Yesterday, in the late afternoon, Josephine blew her nose. Just once. And it hurt her so much, she started to cry. "My ears are hurting me," she said.
Knowing the signs well by now, I first tried to look in her ear. "No Mamma no. It's too sore for me. When little childwen have sore ears, den nobody must touch dem. Den the ears just need some space."
Anyway, looked a little red inside and maybe a bit swollen, but no discharge.
Phoned the dr, got an appointment. Josephine knowing what was coming her way, protested loudly that she did NOT want to go. So, I changed plans. I cancelled the appointment (which would have been an hours' drive in and another hours' drive home) and went to the local ENT. The pros of this second choice are: a) he's close by (just 10min) and b) he's good. The cons are a) he can't speak a word of Japanese and even the invoices which we're supposed to submit to our insurance company are all 100% Japanese Kanji and b) his "method" goes by child sitting on mother's lap with my arms holding her to me and if necessary (and so far it always has been) 2-3 additional nurses coming to assist in keeping child dead still. Of course, we don't want a slip of a tool, so safety does come first. But it is highly stressful for anyone to be pinned down. So he's left an impression. But yesterday after Josephine said "I not going to help dat Dr Chair (his name is pronounced chair, but spelt Che')" I thought....well she's going to have to be pinned down far away or close by. So due to the late hour and having 2 kids to manage, I chose Jiyugaoka (the ENT closer by). Dressed kids up for cold, packed them into the car, off we went. Parked. Walked. Place was closed. Japanese note stuck to the window. Didn't get a word of it. Walked back to the car. Paid £3 for 15minutes and drove home. "Mamma. My ear is better!! It's all better! Look, my little ear is not sore anymore!"
Fell alseep at 5pm. Rather early, even for us!
Anyway, better?? Haha. 11pm paracetamol dose. Intermittent crying in sleep. 2am awake and crying. No pain killer helping. Keeping her warm and loved. What else to do?
Today: no earache early morning when waking. Phew! HAD to go past KG - last day and something important to drop off. Did that and then HAD to go back home to change Evie who managed to do a biiig nappy (teething still) and then get her fresh clothes, shoes, jackets...back on. Back downstairs. Back into the car. Off to the doctor. I chose to go to the "gentle doctor". We weren't pressed for time.
Stuck on the Kampachi-Dori (the big road we have to travel to get there). The Children's Hospital is only 3.5km away. But it took us 1hour to get there. Kids both fell asleep 5minutes before arrival. Engine switched off in parking bay. Evie's eyes open. Josephine's remain closed. Josephine into pram, Evie carried. Managing to steer pram with bags, Evie and all that. Forms. All in Japanese. Receptionist only speaking Japanese. Someone fetched from another department who could speak some broken English. Enough to tell me where to write my address, child's age, weight, sex and all those details. Waiting room. Looong wait. 2hours. 30minute consultation. Kids climbing the walls. Literally. Josephine crying with ear ache again. Evie hungry and over tired. Mamma trying to keep cool. Mamma struggling. Mamma making it though....just. Pay bills, pay parking, walk back to car, load crying kids. Another hour to drive 3.5km home. Couldn't manage the pharmacy to pick up the antibiotics immediately. Did that this afternoon after we had eaten and caught our breaths a little.
Puzzled, lego-ed, hand-puppetted, tickled (a great stress reliever for kids, and adults!), cooked food on the wooden stove, danced the Hoki-Poki with Elmo and Evie. Was gooooood to be home!
