Long time since last blog

This is a photo taken when Merwin and I were about 50. When we returned from Greece, we started a Greek-Fisherman-cap craze in the family: Arthur, second from the left, is still a fan.

Dear Friends and Family,

On Wednesday, I was knocked out by the Gabapentin. This is not totally unpleasant. It is rather delicious to take naps now and then. I am perhaps having other effects: hard to tell (after which, because of which?), but my knees hurt when I try to rise from a seated position. I sometimes need a helping hand to get up. Yuck. Then yesterday my left hip started to be so painful that I took serious pain meds. The good news, though, is that the Gabapentin is doing something to help the neuropathy.

Laury took me last night to the Columbia Shakespeare Seminar, where I saw many dear friends, who greeted me with warmth and joy, How blessed I am in my friends and colleagues. If it weren't for the hip, I would have done well. I had asked Laury to call Faculty House and ask then about opening the gate on Morningside Heights. A call to José, the manager for the evening, when we arrived at the gate did the trick. Using the gate made the trip in and out of Faculty House easier, though there are several steps.

Francesca (the wife of a Shakespearean), an artist who knows Jessica, took care of me, bringing me a full plate of food. Then seconds. It wasn't that I was hungry; the food was just so good. Then there was the talk by a very pleasant, very productive writer about prose romances and their relationship to plays, especially Othello. It turns out that I had met this scholar at the Folger but had absolutely no recollection of him. We may have had tea together, participated in a play-reading session (I liked to organize evening readings), discussed our work—who knows? It's a total blank. He was very kind about it.

Thank goodness for my recliner! I am completely comfortable in it. So in spite of pains here and there (wrists, knees, left hip), I can look forward to working without having to think too much about my body and its breakdown. I am beginning to sketch out my talk at the NYPL on April 12th and finding several things I need to ask Jeffery to change for me. Jay (the NYPL librarian) was there, but he left before I could talk to him. On another front, I have also mentally sketched out the Macbeth chapter.

I guess the more important event was the trip to Mt. Sinai on Thursday to see the neurosurgeon. The brain scan was done on a new machine, and after the 1-minute session, the tech kept looking and looking at the results. Finally he called others to look with him. Eventually, they decided to send the scan up to Dr. Moyle on the 8th floor. What was the problem? Who knows? Probably the new machine produced results that were unfamiliar to the tech. Dr. Moyle saw something, though, that he wanted checked in two weeks. He said it could be done closer to us to save us from the long waits at the hospital. From door-to-door the trip took about 6 hours. Face time was about 15 minutes. That's a lot of waiting (some of which we spend eating lunch). I had thought that the visit was our 3rd and last post-op visit. Well, we'll see. Maybe something is happening that can account for memory loss. I am not too worried. But if the scan is done with a different machine, will it show what the new machine showed?

Dawn is coming to visit this morning, and I have lots to hear from Merwin who had his book group meeting last night. He read to me some of the Alice Munro stories that the group was discussing. She pulls the reader into the lives of her characters, unlike the writer of the book I am reading, which is rather a bore.

Much to do today!
Love to all,
Bernice

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