Friday, July 27, 2007

Another step forward

Derek is now off intravenous food and is eating more normally. Today Airdrie brought his Matzoball soup again; in addition had a cheese sandwich, some tea and a decaf tall cappucino from Starbucks. He weighed himself, too. With the lack of food at the beginning of his hospital stay, he is now down to 67 kg (148 pounds). This means that he's lost about 23 kg (50 pounds), a quarter of his normal weight. He also had a shower - at long last, he said.

The hospital food tray contained some fish, which, Derek was astounded to say, tasted very good. You'll notice that he's very interested in food.

He still tires quickly and his homecoming is now tentatively set for Monday (perhaps even part-time, meaning for some hours during the day). We want to make sure that Derek does not come home too early - we don't want to put him back into the hospital yet again.

During our visit, we all went down to see Derek's friend Simon, who is in hospital recovering from a heart valve replacement.

The loss of weight has made sitting in a chair really uncomfortable for Derek. so my wife Hilkka will buy him a "whoopy cushion" tomorrow, to see whether that'll help. His butt has no fat, so it's understandable. The recliner chairs at his house are what Derek is really looking forward to.

Derek is off all pain medication now (except the occasional Tylenol).

He'll have another chance to see the fireworks tomorrow, and he may also be using the "internet room". This means that you may see an new entry in his blog; watch for it...

4 comments:

  1. Thanks, Karl.

    You've been just great taking over the blogging duties, but I'm looking forward to "hearing" from Derek.

    I'm glad he's eating and enjoying food more. He's got to start building up that butt fat :-)

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  2. Karl .... such wonderful news, I'm so happy for all of you, but especially Derek. How nice it will be to have him back home ....when he's ready of course. It looks like things are moving in the right direction. I hope his friend in France is having the same improvements. Barbra Goldman

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  3. Hello !

    I'm out of the hospital and back on the web.
    Still very tired, but things slowly improve.

    Today, we celebrated the anniversaries of my two daughters, Helene and Sibylle, and I had some roasted chicken and chocolate cake.

    For Bordeaux wine,I think I'll wait a couple of days.

    All the best to Derek

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  4. This might not be the place, but salut, JH.
    Nice to hear you're doing better. And great news about Derek (I wished that I weighted as little, lol). Not really funny, I know. I hope his recovery will be steady from now on. All the best.

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