I didn't have time to finish my thought from yesterday.
If you look up bone marrow on Google you have 3,400,000 choices. Most of them tell ou to donate, and what it is like receiving, and the success stories. Some tell you what it's like donating. I should not have read those. They say that the injections beforehand are painful and make you feel fluish. That it takes two weeks to recover, if not more. That you feel it for many years afterwards.
Thanks for nothing.
On Sunday (5th July)we get to meet the surgeon who hopefully will explain the procedure. And do more tests. And some more.
I looked up Professor Or, very impressive and did a stint in Boston.
I should not have read "My Sister's Keeper". Not at this point in life.
Monday, June 29, 2009
There is a lot going on in the Freedman Family at the moment, in all different directions.
Rafi and Naama had little Hodaya, on Akiva's birthday. Last Shabbat Larry and Matti & Ahron and I went to Carmiel for the kiddush in the Yeshiva. Too much food but lots of nachat.
And Racheli is still waiting and waiting for that baby to come out. It will eventually...
And Saba is sick, very sick. He is in Shaarei Zedek, in the geriatric ward. Funny I don't think of him as a geriatric, that's for old people. OK he is 84 but still. We take turns spending the night there. It's awful, full of groaning geriatrics (duh) and spilled pipi. Menachem's kids do some nights, Matti is doing tonight and I did last night and tomorrow. During the day Elsie (the Philipina) and Adina watch over. Very hard to think of the old man lying there as your father. There is still so much I want to share with him, and know that I never will. Even when he recovers he will be nothing more that the sum of his medical history, because that is what we become eventually. Our bodies betray us, however well we take care of them and feel ourselves invincible.
So there are a lot of emotions floating around, mixed feelings about who needs to take care of Saba and whether we should all take turns, even with the best of excuses, like a wife in her tenth month of labour, or living 150 kilometers away.
Meanwhile Ahron and Matti are doing exams and then going on holiday and having to amuse themselves, Larry is unemployed and trying to set up a business and get some money in, and I do nothing really important.
Rafi and Naama had little Hodaya, on Akiva's birthday. Last Shabbat Larry and Matti & Ahron and I went to Carmiel for the kiddush in the Yeshiva. Too much food but lots of nachat.
And Racheli is still waiting and waiting for that baby to come out. It will eventually...
And Saba is sick, very sick. He is in Shaarei Zedek, in the geriatric ward. Funny I don't think of him as a geriatric, that's for old people. OK he is 84 but still. We take turns spending the night there. It's awful, full of groaning geriatrics (duh) and spilled pipi. Menachem's kids do some nights, Matti is doing tonight and I did last night and tomorrow. During the day Elsie (the Philipina) and Adina watch over. Very hard to think of the old man lying there as your father. There is still so much I want to share with him, and know that I never will. Even when he recovers he will be nothing more that the sum of his medical history, because that is what we become eventually. Our bodies betray us, however well we take care of them and feel ourselves invincible.
So there are a lot of emotions floating around, mixed feelings about who needs to take care of Saba and whether we should all take turns, even with the best of excuses, like a wife in her tenth month of labour, or living 150 kilometers away.
Meanwhile Ahron and Matti are doing exams and then going on holiday and having to amuse themselves, Larry is unemployed and trying to set up a business and get some money in, and I do nothing really important.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Bone Marrow and other Life saving issues
Well, we all do things that make us feel righteous, question is whether we mean it.
Last year there was this big drive for a 14 year old kid with leukemia, donate your your bone marrow and save a life. So I got tested like everybody else, and end of story.
Then this year around Rosh Hodesh Sivan (end of May) I got this phonecall. I was in a lesson and like a good teacher I didn't notice a call from a J'lem no. I tried calling back but no reply, so I left it.
Then the next morning, again, only this time I was in the car (yes, I do have hands-free), and someone called Ruthi said she was calling fromHadassa Ein Kerem about bone marrow transfer. Now the noise was awful and at first I thought that I needed to have one (I had just had a mammogram and forgot to pick up the results. Obvously a mammogram doesn't give that kind of infprmation but go figure when you're in the car and cant hear properly).
So then she explained that I was a match for someone and was I willing to donate. I had no idea what that meant but hey, life is all about experiences. Ruthi asked if could come to Hadassa (HEK) to do some blood tests, or could she send me some tests to do. I suggested she send via Freda Ganz, who is a darling friend but also head of some sort of nursing program, and she lives on the Yishuv.
Freda brought back this package, like lots of test tubes and cotton wool and instructions and you name it. Freda teaches nursing but it's been ages since she's actually taken blood. So I took the kit over to Deena Schwartz who is a real life nurse with the heart of an angel. She sat me down and took blood and more blood and more blood. Then I had to take all that back to Freda who would take it to HEK and snd it over to the faculty.
Tamar happened to come to Israel on that day, she came for a wedding or something. So I told her about it, and she said that she had the same call just that week. So we are both in the same donor bank. They told her that it was for a 25 year old male with a long-named illness. (Later I discovered that we were giving to the same guy). Trouble was, she was in Israel and her doctor etc are in the States so she couldn't give. She wouldn't have minded, always generous.
So we sent back the blood and then nothing happened for two weeks.
Then, can't remember when, say a week later, I got a letter, saying that I matched and thank you and could I go through with it. So then I started taking things seriously.
Last year there was this big drive for a 14 year old kid with leukemia, donate your your bone marrow and save a life. So I got tested like everybody else, and end of story.
Then this year around Rosh Hodesh Sivan (end of May) I got this phonecall. I was in a lesson and like a good teacher I didn't notice a call from a J'lem no. I tried calling back but no reply, so I left it.
Then the next morning, again, only this time I was in the car (yes, I do have hands-free), and someone called Ruthi said she was calling fromHadassa Ein Kerem about bone marrow transfer. Now the noise was awful and at first I thought that I needed to have one (I had just had a mammogram and forgot to pick up the results. Obvously a mammogram doesn't give that kind of infprmation but go figure when you're in the car and cant hear properly).
So then she explained that I was a match for someone and was I willing to donate. I had no idea what that meant but hey, life is all about experiences. Ruthi asked if could come to Hadassa (HEK) to do some blood tests, or could she send me some tests to do. I suggested she send via Freda Ganz, who is a darling friend but also head of some sort of nursing program, and she lives on the Yishuv.
Freda brought back this package, like lots of test tubes and cotton wool and instructions and you name it. Freda teaches nursing but it's been ages since she's actually taken blood. So I took the kit over to Deena Schwartz who is a real life nurse with the heart of an angel. She sat me down and took blood and more blood and more blood. Then I had to take all that back to Freda who would take it to HEK and snd it over to the faculty.
Tamar happened to come to Israel on that day, she came for a wedding or something. So I told her about it, and she said that she had the same call just that week. So we are both in the same donor bank. They told her that it was for a 25 year old male with a long-named illness. (Later I discovered that we were giving to the same guy). Trouble was, she was in Israel and her doctor etc are in the States so she couldn't give. She wouldn't have minded, always generous.
So we sent back the blood and then nothing happened for two weeks.
Then, can't remember when, say a week later, I got a letter, saying that I matched and thank you and could I go through with it. So then I started taking things seriously.
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