Friday evening started on a high. My goddaughter Emma was working at a telethon for “Kom op tegen kanker” and send through these videos

Thank you Emma. Bart really appreciated it.

Johan, our brother in law, send this video through. Bart was really impressed.

Around 22:00, the tables turned. He called me : He was feeling awful, looked awful, sounded awful. Half an hour later he called back saying he was feeling a bit better, the ER doctor had prescribed him new medicine. He still looked awful and sounded awful. I guess, he just wanted to put our minds at ease and allow us a good nights sleep.

When I woke up on Saturday, I waited for him to video-call me. When he finally did, I panicked. He almost couldn’t talk. He said that his stomach was hurting as if someone had bashed him up. He felt immense pressure in his chest area. His kidneys were hurting. The list went on and on. Not a good day. He now has an ECG every three hours, all medicine through his catheter as he has difficulties swallowing. They took an echo of his lungs and saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Bram and I went to seem him as soon as visiting hours started. I couldn’t wait any longer, I had to see for myself. To my great surprise, we can still go in if we put on the shoe protection, the apron, the gloves and the mouth mask. He was asleep, so the first couple of minutes I just watched him, trying to absorb every small detail of his being and sending him my whole heart filled with love and positive vibes.

He must have sensed it because he woke up and said: “I never felt this horrible in my whole life, I am glad to see you, you look beautiful.” He is feeling like sh*t and still finds the energy to give me a compliment. What a guy. ❤️❤️🥰🥰

We stayed almost an hour in which he must have dozed off about 15 times. Not able to keep awake.

In the evening, finally some good news. He ate a chocolate mousse after not eating since Thursday morning. Celebrating the small things in life is a must and if it involves chocolate it’s even better.

The doctor said he would be feeling extremely sick for another 6 days until he starts making white blood cells . As the chemo also destroyed many red cells, he received his first blood transfusion in his life. Apparently the blood is also from his stem cell donor. We would love to thank his donor somehow, but the whole procedure is anonymous. No way of knowing who this man is.

Today, it is more of the same but strangely he is getting used to his condition and starts each conversation with a countdown. “Cat, 6 more days and then it gets better.”

I love that he stays positive and soldiers on. And of course, that he doesn’t lose his humor.