Flying high

When I was 21 years old I applied to become a pilot in the military, the Norwegian Royal Air Force to be more exact. I was lucky to pass loads of tests and interviews and was one out of 20 that got sent to actual pilot training at Værnes outside of Trondheim. The training was at the same time a selection process so people got sent home if progress wasn't at desired level. The pilot school was to start January 1992 and I had the previous autumn off. I decided to go back-packing for some months and ended up in New Zealand at the end of the trip. I took a few glider plane lessons with the purpose of getting some flying experience and in particular practising landing. I had been tipped off that landing your plane is the part of flying one typically struggles with in the beginning. I discovered pretty fast that knowing when to start flattening out from the approach to the air field wasn't that easy. I once got a new instructor on board that had misunderstood my level. She let me land the plane without herself touching the stick. I'll be honest. It was a pretty hard hit. Luckily we landed on grass and I think the plane survived. On next round she didn't let go of the stick.

In the pilot school I got to fly 30 hours in a one propeller Saab Safari trainer including two rides on my own circling the air field doing touch and goes. On a day in May 1992 we were seven students left and the management decided it was my and another guy's turn to leave the school. His name was by the way also Jan Arne. A funny coincidence as I think he was the first other Jan Arne I've ever met. After we left, the five remaining students got sent to US for further training. I was naturally disappointed then but afterwards I was actually relieved. The flying part was fun enough but I was close to a very long career in the military and most likely on a military base on the outskirts of Norway. It was one of those major turning points in life. I became an engineer instead.

We have a friend who's into flying gliders and is even an instructor. Last Sunday he took me flying. The air field is located in an area called Teisko roughly 50km north of Tampere. We got towed up by a propeller plane, released at 500m and had a one hour long flight. It was great to be up there again, 17 years since last time. Gliders are really a nice way of flying. No noise from any motor and you gain height by finding thermals, warm raising air. There is a lot of skill and experience needed in finding those. During the one hour flight we had, a junior pilot had done three flights.

I was also flying high on Wednesday last week, but more mentally. I went to see Finland-Germany, football world-cup qualifier in Helsinki with another friend of mine. 37000 people showed up at the Olympic stadium and made a great atmosphere. Finland has a new coach and we were a bit uncertain what he actually stands for. We were impressed as Finland did an amazing game. Good football and they were in lead three times. Germany however managed to equalise them all and the score ended up being 3-3.

Birthday presents

Today I turned 38 and spent the whole day in hospital. We started off with the usual doctor's appointment in the morning. Again a new doctor we haven't met before. She had a title indicating she was a senior with a lot of experience. When we entered the room I was nervous about hearing the results from last week's CT scan. My wife broke the ice by saying today was my birthday. The doctor replied congratulations and that she luckily had good news. The tumours in the liver had shrunk, many lymph nodes had shrunk back to practically normal size (previously described as "pathologically large"), and no new tumours in the liver could be seen. The lungs are still clear as well. The doctor said these were very good results and that this is going to the right direction.

We discussed a while about the largest tumour I have in my liver. I call it Mr. Big. In the CT scan done on June 30th it was measured to nearly 10 cm at its widest. In the biopsy done on July 16th it was measured with ultrasound to be 13,8 cm x 9,5 cm. In the CT scan done last week Mr. Big was measured to 8 x 5,2 cm. We wondered how the tumour could be that much bigger on July 16th, only 17 days after the first CT. The explanation we got was that CT and ultrasound are two different technologies that shows different pictures possibly from different angles and that such deviations could happen. I'm still not sure which is the right measure to compare to but doctor said the important issue is that there is proof the drugs are shrinking the tumours.

There was more positive news. The doctor explained that the most effective drug out of the three I'm on is Avastin. However, Avastin was added just a few days before the CT on September 9th. That is such a short time that the drug wouldn't have had time to make an impact. The shrinkage we now see is a result of the two other drugs I'm on (Eloxatin and Xeloda). Because of this we expect to see more good results in the next CT scan.

I showed the doctor my feet. They have never really been good-looking. The doctor wasn't impressed either but rather because I have some skin and blister issues. She said I needed to treat them better in order to avoid infections. That means more cream and salty water foot-baths. She also lowered the evening doze of Xeloda from four to three and said it will not have an impact on the cancer reduction effect.

I got out of the hospital at 1630 and picked up some pizzas on my way home. Later we went to sauna with the kids. Yes, we took out the "vihta", which is the birch thing used in Finnish sauna. To top things off, after kids were in bed I watched Rosenborg (Norway) beat Brøndby (Denmark) in a UEFA cup football qualifier.

And the birthday presents? In addition to the good news from the doctor, I got for example an electronic photo frame, slippers, lottery tickets to be scraped, lovely warm set of scarf, hat and gloves from wife and kids to keep me warm because of Eloxatin side effects. Last but not least, I got loads of phone calls and messages from friends and family. I have to say it was really a fantastic birthday!

At in-laws

On the way to Kankaanpää, between the towns of Hämeenkyrö and Ikaalinen there's a house situated on top of a hill with a beautiful lake below it. The only thing is that the house is surrounded by thick forest so you can't really see the lake from the house. It always reminds of one of the small differences between Norwegians and Finns. For Norwegians, a good view is looking far away at sea and mountains. For Finns, a good view is looking into the forest. I would have cut down those trees.

I borrowed a bike from my in-laws and set out to explore the town of Kankaanpää. There isn't a lot to explore really. Once you've visited the Reima factory outlet (Finnish manufacturer of quality outdoor wear) and the town church you're done. I cycled past a sign “kids' own flea market” while heading out of the town. There's a lake nearby and I tried to find a way around it. I ended up in someone's garden and decided to cycle through a suburban area instead. The weather was great and I thought this would be a good time to think about greater things in life. However, I couldn't get that flea market thing out of my head. I don't quite get it but Finns are really passionate about flea markets. You find them all over with different themes. Close to where we live there's a flea market where you don't even do your own selling. You leave your stuff in a booth and come back a week later to collect the money. That is, if there's any money left after you've paid the rent of the booth.

Today I had another CT scan of the stomach. I will probably get to hear the result in next week's doctors appointment on Thursday.

Another CT scan

I survived the weekend without any nausea this time. The new medicine I got was really efficient. The only side effect has been my brain, or the lack of one. Been pretty tired in between. My wife found a term on the Internet, chemo-brain.

I got paranoid after reading Lance Armstrong's book. His cancer spread to the brain and one symptom he had was blurred eye-sight. My own left eye has been a bit blurred for the last one and a half years and we've been asking the doctors if there could be something in my brain as well. We've been told that is very unlikely. During last week doctor's appointment we asked if I could have a CT scan done on my head just to have the issue cleared out. The doctor said “let's do it”. The scan was done on Monday this week and a doctor called me back on Tuesday telling me there's nothing abnormal in my brain.

Yesterday we went apple picking at some friends of ours. They give away apples and my wife uses the opportunity to make apple jam. It was cold, rainy and dark and it felt like a day in November. The hot chocolate we were offered afterwards was really needed.

Right now I'm off to parents-in-law for a long weekend with the kids. They live in a small town called Kankaanpää roughly 100kms away.