Tag Archives: cancer

Crazy Family

Troubles in China

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My dear Chinese mother-in-law is staying this summer again with us and by now has been already one month here in Germany. Things have been complicated during this time. No it is not all about her destroying stuff in the apartment or behaving more strange than usual (more about that later). It is due to the health condition of granny in China.

Early this year they found out that granny has cancer and decided not to treat it as nothing would help. Back then MIL took her mother nearly daily to different hospitals to get more checkups and the opinions of various specialists in their field. They all concluded that there was nothing they could do anymore for granny so the family decided to keep it all a secret from her. Sure she knew that it was odd to go to so many doctors but she thought all the time that it was for some basic health checkups and to get something for the swelling on her throat (the lymph knots). MIL took care of everything and her brother tried to help as much as possible besides his full-time job.

MIL and the kids in Hong Kong

Due to all the troubles back in China we were not even sure whether MIL could come this summer to help us or not. In the end they figured that granny still had some more time left and she was doing fine as she was not yet affected by the cancer. Now on the very same day MIL arrived in Germany her mother got very sick and was rushed to the hospital. Thankfully it was just very high fever with the risk of developing a serious lung infection but all was taken care of in the hospital. But with this the real trouble started in form of MIL’s sister. Every single day aunty is sending messages and voice messages complaining how much work she has to do now because granny is/ was in hospital and how MIL could dare to leave them all and come to Germany. Those are not just one or two messages a day but multiple spread over all day and night, all about how much work she has and how hard it is.

Someone is not so sure about the statue

Thing is aunty was in Japan in the beginning when granny was diagnosed and did not come back to China. In fact she even prolonged her stay in Japan by one month all the while MIL and her brother were doing everything for their mother. Aunty also complained that she has to cook so much food now for everyone even though she hasn’t cooked a single dish all the time as uncle is doing that. However aunty is complaining now that his food is not good enough and I quote “disgusting” so now FIL has to bring her the food she ordered from restaurants. By the way the food uncle prepares is pretty good, at least no one else has ever complained and I actually like eating at their place. This all puts a lot of pressure on both MIL and my wife as aunty just won’t stop complaining and kind of puts a hold on our business activities as my wife has to argue all the time with her. Right now MIL is considering flying back to China one month early but that is not set yet and I hope she won’t do that as she is needed very much here.

This blog post wasn’t really anything funny, just something which has been annoying me for the past weeks.

You have a family member behaving in a very annoying way putting constant pressure on others?

Be sure to follow me also on Facebook and on Twitter as I will post there occasionally pictures which do not find their way into my blog posts. Furthermore there is also my Instagram account in which from time to time some pictures and short videos might pop up.

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Crazy Family, Dad in Law, Mom in Law, Travels

Travel plans for this year

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Our trip to China is getting closer and with it also the (probably) the last time to see Granny. As I mentioned in the last post she is not doing fine. Back then the doctors couldn’t pinpoint what is exactly going on but by now they figured it out. She has malignant melanoma what they already suspected one month ago. However they could not find the spot untill few weeks later as it is actually located in her upper throat. Because she never really goes to the dentist they never saw it growing there and by now it is just too late.

Granny surrounded my her family at our wedding in China 2013

This cancer won’t be treated except with some Chinese medications as she is too weak for any surgery (and this surgery would be very risky as well) and chemotherapy would not help in this case either. She does not know that she is seriously ill and the doctors and the family decided to keep it that way. In the best possible scenario she still has a few years to live and we hope for that one though I hate to imagine how the last months of her life will be.

Because of this turn of events we “rescheduled” our plans for this trip to China and will stay mostly in Xi’an. Our planned short holiday to Thailand has been postponed to some other year. However this does not mean that we won’t travel at all this year at least within China. In the end of April we will be going for a few days to Wuhan to  meet up with some friends from Finland. No they are not Finnish but they are in fact Chinese who studied together with my wife back in Kajaani over 12 years ago and lived in the same dormitory. Last year they visited us in Xi’an and this year we shall visit them in their city. Besides Wuhan we will be going in May to Hong Kong! Now this is a city I wanted to visit for so many years but my wife never really had any interest in it. However now I convinced her finally though I must say that mentioning Disney Land might have helped a bit here.

Standard Chinese apartment block, let’s see how they look in Wuhan and Hong Kong

My wife does not even have the chance to change her mind on these travels as all tickets have been booked already so she won’t be able to turn into a complete coach potato this time around. Oh and also our plans for the summer changed again. My wonderful Chinese mother-in-law will be coming to Germany. We had first planned for FIL to come as ´his wife prefered staying with her mother in China but because doctors think that Granny still has way more than just few months or even several years my wife could convince her. Another big reason to convince MIL to come to Germany was about work. FIL is always handling the packages we send to China such as opening them, checking the items and repacking them to smaller boxes to send to the customer. Every time MIL did this job it was a total disaster as products would just go missing or she would forget to send them/ send them to the wrong customer. Her doing that job for 3 months would be the possible end of our company. Thus MIL will be coming to Germany in order to help us with the kids while my parents are in Finland for the entire summer.

Have you been to Hong Kong or Wuhan?

Be sure to follow me also on Facebook and on Twitter as I will post there occasionally pictures which do not find their way into my blog posts. Furthermore there is also my Instagram account in which from time to time some pictures and short videos might pop up.

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Uncategorized

Terrible start of 2019

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Remember my little post about the Terrible November? It was really a messed up month but thing got better towards the end of the year. However luck is apparently not on our side as new troubles arrived just few weeks into 2019. The only good thing was that these thing did not occur so bunched up as it was in November were one week was just one bad day after another.

In mid January my mother got an injury on her nose checked which did not heal for the past year. They took a sample and cut a layer of skin away in order to let everything heal properly. Shortly after that check up and little surgery she got a call to come back to the doctor. Turns out she got skin cancer and they needed to take another sample and cut yet again another layer of skin away. This was not the first skin cancer rodeo for my mother as she had malignant melanoma when I was 8-9 years old. She spent a several weeks in hospital and got everything removed successfully. Ever since then she had regular check ups but somehow that one spot on her nose was never discovered until now. Thankfully everything turned out well as the one on her nose turned out to be non-melanoma skin cancer in a very early stage. Because of that they were able to remove everything already during the second small surgery.

Mom and dad last year at Nathalie’s baptism

Now we come to February and all seemed well for a long time. In fact everything went way too smooth as first of all my mother was fine again, then my father’s blood values were improving drastically and we even had a week of something like holidays during the Chinese New Year. But towards the end of the month all went downhill again. My wife got a call from her mother that Granny in China got salivary gland tumor and that they could do nothing about it as she is too weak for a surgery. She is same age as my father (turning 78 this year) but she looks about 15 years older and has never done anything for her health. This means that she is already exhausted walking 50m from a bus station to a restaurant while my father bicycles each summer several thousand kilometres. As this tumor was just discovered we are not sure yet how everything will develope from her on. MIL already said that she won’t come this summer to help us with the kids and household unlike the past years. Now my wife and I can not handle the business and the kids at the same time so FIL already agreed to come instead of his wife.

But there is still a slight chance that things might turn out a bit better for granny. The check ups she had a first were done with a CT-Scan and the doctor said immediately that it looks very dire. However few days later MIL took her mother to another doctor for a MRI-Scan and there the doctor said that they can see nothing indicating a tumor, just that one lymph node is enlarged. Next week they will perform a biopsy to make sure what exactly is going on so we really really hope for the best.

Just Nathan feeding a bunny as I don’t know what picture to put here

I must say it would be not the first time doctors in China are exaggerating a bit. Few years back I had a MRI-Scan so the “bone breaker” could pinpoint the problems I had with my neck and lower back (they did wonders during those few sessions as I never had the troubles reappear again). However at the hospital were the MRI-Scan took place they told me that I have some kidney issues. Later at the “bone breaker” they told us that we do not need to worry as that hospital is specialized on treating kidney troubles and most likely only want to earn some extra money for performing more tests on me. In Germany I got later a small check up and everything was fine. Now Granny had last year blood in her urine and the doctor at the hospital said that she has definitely bladder cancer. We got all worked up about it and later another doctor told her that she just had a bladder infection. So through these two example you might understand why we still have some hope when it comes to granny and that it is nothing too serious right now. We have a new month now so perhaps luck is on our side again?

Did you have any experience that a doctor gave you the wrong diagnosis?

Be sure to follow me also on Facebook and on Twitter as I will post there occasionally pictures which do not find their way into my blog posts. Furthermore there is also my Instagram account in which from time to time some pictures and short videos might pop up.

https://www.facebook.com/CrazyChineseFamily

https://twitter.com/CraChineseFam

https://www.instagram.com/Crazychinesefamily