Sylvia's Journal

Sleeping is literally still a pain in the neck. I tried to fall asleep without chemical assistance but I can  not get comfortable with the bulky sling and its bumper right on top of me. I toss and turn which then hurts this or that part of my neck and shoulder. The codeine-coated pain relievers bypass this settling in business. I hope this is not the begining of an addiction.

I was told by the physician’s assistant that the doctor may let me sleep without the sling in another two weeks, if all goes well. It is something to look forward to. After that it will be another 2 weeks when I can be free again.

I am still trying to nail down my departure date but it remains elusive, partially because of the political calendar in Afghanistan and partially because I have no idea how much physical therapy I should have before I go.  I have now decided to wait settling on my departure date until Tuesday when I see the surgeon and get my stitches taken out. We’ll ask the doctor about his opinion. I suspect he may ask, ‘do you really have to?’

I worked for at least 4 hours nonstop on an Afghanistan related writing project that left me exhausted. It is the first intense thinking and typing work I have done since the surgery and it is clear that I am still in convalescence mode and that this was all I could handle in one day. Luckily I have able colleagues in Cambridge who caught the not quite completed assignment and will complete it.

In the afternoon I found the boys back at the beach stoking up the fire that had not really gone out during the night and morning. Because of the high heat it had also produced quite a bit of charcoal, which we were able to use for last night’s beach cookout. A new fire pit was added and we had dueling fire pits, keeping all three very busy stoking again.  

In between these pyromaniac activities I took the boys on a tour of Cape Ann to see the Gloucester Fishermen’s Memorial, Gloucester’s Town Hall, and Motif #1 in Rockport. We drove along the Cape Ann coast until we arrived back where we had started.

In between we stopped at CVS where our new college student got his basic supplies while I started an impulse buy for all the CVS articles that I imagined hard to find in Kabul. I have never spent that much at CVS. It was the first time the move became more than something that will happen the future.

While we were eating the expertly cooked hotdogs and hamburgers, the mosquitoes were eating us; still we persisted and sat by the fire until it got dark. The nephews went for a swim in the dark while Sita and I played the ukulele – She brought one for Axel so that we can perfect our duets during our evenings in Kabul – I still have a long way to go.