Their treatment plan? We will know more this Friday after meeting with the radiation oncologist at Swedish Medical in Denver, but the standard treatment for glioblastoma is six weeks of five-days-a-week radiation plus a little chemo on the side. Hit it hard at the beginning with daily zaps. Thanks to Henry’s cousins, we have a place to stay in Denver, and thanks to my niece, looks like we have a house-sitter. Beyond that six weeks I’m not sure, but probably chemo, and if I have anything to say about it, which I most assuredly do, I want the chemo here in the San Luis Valley with our local oncologist (also an avid horse person!).
Meanwhile, I’m formulating my own treatment plan:
- Stay home and be grateful for our amazing SLV community.
- Putter in the garden and eat from it as much as possible
- Walk, dance, sing, play with the physio balls on the mat, stretch, float in the hot tub, and muck the corral every day to build the compost piles. Transformation in my own back yard!
- Keep getting acupuncture and cranial/sacral work from Tanner, Alamosa’s terrific and gorgeous acupuncturist
- Tell the truth, listen for it, and act on it
- Keep doing meaningful work with incarcerated students through Adams State’s Prison College Program, and as a tutor at TSJC
- Walk away from bullshit, anxiety, and fear
- Stay away from cities and their inherent aggressive chaos. (yeah, well, I might not get this one as much as I’d like)
- Use this cancer to keep opening my heart. Keep bowing into it as my sensei.
- Obey the call to take a power nap during the day or to wake up in the middle of the night. Trust that my body knows what it needs and when.
- Keep clear and open with Henry, and help him take care of himself. I am blessed with the best husband in the world but this must be hard on him.
- Find the silver lining in everything!
- Laugh when I’m happy or silly, cry when I’m sad, and don’t be surprised when the laughter turns into sobbing or vice versa. As Joni Mitchell sings, “Laughing and crying are the same release.”
- Pull rank if I need to. Remind the “experts” that I’m in charge of my own body
- Make and sell artwork
- Start Aikido again as soon as possible
- Be open to the healing force even when it comes out of the blue. I don’t have to understand it; just allow it to work in its mysterious ways.
- be grateful for my loving family and friends
- Operate from joy, love, clarity, and gratitude
That’s a mighty and admirable list for your treatment plan. Thanks for sharing, and please let me know if I can ever lend a hand, or my heart (of course, you already have my heart!). Love you!