thereyougothen

...looks like this:



I got dragged away from a really nice get together this morning by a call from the school. I was needing to leave soon anyway to go home and catch the kittens to take them to the vet to get neutered, but still...

Nico had fallen from the monkey bars and hit his head. He seemed fine, hadn't lost consciousness, and was resting in the nurses station. So I head up to school to get him. He's happy to see me, and ready to go. He gets up, walks just fine, no dizzyness, his head only hurt if you touched the lump on the back of it. We went and got his rucksack, spoke to the teacher, and left the school.

He seemed fine to me, but since the school has an insurance policy with the local clinic, we might as well go and get him checked over, since it's free (hah, still not used to it *not* being free!). The last time he had a head injury was when a loift door sent him flying in the National Museum, and we went to the sick kids then, so I figured we might as well this time too.

We got to the car and he was cheerful and chatty, he called his dad and told him all about it. Given all that, I decided we could pop home, snare the kittens and take them to their appointment with the surgeon before taking N to the clinic.

So, cats caught, deposited at vets, some Spanish spoken at the vets, and then a lot of English when the Vet who speaks English came out, and N and I head for the clinic.

Where after not too long we are seen. He didn't want his blood pressure checked, in case they took all his blood, but after a little persuasion he relented. Then we waited to see a doctor. Pupils were checked for responsiveness, his reflexes checked with the little hammer, and we were sent off to have his head examined, I mean x-rayed.

Then we went back to the exam room, and waited, and waited. And watched some youtube videos on my ipod. Finally, the doctor came back, and told us his head looked fine, there was no fracture. But then he started telling me about all the dangers that can come from head trauma, and the signs i needed to look for, in case his brain started to swell, in 4 stages:

1: Headache and Dizziness
2. Nausea & Vomiting
3. Seizures
4. Unconsciousness

OK, I can do that. *THEN* he tells me to take him home and put him to bed for 24 hours with *no visual stimulation at all*, no TV, no computer, not even reading a book. Then in 24 hours, while he still needed to be in bed, he could have "his computer or his television in his bedroom" (what planet this doctor lives on I'm not sure). If he was ok, he could go back to school on Friday. And he's not to play any sports for a week. He then gave me a slip of paper with all this written down, and asked me eleventy billion times if I understood. I just looked at him and said "He's 5 years old!" to which the Dr replied, yes,and a very intelligent 5 years old, so don't let him read a book. Oh, and I could only give him bland food. In case his food made him sick and we didn't know if it was the head injury or the food. The quack was speaking spanglish all this time, by the way.

So... I smiled and nodded and we made good our escape.

Came home and I tried to make N a quesadilla while ranting to Bill on the phone about the quack, so I burned it. So I made him a cheese toastie. Then we raced to school to collect Thomas. And while we were waiting, I took scientific poll of all the other mothers on whether the Dr was totally full of shit, while N raced around, jumped off picnic tables, rolled around on the grass and generally behaved like a 5 year old who had had the afternoon off school.

Then Nico took me and Thomas to his playground to show us where it happened, and what he was doing at the time. Then we came home, and after Thomas did his homework, we watched TV. Spongebob. Which is probably the worst in terms of visual stimulation (for me at least).

So, did I do the right thing?

They don't hold a grudge.

The thing about the driving here - it's not that bad. Or maybe it is, but I more or less learned to drive in Washington DC, which supposedly had the third worst traffic in the US, so maybe 20 year old experiences are coming to the fore. They even use their indicators (just not in the direction they are intending to go).

So. They like their horns here. If it takes you a split second to move off from a red light, they honk. But you know how when you *know* you've done something stupid (like when I wrong laned myself at two consecutive intersections on the way home the other day), and you get honked at? At home, you get honked at, your adrenalin goes through the roof, the other driver's does too, so when you catch up with them at the next light, they are practically climbing out their window and at the very least gesturing in extremely angry tones.

Here? No matter how many times they have leaned on their horn or for how long, by the time you catch them up, they are just going about their merry way. But I'm not. They have totally forgotten it happened. But I haven't. My blood pressure is still through the roof, and I'm expecting some serious road rage on their part. And it's not there.

It's really rather deflating, if the truth be told.

( There's two awfully cute kids under here! )

Crossposted.  Apologies if you're bored with this now...

someone nearby (but they could live in any of about 6 streets, it's hard to tell the way the houses are laid out) started playing the radio at the most earsplitting volume imaginable at about 6.00PM. It's still playing as loud, though they seem to change the station sometimes. I guess they are having a party.

I struggle a lot with extraneous noise these days. both boys shouting at once turns me into a homicidal maniac. this tonight is enough to make me want to move out.

i want to cry. the noise is constant. it's driving me crazy.

guess who lost her wallet?

I had the day from hell yesterday, just awful. except I quite enjoyed the PTA meeting. But I left there at 9.20 and went to the supermercado. The boys really needed decent school bags, our stuff is still held up by a public sector strike, so at 9.45 I'm traipsing round a supermarket, exhausted, confused, and as it turns out - careless.

i manged to pay for my stuff, go and get $100,000 pesos cash out to pay the locksmith, then somewhere between there and here - I lost my wallet. which i didn't notice until this morning.

so - i've been back to the shop - no luck, checked with the men at the front desk here at the flat and to the police with Rebeca the relocator.

i've lost a credit card, a debit card, my chilean ID, my health insurance card, both my drivers' licenses, and about £120 in cash.

bugger.

i've cancelled the cards, no one had used them. but getting my driver's license replaced won't be easy.

and i'm not sure if my new debit and credit cards will be safely forwarded here. and it will take a month anyway.

thank goodness for skype at least - cancelling the cards was easy.

must figure out how to get my drivers' license replaced now. at least it won't cost me money if someone uses that.

and i probably can't get a chilean one while the strike is on.


still, we have matresses and borrowed sheets and towels to sleep on now. tomorrow night, we sleep in the house. hurrah!

we, that's the royal we, of course. or in fact, it's probably the royal they, since it had nothing to do with me at all, will be signing the lease for the house we want on friday.

fingers still crossed, though.

now that we have our ID cards*, life will be a little easier, but i'm still just the spouse. i have no identity of my own. luckily i have met a husband in the same position, so it's not all about the patriarchy.

* i never expected to hear myself commenting favourably on ID cards!

I can't get into blogger, so I'll post here for now. Quirk is here, fast asleep beside me on the sofa. Collecting her form the airport was a bit traumatic, and took far longer than it should have - we were meeting someone who spoke no english. we got her in the end, and I burst into tears. I think the guy thought there was something wrong with me.

so relieved to see her, and so happy to have my cat. N especially is thrilled, he hasn't been able to to keep hs hands off her, and amazingly, she has put up with all his attention. She must have missed her people. TT is happy to see her too, and she has also allowed him to stroke her, which is very unusual.

we are a happy family.

OK, now that I've got myself in gear and set it up its very own blog, no more xx sleeps posts here - they're all at http://lasabolladuras.blogspot.com. bopeepsheep very helpfully set up lasbolladuras or you can syndicate it directly from blogger.

this LJ will go back to whinging about stuff post haste

what did we accomplish today toward moving? I'm not sure there was anything. oh, yes, we freecycled my old breastpump and all its bottles and attachments. but even so, it wasn't very big. the recipients very kindly gave us a tin of low caffeine but still proper espresso coffee. that was lovely. we shall try it when the current packet runs out.

was there anything else?

i had my last parent council meeting at preston street. i was very sad, and i burst into tears when they gave me a very (very) big bunch of flowers. there is a photo, i will upload tomorrow.

have been a bit down since this afternoon - had my heart scan, and i'm down to 51%. i was 53, 53, 55 (remember my jubilant posting?) and now down to 51%. Herceptin is "cardiotoxic" so I suppose it's not surprising. the radiographer asked me if I'm tired. um, yes. and I'd been wondering why. all the nurses keep saying "no matter what the side effects are supposed to be, I think herceptin makes you tired" well, yes, especially if it affects heart function, and if your heart isn't working as well as it used to, you might get tired. I guess that's a no-brainer.

well, I will probably have to have another of these before the Chileans will give me any drugs. and the Chileans won't have Winton, who is the "superintendant radiographer", all round nice guy, and super talented at finding difficult veins. I think he would be willing to travel, but I doubt the insurance company would cover it.

we have had an unbelievably expensive quote from an agency for shipping Quirk to Santiago. so maybe we'll be doing it all ourselves after all. unless anyone I know wants to go into the pet export business??

tomorrow the school is closed because of the unison strike., i think we are gong shoe shopping, sadly not for me, though...