Learning new things

Everybody (or at least it seems like everybody) has a new mobile device. Our daughter Simmie and I were the only holdouts I knew. I still have the BlackBerry Pfizer had provided me: they told me I could keep it, but I never signed up for service on my own. Barry has a BlackBerry from Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Together we have for some years owned a small cell phone that does nothing but make phone calls and which I virtually never turn on. But for many months now the pressure has been mounting to join the 21^st Century and be more reachable. In addition, my continued struggle with short term memory may be alleviated by having more necessary information literally at my fingertips. So finally, Barry and I went to a Verizon store and purchased a Galaxy Note II. Barry had spent a fair amount of time reading about the various options and had determined that this was the best combination of a reasonably sized device with the largest possible touchpad/screen, which I definitely need. It also comes with an optional stylus so does not require quite the level of manual dexterity that some of the other such devices do.

If I am being very honest with myself, I believe the reason for my reticence towards this purchase was my concern about my ability to learn how to use it. I got off to a bad start because I could not remember the password for my Gmail account. I only set up that account in the months after buying the new laptop, and I have not logged in from any other computer, so I haven’t had to call it up from the deeper recesses of my memory. Fortunately, some months ago I spent time putting together a spreadsheet that has the login and password information for all of our on-line accounts; the Excel document is on my laptop but is, I suppose you could say ironically, password protected! Long story short I remembered that password (to be fair, I do have it written down) and was able to find the password for the Gmail account. And something absolutely miraculous occurred: all the hours I spent reestablishing my life in Gmail after years in Microsoft Outlook (Pfizer) and Yahoo paid off, and in mere seconds my entire contact list and calendar appeared on my new smart phone!

I doubt I will ever learn to take advantage of all the bells and whistles on this device. But at least I have a good way of carrying around the information I need (assuming I can remember how to find it), particularly since my short term memory is still not doing as well as I would like. I have continued “playing koi” on Lumosity, and finally got to the next level where I suspect I will be for quite a long time. Tomorrow I will meet with Heidi Bender (neuropsychologist) for my first real session of cognitive therapy.

Some months ago, with Barry’s encouragement (and willingness to drive me there and back), I signed up for a course at the 92^nd Street Y in Manhattan. The course, “An Introduction to the Orchestral Music of Haydn and Mozart,” is part of a series of courses called “The World of Music,” which is described as

Join those who share a deep love of music in an environment where familiar masterpieces are made fresh and lesser known artists and masterworks become familiar. Each semester is devoted to a new topic, such as Mozart’s tumultuous career, the rise of Modernism or the history of American jazz.

The first session is next Tuesday. I am sure I will enjoy these lectures but my main concern is that Barry will come to pick me up and ask “what did you learn today?” and I, of course, will not remember. It occurs to me that I could jot down notes on my new Galaxy Note II - but only if I can figure out and then remember how to do that!

Those of you reading this may be wondering why I am suddenly talking about this memory issue so much. Maybe it is not so difficult to understand. In the early days and weeks after the diagnosis, the focus was, rightly, on simple survival against the cancer and the treatment. Then came a long period of focus on regaining strength: just walking up a flight of stairs or staying awake during a movie was a challenge. Now I am trying to rebuild my life. Notice I don’t say “go back to where I left off.” I understand that I can never turn back the clock; I have to build something new. But those efforts are more challenging in the face of the deficits. I guess you could say there was enough damage to leave me impaired, but (thankfully) not enough to leave me unaware of the extent of my impairment. Of course that is a very good thing, particularly for Barry and our two generations of offspring. I would be less than honest if I did not admit that I wake up every morning hoping to find this was all a bad dream, hoping to sit down with the newspaper or a scientific paper and read and understand it. But I try not to let those thoughts dominate my thinking all day long, so I will leave this topic before I do.

I just realized that I failed to report back on last weekend. It was wonderful! We had a quiet dinner on Friday evening. On Saturday, Eliana came over for lunch after synagogue, and stayed until after Sabbath ended. We read books and played games and talked: Eliana always has a lot to say (she even likes to talk endlessly on the telephone with us and her other grandparents). Then on Sunday morning Joshua and Ella came over for breakfast of French toast made with the leftover raisin challah from Sabbath. We spent some time showing them Lumosity – I have to say they caught on very quickly to the games, and enjoyed it so much that we decided to go ahead and buy a second membership for the grandchildren (primarily to enable me to use mine to keep track of my scores). Joshua had a birthday party to attend so had to leave around 10 but Ella stayed until noon, when she (and Eliana) went to a birthday party. When they left, Maya came over. Barry was curious to see how Maya would do with Lumosity, and I have to say she was quite impressive, catching on to the games very quickly and handling the mouse with ease and skill. She will likely be reading in the not too distant future which will open up many more of the games. If I have any problems with my new Galaxy II I probably need only call our grandchildren for help!

We are headed back into the City this afternoon, and are hoping, before my session, to make the stop at Trader Joe’s that we had to forego yesterday since we ended up spending more time than planned at the Verizon store. So I will sign off for now, and look forward to hearing from you all, or as my Texas friends would say, y’all.

Be well and stay warm!

Love,

Rebecca

Posting comments on the blog

How to Post Comments on the Blog:

Scroll down to the end of the post, where you will see a white box that says:

Posted by Rebecca Rosenstein at 4:02 PM  1 comment:  

 
(or how ever many comments there have been so far) followed by a bunch of icons allowing you to share on Facebook, etc.
 
Click on “1 comment” and you will be taken to the end of the posting where there will be a blank white box labelled "Post a Comment." Type in your comment and then press “Publish.”

My readers and I look forward to hearing from you!

Feeling connected to the new administration

Two vignettes regarding our "connection" of sorts to President Obama's second term.

#1. If you've been following the news of President Obama's nominee for Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, you know that he held various positions during the Clinton administration and returned to Washington D.C. when Barak Obama was elected, serving in various positions during his first term. During the Bush II years Jack and his family lived in Riverdale, and although I rather doubt they remember this, we actually had them at our house for a Sabbath meal shortly after they moved in, and saw them frequently at synagogue before we became grandparents and started spending many weekends and virtually all Jewish holidays in Sharon. I have to say, looking back, that I probably never quite realized just how high up he was, even then, because what I primarily recall is that he was a really nice and down-to-earth guy. I'm sure he has many fans like us everywhere he's lived and worked.

#2. Also in the news has been a lot of discussion about Michelle Obama's new hairstyle. Part of me finds this rather demeaning: she is, after all, a very bright and accomplished woman in her own right, and I find it a bit disconcerting that so much attention is being given to how she wears her hair (I might make the same comment about Hilary Clinton). But perhaps what is really bugging me are those bangs. I've worn bangs for most of my life because I have a rather high forehead. But for reasons I don't quite understand, the front part of my hair is not growing back very well, so my "bangs," such as they are, are very short. So I want to say to all those who are making a big deal about our First Lady's new hair style that we should all be grateful that she is healthy and can wear her hair however she likes!

Have a good week, all!

Love,

Rebecca

BRRRRRRR!

Baby, it's cold outside! So we are just staying in, cozy warm in our Sharon apartment. We have arranged for the children to come over to our apartment one at a time throughout the weekend. We find it is the best way to have real quality time with them. You could say we are a bit selfish – when they are all together they tend to get wrapped up in each other. That is fun to watch, but when there is just one of them and the two of us, we not only have the opportunity to spoil them but also to really interact with them.

We have now booked our flights and hotel for the trip with Joshua to Disney World in June. Joshua has an email account, and Barry sent him all the information the arrangements and links to WDW. And Joshua responded like the fabulous little man he is, with three words: I LOVE YOU. Simply priceless.

I feel as if I’ve been busy but we haven’t even seen any films in the past few weeks! Every day I have been doing the “homework” given to me by the Heidi Bender, my neuropsychologist: an electronic “game” called Lumosity. The main game Heidi recommended is called “Playing Koi” (I always appreciate a good play on words). In the first round, there are, depending on what level you have achieved, a number of identical fish swimming around. What you have to do is to click on each fish once and only once. But there is a delay between clicks, so that you have to be watching all of the fish as they swim randomly around the pond. You are only allowed the number of clicks that there are fish, so if you click in error on the same fish twice you cannot get a perfect score. Each time you correctly click on all the unique fish, the next round begins with an additional fish. I do fine with 5 fish, get it most of the time with 6 fish, but once it gets to 7 fish I just cannot keep track of them. You can actually go to www.lumocity.com and sign up for a free trial to see what these games are about. Will it help? I don’t know, but it makes me feel like I am doing something to wake up the parts of my brain that need reawakening, and that can never be a bad thing.

I need to sign off now, but I do hope that once I “post” this at least some of you will see and read it. I will keep working on trying to understand how blogger works.

Have a nice weekend and stay warm!

Love,

Rebecca

 

 

Dear Readers,

I think I've made some real progress on figuring out how to sign up to receive notices of blog updates. Barry tried this and it worked.

When you go on the blog, you will see in the upper right hand corner a box that says

FOLLOW BY EMAIL: TO RECEIVE POSTS, PLEASE ENTER YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS HERE AND CLICK "SUBMIT"

Type your email address in that box and click the "Submit" button next to it. You will then be asked to read and enter a cryptic word (this prevents someone from setting up some sort of automatic thing that would add millions of useless e-mail addresses). After that, you should receive e-mail notices when I have updated the blog.

So now I just have to find something useful to say, and once I know this notification is working, I can go back to trying to spruce up the blog a bit.

Thanks for indulging me as I learn all this!

Love,

Rebecca

Need some help

Can any of you provide a quick primer to folks on how to sign up for this blog? Is there something that I need to do?

I think I need to be about 50 years younger than I am to make any sense of this!

Thanks!

A new year, a new blog.....

In May of last year, while still in the midst of an intensive chemotherapy regimen for treatment of the primary central nervous system lymphoma which had been diagnosed in early April, I was fortunate to learn through one of my husband’s students (residents in Radiation Oncology) of a website called Caring Bridge. This website has provided a wonderful source of communication and support throughout the period of my treatment. Now that I am “in remission,” it seems time to move beyond, and hence this new blog is being born. But before getting started, I wanted to look back on the history of Caring Bridge, and was amazed to read the following:

 Founder Sona Mehring shares her story

In 1997, good friends of mine had a pre-mature baby. They asked me to let everyone know what was happening. Instead of making emotional and time draining phone calls, I created a website. In fact, the same night their baby Brighid was born the first CaringBridge site was started.

CaringBridge instantly became a connection point in ways that were extremely personal and powerful for everyone. The site allowed family members to communicate information to a wide circle of people. They posted daily journal entries and the guestbook enabled visitors to send the family messages of love and encouragement.

Some of you are aware that our daughter Simmie was born in 1977 at 28 weeks gestation, weighing 1090 grams, or 2 lbs. 7 oz. In 1977, 28 weeks was on the cutting edge of the capabilities of neonatology, so this “connection” to Sona Mehring resonated deeply for me. In 1977, there were no personal computers, no e-mail, and long distance phone calls were expensive, even if you waited for the “discount hours” late at night. How wonderful it would have been to be able to easily communicate Simmie’s daily weight and progress and have friends share prayers for her and cheer her growth.

Although there was no internet in 1977, we were extremely fortunate be living near and affiliated with the University of Rochester Medical Center. Barry and I had met as undergraduates at the U of R, and Barry was pursuing his PhD in the Department of Radiation Biology and Biophysics. The neonatal unit at Strong was outstanding, with pioneering and caring staff. And now, we are extremely fortunate to be living near and affiliated with Mount Sinai Hospital and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (Barry teaches Radiation and Cancer Biology in the Radiation Oncology residency programs of those along with New York University, Cornell, State University of New York/Downstate, and Montefiore/Einstein). When I was diagnosed with a relatively rare tumor, it was clear that MSKCC was the place to be.

Many, if not all, of you who are reading this have been following my posts on Caring Bridge. As I approach the one year anniversary of my diagnosis, it is time to “graduate” from that site and set up my own blog. The neurons in my brain are still not firing at 100%, so it will be something of a challenge to fully learn how to use this tool. I hope you will all be patient with me as I navigate my way through it. I look forward to getting back to reviews of films and other cultural events, and to continuing to hear from all of you.

Wish me luck! I hope this will work!

Love,

Rebecca