A truly good day He was in fine form cracking jokes, and fully aware of his predicament and what he needs to do to resolve the situation.
an extremely positive attitude and a fighting spirit something instilled in people that race, it seems to be standing him in good stead.
Ill just keep it brief and as you can see from the pictures Barries Happy mood!

MT just left visit, been there since 2.30 , they are all very relaxed there not about how long we stay, the chef is still there now!!
All really good, no dialysis machine today, so that makes it easier for him to move his head around, he was in good form and Paul and I had a good laugh with him, so that was really nice.  We did a couple of photos of dad and paul and then even one with me in it that we will post on the blog site as soon as we can. Paul bought an orange and some grapes, dad managed to eat a nice juicy segment without honking up on us which was great and I was waiting for him to use one of his favourite expressions 'please can you peel me a grape' but however, grapes were off the menu tonight. I left dad for the last time with paul as I must unfortunately return to london tomorrow and will not be back until the 19 august.  I o not even know if dad will still be in Tours then, as it is probable that by that time he could be in  Paris for the second for the second part of his journey home.

I have left 20 euros in his drawer for ice lollies and lemon tea an our new friend Ben, father of an adjacent patient, will pop in every day and see if dad needs anything. Ben is truly a lovely chap an will keep dad company best he can whilst there are no other family/ friends at hand. That's all for now, there will be no more news now until Thursday.

Max

Hi Gang, (part 1 )
Just got here, Dad awake and fine, no sooner had I arrived he asked for an ice lolly!! I spoke to Dr, he said fine! So took off all my mask gloves etc and popped down to the shop and the only thing they had that did not have milk in was a strawberry, orange and lemon twister! The kids would have loved it! So did he!!
He eat the whole thing very quickly, licking his lips along the way.
Next thing he wanted a cup of lemon tea!!
Ok, I got all my gear off again and went back to the cafe on the ground floor and got him a tea.
Just waiting for nurse to finish his shave an will take it in to him, not sure if I should bother getting all gear on again just in case he decides he wants something else!!

(Part 2)
Unfortunately after I returned into the room the nurses were messing around and hooking up the dialysis machine this took some time and dad started to become very short of breath and wheezy, this I think was coincidental and not related to neither ice cream or the dialysis machine.  I had to get a nurse and arrange some ventolin.  He had this on for a good twenty minutes his chest eased up then he was fine again. I stayed with him until 5.30.  The chef arrived at 5.15 so I left him to it and went and had a chat with the doctor as ad had been for a scan today and I wanted to establish their findings.
Max

Hi Gang,
Today was another good visit, other than the fact that when I arrived at the hospital at 2.30 pm Dad was having an asthma attack! He was really wheezy and was struggling for breath, he was able to tell me that they had changed his Ventilator medication from yesterday and that he had an allergic reaction to it. This caused his airways to dilate and hence his attack! It was the second time today that they had administrated this new medication and both times he had the same reaction. I managed to eventually get the doctor and explain that he needed to stop this medications and get him on some ventolin, like NOW PLEASE! This seemed to do the job and within 5 mins we had the ventolin mask on and this stayed on for 20 mins, this did the job, after that he was breathing normally, no more panic attacks!
The rest of the visit was great, I managed to stay with Dad for 2 and half hours, it was great, I also stayed whilst he was having his pysio therapy and he is doing better and better every day, I explained the importance of keeping this going outside of class time, as he may as well be doing as much as he can, without overdoing of course, whilst he is laying there, "keep those muscles flexing dad, you will need them soon".
Anyway we had a good chat and a laugh about calling room service for 2 pints of larger and a packet of crisps! The visit went really well once we got the asthma sorted and I told Dad that Paul the chef would be coming tomorrow and hopefully will be cooking something nice dinner!!!
I left at 5 ish soaking wet as usual.
Looking forward to more fun and games tomorrow.
That's all for now folks
Max

Hi all,
I shall be visiting Barrie tomorrow and saturday, so for all those of you expecting some news, you will have to wait until sunday evening when I will be able to post along with some much awaited pictures.
Thank you for your patience.
Paul

Hi all,
MT and I both had a really good visit tonight and for me, who had not seen Barrie since the removal of his ventilator tube, this was be far the most encouraging visit yet!
Barrie was able to talk to us! No more lip reading, no more trying to decipher facial expressions and best of all, no more white board!! It is difficult to say if the white board was worth the few words we managed to spell out in previous visits, over the frustration and time endured trying to string a few letter together. So full on speech was like music to my ears. We all managed not only a good chat but also some humour thrown in for good measure.
Dad was fully aware that he has been having a few funny thoughts, such as being kidnapped and about going out for walks, his cat etc, he knows that these are just a combination of his subconscious thoughts and cocktail of drugs. He knows that these vivid dreams are not reality, this shows how on the ball he really is.
Dad did not complain about any of his pains, soars or of  being too uncomfortable, even if he was, he was just getting on with it.
We stayed for 90 mins and said au revoir until tomorrow.
All good, just now need to get kidneys functioning correctly, a few other things and then we can get on with the orthopaedic side of dads rehabilitation.
Hope he is on form tomorrow!!
Signing off, very tired
Max

Barrie is in good mood
He started to talk rubbish again but told him he had been dreaming and none of it was true and that he should forget it
After that he was making much more sense and we managed to have a proper chat for the first time

He will be having a scan on Friday but we will not know the outcome until after the weekend

He is coughing and spitting quite well
More later
MT

Barrie was quite alert and with it on both viisits

He is breathing quite well without the ventilator and receives  oxygen through his nose.             
His throat is very sore and everytime he tries to cough, he grimaces with pain
It will take a few day to ease and for his vocal cords to work again

He is now able whisper to me which makes communication a bit easier
Tonight he told me very seriously that since he has been in hospital, he has been kidnapped five times, this is morphine for you
and a few minutes later, after I had removed my protective outfit, ready to leave, he called me back and asked me how many kilos I had lost
I lied and said two
So he is certainly very much on the case

Doctors are pleased with his progress and he needs to progress even more in order to sort out his kidneys and bladder problems
He seems quite determined to get better as he can't  wait to come out of hospital
                                                      I hope he will continue to progress
Marie-Therese
------------------

Had the first visit
He is complaining that I don't speak loud enough as it is difficult to hear my voice behind the mask
I understood two questions
He wanted to know if it was a big hospital
He wanted me to bring him a tshirt and this is what he was asking yesterday when making the sign of a T

It is still difficult to communicate as I can't understand what he says but don't want him to strain repeating his questions
His throat sounds awful and will take a few days before it is better

Spoke to Dr Solenne and she said he is doing very well
Breathing good, blood pressure good
The only concerns still are his kidneys and he will need another dialysis in the next few days and also his bladder
We have agreed he cannot go to Paris until all this is solved
She thinks it will be a few weeks

He has to stay on his back
He is sort of sitting not at right angle but his head is quite high
My worry is that the legs are apart and I am worried about pelvis but Solenne said they had the OK from orthopedic surgeons

Again we cannot change anything but will mention it to Steve

Will send report after second visit

Hi
Nothing much to report but it is Sunday and always diificult to speak to a doctor
Nurse said he is now at 20 degrees and it is going OK
He has done lots of breezing by himself and the doctors will decide tomorrow if they remove ventilator
They could noit make the TV work in in room so it is a shame but he missed the GP

End of news
I am still trying to get organise for tomorrow but not very productive today

Love to all
MT

Hi gang,
No visit yesterday lunch time, as Barrie was having an operation at 2.30 pm to remove the external fixation to his pelvis. This operation was a little premature, as ideally it should have been left in place for 60 days and not 45 days. However there was a risk of infection and if infection gets into the bone, then that could be very dangerous.
They X ray ed Dad on Friday and surgeon was happy that pelvis was sufficiently mended to remove fixation.
Therefore no point in risking the growing possibility of a dangerous infection.
Mel came with me in the evening and we were not expecting too much, we though he would be well zonked out after operation, well we were wrong. Barrie was awake and amazingly with it. Good to see him in form and also without the metal construction in his pelvis.
He was moaning a bit about his new position in the bed, more upright with knees elevated, body in Z shape.
He wanted to be lowered and more flat,
We tweaked his bed and got him more comfortably positioned. We also had pain in his left heal from dressing of a bed soar, the fixation in his left leg is both complicated and heavy, hence the problem. Managed to get a gel back under his heal that helped a little.
I requested a mirror, so he could have a look at himself and also have a look around the room behind his head where all his electronic machines were. previously he could only hear them, bleeping and pulsing.
Spent a good hour and half in there and eventually he started to tire and requested his blanket and for the light to be turned off, so tucked him up, killed lights and did everything but read him a story, as he had already crashed.
I said good night and left.
I left as usual soaking wet, as cloaks, masks and my abnormal high body temperature does not help.
We were going straight out to dinner and no change of shirt, so had to jam soaked shirt in rear window of car and dry out driving down motorway!!
Worked a treat!!
Bye for now.
Max

Dear all,
Barrie's second visit today was much better than the 1st. He seemed to have less of a fever and was not as heavily drugged up as lunchtime.
Shame Rene was not there tonight instead of this afternoon!
Barrie was fully awake and was doing his pysio exercises that he had been taught by his therapist. In fact he was showing off a little!! Moving his arms up and down in repetition, as if he were training in the Gym. Wiggling his fingers and toes around and all sorts of other new tricks!
He and I were both really pleased with his pysio progress. During the visit he periodically started to exercise, we started with sets of 10, each arm at a time. Little breaks in between. If he pushed a little too hard, he would start to cough, not good, so we rested and started again a few mins later. He is completely determined to get up and running and fit again as soon as he can.
Great fighting spirit. He will of course succeed.
I stayed and chatted about F1 and our Olympic heros and explained that Radio in France would not work, however worked out that we can get World News and 5 Live sports via Pod cast into his I Pod, this should help to keep him company when he is alone and link him to the outside world.
As he can now move his arms and fingers up and in more control,  he is able to  point more accurately to letters on the white board, so communication is far easier, he was even able to tell me where he had his BRDC passes stashed!!
Good visit, Barrie on good form and I left feeling very happy.
Good night

Hi all,
Arrived at hospital and found a surprise guest in the waiting room! Rene Ligonet, for those of you who do not know Rene, we was Barrie's Co Pilot at Le Mans in 72.
Visit was not as encouraging as yesterday and in contrast to the past week, Barrie was very hot and almost to point of having a fever.
Nurses said that his body temperature was up slightly to 38.5. I was explained after that he may have an infection coming back in the pelvic fixation area.
They can not tell me anymore as they have sent samples off for analysing.
We must now wait and see what they come back with, before they decide to pit him back on any anti biotics and of course what type.
I spoke to his pysio, who said that his exercises were going well and he is able to now raise both arms and squeeze his fingers. She has also worked on legs but said his right knee was hurting, so she did not push too hard.
Breathing again on his own for a few hours, so they are still hoping to get tube out of his mouth early next week.
Kidneys are only functioning at 25%, so no change there.
He had some pain from a dressing on his left angle, probably heal, so they pumped some extra sedative into him, instead of him having and additional discomfort.
He was very please to see Rene, however after 30 mins into visit he wanted us to go , as he needed something attending to by the nurse.
We left him in peace. Rene and I had a quick coffee together and then dropped him off at the station. Too late to go home now, so will sit around the Hospital car park and await next visit.
Hopefully his fever will calm down by then.
Regards
Max

Hi gang,
I will have to try to make this brief, as am well knackered myself today.
Almost as tired as Dad!!
Lunch time visit was fine, Barrie was responsive and seemed pleased to see me however first thing he mentioned was as usual he was cold. He needed his 2nd blanket. I really think that if he had 10 blankets we would still feel cold! His body temperature is normal, it is just that he feels cold. Lack of movement and circulation is the cause, so I find the best course of action is to get hold of his shoulders and give them a good firm massage, no stroking the skin, just good firm hands. As my own body temperature runs about 5 degrees above normal, my hands soon warm him up. He likes this massage and even though I almost put my own back out doing it, I know this helps him and he normally nods off.
He has pysio twice per day now and he is again making small steps forward, the pysio moves his arms and hands and he gets them up as far as his shoulders. They are now slowly started to work the legs a little. They seemed pleased with his progress.
Ref Kidneys, I am sure that these will resume normal service over the next couple of weeks, Dr has confirmed that he is slowly now reducing the number of hours that he remains on the annoying dialysis machine.
He spent an hour this morning and hour and a half this afternoon breathing on his own. So that is great stuff, however as you can imagine, 2 lots of pysio and 2.5 hours of natural breathing has made him very tired, which is fine, the more he sleeps the better for him right now.
I tell him about his blog comments and try to have a bit of a laugh with him without making him choke!!
Dr says that next week, maybe even on Monday they may be taking out this awful tube (respitator) that is stuck down his throat, it will be the biggest step forward for him and I know that he can not wait for that day to come! Bless him and God help us! Barrie could be talking with a week!! Bye Bye white board!!
All in all both visits were the same, in and out of sleep whilst getting shoulder massage, Melanie accompanied me tonight and he was pleased to see her.
I managed to speak to the lovely Dr Anne Charlotte before I left tonight and without repeating ever thing she said, all in all Barrie has made some good improvements and they are very happy with his progress. Basically he is on the road to recovery, still a long road but the right road. Not quite as fast a road as he would normally choose but I am sure he will get there eventually!!
That's your lot!!
Signing off,
Max

Hi all,
Just to keep you all in the loop, Barrie was alert but also very tired today on both visits.
The Pysio had got at him before both visits and these gentle exercises clearly knocks him out. Having had a long chat with the very nice French Pysio, she explained that she is trying to get some mobility back in his arms, hands and shoulders. He needs to start to slowly moving again as the poor chap has just been just laying there for well over a month now. She explained that he can not raise his arms yet above shoulder height and he moans about pain in his shoulders.
I have told him "No Pain No Gain" and that he needs to slowly extend himself during these important sessions. He nodded!!
Pysio can not yet attempt any lower body exercises until he has had another x-ray, to establish if exercising his legs is safe to do at this moment in time.
Anyway, this twice a day pysio is defiantly knocking him out. I have told him that the more he sleeps the quicker the time passes and not to try to keep awake when I am there on a visit. He therefore feels relaxed about nodding off and waking up again at leisure when I am around. This gives me a bit of time to chat the nurses up!!
I tried to take in my laptop and a couple of DVD's for him to watch, he seemed to like the idea of that, however my request was rejected bt the Nurses, I tried to ask a few different ones, however they all sang the same tune! "C'est par possible" oh well worth a try.
I then asked about getting him a radio, as he would love to get Radio 5 live or Talk Sport on the go, to my surprise the nurse agreed! All I now need is something that will actually pick up UK radio station.
Any radio buffs out there got any good ideas, please let me know.
Dad still indicating that he was a little about being cold, however other than that he is being very brave and not whinging about anything else, I ask him if there is anything I can do or if he needs the nurse however we both know that there is not much that anybody can really do for him right now and he realises that and indicates that to me.
We both know that 'time' and good care is the only thing that can help him.
Sometimes he looks over at his alphabet board and therefore has a question for me. Tonight we managed easily to spell out "HANSEN". He wanted to know when he would be off to see Steve Hansen the surgeon from Paris, so that was good news that he is already thinking about his next move. I told him, hopefully within the next month, this hopefully is the truth.

Hi all,
Just on the way back to the hospital for the second visit of the day. During my first visit barrie was awake and responsive throughout the visit, we managed to communicate reasonably well having asked him if he had any difficulties that needed attending to, his response was 'not really' other than the fact that he remained a little cold. Unlike last night I managed to get him another blanket, after that I asked him if he wanted to see some photos which I had on my i pod he was pleased to see some pictures we took at silverstone classic meeting and other pictures of the family. I think he was pleased to be looking at something different other than the hospital ceiling. During my visits I try to tell him not to try to talk as it is pointless and only made him choke. I tell him that there will be plenty of time for talking once he gets rid of the resperator, he understands and does his best to not to try to speak. For now like it or not he will have to lay there and listen he is only allowed to frown nod and open his eyes. Which is a whole lot better than two weeks ago. Every now and again I ask him if he wants to tell me something if he nodes then I have to get the alphabetical white board out, this is where the fun starts.  Before we start with the white board I tell him to chill out and if he does not get frustrated with me I will not get frustrated with him as this type of communication is a little slow and not always successful. Today we did ok and after a few minutes we managed to spell 'time' so I told him the time and asked him if he wanted to tell me anything else, he shook his head and I thought, thank god for that! Barrie is doing so well that he will be the respirator hopefully within the next few days, this will be a huge step forward and hopefully next week I will be able to bring him an ice cream! All in all pretty good visit everything moving in the right direction just need now a little luck and get his kidneys working again. Nearly there at the hospital now will try to report back later.

Typed out by yazz smith whilst max dictates and drives and spelling mistakes by yazz not mine!

got to hospital in plenty of time and made the white board up with big letters, did not quite have enough room for X Y Z but knew that they would not be required for any form of this type of early communication, oh dear what a mistake that proved to be!!!
Got in to visit on time and was not expecting too much, as have been disappointed on his progress in past visits. Anyway what a pleasant surprise Melanie and I had!! In complete contrast to last weekends visits, Daddy was alert on the case and completely himself with the exception of chatting!! I started by briefly asking him if he was in pain or had any discomforts that needed attending to, which he shock his head and portrayed that there was nothing that he would like to moan about that I could actually do anything about, so we quickly moved on and got on with the serious business of having a proper chat. We spoke about out journey, his car driving well, told him about the air con and brake pads that we had fixed and many other boys things, cars, bike etc. We taped up the big fluorescent colander that we made for him, showing days that people were visiting and told him that the Calendar finished in September as by then he would by on his way home, after of course, a quick couple of months in Paris!! I told him that he would have to consider himself a prisoner until then and we would be crossing off the days as if he were in jail awaiting his release date. He nodded and seemed quite relaxed about this temporary prospect of waiting a few more weeks before changing venue.
Anyway I explained to him that as easy as it was for me to say to him, that he must look at this position as being very!!
No head injury, spinal cord in tact and in addition to all this luck!! Still alive and with us! I then told him the sad sad story about the poor 18 year old next door to him who will never walk again. He seemed to agree that he had been lucky and things could have been a lot worst!! I was pleased that he saw the positive side to his unfortunate situation!
With his hands untied he wanted to ask me something and started pointing as his wrist, I asked him if he wanted to know the time, he shook his head, NO, how about the date??No! We could not work out what he wanted to say, he pointed at out white board and we tried to get him to point at the letters to spell out some words, this was not that easy, as his hand was not brilliantly co ordinated and a little shaky as could be expected after the huge amount of gear that ha pumped into him! Anyway we eventually go the R and then the O and then the L
ROL , we were tired and still were having problems working it out, then came the E
ROLE, now you know why we needed the letter that we left off the board!!! The X!!!! He wanted to know where his ROLEX was!!!! We all laughed and he rolled his eyes, as if to say in his sarcastic way, "at last, well done, yes you plonkers!! ROLEX!!!!!
This was the best moment that I have experienced since the accident!! I laugh with my DAD.
Anyway the rest of the visit was relaxed and ever thing was fine, I asked him if he wanted me to go through what had happened to him in the accident, he nodded, so I did explain everything in detail, I kept stopping at various stages, to see if he wanted me to keep explaining, he nodded and was keep to find out all the details, so I continued and told him straight what had happened to him! By the end he understood how lucky he was to have been alive!! All due to his heavy braking and reducing the speed of impact!!
There you have it, I stayed with him for hour and 40 mins, I left dripping wet with the heat.
Looking forward to visit today.

As today is my last day here of this trip, I had hoped the visits would go well.

Dad, medically, remained stable, with continuing good blood pressure and a spell off the dialysis machine again.

During the first visit though Dad was clearly in a lot of discomfort and distress and it tooksome time to work out what was wrong as Dad had been given a little sedative and was not really following the techniques we'd used during the week to communicate. This made it extremely difficult to find out the problem as I was getting very limited, if any, sponse or feedback to my questions.

Tonight, sadly,was much the same but with a new problem which took about an hour to work out. Dad was getting increasingly angry and frustrated that he couldn't talk or make himself understood. Although I asked him if he wanted me to stop asking him questions to establish the nature of the problem, he continued to try to tell me what was bothering him!

I gues he plus side is that he definitely hasn't lost that fighting spirit of his!!!

Well, this afternoon's 1st visit marked the one calendar month's anniversary of the accident,  with the best visit yet!  Dad and I 'chatted' for two whole hours!  Dad was completely attentive throughout this visit and it would be reasonable to describe it as two-way communication, given that  Dad was responding to all I was saying and, quite remarkably, without tiring! I felt extremely close to him and was very conscious of how exceptionally lucky I was to be in this position, in light of Dad's prospects a month ago.

From the medical perspective, he remains the same as yesterday.

I looked forward to spending the evening visit telling Dad exactly who had kindly been posting their good wishes to him on this website, after Mum had given me the list of names. Unfortunately though, at the beginning of the visit, it was clear that Dad was having some difficulty with one of his injuries and the nurse gave him some sedative which did give him relief but, of course, also made him need to sleep, which he did peacefully.  So no talking took place tonight other than to establish what Dad needed help with.

Under the circumstances, Dad seems to be coping amazingly well emotionally and mentally although the slow passage of time and lack of concept of time is hard for him. When Max comes on Sunday, he's had the great idea to bring a board for Dad to show him the day and date and who is visting him, and when so this will hopefully be a huge help.  

So many little details of Dad's personality and facial expressions, unique to him, manage to still shine through, which I find very comforting.  Tomorrow will be the last day I can visit Dad until I can get back to france again, which will be a very hard pill to swallow for me, but the main thing is that  Dad won't be alone as Max will be here, with Marie-Thérèse hot on his heels the following week!

What did Dad the world of good today was that Chris and Jill Craft came to see him and Chris somehow, in talking about cars, even managed to get Dad mimicking driving with an invisible steering wheel, which was great to see!!! It was definitely a good tonic for him to see Chris and Jill.

Dad continues to make good progress and the doctors are particularly pleased with his stable blood pressure which is a reflection of his general condition being very satisfactory. Dad's main problem today was that his skin felt very itchy and frustratingly, he isn't always able to reach to scratch.

Also, Dad has been started today on some medication to see if they can try to get his kidneys working on their own again.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's visit but at the same time, am all too aware that my week here is drawing to a very unwelcome end. It will, as always, be very hard to leave.

Dad was very tired again tonight but his temperature had reverted to normal thankfully. He is continuing to make slow but sure progress which is great news.

I didn't really chat to Dad much at all today, partly because he was tired and partly because I wanted him to sleep whenever he wasn't coughing. It's not been easy at times to focus on the overall generally positive progress whilst seeing him having to cope with so many discomforts and frustrations.  I do regularly ask Dad if he is in any pain and so far, he has only ever said that he isn't, so that is clearly being managed very effectively.

Dad was having some very distressing episodes of coughing. I asked the nurses to clear his airways for him, which they did, but this is something they mustn't do too often or it will encourage the problem all the more.

Dad has been salivating excessively too today, but apparently this is a sign which reflects the positive fact that he is waking up properly.

It was a difficult visit tonight but it is important to try to remain focused on the fact that Dad is steadily improving, for which we must remain thankful and continue to take comfort in that.  It's important that we all stay positive throughout, despite any difficulties of the current moment.

At least there is comfort in the knowledge that every day gone by will be another day closer to Dad's recovery.

Speak to you tomorrow.

Love

There's not a great deal to report this afternoon as Dad was very tired,
although awake when I arrived. He had a few discomforts, such as being
thirsty and having a dry mouth, which is a common complaint and normal in
his stuation. He did not have the neck brace on any longer and apparently
this has gone permanently.

His blood pressure is now good and stable, without any medication so more
good progress there.  

The only less positive news is that he has a bit of an elevated temperature
but hopefully that isn't due to any new problems arising.

All in all, another good day. Dad was quite sleepy for the first visit although I didn't see this as bad thing as he may simply have been awake for a long time before visiting time started.

Today was the first day they've not given Dad any sedative since he's been back on it. L did get prematurely excited when I realised the dialysis machine was not being used but this was just a temporary thing and Dad is back on it now as he still has a considerable amount of odoemae remaining.

Dad definitely is understanding everything I say and is able to respond to virtually everything I ask him. The veryfirst thing I do is ask if he needs me to help with any problems he may have of discomfort or pain. If he indicates there is a problem, I ask him a series of questions to identify what is bothering and watch his facial expressions for his responses. This seems to work well although trying to spell things wasn't very easy or successful.

The doctors continue to be very pleased with Dad's progress, thankfully. I spent a lot of the spent a lot of the day talking to Dad about looking ahead to beyond this chapter in his life and the importance of him thinking positively.

Despite being conscious throughout  and coherent immediately after the accident, Dad doesn't remember it but does recall some parts of our previous visits. I told Dad generally how the accident happened  and gave him a general-only outline of where his fractures where, in the hope of answering what must be frustratingly burning questions for him, especially with him having no memory of what caused him to be in this poor state.

Once again, today brought  good communication, under the circumstances, and I felt a tremendous closeness and  protectiveness to him despite being powerless to magic him back to good health! Amazingly, and to my delight, Dad was able to lift his forearm right up to wave me goodbye! Hopefully, his wasn't  his way of telling me I'd been talking too much, as I do!!!

More tomorrow! I'm dreading departure day which will come round far too soon and having to leave, even though I know Dad will have someone here with him now for most of the next month. I just don't want to go though.

We arrived in Tours yesterday in time for me to make the evening visit. Yesterday evening's and both of today's visits were so wonderfully  encouraging and seemed, thankfully, to really mark a significant turning point since this unimaginably awful ordeal began for Dad.  As soon as I went in to his room I could see Dad was fully awake and alert - far more than we've seen him on any other previous visits. It was clear he was happy and surprised to see me and even managed to try to smile despite having the ventillator tube in his mouth. It was so incredibly heartening to see and overwhelmingly moving. Dad is doing really well with steady progress. He is breathing by himself now but does still need the ventillator but this is largely due to still needing to be on dialysis. In the next day or so the doctors will start him on some medication which may help him to come off the dialysis. Dad was able to communicate with me that he had a few discomforts which I was able to relay to the nurses and they remedied for him. By the end of today's visit, Dad and I resolved to communicate with a pen and me calling out the alphabet with Dad responding to letters to literally spell out what he wanted to say. I can't describe how good it felt to have a two way line of communication open, albeit in a rather primative way!

The doctor also said an x-ray taken today of Dad's lungs showed they were very good now and the hospital said they were very happy with Dad's progress. All very, very, encouraging. Can't wait for tomorrow's  visit!

Have spoken to hospital (a nice male nurse) and he said he is a bit more aware of things around him, he can nod to questions.
But when they treat his wounds, the nurse said it was very painful for him.
He did not realise Barrie spoke french so told him he could because until now they were struggling with english
Otherwise he is breathing by himself but with help of the machine but they probably wont take him off the respirator for several days or even weeks
Urinary problem is still not quite sorted, he is still bleeding but he said it should get better soon
Thats all the news for today

 I have just spoken to the doctor and she said he is progressing but very slowly

The problem is his chest but at present he has not got an infection but lots of mucus which he cannot spit out
They remove it by suction and the machine helps him to breathe when necessary
He still has antibiotics because near the external fixator the skin is not in good shape and they want to avoid infection
He is getting more reactive everyday and now his eyes can follow you
She said that it will take several weeks before he can totally breathe by himself
so slow progress but he is getting a bit better everyday although she is talking about several weeks before all his body function to work properly

As Natalie had not been for a while she recognized that Barrie’s right eye has become less swollen and his whole body seems less puffed up, this has mostly been assisted by the Dialysis machine getting rid of lots of excess water that his body was retaining. He had jumped up an additional 30 kg from his normal weight, this is now reducing everyday and hopefully soon be back to normal.
He was again very tired due to his battle for breathing on his own, which he is slowly winning and each day more and more he is breathing more for himself, however it will be several weeks before he comes off the respirator completely. This ‘fight’ for breath he making him very tired.
Sleeping and not moving is probably the best thing right now ,as the longer he remains still his back and neck fractures are healing and hopefully by the time he wakes up properly he will at least have these fractures sorted out.
Natalie has not haven him his I pod and a set of speakers down there, so he will have his favorite Jazz/Blues whatever music to keep him company in between visits, hopefully this will not only comfort him but also help to bring him around sooner.
More to follow on today’s visits later.

Dear All,
Barrie was far more responsive tonight than the previous 2 Visits.
AS soon as we went on and started talking to him he opened both eyes and was listening to us talking to him, he managed to stay awake for around 20 minutes, which was really nice to know that when you were speaking, it seemed to us more like he was hearing us and responding. The only worrying thing during this time was that he was struggling with his breathing a bit, as he was either trying to talk or he had flem on his chest that he could not get rid of causing difficulty breathing. I did manage to speak to the duty dr, a man, who was very nice and asked him firstly how Dad can get rid of this awful flem, he explained that they have to use suction machine to clear it off his chest. Also asked if this flem, which sounded as if his chest was beginning to loosen up was because the antibiotics was beginning to take effect, his reply was "possibly"
He said that Dad has remained stable, however it is really important that the antibiotics start to work and get this infection under control. They have ha to change the antibiotics, as the infection can get used to them, so they are keeping a good eye on him. He seemed as if things were currently stable and under control. He also said that his Kidneys will start to get better soon and start working again, which is great as
During the whole visit, the stupid dialysis machine was bleeping ever 5 minutes, the nurse kept coming to adjust it but still it kept bleeping, so they eventually decided to change the machine, we therefore had to sadly say goodbye at 7.35 so they could get on with it.
We gave the nurses a nice box of chocolates and left.
I now will not see Barrie again until next Sunday and now pass batten to Natalie, who will be arriving tomorrow,
Signing off
Max and Melanie

Dear all,
Just come out of our 1st visit of the day, Barrie was really not very responsive again! He seemed to be in quite a deep sleep. I was a little concerned and managed to speak to a nurse during the early part of the visit.
She explained that he was breathing more on his own and that the respiratory was doing less and less, this could be the reason that he was so tired and not very responsive, I addition she explained that his antibiotics could also contribute to the non responsiveness. I asked her about the sedative medication and they again said that they are reducing the dosage, I am still not sure why he is not waking up! In my opinion, we seemed to be getting better last week until he had the operation last Friday. This seems to have set him back a little, anyway we are now a week on from that op and we must now look forward. The good news must be that he is breathing more on his own, it appears to be a bit of a struggle and this could be reason for being so wacked out. He has his neck brace off at the moment, which must be more comfortable for him. I had a look at his left lower leg to check out his external fixation, looks like something Chris Craft has put together, it is a wonderful piece of engineering, intricate but looks very sturdy.
I am now at the bus stop to get back into town, need to find him some decent disposable razors and some shower gel, as requested by the nice nurse, will also buy her a naughty box of French Chocolates.
That's all for now
Max

Visit was as usual, I am sure he subconsciously was aware that we had come to see him, he was not very responsive but did make a few movements and fingers were able to move a little. All in all a sad visit, as they all are. I was not really convinced that their were any signs of improvement tonight, however he may just have been very tired. As usual we kept comforting him by chatting and I think that some music will really do him some good, I told him that Natalie had I pod on the way and also reminded him that dancing would not be a good idea yet.
I waited for 40 mins after visit to speak to the lovely Anne Charlotte, who I really wanted to see to put our minds at rest, I only had a couple of mins with her as we would have missed the bus. In short Barry remains stable, there are no dangers at present, even though he remains on the antibiotics for his infection.
I will let you know more tomorrow, as can type no more , we are exhausted and have just managed to check in to our usual room.
Love to all

I have just spoken to hospital and he is progressing slowly. Not a lot of change since yesterday.
He is still sedated (because they dont want him to suffer whilst they are treating him) so not awake properly.
He can squeeze hand and his eyes are focusing a little bit better but not properly yet.
He is now breezing with just a little help from the respirator.
Max will be able to send us more news this evening.

We have just phoned the hospital and they said
 Barrie is still on dialysis to help eliminate his oedemas which are still important
 they are slowly waking him up and he is a bit more reactive and now can squeeze hand on demand
but he still does not look at people in the proper way
they are going to start today to decrease the help of the respirator in order to get him breezing by himself
and Max

Unfortunately we will have no further news on Barrie’s update today the 6th August 2008, as Marie-Therese will be travelling back from Tour today, as she has some matters that need attending with in the UK.
Unfortunately there will be nobody to visit Barrie until Friday 8th, when Max and his wife Melanie will be flying out in time  for the Friday evening visit.
The nurses have assured us that they will be talking to him and keeping him company when they can in our absence.
 We will hopefully will be in contact with the French Nurse/Doctor at the hospital later today or tomorrow, however the medical team in this unit are extremely busy and are sometimes difficult to speak to. We will update as soon as we hear some additional news, hopefully positive.
Many thanks Max

I do not think that todays events should be passed on in their original form.
a lot of distress has been caused Today as Barries reanimation has been fraught with difficulties, mostly for Barrie himself who is unable to comment but also for those close to him who are at his side currently.
He appears to be in Pain, but the doctors are not meeting his needs in regard to pain management as they need to back off all of the medication so that they ccan wake him up and have him breathing normally and under his own steam.
after that the pain management will be a separate issue.
We are hoping that this stage in `Barrie`s recovery will be brief as possible, and at some time in the near future he will be able to converse with his friends and loved ones,
The goal is to move him to Paris and bring him under the wing of Dr Steve Hanson who has been remarkable in his resolve to help Barrie through this difficult time using his superlative skills as an orthopedic surgeon to deal with Barries complex problems.
Thank you in Advance Steve

We have just seen Barrie and spoken to the doctor in charge today who said that he has deteriorated since the operation yesterday
He only had a mild anesthesia but the fact they moved his external fixators seem to have upset the general working of his body ie the kidneys and also it has unmasked the fact that his blood pressure was not very stable
He is now on dialysis machine until further notice and on adrenaline for his blood pressure
He also has an allergy to the antibiotic he was on for the past week and is now covered with red rashes
They have put him on a new antibiotic
They can't give diagnosis but are looking for possible further infection and have been doing all the necessary tests
There is nothing we can do but just pray and hope he will improve
Paul and I will go back to see him at 6.30
They can't tell me until Monday who will be the doctor in charge