TMI

Well some things have been bothering me for awhile. I know what a surprise. I love to research things. Before the kids came home, I researched health related tests etc that would need to be done on them once they got home. I became well versed with orphandoctor.com and the CDC.

When I took the kids to our wonderful pediatrician the first time and started asking if they needed to be checked for this and that, I was told, "No, they look great." And so our kids were never checked for ova and parasites, no lab work was done other than the very expensive and not necessary immunization titers.

When I called back and told them that their poop smelled bad, I was told, "Yes, poop smells bad." DUH! So although I love our pediatrician and he has been great with our "born in the US" kids, I'm pretty sure our African kids were the first he had seen.

I found a new doctor for Josh and Jameson who has an adopted son from Ethiopia and is in the process of adopting two more children from Ethiopia. They went to see him today. We are now in the process of collecting poop samples. Gross I know, but I'm pretty sure Jameson has got something because her samples are nasty! She also has this lingering halitosis (bad breath) which is not from her teeth and can be caused by parasite infection. So I say bring on the stool samples. Anything is better than having to evacuate our home after those two have evacuated their bowels.

Shhhuu wee.

I know: too much information. Hey, I'm in a sharing mood.

So the kids got 5 tubes of blood drawn today for:

a CBC which will show if they are anemic, if their white blood cell count is high and if their eosinophils are high (which is indicative of a parasite infection).

They are also getting checked for hepatitis A and B, rickets (which is a softening of the bones caused by lack of vitamin D, calcium or phosphate), a thyroid screen (children can have an enlarged thyroid from malnutrition and iodine deficiency) BTW, Josh has an enlarged thyroid.
HIV screening again, lead levels and a repeat TB test. (All of these things I requested before but received none) Jameson has these weird little scabs that form on her head with a pus like center. He cultured one of those to find out what it is. Josh was 97% for height and 80% for weight. He has grown 3.75 inches and gained nearly 20 pounds, and Jameson was 10% for height and 10% for weight. Her gains are much less than his, but still gaining and growing.

They also had hearing and vision screens. Josh failed his hearing test 3 times today. I believe he failed not because he can't hear, but because he couldn't pay attention long enough to raise his hand when he heard the noise. We will recheck his hearing in 6 months.

Hopefully we will prepare him better for this. My plan is to show him a hearing aid and tell him he will be wearing one of those if he doesn't pay attention long enough to pass the test. That should do it.

So all in all, we had a very productive visit to the doctor and I feel have someone who really understands adopted kids. The new doctor was very sweet to the kids, asked about their backgrounds, asked them how they like it here, and asked how things were going.

When I said, we have our challenges, but things are better. He sighed and said, "Don't I know." As if that wasn't enough, I knew I would like Dr. Stinson when he asked me if we thought the kids really were their stated ages... no one other than an adoptive parent would understand that question now would they?