Intrepid

Chico remains in great spirits. He walks inside with one crutch, outside with two.  He  often has pain; he rarely complains. 

On Saturday, inspired by my book Group, I biked to Monkton to do a little work in the office.  Upon my return home, I found Chico on the porch raring to go for a bike ride.  He's only been out on the bike once this spring and he had a fall.  He's been reluctant to bike again.  Though rubber leg-ged, how could I refuse the impish and ambitious prospect of another lap or two?  Chico has biked in the gym but it usually makes for a very sore evening.  We went out.  I had difficulty taking photos and keeping up!  (Simultaneously.)

You'll see what I mean especially in the second video. This is just about 100 yards up the street - or maybe 50 yards - from our house.  Chico knows that to keep the bike upright, one must keep moving!  I know to protect my phone and camera, inspite of the risks of riding and shooting footage! Video number two is entitled, A Burst of Speed.  Fear not, it is short. 

Then we went out Plank Road, up Lower Hardscrabble and home.  Chico lost his chain once-not cool. Luckily he was going very slowly at the time and has no toeclips.  It was also fortunate that my bike was out of adjustment most of last summer and I was coached on how to get the chain back on the bike when it slipped off.

Sorry I couldn't get better photos.  It was really fun riding together and Chico seems fine.  Hopefully we'll go again soon.  Even though we do look kind of dorky.

Evening Walk

We now walk around the block in the evening.  Tonight it was clearing at sunset.

Chico says the lip looks much better. 

Doesn't look too good to me but I really would be foolish to argue, right?  Pretty. 

Plus, Bacitracin gives me acne.  Ouch.



And the price is....

One thousand, nine hundred ninety-one dollars and sixty one cents!

Blind spending.

Benefits

A sunny trip to the river with Gimpy, our concerns washed away by sound in the sparkling sunshine so rare.

A new menu at the Bobcat featuring fine soft foods: pea soup with ginger and smoked salmon, garlic mashed potatoes.  When only working through one liquid meal a day, it is important that it be a tastey one!

Yesterday, it was a cup of fresh guacamole-I never even really liked guacamole before.

Susan's Recovery

Incredibly swift. 
Lipskin sheds in sheets.
Shrinking lipsize.

Speech returns.
Sheep gut remains, holding steady
For scar growing.

Foods become welcome
in small dose.
Stand by soy and whey-
I need you only sometimes.

Stitches
masquerade as
insects and
tickle
lips.

Sunshine, though rare, stinging, threatens scarring.
Lucky me.
Too.

Curiouser and Curiouser

There were times yesterday in the Emergency Room at Fletcher Allen when Catrina, Chico and I joked about the blog post I would write.  Somehow that blog post escapes me now.  Maybe the story, incredible as it sounded yesterday, has become stale to me over the ensuing 36 hours.  I mean, it gets a lot of telling. It is hard to look someone in the eye when you have a split lip (it's only a split lip) without giving an explanation.  Oh yeah, now I remember.  The plastic surgeon and my posse were joking about how I should tell a different story every time someone asked me what happened.  I shy away from the idea of getting caught up in lies.

So here's the scoop.  Around 5:30 AM I woke up with a leg cramp, hopped out of bed to ease it and then trundled through the house to the bathroom.  Pausing at my desk-I think was planning to drink some water- when  my knees gave out and I smacked my face on the back of the chair.  It made a lot of noise.  Chico arrived (seemed like hours later) to find me crouched on the floor near my desk.

He laid me out on the floor and then, shocked by what he saw he escorted me into the bathroom where I fainted again.  I don't remember this part.  I do remember being on the floor in the bathroom feeling really sweaty, looking up into Chico's worried face, hearing thunderr and seeing flashes of lightning outside.  He was rushing all around-up and down the stairs-ice, wash cloths, ice packs, the phone- the works.   And moving around, particularly from the standing position to the floor, is not that easy for him.

The upshot is neither of us could drive, the doctor on call told us after Chico's description of the lip (torn to the margin and through the muscle) that we should go to the hospital where there would be access to a plastic surgeon and it sounded like I needed one.  We called our friend Catrina.  She and Rob came right over. 

Catrina and Chico liked trying to make me laugh.   I was concerned about scarring. 

Laughing remains a little tricky. 

We were home by noon.  Very nice and competent people there at Fletcher Allen.  As you can imagine, I was really thinking of Chico in Albany.  Unlike him I wanted to resist every poke, prod or needle. 

I know, it's kind of gross.  On the one hand, I feel so lucky that it isn't worse-black eye, broken nose...I could have fallen down the stairs outside the bathroom-the possibilties are endless I now know. On the other hand I was walking to the bathroom in my own house and I end up looking like this?!  Crazy. 

Now I'm on soft foods for a week.  So far even a straw is challenging.  I wonder what will happen next. 

Toddler No More

Remember when I used to liken Chico to a toddler for his unexpected sprees out of my immediate vacinity?  And remember last night's post?  Didn't I say 'bed rest'?

Today Chico had planned to take the bus to Middlebury again.  Ok, so before I left for work I tried to pursuade him to take two crutches to walk down to the town green.  Nope, one would do it. 

Work ran kind of late and I barely got a call in to Chico around 5:00.  Everything sounded ok.  Ordinary.

I get home to find him in a chair beckoning me to sit down too.  (Just like December-January.)

"Why don't you try out that chair?"  I sit down. "So I took two crutches down town today."
"You did?  Really?  That's great!  Thank you!"
"But I missed the bus at the park so I hitch hiked." 

I thought he was joking.  He wasn't.

Clearly we've moved into adolescence.