Sylvia's Journal

Today, on waking up, my body feels as if a truck drove over it during the night. I woke up many times and could never get the right position; one that would not create great discomfort for one part of my body or another. This is of course not surprising given that I have been working all the offending/offended parts yesterday doing my many prescribed exercises. I also walked most of yesterday without any crutch. Painful progress?

I was heartened by the entry in the guestbook by Riitta-Liisa who wrote “the range increased every day and now I have forgotten about the surgery altogether.” My brain knows this is totally true. I have seen too many people over the last two months who have told me about their injuries and they all looked, walked and moved just fine. But my psyche doesn’t quite believe this talk and all this evidence. And on a night like this the journey is too tedious, the pace too slow, the view too constricted and the path too steep to be encouraged by a glimpse of the destination on the far off horizon or else be distracted by stunning surroundings along the way. It does remind me of my childhood vacations in the mountains of Switzerland and Austria and the early part of hikes that always went through the forest with its insects and heat, the sopping wet shoe because I misjudged the size of a brook and wondering (or whining) “how much further?” Of course all of this was soon forgotten once we broke out of the forest and reached the 1800 meter where the trees are gone and the views would make us forget the first part of the journey; where the slopes became more gentle and the destination visible at last.

Axel, on the other hand looked quite comfy and content with his pillows around him, his arm up on two pillows. He cannot move so if he is comfy he will stay that way; on the other hand, if he is not there is nothing he can do; the freedom to move is preferably to me but it has its down sides. Last night I had too many choices for sleeping and I kept making the wrong one.

Axel woke up given me a detailed account of his dream in which he was facilitating a group that was doing something mildly illegal as he remembers – maybe it had something to do with yesterday being international talk-like-a-pirate-day (no kidding, google it). Whatever they were doing he got them to talk together and solve a problem. With his eye and hand problems in the way of using his computer as a graphic designer he is reverting back to what he did before. Many of his conversations in the last week have been about facilitation and the skill of bringing disparate groups together to make good decisions that are supported by all and that will be implemented, in whatever setting, mildly illegal or not.

Axel had another grueling OT session yesterday and it took a good part of the day to recover from it. Rick drove him and they stopped on the way back at the Atomic Café in Beverly which I suspect will be forever associated with his OT routine; somewhat like the piece of chocolate I received as a child each time I had a vaccination. Bittersweet.

At noon time Patty Woodlock picked us up and drove us to the other side of Lobster Cove to visit our new neighbor Ellen Cross in the brand new and elegant shingle house. Ellen has her own foot Calvary which is as old as our oldest daughter. So we exchanged surgery, pain pills and physical therapy stories while Patty fed us her delicious blueberry muffins. We got a tour of the new house and admired the wonderful views, many of which included our house and beach.

I spent some time in my office catching up with my various teams in distant places who had responded to my “I am back” email by sending me reports on what they had accomplished on their own. Work-related emails are now coming in with greater frequency and require replies.

I had (foot) PT in the afternoon and was put on the stationary bike. I rode a bit more than a mile and started to fantasize about riding my bike again to Quaker Meeting in the near future. When I got home Axel had finally given in to his discomfort and popped a strong pain pill and took a nap. Ann Lasman dropped off two great meals (one experimental, she said, and we think she can put it in full production!) and we discussed next week’s meal plan. Ann advised us against going cold turkey and proposed a two to three meals a week to ease us off this our meals on wheels treatment that she, Sook and the calendar made possible the last month. Thank you all for serving us so well these last four weeks.