2 YEARS & 4 MONTHS - 12 Nov. 2012

We are REALLY familiar with the Danish healthcare system now... It started Saturday noon, we dropped Liva and Laia off at my parent's house for an afternoon off to go clothes shopping. Liva had been complaining about stomach pains for a few days, and also cried when we left my parent's - very strange, they normally never do that. We decided to take the chance anyways, and drove to a mall. There we looked at clothes, had lunch, looked at more clothes and bought a bit as well. After about 2,5 hours in total, we decided to get in the car and go to another place. As we were driving out of the parking garage my mom called. Liva had been crying for almost an hour and they didn't know what to do anymore. We called the emergency doctor, they told us to go to the hospital and have her checked. This time we did wait for hours and hours, she had a quick check-up shortly after we arrived, but I guess they decided Liva wasn't very urgent and we waited for hours - locked in a room since she might be contagious and they couldn't have her running around the hospital. After some blood tests and other tests (I won't go into details, considering it was her stomach I'm sure you can imagine for yourself), we were sent home again, reassured that she was fine.

Liva had fun, here she's looking at the Hans Christian Andersen poster while singing and clapping

It was a loooong evening......

Laia spent the night at my parent's house, we went home and all pretty much collapsed. A waste of a Saturday night, but nice to know that Liva was OK!
Sunday we went to pick up Laia and had a relaxing day at home.

Monday morning we packed the car and once a again drove to a hospital, this time the main hospital in Copenhagen. As I've mentioned before, Liva & Laia were born with tiny deformations by their ears. It's nothing bad at all, but we don't want them being teased when they are bigger, and wanted them removed.

Liva's little "antenna" - she only had it on one ear

Laia's little bumps - she had them on both ears
We arrived at the hospital Monday at 10:00 and spent most of the morning talking to doctors and nurses, were given loads of information and asked a lot of questions. There was free lunch for the girls, a huge play area when we weren't talking to experts, and even an artistic room with staff where they could paint, play with pearls and other fun stuff. It was very hard to get them to nap, but we managed! All afternoon we just played at the hospital, Liva and Laia had dinner and eventually we put them to bed. Albert had bought Pizza for him and me, there was a kitchen where we could cook and a place for us to sit and eat. We had brought books and had wifi, so we were fine. We went to sleep quite early, we were tired and knew that Tuesday would be a long day.
Painting

At 5:45 Tuesday morning a nurse came in, Laia had to drink because it would be her last chance before the operation. They put some numbing cream on her hands for the needles later, then we were free to do what we wanted until 8:00. Again, Liva and Laia had fun playing....


Copenhagen sunrise seen from the hospital

Playing before the operation

Playing before the operation

Around 7:45 the doctor came and gave Laia some medicine which drugged her. Though it was funny to see her acting all drunk - laughing at her fingers, giggling over her pacifier and unable to stand normally - it was also a bit freaky... Around 8:00 her and Albert went down to the OP, here Laia was given full anesthetic and slept after a few seconds. Albert was sent back upstairs and we had about an hour with Liva before she went through the same process - though the medicine she was given to drug her didn't have the same effect on her at all. It actually hardly had any effect at all.... I went down with Liva, she was given full anesthetic as well, but took a bit longer to fall asleep. Typical Liva, she closed her eyes and just as the doctor said "There she goes, now she's sleeping" she opened her eyes again. Liva WILL NOT sleep, and no anesthetic is going to get her! Eventually it did, though, and I was told I could go straight up to see Laia, she was waking up in another room. Albert was already with her, and the hour after they woke up was the hardest part of the entire stay. They were affected by the anesthetic but awake, their body wasn't reacting properly, and they were just hysterical! Laia wanted to be with dad, when the doctors were sure she was OK and didn't have any side effects from the anesthetic or the operation, they were told they could go back up to the room. I was told to wait, Liva was on her way up to the waking-up room. We went through some pretty rough hours of hysteria, but food always does the trick for both of them, and pretty soon they were both happily eating.

Laia just after the operation, in the waking-up room

A tired and confused Laia eating after an hour of hysteria

Liva eating after the operation

This is almost 1 week ago, they still have a small band aid on their ear which we can take off this week. We are happy to have those little things removed, and we are relieved and thankful that everything went so smoothly. After waiting for 1,5 years in Barcelona, we had it done in Denmark after just 3 months in total. Thank you Danish health care system! I do hope we don't have to see the inside of a hospital anytime soon again, though.....

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