Anatole arrives

Coming home was a major disappointment. Like a small child I couldn't sleep the night before because I was so excited. I am afraid that at this moment in time I cannot sit up long enough to elaborate, but I am sure I will a little while later. To cut a long story short, I spent my whole afternoon doing more tests (a mammography) and I went for radiation therapy. My experience in the hospital has been painstaking. I have had to be alert continuously to ensure mistakes weren't made. More on that matter later. Anyway after a long horrible day at the hospital we finally made it home at nine in the evening. It was a hot summer day so we opened the doors to the garden. This allowed Anatole to come in. I slept in the living room with Adrienne my eldest sister and in the morning I was brutally startled by a noise in the corner. Quick investigation on Adrienne's part concluded that the droppings found under my bed were definately not mice droppings. At 7.45 (much too early for them to be open) I phoned the Terminator. I found their name in the yellow pages and their name appealled to me. They set a trap with peanut butter which trapped the rodent when evening came. Adrienne who had been so brave to be in living room all day with the rat, somehow could not bear living with a dead rat. Henkie the rodent hero came to save us and put the beast outdoors.

The rest of the week was also terrible. I was insecure about what the cancer was doing and more so...what the doctors were doing about it. I was in pain from the radiation therapy which set me back more than a week. And later on in the week I was terribly disappointed in love as well, thus my being incommunicado this first week at home.

Adjusting to my own environment should really have been enough to deal with. Action had to be taken: I had to sleep, rest etc.. So I spent my weekend at my parents and started over this week.

I finally really "came home" on Sunday night when my friend Frank (since 1986) drove me home and Saskia and Demi awaited me there. They had lit all my candles. Some gifts are truely priceless.