No new deficit.”

Which is a clinician’s answer, which told me she had been given that vocabulary and had been using it, in her head, alone, for six weeks.

It took about nine minutes.

I refastened the anterior panel with her lying on her side, which is how it is supposed to be done, and then I got her up in stages — side-lying to seated on the floor, seated on the floor to seated on the ottoman, ottoman to standing with her forearms on the desk — with rests in between, the way you do it, and at no point did I lift her, because you do not lift people, you give them something to come up against.

She did not make a sound the entire time except once, at the second stage, and she was furious with herself about it.