On Monday morning we were contacted by a huge number of friends and family who'd watched the news on Sunday night (we hadn't apparently), where there'd been coverage and interviews about a recent scientific discovery at a Swedish hospital. With high probability doctors have revealed through research that a certain anti-virus medicine will dramatically prolong the life span of patients with the same type of brain cancer that my husband has, because this certain cancer thrives and grows with that type of virus. This is the good news.
The bad news is - this medicine is terribly expensive. So going out and buying it for yourself with a doctor's prescription is not an option for most people.
We were in consultation with the doctor today after radiotherapy - as we are every Tuesday. He said what doctors will ALWAYS say: "The results of this Swedish research are very uncertain, only 50 people were tested, we can't have too high hopes, we have to do a thorough study ourselves, we don't know when we'll be able to get started on that... etc etc." And then he said: "This sounds too good to be true." (!) So I said: "Why is it too good to be true? There's always someone doing cancer research out there - why is it so strange that they suddenly stumble across something that WORKS?" Of course I know that doctors have to be sceptical and careful, but get a move on, for heavens' sake! We don't have time to wait!
When my husband emphasised that he'd very much like to be part of the planned research programme at the Radiation Hospital, the doctor said: "Well, I definitely see you as eligible for that," whereas the nurse said: "People have been ringing us from all over the country. They all want to be in the research programme." So one of them gave us some hope, the other was a spoilsport. Or maybe she was just being realistic....
Being one of the richest countries in the world, Norway and its health care should be able to offer every new type of medicine to its inhabitants, and at a low cost, so that everyone can afford it. For the time being we'll be crossing our fingers, and if nothing's happened after a while we'll start insisting and protesting and demonstrating and refusing to move from the hospital until he's been supplied with medicine!
Winter came to Oslo this weekend, with the first snowfall. Being an anti-winter person I did not rejoice together with all the winter sport enthusiasts out there, though even I could see the simple beauty of the busy little green and red snowplough on my street on Sunday morning.
Days are busy now with pre-Christmas activities, and on Saturday my sister-in-law invited us to a church concert with the world famous Norwegian violinist Arve Tellefsen and the fantastic boys'/men choir Nidarosdomens guttekor, who perform all over the world with their conductor.
On Sunday it was time to visit a couple of Christmas markets - always a must even though it gets terribly crowded! My catches this time were simply hair products and a cook book (at the Vegan Market) and unfortunately only inspiration at the Designers' Own Market. But I spent a fortune at this latter one last year, so I don't really have a guilty conscience for not buying their beautiful self-designed and self-produced things.
On the subject of self-producing I find a sort of Zen these days in knitting. It's been a long time since I last knitted something a bit ambitious, but my daughter Sophie really wants a Marius sweater, which has long traditions in Norwegian wool "fashion." There's not a Norwegian alive who doesn't own a ski jumper of some sort with traditional patterns. Once upon a time I knitted several for myself and my family members (where have all these sweaters gone?), but never this particular pattern. The great thing about it is that over half of it is without pattern, so it combines well with TV-watching!
This time last year I was wrapping up my 100-day poetry challenge from my friend Grete, and I've just recently had a look through them again. I keep using them as illustrations in some of my blog posts, and I think they work well! Always something poignant, which tells me that my thoughts and feelings - even from one year ago when everything was different - constantly interact with my life. In other words - I recognise myself and my voice.
I find comfort in this.
The bad news is - this medicine is terribly expensive. So going out and buying it for yourself with a doctor's prescription is not an option for most people.
We were in consultation with the doctor today after radiotherapy - as we are every Tuesday. He said what doctors will ALWAYS say: "The results of this Swedish research are very uncertain, only 50 people were tested, we can't have too high hopes, we have to do a thorough study ourselves, we don't know when we'll be able to get started on that... etc etc." And then he said: "This sounds too good to be true." (!) So I said: "Why is it too good to be true? There's always someone doing cancer research out there - why is it so strange that they suddenly stumble across something that WORKS?" Of course I know that doctors have to be sceptical and careful, but get a move on, for heavens' sake! We don't have time to wait!
When my husband emphasised that he'd very much like to be part of the planned research programme at the Radiation Hospital, the doctor said: "Well, I definitely see you as eligible for that," whereas the nurse said: "People have been ringing us from all over the country. They all want to be in the research programme." So one of them gave us some hope, the other was a spoilsport. Or maybe she was just being realistic....
Being one of the richest countries in the world, Norway and its health care should be able to offer every new type of medicine to its inhabitants, and at a low cost, so that everyone can afford it. For the time being we'll be crossing our fingers, and if nothing's happened after a while we'll start insisting and protesting and demonstrating and refusing to move from the hospital until he's been supplied with medicine!
Winter came to Oslo this weekend, with the first snowfall. Being an anti-winter person I did not rejoice together with all the winter sport enthusiasts out there, though even I could see the simple beauty of the busy little green and red snowplough on my street on Sunday morning.
Days are busy now with pre-Christmas activities, and on Saturday my sister-in-law invited us to a church concert with the world famous Norwegian violinist Arve Tellefsen and the fantastic boys'/men choir Nidarosdomens guttekor, who perform all over the world with their conductor.
On Sunday it was time to visit a couple of Christmas markets - always a must even though it gets terribly crowded! My catches this time were simply hair products and a cook book (at the Vegan Market) and unfortunately only inspiration at the Designers' Own Market. But I spent a fortune at this latter one last year, so I don't really have a guilty conscience for not buying their beautiful self-designed and self-produced things.
On the subject of self-producing I find a sort of Zen these days in knitting. It's been a long time since I last knitted something a bit ambitious, but my daughter Sophie really wants a Marius sweater, which has long traditions in Norwegian wool "fashion." There's not a Norwegian alive who doesn't own a ski jumper of some sort with traditional patterns. Once upon a time I knitted several for myself and my family members (where have all these sweaters gone?), but never this particular pattern. The great thing about it is that over half of it is without pattern, so it combines well with TV-watching!
This time last year I was wrapping up my 100-day poetry challenge from my friend Grete, and I've just recently had a look through them again. I keep using them as illustrations in some of my blog posts, and I think they work well! Always something poignant, which tells me that my thoughts and feelings - even from one year ago when everything was different - constantly interact with my life. In other words - I recognise myself and my voice.
I find comfort in this.
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