Yesterday Nadine had her last session of radiation therapy. Unfortunately, I never attended one of them. They told me too late that I would be allowed in and I was never around during the last few sessions. This happened because the schedule in radiology is pretty unpredictable: They give you dates but they pick you up hours earlier or later. And you have to wait there unendurably long quite often.

What bothered Nadine the most was being called away at mealtime and then having to wait for treatment hungry – this was was quite a torture to her. Therapy itself however turned out to be a relaxing pleasure, because she was able to switch of ambience completely and drift away. She even liked the metallic smell and the blue light that occur when the rays hit the mask. By the way: the futuristic looking thing is already secured and will propably find a new use in one of Nadine’s art therapy sessions…

But today she’s coming home so I need to find another way to make her flow in space – maybe I manage to do so by playing some appropriate music.

A very old friend of mine made his way to our house, managed to get access to our postbox and dropped a few lines and a necklace for Nadine. I’m not that much into eastern religion but even I can see that it’s meant for protection. What a good thing that Nadine is already wearing it…

We were talking to the doctors yesterday and Nadine is going to be released from hospital tomorrow. It will take a few weeks until it is possible to rate the effect of the radiation therapy but the experts are in good hope. Chemotherapy will also start soon, an initial talk is scheduled for next Tuesday. During the first weeks at home Nadine shouldn’t be alone too long and is not allowed to leave the house on her own.

So our plan with friends, family members and colleagues coming arond on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays turned out to be good thinking: she definitely needs company. Therefore, I now officially withraw my embargo on visits. She felt very happy in station D6 of the Katharinenhospital, now its our turn to find the perfect way to keep her so!

P.S.: Somebody unknown sent us a parcel via DHL. When I went to the post office yesterday to pick it up, they were not able to find it. If they do, it will be returned to sender. If they don’t, it’s simply lost. The delivery number is JJD14454004072745001, the sender can enquire by phone under (0228) 4333112.

Our friend Valerie advised us to find moments of calm and happiness in the midst of this whole thing, for example a nice meal. That’s exactly what we did yesterday: Nadine took a leave from hospital and we both jumped on the bus that would take us home in about ten minutes. Okay, we didn’t make it that far yet, but we went about two thirds of the way and visited a nice little restaurant.

While I enjojed my vegan curry Nadine almost went wild about her chicken tandoori – that’s what four weeks of hospital food can do to you. Significantly, the place is called Lumen and they serve regional and natural food there. That’s why the little Cartesian in me decided to think about the place als ‘lumen naturale’…

However dark it gets, there’s “Always The Light”, that’s a thing we are told by the long gone British pop band The Weather Prophets and learned by going out together yesterday: