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.
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