"Why Did You Drop Off The Planet?" & other queries...

Wow... been a while... don't you hate those awkward moments when you run into a friend you've known forever but haven't spoken to in a while and neither one of you really has any clue what to say to the other past the usual formalities?

Anyway, I ought to just cut right to the chase (a movie-world cliche if you break it down...) and let you know what the hell has been going on these last few weeks. While my last blog entry clearly places my whereabouts in the lovely country of Israel, more specifically the Dead Sea area of Israel, I am no longer there. Nor have I been for quite some time. After leaving the Dead Sea, Gillian & I travelled down to Eilat as planned, spending 5 wonderful days in the sun, beaching it up, eating great food, burning our skin, swimming with dolphins and crossing the border into the country of Jordan to visit the city of Petra. All were excellent experiences (sans skin burning), each with their own detailed description that can only be obtained at the moment by picking up a phone and calling me directly for further info. The reason for glazing over such events will become apparent in a paragraph or two...

After Eilat we worked our way up to Jerusalem, staying with friends, determined to get in one last visit to the holiest city on earth before packing up and heading home. The plan as it stood was to spend 5 days in Jerusalem, 3 in Holon where we would celebrate Pesach (Passover) with Dan Ziv and family, then move on to Tel Aviv for 3 days to visit more friends and explore that city one last time and then head back to Karmi'el where packing up our stuff could leisurely take place over the course of approximately 2 weeks, interspersed with various final day trips in the North and possibly a rafting or kayaking trip down the Jordan River.

But here's what really happened...

During our stay in the Dead Sea & Eilat, I was in constant contact with my mother for various reasons, the least of which was that it is a national law in Israel for Jewish sons to be in constant contact with their Jewish mothers. The main reason was that for a few weeks she had been complaining of stomach problems and had pretty much been feeling sorta lousy all around. While we were in the Dead Sea she decided she had had enough and finally started seeking a doctor's opinion. Long story short (and trust me, it is a VERY long story), my mother was prediagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer. Just in case any of you readers are focusing on the wrong part of that last sentence out of confusion over what a prediagnosis is, let's just get that definition out of the way, shall we? A prediagnosis means that the doctors made their best guess and a "final diagnosis" would be forthcoming after many more tests. Moving on to the part of the sentence that matters, yes, I used the "C" word.

So, at first, my and Gillian's schedule proceeded as planned, mom not wanting to inconvenience our travel arrangements with her little "condition", but once common sense set in sometime around our 3rd day in Jerusalem, a Monday, she called and asked us to come home. By Monday afternoon we were back in Karmi'el, and by Wednesday morning we had packed up our whole apartment and on our way back down to Holon for Pesach. After spending many hours on the phone with British Airways, conning them into changing our flight itinerary and failing, Mom spent 20 minutes on the phone with them and struck success. So by Friday afternoon we were on a plane headed for London. London, you say? When did Thea pack up the condo in CT and move to the UK? She didn't. We had an unfortunate 12 hour layover in the world's greyist city and stayed at the Heathrow Hilton a short walk off Terminal 4. By Saturday morning JFK welcomed us with open runways.

Since we've been home, mom's final diagnosis came in and yes it's true it's ovarian cancer, they think. Apparently these cancer diagnosis' can be rather tricky. They won't really know if it's ovarian in nature until they see how the cells respond to chemotherapy, which by the way we started this past Thursday. 5 more sessions to go...

Overall, things have been ridiculously hectic around here as I'm sure you can all imagine. So far I'm ok and mom is doing alright. We're just glad to be moving forward and finally beginning the treatment so that all of the shitty symptoms she's been experiencing go away as soon as possible. This post hardly does the ups and downs of this journey any justice, but it ain't easy cramming all the pertinent info into such a condensed form. As always I welcome questions or comments just in case you've got any.