Just a quick short update. BH Eli was finally discharged pretty early today at 9AM after a long week and is extremely happy to be home. Like I have mentioned earlier the next few weeks are goal is to get Eli as much as we can to pre chemo conditions IYH.

Please keep Elimelech Ben Basya in your tefilos this shabos and always. GUT SHABOS

Bli ayin hora today was a lot better then what we thought it would look like and we hope it will continue. Eli rested and slept most of the day and while he was up was for the most part he was happy and not nauseous BH. Eli got in the mood of eating for the first time in 2 days and luckily Rabbi Korf from Chabad of Los Feliz who has been extremely helpful and always comes to visit and to offer his assistance in anyway possible arranged for Eli to have the food he wanted in a few short minutes. It was really nice to see real food and not medication going into Elis mouth and eating it with a smile.

They have finally after 72 hours straight of chemo removed the chemo IV and BH Eli is only now on hydration IV and if beezrat hashem he has a easy good night I have asked the DR on call that makes rounds in the AM to please come see Eli first so that he can be discharged as early as possible. The goal is to have Eli home as early as possible to allow him to start recuperating from this harsh week of chemo as well as to continue his recuperation from 3 weeks ago surgery which he still has a long way to fully get back to himself. It is still a struggle for him to walk more then a few feet as he gets extremely tired and out of breath and his stomach problems have also a long way to go until it is back to normal. We plan on helping him eat as much as possible and also getting him back into the routine of eating as much as possible. Eli weighs the least he has weighed since being diagnosed and we hope to beef him up as much as possible before the next round of treatment which isn’t planned for about a month from now.

The only way possible that Elimelech Ben Basya will continue on the road to a full recovery is if we can accomplish what we would like to as I mentioned above. The only real way that will happen is thru davening and kabalos that we constantly take upon ourselves as do many others and we know that’s how ultimately we will help Eli have a refua shelayma BKAROV

After a very rough night with the nurses, nurses aides, housekeeping and all the staff of CHLA finding stupid reasons to come into the room all night and not allow Eli or myself to sleep they finally had a nice normal nurse take over at 7AM. The morning was a little hard for Eli with some throwing up and having a bad stomach (sadly this has become the norm is his life for now) but BH as the day progressed and the meds kicked in Eli was able to relax and sleep a good portion of the day. Late afternoon Sori and Ari came to hang with Eli and have dinner altogether. At about 9PM after a relaxing bath I took Eli to do what he enjoys the most in CHLA which is to take a long walk around the hospital even slipping outside for a few seconds of needed fresh air.

BH we are now almost thru 48 of 72 hours of this hard round of chemo and hopefully the time will fly so Eli can go home and start the recuperation process once again and hopefully without the predicted side effects. The plan as of now is that sometime on Friday hopefully in the AM Eli will be discharged and will be able to be home beezrat hashem aside from having to go in for appts and scans for about 4-5 weeks.

We are at this point just hoping for one easy day at a time for Elimelech Ben Basya that all side effects or anything else not on the schedule doesn’t happen so that Eli will have the strength, courage and spirit to continue fighting until he has a refua shelayma

We are just about done 24 hours out of 72 hours of round 6 chemo. Most of the day went pretty smoothly but slowly as the day went on it got harder for Eli. We decided to try to be proactive and make sure he’s on some of the medication prior to actually feeling the side effects so that he either won’t feel them or it will be a little easier. The side effect of being on these medications are exhaustion so Eli slept a good part of the afternoon and hopefully will sleep comfortable thru the night.

The plan is the actual chemo will run beezrat hashem until late Thursday night followed by some more hydration and IYH on Friday they will discharge Eli. We have already began scheduling the weeks after that and there is a lot ahead all of which we are hopeful will have the results and outcome of only good news. Eli will be having many different types of scans to make sure that the chemo and treatments are having the affect they are meant to be having.

Mazal tov to my sister Rikki who is engaged to Chaim Stein from Flatbush who for our own selfish reasons hope the wedding won’t be for a while so that Rikki can continue helping us with Eli and the other kids while he goes thru treatment. Unfortunately Eli wasn’t able to be at the vort but we look forward to making up for it at the wedding with Eli being full of energy.

Hopefully the medication will help and that chas vshalom Elimelech Ben Basya should not have any side effects from the current treatment and beezrat hashem the next few days and weeks will continue to fly by as we continue to watch Eli have a refua shelayma bkarov

I was notified this evening of another frum child that was diagnosed with nebach the same disease as Eli and I’m asking everyone to please keep this 1 year old child in their tefilos as well. Her name is Chana Tova bas Esther Shoshana and we should all be zoche to see ALL cholim have an immediate and full recovery. AMEN

This morning we for the first time in a long while we saw some minor improvement in Eli gaining some strength. Bli ayin hora he didn’t need us to carry him for the short distances he has needed us to do lately. The morning was spent waiting at home for the hospital to call us to let us know when a bed will become available. After we realized that there wasn’t going to be an open bed in the AM Eli went for ice cream with Bassy and really enjoyed getting out.

Finally at 3PM we got the call that an open bed was available for Eli. After going thru the admission process Eli finally settled into a bed at about 5PM. There is a long hydration process prior to the actual chemo being administered and that will go on until his body has reached certain levels and then chemo will begin. As I write this Eli is still awake and BH in a good mood and hopefully this round of chemo will not come with the normal hard side effects that usually are associated with this round.

Hopefully the week will go by without any side effects, pain or anything else chas vashalom and all that should take place is the chemo doing what it should which is bring Elimelech Ben Basya closer to a refua shelayma.

Eli spent the day at home mostly relaxing aside from a short hour outing to get some fresh air and a few things that he wants to have in CHLA. While he showed some signs of his spirits coming back he hasn’t shown any improvement in the weakness dept. He struggles to keep his breath after a few short steps and has to sit down or be carried.

There are two ways to look at the coming week one is that how on earth is he physically going to be able to handle the chemo while being so weak? And the other is BH he is getting chemo which beezrat hashem will be a step close to his refua. This week will be a big test to us and hopefully Eli will help us pass it easily. BH the “flu season” at CHLA is officially over so Sori and Ari who have a very hard time understanding why Eli keeps going to the hospital and for the last few months haven’t been able to visit him while he is there will be able to visit him IYH.

We are hoping that they will have bed for Elimelech Ben Basya early Monday morning so that if all goes ok the earlier he gets in is the earlier at the end of the week that he can come home. Please be mispalel that all that we are going to get this week is just treatment with no side effects so that Eli can continue and have the strength to fight this machla until he has a refua shelayma BKAROV

A GUT VOCH. Eli had a relaxed shabos but unfortunately had no change is his weakness and was in bed most of the time taking it easy as he has been since surgery. The surprise was that he insisted to go to shul this morning and for shalosh seudos which I was happy to let him go and enjoy. There doesn’t seem to be anything we can do better then what we have been doing to help Eli regain his strength other then hopefully time will help it heal.

Not sure how he is physically going to be ready for chemo on Monday but the DR feels he will be fine so hopefully they will be right and time will fly in the hospital and all will go well IYH.

Hoping that I can report only good and better news for Elimelech Ben Basya as the days and weeks go on.

Since Eli was diagnosed in Dec its been our goal always to do what makes him happy and to try to keep him eating and as strong as possible. Since the surgery nearly 2 weeks ago which apparently is normal for such a long procedure Eli has been extremely weak and even though he’s eating and moving around a little he gets exhausted very quickly. Its been a rough 4+ months and a rough past few weeks and its sadly only about to get rougher. This round he is about to start really took everything out of him last time he had it and had painful side effects.

We hope to give him an enjoyable relaxed shabos and Sunday before he needs to check in on Monday to CHLA. Between him being weak, having a terrible stomach and just simply not looking well we are doing everything we can to at least lift his spirits which for the first time has been not that good lately either. Being that he is having a very hard time walking especially up and down stairs I have been carrying him and now as a result have completely thrown my lower back out of place so BH Bassy has fully come to the rescue to do double the work she usually does.

We need to help get Elimelech Ben Basya back on track in many aspects and hopefully the few days we still have before next round we will accomplish that and we are hoping to wake up in the morning with Eli and myself feeling a lot better so we can all continue and do what’s best for Eli on this long hard road to his Refua Shelayma.

Elis morning was ok other then the horrible stomach problems he has been having since the surgery. He then wanted to go out for pizza which we were happy to do to help him build some strength which he has a long way to go in the department. Then it was off to CHLA for his appt which took the usual few hours until they draw blood and then had a long update meeting with his DR. BH the DR feels from the surgery report that we are for the most part on the right track and she is happy with the results.

The next 2 months will be very busy starting with IYH Monday the 6th round of chemo which will be followed after he recovers with a large barrage of test and scans to get a clearer picture of what’s going on and how the chemo and surgery are having an effect beezrat hashem on Eli. After that is one of the planned hardest parts of the treatment which is round 7 of chemo together with stem cell transplant which all takes place in a isolation room and lasts about a full month of being inpatient in isolation. The only way to get thru these next few days, weeks and months is to take one day at a time and sometimes even one minute at a time and not to think and “just do”.

We are hoping and davening that Elimelech Ben Basya will be back with his full strength to be able to handle and fight thru all this and without chas vshalom any side effects until we see IYH bkarov a full refua.

Eli had mostly a very relaxed day with not much on the agenda other then spending time at home and very slowly getting back to himself. He is extremely weak and most things have been pretty hard for him to do. On a more positive note he is back home and asked for one of his favorite dinners and ate a few portions of it. He was visited today by family in LA who haven’t seen him since he left to NY for surgery.

On Wed Eli has a scheduled DR appt with his DR at CHLA and most likely will be told that round 6 of chemo will begin on Monday 4/22. We will be doing anything and everything possible to help him gather the strength to be able to be ready for this harsh round which last time he had it had very bad side effects. Hopefully the side effects will not happen this time as we know what to expect and will IYH be proactive and give him medication before the side effects happen to limit them as much as possible.

Elimelech Ben Basya most definitely needs our tefilos now more then ever and we hope that the next few days will see a large improvement as we continue down the road in hopes of nothing less then a full refua.