mumma yaga

 Feb. 23. 2024 "Here comes the sun." K's surgery went well. He was kept in the ICU overnight, just precautionary. He is very sore, but I am sure that he is feeling relieved. He has a very long road of recovery ahead, but I feel more confident than I have since his second fall. The surgery he had in Sherbrooke, Quebec, seems like a dark ages attempt compared to the work done yesterday. Yet I feel apprehensive. There is a tendency for any medical intervention to lead to more problems, even if the initial problem was corrected. At this point I am having trouble being optimistic.  One day at a time is the key. I took yesterday off. Rocky has been squirrelly, whining and fussing. In the field there are two dogs that are in heat and I wonder, since Rocky sniffs and scratches all around, and chases them about, if smelling their scent on his paws makes him want to go and find them. Of course the busy household and my frequent absences are also hard for him to deal with. So he and...

 Later on Feb. 21st: (...log, supplemental.) K is out of surgery. The surgeon said the procedure went as planned. Now, however, I am waiting to be allowed into the ICU to see K.  I am so relieved that it is over. It's rest and recovery, now. The weeks will go by fast. i can relax nd get on with life. I feel like I have my brain back! It has been running on periferal function for so long, I don't remember what normal mainframe function feels like!! MY

 Feb 21, 2024 We have been waiting eleven days for today. K has gone into surgery. Now I am waiting for the operation to be over. Then, we can begin the long journey to recovery. I am picturing K and I sitting on the vineyard porch in the early morning, coffee in hand, while Rocky investigates the latest messages under the witches. We plan to make it to the Estrie for the 8th of April to watch the solar eclipse.  Sunrise, April 8, 2021. After spending so many weeks in suspended animation, (as my dear friend, GM, put it!), I experienced a rush of emotion as they took K to the OR. The surgical assistant said the procedure would take about two hours. They are planning to take only some of the hardware out of K's leg and replacing the prosthetic hip joint with a longer one that will extend all the way down the femur. I am electrified with the suspense, having, it seems, only switched one "other universe" space for a different one. When will I find myself back on earth?  Mumma...

 Feb. 13, 2024   femur Snowdrops in the frost this morning: a previous note on my calendar shows snowdrops on March 11. *****  It is almost six months since K broke his hip, and had a partial replacement procedure done, in Sherbrooke, Quebec. We came home to Etobicoke in October for rehab. What I have not told you is that K had a second fall, in October, four months ago on the 8th, and broke his femur again, below the prosthetic, just as he was getting back to normal. It was too horrific to write about then, so I didn't. But the second break is why the doctors arranged for him to come to Toronto for rehabilitation. (The Sherbrooke doctors put a plate along the femur to support it until the bone healed. ) It was excellent, really, that the Quebec care providers arranged a transfer directly to St. Joseph's hospital who would arrange for rehab. In three days K was at West Park rehab, a place near us. He was five weeks there and then they sent him home. He was still having pa...

 Jan. 31, 2024 Winter starlings : In the fall, starlings change from dark brown to speckled, but with their short tails and their propensity to travel in large groups they are easy to identify. They chatter loudly and constantly, like a gathering of children in a schoolyard. We came home to Toronto this week. I was actually excited to be here, to see friends and family. The five weeks in Quebec felt like months and we felt rested and renewed by the break. There was snow and the fire, and the open space of the vineyard. It was quiet and peaceful. Rocky and I walk in the field twice daily. It keeps us in touch with nature, the sky, the trees and the wildlife. While many of the trees in the city are full and uniform in shape, since they are in tended gardens, this loner is in someone's back yard beside the hydro field. Its wild beauty draws my eye every day. In this tangle of tree and grapevine is a grey bird, which I could not clearly identify. It is either a gray jay or a mockingbir...