Back in Various Saddles

I am trying hard to work my way back to some semblance of a normal life.

Before we knew that my dad was going to have surgery, before the joint pain hit, and before spinach inspired fear across the land, I had earmarked the fall as a time to regroup and to position myself for an excellent start to the new year, when I'll be returning to school full-time and crossing the threshold of 40. Although I won't really be finished with the active part of my treatment until at least February, when my course of Herceptin is currently scheduled to end, I now have the heavy-duty stuff—the surgeries, the chemo, the IVF—behind me, and it feels like it's time to transition from what often felt like a one-dimensional life (that of a cancer patient) to a more multi-faceted existence.

I remember vividly what happened the last time I finished treatment: my energy came rushing back, and I tried like mad to make up for all the time—nearly a year—that I felt I'd lost. I started an intense new job, signed up for a time-consuming class, and agreed to join the board of a struggling nonprofit and lead its development efforts. It was lunacy to try to do all three things at once, but I was so eager to reclaim my life that I gorged on every opportunity I encountered. Less than six months later I was a wreck, having overextended myself to the point of exhaustion.

This time around, I hope to be wiser. (I'm definitely older, as my body persists in reminding me.) Toward that end, I've decided to focus whatever energy I might have on three discrete goals—to the exclusion, if necessary, of all else.

First, I want to do everything I can to improve and preserve my health. That means—in addition to all of the cancer treatment and screening and prevention—tackling my weight, my cholesterol and triglycerides, and my overall level of physical fitness. And that means concentrating on diet and exercise, which will improve all three.

Second, I want to ease my way back to school in January, mainly by resuming work on my master's project (the J-school equivalent of a thesis) while I am still on leave. The first draft is due on January 16, but I want to get mine in way before that. And that will require a whole lot of reporting, not to mention writing, over the next couple of months.

Third, I want to try to earn my keep. I've been doing a small amount of freelance editing for the past several months, and I'd like to do even more. I like to joke about being a drain on the economy and tossing back the bonbons, but I really don't like being idle. And, um, our bank account doesn't like it so much, either.

I had planned to start working toward these goals as soon as the summer was over, before life once again intervened. But now that 1) my dad is well on his way to recovery and 2) my joint pain has receded from seriously debilitating to merely wince-inducing, I am actually making what might be construed—in an alternate universe, by a very charitable judge—as the early indications of progress.

Scintillating details to follow.