Sigmund Freud føler seg selv i elendig form etter den katastrofalt mislykkede operasjonen. Han skriver til sin venn Wilhelm Fliess i Berlin (her gjengitt i engelsk oversettelse -- originalen er på tysk):
"On the last day you were here, I suddenly discharged several scabs from the right side, the one not operated on. As early as the next day there appeared thick, old pus in large clots, at first on the right side only and soon thereafter also on the left.
Since then the nose has again been flooded; only today has the purulent secretion become somewhat less dense. Light but regular symptoms: in the morning a stuffed nose, vile head not better until large amounts have been discharged; in the interval occasionally migraine; everything, by the way, not very severe.
During the first of these days I noticed with pride that I could climb stairs without dyspnea; for the last three days pain in the heart region, atactic pulse, and beautiful insufficiency. Today, for example, I arrived someplace, found the carriage of the (other) consultant already at the door, ran up the stairs and, once upstairs, was unable to talk for five minutes and had to admit that I was ill and so forth. Three days ago, after having been massaged, the whole business repeated itself, as in the old days; this morning I once again wanted to die (relatively) young."
Freud, S., et al. (1985). The complete letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess : 1887-1904. Cambridge, Mass, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. s. 115.116
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