My ear hurts! What's the matter with you - it's all in your stomach.

Hello to all,

I was waiting to write until I got back from the Dr’s office, because I thought it might be one of the special things to write about.  Just got back and it is!  I felt like I was back in one of our staff meetings – you remember:  Staff - Are the students passing? Me - Do you mean 6^th grade or the 4^th grade curriculum? Staff - “yes”  Me - Which one?  Staff - “Yes, then they are passing.”  My visit to the doctor’s office today went something like that.  I had two appointments – the first was to have the inner ear pressure tested.  This Dr is sharp and seems to know what she is doing; yet she is the subordinate.  Half way through the test, she stopped and stated that the test was in the negative this week meaning the blockage was even worse than last week and there was no need to finish the test.  So, I am then shuttled next door to the Specialist (term used loosely).  He looked at me and said, “tell me.” I told him that my ear was about the same; however, I seemed to have a lot more drainage in the back of my throat causing my throat to be sore most of the time.  He immediately told me it was because of the Acid Reflex.  With no examination he again prescribed me three additional medications and told me to continue taking the three he previously prescribed.  When I tried to explain that I have never had any stomach problems or digestion issues, he stated, “yes, this will make you better.” Come see me in 7 days if not.  So I left – acquired the three new meds and looked them up on Drugs.com.  Once again, I was given a (second) pill to reduce stomach acid – maybe since I didn’t take the first one he thought a second one would help.  The next one was to break up the mucus – that I actually thought might be good until I researched it a little an found it was banned in the US, Canada and the UK (it is only for sale in the Middle East).  The third pill was to settle my stomach after I took the pill that they banned everywhere else because it makes you so sick – sorry but WTF.  The meds were around $100 USD (paid for by insurance) and I’ll throw them on the shelf with the rest.   Been looking at homeopathic remedies and I’ll get a couple of those a try.  They seem to contradict each other a little – eating lots of garlic doesn’t seem like it is going to help my Acid Reflux?????  The doctor tells me swimming is fine, just diving is out for a while; also contradicted everything I can read – and more importantly, my mom told me no swimming!

School is school with everyone running in 100 different directions.  We are scheduled for a training all next weekend and then open house is the following week.  Not to worry, we only had 3 parents show up last year.

Starting next weekend it is Latin America week here in Qatar.  The Cultural Center has concerts, movies, carnivals and a multitude of evening events planned for 10 days.  We have arranged to go out a couple nights with our friends from Argentina that we met last year – should be a welcome change.

Lesson of the Week: Get a second opinion!

Love to all,

Doug and Missie