Doctors Visit

About 2.5 weeks ago I took the girls to Vancouver to see an adoption doctor. She is actually just a paediatrician, but has been seen by people who adopt and has proven herself to be thorough, and so I chose to go to her.

I was not disappointed. We spent over 2 hours in her office examining the girls - physically, emotionally, and then interviewing me with regard to diet, sleep, attachment and further. She asked me what concerns I had and we discussed them.

I told her that I had done some research and had read that two of the parasites that the girls have are not easily erradicated and that the drugs we had given them probably didn't do any good. I showed her some research I had done and some correspondence I had had with a woman in Australia. This woman has a website with testimony after testimony of people who suffered with these parasites and nothing helped them. Until they convinced their doctors to try certain drug cocktails. There was a lot of reading!

For many years these two particular parasites were considered NON pathogen. Only in the last 7 years were they moved to the catagory of Pathogen. This means that until then they considered them a non-issue. Some of these people had been dealing with serious intestinal problems, including huge weight loss - for some people for up to 44 years!! Doctors kept telling them the bugs were not a problem. Also, they are hard to diagnose. Well, fortunately for us the parasites showed themselves on the first test! Thank the Lord for that! That means that we at least know they are there.

BUT.... this doctor, who is NOT a microbiologist immediately said they are NOT A PROBLEM. Okay..... So we go with her plan of action for now and see what happens. If we do not get results then we begin bringing out the heavy artillery.

She told me that she was going to talk to the 'head infectious disease specialist of B.C., if he is in the country' - (I am not sure if she said it to impress me, since I had been spouting my concerns and she had been sideswiping them - or if SHE is really impressed with him. Hopefully she is really impressed and he will have the answers).

The doctor told me she does not read anything that is not a medical journal.... I am sure there are plenty of you out there who know what that means! Doctors are not gods and do not have all the answers and sometimes there are areas that PEOPLE have figured out solutions to. Ever watched Lorenzo's Oil??? A mother fought long and hard to bring her son back from a nearly catatonic state - doctors had no answers as to why he slowly went there and how to bring him back. She researched tirelessly for months and did have great success with her son.

So, what do we do? Well, we went home from the doctor and waited for results. She talked to this specialist, and they decided to put the girls on a medication - Flagyl - for the two parasites that I am concerned about. These parasites have shown themselves to be stronger than this drug and the concern is the parasites becoming hardier because of taking the Flagyl.

They also put them on a single dose of another medication for one of the other parasites. I don't think they cared that our family doctor had prescribed anything already. I believe they were starting from scratch and wanting to be sure to cleanse their body. This one medication must have been strong because they only had to take one dose of it.

The third medication was for their scalp fungus. We have managed to keep this at bay since they have been home. Gadisae did acquire it after she got to Canada, but Mesai's has been slowly clearing to the point where she can't find any owies anymore. But when we saw the doctor in Vancouver the doctor could still see tiny patches of it.

So they were prescribed Lamlsil oral and cream. Hopefully this takes care of it. Otherwise, Christy, I shall be emailing you for your doctors information that took care of Hana's scalp! *smile* Fungus Keeners Unite! LOL!

As, well as that we have had to up the girls calcium to where they get three servings a day, plus a calcium and vitamin D supplement, plus Vitamin A for their skin (I can use this too!), plus a good multivitamin.

You should see me at drug time in my house! Talk about having to concentrate. Some of these drugs have to cut in fourths because they are such small children and the drugs are really for adults!

When the doctor called me a week after the appointment to tell me what the specialist said she told me that he was more concerned about a possible 'other' parasite, Schistosmiasis, for which they have not been tested. He said it shows up in the urine. So, now we get to check for this parasite. He was concerned about this, because it is a serious parasite and can cause real issues. He has nothing to go on that they have this other than the fact that he is being thorough.

Please pray with me that these two parasites that we are concerned about are ZAPPED by the drugs - that I don't have to ask them to put them on the drug cocktail of three different drugs. I don't want to have to get gently forceful with the doctors, so I would rather that they are bug free.

To me a sign of this would be that their tummies settle down to a normal size, they go to the bathroom normally, and they gain weight (Mesai especially!), as Mesai is still so tiny.

After we left the doctor's office we headed to Royal Columbian Hospital for blood tests. I was very pleased when I saw this doctor because I brought her the list of tests suggested for Internationally Adopted Children from Jane Aronson's website. I would suggest, if you go see this doctor, that you produce this list to keep the doctor on her toes. She was willing to check my list against her own, and she was willing to test for everything on my list. But if you show up with the list it might help her to stay in the 'listen to the parents' mode.

When I mentioned lead testing and the fact that many doctors don't feel it necessary to test for this, she told me that the two highest levels of lead that showed up in children in BC, came from children from Ethiopia!

At the hospital we had a bit of a wait so I took the girls and Cooper, my main little man, to Tim Horton's for lunch. Based on what the doctor said about nutrition, today was not to be a light day of eating. *smile* So we ordered ham and pea soup, and cracks, yoghurt, donuts, chocolate milk.

They were ever so good, and we were there for over 30 minutes. I noticed people looking and smilling at the girls, as we walked from place to place during the day, but then these two ladies left Tim Horton's they approached me. The one lady was from Austalia, and she leaned over at the table and said, "Your children are beautiful. They are so well behaved. It is so nice to see."

It was such a great encouragement to the kids, because I do expect our children to be civilized and respectful and for them to hear the positive reinforcement just showed them it is worth being well-behaved in public. It was also nice for me. :o)

After lunch, we headed to the lab for blood tests. I had Mesai go first, as I figured she would make less of a fuss than Gadisae and I did not want Gadisae spooked. I was right. Mesai shut her eyes and simply said, "NO!" But that was it. And they took five *big* vials of blood. Originally it would have been more than 10, but by making them big they have cut down on the number. Oh yeah!

It was next Gadisae's turn. When she saw the needle she began to get stressed out. I held her on my lap and told the nurse I had no idea how she would react. In other words: Be prepared for a screaming, kicking child. Mesai had told me that in Ethiopia Gadisae had cried.

Well, she didn't kick or scream. Instead she cried as if her little heart were broken - big gulping sobs and tears streaming down her face. A betrayed child.

I called Mesai in to talk to her in Amharic. She did. Nothing helped. Finally, Mesai patted her leg and simply pleaded in English, "Please, Gadisae!"

It was finally over, but it took Gadisae a while to get over the insult. Hopefully we do not have any more blood tests or needles for a while.

Oh, yah, the paediatrician wrote me a requisition for the schedule of immunizations..... hmmmm - I think we will be waiting for immune systems to BUILD before we ATTACK them!
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