Saturday, October 31, 2009

What a play!

Tonight Jeremy and I headed to Pleasant Grove to see "Wait Until Dark." It is based off of the movie that stars Audrey Hepburn. It was the perfect thing to get us into the spooky spirit of Halloween. A woman I visit teach is in the play and has the lead role of Susy, so we just had to see it. We arrived to the play at 7:15 and it started at 7:30. We went inside and they said it was already sold out for the night. They sold the last tickets at 7:10. We walked out the door totally bummed and an older couple stopped us and the woman asked, "Did they turn you away?" I told her they were sold out. She told us that they had two extra tickets (YAY) that her daughter was supposed to use, but she couldn't make it, so she asked if we wanted to buy them from her. We agreed, but then Jeremy didn't have cash, and I thought I had cash, but my wallet was at home and not in my purse (of course, right?). Jeremy was ready to go run to an ATM, but then the cute old woman said that she trusted us and that we could just mail them a check for the tickets. How sweet?! We thanked them profusely and hurried into the auditorium. We got their address and chatted with the couple until the lights dimmed. They were so kind to us. There are such good and caring people in the world.

And don't worry, the check will go in the mail tomorrow morning! Promise.
Oh and the play was GREAT! Hailey did an amazing job! We both loved it and were very impressed! Now we want to go rent the movie since we haven't seen it for years. If you have never seen it... YOU MUST. It's a classic!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Sunday, October 25, 2009

a little chilly


i went on a walk with this cute boy today.
more fall pictures here.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Guess What?

Today is an important day.
It is the 2nd anniversary of our first kiss.

Jeremy and I have been kissing for two years. Love it!


It all started at this Baskin Robbins 2 years ago. Well, in the parking lot to be more specific.

We had to go visit again for the occasion.

Friday, October 23, 2009

It came!





I received this beauty (on the right) in the mail today.
I am sure a happy girl. I bought it off of Etsy two weeks ago and I had to wait sooooo long for it to arrive. But it finally came! YAY! I love the little camera! It makes me want to go take TONS of pictures of the pretty changing leaves outside. Isn't fall so beautiful! I love all the colors!
Enjoy the beginning of your weekend!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

let me rant

i don't like it when:
jeremy and i meet someone and they only ask about what he is studying and what he is planning on doing in the future. excuse me...isn't my education important? doesn't it matter what i am studying, too? yes... yes it does. i have career plans. i will have kids in the future, but a girl can do more than produce children, she can teach them what she has learned.

we are in a group of people and someone starts talking about golf and
they turn to each guy in the group and ask them if they play. hey... i play golf. i played two seasons for my high school thank you very much. and yes i am a girl, so i may not drive the ball as far... but i bet mine goes right down the middle.

we are talking about mens' bodies and womens' bodies in one of my classes and the teacher said something about how we all understand that
men have better bodies than women. i just had to make a comment. men might be taller and have more muscle mass. but if you don't mind... womens' bodies are so powerful. women have the capacity to nourish and bring a new child into this world. that is priceless and beyond comparison.


i like it when:
we are at an event with couples and
only the men are introducing themselves and their wives (who don't say a word), but when it comes to us, jeremy already knows what i am thinking and doesn't mind when i am the one to announce who we are and what we are doing in life.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

frozen nanners!

our little project for the day...







here is the recipe:
6 tbsp. butter
1 1/2 cups of semi sweet chocolate chips
8 ripe, but not too ripe bananas
8 wooden sticks
nuts, sprinkles, cereal, crushed cookies, whatever you like
peel bananas; insert stick into end of banana. you can either freeze them for an hour or go right into dipping them in the chocolate. (we froze them) melt butter and chocolate together and simmer over low heat stirring until smooth. pour chocolate mixture into a dish and set aside. dip each banana into melted chocolate and coat evenly, then roll in your choice of coatings. (or you can sprinkle it on top) place on a waxed paper lined tray and freeze for about 2 hours. serve them frozen. to store them long term, wrap each one in aluminum foil and put them in the freezer. they keep for weeks. we used recipes from here and here for guidance.
(we doubled the recipe and cut our bananas in half- not the amount of bananas... but we literally cut them in half)
enjoy!

BBQ in the park








It sure was a fun party and on such a beautiful day!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

I wish I was there!

Check this out! It is so cool! I totally wish I was the girl in the purple shirt in the front. You KNOW I would dance my heart out! I totally want to learn this dance... maybe Jeremy will learn it with me. He at least loves the song, so maybe he will be more willing to participate. Or I might have to wait until Christmas and make a music video with Rye. We will see!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

it's getting chilly

and i have a dilemna! yes, this is just that serious...

i don't know what shoes to wear. in the summer i would just throw on my hot pink sandals or my tan gladiator sandals and they would totally make any outfit. now that my little toes are freezing... i don't know what shoes to wear. i feel like every time i try to put on a pair of shoes, i look in the mirror and think, "this outfit would be so much cuter with my pink sandals." it is so sad...

so i need your help.

i really do, so don't be shy.



what shoes do you wear...


when it rains all day?
when it snows for a week?
or when its too cold for cute sandals?

Sunday, October 11, 2009

i love sundays.

i love sleeping in.
i love going to church.
i love ignoring school.
i love writing our missionary.
i love wearing my pjs all day.
i love spending the whole day with jeremy.
i love catching up with my family.
and i love making cookies.


these were delicious, so here is the recipe:
Ghiradelli Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups flour
11 oz. pkg chocolate chips
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Cream butter with sugars, eggs, and vanilla. Blend in flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir in chocolate chips. (eat some cookie dough) Bake for 9 to 11 minutes.
Try them out! I know you have all of the ingredients.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Hop on over...

to One Craft Girl's Corner!

This is where my friend Grace shares all of the cool stuff she makes. Her home is filled with beautiful things she has made. It is a great place to visit to be inspired!

You should definitely go check it out TODAY... and always for that matter

because she is having a giveaway!

and a pair of my earrings are included! yay!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Do you remember...

my self portrait?

The one I took on my birthday?


this one....


Well, the real reason I took it was to enter it into this contest...

I emailed it to Nicole and now my faithful readers can go vote for my picture!

Imagine me saying, "Vote for Katie!" (with an accompanying peace sign).

I know that will win your vote! You have until this Friday at midnight.

am I allowed to vote for myself? i really want to win.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Part 4

Robby's story ends with this...

"I need to do more homework and less blogging. Katie is home. That makes me happy and sad. Happy, because she is safe. Sad, because she added so much to our group and had a passion to do the work with a good attitude."

It can be found here.


I guess I will sum up the rest of the Adventures since Robby had homework.

I ended up having to stay in the Bucharest hospital for 3 days. I was blessed to have visitors with me for most of my time in the hospital. It was either President and Sora Lundberg, Robby, Dr. Hansen, or Dr. Brady. The insurance people kept telling me that they were going to fly me out that night, and that night came and they were going to fly me out the next morning. That morning came and they were going to fly me out that afternoon. It wasn't very fun. While I was in the hospital the Romanian nurses told me that I didn't need to take the shots that Dr. Brady prescribed me, but Dr. Brady told me I still needed to use them. Every morning and every night I would have to limp to the bathroom, dragging my IV pole behind me, hide in there and give myself a shot in my stomach of anticoagulant. Those hurt. My first day in the hospital, after my night of practically no sleep, was the Saturday of the October General Conference. I was missing it! Luckily, I got a weak internet connection and with Robby's help we were able to download a talk or two. One of the talks we downlaoded was "Come What May, and Love It" by Elder Wirthlin. If any of you thought that talk was written for you, I'm sorry, but that talk was written for me. It was just what I needed to renew my faith and hope. It was powerful! After Robby and I were uplifted, we noticed a professional socer game going on outside my hospital window. Robby watched, described it to me, and took pictures so I could see what I was missing. I thought it was pretty cool. My second day I was in the hospital, I finally saw a doctor. He looked at my leg, gave me some compression socks (I really hate compression socks!), and asked if I wanted to go to Vienna. I told him yes and he said he would tell the insurance and hopefully get me flown out of there soon. (It was a very legit procedure.) I was sure that I was going to be leaving that day, but they couldn't fly me out right away. We had to wait for a doctor to come from London and then he would check my records, my leg, my blood, and listen my story and then he would fly with me to Vienna. But he didn't come until the next day. When I came to understand that I would not get to see those kids in the orphanage or hospital again... my heart just broke. I felt like I had just gotten there. Four weeks of my internship in Iasi, Romania was just not enough. Since we knew I wasn't going to back to Iasi, two students from my group, Rhett and Rachel, packed up all of my stuff and took the 5 hour train ride to bring it to me. It was so nice to see more familar faces that morning. I also got a surprise call from Jeremy while I was staring at my breakfast food! He called Robby's cell phone and I got to finally talk to my fiance! It was so nice to hear his voice. I didn't get to talk to Jeremy for very long because some nurses came in and started yelling at me and rearranging the way my leg was propped up, so I told Jeremy that I had to go. I was so mad at that point. I was "eating" breakfast and I was on the phone and the nurses just didn't care. The nurses also kicked out my friends because there were too many people in the room. It was sad. I had to say good-bye to them and tell them to take good care of the kids that I had grown to love. Hugs were shared, tears were shed, and they were on their way back to Iasi. I think it was around noon when the doctor from London showed up. When he checked my blood he said that I had too much anticoagulant in my system and that I would have to wait another day to fly if the levels didn't come down that afternoon. I prayed so hard that my next blood tests would come back with the results I needed. Luckily, the next PTINR test was just under the number the doctor had said. YES! I was going to Vienna. But not right away because we had to make special travel arrangements for me to fly. My mom at this point had already arrived in Vienna and was waiting for me there. I had been laying in a bed for three days in the same clothes and I was determined to get up and shower before I flew. Robby told the nurses that I wanted to shower, I just wasn't that fluent in Romanian. After trying to tell the nurses over and over that I could shower by myself, I just gave up. There was a nurse about my age that helped me shower. That was super awkward. I swear the last time that I was naked in front of someone was when I was like 5. She held the water above my head while I lathered and rinsed my hair and body. I was grateful to be clean at the end of it all. I worked slowly on packing up my stuff to prepare to go to Vienna. I wasn't very mobile, but I wanted to organize my things. President and Sora Lundberg and their son came to visit me and say good-bye. They were such an incredible positive influence. Eventually the time came when the London doctor came back and assured me we were really going to leave and that the travel plans were all set. I couldn't believe it! The nurses wheeled me down the hall, into the scary elevator, and out to the ambulance. They even left the needle in my hand (ouch) for the IV- thanks guys. The next I know I am strapped on the stretcher in the ambulance and had to just grab Robby's hand and tell him good-bye. It all went by too quick. I didn't feel like I got to express how grateful I was for everything he did for me. So here you go Robby!

To Robby-

Thank you for helping through, hands down, one of the toughest times in my life. Thank you for humoring me by taking pictures of every thing that happened. Thank you for letting me talk to my family and fiance on your cell phone. Thank you for eating my gross hospital food so the nurses would think that I was eating. Thank you for telling the nurses that I wanted to take a shower after being in bed for three days. Thank you for letting me cry when I just couldn't take it anymore. Thank you for telling me that everything was going to be ok.

I was in need and you were willing to serve. I will be forever grateful to you!


-Katie

After we got to the airport, the London doctor took care of everything and just wheeled me around in my wheelchair. We were lucky enough to be given access to the business lounge! It was abounding in goodies- chocolate, chips, soda, pretzels, all sorts of stuff. Here is my post from the lounge. The plane ride luckily was uneventful. I sat at the back and used an empty chair to prop my leg up on. All the passengers watched me as I limped to the back of the plane with the help of an attendant and an big needle in the back of my hand. They were probably so curious. The doctor sat next to me and took my vitals every once in a while during the flight to make sure I wasn't about to keel over. We made it to Vienna and a stretcher and ambulance was waiting for me when I arrived. Great. haha! Well we made it to the hospital quick because they had the lights going. I had gone from everybody speaking Romanian around me, which I kind of knew, to having everybody speaking German! All I knew in German was thank you. Haha. I made it to the hospital and was so happy to see my mom. It was so wonderful! The London doctor gave my Vienna doctor the records and they talked for a bit and then he took of (back to London I assumed). We pretty much blogged religiously from there on out because we had continuous internet connection and not much to do since the nurses wouldn't allow me to leave my bed. So you can read about our time in Vienna by looking through these posts.

Well thanks for reading about my Blood Clot Adventures. I think this was more for me so I could make sure the experience was down in writing.

Have a wonderful day and continue to be grateful for all you and I have been blessed with!


P.S. Wasn't General Conference just great!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Part 3

Getting Katie to Vienna Part 3

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 I 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.

Original post here.

The story will finish up tomorrow!

Friday, October 2, 2009

Part 2

more of robby's words:

Getting Katie to Vienna part 2

Joseph Smith said something about starting right that I can't exactly remember. That was our big problem at Floreasca. I think we went in the wrong entrance and were looking for the wrong place. Find the Ecografie room and ask for an ecografie dopler. Easy enough right? We walked in and followed the sign to a dead end hallway and they all said it was closed. So we made our way to the emergency room. We stood outside for a minute and then realized we just need to walk in. A lady told us to go to the place that we had just gotten back from. I told her we were already there. She walked down with us to make sure and see if someone would let us in. She joked a little about Katie's limp and kind of urged her to go faster. We didn't really think it was funny. There was no one there. This person told us to go back to the Emergency room. So we did. They told us to get paperwork, so we did. They checked her vital signs and drew blood. I asked if they were doing a PTINR. They said no. I stabbed a bit with broken romanian but then I let them go ahead. They took the blood. They made an attempt at bedside manner. Smile, I said to Katie as they drew the needle, the nurse and I chuckled a little to ease the tension and then I translated. "Look, american blood!" the nurse mused to her colleagues. I told her to be careful, because it was precious. She probably thought I meant expensive though (it's the same word). If I would have done it again I would have said, "Hey look, it's red! What color is yours?" But I'm neither Ghandi nor Martin Luther King. I was also beginning to feel the angry guard dog emerge from me. That probably doesn't seem like me too often, but you don't eff with my interns... They are ineffable.

Eventually we got pointed to the radar... er ultrasound. I had to wait outside, but they spoke english so I felt a little better about her going with them. I sat for a minute and answered a few calls. There were phone calls going on between all of these events between me and either 1) Matt Brady, our doctor/vindicator of medical justice, 2) Sora Lundberg, our surrogate mother, and 3) Katie's real mother or father, duly distressed. I also started noticing the people around me. This is a difficult one for me to venture towards, because I can trivialize our experience or theirs. Ours is a shock, because it was deathly serious and the care was not particularly trustworthy (we were warned of this by Dr. Brady, and it was confirmed through some of our experience). The hard stuff to see on their side was the fact that if they didn't have money some things they needed would never be done. This was the best hospital in the entire city. Beyond reruns of ER and scrubs, this is the best they got. It was a hospital, but for some reason seemed a little more grave. Back to me: I came to a realization on a call with Dr. Hanson that there was pretty much no chance that we would make our train back. I was OK with that. I guess that's when we were introduced to Sora Lundberg (Sora means sister; she's the mission president's wife here).

She seemed a little overwhelmed by our request for some help finding a place to stay for a few days. I would find out later that their car was broken into a couple days before and that they frequently had missionaries in and out for health problems. Sora Lundberg is an amazing woman. She had been to Romania about 25 times for a couple days or weeks each time in the process of adopting their son Joshua (formerly Marian) from Barlad. It took 3 years and the starting of an NGO to place him in their family. Her NGO is called Bridge of Love. I recognized the organization, which was fun, I think I e-mailed her for help with Alex a couple years ago. Her story is incredible and she understood the pain and joy of loving these kids, which was a breath of fresh air for me.

We got the results from her test and this is where things began to change. I read the concluzie. I didn't need to be fluent in romanian or have a medical license to see that it said she had a big problem by the words intinsiv and thrombo in there. Well I had a doctor help me with that one before. We called Doctor Brady and he told us to go get the perscription filled. We would have gotten away too, but we thought we had to pay. We showed the results to the nurses. Everyone stopped joking around after that. They looked over it and told her to go to the emergency room emergency room across from the room we were in (the check you out and stuff emergency room). She got pulled into the room and it seemed like nobody really knew what to do with her, which kind of set me into let's get the f out of here mode. They eventually put her on a stretcher in a spot in the room and I was like showing people the prescription and I was like OK so are you going to give her this and they were like no, we don't have it. I told them we can go to the pharmacie and buy it and give it to her and that we don't need the hospital. They didn't really listen too hard. Then I was concerned, because the beuracracy smell was coming through. I stood next to her as one of the doctors asked her questions and then he told me I had to go sit beyond a curtain away from them. I couldn't hear, but I kept looking and Katie's body language and voice tone implied that she was resisting which relieved me. I don't know why, but the entire experience was comparable to being arrested and detained for several nights, although let's not get ahead of ourselves. When finally, after sitting for awhile and anxiety building sufficiently I lost my patience, I started making some noise. I didn't see that doctor which was good because then I wasn't worried at all about offending him. I started saying "Nu vrem sa asteptam, vrem- sa- PLECAM!" as if I was talking to a disobedient 5 year old (which is the demographic I'm most comfortable speaking to in romanian). Oh yeah that means, "We don't want to wait, we want- to- LEAVE!"

The doctor got defensive at that point and said OK, she has a blood clot, every step she takes puts her at risk for the clot to break off and move into her lung. We need to keep her here; she could die. This is nothing to smile about. This is nothing to laugh about. This is nothing to shout about (which he said as he looked at me). We were in the process of signing a paper in which we were instructed to write: I understand the risks of leaving this hospital. Doctors kept telling her more things to write afterwards which she scrawled quickly and haphazardly as additions and afterthoughts. Of my own will. Including the risk of death. "Any thing else?" we asked. This may have been where the laughing and smiling lecture came in, "Who was laughing when she led us to the radar and took her Sangele Americane?" I thought, but held my tongue. Then we left.

We asked some nurses where to pay. They told us it was free. We figured it was probably because they thought we were crazy for leaving the hospital. We walked to the Pharmacie. I kept hearing, "break off into the lung," in my head and saw a 3D animation from an episode of HOUSE. Too much walking. We went to 3 pharmacies before we found the medicine we needed. We took a half hour taxi back to the clinic.

I felt like we just outran the cops. I can't really emphasize enough how difficult it seemed to get in, get what we needed done and get out of there. We'll come back to the hospital in a later post though.

Katie got a crash course in the administration of the Romanian version of Lovenox, a blood thinner[meaning I had to learn to give myself shots in the stomach... yuck!]. Dr. Brady sobered us a little bit with the gravity of the situation. We were aware of the gravity, but sometimes we have to keep the laughing going. Sometimes I think we take pictures and document things to distance ourselves from the reality of the situation, by becoming spectators in our own lives. I'm starting to get epic thoughts like a stoner so it's probably getting late. We'll come back to this one.

See his original post here.

Blood Clot Adventures will return tomorrow!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

In Robby's Words...

Exactly 1 year a go today, I was diagnosed with my blood clot. (so happy 1 year anniversary to me! I guess.) Robby was our field facilitator over in Romania and was with me for almost every part of the Blood Clot Adventures in Romania. He wrote on his blog, in great detail, about the whole experience. I thought it would be interesting to revisit his account. Since the posts are so long, I will be posting one a day until Sunday. Hope your okay with it Robby.

Robby's words...

Getting Katie to Vienna Part 1

It's been a stressful couple days. We didn't really take things seriously until we got here and it's been a difficult process. I got to be a real facilitator for a couple days I guess.

Katie's been complaining about her leg for awhile now. I feel bad that I haven't been more understanding in the past couple weeks; that I hadn't probed more. It took her parents calling me to realize that it was serious. On a leisurely walk to the orphanage is when things started for me. I guess it's been going for awhile for her with pain that no one besides Jesus really knows. Her mom called and told me to get her some medical attention, because there was talk from her doctor that she may have a blood clot. I came in to language a little late and asked Mario to see what I should do first to get medical examinations. She told me I should bring her in to see Dr. Pantezescu, the resident doctor at the orphanage. Dr. Pantezescu had Sera, the physical therapist look at her and he began giving her a massage which only made her hurt worse. He prescribed some lotion and aspirin (bad diagnosis #1). I spoke with Mario briefly and she seemed confident that it was nothing to worry about. Katie on the other hand was emotionally and physically hanging by a nerve. She tries to put on a happy face as much as possible, but every once in awhile she let out what was really going on. I think she was mostly frustrated that no one took it as seriously as it really was. After I sent her home in a taxi, I decided to go back and talk to Dr. Pantezescu. She didn't understand what I was trying to ask her about some medication Katie hadn't told me about until after we were outside. I remembered another Holly-ism or maybe Ashley said it, but I could hear someone's wiser than me voice say something to the effect of, "Cultural sensitivity is fine, but don't worry about stepping on people's toes when your personal safety or health is concerned." I was skeptical that it was a blood clot and I was easily appeased by the naysayers. We planned a trip to Bucuresti though. I went and bought train tickets and we were on a train by 5:30 the next morning with 7 hours planned before our return trip. Plenty of time I thought for the tests to come back negative and for us to get some medication or at least reassurance and come home.

Some of the time was an adventure. Some was mundane. Some was just waiting. Some was us laughing to make the situation seem less than too real.

We got in at 11:30 and I made her get shwarma, because I thought she was hungry and might really enjoy it (because it's like heaven in a burrito), but I think it just made her mad, because we had to walk a bit and it hurt her a lot to walk. Like she had a friggin' bloodclot, man! If she's reading this, I'm really sorry about that. [haha! I was so mad, but it's okay... the shwarma really was good!]

We took a taxi to Dr. Hansen's clinic in Sector 5 I think it was could be wrong. It was a long taxi ride (close to a half hour). They had a hard time finding the place. We saw a bunch of clinics on the side of the road that were built into old blocks. We thought it was most likely one of those. The taxi driver was pretty much ready to drop us off anywhere considering his job mostly done having gotten us into the general vicinity. We finally saw a little gated side street amongst some dirty auto shops and across the street from a couple clinics. When we pulled in and saw this...
...I was pretty sure we were in the right place.

A Dr. Brady who was finishing his residency at Iowa state and who once served a mission out here (96-98) was working as an intern with Dr. Hanson. He was young, tough, and well trained in modern medicine. He was an angel while we were crying frightened, river, dark, drowning.

He did some blood tests, but with a visual feeling and questioning, he said something to the effect of, "My money's on a clot." But to make sure we went to Floreasca [the hospital, pictured below] to get an ultrasound (which was the main reason we were in Bucuresti). He also sent us with a prescription for just in case things came out positive.

The quest for an ultrasound is another story completely and so I'll separate these and continue typing the story in another post.


See Robby's original post here.

The Blood Clot Adventures will continue tomorrow.