Visit with Bob Chao

On Saturday, Bob Chao drove all the way from Munich to visit Jeannette. It took him over 3.5 hours each way and we are very greatful to him for his efforts. Without his English speaking GPS in his little Mercedes he would never have been able to find this Clinic in the small Village of Hallwangen which is way off the beaten path. After touring the Clinic, we drove to nearby Freudenstadt, a larger Village with some nice restaurants. We arrived around 2:45pm but couldn't find the restaurant named Portofino that several people at the Clinic had raved about as the finest Italian restaurant anywhere. Everyone we stopped for directions either didn't speak English or didn't know the restaurant. Just about the time we were going to give up, Jeannette screamed out "there it is". Bob parked the car and we went in only to find that all the restaurants close in the late afternoon. We searched everywhere for another place to eat and ended up out of frustration eating in a turkish fast food place! We ordered a very international meal of gyros Turkish), pizza (Italian), french fries (French) and beer (German). Although not what we had in mind, the food was tasty and filling. Later Bob drove us back to our guest house and here is a picture of the three of us in our room. Thanks again to Bob! After he left, Jeannette went to sleep and slept for over 12 hours. This morning she looks better and is breathing somewhat better, just in time for our long flight home Monday morning.

Black Friday

From Alan: Yesterday, Friday December 4, at around 2pm, Dr. Jacob did an ultrasound on Jeannette and decided to remove the fluid that has accumulated in her right lung. She said it would make her feel better and make her more comfortable on the long flight home. If you recall, Dr. Jacob had removed 1.2 liters of fluid from Jeannette's lung the day after we arrived on November 17. Via a small tube inserted between her ribs in her back, she removed 1/2 liter of water. Jeannette had a very bad reaction - lots of pain. She was given pain medication, but that caused her to be nauseous and to start vomiting. Finally she fell into a very restless stupor. I took her home around 7pm and she slept soundly, only waking once for more pain medicine (different than the first one). This morning, she is feeling a little better but she still has pain and is very weak. At the Clinic today, they are only giving her infusions to build back her strength. I am trying to get her to eat. Lately today, our good friend, Bob Chao, is paying a visit, driving here from Munich where he works. He will take us out to a nearby restaurant so Jeannette can get a good meal.

Attack of the Genghis Cancer Clan

From Jeannette: I have to say that throughout this ordeal, I have been very confused to the extent of the cancer I have. First the CT scan said it was in the liver, then later reports said it was not in the liver. But I now have the full story and will recount it to you, my friends, in layman terms.

I have a lot of cancer, let’s name this bad stuff: the Genghis Cancer Clan (GCC). Dr. Jacob has done a great job with blood chemo sensitivity tests to profile these GCC killers just like they do on the TV show Criminal Minds. How can you fight the enemy without knowing what they are like? Just like the real Genghis Khan invaders of old, my army of GCC are barbaric assassins and invaders. These armies of GCC have decided to land on the plural wall of my right lung where they have gathered to form numerous tumors in the form of a thick curtain wall. They have destroyed many of the good cells and they spit out a byproduct which is water. That is why I had and still have H20 in my lung. They spit out the water and Dr. Jacob comes right back and removes it. The pleural wall is one of the worst areas that they have invaded. Think of it as the great wall of China: a natural obstacle to prevent them from jumping and invading the next province of LIVER. Well GCC is gathering strongly and thickly by this wall and they sure would like to cross over to the liver and other organs, and we are doing everything possible to bombard them. I think if I were getting regular western medicine back home, the doctors would probably have nuclear bombed them with massive doses of deadly chemo, which is great, but it would also kill off all life forms in the vicinity. Instead, we have decided to wage a fierce battle, but we are trying to be more strategic and focused with our troops. Dr. Vogl sent in our warriors directly to the central outpost of the GCC using a laser guided “smart bomb”. He hit them where it hurts, but didn’t kill off my immune system. Next we used reinforcements, non-nuclear chemo, antibodies and natural antioxidants. The liver is strategically very important in this battle as it is where all the allied troops stop and replenish and get R & R and we do not want this organ to be damaged in any way.

GCC has decided to fight dirty and opened up multiple fronts also forming two tumors inside the lung, one tumor in the surrounding bone and has affected many of the thoracic lymph nodes. So we have responded by sending in a secret weapon. Yesterday, I was injected with a special vaccine from Israel. We reached out to the holy land for help! Now my body is constantly on watch battling; it is like having a 24 hour Shock and Awe operation. I am weak from all this fighting, but determined and know that my team will win. Sometimes my troops will need R&R , like the USO program, except it will be in the form of poker tournaments, trips to other countries, cruises, etc. Anything for motivational support.

A Strange Dinner Experience

From Alan: A few short blocks from the Clinic, on the way to our nearby guest house, we pass a small restaurant. We thought that this might be a good place for us to get a real German meal. We asked Frau Schumacher to drive us there and in the exchange of information, she said the restaurant was open for 14 days. We thought we misunderstood her, because she speaks only a little English and we speak no German. When we got to the restaurant, we were the only customers and the waitress called over a man to help translate for us. I started out with a great big German beer that was cold and refreshing. He did his best to translate the menu and we ordered two soups - a chicken soup and a vegetable soup. Jeannette ordered a salad with turkey and I ordered a steak of some unknown kind, but he said it was the house specialty so I figured I would give it a try. The soups were home cooked, thick and flavorful and delicious. Then the main meal came out. Jeannette's turkey was soft and tender and my steak was very special to me. When I was a boy, between the ages of 10 and 15 or so, my parents would take me and my brother, Len, out to dinner almost every Friday night at Schwellers Kosher deli under the Jerome Avenue L near Gun Hill Road in the Bronx. The restaurant was always crowded and our favorite dish was Roumanian tenderloin steak smothered in fried onions. Well, that is the exact dish that I was served. It brought back such memories of my youth and my parents. I ate every bite. When we were almost finished out of the kitchen comes the chef dressed in his chef's white uniform. Well it was the same man who had tried to translate the menu! He sat down at our table and began to talk and talk and talk. Even though he had a hearing aide in his ear, he nevertheless could barely hear us, but this did not stop him from talking. We found out to our surprise that this man, Herr Mannheimer (I think) was born in Germany in 1946 and was of Jewish descent as his paternal grandfather was Jewish. I never expected to meet any Jews in Germany and here he was a Jewish chef cooking my favorite childhood dinner! And he opens his restaurant for only 14 days a year. Frau Schumacher was right!. His restaurant is open this week and next and then he closes until December 2010. Is that weird? I would call our timing remarkable. He explained to us all about the local area here (which used to be a main silver mining area) and how poor everyone was. He said that from 1946 until 1990 it was under French control so he spoke French too. Even today, many of the local farmers will pass down their farm to their eldest son and all the other children are sent off to find their way in the world. I had a wonderful time and dinner and would have listened to him all night but Jeannette felt tired and it was getting late so we headed back to the guest house with a fond memory of our strange dinner experience in Hallwangen.

Moving Out

From Alan: Most of Jeannette's major chemo and antibody treatments have now been completed and her infection has been healed, so the toughest part of the treatment in Germany is now behind us. Although she still is weak and tired and can't walk that far and has aches and pains, she has been feeling somewhat better so we decided to move out of the Clinic and come everyday on an outpatient basis. On Tuesday December 1, we moved into our new home for our last week in Germany. It is a private house about 8 blocks away. We live on the second floor of the home of a sweet and considerate elderly German couple: Herr and Frau Schumacher. We have a bedroom, a den with TV, a bathroom and a foyer. Frau Schumacher picked us up yesterday and drives us where ever we want to go as she doesn't want Jeannette to walk. She is so incredibly nice and thoughtful.

Last night, Jeannette decided that going two weeks without Chinese food was enough. So Frau Schumacher drove us to a Chinese restaurant in the old city of Dornstetten, just a few miles away. While the menu was in German, the owners spoke Mandarin and Jeannette ordered for us a great Chinese feast. The food was very good and we felt like we were back at home. This morning, Frau Schumacher made us a very nice breakfast and then drove us again to the Clinic. We were delighted that when Jeannette got on the scale at the Clinic she had gained some weight. So we have come to the conclusion that for her health and vitality, she must eat lots of Chinese food.

Drama Queen

From Jeannette: Sorry we did not write a blog yesterday, because we were too tired. We were supposed to stay one week at the Clinic and two weeks at a nearby guest house (an apartment within someone’s home), but we have stayed two weeks at the Clinic. So yesterday, we found a guest house where we will move in today for our last week here. We can walk a few blocks to the Clinic and spend the whole day there.

So I walked into the treatment room early morning yesterday and my oncologist without turning around says “I hear Ms. Wang is here, I can hear her special shuffle walk”. Oh my, I just notice I do not pick up my feet when I walk, I shuffle like I have bound feet. Let me tell you about my oncologist Dr, Jacob (pronounced Yakov). She is the most optimistic wonderful fraulien doctor you will ever meet. Prof. Dr. Vogl in Frankfurt has given up on me - he just wrote palliative care, but Dr. Jacob does not take no for an answer. She puts me on this cocktail of antibodies, chemo and vitamins, and all sorts of other stuff to boost my immune system and T cell etc…. For six months, let my body do the work she says. If Dr Jacob does not give up on her patients, how can her patients give up on themselves? Every morning she greets her patients, goes through what needs to be done for the day and then sees you again every night…we are her children. I have no idea what she gave me today but I cannot stop sneezing, so she looks at me and says “for sure (somehow all Germans we met love that expression), you are allergic to zomething”. Without a smile, I looked into her eyes and respond, “for sure I am allergic to oncologists”. She stared at me a moment and breaks out in her hearty laugh,, “hahaha for sure you are funny” and I am thinking for sure I was not kidding.

Today the nurse Dennis (the menace) called me a drama queen; he said he will miss my drama. DRAMA MOI? Umm, got me thinking, then I realize why I was nicknamed so. There is only one patient that is younger than I am, M is 28, he is the only one that goes to the bathroom as much as I do. I do not know why the other patients after they have been infused with 10 liters of solution still stayed in their seat, while me and him we go every half an hour, and I proudly told him so. Alan reminded me gently that a YOUNG man does not particularly like to be informed that he goes to the bathroom as much as a middle age woman who has given birth to 3 children.. Oops my bad. Well M ,… he is so young he does not walk, he struts like a peacock, with one hand he holds up his apparatus with the fusion and walks with his chest out like “I am a man hear me roar attitude”. I love it; when I go anywhere, I hang on to the apparatus like it is a life support system. Well M never complains as he has the youthful attitude of invincibility. His family comes and supports him all the time; he reminds me of my sons, at that age young men should all strut. We met so many nice people here, all the patients are older and stage IV but have such positive and sweet attitudes, no one is bitchy or mean, no one ever complains why me? They have been with Dr, Jacob for months or years; most of them were told they have no hope, only she made sure they can stay as long as they can. I think most of them are used to the pain and are either resigned to it or sometimes are in a catatonic state. I am in between the land of the invincible and the catatonic hence the drama. I am young enough to be in shock at every muscle change, but old enough to realize that I am not invincible. So everyday I shuffle to my seat, oh and ahs about the bone pain, the bleeding nose, the nausea the headache and smile doing it as it is almost like a treasured tradition. It means I am alive enough to feel pain…..

I am glad Frances reminds me that I have a lot to live for, so I will concentrate on how to live not worry about how to die, so when I come back, I am going to do all the things I love to do like play in poker tournaments, sing Karoake with Pei, have a wonderful Christmas with my children, visit many countries I haven’t been to, write my book. I truly love all your comments… it makes my heart sing …I pray for M, and many others. Lawrence, if you are reading this, know that the rosary beads you gave me have been used a lot……