Sylvia's Journal

More freedom yesterday. My orthopod released me from my booth. And better, he told me from now on I get to decide whatever I want to do. Yes, he really said that (so I had ice cream AND chocolate after dinner). The really big development is that I drove the car. Not my Bluebaru (it went to Canada with Tessa) but the silver one with the oil leaks and a thousand other costly defects. The one we had signed over to Jim, thinking at the time we would never drive again. At least it felt that way. But yesterday, at the end of week 11 post-crash I drove the car into town to the supermarket. I shopped all by myself (‘please put the heavy stuff in the left bag and keep the right bag real light’), and then brought the goodies home. You cannot imagine the sense of freedom and power. I no longer have to ask someone to get me something. I can get it myself. I also can drive myself to nearby appointments, and will start doing so today.

I had offered to drive Axel to Salem in the evening to get his scan but Sita would not let me. She wants me to drive only short distances for now. “What if your foot gets tired and you cannot brake in time?” The last thing we want is another crash. But my foot did not get tired driving into Manchester and back. It was a remarkable and exhilarating experience.

It took Axel most of yesterday, some real serious pain meds and stretches once an hour to get through his pain. Abi’s expert massage set him off on the right path and the day ended OK. His third night of freedom was, as he told me cheerily this morning, “a hundred percent improvement.” We have both had our experiences with these occasional bad days and/or nights and we are learning that ‘biting through’ gets us to the end which invariably arrives, sooner or later.

My massage has moved out of the light post trauma touch into deep and hard muscle work. There are a thousands knots in my body and Abi has set to work to get them out.
My office, aside from being the sickroom before Axel got home, now also serves as the massage room and occasionally as the exercise room. But most of the time it is my office again and real work is getting done there. I ‘attended’ MSH’s quarterly staff meeting via webinar with colleagues from around the world. It is such an amazing thing that we can be together while so far apart. Working from Manchester-by-the-Sea is not a big deal when you have colleagues who work from Rwanda, Ethiopia, South Africa, Nicaragua, Ghana, Malawi and many other places. Just another person calling in from an exotic place!

We planted grass on the dead spot where the ramp had been just in time before the rains arrived. Today, for the first time in weeks we cannot see the Cove out of our window, or the reflection of the rising sun on the Putnam’s windows. It will be a day for indoor chores and work. I am slowly rearranging the house into its former self, returning stuff to where it came from or throwing it out.

Last night I got busy reassembling my flight bag. I have replaced the headsets that belonged to the Beverly Flight Center which I had borrowed on that fateful day. I have been busy bidding on them on E-bay. Axel and Jim, on their way to Salem Hospital for Axel’s scan picked up the third headset, which will be my own, from an E-bay seller who happens to live in Salem. I am still missing items from my flight bag and I am rather obsessed with getting it to be ‘just like it was.’ Clearly, with the driving, something else is coming into view, my first flight.