It's happened. I've just wrapped up my first week of full-time hours; my first full month back in the office. As with every part of my journey, I've relied heavily on my mentors and teachers to get me through.
Going back to work has been a huge adjustment. While my energy is pretty good overall, the first few weeks I found myself completely wiped out by Friday night. This week, isn't quite as bad and that's quite impressive considering one late night when the girls and I went to see a movie and two nights of restless sleep.
Kelly and Marion, as always, have been incredibly supportive. Deb B spend countless hours the first week getting me set up with computer access and in general hooked up with the IT group. The rest of my team: Julie, Bob, Kathy, Mike, Socrates, Jon and Shawn have all be extremely helpful and exceptionally patient as I tackle new projects and play catch-up. Bob is setting up another session with me to go over some our training goals and guidelines. He's our project manager and has been infinitely patient with my myriad questions and occasional bumbling. He put it very succinctly today when he said "You must feel like Rip Van Winkle." And it is true; by times I feel like I'm still wearing hoop skirts while the rest of the team is operating flying cars.
In general my return to work has been quite smooth. And I owe it to a wonderful team, an excellent group at the call center and wonderful peers in other departments. I'm very lucky.
With all that said, I am looking forward to my first long weekend. It's amazing how much more important weekends become when you're working every other day. I'm planning strawberry picking with the girls, some hiking with my boys (Rob and Cole) and probably visiting the local farmer's market.
I'm still waiting for a date for reconstructive surgery. The plastic surgeon was only given two surgery dates all summer and these are being reserved for emergency surgeries. Meanwhile, I have a follow-up appointment with the surgeon who did my mastectomy on August 2. I can't believe it is more than a year since I finished my final chemo and almost a year since I had surgery.
