1. Read. I Knew A Woman: Four Women Patients and Their Femail Caregiver by Cortney Davis. A beautiful book by a nurse practitioner, tracing a year in her life as she follows 4 patients from different stages of women's life. Davis finds the poetry within physical symptoms, and brings much affection to the dance between our bodies and our souls. This book transformed my night-before-surgery.
2. Read Sing Them Home, a new book by Stephanie Kallos, that is a great yarn, a refreshing journey of transformation, and is set in the Nebraska plains, which I'm fond of. Stevie is breath-taking, utterly concrete, and very funny.
3. Watch silly dvd's, especially Corner Gas, a Canadian series set in a small town that's kinda like Northern Exposure set in the plains.
4. Go to LOTS of 12 step meetings.
5. Do research and also know when to step away from the internet.
6. Take walks
7. Hang out with James in bed in the morning
8. Go back to work. Gently. It's great to think about other problems, for a change.
9. Hang out with friends, eating delicious food & remembering that life is really good.
10. Find every form of prayer/meditation/stress reduction that works & practice them whenever waiting seems impossible.
I'm likely to get results on the oncogyne dx test early next week, which will help determine whether chemotherapy will be helpful or not. At this point I see the oncologist and the cancer naturopath on July 14 & 16, the week when I need to make the decision about chemo. Choices will need to happen quickly at that point, so I'm trying to ask all the questions I can before hand. Alice, Jason, and David are going to help me to sort through the medical and statistical info, which I think I understand, but want to be very sure. Hooray for friends with different skill sets than mine.
Oh, I'm also waiting to hear about health insurance. My workplace is changing insurance as of July 1, and we don't have the new group number yet, so I can't determine what will be covered & what won't. This has the potential to be crazy-making. I have tested the hypothesis that I can convince the insurance company to tell me items they don't want to. Refer to #4 above.
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I hope everything goes your way, and wish you happiness, peace, just enough distractions, and lots of really good food.
ReplyDeleteNancy
Hi Beth! I'm baking hazelnut biscotti...could I interest you in that plus some homemade albeit extremely low on the spicy scale pad thai or tofu-homegrown miniature brussel sprouts & rice dish a la chinoise? I'll have the car Friday and maybe there's some time not during rush hour I could drop by briefly?
ReplyDeleteI'm enjoying the Sedaris tapes but wonder if I might have an extension to July 13? I'm going on a yoga retreat with a friend and we have a long drive ahead of us and she said she'd love to listen to the rest of the tapes with me. if not, that's ok too. I regret I'm a tardy library patron.
I'll call you when I'm not bouncing back and forth at the oven.
love,
Karin
Beth--sorry you're still in waiting mode, but glad you have thought of so many good ways to spend the time. I hope you have gotten more info by now, and that work and the world are treating you respectfully. Still thinking of you, wishing we weren't across a continent from each other--I would definitely bring you a homemade cheesecake, then hang out in your kitchen and eat the leftovers from all your other friends' cooking!
ReplyDeleteLove, Kitty