Being MalleableIt will take time for Rene to recover from this last round of treatment and she is truly a rubber chicken at the moment. She can just start sliding downward if not assisted and this has happen a couple times; she now has a star on her door to let staff know this!
Yesterday was challenging for her to accept her current physical state because a lift team was needed to get her out of a chair. After five hours of sitting, she could not stand to go on a walk with her physical therapist. It is a shock to learn that she is this weak and limiting how long she sits in a chair is important. Since patience is a virtue, she is not being virtuous about this! Instant gratification is required, she must be able to do things that she has always done before she started treatment.
Freud, Jung, & Tony Soprano
Psychology is a very important aspect with chemo I feel, getting Rene to express her frustrations so it doesn't weight her down is not always easy. I am happy when she expressed anger and rage because she usually moves on. Anything that results in tears requires a different approach and understanding, being a football coach or an Army sergeant is not recommended. Failure to be nurturing can earn you the wrath of her nurses and other hospital staff, believe me, you don't want to be on the receiving end of their rage either!
Chess Moves
Beginning today, Rene will work with trying various times to walk, exercise, and sitting in a chair. She will learn the correct combination so she is not completed wiped out after doing any and all items. Hopefully she will discover the correct approach within the next two days.
1 comment:
The MORE
Whoa...Anytime you can cogently write about rubber chickens, Sigmund Freud, Karl Jung, The Sopranos, and chess in one crack you have accomplished something. Incidentally, I wonder what Mr. Freud himself would have to say about such a stream of consciousness? No matter--to paraphrase him, sometimes a rubber chicken is just a rubber chicken.
One of Freud's greatest misses was his inability to see the differences between the three selves. No, not the "me, myself, and I" schoolyard comment. Rather body, soul, and spirit; the demarcation that exists between the mortal coil and the other parts of us. The flesh can suffer, but even when such suffering torments the soul we can become aware that there is more to our existence than that experience. We are more, and that "more-ness" indeed defines us as human.
We recognize this in others and ourselves at such times as this.
"So hang the star upon the door and catch her when she slides;
For in that vessel, upon that chair, and piece of you resides;
Remember that within her and you a faith and love abides;
With no regard for circumstance, the "more" cannot be denied."
Be well,
Huckleberry
Post a Comment