Everyday rituals and recording our treatment

[HazelAustralia]

I am still looking at the wall calendar I made for my 84 days, where I drew a big red "X" through each day as I took my pills. I can't take it down for some reason, even though I'll be going for my SVR24 (!!!) labs later this month. It's like I have to keep reminding itself that it's true...

I laughed when I read this KimInTheForest (what kind of forest is it by the way?).

I wanted to write about my set-up for taking and recording my treatment, but I didn't want to hijack that fabulous thread of post-treatment positivity.

I have set up a slightly obsessive desk space with my folder with all contacts, contracts, info etc on the right; the waterproof folio they gave me, laid out in the centre as a kind of pill-pad where I punch the pills onto; the month's box of Vielira Pak with the individual weeks boxes inside it, to the back left; the month's riboviron bottle to the centre right; my special Jurlique Caledula redness mist for skin sensitivity (great for itchiness or I sometimes get a burning feeling under my skin) to the left; sunscreen (to remind me to use it each morning) and a pen. Nothing else goes on this desk. The cat has tried once, and not again!

At 7.30am I take a new Vikiera blister pack and write the day and date on the front then pop out the three pills, and add a bright blue riboviron  (this has really put me off that colour) . At 7.30pm after taking the night dose, I throw the blister pack into a brown paper shopping bag on the floor to the right of the desk. I cannot throw them out! I really want and need that record! I threw out the first few and it felt - wrong. Somehow, the whole bag of dated pill packs feel like a much more accurate and important record of my treatment than any diary entries. Human beings, life, death and ritual, hey?

Do other people have a special set-up for taking or recording their treatment? I mean these kind of skeleton, private, everyday, set-ups, rather than more elaborate (and fantastically useful ones) like blogs?

[HazelAustralia]

(Only the top part was a quote from KimInTheForest - not sure why it all came out as a quote).
Best,
Hazel

[KimInTheForest]

Hi Hazel! As for 'what kind of forest' is KimInTheForest... In Five Element Theory (the 2,500-year-old underpinning of Traditional Chinese Medicine), the forest is the planet's liver because the liver's element is wood and its colour is green. (Rivers and oceans are the planet's kidneys, earth the spleen, minerals in rock the lungs, and fire is the planet's heart). That's how I came to choose my handle here on the forums. I began studying Five Element Theory and Taoist metaphysics 19 years ago as part of my martial arts and healing practice, which I began shortly after being diagnosed with Hep C.

kim

[HazelAustralia]

Wow! That's really interesting KimInTheForest!

[KimInTheForest]

I believe that spending time in the forest is very healing to the liver because we are essentially inside a vast matrix of healthy liver energy - we are inside the planet's liver when we are in a forest. So that was also the reason for my handle here.

Five Element Theory also involves a cycle of creation and a cycle of control. In the cycle of creation, Water (Kidney Qi/energy) creates Wood (Liver Qi/energy). Maybe this ties in with why it is so important to drink plenty of water during treatment... to "create" the new liver.

I seem to be hijacking your thread, Hazel, with a very different conversation.

kim

[Philadelphia]

I blogged virtually everything. That was my ritual.

[BillT]

I set my alarm clock for my morning meds. I can't wait to get back to trying to sleep until the crack of noon.

[HazelAustralia]

So now you can Bill!
zzzzzz