July 3rd, 2023

e weekend was a bit dull. On Saturday, Deniz came to visit me bearing fruit, nuts, biscuits, and a beautiful bouquet of flowers. We talked about his training, which should start in early August. The final decision rests with the Directorate of Education and Culture of the Canton of Bern. He passed his job interview successfully, and the person in charge even called me to wish me a speedy recovery. He is still waiting on one document that his current employer needs to provide.

On Sunday, my mother surprised me by coming to visit. I also received several calls from friends and family members. So the weekend ended quietly. My bandage was changed: there was quite a bit of blood and the wound remained moist.

This morning, a medical team came to see me, my surgeon, an infectious diseases specialist, the chief physician, my surgeon’s assistant, and other practising doctors. They confirmed that I do indeed have a bacterial infection, likely entering through the scar. That’s why the wound has been slow to heal and why I’ve been going to the hospital so often to treat the wound. The infection has spread to the bones in my leg and foot, which necessitated the removal of all the screws and the plate.

I now have to undergo intensive antibiotic treatment: two different antibiotics will be administered via infusion for at least ten days, then in tablet form. Regular blood tests will monitor the effectiveness of the treatment. So I’m not likely to leave the hospital anytime soon, which is obviously demoralising and far from the good news I was hoping for.

This afternoon, the head of the Infectious Diseases Department at the Lindenhof Group, which includes the hospital where I am, came by to check on my progress.

A new IV line was inserted. The veins are struggling with all these medications, especially the antibiotics, which often cause narrowing and blockages. So they switched the infusion from my left arm to my right.

Then they told me they were going to place a central line in my neck, a catheter extending down to my chest, a central venous catheter (CVC). No sooner said, they came to pick me up…

About an hour later, I was back in my room. The procedure took place in the anaesthesia room, where a doctor explained how it would go. Using ultrasound guidance, she inserted a catheter into a vein in my neck that runs down near the heart. This method is more effective and better protects the peripheral veins. The procedure was done under local anaesthetic and involved placing a long drain, whose position was checked on screen before being precisely secured.

It was a strange sensation, but not painful. The procedure went well, without complications.