Day Eight: Wake Up Dog!

Ah Monday. A day of new beginnings, fresh opportunities and renewed purpose. It's also the harbinger of alarm clocks and that classic "case of the Mondays" state of mind. However, at Oasis, it's just Day Eight and also when you see the majority of the new arrivals for the first time. As we descended to the cafeteria this morning (after sleeping in until 8:15 no less!) we found the house to be packed. Where we had once been the first two people to breakfast every day for a week, we walked into a room of about ten folks breakfasting and started making with the introductions. We were only able to chat with Dwayne and his sister Mary Kay, unfortunately not the makeup mogul, and learned a bit about them.

Dwayne has brain cancer and is in the third and final cycle of his three month treatment. He hails from Minnesota and immediately started up on football talk with Bruce and myself. Sadly, I didn't have much to talk about since my Broncos laid down and let KC kick their sorry asses yesterday, so I humored the fellas with Brett Favre and Green Bay discussions. Bruce is a Wisconsinonian (or is it Wisconsinite?) so there was some good jibing going on. Dwayne revealed that his brain tumor has shrunk almost 50% since his treatments here started and he may consider surgery if it continues to decrease. He had a seizure last week which caused some concern about whether he could come for treatment this week, but he wanted to be here and so it was done. He looks great, his only noticable symptom is some limited mobility in his left arm, but otherwise he appears to be a man on the mend.

Krissy's treatments kicked off right after breakfast so I left her to the ozone therapy and came upstairs to read. Last time she received this treatment it took around forty minutes, but today I went through half of my book before she came back to the room. Apparently she's a tad dehydrated from the past few days of treatments and her veins are very stressed. They managed to get a good catheter in but the vein was so weak no blood would draw. Thankfully they have a Plan B for this treatment and were able to deliver the ozone to her blood with a saline solution. It just takes longer this way. After this she had a second round of the Perftec, followed by two doses of vitamin C and laetrile. Most of these medications are stored cold and really cause some sharp pain when it hits her veins. Kris is a tough little cookie but that last dose of vitamin C was really pushing her pain tolerance. Thankfully it's a quick treatment and she was able to relax a bit before dinner. I just hope she's able to hydrate enough to make it through the end of the week without being stuck too many more times.

I'll make just a quick note about the food today before moving on. Lunch was great. Epic in fact. We were treated to pinto beans, spanish rice and some delicious green chili stew with chicken. I ate two huge plates and Krissy ate very well also. If this is what happens when the house is full well I sure hope attendance stays high. Dinner was nice too, a hearty cornbread with rice and steamed cauliflower. Good stuff Maynard.

At dinner we met another new pair, Yo and her daughter Joy. Yes, you read that right, her name is Yo. She's even American! From California in fact, so that probably explains it. Joy is from Oakland but she seemed safe enough. Yo is here on her second cycle for stage 4 ovarian cancer and is doing very well. She also received conventional chemo here and was sporting a shiny bald pate upstairs. Finally, someone here with even less hair than I have! These gals are right next door to us and brought a guitar and a huge iMac computer. Wild I tell you!

The true highlight of this evening wasn't the food but the dinner conversation. We were shortly joined by Sharon, Jenny and Marylin; our Aussie Posse. As is usual, when introductions are made over and over again you eventually hear stories that were probably told many days ago but were fogotten. Tonight, Sharon recounted the tale of her visit to an old Chinese acupuncturist back in Australia and his words of encouragement. In order to instill her with confidence he held her wrist and stated "Your condition not so bad!" Thank you Confucius! The best part is how he explained what his particular treatment was intended to illicit from Sharon's body. "Ok, now we gonna wake up the dog! Wake up the dog, and dog gonna fight cancer! We gotta wake him up!" Something about how she tells this story, with her Australian imitation of a Chinese accent, just had us in tears tonight. As such, we now have a new mascot in our fight against cancer. I now present to you, Cancer Dog!


I'll probably have Sharon tell this story at least two more times before we leave, just so I can have good laugh.

We wrapped up the evening with Prayer and Share with Bruce and Vicky. This was attended by Marilyn, Michelle and Brian from yesterday, and Krissy and I. It was mostly about sharing our experiences thus far, how faith has helped us through and eventually to Oasis, and then a short blessing before we returned to our rooms. One thing that is painfully evident throughout all of our discussions with the good people here is just how insensitive the doctors and oncologists are back home. Nearly everyone here has a "We were told I had X months to live and to go home and plan for my death" story. It varies by person, Sharon was told she'd be dead by Christmas, Michelle was told she would die from breast cancer and nothing else in six months, even Bruce was told with chemo he might get a few years if he was lucky. And of course our Krissy was told "some months" no matter what we did. Now I'm no doctor (I don't even play one on TV) but I wasn't aware they all received a course in Precognition. What a handy ability that would be, to predict the outcome of another's life with such precision! Except that they forget no one can predict the future and only God knows what is in store for us tomorrow. I hope that someday our healthcare system will come to realize that it's not all about statistics, double blind studies and chemical interactions but instead about caring for human beings and accepting that love, determination and faith can conquer anything thrown at it.

As the wise Forrest Gump once said, that's all I have to say about that. I think I'll wind down with some Strangers in Paradise (such an amazing comic, thanks Terry Moore!) while Krissy watches Charlie's Angels. Tomorrow we will once again wake up the Cancer Dog. Fight dog, fight! G'night!