From Bart:

I went to Lille earlier today and visited Alec — he’s doing quite well (I found it very noticable how his breathing is now much more relaxed than it was at the beginning of the week). We walked in on him enjoying his lunch, the dessert portion of which vanished extremely quickly…

Alec is, however, bored out of his mind as there’s little to do; he listens to his iPod, does some exercises (some for his lungs and some for the rest of his body, to retain mobility), looks at the shiny coloured things in his room, or the clock, or the emergency light over his bed… all in all, not the most exciting environment.

(He’s in need of his connectivity fix, so here’s to hoping he gets to Birmingham soon… and that they have wifi or so there)

He still has his drain in (because the insurance company wants it there should they finally repatriate him), which means he still has an IV in, and which also means a nurse comes in every morning and gets blood for testing (not overly pleasant).

His leg, in a kind of supporint harnass/cast thing, seems to be causing him no trouble (as long as it’s left in peace), so he has now added an ankle-mobility part to his exercise routine.

I have a new “Alec’s adventures in Lille” podcast and will send it to Geoff for posting tomorrow (I can’t get it off my phone right now so won’t be able to send it today – sorry for the delay)

From Rachel:

The insurance company are being really, really difficult. There is no guarantee at present that he will be re-patriated on Monday, they are putting un-necessary obstacles in the way. If things do not improve fast on Monday morning, then calls to local MP and perhaps whatever the insurance worlds ombudsman set-up is have to be made.

I suspect (and this is just a hunch on my part) that in the (very) long run, Alec may change his insurance firm for his bike/travel (the culprits are Carole Nash for anyone interested).

More news, when we get it!

This was posted as a comment over at Alec’s last (to date) blog post by Joep Vesseur at Sun Microsystems:

I went over to see Alec just before he would travel back to the UK (so I thought). Your wishes and photograph went with me and made a deep impression on Alec. He is seriously moved by all your attention and best wishes for which he thanks you all.

His condition is progressing; nothing has come out of the drain in his chest for a number of days (so the internal bleedings have stopped). In fact the French staff has been willing to remove the drain (which causes Alec quite some discomfort[a]) but they leave it there because the insurance company wants him “drained” for the flight home (which it seems, in contrast to earlier statements, might not be happening anytime soon, see below).

As was mentioned before, Alec and anesthetics don’t mix: he told me that waking up after the knee-operation, the most logical explanation his brain could come up with for his current condition was that someone had registered a domain-name for his knee (can you say “nerd” The only problem he saw, while still in delirium of the anesthetics, was that he didn’t want his knee to have a free “fr” domain…

All fun aside, the current obstacle is that the insurance company is making life terrible by simply not moving Alec to the UK even though the French staff is happy to let him go and the Birmingham hospital is ready to receive him; I send out this message internally maybe someone reading this blog can advise as well:

Folks,

I drove down to France today to visit Alec (writeup on that later) and spent quite some time with Alec and his sisters to convince the insurance company that it is in Alec’s best interest to get him to the UK as soon as possible.

As it turns out, the insurance company (Carole Nash) (or more likely, the intermediary Intergroup Assistance) is continuously coming up with different requirements[1] in order for him to get repatriated and the way it looks now it might not be before Tuesday or Thursday before they can set “the wheels into motion” even though the French medical staff has been OK with moving him for a number of days already.

I’m forwarding a distress call from Alec’s sisters: is there any way Sun (or anyone working for us as an individual) can help in putting some pressure on the folks that need to bring Alec home? I am convinced that keeping him in France any longer than strictly necessary (today actually) will seriously hinder his revalidation and causes him a lot of grief (even though the French hospital staff is excellent, that’s not the problem). Not at all good for Alec, and not at all good for Sun.

So if you have any clue as to which strings we need to pull, or which pressure we can apply (maybe you’ve dealt with something like this and have a good tip), please let me “joep at sun dot com” or “bart blanquart at sun dot com” know.

TIA,

Joep

[1] even though they were OK—after a lot of talking—with trying to get him on a flight back home tomorrow, at 7pm they suddenly came up with the requirement that they needed a copy of the police report before they could start the process… The police report won’t be available before Thursday.

I have one or two pictures of his X-rays which I’ll try to get up here as well: broken ribs and screws in his knee..

[a] Alec to surgeon: “I need to have this drain taken out: my body objects to having extra holes in it” (seriously, it causes the swelling not to go away and keeps him from sleeping)

There is no stopping him, even without a computer!

Geoff has the Alec’s second podcast from hospital, still in Lille.

Update

I’ve now tried to clean up the audio a bit using Audacity and exported it in Ogg/Vorbis audio format which shrinks it down to just under 900KB.

Alec’s Second Podcast from Lille in Ogg format.

Link fixed to work from anywhere – thanks Carl

Update 1

From Gilles via Rachel:

Just had a chat with Alec’s sister yesterday evening. Here is the latest news… and it’s good!

Alec was operated on his leg Thursday morning. Operation went well. He recovered from the operation very well.

Yesterday evening, he ate what seems to be quite a big dinner… so his appetite is now back up to what it is supposed to be!

They should be flying him back to the UK on Monday.

Update 2

Rachel’s description of her chat with Alec’s sister.

L… (eldest) has now joined M… in France, and will by now have surprised Alec at the hospital. Yes the operation went well, though he found coming round from the anaesthetic horrid. They reckon six weeks before he can put weight on the leg, and obviously in the long-run physio will be required.

M…. said that as well as a good meal, Alec had another good English Cuppa last night – to go with the box of English tea bags she’d been given, she has now bought a proper spoon and a Winnie-the-Pooh melamine cup, from which Alec can drink with the help of a “pippette” (straw to the English) as he is of course still fairly flat on his back.

M… is hoping that the Insurance firm do not mess up on the current idea of flying Alec home on Monday. The Lille and Edgbaston Hospitals and their staff have been brilliant – this is not something she says about the insurance guys. Apparently they keep moving the goal posts, and she is finding it very frustrating. Those of a praying style might like to bear this in mind over the w/e!

Alec’s destination is the BMI Priory Hospital in Edgbaston Birmingham, which I am pretty sure is this one: http://www.prioryhospital.co.uk/hospital/about.cfm (Not to be confused with any other “priory” hospital in that area!)

You will be pleased to hear that Alec has been very concerned as to the technical aspects of his room at the hospital – eg. Wireless internet and other things I don’t understand! Once there he will make a list of the things he needs (clothing is well down the list – there’s a surprise!)

[…]

That just about concludes this update. I am away Sat-Sun so things may go quiet, and anyway until Alec’s at the Priory I suspect that there won’t be anything too dramatic – unless the Insurance firm are a total pain!!

From Bart:

Alec was scheduled to have his knee/leg operation today, so didn’t get any food or drink while preparations were being made (scans etc), though as they could not do one particular examination in time the doctor’s decided to move his operation to tomorrow morning (first thing).

So, after a day without food he did get dinner and ate the whole thing, ate a banana, and he got a ‘real’ cup of tea, courtesy of his sister (who made it), some compassionate Brits staying at her hotel (who provided the tea), and the hospital staff (who provided access to their kitchen area).

Thanks to Geoff Arnold the file of the audio recording of Alec’s message from his hospital bed available online!

Many thanks to Geoff for hosting this and to Bart who originally recorded it.

Just in from Bart:

I got a call from Alec’s sister and this time she had very little to say… as Alec did most of the talking himself (courtesy of a voice recorder).

Below is a transcription of (most of) Alec’s message, the audio for which I’ll put online as soon as I can (sorry for the delay).

Hello, it’s Alec again for another broadcast, from a bedstead in Lille hospital.

It’s a hot and sticky day and I’m tied to the bed with various bits of rubber tubing and in a most awkward position that you would not like to find yourself in.

Life is improving, especially now that I’ve got some food down me, yoghurt and bits of soup and it’s quite nice generally.

Anyway, so today is tuesday and the way things are looking it may be that by wednesday at some point, at wednesday come midnight I’m going to be (…), and I by wednesday afternoon I expect to be… [now apparantly talking to a doctor or nurse that’s walked in] Some nice people on the voice recorder. Hello. Possibly tomorrow I’ll be going in for an operation on my knee, get my tibia refixed.

[…]

Pardon the interruption. There just was a very nice doctor who told me I shouldn’t be drinking absolutely anything after 2am this morning in case I have a knee operation tomorrow, as I mentioned. They will attach one bit of my tibia to another bit of my tibia with some bolts and screws, and I’ll be in a fit state to have a cast put on it which should make life easier.

I’m still not sure when I’ll be back in the UK because that depends on the state of the rest of my body. They’re mildly concerned about the state of my kidneys and about my bile ducts.

(Here, on the recording, his sister chimes in: “He’s always very bilious”)

Oh lovely, thank you. All things going well it’s not impossible I may be in a hospital in Birmingham on Saturday and starting to recuperate.

On the other hand it may be monday because we have Bastille Day coming up, a national holiday which will probably upset everything. That’s the way
of things.

But anyway, I did want to say thank you to you guys for supporting me, sending me cards and phone messages and so on and I’ll be in touch as much as I can via means like this when I’m back in the UK. Thanks an awful lot, take care, big hugs. Bye Alec.

[…]

Hi, this is Alec. (..) this is just a short bit to say I feel triumphant having eaten two thirds of an egg and some bits of white aspargus — the first solid food I’ve had since thursday morning, I think. Another update in the morning. Thanks again.

Update via email, direct from Bart:

I received a voice message from Alec which I’m currently transcribing (and the recording itself will find its way to you as well) — I’ll send a message with the transcription and the URL to the mp3 once I’ve put it online.

In brief: Alec’s not going to be moved before friday (early next week is more likely), the surgery to set his leg will be tomorrow, and he’s doing reasonably well (though there still is some concern about his kidneys).

More soon.