Sylvia's Journal

I exchanged my hospital johnnie for my dress, signed the release papers and said goodbye to the Philippina and Indian nurses and the Bangladeshi man who served me my meals (Continental/Arabic/Indian). I left with one crutch, all paid for, though barely needed at this point. I can walk (slowly) without it already. The knee is stiff but healing rapidly. I am not sure about the wrist. My fingers are now permanently tingly, a condition that the surgery was supposed to fix. I am a little worried that the cure didn’t cure me.

With Big Eid in full swing now it is clear that I had my surgery just in time. Everyone is off for the holidays except the skeleton crews that have to keep essential services in the city going. It was difficult to schedule the follow up visit to the surgeon to get the stitches out. The first workday is the day we leave. The SOS people were worth their weight in gold once more by persuading the doctor to let me into the door before the office opens so that we can be at the airport precisely at our 10 AM check-in time.

Axel had physical therapy today. His MRI showed he has a tear in his rotator cuff – something he suspected but that we can’t do much about at this late hour. Someone has got to carry the suitcases back home. He has scheduled three PT visits between now and next week. The first one was today and he was quite pleased with the approach and the possibility of a non-surgical remedy. Our bodies are getting old and tears seem to be part of the living we do.

Axel’s computer also needed some attention from specialists – there is no Apple store in Kabul. The computer has a brand new CD drive. We are done with most of the fixing and we can start to recover. I foresee much reading and watching of movies.