Mayo apts. with Jessica and Dr. Flanagan, Spanish class, diamond painting

October 2, 2023:

Meds at 7:45am this morning, with lemon and peaches & cream yogurts. We’re gonna go down to Mayo today, first to see Jessica, and then to see Dr. Flanagan. We have a lot of questions. Ok, now I’m starting this on the drive back from Mayo. This morning, before we left for Mayo, I called the JCC about setting up a training session with Chloe. They told me just to email her, and I did that. We’ve got one set up now, for the 6th. So on the way down to Mayo, I drove. I know I was grateful for my sunglasses, which kept me headache-free. On the way down, we listened to the audiobook of Four Winds, the book that mom had shown me the other day. Then, we got down there and I met with Jessica first thing. During that session, we talked about defining “medical Anya” versus just “Anya.” She said that the list of things that define “Anya” should be longer than the list for “medical Anya.” She also gave me some suggestions for planning my medications, that would hopefully allow me to have my life be less structured by the medications, a medical issue. The plan is kind of to take them in the morning at like 7 or 8, and then plan to not eat after 7pm so I can take them at night around 9pm. I didn’t say this to her, but at the end of the session, it also occurred to me that I simply might not be qualified to do the kind of job that would offer me health insurance yet. I kind of feel like accepting that thought might be “accepting the brain injury.”

After Jessica, we drove over to meet with Dr. Flanagan. That was a very productive session. Basically, he said that my MRIs had shown a “slight worsening” in the cancer. He also called my hematology people, and Dr. Go said that I should go up on my medication and take two pills in the morning and also in the night. He said that the Lexapro to Wellbutrin change might have actually helped me. Oh, and the other medication change was that he gave me a prescription for Zofran to deal with my nausea, and said he that there is no limit to taking it only two times in a day, like we'd thought. He said that they’re gonna ask for a brain MRI, possibly in Minneapolis, too. And then, after that appointment, I decided to have Papa drive back, not me, just so I could go over my notes from seeing Jessica and Dr. Flanagan. And now I can write this too! I’m also gonna go to my night Spanish class, even though I’m gonna be like half an hour late because the Flanagan appointment took a little bit of time.

Ok so I went to the Spanish class and it was great. It was Spanish 4 and it was wayyyy more my level than the Spanish 3 class had been. It actually had the same teacher as my past class, who I know pretty well. I even told her at the end of it that the Spanish 4 felt like it was more my level. There were also way more people in the class than in the past ones, and I felt like there was a chance I could get to know some of them in the future. I sat next to a girl named Alisa in the first group I was in, when I first walked in, and then I was partnered with a guy named Carl who I didn’t talk to very much. I also used one of my extra BeReals from today at the end of the class, and that’s the photo I have in here.

After class, Papa picked me up in my car, and I went home and had my meds, and decided to do a bit of diamond painting. I had my meds at 8pm with some pieces of Lunds fried chicken. Doing the diamond painting also made me think about the fact that I had forgotten to thank Jessica for suggesting diamond painting as an activity during our therapy session. I meant to do that, but oh well, maybe in a future week. I also decided that for the next diamond painting I buy, I should try to avoid having large sections of only one color, the way this one does. That’s because filling inches and inches with tiny gems of one color is just boring.

Oh, and late at night, I also set up a time to see Hannah this week on Wednesday. She suggested going to the book store, and I asked Talia if she was working on Wednesday, and she is, so I think we’ll try going to Half Price Books.

Today, I’m grateful for my medical team, and also for the audio book I was listening to in the car. On the way back, I realized I was a little confused, so we rewound it way back and starting listening to like half of it again. That was very useful, because even though I’d listened to some of it hours ago, I didn’t remember it.