My husband has exercise classes, physical therapy, speech therapy, dental and vision appointments, when do I have time to schedule them all? And what about my appointments? I need to see my doctor, I need to get my teeth cleaned and my eyes checked, but when? The car is overdue for an oil change, it’s time to have our furnace serviced, trees and shrubs outside need to be trimmed? The cat needs to go to the vet for her annual check-up? You have got to be kidding!

We have multiple calendars in our house, our primary one hangs on the kitchen wall. I update it regularly and it helps keep me sane. My husband and I both have calendars on our cell phones that I work to keep updated too. It’s an ongoing challenge. Just this past week I finally had to tell him that I can’t do any more right now, and then I feel the guilt of not doing enough. We both have to accept that until something changes, we are fully booked for the next month at least.

I honestly don’t know what the answer is. I prioritize activities he does to fight back against his diagnosis. I know he must do these things to stay healthy, yet there also needs to be time for other necessary chores. My “to do” list gets longer and becomes my “not now” list. As long as these extra tasks are on list somewhere, I guess that’s better than forgetting them altogether. Maybe they’ll get scheduled somewhere sometime, until then they just need to wait.