We stayed the night in the Mission home. This is where we got to know Sora Lundberg, Pres. Lundberg and their son Joshua. As mentioned before, Joshua was born in Barlad, Romania, and was adopted by the Lundbergs about 5 or 6 years ago at the age of 3. Sora Lundberg saw Josh and fell in love with him and devoted the next few years of her life to the adoption process. I have a soft spot in my heart for those who adopt children from these places, except Angelina Jolie, I don't know about her.
I have a lot of good painful memories about this mission home. It was really weird being back there again. I'd been there 3 years ago, because Dorothy was well liked by President Ashby and was finishing her mission tour and they let us stay there before Andrew and I took the train to Iasi. There is a lot of ambivalence there for me. I was really excited and stressed to go back and see Alex then and I was in the honeymoon stage of a new relationship with lots of longing absences and missing and you know all those romantic things that consume you and you look back later and wonder why. I'm in a good place now, but it was mildly difficult to be in those locations again if I didn't focus on the tasks at hand. It was a symbol of an important period, and that's all.
I spent most of my time there out of the apartment. I was looking for a place to charge my cell phone and it turns out they don't make a charger anymore. That quest went in several different directions and I thought of the triumph of finding the blasted thing, but that never came. I got used to the subway system though and I brought home shwarma. I felt like it was a pretty big deal to stay connected with the school, but I never found the charger.
The calls continued through thursday and Friday. Thursday morning, we went to Dr. Hanson's office, where Dr. Brady gave us a prescription for more drugs and a little more advice for Katie. We went straight back to the mission home and I went out looking for a pharmacy after failing to get the Wii to work for Katie. The rest of that day isn't important, except that I started calling some of our emergency contacts again. Also after a frivolous search, I wish I would have stayed with her.
Friday is when things got real. Katie started hurting really bad. The pain and fear(?) got to her a couple times and I couldn't do anything but be there with her. We called the doctors and they came down a couple hours later. I called home (Iasi) and had Mario make sure two students came down with our passports, some clothes, the charger and all of Katie's things just in case we had to go to Vienna, Austria. I'd heard stories about how things went in the past and so I also knew where we could end up. Also, the doctors were informative about the care she needed.
Katie had a fever of 101 and the pain was spreading up her thigh. I was running up and down the stairs getting information to call SOS, our medical relief program and various errands for the doctors. I called Ashley and Landes and her parents called us. There were at least 3 phone calls going at a time. I started understanding the reason they called our insurance company HTH highway to hell. The delays started there as well. They didn't want to evacuate her without the approval of an approved doctor who would have to see her at Floreasca. Katie was pretty upset about that and I was dreading going back there.
We drove on significantly less crowded streets to the hospital around 11:30. Dr. Brady and Dr. Hanson and I and Sora Lundberg all went and waited for her to be seen. Dr. Brady started talking to the Emergency admittance doctors and giving them the diagnosis. They informed him that she needed to stay in the hospital. This process took several minutes of waiting that seemed much longer. They eventually kicked everyone out except Katie and Dr. Brady. Then they kicked Dr. Brady out. Eventually they put her in a wheelchair and took her to get her chest x-rayed for any signs of the clot moving that direction. Lungs = death.
Dr. Brady convinced them to get her a private room, which after passing by the normal rooms where 10-15 people on beds were lying in pain in the dark, we realized was a blessing from heaven. One of those deep fried chicken tender mercies. With bbq sauce. And honey mustard.
This room looked like America. I don't know if that makes sense, but it did. And the nurses seemed more cooperative and the harshness dr. that followed us left. We spent awhile with Katie and figured out a plan for tomorrow. I think I was on the phone half the time. Dr. Brady would stay with her, while we went home and rested. He was flying home the next day after all and so he wouldn't be able to stay with her after 11:00AM, which would then be my turn.
Dr. Brady ensured her care would be better as he could spot the facade care vs. the necessary motions. They put an IV in her with saline water and gave her anti-inflammatories. I trusted her with Dr. Brady. He was smart, fiercely loyal, and defiant to the prevailing errors. I respect those things.
Katie is an amazing girl. She kept a level head through what most people would be freaking out about every 5 minutes. She kept her sense of humor and her faith. She took strength from the support of her family and fiance and the people around her. She even had fun.
I'll continue the last couple days in another post.
I have a lot of good painful memories about this mission home. It was really weird being back there again. I'd been there 3 years ago, because Dorothy was well liked by President Ashby and was finishing her mission tour and they let us stay there before Andrew and I took the train to Iasi. There is a lot of ambivalence there for me. I was really excited and stressed to go back and see Alex then and I was in the honeymoon stage of a new relationship with lots of longing absences and missing and you know all those romantic things that consume you and you look back later and wonder why. I'm in a good place now, but it was mildly difficult to be in those locations again if I didn't focus on the tasks at hand. It was a symbol of an important period, and that's all.
I spent most of my time there out of the apartment. I was looking for a place to charge my cell phone and it turns out they don't make a charger anymore. That quest went in several different directions and I thought of the triumph of finding the blasted thing, but that never came. I got used to the subway system though and I brought home shwarma. I felt like it was a pretty big deal to stay connected with the school, but I never found the charger.
The calls continued through thursday and Friday. Thursday morning, we went to Dr. Hanson's office, where Dr. Brady gave us a prescription for more drugs and a little more advice for Katie. We went straight back to the mission home and I went out looking for a pharmacy after failing to get the Wii to work for Katie. The rest of that day isn't important, except that I started calling some of our emergency contacts again. Also after a frivolous search, I wish I would have stayed with her.
Friday is when things got real. Katie started hurting really bad. The pain and fear(?) got to her a couple times and I couldn't do anything but be there with her. We called the doctors and they came down a couple hours later. I called home (Iasi) and had Mario make sure two students came down with our passports, some clothes, the charger and all of Katie's things just in case we had to go to Vienna, Austria. I'd heard stories about how things went in the past and so I also knew where we could end up. Also, the doctors were informative about the care she needed.
Katie had a fever of 101 and the pain was spreading up her thigh. I was running up and down the stairs getting information to call SOS, our medical relief program and various errands for the doctors. I called Ashley and Landes and her parents called us. There were at least 3 phone calls going at a time. I started understanding the reason they called our insurance company HTH highway to hell. The delays started there as well. They didn't want to evacuate her without the approval of an approved doctor who would have to see her at Floreasca. Katie was pretty upset about that and I was dreading going back there.
We drove on significantly less crowded streets to the hospital around 11:30. Dr. Brady and Dr. Hanson and I and Sora Lundberg all went and waited for her to be seen. Dr. Brady started talking to the Emergency admittance doctors and giving them the diagnosis. They informed him that she needed to stay in the hospital. This process took several minutes of waiting that seemed much longer. They eventually kicked everyone out except Katie and Dr. Brady. Then they kicked Dr. Brady out. Eventually they put her in a wheelchair and took her to get her chest x-rayed for any signs of the clot moving that direction. Lungs = death.
Dr. Brady convinced them to get her a private room, which after passing by the normal rooms where 10-15 people on beds were lying in pain in the dark, we realized was a blessing from heaven. One of those deep fried chicken tender mercies. With bbq sauce. And honey mustard.
This room looked like America. I don't know if that makes sense, but it did. And the nurses seemed more cooperative and the harshness dr. that followed us left. We spent awhile with Katie and figured out a plan for tomorrow. I think I was on the phone half the time. Dr. Brady would stay with her, while we went home and rested. He was flying home the next day after all and so he wouldn't be able to stay with her after 11:00AM, which would then be my turn.
Dr. Brady ensured her care would be better as he could spot the facade care vs. the necessary motions. They put an IV in her with saline water and gave her anti-inflammatories. I trusted her with Dr. Brady. He was smart, fiercely loyal, and defiant to the prevailing errors. I respect those things.
Katie is an amazing girl. She kept a level head through what most people would be freaking out about every 5 minutes. She kept her sense of humor and her faith. She took strength from the support of her family and fiance and the people around her. She even had fun.
I'll continue the last couple days in another post.
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