Friday Fave Five

First, a preface.

My mom is in Japan visiting my brother. I knew she was supposed to go, but she was also supposed to go to China while out there for a business trip but the Chinese government kept denying her Visa, so I never heard that she was really going until he announced on our family website that she was there. Anyway, she has more medication allergies than I do, and she has bad reactions to multiple general and local anesthetics. In fact, several years ago, a doctor injected a local into her finger and KILLED that part of her finger. It looks a little wonky now, but at least she didn't have to have it amputated. She tripped and fell while going into his apartment building, struck her head, and had to go to the hospital via ambulance to get stitched up. My brother took very good care of her and made sure the EMS dudes didn't give her any medications because she's allergic to everything. lol. Mom says they were very polite, although one seemed convinced that if he spoke loud enough, she'd understand Japanese. Well, no, little brother speaks it fluently, but mom might know "Konichiwa." (I might be exaggerating there a bit; she probably knows a few words more than that.)

The person checking her in said, "No insurance? This is going to be very expensive." Japan has national healthcare, so this doesn't happen all that often.

After multiple discussions about what she's allergic to and what the best course of action would be, with the doctor freaking out when he saw the allergy list and asking if he should stitch her up with no pain medication, they decided to Steri-Strip her wound, applied her own Polysporin (the only brand of antibiotic ointment she can use; she bought a new tube for the trip), and sent her on her way, with instructions to come back for a CT if she started puking. (Note: She's fine, no puking, and this happened a couple of days ago.)

She went to pay the bill. The "very expensive" ER visit AND ambulance run? $50 american. (something like 5500 yen).

Hello. They don't have gun violence there (no handguns at all) and awesome medical care? Let's all move there! (just kidding; and I'm not anti-guns, so don't get after me about that either)

So, for the fave five ... drumroll ...

1. Little Brother, for taking such good care of Mom even if his apartment did break her.

2. Japanese healthcare and cautious doctors.

3. Lactation boosting cookies. They have brewer's yeast, oats, flax meal, and some other stuff in them ... And they taste good and my milk is apparently sweeter. He's nursing more. Woohoo.

4. My job. I know I alternately complain and rave about it, but I really do like this company and how awesome they are to work with. "I have a sick baby, flexing my hours today." No problem. "I need to change my schedule permanently." No problem. Any time I ask for anything or say anything, it's taken care of without delay, and without making me feel uber guilty for it. Now, last week sometime they downloaded something to my computer and broke it, but they did fix it the next morning. It was a tad frustrating since I couldn't work until they did, but it got taken care of and they didn't mind that I missed some work because of their error. I will not even get started on how different this is from the company I *used* to work for.

5. My snuggly baby, cuddly and helpful kid, and wonderful husband (who is working 60 hours a week to pay for my computer, lol).