I hope this is not too much information too often for you. It’s hard to pitch it right, so please don’t feel burdened by too much and please don’t think you have to think of something to reply with. We know you care!

Much better news today. White cells up and infection levels down so good progress medically. A physio comes every day to help him walk a little bit every day (he’s very shaky on his pins) and breathe more efficiently. Press-ups have never been high on his list of pleasures.

He is still dependent on various types of mask to deliver oxygen but at a lesser concentration. However it’s forced in him at such a pressure that he’s very uncomfortably full of air now. A massage therapist twinkled his toes yesterday which he loved and she showed me how to do it better, so that was great.

All of this improvement is fantastic and we’re so grateful to you for willing him better in various ways with us.

The next thing to concentrate on is for him to actually start to feel better, and to be able to bear the rest of this horrible treatment, which just seems interminable. He’s very strong but this is pushing his positive resources to the limit and he’s feeling really dreadful today having had a disturbed and unpleasant night and weeks of debilitating and miserable side effects of everything.

I know we can help him get through this too.

If he carries on improving physically at this rate he may be able to leave the critical care unit and be transferred back to the other Marsden in Sutton on Monday.

We’ll do Valentines Day later!

Sorry I wrote this on the ward on my blackberry but it seems too long and thin here. Can’t correct it. Need Jacob to be better and help with these things right now.

Love from us all, C,J,B,N,E,and of course J