Medical Update

I realized after I posted last night I should have given an update about Ava's arm - thankfully it cleared up on it's own, there are still some dots that look like pimples and what looks like some bruising under the skin, but it's not bothering her (or me) anymore.

I didn't make it to a pharmacy (Apteka) until yesterday but now at least I have the cream in case it happens again. I'm wondering how Polish medication compares to stuff from the US. When we were home for a visit two years ago and Jack had those awful sores from the vaccine reaction/unexplained phenomenon, he was on an antibiotic from Dublin and his pediatrician in Boston pretty much laughed at it saying it wasn't strong enough to do anything.

In other medical news, my back went out and I am desperately searching for some physiotherapy. The first time my back ever went out was during a trip to Myrtle Beach my senior year of high school - Poppy/Bruce very kindly let me borrow his truck to drive down there with all of my friends, so I was paranoid to let anyone else drive it so I did the whole 16 hour drive by myself. A couple of days after we arrived I bent over to tie my shoes and couldn't stand back up - it was the worst pain I had ever felt. I was prescribed pain meds and muscle relaxers which did nothing but make me a miserable grouch. The next time it went out was in college and I actually fainted in the bathroom because the pain was so bad - thankfully someone there sent me to physical therapy and ever since then I have been going pretty regularly to prevent it from going out-out and landing me on the couch for a week. Well since I haven't been to PT since Dublin, the inevitable happened - I was putting a heavy bag of groceries into the car and out it went. The same thing actually happened our first week in Krakow but that evening I had taken the kids to the pool in the Sheraton and there was this turbo jet in the pool that was so strong there were handles to hold on to because if you didn't hold them the force of the jet would propel you halfway across the pool. I stood with my back up against this for most of the time I was in the pool and the next morning I couldn't believe that my back was better when I got out of bed. The jets must have stopped the muscle spasms somehow (when I had an MRI years ago it showed 2 bulging discs, so I guess when they pop out of place they press on the nerves and create a big muscle spasm). Anyhoo, when I got out of bed yesterday (after not sleeping at all because every time I tried to roll over I was in excruciating pain), I called a place called Medicover (I guess like Harvard Vanguard in Boston, a few locations with doctors/specialists throughout Krakow) and tried to get in to a physical therapist. After struggling for a while speaking to the receptionist who barely spoke English, it was determined that I needed to see an orthopedist/neurosurgeon first in order to get a referral, so I made an appointment with an ortho for Thursday afternoon. I am crossing my fingers that there won't be a long wait for PT - I was spoiled in Dublin because there was a physical therapist upstairs at our gym and you could just walk in to see her, so I used to go every two weeks, or more if it got really bad. After I hung up the phone I decided to call the Sheraton to see if non-guests could use the pool. Turns out I would have to buy a monthly membership to their gym for 200 zty. Since this is barely 60 dollars (we're back to converting everything to dollars now, no more Euro for us!) I considered joining during the drive to our gym, because the kids had been begging me to take them swimming. Much to my surprise when we got to the gym pool, it had the same turbo jet!! I was so excited so again I stood in front of it most of the time I was there (the lifeguard kept giving me weird looks though). Unfortunately it didn't work as well as last time so I am not cured but at least I can stand up straight, walk, and I wasn't in so much pain last night while sleeping. 

On another note, I had to go to that Medicover clinic on Friday of last week, they did some blood work to test my thyroid for some symptoms I was having. I asked when the results would be ready and they said by Monday - wow, much quicker turnaround than Dublin. So I asked if I should call them or would they call me and I thought they had said I could call - but I am realizing that when a Polish person who sort of speaks English doesn't really understand what you are saying they just nod and say yes. So when I called Medicover yesterday I asked about getting my test results and they said I had to go back to the office to get them. Typical! The ortho is in a different location than the first one I went to but thankfully they said I would be able to get them at the front desk of the other office, so let's keep our fingers crossed.