October 22, 2007

Hi Guys,

Dad is doing well physically, he's eating again, gained 4 pounds, and got back same color in his face (he was pretty grey). He even showed off the big Nr. 2 he made yesterday to Corinna.

He is still adjusting emotionally and of course this will be a continuous struggle. In his typical "verdraenger" mentality, he thought until yesterday, that he would take a few pills for chemo, and then become healthy again. He has been talking to Christian alot and C. has been honest with him. He now knows that at best, he can hope for remission of the lymphoma, and how long that remission will be, nobody knows. He is also starting to realize that chemo does not involve only popping a few pills and has been asking about the side effects. He will hopefully find out more about this at his meeting with the oncologist tomorrow morning at 9:00.

He has also talked to Christian about how he would like to die, and that under no condition does he want to have life prolonging treatment. C. told him that it is very important that he put this down in writing as soon as possible and give this to his physician here (Dr. Levine) and his physician in Burlington. Mathias, once you are here it is important that you follow up on this.

Right now Dad is humming in the kitchen, unloading the dishwasher, and his plans for today are, what else, a trip to Cosco, and then in the afternoon he wants to watch "Home Alone" with Till and Corinna. So life is running along a kind of double track at the moment, on the one everything is normal, one the other we all know how precious every moment and day is. And both tracks need each other.

ooma ooma, Nicky