It's 9pm on Monday and I am sitting in Lex's hospital room, I'm staying over tonight because she asked me to. What a day, today was 5 days since the transplant. Today was the day Lex received the very last round of chemo she will need. Part of the protocol, this chemo will kill the T cells that have been running around in her blood killing off the Leukemia. The maximum length of time that the T cells can remain active in her blood is 5 days, after that they become to dangerous to Lex's overall health. The chemo was hard on her, but all her reactions to it were expected, Dr. Slavin came by to see her and commented that he'd never had a patient as hardy as Alexis, he always makes her feel better. The chemo that Lex was given is highly toxic and so she has received the equivelant of 10 litres of fluids to flush out her kidneys, obviously this is exhausting for her, neither one of us expects to get much sleep tonight.
Rick and I decided to go to Jerusalem yesterday, I really wanted to go to the Wall. It was quite the trek we took a bus then a taxi and then walked the cobblestoned lanes amongst thousands of tourists and soldiers, along the way religious men blessed us for a shekel. I watched two men wrapping a sedar with red string, winding it around and around until they had enough to cut off to give out to anyone who wanted one. We ate lunch at a falafal stand crowded with soldiers casually eating Shwarma while cradling their Uzi's. The Wall itself is a source of religious inspiration, many are deep in prayer covered heads pressed up against it asking for divine help. It is here I came not for a miracle but for that special feeling of spirituality one gets when surrounded by these rich markers to our faith. I don't pray very well, but I wanted to absord the atmosphere, feel it, breathe it in and gain strength from being there. The idea struck me that we are a strong race that has survived for thousands of years in spite of all the terrible obstacles and my family also has the strength-koach to cope with whatever lies ahead.
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