Vienna: Week 2

Writing about our second week in Vienna seems strange as I feel like I’ve been here for ages. Perhaps it’s the routine that makes it feel longer, or the fact that I’m missing everyone back home. Either way, saying “week 2” seems wrong. But alas, we have just finished our second week and I’m here to tell you about it!

Once again, the week at the clinic started off with routine blood tests followed by localized hyperthermia and Vitamin C/ALA IVs. Easy peasy day.

That evening Peter and I decided to get serious about figuring out our game plan for coming home. Dr. Kleef said it would be a few weeks before he would know when I’d have to be back after the Christmas break, but that we would be on break from treatment from Dec 21 until Jan 7. We decided that it would be best for everyone to head home for Christmas. The kids were really homesick and it would be nice to spend time with friends and family over the holidays. We also decided that when it’s time for me to come back for treatment, the kids would stay in Canada and I would either come back by myself or bring one person along with me. Now that I know the area and the routine, being here by myself wouldn’t be a big deal and would beat fighting their boredom constantly.

Peter and I got to work trying to find a flight for Dec 22 which is no easy task! Christmas flights are terrible and crazy expensive. I definitely could have used a drink (or 5) trying to figure those flights out. Peter brought me tea. Not exactly what I had in mind but unfortunately that’s all I’m drinking these days. He also brought me European chocolate. That did actually help. After a lot of frustration we found a couple great flights at a decent price that get us home the afternoon of Dec 22. Yay! We’re so looking forward to being able to come home, see friends and family and have our regular Christmas traditions.

Tuesday at the clinic we started a new treatment of immunotherapy. This is a 6 hour IV and we did 1.5 hours of moderate whole body hyperthermia in between. While hooked up to the IV I did some reading and was interrupted when someone came in the room and asked “English?”. I looked up to see a new patient and responded that yes I speak English. We got chatting and it turns out she’s from Saskatchewan, also has stage IV pancreatic cancer and came to the clinic after hearing Terri’s story as well. What a coincidence! It was nice to have someone so close to home to chat with.

Before I started my whole body hyperthermia, where I like to pretend I’m on a beach just sitting in the hot sun, the nurse came over to me wearing hand lotion that smelled like Mexico. Mood set. Now if only she’d bring me a margarita…

I got changed into my bathrobe to head into the hyperthermia room but this time I was in a different room with a different hyperthermia bed. Instead of a mesh hammock this was a regular bed with a zip up tent over top so that I was fully enclosed.

Inside my zipped up enclosure it looked like a giant thermal bag. I felt like a pizza out for delivery. As the heat was turned up this poor little pizza felt very over cooked. The sweat was pouring off my back so much that it literally felt like I was standing under the shower. Just when I thought it would never end, the lights turned off and I could feel my little pizza bag cooling down. I’ll never look at pizza delivery the same.

After my shower I headed back to the IV room where I finished off the last of the IVs. I went home feeling ok but started feeling worse as the day went on. Nausea was taking hold once more. Thankfully it wasn’t chemo grade nausea but it definitely knocked me out for the rest of the day.

The next day I woke up feeling worse. It took all I had to walk the 10 minutes to the clinic. Thankfully it was another easy day of localized hyperthermia and Vitamin C/ALA. They checked my temperature before I started my treatment and sure enough I had a fever. Later, when talking to Dr. Kleef about the side effects he was very happy. Those side effects mean it’s working.

Another new one on the list for us this week was mistletoe injections. Once my IV was complete the nurse showed me how to give myself the injections. I’d done them a few times through my naturopath at home before he started putting the mistletoe in my IV bag, so this was not new to me. Do I love jabbing myself with needles? Not so much. But I’d also rather be doing this than puking non stop for 10 days. So I’m not going to complain!

That evening we had planned to take the kids to Prater, the big amusement part here, but I just wasn’t feeling up to it. The nausea was still with me pretty bad. So Peter took the kids solo and let me rest for the day.

Thursday I was feeling better and we did another whole body hyperthermia treatment. This one was on the mesh bed and seemed way easier this time. Perhaps I’m just getting used to it? Or maybe I just prefer to be a Christmas present wrapped in gold foil instead of a pizza taken for delivery?

That evening I had an appointment with the cardiologist to make sure my heart was good enough for some of the treatments we are doing. I quickly realized I’m not in Canada anymore when the doc tells me “take off your top and lay on the bed”. No gown, no sheet, just me laying there topless and feeling super awkward. Once I got over that initial shock all went well.

I was happy when I saw that my stress test would be on a bike and not a treadmill. I can’t walk for very long before the pain starts so I wasn’t sure how I’d complete a stress test. Thankfully there were no issues with pain on the bike. Which also means I have a good way to get in some cardio when I return to Canada. I passed the test with flying colors. No heart issues for this gal.

Friday was another localized hyperthermia and IV. After my treatments we had our weekly consult with Dr. Kleef to go over my bloodwork. Once again everything looked good and the numbers we want to drop are still dropping. Unfortunately there was a mix up with the lab so we were unable to see my cancer markers. This made Dr. Kleef pretty upset and we got to hear him tearing a strip off someone at the lab. I have to say this was pretty amusing from our end. I find German to be a language that sounds a little bit harsh at the best of times, so listening to someone get angry on the phone in German, especially someone who is normally so sweet and kind, was pretty hilarious. Probably not so much to the person on the receiving end of the tongue lashing…

As I felt so much better on Friday, we decided to head out to the Schönbrunn Christmas Market since we knew it was actually open this time. It was pretty cold for Vienna, apparently record lows for this time of year (about -5C), so we bundled up and headed out. The Christmas market was gorgeous as suspected. I really liked this one as it was so open and didn’t feel crowded at all like the last one.

We were told that a mug of Glühwein at the Christmas Markets is a must, so Peter decided to indulge. I had a sip and thought it was absolutely delicious. It left me REALLY wishing I could have my own mug. We checked out the rest of the market and decided our treat for the night would be candied nuts. Yum yum.

On the way home we were freezing so we decided we should start jogging to warm up faster. Now I haven’t jogged since before my pain started this year. I attempted to do a little jog in the backyard in June at one point, took two steps and stopped because it hurt so bad, so I didn’t expect this to go well. I’m happy to report that we jogged for about 2 blocks and I had zero pain. And I walked the whole way home from Schönbrunn without having to stop once due to pain. I felt incredible!

The next day we went to city center to check out the Museum of Illusions. Unfortunately for me, there was a bit of a lineup outside before getting into the museum and then no place to sit once inside. This definitely took it’s toll on me. Perhaps I had pushed it too much the night before but my back was just not liking me at all.

The museum was pretty fun. The kids were having a blast checking out the different exhibits and taking pictures with all the illusions.

Once we finished there we walked over to City Hall for the Vienna Christmas World on Rathausplatz.

I was very excited to see this market but this was just not my day. Shortly after arriving I tried to find a place to sit. The market was absolutely packed. We lost Peter and Izak and Ayla had to try to lead me around through the crowds to find somewhere to go. It was so crowded, the pain was getting so bad and there wasn’t a single spot to sit. My panic started to rise and then I started to hyperventilate. I was having my first serious panic attack and it was not good. Ayla was such a trooper helping to get me through that crowd until we made it to the steps of City Hall and found a bench for me to sit on.

Dizzy and weak but ready to go, we pushed through the crowd once again to try to find Peter and Izak again. Thankfully Izak does a lot of dawdling at these markets so we found them in almost the same spot that we left them. We decided food was needed so we grabbed some frankfurters (definitely part of the cancer diet along with all other Christmas market food) and went back up and found a bench to sit on.

We left shortly after without seeing any of the booths, or going skating on the outdoor rink as we’d told the kids we would do. Another day…

After the craziness of the day before, and my back still feeling very off, we decided to make Sunday an at home day. We spent the day lounging, cross stitching and playing games. I had taught the kids to cross stitch the day before and it’s been nice having them turn to another quiet activity to keep boredom at bay in the apartment.

And that’s the end of another week in Vienna. So grateful to be here and so grateful for all that’s happening behind the scenes at home to make it possible for me to be here. ❤️