November seems to develop into a not so lucky month for us. Last year we had a visit from the local tax office in order to check on some papers from our company. Back then we spent a terrible amount of time on double checking our entire bookkeeping in order to have really nothing wrong. In the end it worked out just fine but it was such an intense time that I still feel sick just thinking about it. But who would have thought that last years troubles were nothing compared to this year!
It all started that my dad lost on one eye nearly his entire vision. The Ophthalmologists quickly found out that something is growing behind his left eye so they scheduled some therapy involving injecting a medication for battling tumors into the eyeball. However at the same time my father’s home doctor got some worrying results from the latest blood test. So both matters combined forced the home doctor to send my father to the local hospital for some further “inspection”. He stayed for a couple of days and got everything checked out without any proper results. They decided that my father should come back two weeks later to check the blood again and compare it to the last results. Well during that new check up at the hospital my father called “Tell your mother that it will take a bit longer, they will take a sample of my bone marrow now”. Yeah you can guess my shock upon hearing that they even test the bone marrow which is never a good sign. After that test my father was sent home as the results would take over a week so he got a new appointment a week later (this Friday, the Black Friday…).
The week in which the new appointment was scheduled started right off the bat with a total disaster. In the morning after sending away some boxes and buying new stuff for the company my wife’s hand bag got stolen. We searched everywhere and later the bag was even found as someone had brought it to the nearby info desk. Yes the hand bag was found however everything inside was missing such as the wallet or the keys for our warehouse. Needless to say that in that wallet was pretty much our “existence” as my wife’s residence permit, German bank card, multiple Chinese bank cards (for the business to actually get money), health insurance cards of my wife and the kids and several hundred Euros were gone just like that. Not to mention that the wallet itself was something more pricey she got as a birthday present from me after Nathan was born. Yes, a really terrible mess for us and besides blocking all the cards, going to the police and apply for new documents we could do nothing. Guess we had it coming as we live in the unsafest city in all of Germany according to a new study!
The following day we had a craftsman at our place to see what he could do about our warehouse as we had no key anymore. After some work he managed to get us access again by drilling a hole into the gate and skillfully open with some rope the emergency opening mechanism. Now we thought we could get back to work but that would be just too easy. As just shortly after he left we wanted to get some work done and I tried to open the gate with the new rope mechanism and what else to expect than that the rope suddenly tore from the emergency opening mechanism and even kind of destroyed it entirely. So now we could definitely not get into the warehouse again! Next day (Wednesday) didn’t start much better as just minutes after Nathan had brushed his teeth in the bathroom the big mirror with lighting suddenly came crushing down shattering into million of pieces.
So Thursday came without any actual madness and the craftsman was able to get our gate working again through some unknown magic however now we have a huge whole in the gate and he promised to fix it in the next weeks. Even though we had no disaster on Thursday there was tension as we all waited for Friday to come and with it the results from the hospital regarding the latest blood tests and the bone marrow sample. I can say that my wife and I felt sick when driving with my father to the hospital. The appointment was at 10am but the doctor had no time till 11am so we waited in the Oncology ward for too long with many patients passing by and lowering our hopes. Then the doctor took us to his office and started right with that my father has indeed leukemia. But my father has still luck as he pretty much has the best possible form of leukemia which is called Chronic lymphocytic leukemia together with another form called Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia. These forms are progressing very slow and can be treated (yes, not cured as there is no cure) very well and people can expect a normal life expectancy with it. Usually they would not even treat my father yet as he is in the beginning stage but due to his eye they decided to start chemotherapy already next week for the next 6 months. This is all so my father would not lose his eye sight and regain most of what he had before. The problems with his eye are caused due to the “thick blood” with too many proteins so with the therapy his blood levels will be put into a more normal state resulting in his eyes getting back their proper blood supply.
Yes November has been really terrible and terrifying but we do hope now that all the bad luck is gone. We will manage over time to get over the stolen wallet and my father will have many more years to live. Sure next year we can’t take him to China as he will still have his Chemotherapy cycles but the 2020 will be a new year for him to travel with us. Right now we are just a bit exhausted but also happy how things turned out for my father. Who knows, perhaps the wallet or at least some cards might be found someday. It really seems that all bad luck comes in threes and sometimes really intense.
Did you had a week or month where everything went just wrong and nothing worked out?
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Truly terrible for you all. I am so sorry.
Life goes on. Whatever financial troubles that week caused we will get over but for now we just focus on my dad’s health. Especially during the chemo we have to watch out that Nathan keeps some distance with all the delicious viruses and bacteria from kindergarten
So sorry that all that happened to you and your family. I pray that everything will work out better in December and the new year 2019. Hang in there and stay strong!
Thank you, we just hope now for a more lucky December. It is just so wrong that everything wrong happens at the same time
I’m so sorry to hear about your terrible November. Wishing you and your father a happy December and health and happiness in 2019.
Thank you, November somehow was never a month with many fond memories but from now on we will probably remember as a fearful month
I hope the upcoming days bring comfort and happiness in your life 🙂
Thank you so much. The weekend brought already some comfort with the knowledge that my father still has many more years to come as long as leukaemia is only considered.
happy to hear that 🙂 god bless you all 🙂
So sorry to hear about what’s going on for you, Timo ☹ One bad thing after the other and it just got worse each time. Hopefully you got all the documents sorted and nothing else bad stemmed from that. Wishing your dad good vibes and good health. You don’t see these things coming, and sounds like the doctor has a plan for him.
Most cards we have sorted out by now, just residence permit left as we still need a new picture for it.
The doc has some good plan and my best friends brother is the head of pharmacy at the hospital and explained everything to me again plus the possible side effects of the medications. I’d say my dad is in good hands there
It sounds like surgery and chemo all underway going well (you mentioned it started). A bit of a road ahead but hopefully nothing else worse happens. I had one family member who had chemo and it was a long drawn out process – as you said in the comments, have to keep your distance from them and they don’t feel comfortable quite a bit.
There is such a high risk of infection when someone gets chemotherapy. So we will try to not let our kids too near my father when they show any symptoms of having a flue or so.
It is also great that my friends brother is working right in the hospital and he is part of all the doctor meetings in the oncology (he is some kind of expert in the field and prepares all the medications )
Oh, gosh. In Spanish we say “misfortunes never come alone” and in your case it was completely true! Stay strong, only 3 more days left in November!! I am glad to hear your dad got the “best” possible result. And losing my passport here in China is one of my nightmares so I always keep it home even though all foreigners are supposed to carry it at all times.
Don’t even make me imagine how it is to lose the passport when abroad! Ever since the wallet was stolen we are constantly checking if we still have everything with us.
Gosh, that is a lot of challenges in a small period of time. Glad things are getting better!
Thank you, for now we just focus on one step a time. No use to worryalready about next week or even month as we basically have to “rebuild” everything and take care of my father
My goodness, dear. I am so so sorry. I wish I could say more than that. I’ve certainly had my bad times, but this is not the right time to compare or share notes. I always hated it when I shared something bad or good and a friend “outdid me” and you’re left feeling like why did this person make it a competition? Hahahahaha.
But I will say that I’m glad that your father is getting treatment and that the diagnosis looks promising. I can’t imagine the amount of stress you’ve been through lately. One of these things on their own is bad enough, but in quick succession? Jeezzz.
Sending you fierce hugs from Thailand.
Thank you so much. It has been a messy month , especially the past week but now things are getting better (though we all have the flu right now …)
It is just so strange that so many bad things have to happen within such short time. There was no time to recover from one event and then the next messed up thing happened
Yes. Well, let’s just get this all over with now, right? Hope things continue to get smoother…xxoo
A bad time but am glad things are getting better. Best regards
It’s so tough, watching our parents age and encounter more health problems. Even though cancer is never good news, your father’s diagnosis sounds like the best possible outcome in this situation. Best wishes for him and here’s to having a much better December!
Thank you so much, so far December has been pretty decent but still more than half of the month left.
Somehow I also lack the energy to write for the past week but I guess it is most likely due to the fact that I had the flu till now and things like that are always demotivating
Sorry to hear you have had bad luck. It is sometimes like that! I tend to write off those months and look forward to better times. I always think that bad things happen in ‘threes’ – I know that is ridiculous, but it helps me to make sense of escalating challenges! I am also sorry to hear that your city is unsafe? Is there a lot of crime there?
Must say I even said that it happens in threes after the second bad thing happened and voila they diagnosed my father with leukemia.
Anyhow we are more or less over the bad month, of course we have a constant reminder due to my fathers Chemotherapie but it all goes very well thus far.
Though my city is kind of very unsafe it is mostly due to small robberies and stuff like that not really the big clan like activities as they have in the big cities here. By all means it is not even dangerous there usually so here in my hometown I have no issue walking around at night or whatever. Some specialist said that a highly dangerous area in Germany equals a moderate to good area in the USA
Oh interesting comparison! I can empathize with you as my mother is starting in chemotherapy tomorrow.
I hope everything will work out well for your mother. My father finished his second session now and the doctor is rather happy with the current results
That is good news!