Starting with the radio therapy

Thursday, Feb 17th, 2011

We have had very cold weather here lately, and with the exception of today and maybe tomorrow, it will also stay cold. Now we have "only" -16 degrees C, but there have been mornings when we have woken up to -29, and it has been +15 indoors - a bit chilly. But it is a great thing that the sun is already shining at daytime, so we have plenty of light - it all reflects from the white snow - instead of the continuous darkness and half-darkness which we have been having when the sun did not rise, or it stayed up for just a short while.







I was out-doors a while ago, I fixed the bird-feeder. Luckily, I could work with bare hands because it was so "warm" and there was no wind to make it chillier. It would have been difficult wearing gloves. I had to hang the feeder again, and I had to change some parts, but now it is okey and the birds can use it again - and they seem to have found it already. I am so used in them flying up and down in the tree which is in front of my window - the feeder is under the tree. They are wild birds - those that are seed-eaters and don't migrate to the south for winter but stay here. We help them survive by feeding them, quite many do so, and ornitologists say many of them would have to migrate without the feeding - or they would not survive.







I started the radio therapy today. Had to wake up at 5 a.m. because my appointment was at 9 in Vaasa Central Hospital, which is 100 km away, and I am never very quick in the mornings: asthma gets as worst precisely in the morning and slows down everything I do, and so does rheuma. But now it seemed I had plenty of time and I was in time in the hospital too, and I was back home at 11 already. Anyway, it takes 4 hours to get a 5 min. treatment.... a bit funny..... it is very technical and I don't really know much of anything about it. I was told today that the team of doctors, physicians, and whatever, had decided to give me the maximum treatment (the tumor was of the most dangerous and fast-spreading type) so I will go there every weekday (from Monday to Friday) till the end of March. And if nothing else comes out, that will be it then. After that, I suppose I will have some checks for some years, and they may want to take more mammographs than that usual every-two-years (I want to, anyway!) , and I will be on alert, more or less, the rest of my life, but it will not affect my life more than so. After all, who of us knows anything about the future? The prognosis is very good anyway. And I think I am so scanned inside and out that if there'd have been something, they'd have found it. And after all - I feel calm. It is not in my hands, not in the doctors' hands, but in God's hands, and I trust Him and His plan.







The mother of my friend was diagnosed at the same time as I was, and she also had her surgery at the same time, only in a different hospital. I heard last week that her cancar had spread, they had now found something and she had to go to further scans or whatever. My friend also told me before that she had not recovered very well from the surgery. Maybe the new tumor was the reasion which kept her from recovering. And also, she is of course a lot older than I am. The only thing that slows down my recovery is asthma, I wish it would settle down finally.And I sincerely hope all will be fine with my friend's mother too.







My best Finnish girl friend is changing jobs and moving really far from us, to Rovaniemi in the north - it is the capital of Lapland. I wish she will enjoy her new job and her new surroundings, but I will miss her! Luckily, there is all this modern technology to help us keep in touch, and I wish I or we (family) can visit her next summer. It is almost 700 km from here to Rovaniemi and it takes approximately 8 hours to drive - more than so because one must take pauses too. She will actually have someone to drive her things, and she will put her car and herself in a night train and sleep while the train will take her through Finland - very comfortable, and very sensible!







Now I think I must have a nap. That early wake-up seems to feel. And there is still the language lesson in the evening!