New Country - New Germs

It's been over 2 months since we moved to Italy and we have had our fair share of sicknesses in that short amount of time. We are generally a healthy family - so when we get sick, it throws us for a loop. Just a few weeks after we moved Ryan got really sick. Now, if Ryan gets sick enough to stay home from work, he's basically on his death bed. He was home in bed for 5 days straight. After day two, we called my sister Bridgett, who is a Pulmonologist, for advice. After talking to Ryan she said it sounded like he had bronchitis and possibly pneumonia. She recommended some antibiotics and after a talk with a pharmacist, Ryan was able to get a Z-PAC without a prescription. After being on the antibiotic for 2 days, he seemed to be getting worse, not better. While Ryan was napping that afternoon, I got in touch with Ariane , and asked her to talk to her husband Bret about giving Ryan a blessing. When he finally got out of bed, I told him that I asked for a blessing for him, and he told me that he had already sent Bret a text about the very same thing. I was so happy he had already asked for one on his own, as he never asks for blessings. That night Bret, Jeremy and Diego (2 other guys who work on the temple) came to our house and gave Ryan a blessing. There was an immediate change of spirit on our home as soon as Jeremy started the anointing. The power of the priesthood is real and I felt it. It was awesome. Needless to say, Ryan was back at work the next day. You may say that it's because the medication finally kicked in - but I know it was because of the priesthood blessing. After Ryan got sick, each of the kids took a turn getting a cold - luckily , no one was as bad as Ryan. About this same time, I felt the wave of adrenaline that I'd been living off of for the passed two months finally fade away - leaving me completely exhausted. I was sleeping plenty of hours at night, but it never felt like I was getting enough. Then I got a yeast infection. Before we moved, I asked my OB, Dr. Beck, to give me a prescription for Diflucan, which cures yeast infections. So I went ahead and took the pill, but it didn't seem to be working. After a few days, I realized I needed to do something more. I tried asking for it over the counter at a pharmacy by our house, but they refused to give it to me without a prescription. After talking to some other americans here, they found a pharmacy that has an english (kind of) speaking pharmacist that was very helpful. So I met up with one of the other american wives and she showed me this pharmacy. There I was able to buy as much as 20 pills of Diflucan over the counter. Score! So I took another pill, and after 2 days, another pill. Still nothing. I decided it was time to call Dr. Beck's office to ask for help. By the time I was able to call here (9pm) Dr Beck and his nurse were at lunch (noon AZ time). So I left the nurse a message and decided to try again the next day, as they had no way of calling me back, now that I only have an Italian phone number. That night I woke up at 2am and felt prompted to call Dr. Beck's office - it being about 4pm. The nurse wasn't there, but she had written down a note in case I called back. It told me what kind of medicine to ask for, and directions for taking it. The next morning I went back to the pharmacy and was able to get the new medicine, no problem. It seems like a small thing, but I know it was a blessing from Heavenly Father. He really does care about the simple things in our lives. Next up: allergies. For the months of April and May - everything was in bloom. The trees, plants and flowers are all new to us, so everything affected everyone. Clark especially has a hard time with allergies. Any time he gets a little postnasal drip, he coughs and coughs and coughs. Of all the medicines I brought, kids allergy medicine was not one of them - although I sware I packed some. We did have one package of Zyrtec-D - and quickly went through all of that. Now that things are warming up, I think we are getting passed the worse of it. One small blessing - I finally found 'Kleenex' brand tissues. Everything else is like sandpaper - and for the way we have been going through tissues - our noses are very grateful. Being in a foreign country and getting sick is hard. We have insurance, but where do we even go to get care? I did ask the nurse at the school and got some referrals, and thank heaven for the Rome Mission nurse, Sister Millett, - we call her frequently. It is kind of scary thinking about if we had an emergency - what would we do? There's no Banner Gateway or Phoenix Children's Hospital. I know it'll all work out and we are getting help every step of the way. We have a good support system here of other Americans, families from school and friends from work and church - so we have somewhere to turn for help. In the mean time, anytime someone from the U.S. comes - we ask them to bring us Zyrtec-D and Puffs plus lotion Kleenex!