Hila part three
Recap: Born with Downs and a serious heart effect, Hila was later diagnosed with AML. She came very close to losing her young life during chemo treatment but was finally stabilized.
Life is a series of tests. They are purpose in this world. Apparently we were ready for the next one. Again, Hila didn’t feel well. I decided that I’m taking her to the Emergency Room. I had never before initiated a trip to the ER. It was always the doctors who’d sent me there. This time, I came to the ER and said, “I must know here and now what’s going on.”
In the middle of the night, we got the results of the blood work. I called the pediatrician at midnight to understand what was happening. Waiting for morning was beyond the capability of my battered spirit.. The doctor looked through the test results and asked them to send her for another few tests.
Then he spoke to us with special sensitivity and humaneness: “I don’t know how to tell you this… The leukemia is back…” He didn’t conceal from us that when the illness recurs, it is very aggressive. It was a total shock for us. In children with Down syndrome, the illness almost never returns after recuperation. Now we faced a single option – not a simple one, and full of many risks — a bone marrow transplant.
We entered the transplant track, feeling that we were standing before the unknown. Still, we made a courageous decision that for Hila, we would brace ourselves and transmit only strength and joy to her.
The Jewish nation enveloped us with unbelievable love. Hundreds of people wanted to donate bone marrow. Thousands of religious resolutions were made for her recovery.
In a twist of fate that only Divine Providence could have orchestrated, the day of the transplant was set for the yahrtzeit (anniversary of death) of my grandmother, the tzadeket. The whole family went out to the cemetery for the hilula, and we went to the transplant. We felt that Savta (grandmother) was working for us from Above. We knew that nothing is by chance.
The bone marrow we received from an anonymous donor was accepted by Hila’s body. At the beginning, we didn’t know who the donor was. We just understood that he’d been found via Ezer Mizion’s International Bone Marrow Donor Registry at Oranit. In order to maintain discretion, the rules are very clear; there was no interaction between us and the donor.
After the transplant, Hila underwent a month of torment that is hard to describe in words – pain, sores, loss of weight. She went down to a weight of almost 22 pounds. But baruch Hashem, Hila was granted life!!!
After almost two months of isolation in the hospital, we were allowed to go home but only if we maintained complete isolation there. Life stopped. Work, studies, routine — everything was put on hold for Hila’s sake. At the same time, we learned to do everything so as to strengthen our home. This is our “rock.” Our safe place. Despite all the support of Am Yisrael, the primary fear for Hila’s fate weighed on the two of us. Every difficulty was an opportunity to grow. We become higher level people when we accept the challenge with both hands and choose to place our faith in the Master of the World.
Today, Hila is a sweet six-year-old girl. Anyone who meets her is captured by her. She is adored by all. (To be continued.)
