Gennadiy declared “Victory Over Influenza Day” at the nursing home this afternoon, and brought in cake and soda to celebrate.

Indeed, it does feel like everything is almost back to normal now, here at the nursing home. Residents are still taking antibiotic tablets, but nobody appears to be suffering from uncomfortable symptoms anymore. All of the staff seem to be back in good health too. I also just learned from Gennadiy that his four-year old daughter returned home from the hospital this morning. She was in hospital for the past four days receiving antibiotic treatment for bronchitis.

Miraculously, I seem to have been spared all these illnesses (knocking wood).

However, we still have three residents in the hospital.

The first man, Afdandil, went in over a week ago, before the flu hit. Although he’s only in his sixties, he’s paralyzed from multiple strokes and can’t stand or do anything with his legs. Because of poor circulation and thrombosis he got blood poisoning in one leg and had to be taken to the hospital for treatment. Treatment turned out to be an amputation at the thigh. Then, while he was still under observation at the hospital for recovery from the surgery, the hospital staff discovered onset of infection in the other leg too, so the doctor decided to amputate that one as well. It’ll probably be another week or so before Afdandil can return home, if all goes well.

The second man, Yevhenny, came down with a serious respiratory infection of some kind early in our “flu season.” Gennadiy took him to the hospital for chest X-rays and examination, and the hospital decided to keep him. He’s been in hospital for five days already, and Gennadiy told me today, maybe he will be able to return home soon.

The third man, Leo, is one of the people who slipped and fell on Flu Season Day 2. He was walking down the steps outside the main entrance to the building all by himself when he took a tumble. Luckily, Ludmila, working in the kitchen on the second floor above the entrance, heard him hollering below and quickly dashed downstairs to help. I brought a wheelchair outside and we lifted him into it and brought him back into the building through the rear entrance, which has a ramp. We laid him in his bed and let him settle down. We could see that his leg was swollen and he would feel shooting pain when the leg was repositioned, but the pain wasn’t constant and the leg didn’t appear to be broken. The pain did not subside overnight, and when the doctor visited the following day he estimated there was probably a 90% chance that the hip or thigh was fractured. The condition did not improve over the next couple of days, and the shooting pains were making any movement at all, including toileting and personal hygiene, very agonizing and stressful. So yesterday morning Gennadiy called an ambulance to take Leo to the hospital. We are still waiting for his prognosis.