08 February 2008

Sick again...

This time Thing1 came home from kita with a swollen eye. I've never seen it in person before, but as the eye seemed to grow worse and then pussy, the thought "conjunctivitis" passed through my head. Gave the German a quick call, the dr. another and we dashed the two girls to the doctor just at closing time. Although only Thing1 had a noticeable infection, by the time Thing2 was done crying at the indignity of being examined by a dr. we determined that she
was starting a case of pink eye as well. The dr kindly prescribed enough for all four of us, just in case the German and I are not able to beat back the illness before being infected ourselves.

The annoying part is that the girls were sent home with a note stating not that Thing1 was ill, but that Thing2 had had a durchfall and that she should see a dr before returning to kita. Now, Thing2 has been falling in and out of a cold since we got to Berlin and we have taken her to the doctor three times before this. In each case the dr has said, just as would a dr at home, that the infection was viral not bacterial, and that unless a superinfection ensued (as happened to me) antibiotics were not to be used nor required. But the kita keeps saying that she is ill. So this time the dr wrote quite a detailed note telling them that: no fever, no ear trouble, and a runny nose with occassional durchfall (perhaps due to food at the kita) is not an illness and that a further note should not be required. Amd, of course, we will be calling them first thing Monday to tell them about the conjunctivitis as Thing1 was exposed on Thursdsay and therefore everyone in her class must be getting ill today. Ah well. The teachers are great, and I am glad that they care.

3 comments:

S said...

What, pray tell, is durchfall? Is is what I think it is?

I once had a teacher call to tell me to come get my son because he had a fever of 98.6 degrees. I said, stunned, "That's exactly normal."

"No, it isn't," she snapped. "Normal is 96.8 degrees."

Uh, no. No, it isn't.

Hope everyone there is better soon!

G in Berlin said...

Thanks for stopping by- yup, a durchfall is a "fall through".
I know, I remember a Leno walk by when he asked an RN what the normal temp of a human was and she was wrong: I was scared!

Diane Mandy said...

wow that is unreal.