A Trip to the Hospital

Don't panic, we're all fine. But we did have a rough weekend. Brooklyn was running a fever all weekend. She was a real trooper - in fact, other than the fever and loss of appetite we couldn't figure out was going on. Finally on Sunday we decided it would be best to take Brooklyn in to an urgent care clinic located in downtown San Jose. The hospital is a private, Christian hospital that was started way back in 1929 by missionaries. So, at about 6:30 pm we got a taxi and headed out. We were able to see a peditrician. He was excellent with Brooklyn. He only spoke Spanish so it was a good test of where we are with the language after 6 months of study. We did fine, between the two of us - with four ears, four eyes, and two brains we were able to understand it all just fine. Well, the important stuff anyway. We think.
As we were waiting in the waiting room, our poor, sick little baby was bouncing off the walls, jumping, running, laughing and singing. Then when the doctor was asking us questions she was being just as friendly as could be. I could tell the doctor was thinking, "so, she's been pretty sick, huh? whatever you say, gringos!" Brooklyn was perfectly comfortable as the doctor poked and prodded her. It was funny to see her respond so readily to Spanish. When the doctor asked her if she was ready for an examination she nodded her head yes in all seriousness. Not only was this doctor an excellent physician but he has great kid skills - he got Brooklyn to agree to something. Not even her parents can do that! We didn't even know that "si" or "yes" was in her vocabulary. By the way, we haven't heard it since. *sigh*
Anyway, turns out Brooklyn had an ear infection and a horrible looking infection in her throat. We honestly never even suspected it was so bad! She apparently has a very high pain tolerance. The same thing happened the last time she had an ear infection just before we left the US. We got the same "yeah, right" look from the doctor and then he exclaimed, "She does have an ear infection....and it's a really bad one, actually." Guess we'd better be careful, she is so tough that it's hard to know when something really is wrong. Well, she's doing much better today. We got some antibiotics and she no longer has a fever. By the way, our trip to the hospital was relatively painless, even when we went to pay.
Well, except that the cashier was so hard for Sean and I both to understand. The cashier kept saying something and we'd keep looking at each other trying to guess what he'd said. Then we'd look back at him with probably the most confused, "duh" faces he'd ever seen so he'd repeat himself. Sean and I just kept looking at each other. Sean was thinking "surely Becca understood that" and I kept thinking "Sean must have understood and I should be coming up with an answer". Finally, we got it - he wanted us to pay! Well, the whole thing - medicines and doctor visit plus an extra fee for a visit with the pediatrician, cost less than $50.