Rogier’s Road to Recovery

Friday, July 9 2005

Dear Friends around the Globe,

Rogier is back travelling. I flew back to the US to (re)visit Princeton. It was a special holiday, confronting yet good for the soul. Afterwards there was a small ‘1903′-reunion in Leiden and I prepared for a summer full of travelling! And now I’m writing an email from Istanbul, Turkey.

- Princeton
My 10-day trip to meet up with my friends, family and former colleagues at Princeton was very special as most of them saw me last in the hospital with tubes to my heart and lungs. Very kindly both my cousin Michelle and my Princeton-friend Michelle offered me a place to sleep. It’s good to have Michelle’s around . My cousin supplied me with a car (!) and my aunt Helma with a cell-phone. Together with a credit-card, there is very little else you need to get around in the US.

Chuck, my professor, threw a big bbq-party at his house and invited everyone over. The atmosphere was very relaxed and people had drinks, played volleybal or just sat in the sun and chat. It felt like I was at home. Gennady had brought a ‘New Life’-cake for me! It was fantastic.

Before, Chuck had challenged me to look after his daughter Grace and 12 other three-year-olds with him at the Nursery League School… It was great and very exhausting: the children got to paint, make
birthday-crowns, color flip-flops and participate in a joint music/gym class. I even got to explain a bit about the Netherlands (don’t worry, I kept it pretty) while my professor – an ambitious man indeed – showed them what must have been their very first chemical experiment! That was a lot of fun.

It was quite confronting to be back at Princeton, especially as the campus was in exactly the same situation as I left it last year. The last things I remember doing before being ‘diagnosed and deported’ were attending the reunion-activities (when Princeton alumni return to donate money and reinvigorate their network). Guess what – this holiday I attended
Michelle’s graduation (MSc in Chemical Engineering, congrats!) and saw another reunion taking place on campus ground. Everything was exactly the same. Where have I been last year?

I met up with my doctors and nurses at the Princeton University Medical Center as well; I was surprised to find out they remembered me. I learned exactly how bad my situation was at the time. And that was pretty bad. I also talked to my ‘case-manager’ who told me it took so long to get me my ticket only because British Airways had to do a full background check on ALL passengers boarding the airplane first as I was coming aboard with inflammable stuff (oxygen to breathe, that is). This checking took them three days. I was a terrorist threat.

And I did even more. There was a visit to New York City and a Mets/Diamondbacks-game. I practiced golf and even played a full course with my uncle Dan! That was so cool. He kicks ass at golf and we had a blast at a beautiful golf course with lots of angulation. I really need to practice more and get back to the US to play him again!

- 1903 Reunion
My Princeton-friend Michelle flew over to the Netherlands to meet up with Vincent, my roommate Tasho, his girlfriend Corinna (both from Koln, Germany) and myself for a small 1903-reunion. Henning and Annika couldn’t make it – but we agreed for a next reunion in Chicago next year and they can join then.
Despite the annoying colds and headaches of some, the reunion was very nice. We got to chat a lot and checked out Amsterdam. Both the Rijksmuseum and the Red light district. I think they liked it . I quite broke down as the Princeton holiday already had worn me out completely – the reunion followed instantly after.

- Holiday schedule
Since the reunion I’ve been arranging my holidays with friends and Sanne. With friends were heading to Istanbul for three weeks. And only three days after I return, I’ll be leaving for the West-coast of the United States with Sanne for a full four weeks. This great holiday was planned for last year, but obviously never happened. I can feel both Sanne and I are really looking forward to it, yet are hesitant to fully ‘count’ on it to happen this year.
One of the things I greatly looked forward to during treatment was travelling, exploring the world. ‘Mission Accomplished’ as far as this summer goes .

Last week I learned that I will not be allowed to scuba dive anymore. For ever. That is because patients treated with bleomycin (part of my chemotherapy-treatment) can develop a multitide of lung-related problems when exposed to high partial oxygen pressures, i.e. scuba diving. I love diving, damnit!

Snorkling from now on?… yuck

Love, Rogier

This entry was posted on Friday, July 8th, 2005 at 6:20 pm and is filed under Cancer, Recovery-emails. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.