Wednesday, March 28, 2007

She's home!

Sorry for the udate lull. Yesterday was a busy full day. I was awakened at about 6 am to go to a birth. The birth was beautiful but we ended up doing several prenatals also that afternoon. By the time I got home it was around 6 pm and I was tired. Studying plans were thrown out the window and I made plans for Ainslee to come over and watch a movie while my family went to see a speaker.

This morning I was able to talk to Ashley herself on the phone! She had just gotten home from the hospital and is doing so much better. Her blood count is at 19,000 which is up from 1,600. Anything below 5,000 puts you at great risk of brain hemorrhaging. Still pray that her numbers continue to go up to where they should be (100,000-150,000)and that the spot where the took the bone marrow out heals well as it is painful right now. Her appetite is not very big at all which makes taking the steroids difficult. She seems pretty perky now but is rather weak still.

Thanks for all the prayers! I know her family appreciates it.

Shalom,
Mel

Monday, March 26, 2007

Monday's update on Esh

Well, it turns out she's doing better than she was but I hadn't been informed of how bad she was. Today she was able to eat half a piece of pizza (impressive to her mom at this point) and with her mom's help she took a shower. The treatment is helping but not at the rate that would let her go home soon. From what Neno (Ash's maternal grandmother) said we're looking at the 5-6 day hospital stay at this point. They had to do a bone marrow test to diagnose what she has and to rule out leukemia. . . She has the best disease out of the possibilites! She was given a local anesthesia and that's all when they extracted the bone marrow which made Ashley nervous and it was rather uncomfortable. Her mom said that they were literally drilling the bone out. They didn't give her the red blood cells as had been the plan at one point because they diagnosed it with the bone marrow test. Her rash is going away thankfully but her face still looks "bad" and so do her eyes. Neno and I aren't really sure what that means but that's what Tammy (Ashley's mom) told Neno. They are monitoring her to make sure she doesn't develop any internal hemorrhaging.

I know the name now and I've been researching it some. The prognosis is good about 80% of the time and I'm hoping and praying Esh is in that 80%. Please keep their whole family in your prayers and also, this has been rather hard on me especially since I was just there and now I'm so far away and she's such a close friend.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

It has a name that I know not but never the less a name!

Hello!
Esh's condition is finally known. They're calling it an "anti-immune disorder." I don't understand all that that implies because I'm getting this info 3rd or fourth hand. What I do know is that they'll treat it with steriods and if she responds well and quickly then she should be out of the hospital soon if not then she'll have to stay for 5-6 days. It's encouraging to have a term for it and a treament plan. She's been in the hospital for a little over a day but when everything's unknown it seems much longer than that.

Thanks for the prayers!
Mel

Update on Esh

Not much new. I talked to her dad this morning just before he left for the hospital again (it was evening their time). He said all they know is that her RBC (red blood cell count) is LOW. Basically she is anemic but that may be a consequence of the condition and not the cause. Aubrey or I had that backwards before. They are going to or have injected a clump of RBCs into her hip which was a test and a treatment from my understanding. John said they still don't really know what's going on and they are running more tests until they can figure it out.

Keep them in your prayers please! I'll update as I get new information.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Prayer Request!!!!!



Esh while I was in Israel.


This morning my friend in Israel (Ashley/Esh) called me to wish me a happy 20th so I was chatting away and she said, "Mel, I wanted to call you and tell you happy birthday but really my parents and I are on the way out the door to go to the hospital." Apparently Friday night before she went to bed she noticed a funny looking rash on her arms. It looked like purple freckles. She didn't think much about it but when she woke up in the morning the rash had spread and she had raised blood blister things in her mouth. A doctor friend reccomended that they go to the hospital to get it checked out but he thought it was a virus. Ash said it was not a big deal she was just going to get it checked out at the hosp. since the docs were closed. I asked her to call me when she got home later. Well, as it approached 11 PM her time and I hadn't heard anything I called her sister to find out what was up. The docs didn't know at all what it was. Her red blood cell count is elevated and they've done a cat scan and several blood tests. She has to stay at least overnight. Last Aubrey had heard they were waiting for the blood test results. Esh was upset before they even left for the hospital because it meant she didn't get to study today. Now that she has to stay Aubz and I are assuming she's really upset about that. Please pray for their whole family! I really wish I was still there with her now!!!!!

Finally pictures!

I've put captions on these pictures but they only show up if you click on the slide show and watch it on slide instead of blogger.

Enjoy!

Thursday, March 22, 2007

So you wanna see more pictures?

I want to post more pics but Slide is "updating" right now so they'll have to wait for later.

We've been doing well and not too jetlagged at all. Last night mom crashed but we've had several very busy days since getting back. I've had two full prenatal days and today I have off to study/unpack/clean my room/do laundry. . . It's hard to beat Israeli food and the fact that there are kosher restraunts everywhere there. We're adjusting but feeling "homesick" for Jerusalem.

Shalom,
Mel

Monday, March 19, 2007

Pictures!

We're stateside again

Hello!

Sorry I quit posting. My plan was to blog on Friday afternoon after everything was closed and Ashley had to go somewhere. Well, when I sat down to do it I discovered that the interenet was down. It wasn't back up until a very short time before we had to leave so I spent the time with my friend instead of online. Sorry!

Our trip was rather uneventful and smooth. We did shed some tears as we embarked on the journey though. As we were packing our stuff in Jerusalem we couldn't figure out if we were packing to leave home or to go home. Jerusalem felt so homelike to all of us. We don't quite understand that because we're not city people but it just felt wonderful to be there. I was asked as on our very last plane today if I would turn around and go back right then. Without batting an eye I said yes! I'd get right back on a plane right now if someone offered a ticket to me. No, I don't just love flying. In fact since I've had some sinus issues this past week landing was very miserable all but the 5th time.

The weather cleared up for our last day of touring on Sunday. We also got to grab some Shwarma and falafel for our last meal in Eretz Israel and then Ashley and I walked down to Ben Yehudah and went to Aroma for a last ice coffee. Too bad I couldn't bring some back with me. I did however have a few shekels to use up so I got some wonderful cookies that come with carmel inbetween two sugar cookies (yummy! Best with ice coffee). At the airport I got a final bottle of Limonana (lemonade with nana which is a mint plant).

We went to the kotel (Western wall/ Wailing Wall) on Sunday. It was rather packed compared to when we;d gone before. It's moving to see so many praying together. Friday we went to Yad Vashem (the holocaust museum). Our guide was wonderful and the museum was very moving. After we left Ashley and I talked about how we'd been so frustrated when we were drenched and cold the day before. Then after being at the museum it seemed such a silly thing to have upset us. I mean, we were able to go back to the apartment with warm food in our hands and in a matter of moments shed the wet clothes and put on dry ones. Yes, we were very chilled and uncomfortable but it didn't last a long time and we had no fear of being killed at any moment.

Well, there's so much to tell. Once I get some batteries for my camera I plan on posting more pictures.

Shalom and thanks for the prayers!
Mel and family

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Snow in Jerusalem???

Yes, it's snowing/sleeting/raining/hailing! We've been soaked through about 3 times in the last 2 days. Makes you thankful for having your own vehicle.

We're having a blast overall though.

Well, I best enjoy the short time I have left with Ashley.

Shalom,
Mel

Monday, March 12, 2007

Pictures maybe!


Alon (IDF soldier), Ashley, Mel.





Ashley, Aubrey, Mel, David. We were at Aroma which is a wonderful coffee shop! So much better than Starbucks.





Jane Meyer and I at the airport in Chicago.






David with Alon's gun.






Hey world,



We're in Jerusalem now. The last two days have been really busy. We left Haifa at about 7:30 am on Sunday and drove all the way to Eilat. That's about a 6 hour drive but we stopped at some places on the way. Sorry, but at the moment I can't even remember where. Today we got up at about 6:30 and left for Jerusalem but stopped at the Dead Sea and Masada on the way. The Dead Sea is crazy! It's so strange to float without having to do all those things we teach little kids to do in swimming lessons.



Oh, we've had felafel twice now for those of you that have been asking! We had some on the Tayellet (boardwalk) at Eilat. I also found several things I'd been looking for at their Shuk!!!!!! Yeah!





Tonight we got to Jerusalem and setteled in some. Then we went for a driving adventure to meet up with our friends from America that had just arrived and were to have dinner at their hotel. We discovered that the Bell's flight had been overbooked so they were stuck in Midland and should arrive here tomorrow. Such a bummer!





Well, I'll try once again to post some pictures.



Shalom from Jerusalem!



Melody and family! We love you all and miss you all too.



Okay, I'm not able to see what pics I'm putting up until they're up so some of these are strange choices. Sorry!

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Sorry It's been so long!

So much has happened since I last updated. I'm sorry but time flies by so quickly.

We spent the last three nights on the Sea of Galilee away from internet access. The funny thing is when you don't have access is the only time that you have the time to use it.

On the way to the Sea of Galilee we stopped at the Jordan River. It was interesting because the first thing we did was read the sign in Spanish. After you've seen so many signs in a foreign language and alphabet you're very thankful for signs in a language that you can at least understand better. Most places also have English so it wasn't that big of a deal but it was something that our family would enjoy!

We went on a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee which was interesting. It was a boat taking a bunch of young school children out and we were just add ons at the last minute. It was neat to think that this is the place that Yeshua was and spoke from and this is where the disciples went fishing. . . We've noticed though that it can be difficult to reflect on things here because people are always around and it's very common to them.

I've been contemplating this blog entry all weekend but it's now 2:15 am and all thoughts that I had have vanished. I am going to post some pictures finally!

Oh, dad did get a guitar in Tiberias and we've very much enjoyed that. It's great to have Dad's music around again.

Last Saturday night a friend of our friends stayed here for the night. He's an IDF soldier scheduled to get out of the army in 15 days! He's rather excited about that but has enjoyed his time serving his country. We were blessed to meet Alon when he was in the States about a year ago. It's rather a rather comforting thought to have a M-16 under the same roof as you. We feel VERY safe here but you feel extremely safe with a gun like that not too far away. Tonight Alon and his sister came for a visit so I got some pics of me lugging the M-16. No worries guys because Alon was holding the ammo I just had Samantha (the gun).

We went to the grocery store without any fluent Hebrew speakers the other day. It was an adventure but very exciting and fun. Dad and mom have both also driven all over the northern parts of Israel and done very well. We drove all along the Syrian border and that wasn't so comfortable but not too bad either.

Well, it's late and I would like to get some shut eye before our travels tomorrow.

Sorry this was so random and out of order!

Shalom and we miss you all!

Mel and Family

P.S. Sorry, blogger's being slow or something and won't load my pics. I'm too tired to keep messing with it. Maybe when we're in Jerusalem I'll have time to figure it out. Sorry! If not then just stop by our house when we're home and we'll show you the pics.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Adventures in Israel.

Hey!

We've been here a couple days now and had some fun. Friday afternoon we got to go up to "Mount Carmel." Technically there is no single mountain called Mount Carmel but a whole range called the mountains of Carmel. The Catholics have a traditional site and that's the one we went to becuase they have a good place to look around on. We could see all the way to Jordan, Lebanon, the coast, the West bank. . . It's amazing to realize how small the country is.

Today we rested and slept in and tonight we went to the Kehila (congregation) for a Purim party. It was fun to see everyone's costumes. Also, the whole sevice was in Hebrew pretty much.

After Kehila we went out to eat. That was a bit of an adventure but I'll wait until we're stateside to share that story. It'll be more fun that way. We ended up eating at a place called Aroma. They have WONDERFUL "Ice Coffee" which is basically yhe best frappuccino ever! Move over Starbucks!

I've taken lots of picutes and will try to download them soon.

Shalom!
Mel and family.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

We're here!!!!!!!

We have arrived! All went very smoothly. We had a delightful visit with friends in Chicago. It's wonderful to meet people that you met online. We had no issues anywhere at all infact most times we took off a bit earlier than scheduled which was good.

Well, I haven't gotten much sleep the last few days and it's approaching midnight here so I think I'll hit the sack!

Thanks for the prayers.