I do not usually make New Year’s Resolutions but I do like to think about my goals for the year. Lately I have been thinking about what I want to accomplish, not only because of the new year but also because I have just completed treatment for my brain tumor. I’ll give a full medical status update in the next day or so. I am so much more fortunate than most brain tumor patients. I did have to stop work on my doctoral program but I have started to take graduate level classes at UNA again (one at a time). I have continued to work throughout treatments and am now consulting and also working part-time as a Clinical Assistant for a few classes each semester at UNA. I am hoping that in the next month or so my feelings of fatigue will level out and I will settle in to what they call the “new normal.”
One thing that I want to continue to do is to push myself both mentally and physically. My doctors have encouraged this. I will feel better and I am likely to have my intellectual abilities last longer, and to be able to compensate better, the more I use my brain for these types of activities. I am also planning for continuing my career, because I am trusting God that I will be around for many more years.
A second thing that I plan to strive for is for those times when fatigue or otherwise not feeling well causes me to need to take some time to just give myself a break. I want to remind myself that there is no need to feel guilty when I can’t manage to get everything done that I want to do all the time. I will need to take breaks and I give myself permission to do that without guilt.
I, of course, want to lose some weight and exercise more but there is absolutely no way that I’m sharing specific numbers with everyone! The main thing is that I want to spend lots of time with my family and loved ones this year and to end the year healthier and stronger than I am now.
