This was a REAL TOUGH ONE

This is being written by Illana. Unfortunately, Leah isn't well enough to write. It's Saturday night and I'm sitting next to Leah's bed in the hospital. On Friday afternoon, before I left the hospital and I wished Mom and Leah a Good Shabbos I told Mommy that if there were any changes she should please text me. I never thought in a million years that I would really be hearing from her on Shabbos, let alone via telephone. Anyone who knows me could imagine how I felt when my phone rang at 5:00 in the morning on Shabbos and I jumped up to hear Mommy crying saying "Come Quick, Something's wrong. They're working on her." I don't think I could ever describe how I felt at that moment. How could I get to the hospital in Manhattan on Shabbos in less than 5 minutes without getting myself killed and without being too mechalel Shabbos? Keith quickly called a taxi. No answer. Forget it. Just get into the car and drive as fast as I can. No stopping at red lights. In fact, don't bother looking at the road because can't see thru the tears and the next thought I won't even share because you'll all scream at me.

Enough about my insane 15 minute trip to Manhattan, here's the important update about Leah's health. At about 5am Leah said she had to use the bathroom. Mom and a nurse helped her because she was too weak to go by herself. On her way back to bed, she passed out and became completely unresponsive. Her blood pressure dropped to 40/20 and her oxygen level went below 50%. So, of course, the whole team came running to work on her and now you understand why Mommy called us.

Boruch Hashem, when I arrived at the hospital the situation had become more stable and David, Jacob, and Rachel were already there. Leah's blood pressure was still low, but improved as was her oxygen level. But she was still very out of it.

Here's what we're up to now. Leah has developed several lesions on her body over the last day and a half. They look somewhat like welts but they are very painful to the touch. To Leah, they feel like bad bruises, but the scans show no evidence of bleeding. Also, the MRI that they took last night showed lesions on her liver and spleen and let's not forget that the abdominal pain is what brought her in here to begin with. So, Leah's team of doctors are now thinking that these lesions, both internal and external may be a fungal infection and they are treating her as such. They also biopsied one of the lesions on her leg this evening but it will take some time to get the results. So she's now on lots of new very strong anti-fungal drugs as well as lots of new anti-biotics. She's also been receiving many units of blood and platelets on an almost constant basis as her hemoglobin level has also been very low.

So after all of this rambling, where do you, Leah's fans come in? She needs your prayers and support at this time so badly! She loves you all.