Sylvia's Journal

The nights have become restful again and largely uninterrupted, and all that without the help of pills. I am no longer dreading the end of the day. The going to bed routine has also become easier for Axel. There is less anxiety about getting the pillows right. His elbow infection (it turned out it was an infection) is being treated with antibiotics and a plastic cup taped over it to keep the pressure off at night. His movements are still restricted when he is without a brace (only when he lies down or sits in the shower) and this is likely to be so for another 5 weeks. His pelvic fractures have healed and his rather splintered humorous is nicely growing back together with the help of a rather large piece of hardware and what looks like two drywall screws. His enormous frontal scar is healing nicely and his curly hair is starting to grow back. Clearly, skin and bones are the easy part of our recovery.

It is going to be the nerves that will take a while longer. Parts of our skulls don’t have full feeling yet; Axel’s left hand and wrist will need a lot of work and the sole and the toes of my right foot feel like they belong to someone else. But our various medical caretakers keep telling us everything will eventually heal. It is a matter of time.

Of course everything is a matter of time. Now that we are on the mend my horizon starts to expand. I even fantasized about accepting an invitation next week to join a delegation of Chinese AIDS program officials at a reception at Harvard. Logistically such things are still a bit too complicated so I did regretfully decline. But I am definitely thinking about an excursion in the next couple of weeks to see Joan and Morsi and maybe even swing by at work.

I suppose this is a good sign, this looking ahead. It is definitely more like the pre-crash me. Sometimes my mind even starts to wander as far ahead as the end of 2007 and I wonder where we will be then. Will we be driving? Will I be traveling? Will Axel be able to eat with two hands? Will I be flying? May be yes, maybe no.

Yesterday I went to my first Quaker Meeting for Worship since July 8. Sitting in silence was more difficult than I had expected as something kept pulling my mind back to the crash and nothing was still, until Cynthia spoke about stillness and the silence became easier to bear. It was nice to see my dear F(f)riends again after so much time. Afterwards, two of them, Martin and Paul, took Sita and Jim for a sail out of Manchester harbor. Sita’s face was still glowing in the evening from the combination of wind, water and sun.

We visited Jim’s mom and his extended family for a traditional Labor Day get together and returned home for a quiet read/nap. Katie Blair and Andrew came over and cooked us a late summer’s harvest bounty meal. Tessa called from her new home and we put her on the speaker phone so that we could pretend she was sitting at the table with us. Andrew helped Axel with his shower. He and Katie Blair will take up night nursing duty next Friday and got to see some of the evening routine while Sita and Jim settled in for a much longer evening with their friends Brian and Fred.