Matthew

My brother-in-law Matthew is ill. Seriously ill, so serious that he is admitted to the hospital. He has been nauseous for a long time, trouble with eating and has been vomitting regularly. After several visits to the Emergency they finally recognized the seriousness of his condition.

The theory now is that the vomiting has caused a hole in his esophagus, so there is food and air leaking into his chest cavity. That is potentially a very dangerous thing because it can cause a serious infection. But so far everything is under control, the only thing is that he is not allowed to eat or drink for the next week, so his esophagus gets the rest it needs. After that they’re going to do tests and hopefully find out why he is so nauseous, because that’s not clear at all. They suspected the medication he’s taking for his schizophrenia to cause his vomitting, but apparently that’s no longer the case, since he’s back onto it right now. Which is a good thing.

We went to Ottawa to visit him, and he was happy to see us. We got him some DVDs because he’s very bored, being on a hospital with many old people that just lie in bed, while he can move around with his IV-drip on a wheeled pole. It’s beautiful weather, so we take him outside to sit in the sun.

Update: The day after this picture he was released from the hospital since new tests revealed the hole had apparently closed. He is allowed to eat again, albeit only fluid food for now. I hope they’re going to research him a bit further and find out what has caused this.