Date sent: Wed 7/23/2003 8:53 PM
Home...Now What?

I continue to feel good.  My last treatment was a week ago.  Now I am adjusting to my new “reality.”  Before I needed my cane for everywhere I went; now I just need my ankle brace.  Before I needed someone with me all the time for safety, now I just need someone to help with things I can’t do. 

Now I’m safe enough that Bill, my caregiver, comes every day to help with food and driving etc., but Hana and I are home alone this week.  Abi is in California and Zachary is in New York.

So I’m no longer “coping” but starting to spend more energy looking around.

It’s amazing to me how much time there is in a day when I’m not “coping.”  My mental and spiritual state of being is still catching up to my new physical status. 

I’ve been given a gift.  The gift to heal.  The gift to recreate myself given what I want now. 

Medical Update

From here, the radiation doctor wants to see me in mid August.  My follow up MRI will be the first week in September.  Then the plan is six more months of chemo.  Although the follow up is in September, the scans only show the gross physical results of the treatment.  My experience has always been that my body ‘knows’ what’s before any scan does, and I feel so far I am well.

I’m also working with Doctor Mark in CA on ideas that I will write about later. 

The PT (PM&R) doctor in Dayton hooked me up with Andrews University in Dayton.  They will help me get a more normal walking gait by suspending me over a treadmill in a harness.  He explained that my brain and spinal chord have learned a compensated gait for a left side weakness that I can unlearn.  The harness and treadmill is a new and promising technique.

Over the next month I’ll be tapering the steroids.  Then we’ll look at the 5 seizure meds I’m taking.

In the meantime my speech is still a little slurred at times but understandable.

That’s it for now.

Thanks again for your warm thoughts, prayers and kindness! 

With blessings, hope and love,

Dan
http://katzstein.com
http://life.katzstein.com

 

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