Fancy Schmancy Pictures

Since I started taking Tamoxifen, my left knee has been bothering me with a nice nagging pain. I explained this to my Oncologist in January but he felt that since it was just one knee, and not all my joints, that the Tamoxifen wasn't to blame. He advised me to go to my regular doctor.

After a visit to my regular doctor, she wanted an X-ray of my knee, so I had to go to the Herning hospital for the X-ray. But, nothing was apparent from that little black and white picture and she decided to send me off to an Orthopedist.

So, earlier this week, I trotted off to Viborg Hospital to meet the Orthopedist. I had a 9:15 am appointment so I brought along my Kindle, and the paperwork they had sent me by mail, figuring I'd have to sit awhile. When I got there at about 9 am, the receptionist surprised me by greeting me in English - she must have read my file because I hadn't yet said a word! She told me to sit in section 4 and I prepared myself for a wait. Before I could even get a pen from my bag to fill out papers, they called me in - yeehaw! After a 15 minute consultation with the Orthopedist, he decided that I needed an MRI of my knee. He then explained that I would have to go to the private hospital in Viborg for the MRI and that it would be about a 2-week wait. That was on Tuesday.

Yesterday morning (Wednesday) I received a call from a private hospital in Herning asking me to come in for my MRI today! She explained that the wait time in Viborg would be too long and that my file had been sent over to them instead. I have to tell you it's quite handy to live smack in the middle of these two cities!

I have never had an MRI before and I wasn't quite sure of what to expect. I arrived at the hospital this morning and I have to say, the place was much smaller than I had anticipated. The MRI machine was actually a portable unit that was in a trailer in the parking lot. Once inside, it was just me and the technician. I had to lie down on the machine and then she put all kinds of braces and straps around my knee. She gave me some headphones to wear so I could listen to music to counteract the noise of the machine. She was telling me everything in Danish, which was okay as I was understanding the majority of what she was saying. There was, however, one thing I definitely misunderstood. When she explained it all, she said I had to be perfectly still and I was sure she had said it would take about 2 minutes. I'm thinking.. no problem!

Problem. 2 minutes and 20 minutes, in Danish, sound a bit similar. So, as the machine is cranking away, loudly, and I was listening to the 3rd song on the headset, it soon hit me that she didn't say 2, she said 20, and I was going to be stuck here for a bit. Oh well, there wasn't anything uncomfortable about any of it so I didn't care.

Next thing I knew, she was waking me up. Yes, despite the songs in my head and the very loud machine, I managed to doze off. I'm sure I'm not the first to have done that!

Any publicity is...

Let me begin by saying that I attempted to find the perfect image for this post... I failed. My image search yielded results that just weren't fitting. Sigh.

The local newspapers often have articles describing a new business that has opened in the area. It's a great thing for the local proprietor as it gives them a bit of free publicity. And, you know the saying, any publicity is good publicity. Or is it?

This week's paper features an article regarding a woman who has opened a new sexology and partner's therapy clinic. The article includes a photo. Some may choose to visit the new clinic based solely on the proprietor's looks, which would make sense, as she's an attractive woman.

But, if you go on to read the text that goes with the photo, well... I'll let you decide. Here is a bit of what was written (translated from danish):

[Owner's Name], 33, who is divorced, is the mother of 6 children.

This is definitely the person I'd turn to for relationship advice! Umm, not.

Translating the Olympic Games

Literal translations are always a bit scary and they tend to be less than accurate, but they're still fun to do if for no other reason than a good giggle. I've been surfing the Olympic television listings for Denmark attempting to figure out which events I will be able to see - everything is generally broadcast live and with Vancouver 9 hours behind us, that makes viewing some events a bit tricky.

For example, the opening ceremonies were broadcast here - they started at 3 AM this morning.

Today begins the first day of competition in the Vancouver games. I love the Olympics. I miss the US coverage, as I've previously explained, but hopefully, as most of the exciting live events will happen here in the middle of the night, they'll do some recapping during normal waking hours.

If you're checking TV listings in DK, today's scheduled event is/was styrtløb. For those of you who don't possess a danish to english dictionary in your head, the literal translation of that is...

Crash Run

Yep, that's what the 'downhill' is called in Danish. That sounds a wee bit more frightening than the word downhill!

As of now, I hear the event has been postponed due to rain... which is a bit odd, considering every other place on the planet seems to have freakish snow at the moment.

I'll just go back to checking the listings and see what other strange names I can find for the events!

Let's catch up, shall we?

Forgive me readers for I have failed... It has been one month since my last post. Each day that goes by I feel like I should get in here and write something, but then I think... where do I begin? What do I write about? What is worth mentioning and what isn't? So, rather than write, I procrastinate, which only compounds the problem. Anyway, you know the drill! So here I am.

This may end up to be a bit of a long post - or not - depending on how much I feel like typing. So there's your warning. If you'd prefer to just skip to the end, I'll understand, though I can't promise that the end of the post will be any better than this part right here as I haven't written it yet. It might suck. And then you'll be disappointed and upset that you missed all these tasty little tidbits here in the middle. Your choice!

Let's start with the elephant in the room... breast cancer/ brystkraft. For those who may be wondering; I am feeling good! My nails are coming back (slowly), my hair is coming back (grey) and Denmark has gotten over the hump of winter's darkest days, meaning that the light is coming back! I had my first post treatment check-up in early January and the doctor says "everything is as it should be". And... I have an appointment at the end of this month with the plastic surgeon to see about getting me a new fangled boobie to replace the one that tried to kill me.

It all seems a bit surreal at this point. I knew I wasn't one that was ever going to drape myself in pink and run around screaming "I'm a Survivor" but I did feel like, at some point, there might be some kind of epiphany or something about all of this. But nope, I just did what they told me to do, took the treatments they told me to take, and here I am on the other side. Weird, huh? So enough about that - let's get on to the fun stuff!

As previously noted, my parents were here for the holidays. My mother happens to have a great talent for sewing so we decided to make full use of that talent! She brought some fabric with her that I had purchased long, long ago and magically turned that fabric into duvet covers for our bed... in 1 day! Amazing. Then we put her to work on some drapes for my newly painted living room - okay, it's been a few months, but that's still 'new' relatively speaking. Anyway, after some extensive browsing, I found fabric I liked and she started on one 'test' drape. I decided immediately that i really liked the direction things were headed so we went back to the store to get enough fabric to do all the drapes, only to find out this particular fabric can't be re-ordered and they only have what they have. They checked the inventory of a few other stores and there was just enough in the country of Denmark for us to finish our project. Unfortunately, we didn't get it all while my parents were still here so we now have a big bolt of fabric that will be shipped to the states. (There's that procrastination thing again!) My mother will then work her magic and in August, when the family comes back, I may just be able to hang some drapes! How exciting is that?!

Speaking of August, everyone is coming. Yep, the whole clan. This means my parents, my oldest brother, his wife and my nephew, and my other brother, his wife, my other nephew and my two nieces. Holy travelers, that's a lot of Americans in Karup! What's the big deal? Well, this June my parents will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary and they have chosen to celebrate the happy event by having the entire family travel to Europe to visit us. My parents will come by plane but will travel back to the US by cruise ship. What a great cruise that will be for them!

Still here? Still reading? Whew, haven't lost you yet! Here's the good news for you... you've reached the end. My enthusiasm for this current post has waned so it's probably better to stop now then to babble on endlessly about things that aren't important or interesting. I'll try to come back more often; I've got a few ideas rattling around in my brain so I'll see what I can do to make that brain-to-finger connection.

Don't take this next part personally... it just means "the end" in Danish...

SLUT!