Sylvia's Journal

We are discovering over and over again that recovery is not a linear process – as in getting a little bit better all the time, a graph line that goes only up. We are finding new defects in our bodies that either went unnoticed or that were caused by one misalignment or another during the last 11 months. Yesterday I went back to my physical therapist because of a variety of pains and aches. That was a good thing. She discovered that my sacrum was ‘off’ as she called it. “That is no problem,” she said as she pressed and pushed it back into place. I was amazed that she could do this just like that. With the help of my breathing (“take a deep breath in – hold it – let it go”) she manipulated the bottom of my spine back into alignment. Whether it will stay that way is doubtful and so I have a new set of exercises to strengthen and stretch muscles on one side to keep the sacrum in place.

There are new therapy schedules in our appointment book on the kitchen counter. I also need to get back to the ankle doctor because the swelling of my ankle has not changed since February and it is about time to be back to normal. Axel too is going through this; a dizzy spell on Saturday is sending him back to the frontal lobe doctor again. Overall the line of recovery moves upward but there is some looping back.

The word ‘recursions’ came to my mind and when I looked it up in Wikipedia it turned out the wrong word however one sentence in the description of the word resonated, “Are we done yet? […] Without such a termination condition a recursion would go on forever.” That’s sometimes how we feel.

Joe and I went to MSH early and sorted out how best to help one division of MSH in its identity search, for which they had hired him and blocked some of my time. Usually I am not in on Mondays and I stayed under the radar by being on another floor; several people never realized I was there. This was a good thing as it turned out because the assignment took all our attention for the day. Joes stays with us in what he calls ‘Sterling Towers East.’ It was nice to be chauffeured to and from work by Joe; I fell asleep twice on the way home and he took a nap when we got back home. After all, for us the day had started early. I had not been getting up so early for over a week and it takes a bit to get used to the day starting at 4:30. It means that I am ready to eat at 5 PM (dinner is never ready that early) and to go to bed at 9 PM. We did not quite stick to that schedule once home for the dinner portion. The lateness of our dinner had something to do with Sita and Jim’s setting off on a trip to Kentucky to attend a music festival

Axel’s new grill, a Father’s Day gift from me, was used for the second day in a row. My being pressured into this gift went something like this: Me: “Why should I buy him a gift? He’s not my father.” Sita: “He’s a father because of you.” So now there is this shiny new Webber charcoal grill; a replica of the one Sita and Jim burned up by putting wooden logs in it – as if it was an outdoor fireplace. Sometimes I wonder how they can be so dumb and smart at the same time.