Tuesday, June 9 - sick Cody, AC at last

After Cody had a very restless night and multiple doses of children's tylenol and ibuprofen, it was clear that we'd need to go to a doctor on Tuesday.  I walked Rosa and Devon to school with Cody (since there isn't another option).  Prior to leaving, I got in touch with a few parents that I know asking for walk-in clinics.  All were super helpful.  And Pilar went above and beyond.  There are public and private doctors here.  Since we have US health insurance that we can sort of use here (get reimbursed), Pilar and I decided to go the private healthcare route.  At 9:30am she was able to secure an 11am appointment.  It gave Cody and I enough time to go home, get his stuffed animal cats, and take a 15-minute (8 euro) taxi ride.  We checked in and were taken into the exam room 10 minute AHEAD of schedule.  The nurse walked us in and took Cody's vitals while the doctor asked questions.  She checked him out, typed up her observations and prescriptions, reviewed them thoroughly with me, and that was that.  We then went to pay, and it came to only 35 euros (~$40).  It's not even worth it to submit it and get reimbursed.  The suggested course of action is a series of 3 medicines that should work within 2-3 days.  If not, she gave us a prescription for an antibiotic, that she hoped we wouldn't need to use.

We walked back out front and easily caught a taxi back to our apartment.

On the taxi ride we saw this light on the light pole being changed in front of this pretty tourist office.

Here's another view.  While we were at the stop light waiting for a green, I asked the taxi driver to turn on the AC.  He looked at me like I was crazy.  He looked at the car thermostat and asked me why I wanted it on when it was "only" 86 degrees outside.  My non-Sevillan blood is going to be a problem this summer in the high heats that come this way (often 110 degrees F).

Poor Cody was dragged around all day.  Three round-trips to the school plus the weekly visit to El Corte Ingles' grocery store for the evening dinner of fish, a stop at the fruit store for strawberries, and the trip to the doctor's office.  He didn't get much rest.  But, he did get lots of time alone with me and some rarish tv and computer time.

About 30 minutes before it was time to pick up the kids from school, Scott called to say that the landlord was coming over to check out our still non-functioning air conditioning.  The AC had finally turned on at our apartment complex (it was turned on June 5th and only runs on cold from 11am - 3am daily).  We'd arrived home 2 days earlier from Paris very excited to finally be able to use the AC in the high 90s/low 100s temperatures that we'd already experienced.  But, it still wasn't working.  So, I scrambled around to declutter for 30 minutes before running off for pickup.  The landlord, named Rosa, came over with a man (perhaps her husband).  He figured out that there wasn't just the one on/off switch for the AC on the thermostat, but also a switch inside the HVAC unit in the HVAC closet in the hallway AND a switch inside the hot water heater that's in the kitchen.  The AC was heavenly and we all slept better that night having it.