WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2013

Wednesday, September 18th

Sorry it has taken so long to get to the blog but I have been trying to get everything put back in it's place after our journey home.  I was unable to post anything to the blog on Friday the 13th because the internet was down at the clinic.   The staff thought maybe it had to do with the rain we had that day.  I kept checking all day and into the evening.

We had our final meeting with Dr, Weber on Friday shortly after lunch.   He went over all the labs that were done showing how everything had improved.  He stated at that time that Mike did not have to schedule a return trip back to the clinic for treatment.  He did say, however, that we could come back just to visit. He advised Mike to have an MRI test in 4-6 weeks and a CEA test done with both results being sent to him at that time for review.  He stated that based on the findings, he could then advise Mike what he needed to do to continue with his healing.  He was very pleased with the progress that Mike made while he was there.
As I was realizing that we would be leaving Marinus am Stein soon and thinking about what Dr. Weber had done for Mike, I could feel my eyes welling up.  I could see Dr. Weber watching me and that he was aware of my emotions.   We all got up from our seats, and Dr. Weber came around his desk and hugged me.   I thanked him for having this wonderful clinic for people all over the world who have been diagnosed with this dreadful disease to come.   This would be the last time that we would see Dr. Weber as he was leaving the clinic mid-afternoon to go out of town to give a lecture.

As we left his office, Ivan and Kate were sitting in the hall waiting for their turn to go in and speak to Dr. Weber.   They could tell that I had been crying and thought we had been given bad news.  I had to say that it was good news, but that I was sad to be leaving the clinic and all the friends that we have made.    Kate and Ivan also then ended up crying.   Mrs. Dr. Weber was standing there as well and was witnessing what was going on.  I had to go over and hug her too and thank her as well for establishing the clinic.   Mike then had to finish up with his treatment for the day with hyperthermia while I went and found Christy to give her the news.   We hugged each other and celebrated the good news.       We then headed down to the dinning room for supper.  I had gone down before Mike and everyone was looking and waiting for him to walk in so they could congratulate him.     Leah and Christy were there to give Mike a hug.   We then retired to the landing to continue with the celebration,  Shirley's niece, who is in the military in Italy, came for a visit and since there was an opening in the clinic, the Webers let her stay there.  She was very nice and seemed to have a very fun personality.

My stomach was feeling upset so I excused myself to go up to the room to see if the internet was up so I could do the blog for the day.   Since I could not get on the internet, I decided to go to bed.  Mike came to bed around 10:00.   I was extremely sick the rest of the night and all the next day.   Mike made the nursing staff aware of what I was going through, and Stefka and Mrs. Dr. Weber kept checking on me.  I was running a fever.  Mrs. Dr. Weber gave me a nice reprimand for not calling the night nurse.  She stated that is why they have a night nurse.  They gave me medication twice that day to help with what I was experiencing.  I stayed in bed and slept until the next morning,

Mike and the others went to the train station to go up the mountain.  However, when they got to the station, someone who had gone up earlier told them that it was foggy and the view was not good,  Therefore, everyone decided not to waste their money.  Shirley's niece then took Dennis and Shirley shopping.  Mike, Christy, Leah, and Clare headed back to the clinic.  Along the way, they found the Pub that Chris from France would go to between meals and treatments to have a beer or two.   They had cappuccino and pastries.  I did get a shower and attempted to visit with everyone in the dining room while they ate dinner.  However, the smell of food got to me, and I had to go back up to our room and go to bed.   Mike stayed up and then said his goodbyes to everyone before calling it a night.  My stomach was still upset at this point.

Luckily I had basically packed everything earlier in the day on Friday because I would not have been able to do so being sick.   We arranged for the night nurse to wake us up at 5:00 the next morning to be ready for our 6:15 taxi pick up.  When I woke up, I was feeling so much better.  I was so thankful that I did not have to be flying home while sick.   Leah got up at 5:30 to say goodbye.   She came in and sat with us for a few minutes. Again, there were some tears as we said our final goodbyes.  The taxi arrived on time and drove us to the airport.   Going through the terminal and the process for boarding went smoothly.  It was easier than when we arrived and tried to make our way to pick up our bags and find our driver.   The return trip was a little more bumpy than the first flight.  We left Germany on 09/15 at 9:45 AM and landed in Newark on 09/15 at 12:45. PM.   It was a 9 hour flight.   Gary and Clare were there with open arms to pick us up.  We were so happy to see them.  We stopped for a quick bite to eat on the way and arrived home around 5:15 PM.   We had arranged for a friend to pick up our dogs from our groomer so we did not have that additional drive to pick them up and bring them home.   They were so happy to see us as we were them.

If you know of anyone who has cancer and has been told nothing further can be done or know someone who wants a better solution for treating their cancer, please have them check out German Cancer Breakthrough: Your Guide to Top German Alternative Clinics by Andrew Schloberg.   Without reading this book which reviews alternative cancer treatment facilities in Germany and surrounding areas, we would have never known that gentler, effective cancer treatment was possible   The services are not covered by insurance, but you will find that it is a much better solution than the traditional, cancer treatment prescribed by physicians here in the states and other countries.  I will continue a blog post when we have the results of Mike's blood testing and PET scan which is scheduled for October 16th.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

Tomorrow will give an update on the the last days in Germany and our trip home.  It is late, and I am tired from our flight home.

DAY 18 OF TREATMENT 09/12/13

Thursday, September 12th


9:00 PM
Today it has rained all day long and been quite chilly.  I just heard something which sounded like fireworks going off.  I am not sure if that is thunder bouncing off the Alps or not.  I will have to ask someone in the morning if that was what it was.

Mike got all his treatments and massage in before lunch.   We did not meet with Dr. Weber today to get all of Mike's records and final plan.   His medical records have not yet been translated so he wants us to meet with him tomorrow morning.   I know I have said many times how wonderful I feel Dr Weber is, but I wanted to make another comment about him   Every morning after breakfast and while Mike is undergoing his treatments, I sit on the 3rd floor landing to check out Facebook,  my email, start this blog, etc.  It is about 9:00 in the morning.   That is the time that Dr. Weber comes in.   His office is on the other side of the landing and our room located on the opposite side.   He comes off the elevator and comes over to shake my hand and says, " Ahh  Frau Lord, how are you this morning?"   Today, he had a huge stack of mail and magazines under his left arm and was carrying a medical container in his right hand.  He set down the things in his right hand so he could shake my hand.   He just makes himself so open and available to everyone here.  He then goes into his office and changes into scrub and his Birkenstock sandals.  He may walk by me several times while I am sitting there, and each time he will do something, whether it be raising his eyebrows or giving me the thumbs up symbol, to acknowledge me,

The dinning room was full this morning.   There was another German woman who came and an Oriental woman from near Sacramento who has breast cancer.   The clinic make it nice with the seating assignments by seating the English speaking patients with each other and then German speaking patients together.   Because we do not know German, we cannot find out the history of the German patients.  Lunch today was Bavarian marinated roast with homemade pasta and then pasta with cheese roasted onions, and ruccola. Mike and I both had the 2nd one which is the vegetarian choice,   The ruccola is another name for arugula.   When I looked this up it actually said this is considered an aphrodisiac.  Imagine that!  The marinated roast was actually sauerbraten.  Dessert was a fruit milkshake which was made with raspberries.   These are not as thick as we have them in the states.

Dave and his wife left today to go back home to England.   Dave came around to each of us to say good bye and I gave him a hug.  I could feel the tears wanting to spill over.  He will return in 8 weeks for further treatment.  Mrs. Weber and her two sons took them to the airport back home.  The clinic provides transportation from and back to the airport either with the clinic van or arranges to have pick up by a taxi.   They then also take care of the fee for this.

We met with Verena after lunch to pay our bill for our stay.   We previously wired a deposit of 12,000 euros which was approximately $16,300.   The remainder of our balance was 3797 euros or $5,055.   Our flight was $3,000.    We feel this was money well spent.   If you consider that Mike's one day of treatment back home costs, for one 8 hour day of chemo, $37,000.  We got a bargain here.   It is a shame that our insurances in the states will not consider covering this type of treatment.  With our savings and the help and generosity of so many friends and people we don't even know, we were able to make this trip a reality and get the treatment that Mike needs.

After lunch and then paying our bill, Christy, Mike, and I went with Ivin and Kate to Austria.   We went into a town called Kufstein.   Kate pointed out the moment we crossed the Germany/Austria line so we knew when we were in another country.  Kufstein is only about a 1/2 hour drive from the clinic.  We walked through a cute little village with cobble stone like streets and checked out some of the stores.    We went into a restaurant and had beverages.  Mike had espresso and I had hot chocolate,   We found a multi-level mall and checked out a couple of stores there.   It would have been beautiful had the sun just been out, and we had more time.   That did not stop us from making the most of our time there.

We got back to the clinic a little late.  They were again wondering where we were and if we would be there for dinner.   Dinner was mediterranean vegetable pan with basmati rice.  The vegetables were a mixture of carrots, squash, red and green peppers, onions, and mushrooms (which I picked out and gave to Mike). Soups today were clear vegetable and creamy kohlrabi with truffle.   The soups have all been very good. The creamy soups are all strictly liquid.  I had one soup for lunch and then the other for dinner.  Mike passed on both of them.

As usual, a few of us headed up to the 2nd floor landing for our evening conversation before retiring for the evening.

DAY 17 OF TREATMENT 09/11/13

Wednesday, September 11th

My heart is sad today thinking back 12 years ago when our country suffered the most horrendous attack on our soil and country.   I paused at 2:45, our time here in Germany, for a moment of silence to honor all those innocent people who lost their lives.    We will NEVER forget you.   

When we were in meeting with Dr. Weber to go over Mike's other test results, we mentioned to him about today being the 12th anniversary of 9/11.  He showed us a poster that he has on his bookshelf of the Twin Towers.  He said he can remember watching that on TV.  All Mikes other results were within the normal ranges.   He did say Mike was Magnesium deficient so he was going to start him on that.

I am sorry if there are some of you that tuned in earlier today to read the blog and were unable to do so.   My blogger account had been blocked because of some unusual activity.  It took me forever to try to get my account unblocked because the recovery method they wanted to use was to send a text message or a voice call to the cell phone they had on file.  Unfortunately, this is my home cell phone (which I have with me), but that phone does not have international coverage.  I kept working and working trying to get this straightened out because there was no way for them to contact me that way.  I was really stressing out about this because I thought how am I going to be able to share the happenings here with everyone.  But anyway..... I am back.

On top of that, I was already somewhat in a teary mood thinking about the significance of today, and then we received wonderful news about Christy.  Her tumor markers have substantially gone down.  Once she sat down and actually vocalized this and let it sink in,  the realization of what Dr Weber said actually hit her.  She let the emotion inside of her out and that brought tears to my eyes as well.   I was so happy for her.   It was then Dave's turn.  He went in to go over his MRI results with the doctor.   ( In the mornings, I sit on the landing outside of Dr, Weber's office.   Whenever anyone came out from their meeting with the doctor, I had always been apprehensive to look them in the eye in case they had not gotten good news. )  I had my head down working on my computer, and I looked up to see Dave's wife, Jennifer, giving me the thumbs up signal.  The tumors in his liver have shrunk.   He still has a lot going on in his pancreas.   They said that Dr. Weber wants him to come back in 8 weeks.   I have been crying every time someone gets their results, and Christy tonight said it best, "We all have a vested interest in each other".   This is so true.   We have become so close and entwined in one another's story and feelings that what affects them, affects us.

After lunch today Christy, Mike, and I started to walk into town to get some exercise and check out some other stores further in town that we did not venture to earlier.  It was chilly enough that we were wearing long sleeves.  It is supposed to rain the next two days so we wanted to get the walk in while we could.   We also checked out some locations for Christy to stay for the last 3 days of her stay here.  She started out in the clinic, but to cut down on the expense, she moved into a farmhouse where she is renting a room.  We went into the hotel here in Brannenburg to take a look at a couple of the rooms. They were quite small, but most of the time is spent here at the clinic so the rooms are enough to sleep in.  She has found a couple of openings so she was productive in her search.   This gave us some knowledge of what is available that can be passed onto others who may want to come here.

Today's menu:

Lunch was creamy asparagus or clear soup with parsnips.  Mike had the creamy soup.  I skipped that today. His main meal was Tyrol Onion roast with potatoes and butter beans.   He gave his steak to Dennis, who I said was the steak and potatoes kind of guy.  His butter beans were actually French green beans.  My meal was Sauteed Vegetables.  I was able to fill a soup bowl with the mushrooms that were in this and gave them to Mike to eat.  I just cannot eat these whole or sliced.   Dessert was chocolate creme with Pear.  It was a chocolate pudding with cut up pear

Dinner was cold buffet which was thinly sliced cheese and cold meat, rolls and butter, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. hard boiled eggs halved, pickles and then fruit.

After dinner, we all went up to the 1st floor landing to talk and ran into Ivan and Kate.  Ivan was having trouble with his catheter and had blood in his urine.  He came back to the clinic to have the nurse check this. She in turn called Dr. Weber who said he was coming in.   Dr. Weber can in and made some adjustments to the catheter which made a big difference.   They were really concerned about this.   We were all so happy that it was not anything major.  Not long after that everyone called it a night around 8:00 and retired to their rooms for the night.

DAY 16 OF TREATMENT 09/10/13

Tuesday, September 10th

9:00 AM
Today is starting off sunny and beautiful.  They are calling for PM rain.  Mike started his day with hyperthermia  and now he is in having local hyperthermia.   They have put both of the machines on him today which he states is the first time they have done that.  One is projected at his lungs and the other at his liver.

Dave from England goes today around 10:00 to have his MRI test. He has pancreatic cancer and had been basically told to just go home and die.  We are hoping for the best for him and his wife, Jennifer, who joined him here on Tuesday.  Dave leaves for home on Thursday.

4:00 PM
Have some more good news.  I won't put this in sequence of the day's events because I want to get it in now.  As we were waiting for Christy and Leah to go for a walk, Dr. Weber came by and said Mike's CEA level is now down to 9.  He said he would show us the rest of the results tomorrow.  I think if there was anything that was not good, he would have told us that at this time.  He wanted to make sure we knew what the CEA level was from yesterday's blood test.  So far no one has gotten any bad news.

Today's lunch was King Prawns (shrimp) for Mike with Tai rice.   I had mushroom rotelli which was ravioli. I cut the first one open hoping I could pick out the mushrooms but they were all ground up.  So I tried it. They were actually not bad.  In the back of my head, I kept thinking these are filled with mushrooms, but I finished all but two of them.  The soup we both had was creamy vegetable which looked like tomato soup but smelled and tasted like vegetable soup.  Dessert was baked apple rings with vanilla ice cream.  That was very good.  Our dinner mate, Dennis is a pretty big guy.  I think he may actually be pickier about his food than I am if you can actually believe that.  He is basically just a meat and potatoes kind of guy.  He won't even eat anything off the salad bar.  His favorite thing so far has been the over easy eggs he gets at breakfast.

Mike was going to take Leah up the mountain to Wendelstein because she has not yet been up there. However, she slept wrong last night and had the masseuse try to work it out.  She had a hot pack to this area,  and he told her to keep her neck warm.   Because it is supposed to rain and it is 15 degrees cooler up there, they decided not to go today.

Instead Christy, Leah, Mike, and I walked in to town.  Along the way we stopped at the deli so Leah could purchase some coconut milk.   She has talked Mike into drinking this as well.   We ran into the woman who helped us purchase tickets on our first train ride to Rosenheim.  Her name is Gizelle.  We also saw her the other day when we went to the grocery store.  She asked how everyone was doing.  She lives near the clinic in Flintsbach.  She is a very nice and friendly person.   She was with her husband so we got to meet him.   She was wondering how we, the English speaking patients, were doing here as far as the language barrier was concerned.  She thought since we had trouble with the train ticket and with the cab driver that maybe the clinic could use her to be an interpreter/liason and help with travel arrangements, day trips, etc.  We all thought that would be a good idea.   She said that she might call the clinic to inquire about this.

As we walked further into town, we ran into Kate and Ivan who were also out getting a bit of exercise and checking out the shops.   Ivan offered us a ride back to the clinic if we wanted it, but we did not take him up on the offer.  They are both so very nice.   It kept lightly raining off and on as we walked.  Luckily we got back to the clinic when the skies decided to open up more and rain harder.

6:00
Dinner tonight was vegetable mushroom pan with potatoes which was just stir fry vegetables/mushrooms with new potatoes.  I also had the consomme with dumpling for my soup, Mike stayed with the creamy vegetable soup.  Dave and his wife were in the dinning room for supper, and he appeared to be down.  He has not yet heard about his MRI results, and I think the wait is making him anxious.

It is still raining, and I think it will continue into the night.   I can hear the ran on the roof, and it is a nice sound. Maybe that will lull us to sleep tonight.  For now, I think I will spend the remainder of the evening just resting and reading.

DAY 15 OF TREATMENT 09/09/13

Monday, September 9th

We begin week 3.   Mike was able to have all his shots and blood drawn this morning.  His BioMat treatment, ozone therapy, and his infusions were all able to be done at the same time today.  I guess that saves him an hour of treatment when these things can all be done together.   He is in his massage right now and his hot liver treatment here in the room is at 11:00.

We awoke today to rain and upon checking weather.com it appears that today we are 100% chance of rain this morning.  At the moment, it is not raining.  The afternoon is to be partly sunny with a high of 65 degrees They are calling for rain on Tuesday and Thursday with the remainder of the week being partly cloudy.  The highs for the rest of the week are in the low to middle 60s,  We had such beautiful weather yesterday and the past week that we really can't complain.  It is really a good day to read the book that Leah gave me.  It's that kind of day you just want to lay around and not do anything,

I forgot to mention yesterday that we had a 2nd new arrival while we were in Prien.   She is English but lives in France.  Her name is Clare Trijon.   Have not yet really had an opportunity to speak to her to find out her story.  Lindy leaves here tomorrow and is headed to Paris for a few days with her niece who lives in Frankfurt.  So.... another one in the gang will be leaving us.   Ivan and Kate are hoping to be able to move into the clinic.  There were a couple whose name had been crossed off the the list that we order our menu from so if that is definite, they can move in.  I think that would be the best thing for him as he still has some continued bleeding from his kidneys into his catheter.  If he is here and has a problem, it can be addressed right away.  I know that will make Kate feel better.

8:45 PM
Lunch and supper tonight were repeats so I will not comment on that.   Spent the day reading my book.  Did not venture outside at all.  Tonight after supper Leah, Lindy, Christy, Dennis, Shirley, Mike, and I spent the evening in the dining room talking.  They had champagne for Lindy's last night.  Nothing really exciting happened today.  We will see  tomorrow if Mike's blood test from today have any different results.

DAY 14 OF TREATMENT 09/08/13

Sunday,  September 8th

Well today we lost 3 patients who left to go back home:  Chris from France,  Zoe,  and Chris T.   Chris from France was a real character and made the time here with him fun.  He always had us laughing at his actions or by what he said.  Today at 8:45 AM he asked for a beer and had his 2nd one before he left around 11:00.   He would usually have wine between breakfast and lunch at one of the local pubs, then have wine with lunch, go back to the pub in the afternoon, and then have wine with dinner.   Everyone kept saying that that must have been part of the protocol that helped get rid of his tumor.  There is something called vesteril in wine that is actually good for cancer patients to have.  Everyone was here to give hugs and say goodbye to him.  Zoe and Chris can't wait to get home to their 4 year old daughter, Ava.

Everyone finished their treatments by lunch time.  Lunch today was creamy dill soup.  Mike had "Greek Cevapi" with olive and sheep cheese with basmati rice.   Mike said they were like meatballs in a red sauce.  I had Asian Vegetable WOK with Rice.   The vegetables were in a yellow sauce that seemed to have Indian spices.   Dessert was Peach Melba which was a scoop of vanilla ice cream with 2 peach slices  and whipped topping in a sauce.

We had two new arrivals just before lunch.   Their names are Shirley and Dennis.  They are from Iowa. Shirley has ovarian cancer.  They were basically told they have done everything they can do for her.  She has been dealing with her cancer since 2008.   Dennis states he is a bit skeptical about treatment but said there is nothing left that they know of to do.   We told them about the amazing results that everyone got this past week.

After lunch Ivan and Kate took Christy, Mike, and me to Prien to Lake Chiemsee.  Ivan has a car that he rented when he got here.   The car he had was a Mercedes so it was my first time riding in this make of cae. We all got in the car and took off not know exactly how to get there.  We decided to take the scenic route. Although it was very pretty countryside to go through, the roads were very winding.   I was sitting in the backseat behind Ivan and Mike was up front navigating.    We were using the GPS system in the car which kept trying to put us on the Autoban.   We kept having to make adjustments to our drive.  We got to Prien and I said to MIke that the ride made me feel like I was sea sick (dizziness in the head) and I felt like my arms were sweating.   Even though my stomach did not feel sick, I was afraid it could come to that.  Mike said he felt the same way.  We got tickets for the ferry ride and boarded the 100+ foot  3 level ferry that took us out to an island named Herreninsel.    Here there is a castle named Herrenchiemsee.   Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to take a tour before we had to head back to the clinic.   We walked around some of the grounds,  We saw an old monastery and another old church.  We then sat down at the outside restaurant. There Kate and I had apple strudel with vanilla ice cream which was very good.  The rest of the group had beverages.  We got the ferry back at 4:50 PM and headed back to the clinic. This time we were going to take the Autoban so it would not be so windy, but Mike had heard the GPS say something about a back up on the Autoban which we could actually see.  So we again had to get redirected back to Brannenberg.  This time I sat in the middle of the backseat so that I could see where we were going - this helped.   The ride back did not seem as bad.

We knew we were going to be late for dinner and were not sure if we could still actually get anything.  Ivan waited at the clinic to see if we could still get dinner.   If not,  he was going to take us back into town to an Italian restaurant.   The rest of the patients were still in the dining room, so we let Ivan know that.  He and Kate stay outside of the clinic in a farmhouse and eat their dinner meals there.   We were scolded somewhat by the waitress who does not speak English.  She pointed at the clock when we walked in.  She is able to understand enough that we got lost and that was why we were late.  By this time they were out of soup. Dinner was Chinese finger food which I did not eat so luckily I had that apple strudel.   I ended up eating a 1/2 slice of watermelon and gave my meal to Mike,  He said he liked it.

Unfortunately we did not get back to the clinic in time to say goodbye to Zoe and Christ T.   We saw them both in the morning between breakfast and lunch so at least we got to see them then.   Before we left to go to Prien, Chris was actually here using the Internet and I was able to give him a hug.  Zoe was over in the cottage they stayed in while they were here.

We had a chance to further talk to Dennis and Shirley and learn more about their situation before we all separated for the night.  Tomorrow starts week 3 of treatment.  Mike will have his blood drawn again tomorrow so we will see if there are any updates with that.

                                           Kate and Ivan on ferry boat ride to island.

                                            View of lake and the Alps from the ferry.

                                           Ivan, me, Kate, and Christy waiting for ferry.

                                           The ferry.

                                           Mike standing next to huge aloe vera plant.

DAY 13 OF TREATMENT 09/07/13

Saturday, September 7th

10:00 AM

Just literally had a tearful goodbye with Taz Mike.   He is a very emotional guy so we were both crying. Again, everyone individually came to say goodbye to him or Taz Mike sought them out.  He gave a hat to Mike that he wrote a personal message to Mike on the inside.  Last night after dinner, I gave him my FIGHT FOR MIKE bracelet to remind him of Mike and also for his fight against his cancer.   He will have a testing in a couple of weeks after he gets home and have the results sent to Dr. Weber.  From here he is heading to Turkey to meet up with his brothers.   Tazie, we wish you the best in your journey.   I know that each goodbye will be just as hard.

While I on the 2nd floor, Dr. Weber came out of the treatment area and held up 9 fingers.  I looked at him and said 9,000?   He said yes and said I will show you the results.  He was talking about Mike's WBC. When I went downstairs to wait with Taz Mike, Dr. Weber came by with Mike's chart and showed me the lab values.   He is not sure why there was such a dramatic change in Mike's WBCs.   He said maybe the 2.5 value from earlier were wrong.  He asked  if Mike still had any of the redness or itching from the other day, which he does not.   Dr. Weber is just amazing how he can come out of his office and see you and just be able to give you your specific result without having the chart in front of him.

Today Christy, Mike, and I are planning on going into Rosenheim to walk around town and do some shopping.  Ivan has a car and has told us before if we needed a ride, he would take us to the train station.

9:30 PM

Ivan had a treatment today at the time we decided to go to Rosenheim.   We walked to the train station and Christy and I managed to purchase our ticket.   I think the Germans behind us were not too happy that we took so long to figure it out.   The train was again packed with young adults in their costumes heading to the beer festival there.   We walked around town and went into some clothing stores.  The prices here in most cases is really reasonable, however we did not make any purchases.  We got the return train back to Brannenburg at 4:35 and got back to the clinic in time for dinner.

Dinner tonight was sliced salmon with horseradish and toast.  I gave my salmon to Mike but he then gave it
to Leah.  Along with the fruit they sat our for dessert, they put out yogurt.   So my dinner was yogurt and toast.  The soup for both meals was creamy leek. Lunch for Mike was duck with potato patties and brussel sprouts.   He could only mange about  5 of those, and then he had enough.   I had a bowl that had 3 small potato patties in it with a little arrangement of a slice pepper,  a sliced tomato, some cauliflower, some asparagus with cheese melted on top.   Dessert was some sort of Italian thing - I forgot to pick up a menu and bring it back with me.   It was some sort of custard that tasted like it had champagne in it and then was heated.  I just had a taste and then gave it to Chris from France.

After dinner Lindy, Christy, Mike, Leah, Zoe, and Chris T. headed up to the 2nd floor landing and had our usual conversation time,   Chris from France backed out stating he was going to bed,  He leaves tomorrow to meat his wife in France.

DAY 12 OF TREATMENT 09/06/13

Friday, September 6, 2013

11:00 AM
Mike stated he did not sleep last night due to the time he slept yesterday afternoon.   We stayed in the clinic yesterday and just took it easy.  It was a beautiful day.  Mike and I both tried the pumpkin soup at dinner and it was very good.   The cheese buffet was actually just that - various cheeses on plates with a sign in Germany stating what they were, a basket of bread, and a bowl of small baked potatoes.   I had two of the small potatoes and Mike had a sampling of two of the cheeses and some fruit.   It was a different kind of meal.  He must have been starving by the time he got up this morning.

Chris T. and Zoe just came out from meeting with Dr. Weber.  Chris  T stated they were given a high 5 with Zoe's ultrasound results.  Then Chris from France met with Dr. Weber.  He came out of the office giving the thumbs up sign.    The word about both Zoe and Chris spread like wildfire throughout the clinic.  Chris was sitting with Lindy and me in the one sitting area, and people were seeking him out to congratulate him.   Everyone is genuinely happy for each of them.  Lindy just came out from meeting with Dr. Weber, and the tumors in her lymph nodes are completely gone, and the ones in her breasts have shrunk to just mms.
Then it was Dave's turn.  He came out stating the tumors in his pancreas have shrunk.  They are not gone, but they have shrunk.   This is his first week.

Earlier I was sitting in this same area when Kate and Ivan came up to the 2nd floor.  Ivan has prostate, kidney, and now bone cancer.  Kate and I spent time talking as the spouses of husband's who have cancer. It was really good to talk to her, someone who is going through the same thing.  We could compare so many of the same feelings.  Kate is so nice.  I connected with her right away.   It is amazing how quickly everyone comes together and becomes friends.  It is just such a warm atmosphere to be in.

10:00 PM  I am back.
Lunch today was orange ruffy with parsley potatoes.   I gave my fish to Mike and I took his potatoes.  I had a scoop of vanilla  ice cream in plum sauce for dessert.  After lunch Lindy, Mike, and I walked to the store. It was very hot, and we ran into Stefan from the clinic.  He gave us a ride back.  We are lucky that we did this.  Little did we know then the extent of the walk we would be doing when we got back to the clinicc.

Tazmania Mike  (I will call him Taz Mike from here on to make the distinction between him and Mike), Christy, Mike, and I decided to walk into Flintsbach and climb the mountain to St. Petersburg church.   Marcus, the masseuse, told Mike that it takes an hour to walk up the mountain.  The church is there as well as a restaurant/bar.  We left the clinic around 3:00.  Once we got over to the village of Flintsbach, we were trying to find the path that went up the mountain.  We saw a man standing on his roof.  Taz Mike was our interpreter as he knows some German words.   A older lady then came out the door to try to help with what we were asking.  She said she would show us the way.  She got her bike,  and we followed her probably about 3/4 of a mile.   We started climbing and climbing and climbing.  I don't know how many times we had to stop and take a break,   As we were climbing, we would occasionally ask people who were coming down the hill how much further we had to go.  Mike kept asking whose idea this was to climb to the top - it was his.   We figured we got this far so we could not turn around and go back down without getting to the top.   Along the way, we came to a beautiful waterfall with cascading rocks with moss and ferns surrounding them.  People had made rock pyramids (balanced rocks one on top of the other) all throughout the falls.   We all made our own little pyramids.   We said it was to create balance in our lives. With breaks, it took up about an hour and a half to get to the top.   The view from this point was amazing.   It was just beautiful.   Can you believe, me who always has a camera, did not bring my it along.? Neither did Mike.   Luckily Taz Mike had his camera and took some pictures which he said he would email to me.  We all went into the church and lit candles.  We got to the top around 5:00.

We knew we had to get back to the clinic for dinner which is served at 5:30.  We knew there would be no way we would make it at that time, but figured that Mike's hyperthemia usually lasts until 6:00 when he has it late in the day so we should still manage to get back before it was too late.  Our decent down the mountain was not any easier than the climb up.  The path had such an incline that it was difficult holding yourself back with weak, tired muscles.  Taz Mike took off ahead of us, and we did not know where he had gotten to.   On the way up the mountain we noticed a "shortcut" to Brannenburg.   Mike, Christy, and I decided to take that trail back to the clinic.  Well....this trail was a lot worse than the one we climbed.  We weren't exactly sure where we would end up but we knew it had to get to the bottom.   We surfaced at an area we have frequently walked to.  We kept hoping Taz Mike realized we had gone the other way and was not waiting for us.  It took us about an hour to get back.

We got back to the clinic to find out that the kitchen staff was worried about us.  We were still there in time to get supper which was spaghetti.   We actually beat Taz Mike back by about 5 minutes.  He had met up with a group of German hikers and came down the mountain with them.

After our meal, everyone gathered upstairs on the 2nd floor to talk and to celebrate Chris and Dave's wonderful news.  We were laughing and having a good time.   It iss so nice to have bonded so closely with everyone that we could have such a good time together.  Taz Mike leaves tomorrow morning and Chris leaves on Sunday.   It is not going to be the same without those two.  Lindy leaves on Tuesday so I guess there will be a new group of people coming in to meet and hear their stories.

Hope I have not bored anyone, but this was just such a unbelievable day that I had to share it.

 

The group:  Dave Roberts, Mike Lizottes, Mike, Leah Rosenberg, Chris Van Clef, Christy Dion, and Zoe Brannigan.

 

Chris T.and I, two of the supportive spouses/partners.

DAY 11 OF TREATMENT

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Hello to all.   Quite day today. Mike had his usual treatments.  This morning we met with Dr. Weber to get the results of his blood testing from Monday.  We missed him yesterday due to us going up on the mountain. As I mentioned last week, two of Mike's  liver tests that show up in the blood were normal and the third one was high.    He told us all three of these things are now within the normal level.  His platelets are good.  However, his WBC have gone down to (I think) 2.5.  He said this was not dangerous.  He said he would give him some magnesium which increases the efficiency of the white blood cells.  He is going to test the WBCs tomorrow.  

Today's lunch was Turkey kebob with ginger rice for Mike.  He did not eat the white rice.  Mine was spinach pasta in 4 cheese sauce.  Dessert was Bavarian curd cream which was very good.  I had the clear tomato zucchini soup.  The other option for soup was creamy pumpkin soup with oil. I may try that one tonight. Supper's menu is  French cheese buffet with potatoes.

While we were sitting at the dining table after we were done eating, Mike excused himself and went up to the room. When he did not come right back, I went up to see what he was doing.  I found him laying on his bed. When I asked what was wrong, he stated that he had a couple of red bumps pop up on his arm and that his head felt really warm and it was red  He did not want me to get a nurse or Dr. Weber.   Mike from Tazmania was meeting with Dr. Weber and told him about Mike's breakout.  He came right to the room to check on Mike.  He asked Mike why he did not come see him.  Any way, Dr. Weber checked his arm and looked at and felt his head.   He then grabbed him by the arm and told him he was going to take him downstairs now and give him an infusion with calcium and magnesium.  By the time they got downstairs, Dr. Weber checked him again. The spots on his arm and head were not so red.  Dr. Weber joked that it was his healing hand that cured this condition.   Mrs. Dr. Weber had advised Dr. Weber of Mike's similar symptoms last week.  The only thing Mike had different today was the Thimus injection.   We are thinking that is when he had the reaction last week.   Because this calmed down, Dr. Weber only had the nurse give him 1/2 of the calcium/magnesium cocktail.   Mike stayed in that room and tried to sleep but it was too noisy so he came up to our room,   He probably slept 2 hours.   He woke up about a 1/2 hour before his hyperthermia treatment.

Mike states he was absolutely fine before lunch.   Leah had Mike eat a tablespoon of her coconut oil.  That is what Mike thinks caused his head to get red and hot. So I doubt he will eat or use that any more. Hopefully that is the last of that.   He states he is feeling better.

Today has been gorgeous again.  We are talking about taking the train into Rosenheim on Saturday.
I just went and checked some statistics on this blog.     This blog was been seen in China - 1 view, Russia - 2 views, Serbia - 9 views, Canada -11 views, Germany - 16 views, the United Kingdom - 17 views, and the United States at the top with 503 views.  That is interesting.  I bet the ones in Canada are by our friend, Tammy.  The other ones from other countries are probably just from people coming across them on the blog site.

 

 

 

 

DAY 10 OF TREATMENT

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Good evening here from Brannenburg!

Today was an absolutely beautiful day here in Germany.  Mike finished most of his treatments today by lunch time.   They were the usual treatments.    When we came and met with the Dr. Weber, Mike was given a blue treatment book that has all the types of treatments available.  They mark the types of treatment that Mike is to have each day and the time for each.  The patient has to carry this book with them to each treatment.  If you do not have it, they are asking where it is.  They document that each treatment was done. There are a few things he can have done in between the scheduled treatments such as his injections  and biomat therapy.

Christy, Mike from Tazmania, Mike, and I took the train up the mountain again after lunch.   It was Christy and Mike's first time.  The skies were so much clearer today than it had been last week.  We wore shorts and sleeveless tops.   Mike took along a long sleeve shirt,  and I took a jacket but we did not need them.  It had been chilly last week when we were here.  We all managed to climb to the top of the mountain. It took about 20 minutes to climb.   There were 120 actual steps plus all the inclines to get up to the top.  It's funny, it actually seemed like a lot more steps than that. The 360 degree view was absolutely magnificent.   I don't know how well my camera pictures will do it justice,   I have taken a lot of  pictures just so I get all the beauty that is here.  I may have to delete some which is easy.   If I missed taking something, I would regret it. I also took some video while we were on the train.    We enjoyed the scenery and a beverage while we were waiting for the train to take us back down the mountain.   It was a very nice afternoon.

We had to briskly walk back to the clinic after getting off the train at 4:30 because Mike was scheduled for his hyperthermia treatment at 4:40.   He was a little late, but they flow very easily with it here.  While he was having that treatment, I sat out in the garden with Lindy, Christy, Ivan & his wife Kate (they are here from Canada).  It was a very nice setting to talk.   The temperature was perfect.  It was just very peaceful and calming.

Today's menu consisted of creamy thyme soup.   Mike had Mushroom ragout with dumplings.   The dumpling was in the center of a bowl with a mushroom type sauce around it.  He said it was very good.   I ordered the Tyrol goulash with dumpling.   This was the same dumpling on a plate with a brown gravy and pieces of beef off to the side.  I ate the dumpling and gave the beef to Mike.  Dessert was chocolate mousse.

For dinner tonight we had "Bavarian plate" with Brezn.   The Bavarian plate consisted of organic turkey sausage and a piece of meat that tasted like ham.   I ate a little bit of the ham and gave the rest of my meat to Mike.   It also had a medium sized potato that was prepared like a parsley potato.  The Brezn was actually a soft pretzel.   We had the same creamy thyme soup with dinner.  I think this is actually my favorite soup so far.

We were actually able to talk on the phone tonight to Mike's bosses, Gary and Clare.   To use the word bosses is only as an identifier .  They are actually very dear friends who consider us as family as do we.   We are so grateful to them (in more ways than one) as they were the ones who gave us the book that gave us the information about German Cancer Clinics.  Without that, we would have never known that such an opportunity was even available.  We are taking full advantage of this wonderful opportunity.  We just wish treatments like this were available in the United States.

 

 

 

 

 

DAY 9 OF TREATMENT

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Today Mike was done early with his treatment.   He was finished before noon today.  He had wanted to take the train back up the mountain since it was warm and sunny today.   We tried to get everyone together but people had things scheduled that we just couldn't arrange it today.  Instead we took Christy for a walk up the hill behind the clinic.  This is a more gentle incline up the hill than the one we took last week where we had a lot of stairs up to the old church.   This time though we continued on the path that took us down the other side of the hill into Brannenburg.  The trail ended at someone's yard which turned into their driveway.  I was surprised that Mike did not figure out where we were coming off the trail.   I knew right away where we were.  He made fun of me earlier last week when I made a wrong turn on our walk back to the clinic.   That is why I have not gone out for any walks by myself.  We then went into the town of Brannenburg and looked around.  We went into some clothing stores.   The prices were really reasonable.   We ran into the very nice Germany lady who helped us get on the correct train to come back to the clinic on Saturday.   We said hello, and she recognized us and said hello to us.  Yesterday when we walked into town, Mike bought a pair of nice walking sandals since the ones he has here are on their last leg. They were only $19.99 on sale.   They originally were $79.99.

Dinner today was Plaice fillet fish) with saffron sauce and potatoes for Mike.  I had a Pasta in Cheese-Chilley sauce.   I had wine soup with croutons.   It was a creamy soup which I think was sprinkled with cinnamon.  Mike had a clear soup with potato and Caraway. Dessert was Truffle ice cream cake "Marinus" which was a two layer chocolate type cake with a thin layer of ice cream in between.  Tonight for supper, we had potato-vegetable gratin which also had scrambled eggs in it.

It has been pretty quite here today.   Nothing else to report.

 

 

 

DAY 8 OF TREATMENT

Monday, September 2nd     Labor Day

Happy Labor Day to everyone back in the states.  I am sure you will all be having the last BIG picnic of the season.  Someone eat some potato or macaroni salad for me.

Everyone is back to work here after the weekend so Mike got his usual treatment plus his infusions.   Dr. Weber showed Mike exactly where in his colon his cancer is.  It is right at the top of the ascending colon. Mike wanted to be sure that this spot was being addressed by his treatments.  Mike came back to the room just after his last treatment of the day and said that when he spoke to Dr. Weber, he told him that his CEA level was now down to 11.1.  We are moving in the right direction!

Lunch today was carrot flan with vegetable rice for me and beef filet and vegetable rice for Mike.  The soup was zuppa pavese which is a chicken broth with a small piece of bread drizzled with oil oil which had been baked.  An egg is cracked into the bowl with the bread and then the hot broth is poured over the egg cooking it.    This is what I tried.   It was OK.  I could not eat all of the egg.   The other soup was a creamy black salsify soup.  I looked both of these soups up on line to see what they were.   The black salsify soup is made from something called oyster root and, therefore, has an oyster taste to it.   Our dinnermate, Mike, had this and said it did have a chowder taste to it.  Dessert which I had was fresh fruit salad with Mango-Apricot ice cream.  It was good.  Tonight for dinner we are having pizza breads, the same soups (which I think I will pass on), and fresh fruit.   I got a chewing out from Leah yesterday about drinking Coke so I guess I will not be having any more of that, at least, while I am here.

It has been a cloudy day with cooler temperatures but it is supposed to go up into the high 70s, low 80s the remainder of the week so we are looking forward to that.

We walked into the town to exchange the batteries I bought on Saturday.   The checkout girl spoke English so I asked her if I could return them.  She told me yes and gave me two stamps.  Not sure what that was about.  Will have to check with someone here to see what that means.  Mike bought an avocado to try at Leah's suggestion.   She also has him eating cold sauerkraut which he does not like but he has eaten it the last couple of days.   He said he could probably eat it hot, but she said no - that takes away all the enzymes that he needs.   She also had him try some coconut oil that she got.  She says she uses it for cooking, puts it on her skin, puts it on cuts.   She actually ate it out of the jar and had Mike do the same.   This trip sure has had a lot of "firsts".

DAY 7 OF TREATMENT

Sunday, September 1st

Well it's hard to believe that we have a week under our belts already.

Today Mike had basically all his daily treatments except the infusions as there is no nurse here to administer that.   It was been a really quite day here a the clinic.  After lunch everyone gathered to speak to and learn from Chris T. as he has done a lot of research on supplements, vitamins, and regimens to do to increase your chances of beating cancer.

Leah told Mike that today he should just rest and take it easy.   She says that we Americans are constantly doing something and that we don't take the time to just rest and take care of ourselves.  She states that each day, you awake with so much energy and if you spend it all on doing too much, then your body does not have the energy it needs to fight the cancer.  I guess Mike is taking her advice as he has been taking a nap for over an hour.

Mike is pretty sore in his hip today from all the walking we did yesterday.   We went for a 3 mile walk in the morning before lunch and then probably walked at least 5 miles walking to the train station, to the festival, at the festival, back to the train station, and then back to the clinic.  

It rained overnight here and then around noon, the sun came out of a little bit.  However, it is raining again and is to continue overnight.   The rest of the week looks pretty good with temperatures in the mid to upper 70s.   The weekend is looking to only be in the high 60s.   Just wish I would have packed some more longer sleeved shirts.

Today's lunch consisted of beef filet and vegetables for Mike and then a baked potato with a herb sour cream for me.   The potato was nicely presented with a flower on top.  I had cream of broccoli soup with flower petals in it.  Dessert was called heavenly apple foam.  It was the strangest consistency as it was actually apple flavored foam.  It had some sort of coated nuts on top.  The one thing they do here that really make a nice dining environment is the table setting.   The table has a white cloth that has a colored cloth on top to create a diamond pattern.   There are always different colorful napkins placed on each place setting. China is used with all the proper eating utensils - salad fork, soup spoon, dessert spoon, etc.   We have goblets to drink water from .  There is a carafe of water with crystals in it that have some sort of healing purpose to them,   There is a vase of flowers on the table that is changed every couple of days.  It is just a little vase with some greens and a rose bloom or two backeyed Susan flowers with some Veronica and greens, but it is just right. They also have a self serve table that has about 8 different bottles of water.   They are all different and again, all having some sort of healing quality to them.  You can just grab one and take it to your table or back up to your room.   If you want tea, they bring it to you in a little tea pot with a tea cup and saucer on a little silver serving tray.   The desserts are served on a separate plate with a dessert fork or in a glass type goblet.   The put a lot of thought and effort into their presentation which is nice.

We are ready to begin the 2nd week.