It's been awhile

By Dr. Yasmine Kalkstein July 16, 2013

Okay, so it's been awhile since I've written...

Thursday: Sivan complains of sore throat, pick her and Matan up early because neither was doing great and we drive to Herzeliya to go to beach with Yaara and Assaf. When we get there, Sivan has a fever. Although I have plenty of advil at apartment, I now have to buy more. After drugged, Sivan was better. The kids love the sand, and the beach is spectacularly beautiful and the water is perfect temperature.

They also had a concert at sunset...we only heard one song but the kids enjoyed it (see pictures below of the beach), and it's really incredible the emphasis on quality of life here--free concerts everywhere, parks, bike paths, etc.. (Monroe NY vexes me...)

However, I have to admit, I have issues with sand. Sand is dirt to me, and by the end of the evening, it was everywhere. It like reproduces. And we had COLD showers with no pressure to try to get it off...

Friday: Sivan wakes up miserable. Fever is high and so I go back to urgent care. Because we got there before 7 am, we got seen right away. Sivan refuses to do a throat culture. We finally talk her into it. A few minutes later, it turns out, it didn't work and they make her do another. Boy was she mad. She shut her mouth and said, NO, you already did it. once was enough! They were begging and trying to hold her down. That didn't work (of course, this is Sivan!), so I turned to money. She earned 40 shekels for this debacle.

Strep test came out positive, which in some respects was a good situation--at least I know what it is and how we are treating it. The doc was great--threw out the test so I wouldn't have to pay for it, and prescribed me extra in case Matan or I got it too.

The rest of the story is that Sivan has been really difficult the last few days. She's always intense, but the last few days she's been extremely tantrumy. It occurred to me maybe the antibiotics was messing with her. So, like all intelligent people, I googled "antibiotics and tantrums" and was affirmed by discussion boards to know that yes, this occurs (although honestly, you could google "antibiotics and memory loss" and surely find someone to affirm your preconceptions). Wait, I have to try...whoa...turns out yes, some antibiotics cause cognitive impairment.

Anyway, I called up Joe, a doctor who recently made aliyah in Israel who we know from Tel Aviv and he told me to just quit them. So, I'm hoping Sivan will return to her sunshiney normal (ha!) tomorrow. I love my daughter, but she said today "I hate the world""I wish you'd hate me"and "Send my brother back to the hospital". It was a rough day.

Some people believe kids act out in the mournful spirit of the 9 days before tisha baav.

So, if she gets better, it might also be some spiritual thing according to a religious friend I know. Whatever! I just want Sivan back!

Anyway, we spent Shabbat in our apartment, and then went to our friend's parents shabbat afternoon...they have 6 kids, and all of them were spending shabbat that weekend together (a monthly occurence) which is really nice to see.

Sunday, I took Sivan out of camp and went to Jerusalem to meet my friend, Emily/Rachel who I studied abroad with in 2000 who is now living a Charedi life outside of Jerusalem with 4 kids! We wandered the shuk (market), and Sivan tasted and smelled spices, ate marzipan (best rugeluch bakery ever), and then met my mom for a quick lunch and saw my dad briefly. We took the bus in and I did not enjoy that ride. Jerusalem buses are not known for being smooth and comfortable. We took a sherut out (a shared taxi) and that was much better...some guy let sivan play with his android the whole time!

Sunday, a couple hours later, Adam and I went back to jerusalem and met my parents for sushi and dessert and then looked at some judaica shops in the center of town. Jerusalem is so much nicer than I remember. And the judaica shops have some amazing stuff...i wish someone would give me like $2000 to just be forced to spend there. I'd have a field day!

On Tisha Ba'av eve, there was some event in Modiin where they read eicha but then had a discussion. The theme was "shivyon banetel" or "equality in the burden". This is the hot issue in Israel right now about the extent to which charedim should be forced to serve in the army. It's a complicated issue, and I listed to different speakers and people debate. I was most moved by how deep a debate like this is in Israel. History from 2000 years ago is brought up, values from the Torah are mentioned, and passions run deep as you talk about how complicated it is to reach a compromise, when although all Jews, they have such different belief systems in a certain sense. It was deep, fascinating, and moving.

Today we went to stalagtite cave (near Bet Shemesh). Beautiful!

here are pix from the caves...