The Students are Here & A Trip to the ER

The students have all arrived for the Spring Semester!  

It's great to see the church packed again for daily Mass - and exciting to see all the new people that we'll get to meet this semester.  We were looking forward to joining them yesterday for their first trip during Orientation - to Admont Abbey about 2 hours away. The monastery's library is the one Disney's Beauty & the Beast's library is modeled after.  

This is what we were looking forward to seeing:

Instead we saw something that looked more like this:

That's Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood where Daniel goes to the doctor -- for those of you who don't have a toddler obsessed with the show (it's a spin-off of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood).  We spent a LOT of time watching this show on the computer this week as Ellie was sick.

Ex. of good parenting: toddler screen-time while baby eats tissue

She had a super high fever for 6 days (102 to 104.7 -- scary!!)  We kept thinking it'd go away after a couple of days, because Francis had the same symptoms the week before - high fever for a few days, along with a stuffy nose and ending with a cough.  (I'm not sure which is worse -- having to use the nasal aspirator to unclog the baby's nose and having him throw up milk all over me while nursing because he couldn't breathe -- or constantly trying to help Ellie use a tissue as she yells "tissue! tissue! tissue, please!" at me 500 times a day).  But on the 6th day of her high fever, and after googling things like "how high of a temperature causes brain damage," we decided it was time to take her in to see the professionals.  

Doctor offices aren't open on the weekend, so we took her to the ER at the hospital about 20 minutes away.  Going anywhere new over here always intimidates me.....I just pray when we utter "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" - that the other person will respond "yes!"  In this case, the people helping us did - or found other personnel who did.  I am so thankful that most people we meet in Austria do speak English - and I really wish I could learn enough German to communicate with them.  I can't imagine what it would have been like to be at the hospital and have no one understand me.  How scary.  Even with the slight language barrier (and Fahrenheit v. Celsius and Pounds v. Kilograms issues) I was worried they wouldn't fully understand as I explained what Ellie had been going through.  I definitely hope I'm more empathetic and patient with those I can't understand in the future.

After we checked in, we were waiting outside the ER.  It was really quiet and clean; only a few other people were waiting.  At one point the paramedics rolled a man on a stretcher by -- I tried to keep Ellie focused on the "cool red uniforms" the paramedics were wearing, similar to uniforms we'd seen on Daniel Tiger.  Shortly after they passed by, Ellie was on the ground playing with Francis - when I noticed she was standing in a puddle.  At first I thought it was from the stretcher's wet wheels -- then I realized it was from her diaper.  Fun times.

When the doctor called us in, she asked who the patient was and we pointed to Ellie.  She then explained that this was an "ER for adults" and children should go to the pediatrician during the week.  We were a bit in shock as we explained we didn't think she needed a doctor until now (and because the patient before us was a child).  But then she proceeded with the examination, and was very kind - great with Ellie - and spoke English very well.

So after an examination and blood work it was concluded that it was just a virus - very likely the same one Francis had - and it would hopefully pass by the end of the week.  Ellie hated the finger prick but loved the new toy car they gave her!  The doctor told us to keep giving her the fever reducer -- they don't have children's Tylenol but they do have a children's ibuprofen that you can get without a prescription.  Stores aren't open on Sundays - so she called around for us and found out which Pharmacy was open.  (Luckily it was the one next to J's American Burgers - a locations we're familiar with).  We were surprised to find even the Pharmacy wasn't fully open - instead people were standing in a line outside (in the rain) and waiting to hand their prescription over to the Pharmacist.  It is nice stores aren't open on the Lord's Day - just something to get used to compared to back in the U.S.

Finally today - or sometime after I put her to bed last night - the fever broke!  Today I learned of all the people praying for Ellie.  All of the buses that the students were riding on to Admont prayed a Rosary with her intention.  What a beautiful gift!

I knew Ellie was feeling better today when she was watching an episode of Daniel Tiger while I tended to the baby -- and I heard her say, "Oh Daniel, you're not my neighbor."  Then she asked for an Oreo.  Definitely.Feeling.Better.