26 - The Cancerversary

It passed quite uneventful really, but I just realized today was my cancerversary. Couldn't really let that pass without making a quick blog entry!

Well, I guess I can say it has been quite the year since diagnosis: we've sold our house in the Southern California (as one of the last people in the US I think), moved into a rental, became a US citizen, had our second baby daughter born, found a new job in the Netherlands, moved from the US to the Netherlands with all the ladies in my life (including dog), my wife received her Dutch "green card", and last but not least.... reached the third stage of remission.

So that's it in a nutshell, happy cancerversary to me and....... many more to come!!

25 - The Good News

Well, the good news is: I'm still alive (you might have wondered, since my last entry was an eon ago)!!!! Haven't blogged for quite some time, I guess you could call me a real lousy blogger and I would have to agree!

So, for a quick update: this blog is no longer written from Southern California, we have changed our digs to the Netherlands! Man it's wet here!! The first week it was still exotic, but give me a break, the novelty wears off quite quickly!

This picture was taken on one of the few nice days. Jill calls it the wheelbarrow bike, which a parent at Ella's school let us borrow, since we were transportation-less and Jill was walking a total of 2 hours a day back and forth to school, thanks to Annemarieke for that!! So, we currently live in Bussum (about 20 minutes east of Amsterdam), which I guess you can could say is the OC of Holland, just with teeny, tiny houses (it's just as unaffordable though). Even the housewives here have their own show, though here it's not reality based and it's all fiction (how else could you match the Real OC housewives!).

Let me rewind a bit for a minute and give you a summary how we ended up here. As you steady readers (all 2 of you) might know, we've been considering a move back to Holland for quite some time (about a year and a half). The Leukemia thing seemed to put things on hold for a bit, but after having lived with it for half a year, we kind of figured: what's the difference following treatments in the US or in Holland. Well I looked into it and it turned out there really wasn't much of a difference, so why hold off if it's something we really wanted to do. Shortly after that realization I received an email from a good friend of mine (who knew I might be lookin' for a job) with the message that, he knew of a job that might be a good fit for me (thanks Pepijn). Well, as it turns out it was, we did 2 interviews through Skype (kind of neat they were willing to do this), after which they flew me out for kind of a final meet and greet and made me a job offer, which as you might gather by now, I accepted.

This was back in June, needless to say we had a thing or two to arrange (first excuse for not keeping up the blog), but though we hit a few snags (mainly paperwork related, passports, customs, immigration etc.), everything that needed to get done got done and we made it over. Two weeks ago all our stuff arrived (no more sleeping on the ground, watching a 3" TV, or sitting on wobbly chairs!!!) and we are mobile again, kind of fun driving around with California license plates!!!

Well that's it in a teeny tiny nutshell. On the Leukemia front I have to say that I happened to find the best GP (the gatekeeper to specialist treatments)! His name is M. Voerknecht, just thought I'd give him a plug (hope he doesn't mind, not that he'll ever know I guess!). Anyway, I contacted him from the US, letting him know of my "condition" and without having met me, or having any insurance info, or being paid a red cent, he went out of his way to set me up with an appointment at my requested medical center. Wow! that was such a load of our backs (the social medicine bit did scare us a bit - Am I going to have enough pills to last? what if it takes a while before I get an appointment/the insurance to get through? are we going to have to send our friends in the US to Kaiser to get some extra pills? (we did hang on to our insurance beyond us being in the country, just in case). Totally amazing that someone goes out of their way to help you, without having met you, heck without even being in the country! Really a true testament to his professionalism, I can't say enough about it!

Anyway, after my first visit to my new University MC, I felt I was in good hands. Treatments are the same, docs are friendly enough and my blood results came back: "Very Good". Not sure what that meant but that was the voice mail I received a week or so ago. Which reminds me: my doctor in the US did my final PCR in the US right before I left and............ Yippie ah "Yeh" (happens to be my Kaiser Dr. name), I am in the third stage of remission!! That was great news to leave on.

So, so far so good. I'm still debating if I'm going to keep up the blog (not that I have been really), it took me a while to convince myself to even write this post. I guess I'll just grant myself the freedom to do whatever I want with it. On that note: au revoir or "tot ziens" (may that be your first Dutch lesson).
Cheers,
Rob

24 - The Survivors in Europe

Our friends are traveling Europe..... Sylvester Style......... 5 adults, 2 children, 1 R.V. designed for 6, 21 days..... You get the drift....

For a few laughs read their adventures at http://www.sylvesteracostaeuropeanvacation.blogspot.com/

I wish them the best of luck, they'll need it!!