The ER Visit RANT -part 1

I began this post a couple weeks ago. Let me post it as it was and then at the end I will update you with more in part 2.

Last night we were having dinner in the living room because we had not set up the dining room table. We were all eating around a small table I had decided to use as a coffee table... mainly because I thought it would be safer for our newly cruising Gus. Gus was standing at the table with his new clean canteen cup kind of throwing it around, participating in the dinner by making all of us grab our food and hold it in our laps. He kind of started to rock and then boom! Before I could figure out what happened he was on the ground crying table on top of him and his head on top of the table... I still do not really know what happened. My dad after surveying the table decided it is top heavy and probably not good to let him cruise at it... geesh, really?

Vyk grabbed the screaming baby boy and scooped him up in the way only a daddy can to care for him. As he did I saw blood... and quite a bit. I yelled "there is blood" as I followed him to the bathroom. He ran water on his finger which by now we had determined was hurt. I looked down as he worked and saw his finger cut very deeply as the blood ran down the drain. I said "Vyk, we have to go to the hospital... while I grab clothes think of what hospital we are going to and how we need to get there."
We jumped in the car and were off. Astrid was so upset so I calmed her as we drove... Gus was already pretty calm and had stopped crying.

Vyk decided to go to Texas Children's Hospital. A good choice since we live close to the med center and it is a good hospital. Also, he spent a week in the NICU there so they should have our insurance info, etc... making it simpler.
When we arrived we saw a short line at check in and it did not seem to bad. We waited 30 minutes as his bandage became soaked with blood and I became more and more anxious. Around us were children in every state of sick you can imagine. Mostly coughing, wheezing, clinging to mom, and even throwing up. We were the only person there that looked like we belonged in an ER vs a doctors office. BUT, there were 100's of people waiting. I was struck by how many of the moms I talked to were complacent and compliant with the "process" many explained it to me... in a "Oh honey, sit down.. you are going to be here a while" way... "I have doen this many times.. it takes a while"...

Many children were far sicker then Gus. Many needed to have breathing treatments while they waited. Some were waiting to be admitted to the hospital... Apparently when there are not enough beds this is the only way to get in! REALLY?

It took us hmm 2-3 hrs to be seen... and get a gauze bandage on Gus' finger (which he pulled off shortly afterward)... then it took him another 2-3 hours to be X rayed. At some point we decided to ask if we should go home and make an appointment for the morning... to which we were told "Oh no. He will need care tonight... there is a 8 hr window to suture his finger!"
Then as 8 hrs came and went... they said it was a 8-10 hr window. We were in the ER for about 11-12 hours... give or take drive, park, maybe I am remembering the minutes wrong. Seriously 12 hours. And while we waited we all were with very sick children coughing, throwing up, etc around us.

I am not sure... maybe I am completely wrong in my assessment... but it seemed to me that this was inadequite care. I could not believe (in my apparent naivety) that this was the best we can do as a country to care for our children! Let me remind you of a few facts... this is Texas Children's Hospital... not Ben Taub... this one of THE BEST hospitals esp for children in the country! Also, not that it should matter... but we are insured.. and just for the sake of the record we have excellent insurance.

If I could do it all over again... I think I might have tried driving a bit further into the suburbs to the hospital where I had Astrid... I am not sure it would have been better... but I am pretty sure. I might have even found one of those 24 hour clinics just to go ahead and get it bandaged, x rayed and sutured. I know that the person who sutured him (while I feel fine about the job she did) was not any better then someone there... she was a resedent and had to have someone come and walk her through it. It was obviously her first time removing a finger nail and reattaching it on a tiny finger. Even the shot to numb the finger she had to be walked through... so yeah... I am not sure the care would have been worse.

Then, to add insult to injury... my baby who has had nothing but food in his body... no immunizatons, no antibiotics... they perscribed an antibiotic for. When I questioned them... they said "He has been sitting in a waiting room with an open wound for 12 hours... with sick people... he needs an antibiotic." REALLY!

Yeah, so I ask again... Is this the best we can do? As a country? To care for our children?
And I am not so naive that I do not understand that we are lucky! We are lucky for the care (however sub standard it seemed) that we received.
It was very obvious to me that the system... our health care system in this country is not OK. IT is very sick! And that the backlog in ERs across the country (even in good hospitals) is a product of this. It means that NO ONE gets adiquite care. It means that esp the least of these among us get horrific care in a country that has all of the resources available to it...

Flat Living (the reality edition)

OK so it is not in theory any more.
Astrid is in school 2nd week. She is loving it. We have moved MOST everything from the old house. We have had a garage sale, have listings on craigslist (fridge, baby swing, dryer anyone?). We are walking every morning instead of driving, we are buying only what is in the budget, we are on our way.

This past week was a bit of a bump in the budgeting road. And both of us feel like big losers because of it. We just spent too much on eating out with all of the moving and not really being unpacked in the kitchen. But really, overall... we are now budgeting machines! It is so much easier when it is not overwhelming! I create the spreadsheet and make sure the money envelopes are all filled with the right amount, and Vyk is the executer for the most part. We finally figured out our gifting and are using them to our benefit. Kathy plan, Vyk execute.

Overall, I LOVE the new life! I still have lots to work on... it did not put an end to all of our problems... but it did breathe new life into our lives! Flat Living is about living into the beauty of God's plan for our lives... which is actually abundance... it just might look a bit different then what everyone thought "abundance" was supposed to but for us it is beauty! Pure and Simple!

The first night we moved in... Vyk found a book in the attic called "Christ the Leader" by a man named Russell. It appears to be a Catholic book on theology used either to educate lay people or possibly preists. It is dated 1936 (the year the house was built) and has our address plus a name "Elwood Lyons". Pretty cool! Vyk and I have both talked about the sense of peace we have had in the new house. We have been more harmonious and working together better as a team. Vyk has been leading with out "bulldozing" and I have been nurturing without "nagging"... more.
I tend to believe in Maya Angelou's take on words kind of soaking into a place into the walls, the upholstery, etc. But in this case, I am also sure that when you set out to live the way God wants you to live in a place and you let God guide you to the place... you are more than a little likely to find peace waiting for you when you get there. Kind of makes me wonder why we never did it like this before... oh yeah, we thought we had it all figured out :) HA!

New Era

OK I have to catch up the blog.
It has been a busy couple of weeks so here I go on a whirlwind blog session.


First of all... the week of Nov 4, Election day. We literally moved the week of the election. As I drove back and forth from our suburban 4 bedroom in a older area of West Houston to our new home right in the heart of Montrose... I realized that this was not just a new era for the country... but a marked historical moment for the Yeager family. Let me tell you the whole story...

We moved to West Houston/ Katy to help with James days after my mom died. We knew that he would need us and so we moved close enough to him for him to ride his bike over to our apartment. This was in April of 2000. Do you see where I am going with this? I got pregnant, and then Bush won the election... I voted for another candidate who shall remain nameless... but lets just say I knew my vote in Katy would not count so I voted for "someone" who was a long shot but I felt my vote would be at least "seen" voting for him. I was really saddened at the results of the election. I had actually voted against Bush and been heartbroken one time already... When he (as far as I am concerned) unexpectedly stole the Governor race from the beloved Ann Richards! Which by the way was my first election to vote in... so my entire voting life has been spent voting against Bush only to loose. :( Sour grapes! Then I had Astrid in January of 2001, 9 11 happened, and another Bush election... this time seriously heartbreaking because of what I KNEW this election stood to loose. And indeed in those 4 years we did loose all that I had feared and more. During the 2004 election Vyk and I felt like fish out of water in the Katy area... a VERY pro Republican / right wing area of town. It felt like we were alone in our grief.

So, as you can imagine... when I realized that I was moving right as the new president came to office it seemed a bit well timed. I guess you could accuse me of siding with the ruling party... or at least living among them... but I promise that is not the case. I do however feel like our move is timed with the rest of the country and is a predictor of the new climate of America.
All of the sudden themes of this blog are making headlines... becoming free of debt and living on less is a requirement as we learn how our greed has made a gigantic mess of things.

In the larger picture our move mirrors the climate of the country... but from our small perspective... the change the country is seeking is mirroring ours. The rejoicing and sense of hope brought on by this election and this inauguration is mirroring the hope we feel in our new home and as we plan for our major change and flat living.

So, if you did not vote for Obama and you are feeling a sense of loss... feeling afraid because of all the questions this win stirs up for the future of the country... sorry. But, honestly... I have felt that for a very long time and it is about time someone besides me felt it!
Take a short moment and even in your sadness... be a little happy for me and my family. For our hope, change, and joy. Then you can go right back to being bummed.

Schools

The search for THE school/ home/ community/ place for you & your child.
It might seem like that should be an easy task... find a good school district, a home close and community will follow. But if my friends & I are any indication it is not as easy as it should be.
To be fair... I think we want more... more then just the right school... I read this the other day and it seemed to be just what I am trying to express in the changes I have set out to make...

"...to live a life that is always giving itself away and yet is always full.... Beneath all our yearning for whatever glitters brightest in this world lies our yearning for this kind of life...."
Frederick Buechner

For some reason I have at least 3 friends on the quest for the right school... they are all prepaired to do anything or move almost anywhere (the family of my daughter's best friend at her current school is seriously considering Scotland)... just to find a good education for their children.
And I am not one to talk. School rose to the top of our priority list as we realized we were paying tuition and needed to adjust life around school instead of just coping. If traditional public school was not an option... then we needed to work our finances around that.

So as we (and several of our friends) set out to find the right school... several things seems to be motivating factors in the quest. Feel free to add to this list in the comments.

1. Education that is better then public standard US education which is substandard (yeah, I said it... it is a fact. Look at the statistics, our public education system is in as much of a tale spin as our economy).
2. Community where our children can have playmates that are close. Think the kid a couple doors down that loves to hang out everyday. Yeah, I don't know anyone that has that kind of life anymore. Maybe it is just me... or maybe it is not. But, I am hoping to find it in our new home and in our new community. Wish me luck that it will at least be closer.
3. Education that teaches a love of learning. I know I have done this for Astrid so far... I just want to keep it up FOREVER.
4. Education that integrates the arts and projects into learning... no worksheets please!
5. Education that has our children learning at their own pace. Where different learning styles can be embraced. A high achiever, and a beautifuly slow dreamer can both get their needs met.
6. Education that understands the needs of the whole child. That understands that a mind needs some stretching to grow.
7. Education that does not treat children like they are mass animals going through life day in day out. Education with joy and life.
8. Education that goes outside. That explores.
9. Education that encourages the inquisitive nature of children. When I am looking at schools, I can always tell a good teacher by the way the class responds to a visitor. Are they inquisitive, social, polite, and unafraid to ask questions? Good job teach!
10. Animals. I have to add this one, because that was a big factor for Astrid. She loves having animals in her classroom.
11. Parent community. Other parents who do not just drop off their kids and never think about their kids learning, environment, and who do what is needed (in community) to make their kids school the best it can be. From what I hear, at Wilson... I will have about half the parents in this boat and half in the other.

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I am hoping to find all of this... or at least most of it at Wilson Montessori (also known as Wilson Elementary). Public Montessori. YES! I know it will have it's draw backs. I know it might not be like the private education that Astrid and I are used to.

The school is big. That is frightening to a child who has never gone to a school with not much more than 100 kids. But, after visiting the school on Friday Astrid's favorite part was the library. She was like "THEY HAVE A LIBRARY INSIDE the SCHOOL!" "How big is it?" "That is sooo cool!" :)
The art classroom (of course) impressed me. It was floor to ceiling with supplies. It is enough to make this art supply loving girl sing. But, for Astrid (the apple doesn't fall far)... When I asked if she was ready to go... she replied "no, I want to stay and do the project."
The music room impressed Vyk. The teacher had taken the time to cut out pictures of all kinds of different cultural art and faces. Words were cut along with it to make a collage. The instruments were lining the walls... all kinds of fun to be had... it made you want to go in and make some music.
But all 3 of us were impressed by the Science & Math room. Which was like a practical paradise of knowledge just waiting to be explored. Walking sticks, python, crickets (don't tell Astrid... but they were lunch). Books at a child's reach. And Math & Science is integrated into Art & Music. Yes, the teachers talk to each other... I know it is amazing!

And Girl Scouts. I am so excited... because there is a good girl scout troop that meets at the school. I am hoping this is another way to plug into the school and get more of a feeling of community that we were lacking with private education.

And can I say... I am excited to have Astrid in a non exclusive setting. Now, I might want to take this all back when she has to deal with her first really mean kid. But for now... some of what I did not like about a private education... only the upper $ demographic being at the school... will not be a concern.

So, what will all of the parents searching come up with for their children and their education?
Scotland, Austin, private schools all over the city, commutes, magnets, home school, co-ops... on and on. I wish them all luck! I am lucky to know and work with some amazing kids and families! And these kids are lucky to have parents who care so much about how they are learning.