Allan´s Weblog

It's been a long time for sure - but today Google decided to open virtual access to Denmark via Google Street View.

So, now you will be able to travel to Denmark and visit the homes of the Danes you know on your computer.

You could begin with dropping by my home in Risskov, northern suburban Aarhus. Now, go here - and when done type "nordre strandvej 111b risskov" in the search frame and drag the yellow man to the mark showing my home.

I have visited many other bloggers' cities and places while reading entries. I find it interesting to see everyone's daily environment - even if it's just a crummy picture on a computer screen. I usually take a stroll in the surrounding neighborhood, or I look at the shops, the architecture, the way things are organized - in short I like to get a an impression of the lives people are living judging from what I can see as a passer-by.

Better than nothing, right?

Phew! Where to start and where to end?

I will start by telling you all that I've just landed in my home after two weeks in hospital. Sunday morning after New Year I woke up and couldn't breathe. Simple as that, no air available for me. I have never experienced anything like that. I could drag that air in and out of my body, but I couldn't use it for anything at all. Some kind soul made an emergency call on my behalf, which made three vehicles with horns and blue lights appear at my home in under five minutes. Within another minute a lab was set up in our living room, an oxygen mask was strapped around my face, a heart monitor attached to my body and at least 5 people were occupied with sticking needles in me full time.

I must have looked like a clone between a hedge hog and a spaghetti dish.

But the oxygen mask did the trick. I could breathe normally once again. Sweet Mary, what a relief. I was driven to the hospital and an hour later the diagnose was ready - I had multiple blood cloths in my lungs, which caused me to lie on my back this last fortnight with oxygen and medicine at hand. The blood cloths soon developed into a hefty pneumonia. Antibiotics - and very much of it.

What is really important in this are two states of mind I've experienced during these two weeks. Sunday morning - or the 10 minutes without enough air to be exact - I prepared myself to die. I understood that this just might be it, the final curtain. I thought that if this was my death, it was okay; I was ready. I just told God that if it wasn't too much trouble, it could just as well be happening quickly, since it was a rather uncomfortably state to be in. Please. That was when the ambulance arrived.

The other important state was when I realized that I, once again, was given more time. All my time the last two weeks with vomiting coagulated blood, being scanned, pain and discomfort, I have done whatever I could to experience with all my senses the love of friends and family by my bed, the kindness of the doctors and nurses and the sensation of still being able to see the sun rise every morning outside the window next to my hospital bed.

Gratitude toward my creator overcame all the discomfort by far.

And now I am even back in my home again. I feel fine, yet tired. Also my sweet wife is sitting next to me, insisting that she is happy that I am here. Was it worth the while, you may ask? Yes, it was. The day this damned disease takes me out, I will be ready - but right now we've cheated it once again. Not yet, cancer. Not yet. And when you one day succeed in all your efforts, you will only fool yourself. You will die together with me, you know. Love will prevail, though. Love is stronger than death and will overcome all suffering.

Trust me.