Birthday

Hi Kids and family.

Friday: The day starts on a very high note. Emma comes in with a tray of tea, orange juice and two huge slices of cakes that she has baked for my birthday. 

Not a great deal to report really except the weekly report from Dr Proton and the fact that it today is my birthday and I am 68. Good lord, that is really old! Many thanks for all the kind messages on Bookface, cards, prezzies, phone calls etc. At the hospital, they always ask your date of birth, to check that they have the right folder and plastic card. '29/10/1942? What a coincidence, that's today!' Not Happy Birthday or anything. Happy Coincidence to me! I have now had 8 of the 28 doses under the cosmic cannon, which means I am more than 25% through. By monday week I will be half-way. I count down every day. Monday will be 9/28, Tuesday 5/14, etc. Because we had a weekly meeting with Dr Proton after the radiation, I was given a folder to take to the doctor. This is the first time that have been able to do the walk of shame from the Machine to the changing room without my naughty bits on show. Past the windows where the young ladies drink coffee and pretend to shuffle x-ray photos. Damn! He's got a folder, we can't see anything! This doesn't count as a turn, you got to let us back in on Monday or we want our money back! I took a long time changing so that I could look through the folder. I wish I hadn't. It was full of diagrams and cross-sections with lots of arrows and dismal notes in red ink. The treatment is making it's presence felt though, and as Dr Proton points out, it is accumulative, so the effects of yesterday and the day before are still there and the rest gets piled on top. Ouch! Still, it's only four weeks. After that there will be a rest period for me to recover before gut surgery. In that period, they may well remove my kidney, but as Dr. Proton is just a molecule man, he didn't know what was happening over at Urology. I did point out that at the start of all this we heard about teams, common goals and strategies, planning, synchronisation etc etc. He said that everybody had the idea that hospitals run like clockwork, but well, you know, it's actually all a bit, er, ...He offered to ring Urology for us to ask what was happening in their court, or maybe we could perhaps go there ourselves. Bernadet said we would go there ourselves, directly  after this meeting. I asked how he thought things are with me. He said these things can go either way and you can never tell how it will go and everybody is different and we all hope for the best result, but lap of the Gods etc. Straight from the hip, lucid and to the point, no bullshit. Thus reassured and positive, we strode towards Urology. Or rather Bernadet strode and I shuffled, until a severe attack of the squits came upon me and I had to dodge from one toilet to another like a commando advancing towards the target from cover to cover. Every bog in the east wing, and not one window or ventilator between them. We think he went that way, Captain. We won't need the dogs. At Urology it took a while to find my data. 29/10/1942. Just another coincidence. Bernadet told the lady that I needed a kidney operation in the second week of December. She said there was nothing in the planning yet, these things can go either way, but they would let us know within two weeks.

Back home to work on my Crejat homework, the Washing Line and to prepare for a somewhat subdued and restricted-access birthday do. I hope I don't fall asleep during the festivities. Actually it went rather well. In the afternoon Tineke, Wisse and little Julius came by as they could not come in the evening. What a sweet child that is, singing his heart out! The party went much better than expected and I managed to keep awake until the end. Many thanks to Michelle, Ruth, Karollien, Carolien, Desiree and Jan, Emile, Tony, Thijs, Marco and all the Sprenkeling family for a great evening. And for all the prezzies. Things went a bit wrong when poor Tony, a bit skint right now, came with an enormous pan full of boiled rice as a present, probably the last food in his house. Bernadet said the chickens would love it, they are crazy about rice. Tumbleweed moment.

Anyway, no more radio till Monday, and we are now off to an Arty Thingy in Bergen.

The Washing Line - Crejat Homework 1 of 3 Week 7

See you all soon,

Love Dad