Thursday, March 5, 2009

More About Me

I have to also write a bit more about me today!

Yesterday was the absolute best day I've had in a long time. I decided that I needed to get out to Capitola to WomenCare to get names and numbers of people who offer free massage to cancer patients. But lately, it's hard to motivate myself to get out the door, let alone drive all the way to Capitola! (It's so far! Yeah, probably a good 15 minutes away for goodness sake!) So I thought, "who could meet me out there for lunch? That would get me out there!" Then I remembered that Stef had met me out there for lunch before and so I called her. She said, "How about we meet at my office and drive together?"

So luck would have it that she had 2 late cancellations and we met at 11am and had until 3pm! What fun! We went to WomenCare, to GoodWill and this nice 2nd hand store next to Goodwill where I got a new hat, new pants (all my pants are falling off of me), new earrings and a new hat. Then we went to the bead store because I need to always change over my earrings to clip-ons due to my darn immune system making every pierced earring hurt my ears.

After we got back to her office, I went to pick up Aimee at a friend's house to take her to the rabbi's house. Bailly had gone to Minnesota to visit her son and to a Bar Mitzvah and so she asked Aimee if she would help the rabbi with the Hebrew school for the little kids. Wow was Aimee proud that she was asked to help! They made Humantaschen for Purim.

While I waited for Aimee to be ready to go back home, I decided to get some exercise, walking around their neighborhood. I remembered that Andrea had offered to walk with me sometime so I headed over to her house just to see if she was there and wanted to walk. Just as I came to her house, there she was walking down her walkway to go out on errands. Lucky me! She would rather go for a walk with me! We went to a quarry by her house that has a gorgeous view and one of my favorite sounds these days: birds singing.

So now I've got 3 days each week where I have a friend appointment. Mondays are for Bailly. Tuesdays are for Stefanie. Wednesday afternoons are for walking with Andrea.

Before this diagnosis, I rarely took the time to see friends or get out of the house. Now it's become a priority. I also made a list of all the things I like to do so I can remember to do them when I get bored or lonely.

My list so far:
make sugar-free cookies/chocolate
go on UTube to listen to my favorite musical artists
write
get a massage
get a DVD or search Netflix to order one
go for a walk with a friend or borrow Aimee's iPod (thanks Nancy!)
call someone to talk to them over the phone
make new earrings/go to the bead store downtown
listen to Chabad.org audios
go to the trees or to West Cliff

The list will get longer as I remember what I like. That's also a bonus of going through this diagnosis and treatment, I'm beginning to remember what I like.

I'm also setting up appointments with therapists who've been recommended by WomenCare or Katz Center. I'll find someone who feels comfortable to me and who's on my PPO list. I'm finding myself telling them over the phone that I'm not really in crisis and seem to be handling all this pretty well, considering...but I just want to have someone to sort through things with when the darker stuff creeps up...and I want to make the most out of this time - get all I can get out of it.

I keep looking at the calendar and seeing how close I'm cutting the end of treatment to our trip to Hawaii. When I see my oncologist on Wednesday, Geoff and I will ask him about the pros and cons of going through the last 3 rounds of chemo faster. Whatever's best for my system is what I will go with, but my mind's been on that a lot lately.

So that's more about me. I hope those of you who are in Santa Cruz are enjoying this glorious day. Sun and majestic, puffy white clouds in the sky here today.

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