Sylvia's Journal

A part of us left yesterday. Tessa returned to Canada to go back to school and have a few days to move into her new home with Steve. She cooked us pancakes for our farewell breakfast and even Sita and Jim woke up early to be part of this. At about 10:30 she drove off in a fully loaded car. Everyone was crying.

I keep taking my right leg out of its big boot. I can’t get enough of the sight of it; even though it isn’t all that good looking, with several dried blood blisters and flaky skin. It is great feeling each time to liberate it and feel the air around it. I set up several appointments with the local physical therapists and I am anxious to start exercising.

Axel has a new regime of hand exercises. He wears a sort of Michael Jackson glove (a right-handed beige Isotoner glove with the tips cut off). Yesterday he came back from his occupation therapy visit with a contraption for his hand that looked like it came straight out of ‘The Bionic Man.’ A plastic mesh brace with little cloth rings around each finger that are attached to elastics which he can play like a guitar. They pull his fingers up, something he still cannot quite do himself. They are a very creative bunch these occupational therapists from Shaugnessy.

I went to see Ruth for my first emdr session. We established home base by exploring the notion of ‘safe place.’ It was interesting how my current recliner chair emerged as a safe place during this period. It is the place I go to when something hurts or when I get tired. But it is not just the chair and its reclining mechanism that makes it safe; it is also its location, which is ‘right in the middle of things.’

Andrew picked me up and completed a bunch of things from the Task list on our Airset calendar. Soon Martin Imm joined him and did the same, completing more complex fix-it jobs, and then Gary Gilbert pulled up with a nearly new refrigerator which he offered to us. This has by now become a familiar pattern: before we even have articulated a need, someone drives up and fulfills it. Given our recent experiences with other appliances in the house, exchanging refrigerators seemed like a good thing and I accepted the offer (for which I am getting a lot of flack from Sita and Jim who, unbeknown to me, developed an emotional attachment to what is now called the old refrigerator). The arrival of the nearly new refirgerator created a new frenzy of activity (bringing it in, taking food out, putting food in, taking the old one out, etc.). Axel and Alison returned from his OT visit just at that time. He had expected some quiet time at home but instead tumbled into the refrigerator exchange activity which filled all the horizontal and vertical spaces in the kitchen. It was good foresight that Andrew had started to set up Axel’s office in one of the spare bedrooms, with his computer and printer. It provided Axel with a space to escape to when there are too many people and too many activities going on downstairs.

Alison, Martin and Gary partook in the wonderful French dinner that was brought to us by Carole Moore earlier in the day: French bread, sausage, various French cheeses, salads and chocolate. We added a great bottle of wine which Tessa had forgotten to put in the car and Axel spent about 2 hours sipping his one small glass with great delight.

And then suddenly the house emptied as quickly as it had filled up. Alison returned to her Cape Cod life, after spending two wonderful days with us, doing chores, shopping, driving, and regaling us with the best stories about her old and new life.

We are very grateful that Sita and Jim are still here. We watched an episode of Foyle’s War and went to bed around 10. We tested our new phone intercom at about 3:30 am for a small night time emergency to which a sleepy Jim and Sita responded with patience, love and care