Hard to be patient

I am still waiting for the results of the CT scan from last Thursday. I know there was a weekend in there, but neither cancer nor anxiety seem to take the weekends off. I called MSKCC a little while ago and it sounds like the results are there but have not yet been “reviewed” or “released” by my team. I tried to sound as nice and friendly as I could as I begged a young fellow named Conner, who likely spends his days listening to patients like me complaining about how long this takes, to see if he could get through to my team. I also sent an e-mail message to Dr. Iyer, the medical oncologist who seems to be the most communicative. Otherwise, I just wait.

I certainly hope the news is better than what has been on my mind for the past day: the tragic stabbing death in Jerusalem of a 45-year-old fellow named Ari Fuld ע״ה (May he rest in peace). We are familiar with this family in two ways: first, because his father was the Principal of the Jewish Day School in Riverdale that Dina attended in 7^th and 8^th grades, and second, because his mother is a cousin of our son-in-law’s mother. There are simply no words.

Meanwhile, in an effort to pass some time, and actually before we had heard about the terrorist attack, we did manage to go see a movie yesterday, a documentary called “Science Fair.” The movie, which scored 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, tracks nine students among the nearly 1700 finalists from around the world who gathered for the 2017 fair, one of whom, Ivo Zell from Germany, won the top award. The students profiled are a bright and sometimes quirky bunch of high school students, making for a very enjoyable film.

Of course, I still had to miss some amount due to bathroom trips. We have to situate ourselves as near as possible to the exit so that I can come and go as needed without being too disruptive. It was the first time we had tried going to see a movie in a while, and all in all it did not go too badly.

I will pass along my medical update once I have it.

Love,

Rebecca

With much gratitude

I write with heartfelt gratitude to all of you who have responded so movingly to my post yesterday. Your words of encouragement mean the world to me. I will do my best to keep you posted on my progress over the coming days.

Love,

Rebecca

Bumps in the road

I have not posted for two weeks. I wish I could say it was because I was just too busy preparing for the holidays and enjoying the company of family and friends. Unfortunately, this was not the case. About a week and a half ago I had a very difficult few days from which I have still not completely recovered. For reasons I cannot fully understand, I was unable to urinate, which landed me in the emergency room in quite a bit of pain. I was catheterized for a few days and then finally managed to have the cystoscopy that I had mentioned in my last posting. I am now scheduled for a CT scan tomorrow, hopefully to help better understand what is going on and plan the next steps.

Unfortunately, this incident left me completely drained both physically and emotionally. I am only trying little by little to regain some strength. It was not the best start of the New Year.

I hope you have all been well, and wish only the best of health and happiness to each and everyone one of you.

Love,

Rebecca

Delay

I was supposed to have a cystoscopy today but it has been postponed to ensure that I am definitely past a recent urinary tract infection. We are waiting for the culture results and, if need be, I will be treated with additional antibiotics before the procedure can be rescheduled.

Frustrating, for sure, but just another little bump in the road.

Love,

Rebecca

Doubling the fun

When our four older grandchildren all decided to spend the first 2018 summer session at camp, we knew we had to squeeze our “Camp Nana Sabba” sessions into just a few weeks. Short of having four straight weeks, which would have been a bit too exhausting for us old folks, we decided to pair up two of the children. Ella and Maya were the obvious choice. Although two years apart in age, they share many common interests. I think all of us would agree that it turned out to be a great plan.

Because of logistics, Ella came first, on Friday the 17^th. I had a treatment that day but had managed to schedule it in the morning, so we arrived home just around the time that Dina dropped Ella off on her way to Maryland with the other three children. We had a restful Shabbat, including three games of Rummikub.

On Sunday, Barry and Ella drove to Connecticut to meet up with Maya and Ronen and brought her to New York.

Sunday was Maya's 10th birthday!

On Monday we headed over to the Bronx Zoo. They recently opened one of these “TreeTop Adventures.” You can watch a video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGM1MjYjOVY

We spent much of Tuesday at the Museum of Natural History. Of course, Barry and I had seen most of the new exhibits (as well as some old favorites) with Joshua just a few weeks ago, but we knew that Ella and Maya would enjoy them as well, and they certainly did.

After the Museum, I took Ella and Maya over to have their nails done.

On Wednesday morning the girls worked on art kits they had bought at the Museum of Natural History, and then Barry took them to see “Frozen” on Broadway. Needless to say, they enjoyed the show!

Then on Thursday, a simply beautiful day, with clear, sunny skies, low humidity, and temperatures in the 70's, we headed over to Playland. The pictures really say it all. They went on the "Playland Plunge" three times, which is how they were drenched to the bone!

 I found this video of the plunge on-line:

Since no visit to New York is complete without Menchie’s, we stopped for our frozen yogurt fix on the way home.

On Friday we packed up the car and drove up to Sharon, where we spent the weekend with the whole family for the first time in over two months.

Now I am just trying to get through the hundreds of pictures we took and start work on the photobook; I have already done the ones for Julia and Noah, Eliana, and Joshua.

Have a great week.

Love,

Rebecca

So busy

Just want to let all of you know that I am still here. It has been a very busy period, between another treatment and having two of our granddaughters with us last week. Once I have a chance to go through all the pictures and organize my thoughts, I will definitely update. It may take a few days because I have a follow-up cystoscopy this week.

Thanks to all of you who have sent notes confirming that I am still hanging in here!

Love,

Rebecca

BlacKkKlansman

Spike Lee has written, directed, produced, or starred in close to fifty movies, and I cannot say I have seen more than a small handful of them. But his newest work, which he wrote, directed, and produced is definitely worth seeing. “BlacKkKlansman” is based on events in the early 1970s, when the Colorado Springs Police Department hired Ron Stallworth (played by John David Washington, who may look a bit familiar as he is the son of well-known actor Denzel Washington) who sets out on a mission to infiltrate the Klu Klux Klan. Of course, he needs a white colleague to help him with this, and he recruits a fellow, more seasoned officer, Flip Zimmerman (played by Adam Driver) to this role. Together through many twists and turns they actually manage to infiltrate the local KKK chapter.

I have probably noted before that I tend to shy away from anxiety producing films these days, and it was clear that this would be such an experience. But, this film had received such accolades, coupled with the fact that it is based on actual events that are a part of this country’s history, and perhaps its present as well, means that we should find it anxiety producing. In fact, the film ends with familiar footage of our current president attempting to blur the distinctions between right and wrong. This film gives us all a lot to think about.

Love,

Rebecca