On Wednesday last week we visited Dr. Raza knowing we needed a miracle. He had called Dr. Öberg in Sweden and they had made the plan. I would do three more rounds of chemo with Avastin which he agreed to prescribe as long as we pay for it. Luckily, my insurance company will cover 80% of the cost. We then went to see the oncology social worker to ask if there was any way to get help with the remaining 20%. She said they hadn't dealt with this drug in this way before because I am probably the first one in Canada using it for this kind of cancer. She told us the drug rep was in the hospital that day and she would try to see him. Then the miracle happened. She opened her door and he was standing there. In less than a minute she came back in and said, "Yes, the drug company will pick up the remaining cost". It saves us over $8000 a month.
So, we were all set. On Tuesday I would go in for bloodwork and start the sessions on Wednesday. It was Monday when the rain started falling from the sky in sheets, relentlessly. We walked down our driveway at midnight with a flashlight and saw that the end of it was nothing but a gaping hole. Water was shooting up out of the culvert and the whole Kentville Road was a lake of swirling water. All night the storm raged with thunder and lightning and trees swaying to the ground. In the morning we found out that the Nashwaak River and all surrounding streams had overflowed in a flash flood, blocking the main highway on either side of us and washing out roadways. We were stranded and desperately trying to think of a way to get out when Fred and Connie walked in the door. They had come to rescue us. Parking their truck on an old logging road, they had hiked through the woods along the ridge of the valley and then beat a path down to our house through the thickets. (They are jungle trained!)
We packed a backpack and headed out with them uphill, over brush piles, through raspberry bushes, and across the torrents of water pouring off the hill, guessing most of the way, until we hit the woods road and the truck. Fred managed to drive out over fallen trees and rushing brooks, coming out into the sandpit above the flood waters. From there we took back roads to Stanley and down the Royal Road to Fredericton. You can always, always count on Fred and Connie to solve any problem and tackle anything. By 4 p.m.. I had had my blood work, we had picked up my anti-nausea drugs for the next day and were settled in the Crown Plaza for the night. We even had a little party in our room when Caroline, Bessie, Sylvia and Lisa came over with home-made pizza and drinks. It is now Saturday morning and I finished the first round of this treatment regime. The sun is beaming in the windows, a light snow has fallen in the night, the cat is asleep in front of the wood stove and the waters have receded as if the flood never happened. We are truly grateful for all the pathways that opened for us this past week, both figuratively and literally. All is well.
