Sylvia's Journal

It was a night like the ones I remember, painfully, from early on in our recovery; a stop-and-go sort of night. I never slept more than 30 minutes before I woke up again and thus saw all hours of the night pass by. There wasn’t much room for elaborate dreams so there is nothing from which I can get some clues as to why this sleeplessness, except my determination to go to Cambridge twice in the coming week and do real work at home. I may not be quite as productive as I had planned today. After Abi’s massage, later this morning, I may find myself back in bed.

Yesterday I reached another milestone: I rode my bike to Quaker Meeting and back. That is a total of one hour on the bike. Axel had prepared himself for having to pick me up somewhere along the road. He does tend to underestimate my ability or he projects himself too much onto me. But it was too beautiful a day to take the car and I was ready to try it out. After all, I could ride the stationary bike at physical therapy without any trouble. I am glad I tried it. It was a joyous ride and it actually felt good; the repetitive motion seemed to lubricate my joints and the initial discomfort soon vanished. I did not even have to step off at the steep hill where Bridge Street crosses Masconomo Street. Actually, the hardest part of the trip was to put the bike away in the shed. It requires walking on very uneven grass. That’s where the deficient ankle hinges literally trip me up.

Maribeth showed up for lunch with a complete Thanksgiving meal. Having read about peasoup and pumpkin pie she took pity on us. She served us both a very full plate with all the trimmings, which we ate under her supervision. We have been cooking (for) ourselves for quite awhile now but this was a nice surprise. We had to go for a walk around the point to help with the digestion. It is great that we are sufficiently limber and fit to undertake such a walk now. The lack of cardio-vascular exercise and the good food we are eating have brought the pounds that we lost back on. We have to start paying attention to what we are eating and may have to fore go the ice cream that Sita is careful to replace as soon as the carton is empty. Or the whipped cream on the pumpkin pie.

In the evening we went to the St. Johns for an early dinner, armed with our own pretend-beer and pretend-wine. We had not seen each other in weeks and we had much catching up to as well as some progress to show off. We left when my yawning became too frequent. I had expected a good long sleep, going to bed at 9. Unfortunately, that part did not quite work out as planned. Still, I am determined this week to become a more active and visible part of the MSH workforce, both at home and in the Cambridge office.