Doctors, Doctors, Doctors!

Before adopting kids I think our only visits to doctors were for shots.  (Well, that and the occasional need for dermabond and/or staples in our boys' heads.)  Since Tabitha joined our family we've become very familiar with doctors and hospitals though!  Rayanna seems that she won't need nearly as much medical help, and yet . . . we'll still have seven doctor appointments in her first two months home, not counting Tabitha's surgery!

Today I took the girls to get their hearing checked.  Babies in this country have their hearing checked at birth, but that wasn't done for our girls (as far as we know), and we have reasons to question hearing for both of them:  Tabitha because of her speech delays, and Rayanna because of the unexplained doctors' comments on her referral.  So I made an appointment for them both at the ENT for a hearing check.  I thought we were actually seeing the ENT, but I guess I mistakenly scheduled us only for the audiologist's hearing check.  It was really quite useless.  Tabitha was too shy to cooperate in the sound booth, and Rayanna just didn't react to much.  The doctor doesn't want to say that she has a hearing loss though, because it could just be that her developmental stage isn't where it needs to be for her to react as expected.  (The test they do on newborns can't be done on toddlers because they're too active; the child must be perfectly still and quiet while the device is put into their ears and the test is run.)

So, here's the plan:  the week we get back from Tabitha's surgery in Cincinnati, she'll go back and see the ENT this time.  He'll clean her ears and check her palate and nose, since she has sounded congested for a couple of months and always has a nasally voice.  Then, at the same visit, we'll go back to the audiologist and hopefully she'll cooperate with the hearing test this time.  For Rayanna, we're going to go to the Kennedy Krieger Institute, where they can do a test that actually monitors the brain waves to see if the brain is registering sound.  No cooperation required!  (They also have an international adoption clinic that will do a developmental evaluation and some other things, so hopefully we can do all of that at once.)

I also just called the opthamologist about Rayanna's possible tear duct problems.  The earliest they can get us in is September 27th, and the visit will take 2 hours!!  I can only imagine what "fun" things they have planned for her.  =(    Any volunteers for babysitting during these appointments will gladly be accepted!  Dragging four kids to doctor appointments is torture for all of us, the doctor included!  (Fortunately, I was able to drop the boys off with Heath at work today so they were spared the agony.)

On the 28th we leave for Cincinnati to get rid of those awful bags!  Hooray!  I am SO excited to be done with all that, and I know Tabitha is too!  She seems to have a small infection around the hole where one of the tubes goes through her skin into her bladder.  We've contacted her urologist about it; just pray it doesn't get any worse.  I'd like to make it these last 2 weeks without any further complications!

I'm actually looking forward to our trip out there.  We're all going so that we can be together as much as possible.  We'll switch off who stays with Tabitha and who's with the other kids, and we'll do some fun stuff in the area like we did when we were out there in February.  Also, my friend Kelly is coming from Illinois, and it'll be great to see her and her kids!  And my mom might even come too!  So we'll turn it into a big party for everyone.  =)

I'm hoping 2011 will be the last year of constant medical issues.  I know there will always be some things to deal with, especially for Tabitha, but I really hope it slows down!  Fortunately, none of this is life threatening, and all the kids are in very good health.  We're quite thankful for that!