Eleven days from now I will return to work.  My mind is very ready.  My physical body is straggling just a touch behind.  A lot of healing and strength-building can happen in eleven days though and I’m doing a bit more each day to prepare myself.  I plan on having myself up to 10,000 steps a day when I go back to work.  Right now, I’m not allowed to lift more than 5 pounds and am very limited in the exercise I am allowed to do.  I’m not sure if I will be able to go from limited to everything by the time I go back to work, but that is my understanding.  I hope so.  Yesterday, my trusty Fitbit told me that I was just 3 steps short of 6,000.  If I’d known that, I would have made a quick trip to the bathroom right before Midnight just to put me over 6,000!  I also evidently walked up 18 floors!  Considering we live in a one level home, I have to assume that my trusty Fitbit is counting the “hill” (actually more of a gradual slope than a hill) in our backyard as a “floor”.  I did walk up and down that hill many times yesterday.  I am quite certain that actually climbing 18 flights of stairs would bring me to my knees!  It might even make me cry.  I’ll take the number though and count it towards my daily improvement!!

After several weeks of experiencing the thrill of living in yoga pants and L.L. Bean Wicked Good slippers, I have graduated to “real” clothes and shoes.  It helps that I’ve lost a few pounds (up to 17 now – yay!!) so my “real” clothes fit a little better – mainly looser around the middle where I’m the most sensitive to the tight stuff.  I’m still not driving but I think I should be able to start soon.  Driving has a way of making a person really feel alive and free!  Ask any teenager.

Last summer, Tom and I were trying to get out and do a “real” hike every weekend.  Not just walking, but real “hiking”, with hills and everything.  One hot summer day, we drove out to Deerfield Lake and hit the trail.  It’s a 12 mile hike around the lake and it was already after noon when we got out there, so we didn’t plan on doing the entire hike – just down the trail a bit and back to get out into the beauty of our surroundings and sweat a little.  We were about a mile or so in and had just hiked up a steep incline – the kind you grab tree roots to keep your footing, and were panting at the top taking a “catch your breath” break.  We took the opportunity to go out to an outcropping over the lake and allow our lungs to gather in the fresh breeze.  We could see kayakers gliding silently across the water and others enjoying the beauty of the lake and forested surroundings.  As we were making our way back to the trail, an elderly couple had just reached the top of the afore mentioned steep incline and they weren’t even breathing hard (did I mention they were elderly?).  They both had trekking poles and were outfitted in light khaki and sensible headwear.  They had hit the trail at 8am and were close to the end of the full 12 mile hike.  Did I mention they were elderly?  We talked for a short time and then they kept going their way and Tom and I headed back to our car after looking at each other with that “we are truly pathetically out of shape” look that we give each other now and then.  This was not the first elderly couple that has showed us up on a hiking trail.  It happened once before on a Volksmarch out at Crazy Horse Monument.  That particular instance was a retired couple that traveled the country and hit every Volksmarch they could.  They were physically fit silver-haired hikers.  Tom and I decided at that moment that we wanted to be like them.  We also decided that we didn’t need to wait until we retired to make the time for it.  We have made a valiant effort, but not valiant enough.  Our life cannot be about wearing ourselves out at work so that we can’t move in the evenings and on weekends.  It just can’t be.  I don’t want to wait until I retire to enjoy the gorgeous surroundings we live in and be physically fit.  I don’t want a stupid tumor and the potential of re-growth to stop me from living my life to the very fullest in every single moment.  I want to wade in more streams and hike to as many waterfalls as I can find. I’ll have to don a good hat and wear long sleeves though since the drug I’ll be taking calls for precaution in the sun.

Speaking of the drug I’ll be taking (Gleevec).  I have gone on-line and looked into some of the support groups available.  For such a rare condition, I’m amazed at the volume of info available on the internet.  This particular drug is used for GIST (what I have/had) and also for a type of leukemia and other more severe situations than what I am currently experiencing.  At least for now, its better for me to avoid the assault on my imagination that these sites cause.  It’s good for me to be aware of the possible side effects and potentially beneficial info to combat those effects, but not to be drenched in the negativity.  Especially weeks before I even start taking it! (I’m scheduled to start taking it at the end of July, when I’m completely healed from the surgery).  While I have pulled a few good suggestions from these sites, I have noticed that the people with the worst experiences are the ones who post the most.  It makes sense, they are looking for some relief and anyone who can relate to what they are going through and possibly help them.  Pain relief does not always relieve us from the suffering.  For now, its best for me to concentrate on my daily devotions and focusing on the One who can help me the most through this trial.  In all honesty, I have known people that suck more life out of me than that tumor did.  I expect the treatment will be the same.

Since I am trying to spend more time up and about, I have transitioned from reading to creating.  I spent a few hours in my studio yesterday and was finally able to finish a pattern for a glass project that has been eluding me for many, many months.  It was literally a breakthrough to allow the creative juices to start flowing again.  In fact, that’s where I’m headed when I’m done with this update, to work on a few more designs and then see if I’m ready and able to start cutting some glass.  Nothing more healing to this body than getting into my studio and working with glass.

An update on the abscess:  Its still there but we can see daily shrinkage now.  It’s still surprisingly deep, but Tom thinks that’s getting better, too.  My doctor told me last Monday that it could be a month before it closes up completely.  Unfortunately, that means I will be heading back to work with a hole in my abdomen.  Oh well, I know I’m not the only one.  It happens a lot and there are people all over in our every day world that are walking around with medical issues  that we have no clue they are going through.  If nothing else, I am even more aware of that now than I was before. In essence, be kind to everyone, for we are all living through our own trials and NICE MATTERS.