Tubby went up to two daytime shifts. Her back pain got worse, which made her toss and turn; she had always slept peacefully before, which was nearly a requirement for midnight Bio-E, but now she was dislodging electrodes. Sometimes she'd have an hour to make up during the day. She began sleeping in until her late morning session—every so often at first, then more frequently.

She regained excursion privileges, but the first time she tried to walk to the shuttle to Puda, her legs and back hurt so much that she had to sit down three-quarters of the way to the station. She couldn't get back up for forty-five minutes. She finally managed to scoot over to a telephone pole and pull herself up, then stumped back to the home with a smear of mud ground into the rump of her skirt. The attendants assumed she'd lost control of her bowels and insisted on helping her get her clothes off, wearing rubber gloves the while. They understood their mistake as soon as the skirt was off, but then Tubby had to explain what had actually happened.

The director enrolled her in physical therapy between her two Bio-E sessions. Tubby told her (via Tingting) that the best physical therapy would be cutting back on Bio-E. The director shrugged and offered to withdraw Tubby from the subsidy program. Tingting didn't translate Tubby's reply.