Medical Frustrations

I have about had enough of the delays in getting our medical information.  I realize that we likely would have these delays regardless of who was on our medical team, but REALLY.

We got in to the adoption clinic within 3 weeks of coming home.  Apparently THAT was the easy part.  When we left our appointment, we had orders for blood tests.  It took us about 6 weeks to get all the blood tests done.  The reason is due to the number of tests ordered and the fact that our little girls are . . . well. . . . little.  They could only take 11ml from Lena at one time and 7 ml from Hanna at one time.  And then you can only take blood every other day or so.  And the ease with which they can take the blood varies with the skill of the technician, the child's cooperation, and other variables.

The kids were great through the whole blood collection thing.  Oleg only got stuck once.  No problems.  Lena and Hanna were real troopers considering how many times they got stuck.  Neither one pitched a fit or completely refused.  The most we heard from them was a few whimpers and whispered, "Ow, ow, ow."  And neither willingly gave up an arm.  Not sure I could be so brave myself.

We also had to collect stool samples.  Hanna was easy - diaper.  Lena thought it was funny, so she cooperated.  Oleg was another story.  He insisted he was fine and refused for quite some time.  I was preoccupied with getting blood from the girls, so I didn't push it.  I finally got it last week and sent it to the lab.

Yesterday the nurse called to tell me that Oleg has giardia - a parasitic protozoa most commonly found in untreated water.  When I asked, she said the girls' samples were fine.  She called in a prescription, and that should take care of the giardia.  We will have to do another sample to confirm.  Oh, joy!

The big frustration is that we can't get any more of the results until we see the doctor again.  And they wouldn't schedule an appointment until they had all the test results.  I understand why, but this is really dragging out!  I guess if something was REALLY wrong, they would tell us (like the giardia) or schedule us to come in immediately.  So, I'm not really worried.  But they can't see us until July 7th.

I really don't know how other people get their medical stuff done faster.  Our adoption agency requires a medical letter within 1 month of returning home.  There is absolutely NO WAY we could do that.  We are lucky that they accepted a letter from our doctor stating that the children had been seen and studies were pending.  We will have to submit another letter after our appointment stating each child's health status.

So for now we continue to wait. . . .