Improvement

No, I'm not claiming that Julie has suddenly recovered from her illness. It is not time for the whole paraphernalia of hospitals and social workers and medication and disability claim forms to suddenly decamp from our lives.  How strange that would have been: to return from a short holiday to find that it was all just some ghastly dream, and that every wretched journey home alone in the dark from hospital was no more than a cruel but empty figment of my imagination.

Not a miraculous recovery then, and we are still fighting the same old enemy, her mental illness: we are still doling out medication from our stash, we will still be driving Julie to the hospital every day next week, and our kitchen knives are still locked in the garage.  But there has been improvement while I have been away.  My week's separation from Julie allows me (for once) to see how much improvement has been made, and I am pleased to say that she has improved a lot in a short space of time.  For Julie has been away too, on her trip to the seaside, and this has done her a lot of good.  Physically she looks better, with brighter eyes, and clearer skin.  She was out and active most of every day, and she looks trimmer.  The habits of inactivity have been broken, at least temporarily: she has watched less television (and much of what she watched was different because they were following the Olympics avidly). She found time to read and sketch, and visit art exhibitions, all of which have opened her up to new ideas.

Joe has worked patiently and skilfully all holiday, coaxing her into pushing a little more at the boundaries that were so tightly bound around her at the start.  A little longer walk here, a little more time spent entertaining herself there.  Could she stay up a little longer this evening so they could go to see a film together?  Why doesn't she let the lady make up her face at the make-up counter - oh, she looks so pretty - would she wear a little of this if he bought it for her?

Now at home there is no more talk of returning to hospital for the night.  The centre of gravity of her life has clearly settled over home again. She tries a short cycle ride on her own, and we finally get to a swimming pool (a trip planned for months but endlessly postponed).  Visiting a gym and working on her fitness start to become real fleshed-out plans instead of vague ideas only consented to to pacify the demands of adults.  If anything she is nearly back where she was before this episode started in the second week of July.