And on a lighter note ... I have to give a shout out to our coffeemaker. If, hypothetically, someone were to turn on the coffeemaker without having ever put any water in, the thing simply shuts itself off. Almost immediately. Yay for no burnt pots or electrical fires!
Friday, March 29, 2013
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
This vs. That
Last week Terry had training in Portugal. He did this:
Some beautiful building on the water
Some beautiful monument on the water
A seagull eating a rat. Notice the water flows, as in it isn't ice
Ah, wine
Meanwhile, I was home with 2 kids who had just gotten over Daddy's last trip. Alex had all the medical issues going on. We did this:
Yep I let Zoltan have the camera. Heck, Terry doesn't like it (camera) anyway.
Treat!
They gave him that lollypop free. Alex's was red.
That sign says "Happy Phone" above the seafoam green telephone
Playground at the detsky sad when we went to pick Alex up after our special day together
Of course, Alex and I had to hit the same cafe on our special day.
The tea here is amazing. And comes with a little cookie.
Super heroes duking it out
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
A different view on medical care overseas
Back in October, Alex started coughing. I don't know much about the first week or so, it happened while I was in Tver and the family caught a cold - which was to turn into more than a cold for each of them.
She hasn't stopped coughing. At first the teachers and other parents thought she was still sick and I was accosted and accused for bringing her to school. This continued even after a month - c'mon guys, anyone with an iota of reason knows than more than a month later you don't still have a cold. And she clearly didn't have tuberculosis.
We went through all the obvious things, bronchitis, allergies etc and the coughing never let up. We saw an ENT who diagnosed post-nasal drip. I cut dairy out of her diet in case it was causing the PND. And yet ... she woke up every morning coughing, and spent some time coughing every night before falling asleep. Sometimes she woke in the night coughing. Naptime at school was the same.
A couple of months into all this mess, she told me she had a tummy ache. She pointed pretty high up her chest. We gave her 1/2 a Tums. A few weeks later, it happened again. Then, constant tummy aches, and daily heartburn. I get on the trusty old internet and ... GERD. All the symptoms, none of the causes. The Consulate doctor is away. A friend hands me her bottle of Zantac 150, we look up dosage for children and haphazardly chop up a pill for Alex.
A week later Alex still coughs but not as much. She says her tummy hurts less, but it still hurts every day. I put her bed up on some thick books but I'm not sure it's high enough. We got to see the Consulate doctor, who wants her to finish dinner 3h before bedtime. Yeah, Russian kids go to bed way later than American ones - she's still at detsky sad 3h before bedtime. Doc agrees GERD but is concerned as to why Alex has it - she's not a baby, not an adult, not overweight, doesn't eat any offending foods, etc etc.
She first recommended an endoscopy. Here they are usually done without anesthesia as "without" it's 15 minutes, "with" you have to plan 24 hours in the hospital. So we got to stress out for a few days about whether that is something we want to do at post or if we can/want to medevac. Sounds ridiculous for a 15 minute procedure but the quality of medical care received at post, especially diagnostically, has been bad enough several people have had to medevac after tests in order to get better tests. I am not making Alex go through an endoscopy twice.
THEN we hear back, after the local doctor confers with the American doctor in Moscow, that she first recommends doing a test for h.pylori bacteria as it is the likely cause of this. Does this test exist in Russia? We don't know yet and thus need to continue to worry about Alex's GI health.
Just one more thing that would be so much easier if we lived in the USA. At least we can get broken arms set properly here - something not true at every post!
[note, this post was written in draft form, the last sentence included, before Alex fell and broke her arm again. Quel coincidence!]
She hasn't stopped coughing. At first the teachers and other parents thought she was still sick and I was accosted and accused for bringing her to school. This continued even after a month - c'mon guys, anyone with an iota of reason knows than more than a month later you don't still have a cold. And she clearly didn't have tuberculosis.
We went through all the obvious things, bronchitis, allergies etc and the coughing never let up. We saw an ENT who diagnosed post-nasal drip. I cut dairy out of her diet in case it was causing the PND. And yet ... she woke up every morning coughing, and spent some time coughing every night before falling asleep. Sometimes she woke in the night coughing. Naptime at school was the same.
A couple of months into all this mess, she told me she had a tummy ache. She pointed pretty high up her chest. We gave her 1/2 a Tums. A few weeks later, it happened again. Then, constant tummy aches, and daily heartburn. I get on the trusty old internet and ... GERD. All the symptoms, none of the causes. The Consulate doctor is away. A friend hands me her bottle of Zantac 150, we look up dosage for children and haphazardly chop up a pill for Alex.
A week later Alex still coughs but not as much. She says her tummy hurts less, but it still hurts every day. I put her bed up on some thick books but I'm not sure it's high enough. We got to see the Consulate doctor, who wants her to finish dinner 3h before bedtime. Yeah, Russian kids go to bed way later than American ones - she's still at detsky sad 3h before bedtime. Doc agrees GERD but is concerned as to why Alex has it - she's not a baby, not an adult, not overweight, doesn't eat any offending foods, etc etc.
She first recommended an endoscopy. Here they are usually done without anesthesia as "without" it's 15 minutes, "with" you have to plan 24 hours in the hospital. So we got to stress out for a few days about whether that is something we want to do at post or if we can/want to medevac. Sounds ridiculous for a 15 minute procedure but the quality of medical care received at post, especially diagnostically, has been bad enough several people have had to medevac after tests in order to get better tests. I am not making Alex go through an endoscopy twice.
THEN we hear back, after the local doctor confers with the American doctor in Moscow, that she first recommends doing a test for h.pylori bacteria as it is the likely cause of this. Does this test exist in Russia? We don't know yet and thus need to continue to worry about Alex's GI health.
Just one more thing that would be so much easier if we lived in the USA. At least we can get broken arms set properly here - something not true at every post!
[note, this post was written in draft form, the last sentence included, before Alex fell and broke her arm again. Quel coincidence!]
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Some good things about being posted overseas
As already mentioned, Alex broke her arm yesterday. She fell off the bed, started screaming and crying in that way that means "I didn't just bruise something" although I did get the ice immediately in hopes we were all wrong.
In the USA ... I don't actually have any idea what I would do in the USA. Show up at an emergency room? Call her pediatrician?
In Russia, I immediately called our local doctor, the one who comes to the Consulate every week and is American board certified. Best of both worlds. She called the private clinic closest to us, found out when we could come in for a consult with the pediatric doctor on call (this is a weekend of course) and get an x-ray if he concurs it's necessary. I kept Alex in ice and TV until it was time to go - a little less than an hour.
When we got to the clinic and checked in, we were told to go right up to the pediatric floor. The doctor met us as we were coming out of the elevator. After he checked Alex out, we did have to wait about 10 minutes before heading down to X-ray. When we got there, we waited about another 10 minutes before we got in for the X-ray. They ushered me out of the room (last time they let me stay, just gave me my own lead apron thing) and I saw the x-rays as they came up on the screen. I knew about as soon as the docs knew that yep, she broke her arm across both bones.
From there we went directly to the room where the doctor, who had been with us throughout, met up with an assistant and put on the cast. He told me when to come back next week, and that was it. I paid $350 that I hope insurance will reimburse me for and got home about 2 hours after I left the house.
From friends' stories back home, I imagine the snacks and activities I had throw into my bag before leaving would have been much more heavily utilized had this occurred in the USA.For this trip, the Leapster was more than enough.
In the USA ... I don't actually have any idea what I would do in the USA. Show up at an emergency room? Call her pediatrician?
In Russia, I immediately called our local doctor, the one who comes to the Consulate every week and is American board certified. Best of both worlds. She called the private clinic closest to us, found out when we could come in for a consult with the pediatric doctor on call (this is a weekend of course) and get an x-ray if he concurs it's necessary. I kept Alex in ice and TV until it was time to go - a little less than an hour.
When we got to the clinic and checked in, we were told to go right up to the pediatric floor. The doctor met us as we were coming out of the elevator. After he checked Alex out, we did have to wait about 10 minutes before heading down to X-ray. When we got there, we waited about another 10 minutes before we got in for the X-ray. They ushered me out of the room (last time they let me stay, just gave me my own lead apron thing) and I saw the x-rays as they came up on the screen. I knew about as soon as the docs knew that yep, she broke her arm across both bones.
From there we went directly to the room where the doctor, who had been with us throughout, met up with an assistant and put on the cast. He told me when to come back next week, and that was it. I paid $350 that I hope insurance will reimburse me for and got home about 2 hours after I left the house.
From friends' stories back home, I imagine the snacks and activities I had throw into my bag before leaving would have been much more heavily utilized had this occurred in the USA.For this trip, the Leapster was more than enough.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Here we go again
322 days ago, this happened.
Today, Zoltan and I were playing in my room.We were pretending to sleep in my bed with 2 stuffed animals who were not doing a very good job of sleeping. Alex came in and perched at the foot of the bed. Too close to foot of the bed, apparently, because she soon rolled off the bed onto the carpeted floor. Cue up the screaming and crying. And holding her hand. And actual tears.
I started to feel nauseated. Isn't she going through enough right now medically?
Got ice on the arm, got her watching TV to calm down and give it some time. Maybe we're wrong about this. And it is Saturday afternoon and Terry's not here.
When she said she wanted to go get an x-ray like last time my heart sank. Called the Consulate doc, called our upstairs neighbor to see if they could keep Z til Terry got home and we watched another show to distract her til it was time to go.
I was standing in the technician room with the doctor while Alex was in the other room getting the x-ray. I could see myself that damned black line crossing both bones in her lower arm. Here we go again ...
Today, Zoltan and I were playing in my room.We were pretending to sleep in my bed with 2 stuffed animals who were not doing a very good job of sleeping. Alex came in and perched at the foot of the bed. Too close to foot of the bed, apparently, because she soon rolled off the bed onto the carpeted floor. Cue up the screaming and crying. And holding her hand. And actual tears.
I started to feel nauseated. Isn't she going through enough right now medically?
Got ice on the arm, got her watching TV to calm down and give it some time. Maybe we're wrong about this. And it is Saturday afternoon and Terry's not here.
When she said she wanted to go get an x-ray like last time my heart sank. Called the Consulate doc, called our upstairs neighbor to see if they could keep Z til Terry got home and we watched another show to distract her til it was time to go.
I was standing in the technician room with the doctor while Alex was in the other room getting the x-ray. I could see myself that damned black line crossing both bones in her lower arm. Here we go again ...
Friday, March 22, 2013
We Have Orders!
Which means that we will now be allowed to pack up our stuff, buy plane tickets, and actually travel from Russia to the USA this summer. Now, it's REAL.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
More things the kids say
Some of these are old, and some are things we have had to say to them, but they need to be preserved for posterity before they are forgotten:
Parent: No Alex, don't hammer the cheese
A: I'm talking to pop-pop.
M: is he saying he misses you?
A: no. he's saying is that baby's teddy bear and are you allowed to play with it?
A: I'm a ballerina! I have a dress, and my legs are strong, and I can dance
Parent: No Alex, I don't want a real pee-pee in the pretend potty
Z: I want to go out! I want to go out in the city!
A: (after pretend trick or treating) Halloween candy is separated into M&Ms, chocolate, candy and french fries
At dinner: Mommy, no singing. You have to eat your dinner
T: Tell my why you want to go into the dining room. I want to hear your reasoning.
A: That's an excellent question. I want to go in because I want to.
A: No Benjamin, I can't play right now. I'm eating a cookie.
A: Zoltan, you like to do everything I do, so why don't you eat your grapes? I'm eating my grapes.
Parent: No Alex, don't hammer the cheese
A: I'm talking to pop-pop.
M: is he saying he misses you?
A: no. he's saying is that baby's teddy bear and are you allowed to play with it?
A: I'm a ballerina! I have a dress, and my legs are strong, and I can dance
Parent: No Alex, I don't want a real pee-pee in the pretend potty
Z: I want to go out! I want to go out in the city!
A: (after pretend trick or treating) Halloween candy is separated into M&Ms, chocolate, candy and french fries
At dinner: Mommy, no singing. You have to eat your dinner
T: Tell my why you want to go into the dining room. I want to hear your reasoning.
A: That's an excellent question. I want to go in because I want to.
A: No Benjamin, I can't play right now. I'm eating a cookie.
A: Zoltan, you like to do everything I do, so why don't you eat your grapes? I'm eating my grapes.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
79 days
We don't have actual orders yet so this is only proposed/theoretical. But the real day will be within days of the one we're aiming for. 79 days. After 4 years. Doesn't seem like enough time.
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