Accomplishments

Valentine's Day found me having dates for everything but romance. The appraiser for my insurance company called and arranged to come over to see the car on Thursday morning. He was very pleasant and I think I made a new convert to our neighbourhood out of him; the neighbourhood is one that many people don't seem to be that aware of and yet it is a wonderful location with many benefits of living in it, not the least being that it borders a provincial park with incredible views and walking/biking paths.

In the afternoon I went to my Return to Work course. This was the second of eight weeks in the course, but my first time attending due to my Radiation Oncologist appointment the week before. It was very interesting to hear other people's perspectives on the experience of cancer and of returning to work. Some will be looking for work and some, like me, will be returning to work after a period of time off. I once again realized how very blessed I have been in my situation -  both with the care I have experienced in my cancer treatment and in my work situation. It has been so wonderful to be able to keep in contact with and see the people I have worked with in the past and my current co-workers during my time off. I will be able to gradually work my way back into my work role at my own pace, something that not all at the course seemed confident of being able to accomplish without a lot of self-advocacy and negotiation on their part.

Following the course I drove over to the cancer centre for my Herceptin infusion. I was able to get in right at my appointment time of 4:45 and this time the nurse said we would be able to infuse the Herceptin over 30 minutes rather than an hour as I had not had any adverse reactions with the prior infusions. This meant 250 ml of fluid going in over over 30 minutes; it felt cold as it infused that quickly but other than that and continuing to be a little chilled throughout the evening, I have felt quite good since, no headaches or flu like symptoms this time around.

Alternating periods of rest and activity has been working well for me and this continued through Friday and Saturday. A Facebook friend posted a week or so ago that she was 'under the weather' and therefore was going to nap and hoped to accomplish a few things 'between naps'. I commented on her post that I thought naps were an accomplishment. I'm continuing to stand by that and therefore I can honestly say that I feel very good about all my accomplishments, active and inactive, over the last few days ;).

Today was potluck Sunday at church and my mother's first adventure out since returning to the lodge. She was very excited and called yesterday to make sure the arrangements hadn't changed. When we picked her up this morning the nurses told us she wouldn't go to breakfast as she was so afraid she would miss us if she did. Funny what a person's mind can tell them when they are anxious or excited about an occasion and don't want anything to go wrong. We had to walk right past the dining area in order to get to her room therefore we wouldn't have been able to miss her if we tried. In spite of that, it was a successful outing and it was good medicine for her. She brought back a nice assortment of goodies as a souvenir of her day and she will probably sleep well tonight after all the excitement.

Radiation starts for me on Thursday morning this week and the rest of the week's schedule seems to be filling up quickly with pleasant activities. The highlight will be a trip to Cranbrook next Saturday to celebrate Forrest's first birthday  - before then I am hoping to get in a few more 'accomplishments'.

Take care everyone.