The Past Two Weeks...

Well, if I had to describe the past two weeks in one word I would say; Opportunity! What I mean is that we have had many opportunities to really be immersed in Puerto Rican culture. Ben's parents left last Wednesday, and they spent the Sat. before they left at an "express" clinic. Ben's mom had a pretty bad sinus infection which went into her ears, so they spent an entire day trying to figure out what was going on and how they could get her better. Ben's Spanish has improved tremendously due to all of this interaction. It's very interesting, because all of the Doctors or at least the ones we've dealt with speak English, but when it comes to the nurses and the staff we have a really hard time communicating. Unfortunately, the incident with Grandmother has not been the only time we've dealt with a doctor over the past two weeks.

Last Thursday Ben and I had an appointment at 11:00 to meet with an OB/GYN that was recommended to us by our neighbors. Brenda and Adriel (neighbors) have a little boy who is 3 weeks older than Lydia. So, she told me about this doctor. As most of you know we are having a baby in July, so one of the first things on our to-do list is to find a doctor. We left our neighborhood around 10:30, arrived at the office at 11:30, saw the Doctor at 3:00 and left there at 4:15. One might wonder how this is possible. They told us that it was an unusually busy day at the office, but because we can't speak Spanish a lot was lost in translation as we waited and waited.

Then on Friday we decided that Lydia needed to go to the Doctor as well. She had a runny nose and felt like she had a little bit of fever. I did not want to have to take her to the E.R. over the weekend, so I called one of our teammates to see where we should take her. We went to a pediatrician here at one of the local hospitals. He was WONDERFUL! I hate that Lydi had to be sick, but at least we found a Pediatrician. It turns out that she was in the beginning stages of pneumonia. She's been sick off and on since mid-November, and I thought that she would be totally fine once we moved to this tropical climate. I am pretty sure she was sick when we left, so she just didn't shake it once we got here. The worst part of all of this is that she has had five shots and two finger pricks since Friday. It has been really hard on all of us! It has probably been worse for Ben and me, because it has been really hard watching our little girl go through all of this. I think that her being sick has definitely been worse than any culture stress that we could be experiencing.

We had a great experience with the Pediatrician and we took her back today for a follow-up visit. She is going to do one more round of antibiotics and we have to continue doing breathing treatments every six hours. Once her cough goes away then we can slack up on the frequency of the treatments. She has been such a trooper. The Doctor asked us if she was always this happy and content even when she's sick. He was surprised that she wasn't fussier than she was because of her sickness. It's so hard to tell with her when she really is sick, because she is usually such a happy girl. Hopefully, we are on the mend, and needless to say I am still searching for a Doctor. I liked the one we met, but I told Ben that if I had to go through what we went through last Thursday once every month I would have a break down! So, I'll keep everyone updated with the Doctor hunt. We still have a few weeks, before we really need to make a definite decision. I will try to post some more smiley pics sometime soon. Please pray that our Lydi will continue getting better!