Medical Appointment Day

Todays big event was the medical appointment. You have to have a medical evaluation for your consulate appointment, as well as a TB test, so that was on the agenda for today.

There are 7 families in our group, so we piled into a bus and headed off. Once we got there, each kid had to have a picture snapped in the lobby for the appointment, so we waited in a line for that. After each kiddo had gotten their picture, we headed upstairs to the approved medical facilities. It’s the only approved by the consulate, so all American families go through there to complete their adoption.  There had to be at least 20 families all jammed into a small area, waiting to go through the checklists.

One of the best parts of being in GZ and with our friends again, is that EK is with her friend, and picked up some new ones. It’s nice for her to have a bit of a break and chill with kids her own age, plus see other girls walking through the same thing,

For the medical appointment, we went to four different stations, and waited in a line in a small area for each one. The first one took her height, weight and temperature, then we moved over to an ENT where they checked her hearing, eyes and throat. After that we saw what I think was an actual Doctor.

They spent a long time listening to her special heart, and did a once over on the rest of her body. In the Asian culture it’s common to have something called Mongolian spots. It’s a kind of birthmark that looks almost like a bruise, but typically goes away as the children grow. She has a large on on her lower back and bottom area, and she also had a few spots we thought may be some on her arms. Instead we were told they were bruises. Lots of tough things to process.

We found out she weighed even less than what we thought she did, which isn’t surprising considering when I tickle her on her sides, my thumb and pinky can go on either side of her tiny waist. Which is saying something, because I have small hands. There is an H&M near our hotel, we are going to go buy her some leggings that are 6-12 month. I will need to find a 6 month old swimsuit too.

After seeing the doctor, the final step is to do a TB test. This is often done with a skin test, but those results can give false positives, so they switched to a blood test. Which means needles, plus they take them away from you for the test, so you can’t hold them or be with them. I took a quick look at her veins and could tell they wouldn’t get a vein in her arm. Thankfully one of our guides quickly communicated that, but I wasn’t sure if they would listen or not.

They took my baby from me, and closed the door, and I waited…not knowing how many times she was getting poked or how she was doing. Her first ouch with us, and I couldn’t hold her. As I stood outside that room, I lost it. I thought of all the surgeries and hurts she’s gone through without us, and my heart broke. Our guide handed me a tissue as I blubbered. Then our daughter came out not crying and screaming like most of the other kids, looking like nothing had happened. She’s so incredibly tough. They tried her hand and not her arm because of what I said, so I was glad I had spoken up!

After we were all done with the medical exams we piled back into our bus and headed back to the hotel. We decided to grab a quick lunch with our training/Beijing friends at the noodle restaurant we went to last night again. It’s so good! It’s so great to be with our friends, and to go through this with other people!!!

We had a meeting getting all our paperwork ready for our consulate appointment on Tuesday. It was crazy to hand over several of our hard earned documents, but our guide is incredible, so we feel better trusting him with all the things.

We are hoping to head to the pool soon, after baby girl finishes her nap.