Journey to life: Walks all around

Today did not start out too good for Sigve. While in the bathroom this morning to have his shower, he very suddenly felt sick and vomited several times. So when I got there, he was back in bed, waiting for his stomach to settle down. He had a nap and then felt well enough to eat half a bowl of corn flakes as a late breakfast while I had lunch.

I'm always offered the meals that are served while I'm there, which I think is very generous. One relative per patient gets that offer, but sometimes when f.ex. Hilde Marie has been there too, we're both offered food. Most of the time I go to the cafeteria to buy a salad though.

Anyway, Sigve likes to rest after he's eaten, to make sure he doesn't upset his stomach. I had arranged to go for a walk with Brita, and we just had time for a few laps down the corridor before I left.

The weather was warm and gorgeous, so we walked from the hospital, up along Fjellveien to the middle stop on the funicular line up to Fløyen, and took the funicular the rest of the way up. The Fløyen mountain is a very popular view point for tourists and locals alike, and the view of the city is spectacular. After a coffee and ice cream stop (yes, I had one, I figured that during our 3 hour walk I would walk it off again!) we took a different track back down and walked all the way back to the hospital. Here's Brita during our break:

The view in the next picture is not of the city, but in the other direction. If you imagine a horizontal line right through the middle, and then go 1/4 in from the left you will see Haukeland Hospital. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

In the next one, see the big white wall with two vertical rows of windows down off center, almost all the way to the left, that's where Sigve's room is, on the top floor. The view from the lounge area at the end of the corridor behind those two windows is of the city. I'll try to remember to get a picture of it one day.

All the way over by the right edge of the picture there is a yellow U-shaped building, behind a big white building. That's the patients' hotel, where out-patients who still need to come in for check-ups every day, but don't actually need a hospital bed, can stay if they don't live in Bergen. That's where Sigve and I will be staying for a month once he gets used to being up all day, eats all the food he needs and is off all iv supplements.

On our way down we took a few breaks to enjoy the view.

Back with Sigve, he was ready for another big step, getting dressed and going outside into the sunshine. It was three weeks since the last time he was outside in fresh air! Outside the cafeteria there's a very nice roof garden, and that's where we went.

On the phone tonight Sigve told me that he had a yogurt for supper, and while we were out he had eaten a bowl of tomato soup for dinner. If he's able to keep it up and increase the amount of food he eats we'll be in the patients' hotel in no time!