When I took Josie to the Dr on Wednesday she was really REALLY sick. She could barely breath because her throat was so swollen and sore. She also got a cold on top of Strep Throat and Mono. She was on sick little girl. We had to allow 15 minutes to walk the normal 5 to the bus stop. Thankfully our Dr.'s office is very close by and right in front of a bus stop.
We knew that our normal Dr. would not be there as she was still on vacation but I just assumed, even though I should know better by now not to ever assume that the replacing Dr. would also speak English the way our Dr. does. Sadly, even though the replacing Dr. was very kind and competent he did not speak English. He understood English and allowed me to speak English and clarify things in English but he spoke nearly exclusively to us in German. I have said many times before but I will say it again, not having a firm and/or comfortable handle on the language in the land you are living is frustrating on most days but sometimes it is vital that you understand and being a mom who has a very sick girl and I could only understand about 75% of what the Dr was very anxiously telling me about my daughter's condition was EXTREMELY unnerving. How do immigrants do life without the language? I will never know.
What I did understand was that she was very sick. She needed to get a blood test to make sure it was in fact Mono and she needed a throat culture to see if she also had Strep throat in addition. But because of the Easter holiday that office, even though just upstairs, was closed until the next day. He looked at Josie, who speaks and understand German nearly perfectly, and said very clearly - if you can't breath you must go to the hospital. Which of course set her off... how will she know when/if she can't breath in time to know to go the hospital. I muddled through with my combination of German and English and he told me that we needed to go to the hospital right then to get her an IV because she was so dehydrated. I asked if we could go to the one that is just across from our house? No, he said, for some reason I didn't understand we needed to go to a different hospital. Apparently Dr.s have huge preferences over hospitals?!?! He said we should go right then. Then he asked if I had a car. When my answer was no he said, OK, then don't go to the hospital. The bus/train ride would be too much for her. He said we must go directly home and she needed to DRINK, drink and then drink some more. As we waited for the bus back home we were both in tears. Both of us scared but for different reasons. When we got home she knew the importance of her flushing her body with liquids and even though it hurt her throat (why she had not been drinking much previously) she drank and drank and drank.Her breathing improved and she slept and the next morning Marty was able to take her to the Dr. for the throat culture and blood test and both came back positive which confirmed the other Dr.'s assumptions that she had Strep and Mono. Poor thing but since she tested positive for Strep she was given antibiotics and within 12 hours she was half as sick as she had been. She was on the mend but it would be a loooong road to recovery. Again, so thankful it was break and there was no school or no where to be for another full week. A bummer of a way to spend your break but really the best timing for such a nasty illness.
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