Picture taken on a walk, West Side Beltline, Atlanta, last weekend
One of the scans (called the CT/simulation) I’ve been waiting on involves the fabrication of some kind of mask that I have to wear during radiation treatments. My radiology doctor explained that, in addition to making of that mask, the images from that scan would allow him to start scheduling my treatment days. I was supposed to have the CT/simulation appointment last week, but it was cancelled due to Atlanta’s snow day. It’s scheduled for tomorrow, in addition to the other scan (PET) I needed to get.
Due to that delay, my treatment days haven’t been scheduled yet, and I don’t know that they will begin until the middle of February. Since I’m ready for everything to get started and over with, I’m not enjoying having to wait longer for treatment to start.
Early on, my friend Heather offered to build and manage the spreadsheet of people volunteering to offer help during treatment. I’m really glad that I took her up on that, as that frees up attention space of Jenn and my family to concentrate on their own kinds of support. We are still waiting for the treatment days to be scheduled so that we can plug those dates into sign-up sheet that Heather has built that will have places for people to offer rides, a family meal once a week (which my kids and I do every Thursday), grocery errands, and/or hangouts at the house. Once dates are announced, I’ll be getting that link out to folks in my support network (if that’s you, thank you).
When all of this started weeks ago, realizing that I would be spending more time at home, I decided on what my “ideal schedule” would be during the days when I’m not working. It’s been nearly impossible to stick to it; my tendency for the last several weeks has been to vegetate in bed watching shows, reading, or napping unless someone came over. Yesterday, however, I got a jolt of productive energy and powered through the schedule at a steady clip for the first half of the day: reading, writing, meditation, stretching, exercising, followed by a couple of hours of knocking things off my to-do list. It felt good, and it was the first night in weeks that I went to sleep at a healthy time.
So, today is the second day of . . . whatever that energy is. I hope to keep it up.
