Where I've been-sick, sick Han Solo, and learning German for icky things

Hello gentle readers. I'll bet you've been wondering where I've been. Sadly, I was not off on some fabulous trip with my beloved Johnny Depp. I was in the hospital with my sweet little Han Solo. He's home now and doing much better though, so fear not.
About 2 weeks ago (now) he developed a terrible cough that ended all the wonderful sleeping through the night he was doing (BOO!). It got worse and worse (seriously, he'd cough for an hour at a time) and then he started having diarrhea. Holy crap (literally). On Thursday (after the Mon the coughing stated), I took him to the peds, but all the peds were booked, so we had to see a Nurse Practitioner, who Indy had seen in the past, and of whom we were not fond. She told us it was nothing and treated my like an overwrought first time mom (despite the fact that I've managed to get Indy to the age of 9). She told us to go home and it would all go away.
Friday night, the vomiting started. It was not good. Sat morning, I decided we were going to the doc again. I had to get authorization to take him to the local Kinderklinik (pediatric hospital) and after speaking to the on call nurse for less than 10 minutes I was told to take him in immediately.
We arrived at the Kinderklinik and were taken straight back (German hospitals are freaking amazing that way-check in and straight to the back you go). The doc came in less than 5 minutes later and asked me some questions and checked him out. She said he needed to be admitted and needed an IV right away. In his head. WHAT??  I have to say, he took the IV far better than I did (I started crying before they even got the needle out of the package).  He didn't cry over the needle (didn't even flinch when it went in), but was pissed to no end that they were holding his head still.  BTW, the doctor put the IV in and drew his blood.  She then took the blood back to the lab, ran the tests herself and came back in less than 20 minutes to tell me his blood work was fine.  Impressive.  I called James Bond weeping and he and Indy hopped in the car and headed to the hospital.
We were put on the infectious ward in a multi-person room.   We were more than willing to pay extra for a private room (like we had when he was born), but they don't have them.  It seems counterproductive to put a bunch of sick kids in a room together, doesn't it?  I got a crash course in the names for disgusting bodily functions in German.  Most of the nurses spoke English, but I made a point to find out what the specific words were so I could communicate with the ones who didn't.  Some things sound far better in German than they do in English.
The first night, we had only one roommate, a 6 year old girl, who was turning 7 the next day.  Han Solo got IV fluids all night, and woke up coughing several times.  My poor little man.  He took it all in stride and smiled and charmed the nurses with his pretty blue eyes and sweet nature.
Our roommate actually got to go home on her birthday, which made me happy because her family was LOUD.  Crazy loud.  We enjoyed several hours of silence before another baby (13 months) was brought in.  She had symptoms almost identical to Han Solo's.  Her mom was Chinese and the dad German.  The dad was in Japan filming a documentary on the recovery from the earthquake and couldn't get home.  She was a first time mom and a nervous wreck.  Between my broken German and her broken English (though it was admittedly better than my German), we managed to communicate fairly well.  The docs took Han Solo's IV out and told me I had to push fluids all night.  Both kids were mercifully asleep when at midnight we got another roommate (12 months).  The mom was ridiculously loud and very, very annoying.  She made noise until nearly 2am and kept slipping out to smoke!  She left her sick baby in the room alone (besides us of course) and went out for 30 minutes to smoke.  Good grief.  Her baby was grossly overweight and I didn't wonder why since the mom kept filling her bottle with orange soda.   Granted German orange soda is not the neon orange that American orange soda is and actually has some orange juice in it, but honestly.  I never saw this kid drink anything else.  We got almost no sleep that night because the mom kept getting up and making noise and waking up the babies.  I wanted to beat her.
The next morning I was exhausted beyond reason and so was Han Solo.  He was awoken almost every hour during the night.  The docs came in to check on him and I told them we were going home.  He was no longer on IV fluids and the only medication he was getting was a nebulizer, which I happen to have at home.  All I needed was the medicine and I could do those.  The young doctor was reluctant, but I told him, Han Solo would recover better when he could sleep.  The chief doctor came in a bit later and said it was fine for us to go home as long as we continued the breathing treatments.  We had to wait for his discharge papers, but as soon as we had them in hand, we were out the door.  When we got home, he went down for a nap and slept for 5 straight hours.  
He's doing much better now, though still has Husten and occasional  Durchfall (look it up).  It's time for a breathing treatment, so I'd better go.  I just didn't want you to think I'd fallen off the edge of the earth (or been whisked away by my beloved Johnny to a private island). 

Another one bites the dust

So....yesterday was my birthday and thanks to FB (remember I actually KNOW all of my FB friends) I feel ridiculously loved (and adored). James Bond and Indy made me an awesome strawberry cake with chocolate icing (LOVE) and we drove up to Ramstein Air Base(about an hour away) to go to Chili's for lunch (we haven't been to Chili's in over 3 years-I totally forgot there was one at Ramstein). We started off with Spinach-Artichoke Dip and practically had to fight Indy to get any ourselves. That boy loves spinach-artichoke dip. After his first bite, he closed his eyes and said "Best. Mom's. Birthday. Ever." Silly boy. I ordered the Chicken Quesadilla Explosion Salad and it was heaven. There was no way I could eat it all, but what I did was wonderful.  After that we went to the HUMONGOUS Ramstein PX (store) and walked around. I also had a strawberry milkshake from Baskin Robbins. The last 3 times we been up there they have been out of strawberry ice cream (HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN???) and I told JB that if they were out this time, I was going to go totally pregnant crazy on them. Fortunately (for them), they had 2 containers out. YUMMY.
On the way home we were being crazy silly an laughed so hard I thought I was going to go into labor.  It wasn't even anything spectacular, we were just being silly.  Good times.  When we got home and opened the door, a wave hit me and I said "It smells like ass in here!"  I'm a lady like that.  When we stepped into the LR, we saw why.  My poor Dutch (10 y/o Pekingese) had been violently ill, many, many, many times.  Oh, the horror.  James Bond was super awesome and cleaned it all up (it was in the LR/DR and kitchen) and then I mopped all the floors.  Dutch acted fine (he was very happy to see us), but the illness continued all through the night.  He tried to tell us he needed to go out, but several times, before we could get our shoes on, it was too late.  Darn it.  JB and I were up half the night and totally exhausted this morning.  And the house smelled like double ass.  Ugh.  I'm happy to report that Dutch seems to be feeling better today and has only had to go out a few times today (as opposed to about every hour and half last night).  I called the vet and they told me to feed him rice and chicken broth and if he doesn't improve to bring him in.  He's been enjoying that along with the extra love (though probably not the 2 baths he had to take) and we're hoping we don't have to go to the vet.
Dogs get ill, just like people.  Who knows why?  They get viruses or eat something disgusting they found outside (that's right, I'm talking about you Arf) that doesn't agree with them.  It's not often, maybe 3-4 times a year, but when you have 3 dogs, those 3-4 times a year become 12-16 times a year and you think you might lose your mind. We have hardwood floors in our house, but like most people have placed down (thankfully) inexpensive area rugs.  For whatever reason though, when the dogs get sick, they head right for the rugs.  Oh, yeah.  At one time in the big LR/DR area, we had 4 rugs: one under the coffee table, one under the table, and two others just in the open areas.  Thanks to multiple illnesses, and dogs who apparently like to be ill on said rugs, we now have none.  We also lost the rug in the school/guest room when Arf ate something he found outside and decided to bring it back up all over the rug.  Lat night, the last rug we had in the house (aside from the one in Indy's room, where the dogs are no longer allowed)  became the latest victim.  There was just no saving it.  James Bond tried, but to no avail.    We are now pretty much a bare hardwood floor house.  It's chilly in the winter, but easy to clean up, so I guess that's good.  Whatever will we do if we move into a house with carpet????? 

Food poisoning and German hospitals

So, I trust you all had a lovely Thanksgiving and are now gearing up for the fa-la-la-la-la insanity of the Christmas season.  T-giving was actually quite good for us, but the days before...not so much. 

The Friday before T-giving, James Bond and I went to a social function and had a great time.  It was almost like a date!  Saturday morning I felt...not so good.  Not pregnancy sick, sick sick.  Lying in the bed wishing you were dead sick.  You know what I mean.  I kept down a cup of tea and piece of dry toast (by sheer force of will, let me assure you) and Sunday was the same story (minus keeping down the piece of toast).  It was bad.  By Sunday evening, I knew I was dehydrated and it wasn't getting better.  I am not a fan of going to the hospital, but James Bond wasn't delirious with hunger and germs and made me go to the hospital.  Something about the baby and my health, blah, blah, blah.  We woke poor Indy up around 11pm (he was more delirious than I was-the boy needs his sleep) and headed over to Sankt Elisabeth Krankenhaus (St. Elizabeth Hospital) and I was immediately admitted.  They did an ultrasound and the baby was fine, but wasn't moving.  This freaked me out and I asked the doctor why.  She said simply "Er schläft" (He's sleeping).  I told her (irrationally in retrospect) to wake him up.  She clearly thought I was mad, but tapped my stomach a few times with the u/s wand and then I laughed because he head started shaking back and forth and his little hands were waving around and I had the image of Karl, from the movie UP.  The doctor clearly thought I was insane and began an IV push immediately.
Our insurance pays for a double room, but I opted to go with a private room for an extra 50 Euro a night (I was on the maternity ward and did not want to be in a room with a newborn).  This was a good call.  The room was large and crazy, crazy, crazy clean with a very posh bathroom.  I got loads of fluids and anti-nausea medication, which, turns out, I am allergic to.  I was literally itching from the inside.  Good times!  The only other things I could take while pregnant I have known allergies to (yeah, I'm a bundle of fun), so I just lay there miserable.  The nurse came back a while later and said she had something that would help and handed me a glass shot glass (none of those disposable paper cups here-that's wasteful) and asked if we used "ho-MAYO-puh-teek" in America.  Um, what was that again?  I had no idea what she was talking about but I looked down in the little shot glass and saw about 8 round white balls and it suddenly dawned on me what it was.  I looked up in surprise and said "Homeopathic!  Yes, of course, we have homeopathic medications in America."  What I didn't say though was "but they don't give them out in hospitals."
The next morning my OB came in and checked on the baby (still good) and me (still not good-it was really bad food poisoning, nothing more dangerous), took more blood and put me on a diet of zwieback and mushroom broth.  Yum.  The nurse asked me if we had zwieback in America and laughed when I told her that we did, but generally only gave it to toddlers who were teething.  I was there for 2 more nights on fluids and mushroom broth but I insisted that I was going home on Wednesday.  No way was I missing Thanksgiving.  The OB told me I should stay and "rest" another day or two, but I said absolutely not.  Here are some of the highlights of happenings and things I learned while there:


*The nurses work 6 hours shifts. 


*Their English is far superior to my German, but some of the things they said made me LOL.  One nurse (whose English was not very good) was asking me if I'd had any diarrhea or vomiting (or womitting as she called it), but she didn't know the word for diarrhea, so she put her hand on her bum and made a weird motion and asked if I had had "big toilet."  Thankfully, no, but the way she mimed and phrased it gave me a good chuckle.  Another nurse knew the term for diarrhea, but not vomiting, so she asked if I'd had the mouth diarrhea.  I almost died at the mental image.  Ick!


*For breakfast on the maternity ward, they have a buffet.  I was only allowed there on my last morning, but thought it was such an odd thing.


*Lunch is the big meal of the day.  My last night there, they finally decided I could eat and dinner (light fare) consisted of 3 slices of cheese and 2 pieces of bread.  I almost cried.  I was so hungry I called James Bond and told him he had to bring me some food or I was going to starve to death.


*German women stay 5-7 days in the hospital after having the baby.  The nurses wait on them hand and foot.  I know why they don't want to go home.

*The zwieback they serve tastes like it's made from brioche bread and was surprisingly good.  I understand why they laughed when I said we don't generally eat it in America.


This is the hospital where I will give birth and while being sick SUCKED, it was nice to get to know the staff at the hospital and see how things will work.


I'm hoping we can spend the next few months outside of the hospital only seeing the OB for normal appointments.  AND that I never, ever run across what made me sick in the first place.

I has the sicks.

I've been a bit MIA lately. We've been busy with school and I've had a soar throat for several days now that I absolutely cannot shake. It is sucking the life from me (and the joy of eating because everything tastes weird). When I got up this morning to go to the gym (see, right there, that is a sign of sickness, I should have checked for a fever), I wasn't feeling well, but I went anyway and did my time on the treadmill, all the while fighting a severe headache and a terribly sore throat. I came home and crawled straight back into bed. I didn't even shower, that's how bad I felt. Indy woke up around 9:15am (bless him) and came in. I told him I wasn't feeling well and he told me to go back to sleep and he'd take care of me. He made his own breakfast and watched some TV, coming in every 30-45 minutes to see if I was okay and if I needed anything. What a sweetheart! Also, if I'm sick, there's no school, and he has the day off. Around noon he came in to get the dogs to take them outside (they didn't mind me laying in bed all day) and then went out to play. I finally rolled myself out of bed around 1:30pm and ate some Jell-o, laid on the sofa and moaned ab bit and finished a book. I didn't even feel like surfing the interwebs. WHAT? Mayhaps I should head straight to the emergency room?
Hopefully I'll feel better soon and be back to my happy blogging self.

Who Dat gonna be ill???

Apparently me. After staying up til bloody 4 am to watch what IMO was more of a Super Dull than a Super Bowl (though wooohoo Geaux Saints!), I find myself severely under the weather. I felt it coming on while we were watching the game (actually, Mr. HH and TOM watched the game, I read a book and looked up when they started yelling), but this morning I woke up to feel like my throat was 2 sizes too large to fit in my neck. Oh, noooooooes! Today I've spent the entire day loafing on the sofa, eating Cream of Wheat (with milk and sugar) and drinking hot tea. Indy, who likes not having to do school, but is bored out of his mind, checked on me about 4 minutes to see if I was okay/needed anything, feeling my forehead and telling me how bored he is and can he please, please, pretty please watch TV, even though he knows he's grounded, but if I just let him watch he'll let me get some rest. Believe me, I was sooooo tempted to cave and let him watch TV, just so I could get some rest, but then what would that tell him about my parenting? Bug mom enough while she'd down and she'll give in? Oh, how easy it would be.