[img]2553|right|Diane||no_popup[/img]After weeks of foreboding news splashing into our lives, a potentially sensational breakthrough – a reward for those who believe in miracles – smilingly, unexpectedly swooped down from the skies at 1:30 this afternoon.
A cross-country call from one of two sites where clinical trials soon are to start for ALS patients interested in a new stem cell transplant process discovered not long ago in Israel.
My first reaction was to recall a wise Jewish proverb, gam-zu le tovah, everything happens for the good.
One month ago this afternoon Diane formally was certified as having ALS, confirming her own months’ earlier diagnosis.
We have not been aboard a roller-coaster ever since, but rather a one-way downhill ride – until my cell phone rang. The route to that call was circuitous and heavily unlikely.
Early last week, Shachar, our heroic Jerusalem correspondent, knowing of Diane’s condition, forwarded a Jerusalem Post story explaining this marvelous medical find.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lou Gehrig’s disease, is the only one I have heard of for which not a single drop of medicine is available. You sit, waste and wait to die, presumably.
With Shachar’s informative gift in hand, I began contacting friends who might have contacts at either of the two medical outposts.
Not long afterward, I began dialing, blindly, really, to seemingly well-placed research persons at both medical facilities.
After beginning timidly, trying to be sensitive, I accelerated the pace. Reached doctors who were helpful, but not directly involved in the present project. Spoke with secretaries who linked me into voice mails with messages that sounded promising.
By late yesterday I reached the office of a senior vice president for research, my first live voice in a correct office. His secretary. Disarmingly receptive, she took our rudimentary information. When I telephoned back this morning, she had prepared a bundle of pragmatic information and data.
I sent messages to new people. Within two hours, one called back and said, “This is what you need to do this afternoon to qualify” – the sweetest words that we have been waiting for.
Thank you for your prayers.
