Katzen Don’t Speak English

 

The language barrier is a daily challenge here and I don’t mean just English to German and German to English.  Often, as we linger at the table after dinner there is much bantering between us and the Aussies.  They make fun of the way we say “Pool” and for a week I thought the little town on the train line was “Louder” when I would hear the Aussies referred to it.  Then I read the schedule.  The name is “Lauda”.   Is the “h” in herb pronounced or is it silent?  Evidently, it depends on where you’re from.

After a busy week of various treatments and daily physical therapies of all sorts we planned an outing to the city of Wurzburg on Saturday.  As you can see by the photo, there sits a magnificent fortress on the hill.  That was our goal.

 

If I can say anything for certain about being a patient here, it is that when I first arrived there is no way I would have made the walk from the train station, through the city, across this magnificent bridge and up the seemingly endless stairs and walkways to the top.  Three weeks after my arrival, I did it and without any trouble.  Sola Deo Gloria!  For two years my physical therapist has told me that walking is vital.  Not starting and then stopping even if it is all day long, but continuous walking.  She is so right (of course!).  It was this walking for miles that took the pain from my hip.  Too bad there is no cobblestone road that has a quaint little Italian coffee shop on its edge back home about two miles from my place.  Oh, so many details to work out!

This was our reward:

 

 

In a hidden garden, behind the palace area we spied a local resident.  Her posture and grace told us that she descended from royalty.  Without thinking, Victoria called out to her.  A  look of calm question in her eye was the only response.  Was she above replying to a lowly tourist?  Oh…of course!   We are in Germany!  It’s that language barrier thing again.   Deutsch Katzen sprechen kein Englisch!

“Here kitty, kitty!”

Relief from the Heat. Not!

Week three is almost over and it has been bitter/sweet.  My husband left to return to work for a couple of weeks, but two of my children came to take care of me while he is gone!  How great is that!  It is fun to show them the things that my husband and I discovered after we arrived.  I’ve gotten to show them around the clinic and introduce them to many of the people that we have become friends with here.

There is an amazing kinship that grows between everyone here that took me by surprise.  The comradery and the sharing of ideas, knowledge and concern makes this an incredibly rich experience.

Thanks to my kids, everyone had a good laugh today.  Mostly because I got such a kick out of them that I could help but share my story with everyone who has had the full body hyperthermia.  I described my scorching and extremely boring experience with hyperthermia in a previous blog.

To recap briefly, the patient is put in a bed that is covered with a body sized box and heated with infrared lights…for two hours!  After that, one is wrapped up in the flexible sides to hold in the heat so the body’s core temperature continues to rise.  The purpose of this procedure is to shrink tumors and enhance the immune system.  It causes diseased and malignant cells to die. Also, the profuse sweating provides an effective means of detoxification.

Shortly after my first hyperthermia treatment, the doctors asked me how it went for me and what I thought.  Since I take regular saunas at high temperatures, I thought I handled it well, but that it was incredibly boring.  “We’ve never gotten that response before,” one mused. The other offered to turn it up.

Well, I came up with an evidently innovative plan to cope with the struggle.  I asked my kids to bring a couple of movies with them when they came to Germany so that we could watch them together on a laptop during my next treatment. Great.  Good plan.  The boredom will be vanquished!

I guess I should have explained to them why I needed a movie. You know, to take my mind off the intense heat.  So which movie did they bring?  SAHARA!