Diane

Friday 1 June afternoon

The first thing Lara does upon awakening is trying to settle her stomach. To this end, she takes one tablet of Pantomed (20 mg of pantoprazole). Following breakfast and coffee (and every time she ingests anything) she takes an old-fashioned medication called Kaolin. It is a white powder made of white clay, recommended by Doctor Schroyens, our homeopathist against reflux. It comes in a plain paper bagg and you take it one flat coffeespoon at a time. Motilium does not agree with her. Carbobel (carbon) does.

Even before breakfast she takes her Staphysagria, now only once a day (was three) but at a dilution of LMK, which in homeopathic terms is a significant dose. (From there we can elevate to CML, and on to dilutions of 500.000 and one million, we will see.) Half an hour later, after she has been washed, she takes a spoonful of baume pulmonaire, a cough syrop containing codeine (a morphine derivative), which in view of her low resistance, puts her to sleep before long. She only takes it three times a day for that reason. Otherwise, a less aggresive cough syrop she uses is called Thymo Septine.

Of course intravenously she receives Novalgine (paracetamol) and Litican (against nausea also), both twice a day. Plus Litican in tablets, in case she needs them in between her morning and afternoon infusions.

What's causing all this nausea, in my mind, is the extended uses of antibiotics. Meronem (very broad spectrum gram-negative) at a rate of 4 grams a day since when she was in the hospital in February must by now have destroyed her complete intestinal flora. I will discuss with the doctor if a lesser dose would not be advisable; but perhaps the damage is already irreversible. Sometimes the treatment is worse than the ailment.

Despite all that, she selects her daywear with care, giving me instructions as to where to find what. I come back with a flowing dress by Diane von Furstenberg, one of her favorites (and mine too). But she needs a broche to keep it together at the top. As it happens, she dishes one up right out of her sidetable.