LORDSCANCERCARE: 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.