Travelling to Switzerland, days 0 – 1

In english, pictures at the bottom –

We are back from our little trip in Switzerland. I left with Gadea and Eyquem in the 5th of August, Noe following 3 days later. Gadea had spent most of the 3 previous weeks sick: first strep throat (or possible strep throat, as we shall see later) then pneumonia. Eyquem started coughing 2 days before the trip, and his temperature shot up to 40C on the day of the trip. This made the kids very subdued as we waited for the plane. A good dose of Ibuprofen had Eyquem seemingly in top shape as we boarded the plane, and off we went, with a long promised movie on the personnel entertainment system of the kids while dinner came (Lady and the Tramp). Eyquem, who had eaten almost nothing all day, eagerly ate 2/3 of the mac and cheese dish, as well as his bread, mine, and the cake. Gadea ate somewhat well, too. Then it was time for sleep. Both kids fell asleep, I finished my book (Jo Nesbo’s The Redeemer) and started sleeping too. Everything looked good. I vaguely heard an announcement warning us of turbulences. And then I woke up, the plane still shaking, to to find out Eyquem had regurgitated his meal. I quickly wiped as much as possible with the clean side of his cover, and covered him with my cover (I remembered being told by a 3 star restaurant waiter that when something like that happened during service, they covered with multiple table clothe layers quickly to prevent the smell from spreading). Once the belt light off, I asked for paper towels and plastic bags, and proceeded to clean Eyquem, his seat and all. Then covered him with yet another cover and he slept most of the rest of the way. The train ride from Geneva airport to Lausanne was uneventful (if a bit smelly for obvious reasons), the kids spent it with wide opened eyes. A short taxi ride to the home of Mamita and Papito, where cousins Tess and Clea were awaiting with Mamita, and Eyquem and I hit the shower fast. After lunch, a siesta for all kids started, but Eyquem woke up with a nightmare and high fever, and off we went to the Hôpital de l’Enfance. There, we had our first opportunity to compare the Quebec system to an alternative system. Of course, having neither the swiss nor the european Health cards, we had to pay a deposit of CHF 500 (The time we went for a check up without health coverage in Quebec, we paid the fee at the end of the consultation, but that was not at the hospital emergencies). Then we waited 1 hour and 15 minutes, moved to a consultation room, and waited another 10 minutes. The pediatrist then came in and asked questions, took a long look at Eyquem (throat and ears, as well as listening to the lungs and so on). The verdict: angina. But was it due to streps or not? Well she then took two samples, one to be sent for the standard test to be performed, one to perform the fast test. 10 minutes later, we knew that it was a viral angina, and not one due to streps. So no antibiotics needed. And the total time spent with the pediatrist was around 20 minutes. All our sour throat expeditions in Quebec took around 3 to 4 hours waiting, the time spent with some general practitioner was around 2 to 4 minutes, never was a strep test performed, and we always came out with a prescription for antibiotics. After the visit, with our bill in hand, we went looking for a pharmacy, something that shouldn’t be difficult in Switzerland, given that pharmacies there are like Starbucks in US cities, but somehow couldn’t find any. The madrinas saved us by picking us up and driving us back to Pully, via the trains station 24hour pharmacy. (Note: since then we have gone to the new clinic of our family doctor where they do perform the double test)