News and Views from Hadassah in Jerusalem.

Ron Harner (reprinted from the board)

I want to apologize to all my friends on the board for not getting back to you sooner. I first came here on December 26, 1999 and I am preparing to depart this coming Wednesday, February 16, 2000. I came here suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and a maddening case of tinnitus which I have had for the last 15 years. I came here with no glimmer of light at the end of a very long and seemingly endless tunnel of despair and darkness. I had tried everything that the "established medical community had to offer as well as the "alternative" community and there was nothing that I ever found to give me any relief from either condition. Even worse, I had run out of hope and since hope is the anchor to your soul, I was in a most desperate condition when I arrived here in Jerusalem.

I had been to Mexico on two separate occasions where I received treatment with Chealation Therapy drips for 4 hours a a day for a month at a time. I had micro-decompression of my eight auditory nerve in 1994 and it too didn't help in any way. I had hickman catheters inserted into my chest and hooked myself up to lidocaine drips for eight hours a day and gave myself drips until I became immune to the effects of the drug. Each time I gave myself one of these drips I was at risk for suffering a heart attack or stroke and I didn't even care. I had signed myself into a psych ward on two separate occasions because I had become so suicidal. I need both of my hips replaced and have failed to have the surgery because the torment of my tinnitus had taken priority and precedence over everything else.

I was in this condition and state of mind when I came to Dr.Shemesh. You might say that I was the worst of the worst of his patients and he only gets bad ones to begin with. More than a cure, I needed hope to stay alive while some treatment protocol could be developed to help my tinnitus. I found that HOPE the very first time I met with Dr, Shemesh. He is without a doubt the most compassionate and understanding man I have ever met and he has a way of instilling hope into you immediately.

Most of what Dr. Shemesh does come from the result of his years of experience with nothing but tinnitus patients. Much of what he does is intuitive and only he understands why he chooses one medication over another. He believes he is called of God to do this work and has tried other things in life but they failed because he was out of God's will for his life.

I have now been on Dr.Shemesh's medication for 35 days now and I keep my daily progress on a bar-graph chart that can be read with one glance. The tinnitus level ranges from GOOD, FAIR, BAD, VERY BAD, AND VERY VERY BAD. Out of the 35 days there have been only five days that I have marked as good. However, on those good days I could not hear my tinnitus regardless of how hard I listened for it. The couple of days that I have marked as fair are days where I can hear my tinnitus, but only if I listen for it carefully. Now this may not seem like very much progress, but before my treatments here I never even had a fair day. When the good days come, and I am expecting them to become more regular now, it is like a miracle takes place in your life: The "Sound of Silence" will cause you to weep for joy.

I can't say enough about Dr. Shemesh's dedication.  When I had my pneumonia and was too sick to go to the hospital, he came to my place. He would get there after ten o'clock at night and stay until after midnight. He then had to take a cab to Jerusalem, a bus to Tel Aviv and then have his wife drive 60 kilometers to pick him up. He wouldn't get home until after 3:00 in the morning and still show up for work the next morning at Hadassah. He did this on at least five occasions. Does anyone know an American doctor with this kind of dedication?     I don't!

A word about Dr. Nagler's recent visit to Jerusalem. I was rather disappointed that Dr. Nagler didn't make any effort to talk to me while he was here. He knew me well from all my postings on the other board and he and I had many personal e-mail letters back and forth. He knew that I was a patient with the most time here and I was hoping that when I met him in Dr. Shemesh's office, he would jump at the chance to invite me to sit and talk with him.  When I shook his hand and introduced myself he kind of acted like he didn't know who I was and this dissappointed me. I can assure you that no attempt was made on my part or the part of any others to steer clear of him; in fact just the opposite is true. We were all hoping that he would invite me to share some of my experiences with him and I think I could have added a lot to the big picture.  After all, he was only here for four full days and I had already had been here for a full six weeks.
I thing there is much that I could have added to his experience.

I will be leaving, The Lord willing, this Wednesday and when I get home I will fill you in with some of the miracles that happened with some other patients that I had the opportunity to personally meet.