More Progress

Bonnie Evans, the woman in the red blouse, sent this to me. She's

Greater Atlanta Friendship Force Ambassador; Greater Atlanta MPD (Myelo Proliferative Diseases) Group Coordinator, and Eastminster Presbyterian Church Deacon. We met at last year's MPD conference in NYC. It's her husband who has the condition, but it does not stop them from doing whatever they want (they recently took a long cruise all over South America. Here she is shown with other Friendship Force people, from Sydney, Australia, and Atlanta—and with Andrew Young, the American Civil Rights hero, one of the first members of the Friendship Force who helped make the organization what it is today. Bonnie is just one of the many amazing people I have met through the MPD network.

Dear family and friends,

A banner day on Wednesday: I drove the car around the block, and it felt perfectly natural. Bill, my (former) physical therapist, had said I could do it, but I was a little frightened. My right leg, the driving leg really, could hardly be lifted without pain a couple of weeks ago. While the overall pain is still there—though to a much lesser extent—the movement of the foot from gas to brake and back again added no pain. Feels perfectly normal. This means that I can drive anywhere where I can be reasonably sure of a safe passage by foot with my cane—and a not-too-distant walk. The cane will be a thing of the past within a few weeks, I believe.

Toby is picking me up today for our writing group meeting at NCC because I can't be sure of a place to park were I to drive myself, and I don't think I am ready for a 1/2 mile walk. I will be reading part of my Measure for Measure review, which I hope to submit this week.

Chopped chicken liver was on the menu for Merwin. He's somewhat averse to strong onions, so I chopped a shallot very fine, and finely chopped celery added some crunch. I used 3 or 4 whole hard boiled eggs for about double the quantity of livers, which I had broiled the day before. Then the really new idea: instead of fat (the original recipe calls for chicken fat, which no one uses any more), I cut up very fine a ripe avocado. It is of course full of vegetable fat of a very healthy kind. Merwin loved the result, and because there was so much of it, I called Vivian to come over and get a serving for herself and Mel. She liked it too.

In the afternoon, Merwin took me to the dermatologist for my 6-month checkup. She recognized immediately the spots on my arms as being caused by a steroid, which I told her was prednisone. Nothing can be done about all of the symptoms it causes.

Merwin is continuing with his project of converting old 33 records to CDs: He discovers interesting inserts: for example, my friend Marlene gave me a recording of Edna St. Vincent Millay's poems, and within, in gorgeous handwriting, Marlene had prepared a text of all the poems. Also there are several recordings of Old and Middle English literature, which was the field I was aiming for at the time.

I am definitely walking better. I worked for 45 minutes on the stationary bike and when we watched Rachel on MSNBC, I did all the other exercises Bill had mapped out for me. I am eager to get better as fast as I can.

Of course there is always family business, phone calls from our sons, and also from friends, but nothing untoward to report. The weather was dull with a little rain yesterday but today the sun shines bright, and the viburnum is still gorgeous, filling my study window.

Love to all,
Bernice

















moving my right foot (the one that hurts ) was not hard at all.