All (mostly) fine

Thanks for all the concern and good wishes but none of us were anywhere near the horrible pre-school stabbings that happened outside of Brussels the other day. I guess that's one of the good things about going to a Jewish school -- security was already really tight. Did I mention how I couldn't elbow my past the ex-Mossad head of security? And my parents are from NYC!

The bad news is we're not entirely all well here. Josephine has an apparently quite painful ear infection, which brought us to the emergency room last night. It was quite the adventure, as you might imagine. Jenee, always level-headed, got the numbers for a few taxi companies and suggested that we just ask them to bring us to the nearest hospital (it was about 10 pm by the time we decided ibuprofen and acetominofen wouldn't cut it). Dan sent me because my French is the best. No, he sent me because I'm the best. No, actually, he sent me because he is still sick and feels like crap (see prior posts). So, off Jojo and I went in a cab to the nearest hospital with my wallet (full of cash), a French-English dictionary, a cell phone and a second pair of PJs for Jojo for reasons I still don't entirely understand. We got to the Service Urgences a la Hopital d'Ixelles but turns out we needed her passport. Sigh, who knew. Note, that was not in the aforementioned list. I called Dan (hurray cell phones!) and he got his own cab to meet us there. This is the point at which I keep thinking -- thank goodness for Jenee! What a drag if we'd had to wake up Amelia just to bring her to the hospital to wait with us for someone to tell us Jojo's ear is all red. Plus, Dan was hoping they could look at his throat/cough/chest while he was there (Denied! Not urgent enough, they said).

The nurse and pediatrician on call were very nice and said -- in French of course -- yup, ear infection, probably viral. No antibiotics for you! They gave us a prescription for analgesic ear drops (never heard of those myself) and said we should see an ear-nose-throat (oreille-nez-gorge, I think) doc on Lundi (Monday). Oh, and she said something like "if fluid starts coming out it means the ear drum is perforated and then don't use the drops anymore." What? Not what I wanted to hear! Sigh, again. Then we had to go to the all night pharmacist to get the drops and then back home. We spent a bundle on taxis!

The night did not go well but here's where our choice to send the girls to an international-type school came in handy again. Josephine was invited to the birthday party of a girl in her class today. I called in the morning to say she wouldn't be able to attend and, since the mother spoke perfect Queen's English, I asked her what I should do next for Jojo and her "mal oreille" or whatever it is (maybe "otite" or something like that for otitis). She gave me the name of a doctor and at least I got the satisfaction of speaking with a physician in English without having to go back to the hospital. You won't be surprised to learn that he thinks American's overprescribe antibiotics for ear infections and that we should just wait it out. So that's what we're doing. Maybe the drops are helping, maybe Josephine is just exhausted from the adventures last night and then waking every few hours but anyway she's sleeping well now. As is Amelia. Jenee rocked her to sleep while I was blogging here.

Seen Sicko by Michael Moore? So far, here's our experience with insurance and medical expenses at home and abroad. Since we were going to be "out of area" or whatever for so long, it was recommended to us to get on Blue Cross/Blue Shield (the "Standard Plan"). In contrast to our HMO, which only covers emergencies out of area, BCBS has decent reimbursement for checkups, preventative care, etc. However, that doesn't kick in until the start of the first month you're really away, which, for us, is February 1. In other words, for the time being, only emergencies and/or urgent care are covered, which is not that bad since Jojo's case was truly urgent. But wait! Only "reasonable expenses" are allowed and the bill, which we have to first pay on our own, has to be itemized, translated into English and $$, and then sent to them. I learned this all on a Skype call with our HMO after dinner but before the trip to the hospital last night (yay Skype, 2 cents per minute to the US!). Also, if follow up care is recommended, it must be pre-approved. Did I mention that the ER peds doc suggeted follow up care? No problem. It just needs to be pre-approved by Josephine's regular physician. But wait (again)! It's the weekend in the US and if we take her to a doctor on Monday, it'll be Sunday night in Madison. I almost nearly got this done -- since we were back home by 11 pm Friday night and I could see this coming, I called our pediatrician (thank you again, Skype) to ask for a pre-approval. Wouldn't you know it, I called at 4:45 pm Madison time, which is exactly when they close? Anyway, maybe she won't need it. Maybe the cost will be insignificant. Maybe getting reimbursed will be easy. Maybe the moon is made of green cheese... :-\

I will close with some nice things. Amelia, Jenee and I left the sickies to themselves this morning, after I gave Jojo (and Dan, I guess) a new Curious George DVD, and went out to explore. Remember those two coffeeshops I found that were smoke-free? We had a very nice lunch in one of them -- minestrone soup for me, croque brie for Amelia (and me, sort of) and aubergine panini for Jenee. Then, we stopped at my new all-time-favorite bakery on the way back home for some pain au chocolate and galette something or other (waffle type cookies with some sort of creamy concoction in between) and a capuccino to go. [We also went to a pharmacy for a thermometer and cough syrup for Dan but I'll spare you the details of yet one more instance when my Franglais was pretty inadequate. I gotta get a tutor or something]. So, our sickies will have a special treat waiting when the get up from their naps. And now, I'm going to relax and read a new book since, after all, it is le weekend.