One day at a time

Dear Friends and Family,

Today Merwin had another step in his treatment for Prostrate cancer. He seems calm and interested in the process. It went well, and he returned much more quickly than I would have expected, less than two hours after leaving for the office, which is about a half hour away.

I have been dealing with the aftermath of our visit to Dr. Moyle last Thurs. Thank goodness for the blog. I was absolutely sure that I had had a CT scan at the end of Dec. when we went to see him. No I hadn't; the blog told me so, a verity that we had not been able to accept from the Dr., his nurse, and Radiological Associates, the facility at Mr. Sinai where we get scans. So the last CT scan was in Oct. before the one last Thursday. I think I wrote that it showed that there could be a hematoma. My head hurts—more because I heard this? Probably, I am very suggestible. I will have another CT scan in two weeks.

Calling the local radiology facility is fun. First of all, they know more about me than I know myself, even though I have never been there before: it's all in the computer. All I have to do over the phone is make the operator believe that she has the real me on the phone, and she warned me to bring all my identifying documents with me when I come.

Today, Sonia was here, and, no matter how tired I am, she wakes me up. I did our walk and went through all my exercises.

I had some lovely emails with the editorial assistant (I believe) at the Folger. Dear Merwin made some good images from the xeroxes I had, and these seem to be acceptable. I needed a playbill of the period, and they found a perfect one for me. I am delighted.

Mariko, our Japanese friend, is safe—as are all her family and friends. I knew that she was nowhere near the ocean because when she was visiting us one of her thrills was seeing the ocean here and walking about at Jones Beach. I wish I had one of the photos to show you. Still the tragedy has an effect on everyone there, one way or another. She is leaving for the Folger at the beginning of April, and the roads to Tokyo for international flights are not available. I hope we can get together. It's hard, though, for me to predict anything.

Only 4 weeks to my NYPL talk! It seems possible.

Love to all,
Bernice