Settling In

I have been unusually busy. Not only have I added a toddler and a preschooler to the family, but it is graduation time in Minnesota, which means a lot of open houses for the honored graduates. My nephew graduated and his open house was last Saturday. Since my nephew was graduating, my mom came to visit. She was here for a week and the kids loved Grandma. Now, I have to race Beverly to the phone whenever it rings. She is always sure that my mom will be on the phone. Since she doesn’t speak English, it is kind of tough for anyone to understand her, but she doesn’t seem to mind. She just chats away to the caller until I come to relieve her of the phone.

Then on Wednesday, both David and Beverly had an appointment at the University of Minnesota’s International Adoption Clinic. I am afraid the findings were not too good. Beverly is very ill. She has acute Hepatitis B. Her liver function tests are all out of whack. Luckily, she is feeling good. Sadly, almost half of kids younger than 5 who are infected with Hepatitis B will develop a chronic infection. This puts them at risk for cirrhosis and liver cancer later in life. We have another appointment on June 20th to meet with a pediatric liver specialist. She needs to have an ultrasound of the liver done prior to the appointment. I am hoping to schedule it the same day and save myself another 2 1/2 drive to the cities. Oh, the first 2-hours are fine; it is the last 30 minutes when I am driving downtown that is a little nerve wracking. I don’t think there is anything I like less than driving in rush-hour traffic. I guess I have lived in a small city a bit too long. I think rush hour is having to wait for 5 cars before being able to execute my turn.

David’s thyroid stimulating hormone is elevated. The most likely cause of this is an iodine deficiency. So, David has to increase the amount of salt in his diet. I haven’t had any trouble feeding David, so I think that I can manage this.

Both children have parasites, two each. They have Giardia intestinalis and Blastocystis hominis. They also both are infected with Helicobacter pylori, a bacteria which is a common cause ulceration of the stomach and duodenum. So, we will be starting medication to kill them. The specialist at the U of M wants to treat the children prophylactically for an ulcer rather than scoping them to get a definitive diagnosis. My insurance company thinks not. Of course, this all came to a head Friday afternoon. I would be upset about it except now I have the weekend to pray, think about and weigh the pros and cons of each treatment option. After we get rid of the parasites, I need to start both children on iron as they are both a little anemic.

Since we are working our way to normal, I drafted a schedule that gives me one-on-one time with each child. Marissa is the hardest to work in because she is now away from the house for 20 hours a week. I miss her, but she is so excited to be working. When she opened her first paycheck, she was thrilled. She opened it slowly and exclaimed, “I feel like Charlie opening the candy bar to look for a golden ticket!” Marissa also finally, finally, finished the didactic part of her Driver’s Education. I requested a certificate from the state verifying completion of the course so that she could register with a certified instructor. I didn’t think I was emotionally ready for my child to be driving, but now that she works until 10 or 11 at night, I am beyond thrilled that I soon will not have to drag myself out of bed to go pick her up. I will probably still drag myself out of bed to make sure she is home, but that isn’t the same thing.