When we first found out about Robert’s melanoma, we did what we had to do just to survive. I couldn’t begin to walk back into that scene and tell you how I was feeling at the time, or analyze it and tell you how we learned to cope. But I have a few suggestions for caregivers of newly diagnosed melanoma patients, stemming from my experience during those first few months.
Sometimes when I take a break from blogging it’s because I’m busy. That happened in February, for example, when we went to Asheville for almost a week and then my sister and brother-in-law came for a visit. My two-week lapse earlier this month was for another reason—during that time I spent a lot of energy and brainpower (such as it was) dealing with depression. I’m pulling out of it now, and I hope that writing about it will get me all the way there.
Those who have read my last few posts might have gotten an inkling this was going on—one about post-treatment stress disorder, one about my search for support resources, and last week’s post about scanxiety. I hope this will be the last in a series ...
Nearly five months ago I suspended my consulting and freelance business in the face of Robert’s then-impending surgery to remove a large melanoma from his scalp. I was too distracted, not to mention too busy with medical appointments and emotional upheaval, to concentrate on work, and I didn’t want to let any clients down by not meeting deadlines or by handing in sub-par assignments.
Now that the scare of a four- to eight-month prognosis is behind us and Robert’s status is “healthy” and “No Evidence of Disease,” the question comes up from time to time: am I “ready” to go back to work? And the answer is – NO!
I was inspired by my BNA colleague John Schappi’s blog, “Aging and Parkinson’s and Me,” to start this blog. Like John’s blog, mine will be a personal website where I will share what’s going on in my head – whether about the health topics that are raging in there right now; or website design and implementation using Drupal, an open-source content management system that is being employed to produce this website; or journalism, retirement, grandparenthood, or any other subject that pops in there from time to time.
