Angels, Shoulder Pain, & Shiatsu

Sunday morning, I woke up with excruciating pain in my right shoulder, different from any pain I experienced before.  The focal point of the pain was deep inside my shoulder, and the deeper I inhaled the more it hurt. The pain felt like muscle pain, and I hoped it would work itself out during the course of the day.  Meanwhile, I concentrated on slow, shalow breathing. 

I slept almost all day, partially because I felt so tired and weak, and partially to escape the pain.

Nothing changed.

Midday, I contacted my friend who does Shiatsu.  She had quite a busy day, and asked if I would be up for a treatment in the evening.  Desperate, I told her she should come whenever she could and I would make it work.

I spent the afternoon helping my youngest daughter, who is really into cooking, go over what she wants to prepare for Rosh HaShannah, make a shopping list, and study for her math test the next day.  I do not know from where she gets her enthusiams about cooking, but I am trying to encourage her and be supportive.  She would rather cook than do math; I would rather do math than cook!  I really enjoyed helping her with math, but we did not have a chance to finish before she had to leave for gymnastics. 

Then my son came home. One moment he behaved so charmingly, the next moment he snapped at me, then he again acted like a perfect gentleman, then he bit my head off, and so on.  I had promised to help him make his lunch, and I was determined to fulfill my promise.  Waking up in the morning to make sandwiches for/with him is just too much for me.  I cannot do it. 

My eldest daughter behaved pretty much the same as my son: pleasant one moment, harsh and critical the next.

My kids completely wore me out!

I could not deal with any more stress.... I escaped into my bedroom.

A few minutes later, my angel friend callled: "Are you still up for a treatment?" she asked, ever so sweetly.

We usually do shiatsu in my living room, but I really needed a break from my kids, so she treated me on my bed. 

For the first time all day, I felt some relief. 

When she finished, I did not want to move.  I closed my eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

At one point, Moshe woke me and asked me if I felt comfortable the way I was lying.  I shifted to a more comfortable position, closed my eyes, and resumed my slumber.  Though I woke up briefly a few more times, I quickly returned to sleep, and slept deaply until the morning.



Please daven (or send happy, healing thoughts) for RivkA bat Teirtzel.

With love and optimism,
RivkA

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In addition to practicing Shiatsu professionally, Idit volunteers her services to me and to the Yuri Stern Foundation.


Idit has a wonderful, warm, and relaxing treatment room in her home.
For regular treatments or to treat yourself to something special:
Idit Amir
077-757-8949
052-660-8442
Idit Amir amir.idit@gmail.com

Angels

"I could help you with this," she said, eyes scanning my overflowing counters.

I followed her gaze. Clearly, I could use some help.

But, could I accept help from someone a did not know, a friend of a friend, who already showed her kindness by cooking a meal for my family?

"I helped E organize her kitchen," she continued, persuasively.

Like a flash, I remembered E telling me how her friend helped her organize her kitchen after she moved. At the time, my first thought was "wow, I wish someone would help me organize my kitchen...."

Now, here she was, this enthusiastic stranger, offering to help me.

I could hear Moshe in the back of my mind, pushing me forward, encouraging me to "just say 'yes'!"

So, I did.

The next time she walked into my door, I felt caught up in a whirlwind of activity.  How could one person have so much energy?  I did not know.  But when she left, only a few hours later, my kitchen counters were clear.

She is one of the angels God has sent me.  She comes when she can, sometimes as often as once a week. 

She loves to clean.

She is not judgmental. 

She is kind, generous, energetic and patient.

She came today. 

Once again, our counters were overflowing.

I have been trying, for several days, to clean off the counters on my own.  I made progress..., but not much.

I do not know how she does it. 

By the time she left, our counters were clean.

"It was nothing" she says, as she breezes out the door, arms loaded with papers, bottles and jars to recycle.

Please daven (or send happy, healing thoughts) for RivkA bat Teirtzel.

With love and optimism,
RivkA

Where the Magic Begins....

I am not a supersticious person, but I did not want to write anything.... until we had our tickets.

Well, now we have them, so I can share our news:

We are going to Orlando!! 

Some very generous people have made it possible for us to go and we are SO EXCITED!!

We have not had a real family vacation for ten years! 

The last time we went to Orlando, we were on the way to my brother's wedding.  We couldn't really afford it then either.  But I had just gotten over a year of post-op infections, following a "simple" hernia repair that turned into a nightmare, including two month long hospitalizations:  the first time for sepsis (by the time my best friend convinced me to go to the ER, I was already going into shock); the second time coincided with Pesach, which I spent in the hospital, away from my kids.  Having such a serious infection (I did not realize I could have died until months later), made me understand that "life is short."  So we went to Disney and Universal and had a magical family experience.

Our kids were really little then.

For years, we have dreamed of taking them to Orlando when they were older.  But we could never justify the expense.

When I mentioned this dream, during one of my visits with our oncologist, he told us "don't wait"  -- not because I have cancer, but because you never know what the future will bring....

Moshe and I LOVE Disney and Universal.  They are our favorite places in the whole world (besides Israel). We went there, for the first time, on our honeymoon.

Moshe's fantasy job is doing programming for Disney (and working in the underground studios).  But you can't work in Orlando and live in Israel.....

I wanted to wait until the Harry Potter park opened, but that will not be until the spring.

The thing is, right now, my chemo is in pills, so traveling is much easier.  We don't need to worry about infusions or how to get them or how to transfer the medication.  But, we don't know for how long this chemo will work.  No one knows what drugs I will be taking this spring....

So, we are not waiting.

If we could, we would go once a year.

There is so much to do in Orlando, and we are such little kids (don't be fooled by these "grown up" bodies), we could play there forever!



Please daven (or send happy, healing thoughts) for RivkA bat Teirtzel.

With love and optimism,
RivkA

Bar Mitzvah Shabbat -- and all my angels

I had thought that I would do my son's Bar Mitzvah basically the way I did my daughter's.

How different could it be?

Well, besides the whole Tefillin thing (which is a subject for a different post), I am not the same as I was three years ago.

For my daughter's Bat Mitzvah, I cooked all the food for the Bat Mitzvah Shabbat in advance. My daughter read torah in our very special women's tefillah group. For the kiddush, friends helped bake and prepare fruit and vegetable platters and I also bought a bunch of stuff (like chumus, crackers and junk food for kids).

Everything was very simple, and very good.

Friday night dinner we ate dinner with immediate family only (and our friends, who were hosting us for that Shabbat). For tefillot and kiddush, we invited EVEYONE we knew in the Baka/Katamon/Talpiot/Rechavia area -- we figured מי שבא, ברוך הבא ("Whoever comes is welcome!"). For Shabbat lunch, we rearranged the kiddush tables and set up for lunch in the same space -- for this meal we included guests who had come to Jerusalem for our simcha and friends who had walked from far away.

It was a lot of work, but manageable.

Cleaning up the kiddush room on Saturday night was the hardest part and one of my very good friends came to help us with that.

This time around, my family encouraged (read: pressured) me to order Shabbat food. I resisted -- most ready-made food is high in oil and salt. I wanted to prepare the food myself, but I had a back-up plan: two months before the Bar Mitzvah, a friend offered to organize meals for us, and she kept repeating the offer every few days .

I thought I could manage to cook the food myself... until I found out about the brain mets and radiation. When I discovered how tired the radiation made me, all illusions about preparing food myself dissipated....

The next time my friend offered to arrange meals for us, I did not put her off. Instead, I took a deep breath and said "Thank you, that would be very helpful!"

I do not know why it is so difficult to just accept help. Even after all this time, it is!

This friend, one of the many angels God has sent me, took responsiblity for organizing EVERY aspect of the meals. The food was both delicious and healthful!! What a bracha (blessing)!!!

As Shabbat approached, I realized I would need more help. I spoke with several friends who were happy to help, but I could not find the time or energy to direct them.

Then, God sent me another angel. A week before Shabbat, another friend offered to take responsibility for the entire kiddush, including making calls and seeing what needed to be done (we have a large community, and I had no idea where to start). Before starting, she just wanted to make sure that I did not feel the need to do it myself.

By that point, I realized that I could not do it myself and gladly gave the task over to her. What a weight lifted off my shoulders! I passed her my list of people who had offered to help (bake, prepare platters, etc.). Then, every time another friend offered to help, I asked her to bake and directed her to my coordinator.

I do not think my coordinator realized how many friends, thank God, were baking/preparing food, because the kiddush was enormous!!

I did not even get a chance to see what there was! I spent the kiddush talking with friends and just basking in the joy of having heard my son read Torah and Haftorah so beautifully. (for more about our son's Aliyah LaTorah (Torah reading) see here)

Only at the very end did I see the beautiful cake my downstairs neighbor baked, with a set of tefillin on it!

At one point, a neighbor handed me a piece of kugel Yerushalmi, but I only managed to eat a few bites. I barely tasted anything, but that was ok.

Someone did make a Napolian pastry (I LOVE custard) and I did get a piece of that! Yumm!!

I took the opportunity to address the community, to thank everyone, both from within the community and from without, especially those who hiked in from Talpiot, Baka, Katamon, and even Rehavia!

The Bar Mitzvah Shabbat was particularly HOT, even early in the morning! I felt so blessed to have friends who trekked so far just to hear our son read and to be a part of our simcha!! I really felt embraced by friends and community.

This time, it was too much for me to try and organize a meal with all our guests, so friends ate with other friends in the community.

Our immediate family ate both meals at our home, where I was most comfortable. We were 14 people: Moshe's parents, my parents, my sister, my brother, his wife and their two kids (ages 5 and 2) and, of course, our family of five. (we have five people in our family, 1-2-3-4-5!)

My sister in law, who almost NEVER goes away for Shabbat, also came in for Shabbat with her family (they have seven kids). They took full advantage of being in the neighborhood. They ate the first Shabbat meals with close friends, from their (destroyed) community in Gush Katif, and the second with cousins, who live a few houses away from us. They did join us for seudah shlishit (the 3rd Shabbat meal), but that is a less formal meal, and we were able to all squeeze in (the kids all leave the table within a few minutes anyway).


Thanks to all my angels, I was able to conserve my energy and focus on the important things:
* Getting to shul on time (I even made it to Kabbalat Shabbat)
* Hearing my son read Torah and Haftorah
and
* Spending time with family

I had a wonderful Shabbat!!



Please daven (or send happy, healing thoughts) for RivkA bat Teirtzel.

With love and optimism,
RivkA