Resilience

Meagan's ability to bounce back from bad news is really remarkable. After a tumultuous day on Thursday, yesterday she was pretty calm and serene. She hasn't altered the current facts to suit her needs (as she has done sometimes in the past, when she would take the tiniest bit of hope and expand that to be the "base case"), rather, she is accepting where she is right now, and focusing on the present. She was able to use her computer and start arranging a few get-togethers, and that always gives her something to look forward to and a sense of accomplishment, even though it takes quite a while for her to write even a short email. We are shooting for going up to our place at Decatur Island next Thursday to Sunday, assuming everything goes well with the surgery on Monday and she is feeling up to it. She really wants to be up there  - she loves it in the Fall and it would be a good getaway before starting chemo.

After a relatively slow start to the day, which is understandable, for most of Friday she was alert, lucid (a point she queried me on several times), and energetic. By around 4pm though she started to fade a bit, and cognitive capabilities diminished somewhat until bedtime. Probably just being tired, as she had no nap, rather than delayed onset of brain radiation side effects. We'll see how she is over the weekend - we have no plans and will go at her pace. Her knee is still bothering her from her falls of several weeks ago - so I've been icing the right one several times per day (which she truly HATES - this woman does not like cold) and giving her ibuprofen regularly. Walking is definitely out, and she is not too happy about that.