We are sorry for not giving news earlier.
All is well. And as always, thank you all for your messages of encouragement. The positive vibes work well across the ocean!
Florian has returned as expected Friday, November 21. Even if he was just glad to get out of the hospital (he had a huge smile as he crossed his hospital room door) he realized he was still pretty tired.
On Monday, he was at the bank and made a sandwich with Kirsten. He returned in the afternoon and took a nap.
During the week, he needed a much needed rests. Since it was Thanksgiving, he saw his good old buddies Vasily and Kyle.
He tried again to study but he complained of a "chemo brain" which does not really help to put it in a good way.
Thanksgiving, I was expected to make the stuffing, the gravy and turkey. He ate turkey for 48 hours non stop: the evening, night and morning. Visibly, left overs are the best for Thanksgiving. It should be added that the turkey was "marinated" for heures et n’était pas trop mauvais.
The weekend we went to hunt for a car. Amaury having made a total mess with his car by hitting a deer on the highway (just crumpled front end fortunately) and Florian got a new car since September, Amaury got Florian's car (which did not have the heart to separate completely from it) and Florian now has a 2013 Jetta. Coming from a 1996 jeep, it's a change.
Sunday night he returns to Buffalo with his new car!
Monday I got on the phone and he had to admit he was still tired. He said that he was not superman and needed time to recover.
Yesterday he had an exam for which he was unaware of because he had missed three weeks of the course, it was a bit of a stress because he had to do it and the teacher had not really listened to his excuses. During the next 2 weeks, it has all his final exams for the semester. Already during regular time it's not a very easy time but this time having missed three weeks of courses and not in great shape, the stress level is a little higher.
Today he had to go to Rochester to start chemo. 1 month ago, he had stopped all treatment because it was not going too well.
He explained his exam problems to the doctor, she told him she would call directly to his teachers to explain the situation. We regularly joke with her, saying that she is like a second mother to Florian: it has just been proven once again.
Florian was also afraid of losing his job has its irish pub if he does not return to work right away. Finally, after some discussion, he agreed to admit he could not study, and at the same time work. His doctor also gave him a letter of apology for his work saying he had to fight a "life Threatening infection" and was still recovering.
tl;dr Flo tries to be superman. Even if he's proved it before multiple time, he has to admit his body has some human limits. Lesson hard to learn when you're 22!
Florian: Hammers, Xbox, tubes, helmets and ALL.
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
De retour a Buffalo
Désolée de
n’avoir pas donne de nouvelles plus tôt.
Tout va bien. Et comme d’habitude, merci a tous pour vos
messages d’encouragement. Les ondes positives fonctionnent bien a travers l’océan !
Florian est bien
rentre comme prévu le vendredi 21 novembre. Meme si il était tout content de sortir de l'hôpital (il avait un enorme sourire aux lèvres en franchissant le pas de porte de sa chambre d'hôpital) il s’est rendu compte qu’il était encore assez
fatigue.
Le lundi, il a été a la banque
et prendre un sandwich avec Kirsten. Il
est rentre l’après midi et a fait une sieste.
Durant la
semaine, il s’est beaucoup repose.
Puisque c’etait Thanksgiving, il a vu ses bons vieux copains Vasily et
Kyle.
Il a essaye de
recommencer a étudier mais il se plaignait d’avoir un « chemo brain »
ce qui ne l’aidait pas vraiment a s’y mettre.
Pour
Thanksgiving, il était indispensable que je fasse le stuffing, le gravy et la
turkey. Il a mange de la turkey durant
48 heures non stop : le soir, la nuit et le matin. Visiblement les restes sont les meilleurs de
Thanksgiving. Il faut ajouter que la
turkey avait « trempe » durant 24 heures et visiblement elle n’était
pas trop mauvaise.
Le weekend nous
sommes allés a la chasse d’une voiture.
Amaury ayant fait un dégât total avec sa voiture en heurtant un « deer »
sur l’autoroute (rien que de tôle froissée heureusement) et Florian voulant
investir dans une nouvelle voiture depuis le mois de septembre, Amaury a
récupéré la voiture de Florian (qui n’avait pas le cœur de se séparer
complètement de sa Jeep) et Florian a maintenant une Jetta de 2013. Venant d’une jeep de 1996, cela fait un
changement.
Dimanche soir il
est retourne a Buffalo avec sa nouvelle voiture !
Lundi je l’ai eu
au téléphone et il a du avouer qu’il était encore fatigue. Il a admis qu’il n’était pas superman et
qu’il fallait du temps pour récupérer.
Hier il avait un
examen pour lequel il n’était pas au courant puisqu’il avait rate 3 semaines de cours,
il était un peu stresse car il a du le faire et le prof n’a pas vraiment écouté
son excuse. Durant les 2 prochaines
semaines, il a tous ses examens finaux pour le semestre. Déjà en temps normal, ce n’est pas une période
tres calme mais cette fois ci en ayant rate 3 semaines de cours et en n‘étant
pas en grande forme, le niveau de stress est un peu plus élevé.
Aujourd’hui il
devait aller a Rochester pour recommencer sa chimio. Depuis 1 mois, il avait arrêté tous ses
traitements car il n’allait pas trop bien.
Il a raconte ses
problèmes d’examens a son médecin, elle lui a directement dit qu’elle
téléphonerait a ses professeurs pour leur expliquer la situation. On blague
régulièrement avec elle en disant qu’elle est comme une seconde mère pour
Florian : elle vient de le prouver une fois de plus.
Florian avait aussi
peur de perdre son boulot a son irish pub si il ne retournait pas travailler
directement. Finalement après quelques
discussions, il a bien voulu admettre qu’il ne pourrait pas étudier et en même
temps aller travailler. Sa médecin lui a
aussi donne une lettre d’excuse pour son boulot en disant qu’il avait du
combattre une « life threatening infection » et qu’il était toujours
en convalescence.
Bref Florian
essaye d’être superman, mais même si il
nous a prouve plusieurs fois qu'il en est un, il doit parfois admettre que le corps humain a ses limites. Leçon difficile à apprendre quand on a 22
ans !
Friday, November 21, 2014
We are finally breathing
Good news everyone!
Florian is definitely on the right track, he can go home tomorrow. He is still quite tired, the last two nights he couldn't sleep because of the large doses of steroids he has to take at night. They just decided to reduce the dose and he only had to take it this morning so hopefully he can get some sleep.
He has lost a lot of weight again, it is quite understandable knowing that he didn't really eat for 10 days. His doctor decided not to hurry to start his chemo again. She would rather have him get better first and give him a week (Thanksgiving) off. She will decide after depending on his condition.
She Already told us that she told the head of intensive care that he had to do everything to get Florian better or else she would quit her job.
For all those asking about the snow, yes there was a lot in Buffalo but it is quite random and it really varies from one place to another. As for the highway it was closed between Rochester and Buffalo and has been for 3 days. This means that we are unfortunately not able to get his things form his apartment: his car, his computer and some clothes. We left Buffalo in q hurry and didn't really have time to pack. We'll see this weekend, it should melt because it should be around 15C later this week. This is also an issue because they now fear flooding after the snow storm.
Florian is definitely on the right track, he can go home tomorrow. He is still quite tired, the last two nights he couldn't sleep because of the large doses of steroids he has to take at night. They just decided to reduce the dose and he only had to take it this morning so hopefully he can get some sleep.
He has lost a lot of weight again, it is quite understandable knowing that he didn't really eat for 10 days. His doctor decided not to hurry to start his chemo again. She would rather have him get better first and give him a week (Thanksgiving) off. She will decide after depending on his condition.
She Already told us that she told the head of intensive care that he had to do everything to get Florian better or else she would quit her job.
For all those asking about the snow, yes there was a lot in Buffalo but it is quite random and it really varies from one place to another. As for the highway it was closed between Rochester and Buffalo and has been for 3 days. This means that we are unfortunately not able to get his things form his apartment: his car, his computer and some clothes. We left Buffalo in q hurry and didn't really have time to pack. We'll see this weekend, it should melt because it should be around 15C later this week. This is also an issue because they now fear flooding after the snow storm.
Thursday, November 20, 2014
On respire
Bonne nouvelle
Florian est
définitivement sur la bonne pente. Il peut rentrer a la maison demain.
Il est encore
assez fatigue car les deux dernières nuits il n’arrivait pas à dormir à cause
des doses importantes de stéroïdes qu’il doit prendre le soir. Aujourd’hui, ils diminuent la dose et il en a
pris que le matin donc il espère pouvoir dormir.
Il a de nouveau
perdu pas mal de kilos, c’est assez compréhensible sachant qu’il n’a pas
vraiment mange depuis 10 jours.
Son médecin a
décidé de ne pas se presser pour reprendre sa chimio. Elle préfère qu’il se retape et lui donne la
semaine prochaine (Thanksgiving) de repos.
Elle décidera après en fonction de son état.
Elle nous a avoué qu’elle avait dit au responsable
des soins intensifs que il devait tout faire pour guérir Florian car si il lui
arrivait quelque chose elle abandonnait son boulot.
Pour tous ceux
qui nous demandent à propos de la neige : oui il y en a eu à Buffalo mais
c’est assez irrégulier et cela varie vraiment d’un endroit a l’autre. Comme
l’autoroute, assez principal, entre Rochester et Buffalo est ferme depuis 3
jours, on ne peut pas aller chercher les affaires de Florian a Buffalo :
sa voiture, son ordinateur et quelque vêtements. On était parti en vitesse de Buffalo et il
n’avait pas grand-chose avec lui. On
verra ce weekend, cela devrait fondre puisqu’il y aura 15C. D’ailleurs ils
craignent les inondations après les tempêtes de neige.
Ici a Rochester
on a aussi eu de la neige, un peu tôt pour la saison comme la photo en
témoigne.
Comme dit Jacques, on respire.
Monday, November 17, 2014
Hourrah!
Monday morning at 9:00 am arrival of doctors, the beginning of the round this time. Maybe the theory of when the doctors come is not correct.
It was the super big boss of all intensive care unit (there are 3 or 4 units), very academic, trying to ask questions to a charming young doctor. In short after 20 minutes of chatting outside the room with his team, he requests that the respirator be removed for Florian. Hurrah !!! We couldn't believe it.
Florian's girlfriend, Kirsten had stayed the night with him and he was super agitated the whole time while trying to move around.
They removed the tube in 2 min: no more respirator or feeding tube, when it took them hours to put them in. Throughout the day, they removed most connections to most machines, he only has his Mediport and lines for antibiotics hooked up.
He'll talk (or rather mumble) but he is still in a daze because of all the sedatives he took. The nurse gave us the reference dosage he received during these 4 days (50 years olds and older will understand). For a colonoscopy they give 3 grams of this sedative and had 150 grams of the same product on top of other meds. This means that it takes a while to leave his system but he is young so it should go faster. Tonight is already a bit more clear minded. The best is that you can not stop laughing, including him. He does not remember anything of what happened in the past couple of days, which is a good thing. He is still very weak though( he can't stand alone or stay standing up without support) and very tired: he falls asleep very quickly after 5 minutes of "conversation".
The doctors are still trying to understand what could have caused the pneumonia and especially inflammation of the lungs and why it was so fast. More than likely we will never know with certainty but they still want to know in order to identify which drugs to keep giving him.
Tomorrow he should leave the ICU and return to the cancer center for a few days, so far his blood cells and platelets are low. He is clearly neutropenic. We'll see how it evolves, but apparently it's slowly getting better.
In short it was a good day full of events.
Florian can put up yet another battle (and not a little one) to his tally. He confirms once again that he is the strongest !! It won't be tomorrow that he will let this disease beat him.
It was the super big boss of all intensive care unit (there are 3 or 4 units), very academic, trying to ask questions to a charming young doctor. In short after 20 minutes of chatting outside the room with his team, he requests that the respirator be removed for Florian. Hurrah !!! We couldn't believe it.
Florian's girlfriend, Kirsten had stayed the night with him and he was super agitated the whole time while trying to move around.
They removed the tube in 2 min: no more respirator or feeding tube, when it took them hours to put them in. Throughout the day, they removed most connections to most machines, he only has his Mediport and lines for antibiotics hooked up.
He'll talk (or rather mumble) but he is still in a daze because of all the sedatives he took. The nurse gave us the reference dosage he received during these 4 days (50 years olds and older will understand). For a colonoscopy they give 3 grams of this sedative and had 150 grams of the same product on top of other meds. This means that it takes a while to leave his system but he is young so it should go faster. Tonight is already a bit more clear minded. The best is that you can not stop laughing, including him. He does not remember anything of what happened in the past couple of days, which is a good thing. He is still very weak though( he can't stand alone or stay standing up without support) and very tired: he falls asleep very quickly after 5 minutes of "conversation".
The doctors are still trying to understand what could have caused the pneumonia and especially inflammation of the lungs and why it was so fast. More than likely we will never know with certainty but they still want to know in order to identify which drugs to keep giving him.
Tomorrow he should leave the ICU and return to the cancer center for a few days, so far his blood cells and platelets are low. He is clearly neutropenic. We'll see how it evolves, but apparently it's slowly getting better.
In short it was a good day full of events.
Florian can put up yet another battle (and not a little one) to his tally. He confirms once again that he is the strongest !! It won't be tomorrow that he will let this disease beat him.
Hourrah
Lundi matin: arrivee des docteurs a 9h00, debut du tour cette fois-ci. Peut-etre que la theorie de l'heure de passage des docteurs n'est pas correcte.
C'était le super big boss de tous les soins
intensifs (il y a 3 ou 4 unités), très professoral, en train de questionner une
charmante jeune docteur. Bref après 20
min de palabre en dehors de la chambre avec son équipe, il a demande que l’on
retire le respirateur de Florian. Hourrah !!!
On n’y croyait pas.
La copine de Florian, Kirsten était restee la
nuit avec lui et il avait été super agite en train de vouloir bouge tout le
temps.
Ils ont retire ce tube en 2 min: plus de respirateur,
plus de feeding tube, alors qu’il avait fallu des heures pour les mettre. Toute la journée, ils ont retire toutes ses
connections aux machines, il n’a plus que son mediport pour les
antibiotiques.
Il reparle (ou plutôt marmonne) mais il est
encore dans les vapes a cause de tous les sédatifs qu’il a pris. L’infirmière nous a donne la référence du
dosage qu’il a reçu pendant ces 4 jours (les vieux de 50 ans et plus
comprendrons). Pour une côlonoscopie on donne 3 gr de ce sédatif et il avait
150 gr du même produit en plus d’autre sorte.
Cela veut dire que cela met un certain temps pour disparaître. Mais il est jeune et cela devrait aller plus
vite. Ce soir est déjà plus
cohérent. L’avantage est que l’on
n’arrête pas de rire, lui y compris. Il ne se souvient pas du tout de ce qui s’est
passe, ce qui est un avantage. Il reste
très faible (il ne peut pas se lever tout seul et ne sait pas rester debout
sans support) et très fatigue : il s’endort très rapidement après 5 min de
« conversation ».
Les médecins cherchent toujours à comprendre
ce qui a pu causer la pneumonie et surtout l’inflammation de ses poumons. Et
surtout pourquoi cela été si vite. Plus
que probablement on ne saura jamais avec certitude. Ils veulent le savoir pour identifier les
médicaments à continuer.
Demain il devrait quitter les soins intensifs
pour retourner au cancer center pour quelques jours : ses globules et
plaquettes sont assez bas. Il est
clairement neutropenique. On verra
comment cela évoluera, mais visiblement il est en train de remonter
doucement.
Bref c’est un bon jour plein
d’animations.
Florian peut mettre un bataille (et pas une
petite) de plus à son palmarès. Il nous
confirme une fois de plus qu’il est le plus fort !! Ce n’est pas demain
qu’il se laissera battre par cette maladie.
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Unexpected return at Strong
And here
we are again back on the blog.
First I
would like to thank everyone for their support once again we received lots of
messages very quickly.
Honestly
I would have preferred not having to start but fate decided otherwise. We have
a new test that will make us even stronger. We were accustomed to our little
routine, and here now we must cope with the reality of the disease that is not
always easy to deal with.
Let’s
start with a brief summary of Florian's situation in recent months. As you all
know, it was back to college, in August. He is in a house with several people
who are super friendly. He continued his engineering course in physics. Of course since he did not have enough to do,
he worked in an Irish pub as "busser". For the clueless like me, the
"busser" clears tables, takes care of the tables, and ensures that
the glasses are filled with water .... In short not too hard work. He did tell
me that no he was not hired because of his red hair.
Regarding
his chemo, he had it once a month, with mostly lumbar punctures. In addition he
has to take daily pills of chemo. Until a month ago, everything was fine. At
this time, he began to complain of stomach pain, nausea, and vomiting.
Last
week, he had a little temperature and cough, typical of a regular cold. He took
drugs for the usual cold and by Friday it was already better. In addition to
his doctor told him to stop his chemo pills in order to help curing his
digestive problems. It worked pretty well and he was feeling much better,
didn’t have any stomach problems either. He studied and took all his exams in
the meantime. He had exams the whole week and the last was pretty complicated
was on Monday.
Monday
night he started having a fever again. Tuesday morning his fever was up to, 39C
(102F), he called me at 7h00 in the morning, which was a day off for us
(November 11th). Because he already had to go to Srong for a chemo anyway that
day, his doctor told him to come anyway to see what he had and he would not
have chemo. All day I followed his updates that were not great, he was lying in
his bed. But as always, he answer s answers don't worry everything will be
fine. The evening was a 40C (104F), and we decided to go to Strong emergencies.
So here
we are in the US and the distances between the cities of a region are not the
same as Belgium. Therefore 10:00 p.m. I left
towards Buffalo: 2h30 drive. I arrived in record time even though
Florian had called me midnight to see where I was, the temperature was still
rising. Quickly loaded Florian in the car and half past midnight departure for
Rochester, 1 hour trip now. His friends took care of him amazingly well and had
prepared his bag with everything he needed to fight the fever. Kudos to all his
roommates.
During
the trip, I had to turn on the air conditioning in the car all the way per
Florian's request to keep him cool. As a reminder to all, we are upstate NY and
it has started to get a bit chilly, we had snow yesterday and then today on
Tuesday during the day it was 19C (66F).
Anyway I
had my nose frozen but we would we not do for our kids. We finally arrived to
Rochester at 1h30 am. Like all emergencies, it's the crazy show. Even more with
Ebola it's a real interogation to be sure that we haven't travelled abroad.
At this
point, Florian couldn't take it anymore, he was exhausted. Fairly quickly we
were able to check in: all we had to say was fever (which they took seriously
since he did have a 40C (104F) accompanied by leukemia, so a neutropenic fever,
we were directed very quickly to the "critical care unit" were we
moved him into a separated "room". At this point it's 2:30am, they
ran all the possible tests, radio, blood test to determine what it was:
atypical pneumonia, distributed in all of the lungs rather than in a localized
portion of the lung. They imediaticely gave him antibiotics, painkillers, and
paracetamol to lower fever. Florian was exhausted. He was feling pain
everywhere: muscles, bones, head. He had pains at his lumbar puncture in his
spine.
For my
part, I was sitting on my little plastic chair. I have learned that it was
possible to sneak a 10 minutes nap without falling down on the side. That day,
I had finished the floor and baseboards in a room for the kids, painted the
walls, cupboards plus all the usual chores of good mother. Anyway, I had been
busy and I got up early. Going to sleep earlier that day would have been
appreciated.
Finally
around 6:00 am, they tell us they are waiting on a bed to become available in
the cancer center where we always go. At 8:00 am, he was transferred to a chamber
of transition while waiting until the other one becomes available. His fever
was still high and he was shaking uncontrollably.
Wednesday
morning, he was finally transferred to a regular room of the cancer center.
They took care of him and put all the necessary tests and devices. Florian
began having difficulty breathing as if he had asthma. Even talking became
difficult. He had to stop at every word. When he coughed, it was like he was
choking. They had to give him an oxygen mask but as the day passed by, they had
to increase the oxygen concentration. His heart rate was pretty high too. In
short, it was as if he had his 200m butterfly swim race constantly. Throughout
the day, several doctors and their teams came to see him: haematologist,
pulmologue, intensive care, infectious disease,.... They ended up giving him a
CAT scan. There was a physician (Florian did not really like him) who said he
did not expect at all was that they saw the CAT scan. It was much worse than on
the radio. Not very well thought out way of announcing it!!! In the end, it is
only one of twenty doctors. Florian was very stressed on Wednesday due to his
breathing problems, this announcement did not really help at all. He had
multiple sensors to measure his oxygen and heart rate. Whenever he saw that the
numbers were not too good or the alarm sounded, he would stress even more
meaning he breathing did not improve.
Finally
in the evening around 22:00, they decided to transfer him to intensive care and
give him a tracheal tube to connect to a respirator. His oxygen level was not
high enough and his organs risked not receiving enough oxygen. They speak of
acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). It is the body's reaction to an
infection. His lungs are filled with inflammation and the exchange of oxygen
with the blood wasn’t occurring as well as it should have. Sorry for the somewhat
simplistic explanation, medical professional can feel free to points out what
is inaccurate.
Around
midnight, three doctors pushed his bed throughout the hospital (you can walk
for kilometers) to go from the cancer center to the ICU. Usually it is the
responsibility of "transportation" service but in this case it was
the head of the intensive care unit that decided to escort him.
They took
him to his room and got everything ready for intubation. They explained very
well to Florian what they would do. Meanwhile we had to leave the room and go
wait in a waiting room. Kirsten, Florian’s girlfriend was with me.
After two
hours, they came to get us and everything went properly.
He was on
a ventilator, it was obviously a shock to see him this way.
Next they
wanted to establish a needle in his artery at the wrist to be able to
accurately measure the oxygen level in his blood. Again back in the waiting
room for 2 hours. It lasted quite a long time and in addition they failed to
insert the catheter into the arteries. They tried in both arms. Apparently
arteries can contract and make the insertion of the needle very difficult.
Since the beginning of Florian’s disease it has been a real challenge to get a
line to his veins. Usually you have to ask several people to get there.
At that
time it was about 6:30 am Thursday. After my second sleepless night, I quickly
went to take a shower and rest for an hour in order to come back to see the doctors
around 9:00 am.
So
Thursday morning we met the team of pulmonary critical care specialist. All
highly skilled people as always, they told us that the state of Florian was
serious and that he preferred to put in a coma so he doesn’t waste too much
energy by coughing and moving. In fact, he did cough a lot and we could see
that the tubes bothered him (as expected). In addition to an anesthetic, they
gave him a paralytic drug in order to make sure he didn’t move. This way they
can completely control his breathing and Florian is not going against the
respirator. They always try to get him in a deep enough sleep just enough so
that it does not realize that he is paralyzed because it can be really scary
not being able to move if he was conscious. On the other hand they do not want
to him to be in too deep of a since it can cause issues in the long term, yet
another parameter to control.
After all
the explanations, they decided to place the catheter in his artery’s wrist,
which they succeeded that day. They also have up another catheter into his
carotid artery to view 3 different lines to inject drugs. He already had his
Mediport but it has only 2 inputs. I counted them and he was hooked up to 15
tubes!!! There are also electrical wires with sensors for measuring important
vital data. They also inserted a feeding tube through his nose. This was once
again a whole new operation that lasted all day. The tube was moving in circles
in his stomach and was often not in the right place. They retried three times
overall. Everytime they also needed a radio scan in order to see where the tube
was as they progressed and check that it took the right path.
That's
how we met a Hungarian who handled the radio, he had to take at least a ten
shots with his mobile device. The guy wanted to talk about the good old Europe
that he was missing so much. In short it was good laugh by sharing similar
stories of integration of American culture: respect the swimming areas and not
go beyond 1 meter of the buoys, or not to wear his Speedo and pose on beach
like an Adonis.
In short
we had a good laugh.
At 23:30
I went to get Raphael at the Rochester airport. He came directly from Raleigh
and will stay for 5 days for now.
That
night was pretty quiet compared to the previous two, I finally got to sleep a
few hours on the sofa bed is in the room. According to Raphael who was sleeping
in a chair Lazy boy style, it seems that I snore and I heard nothing when the
helicopter landed just a couple of feet about Florian’s room.
Friday
they decreased some drugs that promoted the exchange of oxygen with the blood
in the lungs. They also took a bronchoscopy to get fluid in her lungs and
analyze them to better understand the type of infection. At the same time they
could see what his lungs his lungs looked like, although it doesn’t mean much
since it’s inside the lungs and they aren’t able to see much but it didn’t seem
too bad. Since they have to do cultures to identify the bacteria or fungus, it
may take several days before we have the results but we have been receiving
results as they come.
After the
Bronchoscopy they decreased the paralyzing drugs in order to let him breath on
his own again. He began to be a little more aware and able to move more and
more, everything being relative.
During
the night he tried to sit up, he had to remember to be sure he does not pull
his tube.
Friday we
also met a cleaner who came from Burundi and was very happy to speak French.
Needless to say he kept coming and cleaning the room very thoroughly.
On Friday
evening, Jacques and Raphael stayed with him because I quickly went to Marie-Laure’
sleep over with her tennis team who were already at home. Quite interesting to
see the sessions nail polish, salon, karaoke,.... In short they slept very
little and the whole basement was a large mattress.
All this
time Kirsten had remained at Strong with us for support.
Saturday
they mainly stabilized different parameters. They replaced his sedative with
one that causes less hallucinations. In the evening he still continued to awaken
but only half conscious. It's a bit difficult to know what he understands what
he remembered, but we try to communicate as much as possible even if it's just
to reassure him and tell him that you are there. Often we ask a question, first
you have to be on the set with a yes or no answer but sometimes he replies with
a shrug.
Sunday,
the doctors came and informed us everything is still going well. I had the
confirmation that the later they come around the better the sign. They start
with the newcomers, then the most serious and then other cases. They came around
noon, so it's a good sign. His cells are a bit low but that did not worry too
much. Now his intestines must recover and kick-start back up and everything is
good. As I said from the beginning to Florian and Raphael, it’s like plumbing:
liquid is injected to increase the pressure, products are injected to reduce
the size of the vessels to increase the pressure, the same for the volume of
air, and I’ll pass on the details of his stomach contents.
Another
interesting fact I just learned today: expanded, the size of the lungs is the
same as the size of a basketball court.
I learned
a lot about the blood during his treatment for leukemia and now I perfecting my
training with regards to lungs and infections. In short I learn more and more every
day.
So in
summary, after this long sandwich, everything is following its course, it is on
the right slope but it will take time, we must remain patient. Baby step as
they say here.
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