Well, Tanja doesn’t need to wear the neck brace for another two weeks!

Today we met with Tanja’s surgeon. And he indicated that the brace was hers for another six weeks.

I thought Tanja took it well. Nary a ripple of emotion. Still the surgeon may have sensed something for he followed his announcement with a short speech.

“I look at yout x-rays and I can almost tell myself I see bone fusion but at six weeks you really can’t see it yet. That’s why I insist, I fact, that it stay on six more weeks.”

The use of “I insist, in fact,” was, I think, incredibly helpful to both Tanja and me. It wasn’t like being at Les Schwab with a flat, thinking you might cajole your way to a better outcome.

This was the mage telling us how the spell works.

He was a young man who came dressed for the wrong movie—cream colored cashmere turtleneck under a close-fitting houndstooth wool suit that simply dripped. It was as if he’d taken the confidence that comes from understanding the very fundamentals of the system that makes us who we are, possessing the knowledge and skill to repair broken humans who just want to be whole again, and then he spent that social currency on permission to wear this suit. In portland. Where there are like 300 people who will appreciate it.

But at 4 am on March 4th, this young guy cut open my wife’s throat and reached into the back of her neck and fixed her spine. To me, that’s a lot of homework done , a lot of parties skipped, a lot of promises kept and, if medicine is anything like the rest of business, a lot of shit shoveled and pride swallowed. So thank you.

He gave Tanja an A+. He told her her current progress was exemplary and her current trajectory was its own best indicator that continued progress could be anticipated. He talked philosophic with her about expectations and how, realistically, we know they are not limitless. That’s how we knew he was talking about expectations for her not him.

But…at 4 am in March 4th he took a blade and cut into my wife’s neck with the ambitious plan of pushing her windpipe to one side, sticking a titanium brace between two bones and, in time, restoring her ability to move her limbs, feed and dress herself, wave, hug and ultimately live a normal life.

“At some point” he said, “you may notice that some sensation just, you know, is what it is.”

So might we all.

As today has been a long day, why not end with a song that has nothing to do with anything?

https://youtu.be/_0s7qVLDiB4