The Swing

ok so i finally got these images off my camera --- these were from november --- little joji going to town on the swing! --- and i know i haven't finished the hospital saga yet... will try to complete soon.

a (long) bedtime story : part digression

i was actually able to get some sleep saturday night for a few hours.  there was the continual entourage of nurses coming in and out, some who spoke english, some who didn't.  fortuantely i pretty much knew the drill by then, they check the saline, they would sometimes ask how the pain was (or i would just hope that's what they were asking), i lift up the arm to put the (mercury - you know, the one you shake and that contains a nasty little thing called mercury) thermometer under, sometimes they came back, sometimes they didn't and i would just take it out after awhile.  normally this would totally piss me off in the us, however this was greece and i was in the maternity ward and people were popping out babies left and right and i was the random sickie who couldn't speak greek... needless to say, i don't think that the 4 hour thermometer check was a life or death situation.  

so.... speaking of mercury thermometers... since it's been so long i can't remember, either saturday sometime or sunday my sister was helping me take my temperature 'cause the nurses hadn't been in in awhile.  the unfortunate thing about my sister and mercury thermometers is that i think because she hates them so much, they sense that about her, and all they want to do is flee. (it's really quite amazing to see these thermometers, i haven't even considered that they were still around) so the fear wells up in the sweet innocent mercury thermometer, it cowers and huddles and try to roll as far away from ado's hand as possible (that can somehow be taken as a random breeze just came through the room and pushed it).... but alas, it is to no avail, she will not be quelled, she WILL take your temperature.  or so she thinks. dundunDUNNN.  but, the thermometer will not give up without a fight, she picks it up - oh no, contact - it squirms, it wiggles, it struggles, it figgles? ----- closer and harder the hand grips it, the fingers curl one by one on top of it..... it takes a deep breath.... it defies ALL forms of logic, gravity, sense, it jumps (oh yes it jumps) out of her hand ----- FREEEEDOMMMM!!!!!!!!! it's flying, it's free, it's floating in the air, no bonds to hold it, no chains to bind it.  there are clouds above and below it, oh look it's floating down towards the clouds, closer now, wait, those aren't clouds, wait, that's not soft fluffy white stuff.... oh no, it's hard linoleum floor, oh no, the reality, in a blink, ohhhhhhhhh.  the thermometer falls swiftly toward annihilation, self-inflicted suicide, such a tragic end; to shatter to the ends of the earth, to have it's little mercury pellets collecting in cracks and crevices to remain saturating the bare feet of unknowing patients forever (well except that we got someone to come clean it up so hopefully that's not true), all to avoid my sister.  so they bring another thermometer and the nurse insists on taking my temperature herself.

by the time the sun was coming up, i was watching it, and feeling a bit better.  the remarkable thing about being in a hospital is that since i was on the saline drip i was able to have enough energy to keep going.  two weeks earlier when i had the virus and didn't eat for four days, i wasn't doing as well as i was this morning.  i had another visit from the lady doctor, of which it might have consisted of 10 words, not very productive - and i still hadn't heard about any results from any of the tests.  the unfortunate part of this was also that the pain killers they had given me sat night were so strong that a. they couldn't give me any more without waiting for awhile and b. that they wouldn't give me any more till they got some test(s) results back.  

.... while this one was short, hopefully it was sweet, will complete after i've had something to eat....

a (long) bedtime story : part une

ok so as my sister pointed out to me - i have failed to recount the last few days i was in greece. i had a plane ticket to return to the states leaving on tuesday and arriving on tuesday (i think).  it was also slightly imperative that i make this flight (or rather 3 flights) to get back to the states so that i could go to a wedding that weekend, which of course i also had plane tickets for as well as a car rental reservation, plans to go with a friend, hotel reservations, etc ... you get the picture.  

so the week was going well, i was getting pretty sad that i was going to be leaving and starting to miss the little ones as well as the big ones.  i packed a bit of stuff and we were doing our thing.  then we went to the market and were thinking of making a salad and i wanted to do a tomato mozzarella basil salad.  this is a salad that i was eating probably 3 or 4 times a week before i left for greece, and once i was there, i was craving it all the time.  so we get everything we need, they didn't have any fresh mozza, but they had semi-fresh, in a plastic bag with juice.  so we make the salad and other assorted items (don't remember now) and i chow on the salad, ado had some, chris had some, lia had just a little, and joji had none.  so we eat, we do whatever, ado goes to bed, chris goes back upstairs to work, lia's been asleep for awhile, and i'm up writing brad an email.  

i hear a noise from the bedrooms that sounds a lot like throwing up, i get up and walk to lia's room and i hear it again, then i ran.  and she was indeed throwing up, i get ado, we get to li, and we get her down off her loft bed and into the bathroom... she's not feeling good for a good couple of hours, keeps throwing up off and on.... finally she goes to sleep, by this time ado's not feeling too good, but she can't tell if it's actually something, or as a reaction to li.  so .... then it really begins, ado's up, i'm up, and chris is up... we are all puking - actually i think chris held out till the next morning, but he was severely nauseous to the point of needing to be standing over the kitchen sink. he had to stand over the sink, 'cause ado and i were lying together in the bathroom - alternating, no joke, it was crazy! 

so finally ado starts to feel a little better, she and chris can lay down, i however kept going, and going and going --- to the effect of by early morning ado and chris are making phone calls to find a doctor that i can go see at the clinic.  so this is saturday morning, i'm nauseous and cramping to a degree of severity i've only experienced once before.... with food poisoning in hong kong.  so they finally get me to the clinic (the greek term for private hospital), i make it up the elevator barely, and i see the head dr for the gi unit... he's the greatest thing on the face of the planet - super sweet, kind, a great cross between your dad and grandfather.  so he gives me anti nausea and pain drugs, they don't do anything.  i get into a room [i was freakishly lucky - there was one bed left in the clinic - in the maternity ward (where ado actually had joji), it was a single (oh thank god!) it was freshly remodeled, it had a view of the bay, it rocked], get on an iv, and they start pumping saline.  i'm not sure when i was in, but am time saturday... i get a little relief from some of the iv drugs, but only for a couple of hours.  so basically i'm still dying - the moaning and groaning, kill me now kind of pain -- and it's been going for too long now.  and, somewhere in the middle of all of that - chris finally gets his chance to throw up.  the luckiest thing in the entire world was that little joji didn't eat any of the salad -- or rather the mozza, which is what they had narrowed it down to as being the culprit for the crazy ass food poisoning that took us out.

so ado and chris are the greatest - they're juggling a baby and an 8 yr old, who was working on a low grade fever for the better part of the day.  but she made to both of the parties she was supposed to go to that night - so that was good -- and me in a hospital. the even more interesting part of all of this is that it's taking place in a language i don't understand... and as i came to find out, only about half of the nurses over the course of the time i was there understood mine.  about this time i'm starting to freak out about money and timing... two things that i just had to let go, 'cause there was nothing i could do about either.

so then the night shift comes on ---- i can't even begin to get the description down of the doctor that i had then.  all the greatness of the other doctor was basically flipped.  this was a woman who looked like she'd been called in from her night of clubbing.... huge blond frizzy hair and i'm talking HUGE, long (to the shoulder) gold earrings, tight tight shirt with lots of cleavage, short black skirt, knee-high black high-heeled boots.  and she was also not greek, but though she spoke greek, she didn't speak english. so after ado left for the night... we were left basically miming our way through the evening..... through all of this time i've also been peeing and ya know in cups for tests, giving blood, sucking down saline.  since i'm still wasn't feeling better the lady dr decides to take and x-ray and run an ekg? maybe i don't remember, some heart test... i'm freaking out - do you know how expensive those kind of tests are in the us?? oh man... plus i'm starting to get worried... and ado's just trying to calm me down... she later tells me after i get out of the clinic all the stuff the lady dr was saying that she didn't translate for me to not freak me out even more.... it was totally funny in retrospect too 'cause the dr would talk and talk and talk and then ado would say something and they would have this like 5 min long convo and i'd be like what did she say? and ado would tell me oh they're going to take your temperature.  and i'm like is that it? then the nurse comes in to take it and she says ok so turn over.....uhhh ado???  :)  ahhhh it was funny.

seeing as how this is getting very long... i will continue the crazy saga tomorrow -- the uber extreme windstorm which i had a front row ticket to because of my great room in the morning and cute new on call doctor man :).

january

so i am back in the seattle area... :) spending the holidays here was nice, it's even snowed a couple of times in the past 2 months since i've been back.  i have found a job doing massage at a salon that has just expanded to include 'spa' services - which means new, and no clientele - which means building my own... which could take a lonnng time.  so for the moment i'm staying in the area... but we'll see what happens.  it's been really good to be doing massage again and it'll be interesting to see if i enjoy doing it for income.  so the exploring abroad plans have been put on hold for the moment, but i will try and keep updating on the blog to keep in touch....