{"id":4213,"date":"2017-09-06T11:49:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T15:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/?p=4213"},"modified":"2017-12-12T14:11:49","modified_gmt":"2017-12-12T19:11:49","slug":"because-of-you-my-children-have-an-abba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/because-of-you-my-children-have-an-abba\/","title":{"rendered":"Because of You My Children Have an Abba (Father)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"helping-hands<\/a>
Success of a bone marrow transplant hinges on genetic matching<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Isn\u2019t every child supposed to have both an Abba and an Ima (father and mother)? Two year old Naomi and her baby brother almost didn\u2019t. Now their mother stood there in tears of joy when she met Aryeh. \u201cBecause of you, my children have an Abba,\u201d she cried over and over again.<\/p>\n

Who is Aryeh? We\u2019ll let Abba tell that story.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a strong, young man with my whole life ahead of me. I was successful, ambitious and ready to take on the world. Nothing could stop me, so I thought. That was before I heard of those three little letters that could destroy the strongest of men: AML<\/strong>. I was diagnosed four years ago and my life fell apart. I couldn\u2019t even leave the house without assistance.\u00a0 I felt helpless. Like a newborn infant. A successful day was being able to eat a portion of food and keep it down. My days centered around chemo<\/strong> treatments and blood levels. My future, that had looked so bright, now might not even be\u2026at all. A bone marrow transplant<\/strong> was advised.<\/p>\n

\"DNA\"<\/a>
Genetics is based on ethnicity which is why Jewish people will match other Jews.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My doctor contacted Ezer Mizion, the largest Jewish<\/strong> registry worldwide<\/a>, to see if there was a genetic match<\/strong> for me. I was one of the fortunate ones. They searched through a database that had over 850,000 registered and one was perfect for me.<\/p>\n

But things began to look up. The blood levels began to look better. I was told I wouldn\u2019t need the transplant<\/strong> after all. No one can imagine what I felt like. Like ropes that had been tying me to the walls were suddenly loosened. I was free! I could go on with life! I began studying for a B.A. in Machine Engineering, something I had always been interested in, and the world looked bright again.\u00a0 There would be a future. I would be part of my children\u2019s lives. The sun shone!<\/p>\n

Two months later, I was deep into my studies when the bomb fell. My count was up again. The bone marrow transplant<\/strong> would be necessary. Without it\u2026without it\u2026I would\u2026<\/p>\n

\"pr<\/a>
A tiny bag of stem cells: L’Chaim! To Life!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That\u2019s when I met Aryeh. Not really. I met his bag of stem cells<\/strong>. The hospital had cancelled his first appointment when my count had been good but he dropped everything when he heard that I did need the transplant<\/strong> and made a second appointment.<\/p>\n

International law does not allow us to meet for a year or two so the picture in my mind of this very special human being was that of a bag of stem cells.<\/strong> I\u2019m healthy now. We met for the first time, appropriately at Ezer Mizion. \u201cIt\u2019s you,\u201d I whispered. \u201c You have a face, a voice\u2026\u201d and then we fell into each other\u2019s arms, two grown men weeping with deep joy as my wife stood there, her face streaming with tears, crying over and over again, \u201cBecause of you, my children have an Abba!\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Isn\u2019t every child supposed to have both an Abba and an Ima (father and mother)? Two year old Naomi and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,1],"tags":[242,904,756,762,9,193,11],"class_list":["post-4213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bone-marrow-registry","category-ezer-mizion","tag-aml","tag-bag-of-stem-cells","tag-bone-marrow-transplant","tag-genetic-match","tag-jewish","tag-stem-cells","tag-transplant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4213"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4341,"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4213\/revisions\/4341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}