On Cruise Control

Things are going pretty smoothly for now. My dad's been doing two hours of physical therapy every day: one hour in the morning and one in the afternoon. Last week he was getting two hours of therapy in the morning, which left him pretty exhausted by the afternoon. Last Wednesday or so he had a visitor but was so tired from the therapy that, unfortunately, he had to stay in bed. For the most part he's doing well with just some momentary lapses. For example, I played in a jazz band last Saturday and was able to bring my dad to the concert. However, I noticed with a twinge that when he applauded, the applause wasn't as ear-splittingly powerful as it's been my whole life. He always managed to hit his hands together in that sweet spot that gave maximum volume for minimum effort; it's a clap I've been working 29 years to perfect. My dad's applause, though, besides being quiter than I'm used to, went on amusingly long. I'm still glad he got to get out and come to my jazz concert, though. Tomorrow we have our last meeting with the radiation oncologist for a while. I guess after tomorrow, we'll meet with him again in three months to assess the efficacy of the radiation treatment. Three months seems excruciatingly long to me, but I guess this will be a good exercise in patience and living in the moment.