There And Back Again: A Second Adventure In Germany

Riding and shooting, originally uploaded by DPC Tutt.

We’re back safe and sound from our latest escapade to Germany. This trip was much shorted than the first with a little less sightseeing and a little more cancer-ass-kicking. We arrived there on the Sunday and got settled into our room at the clinic. I got a few infusions that night but Monday morning things really got going. I had local hyperthermia, more infusions, magnetic field therapy, blood tests and a massage before being hooked up to chemo (the 5FU infusion) overnight. In their infinite wisdom the clinic changed our booking for the whole body hyperthermia from Tuesday to Wednesday without telling us. This would have meant an extra day at the clinic which, given their recent increase in rates, would have cost us unnecessarily. So, pocket Penny went to work on the doctors and they eventually relented and changed us back to Tuesday.

After chemo and whole body hyperthermia Tuesday I was pretty tired and depressed and spent the night sleeping off the effects of chemo and sedation while getting infused with another round of 5FU (more chemo). On Wednesday we moved out of the hospital to a small hotel across the street. It was very close to the clinic and easy to get to. The owners were very pleasant and spoke very good English. They had spent 4 years in Newfoudland when he was posted there with the military so they were happy to have some Canadians around.

Once we moved out of the clinic things got better. I think it was hard on us coming straight to the clinic and basically starting chemo right away. To make things worse the weather was shite when we first arrived and there was a whole new set of patients there that we didn’t know. All of our old friends had gone home. There were a few familiar faces but language barriers had kept us from really getting to know them. Upon moving out of the clinic a number of things got better: We made new friends with the other patients and had lots of great meal-time conversations, the weather improved with temperatures in the mid 20’s and there was lots of sun and green grass and flowers. I also started to feel better right away and was able to get outside and enjoy the spring.

One of the best decisions we made this time was to rent some bicycles. There was a shop in town that used to rent them but it was closed every time we walked by. It turns out the shop went out of business and the bikes were now property of the central spa in town. They rented them out whenever people wanted them which, apparently, wasn’t very often. So we rented bikes for two days, put some air in the tires, packed a lunch and headed out. Luckily we had the ipad which has a GPS and great satellite maps so we were able to find lots of trails (they were everywhere!). The bikes were really nice cruisers and riding in the rolling hills around Bad Salzhausen was a pleasure. The first day we did a big tour of the some of the small towns nearby, stopping for coffee, food and water as needed. Through most of the fields and in the tows there are nice, wide paved trails which make for nice riding, avoiding the need to negotiate the hazardous, very narrow roads.

On our second day of riding we took our bikes on the train (so easy…) and went to Friedberg. My massage guy at the clinic said there was a castle there we could check out and that there were nice trails through the town. I think Friedberg has a population of about 25 000 and is located about 60km north of Frankfurt. When we got there we managed to find the castle thanks to its tower that sticks up above the surrounding countryside. It was an enchanting place but we couldn’t really garner any real information about its history since all the placards were in German. We could, however, read dates so we were able to figure out that the castle was built in 1340. We were also able to figure out that some family with 5 kids lived there in the early 1900s, but all the kids died in 1917. We weren’t sure why so we asked someone who told us they were killed because they knew people in Russia. My knowledge of Russian history isn’t great but I think that’s about the time the czars were overthrown?? I don’t know. It was interesting none the less. We climbed up to the top of the tower and peered about before returning to our bikes for a tour of the town. We rode around for an hour before settling in a park where families, old folks, and young punks were all hanging out together. One group of university aged kids was playing some kind of drinking game that resembled cricket without the bats. We stopped off for a beer at a cafe before returning home on the train.

Before leaving the clinic we had to pay the bill, which in the past was just a set daily charge but because I was now an outpatient I had to pay for all the individual treatments as outlined on a detailed statement. Everything was listed down to the cost of needles and saline solution. One of the funniest (and stupidest) charges was the doctor fees. We got billed for each minute we talked with a doctor. On one occasion Dr Herzog came outside when we were sitting on the patio and said that the weather was unseasonably warm for this time of year. We agreed and a short non-medical related conversation ensued at the end of which Penny asked him a question about my antibiotics, a question that should have been answered in our consultation with him the day before but he had forgotten to discuss it. His answer was short and the entire medically related portion of our conversation couldn’t have lasted more than 30 seconds but when we got the bill, sure enough there was a charge for that conversation! On the one hand I understand that he’s running a business but for a customer that has spent tens of thousands of Euros on treatment there, a 12 Euro charge for a casual conversation seems ridiculous. It made me glad I don’t have to see the bills for my treatment here in Canada!

On the day we were supposed to return to Canada we took the train to the airport from the clinic for 9 Euros each (the clinic wanted to charge us 80 Euros for a ride!) and met up with Heidi, our Air Canada queen of the skies. In the past flying standby had been easy but it was not to be on this occasion. All of the flights leaving Europe for Canada were oversold. That meant no seats for us on that day. The Frankfurt-Calgary, Frankfurt-Toronto and Frankfurt-Montreal flights were all full so we headed to an airport hotel for the night. We got up the next morning and headed back to the airport (after a marvelous buffet breakfast at the hotel that was INCLUDED in our stay) to try our luck again. We managed to get the last 3 seats on the Frankfurt-Toronto flight so we took them! We ended up in Toronto later that day sans checked bag. Unfortunately I had medication in there that needed to be refrigerated so not having the bag was a bit of a pain in the arse. Our bad luck continued in Toronto as all the flights leaving Toronto for the west were also oversold (I thought there was supposed to be a recession and no-one could afford to fly? Where are all theses people going?). We lucked out later in the day when 3 people missed their connecting flight to Calgary and we got their seats. We ended up at home that night after 23 hours of travel and were exhausted! Heidi had to travel even further, boarding a flight from Calgary to Vancouver and then from Vancouver to Victoria. In the end we all made it home, a little tired but ok overall. Thanks again to Heidi and John for facilitating our travel. We couldn’t have done it without you!

I’m not sure if/when another trip to Germany will happen. I was planning to take a break from treatments over the next few months but Dr Herzog seemed to think that might not be a good idea. His interpretation of my latest scan was that the growth was minimal, suggesting that what I’m doing is working. If that’s true then taking a break would be silly. On the other hand I’ve done 10 months straight of chemo. If you include my first round of chemo it makes for a total of 17 months of chemo in the past 2 years. I’m tired of chemo and want a break but when is the right time? There is no correct answer for that question by the way, I just need to do what I have to do. I’ll keep you posted.

Tutt-out.