Had rehab therapy session today and explained to the therapist that I’d gotten my pathology report yesterday.
The doctor has indicated that I will be heading into radiation treatment soon and that it was important for the work of restoring the neural link to the front shin muscle be complete before the radiation starts…otherwise the restoration may not be possible.
The therapist agreed to do all that she could and increased my number of weekly visits from 2 to 3.
We had a good intensive session, and I came home with further exercises to do.
I had been very intentionally not wearing the brace when I’m around the house and have come up with a way to walk stably, even up and down stairs.
The therapist liked the sound of that and encouraged me to keep at it.
I had arranged for a shuttle bus, run by the hospital, to pick me up and bring me home in order to reduce the chauffeuring load on Susanne.
Unfortunately the pick-up didn’t work out today so Susanne took me over.
The return worked fine.
We went to Toastmasters tonight and I served as Table Topics Master. This means that I was responsible for formulating and presenting the questions for impromptu 1 to 2 minute talks. The topic was “Work and Service”. I offered a context from the Bahá’í writings “Work done in the spirit of service is the highest form of worship”. The session went exceptionally well and I had a great time with it.
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The rest of the story…
This was a day of adjusting to the news of the pathology report, beginning to process treatment options, and starting to think about what is next. We began discussing what to do about Craig’s work and mine, deciding Craig will stay on leave for the moment. My work with Marriage Transformation has been minimal and scattered during these weeks. It’s unclear how and in what ways that will change during Craig’s treatment period. I was able (with the help of our long-time occasional assistant Joyce Ashman) to get the monthly newsletter done and out. Of course, it is on the topic of trials and triumphs in marriage! Book writing right now is very much on the back burner…
One of the biggest challenges for me has been having the knowledge that the first pathology report was bad, and that Dr. Sloan stated it was vital for Craig to be rehabilitated quickly before any kind of radiation or chemo stopped his recovery permanently, and trying to get people to pay attention. I had to advocate with social workers, insurance personnel, doctors, physical therapists, and Craig to get them to focus and work on this. At times, Craig was the most difficult, telling me not to micromanage his therapy or worry about it. But it concerned me that he had a 2-week gap between inpatient and outpatient therapies! And, I encouraged Craig to pay attention when he spent days sitting in front of the computer, and raised the issue of urgent progress being needed with him until he finally seemed to hear me. There is sometimes a fine line between nagging and advocating…..! (Note from Craig….I chose to consider the preliminary report that what they pulled out was very cancerous as largely irrelevant. I was under the impression that all the really mattered for future treatment was the condition of the immediately surrounding tissue. The doctor clarified that and, in hindsight, I realize that Susanne was correct.)
One of the best outcomes from Craig’s adventures is that he is more alive and engaging. It was great to see him smoothly and effectively lead the Toastmasters group through active participation in the impromptu talks. It’s also been nice to do the meetings because they seem so “normal”!
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