Ma hlad, ma žižen, a jsem unavená....
I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, and I'm tired...

Actually, I'm just tired. Poor little Ella has bronchitis. The cough started Friday. Just a cough. No other symptoms. It got a little bit worse each day. Then from Monday morning to Monday night it got progressively worse until she was wheezing and hacking. Monday night was a long night. To be honest, I would say this feels like the longest week yet of our stay in Prague. There is the sick child, the lack of sleep, the self-inflicted quarantine because we don't want to spread germs, the rainy weather...the days are just DRAGGING! It seems extra slow because I am also so anxious and excited for my parents to arrive next Wednesday!!!!! YAY!!!!!

Sleep...another interesting development is that Ella finally learned how to stand up in her crib. I know this seems odd for a 19-month old, but you must remember that Ella never crawled. She has just started crawling in the past couple of weeks! Because of this she lagged in alot of related skills, such as climbing and getting up. Anyway, it is interesting when learning to stand up coincides with learning to talk. Now when I put her in her crib for a nap, she stands up and calls, "Moooommmmyyyyy". When this doesn't work, "Love you! Love you!". Then "Ow!". And finally, she just wails. So the bedtime/napping ritual has become more complex. Ah, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger...but can also leave you with a killer headache. Today was the worst because we ran out of coffee! Ugh! There is a lot of very cheap, very bad coffee to be purchased at the grocery stores here. I actually had some in the freezer but refused to drink it. That, my friends, is bad. We really like a brand that I get at the local Bio (organic) store but it was sold out yesterday. They said it would be in this afternoon, but it wasn't. So at 3:30 pm I was desperately looking for my best bet at the local grocery store. At 4pm it tasted pretty good.

But what I actually planned to write about was going to the doctor. When we first arrived we were seeing a wonderful doctor referred to us by our landlord. Unfortunately, he doesn't accept the insurance we ended up getting (the most common insurance here). So, we've started shopping around a bit. I visited a pediatrician a month or so ago that some of my friends see. She is only a 10 minute walk away and speaks a bit of English. So, that's who I called Monday. The receptionist speaks only Czech and was telling me that the doctor doesn't speak English. I thought "Well, she doesn't speak MUCH English, but we get by....". And to the receptionist I said, "Ano. Rozumím." (Yes. I understand.) But, the truth is, I didn't understand. What she was really telling me was that the regular doctor is away and the one filling in for her doesn't speak English, AT ALL. Luckily I had practiced what I felt I needed to say, "Ona ma kašel. Nema rýmu. Nema horečku. Když ona spí, kašel je horši." (She has a cough. She doesn't have a runny nose. She doesn't have a fever. When she sleeps, the cough is worse.) The funny thing is that you can prepare all you like for what you want to say...and you may even be fully understood. But what do you do when the native speaker starts talking? Usually, I just smile and nod. But when it comes to your daughter's health and well-being, this may not be the most appropriate response. Somehow we got through it and basically understood each other. But, needless to say, I didn't ask alot of probing questions. I did, however, leave with some. I was concerned that an antibiotic may not be the right choice. Some internet research confirmed this.

Sharing my concerns with my mom friends resulted in Karen taking me to see her pediatrician with whom she speaks German. Every morning he has open hours where anyone can just drop in. It is a bit hard to get to...involves a walk and a tram...but it was worth it. Karen was so kind to take time out of her early morning to get me there and to make sure I could communicate properly. As it turns out, this doctor does speak some English, too! An xray confirmed the bronchitis diagnosis and we also got a new script with no antibiotic. I was feeling much better!

Oh, but I forgot another interesting thing about the first doctor...maybe it's common here, I can't say. When I got there, the waiting room was packed with sick kids and their moms. She sees well kids in the mornings and sick kids in the afternoons. Although I think this is a neat concept, I felt surrounded by germs! Then I started getting nervous when I noticed that a patient would leave the doctor's office and another would enter automatically...no names called, no number system...somehow everyone just knew when it was their turn. I figured out that although I had an appointment time it was really first come, first serve. Each patient kept track of who was in the room when they got there and who entered after them and then just saw the doctor when it was their turn. Luckily I figured this out after only two new people had entered. I quickly scanned the room and calculated when my turn would be. Whew!

Another interesting thing I should add about Czech doctors is that they don't make much money. They are actually the least-paid professionals in this country. Jeff says he has read that their monthly income is about equal to what we are paying in rent! It is common for them to work alot of overtime to make up for this. However, I've read that with entering the EU there are some tough new rules coming down that will not allow this anymore. It's really going to shake up the medical system over here. There will be a shortage of doctors and most likely some changes to pay will have to be made.

So that's my rambling. I'm off to bed.
Maylia