Reminiscing Old Songs

From Jeannette: The problem with not having a job or a set schedule is that you sleep at odd hours and wake up at even odder one, such as 4am or 5am the morning (German time), with a pounding headache and bloody nose. (This is a daily occurrence.)
I decided to counteract this misery with listening to old Chinese songs from my childhood. In this day and age google will find me everything I need so I search for “moon represent my heart” and Ms. Teresa Cheung’s u-tube version popped out. Actually I met Ms. Cheung in Vietnam when I was only a child. She was 16 and was a guest of the Taiwanese Ambassador, and sang for us. I remember her being tall and cute, had a mini skirt on. I did not hear about her till she lost her life years later; what a tragedy! I listened to Leslie Cheung’s version…then I listened to pu liao tsing, old song. Again the actress Lin Dai committed suicide. What a sad life. I just cannot stop crying while listening and then I realize that all the singers are dead,,, I gotta find myself some live ones or this will be a bittersweet exercise. Then I found Anita Mui, another by gone goddess… This is not good. Finally, I changed to Susan Boyle singing I Dream a Dream from Les Miserables. At least she is fully alive, although not sure how well; last time I saw her perform on Dancing with the Stars live, she looked kinda wooden and bad,,,… but the song is sad… It is funny how the best songs are usually about tragedy, about fairwells, unrequited love etc… We seem to love this melodramatic stuff.
I am lip singing this, and I think when one has the headphones on, one does not realize how loud one is really singing, because I woke Alan up and since I am singing in Chinese, he has no idea what I am trying to say. He just stared at me in horror, thought maybe I lost my mind…. So Sorry.
Took the computer to the treatment room and did the same; all of sudden three patients that are having drips looked up at me at the same time. I guess I am singing very loud. I hope they like my Karioke voice. LOL. Had to offer them chocolate we bought yesterday in Horb for peace offering…
I am not doing too well with all the infusions, so they are chelating me, which is to taking out heavy metals. I am just going through maintenance, like a car, flush the transmission, change the filters etc….
If they will not give me chemo, maybe tomorrow we can go out and look around a bit; I do get terribly nauseated during the car ride but shopping, now that is uplifting…. I still have lots of life in me to shop ….Cannot walk too far though…..
OK back to my singing, all patients have left for lunch, I am on my own, I can now belt out Moon Represent My Heart. Did you know Kenny G played that music???
I imagine all of my readers singing together.

Our trip to Horb

Today, Saturday November 28, we had a special treat. Along with Isabel, whose husband Charles is a patient at the clinic, we went by cab to a small, charming, old village about 25 minutes away by the name of Horb. It had some interesting architectural buildings and an old church built atop a stone wall as shown in the accompanying pictures. After shopping for some Christmas ornaments, we went to a coffee shop and had to have the genuine Black Forest Cake (since we are in the Black Forest). We ordered one piece for the three of us and it was huge, absolutely delicious, filled with plump cherries and covered by fresh whipped cream. Yum! Before returning, we stopped at a local clothing shop where Jeannette and Isabel bought hats. It was very funny watching Jeannette negotiate a better deal with the owner who was a lovely older woman with an enormous smile who spoke non-stop rapid fire German. To us this trip had extra special meaning as it was the first time in the last 10 days that Jeannette has left the confines of the clinic. She was very tired but it was well worth the effort.

Nutrition Tips

From Alan: For those of you who have the interest, I thought I would offer some tips on healthy nutrition. Now, by no means am I an expert in this area as I have not taken any courses and, of course, have no degree. However, I have read a lot of books and articles about cancer prevention since Jeannette was diagnosed and I had my own battle with hives years ago. So for what it worth, here are my suggestions:
1.Stay away from any artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners and preservatives and other chemicals put into food and beverages. This requires you to read the labels and to become educated on what some of the ingredients are in food. Please stop drinking diet and regular sodas immediately. Why not instead have seltzer with a splash of cranberry or any other juice that you prefer?
2. No fried foods. Everything I read says they are very bad for you.
3. Try to eat organic foods wherever possible. Fruits and veggies are sprayed with pesticides and many animals are fed hormones and antibiotics. I think the evidence is inconclusive whether this causes cancer, but why take the chance by ingesting all these chemicals into your body and who needs to risk it when there are so many organic products available now.
4. Cut down (or better yet eliminate entirely)all tobacco products (of course) and coffee and alcohol. Green tea is a much better substitute for coffee drinkers and recent studies show it to have many health benefits. My way of thinking is that any product that you can become addicted to, like coffee, alcohol and cigarettes, have to be bad for you.
5. I find it hard to judge which supplements to take. Studies are conflicting and sometimes show that supplements are unnecessary. However, everything I have read seems to say that without question flax seed oil and fish oil are really good for your system and are anti-cancer oils. I found the flax seed oil with lemon is the best tasting. I also recommend taking acidophiles, which is the good bacteria found in your stomach and is great for digestion. Its in yogurt, but I don't eat yogurt everyday so this is the next best thing. I also recommend taking a powder supplement called Ultima. I buy it in Whole Foods and it has all the valuable minerals and electrolytes in Gatorade, but without the sugar. It is all natural and really great for you.
6. Everyone says eat lots of green vegetables and fruits. I agree, but lots of fruits have high sugar content so I vote for the greens. Jeannette and I have gotten into the habit of juicing using the Jack Lalaine juicer.
7. Stay away or cut down as much as possible on sugar whether in cookies, cakes, candies, ice cream, soda, etc. Watch out for some of the power bars which also have lots of sugar. Lots of studies say that cancer cells thrive on sugar. I don't know if this has been proven to be 100% true, but I think we all know that sugar is fattening and addictive.
8. Move from white to brown. Cut out white bread, white rice, and move to whole wheat products.
9. Cut down on red meat and move instead to organic chicken and fish.

I would love to hear any other good tips to add to the list.

Thanksgiving Day

From Alan: Happy Thanksgiving to everyone of our friends and family reading our blog. We celebrated Thanksgiving in Germany with pumpkin soup and pumpkin pie for desert from our great chef, Sven, but no turkey or fixings. We hope you had a wonderful day celebrating with your families.

Our Thanksgiving Day was marked by receiving the results of the cancer chemosensitivity tests. They showed a very aggressive cancer that has a penchant for invading other body organs and is resistant to many typical conventional treatments. It also showed, however, which treatments would be effective against Jeannette's particular cancer based on its genetic makeup. Armed with this knowledge, Dr. Jacob developed an array of medicines to combat the cancer. Some are standard chemotherapy and antibody treatments found in the US and are FDA approved, but others are experimental, innovative and cutting edge. Dr. Jacob leveled with us that this cancer is tough to beat, but she also gave us hope and hope is all we can ask for on this Thanksgiving day.

From Jeannette: I want to defend myself against Alan's accusation that I was just sleeping through the ruckus the other night when he flooded our room. In truth, I was in touch with my spiritual side. Let me explain. For many years, I had a wonderful cat named Sasha, who died from cancer four months ago. Every night I had a routine of patting my bed and calling for Sasha and she would jump up on the bed and curl up next to me and keep me warm and company when I was feeling lonely. Many mornings I would awake with Sasha' derriere in my face, although she often tired of my snoring and would sleep somewhere quieter. In my dream the other night, Sasha and my other dead cat, Tiger, were fighting to protect me and I felt very safe. Then an old bearded man came to me in my dream and told me that I should pay special attention when Dr. Jacob came to me and talked to me about stem cell treatment. I did not know who this man was or what he was talking about. Well imagine my surprise when the next morning Dr. Jacob came to me to talk about a stem cell vaccine! I told her about my dream and the message from the old man, but I think she thought I was not all there.

The best part of my day, however, was talking via Skype with my daughter, Christine, and my sons David and Stanley and Stan's friend Annie. It was so much fun to not only be able to talk to them about what was happening, but also to see them over the internet. It was heaven on earth, we should do this more often, Alan said this is a free service and people would pay to get it, everyone should try it.

Love to all of you and Happy Thanksgiving.

The Great Flood

From Alan: Yesterday, Jeannette received her first antibody treatment called Avastin. She got it together with a strong dose of antihistamines. Together these medicines made her very tired and she slept almost the entire day. Last night, Wednesday - November 25, I started to take a shower before retiring for the evening. I must first explain that the European showers are different as the shower is not enclosed and not in a tub with a shower curtain as we are accustomed to in the US. It is part of the bathroom with a generous area of tiling that slopes toward the drain. If you are not careful, however, the water can spray all over the bathroom. When I turned the water on, only hot water came out of the shower head and it would not adjust at all so I turned it off quickly as not to get scalded. Rather than calling for help (and in all honesty what red blooded American man would call for help?), I noticed a valve that seemed to control the water flow - I assumed red for hot and blue for cold. I reached for the blue valve which was high up on the wall and turned it and it snapped right off it my hand and a tremendous rush of hot water came gushing out. It sprayed the entire bathroom and the water starting pouring out into the bedroom area, since the bedroom and bathroom are separated, not by a door that closes shut, but by a sliding door that has space all around it. I started yelling for Jeannette to call for help, but she was fast asleep. I then pulled the emergency cord in the bathroom, but I pulled it so hard that the entire mechanism came out of the wall. I threw on some clothes, ran downstairs screaming for help. The night nurse Alex called for help. It turned out that there was a meeting going on of all the mechanical and administrative people since the Clinic is only a few months old and still under construction. They quickly shut the water off. Pouring into the room came four mechanics, three administrative staff, two nurses and four housekeepers for a total of 13 people. They were moving furniture, mopping the floor, fixing the leak, yelling back and forth and rushing in and out of the room. Throughout this entire storm of activity, Jeannette slept away like a new born baby oblivious to the tumult surrounding her! She only awoke when we had to move her and all of our things to another room and then she went right back to sleep as if nothing had happened. It turned out that the mechanics found the valve to be defective, but the alarm system now does not work anywhere in the clinic and they are calling it Alan's alarm.

Daisies Sprouting

A message from Jeannette: So here I am in a chair for hours, awaken suddenly by some unknown noise that turned out to be the patient next to me snoring. I was in such pain with a nose bleed, sore mouth, black and blue veins that I wanted to scream. By now even the thriller with serial killers I was reading sounded predictable. I was contemplating complaining about the dreary German weather, having not seen any sunshine nor flowers since my arrival, till I looked around the room and all of sudden it reminded me of a time when my children and I were in Beijing 5years ago in the train station. Those of you who has been to China knows that there is no such thing as personal space; you are lucky if only one person steps on you, usually there are many more on all sides touching, sitting, pushing especially in a train station. The train was late, since there was flooding and so many trains were canceled. When ours arrived, the riders were running away from doom like an exodus from a refugee camp. Millions of feet shuffled forward toward the platform, I though I was going to be human squeezed juice for the day. Well we bought $100 ticket each for a sleeping cot since it was a 20 hour trip from Beijing to Guiling. As a family, we kind of complained about the small size of the cots till we noticed that in the first several cars people bought $1 tickets for standing room only, then there are those better off that paid $2 for a sitting one, and there they stay standing or just sitting for 20 hours or more… I thought wow, what happens to these souls when they are sick, would they be lying in a leather covered chair watching TV, reading novels or just dying alone on the road somewhere.
This time I looked around carefully and noticed that most of the patients with their mouths open producing the melodious snore looked so much at peace. I hope wherever their loved ones are they can see them at rest and in the best of care. I also remember all of your thoughts and prayers, that I am loved and prayed for. Somehow the flowers that grow from human kindness are more beautiful than anywhere outside. I can even imagine the daisies sprouting from the patient next door’s open mouth. At that thought, I started laughing so loud that the nurses looked up and checked their records probably wanting to make sure I was on a correct infusion and not some laughing gas. Everyone around me seems to be sprouting flowers, I love it! So I guess I will lie down and open my mouth and let everyone knows that I am also at peace,,,,,and let my daisy sprout.
When you pray for me please includes all those in need. Back to snoring, and maybe boring serial killers.

Day 8 & 9 in Germany November 23 and 24

Yesterday and today were spent with Jeannette continuing to get the intravenous drips almost the entire day long. Earlier today, we met with Dr. Jacob and the other two doctors on staff. They did another sonogram which showed the water in Jeannette's right lung stable at about .5 liter, down from 1.2 liters when we first arrived. Dr. Jacob takes that as a good sign that the tumors are shrinking in response to last Monday's chemo and antibody therapy. She does not want to remove the water as Jeannette seems to be tolerating it well. She is coughing much less. Her fever is completely gone and it appears that the CIPRO antibiotic knocked out her infection. Beginning tomorrow, Jeannette will start to receive Avastin, a relatively new FDA approved antibody therapy. She will get this in conjunction with chemotherapy, but the doctors are still waiting for the results of Jeannette's chemosensitivity test which was expected back today but has not yet arrived.

One of the other patients here, a gentlemen from Australia is very sick with advanced pancreatic cancer. He was given no hope by his doctors in Australia and he came to Dr. Jacobs for treatment in August and has not left. We have become friendly with his wife Suzy and he was for the first time well enough to join us for dinner on Monday night. We were very excited by this seeming improvement in his condition. However, he took a turn for the worse and was taken to a local hospital to have his gall bladder removed. Jeannette has been saying prayers for him. Likewise, there are many very sick people here and each one has their story of failing treatment in their home country and they come here. We have met several young patients as well which is very upsetting. Jeannette has asked that when you say a prayer for her please also include prayers for all the patients here. Thank you.

Yesterday I went for a 10KM walk in the forest and did my yoga routine. Today, Tuesday, it has been raining all day so I only was able to take a short walk to a local supermarket to buy some necessities. In the morning, we both got heat treatments followed by massage from our gentle, but giant, physical therapist - Ziccor. My back has been much better thanks to regular massages.

NOTES FROM JEANNETTE: I read all the inspirational comments, will always remember Barbara's "JEANNETTE", grateful for Frances being always the first to comment daily, for my ACS's co worker Compassionate Pei and Rosa, for my relatives Josie, for Julie, my Trump buddies Norman and Felice and others , for Peggy ! etc, for Liz's everday lesson. I truly read them over and over, my children Stan's simple love statement. My OCA cronies and My church lunch ladies etc...the wise Linda, Your advice is so uplifting, I count my blessings everyday. I also would add to LIZ's Rooney that I learned to do an act of random kindness everyday not because it makes one feel good (it sure does) but because it is the right thing to do.. With all these blessings I vow to help others in need... As you all have with me ... I truly believe if I cannot be cured with this advance stage cancer, I certainly can live with it with dignity... and function... I LOVE YOU ALL with all my heart and you have all reached into my soul and showed me goodness and kindness. I hope I did not forget any one ..... If so please forgive me you may not be mentioned since I cannot write a 5 page blog but you definetly are in my heart.
WIth all my love JW

Day 6 & 7 Germany November 21 and 22

These past two days have had their ups and downs. Jeannette is spending most of the day in the treatment room receiving intravenous drips through her recently surgically installed port in her chest. The chemotherapy she received on Monday, November 16 was very strong and it is having its intended results of killing the cancer cells in her lungs and lymph nodes. However, this has resulted in toxicity in Jeannette's body which has made her sick and very tired. To address this, she has been receiving drips of high nutritional supplements to support her overall health. She also gets drips to enhance her immune system. Because the liver takes the brunt of dealing with all the dead cancer cells, she gets drips to boost her liver function. Jeannette also developed an infection. This has caused her to have fever and night sweats. So an additional drip is intravenous antibiotics. As you can imagine, this is a lot for one person to take. On Sunday, Dr. Jacob did another ultrasound test to see if the water in her lungs had returned. She had drained 1.2 liters of fluid on Tuesday. We were very happy to see that while some of the fluid has returned, it is not that much and Dr. Jacob said that she would not drain any more fluid at this time. This is a good sign. She will test again on Tuesday. Dr. Jacobs did a blood test today which confirmed the infection, but all of the rest of Jeannette's blood work looked fine. We are still awaiting the results of the chemo sensitivity testing to see what chemo is best for Jeannette to receive.

With Jeannette spending long hours in the treatment room and often sleeping, I continue to take long walks in the Black Forest. I found to my amazement that when I went to Maps on my iphone, I was able to zero in on Hallwangen, our little village here, and also the Forest. The trails show up so now I have less fear of getting lost. I continue to do my yoga and exercise routine so I can stay in shape to take care of Jeannette. I also talked to my three wonderful children using skype. If you don't have it you definitely should get it. The Skype program can be downloaded for free and all you need is a camera. My Levono laptop came with a camera built in but you can get an external camera at any computer store. In essence you are making a free internet phone call with full video. What could be better? And the reception and clarity was excellent.

Jeannette asks me to send her personal regards to everyone. She has not been feeling well enough to write back to everyone who has sent her e-mails and to all those who have commented on the blog. Know that she loves you all.

Day 5 in Germany November 19

A message from Jeannette: Last night, I learned the meaning of the word courage. We met three patients. The first one is Diana who was diagnosed with a rare kind of cancer and she had over 50 tumors in her lungs. She had done at least a dozen chemo procedures with Prof. Doctor Vogl in Frankfurt. She also was on the latest antibody therapy that made her very sick. She reacted like I had with shivers, 105 fever, bone pain and nausea, yet she smiled and her tumors were almost gone. She is going home to Los Angeles. The second patient just arrived from Greece. He had lung tumors and went the route of traditional treatment. In Greece, the doctors took out part of his lung, gave him the most aggressive chemo, but unfortunately he is not responding. Rather than give up, his son found Dr. Jacob on the internet and she is rebuilding his system and helping him with alternative medicines. His whole family came with him with smiles and love, surrounding him with hope and affection. The third patient I met came from Australia. He was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and has been in this clinic since August. His cancer has shrunk. The doctors had to take out 1.8 liter of fluid from his abdominal area on two separate occasions.

All these patients are fighting and cherish life; they all had fever numerous times and cherish each minutes with no complaints. I will learn from them. Cherish each minute. I have so much to fight for with Alan by my side and with all your good wishes. One of the nurses brought in his newborn baby; she was so adorable. It reminded me of when my first born Stanley was born: the joy and joie de vivre upon looking at the angelic face. My lovely children are also with me in my heart. My second son Dave reminded me that it was always darkest before dawn, like when going on the sugar free diet , the body reacts like it is in misery - same here when it is getting rid of toxins. I told this parable to another patient and she was elated. Alan’s Dave wrote about his poker experience and it made me laugh so I asked Dr. Jacob if we can have a poker tournament here too and she laughed. I miss you all. I am waiting for next time the fever and pain to come back knowing that this will mean I am getting rid of dead cancer cells in my body. Alan says that his father had a proverb on the wall in his office which said “I used to complain that I had no shoes, until I met a man with no feet.

Dr Jacob says the fluid has come back to my lung so tomorrow I will be punctured again to remove the fluid. She also said that the tumors in the pleura are quite thick and numerous but we will wait for the chemo sensitivity test which is expected to come back on Monday or Tuesday before I start a chemo regimen. I told Alan I must get well because we have a purpose:

1) to tell the world about this treatment here

2) To fight for chemo sensitivity testing in the US. It is barbaric to give chemo to a patient without knowing he/she will respond to it… It is almost inhuman.. and one cannot in full conscience watch it without saying something..

So with all your support, I will be back stronger and better and I vow to help and tell anyone about this story.

Day 4 in Germany November 19

Jeannette had a bad day today - fever, headaches, pains and stomach problems, etc. Doctor Jacob is scaling back some of the medicines to let her rest. She said she went very aggressive with treatments in the first few days, because she is worried that the cancer is in the lymph nodes in the chest area. The silver lining is that she thinks the fever is a natural reaction to the cancer cells dying from the chemo she got in Frankfurt. She is sleeping a good portion of the day. The nurses are available all night long as she seems to be more ill at night. We are hoping for a better day tomorrow.

With Jeannette sleeping a lot and the weather so clear and crisp, I went for a long run/hike through the Black Forest. There are marked trails in the woods but I take my cell phone with me in case I get lost so I can call the clinic to send out a rescue party (only joking).

Jeannette sends her love and good wishes to all her wonderful friends and family. Your prayers keep her spirits high.

Day 3 in Germany November 18, 2009

Day 3 was a very long and tiring day for Jeannette. We woke up and had a nice breakfast of fresh yogurt with fresh fruit and nuts/seeds. We also had eggs and toast. After breakfast, we had massages from Ziccor, our expert massage therapist. Then off to the treatment room where Jeannette gets her infusions and oral medications. The doctor and nurses are having a very hard time with Jeannette's veins as they move around and are difficult to enter. Doctor Jacob met with Jeannette and encouraged her to get a port surgically installed in her chest to aid in future infusions of medicines and chemo. Jeannette readily agreed because her hands and arms always hurt from the effort to find a suitable vein. Dr. Jacob also said that she has been giving Jeannette a very aggressive array of medicines because the cancer has progressed. She is very concerned that the cancer is in the lymph nodes in her chest region. After her infusions, Jeannette was feeling nauseous and vomited . Around 2pm, we were driven by taxi to a local hospital about 10 minutes away where Dr. Keisling, a surgeon, went over the procedure. Jeannette was taken into surgery and the port was inserted into her chest. From the port entrance, which is under the skin, a tube takes the medicine directly into a large vein. After two hours in recovery, a chest xray showed the port to be in place. We waited another hour for Dr. Keisling to come and give his OK for us to go back to the clinic. We returned very tired around 6:30pm. We ate a light dinner and went back to the treatment room for Jeannette to finish her treatment. Jeannette was feeling very tired and we went to bed early. At about 11:30pm, she awake with a 102 degree fever. I called the nurse who came upstairs immediately and gave Jeannette a drip of some kind and ice packs. The nurse checked on Jeannette all night long and the fever went done. We were advised that the fever was probably due to the medicine Jeannette has been given to address the cancer in her bones.

Just a note to mention my impression so far of the German hospitals. The two we have been in are very modern, large and clean. The doctors and nurses are extremely friendly and helpful. Everyone speaks English. It is very surprising to me that there seemed to be very few patients at either hospital. Compared to their size, the hospitals were virtually empty.

Jeannette wants everyone to know that, although she is too tired and weak to respond directly to everyone's e-mails, she is grateful for all the love and support. She can't wait to go home in three weeks.

Day 2 in Germany at the Privatklinik of Dr. Ursula Jacob

This morning Jeannette and I had a wonderful healthy breakfast of fresh squeeezed juice, home made yogurt with nuts, flax seeds, fruit, granola, etc and fresh whole grain bread too. We then met with Dr. Jacob. There is good news and bad news. Good news is that Jeannette does not have cancer in the liver. What a relief! But the bad news is that the cancer in her right lung has spread to her heart wall, lymph nodes in the thorax area and in some of the surrounding bones. They drew blood to do a detailed analysis to determine chemo sensitivity. This is not generally done in the US. Then they gave Jeannette drips with lipoic acid, Vitamin C, Glutathione and other drugs to build up the liver and immune system. Next, Dr. Jacob, guided by ultrasound and with another doctor and nurse's assistance, removed fluid from Jeannette's right lung that had been building up now for several months. 1.2 liters of yellowish fluid was removed from her lung! It was shocking how much fluid she had built up. Dr. Jacob said she added something to stop the fluid from returning. She also sent it off to pathalogy. Lunch was served: salad, turkey with sauerkraut and potatoes and ice cream for desert. In the afternoon we had a nap. Alan went for a short walk in the area trying to get his bearings and he had the best massage of his life from Ziccor, a huge man with oversized hands. He went right for the painful area in my back. He said that he could tell the problem from how I walked. Jeannette will get a massage tomorrow but this was too stressful and painful a day for her to get a massage. Dinner was very light - lots of green salad, deli meats and cheeses, fruit. It is early but we are very tired from a long day.

About the Clinic,,

For those of you who read this blog and are interested in our journey, you should know that we are staying at the Privatklinik run by Dr. Ursula Jacob. The clinic is brand new and there is still some construction going on but just finishing touches. Here is a link to her website which is very rudimentary: http://www.dr.ursula-jacob.de/ The official address is Silberwaldstr. 34
72280 Domstetten-Hallwangen. Telephone is +49 7443 964 24 0 . E-mail is klinik@ursula-jacob.de

The clinic is located in the BlackForest section of Germany. The air is clean, except for the smell of wood burning from all the fireplaces. It is a very bucolic setting with farms and small houses nearby.

The staff of 3 doctors and 12 nurses are extremely competent and very friendly. They are always around. The administrators are exceeding nice. The food is wholesome, tasty and plentiful.

The clinic can accommodate 17 patients but there are less than 10 here now I would guess. There is an extra bed in each room so a spouse/guest can stay and keep the patient company. We will be here one week on an inpatient basis and then move to a nearby guest house (small hotel) and walk to the clinic but still have our meals at the clinic and use its facilities.

Everyone on staff speaks fluent English and it seems like everyone in Germany speaks English. We do not speak German but I recognize a word here and there since my parents spoke Yiddish at home.

The food is excellent - wholesome and fresh and a very nice variety.

Day 1 in Germany

At the Frankfurt University hospital, a very modern and major facility, we met with Professor Doctor Vogl at about 1pm. He has a whole wing for his use dealing with cancer patients. His procedure is to use an MRI to guide the insertion of a catherer into a vein in the groin area and then thread it directly to the tumor. In Jeannette's case, directly to her right lung. I watched in amazement the entire procedure. The machinery in the operating room is all space age and on a huge monitor I watched the catherer enter her right lung. He then injected chemo right into the tumor and lasered the vessels closed. I found this description on a web site which is more technical: "Professor and Doctor Thomas Vogel in Germany is using localized chemo therapy and intervention vascular oncology. Using chemo embolization a vascular occlusion of the tumor vessel occurs shutting down the blood supply to the tumor and creates a reduction of systemic side effects of chemotherapy as well improving the quality of life for the cancer patient while undergoing aggressive therapy." After the procedure, which took only 20 minutes, Jeannette was sent to recovery. Here is a picture of her in the recovery room. We then went back for a CT scan before being sent off. What a beautiful hospital as shown in this picture of Jeannette standing in the lobby of the hospital. We left the hospital with our driver and had dinner at a nearby sushi restaurant and then drove the 3 hours to the clinic. We were shown our room, which is very large and brand new with a huge flat screen TV, and went to sleep completely exhausted from a long and tiring day.

Off to the Airport

After saying goodbye to Stanley and Christine, Jeannette's children, Jeannette and I were driven by her other son David to the airport. We left over 3 hours early, but ran into a huge traffic jam on the Hutchinson River Parkway in the Bronx. The road was totally stopped. We listened to the radio and immediately heard that there was a major accident on the Whitestone. We were right near an exit so we took it and through the use of GPS we navigated our way to the Throggs Neck Bridge and then from there to Kennedy airport. I believe that if we had not made the maneuver we would have missed the flight. Thanks to David for being such a great driver and for keeping his cool. Here is a picture of him hugging his Mom goodbye. The flight to Germany was on Singapore Air and it was very comfortable for Jeannette and me being in business class. We had a great meal and we were able to stretch out and rest. Thanks again to everyone who contributed for her business class ticket. We arrived at the airport and we were met by Sabin, from a taxi service hired by the clinic. She took us to Frankfurt University Hospital.

A Personal Note from Jeannette

I am lucky to receive many well wishes and prayers from all my friends and their friends. I cherish and wear these wonderful thoughts like an armor against despair. I have so much to live for, my wonderful children, my family and you all my friends. As Arnold would say "I'll be back"....

Crystal Cruise

Recently, we were lucky enough to have a truly spectacular vacation. On October 18, we flew to Venice where we stayed in a suite at the Danielli Hotel overlooking the Grand Canal. Then we boarded Crystal Serenity, a fantastic 1,000 passenger cruise ship. We were treated like royalty. This picture shows us in a gondola by St. Marks Square. We sailed from Venice to Dubrovnik (Croatia), Sicily, Capri, Rome, Florence, Monte Carlo and then home from Barcelona.

Welcome

Jeannette Wang and her companion, Alan Neiditch, welcome you to this blog. On Sunday November 15 we fly to Frankfurt Germany to begin Jeannette's cancer treatment with Dr. Ursula Jacob. As many of you know, Jeannette was diagnosed with breast cancer over five years ago. She had chemotherapy followed by a mastectomy. Her cancer has now, over 5 years later, metastasized to her lungs, liver and bones. Fortunately, through her doctor, Harold Clark, MD, we were introduced to Dr. Jacob. She is a renowed oncologist with a private clinic in Germany. She recently became famous for her treatment of Farrah Fawcett. Dr. Jacob performs cutting edge innovative cancer treatments not generally done in the United States. She offers great hope for Jeannette. Since so many people have expressed an interest in Jeannette's treatment, we have decided to create this blog to allow everyone to share our experience.

Jeannette and I want to thank so many of her family and friends for their well wishes and prayers. Jeannette asks all of you to pray for her as she embarks upon this treatment. We especially extend our warm thanks to those of you who have helped contribute to the cost of Jeannette's airfare to, and treatment in, Germany.