Its been a while since we have had only all good news to report and we hope it is hear to stay. From the minute Eli woke up until he went to sleep he really enjoyed himself. He had a friends birthday party in the morning and spent the afternoon with Sori and Ari which is something they have been waiting for school to be on break for a while to do. He BH had a full appetite and ate most of everything he was given.

While we don’t have an exact date yet for surgery we are hoping Eli and the surgeon will want to do it on schedule which hopefully will be right after Pesach in NY Memorial Sloan Cancer Center. We are traveling there only because the surgeon there is supposed to be the best in this field and we will accept nothing but the best for Eli. The surgery and recovery time we have been told will be 3-6 hours for the actual surgery and 3-7 days for the recovery time inpatient. As soon as we get back from NY after surgery they will be doing beezrat hashem round 6 of chemo.

We got today what we hoped and davened for and hope this will be the way it will stay for Elimelech Ben Basya as we see him building himself up stronger each day after chemo. As always we thank everyone who constantly has Eli in mind in many different ways. Tizku lmitzvos

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A short addition to what I wrote earlier is basically that BH the scans were very good and Elis blood counts were also surprisingly good. It was a good feeling to be home at 1PM rather then be starting a blood transfusion at that time and be stuck there until the evening. Once Eli finally got home and relaxed after being woken up early today to be at the hospital by 730 he ate a nice sized late lunch as he wasn’t allowed to eat prior to the CT scan.

The scan results were sent to the surgeon in NY who will hopefully review them when he gets it on Thursday and will be able to schedule the surgery for right after Pesach. The surgery beezrat hashem will remove whatever is left of the tumor.

We hope and daven that these results and only good news will be the only trend we will have for Elimelech Ben Basya.

Bli ayin hora we got some good news today as the CT scans came back showing that the tumor has shrunk considerably at least what the DR had hoped for if not more.

We want to thank everyone that has and is keeping Elimelech Ben Basya in mind in their tefilos etc as we continue on the path to a full recovery.

Slowly Eli is definitely showing improvement and his nausea is also going away. We are hoping the trend of getting better will continue but at a quicker pace. Eli ate a decent amount and was more active yet is still very weak. The part that amazes everyone is his continuous upbeat mood with almost no complaining and BH no pain.

On Wed Eli has a busy day at the hospital starting early in the morning. Between getting a CT scan which will not allow him whether he is up to or not to eat or drink until its done and then a blood transfusion and then meeting with the DR to review the CT scan and give us a small idea of where Eli is holding.

The hope is that Elimelech Ben Basya CT scan and everything continues to go as planned with no side effects and that the scans should show its a very small or no tumor. We look forward to having IYH only good news tmrw and the future as we continue on the road to his full refua BKAROV.

As much as today was a world of a difference from yesterday unfortunately Eli still has a long way to feeling normal. Eli woke up in a good mood and not terribly nauseous and finally asked for food at about noon. He ate it and BH kept it down which he wasn’t able to do yesterday. The problem he is having is being extremely weak from the chemo, from a lack of eating, sleeping and the loss of weight. I had to give him the dreaded shot tonight which is extremely painful for him and possibly even harder for me to watch and do.

On WED morning is a CT scan to get an idea of how much the chemo has done and for the DR to get an idea on what he is up against for the surgery which will be scheduled based on the CT scan. We have very high hopes that most of the tumor has shrunk or disappeared and that the surgery will end up being a minor procedure.

Please continue as always to have Elimelech Ben Basya in mind in your tefilos etc. Even though the news is better then yesterday we have a very hard and long road ahead.

We really hope and daven that IYH when Eli wakes up tomorrow morning he will forget that the day before existed. It was to put it mildly a brutal day today. There was nothing that he was able to keep down and there was very little we could do. Usually a walk helps relieve the nausea but we tried that many times today it didn’t help. His medication didn’t help and it left Eli and us at a complete loss. Eli went to sleep extremely weak and exhausted from the little sleep he’s had to the violent vomiting he had today.

On a side note the good news in all this is that Eli wasn’t in any pain and didn’t have any fever so after speaking to the DR there was no reason to check him back into the hospital. Hopefully the night will solve the problem and he will get some sleep and wake up feeling somewhat human. This nausea is basically expected with this type of chemo that he received and generally takes a few days to recover from.

As a friend of ours told us right after Elimelech Ben Basya was diagnosed that sometimes the situation is harder on the caretaker then it is on the actual patient and today was definitely one of those days. We expect and know that only better days are ahead hopefully a lot sooner then later.

On Friday morning Eli woke up very nauseous and when he is nauseous he doesn’t want to talk to anyone else and no one Is allowed to talk so we let him just relax in his bed until the nausea eased off a little. He then played some games, relaxed and even took a nap. He ran the show as usual and was deciding when and how things should take place. Finally after he felt somewhat normal and we took a walk it was just after shkiya and Eli said “daddy time for kidush” so I made kidush and I ate a little and was begging him to eat but he was too scared he would throw up which BH he hadn’t this entire round. Finally he said let’s try the soup and that did the trick. He couldn’t get enough of it and literally ate 3 bowls of it and it really helped.

Friday night I was extremely unsatisfied with the nurse and her helper and really didn’t feel they were competent at all so I didn’t sleep as I was making sure the little I know would get done (which I had to remind her the basics). When Eli woke up shabos morning he was very adamant that “I had enough I want to go home”. So we pushed the DR to come see him first and she did and felt he was able and ready to leave. So at 10:15AM we got into a taxi and headed home. We got home and we were hoping Eli would relax and want to take it easy but he was having none of that and insisted we go to shul immediately so at 10:45 we were in shul for mussaf.

While BH Elimelech Ben Basya is home and his spirits are high he hasn’t been feeling well enough to eat at all today and is extremely weak. All of this is unfortunately the normal and is expected and hopefully with a little pushing he will quickly get back to himself over the next few days. A GUT VOCH

Without giving any ayin hora BH Eli had a very good day under the circumstances. He slept pretty well and woke up relaxed. After some minor planned tests which BH were good he spent the day with his mother playing games and relaxing. After not eating since lunch on Wed Eli decided he was going to try to eat. We brought him many different choices and each one made him more nauseous then the next. Finally at 6PM he decided that french toast was going to do the trick and wow was he right. His bubby quickly made it for him and it was here asap and he couldn’t get enough of it. He felt like a human after that and decided to get some fresh air which is always good to have.

BH the doctors were wrong and hopefully they will continue to be wrong (on things we want them to be wrong about) and the expected severe nausea wasn’t anywhere close to what we planned for and we hope the little there was won’t be there on Friday or ever again. Eli will be in CHLA for shabos to finish up this round 5 of chemo and all we think and hope for 24/7 is that the treatments are doing what they are meant to be doing and Eli is well on the way to a complete refua.

Thank you again to the many people, families, friends, organizations that have and continue to have Elimelech Ben Basya in mind and have bought him a tremendous amount of presents, chizuk, love, tefilos kabalos etc it is only thru these things that we are getting thru each day. Tizku lmitzvos

Eli was once again a good sport and even though they constantly woke him up during the night he hardly complained. He woke up a little earlier then we had wanted after going to sleep very late and being up so often. But true to the way he has been so far he was totally fine and for the most part in a good mood. After eating a pretty late lunch the side effects did start and Eli was left with no appetite to eat or drink. He is on IV always during chemo full of hydration so we don’t really have to worry about dehydration.

Its not easy for anyone to really know or understand what he is going thru and that’s why we try not to think about it and we are asking him every second what he may want to eat, drink, do etc and all I can say is whatever, whenever and however he wants it we get it and do it to keep him somewhat happy. When the nausea picked up this evening and Eli really was trying not to vomit the only thing he felt would be good for him was a outdoor walk. So at about 9PM we did just that with his IV and all went down the elevator outside and it really helped.

Hoping that the medication will keep the nausea away and all the side effects. Its getting late and they are about to start day 2 of 5 of round 5 of chemo and we keep davening that Elimelech Ben Basya will be able to have a good nights sleep undisturbed and the chemo should only do what its meant to do which is bring us a day closer to Elis full refua.

I woke up early in hopes of getting Eli checked in as early as possible. After getting the run around I decided to plead my case in person at CHLA when that didn’t work I knew we would be in for a long day. We made many calls and emails to no avail there were no beds available. Finally at 5PM we got the OK to come which we quickly did. After settling down in our room and the doctors and nurses doing their standard full checkup on Eli they started him on IV. And then the chemo started after 11PM and being that he has a small reaction they are going to have it go for 4 hours instead of the normal 2 hours so that his body will accept it.

Once again the part that has been extremely helpful during this very trying time is Elis great mood bli ayin hora. He makes everyone laugh and just calms the situation down with his tone. We also for the first time have another frum family Binyomin Chaim Ben Faigy Sarah in the same hallway as ours and that also helps. We have a long 4+ days ahead of us and we hope that the doctors will continue to be wrong (on the things we want them to be wrong on) and the expected nausea side effects will not take place.

Please continue to have Elimelech Ben Basya very much in mind in your tefilos and kabalos as he and we can definitely use them right about now. Hoping that all will stay somewhat smooth and pain free IYH until we see a complete Refua BKAROV.