Sylvia's Journal

I woke up with a cough just as I was about to put a Dutch delicacy in my mouth (roggebrood met kaas). Darn! In my dream I had just managed to exchange a slice of American bread for a slice of this traditional Dutch (rye) bread and I had found the right cheese to put on it. I was at some large gathering that included many hungry (American) children who had not been fed their school lunch. The mother with whom I did the exchange was as happy as I was because her child would surely reject the funny looking bread.

It was probably just as well that I did not get to taste it because I am not allowed to eat anything until I have a CAT scan later in the morning. I am two drink two bottles of barium instead. A lousy exchange!

The CATscan has been ordered in order to figure out why I am having these pains around my belly scar. The piece in my belly button that feels like gristle is probably the tail end of an internal stitch that got irritated and hasn’t dissolved yet. Apparently it takes months for these stitches to be absorbed by my body. The doctor compared it to a pimple and assured me that if it bothered me it could be taken care of easily. He was more concerned about the other pains. So today was supposed to be an appointment-free day but I am off to the hospital with neighbor Ted as my chaperone and driver.

Sita left at 4 AM for the airport and is hopefully on her way to Chicago now and then Shanghai later today. Now that she is so intimately involved in our life, these partings are difficult. I was moping around yesterday a bit the way Axel and I mope around when one of us is leaving on a trip. We are all joined at the hip now.

Our friend Lynndsie came down from Amesbury for the day and started driving Axel to his appointment at 8:30 AM, followed by a shopping expedition. After that she did what she pays someone else to do in her own house and cleaned and laundered most of the day until it was time to drive me to various appointments. Lynndsie put new sheets on our bed. For the first time in more than two months our two sides of the bed matched and this made our bedroom look less like a calamity hideout. She did try to hide the multitude of pillows with assorted (and non-matching) pillow cases as that would spoil the effect upon entry into the room. Now, after a night of sleep, I am afraid the effect is gone but we are still appreciative.

Andrew came by in the afternoon to help Axel finish the set up of all his graphic design equipment in his temporary office. Carole O’Neil dropped off two meals that will see us through Thursday night. Axel went out on the town last night to attend a meeting of the Planning Board. He managed to stay throughout the meeting and came back tired but in great spirits. He too is easing back into the world.