Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Easy Does It

Convalescence has to happen in a confined space. Life is stripped back to essentials. But what remains is curiously amplified.

Tastes are more intense, even though my diet is restricted. Noises are louder. The sun is unbearably bright as it breaks through the clouds.

The machine is being recalibrated.

Hey, I’m still here, I think to myself with gratitude each morning.

The absence of pain is welcome, but the price paid is a feeling of having a head full of jelly instead of a thinking brain. Time is marked by mealtimes and sleeping and not sleeping, and passes very slowly. Small achievements are ridiculously satisfying, perhaps due to the effort required; dealing with e mails, working out the chords of a Horace Silver song on the piano, changing a meeting date…

Lucy came to see me today and time speeded up to more like its usual pace. She took Mol and Porridge out for a run, which was a kindness (Porridge is getting fat from lolling in front of television, helping me doze through endless Hercule Poirot repeats).

Patience, patience and all will be well.

8 comments:

Lucy said...

Porridge said a walk wasn't the same without you, and I could only agree.

Get well soon.

Zhoen said...

Heal, heal well.

Rosie said...

There are some nice things about convalescence...I've just spent all afternoon painting my nails...

Anne said...

When I had my gall bladder out they told me the convalescence would be nothing. I would be up and about the very next day. Hah! What rubbish. It takes time. Be nice to yourself. But wait a while before you try to paint your toenails.

tristan said...

what you just wrote tells us you are lucid and alert ... hurrah !

julia said...

I will be in France in a few days to take a machete to my jungle of a garden. Is there anything you would like from this side if the channel to aid your recovery to health?
I don't know where you live but Brittany's only the size of Wales so it can't be too far from Guingamp?

Rosie said...

Anne, nails are dome, feeling better, stitches are itching...
tristan, I'm never that lucid though to start with!
mouse, I dont think your car would be big enough... and most of the things I like I'm not allowed to eat yet!
We are not that far from you, near Plédran, close to St Brieuc. Let me know if you want to drop in n I'll send you directions.

DASI GLAM said...

Hope you get well soon.