das Krankenhaus

 We made our first trip to the 'Krankenhaus' (hospital) late last night.  I knew it would be inevitable to stay away from a hospital while we lived in Germany since Cooper has no fear and is always testing out dangerous situations.  BUT, I really didn't think our first visit would be due to a four hour long nose bleed, (actually"Gush" would be a better description)  My gut told me that this nose bleed was not normal...especially since it was making our house look like a war zone. As I started to go into "mother intuition mode", I decided to call our friend that is a pediatrician to ask her advice. Yep, my intuition was still in tact.. we should go to the hospital since Cooper had been sick all week with a fever.

So, 23:00 we piled into the car, asked our dinner guest if he would mind driving us in our car so we could focus on Cooper and weren't sure how the night would unfold.

It unfolded into a version of "Comedy of errors"....We hustle to the car leaving Katie with Karina.  Navi was ready to lead us, friend was driving, Cooper's nose had taken a pause and there was no traffic.  As we approach the hospital, our AMERICAN friend realized real quick that a "right on red" is a big NO-NO as we were blinded by the biggest white 'ge-blitz' lights I have seen so far.  He quickly asked, "what was that?"  Mine and Jason's response, "that was Kirstin losing her license since this is her car and her tags" But no time to worry about that, as we turned into the parking deck, found a spot and ventured out to find the hospital.  With Cooper asleep on his shoulder, Jason went to check-in at the desk only to be told we were at the wrong hospital.  We paid our parking fee, and asked the navi to guide us again.  As the navi took us through the winding streets of Stuttgart we stopped for every red light.  We pulled into the second parkhouse of the night and headed into yet another hospital.  Once again, we checked-in and were told where we needed to go.  We went and went and went in more circles in this large hospital.  I decided to go ask for clarification one more time where we were supposed to go and again was told in German "down the hall and to the right".  Little did I know Jason, Cooper and our friend would keep searching the hospital as I walked circles in the lobby.  Once we were all re-united we continued our search together for the appropriate wing of the hospital as Cooper slept on Jason's shoulder.  By this point, I couldn't help but start to find the humor in the whole situation and got the silent giggles. 

All of our efforts finally paid off and we were able to see the doctor only to be told, "his nose bleed is probably due to the virus, when it bleeds, pinch his nose and put ice on his neck" We headed back home again stopping at all the red lights.


 Cooper woke this morning and excitedly exclaimed, "my nose isn't bleeding". But that excitement only lasted for 5 minutes as the gusher decided to come tell us 'good morning'.  Looks like we will be visiting another  "Krankenhaus" today...