Long-term View

We know that many of you will be glad to hear that Greg shocked his brain surgeon this week!

He had his final check-up, and his final “just to make sure *all* is clear” MRI.
The latter did indeed prove that there is no sign whatsoever of anything in his brain that should not be there (I will do my bestest to refrain from side-comment…) – but his surgeon had expected that. What his surgeon had not expected was how mobile Greg’s face is: he was floored.

It’s been since December 2006 since he’s seen Greg, just over a year. You may remember that in January Greg was considering the different types of surgery suggested for enabling his right eye to close -- even if just a little – for that would be necessary for the long-term retention of his eye. He even visited a surgical specialist in England. Around that time, I’d started to wonder if I sometimes saw the tiniest bit of movement…but it was so tiny I daren’t say anything. But by about April we were sure: there was indeed some very small movement starting to occur in his right-side facial features. By July came the greatest joy – and relief – Greg’s eye could self-close with sufficient frequency that he no longer needed to keep vaseline in it 24/7: which meant, that for the first time in a year and a half he could see out of both eyes for more than two minutes at a time…indeed, he could see ‘normally’ all day long! Sometimes now the eye gets sore, or scratchy, and it does need vaseline for a bit – but that is the exception rather than the rule. Also, the right eye is no longer as strong as the left – time will tell whether or not those muscles will readjust.
But, as said, the doctor was simply amazed by all this. And said so in his “official report,” and in the follow-up letter. It is simply not normal for change to commence that late in the day; it is assumed that if the nerves have not begun to regenerate within the first year, that they will not do so. The last time we’d seen the doctor, he was very pleased with how relaxed the right side of Greg’s face had become, and that it looked symmetric when ‘expressionless’ (and not in bright light). He believed that that was the best Greg could hope for, but he thought that, all things considered, it was a pretty good result. He’d explained some of the surgery options for helping the eye to blink again, and expected that that would be the next step facing Greg.

But no such surgery will be necessary now!
Greg’s right eye still closes more slowly than his left, but it does close fully on demand, and it does its own form of independent ‘blinking’ to keep the eye moist and clean. With this has returned some of the creases around the eye, making it a little more symmetric with the other. Greg’s smile is still lopsided, but not as much as before. (and *I* get many comments on the side from people confessing that they quite like it a little lop-sided!) There is definitely more general muscle movement. It may take someone a couple of minutes now before they notice anything different about Greg’s face – whereas at first even people on the street would stare. Greg would like to have even just a little more balance in his mouth – the doctor says he had no idea what will or will not happen at this point…but that if this much change has unexpectedly happened, it might indeed continue a wee bit more. On verra.
Greg has actually taken some photos of his facial change over the months – maybe at some point we will post them – I find them quite amazing.

So that is our Good News.

We are both trying to get lots of work done these days, which means fewer guests just now. We did have two friends here for the weekend though, sisters who are 9 & 11 -- and that they were playing badminton in their bathing suits may give you some indication of our crazy weather! That was the very day on which our families around North America were disappearing under one of the greatest snowfalls on record! Already here, in the last week of *February*, along with the crocuses and daffodils, there were magnolias, fruit trees, violets and anemones in bloom. The frogs had emerged in the pond, and butterflies were everywhere. In February. Yesterday it was about 5 or 6C again; the weather is up and down like a yo-yo: it’s been crazily warm, with us outdoors in t-shirts on weekends for the last month – and then back into our winter jackets again, at least once a week.

Whether one’s on board with global warming or not, the crazy weather still stands as a reminder of how responsive creation is to changes in the surrounding environment. And there’s little question that we humans do not have a very good record in considering how our actions might be affecting the rest of creation. Pappy came by to tell us that a number of his bee colonies have died this year, due to the new insecticides used by the walnut farmers. (Europe has yet to be struck with the same disastrous disease that’s wiping out North American bees.) He’s also noticed a dramatic drop in sparrows, and has been finding dead Green Woodpeckers – already an ‘Amber status’ bird – which he figures is due to the same problem, as their main food source locally is found in the moss on the walnut trees. The well-water around here has been undrinkable for years because of such chemicals used in the hills above us. And the word amongst neighbours is that the government is about to enforce an even stronger insecticide, as there is a new ‘resistant’ bug that is slowly moving in our direction, from Italy. The farmers actually don’t want to use the spray, as they are concerned by the effect on the environment in general, but the government may force them, because of concerns over the economic fall-out should the harvest fail. We’re by no means unusual -- it’s a similar story all around the globe – certainly in the countries and communities we’ve lived in. Short-term vision, short-term economic gain and plain ol’ laziness is so often to blame – certainly even in our own household! We keep on working at it, trying to be better recyclers and composters, to waste less, to make better decisions in our day-to-day choices. One of the things that strikes us again and again is that when we succeed, we are doing things not so differently from our grandparents: for them, reusing containers and bags, ‘home-recycling’, composting, using pedal-power instead of gas/petrol, turning off lights and appliances, etc, was just good old-fashioned “not being wasteful.” It should be even easier for us, and yet we are far less willing to make the effort. How quickly and easily our addiction to ‘convenience’ can change cultural norms….

Well, enough mulling for the moment. Off to other work, with thanks for many things, including Greg’s health and ‘doctor-shocking’ face.
;)