This has been an awfully long silence. With reason. I have been in hospital for almost a month, and was not well. I simply had zero batteries, my body was a wreck. Luckily enough I remained mentally as strong as a redwood tree. But it was scary to see my body deteriorate. I felt permanently sick, so food and drink were causing me a lot of trouble. My weight slowly dropped to an all-time low of 47 kilos, and I stayed in bed so often that walking became difficult. I saw my oncologist on the 1st of August while sitting in a wheelchair, pushed by Frank. She told me I had to get back to chemo, or give up. I felt rather hopeless, since at that moment I had the idea my body would not be able to stand another round of chemotherapy.

Mum's home again!

But then a miracle happened. I saw a 70-year-old Chinese doctor on the 2nd of August. He treated me with some needles, and wrote out a receipe with lots of Chinese herbs, roots and other goodies from nature. The first time I drank the broth, I could suddenly eat a full meal again! My nausea vanished like snow under the sun, and I could stop taking pain killers and anti-nausea pills the next day. Since then, I felt my body going uphill like Tom Smallthumb wearing seven-miles boots! Yesterday I weighed 51 and a half kilos, my face has a normal colour again (for more than a month I had looked like a ghost with hollow cheeks). I took my chemo two days ago without any trouble. I went through it singing! I can walk around again and even went into town for a whole afternoon with Nuria last Tuesday!

There was one friend who sent me such a lovely 'present' that I'd like to share it with you. It was David Hughes, researcher of Japanese folk song, and long-time friend since the 1980s. To give me something to cheer me up, he sent me a link, or actually two links with a song he had written and sung himself during a housewarming party recently. It was this song that gave me that little bit of energy to get through my difficult hospital period last month. He gave me permission to put the links on my blog. Enjoy!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vmvrj_pIhM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s-r_VhBFOE