The Horrors of Socialized Medicine

Warning, this information may be disturbing to you.

So for all of the political upheaval about health care in the US.  I thought I would share a bit of our experiences with socialized health care.  It might disturb you because so far we have NOTHING but good things to say about the care we have received while living in England.

This post comes from our most recent experience which happened on Monday the 14th Anna had an allergic reaction after eating some Chinese food.  She started coughing and sneezing, which I didn't think much of because she had a runny nose for a few days previous.  We were discussing it and then I said it came on pretty quickly for a cold.  Then when I was getting her ready for bed Drew noticed that she had a rash all over her body.  So we took her to the hospital.   We only had to wait 15 minutes from the time we arrived before we were in the back talking to the health staff.  They gave her a teddy bear!  The first doctor that examined her was (Katie, I believe, all of the ER doctors went by their first names)  she said that she was pretty sure it was an allergic reaction and had the nurses give her some antihistamine.  But, she said she would like another doctor to look at her to get their opinion.  The second doctor said the same thing and that they want to send her up to pediatrics just to make sure everything is alright.  By that time her rash was going and she was much more relaxed.  She did throw up twice in the ER but had perked up significantly by this point.  After we saw the 3rd doctor, she said that it probably was an allergy but very rarely a virus can do that and sometimes even with an allergy when the medication wares off the reaction can spike again so just to be cautious she wanted to keep her over night.  I felt good about that seeing as I had been hospitalized at least 5 times in my life and I find it very comforting to know that there are doctors and nursing waiting to help if there is ever a problem.  The nurse or "room service" as I believe she called herself, welcomed me to the "bed and breakfast" and gave me towels, sheets, blankets, pajamas, toothbrushes for both me and Anna, and a sandwich for me.  The sandwich was not tasty being about 2 am at this point, it was probably made several hours before, darn socialism!  Anna slept very well and woke up very happy.  This is a picture of our room.





In the morning she headed to the play room and enjoyed all of the toys and the outside play area as well.














The doctors said she seemed to be doing very well and that because she was better, she needed to be put to work.  They put on a medical coat and set her to work. =)







They did want to do some blood work which was very traumatic for Anna.  They couldn't get a vain at first, then I realized that whenever I need to have blood taken I am always poked and prodded a ton until I remember that the veins in my hand are the ones that seem to work the best.  So, I told them to try her hand.  They did and out spurted the blood.  Then, I felt pretty proud of myself and I remembered something my mother said a nurse had said to her when I was in the hospital.  The doctor was asking what my temperature was and my mother put her hand on my head and said 103.  They took my temperature and it was 103 and the nurse said "Never Question a mother!"  They weren't challenging me or anything but, I still felt pretty good about it (other than the fact Anna was clearly in pain and did not enjoy having blood work done).

They want her to come in for allergy testing and they could see her Thursday of that week!  More waiting!  But I decided to wait until we get back from America, its gives us something to look forward to=).

I just received an email from my friend who had an appointment on Monday, they want her to wait until Wed.  for testing as well!!!  There are definitely things that people wait for in the UK but when there are serious problems things happen quickly.  For all the negative press it gets, there are loads of great things that happen every day.  Think of one of the greatest minds of our time, Stephen Hawking who was diagnosed with ASL at age 21, said "I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS; I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived"

As for the other experiences we have had, we found having a baby there wonderful and intimate.  Yet competent and with all the amenities of a high class hospital.

The day to day primary care doctors are wonderful.  We really have enjoyed everything.  Oh, and we heard on the radio before we left that they will most likely be changing from having everyone see the closest doctor to allowing people to see whichever doctor they want.  NHS has gotten a lot of bad press lately most of it but if you look at how satisfied people are actually reporting their services with the NHS you will note that:

Of hospital inpatients, 92% said they were satisfied with their treatment

87% of GP users were satisfied with their GP

87% of hospital outpatients were satisfied with the service they received

70% of Accident and Emergency department users reported being satisfied

The system has its problems sure, but I prefer NHS to US medical care thus far.

Coming out of her shell

Anna woke up one morning about a week or so ago and decided that she was going to come out of her shell a bit more.  She has started waving and saying hi to everyone, doesn't even matter if you are in a car.  Sometimes it doesn't even matter if anyone is around she just wants to make sure that people feel acknowledge where ever they are.   The other day she had a one baby parade in our neighborhood.  She was on her bike riding down the road and doing a Miss America wave to everyone!

As an extension of that she also feels that is what is yours (regardless of who you are) is hers and of course what is hers is well, hers.  This is most especially true of food.  However, she won't just take food from people.  She works hard to try and get them to give it to her.  Sometimes this is done charmingly.  Such as smiling and asking with a gesture.  Other times it is down right begging.  Her social skills are pretty interesting.  Ever since she was very young she would laugh to get people's attention, very cute.

Anna is very affectionate and cuddly, well toward me.  She doesn't really cuddle with Drew unless she is super tired or sick or upset or scared.  However, she used her social skills the other evening as he was putting her to sleep.  We usually stay in her room until she is close to being asleep or has fallen asleep.  When I put her to bed she cuddles with me and falls asleep.  When Drew puts her to bed he is not allowed in her bed most of the time or really to even  touch her much.  So sometimes he ends up surfing the internet on his phone while she is falling asleep.  The other night he was pleasantly surprised when she came and cuddled up with him.  She lay her head on his chest and then with a coy little grin peaked over at his phone to see what was going.    Drew caught on right away and put her right back down, but you have to admire a girl for trying.

Along with all this has come a fierce independence and a load of opinions.  Anna needed a new pair of shoes last week.  So, we set out shopping.   When I realized that places charge 25-30 pounds for a pair of baby shoes!!!!  Well, I was hardly going to pay more for her shoes than I would for my own.  But, I learned something as we went shopping.  Anna has strong opinions.  There were some shoes she refused to try on.  If I insisted she would resist and refuse to step down on the ground.  Then there were other shoes that she LOVED, laughed when she saw them.  Once they were on she watched herself in the mirror and jumped and danced around.  Drew brought her a few pairs home from the thrift shop, those were promptly thrown and forgotten.  I ended up find a pair at a local grocery store (the big ones sell clothes too) for only 6 pounds.  She didn't love them, screamed when I put them on her, but, once she saw them in the mirror she was happy with them.  I didn't expect a 14 month old to have some many opinions!

Finally, Anna has  fiercely independent and I would add determined.  If she sees something she wants don't try to take it from her or you will suffer a complete melt down.  For example, we were doing some ironing and she got a hold of one of her hangers.    I didn't like her having it, but we watched her closely with it.   She even insisted on sleeping with it, we got it back in the middle of the night as she was still clutching it in her hands after she had fallen asleep, sheesh!  Another example is food, some people say never wake a sleeping baby.  I might add, never try to take food from a 1 year old.  On Saturday we were at an activity where they had ice cream on sticks.  I got one that I was so kindly going to share with Anna or in her eyes (see her feelings on possessions above)  she had ice cream that she was not going to share with me.  I was able to get about 3 bites with screaming, she ate the rest, after eating pizza!

It is a winner!

A few years ago my sister in Law came up with a system of for rating toys called joy units.  She used this in terms of Christmas but it can be applied all year long for a full discussion of Joy units please see the following link: http://parentingfrontline.blogspot.com/2007/12/grinch-lives-here.html The reason I bring it up is because this week we scored  BIG with joy units.  I had taken Anna to a local indoor adventure play place called "Winkies" it is a really fun thing to do inside on a rainy day.  Cheaper than the pool and for Anna she can stay as long as she wants for under 3 pounds.  Once we got to Winkies she seemed very unsure of the whole place, we went right when they opened.  It looked alright nothing too impressive, but after about 10 minutes Anna was hooked!  She had such a great time!  She loved the climbing and the slides and the ball pits, but her favorite thing was the little cars that you can get inside and "drive" (really be pushed by yours truly), she stayed in there for at least an hour ~ no joke.  When I finally decided to leave at lunch time after 2 hours of being there, she was not happy at all.  She was pretty easily distracted and fell asleep in the 5 minute drive home, slept for about 3 hours! I didn't get any pictures at Winkies but we went to another indoor adventure place (Kidzplay) and here are some pictures from there:

[flv:http://teammudgett.net/blog/media/video/ropesatobstaclecourse.AVI.FLV 320 240] Earlier in the week we had gone to an animal farm.  She is not too keen on the animals themselves but she loved the baby ride on tractors and cars, again not wanting to get off. This is the bravest she has been with animals to date: [flv:http://teammudgett.net/blog/media/video/withbabybunny.AVI.FLV 320 240]   Here are some videos from the indoor play area at the farm [flv:http://teammudgett.net/blog/media/video/obstaclesandslideatfarm.AVI.FLV 320 240] [flv:http://teammudgett.net/blog/media/video/excitedtogodownslide.AVI.FLV 320 240] So, after these two experiences I got to thinking that she would probably really love to have a little car herself.  I try not to buy her too many toys (as we already have quite a few, not much room, and for many other reasons).  But, I decided to check on Ebay and see what I could come up with.  I found a great little 4 wheeler with a parent handle (so I can push without leaning over).  It was located in york just 30 minutes away.  I decided to place a bid, we won it for just under 7 pounds  or two trips to Winkies!  Well, when we picked it up (Sat morning), we let Anna go for a ride around the neighborhood where we bought it.  She cried when she got off and we had to put it in the trunk.  Then we went off to the National Railway Museam, which is kind of like the new air and space museum near Dulles airport, only for trains of course.  Neither Drew nor I are very interested in trains but it was still a really neat museum.  It has all kinds of trains.  They even had a story time, which Anna learned some motions from and loves doing now.  Then there was the miniature train ride which was a blast as well.  All the while, Anna was able to ride around the museum with her new wheels.  We all had a great day. When we got home, Drew needed a nap after a long week, Anna was too excited to nap.  So,  Anna and I played downstairs.  What did she do you might ask?  She climbed onto and off of her new car and moved different parts around for 3 hours!!!  Then we took it for a spin outside to the neighbors house, who invited us in, but Anna was not about to get off of her bike merely to visit a friend. [flv:http://teammudgett.net/blog/media/video/onhernewcar.AVI.FLV 320 240] [flv:http://teammudgett.net/blog/media/video/gettingonandoffbike.AVI.FLV 320 240] On Sunday we had much more of the same completely in love with her bike.  So I would say this bike has been worth at least 50 joy units for less than 7 pounds!  Great deal if I do say so myself.

The Eyes Have It and the BIG W

We have had several new developments in this past few weeks.
First off Anna is now in her own big girl bed (really just a mattress on her floor).   She loves it though and sleeps like a doll. This was all part of the big "W" process. That's right as of last night Anna is officially weaned!!! We have been working toward this for a few months, dropping feedings here and there. She was down to nursing once a day, that was at about 2 am. We were going to stop that next week, when Drew is finished with his finals. Then 2 nights ago Anna just slept through the night! It was great. Last night she woke up and I went in and all she wanted me to do was give her a little back rub for a minute. It was great! I think she will be done with her night wakings in the next few months as well.
As for the Eyes, there are three things that have to do with eyes that having been happening for us lately. The first is that Anna's new favorite game (it is actually about a month old, and she isn't as interested in it now) is called blind walking. She likes to put purses, dish rags, shirts, you name it, over her eyes and walk around. Then she gets really unhappy when she crashes into the wall (what was she expecting?). The next big development is that she had her MMR last week and is now covered in spots. It has to do with her eyes because the spots on her face have become rather plentiful and are now almost underlining her eyes. So, we had to post pone family pictures (that were scheduled for Friday) again. They have been postponed for one reason or another by the photographer several times. Now when we were all set, we had to postpone it - go figure!

The Third and final Eye related event is a BIG one. Anna said her first word other than mama and dada! It was facilitated by moving into her own room on her own bed, because when she is going to bed I lay down next to her and she tends to poke me in the eye. Then last week I kept saying "eye" every time she did it, and she said it back. She says it with quite an accent most times (I can usually get her to try a few times and she will say it correctly) but it is very exciting!

Bonjour!

Our Trip to Paris

We Arrived Friday night last week pretty late.  We stayed at a 4 star hotel I booked through price line and it was AWESOME!  We were on the 23rd floor with a view of the Eiffel tower and the arc de triumph.  The room was very nice as well.


This is the View from our room


Here is Anna ready to start our trip!




  On Saturday, we spent some time relaxing walked around the mall that was connected to our hotel (the metro was also connected to our hotel as well!)  We grabbed some breakfast and headed into town.  We went to Notre Dam and the Sacre Cœur  I loved the Sacre Cœur one the most.  It was beautiful.  Anna walked at least 3/4 of the way up herself (with a little help for balance).


Notre Dam





The stairs



Anna walking to the top!



On Sunday we went to church and then headed to the grounds outside of the Louvre to see the tour.  We had to wait quite a while but Anna made everyone's wait very enjoyable.  She had a ton of admirers and was acting rather adorable, (like usual) because of it.  The riders came into town and passed so quickly!  Then we walked to down to another part of the course and got to see them pass about 5 more times (if you don't know they ride around the Louvre and the arc de triumph 9 times, so it’s a nice place to see everything because they keep passing buy.  Lance Armstrong came in 3rd and his team captain Contador came in 1st.  A Brit won the stage for the day, so people here are pretty happy about that.  After the Tour we walked around for a bit and then headed back to the hotel. 

On the way to church

A little picnic after church

Waiting for the tour

The Tour

End the long day with the BEST bath EVER!

On Monday we went shopping at a French version of walmart and bought loads of supplies. We were out shopping for a long time and I had the feeling that we should go to the Louvre before shopping, but we stuck with our original plan. 
Ready to go shopping! Show me the toys!

The Grand Arch near the shopping center

Lunch after shopping

We didn't get back to the hotel until about 4:00 and then decided to just wait on the Louvre  At about 4:40 I remembered that the Louvre was closed on Tuesdays!  So we got ready again and rushed down town to get to the Louvre at 5:30 in time to rush to the Mona Lisa and appreciate the art as we ran by.  We didn't get to see much.

ANOTHER TRAIN RIDE! Our dash to the Louvre

The Mona Lisa

We tried to get over to the Egyptian exhibit they let me in then, closed it on Drew, so I turned around and did the noble thing and stayed with my family. 

Our picture outside the Egyptiain Exhibit, a blur just like the whole ordeal!
But, hey, we are going to see the real thing in January so, no big deal, we will make sure to get better pictures then!

Anna fell asleep the second we got to the museum and woke up in the gift shop on our way out. 
Anna still sleeping!

When we left the Louvre is when we went to get hot chocolate at Angelina's. Which is world famous (apparently) the best Hot Chocolate I've ever had. They make it from Cocao from all over the world. 6 euro a cup, but totally worth it! 


Then we rode on the ferris wheel over looking the Louvre it was pretty neat. Much more relaxing than rushing to the Louvre.



  We walked around for a bit and then Drew asked what I thought about heading walking to the arc de triumph.  My feet were completely sore, so of course I said yes. 

We stopped for a crepe along the way, it turned out to be more of Anna's crepe, but we each got 2 bites. It was an applesauce filled and delicious!



It is quite a hike!  But we made it down there and went to the top, I felt very triumphant. 


Dancing on the way into the Arc

arch-fall


arch-nofall



On top of the Arc


arch-top

I ended up falling and hurting my ankle at coming out of the toilet at the top the the arch, so I was kind of limping the whole way back to the hotel.  I knew it wasn't a bad injury and the next morning it felt fine again (I was so lucky!). 

Our last day there we went to the Eiffel Tower. 
Its not as big as you might think (J/K)

Wow that takes forever!  Anna was not happy by the time we finally went up, but she did settle down for the view which she enjoyed. 
The family at the top!

Of course the first thing she tried to do was to hang her feed through the bars.  The bars are just far enough apart that she could slip through them if she did it just right so she was not happy when I wouldn't let her do that.  After the tower we headed on a cruise down the seine. 


But Anna had a lot of fun running through the chairs, we stayed on the inside of the boat because is was a bit too sunny and hot above deck for us, we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves (except for a little spanish boy that Anna loved playing with!)


We were pretty wasted and hungry by this point, but I didn't want to get food near the Eiffel tower figuring it would be very expensive.  Our last stop of the day the the Jardin de Luxembourg.  So we got on a train and headed down there.  Apparent we got on the wrong train, so at the next stop we switched.  The train we got on the second time turned out to be an express train that also didn't stop at our stop but instead took us a half hour outside of Paris!  Then we got off the find the correct train, the platform said the train we were on was the correct train, he asked a man who had stayed on it.  The man showed him his badge (he worked for the trains) we asked him if it went to the our stop and he made a phone call and said yes it does.  Then people outside of the train convinced us he was wrong and that we were on the wrong platform etc.  So, we ended up getting off the train, then a lady ran up to us and said no, it is the right train, so we got back on it again!  We should have just trusted the man, because it took us right to our stop.  We found the first place that was opened and sat down for our big meal!  It was delicious! 


Then we walked around the gardens which were beautiful. 


We watched some people play some kind of game where you throw balls at another ball.  It was interesting.  I wanted to buy a few pictures of the Sacre Coeur so we ran down to Notre Dam because there were a lot of gift shops there.  They all had pictures of tons of other places but none of that one!  On the way there, we saw this shop and thought you might enjoy it,
Middle of Paris, who knew how popular the Redskins were!

I was pretty disappointed that we couldn't find the picture.  It was 8:30 by this point and many of the shops were closing.  So, Drew said that we could go back to the Sacre Coeur and see if the shops there were opened.  We rushed over there and much to my delight they were!  We were able to get the pictures and a shirt for me and one for Boca (Anna).  We also got to see them close the church for the night.  We had made it that close!  Then we walked down to the metro which was really crowded because they had just closed the church grounds.  We got some delicious ice cream and waited for a few trains to pass.  I was SOOOO happy that we were able to do everything we wanted to do on our trip! 


Anna decided to relax and catch up on a bit of reading after our adventures.


We took a cab to the Eurostar the next morning, which proved to be a much better way to travel than the airplane at least for Anna.  Much less of a hassle and much more to look at.  It is a really nice train.  Anna did great on the trip.  She lost it when we got on the train from Leeds to Harrogate.  Which is when we broke out the big guns and gave her  a lolly pop.  I had one two.  She lost it again when she decided she wanted to have two, we wouldn't let her, we are only so nice.  Your mom picked us and the train station.  And that was that!  We got Anna a cute little French hat and scarf so she is pretty stylin.  you would be proud.

Officially a Toddler

I would Say that Saturday, Anna officially became a toddler.  It happened on the way to the park.  Anna decided she didn't need to hold onto fingers as she has need to in the past



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When we got to the park she wanted to go straight onto the big swings!

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When she was on them she wanted to pump her legs like the other kids, but we wouldn't let her

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Even though she likes the big swings she still enjoys the baby swings sometimes too, although in this clip she is "finished"

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She also has an amazing ability to hang. She can beat both Drew and I. She is really strong, don't worry, when she drops, she isn't even upset. She is tough!

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Here she is crawling through a tube

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Here she is going down the slide right after she went through the tube

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Daddy is holding her and spining on the "mushroom"

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She is having a go on the seesaw

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Riding on daddy's shoulders on the way home!

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She really is such a big girl!

Our Anniversary

Our anniversary was a fabulous day!  We started off the day with a huge breakfast (made by Drew).



Then we went as a family to Anna's baby signing class and then to buy Anna some new shoes for our later outing.



Anna decided to help out by pushing her stroller as we walked through town



Then we headed home so Anna could take a nap before we headed out again.  After her nap, we went to Brimham Rocks, we had not been there since last year when Anna was just a couple of months old.



Anna has become more adventurous since that time, she did some climbing while were there.













Daddy also did some climbing while we were there.



We also enjoyed a picnic while we were at Brimham rocks.  After Brimham rocks, we came home and visited the park.  Then we went off back into town for a stroll through Valley Gardens.  Then we went to Betty's Tea Room for a light dinner.





Finally, we went home, Anna went to bed and Drew and I celebrated the rest of our Anniversary with some sparkling juice, and a love letter Kim wrote for Drew.