That was fast! Filling My Time In the Next Lull

I really didn’t expect the test results the very next day.  And to get the 'second best good news' was just so emotional for me.  The 'first best good news' would be ... "Oh sorry, we got it wrong. No cancer!"  I guess that never happens.

He is scheduled to see the Radiology Oncologist on August 27.  His Chemotherapy Oncologist will see us the next day.  These are informational appointments - not treatments.  It is so hard to wait. I am so ready to get this treatment plan scheduled and initiated, ... another wait ... 11 days more waiting.

I have a feeling that I should stop wishing things to move faster and enjoy this quiet gap in time.  We have the diagnosis and it is as limited as we could hope for.  Curing it might be rocky.  So just cool your jets, lady. The fight is coming. Direct your energies elsewhere for now.

***

Last year I began to drown in medical appointments, testing and details for myself.  My planner in 2023 was a small monthly one and woefully inadequate.  Too much information to hold on to and not enough “planner real-estate” to save them.

Then I discovered the Laurel Dennis line of planners. They have very pretty covers. No decorations inside but enough flexible organization to manage any amount of information.  

It was huge when it was open.  Bigger than I had ever had before. And I loved it.  Lots of space to track appointments, to-do lists, reading lists, shopping lists, my lab tracking, just everything.  The monthly calendar and the weekly calendar were in a single open layout.  I got sucked into decorating - which is a very big deal with most of the customers.  Facebook groups shared the most amazing layouts. I bought stickers and labels and special pens and high lighters and went to town. Below shows my winter theme.  Sorry the pictures aren’t great.  I am out of practice.

Every month I spent time populating the calendar details and decorating.  But by June I realized I was over decorating.  Took too much time.  Random tracking lists were too much and really not a priority  - just too much of everything. I needed just the basics and I had the Encyclopedia Britannica of Planners. I was done.  It was a phase.  (Just a note: Laurel Dennis is an exceptional planner if you want to track more than the basics.  And they have lots of good ideas they share on their YouTube Channel and Facebook Group.  So check them out.)

Then this summer my husband got his diagnosis.  I could anticipate far more appointments and medical details tracking.  I realized pretty quick this book was too big to carry with me.  It really is a desk model.  

Time to start shopping for a new planner - one that was 17 months - August 2024 through December 2025.  I didn’t want to wait until January to switch over. I didn’t want a plain-Jane planner with no style or color, but some planners go crazy in the opposite direction -  filled with a riot of color on every page, and lists for a ton of things.  I needed to have a monthly spread and a weekly spread only and cover  with some color would be nice. A middle of the road kind of planner.

I settled on Rifle Paper Company.  The size is 8”x10” which is a more manageable size that will be easy to take with me but still be big enough to have space to write. It has an attractive hard cover which is nice if you like to attach pen holders like I do.  I like erasable pens and erasable highlighters.  My life and priorities change just too much for permanent anything.  

It has the typical monthly spread.  I consider this to be a high level look at the month.  The weekly spread is the detailed look.  The decorations at the top of both pages - I added.  I have a life time supply of stickers after my Laurel Dennis experience, so they will show up here and there in my planner, but not enough to be distracting.

The weekly spread below is the first week - and I started in the middle of the week so that is why the first three days look sparse.  The right side (Thursday - Sunday) is typical.  And I move stuff around that doesn’t get done - hence the erasable pens. I also like that each day has 2 columns of check off boxes.  So the first column are the to-dos and appointments and the second column is my habit tracking.

The interior of the calendar is all basic black ink on cream color paper with ink sketches that separate the sections.

I think this calendar is going to work.  And I am so glad to be free of the monthly decorating.  I am more of a functional planner - no journaling, no blow-your-mind decorating, no goal listing, no list of books or movies or recipes ... just appointments and to-dos ... and a sincere hope to keep stuff straight.

Next time ... my search for an adequate tote.