Banana Therapy

Case Note No. 3: Nov. 29, 2020; updated June 9, 2021
     One of my prime responsibilities as a therapy horse is to keep my client physically active, and mentally stimulated at the same time. We have now settled into a daily routine that she seems to have accepted, and adjusted to fairly well. First thing in the morning (which, in her case, can range from about 8:00 a.m. on a rare day to more typically closer to 11:00 a.m.), she appears at the barn door with a cheery greeting, “Good morning, Ms. Angel. Did you have a good night? Are you ready for breakfast?” Being the professional that I am, I resist the urge to snort, “Yes, about three hours ago.” But she is trying her best, as a senior woman and former city dweller and night owl who has only recently adopted a healthy horse-keeping lifestyle. So I watch for, and celebrate, each increment in her progress, and cut her a lot of slack.
     Margaret has never voluntarily been an early riser, nor does she like to go outside in cold weather. But with climate change and a pandemic going on, she sees herself remaining in Cape Breton for the foreseeable future. One of my jobs is to teach her to make the most of this exceptional blessing in her life. The morning treatment plan I have set out for her involves activities that keep her busy for at least one hour, and often closer to two. 
     Her first task is to prepare my breakfast and a water soluble pink placebo that I take daily, called Pretend, or (Pr)ascend, for my physical condition known as Cushing’s disorder. The purpose of this ruse is to simultaneously stimulate her left and right brain function while she believes she is caring for my chronic disease. She is using her previously scientifically-trained left brain to study the condition, and treatments offered by human veterinarians. However, being spiritually awakened, she is also exercising her intuitive right brain and newly activated twelve chakra system, to call upon her celestial guides for enlightened treatment options. 
     Her guides have given her some sound inspirations about natural treatments for my disorder. Presently, she is trying a combination of both allopathic and naturopathic approaches. Pr(ascend) in the morning, and a herbal remedy at night. I am just glad that her guides took my banana suggestion. When I first came to live in my new house, which I share with the patient, Margaret was giving me the meds by dissolving the pink tablet in a bit of water, then squirting the liquid into my mouth using a 1 cc plastic syringe. It was most undignified! Not to mention that disposable plastics are bad for the environment. So I made short work of that practice. 
     Being a unicorn, I am good friends with the air sylphs, who are of course quite aware of the plungers in plastic syringes, and how they work with columns of air. So I asked them to lend a hand, and arrange for the rubber plug to detach from the end of a plastic plunger in a syringe she was using repeatedly. One morning Margaret came to my house, and when she tried to draw up the pink medicine into the syringe, the plug stayed in the bottom, and the plastic plunger pulled right out. Bingo! So she had think of some other way to give me my medication.
     Of course, I made sure that day that she had a banana on hand as a treat. Suddenly, she got the inspiration (likely from Archangel Uriel, or maybe Raphael, Heaven's physician) to mash some banana into the liquid, and voilà, my daily banana mash was created! She serves it to me in a curved plastic bowl she got at Dollarama. In an orderly manner, she has a blue one she uses for my morning medication, and a green one she uses at night. I am very dextrous with my tongue, and she finds it amusing to watch a horse lick one tablespoon of banana mash out of a curved dish designed for humans. So that’s how I arranged to get a banana treat twice a day.
      As for my evening medication, that was a long distance collaboration over space and time involving several levels of reality, including the Earth plane. Johannes has a lifelong friend in Germany who goes by the nickname Pepsi. A few years ago, Pepsi married a woman named Sonja who is a "horse person." Margaret and Sonja met when they visited Johannes' homeland, which is in the magical Black Forest. That is a place where the veil is quite thin, and the trees and plants are sacred. One of Sonja’s horses, named Ponyman, also has Cushing’s disorder. Sonja knows about how to use natural remedies to help horses, and when she heard from Margaret about my condition, she recommended a plant called Vitex, also known as Agnus castus.
     At the time, Margaret was seeking spiritual guidance as to how to help me with a natural remedy. For the first time in several years, she consulted the Saints & Angels oracle deck she has had for many years. The card she drew was called "Don’t Compromise," from St. Agnes of Rome. Struck by the synchronicity of hearing from St. Agnes when considering a plant-based medication called Agnus castus, she felt that she had received Divine guidance to treat my condition using this natural remedy. And so she ordered some Agnus castus capsules online, and that is what she gave me at night. In banana mash, of course, in the green bowl. So that was fine with me.
     Until it wasn't. I like to change things up, and subsequently I decided that I no longer like bananas. Today she offered me some banana mash in a bowl, and I would not touch it! After all, summer is nearly here, and it is time for her to be offering me fresh Nova Scotia berries for my fruit snack!