Norway

CEA was down to 40,6 last week, which was a very positive surprise as I've had to skip some of the medicine (Camptosar in particular) several times. The platelets count keep jumping up and down around 100 and is the main challenge. I'm taking blood tests the day before I'm going to the hospital for a refill. Yesterday a nurse from the cancer ward called me up and said the platelets count was 92 and I would possibly only get Erbitux and not the other cytostats. She asked me to take another blood test this morning when I arrived at the hospital. Surprise, the count had climbed to 101 so I got the full package after all.


As Marjo said in the previous post, we visited Norway during the last week of our holidays. This time we were a bit mean and told hardly anyone that we would come as we wanted to reduce the stress level as much as possible. Apologies to all those we didn't contact during our stay. This picture above is by the way from our previous visit autumn 2008.

We spent some days on my parents' farm and the kids drove a lot of tractor. My father had now two tractors which worked out pretty well. Our youngest kid liked the older tractor better while our oldest kid enjoyed the latest technology of a quite new tractor. Luckily we had a lot of drivers available as two of my sisters were also visiting.


We visited Bergen and stayed with my sister and her husband. We love the local fish cakes at Madam Bergen. Definitely worth trying for non-Norwegians and they also have delicious fish soups. The picture above is from the aquarium which is a popular place to bring kids.

Thanking the Beat It initiative!

The wife here again.

I have been thinking for a long time now that I don't think we have ever really reported to everyone who took part in the Beat It initiative what happened? If you have been reading the blog you probably noticed we went to Crete in April, that's what happened! It was a very good holiday and the kids still want to watch videos from Crete and they remember the pool and the restaurants we went to, and every once in a while they start asking when we will be going there again... So thank you everyone!! It was a very welcome week of "something different" that we probably would not have done otherwise, and it was a good time to go as now it is more difficult to travel as Jan Arne is in treatment once a week.

On other fronts, we just came back from a week in Norway. Jan Arne had his treatment cancelled from last week so that we could travel, and we got lucky as Finnair just had an offer to Bergen. Now we are back to work and kids are in daycare. Jan Arne is on antibiotics as his nail bed infection got really bad so he went to see a doctor practically straight from the airport when we arrived. Tomorrow is supposed to be a new day for chemo but we have to see first how his platelet count is. It was still low on Friday, I guess due to two successive Camptosar treatments (the second time only since May when they have been able to give it two weeks in a row).