Recap: The Good, The "Eh," The Bad, and the Downright Ugly
The week has gone by like a whirlwind. I still can't believe it is once again Saturday afternoon. So much happened that it's sort of like looking back over a story in a book which had varying emotions. I'll see if I can recap without getting too distracted on tangents.
Saturday last week I had coffee with a friend of mine. She lost her husband at about the same time I lost my dad; they were our guests for Thanksgiving dinner just before her husband died. My friend has struggled emotionally and was diagnosed about a year ago with lymphoma. It's a slow moving variety, but in a year of treatment, there hasn't been any real progress in treatment - just a "keeping at bay" status. The plan is now to add another chemo drug. This one is much more aggressive and will cause the hair loss/vomiting/nausea that's often prevalent in chemotherapy. She has her wig already and is as prepared as she can be. However, it's not lovely to contemplate going through this. Her lymphoma is likely incurable and in the end, it will likely kill her. With treatment, however, given the type of lymphoma she has, she could live another 10 years. She says this is her goal.
Sunday was the usual - but I was having a hard time focusing on anything. I was SO TIRED and full of emotion over the visit with the sleep doctor for Jim. More on that later. I ended up falling asleep and packing it in at 9 PM.
Monday we had another snowstorm. 8 inches this time, but I went to work anyhow. Both the appointments I was supposed to have cancelled out on me (not surprising) and needed to be rescheduled. The upside to this was that I had time to work on and finish up a plan for one client that I'll present this Tuesday, and to get caught up on the backlog of emails that arrived while I was in Baltimore. I came hope early and since Jim's appointments had also fizzled, we were able to enjoy a home-cooked meal together, then read and watch some TV. We have been watching the Bletchley Circle on Netflix.
Tuesday brought another day of working on plans, getting things nailed down for a class I have to teach this week, and working on a couple of client crises that needed immediate attention. It was an "eh" day, but the end of the day brought an opportunity to go skiing with Diana and Dan. It was a workout I badly needed and I was glad I got to go. I tried a new trail that is more difficult than my usual comfort zone; I did take a tumble down it and have a painful bruise on one hip. Pain is finally less today. Outside of the one tumble, it was good skiing and I felt more relaxed when I was done.
Wednesday was a day of admin in the morning, followed by our usual trek to take care of Nate and Julia in the afternoon. Nate and Julia are learning to snowboard and they were excited to tell us about this. Their father is teaching them. We got to see a couple of their pictures while they were boarding and they look pretty good! A few behavior issues with Nate, but by the time we left, he was doing better. We took them to see Kung Fu Panda 3, which they greatly enjoyed. Nate is going to be starting karate, and was very interested in the "karate moves" as he called it. We ended the day with dinner at Nuovo. We like to do Valentine's dinner early. It's such a madhouse at any nice place on the actual day.
Thursday morning was Downhill Clinic and we have a couple of new ladies in our group. It was a good class - working on shuffle turns, lifting the uphill ski on the pass across the hill, and doing point turns. We stayed on the green hills for this class, since a couple of the students were new, but I felt I'd done much better than I used to on the drills and my coach was complimentary. Very busy at the office after skiing, getting a tutorial on a particular item of software I needed.
Friday was the the bad and ugly day. Jim was supposed to see an apnea specialist. We waited 5 weeks for the appointment, got there well in advance, and were the only people in the waiting room. We waited. And waited. After 45 minutes of waiting, Jim went to the front desk and was told that the doctor was "a little behind schedule." Jim told the receptionist that we had to leave in a half hour as we had another appointment in New Hampshire, for which we couldn't be late. In the end, the doctor never materialized and we left, minus the copay, because the less than knowledgeable receptionist had no idea how to refund a credit card payment. I was furious, close to tears, and ready to scream. Jim headed off to NH and I headed back to the office, where my staff helped me pull myself together. I called the neurologist and told her secretary what had happened. I was angry over the waiting, the no show doctor, the copay, and furious over how uncaring the girl at the desk was. They offered us another appointment on 29 April. I said no. We will not be going back there. The neurologist will find someone else for us to see. A doctor's office that behaves that way does not deserve new patients. Jim's neuro is out until 2/18 on vacation, so she will call us when she is back. So, to sum up, we have NO CPAP machine, no apnea specialist, and are back at square one.
Today was much better. I skied most of the morning with Diana, Dan, and Edward - doing several new trails without a fall, and predominantly skiing blue (intermediate) leve trails rather than beginner trails. It was a personal best for me. Got home, showered, went for some groceries. The crockpot is simmering in the kitchen. Butter is softening for the cookies I'm planning to make. Tomorrow's Valentine's Day meal is planned. It's bitterly cold outside and the wind is blowing, but teh snow and the sun are gorgeous. My chair is comfy and the cat is occasionally coming to sit with me. I'm about ready to read some more in a book I've started called "More Than Just A Good Bible Study Girl" - I'm part of an online Bible study for this book. I'm learning quite a bit.
Need to get busy soon, but for now I'm gonig to relax. I'm exhausted from skiing (a nice exhaustion), content with my next couple of meal planned days, and though I've got a boatload of work to do from home Monday (office is closed), I'm happy with most things at the moment and feeling at peace. Health goals of exercise and diet are being met. Clothes are a bit looser. We are working on next steps for Jim. Love with my husband, mother, daughter, son-in-law, and son is being shared - tomorrow we'll all have dinner here after church. Snow is lovely. Skiing is going well.
Peaceful.
Saturday last week I had coffee with a friend of mine. She lost her husband at about the same time I lost my dad; they were our guests for Thanksgiving dinner just before her husband died. My friend has struggled emotionally and was diagnosed about a year ago with lymphoma. It's a slow moving variety, but in a year of treatment, there hasn't been any real progress in treatment - just a "keeping at bay" status. The plan is now to add another chemo drug. This one is much more aggressive and will cause the hair loss/vomiting/nausea that's often prevalent in chemotherapy. She has her wig already and is as prepared as she can be. However, it's not lovely to contemplate going through this. Her lymphoma is likely incurable and in the end, it will likely kill her. With treatment, however, given the type of lymphoma she has, she could live another 10 years. She says this is her goal.
Sunday was the usual - but I was having a hard time focusing on anything. I was SO TIRED and full of emotion over the visit with the sleep doctor for Jim. More on that later. I ended up falling asleep and packing it in at 9 PM.
Monday we had another snowstorm. 8 inches this time, but I went to work anyhow. Both the appointments I was supposed to have cancelled out on me (not surprising) and needed to be rescheduled. The upside to this was that I had time to work on and finish up a plan for one client that I'll present this Tuesday, and to get caught up on the backlog of emails that arrived while I was in Baltimore. I came hope early and since Jim's appointments had also fizzled, we were able to enjoy a home-cooked meal together, then read and watch some TV. We have been watching the Bletchley Circle on Netflix.
Tuesday brought another day of working on plans, getting things nailed down for a class I have to teach this week, and working on a couple of client crises that needed immediate attention. It was an "eh" day, but the end of the day brought an opportunity to go skiing with Diana and Dan. It was a workout I badly needed and I was glad I got to go. I tried a new trail that is more difficult than my usual comfort zone; I did take a tumble down it and have a painful bruise on one hip. Pain is finally less today. Outside of the one tumble, it was good skiing and I felt more relaxed when I was done.
Wednesday was a day of admin in the morning, followed by our usual trek to take care of Nate and Julia in the afternoon. Nate and Julia are learning to snowboard and they were excited to tell us about this. Their father is teaching them. We got to see a couple of their pictures while they were boarding and they look pretty good! A few behavior issues with Nate, but by the time we left, he was doing better. We took them to see Kung Fu Panda 3, which they greatly enjoyed. Nate is going to be starting karate, and was very interested in the "karate moves" as he called it. We ended the day with dinner at Nuovo. We like to do Valentine's dinner early. It's such a madhouse at any nice place on the actual day.
Thursday morning was Downhill Clinic and we have a couple of new ladies in our group. It was a good class - working on shuffle turns, lifting the uphill ski on the pass across the hill, and doing point turns. We stayed on the green hills for this class, since a couple of the students were new, but I felt I'd done much better than I used to on the drills and my coach was complimentary. Very busy at the office after skiing, getting a tutorial on a particular item of software I needed.
Friday was the the bad and ugly day. Jim was supposed to see an apnea specialist. We waited 5 weeks for the appointment, got there well in advance, and were the only people in the waiting room. We waited. And waited. After 45 minutes of waiting, Jim went to the front desk and was told that the doctor was "a little behind schedule." Jim told the receptionist that we had to leave in a half hour as we had another appointment in New Hampshire, for which we couldn't be late. In the end, the doctor never materialized and we left, minus the copay, because the less than knowledgeable receptionist had no idea how to refund a credit card payment. I was furious, close to tears, and ready to scream. Jim headed off to NH and I headed back to the office, where my staff helped me pull myself together. I called the neurologist and told her secretary what had happened. I was angry over the waiting, the no show doctor, the copay, and furious over how uncaring the girl at the desk was. They offered us another appointment on 29 April. I said no. We will not be going back there. The neurologist will find someone else for us to see. A doctor's office that behaves that way does not deserve new patients. Jim's neuro is out until 2/18 on vacation, so she will call us when she is back. So, to sum up, we have NO CPAP machine, no apnea specialist, and are back at square one.
Today was much better. I skied most of the morning with Diana, Dan, and Edward - doing several new trails without a fall, and predominantly skiing blue (intermediate) leve trails rather than beginner trails. It was a personal best for me. Got home, showered, went for some groceries. The crockpot is simmering in the kitchen. Butter is softening for the cookies I'm planning to make. Tomorrow's Valentine's Day meal is planned. It's bitterly cold outside and the wind is blowing, but teh snow and the sun are gorgeous. My chair is comfy and the cat is occasionally coming to sit with me. I'm about ready to read some more in a book I've started called "More Than Just A Good Bible Study Girl" - I'm part of an online Bible study for this book. I'm learning quite a bit.
Need to get busy soon, but for now I'm gonig to relax. I'm exhausted from skiing (a nice exhaustion), content with my next couple of meal planned days, and though I've got a boatload of work to do from home Monday (office is closed), I'm happy with most things at the moment and feeling at peace. Health goals of exercise and diet are being met. Clothes are a bit looser. We are working on next steps for Jim. Love with my husband, mother, daughter, son-in-law, and son is being shared - tomorrow we'll all have dinner here after church. Snow is lovely. Skiing is going well.
Peaceful.