Work and doctors, and work and doctor

We went to the city hospital yesterday for Lena to be seen, and she was tested for influenza and adenovirus - this involved taking a mucus sample - which sound simple, but means holding her down while the doctor put a tube up her nose and sucked the snot out. Naturally she did not like this terribly much and screamed. Poor thing, already feeling so awful, then having to go through that. She got worse as we had to wait for the test results. By this time she was inconsolable - she wanted to go home and could not understand why we could not. She cried through the consultation, so I missed some of it. Anyway, she received a day's worth of antibiotics, and we were told to go to our doctor the next day, as they can only give out a day's worth in the emergency department.

So, we cancelled our parties, and spent the day at home, trying to make her comfortable.

Next morning I had a lesson, which I decided to go ahead and do, since it was at Baachan's house, and it was Mrs Fukuda who is always so kind to the children. They joined us for the last half of the lesson, down the other end of the table, quietly drawing pictures. Mrs. Fukuda was quite impressed with a picture Amy did of a woman with three eyes, two mouths and four noses. She said it looked like a Picasso, and wanted to take it to show her art teacher, but Amy wouldn't let her!

We took Lena to the pediatric clinic that afternoon, and got a diagnosis of bronchitis, more antibiotics and cough medicine and told to watch out for it in case it developed into pneumonia. Typcial medical scaremongering!

I had another lesson in the evening - Dr Yoriko has switched from Friday to Monday evening. I didn't get the kids to sleep in time, and although Amy was a good girl and mostly stayed upstairs reading, Lena insisted on joining the lesson. Unfortunately, I had given her fever meds at bedtime, so her temperature was down and she was feeling on top of the world, and not a bit tired since she'd had a late nap (4-5:30). At any rate, her presence elicited a conversation about fevers - my Home Medical Guide states 38 as a fever, Dr.Y said Japanese count 37 as a fever. Here, they take them underarm even though they know underarm measurement is more variable and therefore less accurate, because they do not trust the cleanliness of oral readings. Rectal readings are only for dead people.