It is getting hard to find “news” as the past week has shown, and so the rate of our posts may go down. Be assured that this is a good sign!
As some of you may know, transplant teams at hospitals like to name the transplant date as a “second birthday’’. My transplant was on November 5, so I am officially one month old! And I got a very nice gift for it. On Tuesday, on day +28, I had my first bone marrow biopsy after transplant. While most results will take a week or two to arrive, my doctor (who is at a conference in Florida) asked his nurse to call me with preliminary results that excited him: no lymphoma cells were found! It is the first time in 2.5 years that my marrow seems cancer-free!
This disappearance of cancer cells may be due to the EPOCH chemo I got just before transplant (a biopsy before the last round of EPOCH showed the cancerous cells decreased to 0.36% of all white cells, and perhaps the last round killed the rest). Or perhaps the new immune system helped. At any rate, 0% just means they didn’t see any cancer cell, and some may still be there. As you recall, a major function of my new immune system is to fight whatever cancer cells (old or new), so hopefully it will!
Otherwise, (besides issues which persist which in despite of the good news above and below which I will not mention), my blood numbers continue to rise, and I feel physically better, so we decided I can extend my outings from only outdoors to museums. We take care that we’ll go at times when they are sparsely populated, and that I wear my mask and gloves. So, on Saturday we went to the Guggenheim (the picture with my brother Oded is from there) and yesterday to the MoMA (this is so huge we’ll go multiple times, so we got a subscription). This certainly enlarges options for walking exercise, especially in bad weather, but I must say that so far it hadn’t been so bad, and we continue to take walks in Central Park as well (which surprisingly is better shielded from winds than the streets and avenues).
More family visits are planned for the upcoming Xmas/Hanukkah vacation, but rather than listing them, I’ll wait till they come and we’ll put pictures on the blog. Also, Edna will take a break in Israel from this heavy caregiving responsibility around New Year’s for 9 days and Yuval will replace her daddysitting me again.
Let me conclude as usual with poem translations. As I mentioned, my rate of translations went down considerably, more or less in sync with my health improvement, and so the rate of these parts of the blog will also reduce. Anyway, here are two more poems of Tirza Atar (again, sung by performers I love listening to which I probably didn’t introduce yet on this blog). Otherwise, I will refrain from comments on the poems, even though there is plenty to say…
- The first poem is Sad Town (עיר עצובה). The original Hebrew lyrics are here: https://shironet.mako.co.il/artist?type=lyrics&lang=1&prfid=688&wrkid=2527 . My favorite performance is by her son, the musician Nathan Slor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj53cgcU5zc
Sad town – Tirza Atar
Sad, is the town, it’s so poor, and so sick
At dawn its alarm clocks are ringing at five
Not exactly completely in sync
At dusk, a whispering crowd like a hive
Of its poverty does not cease to speak
At night, together in their white beds
Woman and man, and freezing wind
At night, together in bed
Woman and man, woman and man,
Estranged within
Tired, the city, so tired and full
Is leaning all over its roofs all at once
Satiated and hungry and cruel
At dusk it engulfs a scared dissonance
Large, the city, and empty and full
At night, together in their high beds
Woman and man, and freezing wind
At night, together in bed
Woman and man, woman and man,
Estranged within
Old, is the town, it’s so old, and so young
At once she has opened a thousand eyes wide
And in laughter with fire of tongues
She her residents attacked, wielding such fright
Then so frozen and tall she has sprung
At night, together in their tiny beds
Woman and man, like this song, far away
At night, together in bed
Woman and man, woman and man,
The town are they
- The second poem is Everyday love (אהבה יומיומית ). The original Hebrew lyrics are here: https://shironet.mako.co.il/artist?type=lyrics&lang=1&prfid=462&wrkid=53 . My favorite performance is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bPDhDjag3w
Everyday love – Tirza Atar
Those quiet lies, those little lies
Within our heart they deeply sleep
On the purple water lilies
And wealth of water flowers
They're quietly floating with the current
With sleepy eyes they're slowly floating
Those quiet lies, those little lies
Within our heart they deeply sleep
Then light is rising and illuminates our bedroom
You know exactly who I am, I know just who you are
It's all okay now, it's all okay now
The morning came, a new day dawns
It’s time to move on
Today we'll always tell the truth
Till evening comes
Those very simple things like love
Within our sheltered soul reside
On the crimson anemones
And wealth of valley flowers
They're quietly blooming on the meadow
With sleepy eyes they're slowly blooming
Yes, just like love, those simple things
Within our sheltered soul reside
The light is rising and illuminates our chamber
The light is rising and illuminates our chamber
You know exactly who I am, I know just who you are
It's all okay now, it's all okay now
The morning came, a new day dawns
It’s time to move on
Today we'll always tell the truth
Till evening comes