Here’s my current story: The fever is gone.  I’m sleeping a good part of the day and all night.

The doctor visited me an hour ago.  She says I don’t have pneumonia.  Yay!  There’s some type of blood infection, which she’s investigating.

My right foot is red, swollen and painful.  It will get an “echo” test this afternoon.  My right leg colours are a palette of tones.  Lower thigh deep brown from a week of Eastbourne tennis.  Lower leg pearly white since I wear compression stockings.  And the redness below.  Guess I have an artistic body.

I arrived at the hospital late Tuesday with a temperature of 39 Celsius (102 Fahrenheit).  Overnight I was delirious.  Completely lost.  I pressed the call button many times, trying to get cooler.  Sometimes though, the whole body was shaking.  I was freezing and I asked for another blanket.  The nurse said no – my temp was still 38 point something. 

Not much sleep Tuesday night.  I must have called out to the nurses hundreds of times (not the call bell).  What I remember are some phrases: “Please come back.”  “Help me.”  “I don’t know what to do.”  “Mommy!”  I think I picked one and moaned it over and over again till I fell asleep.

It was astonishing to be so gone.  And to be unable to compose a sentence.  I’m used to that in Dutch – but not in English!

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That’s enough for today.  I’ve met marvelous people at AZ Sint-Lucas.  I’ll tell you about them tomorrow.  And now back to bed.