New street signs (and names!) in Neve Oranim

Within the last few weeks, street signs have finally been put up in our neighborhood, Neve Oranim. Before this, there really was no way to tell what the names of the streets were, and, in fact, I think they really didn't even HAVE names! So, yesterday I went around taking pictures of the signs, and here they are (only one for each street):

Next, I went to Google Maps and downloaded a satellite/map image of the neighborhood. To this image, I added the names of the streets in red letters inside a red box. I'm sorry that it's a little hard to read. Our house, which is too new to be visible in the satellite picture, is just inside the loop north west of the intersection of Yahalom St. and Leshem St.
By the way, they picked a nice system for the street names. The name of the connector road, רחוב דרך אבני החושן Rekhov Derekh Avnei HaKhoshen ("Way of the Breastplate Stones Street"), is the clue. All of the other streets are named after precious stones that were in the breastplate of the high priest, as detailed in the Torah.

אודם Odem, as you might guess from its Hebrew root, means "ruby".

ברקת Bareket means "agate".

נופך Nofekh means "turquoise" or "garnet".

ספיר Sapir means "sapphire" (as you might guess from its transliteration).

יהלום Yahalom means "diamond" (so OUR street is the MOST precious!).

לשם Leshem means "opal".

David is home!

Although they had planned to send David to a rehab hospital, after further evaluation, Maccabi (our kupat cholim, or HMO) decided to release him to come home and to send nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and perhaps others to our house. So, David came home with me yesterday (Tuesday)! He was a little unsteady on his feet yesterday, but today he's much improved. He can walk fairly well on his own now, although I still help him go up and down stairs.

Thanks for all of you for your thoughts and prayers!

David much improved

I am so happy to report that David has improved markedly. Today, he was able to walk by himself with someone (i.e. me or the physical therapist) just hovering next to him. This is a dramatic improvement from barely being able to lift his legs while lying down a couple of weeks ago.

Tomorrow, he is scheduled to be transferred to a rehab hospital (Fliman Hospital) in the Nave Shaanan area of Haifa. I suspect that he actually won't be there very long because he'll be ready to be sent home. But whatever time he does spend there will be very helpful for getting him really back on track and healthy again.

So, you may be asking, what caused all these problems? We asked the chief neurologist on the ward about that today, and she said that they have concluded that it was a reaction to, of all things, his anti-epilepsy medicine! At one point, they had been concerned about an irregularity that his MRI showed, but now they think that it was a result of the seizures rather than their cause. He is to have another MRI to be scheduled 6 weeks after the first, and they expect that the abnormality will have disappeared by then.

David and I are now both feeling much relief, and we want to thank all of you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.

Pictures from around Rambam Medical Center

Here are some more pictures that I took on my walks around Rambam Medical Center (in Haifa). The first one is a nice view of the area just outside the neurology department where David is hospitalized. The sliding glass doors on the right of the picture lead directly into the ward. The path of the left side of the picture is part of the ramp between the corridor along the "pavilions" (David's building is one of them) and the main building, which is out of sight to the left.

If you go up the ramp and enter the main building, you are immediately in a little mall. The following picture is a view inside that mall. On the right side, you can see an ice cream stand, which has yummy ice cream! Further to the right, out of the picture, is a food court, including a MacDonald's, a pizza place, and a couple of other fast food joints. On the left side of the picture, you can see a lottery sales stand and, further back, a branch of צומת ספרים Tzomet Sfarim ("Book Junction"), one of the two major bookstore chains here in Israel. Further to the left, out of this picture are a candy store, a pharmacy, and a gift store.
I actually took this next picture a day or two earlier. This is a view of the big hole they are digging there. It will house an underground parking structure, above which will be 3 new large buildings. The hoses that you see coming out of the vertical pipes are carrying the ground water that is being pumped out to the sea. See my previous post for pictures of it entering the sea. The tiny size of the workers in this picture can give you a sense of the scale of this hole!
Here's another picture of the big hole, taken from the main entrance to Rambam. This is also the road that they use to get down into the hole. In this view, you can see the two large cranes that are working there. Also, on the left is the tower that houses the Technion Medical School. The tall building on the right is the Sammy Ofer tower, the current main building of Rambam. The mall seen earlier is on the ground floor of this building but actually the other side of the tall part. The building a little to the left of the main building in this picture is the Rambam Children's Hospital.

By the sea near David's room

The unit where David is at Rambam is on the ground floor of a small building. If you walk out the main entrance, turn right, and then turn right again, you can follow a path between the buildings, past the window to David's room, and on to a small parking lot. The other side of the parking lot is the Mediterranean Sea.

The other day, when I was there, I saw this crow. At first, he was sitting on a fire hydrant, but then he flew over and perched on this sign:

At the time, I just snapped the picture without bothering to read the sign. But later I returned I read it. Here's my translation of what it says:

"This water flowing into the sea is only pumped ground water necessary for the construction of an underground parking structure for the Rambam hospital. This pumping and piping is being carried out with permission from the Office for the Protection of the Environment and in coordination with the City of Haifa.

For details, telephone 8542417."

Actually, I had already figure out where the water was coming from by following the pipes back. Already for quite a few months now there has been a HUGE deep whole right near the main entrance to the Rambam Medical Center complex. Not only are they building an underground parking structure, but on top of it will be three new large buildings. There's a model just inside the current main building showing how the campus will look when the construction is done. It seems like it will be very nice, and the parking situation should be much better, too. I also noticed that the whole row of small buildings where David is now will be gone.

Here's another picture (actually taken the next day) showing the fountain of water. In the background, you can see small sailboats, large container ships, and, on the horizon, Rosh HaNikra, which is the Lebanon border!