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 they could celebrate this big step together with us.

It was good Rob had a nice quiet weekend with many short visits with the family. It’s much quieter now that he is in a “normal” room, and he can finally get some real rest.

He was also able to get rid of the tracheotomy sooner than expected and has an easier time talking now. He has been eating small amounts of food, after 70+ days on a liquid diet, and is very happy about that. Now I can bring him Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream, which is his favourite.

Rob was also able to have a sneak visit from our dog Jansen. We hid him under a jacket and smuggled him past the receptionist. She saw him on the way out with our neighbour Rob Vermeer, but by then it was too late. Rob really got a kick out of seeing him.

Rob is now in full rehabilitation mode. He has a long recovery ahead and is starting now with all the speech-, physio-, and ergo- therapy. I still have no idea how long we can expect him to be in the hospital, but should learn more soon.

Rob is now able to receive visitors. We have posted a page “Bezoekers/Visitors” (in Dutch) with information about visiting.