Lately I keep facing this choice. Will today be a breast-cancer day or a regular day? Some days I don’t have appointments, feel all right, don’t do research or talk to other people in the cancer world, read novels, and get my “regular work” done. Other days I look things up online, let myself explore new Web sites that might hold useful information of one sort or another, read cancer-related books (see “bibliotherapy: sick”), talk to other people facing what I’m facing, make or go to appointments, and/or feel bad. And I am never quite sure which day I’m going to have, at least on a non-appointment day. Sometimes I get sucked in, sometimes I resist, other times I tell myself it’s useful and helpful to just go with the flow and follow my impulses as to what the spend my time on. I guess my goal is to prioritize the important breast-cancer stuff while not becoming a full-time obsessive breast-cancer junkie; and meanwhile, to get the “regular work” done on a reasonable schedule. All while not stressing out about either one.

Talking to others is useful. I don’t have an official in-person support group, because I haven’t felt the need of one. But instead I have breast-cancer friends I feel I can talk to, and sometimes whom I feel I can support. That is a good feeling, and one I don’t usually push away to another day.