Dear friends,
I may have spoken to some of you, maybe not, it’s all a bit of a blur…
It’s hard to believe it was only 3 wee,ks ago… The day after I posted the video of me singing contentedly under the olive trees (sept. 20th), my sister had a bad fall and has been in hospital ever since, flat on her back, with 2 fractured vertebrae in her upper back. Added to the broken lower back of 15 years ago, it’s extraordinarily bad luck… she was frail before this, but now… I don’t know… She spent 2 weeks in the local hospital, flat on her back, waiting for a medieval torture device that she has to wear for 3 months – it runs from her ears (the top of her spine) to her sternum, and she has to wear it anytime she is not flat on her back – and I mean flat… they call it a corset – if only it were just what that word conjures up… She is drugged up to the eyeballs, which is good on the one hand, not so good on the other…
Last Monday they transferred her to a private “hospital”/clinic (blessedly free for the first few weeks) where they will try to get her accustomed to the corset (sort of) and hopefully strong enough to be able to walk again, at least a little, so she can come home. This place is not designed for the infirm… Meanwhile I am researching the purchase of an orthopedic hospital bed, and all the bathroom trimmings, plus spending 6 or 7 hours a day with her at the hospital – the spanish system expects the family to do 90% of the nursing… and trying to figure out how to run this place single-handedly as well as take care of her. I am of course looking for help, I will not manage alone (just getting the corset on her in order to get her up to pee takes two people), but the social system is stretched very thin and it will be very expensive…
My wonderful nephew Chris is trying to figure out how to get here to help, but of course US citizens are persona non grata, so he has to apply for special permission through the Spanish bureaucracy, which is endless – with the ultimate decision being made by the border police – so I don’t hold out much hope… Meanwhile friends here are doing my food shopping, feeding me lunch a couple times a week – I am not comletely alone!
If I think too far ahead I grind to a halt, so I am just trying to get through this day by day… Every day brings fresh and unique challenges – just when I think I’ve figured things out for a little while, something else crashes. – I’m told Mercury is in retrograde and will be for the next two months – fuck Mercury, and fuck 2020!
Forgive me if I don’t write too often, but I will try to give you updates whenever possible… I know that I need to take care of myself if I am to manage this, so if anyone has any bright ideas of how to teach me to compartmentalise? The few hours of down time I get each day are still torpedoed by the ever-churning brain….
Hoping you are all safe and well…