Thursday, July 30, 2009


Paul had a busy day yesterday.

He had his second German tutorship with Mr. Fuzak which was meant to last an hour. But he had so many questions and wanted to write so much in his notebook that they stopped more than two hours later.. as Paul had to be taken out for some tests.

As if this was not enough, he insisted in doing an hour of maths with Anne-Marie as late as 10pm.

Paul's aunt, Marie, is spending a few days with us.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Catching up German

Paul felt better over the last two days.

Since chemo is over since Sunday, he had two continuous and restful nights.

Paul got a new wheel armchair which allowed us to tour the upper adolescent floor to borrow DVDs.

Today he did his german homework in preparation of his class tomorrow.

Suzy left and Anne-Marie is rotating nights with me.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Paul finished his 5-day chemo cycle yesterday.

Suzy arrived on Friday for the weekend and is doing all the night shifts.

Paul spends his days watching movies and playing with his playstation and Xbox.

Today we did some maths exercises and he insisted we start next year's program.

Paul sleeps quite a lot otherwise, due to the morphine intakes to control the pain in his bad leg.

Thursday, July 23, 2009


Paul is in his third day of chemo (out of 5).

His friend Bertrand came from Paris to see him and they played with the xbox.

Paul watches movies quite late everyday (yesterday "Slumdog millionaire", kindly offered by Pat).

Corinne and Sylvain left to Hamburg today.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Chemo resumes

Paul has started chemo tonight.

Sylvain and Corinne came from Hamburg and Paul is particularly happy to spend some quality time with Sylvain and they are catching up on many things since last summer.


Paul asked for his German lesson to be reorganized for today and Mr. Fuzac was able to make it.

Then Béatrice de Beaufort came and distracted Paul with some history searches on internet.

Then, after a well-deserved nap, Paul had the surprise to see his cousin Marc arrive with an Xbox and they played Halo until late this evening.

Paul's platelets are finally up and, if they are confirmed tomorrow, chemo should then resume.

We have transformed his room into a movie theater with powerful speakers, and Paul watches one or two movies a day.

He cunningly diverted the doctors and nurses' usual questions to a computer game.

Some visits over the last few days, including the German teacher, but Paul fell asleep just before his arrival and missed his first class (it is the only topic he did not have time to catch up this school year, as yet).


Friday, July 17, 2009

In the open ward

UK hospitals have wards full of children with swine flu. Thus yesterday, we were moved from our room to the open ward.

Our room and the ones aside have all been given to cancerous childrens with no immunity, who were themselves moved from distant rooms which got assigned to swine flu patients. More than ever, hospitals are understaffed and it does take a lot of energy to get medication quickly when required.

Paul has enough white blood cells and doesn't need to be isolated. It is the platelets we're waiting for to resume chemo.

Needless to say, his night was not great in the open ward.

Luckily, late today, our initial room freed up and we moved back to it again.

Corinne left for Hamburg.
Suzy arrived yesterday and is doing two night shifts.

Clara left today for Beirut. She is joining her cousins Léana, Alexandra, and the many others. Her aunts will take good care of all this crowd, with plenty of things to do in the next few weeks.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009


We are still at UCH waiting for platelets to increase to resume chemo.

Paul feels more comfortable at hospital for the moment, despite not having chemo and being allowed to go home meanwhile.

His classmate Hadrien visited and they played computer games.

Alexis offered him an ebook which he liked a lot.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Chemo delayed


Paul had a good time at home but preferred to stay at UCH on Saturday as we had to go there for IV medication (any IV intake has to be done at hospital).

Given his bone marrow still not producing platelets nor white blood counts, he prefers staying in his confortable room at UCH to avoid having to go from home to Chelsea Westminster hospital for potential transfusion or antibiotics.

Chemo is therefore delayed (potentially resuming end of week).

Paul is well but sleeping quite a lot in the mornings given the morphine daily intake (to control the pain in the affected leg).

Yesterday a few visits (pictures below).

Corinne is spending a few days with us .. and doing all the night shifts.



Thursday, July 9, 2009

Home !

Yes, we're at home!

Paul had a good night with no pumps bleeping, no nurse coming in the room for observations every two hours, no doctors asking the same questions everyday (despite Paul repeating everyday: no change, as I said yesterday, ...). Because of the rotation of many doctors and nurses, each of them needs to get updated everyday from talking and examining Paul.

As a result, Paul slept serenely until...1pm.

The community nurse came to give him some medication and trained me. This way, we can surely spend more time at home in the future, away from hospital.

Mrs Cardle, the Latin teacher, visited him in the afternoon.

Then Mrs de Beaufort came and we saw a Louis de Funès movie "Le gendarme de St-Tropez".

Paul also played a computer game with Clara.

In the evening, Michel, Zeina and Jimmy came over.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009


Clara, Léana, Alexandra, with the help of Agnès, spent the last two mornings preparing a comic book for Paul, which they offered him today.

Paul's cousins will be leaving tomorrow to Paris.

But the good news is we will return home tomorrow evening for two days (after three weeks at hospital)!

Monday, July 6, 2009


Just as we were pleased the temperature settled and we could go home tomorrow (after three weeks at UCH..), Paul had a low grade fever and IV antibiotics had to be given again.

Chemo should resume next week (date depends upon blood counts which are still too low, although on the way up). In between, we hope to have at least two days at home.

Francis brought Paul's PSP from Beirut today and Paul was very excited to play with it.

Léana, Alexandra, Clara and Agnès also visited, as everyday.


Saturday, July 4, 2009

Suzy arrived from Abu Dhabi for the weekend (as she does every weekend !).


Paul's blood counts are increasing very slowly which makes the presence at the hospital mandatory given IV antibiotics.

His body is very weakened from seven months of chemotherapy, so he sleeps on and off during days and nights (nights are always interrupted by nurse observations every two hours as well as by medication pumps bleeping continuously).

But Paul is feeling better and had a few visits today: Esther, Gael de Beaufort, Adel.


Agnès, Léana, Alexandra and Clara also kept company to Paul, after their picnic in Hyde Park (pictures below).




Wednesday, July 1, 2009


Paul's blood counts are starting to increase finally today. Also his fever has settled down. Recipe for ..home soon?

Paul is doing his physio exercices with lots of discipline and willingness.

He had a few visits over the last few days: Michel from Paris, Esther, his aunt Marie from California, Mrs. de Beaufort, Joe, his physio Laura who brought him a T-shirt from Wimbledon.

His cousins Léana and Alexandra arrived from Hamburg yesterday to spend a whole week with us. They all watched a movie today and played computer games.

Léana and Alex's grand-mother Agnès arrived from Paris today and the house is full and cheerful.