Another good rebuilding week. Gradually increasing number of walks and other exercise to build up my strength, and enjoying the time with everyone together. By the end of the week, I was shovelling some snow, back to driving, and able to stay up later.
Even my taste buds seem to be showing a bit of improvement, as meals are becoming more tasty. While I didn’t have the energy to stay up to midnight for New Year’s Eve, did have a wonderful family dinner (partially prepared by me, another sign of increased energy). Needless to say, we are all looking forward to an easier 2010 than the last year has been, but remain conscious of the twists and turns that life brings.
Lot’s of movies this week and a rather eclectic mix. Pixar’s Up starts off with some brilliant film making but then gets into the standard formula for the rest of the movie, Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a gift from my daughter, still looks good after all these years, with a more leisurely sense of pacing than today’s movies, Kubrick’s Paths of Glory, a classic anti-war film set in World War I, with a terseness and directness in the story telling, Coppola’s The Godfather, another classic that wears well, given the strong screenplay, atmosphere and cast, and for pure fun, and seeing whether Blu-ray is much sharper than DVD (somewhat, but not as big a jump as the transition from VHS to DVD), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Star Trek.
Reading-wise, continued with the movie theme with David Gilmour’s The Film Club, a gift from my son, a good father-son relationship story about how a father educates his son through watching movies (Gilmour is a former film critic), and Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood, which tells the same story as Oryx and Crake from a different perspective (the ‘Gardeners’, or the sect that live with minimal impact on the environment). Found it an easier read than Oryx and Crake, but still portraying the same depressing dystopia.
Next week have another clinic visit so will see whether the improvements I feel are reflected as well in my blood counts. Strange new phase; without the regular schedule of treatment (thankfully over!) to ‘occupy me’, it becomes more of a waiting game for test results, with both the relief that I can get on with my life (again, thankfully) as well as some uncertainty at the back of my mind.
Another transition, accentuated by the end of the holidays and the return of the kids to school. My challenge over the next few weeks will be to find a new routine that moves me along in the process, physically and mentally, and prepares me for a return to work in a few months.
Best wishes to all for the New Year.
My Lymphoma Journey 