Bombarded With Questions After A Stay In Hospital

Thirteen Years #24: The story of a friend, and his fight with AIDS

Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash

Find more: Threaded Thursday / Short series / Long series

Note: This series is a rework of a self-published book (2009), rewritten in loving memory of a dear friend who suffered from and passed because of AIDS. Keep in mind this story happens in the late eighties and throughout the nineties. Names of characters have been changed to protect their privacy.

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In her e-mail, Annie asked Isaac when he would use his HIV medicine again. Since he hadn’t mentioned it, she was curious. She also suggested he asked the doctor whether it was a side effect of the antibiotics that made him lose his hair. Annie promised to write as soon as she and Jacques returned from Amsterdam on Sunday.

She did.

She filled Isaac in on everything they did in the two days and two nights that they were in Amsterdam.

They had visited Holland Experience, which was a 3D movie theatre next to the Rembrandt House Museum. Seated in an airplane chair on a moving platform and with 3D glasses on their noses, they made a journey through the Netherlands, which lasted about half an hour. They could see, smell and feel characteristic things of the Netherlands.

Annie also told Isaac about their dinner at the South African restaurant in Amsterdam, where Jacques ate some other South African food than what Annie normally prepared at home.

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Date: Mon, 8 Feb 1999 07:04:20

Hi there friends!

I’m so glad you are back and you enjoyed your weekend in Amsterdam.

I’m still in pain, but it is bearable. I wanted to go to work, but have decided against it. The pain is worse today, but I hope by Wednesday they will sort it out.

I had a calm weekend, or maybe not really. I went to dinner with a colleague on Friday. On Saturday, I went shopping with another colleague. On Saturday evening I went home with her and had dinner there, watched a movie and then I came back home.

Yesterday I was at home. I did nothing, and it just made me feel guiltier that I don’t really “live”. I don’t want to regret one day I didn’t do everything I always wanted to do. Life is so short that one should grab it with both hands and do as much as you can.

I am stopping now. If you don’t hear from me on Wednesday, don’t worry. I will update you as soon as possible.

Lots of love and I miss you!
Me
xxxxxx

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They heard from him on Wednesday:

Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1999 19:26:16

Hello dear friends of mine,

I’m at home again after my stay in the hospital. I cannot compare it to the hospital in Rotterdam. The care… oh, just about everything is second class.

At six o’clock on Tuesday, we — I was in the room with another bloke who also had to get a colonoscopy — started to drink our 4 liters of Go Lightly. I can assure you the name is very misleading. We had to be done by ten o’clock. He drank all of it and I could only drink three and a half liters. At five o’clock this morning, they woke us up. He went in at 9.30 and only came back to the room an hour later.

At eleven o’clock, they came to get me, but when I got to the clinic, they said I have to go back to the room because there was another patient who had to go first. At twelve o’clock, they came to get me again.

It wasn’t too bad. There’s nothing in my colon — no growth or cancer. It’s only an infection. Doctor Seymour took some tissue from the inside and on 18 February, I will have the results of the biopsy.