Only in Abu Dhabi...
When I arrived this morning, Neethu asked me to let her try a session without me inside. After making a phone call, and going downstairs to the coffee machine, I exhausted my 'things to do to keep busy' list. So, I asked Neethu if I could borrow her laptop to surf the web, and instead, she told me to go ahead on her computer.
So, here I am--writing my blog, while T N says 'open' and 'I want chocolate chip' and all the other little things that he can say.
Things have not slowed down any at our place. On Monday morning, I woke up to find Malou in extreme distress. She had been experiencing breathing difficulty all night, pain in between her shoulder blades and numbness in her left arm. She was too uncomfortable to tell Peter, so she just watched the kids as best she could until I got up at 7. I tried to be calming and soothing, as I could tell she was stressed out. I gave her an aspirin (which I had leftover from the pregnancy with Smile-ah), as those symptoms sounded pretty much like they had 'heart attack' written all over them. So, I added "take Malou to Emergency" to my list of "Little A's dentist appointment" and "T N's speech therapy".
So, I dropped her off at New Al Noor Hospital, dropped T N off at Peter's office (so he could take him to speech therapy),and then took Little A and Smile-ah to the dentist with me. It was a bit of juggling, but we did well I think.
After giving her a pain killer, chest x-ray and ecg, they released Malou and said she had just pulled a muscle. They gave her some anti-inflammatories, and told her to take it easy. Which she had difficulty doing, as she tells me she is afraid that if she stops using her muscles, she will be paralyzed. So, I have just asked her to slow down and not lift T N at all (which I think is the heaviest thing she lifts). Her friend is also coming over at night, and giving her massage, which she feels more comfortable with than the medication (which she is taking).
(****please note that I am now starting DAY 2 of this entry--back at the speech therapist's office. Yesterday's blog was disrupted by a power outage and the fact that eventually, after 45 minutes or so, we get to go home!).
So, that was Malou. Little A's appointment at the dentist went really well. She was lulled into complacency by the nitrous again (orange nose this time) and the thing that bothered her the MOST was that when she was inverted on her back, she couldn't see Kung Fu Panda (which they kindly continued for her from the previous week's filling). Any and all the screaming in the room was attributed to Smile-ah, who enjoyed playing with the toothy monster and pulling on all the various cords that were within her reach.
I also popped myself into the dentist's chair, as I am still unable to chew on my left side. The dentist said the contact was 'high' and did some adjustment. I was hopeful...but when I got home, still the same problem. When I chew on my left side, the filling at the back is giving me a lot of discomfort (worse than before she filled it). So, now I am thinking perhaps it is time to check with another dentist for a fix. Let's see when I have some time for that.
Tuesday's highlight was joining Little A in her 'Jazz' class (quotation marks have been used as I have not seen any indication that anything she is learning is distinctly JAZZ). I was there with my video camera (and regular camera) and couldn't keep the smile off my face as I watched Little A shake her bon-bon all around the room.
Afterwards, I packed up the three musketeers and drove off to the New Al Noor Hospital. Our house has been filled with rabies vaccinations, diarrhea and runny noses, but the primary reason for our visit was "GENERAL CHECK-UP". Our focus was T N, as he has just turned 2, and we wanted to follow up with our favourite (and oldest) pediatrician, Dr. Stiles. Since I was making the drive and we have an 'all for one and one for all' mentality, I decided to have all three of them checked, to ensure we were going into 2012 with a clean bill of health.
The words "benign hypotonia" sound so lovely rolling off the lips of Dr. Stiles. I especially enjoyed having him walk us out, and knock on the door of Dr. Salaam, and ask him if he remembered T N (who had popped out of his stroller and walked right into the room to shake hands). Of course, Dr. Salaam did, and he expressed happiness that T N's progress is so remarkable (in his humble opinion, I guess).
Little A was pronounced practically perfect, and Dr. Stiles also expressed surprise that Smile-ah was already pulling up to stand (she will be 9 months on Saturday). He had a chuckle over little A's rabies vaccinations, and shared a story about his daughter in South Africa, who is always having to top up her rabies vaccinations, as she constantly has rabid animals in her yard (it sounds like she lives in the wilds). Little A, who has one injection left to go (it will be a Christmas gift on the 25th), does not find these needles so enjoyable anymore.
After a quick stop in the NICU (where none of TN's old NICU nurse pals were around to say hello) we drove home to supper, baths and sleep.
Wednesday morning, during breakfast, Malou got a call that made her face drop and she passed the phone along to me. It was from Dr. Mary Elizabeth (just the name you would expect for an East Indian doctor), who informed me that Malou's x-rays showed a shadow on her heart. She wanted Malou to come back to the hospital to get a referral to a specialist. So, we added that onto our morning. After speech therapy, where T N attended class WITHOUT his mama (thus, the blog entry), we drove back home, picked up Malou and the girls and drove to the hospital.
I discovered the fastest way to get service in this country is to be a FILIPINNA!! We managed to get a referral from Dr. Mary in the GP clinic, see the specialist (Dr. Abdullah Hanna) for blood test and ct-scan referrals, and get Malou's blood drawn all in under a record TWO HOURS!! I had debated leaving Malou there with taxi-fare home when the receptionist told me the wait for Dr. Abdullah would be 1.5 to 2 hours, but I could see she was worried, and so I sat with her for a few minutes. When I finally settled on the decision to go, and was pulling out cab-fare, the nurse showed up to call her in.
We were home by 12:45, and all the kids were asleep by 2 pm. Seriously WOW!! Malou seems to be fine, and we are just waiting for the results of the blood testing, and for approval for a CT-scan. It seems that shadows on the heart can be MANY things, and so we are not going to worry until we are told there is something to worry about.
While we were waiting at the GP clinic for Dr. Mary, I popped T N upstairs to the NICU again. We were so pleased to see that ONE of the nurses from his NICU days was there. Here is T N with Loren, who we were hoping might have managed to immigrate over to Canada by now. When T N was born, Loren, who has a Master's degree in Nursing, was hoping to move to either Canada or the US. She seemed to be quite competent and intelligent and I always felt good when she was on shift. Although it was really nice to see her, I was sorry that she was still here in Abu Dhabi. She told me that Myra (the nurse who 'caught' T N) was now at the Corniche, and Cecilia (the head nurse) had moved on to the Al Noor Hospital on Khalifa Street. Otherwise, it seemed the rest of the staff was intact (with many new additions).
Now we are caught up to today, Thursday. Today we need to squeeze in a shopping trip to Lulu (after we get back home). In the afternoon, little A will have her ballet presentation, and aftewards, I am heading off for another beating..er...I mean Thai massage treatment at Sharanis spa.
Tomorrow is Friday, which is wide open to us. We plan to spend Christmas eve at Drica and Antonio's home (this is the third time we've been invited and the first year we will go). We have also decided to host a very small dinner for Christmas at our place.
I have just learned that we will not have speech therapy again until Monday, as the Well Health Medical Centre seems to be taking a Christmas break. How happy am I that I decided to bring Neethu's Christmas chocolates EARLY??
I am hoping to have time to send out a Christmas email to all our friends and family...but, we will see if I can find the time (especially since I don't have speech therapy again until Monday!!). For anyone who is reading this blog, please know you have our love and best wishes for Christmas (yes Peter, even IF it is just a made up holiday) and the New Year!
When I arrived this morning, Neethu asked me to let her try a session without me inside. After making a phone call, and going downstairs to the coffee machine, I exhausted my 'things to do to keep busy' list. So, I asked Neethu if I could borrow her laptop to surf the web, and instead, she told me to go ahead on her computer.
So, here I am--writing my blog, while T N says 'open' and 'I want chocolate chip' and all the other little things that he can say.
I wonder if he'll start talking with an Indian accent??
Things have not slowed down any at our place. On Monday morning, I woke up to find Malou in extreme distress. She had been experiencing breathing difficulty all night, pain in between her shoulder blades and numbness in her left arm. She was too uncomfortable to tell Peter, so she just watched the kids as best she could until I got up at 7. I tried to be calming and soothing, as I could tell she was stressed out. I gave her an aspirin (which I had leftover from the pregnancy with Smile-ah), as those symptoms sounded pretty much like they had 'heart attack' written all over them. So, I added "take Malou to Emergency" to my list of "Little A's dentist appointment" and "T N's speech therapy".
So, I dropped her off at New Al Noor Hospital, dropped T N off at Peter's office (so he could take him to speech therapy),and then took Little A and Smile-ah to the dentist with me. It was a bit of juggling, but we did well I think.
After giving her a pain killer, chest x-ray and ecg, they released Malou and said she had just pulled a muscle. They gave her some anti-inflammatories, and told her to take it easy. Which she had difficulty doing, as she tells me she is afraid that if she stops using her muscles, she will be paralyzed. So, I have just asked her to slow down and not lift T N at all (which I think is the heaviest thing she lifts). Her friend is also coming over at night, and giving her massage, which she feels more comfortable with than the medication (which she is taking).
(****please note that I am now starting DAY 2 of this entry--back at the speech therapist's office. Yesterday's blog was disrupted by a power outage and the fact that eventually, after 45 minutes or so, we get to go home!).
So, that was Malou. Little A's appointment at the dentist went really well. She was lulled into complacency by the nitrous again (orange nose this time) and the thing that bothered her the MOST was that when she was inverted on her back, she couldn't see Kung Fu Panda (which they kindly continued for her from the previous week's filling). Any and all the screaming in the room was attributed to Smile-ah, who enjoyed playing with the toothy monster and pulling on all the various cords that were within her reach.
 |
| Kung Fu Panda hands too fast to be captured on film |
Tuesday's highlight was joining Little A in her 'Jazz' class (quotation marks have been used as I have not seen any indication that anything she is learning is distinctly JAZZ). I was there with my video camera (and regular camera) and couldn't keep the smile off my face as I watched Little A shake her bon-bon all around the room.
Afterwards, I packed up the three musketeers and drove off to the New Al Noor Hospital. Our house has been filled with rabies vaccinations, diarrhea and runny noses, but the primary reason for our visit was "GENERAL CHECK-UP". Our focus was T N, as he has just turned 2, and we wanted to follow up with our favourite (and oldest) pediatrician, Dr. Stiles. Since I was making the drive and we have an 'all for one and one for all' mentality, I decided to have all three of them checked, to ensure we were going into 2012 with a clean bill of health.
The words "benign hypotonia" sound so lovely rolling off the lips of Dr. Stiles. I especially enjoyed having him walk us out, and knock on the door of Dr. Salaam, and ask him if he remembered T N (who had popped out of his stroller and walked right into the room to shake hands). Of course, Dr. Salaam did, and he expressed happiness that T N's progress is so remarkable (in his humble opinion, I guess).
Little A was pronounced practically perfect, and Dr. Stiles also expressed surprise that Smile-ah was already pulling up to stand (she will be 9 months on Saturday). He had a chuckle over little A's rabies vaccinations, and shared a story about his daughter in South Africa, who is always having to top up her rabies vaccinations, as she constantly has rabid animals in her yard (it sounds like she lives in the wilds). Little A, who has one injection left to go (it will be a Christmas gift on the 25th), does not find these needles so enjoyable anymore.
After a quick stop in the NICU (where none of TN's old NICU nurse pals were around to say hello) we drove home to supper, baths and sleep.
Wednesday morning, during breakfast, Malou got a call that made her face drop and she passed the phone along to me. It was from Dr. Mary Elizabeth (just the name you would expect for an East Indian doctor), who informed me that Malou's x-rays showed a shadow on her heart. She wanted Malou to come back to the hospital to get a referral to a specialist. So, we added that onto our morning. After speech therapy, where T N attended class WITHOUT his mama (thus, the blog entry), we drove back home, picked up Malou and the girls and drove to the hospital.
I discovered the fastest way to get service in this country is to be a FILIPINNA!! We managed to get a referral from Dr. Mary in the GP clinic, see the specialist (Dr. Abdullah Hanna) for blood test and ct-scan referrals, and get Malou's blood drawn all in under a record TWO HOURS!! I had debated leaving Malou there with taxi-fare home when the receptionist told me the wait for Dr. Abdullah would be 1.5 to 2 hours, but I could see she was worried, and so I sat with her for a few minutes. When I finally settled on the decision to go, and was pulling out cab-fare, the nurse showed up to call her in.
We were home by 12:45, and all the kids were asleep by 2 pm. Seriously WOW!! Malou seems to be fine, and we are just waiting for the results of the blood testing, and for approval for a CT-scan. It seems that shadows on the heart can be MANY things, and so we are not going to worry until we are told there is something to worry about.
While we were waiting at the GP clinic for Dr. Mary, I popped T N upstairs to the NICU again. We were so pleased to see that ONE of the nurses from his NICU days was there. Here is T N with Loren, who we were hoping might have managed to immigrate over to Canada by now. When T N was born, Loren, who has a Master's degree in Nursing, was hoping to move to either Canada or the US. She seemed to be quite competent and intelligent and I always felt good when she was on shift. Although it was really nice to see her, I was sorry that she was still here in Abu Dhabi. She told me that Myra (the nurse who 'caught' T N) was now at the Corniche, and Cecilia (the head nurse) had moved on to the Al Noor Hospital on Khalifa Street. Otherwise, it seemed the rest of the staff was intact (with many new additions).
 |
| with Loren |
Tomorrow is Friday, which is wide open to us. We plan to spend Christmas eve at Drica and Antonio's home (this is the third time we've been invited and the first year we will go). We have also decided to host a very small dinner for Christmas at our place.
I have just learned that we will not have speech therapy again until Monday, as the Well Health Medical Centre seems to be taking a Christmas break. How happy am I that I decided to bring Neethu's Christmas chocolates EARLY??
 |
| with Neethu |
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