By Ellyn on 7 March 2010
After a few difficult weeks, we wanted to let you know that we are doing well and celebrating life. Rob’s family is also doing well, and although everyone is sad, there is also hope in the future.
Rob has been able to stand for a short amount of time unassisted. Here is a short video clip [...]
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By Ellyn on 23 February 2010
Your spring suddenly broke,
it is good so…
My wife, our mother, mother-in-law and grandmother peacefully and calm,
joined by us all, passed away in her 72nd life year.
Her love, optimism and her perserverance will stay with us always.
Eindhoven, 18 February 2010
Veldm. Montgomerylaan 147, 5612 BB Eindhoven
Services will be held on Friday, 26 February at 13.15 at [...]
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By Ellyn on 18 February 2010
Het feest zaterdag, 20 februari is afgelast wegens familieomstandigheden. Tonny, de moeder van Robert is streng ziek.
The party Saturday, 20 February is canceled because of family circumstances. Robert’s mother Tonny is severely ill.
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By Ellyn on 2 February 2010
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By Ellyn on 12 January 2010
Na 7 lange maanden hebben wij beslist dat een feestje is om te vieren Rob’s terugkeer naar gezondheid, vrienden en familie.
Rob’s Welkom Thuis feest zal zijn op zaterdag, 20 februari om 16:00 aan café-pension ‘t Ankertje in Andijk.
Wij zijn heel gelukkig dat onze vrienden Big Al en Pim en hun band Heap of Rubble [...]
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By Ellyn on 11 January 2010
Upon his request, Rob was released from Heliomare today.
(Op zijn verzoek ontslagen Rob uit Heliomare vandaag).
Rob says:
It’s time to build new bridges, which are there to be crossed.
Needless to say, we are both very excited to be home together and doing well.
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By Ellyn on 10 January 2010
First of all, we want to wish all of you a very happy new year! We can’t say how much all of your love and support has helped these last 6 months, but please know that they have. One of these days we will be writing you all personally, but until then, please know how [...]
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By Ellyn on 6 December 2009
We had a wonderful time with Rob’s sister Anne and her husband Mick this weekend. Please see 2009 Sinterklaas Weekend on our photo website if you want to see more photo’s.
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By Ellyn on 3 December 2009
Rob has decided, with my full support, that another lap at Heliomare is the best solution. We were already happier in the last week with the amount of proactive rehabilitation he has been receiving, and were even happier today with the meetings we had about plans for action.
The new plan is to focus on his [...]
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By Ellyn on 29 November 2009
Rob is doing great. I haven’t posted, because we have been really busy on Rob’s rehabilitation plan. Rob is slowly but steadily regaining his strength. It’s amazing to see all his improvements by the day. I am shocked by his body’s ability to heal itself – mother-nature is truly amazing in life-giving and nurturing. Here [...]
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By Ellyn on 15 November 2009
The title of this blog is what Rob said would be a good title for the posting this week. I think being “clueless” is what happens after 23 weeks in a medical environment, but overall he is doing great, so no worries. As you can see, Rob is doing really well being home again.
We [...]
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By Ellyn on 8 November 2009
As of Thursday night, Rob is off the feeding tube — finally! He is very happy to be free of it, and we both think it will help him tremendously in moving forward.
It all happened a bit unplanned. When he arrived home on Thursday night, while taking his jacket off it became loose. We called [...]
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By Ellyn on 3 November 2009
Rob is out of quarantine (isolation) at Heliomare. Yipee!!! He is thrilled and eager to move forward with his full therapy now. Much of his therapy had been limited while in quarantine most of October, and he can finally do what he went there to do – rehabilitation.
And … Rob was also able to stand [...]
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By Ellyn on 2 November 2009
We had a very happy Halloween weekend together. Rob was home again for a long weekend, and we had a wonderful time relaxing, eating some good meals and sitting by the fire.
Rob was able to stand 3 times today! His progress is going well now that he has been able to build up his [...]
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By Ellyn on 27 October 2009
We had an unbelievable happy weekend. Rob was finally able to come home for a long weekend. To say that this was a special moment would be a huge understatement. It was absolutely fantastic!
Everything was arranged rather quickly and we had a delay because Rob had a bad reaction to antibiotics — the reason for [...]
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By Ellyn on 18 October 2009
Waarschuwing: Alstublieft bezoek Rob nu niet. Hij is terug in quarantaine. Hij heeft nog steeds een probleem met een bacteriën. Hij wordt heel teleurgesteld. Het goed nieuws is dat zij zullen toestaan dat hem meer te drinken en te eten. Ik hoop dat zal maken die quarantaine gemakkelijker voor hem. Ik zal de Bezoekers [...]
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By Ellyn on 14 October 2009
I just talked to Rob on the telephone and he told me that he was able to stand today for a short amount of time. He needed to be assisted and hold on tight, but this is a very big step in his recovery.
He has a lot of work to do on building up his [...]
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By Ellyn on 11 October 2009
Rob is doing really well. He seems to have made it through this last infection with flying colours, although it was very unpleasant for him. We’ve had a good long weekend together, and he is really making big steps and making up for lost time. Tonight he was really moving and stretching his left leg [...]
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By Ellyn on 4 October 2009
We had an amazing weekend. After being told that Rob was in quarantine, they decided it was okay for me to take him over to the hotel to celebrate my birthday. I quickly arranged a little party for us, and our friend Albert came over too.
We had a wonderful time. We joked and laughed a [...]
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By Ellyn on 1 October 2009
Rob has been doing well and getting stronger every day. Unfortunately, it looks like he got hit by another bacterial infection. It is a healthcare-associated (HAI) and and antibiotic-associated infection called Clostridium difficile (CDI, CDF or C-diff).
It was caught quickly and being managed by antibiotics and electrolytes, so we are hoping it is not one [...]
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By Ellyn on 30 September 2009
Stay focused.
Be “hoo” you are.
Trust in a wise friend.
Live off the land.
Glide through dark times.
Be observant.
Life’s a hoot!
Posted in Robert
By Ellyn on 27 September 2009
We had a great time this weekend wandering around the dunes and town. Rob is really building up his strength and able to be out of bed for longer times. We really enjoyed the great weather and sitting out in the sun on a terrace.
Later today we were talking about what sensations he had on [...]
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By Ellyn on 20 September 2009
We had a nice celebration the night before Rob left the hospital. He finally got that beer he has been yearning for (an alcohol free Palm) and really enjoyed it. Rob had a lot of well wishes from all the staff and everyone remarked on how fast he is progressing now that he is building [...]
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By Ellyn on 14 September 2009
Yipee! Rob is leaving the hospital on Thursday (17 September) for rehabilitation. He is so happy to be getting the hell out of there. It will be the end of his 14th week by then — over 3 months!
As you can imagine, we had a nice celebration after we heard the news. Jansen and our [...]
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By Ellyn on 13 September 2009
Rob is doing great. Every day he is improving, and he is able to enjoy some of life’s simple pleasures.
Rob’s parents Ger and Tonny came up from the south of Holland for a visit today. It was a tiring trip for them, but I think they all loved to see each other. Rob received a [...]
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By Ellyn on 10 September 2009
Today we received the most beautiful song dedicated to Rob from his good friend Dorette. I’ll let her wonderful music say the rest [click on this link to hear "Change", by Dorette].
We are definitely “acting on an unknown stage”, but I do think all of those things we somtimes took for granted, flowers, clouds, birds, [...]
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By Ellyn on 9 September 2009
The last 2 weeks Rob has been improving really well. He had a few small set backs with infections, but he came out of them quickly. Now he is really building up his strength and very eager to get out of the hospital.
We have been very busy working on his rehabilitation plan. I have to [...]
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By Ellyn on 24 August 2009
After a 10 long weeks, Rob was finally able to leave intensive care on Friday, 21 August. As you can imagine, we are thrilled.
The timing was perfect because Rob’s sister Anne arrived from England with our niece Isha and nephews Thomas, Luke and Oliver. Rob was very happy to see all of them, and that [...]
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By Ellyn on 14 August 2009
Rob has been doing pretty well since they put him on the heavier antibiotics. He seems to have shaken the worst of the staph and strep infections. Still, this week he has been having intermittent chills and fever’s of unknown origin (yes, there is a name for that — FUO).
I am relieved that they treated [...]
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By Ellyn on 9 August 2009
Rob was doing really great most of last week. He was taken off the ventilator on Saturday, 1 August, and his breathing has remained good since that time. The plan was that he would move out of intensive care to a normal room on Thursday, 6 August.
Unfortunately, Rob got hit by a double whammy of [...]
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By Ellyn on 30 July 2009
Rob is really improving now. He is still fighting a low grade lung infection, but they seem to be controlling it well. He is able to sit in a chair for a while and is being slowly weaned from the ventilator. They still have him on a few med’s, but overall, he seems to be [...]
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By Ellyn on 23 July 2009
Rob is now in his 7th week in intensive care. He started out the week great, and finally got off the ventilator. That was absolutely fabulous because the ventilator causes infections — kind of an evil circle.
Rob was doing great for about 5 days. Unfortunately, he then got hit by another infection and had a [...]
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By Ellyn on 20 July 2009
It’s been a tremendously difficult 6 weeks. Robert was admitted to the hospital on 12 June, and everything has been a roller-coaster since then. He has been fighting very hard and showing an unbelievable amount of strength. I hope you all keep him in your thoughts…
Rob had gone to work at a theatre festival called [...]
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