If you all are finally getting this, it means we've finally gotten online. As I write this, it's been a week since we've been in Brussels, and we haven't had access to phones, internet, tv, Starbucks, blah, blah, blah.
So if you've been thinking about us and been envious of our grand adventure, I can tell you this: DON'T. Although things are looking up now, it's been a true disaster of a first week. It's too terrible to believe, honestly. But it's actually so terrible that it gets funny. We could honestly do no more than laugh every time another illness struck.
Long story short, let's backtrack to the few days before we left.
1. children start spiking monstrous (103-104) fevers in middle of night. Absolutely fine with no symptoms during the day. After 2 nights of this, we take Jack to a nighttime peds clinic (we got new health insurance starting Jan. 1 and had no pediatrician). He is diagnosed with double ear infection. We ask if he'd be OK to fly in a day, and the ped. says yes. The next day (the day we're scheduled to leave), we take Amelia to another clinic, just to make sure (since she's still running a night fever). Although a strep test comes back negative, the ped. says her tonsills are infected and declares she has strep. So both kids are on antibiotics but are cleared to leave.
2. We depart Maryland on Saturday (1/6) with our 8 giant checked bags and the kids and sit at the gate on the airplane for an extra 1.5 hours while they load late luggage. Children are hungry and tired. They fall asleep (finally) after a dinner of ice cream (thanks to a kind flight attendant who knew they wouldn't make it to the dinner) and sleep great. This, in retrospect, was the best part of the trip. Couldn't have asked for the kids to do better on the plane! We arrive at our hotel, where we are to stay for 2 nights, and TJ and I decide that we, too, are coming down with something. There are no stores or restaurants open in Brussels on Sunday, so we find an open minimart, but some basics and go back to the hotel.
3. Rainy. I wake up Monday (1/8) with a stomach bug. Luckily, it passes quickly. Not so luckily, Amelia comes down with it later in the morning and throws up all day long. Knowing her history for dehydration, I spend the day frantically trying to find a pediatrician. We finally find a doctor, who agrees to see us at 7 that night (we find that many drs work from home, which makes later appointments easy). By now, she's vomiting some old blood, and I am not liking Belgium one bit. The doctor sees her, decides she DOESN'T have strep and prescribes an anti-nausea medication, which thankfully works like a charm. But we have to find a pharmacy that is open (only one pharmacy per neighborhood is open past 5, and that pharmacy rotates). We find one, have to pay a premium on the medication because we're buying it after normal business hours (worth every penny!), and are back to the hotel..Both TJ and I have fantastic colds going on -- coughing and sneezing and all the fanfare.
4. Tuesday (1/9). TJ getting worse; kids getting better. But it's raining and raining, and terribly windy. On the plus side, we get into our house and our air shipment arrives. Kids are happy to see their toys. I make my first trip to the grocery store. Milk and juice was sold in just quart containers (that's the biggest size), so my whole cart is nearly filled with juice. Which is OK, because I can't read the labels on anything else. I end up with Paprika Cheetos, deciding to pass on the Lay's Barbecue Ham potato chips, or their Roasted Chicken and Thyme chips. I end up with things that I think might be butter and yogurt but can't really be sure. But it doesn't matter, because no one is hungry anyway.
5. Wednesday (1/10). More wind and rain. TJ much worse. Declares he's "too sick to call the doctor" but then is up all night because he's is coughing so violently and having trouble catching his breath. I have no idea how to operate any appliances, so cannot cook, wash dishes or wash clothes. The kids are eating lots of sandwiches. Officially known as my worst birthday ever.
6. Thursday (1/11). A thankfully sunny day, so I finally take the kids across the street to a playground. TJ calls doctor first things; gets appointment that afternoon. He is diagnosed with pneumonia (to be diagnosed, first we go to the doctor. He sends us to the hospital for a chest x-ray. The hospital gives TJ the CD to give to the doctor. The doctor reads the x-ray). So now he's on antibiotics.In the evening, my right ear all of a sudden plugs up (as if from pressure change on an airplane). By 1 a.m., I'm in tears with pain. My ear is killing me.
7. Friday (1/12). My turn for the doctor, where I'm diagnosed with an ear infection. ("Hmmm." the doctor says "Very unusual for an adult to get an ear infection like this.") I'm the final member to go on antibiotics. But TJ is feeling better, and the kids just want to play.
So today is Monday (1/15), and we're all much better. We've had 2 days of sun in a row and have been able to get outside. We haven't seen too much of the city, other than medical facilities (which, I must say have been very impressive. And a relative bargain -- our visits have cost us about $35 each, and that's with no insurance.)
Another nightmare has been Jack adjusting to the time change. We had a really hard time getting him back on schedule (it's just been the past 2 nights -- Sat. and Sun. -- that he's been back on track). He'd go to sleep at 8 but then wake up at 10 and want to play or eat until 2 am. No cajoling or pleading could convince him otherwise. TJ and I were exhausted and could do nothing but watch Jack play. I tried boring him by singing "99 bottles of beer on the wall" but to no avail.
On the plus side, we now know how the medical system works and have found some doctors we like (did I mention that I think one of my fillings has come out??). Amelia and I did a stroll around Ste. Alix, the town square 2 blocks away and have found a nice fruit stand, Chinese restaurant, bakery, cheese shop, kids clothing and shoe store, hair salon, and a few other stores. We're also located the Carrefour (Wal-Mart-like), the Brico (the Home Depot) and Quick Burger (where you pay for ketchup). Have been surprised at the lack of fast food restaurants (Quick and Pizza Hut are the only ones I've seen -- we haven't even seen McDonalds), but maybe that's a good thing. Apparently restaurants aren't very family-friendly and aren't quick, so taking the kids out for dinner will be limited. Luckily, we've found a few sandwich shops in Stockel ( a 5 min. drive) that work well with the kids.
We hope to have our furniture in sometime in February and would love to start having guests. We should have things completely disinfected by then. :)
~~~~~~~~~~~
Sunday, jan. 21.
Long story short, let's backtrack to the few days before we left.
1. children start spiking monstrous (103-104) fevers in middle of night. Absolutely fine with no symptoms during the day. After 2 nights of this, we take Jack to a nighttime peds clinic (we got new health insurance starting Jan. 1 and had no pediatrician). He is diagnosed with double ear infection. We ask if he'd be OK to fly in a day, and the ped. says yes. The next day (the day we're scheduled to leave), we take Amelia to another clinic, just to make sure (since she's still running a night fever). Although a strep test comes back negative, the ped. says her tonsills are infected and declares she has strep. So both kids are on antibiotics but are cleared to leave.
2. We depart Maryland on Saturday (1/6) with our 8 giant checked bags and the kids and sit at the gate on the airplane for an extra 1.5 hours while they load late luggage. Children are hungry and tired. They fall asleep (finally) after a dinner of ice cream (thanks to a kind flight attendant who knew they wouldn't make it to the dinner) and sleep great. This, in retrospect, was the best part of the trip. Couldn't have asked for the kids to do better on the plane! We arrive at our hotel, where we are to stay for 2 nights, and TJ and I decide that we, too, are coming down with something. There are no stores or restaurants open in Brussels on Sunday, so we find an open minimart, but some basics and go back to the hotel.
3. Rainy. I wake up Monday (1/8) with a stomach bug. Luckily, it passes quickly. Not so luckily, Amelia comes down with it later in the morning and throws up all day long. Knowing her history for dehydration, I spend the day frantically trying to find a pediatrician. We finally find a doctor, who agrees to see us at 7 that night (we find that many drs work from home, which makes later appointments easy). By now, she's vomiting some old blood, and I am not liking Belgium one bit. The doctor sees her, decides she DOESN'T have strep and prescribes an anti-nausea medication, which thankfully works like a charm. But we have to find a pharmacy that is open (only one pharmacy per neighborhood is open past 5, and that pharmacy rotates). We find one, have to pay a premium on the medication because we're buying it after normal business hours (worth every penny!), and are back to the hotel..Both TJ and I have fantastic colds going on -- coughing and sneezing and all the fanfare.
4. Tuesday (1/9). TJ getting worse; kids getting better. But it's raining and raining, and terribly windy. On the plus side, we get into our house and our air shipment arrives. Kids are happy to see their toys. I make my first trip to the grocery store. Milk and juice was sold in just quart containers (that's the biggest size), so my whole cart is nearly filled with juice. Which is OK, because I can't read the labels on anything else. I end up with Paprika Cheetos, deciding to pass on the Lay's Barbecue Ham potato chips, or their Roasted Chicken and Thyme chips. I end up with things that I think might be butter and yogurt but can't really be sure. But it doesn't matter, because no one is hungry anyway.
5. Wednesday (1/10). More wind and rain. TJ much worse. Declares he's "too sick to call the doctor" but then is up all night because he's is coughing so violently and having trouble catching his breath. I have no idea how to operate any appliances, so cannot cook, wash dishes or wash clothes. The kids are eating lots of sandwiches. Officially known as my worst birthday ever.
6. Thursday (1/11). A thankfully sunny day, so I finally take the kids across the street to a playground. TJ calls doctor first things; gets appointment that afternoon. He is diagnosed with pneumonia (to be diagnosed, first we go to the doctor. He sends us to the hospital for a chest x-ray. The hospital gives TJ the CD to give to the doctor. The doctor reads the x-ray). So now he's on antibiotics.In the evening, my right ear all of a sudden plugs up (as if from pressure change on an airplane). By 1 a.m., I'm in tears with pain. My ear is killing me.
7. Friday (1/12). My turn for the doctor, where I'm diagnosed with an ear infection. ("Hmmm." the doctor says "Very unusual for an adult to get an ear infection like this.") I'm the final member to go on antibiotics. But TJ is feeling better, and the kids just want to play.
So today is Monday (1/15), and we're all much better. We've had 2 days of sun in a row and have been able to get outside. We haven't seen too much of the city, other than medical facilities (which, I must say have been very impressive. And a relative bargain -- our visits have cost us about $35 each, and that's with no insurance.)
Another nightmare has been Jack adjusting to the time change. We had a really hard time getting him back on schedule (it's just been the past 2 nights -- Sat. and Sun. -- that he's been back on track). He'd go to sleep at 8 but then wake up at 10 and want to play or eat until 2 am. No cajoling or pleading could convince him otherwise. TJ and I were exhausted and could do nothing but watch Jack play. I tried boring him by singing "99 bottles of beer on the wall" but to no avail.
On the plus side, we now know how the medical system works and have found some doctors we like (did I mention that I think one of my fillings has come out??). Amelia and I did a stroll around Ste. Alix, the town square 2 blocks away and have found a nice fruit stand, Chinese restaurant, bakery, cheese shop, kids clothing and shoe store, hair salon, and a few other stores. We're also located the Carrefour (Wal-Mart-like), the Brico (the Home Depot) and Quick Burger (where you pay for ketchup). Have been surprised at the lack of fast food restaurants (Quick and Pizza Hut are the only ones I've seen -- we haven't even seen McDonalds), but maybe that's a good thing. Apparently restaurants aren't very family-friendly and aren't quick, so taking the kids out for dinner will be limited. Luckily, we've found a few sandwich shops in Stockel ( a 5 min. drive) that work well with the kids.
We hope to have our furniture in sometime in February and would love to start having guests. We should have things completely disinfected by then. :)
~~~~~~~~~~~
Sunday, jan. 21.
We're up and running, in more ways than one. My ear is still blocked and I have a mild case of Bell's Palsy from the swelling in my ear (really, it does just get comical after a while, doesn't it???), but I'm now the only one suffering any ill effects from our disastrous week. We've had some adventures out, visited the markets several times and are actually starting to feel like part of the world again. We're starting to learn our way around and have learned that the chicken man at the market makes a fantastic rotisserie chicken, plus he gives the kids candy. Chocolate croissants are the best way to start breakfast, and their coffee is like espresso. Very dark and very strong.
All in all, we're adjusting well. We have our slingbox set up and can now watch all our DVR'd TV shows. It was so nice to be able to watch the Office and Earl last night.
More on our adventure as it happens. But we are all healthy and happy and excited to start learning all about Brussels!!
All in all, we're adjusting well. We have our slingbox set up and can now watch all our DVR'd TV shows. It was so nice to be able to watch the Office and Earl last night.
More on our adventure as it happens. But we are all healthy and happy and excited to start learning all about Brussels!!
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