Christmas 2015 in Israel
We spent our winter break this year (2015) in Israel, where we got HSCT treatment for Robyn’s MS. Robyn went to Israel in late November. Her friend Nikki traveled with her and stayed with her for two weeks. Then my sister came from LA to help Robyn for a week. (Thanks Nikki and Kris!). Zoë and I came in mid-December and we all returned in early January. You can read about Robyn’s experience on her blog (https://hopefulinisraelblog.wordpress.com/) and about HSCT in general here This last page also discusses MSC, which Robyn also got in Israel – might as well try everything! Since the primary goal of the treatment is to slow down or stop the progression of MS, we won’t know if it was successful until 6 months or a year from now, when hopefully she will not exhibit any or much progression. However, we are already thankful that this very toxic and harsh treatment was complication free.
Most of our time in Israel was spent in our hotel room in Tel Aviv. However, once I got there (and Robyn was recovering a bit), we made a point of walking (wheeling) around Tel Aviv for an hour or so each day. It’s a lively city with lots of restaurants, cafe’s, bike paths and parks.
We were cleared to go home a week earlier than we expected, so we rented a car for three days and toured around Israel a bit. We went north to the Roman ruins at Caesarea, and east and south east to Jerusalem, the Dead Sea and Masada. A description of some of our experiences in those places is on our pictures below – click on one to open up a gallery.
