New routines... or not....

 SO far, retirement has been kind of busy!

We bought our hoped-for new car on Monday....WHEEE!  

It is a red, 2025 Toyota Rav 4 Hybrid.  There were only 4 in the Oklahoma City area that were not out of our price range (had WAY more bells and whistles than this one does),  and this one was the only one with the interior color Dave wanted.

We invested extra money in WeatherTech floor mats, and a dash cam, which was installed on Friday.

Both of us have been driving it, though Dave has driven it more, and we agree that adjusting to something SO MUCH bigger than our Ford Focus has been pretty easy!

I love that I can see everything around the vehicle, and that it sits up so much higher.

So, now we are starting to plan our road trip to Chicagoland!  YAY!

Hopefully, our auto case settlement money will come through soon, too, so we can have a little fun money for the trip.

I had my first NON-CHEMO treatment this past week.  The bone medication causes bone pain for sure, when administered on its own (without the usual dose of IV steroid that came with the chemo).  

The night of the second day was rough.... still having insomnia from the prednisone, and then that pain... yikes.

But, yesterday, the pain was gone, and now I know what to expect.   My next treatment isn't until Sept. 25th!

This coming week, I will have my follow up chest CT scan on Thursday, and the week after that, I will see the PA.  

THEN, I get a break from appointments!

In desperation, this past week, I messaged my doctor's office on MyChart and begged for mercy with this prednisone process.  

I told them that I have not slept more than a few hours a night since the beginning, in mid-July, and that the doctor had let me taper off more quickly near the end the last time we did this.

They replied that, YES, I could reduce my dose more quickly, over fewer days, and I started that process a few days ago.... and the night before last, I FINALLY SLEPT!

It was strange to sleep "normally," after so long, and I actually had kind of a "sleep hang over" yesterday.

BUT then, last night, I was back to being awake from about midnight to about 6 am... ugh.   HOPEFULLY, though, that will end very, very soon!

Today, I will take my last dose of 10mg, and they told me to just skip the final tapering days of 5 mg.

GLADLY!

In other news, I have registered for another course in Pagan spirituality, and look forward to getting started on it.

I need some kind of routine in my life, and having that to focus on will help me to get started with that.

There will be volunteering somewhere, eventually, too...just.... not yet.  I need time to decompress, and get to know myself again.

We never really got much of a break from the heat over the past week, but now they're saying maybe this coming week.

We shall see! 

Wishing you a good week!