{"id":4278,"date":"2017-11-15T17:01:10","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T22:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/?p=4278"},"modified":"2017-11-15T17:01:10","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T22:01:10","slug":"a-journey-we-didnt-plan-part-2-taken-from-the-diary-of-nechama-spielman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/a-journey-we-didnt-plan-part-2-taken-from-the-diary-of-nechama-spielman\/","title":{"rendered":"A Journey We Didn\u2019t Plan \tPart 2      taken from the diary of  Nechama Spielman"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_4265\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4265\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/diary-Nechama-Spielman.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4265 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/diary-Nechama-Spielman-300x300.png\" alt=\"diary Nechama Spielman\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/diary-Nechama-Spielman-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/diary-Nechama-Spielman-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/diary-Nechama-Spielman.png 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4265\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diary of the wife of a cancer patient as she journeys through the nightmare that has overtaken her life<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We\u2019ve landed. We\u2019re now officially residents of the planet called <strong>Cancer<\/strong>. For the next few days, we move quickly from one test to the next, trying to obtain a clearer picture. We encounter the state of uncertainty and try to slow down the rapid beating of our heart, the heart that wants to know, to know right now &#8211; will he live or will he die? A ton of thoughts are running around inside my head, spinning out of control.<!--more--><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4279\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4279\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/hospital-in-Israel.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4279 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/hospital-in-Israel-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"hospital in Israel\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/hospital-in-Israel-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/hospital-in-Israel-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/hospital-in-Israel.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4279\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The frightening world of hospitals<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>And Yigal \u2013 is weak. All at once, he feels very sick. As if his body had finally gotten the \u201cgo-ahead\u201d for what he\u2019s been feeling and repressing for such a long time. \u201cYes, you\u2019re allowed. It\u2019s for real. You\u2019re sick.\u201d He is <strong>hospitalized<\/strong> for a full week. A week that helps him \u2013 us &#8211; digest the situation and become needy &#8211; a word so foreign to us.<\/p>\n<p>It takes a month and a half until the radiation starts. Yigal loses 55 pounds. He is basically fasting, drinking only natural organic juices, together with gallons of natural extracts, at the recommendation of a healer dear to our hearts, who thinks that there is a good chance that this treatment could reduce the tumor. The <strong>radiation treatments<\/strong> begin. Thin and tired \u2013 both of us &#8211; , we sit on the armchairs at Tel Hashomer. A huge room, packed with people like us who have come to avail ourselves of the kindness of the healing rays awaiting us behind the scary door \u2013 the one with the \u201cskull and crossbones\u201d sticker.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1242\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1242\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/pr-bldg-DG857317.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1242 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/pr-bldg-DG857317-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"pr bldg DG857317\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/pr-bldg-DG857317-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/pr-bldg-DG857317.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1242\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Loving and caring support for the cancer patient and his family<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One day follows another. From radiation to radiation, the body gets weaker. Thanks to Hashem, we\u2019ve found ourselves an island of pure good, where we can put down our tired heads: Ezer Mizion\u2019s Oranit guest home, which saves us the difficult drives home and pampers us with comfortable beds, a spacious suite, and good meals. It gives us a place to rest the aching body, to have some quiet time together, to recharge our batteries, to try and catch our breath. We encounter an entire world of <em>chessed<\/em> that works tirelessly with one goal in mind: to ease our plight as much as they can. They drive us back and forth to the hospital and even provide psychological therapy to help us come to terms with the new reality.<\/p>\n<p>And at home \u2013 the children. We thought we could protect the children, isolate them from the challenges of this world, wrap them in soft cotton, put off as long as possible the encounter with the tough side of this world, enable them to cavort in their childishness and not to grow up too fast. So we thought.<\/p>\n<p>All at once, their strength comes out, little and big. Calm, cheery mornings are recorded in photos that they send to us, trying to conquer the distance from the hospital to our home. They gladden our souls and fill our hearts: Lively shouts from the pool, the table set for supper, hugs, funny faces, a cup of hot cocoa\u2026all sent electronically enabling us to share in their lives. A special togetherness that they created in our absence.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 612px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"img\" src=\"http:\/\/media.istockphoto.com\/vectors\/tree-growth-vector-diagram-vector-id510794964?k=6&amp;m=510794964&amp;s=612x612&amp;w=0&amp;h=fS0_d0SOxPOjoWSvGhh3akfRZvvHMGDhQLXWHXqRazM=\" alt=\"\" width=\"612\" height=\"357\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Growing from challenges<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Sharing with us from afar, they come close, close to our hearts, moving, amazing, sharpening and reframing our view of their capacities, of how much they are capable of doing. We realize that we have no real way of controlling what happens with them or with us in this world. If so, perhaps it would be better for us to let them fly, <strong>grow from the challenges<\/strong>, learn about themselves, become aware of the tremendous strength within them. We are really awed by them.\u00a0 We see them on rare moments. They are growing.<\/p>\n<p>We are beginning to see that this unexpected journey is taking us and our sweet family to places we never saw before. The Driver is HaKodesh Boruch Hu (G-d), his employees are the angelic Ezer Mizion messengers who arrive at our doorstep to do what we are no longer capable of doing: homework with the kids, shopping for shoes, a fun trip here and there, Ezer Mizion\u2019s summer camp for the whole family to re-bond together. We accept it all, knowing that it is Hashem\u2019s plan for us now. Someday we hope to be on the giving end. 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\/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019ve landed. We\u2019re now officially residents of the planet called Cancer. For the next few days, we move quickly from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4,948,875,949],"class_list":["post-4278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancer-support-division","tag-cancer","tag-grow-from-challenges","tag-hospitalized","tag-radiation-treatments"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4280,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4278\/revisions\/4280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}