So Far So Good

Well, I am two days out from the first chemo and things are feeling almost normal. The anti-nausea and steroid drugs they gave me should be out of my system now and I am on my own with my personal array of goodies to help make things go smoother. Speaking of smoother it might be time for Milk of Magnesia. One side effect can be constipation and both my sister and a friend's son had BIG trouble with that so I really try to stay on top of things in that area.

I had another serendipitous experience yesterday. There is a woman in Nederland who does Mindfullness Meditation training, the same program I learned at UMass a few years ago but didn't keep up with the practice. I thought this might give me a jump start back into have conversations with my body. I gave Lisa a call and we talked quite a bit about our backgrounds. She is an artist (paint and photography), art therapist (something I wanted to major in in college but that didn't work out - another story), took her training with Jon Kabat-Zinn and Santi Santarelli.

Kabat-Zinn developed this program for people with chronic pain and illness at UMass in 1979. He backed up eastern practices with western science to give it more substance for western medicine. You know how they like their data. It has since grown into stress reduction and totally broadened its scope. When Jon moved on Santi took over than program. He was one of my instructors. I never thought I'd be using it now do help my ailing body and immune system (I was only trying to stop clenching my teeth) but life always has surprises we don't expect.

So back to Lisa. The program she had scheduled at the Tadasana Yoga Studio in Ned didn't have enough folks to make a go of it but she plans to offer something in Boulder in the near future. I am thinking that I may also do a session or two on mindfull painting so I can combine that relaxed state  with my art and really paint from my soul.