Hello everyone. It has been a little while since I have let everyone in on what's going on with me. Where to start? I arrived home and was extremely happy to see my children. They are my world and the only thing that I have worth fighting for. I had some major jetlag after being home for a day. All the overstimulation of children was starting to get to me. I needed to have some quiet time and try to get myself back on schedule. This is really hard to achieve with kids, dogs, wife, etc. I slept for a while and I kept getting these horrific pains in my ribs and shoulders. This was forcing me to spend a lot of Time in the bathtub. Lets just say that "pain changes people". I became a real "joy" to be around. I narrowed it down to two factors. One I was in a lot of pain physically, mentally, and emotionally. And two I was not happy with my home life.
Friday morning I had to make a decision and I chose to grab a few of my belongings and go stay with my mom. As a thirty year old who has lived independently from his parents for almost a decade, it is really hard and different to live with your parent. If I wasn't going to try and go back to Germany so soon I would find myself a permanent residence to maintain that independence. Ok so that's that. I'm trying to make this life work for the time being.
Saturday morning I went to a birthday party for my friend Kevin and we shot skeet at a shooting range for a good five hours. Lots of my friends from high school were there. It was alot of fun. We continued the party that evening at his dads house. I brought the kids and there were lots of kids there. We all had a blast. Literally! Sunday we went to the park with my good friend Leon and his family, another friend Brian and his family, and Kevin joined us as well. We played hard for a couple hours and then went to dempseys for lunch. We then went and spent a good portion of the afternoon with Leon and fam. We had a great day. I was introduced to the really great vitamins that I have been taking daily since and I'm feeling amazing. They aren't a total gut bomb like most vitamins are.
Monday morning I woke up and got the children ready for school. I took them into town and dropped them off. I was not going to see them until tuesday. I took advantage of this day to catch up on some needed rest and some misc. things.
Tuesday I got to go see Camille in gymnastics. She is a natural. Watching her is so cool because she is so strong and really enjoys herself. I'm hoping that she will continue to hold a strong interest in gymnastic. I really feel that children need extra curricular activities otherwise they just run rampant in the house, or become couch potatoes. Yuck. After gymnastics we went to sushi with Grammy. That was a nice meal. Camille is my good eater. We went back to my moms house after and we played on the property for a while. I had to go and pick up Liam so he could go to tae Kwon do. This was fun for me to watch also. Liam however is different when it comes to the extracurricular activities. He is a little lazy, and loses focus or get distracted. This is frustrating for me because I was a focused person when it came to sports and things like that when I was his age. He is extremely smart though so I just have to accept the fact that "extracurricular" may not be physical for him. It might be mental. I will support him in whatever path he chooses. Ok anyways. We had fun with that and then we went to Leon's for a couple hours.
Wednesday we got up and off to school. I wouldn't see them again until Friday. I used Wednesday to get myself a storage unit where I could start putting some of my belongings. I am a master packer though. I put so much stuff in this little 6x8 unit. And I have a ton of room still. I spent a good portion of this day handling misc. things. I got a lot achieved. My dad and I picked up Liam from school and took him to the park for an hour before we took him to gymnastics. We had a really Funtime with just the boys. Gymnastics was fun for Liam. I think he likes it. He was getting a bit sore in his arms though. After gymnastics we dropped him at home and then I went back to my moms for the evening. Thursday wasn't super exciting. I did have dinner with a buddy of mine. That was fun. We talked for a couple hours. It's nice having my supportive friends close right now.
Friday. My dad, Leon, Kevin, and myself all went to the shooting range again. We had a good time. A lot of laughter, joking, reminiscing. All the good stuff in life. Leon and Kevin have been my friends for a really long time. I lost touch with them for 8 years and I feel really blessed that they are both back in my life. I also got to spend time with my buddy nick earlier in the week. We had dinner in Sonoma and met up with a friend from work. We had a great time as well. I enjoy time with nick. Friday night was spent at Leon and Ashley's house. We did Easter egg coloring and all the kids had fun. We had pizza, there were close to thirty guests children included.
This morning has been lazy, we had a birthday party at kids party central at eleven. I brought Liam and figured out there was wifi and I could use this time to check in and post my blog. I have been kinda without Internet so it has been hard to be daily plus with all that's going on I need to find my groove. I have been feeling a bit better being home. I'm looking forward to going back and getting better. I will miss the time with my kids but it is a blip on the radar of life for me to kick this disease once and for all. Sorry it took so long to get this written. I know you have all been patiently waiting. That's for the support. Love Lucas
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
The flight home
Hello to my followers. 6:30 a.m. I woke up to my regular routine. Meds, bath, clothing, and then off to breakfast. I had my normal breakfast today, and planned to have one more infusion today for good measure. After breakfast I went to the nurses station to see Stephie. She said that they needed me to evacuate my room as the new guest was already there. Lucky for them I had already packed the day before. Since I wasn't going to be able to lay around my room, I asked dr.Weber if I may have a vitamin infusion as well. He said "no problem". So, 8:30 I'm getting ozone treatment and vitamin infusions along with one more dose of thaimis. I was trying to finish this book that chad let me borrow, but this new patient from San Jose was chatting my ear off the whole hour I layed there. I was up really late the night before reading this book. I couldn't put it down.
9:30 I went down to the lobby to read and kick my feet up. The problem was that there were only chairs, so I started to get really uncomfortable. I went to the nureses to see if I could lay down somewhere for a while. They let me lay on one of the infusion beds. I read for a good hour and a half. Daniella brought me a liver pack which I loved. I layed for another half hours reading. 11:45 I went to lunch and Chad and Lisa were waiting for me. I made a salad and Margaret brought me a soup and ratatouille. This was a good lunch to leave on. I said my goodbyes to Chad and Lisa. We will continue to be in touch when they get home. I said goodbye to Gunther, who reminded me to stay positive and keep a big smile on my face daily. I patted Liz on her back and reminded her to stay positive, she looked at me with a scowl. I wished her the best of luck. On my way out I saw Dr. Weber and his wife. I hugged them both and told them to keep my room warm for ill be back. They were both smiling ear to ear. I think he knows that he has givin me a real chance at beating this once and for all. He said to email in a couple weeks to let him know how I'm feeling and when I'm coming back.
12:45 Stephan is waiting for me in the car. We depart the clinic towards Munich. The ride was enjoyable with stephan. We talked about German traditions and soccer. We also talked about all the festivals that will be going on when I return. He said they are very nice and I should try to attend at least on for the Bavarian experience. All the chatting made the ride real quick. We got to the airport and Stephan parked and made sure. I got to the right place for ticketing. I said " see you soon" and then he left. My mother in law, Sandra requested wheelchair service for me which was cool. I got right through all the customs, and security without having to wait. I also didn't have to walk the 1/2 mile to the terminal. This was very nice. I had about an hour to burn before the plane started boarding. I went to a little store and got a water they make you show them your passport and boarding pass to purchase water at this store. I said " this is kinda ridiculous huh?" The cashier was a bit rude. When I went to pay here one of the coins stuck to my hand and she thought that I dropped it purposely on the counter. I got the dirtiest look that I've gotten in a real long time. There was no explaining myself. She tossed my change on the counter and I smiled with a half chuckle and left.
The plane started boarding and I was getting anxious to get on and get flying.
I got a really good seat whith a wall infront of me. This gained me another foot of leg room. The passenger next to me was this huge German guy I was not looking forward to bumping elbows with him for the next twelve hours. When the plane was full, the flight attendant Did the normal blah, blah. We took off and I fell asleep. I guess i slept for an hour or so. When I woke up they were offering drinks and snack crackers. I pulled out that book and decided that I wasn't putting it down until it was done. I succeeded and finished this book. I've never been much f a reader but I am noticing now that I really enjoy it. The one bad thing about my seat was there were two couples with babies on either side of me. This was asking for disaster. I'm happy that I had headphones.i won't breakdown every hour of flight for two reasons. One is because I don't wanna write that much and two because it wasn't that eventful. We've all flown.
The big German was a lefty on my right so eating wasn't fun, he also was farting the whole time and that was annoying. The babies did cry. One of them off and on for hours. This wasn't fun either. Like I said though. I had earphones so I could zone out. I slept maybe three hours of the whole flight. The in flight meals were not that bad. My butt fell asleep and when we arrived in San Fran I was so happy to be home. I couldn't wait to get off the plane and get my bag so I could catch the airporter and get back to Petaluma. I made it through customs without any hassles and just missed the airporter by 5 minutes. This meant that I would have to wait another hour for the next one. Ohh well. I'm happy to be home. 9:30 air porter arrives and I'm on my way. Get into town around 10:45 and my dad is waiting for me at the bus stop. He gave me a big welcome back hug and we got my bag and headed to my house. I walked into a well lit fully cleaned house. Megan was watching a movie awaiting my arrival. I gave her a big hug and a kiss and then assured her that I was in desperate need of a shower. I unpacked my things, took a shower, and by this time I had been up basically for twenty four hours with some cat naps. I'm beat. So I hit the sack.
It's now 1:00 on Wednesday. I spent the whole morning with my kids. It's been real nice but also exhausting. I haven't been around this energy in a while so I think I'll need to ease back into it. Megan took them out for a while so I could rest. I'll keep the blog running on a weekly basis until I return to Germany. Everytime I post I'll send it to Facebook. Thanks for the support. I'm glad to be home. Stay tuned for updates. Love lucas
9:30 I went down to the lobby to read and kick my feet up. The problem was that there were only chairs, so I started to get really uncomfortable. I went to the nureses to see if I could lay down somewhere for a while. They let me lay on one of the infusion beds. I read for a good hour and a half. Daniella brought me a liver pack which I loved. I layed for another half hours reading. 11:45 I went to lunch and Chad and Lisa were waiting for me. I made a salad and Margaret brought me a soup and ratatouille. This was a good lunch to leave on. I said my goodbyes to Chad and Lisa. We will continue to be in touch when they get home. I said goodbye to Gunther, who reminded me to stay positive and keep a big smile on my face daily. I patted Liz on her back and reminded her to stay positive, she looked at me with a scowl. I wished her the best of luck. On my way out I saw Dr. Weber and his wife. I hugged them both and told them to keep my room warm for ill be back. They were both smiling ear to ear. I think he knows that he has givin me a real chance at beating this once and for all. He said to email in a couple weeks to let him know how I'm feeling and when I'm coming back.
12:45 Stephan is waiting for me in the car. We depart the clinic towards Munich. The ride was enjoyable with stephan. We talked about German traditions and soccer. We also talked about all the festivals that will be going on when I return. He said they are very nice and I should try to attend at least on for the Bavarian experience. All the chatting made the ride real quick. We got to the airport and Stephan parked and made sure. I got to the right place for ticketing. I said " see you soon" and then he left. My mother in law, Sandra requested wheelchair service for me which was cool. I got right through all the customs, and security without having to wait. I also didn't have to walk the 1/2 mile to the terminal. This was very nice. I had about an hour to burn before the plane started boarding. I went to a little store and got a water they make you show them your passport and boarding pass to purchase water at this store. I said " this is kinda ridiculous huh?" The cashier was a bit rude. When I went to pay here one of the coins stuck to my hand and she thought that I dropped it purposely on the counter. I got the dirtiest look that I've gotten in a real long time. There was no explaining myself. She tossed my change on the counter and I smiled with a half chuckle and left.
The plane started boarding and I was getting anxious to get on and get flying.
I got a really good seat whith a wall infront of me. This gained me another foot of leg room. The passenger next to me was this huge German guy I was not looking forward to bumping elbows with him for the next twelve hours. When the plane was full, the flight attendant Did the normal blah, blah. We took off and I fell asleep. I guess i slept for an hour or so. When I woke up they were offering drinks and snack crackers. I pulled out that book and decided that I wasn't putting it down until it was done. I succeeded and finished this book. I've never been much f a reader but I am noticing now that I really enjoy it. The one bad thing about my seat was there were two couples with babies on either side of me. This was asking for disaster. I'm happy that I had headphones.i won't breakdown every hour of flight for two reasons. One is because I don't wanna write that much and two because it wasn't that eventful. We've all flown.
The big German was a lefty on my right so eating wasn't fun, he also was farting the whole time and that was annoying. The babies did cry. One of them off and on for hours. This wasn't fun either. Like I said though. I had earphones so I could zone out. I slept maybe three hours of the whole flight. The in flight meals were not that bad. My butt fell asleep and when we arrived in San Fran I was so happy to be home. I couldn't wait to get off the plane and get my bag so I could catch the airporter and get back to Petaluma. I made it through customs without any hassles and just missed the airporter by 5 minutes. This meant that I would have to wait another hour for the next one. Ohh well. I'm happy to be home. 9:30 air porter arrives and I'm on my way. Get into town around 10:45 and my dad is waiting for me at the bus stop. He gave me a big welcome back hug and we got my bag and headed to my house. I walked into a well lit fully cleaned house. Megan was watching a movie awaiting my arrival. I gave her a big hug and a kiss and then assured her that I was in desperate need of a shower. I unpacked my things, took a shower, and by this time I had been up basically for twenty four hours with some cat naps. I'm beat. So I hit the sack.
It's now 1:00 on Wednesday. I spent the whole morning with my kids. It's been real nice but also exhausting. I haven't been around this energy in a while so I think I'll need to ease back into it. Megan took them out for a while so I could rest. I'll keep the blog running on a weekly basis until I return to Germany. Everytime I post I'll send it to Facebook. Thanks for the support. I'm glad to be home. Stay tuned for updates. Love lucas
Monday, March 18, 2013
Day#21
6:30. Last day of treatment in Germany. Wake up Luke! Lets get this day started I tell myself as I slide into the bathtub for my morning soak. It feels so good to arise from a warm bed and slip into a hot bath. 7:15 I go down to breakfast for my normal eggs and toast. Today I decided to go soft boiled though. This was a great choice. I am just feeling great today all around maybe it's because of the long FaceTime that I had with Megan and the kids last night before bed. I'm really excited to see them. 8:00 I went upstairs for a hyperthermia treatment, ozone blood infusion, and vitamins. Chad gave me a book to read. It's a murder mystery that took place in southern Oregon. He couldn't put it down and said that I would probably enjoy it. He was right. I couldn't put it down either. The hyperthermia went pretty fast due to the reading.
9:10 I had a second detox foot bath. The water was just as gross as the first time. I have a lot of toxins still in me, but in due time they will be gone. This foot bath takes 30 minutes and then the nurse rubs your feet with lotion. It's nice. After this treatment I had my magnetic field treatment. This was another twenty minutes and then my day was done. 9:50 I'm back in my room and I decide to start packing my bag to make sure that I can fit everything that I brought/bought! This process took me a good hour of situating but I think I got it. 11:00 liver hot pack time. Ohhh, I love laying with a hot pack and surfing the web. I'm having so many ideas for little projects when I return, even though I should just take it easy I'm feeling so good that I feel like I can take on the world again.
12:00 I went down to lunch. There's a new couple from Australia here. The husband Phil has the same cancer story that I have. We exchanged our experiences and I kept telling them that I am staying positive and not dwelling on the past. This makes it easier for me not to get sucked into the pity party conversations. We're moving forward here, not dwelling. EFF-CANCER. I ate salad, creamy soup, and deer with a stuffing type side. It was really yum. Dessert was a lemon sorbet cake. So good. I went back up to my room and thought about taking a walk into town one last time. My room phone rang and the secretary asked me to go to the ultrasound. I went to ultrasound and we looked at my liver and this other growth I have. The Dr. Was really excited everytime she measured the tumors because they are all shrinking. She also said that my liver function was looking much better as well. This was a huge relief for me. She said to go to my room and wait for Dr.Weber. I went back to my room and Dr. Weber came and got me about an hour later. We went to his office to talk about the ultrasound and the tumor markers and all my blood work from last Friday. He informed me that because of how bad of shape my liver wain when I got here that we did not see a huge difference in the treatment, but the last two bloodtests and the ultrasound show that I am responding well to the treatment and medications. I have very little pain now and my liver function is almost perfect. My tumor markers are still dropping. There's no other cancers in my body. My jaundice is gone. I informed him that I wanted to come back soon and he said to give him a date to get me from the airport and I can come for as long as I want. He believes that I am more then stable enough to come home for a while and maintain with the meds that he's sending me with. My plan is to come home for 6-8 weeks and then return until I'm all good. He agrees that it would be good for me to take a break from the vitamins and ozone for a little while.
I got back to my room and thought about taking that walk but when I looked outside, it was raining. So I layed back with that book of chads and got lost in it for an hour and a half. I pulled my eyes away to check the time and noticed that is was close to dinner. So I walked down and prepared my fruit salad for later. The waitress brought me a big bowl of soup, and the main course was bruschetta. I had two big servings. It was good and I was hungry. I sat and talked to the Aussies for a while after dinner and then I came back to my room. I face timed Megan for a few minutes and then decided to let you all in on my day. It's eight o'clock now and I'm just finishing up the blog. Today was a great day. No complaints. I'll be back on us soil tomorrow night. I'm excited for that. I hope that everyone enjoys the blog today. Tomorrows will hit late if I do it at all. Thanks again and again for all the love and support. You all rock. My warriors. Love you. Lucas
9:10 I had a second detox foot bath. The water was just as gross as the first time. I have a lot of toxins still in me, but in due time they will be gone. This foot bath takes 30 minutes and then the nurse rubs your feet with lotion. It's nice. After this treatment I had my magnetic field treatment. This was another twenty minutes and then my day was done. 9:50 I'm back in my room and I decide to start packing my bag to make sure that I can fit everything that I brought/bought! This process took me a good hour of situating but I think I got it. 11:00 liver hot pack time. Ohhh, I love laying with a hot pack and surfing the web. I'm having so many ideas for little projects when I return, even though I should just take it easy I'm feeling so good that I feel like I can take on the world again.
12:00 I went down to lunch. There's a new couple from Australia here. The husband Phil has the same cancer story that I have. We exchanged our experiences and I kept telling them that I am staying positive and not dwelling on the past. This makes it easier for me not to get sucked into the pity party conversations. We're moving forward here, not dwelling. EFF-CANCER. I ate salad, creamy soup, and deer with a stuffing type side. It was really yum. Dessert was a lemon sorbet cake. So good. I went back up to my room and thought about taking a walk into town one last time. My room phone rang and the secretary asked me to go to the ultrasound. I went to ultrasound and we looked at my liver and this other growth I have. The Dr. Was really excited everytime she measured the tumors because they are all shrinking. She also said that my liver function was looking much better as well. This was a huge relief for me. She said to go to my room and wait for Dr.Weber. I went back to my room and Dr. Weber came and got me about an hour later. We went to his office to talk about the ultrasound and the tumor markers and all my blood work from last Friday. He informed me that because of how bad of shape my liver wain when I got here that we did not see a huge difference in the treatment, but the last two bloodtests and the ultrasound show that I am responding well to the treatment and medications. I have very little pain now and my liver function is almost perfect. My tumor markers are still dropping. There's no other cancers in my body. My jaundice is gone. I informed him that I wanted to come back soon and he said to give him a date to get me from the airport and I can come for as long as I want. He believes that I am more then stable enough to come home for a while and maintain with the meds that he's sending me with. My plan is to come home for 6-8 weeks and then return until I'm all good. He agrees that it would be good for me to take a break from the vitamins and ozone for a little while.
I got back to my room and thought about taking that walk but when I looked outside, it was raining. So I layed back with that book of chads and got lost in it for an hour and a half. I pulled my eyes away to check the time and noticed that is was close to dinner. So I walked down and prepared my fruit salad for later. The waitress brought me a big bowl of soup, and the main course was bruschetta. I had two big servings. It was good and I was hungry. I sat and talked to the Aussies for a while after dinner and then I came back to my room. I face timed Megan for a few minutes and then decided to let you all in on my day. It's eight o'clock now and I'm just finishing up the blog. Today was a great day. No complaints. I'll be back on us soil tomorrow night. I'm excited for that. I hope that everyone enjoys the blog today. Tomorrows will hit late if I do it at all. Thanks again and again for all the love and support. You all rock. My warriors. Love you. Lucas
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Day#20
Woke up at 5:30 this morning. I was feeling a bit achy from all the activity yesterday I think. I took my medications and layed back down for a while. Today is again a very easy day for me. I have three appointments totaling an hour and forty minutes. At some point I moved to the couch in my room and turned on CNN. This is all the English we get here on the t.v. 8:00 I decided to go down to breakfast. I had some eggs and toast with jam. I ate pretty quickly and then went back to my room. I am really lazy today. I think that this is ok. 9:00 I went to my hyperthermia appointment. I started reading but I was unable to concentrate on what I was reading so I stopped. I need to clear my head. I ended up closing my eyes and drifting in and out of mini naps. 10:00 I layed down for bio- mat treatment and same thing, I closed my eyes and just rested. Allowing my healing without the loud mind.
10:30 I came back to my room and layed on the couch while I surfed the web. I am looking into gardening ideas for when I get home. I would like to grow the produce that I'll be eating. I found some really cool ideas in my search and I'm excited to start the process upon my return. 12:00 rolled around and it was time for lunch. I had two salads as usual, a split pea soup and some kind of a meat dish with a potato salad. The dessert was yogurt and fruit. I returned to my room stuffed and layed on my bed. I listened to the wind outside as it whistled through my cracked window. The sound was entrancing to me because the next thing I knew I was waking up and it was time for dinner. 5:30. I went down for dinner. Really not that hungry but I know if I don't eat I'll be up at three starving. I had another bowl of the split pea soup and shrimp kabobs. I ate fast and came back to my room. Today has really just been a lazy day for me. A lot of catching up on sleep, thinking time, reflecting time. All in all I'm happy with the way I spent my day. I never allow myself at home to do this. I think that's gonna have to be something I continue when I get back to the states. It's now 8:30 and I'm about to watch Forrest Gump. I love this movie. So I hope everyone enjoys my uneventful blog of the day. I'm settling in. Have a great day everyone. Love from me in Germany. Lucas
10:30 I came back to my room and layed on the couch while I surfed the web. I am looking into gardening ideas for when I get home. I would like to grow the produce that I'll be eating. I found some really cool ideas in my search and I'm excited to start the process upon my return. 12:00 rolled around and it was time for lunch. I had two salads as usual, a split pea soup and some kind of a meat dish with a potato salad. The dessert was yogurt and fruit. I returned to my room stuffed and layed on my bed. I listened to the wind outside as it whistled through my cracked window. The sound was entrancing to me because the next thing I knew I was waking up and it was time for dinner. 5:30. I went down for dinner. Really not that hungry but I know if I don't eat I'll be up at three starving. I had another bowl of the split pea soup and shrimp kabobs. I ate fast and came back to my room. Today has really just been a lazy day for me. A lot of catching up on sleep, thinking time, reflecting time. All in all I'm happy with the way I spent my day. I never allow myself at home to do this. I think that's gonna have to be something I continue when I get back to the states. It's now 8:30 and I'm about to watch Forrest Gump. I love this movie. So I hope everyone enjoys my uneventful blog of the day. I'm settling in. Have a great day everyone. Love from me in Germany. Lucas
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Day #19
6:30 today is beginning like any other day here at the Klinik. Morning routine. Get ready for breakfast. 7:00 I ordered three eggs scrambled, and made some toast. Discussed with Chad what time to leave for Munich. We were hoping to get on the ten o'clock train to rosenheim. I had a nine o'clock appointment so I went to see if I could start early. That wasn't a problem. 8:00 hyperthermia appointment. No vitamin injections today. I read my book and the treatment went pretty fast.
9:00 I went back to my room to wash up and get ready for the day at Munich. I got all my warm clothing on and went down stairs. Chad and Lisa were waiting for me in the lobby. They said that Dr. Weber wanted to give us a ride to the train station. When we got in his car, we knew why. He has a M5 BMW with all the bells and whistles. It's a pretty cool car. Fast too. He's such a funny man. Would never picture him in this car, but now that I think of it, I can't figure out what car I do picture him in! Weird! 10:11. Train to rosenheim. No problems. 10:30 train to Munich. No problem. We get off in Munich at the right station and for some reason we get right back on the train thinking we needed to get off at the next station. We were wrong. We ended up at the biggest station in Munich. Well with our luck this was bound to happen. We went straight to the information booth and asked them how to get back to the other station and then what train to connect us to where we were trying to get. He told us that we were a ten minute walk from marienplatz or we could wait for the train for a half hour. We walked. In the station there were rival soccer fan groups, chanting, and harassing each other. There was a big match in Munich today between Berlin and Munich. Berlin is the number one team so there were a lot of their fans in Munich. This could be trouble later.
We left the station and worked our way through huge crowds of pedestrians. There were. So many people on the streets, it was unreal. Street performers of all different talents were there. Tents selling fruit and veggies. Souvenir shops, it was crazy. Great people watching though. When we got to the town square, marienplatz. There was a big PETA type demonstration going on, lots of vegan, non animal eaters trying to sway the public. It was peaceful. I walked past. Chad really liked the hofbrauhaus that we ate at last time. We decided to get lunch there. The crowd there was no different. Very lively, beer, chanting, lots of toasts. Just a really fun atmosphere. I had a pork knuckle which had been recommended as a traditional Bavarian dish. It was so delicious. It also sat real heavy on my stomach. I won't eat it again. I payed for it during digestion. After lunch, we strolled the streets, looking in all the shops. Trying to find some gifts and whatnot. We decided that it would be better to start heading back to the train station sooner then later. We hit many shops on the way to the station.
When we got to the station, there were police everywhere. They had on protective gear. I was excited that I might witness a real soccer fan brawl. I walked slowly through the station incase something happened. Well of course nothing did happen. We caught our train and some fans were on it. They were pretty drunk but were in another cabin so it was all good. We got all the way back to brannenburg and it was 5:45. We decided to eat at the other Italian resturaunt in town. The food again was amazing. I had a salad, minestrone soup, and gnocchi. We left dinner and went across the street for an ice cream. I got a scoop of lemon. So good. I cheated big today. Tomorrow I need to make up for it. We braved the cold walk to the Klinik and by the time we made it there we were all pretty much frozen. We said our goodnights and parted ways. I came straight to my room and couldn't climb in the bath quick enough. I must have soaked for a good hour. Well it's 10:00 here, and I'm beat. I hope that everyone has a great day today, and that you enjoy reading my blog. I'm off to bed. Thanks for the support. Love lucas
9:00 I went back to my room to wash up and get ready for the day at Munich. I got all my warm clothing on and went down stairs. Chad and Lisa were waiting for me in the lobby. They said that Dr. Weber wanted to give us a ride to the train station. When we got in his car, we knew why. He has a M5 BMW with all the bells and whistles. It's a pretty cool car. Fast too. He's such a funny man. Would never picture him in this car, but now that I think of it, I can't figure out what car I do picture him in! Weird! 10:11. Train to rosenheim. No problems. 10:30 train to Munich. No problem. We get off in Munich at the right station and for some reason we get right back on the train thinking we needed to get off at the next station. We were wrong. We ended up at the biggest station in Munich. Well with our luck this was bound to happen. We went straight to the information booth and asked them how to get back to the other station and then what train to connect us to where we were trying to get. He told us that we were a ten minute walk from marienplatz or we could wait for the train for a half hour. We walked. In the station there were rival soccer fan groups, chanting, and harassing each other. There was a big match in Munich today between Berlin and Munich. Berlin is the number one team so there were a lot of their fans in Munich. This could be trouble later.
We left the station and worked our way through huge crowds of pedestrians. There were. So many people on the streets, it was unreal. Street performers of all different talents were there. Tents selling fruit and veggies. Souvenir shops, it was crazy. Great people watching though. When we got to the town square, marienplatz. There was a big PETA type demonstration going on, lots of vegan, non animal eaters trying to sway the public. It was peaceful. I walked past. Chad really liked the hofbrauhaus that we ate at last time. We decided to get lunch there. The crowd there was no different. Very lively, beer, chanting, lots of toasts. Just a really fun atmosphere. I had a pork knuckle which had been recommended as a traditional Bavarian dish. It was so delicious. It also sat real heavy on my stomach. I won't eat it again. I payed for it during digestion. After lunch, we strolled the streets, looking in all the shops. Trying to find some gifts and whatnot. We decided that it would be better to start heading back to the train station sooner then later. We hit many shops on the way to the station.
When we got to the station, there were police everywhere. They had on protective gear. I was excited that I might witness a real soccer fan brawl. I walked slowly through the station incase something happened. Well of course nothing did happen. We caught our train and some fans were on it. They were pretty drunk but were in another cabin so it was all good. We got all the way back to brannenburg and it was 5:45. We decided to eat at the other Italian resturaunt in town. The food again was amazing. I had a salad, minestrone soup, and gnocchi. We left dinner and went across the street for an ice cream. I got a scoop of lemon. So good. I cheated big today. Tomorrow I need to make up for it. We braved the cold walk to the Klinik and by the time we made it there we were all pretty much frozen. We said our goodnights and parted ways. I came straight to my room and couldn't climb in the bath quick enough. I must have soaked for a good hour. Well it's 10:00 here, and I'm beat. I hope that everyone has a great day today, and that you enjoy reading my blog. I'm off to bed. Thanks for the support. Love lucas
Friday, March 15, 2013
Days #17-18
Good morning to me. 4:30 and my phone is dinging from a mass text sent in the US that people are responding to. I try to ignore but I'm unsuccessful. I am also having a little pain in my back some mornings due to I believe the mattress here. My bed at home is so darn comfortable that I never am quite as satisfied when I sleep elsewhere. Ran a hot bath and soaked until the water got cold, then I let half out and refilled. 6:30 I finally got out of the tub and decided to throw on my clothes and get ready for breakfast. 7:00. I arrived at breakfast thinking that I would be the only one here but to my surprise, Chad, Lisa, And the new guy Russ were all there. Chad said that his daughter woke him up at four thirty as well. I thought this was a funny coincidence. We were planning on heading into town today to do a bit of shopping. Unfortunately it snowed two inches the night before so our plans were possibly going to change. I ate my usual and then it was appointment time.
8:30 I started the day with a reflexology appointment. Markus and I talked about obamacare and my thoughts on it. I will never discuss anything political in my blog, I feel that we are all entitled to our own opinions. I feel that that's all I'm going to say about that! We also talked about this festival that was going to happen later that day in the next town. Chad, Lisa, and myself were already thinking about this for today. Plans still in the air! 9:05 I have hyperthermia with no injections. One of the nurses came and talked with me for a little while. She asked if I liked poker. I said that I can play it but I'm not much of a gambler. She said that her brother is my age and plays every weekend. She was asking if I was interested in playing with them. I told her perhaps. Her concern was that I was bored here being that I'm so much younger then all the other patients. The people here are always so thoughtful. I assured her that I've been alright and actually enjoying myself and thanked her for her offer. 10:10 I decided to have a detox foot bath. They soak your feet for a half hour in an ionized bath and the toxins secrete from your feet. It's really nasty how many toxins your body has in them. When I started the water was clear. After twenty minutes it was the color of beef broth. I will do another on Monday. 10:40 I did the magnetic field treatment. I returned to my room for a liver hot pack and some time to send emails.
12:00 I went down to lunch and the sun had decided to peak through. Chad approached me and said that he needed to get out today. I was all for it. I ate my lunch which consisted of creamy rosemary soup, and white asparagus with risotto. The nurse earlier said that "you must have the dessert today!" So I had it. It was a fresh apple fritter type dessert with ice cream. Wow! It was awesome. Chad and I planned to leave at one thirty. I went to my room to get changed and situated for the adventure.
1:30 I'm in the lobby waiting for Chad nod Lisa. He comes down and says that the Dr. Wanted to speak to him so he would be a few more minutes. I am in no hurry so I waited. When they were ready they told me that Stephan was gonna give us a ride to the train station. This cut a out a half hour out of the trip. We got to the station and purchased our tickets and then we were off to Rosenheim. We arrived in Rosenheim and wanted to look for some souvenir shops, we walked for two hours only to find that all the stores here sold the same stuff we could get back at home. The difference was the price. More expensive here. It snowed on us a lot today so we went for refuge in a little coffee shop. It was so warm in the shop that we didn't want to leave. We noticed around us that all the people were eating cakes and sweets. Dessert is an everyday practice here I'm noticing. Maybe it's like this at home too I just don't pay that close of attention. We left the coffee shop to head back to the train station where we would catch the train back towards the clinic with a pit stop at the town between Rosenheim and Brannenburg. We got on the train and when it left, we were going the wrong way! Shit! We started laughing! We started towards some town called "helz kichoen" or something like that. I said "hells kitchen". When we arrived, we jumped off and caught the next train to rosenheim.
5:50 we get back to rosenheim. The next train to brannenburg is at 6:40. We go into the station to wait and look around at the little businesses that are in this station. 6:30 and we head over to the track where our train is supposed to leave from. Get up there and the train had just departed. We missed it by two minutes. The time we read for departure was the arrival time at the station we were going too. Shit!! Now we have to wait another hour for the next train to brannenburg. At this point we are getting frustrated, hungry, tired, we are just laughingly trying to hold it together. We decide to skip the festival and get back to the town we need to be in.
7:40 we arrive in Brannenburg and look for a restaurant because we missed dinner completely at the clinic. We decided on Italian. We got to the restaurant and sat with relief that we were finally going to get to eat. The waiter brought us a bruschetta each. It was very tasty, my wife's is still better but this was pretty good. I had a soup with a couple real thin pieces of meat and vegetables along with a pizza margahrita. Very delicious. Very filling. We paid our bill and then made. The half hour trek back home. It was so cold that the ground was freezing. Black ice everywhere on the road. It would be scary to drive in this weather I think.
9:30. Got back to the clinic. Frozen to the bone. Said my goodnights to Chad and Lisa. Thanked them for a fun and "exciting" day. Returned to my room. Informed all you that the blog wasn't coming tonight. Ran a hot bath. Warmed up. Crawled into bed. Lights out. The end......
DAY 18
Today I woke up at 6:15 feeling well rested and ready for another fabulous day of German healthcare. Normal routine and off to breakfast. 7:20. I ordered three eggs scrambled and I made a breakfast sandwich with a Little cheese,egg,ham,cucumber,tomato,bell pepper and cream cheese! Yeah it was awesome. Very filling too. 8:00 the appointments have begun. Hyperthermia with infusions. I read my book for a little bit and also spent some time pondering what I read. I'm noticing that this book, has a lot of the principles that were introduced to me through A.A. I started wondering if the author was a former alcoholic or if she was a "coda". (co-dependent). Both follow the same kind of spiritual program. I have realized a lot about myself over the past couple of years. When I was diagnosed, I was heavily involved in A.A. I believe that this prepared me in so many ways for the battle that I was about to face. I got better while maintaining some normalcy with this program even though I was becoming less and less involved. I went into remission and got cocky. Lost my sight in the higher power and within six months I was back where I started. Only at this point a lot of walls were up between me and my god. I can make a million excuses, trust me we all can! The point here is that I made a decision to believe that I beat the cancer without the help of a higher power and it came back. It has taken me almost two years to fully realize what had happened. I turned my back, I threw pity party's, I stayed sick! Trust me I'm nowhere near perfect, would never claim that, but I would like to strive for perfection in my health from this day forward. I will start with my relationship with my "higher power" and every other relationship will work itself out. Wow! I just went on a little tangent! Back to my treatment. 9:00 went in to get my magnetic field treatment and read my book again for twenty minutes.
Came back to my room and threw on some snow clothing and went outside to build a snow gnome. I made this little guy and put him in a tree. I took pictures that ill post to Facebook later. When I went to move him to another location he broke. My hand were freezing at this point so I went back inside. 10:30. Appointment with markus. We talked theater and drama. I told him that I used to be involved in this in high school but that I developed stage fright in my junior year and dropped out. He talked about the different actors that he has worked with and how they all prepare different for going on stage. I remember this too from when I would do shows. I always loved the energy befor and after a show. All the adrenalin that was released. Best natural high ever. 11:00 liver hot pack before lunch.
12:00 went down for lunch. They were serving creamy kohlorabi soup, and noodles with salmon. Very good lunch. I was so full after that I returned to my room and took a nap. I awoke just after 3:00. My stomach has been bubbly since lunch, I just kept laying in bed until dinner. I started reading a different book " the way of the peaceful warrior". Good book so far. 5:20. I went to dinner and ordered some soup. Then I ordered another soup. Then they served veal sausage and sour kraut. It was good. The sausage was not that heavy. I sat and chatted with Chad and Lisa about this and that. We are going to Munich tomorrow again to watch street performers and shop and whatnot. It is now 7:20 and I am done blogging for the day. I hope you all enjoy this. I enjoyed writing it. Thanks for the support. Love to all of you from Europe. Keep tuned for tomorrow. Blog might be late tomorrow night. Just a warning. Lucas.
8:30 I started the day with a reflexology appointment. Markus and I talked about obamacare and my thoughts on it. I will never discuss anything political in my blog, I feel that we are all entitled to our own opinions. I feel that that's all I'm going to say about that! We also talked about this festival that was going to happen later that day in the next town. Chad, Lisa, and myself were already thinking about this for today. Plans still in the air! 9:05 I have hyperthermia with no injections. One of the nurses came and talked with me for a little while. She asked if I liked poker. I said that I can play it but I'm not much of a gambler. She said that her brother is my age and plays every weekend. She was asking if I was interested in playing with them. I told her perhaps. Her concern was that I was bored here being that I'm so much younger then all the other patients. The people here are always so thoughtful. I assured her that I've been alright and actually enjoying myself and thanked her for her offer. 10:10 I decided to have a detox foot bath. They soak your feet for a half hour in an ionized bath and the toxins secrete from your feet. It's really nasty how many toxins your body has in them. When I started the water was clear. After twenty minutes it was the color of beef broth. I will do another on Monday. 10:40 I did the magnetic field treatment. I returned to my room for a liver hot pack and some time to send emails.
12:00 I went down to lunch and the sun had decided to peak through. Chad approached me and said that he needed to get out today. I was all for it. I ate my lunch which consisted of creamy rosemary soup, and white asparagus with risotto. The nurse earlier said that "you must have the dessert today!" So I had it. It was a fresh apple fritter type dessert with ice cream. Wow! It was awesome. Chad and I planned to leave at one thirty. I went to my room to get changed and situated for the adventure.
1:30 I'm in the lobby waiting for Chad nod Lisa. He comes down and says that the Dr. Wanted to speak to him so he would be a few more minutes. I am in no hurry so I waited. When they were ready they told me that Stephan was gonna give us a ride to the train station. This cut a out a half hour out of the trip. We got to the station and purchased our tickets and then we were off to Rosenheim. We arrived in Rosenheim and wanted to look for some souvenir shops, we walked for two hours only to find that all the stores here sold the same stuff we could get back at home. The difference was the price. More expensive here. It snowed on us a lot today so we went for refuge in a little coffee shop. It was so warm in the shop that we didn't want to leave. We noticed around us that all the people were eating cakes and sweets. Dessert is an everyday practice here I'm noticing. Maybe it's like this at home too I just don't pay that close of attention. We left the coffee shop to head back to the train station where we would catch the train back towards the clinic with a pit stop at the town between Rosenheim and Brannenburg. We got on the train and when it left, we were going the wrong way! Shit! We started laughing! We started towards some town called "helz kichoen" or something like that. I said "hells kitchen". When we arrived, we jumped off and caught the next train to rosenheim.
5:50 we get back to rosenheim. The next train to brannenburg is at 6:40. We go into the station to wait and look around at the little businesses that are in this station. 6:30 and we head over to the track where our train is supposed to leave from. Get up there and the train had just departed. We missed it by two minutes. The time we read for departure was the arrival time at the station we were going too. Shit!! Now we have to wait another hour for the next train to brannenburg. At this point we are getting frustrated, hungry, tired, we are just laughingly trying to hold it together. We decide to skip the festival and get back to the town we need to be in.
7:40 we arrive in Brannenburg and look for a restaurant because we missed dinner completely at the clinic. We decided on Italian. We got to the restaurant and sat with relief that we were finally going to get to eat. The waiter brought us a bruschetta each. It was very tasty, my wife's is still better but this was pretty good. I had a soup with a couple real thin pieces of meat and vegetables along with a pizza margahrita. Very delicious. Very filling. We paid our bill and then made. The half hour trek back home. It was so cold that the ground was freezing. Black ice everywhere on the road. It would be scary to drive in this weather I think.
9:30. Got back to the clinic. Frozen to the bone. Said my goodnights to Chad and Lisa. Thanked them for a fun and "exciting" day. Returned to my room. Informed all you that the blog wasn't coming tonight. Ran a hot bath. Warmed up. Crawled into bed. Lights out. The end......
DAY 18
Today I woke up at 6:15 feeling well rested and ready for another fabulous day of German healthcare. Normal routine and off to breakfast. 7:20. I ordered three eggs scrambled and I made a breakfast sandwich with a Little cheese,egg,ham,cucumber,tomato,bell pepper and cream cheese! Yeah it was awesome. Very filling too. 8:00 the appointments have begun. Hyperthermia with infusions. I read my book for a little bit and also spent some time pondering what I read. I'm noticing that this book, has a lot of the principles that were introduced to me through A.A. I started wondering if the author was a former alcoholic or if she was a "coda". (co-dependent). Both follow the same kind of spiritual program. I have realized a lot about myself over the past couple of years. When I was diagnosed, I was heavily involved in A.A. I believe that this prepared me in so many ways for the battle that I was about to face. I got better while maintaining some normalcy with this program even though I was becoming less and less involved. I went into remission and got cocky. Lost my sight in the higher power and within six months I was back where I started. Only at this point a lot of walls were up between me and my god. I can make a million excuses, trust me we all can! The point here is that I made a decision to believe that I beat the cancer without the help of a higher power and it came back. It has taken me almost two years to fully realize what had happened. I turned my back, I threw pity party's, I stayed sick! Trust me I'm nowhere near perfect, would never claim that, but I would like to strive for perfection in my health from this day forward. I will start with my relationship with my "higher power" and every other relationship will work itself out. Wow! I just went on a little tangent! Back to my treatment. 9:00 went in to get my magnetic field treatment and read my book again for twenty minutes.
Came back to my room and threw on some snow clothing and went outside to build a snow gnome. I made this little guy and put him in a tree. I took pictures that ill post to Facebook later. When I went to move him to another location he broke. My hand were freezing at this point so I went back inside. 10:30. Appointment with markus. We talked theater and drama. I told him that I used to be involved in this in high school but that I developed stage fright in my junior year and dropped out. He talked about the different actors that he has worked with and how they all prepare different for going on stage. I remember this too from when I would do shows. I always loved the energy befor and after a show. All the adrenalin that was released. Best natural high ever. 11:00 liver hot pack before lunch.
12:00 went down for lunch. They were serving creamy kohlorabi soup, and noodles with salmon. Very good lunch. I was so full after that I returned to my room and took a nap. I awoke just after 3:00. My stomach has been bubbly since lunch, I just kept laying in bed until dinner. I started reading a different book " the way of the peaceful warrior". Good book so far. 5:20. I went to dinner and ordered some soup. Then I ordered another soup. Then they served veal sausage and sour kraut. It was good. The sausage was not that heavy. I sat and chatted with Chad and Lisa about this and that. We are going to Munich tomorrow again to watch street performers and shop and whatnot. It is now 7:20 and I am done blogging for the day. I hope you all enjoy this. I enjoyed writing it. Thanks for the support. Love to all of you from Europe. Keep tuned for tomorrow. Blog might be late tomorrow night. Just a warning. Lucas.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Day #16
6:30. Good morning. Up and ready for another great day of recovery. I am feeling a little tired today so I stayed a little longer in the tub. 7:30 down to breakfast for the usual boring breakfast I eat. Today I had cereal instead of oatmeal so "watch out". Things might get a little crazy round here ;). I talked with chad only briefly and then I was off to my appointments that started promptly at 8:00 Hyperthermia along with ozone blood treatment and vitamin injections. I started reading through a book called "Inner Simplicity" 100 ways to regain peace and nourish the soul. By Elaine St. James. This book gives you some easy ways of getting rid of some of the "extra clutter" in your life. I'm digging it. 9:00 I went back to my room for a little while to check out all the Facebook activity from while I slept. I ended up spending some time on Pinterest looking at garden and home ideas. 10:05 went to have my magnetic field treatment before I went for a massage. I forgot my book so the treatment seemed to drag on. 10:30. Massage with Markus. My back was really sore and his massage was almost painful. I was ready for it to end. When it did end though my back started feeling better fairly soon after, so I guess I was in need of it.
11:00 went to my room and Steffi came to give me my liver hot pack. I became immobilized during this treatment so I went on Pinterest again. 11:45 and its time to beat the crowd to lunch. I went and made a huge salad which was good but the rest of lunch was really filling too. There was chestnut soup which was so good. I've never had this before and I could have eaten like five bowls. Then there was gnocchi in a tomato sauce. God it was amazing. So I stuffed my face and retired to my room to digest. It has been raining outside so I'm stuck indoors. I layed on my couch and watched some soccer. I dozed off for a while and woke up to cross country skiing on the sports channel. I guess that my body was needing the rest. I'm not fighting it, if it says sleep, I'll sleep. Eat, I'll eat ,etc. So my afternoon was uneventful but I'm feeling well rested. 5:30 I went down to dinner where I made a nice fruit salad to eat later tonight. I had a clear soup with noodles and a tortellini with a tomato butter sauce. Really good dinner. After dinner I walked outside because it has started to snow again. I took a couple pictures. Check my Facebook. The snow is semi- sticking to the ground. It's supposed to get really cold over night so I think the ground will be covered tomorrow. It's now 7:00P.M. here so it's 11:00A.M. there. Again I thank you all for the support. Keep the prayers coming. There is a light at the end of the tunnel but I not there yet. I send love to you all. Enjoy the blog and enjoy your day. Lucas
11:00 went to my room and Steffi came to give me my liver hot pack. I became immobilized during this treatment so I went on Pinterest again. 11:45 and its time to beat the crowd to lunch. I went and made a huge salad which was good but the rest of lunch was really filling too. There was chestnut soup which was so good. I've never had this before and I could have eaten like five bowls. Then there was gnocchi in a tomato sauce. God it was amazing. So I stuffed my face and retired to my room to digest. It has been raining outside so I'm stuck indoors. I layed on my couch and watched some soccer. I dozed off for a while and woke up to cross country skiing on the sports channel. I guess that my body was needing the rest. I'm not fighting it, if it says sleep, I'll sleep. Eat, I'll eat ,etc. So my afternoon was uneventful but I'm feeling well rested. 5:30 I went down to dinner where I made a nice fruit salad to eat later tonight. I had a clear soup with noodles and a tortellini with a tomato butter sauce. Really good dinner. After dinner I walked outside because it has started to snow again. I took a couple pictures. Check my Facebook. The snow is semi- sticking to the ground. It's supposed to get really cold over night so I think the ground will be covered tomorrow. It's now 7:00P.M. here so it's 11:00A.M. there. Again I thank you all for the support. Keep the prayers coming. There is a light at the end of the tunnel but I not there yet. I send love to you all. Enjoy the blog and enjoy your day. Lucas
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