The Writing and Photography Blog of Kevin J Sabo

Today was bitter sweet.

After nearly a year, I had my final appointment with the therapist from the local mental health unit. She is leaving the service as the end of next week, which has me sad. I had a good therapeutic relationship with her, and I feel that she did help me a lot. Unfortunately, her career is taking her elsewhere.

As sad as I am about the loss, I feel that we are parting ways while I am in a good spot. We reflected over the changes in me in the last year, and honestly, there are plenty. I’m more sure of myself. I’m able to handle more stress. I’m better able to discern the difference between having a bad day versus needing intervention.

Still, it is a loss, and I will miss our sessions.

With her leaving, and still no known replacement, I have decided to withdraw myself from the mental health unit’s services, at least for the time being. I am still connected with M in Red Deer, and we had an appointment last week. He is still willing to see me at a reduced rate, due to income, which is appreciated. He is going to follow up with me every four to six weeks over the summer and see how things go.

My days continue to be busy, on top of appointments.

After my appointment today I spent a good chunk pf the afternoon working on a fairly challenging article based on one of the meetings I covered last week. It covered subjects that I really haven’t covered before, and it was definitely a sensitive topic. I hope I did it it justice.

I also took some time out and did just over a mile and a half on the treadmill this afternoon. The legs is definitely back to working properly, which I am happy about. I’m still being careful not to push things too far, but I have been extending things a bit, and I’ve been managing to get a workout in everyday. The first few days of the routine felt like a chore, but a week in, it now is just part of my routine and I’m feeling better for it. I’m hoping I can keep the momentum.

My plan is to slowly build up my endurance until I get to the point where I am doing an hour a day. I know that if I move myself to that point slowly over the next two to three weeks I will have better likelihood of maintaining that goal, rather than burning out quickly. I’m still planning to re-introduce weights as well but my shoulder has been giving me grief again, and I just haven’t want to push myself too far too fast. I think that is what happened the last time I started getting into my routine.

It was just too much too fast, and I injured myself as a result. All told, it has been about a year since I maintained a regime regularly, and I de-conditioned a lot in that time, as well as gained quite a bit of weight. Still, I know I managed to knock a bunch of the weight off last time, and I know I can do it again.

As far as school goes, I have been neglecting my English Literature class. I’m going to have to find some time to start on it again sometime this week. Part of the reason it has been neglected is I was finishing off the last modules of my twentieth century history course, as well as preparing for the final exam, which I write in a week today. I am a little nervous about the exam, but considering things have been staying fairly consistent throughout my courses so far, I am trying not to stress out about it too much.

Fortunately, work has slowed down some this week, which is allowing me time to do some reading everyday. That said, I still have some articles to write from the craziness last week, as well as another interview later this week. Oh well, I am just grateful for the time I do have to review.

Thanks for following along,

Kevin