One more thing to add

Oh, I really can't finish the hospital story without adding this! One afternoon while C. was sleeping, Krakovian and I were both slipping away to raid the coffee machine when we were met by someone from the cashier's office. She was looking for us, because we have foreign insurance, and thus had to satisfy our hospital bill ourselves and seek reimbursement.

We've had this experience before. She was SO reluctant to hit us with the bad news of how much it was going to cost. Finally, we dragged it out of her: the hospital cost PLN150 per day (around $50). We assumed that was the base cost, and expected to be charged additional fees for the oxygen and medication C. was receiving, but...no. That's not the case. The PLN150 was all we would be expected to pay.

Naturally, we tried to suppress our amusement and relief in front of her. She felt so bad that we would have to pay such a lot of money, and when she came around the last day with the bill for PLN450 for a three-day hospital stay she acted as if she was serving us with such terrible news.

How can we explain that $150 for three days in the hospital is nothing? Last year in the states, C. was in the emergency room for three hours with similar (less severe, I think) breathing problems, and it cost over $500. Needless to say, our insurance deductible is so much higher than the $150 we paid that they will NOT be reimbursing us for the hospital stay.

Fifty dollars per day. My, my. And we were in the ICU!!!