Becky’s Weblog

Happy Holidays! Whatever holiday you are celebrating this season, I wish you
a joyous one.

This will likely be my last post from the Middle East, at least for this
year. Most of my bags are now packed and I am only awaiting a medical report
from Dr. Harari. I am to go back down to the clinic in a couple of hours to
pick it up.

Dr. Harari was telling me today that he has several patients who after
coming here two years in a row have been able to go off of methotrexate
completely, without any increase in pain or crippling effects. He also
thinks that I will be able to go off of plaquenil. Today he suggested that I
soak in Dea Sea water as well as apply the mud when I get home. He said that
they know that it works for joint issues but they do not yet know why or how
often it should be done. They will be continuing their studies in the next
few months to determine this. It was interesting looking at the chart of the
minerals in the salt. I was surprised to see so much lithium. Apparently
they are treating people who have bipolar disorder at the clinic as well
(with the aid of a psychiatrist, of course). For those of you interested in
learning more about the clinic, you can go to their website at
http://www.dmz-medical-spa.com. Soon, The Dead Sea Research Center will be
opening a site as well at http://www.deadsea-health.org.

I have enjoyed my stay here even though at times it was a bit lonely. I am
hoping that if I come next year that I can get some of my friends to come as
well. And definitely next time I will rent a car!

My treatments and sessions with the doctor are now done. All that is left is
to finish packing and to make a stop at the Ahava store tomorrow. I will be
in touch with folks once I get back in the States on Wednesday.

Happy Holidays!

PS) It’s officially colder here than it is in Seattle! According to one
forecast, we’re actually expecting snow this evening.

Good evening, everyone. It was a cold somewhat rainy day today probably a
little similar to Seattle. It was so cold, in fact, that I wore pants
instead of shorts today. We’re expecting more rain both Saturday and Sunday.
I guess this is someone’s idea of getting me ready to go home.

I slept in a bit this morning and then went to my last sulphur pool soak for
the trip. Given how chilly it is outside, it felt really good. I spent the
afternoon packing to figure out how much space I had to buy some Ahava
products to bring home. After I finished, I remembered that I had brought an
extra bag just in case. Oh well, I needed to rearrange things in my carryons
anyway for some of the fragile gifts that I bought and the salt.

Later in the day I had my last massage here and likely of 2005. It was a
wonderful deep tissue massage. I felt wonderful leaving there. I told Lena
that I would see her next year. She promised her English would be better and
I promised my Hebrew would be.

I gave Malka a call today and learned that she has a kidney infection. I’m
hoping that she won’t have to go to the hospital during her stay here. What
an awful way to spend a vacation.

I did make it out for a walk this afternoon (instead of this morning). I
wanted to get pictures of the bad weather we are having. Silly me forgot to
pack my extra battery before I left the hotel and after about 10 shots I had
to walk 1.5 mile back to get it. As it turns out, that worked in my favor.
The weather had become a bit more dramatic which you’ll see in some of the
photos below.

I hope everyone has a good Friday. Shabbat Shalom.

Good afternoon (Israeli time). It’s been another lovely day here. I am
enjoying the break in the heat though I notice most folks have switched to
wearing sweats/pants. I’m still plugging along in shorts. I saw Dr.
Harari this morning and we talked about what I need to do when I get home to
continue to see the improvement. The first thing is using the light box.
I’ve already ordered one and it should be at my house by the time that I get
there. Maybe it will even help a bit with jet lag. The second thing is to
continue to apply the mud to painful/swollen joints twice a day. I have ten
pounds of mud waiting for me when I get home so I will be off to a great
start there. It will be strange sticking mud in the microwave to heat it up
though! The last thing is diet. I need to limit sugar intake (there goes
those jelly bean binges) and make sure that I am taking the proper
supplements. He went through what I’m taking and he was happy with what my
nutritionist had setup.

I’m feeling a little achy today but that may be because I’m not used to
getting so much exercise. I hope I can keep this up when I get home. Maybe
I’ll have to pain a big sun in the room where my treadmill is to keep me
motivated.

I had my mud treatment today and did a little shopping as well. I finally
got the postcards sent off. My tongue was pretty dry after licking 75
stamps.

For those who are curious about the research that has been done there, there
was a small double-blinded study done with the mud on arthritic knees. 40
patients were treated with Dead Sea mineral mud and 40 patients were treated
with Dead Sea mud that had had the minerals extracted. 30% of those in the
control group improved and 70% of those who were treated with mineral mud
improved. Of those 70%, half of them still saw improvement six months later.
There will be a conference in Stockholm next year for rheumatologists and
dermatologist and I believe that they plan on presenting this research and
what they know about treating psoriasis.

Not much else to report for today. Maybe a bit later I’ll go out and take
some pictures but for now I think I will rest in the sun and listen to some
tunes.

Yet another beautiful morning here today. I got up a little earlier to make
it out to my spot for the sunrise. I’ve included four pics in this post of
what I saw. It was so peaceful sitting there watching the sun come up. I am
thinking that I may try to go back this evening for the sunset.

Already a busy day. I’ve been to the sulphur pool and this afternoon I will
have a massage. I’m having to double up some treatments so I can make sure
that I can fit them all in before leaving (plus I don’t want to leave with a
wet bathing suit). The only plans for today are to finish the postcards and
get them sent off. I think I may first take a short nap and listen to the
songbirds outside my window.

In less than a week I will be on my way home. It’s hard to believe I’ve been
here that long. Part of me would like to return home and get back to my
normal routine (I miss my animals!) and part of me doesn’t want to leave
this weather.

Until tomorrow, folks!

I saw the doctor this afternoon and he thinks when I get home I should
decrease my dosage of methotrexate! I’m quite happy about this. He doesn’t
want to decrease it by much but any less chemo I have to put into my body is
fine by me.

OK, back to the postcards. Only about 20 more left to do.

Good morning (boker tov), everyone! I started out on my walk at 6:30 this
morning and ended up in the salt peninsula I went to last time. It’s a nice
quiet place to sit. There wasn’t quite as much wind this time so I didn’t
get the rippling affect in the water like last time. I had hoped to
recapture (closely) one of the shots that I really liked that has the spot
from dirt on the CCD just in case I can’t get it cleaned to my satisfaction
with software. But it looks like my CCD needs a bit more cleaning than I can
give it so I will have to send it in when I get home. I have attached a few
pictures to this blog entry, some of which will look familiar. For those
reading this via e-mail, click the link to see the pictures.

It’s 8:30 and I’ve finished my walk and breakfast. Shortly I will go to the
sulphur baths and this afternoon I have an appointment with Dr. Harari. The
migraine I had last night is gone (thank goodness) and I’m now starting to
avoid yogurt in case it is triggering my current rash of migraines. Leaves
me even less to eat in the morning. But I guess it’s better to be a little
hungry than to get migraines!

It looks like the bus that goes to Dimona doesn’t go every day let alone
twice a day so it may not be possible for me to get there. That’s too bad
too. It turns out that there’s a community of 3000 vegans that live there!
I’d be in food heaven. Maybe the trick is to rent a car next time and stay
in Dimona and drive in for my treatments.

Hope everyone is having a good day.

It’s been a little bit of a tough day today. I didn’t get enough sleep last
night. A group of folks decided to party in the hallway starting around
midnight. I went for a mud treatment and also for a walk. I didn’t walk
quite as far this time because I took the walk late in the day and the sun
was high. I did manage to get about half of the postcards done though. My
hand ended up cramping so I needed to stop. It actually still hurts a bit.
So while the treatments have decreased the swelling, they haven’t stopped
pain. I still have a week to go though so we’ll see.

I’m still battling a cold and I’ve been getting migraines again. It’s
possible the migraines are from something that I’m eating. I’m somewhat
limited though so I’m a little stuck.

Kind of a downer entry today, eh? I’m sure it’s nothing that a little sleep
won’t fix. I really miss my animals.

Not much to report today. I saw the doctor, he’s happy with my progress. I
also had a massage. But that’s about it. I woke up with a terrible migraine
and the Axert worked but wiped me out. I’m starting to feel less drugged now
and I may go for a short walk before dinner.

I did manage to make some progress on my manuscript at least. It has a much
better cadence than the last time I worked on it before I left for Israel.
Sometimes a little distance is a good thing. It’s much closer to being ready
to send off. I’ve asked a few people to review it now and am hoping to get
feedback quickly. If you’re interested in reviewing children’s literature,
please let me know!

The weather has dramatically changed over the past several days. It has
gotten much cooler. I’m told that I should expect rain in a few days too.
Yuck! I’ll have enough of that when I get back home.

One of the things that has been strange for me to get used to is that the
weekends here are on Friday/Saturday. I always feel like I’m a day ahead.
For example, today feels like Monday since it’s the first day of the week
here. I didn’t have this feeling the last time I can to the Middle East but
then I was only touring so I didn’t have to deal with the business week.

Seeya tomorrow.