David settled well into the hospital

Today (Wednesday, 29 September) I spent the whole day at the hospital with David. I left home at 7:00 a.m. and didn't get back until after 7:30 p.m. David is doing quite well and feels better and much more rested. He isn't having any more seizures, but his hands are still pretty unsteady and his cognitive processes are still a bit messed up. I got him some candies and a couple of bottles of Coke Zero before all the stores in the hospital mini-mall closed for the holiday (last day of Succot and Simchat Torah).

Tomorrow, I'm planning to attend the morning prayers at Emet V'Shalom (our Reform synagogue in Nahariya) and then to pop on down to Haifa to spend the rest of the day with David.

Thanks to all of you for your prayers and good wishes!

David hospitalized after series of seizures

Yesterday (Monday, 27 September), David had multiple seizures during the day, so we took him to the Emergency Room at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. After all night and all morning this morning in the ER, they finally admitted him to the Neurology unit at about 1 p.m. The seizures are apparently due to dangerously low levels of sodium (of all things!) in his blood. But the real question is WHY the sodium levels (which have been detected before and resulted in his last admission to Rambam) are so low.

I'll try to post more news as I have it. Thanks for keeping him and me in your thoughts and prayers!

- Arlan

Gamla National Park, in a wheelchair

We got up fairly early today, and David was feeling relatively good. So we decided to drive over to Gamla National Park, in the Golan, a place we have visited several times before.

The weather was not too hot in the morning, and they have a nice paved loop path there. So it was pretty easy to do with me pushing David in the wheelchair.

We spent quite a bit of time in the covered area they have there for observing the vultures, and we listened to a park ranger telling about them. Although he did speak a little English, and some other people who happened to be there translated a bit for us, he spoke mostly in Hebrew. I picked up maybe 15-20% of what he said, but it was still interesting.

The vultures have a wingspan of more than 2 and a half meters, yet they weigh only 8 kg (less than 18 pounds). They can soar very high on the updrafts and travel long distances, as far away as Turkey, Bulgaria, and even Russia! They can carry as much as 1.5 kg (more than 3 pounds) of food in their throats back to their babies in the nest! The babies grow from only 20 g (less than a pound) at hatching to full size in only 4 months!

I didn't get any pictures of the vultures this time, but I did photograph some strange and interesting flowers that were blooming there all over the place. Here's one of my pictures:

David's recent and continuing problems

I know that this is a terrible time to post an entry like this. Succot is supposed to be זמן שמחתנו zman simkhatenu, the time of our joy, and we are told והיית אח שמח v'hayita akh sameakh, "and you will be especially happy". But life doesn't always follow the neatly laid out seasons, and so here we are.

I don't want to bore you, and, more importantly, I really don't want to dwell on negative things. So I'll try to be brief (not my forte, as you all know!) and to give you only the highlights.

Already by last winter, we had realized that David was having some kind of cognitive difficulties. We feared that it might be early Alzheimer's, since his father had had it, starting at about his age. So, we arranged an appointment (at our own expense, since it wasn't covered) at the Cognitive Clinic at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa last February. The appointment took several hours, during which time an expert neurologist specializing in this area interviewed us together and did extensive cognitive tests on David alone. The conclusion was that he did, indeed, have some abnormal cognitive problems but that it is NOT Alzheimer's. She also said that he should have an MRI, but, of course, that has to be ordered by a Maccabi (our HMO) neurologist and approved by Maccabi, since it's very expensive. So it was not initially approved.

Meanwhile, David began having epileptic seizures, although they happened when no one was present in the room to view precisely what happened. Nevertheless, he had several falls, and he also began having "drop outs", short times when it is like the electrical system dropping out for just a fraction of a second. These, too, however can cause falls if he is standing. Besides this, his balance began deteriorating and he became quite unstable walking. He began using an old cane of my Mom's and eventually we got a better one for him, although it's currently only on loan.

In the week before Yom Kippur (which was on 18 September this year), we realized that we would need a wheelchair for that day. Virtually no one in Israel drives on Yom Kippur, so we had arranged to spend the night with friends who live in Nahariya. However, there was clearly NO WAY that David would be able to walk between their apartment and the synagogue. So, we went to a medical equipment store in Kiryat Shmona and purchased a wheelchair, figuring that he would need it for other occasions as well.

Last Monday night (or, really, very early Tuesday morning), David got up in the night to go to the bathroom, which is quite normal for him, even though he had fallen several times in the past when doing this. This time, he fell as he was turning around to sit on the toilet and hurt his ankle. We thought that it was broken, but when we had it x-rayed we found that, thankfully, it was not, only sprained. Nevertheless, he has not been able to walk on it and thus has become wheelchair-bound, making us very thankful for that purchase! The ankle has definitely begun healing, but he still can only take a step or two on his left foot. We set up a roll-away bed for him in the living room so that he doesn't have to get up the 17 steps to our upstairs bedroom (or even the 5 steps to the closest bedroom). This has worked well for him. We also hit upon the idea of using old empty coffee cans for him to pee in instead of having to risk getting to the bathroom during the night (which we should have thought of long ago!).

So, you are probably asking by now, "What is causing these problems?" Unfortunately, we don't have any answers yet. The local Maccabi neurologist, who is very good, sent him to the Epilepsy Clinic at Rambam, where he was seen by an expert there. She also said that he should have both an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and an EEG (electro-encephalogram). This time, when the local neurologist ordered these, Maccabi approved both of them. We still have to schedule the EEG (which should be fairly easy), and the MRI is already scheduled for 4 October (after the holidays, of course!). Thus, we are simply waiting and wondering what they will find, which isn't particularly easy.

The balance problem and the cognitive difficulties have both continued to slowly deteriorate. The latter tends to be somewhat sporadic, so often David's thinking is perfectly normal. But then, suddenly, he will forget what he is saying in mid-sentence, or he will become very confused about something that happened very recently or about what day it is. It's all quite worrying for both of us, especially since it's also very mysterious. We try to remain hopeful, but I must admit that it hasn't been so easy.

We have tried to continue doing interesting things and to live as normally as we can. Today, we took a drive to Gamla National Park, where we have been many times before, and I took David in the wheelchair on the nice paved path. I'll post more about that, including a picture, in the next post.

The scorpion hunters

Last night, as we were preparing to go to bed, we got an unwelcome surprise. David was grabbing a light blanket to put over himself when he felt something crawl on him. By the time he saw what it was, it was going down the edge of the bed, and before he could get something to squish it, the black scorpion had crept under the bed!

The black scorpions here are not aggressive, and we've found several before in the house, but never up on the 2nd floor, in the bedroom. Luckily, we've never been stung, but I've been told that their sting is very painful!

We tried moving the bed back and forth to ferret out the scorpion, but it managed to remain steadfastly under there somewhere where we could get it or even see it. We knew that we had better be careful if we got up during the night not to step on it! I figured that mostly it would want to hide, but, in the dark (although we DO have a night light!), it might come out and go exploring.

Sure enough, in the wee hours, when I happened to be awake, I heard one of the cats scratching around near the far corner of the room. After a while, I sat up to take a look and saw that it was Pascal, our BIG one-year-old male who is mostly black with a white chin and chest and some white on his paws. I was pretty sure that he was after the scorpion. Somewhat later, I decided to put on my glasses and go over there and check more carefully. By then, his sister, Peachy, our petite adorable calico, had joined him, and, sure enough, there was the scorpion, probably already dead. I didn't take any chance though -- I took several paper towels, made sure it was thoroughly squished, and put it in the trash. The cats didn't really get what I had done and continued to look for it for some time after. Of course, I petted them and praised them (quietly, though, so as not to wake David!).

Since I had found the cats with scorpions a time or two before, I wasn't too surprised. By the way, our American cat, Katom, simply stayed up on the bed, sleeping!

A surprise on Friday night

Last night, the room where we hold our prayers every Friday night (at Emet v'Shalom, in Nahariya) was full of chairs. This is because we knew that a group of about 88 young people from the States would be attending. They arrived a little late, but we didn't start until they got there.

Early in the prayers, before L'cha Dodi, the rabbi's wife came over to me and told me that I was requested to join the rabbi (who always leads the prayers) up front. He has had me join him a few times before, mostly when his voice felt a little shaky and he wanted some extra support, so I wasn't too surprised.

Throughout L'cha Dodi, I noticed that he didn't sing as much as usual, leaving much of it to me. At the end of L'cha Dodi, he suddenly took off his tallit, handed the microphone to me, said תמשיך! tamshikh! ("Continue!"), and quickly walked to the back and out the door. I knew he must really not be feeling well to do something like that, and I also knew that I had better pull it together and concentrate in leading the prayers to the very best of my ability. I did notice that several people followed him out the door to help him.

The singing part is not too difficult for me, although I hadn't really prepared mentally for it, of course. The parts where the leader simply reads the Hebrew are more difficult except for a few parts of the Amidah that I know well. After I stumbled through the middle part of the first Psalm ("Mizmor Shir L'Yom HaShabbat") after L'cha Dodi, Odelia and Ayelet, two of the teenagers in the congregation came up and asked if I wanted their help! Boy, did I! These two girls are both native Hebrew (and English!) speakers, so the reading is pretty easy for them. When I try to read these things, I sound like a 2nd grader -- with a horrible accent, to boot!

Various other people helped out with other aspects of the evening, and, all in all, I think it was a success. This morning, I found out that the rabbi was having a high-blood-pressure attack but that he's OK now.

Leaving the hospital (and some pics from my stay there)

On Thursday, they finally released me from the hospital. The main reason they were keeping me, I believe, was so that I could continue to receive the intravenous (i.e. directly into the vein) antibiotics 3 times a day (about 6 a.m., about 1-2 p.m., and about 9:30 p.m.). Another reason was so that my bandage could be changed every day. I actually never felt very sick the whole time I was there.

Tomorrow (Sunday), I'll go into Maccabi (our HMO) to get the bandage changed again. Then, on Tuesday I have an appointment at the hospital outpatient clinic for them to check me again (and no doubt to change the bandage again, too).

Last Monday, while I was still hospitalized, I took a little hike out behind the hospital and down to the helicopter pad. Here are a couple of pictures I shot from there. This first one shows the bridge on the Tzfat bypass, which runs around below Tzfat on the south side and then connects to highway 90, the Jordan Valley highway. This bridge is said to be the highest bridge in the Middle East!

Finally, here's the view of the south side of the hospital, looking back up from the helipad. The building on the left, which is connected to the main building on the right, is where the emergency room is located.
Note that I did not leave the fenced hospital grounds for this entire hike. In fact, that first picture was actually taken by holding my phone through the chain link fence (topped with barb-wire!).