It is the saddest happiest time of the year. It is sad that we have to go back to work, but we are happy to settle back into our own home. This summer has been more relaxing than usual. We have taken it a lot easier this time around and done much less running from one place to the other.
We have spent the majority of our time in Indiana and Ohio visiting family. It has been wonderful for the boys to have huge yards and pools to play in. The weather has been perfect for outside time during our entire visit.
We took a couple side trips also. Our first trip was to visit our long lost friends in Atlanta. We learned that in the south just about anything will fit into a bikini, and that too much fast food can put me in the hospital.
Douglas and I headed out to San Francisco for a few days. Cedric and Ezra got to hang out with my parents while we were gone. The twins love their Mimi and Papaw! SF was so much fun. We did some touristy things and then some relaxing things. It sure was nice to have a few adult meals where we could enjoy a bottle of wine with dinner instead of asking for the check after appetizers.
We had a little visa scare that anyone heading to India should be aware of. We needed to get "fresh" visas this year since we have been in India for more than five years. This can only be done in your home country so this summer we had to send our passports out for new visas. I don't know the background behind the switch, but the Indian Consulate has changed the company that processes Indian visas. My advice is to apply early since it took us four weeks to receive our passports back. Also I recommend using Travisa to walk your passport through the process. It costs a bit more but if there is a problem they handle it.
We head back to Delhi on Tuesday night. If anyone is passing through Newark keep an eye out for the circus!
Chad
Showing posts with label Emergency Room. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Emergency Room. Show all posts
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Baby Proofing
Our house is 99% baby proof... leave it to Ezra to find the 1%.
While I was getting dinner ready the boys were free range throughout the house. They were having a good time laughing and playing with their toys. I ran into the bedroom for a minute and when I came out Ezra was in his crib. Doug asked me if I put him there and still in shock I said no.
I took him out and put him on the floor to see if he would demonstrate his new found ability and off he went. A few minutes later he was back in the nursery again so I watched him from the hallway. He knocked the pillows off the couch, used them as a step, climbed on the couch, climbed up on the arm rest, and did a swan dive into the crib. I gasped because I was sure it was my turn to go to an Indian emergency room, but up he jumped with a smile on his face.
Ezra is going to make my hair grey.
The couch has been moved.
Chad
While I was getting dinner ready the boys were free range throughout the house. They were having a good time laughing and playing with their toys. I ran into the bedroom for a minute and when I came out Ezra was in his crib. Doug asked me if I put him there and still in shock I said no.
I took him out and put him on the floor to see if he would demonstrate his new found ability and off he went. A few minutes later he was back in the nursery again so I watched him from the hallway. He knocked the pillows off the couch, used them as a step, climbed on the couch, climbed up on the arm rest, and did a swan dive into the crib. I gasped because I was sure it was my turn to go to an Indian emergency room, but up he jumped with a smile on his face.
Ezra is going to make my hair grey.
The couch has been moved.
Chad
Thursday, February 7, 2013
ER: Indian Style
Chad and I have been living in India for close to five years now. It can be expected that over that amount of time we've had our fair share of trips to the hospital for this and that. Personally, I think I've had more than my fair share of doctor visits in India, but that's a different story for a different day.
In this version of our continued saga living in Mother India, Ezra made his first trip to the hospital for anything other than a routine check-up. Let me just say, it was as positive an experience as we could have hoped for, and I'd like to thank the doctors who took care of us yesterday evening.
Here is the play-by-play:
After our family walk, Ezra and Cedric were playing in the nursery while Chad and I started to get dinner ready. After about a minute or two of play, we heard Ezra crying. When we went in and checked on him, we found him with a bloody lower lip. He was sitting right next to the door, which both he and Cedric love to play with. I can only assume that he got a little to close to the corner of the door. The cut doesn't look too bad in the picture, but it was pretty deep.
We called our resident PA who lives a few doors down from us, and she recommended taking him to the hospital. Our employer has a contract with Max Super Specialty Hospital, and our school doctor arranged for a physician to meet us there. We also called our dear friend Mary, who was in the middle of a massage, but stopped everything when she heard her phone ring twice and hurried over to the apartment. Mary agreed to come along with Ez and me while Chad stayed home with brother Cedric.
Driving to the hospital, which is about 8 miles away, takes forever in Delhi traffic. On the way there, the doctor from Max called to check on us and see how Ez was doing. We told him we'd be there in 30 minutes. In reality, it took more like an hour. At the hospital, the emergency room was crowded, but impressively organized and clean. The doctor looked at Ezra (who was in his usually cheery mood), and determined that the plastic surgeon needed to be called.
We waited for about 45 minutes for the plastics doctor, and when he arrived he gave us two options: general anesthetic or local anesthetic. We opted for local. In the end, though, it was determined that due to the location of the cut and the size of Ezra, that no aesthetic would be used at all. Oh my! This daddy's blood pressure went up a few notches. We held Ez down while the doctor quickly worked at putting in four stitches. Ez screamed louder than I ever cared to hear any child--let alone my own--scream. But, the pain was quickly over, and Ezra recovered his usual mood after a few minutes. By this time, it was about two hours past Ezra's bedtime. We got the bill taken care of, stopped off in the chemist to get some medicine, and headed for home and Ezra nodded off for dreamland.
A few takeaways from our experience for any traveler to New Delhi, or any IPs coming for surrogacy.
1. Max hospital is definitely a number you need to have on hand. They're a good western-style facility.
2. Indian hospitals, including Max, are quite crowded and the idea of personal space is not the same as it is in the West. (Our only experience in a non-crowded Indian hospital was at BLK hospital, where the boys were born, which seemed to have plenty of room for everyone... does the exception prove the rule?)
3. You have to pay at the time of the procedure. Have your credit card or cash on hand. FYI: four stitches cost about $175.
4. (apologies ahead of time for the generalization) Indian doctors typically have really poor bedside manner.
That's all for now.
Peace,
Douglas
In this version of our continued saga living in Mother India, Ezra made his first trip to the hospital for anything other than a routine check-up. Let me just say, it was as positive an experience as we could have hoped for, and I'd like to thank the doctors who took care of us yesterday evening.
Here is the play-by-play:
After our family walk, Ezra and Cedric were playing in the nursery while Chad and I started to get dinner ready. After about a minute or two of play, we heard Ezra crying. When we went in and checked on him, we found him with a bloody lower lip. He was sitting right next to the door, which both he and Cedric love to play with. I can only assume that he got a little to close to the corner of the door. The cut doesn't look too bad in the picture, but it was pretty deep.
We called our resident PA who lives a few doors down from us, and she recommended taking him to the hospital. Our employer has a contract with Max Super Specialty Hospital, and our school doctor arranged for a physician to meet us there. We also called our dear friend Mary, who was in the middle of a massage, but stopped everything when she heard her phone ring twice and hurried over to the apartment. Mary agreed to come along with Ez and me while Chad stayed home with brother Cedric.
Driving to the hospital, which is about 8 miles away, takes forever in Delhi traffic. On the way there, the doctor from Max called to check on us and see how Ez was doing. We told him we'd be there in 30 minutes. In reality, it took more like an hour. At the hospital, the emergency room was crowded, but impressively organized and clean. The doctor looked at Ezra (who was in his usually cheery mood), and determined that the plastic surgeon needed to be called.
We waited for about 45 minutes for the plastics doctor, and when he arrived he gave us two options: general anesthetic or local anesthetic. We opted for local. In the end, though, it was determined that due to the location of the cut and the size of Ezra, that no aesthetic would be used at all. Oh my! This daddy's blood pressure went up a few notches. We held Ez down while the doctor quickly worked at putting in four stitches. Ez screamed louder than I ever cared to hear any child--let alone my own--scream. But, the pain was quickly over, and Ezra recovered his usual mood after a few minutes. By this time, it was about two hours past Ezra's bedtime. We got the bill taken care of, stopped off in the chemist to get some medicine, and headed for home and Ezra nodded off for dreamland.
A few takeaways from our experience for any traveler to New Delhi, or any IPs coming for surrogacy.
1. Max hospital is definitely a number you need to have on hand. They're a good western-style facility.
2. Indian hospitals, including Max, are quite crowded and the idea of personal space is not the same as it is in the West. (Our only experience in a non-crowded Indian hospital was at BLK hospital, where the boys were born, which seemed to have plenty of room for everyone... does the exception prove the rule?)
3. You have to pay at the time of the procedure. Have your credit card or cash on hand. FYI: four stitches cost about $175.
4. (apologies ahead of time for the generalization) Indian doctors typically have really poor bedside manner.
That's all for now.
Peace,
Douglas
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