21st July 2008

Hello,

Here is some more news from the Belgium homefront … 

Today 21st July is a bank holiday in Belgium so Tommy could come home for a long weekend. Last Friday a nice bunch of friends (Benji, An, Luk, Rudy, Kristel & kids) waited for Tommy at the hospital at 5pm to take him out somewhere in Ghent. We went to a very cosy place that looked more like a funcky park – there were gipsy wagons, they had amazing good sangria, good simple food, a campfire was on around 10 pm and everybody was just very relaxed, sitting outside, talking, laughing, ….  We all had a very nice time and we hope to do this again in August but then without the jaw problems Tommy had. He made a wrong movement with his jaw when he had to do a long test on Friday afternoon and his jaw got out of position very easily. We went back to the hospital two times to get his jaw back in place as this is very painful. But that did not spoil the great evening we had afterwards!

Yesterday and today we went to Ghent and had loads of fun with my sister Sonia and Petra. At this time of year there are lots of activities for kids during the day in Ghent. Tonight, to end the nice relaxing long weekend we had lasagna that my sister made and it was delicious!

Re Tommy his condition: his upper legs hurt a lot and the doctors are looking into the possibility of also using botox to soften and relax the muscles. His elbow and arms are much better so the operation was really worth it. According to Tommy his view is getting better slowely so there is still hope that also there we will have more improvement. Until the time that Tommy can read books himself again, we have decided to get him a Daisy box (=special dvd box) and to order dvd’s on which books are recorded. In stead of reading a book, Tommy will listen to it. The first book we will order is the Alchemist of Paulo Coelho – that is Tommy’s choice. We will also subscribe to another programm that will send Tommy dvd’s on a weekly basis mentioning up to date “sports news” and “world news” – I think it is important that Tommy remains connected with the real world, with things that happen outside his world now. Tommy is very excited about this and I am convinced that this is a good thing for both Tommy his mind and spirit.

Voila, more news later! Bye for now, Vicky & the kids