “slice” in the German and German-derived countries.

    And most certainly vegetables – in whole and in part – can and are sliced!

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    1. Ah, thanks for sharing those interesting tidbits of information. Just clarifying though: the EU says food that doesn’t contain animal can no longer be called “schnitzel” (or “sausage” or some other things). It was just my assumption that a schnitzel isn’t an animal body part.

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