I have a love/hate relationship with articles on change

I think that change needs to be viewed as a good thing but sometimes it can be difficult to accept. So this doctor wants to rethink how older cancer patients are treated. Well, it sounds reasonable and probably represents some kind of progress medically and a way of reducing costs while increasing quality of life.

But (of course there is a But here), what if you received the older course of treatment? What do you think now? In this case, do you feel you were over treated and put through unnecessary stress and costs? This is just one example. What if they changed the protocols for the chemo therapy you had? Do you feel over or under treated? I think the chemo regimen I underwent three years ago has since been tweaked and is similar but not the same. I am okay with that. But what if it had been completely thrown out and redone? How comfortable would I be then?

The road to hell (and a nervous breakdown) is paved with regrets and what ifs. I think that we can't allow ourselves to wonder what if we had a different course of treatment?

The current standard follow up for thyroid cancer includes full body scans and thyroid ultrasounds every few years. This was not the case back when I last saw an endocrinologist so when I went back to an endocrinologist this year she sent me for an ultrasound where I received less than stellar results. If I had kept my mouth shut about seeing an endocrinologist, would I feel better now but could it have had long term implications?

I think I need to keep thinking that change is a good thing and will help me in the long run.

We are in the middle of a heat wave here. Monday we went sailing to hide from the heat - the whole family except my brother in law. Yesterday we went to the beach in the morning - my brother and three kids. Last night, we installed the air conditioner (with lots of accompanied swearing - move out of the way damn it) and slept in a downstairs room in air conditioned comfort. (The cat slept on my pillow in front of the AC.) This will be repeated until the weather cools.

I am about to go for a walk before it gets too hot. Then I will do some work in my 'summer office' - the finished basement room which is nice and cool. We live outside Boston where many people do not have AC simply because usually at night the temperature rarely stays about 70 so its good sleeping weather. In this heat wave, it is in the low 80's when we get up and reached 100 yesterday. So basically I will go live in the cave of our basement today.