Operation denied

Tel Aviv this morning

Yesterday after class at 4pm I rushed to the Digital Imaging Centre in East Jerusalem to collect my CT scan. Apparently it's the only place that does maxilla-facial CT scans as hospitals around do not have this machine. The govt. hospitals that do have them do not admit me because I don't have medical insurance. Luckily the Centre asked for only 200 shekels ... and the staff only spoke arabic ... so I was really lucky. Then it was a another rush down the steep valley of Kidron to get to Gethsemane to give the evening talk.

Sneak peek into the
doctors' room

This morning at 3am I was up to prepare to go to surgery in Tel Aviv. It was already postponed once before. Now with the CT scan, the docs are clearer with situation. I had to leave early at 5am to avoid the monstrous traffic jam to Tel Aviv ... which is good because I can then concelebrate the morning Mass with my community at Jaffa. After breakfast which I didn't eat because of the surgery,  I cleaned the huge aquarium and then left for the specialists centre in Tel Aviv. The 2 docs were happy with the CT scan but because I am suffering from an infection, they refused to do the operation. Now it's postponed to October when I will be totally 100% healthy for an operation. No arguments there.

Meantime the big news locally is that house prices are rising steadily and ghost houses are also increasing. Ghost houses are those bought by overseas jews, mainly from America, who never come to live here but occupy the houses and apartments for maybe 3 weeks a year. They raise up prices so that locals can't afford housing, and they buy up houses so that none is left for locals to stay .... while the houses remain empty 11 months a year.