Medical News

Cincinnati Children's Hospital has a program specifically designed to evaluate children adopted internationally.  The program was started by a doctor who adopted internationally & when her children arrived home her pediatrician did not have the necessary info to properly address specific health concerns pertaining to her children.  Plus, who could evaluate their mental health, or their emotional state, etc.  So she designed this program where you go for one appointment & you meet with a doctor, social worker, occupational therapist, mental health specialist, and have a whole host of tests run on their bodies.  When all this information is compiled it is sent to your permanent pediatrician & the group at Children's remains available to the family & the doctor for any questions along the way.  They told us to prepare for a 4 hr appt.

The Appointment:
When we arrived we went to registration & went directly back to a room, no waiting room.  We left the hospital 5 1/2 hrs later!  We saw all the professionals, they did basic tests on her, talked to her (but mostly to us), gave her a flu shot, TB test, wrist x-ray (to determine age), chest x-ray, & took 10 (count them, 10) vials of blood for other tests.  We were all three EXHAUSTED at the end of the day.  Wiped out is the word.  Everyone we delt with was just wonderful, in both attitude and knowledge.  They really seemed to have their ducks in a row & know what was going on.  I like it when ducks are all lined up.   I will go back in a month to receive all the "official" reports & results.  Then we will repeat the process in 6 months to document changes & advances.

The prelim Results:
The doctor said she measured in the third percentile for her height & weight for her age.  We were happy she was on the chart since she is so tiny, the important thing is that she is proportiate.  The occupational therapist said she is just lightly weaker than she would like, but that would come.  The psychologicalist was very happy with our educational plan, discipline plan, & just our general way of accepting her into our family.  The social worker was very happy with her integration into our family.  In general, the people who are educated in these areas are VERY pleased with everyone's adjustment to the new situation.  This is stuff we all knew, but confirmation is always nice to have. 

Now on to the medical results.  I got a call about those today.  The TB test is neg, HIV is neg, the chest x-ray was clear, & she has no sign of parasites.  The nurse said that no parasites in a child from a third world country is almost unheard of.  Some of the other tests are not back yet but nothing they are worried about.  I want to give a shout out to Arbre de Vie (the Faton's & the centre Maman & Papa) for providing living conditions for the kids that are physically, mentally, & emotionally healthy.

The interesting part of the whole thing is the result of her wrist x-ray.  Her birth certificate says she was 8 at the end of June.  I have doubted that since my first week with her, but maybe I was just not understanding the developmental differences in her & an American child.  The x-ray can be thrown off by the child's nutrition in their past, but it revealed a bone age of 6 years & 10 months.  The nurse said the only way the difference could be that great is if she was mannourished almost to the point of death for long periods of time & we don't think that's the case.  So I asked what was the likelyhood that she really turned 7 in June.  The nurse said that is very highly likely.  So we will have to have some discussions in the near future about changing her birth year to 2003 instead of 2002.

Bottom line; the professionals are as amazed with this child as we have been for the last 3 years.  Thank you, are not words enough for the wonderful people at Arbre de Vie who connected us with this unbelieveable child & for changing our lives for the better.  We were destined to be a family long, long ago, the adventure is only beginning.