When I woke this morning I was hoping for, and expecting, a quiet day. Fat chance of that! Maria had little sleep again (a total of about 2 hours). Because of her continued headaches (not diminishing nor worsening), we are increasing her steroid dose as recommended by the neurooncologist.
For me, at least most of the body soreness had passed. The remaining pain in my throat and referred pain to my ears reminded me of just after having my tonsils removed 4 years ago. Obviously I’m becoming soft in my old age.
One of the mum’s from school collected the kids enroute (thanks Fiona), which freed Maria and I to get to the local medical centre so Maria could have blood taken for one of the tests being undertaken. Fortunately the nurse in the lab was gentle, which relieved Maria. However, the trick here was that the blood usually is only good for 1.5hrs, but as I needed to get to the hospital (at least 30min drive) to collect a pathology sample of the tumour (which would take some time to prepare) and get it to another hospital in Jerusalem, I would require a helicopter and pilot’s licence to give myself a fighting chance! After dropping Maria home, I made my way to the hospital at a normal pace—i.e. following Maria’s wishes. When I got to the hospital I met with our liaison officer (Isaac) and was told it could take 4-5 hours for the sample to be ready. Fortunately, in the interim he was able to take the blood immediately for storage at the blood bank.
Enroute to the hospital I also learned that my work in Australia had approved financial coverage of Maria’s oncology-related medical costs for the time we remain here. That was a blessing and answer to some serious prayer!
At the hospital, a lovely lady by the name of Judit (Pathology admin) took good care of me. It is so helpful having a fax machine at home as we were able to fax consent forms to Maria to sign and have returned immediately. The timing was impeccable because it was just before Maria and Effie headed out with Jo to spend most of the morning at Café Tapuz (‘orange’ in Hebrew), named because of its location within an orange orchid. Isaac was madly trying to arrange the appointment for the ‘simulation’, which from my limited knowledge (I’m sure I’ll be corrected if wrong) involves using a device to best map where to target the radiotherapy, part of that process includes designing a purpose-fitted mask to keep Maria’s head still during treatment.
After about three hours the sample was ready. I was fortunate to be able to pass the pathology and blood samples over (thanks Guy) so it could be delivered to Jerusalem in a timely manner (by this time I was starting to physically slide downhill a bit).
On departing hospital I received a call from my parents. I learned that my father (Henry) has been unwell for the last few weeks with severe coughing, which progressively got worse. A blood test revealed he has ‘whooping cough’ and is now on antibiotics to combat it. It may take some more months before he is fully over it. I would be grateful for prayer for dad.
As Effie is leaving on the 22nd and the vibe from Maria’s mum is that she needs to be here during this initial treatment phase, we agreed that she could come for the kids’ spring break (first half of April). This will help enormously and will be a blessing all round.
After school the kids were dropped off (thanks again Fiona). They immediately headed out for a short park outing with some of their young church friends (thanks Beverly). During their absence, Maria/Effie/I were able to sit and discuss where Maria is at and pray over all concerns raised.
When the kids returned from the park, we quickly got ready to take Gabi to ballet. Ben, Gabi and I headed off, leaving Maria and Effie behind to have their own time. Upon arrival at ballet, Gabi’s teacher was there (who recently had surgery to remove a cancer). We had a brief chat and discovered she is receiving treatment at the same hospital Maria will be. She said she would call Maria in the near future to chat.
While Gabi was at ballet, Ben and I hung out at a local café, which I should add makes great coffee and cakes/cookies. This one-on-one time gave us a chance to talk about how he felt about everything going on. He asked, “Will mummy be okay?” and that he was worried for her. This was a good opportunity to talk him through the need for this upcoming treatment, that we are blessed that God has placed us here is Israel to receive this treatment, and that we will be equally blessed with the doctors in Australia when we return for the continuation of her treatment.
After dinner and dessert, the kids and I went upstairs for prayer time. We got a bit carried away. We started with a short bible study on Exodus; followed by reciting a memory verse (Proverbs 3:5), which they already have down-pat; I randomly chose two passages from Luke 8 (“A Lamp on a Stand” and “Jesus Calms the Storm”) which led to a discussion on what those passages for us; and we finished off with prayer. Gabi was emotional at the end of our time, asking about what would happen if her faith waned. I said I would be there to help her through those times. She asked what would happen when we all get older and I won’t be around (I could see where this was going). I told her that I hoped by that time she would be standing strong in her own faith.
Thinking I had reasonably managed Ben earlier in the afternoon with some challenging discussion and getting through the previous conversation with Gabi, when tucking her into bed she said with some confidence (seemed to be possibly reflecting on that conversation only a couple of minutes earlier in Ben’s room) that mummy will be alright because the cancer is only in her brain and not throughout her body. I had to explain a bit more about cancer, which led her to asking what was in store for Maria. Along the lines of what I shared with Ben earlier in the afternoon, I was able to talk about all the medical resources available to help us fight this disease. These are challenging conversations because for us, God is pivotal in everything and we want to ensure they understand His omnipotence and omnipresence, but not see Him as a “fairy godfather” who grants all wishes like some character out of a fairy tale.
Providing Maria and I are feeling up to it in the morning, we plan to spend tomorrow night in Jerusalem. We won a night’s accommodation some time ago and this will probably be our last chance to visit this awesome city. Effie will take care of the kids in our absence.
As mentioned, this entry had some length (and depth) to it. I’m off to bed to get sufficient rest for our little adventure tomorrow.
