In Loving Memory Of Lilia Golubitsky

This past May, tragedy hit our family.  Our mom, Lilia Golubitsky, was diagnosed with a rare, non-treatable, non-curable, rapidly degenerative brain disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).

On May 11th, My mom said she thought she may have had a stroke, but still she continued to work hard, be there for her friends and family, and continued to put her own needs last.  She finally went and got herself checked out, only after all of her work was done, as her very last task before she left for vacation. The results from her visit to the ER told her she was fine, as nothing showed up on their initial tests.  However, less than a week later, she came back from her trip, with her health declining, speech impaired, and little did we know how fast everything else was going to happen. 

Within a week she lost her English, a week or so later her Russian, and she continues to lose her cognitive function.  It has been extremely frustrating for her to not be able to communicate with us, and brutally painful for us to watch her decline.  Her health continues to decline rapidly, changing almost daily, with physical symptoms also beginning to show, as she is having trouble with her balance and use of her right arm. 

We are doing all we can to comfort her, as unfortunately there is no treatment, no medications, and no fight to fight.  We have explored every alternative option, none have showed any breakthroughs or progress.  We are fortunate to live in Cleveland where she was diagnosed by the top Neurologists at the Cleveland Clinic, and now under the care of the top CJD specialist, Dr. Appleby, at UH.  

 She is surrounded daily by her family, primarily by her husband Joseph, and my mom’s sister Mila, giving her the required 24 hour care, and making this as comfortable for her as possible.  We are making the most of the little time we have left.  Our father Joseph is devestated, taking this very hard as she is the love of his life, having fallen in love with her in 1st grade, and truly loving her more and more each day.  Mila spends every day with her from morning to night giving our mom such unbelievable care and love.  Living in New Orleans, I am flying back and forth every weekend, and Eric is visiting every day before work, during lunch, and after work.  Both of our wives have also shown our mom such tremendous love and care, being so helpful by applying their knowledge and skill as Nurses and love as daughters!  

Many of you have asked how you can help or what you can do.  Sadly there is not much that can be done, and at this time we are limiting visitation to allow for her to have a peaceful, restful, and dignified passing.  Some have offered meals, but her appetite has really been limited and she is sticking to a small limited number of comfort foods.   For those  inquiring about financial assistance or contributions in kind to my parents, donations would be greatly appreciated.  Being relatively young and not ready to retire, my parents were not financially prepared for this.  Your help will be used in the following ways:

 ·         The loss of both incomes, as my father for the time being is not able to work

·         the many medical expenses and co-pays, even after insurance

·         future 24 hour care and other additional expenses not covered by insurance

·         Comfort items and additional care for our mom

·         Allow for our father to focus on our mom and not also stress about finances

We appreciate you keeping our mom and family in your prayers and also wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you for being such great friends to our Mom.  

 She loves you all!