I do not know what but something is bothering her and she keeps hiding on the bottom shelf of the bookcase next to me, between the front of the shelf and my front wheels, something she has never done before. She seems to be frightened of something, almost heading for a psychomotor seizure which, if she does, may or may not develop into a full blown Grand Mal. I have spoken to Ram and he said to give her 20mg Valium but that will take time to work. Every time I coax her out she does the nagging and pacing gimmee gimmee muchies thing, but even food will not calm her at the moment. Nor will cuddles. If I leave her on that bottom shelf she shakes so much that this table is shaking. I hope the Valium works soon as this is rather worrying.
Well she moved out of her newly found hidey-hole a couple of times but kept going back, and I think I know what has disturbed her. Usually it is really quiet during the evenings but there is something going on in a huge marquee opposite the main Synagogue - very close to me - a memorial service for the first Chief Rabbi of this Moshav, so cars are parked just about everywhere - car doors slamming etc so when she went out for a pee she did not know what was going on. And then just like last year some louts from town came and started throwing fire crackers. It is now coming up to 10.29pm and there are still cars around although some have gone, but there are still fire-crackers sounding. She is not normally bothered by fireworks or thunder or boom booms but this has been going on since about 7pm and she is very distressed by everything. And she has just been out again, pee'd and came straight in and back to her new hidey-hole.
I hope she is OK, Malka. Do you think she could associating the firecrackers with the Gaza attack bangs, and the stress they created for you, and your community? Also, if there is shouting, she may still be reacting to the Dobe incident. As she has been tranquilised, I would try to keep things normal, and not to show her that you are concerned, as this could feed her anxiety. I've got my fingers crossed that this is not a precursor.
@6JRT's - It has been nice and quiet now since around 11pm. I knew this memorial service was going to be held as my neighbour had warned me about there being a lot of cars but I had forgotten about the fire-crackers last year. The police could not catch the boys last year so I doubt they even came from town this evening. @CaroleC - She never took much notice of the boom booms and there was no shouting this evening. The sound of the car doors closing made her alert as nobody parks outside during the evening and she was definitely confused as to why there were cars parked all along our frontage.. Apart from anything else this side of the road is No Parking, although for funerals, shiv'as and memorials it is permitted, but it is unusual. But usually a there was no shouting or even loud talking when people parked to walk down to the service. I could [just about] hear the service as the large marquee is only maybe 100 - 150 metres away and they did use microphones and speakers, but that could not be heard when my door was closed, only when outside with Pereg. It was the fire-crackers that disturbed her... and it worried me that she had felt she needed a hidey-hole by my feet. She has never felt the need to hide from anything before, although the slightest sudden sound was enough to send Little One in behind the paperback books that used to be on that shelf, but since I gave away a load of books the only thing on that shelf is probably dust! She has now taken herself off to bed, together with two monkeys, a giraffe and a honking goose. Must have made two journeys to take that lot! As for the Dobe episode - she forgot that almost immediately, which reminds me I must check when I have to remove the staples as I forgot to note it down. And that is what worried me this evening. If she took that in her stride, why the panic this evening?
Hope Pereg is o.k. by now. Sounds like she was having a panic attack, much like some people do. In that case the valium was the best thing for her. Let me know.
Thank you - apart from one rather large fire-cracker let off at just after midnight, the night was quiet and everything is back to normal. Fire-crackets are illegal here but then again so is a lot of stuff, including drugs, but people can get hold of them all the same. Thanks Azz - she has never seemed any different before a GM seizure, which mostly, but not always, happen while she is sleeping, although a few times she has crashed down even while she was flonked down and watching me get her food ready. The few Psychomotor seizures [which are totally different to focal seizures] that she has had just start with her acting frightened of anything and everything, and happen while she is awake. Thank you - Pereg had a good night but I have to admit that the slightest movement or sound from her had me checking on her. Psychomotor seizures start like a panic attack but then just go on and on for two or three hours, often ending in a full-blown Grand Mal. I am fairly sure that it was the unusual amount of cars that confused her to start with, together with the fire-crackers that even caused me to jump that caused it, and once that had stopped and she had seen that all the cars had gone away, it was off to bed. Just the one fire-cracker when she came flying back into the salon but this morning seems fine. Although of course with her, who knows? She is currently on Day 22 so anything could happen today.
I purposely was not mentioning how many days it had been. Didn't want to give it a kunnahurra.(spelled wrong, but you know what I mean)
Kenahorah - frequently mispronounced as Kinaynahorah is Yiddish for - keep the evil eye away. In Ivrit "evil eye" is ʿáyin hā-ráʿ. "ayin'' meaning eye, and "hara" meaning evil so you would say "bli ayin ha'ra" - "bli meaning "without". You would then spit three times as in ptt ptt ptt. Basically Yiddish is a mix of old classical Hebrew and old German and was spoken by the Ashkenazim from Eastern Europe, although written in Hebrew. And it is spoken by some ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazim. It was never spoken by Sepharadim [the culture of the Jews of Spain, Portugal, the Balkans, North Africa and the Middle East]. Ivrit is Modern Hebrew, ie old classicalHebrew that was modernised and is the official language spoken here. Quite fascinating when you look into it and I wish I knew more Yiddish than I do. Not that anyone on this Moshav would understand it, being Sepharadi/Mizrachi having originated in Djerbe, Tunisia, where their mother-tongue was North African Arabic!
My Grandmother always insisted on a red ribbon to keep the evil spirits away. And spitting 3 times was very important.
She already wears a Magen David tag but only because Dog Tag Art brought out a load of new tag designs... and and well I fancied one for my keyring and they had a special offer so I got one for her as well... and I have just seen that they do a Hamsa... Hmmm - I forgot the red ribbon but that has been taken over by the pseudo Kabbalists with their bit of red string round their wrists, which is really meaningless on their part. Superstitions and customs vary slightly depending on where one's grandparents or great grandparents came from, but some seen to be universal. I guess it binds us together in some way.
I understood Yiddish as a child because it was spoken in the home. I didn't speak it because I didn't want my grandparents to know how well I understood them. Didn't want them to wait till I left the room to start talking to each other. Customs do bind us together and in some ways will identify us to each other.
