My TMS Journey

I have started packing and am getting ready for this adventure - TMS treatments in a far off town where I know no one. I will be in a totally foreign place, staying in a stranger's home. I haven't slept well all week. I am pretty sure I am just anxious about what lies ahead. I leave in a few days now, and am in the throws of packing. What do I need to bring? What can I live without for a month? How much clothing do I bring? Not knowing the layout or much of anything about where I am staying except an address and google street view is hard. Obviously I am packing my devices, laptop, bedding, towels, laundry supplies, toiletries, medications, clothing and shoes but what else am I going to need? Am I going to need a fan? Will there be wifi? Cable? Will I be able to plug in my car to charge? Will there be air conditioning? I think of all the things I take for granted at home. What do I need as a minimum fora month away? I only have so much room in my car, will I have enough r

I am feeling pretty darn smiley today! Yesterday I found out where exactly I will be staying - I have an address. It looks quite lovely. It is about a 25 minute drive from the University in Richmond. Depending on what time of the day my appointments are, it could end up being a really great drive or a really crappy drive. The home itself is in what appears to be a nice newer but established neighbourhood. I am told that there is even air conditioning - this summer is expected to be a scorcher even in Vancouver! I am feeling so grateful and relieved. Grateful for a wonderful safe place to stay and relieved that I know where exactly I am staying (I've seen on google maps), and that I can start figuring out what I am going to need. I should be able to charge my electric car there too! It has a full kitchen and full bathroom so I can soak in the tub even. The anxiety of not having an address was really getting to me. It was hard to deal with and was clearly effecting my experien

Today I got my treatment start date of July 2nd and a family member tapped all of her resources to find me an affordable/doable place to stay in Richmond - I am so grateful. Even though the place to stay isn’t close to the hospital, I think that I can manage the drive. Hopefully treatment times will be during non rush-hour times each day. The waiting and not knowing when I could start my treatments and where I would stay had started stressing me out pushing me to a boiling point. The pressures of life are hard on everyone but I seem to be a particularly sensitive person - affected by the ups and downs and dramas, politics, the horrors in the news, and noise etc. Most days I feel like I am in a kind of war zone just trying to go about my business trying to survive. I sometimes feel like I got off on the wrong planet or at the wrong parallel universe or something. It makes things really hard for me and really hard for the people that love me. So, with the good news of a start date, a