In August, he began chemotherapy; after each treatment, he would spend a few days with us recovering. The chemo didn't seem to have any effect on his demeanour, but more importantly it didn't seem to have any effect on his cancer either. A few months ago, his treatment was changed to a different type of chemotherapy, but a recent PET CT showed that not only did the chemo have no effect, but that the cancer was growing.
A growing cancer - apart from the physical problems that it presents - also derives its nutrients from the host body. and so Ya'akov, who was border-line anaemic a year ago started showing lower and lower levels of haemoglobin, which in turn meant that he was becoming weaker and weaker (insufficient haemoglobin to transfer oxygen to his muscles).
Last Thursday, he went to the hospital, accompanied by his sister/my wife for another treatment. First were performed blood tests and the results were so poor that he was hospitalised on the spot and started receiving blood transfusions. Although after a few days, the haemoglobin level began to rise, it was discovered that he had blood in his stool. A gastroscopy showed that his stomach was full of lesions because of the cancer.
On Tuesday, he began slipping away and at 3am this morning he was pronounced dead. The prognosis for pancreatic cancer is not good: normally patients live about six months after having been diagnosed. At least Ya'akov got in thirteen months and didn't suffer much until the final month (and then he bore it stoically, depending on paracetamol as a pain killer until we persuaded him to move onto something stronger).
Apart from the fact that he spent most of the past year with us (and all of the war with Iran), my wife has always had a strong connection with Ya'akov as she used to refer to him as a surrogate father. Ya'akov left school at an early age in order to work and bring money into the household; although he wasn't academic, he could have achieved more had he finished 12 years schooling. He spent many years working as a manager in an arts supply shop; whilst his contributions were recognised, this recognition didn't translate well to financial terms, and when the shop was taken over by new management, he was let go (he was already past retirement age). Their loss.
About twenty years ago, Ya'akov, my wife, son and I went on a cruise to the Greek islands - Rhodos, Siros, Naplion on the mainland and Crete. Ya'akiv very much enjoyed this cruise and began taking similar cruises every year (sometimes twice a year) so he became very familiar with Rhodos, Crete and Santorini. He had booked a cruise for last June, but as I noted2 at the time, he had to forego this pleasure. The picture at the top of the blog was taken on one of those cruises a few years ago.
Internal links
[1] 1774
[2] 1767
| Title | Tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 733 | Once | Films, Swell Season |
