In The Brig!

What does it mean “in the brig”?

Brig generally means jail in the Navy.

But it can also mean the military equivalent of house arrest. Meaning being confined to quarters. It is also a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. Somehow all related to the Navy…

The hospital I now stay and write you from is called Brigham & Women Hospital (BWH), adjacent to Dana Farber Cancer Institute where I have been treated for over 3 years.

So I call BWH The Brig, for short.

Little did I know that I will spend here a few weeks in a small room in solitary confinement!

The last time I wrote in my blog I was in the middle of cycle-1 of the heavy-duty chemo: 5 days in The Brig. This is part of the preparations for the stem cell transplant.

I was supposed to rest 3 weeks at home and get into cycle-2.

Plans do change!

After a great week at home, I got high fever and was re-admitted to BWH. This time for 10 days! Very long 10 days in the brig!

This was a setback.

I had plans!

We were all supposed to meet in Israel: Shoshi, Inbal, Iris and later myself. My trip plans were quickly axed.

A day after I was admitted, without knowing that it will be a long stay in the brig, Shoshi was supposed to travel to Israel. She really didn’t want to go and I had to convince her that I was in good hands, she needed to start her dental treatments in Israel, see all the family, meet Inbal an Iris. If needed, she could cut the visit short and come earlier. I am sure that it was a hard decision for her and very reluctantly she agreed.

It is also in line of my motto: life goes on, business as usual.

10 days in a small room is definitely a mental exercise. I adopted a life style of a prisoner in terms of having a schedule: eat, work, rest, work again, walk in the corridor, eat, etc.

Schedule is a purpose and helps a lot.

Thanks to Skype, I could communicate with Shoshi, family and friends which was so important to me.

Our wonderful local friends came to see me, brought me some snacks and my bridge team played with me in line with our tradition of the weekly schedule. It was great just to sit and talk with friends.

Lior came from college to be with me over the weekend which was great. I had to negotiate a permit to go out of BWH for a short trip. Lior took me for a walk, good ice-cream, some fresh air and sun. Most important - a good exercise to my flimsy bones.

During the last month where some of my blood parameters deteriorated, the doctors changed many of the medications and stopped me from taking the Maitake immune system booster pills that I took as a supplement. Just as a precaution.

After 5 days at BWH they gave me a permit to continue using them. It was at the right time.

Looking at the results on a daily basis and using an Excel to plot the progress, it was clear to me that my release is not around the corner. That didn’t look good and I was already a week on the brig. So I started negotiating the terms of an early release citing my unique case. If you recall, I was called “a very healthy-sick person” because many of my systems are in a very good condition, in spite of the long disease.

And so, the medical team, with a push from my physician, agreed to a lower threshold and terms. With the Maitake and some luck, this threshold was quickly met after 2 days and I was a free man. Hana came to pick me up and I remember the sensation of being out in the air, riding a car, seeing the things outside that you will never pay attention too.

At home sweet home, recovery was swift.

No IVs and pipelines into the body, good night sleep without the IVs beeping, without thinking which side is it OK to roll over, good food that friends brought me every day, good coffee, and basically freedom and peace.

While recovering at home and in BWH, I got some nice cards as well as tasty packages from friends and relatives. Thank you all!!!

This was very important step in getting stronger for the next cycle of chemo.

In parallel, the search for a stem cell donor was in full swing.

I am grateful to all of you who participated with all your hearts to register and save a life.

I was amazed to learn that Israel has the 4^th largest database of registered donors in the world in absolute numbers! Go figure out!

Thank you Ofer T. and your dedicated staff for pushing my cause. Also thanks to Ofir B. in Israel that got the info from Ofer and put her energy and heart to support me. Thank all the others who were already registered. Stem cell donation is relatively a simple process that takes a very small quantity of blood and can save someone’s life.

One afternoon I got the most exciting phone call from the coordinator of stem cell transplant in Dana Farber.

She said: “Iris your sister isn’t a match. It is close, but not good enough. However we found a perfect match for you in the US!”

I new it was too early to celebrate, but this news was received with a huge sigh of relief. After all, there are only 15 million registered donors in the world. To qualify, the donor has to be tested again, agree to the process, be healthy, not pregnant and not busy during the time that we’ll need his stem cells.

Still, very good news! By the way, it will be only after a year that I will be able to learn his identity.

The coordinator also told me that she has received about 30 calls a day from people mentioning my name, asking question, wanting to be a donor, etc.

She has never seen something like that.

As part of the planned preparation for the stem cell transplant, last Tuesday (22 Mar.) I checked myself to BWH for the 5-days cycle-2 of the non-stop chemo.

Lucky for me, my admission was late, so with Moshe’s help we brought Shoshi from the airport and this was a nice surprise to her.

As we speak, I am in BWH for cycle-2, getting 4 chemos 24 hours a day for 4 days. So far so good.! Shoshi brings me good food to diversify the hospital menu and keep me a very good company.

The week or so at home before this cycle made me stronger, better prepared and let me gain a few more precious pounds. If all goes well, I will be out of the brig by Sunday (27 Mar.).

So what’s the game plan?

In 3 weeks I will undergo a series of tests to see if the cancer level is low enough to allow the stem cell transplant to take place. This is a must in order to ensure success. The numbers have to be below a certain threshold. This is the purpose of the heavy-duty chemo cycles that I have just completed.

If the numbers will be low enough, the stem cell transplant process will start on Passover Eve! It will require a week of preparations with chemo at BWH and in parallel preparations of the donor and his stem cells extraction. All in all for me – 3 weeks in BWH and a very long recovery at home.

If my cancer cells are not low enough, I will probably get into cycle-3 for another 5 days chemo, 3 weeks off, tests and hopefully the stem cell transplant.

All in all, a very interesting and a critical period of time during the next 2 months.

In the meantime, I am still in my small room in BWH.

To my Orbotech colleagues: the room has HEPA and carbon filters all over!

I put up on the wall all my posters and family photos to cheer me up.

One of the big mind twisters are the variety of parameters from the many tests. When some of the blood numbers improve, contrary to what the chemo is supposed to do, a strange thought creeps into my mind “is the chemo really working”. Future will tell.

As it has been in every year, Lindsey (Inbal Needham high school friend) is running again the Boston Marathon on behalf of her aunt and myself. Take a look at the link:

http://www.blogger.com/www.RunDFMC.org/2011/LindseyW

Your can see my name on her running shirt, Please feel free to donate as you wish. Lindsey is running with the Dana Farber group, the very institute that takes great care of me since I got ill.

I sense the finally the finish line is around the corner. I am ready and with a bit of luck this long story can be soon behind me. Let’s hope.

Always optimistic,

Yours

Guy