McKay is really sick. Like three weeks ago we found a private school who would teach our children even though they are not fluent in Polish. McKay went for one hour the first day, he went for four hours the 2nd day and then he got sick. He had a cold. The School won't let you in the doors if you are sick AT ALL! So he was home for the next few days. Then on MOnday of the next week he felt a little better. But Tuesday all the kids realized that they were sickly and couldn't go. They were home until Friday. That is when the other kids got better and Mr. McKay took a turn for the worse... but sadly I didn't believe him because I know how much McKay loves to go to school! NOT! So I sent them all Friday and I was home for one hour when the phone rang. It was McKay. He was too sick to be at school. He came home and went to bed. By Sunday he was laboring to breath. Sweet Emilia came over. She is our beloved neighbor who happens to be an Internal Medicine Doc. She came. She listened. She diagnosed. She prescripted. She ordered, "no school for atleast 3 days." She went home. Thorough as can be... and ever so kind. McKay smiled. He says the best part of being sick is that he can say, "I told you I was sick and you didn't believe me". And he reminds me every day.
INSERT GUILT HERE: I believe in the mum who sides with her cubs... and defends them to the end! I also believe in the mum who challenges her wee ones to do hard things and goes to great length to make certain of their success. I can't decide if I crossed the line... I should have been the mum who came home and smooched little McKay, put on the movies, and began making a pot of soup. But I wasn't. I thought he was faking. And so I tried to be stern. I am bad at that. Oh well. This time it bit me in the buttocks.McKay got worse as the week went on. He couldn't breathe. Mr. Mecham blew up our nebulizer with the wrong size of transformer. Emilia came back over and listened again. She said, "we need to go the hospital now, okay?" And next thing you know, McKay and I were off to the hospital just barely passing Mr. Mecham and the other kidlets as they came home from Polish classes.
The hospital was like walking into a WARP ZONE... but atleast we were with somebody we trusted and who spoke the language well! Both dr. and Polish.
When we came to Poland it was required of us to have medical insurance to get a legal VISA. But when we got to the hospital they didn't believe us that our insurance was legit. They wouldn't have treated us if Emilia wasn't fighting for us. Doctors in this country get in BIG trouble from the government for treating patients without legit insurance... and they charge the Doctor for all the medical costs of the patient that they treated if they don't check insurance first. CRAZY! needless to say, registering at the front desk was interesting.
The concrete walls, the steel doors and the old style beds on antique training wheels gave us the creeps... McKay said the Elder Plumb told him there were "zombies" working in the hospital! I assured him that wasn't the case but that it just looked scary... like the Gas chamber we visited at the Majdanek death camp! Then Dr. Africa called us in.
ZOMBIE!
and he listened to McKay's chest and agreed that he was very sick and needed a lung x-ray to rule out pneumonia. Indeed the long scary halls made us afraid. I was worried about the zombies behind the metal doors. It was like a bomb shelter. And then behind the 3 foot thick concrete wall I saw the x-ray machine... and I felt so much better. UP TO DATE! And sweet Emilia was right there with us.
Back to Zombie Africa Dr... And wouldn't you know he said an "injection of steroids" was needed. And he had Zombie Polish nurse preparing the meds...
She was so nasty that sweet Emilia had to get after her. Dr. Emilia told zombie polish nurse that perhaps she needed to "get a new job. Perhaps one she won't be working with children and where she could grump around all day and it wouldn't matter". Then that zombie nurse put in the injection side ways into McKay's buttocks and took her time shooting in that medication. Too bad McKay is so tuff and it didn't matter that she sucked at giving shots. And when the fear finally hit McKay and tears began to come, sweet Emilia petitioned the zombie Africa Doc to give a new nebulizer rather than 10 more shots like this! And a quiet tear rolled off her cheeks as she saw how upset McKay was. But she got us out of 10 days of steroid shots. She became McKay's favorite person right then and there!
We made friends with that zombie Africa Doc. He liked McKay. He even shook his hand and then said, "Now you can tell all your friends you shook hands with a black man." To that I replied, "yea... well there are tonz of black folk where we come from and so it just makes us feel at home". Dr. Africa turned out to not be a zombie even though he looks like one.
Then a trip to the APTEKA...at mid-night... where we picked up one nebulizer, two antibiotics which we mix ourselves (and is awesome since the directions are in Polish), probiotics, 2 different vitamins, more cough stuff, one inhalor steroid, one resuce inhalor and a partirge in a pear tree. And Emilia was with us the whole time.
Did I say that her name is sacred in our home yet? Emilia... sweetest doctor of all time. we love her.
looks like McKay will get to miss school all week! :) Lucky dog.
Mckay slept like a baby.
p.s. Just because the medication and care is cheaper here in Poland because they have socialized medicine, it doesn't mean that it is better. And so today I am thankful that the U.S of A. is still not practicing socialized medicine... and I will fight to my death to keep it that way.
On another note:
happy birthday on Nov. 28 to Kaden and Kams. Sure love you.
Coley watched "the village" today. He is upstairs singing "I AM A CHILD OF GOD" in an effort to get that scary movie out of his head... and It is really super cute. I'm going to smooch his face off right now and lay by him since he is obviously scared to death.
