Sylvia's Journal

A restless night with so much movement (foot inside the box, outside the box, on the ice, under the ice, blanket on, blanket off) that I woke up exhausted. I am trying to grasp the wispy ends of dream shards and the ones I catch make no sense.

The cove is luminous again after having been wrapped in shrouds for the last few days. The new green and brown shingled top floor and dormer of what used to be the ugly yellow flat-roofed house across the cove looks picture perfect and inviting. Axel is still sound asleep amidst the jumble of pillows and blankets. I gently massage his giant scar and he stirs a little but doesn’t wake up. He has another half hour before he’s off to the races and get ready for his trip to occupational therapy.

I too have a giant scar, maybe about the same length, up and down my belly. It has been bothering me lately with some sharp pains along the side for an inch or two. It hurts when I stand up and stretch my belly muscles. I called the trauma surgeon, a wonderful South Korean woman with the best bed-side manners I have ever seen in a surgeon. She is the one who cut me open after my X-ray showed some ‘free air’ in order to rule out any internal damage. I had the bad luck of not having (surgeon) Morsi by my side who saved Joan from this ordeal, as it was not necessary. The difficulty for non doctors like me is to distinguish between procedures that are done to protect the doctor or hospital and those that are done to protect the patient. And so it was done.

My belly button in particular is a twisted mess. I asked Sita to feel a part that concerns me. She thinks a staple or something hard was left in below the skin. To me it feels more like a piece of gristle, but what is it doing there? Next time a doctor comes for a visit we’ll ask for a first, second and third opinion. We hope it isn’t a piece of surgical equipment that was left inside.

Yesterday was mostly another quiet day, at least for me. I spent much time continuing sorting out stuff, being put on hold and checking things off my to-do list, while Axel went out frolicking with Chuck Kennedy in Beverly for lunch. They came back mumbling about lap dancing and three martini lunches. Before that Chuck helped me with my hot and cold footbath and between the two of us we managed to give the floor a good bath as well.

In the evening we were the bringers of dinner for a change. Sita and Jim dropped us off at Joan and Morsi’s in downtown Boston and then went off to get a take-out dinner at a local restaurant. We had a wonderful visit during which we compared body parts, movements of body parts and talked about our respective recoveries while we feasted on a delicious spread of Thai dishes. We also talked about how we had changed (or not) and what we had learned about ourselves and others. I am so immensely grateful that all of us will be all right, eventually. We all know it will take some time.

We left a little after eight to return home. It was the biggest trip we had made in 8 weeks and we were both exhausted. Back home Sita shooed us straight to bed. Axel tried to sneak into his office but Sita caught him and directed him to the bedroom. She’s a tough one!