The doctor visit yesterday went fine. They tried to call to see if I could come in a bit earlier, but I was already napping :-P I barely woke up before Jan came to pick me up, and going out was a major effort.
At least getting to the hospital was easier this time, even though the GPS kept trying to mislead us. There were probably some two-way one-lane roads she wanted to explore. Finding our way around the hospital was slightly confusing. There's letters indicating which area you should go to, like "P" but on signs they like to add a little "s" or something after them just for fun. Fortunately P is P, even when it says "Ps".
First we went to the internal medicine area in the basement, and the doctor was very friendly and started speaking English right away. I was surprised by how big his office was. Very spacious, with a separate little room for getting naked and lying down. Ooer. He hadn't received the electronic records from my neighborhood doc. Apparently something isn't working right with the technology. So I recapped: "My doctor say she has no idea what the problem is. Possibly Lyme disease?" He already had the lab results at least, and affirmed that they rule out a lot of serious problems. He ordered a chest x-ray since I have been coughing a little bit, urine screening, and blood tests. It sounded like he's mostly looking for viruses, though the urine test was for everything. And testing for Lyme disease :-P All of the x-raying, peeing, and blood drawing was done very quickly, and by even more friendly english speaking personnel. I even managed to tinkle on demand without making a mess! I got skillz.
The whole visit took about an hour, with short waits for the blood drawing and x-ray. The doctor will call next friday with results, or sooner if there's something scary going on. In fact, he got a call from the lab people while we were seeing him, and quickly made a call to a patient that had some bad test results, to let her know she needed to come to the hospital immediately. My next appointment is May 10 - the internal specialists do seem too busy. I'm not sure if that's from a funding problem at the hospital or simply too few internests in the country. But I'm confident that I'm not going to die while waiting to get diagnosed at least.
Now that I have a better time frame for my medical problems, I'm quite certain I won't be starting the refresher course at James Boswell Instituut. So I made a list of things I most need to improve, and brainstormed ways to work on those.
For vocabulary I can read "actively" - taking the time to completely understand everything. I haven't been able to do that much over the past 5 or 6 weeks due to being sick. But hopefully I can concentrate more if I avoid any tiresome physical activities. There's also free online lessons using the Delft Method, which is supposed to be quite good for vocabulary though less so for grammar. And apparently it's boring :-P I can also try to do more writing for fun - like a Dutch journal or something. Then I'm looking up the words I use frequently, and immediately using them, which should reinforce my memorization of them. Of course, this requires someone (Jan!) to correct my mistakes :-) And there's always English TV programs with Dutch subtitles.
For speaking I primarily need to practice with Jan. Again, inability to focus has prevented that, but might be clearing up soon. I could also try reading aloud to myself - then I get used to grammar structure maybe? Dunno how useful that is. I got started again on livemocha.com this morning. They actually have some Dutch lessons now, though they're a bit too basic to be useful for me. But they do let people submit spoken texts, primarily for pronunciation feedback.
My listening could use improvement too. I can go to the websites associated with my textbooks for a lot of that, as well as using the CDs and DVDs. And of course, there's Dutch TV. I could also try books on tape (well, CD) from the local libraries.
And although my grammar is passable when I have enough time to write it and check it over, I want to keep that going well too. Writing a journal, etc is good for that, as well as livemocha and reading books. I also need to work on my past tense verbs, which I can do with my "201 Dutch Verbs" book.
And if being sick looks like a long term thing after the tests are done, I'll go on to the B2 course book.
It feels good to have a plan at least. And after spending most of the day tracking down information and using livemocha, I don't feel too exhausted yet. Maybe tomorrow I won't feel exhausted at all! Maybe I can study! And learn! And grossly overuse exclamation marks!!!!!!
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