FIRST, before i say ANYTHING, EVERY doctor, nurse, sign-in person, lab technician, xray technician that we dealt with today were wonderful, gracious and kind to me and my whole crew. SO SO thankful for that.
oh, and second, the morning was rough before any of this even started. collecting stool samples, finding missing goggles, the mountain that a whole long week is before me had me almost in tears by 8 am. i was SO rude to a friend as i dropped the kids off at swim team. it was either that, or sob my eyes out. thankful for friend's that love me enough to love me through that...
9 am appt this morning. it was supposed to be quick - in and out just to read their arms from their tb tests.
3 1/2 hours later...
the doctor listened to lincoln's chest after we've been doing breathing treatments on his since last thursday. no improvement. did another breathing treatment in the office. he's ok with them at home. not there. "dying duck" the entire 10 minutes. yay! {he came out of the orphanage with a HORRIBLE cough/etc. it's a lot better, just not totally better. now we have an additional steroid and we OWN a breathing machine!}
i wanted to follow-up about joshua - you know, him having malaria in africa and all?? mentioned it. they did the finger prick (hemoglobin) test. he doesn't cry when he gets shots. ever. but he HATES that one. HATES it. cries. i felt so bad. i had NO idea that's what would happen.
sawyer has been waking up crying the last 2 days. and has had a low-grade fever off and on. got him checked out. nothing. it could also be the symptoms of your entire life being turned upside down.
that was all more than i was expecting, but we were headed out. then remembered they hadn't even looked at their arms! lincoln was fine...but levi's was positive. positive for tb. sounds bad. but, it's very common for these kids to test positive. we are just SO thankful that they didn't test him in africa! we would NOT have been home when we were planning! (they only test the kids there if they are over 2 yrs old) he will have to take medicine every day for 9 months!
so, left the dr office and headed to the hospital to get a chest xray in levi. he didn't like that. the other kids did GREAT!
{some of the comments i heard today, "are you a daycare?" "you have your hands full" "are they all yours?" "which 2 are from africa?" - seriously?!? i really don't mind comments/questions at ALL. i know 99% of them are just curious/interested and i would MUCH rather get to talk to someone about it than not!}
THEN headed to the lab to get 4 vials of blood drawn from each boy. they didn't like that.
ALL the kids did great considering what they were asked to do. and none of us were prepared for this today. my kids are rockstars. and my morning runs aren't even BEGINNING to take the edge off the stress of my days...hmmm...
not even sure what to do from here...trying to regroup. much to be thankful for. but, also trying to tell it like it is.
12 comments:
expect the questions (even obvious/dumb) ones to stay around for years. people are just trying to be polite and not 'assume':) i have one biological and three asians and STILL get questions about if they are siblings (DUH...), who is adopted (my bio looks JUST like me...duh), and if we are a daycare.
Oh my, you have to just laugh if someone asks which children are from Africa. Maybe it's sign you're getting too tan! ;)
I hope that all you have on your agenda for this aftwrnoon is free slurpees from 7-11. Your kids are total rockstars. What a nuts o morning. Hang in there. Every day will not be like this! Love you my friend!
Hey Courtney, Just a thought, but several people who have come home and gotten positive tb tests have not done the medicine. Because the kids are given a tb vaccine they many times test falsely negative for having it. I can msg you a couple of families to contact if you want me to!
i mean false positive! sorry!
"Which ones are from Africa?" made me laugh. :) Hoping for a smoother rest of the week for you, my friend!
"Which ones are from Africa?????" Really? That is one question I have not had asked of me. How did you respond to that one?
Isaiah had positive tb skin test. We did the meds. I was so relieved when the 9 months were up. Just one more thing to think about. I crushed them and put them in yogurt, pudding, guacamole, anything mushy.
We also have breathing issues with Isaiah.
I am praying for you. Every time I read one of your posts it takes me back in good ways and bad ways. Wish I lived closer.
Laura
Your kids are rockstars and so are YOU!!
"which two are from Africa"
buah ha ha ha ha ha.....
let's just start finding the humor in your days, k?
maybe that will take it off.
this IS more than you can handle, but not more than He can handle.
YOU will miss things...HE will not.
find the joy....rest in the joy...the mercies, the grace.
Total feel you on the meds. Our health dept mandated them and doesn't recognize the vaccine as a cause for a false positive. Best advice, a pharmacist friend said you can give it in a spoon of chocolate or strawberry syrup...we'll be saving that for Month 7 or 8 :) when the other mushy stuff wears off!
Ok, that's pretty funny (which ones are from Africa). I still laugh at the funny questions people ask. We've gotten the "Which one is adopted" quite a few times. We mostly get the "wow, you're daughter doesn't look like your two boys." Someone also told us once that Sora looks just like Damien. It was funny. You might want to check to see if L had the TB vaccine. If they did then there is a very high chance of false positive. In fact, they usually don't do the skin tests on kids who've had it. Sora didn't get the test b/c she had the vaccine. When I was in 4th grade I tested positive and did the meds. Not a huge deal but it would be easier to not have to worry about it. :-)
i laughed out loud on the 'which ones are from africa' question. sorry. couldn't help it. and so sorry you spent and unexpected morning in dr's offices and labs. no fun, especially with all the babes in tow. you will survive this. :)
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