Ice cream

For those who read the comment about the last post, here is what Michel was referring to.

I have to confirm that for years, I just have to look at food to gain pounds. And it started 35 years ago  and it is not getting better.  But food is so good. 

Thank you to Wivine who is always there to play the paparazzi.  

Florian is feeling pretty well

We are just coming back from Rochester. His chemo was cancelled today because his level of white blood cells was too low. He had a transfusion to try to reach the level required to give him the next state of his chemo. This will seemingly be next Thursday with the 4 days spent at the hospital. We got results for his bone marrow biopsy: everything is normal and they aren't finding any trace of leukemia. Like before they always need to continue the chemo since there could be "invisible" chemo cells that could restart the process later if the treatment stops now (for the people of the medical world I apologize for the simplistic explanation.)

Regarding his latest updates, and since he is feeling much better, he decided to go to NYC this weekend, he has been waiting for 3 months. He wants to go see his friends in NYC but hasn't had the medical authorization to go. He is pretty happy, we have to say he asks the doctors (pretty much every time he sees them) if he can go and this time they couldn't refuse. Of course, with the change this means his plans to go to Comic Con in NYC with Jerome Thursday and Friday fell through since he will be in the hospital. We learned not to make plans in advance and to take a chance if something is available.

He is adapting pretty well and accepting the last minute changes. As he says, he is the most patient one of the family. I don't want to contradict him and will try to follow his example.

For now Florian is feeling great, we went shopping when coming back from Rochester. To remind you, he lost a lot of weight, (he asks me regularly if I am not jealous of his amazing diet, me who gains kg while he looses them) which means his pants are too big. Furthermore, he is more sensitive to cold which means that he needed shirts. (clothing he rarely put on before apparently).

At Amaury's surprise (the one out of the 3 boys who care most about fashion), Florian bought "skinny" grey velvet jeans, shirts that his dad will steal from him, and finally shoes. We pretty much bought everything in the store. He made sure to explain to the cashier that he only goes shopping once every 5 years. He finds himself very professional, and is proud of his Christmas sweater as he calls it. I have to say it suits him well but it's a change from his usual slippers, sweat pants and hoodies.

Other changes: he is eating ice cream, he who never liked ice cream and got a bottle of water when going to Peaches and Cream (the area's ice cream shop). He is coming back from Wall-Mart to buy some because we ran out.

In conclusion everything is going well, it's great to see him like this. I hope he is going to have a great time in NYC and take advantage of it before his next chemo on Thursday.

A sight of the life in Rochester

This is Raphael translating Christian's post. Christian spent a few days visiting them in Corning/Rochester and even helped Florian to buy his computer ( I had the chance to have an unlimited budget for it and they built it. It's a crazy machine).

While spending a few days in the states, I had a chance to spend this Sunday in Rochester with Florian and Jacques, who is my little brother. Here are my impressions with this beautiful day spent with such great people.

Even though he's been on his Xth chemo session, Florian is energetic, although he has had a bit of a diet. If he didn't have that dam catheter on wheels, which goes beep beep every time you have to change it, I wouldn't have been surprised to see him run a 100 meter dash this afternoon. He still told me though that it wouldn't be happening for a bit.

Mainly, don't ask him how he is doing! It annoys him. He thinks the Belgians are worrying for no reason, and is hoping I can pass the message not to worry about him.

Florian has been thinking about his family, cousins, friends, and everyone else. He worries about seeing the nurse on graveyard shift still there at 3pm and asks them if they aren't doing too much. He is glad to hear about Louise and Julie starting school again and is happy to see Amaury's enthusiasm for his studies at UB. Overall, he is happy to hear good news from people he cares about.

Florian is looking to diversify his activities. I had proposed a game of Risk, but he found an even better game. This afternoon, he taught us how to play 'Settlers of Catan', an amazing board game that makes you think. Florian is incredibly good, but Jacques was really lucky and beat Florian, meanwhile I was dead last (I apparently lost a few of the details about the game). The nurse who knew about the game told Florian his heart rate went up during the game! I am sure mine was as well! I think Jacques and Florian will train this winter fro a revenge match at the next Gollier meet up far away from cardiograms. Everyone else is welcome!

Nathalie, Jacques and Jill are all taking care of him as much as they can, it's a beautiful thing to see. And Raphael, Amaury, and Marie-Laure at not very far away. You are very lucky Florian. If I understand, there are hard times but they are hard to imagine after what I saw today.

Alone in Amaury's car between Rochester and Corning tonight, I feel happy for them, for us, for him. Really. It will be my pleasure to most likely come back in January. Bye, Florian, and salutations to the active readers of the blog.

Christian
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I tried my best to translate but Christian is a great writer and doubt I can do justice to it, but here is a quick translation of his post.

Florian est en pleine forme

Nous revenons de Rochester. Sa chimio a été annulée pour aujourd’hui car son niveau de  plaquettes était  trop bas.  Il a eu une transfusion de plaquettes en vue d’atteindre le niveau requis pour pouvoir lui donner la chimio suivante.  Cela sera  vraisemblablement jeudi prochain avec un séjour de 4 jours a l’hôpital.  Nous avons eu les résultats de la biopsie de sa moelle osseuse : tout est normal, il ne trouve plus de trace de leucémie.  Comme auparavant, il faut toujours continuer la chimio car il pourrait toujours y avoir des cellules « invisibles » qui relancent le processus plus tard si on arrête le traitement (pour les gens du monde médical, je suis désolé de l’explication simpliste).

Suite à ces changements de dernière minute, et puisque il se sent en pleine forme, il a décidé d’aller à NYC ce weekend. Il attend cela depuis 3 mois. Il veut aller voir ses copains de NYU mais n’a jamais eu l’autorisation médicale d’y aller.  Il est assez content, il faut dire qu’il demande très régulièrement (presque à chaque fois qu’il les voit) aux docteurs si il peut y aller et cette fois-ci ils n’ont pas pu refuser.  Evidemment, le changement de plans veut aussi dire qu’il ne pourra pas aller avec Jérôme au Comic Con a NYC jeudi et vendredi prochain puisqu’il sera à l’hôpital.  On apprend à ne plus faire de plans à l’avance et de faire quelque chose quand la chance se présente.

Il s’adapte très facilement au changement de dernière minute et les accepte très bien. Comme il le dit lui-même, il est le plus patient de la famille.  Je ne peux pas le contredire et je ferai bien de suivre son exemple.

Pour le moment Florian est en pleine forme.  Nous avons été faire du shopping en revenant de Rochester. Pour rappel, il a considérablement maigri, (il me demande régulièrement si je ne suis pas trop jalouse de son super régime, moi qui prend les kilos qu’il perd J).  Ceci veut dire que ses pantalons sont trop grands. De plus il est plus sensible au froid, et donc il avait besoin de pulls (vêtement qu’il mettait très rarement auparavant).

A la grande surprise de Amaury (parmi les 3 garçons, il est le plus concerne par la mode), Florian a acheté des pantalons « skinny », un pantalon en velours gris aussi « skinny », des pulls que son père lui piquerait bien, et enfin des chaussures.  Bref on a dévalisé le magasin. Il a bien explique a la caissiere qu'il ne faisait du shopping que une fois tout les 5 ans.  

Il se trouve très professionnel, et est tres fier de son « Christmas Sweater » comme il l’appelle. J’avoue que cela lui va très bien mais cela change de ses habituels « slippers », « sweat pants » et « hooded sweatshirts ».

Autre grand changement, il mange de la glace !  Lui qui n’a jamais apprécié la glace et prenait une bouteille d’eau lorsqu’il allait avec des copains ou en famille chez « Peaches & cream » (le glacier du coin). Il revient du Wal-Mart pour en acheter car je n’en avais plus dans le frigo.

Bref tout va bien, cela fait enormement de bien de le voir comme cela. J’espère qu’il en profitera bien à NYC avant sa prochaine chimio jeudi prochain.